http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/04/poll-floridians-have-strong-buyers-remorse-for-electing-gop-gov-scott.php

If you’re running a large marijuana growing operation and the Sheriff’s Dept. shows up at you door and asks if you’re running a grow house, don’t answer “Do you want to see it?” He must have been smoking too much of his own product.

The whole thing sounds prefect for parody on Reno 911

TAMPA – Deputies arrested a 31-year-old woman on charges she used a variety of items, including a stun gun, hammer and belt, to discipline seven children, one less than a year old, during the last five years.

Stacey Horace of Tampa was arrested Tuesday on a charge of child abuse after speaking with investigators, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office said.

Investigators said the incidents occurred between October 2004 and October 2009 at Horace’s home, at 13404 Village Circle, Apt. 102. Dates and times weren’t known.

via Deputies: Woman used stun gun, hammer to discipline children.

I can say that because I grew up here.

Jean Merola said McDonald’s staff told her to park to wait for her food while she was at the restaurant last week. A Clearwater police officer asked her to move because he couldn’t get around her.

The 75-year-old was charged with disorderly conduct and taken to jail after the officer said she blocked his cruiser for 20 minutes and was rude and insulting to him.

She says the officer’s version of event is false and he’s making things up. It does seem like an overreaction to arrest a 75 year old for being in his way when she was parked where she was told. Maybe his lunch break was over and he was in a hurry. Or maybe he wanted make Granny “respect his authoritah”.

Scientific American: Counterproductive Cameras At Traffic Lights
Cameras that catch drivers who blow through red lights are there to improve safety, by discouraging light running. But such cameras actually increase the likelihood of car crashes. Because more drivers jam on the breaks in an attempt to make a late stop at red-light camera intersections. That’s the finding of a study done by researchers at the University of South Florida College of Public Health.

State: Storms joins Darwin debate
In the findings section of the bill, Storms writes that the Legislature finds that many Florida teachers have “experienced or feared discipline, discrimination or other adverse consequences” for presenting a “full range of scientific views” regarding chemical and biological origins.

Her bill would ban penalizing teachers for teaching alternatives and disallow action against students for taking a position on evolution.

She is a more annoying version of Dana Carvey’s Church Lady on SNL. She’s gone statewide in her ever expanding war on Satan since leaving the Hillsborough County Commission and getting a state Senate seat. Someone ought to carefully and slowly explain to her that there is no serious scientific debate on evolution. There’s only some front groups pushing “intelligent design” BS since they got shot down trying to force creationism on schools. See Florida Citizens for Science for thorough coverage of Florida’s ongoing legislative nonsense.

USF, USF, USF, USF, USF, USF!!!

Informed Comment: Arguments over Night of the Living Dead in Iraq

A Government Accounting Office report has found that the Iraqi government has not met 13 of 18 benchmarks set by the US Congress. The report was leaked before it could be doctored by the Bush administration, which promptly denounced it and pledged to . . . doctor it.<snip>
I saw on CNN this smarmy Bush administration official come and and say that US troop deaths had fallen because of the surge, which is why we should support it. Just read the following chart bottom to top and compare 2006 month by month to 2007. US troop deaths haven’t fallen. They are way up. Besides, they would be zero if the US were not occupying Iraq militarily, so if we should support a policy that leads to fewer troop deaths, that is the better policy.

Here are the US troop death via Icasualties.org.

8-2007 77 8-2006 65
7-2007 79 7-2006 43
6-2007 101 6-2006 61
5-2007 126 5-2006 69
4-2007 104 4-2006 76
3-2007 81 3-2006 31
2-2007 81 2-2006 55
1-2007 83 1-2006 62

I mean, how brain dead do the Bushies think we are, peddling this horse manure that US troop deaths have fallen? (There are always seasonal variations because in the summer it is 120 F. in the shade and guerrillas are too heat-exhausted to fight; but the summer 2007 numbers are much greater than those for summer 2006; that isn’t progress.) And why does our corporate media keep repeating this Goebbels-like propaganda? Do we really live in an Orwellian state?

Best comment:

“Is it possible they could build the museum like a roach motel? If so, I suspect we could trap the remaining 28% of Bush supporters.”
Now that’s a project I could get behind.

It is intersting that despite FEC audits showing massive violations of the law, no action has been taken against Mel. Could it just be that he’s the friggin’ chairman of the Republican Party? Nope, nothing to see here folks just move along.

I’m not a fan of the death penalty because of the gross unfairness with which it’s implemented. Also, we have an imperfect justice system staffed by imperfect people. As long as that’s true the potential for mistakes makes the death penalty problematic. But every once in a while a case just screams for it. The kidnapping, rape and burial alive of Jessica Lundsford is such a case, where emotions cloud and the primitive side emerges screaming for blood. It won’t bring an innocent child back. There’s small comfort in knowing her murderer will eventually die, perhaps that’s all there is for Jessica’s parents.

I guess we’ll get word on this tomorrow when insurers are requried to make their rate filings to the insurance commission. Money quote:

Remember the deal?

They doubled the size of the state’s Hurricane Catastrophe Fund, which sells storm insurance coverage to insurers at cost, and which you pay for through your premiums.

In return, insurers were supposed to cut rates sharply and ease the financial havoc they’ve caused by doubling and tripling premiums.

But a funny thing is happening on the way to those reductions, which state Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarthy says should average 24 percent:

Early returns show they’re not happening.

And the big shoe will drop Thursday when some of the largest companies — such as State Farm and Allstate — make their new rate filings that will go into effect with policies that renew June 1.

The Post doesn’t care for the insurance reform in Florida. I tend to agree despite the fact I should benefit from lower rates. I’ve always been annoyed that people with more money than common sense could build mult-million dollar McMansions on the beach. When the inevitable happens and the wrath of God wipes their homes from the face of the Earth, my rates go up the following year even though I live 30+ miles from the ocean no where near a flood zone.

The St. Pete Times report that some school staffers at a middle school anonited the desks with prayer oil in an effort help the students do better on the FCAT test. Would it be wrong to suggest that perhaps studying the material and learning something would be better than asking Jesus to miracle up some better test scores? The school proinciple sees nothing wrong with forcing their particularly odd form of christianity on the students and teachers. Gimme a friggin’ break…

Redefining lethal force is bad enough, but it also comes with near-automatic immunity from prosecution and civil lawsuits. Florida’s law is a sick cousin of the work of the gun lobby on Capitol Hill, where it has successfully protected the interstate traffickers of guns used in crimes. And it is the evil twin of laws passed in 38 states that allow concealed weapons. After all, what good is packing heat if it just stays in the holster?

Here in Florida you can “bust a cap in dat ass” as long as you feel threatened. This is a great way to look like a bunch of inbred redneck dolts, brought to you by the NRA and it’s subsidiary, the Florida Legislature…

Blummer has guts. This piece in the St. Pete Times will get the death threats rolling in from “Christians”.

The CPCs’ true purpose is not to serve women in trouble but to proselytize and block women from receiving valid information about their health and options.

Many CPCs like to claim that they will provide prenatal care to women who plan to have their children, but a telling report by the Christian conservative group, the Family Research Council, worried aloud about the diversion of too many resources to future moms. The report said that “there are sharply rising numbers of women coming to the centers who are not ‘at risk’ for abortion. These women have decided to carry their children to term and come in for material assistance or other services.”

“These trends,” the report notes, “could threaten the primary mission of the centers – to reach women at risk for abortion.”

It would be comforting to think that this is just the work of a narrow group of extremists and leave it at that. But when our tax dollars are supporting this dangerous lunacy and when the president vetoes a bill that supports promising, life-saving medical research in order to protect the “life” of a cluster of cells, the delusional have truly taken over. Medical fraud is official policy when abortion politics are at play.

In her affidavit, Sauer-Iyer, who worked for Palm Garden of Largo as a licensed practical nurse while Schiavo was there, claimed Schiavo said “Mommy” and “Help me,” told nurses she was in pain and chuckled when Sauer-Iyer told her humorous stories.

Jeb! made a statement that clearly attempts to influence the outcome of an administrative hearing regarding the nurse’s public discussion of Schiavo’s medical condition. I find it interesting that he still finds it necessary to defend the woman. There’s no way Schiavo could have recovered, made purposeful sounds, laughed or expressed pain. The autopsy report is crystal clear, Terri wasn’t home anymore. This nurse should get a pass for breaking patient privacy rules because she was a well-intentioned zealot? I don’t think so.