Rick Scott

Elton John and Rick Scott Spar Over AIDS Drug Assistance Program

Elton John in an ad for a MAC lipstick that benefits AIDS charities. ​Singer Elton John is just the latest in a long line of critics who have a bone to pick with Florida governor Rick Scott. Through his Elton John AIDS Foundation, the singer wrote a letter to Scott urging the governor not to make ... More >>

Dan Gelber: Rick Scott Doesn't Care About Florida People

​Former Miami Beach Democratic-state-senator-turned-failed- attorney-general-candidate Dan Gelber doesn't want his political relevance to fade away (and the man may have a bright future in Florida politics yet), so he's reminded everyone he's still around by posting a blistering attack on Florida' ... More >>

Rick Scott's Veto Will Leave Poor Seniors in Miami Without Hot Meals

Yesterday, we ran through many of the local programs that will lose funding thanks to Gov. Rick Scott's record breaking $615 million in vetoes to the state budget. About $40 million of those were cuts to local programs, and one of the most controversial was vetoing $430,298 meant for the hot meals p ... More >>

Rick Scott Now Wants to Spend More Money on Education, But It's Probably Too Late

​The Florida Legislature actually put more money into education this year than called for in Gov. Rick Scott's Tea Party-happy budget, but now that the legislative sessions is over and the final budget in on Scott's desk he's suddenly realized that even that isn't enough money to educate our child ... More >>

Rick Scott, the Veto King: Record-Setting $615 Million in Vetoes (Many to Miami Programs)

​Gov. Rick Scott coronated himself as Florida's veto king today by announcing a record $615.3 million in additional cuts to the already-reduced state budget. Scott made the announcement in the Republican-heavy Central Florida old-folks homes known as the Villages, and repeated his weird flip-flopp ... More >>

Rick Scott's Plummeting Popularity: 57 Percent Disapprove

​Gov. Rick Scott's popularity continues to plummet after the legislative session. Only 29 percent of Floridians approve of the way he's handling his job according to a new Quinnipiac poll. While a whopping 57 percent disapprove. That's down from an already dismal 35/48 split back in April. Mos ... More >>

Rick Scott Has a Second Roof for His Mansion in Storage in Case of a Hurricane

​Most Floridians prepare for hurricane season by stocking up on plywood and canned goods. Our millionaire governor, Rick Scott, has prepared by having a second roof for his Naples mansion placed in storage in case the original gets blown away. Out of touch much?

Rick Scott for President? It's Possibly the Stupidest Thing We've Heard All Month

​"Rick Scott for president? It's possible," blares a headline for a non-story in today's St. Petersburg Times. Oddly, the third sentence in the story is a quote from Scott saying, "I'm not running for president," yet the Times political editor Adam C. Smith manages to drag the story on for 832 wo ... More >>

Rick Scott should show his birth certificate

New York Times Editorial Rips into Scott's Train Decision

​Like someone in mourning, we've tried to forget. We'd just rather not think about how Gov. Rick Scott passed on the high-speed rail package that would have brought billions of dollars, thousands of jobs and a once-in-a-generation transportation upgrade to Florida all on the federal government ... More >>

Will Any GOP 2012 Candidate Even Want Rick Scott's Endorsement?

​Here's a fun game to watch play out as several announced and potential candidates for the Republican's 2012 presidential primary start visiting Florida: will any of them meet with Governor Rick Scott let alone seek his endorsement? Former Utah Governor and ambassador to China John Huntsman is ... More >>

Some Republican Women Resent Latest Anti-Abortion Ultrasound Bill

​Despite the fact the Republican-controlled Florida legislature has had to deal with a myriad of issues, including the economy, immigration, education and a crackdown on Florida's deadly prescription pain pill problem, the legislators still found time to carve out a new round of anti-abortion meas ... More >>

Rick Scott's Administration Really Hates Sunshine Laws

​"Are there things we don't want you to know? Yes," Brian Burgess, Rick Scott's communication director (or misdirector in many cases) tells the Times/Herald's Tallahassee Bureau. "There are things we don't want to broadcast to our opponents."Florida's Sunshine Laws are supposed to foster an o ... More >>

Union Dues Fight: Miami Republicans Cause Another Defeat for Rick Scott

​Just days after news that Gov. Rick Scott's push to eliminate corporate income tax would end in failure, another big item on Scott's agenda now looks it's headed for defeat. Scott and Sen. John Thrasher, the former chair of the state GOP, made it a top priority to pass a bill that would ban publ ... More >>

Rick Scott Won't Kill Citizens Property Insurance, He Just Wants to Shrink It

​Gov. Rick Scott has denied a report in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune that his administration aims to kill Citizens Property Insurance during his first term. Scott claims he's merely sticking to his campaign promise to reduce the state-run home insurer and return it to its original intent ... More >>

Where's Rick Scott's Birth Certificate, Hmmm?

​Despite little evidence to the contrary, President Barack Obama offered further proof today that he is in fact a natural-born American citizen by producing his long-form birth certificate. With that issue sorted out, we now call on the American media to investigate the circumstances of Rick Scott ... More >>

Rick Scott's Major Failure: Legislature Won't Eliminate Corporate Income Tax

​Florida is undergoing a radical conservative transformation under Gov. Rick Scott, but one of his top proposals seems to be a bridge too far and too soon even for the Republican supermajorities in the state House and Senate.Even at a time when billion-dollar deficits have become the norm for Flor ... More >>

Rick Scott Wants to Kill Citizens Property Insurance

​Rick Scott wants to run Florida like a business, but he seems ideologically driven to make sure the state isn't in the business of much. Fresh off a Pulitzer win for investigative reporting, Paige St. John of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune yesterday filed a shocker claiming Scott aims to k ... More >>

Rick Scott Would Be Open to the Idea of Shooting an Alligator to Promote Florida

​Rick Scott apparently hates alligators. He hates them so much he's had them skinned and made into his really tacky, gold embossed, custom "governor" boots. He hates them so much that he doesn't want to even be near a live one, unless he had a gun and is shooting at it. Apparently Scott thinks tha ... More >>

Rick Scott Had His Facts Wrong When He Trashed High Speed Rail

​Perhaps Rick Scott's biggest action during his first 100 days in office was the killing of Florida's federally-funded high speed rail project. It would have revolutionized our transit system and had an effect on the economy like no other project in recent Florida history. So, you would have hoped ... More >>

Rick Scott Takes Credit for Pill Database During Congressional Committee Testimony

​Everyone in Florida knows that Gov. Rick Scott has long opposed the state legislature-approved prescription pill database like a grumpy 2-year-old refusing to eat his vegetables. Of course, he also killed the Office of Drug Control because he thought it was a waste of money.But that didn't stop h ... More >>

Fifty-Three Percent of Floridians Think Rick Scott's Budget Will Hurt Them, 48 Percent Think He's Doing a Bad Job

​Florida residents are getting a big gulp of Tea Party policy thanks to Gov. Rick Scott, and so far they don't seem to be enjoying the bitter taste. According to a new Quinnipiac poll, 48 percent of Floridians disapprove of Scott's job performance, up from 22 percent in February. Fifty-three ... More >>

Key West Residents to Send Rick Scott a Giant Jar of Their Urine

​Rick Scott really is a big fan of having people pee in cups. He plans to start mandatory drug testing for both welfare recipients and state employees, but not everyone is on board with the plan. A group of Key West citizen calling themselves Committee for the Positive Insistence on a Sane Society ... More >>

Fifty-Five Percent of Floridians Don't Like Rick Scott

​After just a few months in office, Floridians have decided they aren't big fans of Rick Scott and his Tea Party-style politics. A new poll shows that 55 percent dislike the new governor, while only 32 percent like him. While Scott has never been Mr. Popular, those number have only worsened since ... More >>

Rick Scott Owns the World's Ugliest Custom Cowboy Boots

via The Buzz These boots were made for gawking. ​This isn't Texas, and no one really expects our governor to tramp around in cowboy boots. Maybe wearing the "official" Florida shoe, the flip-flop, would be appropriate, but cowboy boots? Well, it turns out Rick Scott has a thing for boots th ... More >>

Stephen King: "Maybe My Next Horror Novel Will Star Rick Scott"

​It takes a lot to scare Stephen King, the master of horror fiction, but apparently the author is plain old terrified of our new governor, Rick Scott. King, who spends his winters in Casey Key near Sarasota, spoke at an "Awake the State" rally yesterday and joked, "Maybe my next horror novel will ... More >>

Rick Scott's Staff Gets Bitchy With Reporters

Why must Rick Scott's Coffee Talk be ruined? ​Former Gov. Charlie Crist gave out his personal cell phone number to journalists and kept their favorite beers stocked in his office. In stark contrast, current Gov. Rick Scott and his staff seem to have an unhealthy amount of disdain for the press cor ... More >>

Rick Scott Pledges $77M to Dredge Port of Miami

​Florida's high-speed rail plan is official dead -- done in at the hands of Rick Scott. But the governor giveth as he taketh away. Scott says the state will pick up the tab on funding a project to dredge the Port of Miami, allowing it to handle larger ships. Scott says the project will create 30,0 ... More >>

John Kerry Wants Federal High-Speed Rail Funds Rick Scott Rejected

​There's a reason cash-strapped states don't turn down federally funded projects on ideological grounds: because some other state -- where the residents have tiny lobsters embroidered on their yacht pants, say, and all claim to be the third Affleck brother -- will snatch that money right up for it ... More >>

Rick Scott Flip Flops on Collective Bargaining

​In a stunningly speedy political flip-flop, Florida Governor Rick Scott has completely changed his stance on whether or not unions should have collective bargaining rights. He's fallen in step with Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's anti-union stance. What made Scott change his mind so fast? Well, ... More >>

Bill Filed to Drug Test Certain Welfare Recipients, But Does it Go Far Enough For Rick Scott?

​Among Governor Rick Scott's cavalcade of controversial ideas is a plan to drug test all recipients of welfare in the state. Now Republican legislators have filed a bill to carry out a version of the plan, but it would only require welfare recipients with a felony drug conviction in the past three ... More >>

Rick Scott Promises Not to Screw Unions as Bad as Wisconsin's Scott Walker Wants To

​On Sunday, The New York Times editorial board slammed Rick Scott's decision to kill Florida's federally funded high-speed rail system and suggested he was caught up in some high-speed race to out-pander to Tea Partiers faster than other Republican governors. Though, there's one governor Scott app ... More >>

Even Republicans are Angry Rick Scott Declined High-Speed Rail Funds

Even some Elephants prefer to travel by train. ​Rick Scott's decision to decline $2.4 billion in federal funds to build a state-of-the-art high-speed rail system in Florida continues to draw anger, ire and confusion today even from many Republicans. Today, a veto-proof majority of 26 state senator ... More >>

Rick Scott Fails at Being Florida's First Black Governor

​"I grew up probably in the same situation as you guys," Rick Scott said yesterday while addressing a group of state legislators. "I started school in public housing. My dad had a sixth-grade education."That would have been fine if he was speaking in front of a group of lawmakers who started schoo ... More >>

Rick Scott Kills Jobs by Declining Obama's $2.4 Billion High-Speed Rail Plan

​The Obama administration was set to spend $2.4 billion to build a high-speed rail line between Tampa and Orlando in a project that would have created thousands of jobs, but Governor Rick Scott has drowned the plan in a big pot of ideological tea killing all those jobs with it. Now, some other sta ... More >>

Rick Scott's Budget is a Political Mess

​Rick Scott introduced his budget this Monday to cheers at a Tea Party event inside a Eustis, Florida, church. Back in the reality of Tallahassee, though, the new governor's plans haven't been greeted with much enthusiasm. Even Republican lawmakers aren't sure it's a workable budget. Scott is faci ... More >>

Rick Scott's Budget is Tea Stained

​Despite that whole separation of church and state thing and calls to tone down partisan political rhetoric, Rick Scott introduced his first budget as governor today at a Tea Party rally in a church in small town Eustis, Florida. The rally took on a defiantly partisan affair as Tea Partiers had al ... More >>

Journalists Abhorred That Rick Scott Won't Let Them Wear Flip Flops To His Press Conferences

Governor Rick Scott and the press corp that covers him are now in a full out war, according to Politico. The press isn't happy at the perception that Scott is trying to limit their access to a state Government, that in principal at least, has traditionally tried to be transparent and open. Scott and ... More >>

Poll: Floridians Still Don't Know if They Like This Rick Scott Guy or Not

Rick Scott hasn't even been in Office a month and he hasn't exactly endeared himself to the Florida populace yet. Most Floridians barely know enough about the guy to decided if they like him or not, and voters here in South Florida don't particularly like him at all. Though, a new Quinnipiac po ... More >>

Rick Scott Wants to Hand Pick Which Reporters Get to Cover Him

​One of the oldest ideals of this country is freedom of the press, an idea taken even further here in Florida thanks to the Sunshine Law. However, newly elected Governor Rick Scott seems to have some trouble fully grasping the idea of a free press and apparently wants to hand pick which reporters ... More >>

Rick Scott Ends Twitter Town Hall As Soon As He's Called a "Jackass"

Our new gov's evening smoke and tweet session ended on a sour note.​Yesterday, Rick Scott fired up the ol' Interwebs and announced his first inaugural "Twitter Town Hall." Surprise, surprise! He's just as evasive 140 characters at a time as he is in real time.Even still, the event was going just f ... More >>

Gov. Rick Scott Hosting Twitter Town Hall Tonight

​Rick Scott's campaign for governor wasn't especially social media savvy, but who needs to take little things like Twitter into account when you've got tens of millions of your own money to spend? Once in office, though, the Republican governor was faced with the realization that despite being ele ... More >>

Rick Scott is the Least Popular Newly Elected Governor in the Country

Rick Scott​Rick Scott hasn't even taken office yet, but perhaps one of his first orders of business should be to get people to like him. Despite winning the election, not very many people actually like Scott. Only a third of Floridians view him favorably while a plurality views him unfavorably ... More >>

Rick Scott to Abolish Office of Drug Control as Pill Mill Fight Faces Uphill Battle

​Cracking down on pill mills was supposed to be one of the state government's biggest triumphs of the year. New legislation taking aim at regulating "pain management" clinics that wantonly prescribe addictive pain medications went into effect in October, but the government has blown several deadli ... More >>

Rick Scott Snubs South Florida In His Inaugural Parade -- Maybe For the Best

Does this look like a guy you want to party with?​Inaugural parades are a time-honored American tradition, a treasured moment when fat corporate cats and scummy developers can make millions of dollars rain on a newly elected governor, all so he can throw a masturbatory party celebrating what a swe ... More >>

Rick Scott Should Follow Arizona's Lead In Favor of Medical Marijuana

​Considering our new governor loves Arizona's controversial immigration law so much he wants to create a similar one in Florida, we think Rick Scott should also consider the Grand Canyon state's acceptance of medical marijuana. By a slim margin, voters said yes to Proposition 203 on November 2, ma ... More >>

Election Day Recap: A Real Life Montgomery Burns Poised to Lead Florida

Florida's new governor: Rick Scott​Watching last night's election results pour in, Banana Republican could only take solace that Dorrin Rolle is no longer a Miami-Dade County commissioner and that state legislators will no longer have the ability to draw their own districts. Other than that, the 2 ... More >>

Alex Sink Concedes to Rick Scott

In almost any other year Alex Sink probably would have scrubbed the floor with Rick Scott. Instead this morning she issued her concession speech. With a margin currently less than 80,000 votes it appears that Rick Scott, the man who ran a company convicted of defrauding Medicare, is set to take over ... More >>

Alex Sink Runs Controversial Last Minute Ad on Miami Spanish Radio

Rick Scott first made waves in the Republican Primary by introducing the idea of Arizona-style immigration laws into the Florida campaign. Moving to the extreme right proved successful in the primary, but as he moved into the general election his campaign conveniently seems to have lessened its emph ... More >>

Election ads strike fear in time for Halloween