Because he can't find a real job

Sen. Jim King knows his time is running out. Term limits will force him out of his seat in the Legislature next year, where he's been since 1986. Prior to being a professional politician, King was in real estate. We all know how that industry is doing in Florida right now. So King obviously doesn't want to return to real estate. Not when he's used to the cushy life of benefits, state pension, voting himself a pay raise and being wined and dined by lobbyists. So he's planning on applying for the job of chancellor for the university system in Florida. 

Still wants to suck at the Florida teat. Remember, this is the same guy who thought raiding my child's Florida Prepaid College fund was a good idea.

Never mind that he's never taught a class at a Florida university. Never mind that he earned his bachelor's and master's in the 60's from Florida State University and doesn't hold a doctorate or probably even qualify for acceptance in a doctoral program. Every other Chancellor has held a doctoral degree and has University/College experience as a teacher and administrator. 

I guess being an old white guy who's spent the last 20 plus years being paid by the state makes him qualified?

Florida Tea Party Plan

Wondertwin is much better than I at public affairs, politics and campaigns. After reading in the news that protesters in Pittsburgh dumped beer and liquor into the river to protest a 10% tax on bar drinks, and protesters in Kentucky poured bourbon on the capital steps to oppose a 6% sales tax on all alcohol, she proactively developed a plan. Should our Flegislators attempt to increase sales tax on alcohol here in Florida,  our strategy is to head to Wondertwin's house, consume all the gin and wine we can find -- then call each of our elected officials personally.  And repeatedly. 

I call this the Florida drink-and-dial-anti-tax campaign. Personally, I will be a real asset in this campaign as my drinking and dialing skills are superb (and well tested). 

What's Wrong and What's Right in Florida

A very good example of what's right and what's wrong in Florida. Compare and contrast, Florida CFO Alex Sink and Fl Rep. Pat Patterson (R) DeLand. 

Alex Sink, you'll remember I mentioned her in a previous blog post. She's the plain speaking voice of reason in Tallahassee who said "Hell No" (her actual words) when Rep. Evelyn Lynne and Rep. Jim King were thinking about getting their grubby politician hands on my daughter's pre-paid college fund. Yesterday she focused the Alex Sink laser-beam on Rep. Pat Patterson, the best living example of good-old-boy, pompous arrogant, "what's in it for me" politician we have in Florida right now (well if you don't count Jim King). 

She called out Patterson, who chairs the House's Insurance Business and Financial Affairs Policy Committee, for refusing to even hear a bill that would protect Floridians, mostly seniors, from unscrupulous insurance agents. First of all, putting Patterson in charge of that committee is like putting the inmates in charge of the asylum. The bill would make it a third-degree felony to cheat seniors out of their assets. My theory, maybe Patterson would be one of the state's first convicted felons if this bill were to be made into law. 

Alex Sink's word for Patterson and his failure to do his job at the very least, "Appalling." I think she showed great restraint. 

Maybe we need to communicate to Patterson in a language he understands. Money. 

Patterson doesn't happen to be my insurance agent (thank god!), but there are plenty of people out there (and a lot of them seniors) who do have policies with Patterson. I suggest you good people pull your Allstate insurance policies from Patterson until he decides to do some work in Tallahassee, instead of play ball (or have lunch with, wine & dine with) the big insurance giants currently making money unscrupulously on the backs of Floridians. 

Now they're plotting to raid my kid's savings account?!?!

I got a question for our Florida legislators - yea that means you Evelyn Lynn and Jim King. WTF?! You've mismanaged Florida's budget and tax structure for years now (and both of you have had plenty of time to do it since you've served multiple terms), so now you're considering stealing money from MiniMe's college fund? 

Every parent, hell, every citizen, in Florida should be alarmed that our flegislators are looking at ways to raid the monies in the Florida Prepaid College fund. Don't believe me. Read here. 

Parents, like myself, sacrificed, planned and put forth no small sum of money (sometimes in monthly payments for 18 years) to ensure their child got at least a public university education. 

Who let Evelyn Lynn be the chair of the Higher Education Appropriations Committee? When she says things like this, I have to wonder if she passed Finance 101.

"We talked about the possibility if there was such money there, perhaps we could borrow that," said Sen. Evelyn Lynn, R-Ormond Beach, chair of the Senate higher education appropriations committee. 

Does the saying "Robbing Peter to pay Paul" mean anything to you? Keep your fingers off MiniMe's college fund!!!!

Update: 3/10/11: Me likee Alex Sink, Florida CFO. See why. 

Strike One for Education

What has 271 lanes,  team spirit and a lot of rented shoes? That would be the Bowl-A-Thon for public education that was recently held by FUTURES, the Volusia County Schools education foundation. Think people aren't supportive of public education in Florida? Don't tell that to the 72 teams of bowlers who came out recently to raise money for our local schools by bowling. I don't bowl, but I gave it a shot for this event. (that's my team in the photo, aren't we cute?) And I was inspired. I mean if people who haven't been in a bowling alley for years can come out on a weekend, put on someone else's shoes, and humiliate themselves by throwing gutter balls to raise money (oh, that was just me, oops), then surely our legislators can find the "balls" to raise taxes on cigarettes and charge tax on internet sales to help fund education. Otherwise I say "spare" them no mercy at election time. 

Really? Gun Permits? Really!

This morning I found myself hoping I had just temporarily landed in the middle of that Saturday Night Live News skit where Seth and Amy express disgust and amazement at the decisions by our government/corporate leaders by saying Really!?! over and over. But it was real life, not comedy. Really!

Yesterday, our smart-as-a-box-of-rocks legislative representatives on the Legislative Budget Commission approved additional spending to handle the backlong of applications for things like unemployment compensation, food stamps and public assistance here in Florida. Ok. That makes sense. 

But they also approved $3.8 million in new spending to help cut a backlog of 90,000 applications for concealed weapons permits. Really?!? Carrying a concealed weapon is now such an emergency that we need to hire  61 temporary workers between April 1 and June 30 to process the gun applications in Tallahassee and eight regional offices. Really?!?

To be fair, some of this money will be spent clearing a back log of criminal background checks. (I hope they're checking all the people who are in such a rush to carry a concealed weapon.) I don't know if this was the brainchild of our illustrious Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson. But he defended the additional spending to process the backlog of concealed weapons permits, and I quote, "A lot of it has to do with the fact that the economy is having some tough times right now," Bronson said. "The amount of crimes are beginning to increase. I believe that people are feeling a little threatened."

Maybe we could better fund our police and safety programs in the state with that $3.8 million instead. Maybe, oh and I know this is silly, we could pay for some more crime prevention programs. Nah, let's just arm as many people in the state as possible. Do it yourself crime-fighting. I guess do-it-yourself roadwork and bridge construction is next. 

He's got a point . . .

My friend and fellow Florida Native Blogger at http://www.flablog.net/ made a great point on his blog today. 

He wondered aloud if anyone found it ironic that the Chiles Endowment Fund, created from funds gained when the late Governor successfully sued the pants off Big Tobacco in Florida, is now being raided by the current GoverCrist to prop up the dismal state budget so that lawmakes don't have to increase the tax on cigarettes in Florida (already one of lowest taxes on tobacco in the nation). 

I bet Gov. Chiles is choking in his grave!

Power of the purse

Next week I'm attending an annual fundraiser in our coastal community called the Power of the Purse. This is a fundraiser for our local United Way. Several years ago, some of our community leaders, who happen to be female, decided to do something about the fact that the majority of people seeking help from our local social service agencies and charities were women and children. The Power of the Purse was launched to specifically help women and children right here in our backyard. Sometimes it just takes a woman to get the job done!

The fundraiser is a luncheon and silent auction. The founders of this event knew what they were doing. The event keeps moving to bigger and bigger venues as the number of women attending (and giving more than $100,000 a year) is growing. Basically if you're a mover and shaker in this area and you carry a purse, you attend this event.

Which reminds me of a discussion VOR and I had last week about the power of women in the online community and the general underestimation of "mommy bloggers" by the male blogosphere establishment. Here's what most of us women bloggers know that our male blogging counterparts should remember:

• Women represent more than half the U.S. population. (U.S. Census)
• Nationally, about 32% of all women workers are in professional and managerial occupations. (Institute for Women's Policy Research Status of Women in the State Report, 2002)
• Women control 83% of household spending. (The Trendsight Group)
• As of 2002, there are an estimated 6.2 million majority-owned, privately held, women-owned firms in the U.S., accounting for 28% of all privately held firms in the country. (Center for Women's Business Research, projected from 1997 census data)

I bring this up because VOR and I were discussing how misunderstood women's role and impact as bloggers is having. Women bloggers are often dismissed by their male counterparts as irrelevant, which is when the snarky "mommy bloggers" term gets thrown around. While it is true that the majority of successful bloggers today are men, on the whole it's unwise to discount us "mommy bloggers." After all, we probably purchased the laptop and wireless router that most men are using to blog with every day. And we probably take care of paying the bill each month for that high speed connection.

VOR suggested that if a man who authors a highly visited political blog thinks he's having a greater impact on the blogosphere and on our political process than a "mommy blogger," he just needs to remember the political clout and power of "soccer moms" in previous national elections.

Women's blogs may seem on the surface to center mostly on family issues, but if you're a regular contributor or reader to a woman-powered blog, you know that what we're really doing is solving problems, supporting each other, debating moral and social issues and creating a network of empowered, opinionated, actively involved citizenry. But, to be fair, women still have a long way to go.

The only reason, in my opinion, that women don't run more of our Fortune 500 companies or hold a greater number of influential political posts in the U.S. is that women aren't doing a good enough job of supporting women. And women aren't doing a very good job of moving beyond stereotypes to reinforce our roles as leaders. Basically, we need to stop selling ourselves short.

For example. Last spring I was with Beloved at a bike week event in Daytona. (Disclaimer: I ride my own bike and am not a prude.) We wondered into a bar where all the bartenders were women and they were all dressed in lingerie. There were also women in lingerie dancing on elevated platforms. As I watched one of the "dancers," who was probably in her early 30s, bend down to retrieve a single dollar bill sticking out of the mouth of a man in the crowd using only her crotch, I said to Beloved "Hillary Clinton is never going to get elected President, nor is any other woman in this country, as long as an attractive 30-something-year-old woman is willing to sit on the face of a strange man for a single dollar bill."

C'mon ladies, let's strap on the power purse, support and encourage each other in everyday and virtual life, speak up, get real and get involved. Life's too short to squat on a stranger's face for a buck!