Social Policy

Obama Says Marco Rubio Has Been a "Positive Force" on Immigration

Barack Obama took to the TV and told the world that Marco Rubio "has been a very positive force" in the immigration debate. Hmm.Obama is up to no good. He has to be. Why else would he suddenly be praising the GOPers' Goldeny Golden-Touch Golden Boy of the Golden Future Rubio? What say you, Admira ... More >>

Rick Scott Has His Drug Test Appeal Shot Down by Federal Court

The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta unanimously ruled that a lower court's decision to halt the enforcement of Rick Scott's law that forced welfare recipients to take drug tests was good. Back in May 2011, Scott signed into law a bill requiring that Florida's TANF welfare recipients ... More >>

Marco Rubio Rejects His Own Immigration Proposal, Because of Barack Obama

Shining Beacon of Light Marco Rubio called President Obama's first draft on immigration reform "dead on arrival" yesterday, saying that the president's bill "repeats the failures of past legislation" and that the bill will die as soon as it enters the hallowed halls of Congress just like every past, ... More >>

Is Jeb Bush's Education Group Helping Write Laws that Benefit Its Corporate Funders?

After he left the governor's office in 2008, Jeb Bush set up an education non-profit group, and last week, The Nation charged that Bush "could be using his education reform crusade for personal gain."The dust-up began when the union-affiliated research group In the Public Interest (IPI) us ... More >>

Marco Rubio Among Eight-Member Bipartisan Group Behind Immigration Reform Deal

A group of eight Democratic senators and Republican senators have decided to stop it already with all the bickering and do some bipartisan work and have released an immigration reform framework that includes a "path to citizenship" for undocumented immigrants -- a day earlier than when Obama is supp ... More >>

Rick Scott's Best Political Miscalculations

Staring down the barrel of what's sure to be a brutal campaign to stay in the governor's mansion beyond 2014, Rick Scott is pushing out a variety of campaigns that seem aimed at scoring points with weary voters. On Wednesday Scott announced he's planning to give every public school teacher in Flor ... More >>

Charlie Crist, With Eye Toward Governor's Race, Embraces ObamaCare (So, For Reals, Forget What He Said Before)

Over several weeks in early 2010, then-Governor Crist unleashed a series of tweets condemning President Obama's prospective health care reform bill. To Crist -- yes, the other Crist -- enacting ObamaCare would only constitute "the beginning." He said "Americans deserve better than this." He launched ... More >>

Rick Scott Is Changing His Mind About Things, Part I: Health Care Overhaul

At first Rick Scott was all, NO HEALTH CARE FOR OUR STATE, EVAR! And then everyone started to hate him because they realized he's a beady-eyed pustule with dumb GOPer agendas and an affinity to eat people's souls (allegedly!). But now, all of a sudden as if by magic and wonderment, Scott is changi ... More >>

Appeals Court Hears Challenge to Florida Drug-Testing Law for Welfare Recipients

Arguments were heard in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta in Florida's appeal of a lower court Thursday on the decision halting enforcement of a 2011 state law mandating drug tests of applicants for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program. Basically, the law says that those w ... More >>

Two Activists Infiltrate a Facility Where Illegal Immigrants Are Held

Mitt Romney's Voucher Medicare Plan Would Be Costly for Florida, According to Report

According to a report from the Kaiser Family Foundation, a voucher plan for Medicare -- like the one Mittington Romnom RoboRomney and his young ward P90Ryan are proposing -- would cost Florida patients more than $100 million. But since the Mittbot is promising instant jobs to everyone as soon as he ... More >>

Imagining a Florida Without Medicaid

See also: Rick Scott's stranger-than-fiction smackdown of Obamacare and his defense of that decison.In 2009, at least 2.45 million people in Florida were enrolled in Medicaid, according to data from government agencies. Another estimate pegs the number at more than 3 million. That's over a tenth of ... More >>

Connie Mack, House Republicans Continue Stupid Health-Care Posturing

It's an election year, and something good happened to the incumbent president. You know what that means: The opposition party is about to do a lot of yelling.We're dealing, of course, with the U.S. Supreme Court's refusal to knock down Obamacare's individual mandate -- you know, the one that we're a ... More >>

Connie Mack's Dad Cosponsored 1994 Bill Including Individual Mandate

See also Connie Mack Continues Stupid Health Care Posturing. We've seen plenty of posturing already from Republican U.S. Rep. Connie Mack -- now a candidate for Senate -- about the Affordable Care Act -- even last week, he was slamming his opponent, Bill Nelson, for supporting it.This came into part ... More >>

Supreme Court Shoots Down Large Parts of SB 1070, Arizona Immigration Law That Rubio Dislikes, Romney Might Dislike, Who Knows?

We had a four-story package a few weeks ago that looked at Arizona's SB 1070, the controversial law that would turn local law enforcement into immigration officials -- the controversial law that was just gutted by the U.S. Supreme Court.The court said this morning that Arizona was not allowed to mak ... More >>

Arizona's Immigration Enforcement Law: Florida's Stances on Both Sides of SB 1070

This week's issue includes a four-story special report from Village Voice Media about SB 1070, the Arizona immigration law that both casts criminal suspicion on anyone who looks Latino and transforms local law enforcement officers into immigration investigators. It's featured nationally because it i ... More >>

Drug Test for Welfare Recipients Fails to Save Money; Anyone Surprised?

Making the state's poorest residents piss in a cup before qualifying to receive welfare benefits was going to save Florida up to $77 million, Rick Scott said when he was campaigning for governor. The goal of the drug tests was "to make sure we don't waste taxpayers' money," Gov. Voldemort added when ... More >>

Florida Abortion-Ban Bill: "Personal Liberty Is Not a License to Kill"

​Once again, the "Florida for Life Act" has been submitted in the Florida Legislature. The bill would ban abortions not related to medical emergencies and would make it a first-degree felony to perform or assist in the performance of an abortion.Rep. Charles Van Zant has filed the bill on the Hous ... More >>

Rick Scott Predicts "Obamacare" Will Be a Loser in the Supreme Court -- Is He Right?

Illustration by Miche RattoWho needs Husseinobamacare?​Yesterday, Gov. Rick Scott made a visit to the Palm Beach Post editorial board and predicted that the challenge of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act raised by Florida and 25 other states would win in the U.S. Supreme Court.Argumen ... More >>

Dream Act Bill Filed in Florida Legislature

The Dream Act would help immigrant students.​A bill that would make college more affordable for undocumented immigrants has recently been filed in the Florida Legislature.If passed, the Dream Act would allow undocumented immigrants who attended three or more years of high school in Florida to qual ... More >>

Ex-Health Insurance Executive: Rick Scott HMO Debacle Goes Against His "Obamacare" Rhetoric

Illustration by Miche Ratto​Wendell Potter -- a former health care insurance executive who most recently left his post as head of communications for CIGNA -- has been following up on the Pulp's post on Florida's newest HMO policy for state employees and agrees that the decision to allow just one H ... More >>

South Florida Tea Party Back to Fax-Bombs, Now Asking John McCain Not to "Piss" on Them

Hey there, Tea Party -- 50 percent chance of rain!​In its second fax-bomb attempt in a matter of weeks, the South Florida Tea Party is asking its supporters to send a prewritten fax to Sen. John McCain of Arizona, requesting that the Maverick not urinate on them.They're apparently not too happy wi ... More >>

Gov. Rick Scott Invents A Scientific Study On Drug Use During Nationally Televised Interview

​Now for Gov. Rick Scott's charade of the day -- making up a scientific study on drug use by welfare recipients on a nationally televised CNN interview.As you know, the governor signed H.B. 353 into law last week, requires Floridians on welfare to pass a drug test before they get their cash.On ... More >>

Sunday Politics: Q&A With Tea Partier on Health Care

The Tea Party has demonized health-care reform -- or Obamacare, as it calls it -- to the point that the group seems to believe that it alone is going to destroy America. Tea Party signs​They've disrupted Congressional town hall meetings, screamed about sociali ... More >>

Mexican Macro-Economics

Do undocumented migrants steal jobs from American workers?

FAIR-y Tales

Russell Pearce and other illegal-immigration populists rely on misleading, right-wing reports to scapegoat immigrants and terrify penny-pinched Americans.

'Obamacare' Headline Reveals that People Do Read the Newspaper and Care What It Says

via hubpages.com​Proof that journalism, even newspaper journalism, still matters: This Miami Herald article about readers' complaints that the word 'Obamacare' is a "pejorative" with partisan connotations. The Miami Herald changed the recent headline, "Obamacare arrives Thursday," to "Obama-led he ... More >>

Freaks and Movie Geeks

Gary Kompothecras, Crist Supporter, Tries to Bully Health Officials

Gary Kompothecras, a chiropractor based out of Sarasota, has been pressuring Department of Health official to turn over sealed immunization records. "Dr. Gary," as he's called, wants those  records turned over to father-son duo, Dr. Mark and David Geier, crusaders for the "vaccinations cause au ... More >>

Asylum Denied

Only a fraction of Mexicans get U.S. asylum.

Seized: Inside the Brutal World of America's Kidnapping Capital

What's a Little Marriage Fraud Between Amigos?

It's a felony, sure, but in the absence of real immigration reform, some young, assimilated illegal immigrants see it as their best path to citizenship

Badlands: From Ground Zero of the Immigration Crisis Along the Mexican Border

Who is John Tanton and Why Should You Care? Just Ask Joyce Tarnow.

Joyce Tarnow (hearts) John Tanton​John Tanton's name is getting a lot of play. Depending on who you talk to, Tanton is either a raging pro-eugenics racist with a deep-seated animosity toward brown people -- or -- a beaming, professorial Renaissance man with an insatiable curiosity and an infallibl ... More >>

Connecting the Dots: Does FAIR Play a Role in Lake Worth Politics?

Support for AZ Sheriff Joe's draconian immigration enforcement.​The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) is under scrutiny in Lake Worth these days. As we reported yesterday, residents packed a small room at Monday night's CRB meeting to hear a presentation on local "hate groups," inc ... More >>

George LeMieux Talking Points Get Mangled on Cable News Show

Is there anyone out there besides George LeMieux and his fellow Republicans in Congress who think that this health care issue hasn't been debated to death? To someone who was appointed to the U.S. Senate this past fall, it may seem like health care reform has sneaked up on Congress, but it's been p ... More >>

Crist Walks Into Democrat-Laid Health-Care Trap

​Everybody's still talking about Crist gaffe-ing (lying?) over the Obama appearance, but this quotable moment is, I think, much more precious. Let's pull out a portion of that Sarasota Herald-Tribune article, which asked for Crist's opinion of a Senate Democrat health care reform package that woul ... More >>

Ohmygod Grandma Do Not Rap When the NY Times Reporter Is Around!

nytimes.comArtificial hip-hop and health care hysteria: all the rage at Sunrise Lakes​They've still working do on destroying Obama's health care plan but in the opening moments of this New York Times video,  Sunrise seniors dealt a death blow to hip-hop. Chilling video here.The accompanying a ... More >>

Hospital District: Why Wrestle a White Elephant When You Can Tackle a Red Herring?

Flickr User: FrogMillerMidway through this morning's meeting of the North Broward Hospital District's board, Commissioner Robert Bernstein decided it was time to acknowledge the "white elephant in the room."A tantalizing prospect, because this room was positively teeming with white elephants. There ... More >>

Mi Casa Is Not Tu Casa

Protesters say illegals take our jobs, bring in leprosy, and, grrr, sell ice cream from bicycles

Bleeding Dollars

A former Broward hospital CEO's trail of dubious expenses is just a drip in the bucket

Washed Up

101 Haitian refugees sailed north full of hope. They got screwed.

Talking Up a Storm

Radio host Joyce Kaufman wins fans by flaying a new enemy: undocumented immigrants

Jose... You're Next!

David Caulkett wants your $10 to help Uncle Sam in the fight against illegal immigration.

Letters for September 18, 2003

Unloading Objectively

Forgotten 9/11

The INS screwed up when it let in the September massacre's mastermind

Back in the Lion's Mouth

The INS had two chances to nab Mohamed Atta. It failed both times.

Admitting Terror: Part 5

When terrorists knock, the INS is more than likely to fall down on the job

Give Us Your Huddled Masses... and We'll Throw 'em in a Cell

For a growing number of immigrants, detention by the INS comes down to a long and lonely stint in the Fort Lauderdale Jail