What's It Like to Up From Tea a Party Binge? Ask Florida!

Friday, February 22, 2013

But even if Scott ends up a one-term governor, his legacy won't easily be reversed. When he rejected the high-speed rail money, the state passed up an opportunity to upgrade its underfunded transit system that it may not soon see again. Florida's internationally renowned mosquito control system took a half century to build, but only three years to decimate. Likewise with public health, says Nan Rich, who fought the cuts in the state Senate: "The infrastructure is being destroyed and responding to public health crises becomes more difficult," she says. "I shudder to think if what happened with Hurricane Sandy had happened here."

Posted by Doc_Sarvis at 07:25 AM | 21 COMMENTS | permalink | Comment on This Entry |

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Doc_Sarvis

Joined 2006/01/26
Visited 2013/05/22

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It's a fair-sized article with lots of words, so I don't expect too many of the kool-aid drinkers to read it. So here's the takeaway:

The tea party's influence may be waning, but that might not matter in the end. "I don't think it's insurmountable to recover from dismantling 50 years' worth of great government structures that made society in Florida better," says Rep. Pafford. "But it could be a decade before we really begin to address some of these issues. It's gonna take dollars." Pafford thinks the biggest task ahead is "rebuilding the confidence of the average Floridian that an elected person like the governor can actually do good things." What's happened here, he says, "is really an incredible example of how government should not work. Hopefully people can learn from Florida's tea party experiment."

#1 | Posted by Doc_Sarvis at 2013-02-22 07:26 AM | Reply | Flag:

(Muddling of headline, intentional.)

Rick Scott, what a piece of werk.

#2 | Posted by Doc_Sarvis at 2013-02-22 08:09 AM | Reply | Flag:

You know, its certainly possible and honorable to support cuts in State budgeting, but when a man like Scott cuts back on mosquito eradication in a place like Florida, then its safe to assume that he and the supporters of such an act are stupid to be point of being malicious about it.

#5 | Posted by Zed at 2013-02-22 10:06 AM | Reply | Flag:

This gets back to a fundamental reason Republicans lost last November. Identified at least a year in advance by Some of Us:

The GOP is increasingly filled by straightforwardly mean and hateful people who elect persons they can count on to be just as mean and hateful.

#6 | Posted by Zed at 2013-02-22 10:09 AM | Reply | Flag:

in four years or so when the fed money dries up and they're cutting other things as well as possibly this too...you good folks get back to us

#8 | Posted by afkabl2 at 2013-02-22 06:06 PM | Reply | Flag:

Exactly. This is what happens when there's no money. In Obamulus' money-no-object Washington, you're allowed to run trillion dollar deficits. Can't do that at the state level. Has MJ been up to Detroit, to moan about the collapse in spending?

#9 | Posted by uglyblinddate at 2013-02-22 06:38 PM | Reply | Flag:

Exactly. This is what happens when there's no money.

#9 | Posted by uglyblinddate at

Sure man. And what is it that happens when there is more malaria? Damn, so the Right is going to rationalize the increase in mosquito-borne diseases. Who could have imagined it?

#10 | Posted by Zed at 2013-02-22 06:43 PM | Reply | Flag:

I think they should lay off police officers if need be to kill mosquitoes. They should bring back DDT.

I also know that in my hometown on the Gulf Coast, they still run the mosquito trucks several times a week. If they've cut back any at the local level, it wasn't where my parents still live.

#11 | Posted by uglyblinddate at 2013-02-22 07:27 PM | Reply | Flag:

Sure man. And what is it that happens when there is more malaria? Damn, so the Right is going to rationalize the increase in mosquito-borne diseases. Who could have imagined it?

Not malaria, Dengue.

Cut mosquito control. Check.

Cut funding for medical issues. Check.

Disbelieve global warming. Check.

Think basic biological research is a waste of money. Check.

And then Dengue hits.

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

if you catch it more than once

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Think this is unlikely or a scare tactic?

www.wired.com

It's already here, well, in FL at least.

#12 | Posted by jpw at 2013-02-22 10:03 PM | Reply | Flag:

Hope that post didn't take you too long.

#13 | Posted by uglyblinddate at 2013-02-22 10:16 PM | Reply | Flag:

Hope that post didn't take you too long.

Likely longer than you thought about it.

#14 | Posted by jpw at 2013-02-22 10:24 PM | Reply | Flag:

That's true.

Just tired of the arguments though. Trim the mosquito control budget, and suddenly we're supposed to be worried about dengue fever. Any cut, anywhere, is a public health emergency.

So my solution is to lay off a few dozen university executives, or a few hundred assistant principals, whose positions didn't even exist five years ago, and use the money from that.

#15 | Posted by uglyblinddate at 2013-02-22 11:18 PM | Reply | Flag:

Trim the mosquito control budget, and suddenly we're supposed to be worried about dengue fever. Any cut, anywhere, is a public health emergency.

I wouldn't say any.

But one can't deny that this one is.

Malaria control was what brought about the founding of the CDC and I think this sort of thing is easily forgotten or ignored because we, as in the majority of citizens, have lived during a time when communicable diseases are uncommon because of public health efforts and vaccination.

It'd hurt to see all that undone out of ignorance.

#16 | Posted by jpw at 2013-02-23 12:00 AM | Reply | Flag:

Nothing stopping towns and counties from paying for their own mosquito control. Or hiring a guy to come out, if you have a large property, to do it for you. Or, better still, doing it yourself.

#17 | Posted by uglyblinddate at 2013-02-23 08:57 AM | Reply | Flag:

Yeah, because mosquitoes spend a lot of time boning up on private property lines and and municipal boundaries.

I mean, your suggestions verges on the brilliant; perhaps we should extend it to water purity problems and influenza outbreaks, too.

#18 | Posted by Doc_Sarvis at 2013-02-23 09:00 AM | Reply | Flag:

Well, mosquitoes aren't exactly migratory beasts, Doc. If you got a pond on your property, or a wetland (we used to call them swamps, before Al Gore's big book), you've got a mosquito issue, probably. And you can head over to Home Depot and deal with it.

But I don't expect you to even know how to use a hammer or screwdriver. You should leave all the thinking to can-do hombres like myself, and you can go back to arguing the Peloponnesian War. Or whatever.

#19 | Posted by uglyblinddate at 2013-02-23 09:08 AM | Reply | Flag:

"Well, mosquitoes aren't exactly migratory beasts..."

Actually, the typically operate within a couple of miles of their source - that's a large patch of territory, well beyond the reach of most single homeowners.

That said, they've been found 75-miles (and more) from their breeding source.

#20 | Posted by Doc_Sarvis at 2013-02-23 09:16 AM | Reply | Flag:

Good grief.

Okay. In your case, don't try to kill any mosquitoes. If you see one, call 911. If you have a pond, call 911 every day.

#21 | Posted by uglyblinddate at 2013-02-23 09:54 AM | Reply | Flag:

Why am I not surprised the point whizzed by you?

Oh, riiiight, because the point usually whizzes by you.

Next time, read up-thread a bit before bleating; it may save you further embarrassment.

#22 | Posted by Doc_Sarvis at 2013-02-23 09:56 AM | Reply | Flag:

Hey, Doc...I'm sure YOU know the answer...is a "Tea Party binge" anything like an OWS binge. I went to some Tea Party functions and couldn't find a single drink or even one dooby. Can you describe describe for me some to the recoveries after the kinds of functions you attended? You know, any "bad trips" or flashbacks or things like that?

#23 | Posted by jestgettinalong at 2013-02-23 10:09 AM | Reply | Flag:

Okay. Will do.

Does you neighbor get annoyed when you ask him to come over and change out your light bulbs?

#24 | Posted by uglyblinddate at 2013-02-23 10:10 AM | Reply | Flag: