Florida Gov. Rick Scott's chief-of-staff, Steve MacNamara, resigned Saturday after information came to light that he might have engaged in unethical behavior in government contracting. MacNamara said he is resigning because the media coverage is hurting his office's ability to get things done. The big question to be asked now is how much did Rick Scott know about this and when did he know it?

Gov. Rick Scott’s embattled chief of staff, Steve MacNamara, announced Saturday he would resign after a week of blistering media coverage detailing his favoritism in hiring, contracting and micro-managing of state agencies.

“It has been a pleasure and an honor serving you, but the recent media attention I have been receiving has begun to interfere with the day-to-day operations of this office,” the longtime Tallahassee political veteran wrote, setting July 1 has his resignation date.

MacNamara’s troubles began when the AP reported MacNamara had helped steer a $400,000 no-bid contract to a friend who chaired a task force charged with rooting out government waste. A series of stories in the Miami Herald and Tampa Bay Times over the last week detailed another $5.5 million no-bid contract he helped steer to the business partner of a close friend, and an ethics complaint was filed over his use of state employees to help prepare his resume for a Montana academic job opening.

MacNamara, a tenured Florida State professor, former lobbyist and past chief to a House speaker and Senate president, was brought on as a voice of experience and insider savvy last summer — a move to help the political neophyte governor steady his relations with legislators and salvage his abysmal poll ratings.

In his letter, MacNamara praised Scott’s jobs record, and efforts to reduce state debt and reform regional workforce boards, writing he felt he had helped Floridians “begin to know the real Rick Scott — a man who listens to them, tries to understand their issues and concerns, and works diligently to help solve their problems.”

Scott said in a press release, ”I’m grateful for Steve’s invaluable assistance in helping advance my agenda to strengthen education, create jobs, and lower the cost of living for Floridians.

“Over the past 10 months, thanks to his expertise and guidance, we added $1 billion for education, we passed a job creation and economic development package, we passed accident fraud reform, and thanks to him, we implemented many positive changes to the way the State of Florida does business,” Scott said.

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Anyone who closely followed the 2000 presidential election fiasco in Florida remembers that one of the key reasons that George W. Bush "won" the state was the fact that thousands of black voters were falsely purged from the voter rolls in advance of the election, preventing those Floridians from voting, most of whom would've voted for Al Gore. In 2012, Republicans are looking at purging 180,000 Hispanics from the voting rolls. Is history repeating itself?

In 2000, more than 20,000 voters -- most of them African American -- were prevented from voting because they had names similar to convicted felons. People who had the full right to vote, most of whom had never been convicted of a serious crime, were prevented from voting by Jeb Bush, Katherine Harris and the Republicans in Tallahassee. Most black voters in Florida, like elsewhere, voted for Al Gore. And considering the state went to George W. Bush by less than 550 votes, it's clear that the purge was a major factor in stealing the election for the governor's brother.

Now the Rick Scott administration -- which by any standard is thought to be less ethical than the Jeb Bush administration -- is preparing a voter purge list that could reach 180,000 strong. Since the purge list is specifically targeted at trying to stop undocumented immigrants from voting, the list will be almost completely Hispanic. And despite the fact that Cuban-American Floridians tend to vote Republican, the majority of Florida Hispanics are not of Cuban heritage. If the list is successfully completed, then, it's obvious that it will disproportionately target Democratic voters. Just like the Bush-Harris list from 2000.

The full universe of potentially ineligible voters that state elections officials plan to check for possible removal from the roles is about 180,000, a spokesman for the Division of Elections said Friday, reports David Royse of the News Service of Florida.

Elections spokesman Chris Cate told the News Service that in all, when matching voter rolls against newly available citizenship data from the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, officials found that number of possible matches, and began further investigating each one to see if they were likely to be wrongly registered to vote.

Officials reported earlier this week that they had forwarded the first batch of those names, about 2,600 to local supervisors of elections for further review and for each voter to be notified that they were on a list of people suspected of being illegally registered.

“Everyone of those individuals would be contacted by supervisors,” Cate said.

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The Tampa City Council on Thursday said they would ask Florida Gov. Rick Scott to ban firearms outside the Republican National Convention later this year.

The council has already issued a citywide ban on items like pieces of wood, switchblades, slingshots, containers of bodily fluids and even squirt guns. A so-called "Clean Zone" around the convention area would prohibit string longer than six inches, glass containers, light bulbs, portable shields and gas masks. A smaller protest area would prevent demonstrators from having camping gear, bottles, cans and umbrellas. The Secret Service has said that only law enforcement will be able to carry firearms inside of the convention center.

But Tampa now needs Scott's help because state law prevents local governments from regulating guns. City officials believe that Scott has the executive power to temporarily suspend that law.

"We believe it is necessary and prudent to take this reasonable step to prevent a potential tragedy," council member Lisa Montelione wrote in a draft of the letter to the governor.

Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn has said that the state law makes the city "look silly."

"The absurdity of banning squirt guns but not being able to do anything about real guns is patently obvious," Buckhorn explained last week. "Given the nature and the potential dynamic of this event, I think it would make sense that you would not want firearms introduced into that environment by people other than law enforcement."

The mayor suggested that Tampa could "become fodder for the late-night comics because of something that has nothing to do with us and nothing to do with our ability to control the situation, and it's elevated by Trayvon Martin, obviously."

Legal experts told the Tampa Bay Times that in the emotionally-charged protest environment, another tragedy could take place that was covered by Florida's controversial "Stand Your Ground" law that allows gun owners to use deadly force in public places without a duty to retreat.

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My alternative title to this post would have been something like This is why education is not a business. Except that in this case, it's not merely business interfering with children's education. It's a cult masquerading as a religion; specifically, Scientology.

In Rick Scott's Florida, charter schools are the preferred way to deliver "public education," and especially in areas with poor and underprivileged students. They are a gateway to ALEC's goal of completely privatized "public education."

This exposé in Sunday's Tampa Bay Times should be an object lesson for every single state in this country for why charter schools are a terrible idea. Worse than terrible. They're a waste of public funds and place children in danger of being "educated" by fanatics who place profit and dogma over educating children.

Some parents and former teachers at Life Force, which receives about $800,000 a year in public funding, say the Pinellas County charter school has become a Scientology recruiting post targeting children.

Opened to serve a low-income Clearwater neighborhood and advertising classes in computers and modern dance, Life Force had begun pushing Hubbard's "study technology," which critics call a Trojan horse Scientology uses to infiltrate public classrooms.

And while Life Force students and teachers worked in poorly stocked classrooms and teachers went unpaid, the bankrupt school funneled tens of thousands of dollars more to Islam's business interests than she told the bankruptcy court she would charge.

To understand just how bad this is, you should read these essays on Hubbard's "study tech" techniques, which were part of the curriculum these children were required to learn. Here's a snippet:

The Study Tech books fall into two groups. The first three, theBasic Study Manual, Study Skills for Life, and Learning How to Learn, cover Study Technology proper, but are targeted at different grade levels. These three books are the primary focus of this essay. The remaining two titles, How to Use a Dictionary, and Grammar and Communication for Children, are unremarkable introductions to grammar and punctuation that show only a few tiny traces of Hubbard’s influence. The Study Technology is also used in other Scientology-related "social reform" programs, notably the Narconon and Criminon drug and criminal rehabilitation programs. There, it is delivered in the form of a "Learning Improvement Course" utilizing a very similar set of course materials.

All five books (plus their Narconon and Criminon variants) are published by Bridge Publications, the in-house publishing arm of the Church of Scientology. They are distributed by a Los Angeles-based non-profit organization called Applied Scholastics International (ASI). ASI is a subordinate organization of theAssociation for Better Living and Education International (ABLE). This is in turn a subordinate, and an integral part, of the Church of Scientology, which exercises direct overall control of all of the aforementioned organizations. (Recently Scientology also began distributing the books through another front organization, Effective Education Publishing.) This complicated set of relationships, examined elsewhere on StudyTech.org, is seemingly designed to obscure the central role of the Church of Scientology in the promotion and implementation of Study Technology.

[...]

Study Tech is founded on three principles: (1) use pictures and diagrams to illustrate the concepts being taught, (2) break down complex concepts so they can be mastered in a series of simple steps, and (3) always seek definitions for unfamiliar terms. These rules make sense and are harmless enough when phrased in plain English. But the Study Tech books present them in a different manner. The three principles are called “mass”, “gradients”, and “misunderstoods”: terms that were invented or redefined by Hubbard and loaded with significance in the Scientology religion.

From the Miami Times article:

Teachers who questioned study tech were told they had no choice but to implement it. Fifth-grade teacher Jason Lowe, who was fired in January, said Life Force director of operations Vikki Williams told him, " 'We are a study tech school,' and that if any of us had a problem with it, we had to get over it."

Three teachers said they were terminated last month without explanation. Lowe said he was fired because school leaders suspected he spoke with the Times. Several parents and teachers who talked with the Times were reluctant to be quoted because they feared retribution.

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Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) and his allies in the state legislature are pursuing a plan to privatize dozens of prisons in South Florida. Republicans claim that private prisons are more efficient and that the move would save the state millions of dollars. The privatization bill is facing some trouble in the state senate, including opposition from key Republicans.

Scott claims that the purpose of the privatization push is to shave 7 percent off the state budget, which perpetually comes up short since Republicans refuse to raise revenue and continue to drive the state's economy into the ground.

[State Sen. Steve] Oelrich, a long-time member of the Florida Retirement System, said he was taken aback when Scott suggested the reason the state had to save the money on its prisons was because he believes the "retirement system is broke."

"The governor's words were that we are 'lying to state employees,' '' Oelrich said. "That troubles me. I don't think that's necessarily correct."

Oelrich questioned why Scott would use that as a rationale for defending prison privatization, which is projected to save between $16 million to $30 million a year. The state's retirement fund is more than 80 percent funded, he said, a level he believes is considered high compared to other states. Bringing it up to 100 percent funding is not something advocated by actuaries, Oelrich said, and would cost billions.

"He says we're between $25 and $60 billion in unfunded liability because we've assumed a 7.5 percent accrual rate and it's only making 5 percent,'' he said. "I'm very concerned that if in fact the retirement system is broke and we can't fulfill our obligations, then the State of Florida ought to let people know that and make the decisions they ought to make."

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Activist group Florida Watch Action, which has made a name for itself in Florida by targeting Republican Governor Rick Scott as 'Pink Slip Rick', targeted Mitt Romney at an Orlando event, presenting him with a symbolic pink slip for the jobs he eliminated during his time with Bain Capital. FWA Executive Director Susannah Randolph attempted to give Romney the pink slip and explained why, but he ignored her and moved on to other attendees. Florida Watch Action has also launched a Pink Slip Mitt website, associating Romney with Florida's deeply unpopular governor, as both have a strong record of killing jobs.

The text of the pink slip flyer:

Under Romney's leadership, Bain Capital became one of the nation's top leveraged-buyout firms.... But like other leveraged-buyout firms, Romney and his team also maximized returns by firing workers, seeking government subsidies, and flipping companies quickly for large profits. Sometimes Bain investors gained even when companies slid into bankruptcy....Romney himself became wealth at Bain. He is now worth between $190 million and $250 million.

The Pink Slip Mitt website offers visitors opportunities to fund the campaign, sign up for updates, sound off with their thoughts about Romney, get a free Pink Slip Mitt bumper sticker, print off flyers so they can attempt to give Romney their own pink slips and keep up with the campaign on social media.

If you missed this segment on 60 Minutes last night, I highly recommend it. It will remind you of John Steinbeck or Upton Sinclair's depiction of poverty and economic need, except this is really happening in this country right this minute.

Children living in cars with their parents after their parents have lost everything -- employment, their homes, their possessions -- everything. Rick Scott should be ashamed, since both of the families featured live in Florida. He should be ashamed not only because of the cuts and hacks to jobs and Florida's economy, but because at least one of these families was afraid to go and get help from the state government for fear of having their children taken away.

Poverty is not neglect; it is not a failure of the parents. There is no justification for breaking up families because they've fallen on hard times. But we live in a time where there is nothing for them. Nothing.

While conservatives paint these people as ne'er-do-wells who want to sponge off the government resources, the truth is something else again. I recently spoke to an acquaintance who has been unemployed for two years. He is in the construction business. When we spoke in October, he was putting his things in storage because he expected to be evicted after not being able to pay his rent. He couldn't pay his rent because his bank account had been garnished by the state for income taxes he didn't owe -- he didn't make enough to file a tax return (not realizing he was eligible for refunds if he had).

The bank had foreclosed on his house but didn't change the title on the loan, and the second trust deed holder was making payments to save their investment. They reported the interest paid on the loan to the state and the state assumed he had at least enough income to pay the house payments even though he had been foreclosed on in 2008. He filed his tax returns to correct the state issues, but not in time to get the lien lifted to pay his November rent. I haven't heard the end to this story, but it wouldn't surprise me a bit to hear that he's living in his car too.

These are people just like the neighbors down the street, or the people you run into at the grocery store. Yet here is what our conservative overlords want us to think of them.

Rand Paul: We shouldn't borrow from China for unemployment benefit extensions to pay people not to work.

David Vitter: Gut the food stamp program. This sentiment has been echoed by Senator Sessions and many Republicans in the House.

Republican Presidential frontrunner Newt Gingrich: Deny single mothers any benefits at all. Make them work and if they can't find a job or can't work, well, too bad. Let them starve. From his white paper on how to dismantle the social safety net:

No automatic benefits would be handed out any longer for bearing a child out of wedlock. If the mother has a child without a husband, then the mother must go to work to support the child.

Each one of these statements reflects the attitude of conservatives toward those who are suffering in our society. It's fairly simple: If you are impoverished, you are at the mercy of those who control the pursestrings. Newt, for example, advocates repeal of the capital gains tax, Dodd-Frank, the Affordable Care Act, and privatizing Social Security and Medicare. Nothing says compassion like handing the whole cake to the Wall Streeters so they can gamble it away yet again, right?

This 60 Minutes report highlights the depth of systemic failure in this country. There is no excuse for a country with the wealth this one has to tolerate seeing families live out of their cars as their final option. There is no excuse for flying the middle finger in the face of people who have fallen on hard times. There is no excuse for anyone to fear losing their children because they cannot find a job and are having difficulty providing. These people are human beings, deserving of dignity and opportunity, which they will not find in the austere hallways of corporate and conservative overlords.

Here's a bonus link from PoliticusUSA: Collateral Damage: The GOP’s Obama Hate Pushes 100 Million Towards Poverty

Maybe this silly story appeals to me because I have one kid in college and another one contemplating a liberal arts major when she enters college next year. Or maybe it's just because Rick Scott strikes me as someone who views liberal arts as something alien and useless. Whatever it is, his recent statements about how kids who go to college shouldn't choose a liberal arts degree just prove he's pretty alien and useless to me.

In an interview with the Sarasota Herald Tribune, Scott outlined what he plans to do to Florida state universities:

Scott said Monday that he hopes to shift more funding to science, technology, engineering and math departments, the so-called “STEM” disciplines. The big losers: Programs like psychology and anthropology and potentially schools like New College in Sarasota that emphasize a liberal arts curriculum.

Then he repeated that refrain Tuesday, while speaking to a business group in Tallahassee, but with some embellishment.

“I got accused of not liking anthropologists the other day,” Scott said. “But just think about it, how many more jobs do think there are for anthropologists in the state?

“Do you want to use your tax dollars to educate more people who can’t get jobs in anthropology? I don’t. I want to make sure that we spend our dollars where people can get jobs when they get out.”

Turning to a veteran Tallahassee reporter, Scott also questioned the value of a degree in journalism.

“There’s a lot of jobs in journalism?” Scott rhetorically asked the reporter. “No, it’s tough.”

Ok. Anthropologists are out. Check. Journalism is out. Check. What's in? Well, according to Scott, more science and technology degrees, because not enough students choose those majors. And to that end, he would push funding away from liberal arts and into those areas.

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Here's how Florida's prisons were nearly privatized without anyone knowing about it. In a rather arrogant and high-handed move, Republican lawmakers tucked a secret provision into the budget right at the end of the frenzied 2011 legislative session requiring private companies to take over 29 prisons by January 1st. Of course, it was all intended to union-bust and replace nearly 3800 union employees with minimum-wage private company replacements.

Tallahassee.com:

Turner and Johnson said Sen. JD Alexander, a Lake Wales Republican and budget chairman, placed the privatization language in the budget after the prisons portion had cleared earlier committees that would have opposed the move.

Assistant Attorney General Jon Glogau argued that legislators have wide authority to tell departments how to use appropriated funds. He said the Legislature didn't have to pass a stand-alone statute to privatize prisons because the state has had a law for 20 years allowing the DOC to outsource some prison operations.

How many, and where those prisons will be, is up to the Legislature, Glogau said. He said every budget item embodies some form of policy choice and that House and Senate appropriations committees and subcommittees held many public hearings on all phases of the budget, including the final product.

"Slippery-slope arguments are hyperbole, at best," Glogau said. He said agencies have executive authority to organize, operate and staff their offices most efficiently.

"Privatization of prisons is a unilateral right of the employer," said Glogau. "I don't want to make light of the fact that people are losing their jobs but, under the facts and the case law, it is the unilateral right of the public employer to do this."

That sneaky Senator. After the prison portions cleared committees who might have noticed, much less have agreed to it, he slipped it in there. Despite all the false bravado, there seems to be at least a small concern that it might not be one hundred percent on the level, since the good Governor Scott pressured former Florida Corrections overseer Ed Buss not to testify or give a deposition before the case was heard. Fortunately the unions were paying attention, and took it to court. Last Friday, Judge Jackie Fulford ruled the scheme unconstitutional.

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Billionaire Governor Rick Scott (R-FL) will be launching a new media stunt tomorrow where he will take turns doing several jobs that average Floridians do. He's calling it “Let’s Get to Work Days” in an extension of his campaign theme of "Let's Get to Work." Tomorrow morning at 6 a.m., Scott will work an entire two-and-a-half hour shift at Nicola’s Donuts and Bakery.

The appearance is little more than an attempt by Scott to shore up his image as an "everyman" governor who is connected to the people, despite the fact that his popularity ratings hover under 30% and, as Florida Watch Action estimates, his policies have eliminated more than 330k jobs in the state. Florida's unemployment rate remains well above the national average at 10.6% and the 85k jobs created this year have done nothing to improve the state's unemployment rate, which is fourth in the nation.

While Scott puts in a few hours at a donut store tomorrow, many of Florida's working poor are forced to work multiple low-paying jobs and can't afford to work a two-hour shift for the sake of public relations. Scott's stunt will also do nothing to actually create jobs in the state. His actions are particularly insulting in light of his actions to eliminate state workers, cut unemployment benefits, drug test welfare recipients and gut the state budget.