5 Jun 2011 8:55 am
Medicare fraud criminal Governor Rick Scott of Florida campaigned as a 'small governent' Conservative.Over and over during his campaign he said that he was in favor of small 'leave-me alone' less intrusive government.However his actions since he took office would prove otherwise.Scott issued an executive order that will mandate forced drug testing of public sector workers in this state at least quarterly, despite the Fourth Amendment protection we have in this country against unreasonable search and seizure that has generally banned blanket invasive drug testing like this.This week, Scott signed a bill into law that would require people applying for welfare to be drug tested. The wasteful program created by this law subjects Floridians who are impacted by the economic downturn, as well as their families, to a humiliating search of their urine and body fluids without cause or even suspicion of drug abuse.You just don't understand socialism, republican-style. You see, the companies that produce these ersatz "drug tests" - tests which have an ABYSMAL fail rate, by the way - have an "in" with the governor. This is what these stupid republican shills on the board don;t get: their party is the party of socialism for the rich. This law is nothing more than a redistribution of wealth from the florida taxpayers to the company that has the "in" with the governor. Their cover-story is the old "law and order" bait and switch. Yesterday Scott also signed the first of five abortion-restricting bills passed by the state Legislature. The five bills, the rest of which Scott is also expected to sign, force women to undergo ultrasounds prior to having an abortion, prohibit private insurance coverage of abortion care in the new state health-insurance exchange, require young women to prove to a judge that they understand the medical risks of their abortions in order to bypass parental permission requirements, establish state-sanctioned license plates that funnel money to anti-choice "crisis pregnancy centers" and begin the process of amending the state constitution to prohibit the government funding of abortion.Florida Republicans filed a total of 18 bills to restrict abortion rights during the session -- the third most in the country, according to the ACLU, and twice the number of anti-choice laws introduced last year in the state, according to NARAL Pro-Choice America.Meanwhile on Thursday, Governor Rick Scott signed into law a bill that will restrict doctors' ability to ask patients whether they own firearms. I guess gun owners have a Constitutional right to privacy, but women don't.What about female gun owners? I guess they're only entitled to privacy concerning their weapons. Their uteruses are obviously exempt from that right. Part of that legislation is a bone to the medical community, which is one of the republicans' corporate sponsors, and which will make millions off of those ultra-sounds. The rest of it is face-saving, since the repubs were busted red handed paying for abortion coverage for 20 years at the RNC.