FL Gov. Rick Scott

 Welcome to the Red State HIV Epidemic
Excerpt from “Republican governors face tough decisions as the disease spreads in middle America.” By ADAM WREN 2015

• It wasn’t supposed to happen here. Not in Austin, a one-doctor-and-an-ice-cream-shop town of 4,200 in southeastern Indiana, nestled off Interstate 65 on the road from Indianapolis to Louisville, where dusty storefronts sit vacant and many residents, lacking cars, walk to the local market. But it did.

• “This is an HIV outbreak in a rural setting that is linked to an injection drug use,” says Jennifer Walthall, Indiana’s deputy state health commissioner. “That hasn’t been seen in the U.S. to date.”

• As she travels the town, Brittany Combs, Scott County’s plainspoken public health nurse peers into the faces of the new rural red-state HIV epidemic: They are predominantly white, economically disadvantaged, and in their 30s. (Cases have been reported in adults as young as 18 and as old as 64, according to the state’s Joint Information Center).

• And they are often related: For some families here, shooting up Opana, a legal painkiller, has become something of an intergenerational pastime. “Sometimes two, or even three generations will all be IV drug users,” Combs says. “That’s one of the ways it spread so quickly: [People will say] ‘I only share [needles] with my family.’ They trusted them and shared needles with them. It’s pretty shocking.”

• This year, state legislators in Florida and Texas introduced pilot programs for needle exchange bills. In Florida, a pilot needle exchange bill that would be run by the University of Miami appears to be stalled as lawmakers enter a special budget session, and such legislation has never made it to the governor. The Miami area has seen some of the nation’s highest rates of new HIV infections in recent years, according to the CDC. Asked about Republican Gov. Rick Scott’s position on needle exchanges, a spokesperson said the governor would review any legislation that comes to his desk.

• “Over the last several years, people started injecting these painkillers and increasingly switching to heroin,” says Daniel Raymond, policy director for the Harm Reduction Coalition, which supports needle exchanges. “So a lot of red and purple states are now confronting rising hepatitis C rates and potential HIV outbreaks like the one in Scott County.”

“That will create an awareness that the HIV epidemic is not over.”

Editor’s Note: Many of these newly infected are part of the working poor in service and retail industries with no access to affordable health care.

Read more at Politico.

Solivita’s  Marti Kara Named Polk County Democratic Woman of the Year!

Marti Kara received recognition as the 2015 Marlene Duffy Young-Polk County Democratic Woman of the Year at the                                             Democratic Gala March 28th in Winter Haven.

Marti was president of the Solivita Democratic Club for the past three years, which
boasts the largest club membership in the county. She was Chair of the Polk Co.
Democrats’ Gala for the past two years. This year’s event set the attendance record
and was a financial success for the Polk DEC. She also chairs the DEC Membership and
Precinct Committee.

David Jones was awarded the 20015 Lawton Chiles-Polk County Democratic Man of the Year Award. David is extremely active in the Rainbow Ridge LGBTA Causus, both on the county and state level. He is a member of the Lake Wales Democratic Club and a strong advocate for equal rights for all individuals.

Solivita Democratic Club President Ellis Moose III, who is also chair of the Polk County Democratic Executive Committee, stood up for all Democrats at a recent meeting of the Tiger Bay Club.

Moose told the group that Florida Democrats concentrated too much money and time to the governor’s race and left Democratic candidates in the state without enough support to win.

“There was way too much time and money on the governor’s race and not enough on others,” he said.

Moose shared the stage with the chairman of the Polk County Republican Executive Committee, Jim Guth. The pair had been asked by the group to assess the 2014 elections in the state.

Interestingly, both Moose and Guth are residents of Solivita.

A good-sized contingent of Democrats attended the meeting to support Moose including several members of the Solivita Democratic Club.

The Polk County Democratic Executive Committee will open a year-round office in Haines City beginning February 3, 2015. The office will be staffed by volunteers five days a week at the OK Arcade, 651 E. Main St., Suite 10.

“Polk County Democrats have traditionally opened offices across the county only during campaign periods,” said Ellis Moose III, chair of the Polk County DEC. “This year, with the growing numbers of Democrats in the county and the upcoming switch of Haines City and much of eastern Polk County to Congressional District 10 from District 9, we felt a permanent location in Haines City would help us get out the vote in 2016.”

Ruth Ann Eaddy, Democratic State Committee Woman who will manage the office, said “We will have an emphasis on helping provide photo ID cards to citizens who have been disenfranchised by the new laws.”

The new Democratic office will be open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2p.m. Staffers will provide voter registration information, volunteer services and campaign materials to support Polk County Democratic candidates.

An open house and reception will be held in the new offices later in February.

What Republicans are really saying when they attack Obamacare

When you hear Republicans attack Obamacare it’s hard not to wonder what they’re mad about. They said its costs would rise, insurers would flee, premiums would go up and the number of people without insurance would stay the same. None of that happened. So what’s the problem?

You can get a serious hint from a recording of the Republican nut bird Senate candidate Joni Ernst, who just got elected to the U.S. Senate from Iowa. Radio Iowa recorded Ms Ernst talking to voters before the election. Here’s the quote:

“We’re looking at Obamacare right now. Once we start with those benefits in January how are we going to get people off of those. It’s exponentially harder to remove people once they’ve already been on those programs … we rely on the government for absolutely everything. And in the years since I was a small girl until now into my adulthood with children of my own, we have lost a reliance on not only our own families but so much of what the churches and private organizations used to do. They used to have wonderful food pantries. They used to provide clothing for those that really needed it. But we have gotten away from that. Now we’re at a point where the government will just give away anything.”

It’s hard to know where to start with this quote provided by New York Magazine. First, well, if she thinks food pantries are gone she should visit any of the number of them in our area, including the one run by St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church in Kissimmee which is supported by so many Solivita people. The same goes for places that supply clothing for those who need them.

But wait a minute, medical care isn’t a pair of pants or a can of beans. Medical care is a basic human need that can’t be provided by a team of volunteers with no skills. And yes, there are free clinics and organizations such as Doctors Without Borders who provide free care. But they can’t begin to meet the need.

So where does that leave conservatives like Ms Ernst? How does a poor person who needs regular medication get it? In fact, how does a poor person find out he/she needs regular medication if they can’t afford to see a doctor?

It seems her answer is “If God wanted you to be healthy he would have seen to it that you were born with wealthy parents.” Of course, she would have given the same response to how does a poor kid get a good education.

The writer for New York Magazine summed up his response:

“That’s the fundamental belief that motivates most, if not all, the conservative opposition. Health care should be a privilege rather than a right. If you can’t afford health insurance on your own, that is not the government’s problem.”

So the answer is that they oppose Obamacare because they don’t want to see poor people getting the same medical care as the more affluent. Because then what’s the use of having money?

Koch Brothers Exposed is a hard-hitting investigation of the 1% at its very worst. This full-length documentary film on Charles and David Koch—two of the world’s richest and most powerful men—is the latest from acclaimed director Robert Greenwald (Wal-Mart: the High Cost of Low Price, Outfoxed, Rethink Afghanistan). The billionaire brothers bankroll a vast network of organizations that work to undermine the interests of the 99%. They are key players behind the Tea Party movement; the assault on health reform, workers’ rights, the Environmental Protection Agency; Wall Street Financial Reform; and climate change deniers, to name just a few. This film uncovers the Kochs’ corruption—and points the way to how Americans can reclaim their democracy.

Watch the Koch Brothers Exposed movie

1. Koch Industries, which the brothers own, is one of the top ten polluters in the United States — which perhaps explains why the Kochs have given $60 million to climate denial groups between 1997 and 2010.

2. The Kochs are the oil and gas industry’s biggest donors to the congressional committee with oversight of the hazardous Keystone XL oil pipeline. They and their employees gave more than$300,000 to members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee in 2010 alone.

3. From 1998-2008, Koch-controlled foundations gave more than $196 million to organizations that favor polices that would financially enrich the two brothers. In addition, Koch Industries spent $50 million on lobbying and some $8 million in PAC contributions.

4. The Koch fortune has its origins in engineering contracts with Joseph Stalin’s Soviet Union.

5. The Kochs are suing to take over the Cato Institute, which has accused the Kochs of attempting to destroy the group’s identity as an independent, libertarian think-tank and align it more closely with a partisan agenda.

6. According to the Charles Koch Foundation, if you earn $34,000, that puts you in the wealthiest 1 percent. They came to this conclusion by comparing Americans to Ethiopians’ income.

7. Since 2000, the Kochs have collected almost $100 million in government contracts, mostly from the Department of Defense.

8. Koch Industries has an annual production capacity of 2.2 billion pounds of the carcinogen formaldehyde. The company has worked to keep it from being classified as a carcinogen even though David Koch is a prostate cancer survivor.

9. The Koch Brothers have amassed a combined fortune of roughly $50 billion.

10. The Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs accused Koch Oil of scheming to steal $31 million of crude oil from Native Americans. Although the company claimed it was accidental, a former executive in this operation said Charles Koch had known about it and had responded to the overages by saying, “I want my fair share, and that’s all of it.”

Oh No! What do we do now? 

OK. So, that’s what the FL Republican Legislature would say.  😆

Click here to see the latest revelation about ObamaCare.

(Excerpt from WalletHub 2014 Report by John S Kiernan)

States with Democratic Governors or Legislatures have fewer uninsured workers than red states. Low-wage service employees are less able to see a doctor in red states.

A recent study by the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) provides the best estimate to date of the proportion of private health plan enrollees under Obamacare who previously lacked health insurance and therefore would be gaining coverage under the new law. Based on their nationally representative survey of adults who purchase their own insurance, KFF finds that 57% of private plan enrollees were previously uninsured.

Combining this new data point with information on the number of new Medicaid recipients and private plan enrollees under Obamacare, WalletHub analysts are now able to offer an initial projection of uninsured rates post-Obamacare for 43 states and the District of Columbia.

As more Floridians become aware of how important this election year is, the FDP Leadership Blue Gala set new records for attendance and fundraising. The featured speaker, President Bill Clinton, got the crowd fired up and ready to go!