Schadenfreude

"Schadenfreude" is a German word that has been adopted into English, and is defined as "taking pleasure or satisfaction at someone else's misfortune." ("Schaden" means injury or disadvantage, "Freude" means joy or delight.)

So, here's your Schadenfreude moment of the day:

Orlando Sentinel | Jury in defamation case finds against Doug Guetzloe for a total of $1.61 million

Wow. $1.61 million dollars is a LOT of money. As expected, Guetzloe is showing no remorse and vowing to appeal, but still, this verdict shows that not only did the jury think he was liable, but the large punitive damages component shows they found his conduct especially malicious and reprehensible.



"One meeeee-lion dollars...plus another six hundred and ten thousand!"

Howard Marks, the attorney for the successful plaintiffs said, "This was never, to begin with, a case about money. It was a case to stand up against a bully, to stand up against someone who has intimidated people for years with lawsuits."

Job well done, Mr. Marks. Free speech does not include the right to falsely call someone a pedophile...oh, excuse me, insinuate that someone "might" be a pedophile, or whatever Guetzloe was trying to argue he meant by saying that Richard Mask was "trolling for young boys," etc.

As someone who has also been a target of Guetzloe's fantastical lies and malicious attacks, I am greatly cheered by today's verdict and commend Richard Mask for his bravery and commitment to see this case through to the end.

Guetzloe has never called me a pedophile (golly gee whiz, thanks for that, Dougie), but he's used every word in the thesaurus to call me corrupt and unethical, attempts to attack my reputation every chance he gets, and keeps calling me a Democrat.  (If I'm a Democrat, I'm doing a reeeeeeeally bad job at it.) Entertainingly, during last year's  election he even tried to claim I was a double agent for the Alex Sink campaign. Thanks Dougie, we all got a good laugh over that.

Guetzloe also hasn't sued me in court yet, although he's certainly made the threat several times, but he has filed several complaints against me with the Florida Elections Commission. I just got word from them earlier this month that they had dismissed the latest case against me entirely. Ol' Dougie is now 0-for-3 against me with the FEC: he filed a complaint against me in 2008 which was immediately dismissed, I filed one against him in 2008 which settled with a consent order and a fine earlier this month, and then he filed this one against me in 2010, which was dismissed entirely.

I'm just waiting to get my copy of the written order (I called and checked and the orders were mailed yesterday) and then I'll share the fun little story with all of you. Doug Guetzloe is a bully and a jerk (that's my opinion, Dougie, go ahead and try to sue me for that), but the Florida Statutes and the administrative procedures of the FEC have some major areas that are ripe for improvement.

Stay tuned...

World Net Daily dumps Florida Tea Party as a sponsor

Love this...

WND's Miami conference dumps Florida Tea Party

World Net Daily is sponsoring a "Taking America Back National Conference" in Miami next month, and the Florida Tea Party Fake Tea Party had originally been listed as a sponsor of the event.  However, after WND's investigation led them to conclude that the group "was misrepresenting itself" FTP's sponsorship was rejected:

"We are returning the money this group paid for sponsoring the conference and rejecting its participation," said Joseph Farah, editor and chief executive officer of WND. "This event and the tea-party movement are not about making money. They are about changing the direction of our country. It's clear to me that the Florida Tea Party...has an agenda all its own."

Two thumbs up to World Net Daily for seeing the light about the Florida Tea Party. 

As expected, Doug Guetzloe and Peg Dunmire are screaming bloody murder about this, but too darn bad.  WND is a private organization and it has the right to refuse FTP's money and reject their sponsorship for any reason they chose.  It does not matter that the many lawsuits facing Guetzloe and FTP are not yet concluded; WND has the right to reject what their leadership views as a controversial group in order to avoid distractions from the purposes and goals of the event.  

I find it highly entertaining when Guetzloe & Gang cry that their First Amendment rights are being trampled when someone doesn't want to hear from them or doesn't want to invite them to something.  News flash: the First Amendment means you have a right to speak, it doesn't mean we have to listen...and it definitely doesn't mean we have to use our speech (or our time, energy, money, or resources) to promote your speech.  

No, Doug Guetzloe is not "winning" all of his lawsuits

When asked about the multiple lawsuits or criminal investigations that have been following him around for the past few years, Doug Guetzloe always brags that he is "winning" all the lawsuits and gets all the criminal charges "dismissed."  

Sorry, Doughboy, but, in the famous words of Congressman Joe Wilson, "You Lie!"

I've covered some of Guetzloe's past troubles here (most notably, that his constant claims that he has "won" the appeal and gotten his criminal conviction "overturned" are not true, merely that the 14 counts to which he pled no contest and for which he was convicted have now been consolidated into one count).

And now, today, something new and fun.  WKMG Local 6 posted today a copy of a October 2007 grand jury report on the "culture of corruption" at the Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority, which was released to the public today after Guetzloe's lawsuit to keep the report private was officially rejected by the appellate court, after 18 months of legal acrobatics by Guetzloe's favorite attorney/attack dog, Fred O'Neal.  Read Local 6's article here.

The grand jury report describes how OOCEA paid $107,500 to Doug Guetzloe and his company, Advantage Consultants, for what was claimed to be a consulting fee for a public opinion study about paying tolls.  However, "no scope of work was delineated" for the work, and [n]o expectations or goals were outlined in writing" for Guetzloe's work, and all he apparently did was produce a "two and a quarter page" report.  

The grand jury report also describes how the Advantage Consultants contract was concealed by hiring them as a subcontractor and the normal OOCEA bidding process was circumvented.

Considering the short and flimsy report that was generated, the large fee that was paid, the efforts to conceal the contract, and Guetzloe's activities with "Ax the Tax," a group that had been a loud and vocal opponent to toll increases in the past, the grand jury came to what they termed the "inescapable conclusion" that the payment was "hush money," and notes that "a quieter Ax the Tax did seem to flow from the $107,500 payment to Doug Guetzloe."

The hypocrisy of this just amazes me.  Doug Guetzloe has championed himself as the local champion in all fights against tax increases for years, but here is yet another example of his support or opposition of an issue being for sale.  Toll increases are a form of a tax increase, and for him to do a complete 180 in his position on the issue after getting over a hundred thousand dollars illustrates, in my opinion, exactly how true and honorable (or should I say false and dishonorable) his beliefs really are.

Anyone associated with the Florida Tea Party should really question what's motivating Guetzloe's loyalty now.  If Guetzloe is for sale, who's paying the bill this year?

Fake Tea Party starting to fall apart

Oh, this just makes me smile...

The Florida Tea Party Fake Tea Party has been having a rough time lately.  Doug Guetzloe's long-running relationship with Alan Grayson has been highlighted, WKMG Local 6 exposed several financial connections between Grayson, Guetzloe, and the Fake Tea Party, Guetzloe's radio program was canceled, and then Guetzloe, Fred O'Neal and several of their FTP candidates and operatives got into an embarrassing altercation at a recent press conference held by local tea party movement activists.

Now, this week, several of the FTP candidates for legislative seats withdrew from their races. Then, on Wednesday, Nick Egoroff publicly resigned as the party's Communications Director, and disassociated with the party altogether.  Egoroff and Guetzloe have been described by many as "thick as thieves" for several years, even to the point of both of them getting excommunicated from the Orange County Republican Executive Committee last year.  Time will tell whether this resignation is truly sincere, or some type of bizarre attempt at distraction, but in my personal opinion, I've never detected in Nick Egoroff the stench of scheming and corruption that always seems to follow after Guetzloe and O'Neal.

Keep up the good work, everyone.  There are many, many people working hard to keep shining a bright light on Doug Guetzloe, Fred O'Neal, the Fake Tea Party, and their nefarious activities, and we must not let up in the months to come.  Remember, cockroaches always flee from the light...

Doug Guetzloe's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

In the 1972 book Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, a little boy named Alexander wakes up with gum in his hair and then suffers through a day where nothing goes his way.  From getting stuck in the middle car seat,  to having to go to the dentist and having a cavity, then having lima beans for dinner (yuck!), poor Alexander vows to move to Australia. 

After yesterday, Doug Guetzloe may want to check the prices on flights at Qantas.com.

Last night, Tony Pipitone at Local 6 broke a story proving a financial link between Alan Grayson and Doug Guetzloe's Fake Tea Party.  If you haven't yet seen it, check out the video here (http://www.clickorlando.com/video/23982346/index.html) and my post from yesterday here, RollCall's write up here, and Orlando Political Press here.  UPDATE:  Here's an official press release from RPOF.

In a beautiful coincidence of timing, on the very same day that all this news was flying around the local TV news and blogosphere, Doug Guetzloe's radio show, the Guetzloe Report, was canceled, and, to add insult to injury (or, as I would put it, to add awesomeness to awesomeness!), the owner of WEUS AM 810, Carl Como, said that the cancellation of the Guetzloe Report was a "ratings decision," even though Guetzloe paid WEUS for the time to broadcast the program.  Now there's also some allegations back and forth that Guetzloe was improperly promoting the Florida Tea Party Fake Tea Party and one of its candidates on the air, and that Guetzloe and his Fake Tea Party members are victims of some sort of unfair treatment, but I just can't stop laughing about Como tossing Dougie right under the bus.

Oh how fun.  Karma is such a b****, isn't it?

It's all just too darn funny.  Guetzloe has always tried to declare himself the king of all conservative thought, and claimed to have an army of thousands of listeners and supporters.  You know you stink when you can't even get high enough ratings for a radio station to be willing to sell you time.   Doug's been causing controversy, ticking people off, getting entangled in lawsuits and ethics complaints for years.  This latest kerfuffle is just par for the course, and could not have been a surprise to the WEUS management.  Sounds like ol' Dougie really did have some pretty crappy ratings.

Anyway, Central Florida can now enjoy a third hour of the Laura Ingraham show on WEUS during the time that the Guetzloe Report used to air.  Ahh, lovely. 

(Hat tip to Tom Tillison at Orlando Political Press, who named yesterday as "Doug Guetzloe's Really Bad Day")

OMG. More flashes of brilliance from the Sentinel. My brain might explode.

Wow, wow, WOW.  More awesomeness from the Sentinel.  If they keep this up, I might have to subscribe to paper delivery again.

Read and enjoy...article from Mike Thomas about Matthew Falconer:

 

Falconer the 'anti'-candidate not being realistic | Mike Thomas | OrlandoSentinel.com

Some highlights:

[Falconer] is anti-rail and anti-taxes, anti-Magic arena and anti-tolls.  He also is, all too often, anti-reality. He is inclined to making up facts. He claims he will do things he won't be able to do.

Crist claims he "didn't know anything" about allegedly illegal activities by Greer

Charlie Crist is now in a sudden, desperate fit trying to distance himself from Jim Greer.  He's claiming he knew nothin' about nothin', completely unaware of the shenanigans going on at RPOF under Greer.

Remember Charlie, the cover-up is worse than the crime.  Nixon was pretty darn insistent that he was "not a crook" at one point too.

Crist distances himself from arrested former Republican party chairman Jim Greer - St. Petersburg Times

UPDATE: Check out this post over at RedState:

Charlie Crist linked to fraud, money laundering

 

FYI, "Schadenfreude," mentioned at the beginning of that article, is a German word meaning pleasure derived from the misfortune of others.  I am also enjoying a little Schadenfreude myself about Charlie's situation right now.