Hydro Logic

Backhoe, modus operandi in the Jennifer Kesse case?

2010-11-07T14:59:00.001-05:00

News from California might bear indirectly on the Jennifer Kesse abduction case: the disappearance of college student, Lynsie Ekelund, in early 2001.

Calif. Mother I.D.s Missing Daughter's Bracelet
November 07, 2010
Associated Press

FULLERTON, Calif. -- The mother of a Southern California woman who vanished almost 10 years ago said Saturday a bracelet found on recently unearthed remains belonged to her daughter.

Nancy Ekelund of Fullerton told The Associated Press that she had met with a coroner's investigator and instantly recognized the gold-link bracelet she had given as a present to her daughter Lynsie Ekelund, a 20-year old Fullerton College student who disappeared in 2001...

Christopher McAmis is suspected of strangling her and burying her in a canyon 50 miles north of Los Angeles in Santa Clarita, where he directed investigators to look, Los Angeles County sheriff's officials said.

McAmis said he used a tractor to dig a 4-foot grave in the canyon where he had done construction work, officials said.

If a construction worker can use a former work site for disposing of a body in California, then is it possibly the explanation of what happened to Jennifer Kesse in Florida, in 2006? Was Kesse's kidnapper another construction worker digging, for instance, the foundation for the Amscot building, 2033 Americana Blvd., a short distance from the drop off point of Kesse's vehicle? That construction site was at the earth-moving stage soon after the Kesse disappearance, and it would be simple to check whether is was under construction in January, 2006, when she was abducted.

That would be a total luck shot if that were the case -- some murdering construction worker at the nearby Amscot.

In actuality, however, it could be any one of a huge number of construction sites in Central Florida at that time. The suspect in the Ekelund disappearance identified a point in Santa Clarita, north of Los Angeles, about 50 miles as a crow files, north and west of Fullerton, where Lynsie Ekelund disappeared. As a car drives, it is a straight shot up Interstate-5. But that is definitely not a short distance.

Image: As a crow flies, Fullerton to Santa Clarita. Click for larger size.

Tale of Two Cities at Starbuck's

2010-10-30T16:12:00.010-04:00

In my quest to get out of the house this afternoon, I was able to observe an interesting version of the tale of two cities. I sat in an easy chair next to an older gent.

Activity	Older gent	Me
physical activity	drinking coffee	drinking coffee
economic activity	whipped out a conventional checkbook with paper checks	debit card
information activity	reading paper copy of the New York Times	fired up MacBook Pro, clicked over to Foxnews.com and Pajamasmedia.com
communication activity	cell phone	got rid of my cell phone over the summer -- simplifies life.
footwear activity	wearing sandals with black socks	Saucony trail runners from Sierra Trading Post
existential activity	slacking	slacking

Worst of times, best of times.

Cannot vote for this guy; too weird looking.

2010-08-10T13:04:00.005-04:00

This Rick Scott guy is just too weird looking for me to vote for.

I hate making fun of a guy's looks, but he shaves his head so that he can look... what? More stylish?

He looks like a guy you meet when stranded at a bus station, and all he wants to tell you about is his UFO theories and why he therefore sells Amway.

Sorry, the Rick Scott system is NO GO.

Gibbsy, get a map, you goof. Volusia County is on the east coast of Florida.

2010-07-27T08:08:00.006-04:00

Ace news man, Robert Gibbs, needs some mental adjusment of his internal map. He thinks Volusia County is the westernmost county in Florida.

WH Denies Political Motivation for Sending Staff to Gulf States
Major Garrett
Senior White House Correspondent
Fox News Channel

The White House first denied and then scoffed at the idea it was pouring operatives and press aides into Gulf Coast states to smooth feathers, first oiled then ruffled by the administration's admittedly uneven response... This contributed to the impression the White House fretted its spill response could leave it vulnerable to a voter backlash in the state [Florida] with 27 electoral votes (one tenth of the 270 needed for victory) that served as President Obama's southern anchor in 2008.

"Oil gets into a bay that is shared by both Alabama and Florida, right," Gibbs said. "The western -- or the easternmost county in Alabama, Baldwin County, is notified. The westernmost county in Florida, Volusia is not -- okay? A breakdown in communications from the incident command to the local level..."

Smooth move over there, Gibbsy. It's Escambia County that lies on the western march of Florida: Pensacola, Pensacola Naval Air Station etc. Then east from there, across the bay in a the next few Florida counties is Eglin Air Force Base, home of the Miss MOAB. Remember now, Gibbsy?

Or maybe just do your homework, genius. Volusia County might have voted for Obama/Biden, but it hasn't got any oil pollution -- not yet.

Even F.E.M.A. knows where Volusia county isn't. How bad is that? Gibbs is less knowledgeable than the FEMAs, viz.

Click image for large size 1650px × 1275px view of map.

Well, at least Theresa LePore now has a challenger for spatial organization genius of the year. That takes talent.

Potomac fever, two recent examples

2010-07-24T18:08:00.007-04:00

Abraham Lincoln and Harry Truman used to talk about a medical condition known as Potomac Fever. A politician gets elected to Congress, gets to D.C., and the next thing you know, the honorable politician goes high hat, resulting in the need for new hats with a larger hat size.

Here are two cases of Potomac Fever in recent headlines:

Congressman Alan Grayson. During congressional recess, he's at his tailor getting his head re-measured.

Washington Police Investigate Grayson Death Threat
TV station WESH-2 News
POSTED: 4:43 pm EDT July 22, 2010
UPDATED: 5:34 pm EDT July 22, 2010

A death threat was called in to Grayson's Washington office.

"Ten people are going to kill the congressman within 24 hours," an intern who answered the phone was told.

"Like any other threat, it has to be taken seriously," Grayson said in a phone interview.

Grayson recently spoke out about the extension of unemployment benefits.

"I say this to the Republicans who have blocked this bill for months, who have kept food out of the mouths of children: May God have mercy on your souls," Grayson said.

He said he thinks his opinions have prompted the threat.

"What kind of twisted person would threaten someone who speaks out on behalf of the needy," Grayson said. "What kind of twisted person would threaten to kill someone."

Except, what does that mean, ten people? A firing squad? Or ten people in a row? Most people only get killed once. [Exception: James Bond, for whom it can be said, you only live twice.]

From a guy who is facile in attributing bloody motives to others, one would have to verify carefully whether the congressman actually received a threat and from whom. What kind of twisted person tries to score political points off a police matter?

Spencer Ackerman, blogger in D.C. for Wired News Service.
Video: Hard-Boiled Mafioso, Spencer Ackerman
Dan Riehl
Riehl World View He's been known to resort to violence on multiple occasions. Doesn't it show?

Here is another guy who finds it easy to attribute racial motives to others for his own political gain.

Some job supervision for young Ackerman might be in order. Time can help: you can forgive him his weakness and twerpiness, for a season.

As for our Honorable Grayson, however, he is weak but has enough power and cash to ignore anybody's advice or supervision. Only one thing will work: withdraw consent and vote him out of office. Soon.

Obama sells out NASA, Bolden dances.

2010-07-05T08:48:00.005-04:00

Not content to sell out Poland, the Czech Republic, Israel and all the people in Iran who seek freedom, the current president asks NASA to take janitorial duty under the State Dept., cleaning out the diplomatic toilets by making Al-Quaeda feel good. Bolden actually states this in the video.

Such nonsense!

Presidents have made NASA a political tool in the past. In the 1960s, the space program was used to compete with the Soviet Union. The astronauts, all ex-military, bought into the competition, to beat the Soviets in every category and especially to the moon. But that was a noble, hard challenge, not namby pamby feel good duty like today.

To see Bolden "dance" for the president on al-Jazeera is too much for my eyes. It is a stain.

Charlie Crist is a good riddance.

2010-05-13T05:57:00.006-04:00

George Hamilton is getting long in the tooth, so perhaps Gov. Crist, after electoral defenestration, can pick up a job in Hollywood, taking over the George Hamilton pretty boy acting gigs.

Crist: The check's not in the mail
Julie Mason
Washington Examiner

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist said today that hey -- he's not returning that money, after all. A group of prominent Republicans recently wrote to Crist after his switch from the GOP to the NPA (no party affiliation) asking for reimbursement of years of campaign contributions.

After initially sounding like he might do it, Crist -- looking stronger in the polls -- said that he's keeping all of it.

Read more at the Washington Examiner.

I could not have predicted this specific act of betrayal, but it was obvious the first time I heard this pretty boy talk to reporters: I am not lying, look at me, trust me, now all I need is your credit card number.

It is a good riddance, not so much because he is out of the GOP, but because he will soon be out of politics completely. Next logical step: Hollywood, a tv sitcom, commercials ...more paid gigs to lie and get the camera to "look at me."

King Obama

2010-05-01T18:10:00.005-04:00

Across the land, we now must temper our tongues because King Obama cannot take it.

Obama takes direct aim at anti-government rhetoric
BY PETE YOST AND MARK S. SMITH
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITERS
(Miami Herald)

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- In a blunt caution to political friend and foe, President Barack Obama said Saturday that partisan rants and name-calling under the guise of legitimate discourse pose a serious danger to America's democracy, and may incite "extreme elements" to violence.

Get out of the kitchen, you weak poser. If you can't handle the heat, just get out. If you can't handle free speech, then find a time machine and move back to the Soviet Union.

Hunting tragedy

2010-04-16T16:32:00.005-04:00

Is it possible to find a more tragic hunting story than this? No pythons killed during python hunting season this year. DANG!

Python hunting season ending with zero kills
BRIAN SKOLOFF, AP
1:41 p.m. EDT, April 16, 2010

WEST PALM BEACH — Florida's first python hunting season ends Saturday with no reptiles being reported captured and killed, wildlife officials said Friday.

The season opened March 8 for anyone with a hunting license who paid a $26 permit fee to hunt down the nonnative reptiles on state-managed lands around the Everglades in South Florida.

In addition to Burmese pythons, hunters also were allowed to kill Indian and African rock pythons, and green anacondas and Nile monitor lizards...

Hardin said nine out of 10 pythons that scientists had been tracking with radio collars in Everglades National Park apparently died from the weather.

I would just like to know one thing: how do you put a radio collar on a python?

Stupak is not Florida, but he could be declared an honorary Theresa LePore wannabee.

2010-04-09T15:28:00.007-04:00

You have to wonder at the navigational skills of Rep. Stupak. He is not a Florida politician, but he is almost imbecilic enough to be declared an honorary Florida Democrat, following the tradition of Theresa Le Pore and friends.

Rep. Bart Stupak Announces His Retirement After Health Care Controversy
April 09, 2010
Chad Pergram and Dominique Pastre
FOXNews.com

Michigan Democratic Rep. Bart Stupak, the central player in a grueling abortion debate underlying the health care law, announced Friday he will retire from Congress at the end of this term, because "it's time to begin a new and exciting chapter."

Exciting chapter? Euphemism. His mind must run on euphemisms.

And what did he think he was buying when he voted for Pelosi's ram-through? He sold her his vote and then falls on his sword? No, you are supposed to sacrifice yourself for what you believe, supposedly for pro-life concepts, not for Nancy Pelosi.

Maybe he was hypnotized by botox waves from the unwavering, unblinking eye of Pelosi. Yes, that might explain it.

Hon. Stupak, you are welcome, like many Michiganders, to fly south to Central Florida, and find a new nest as a snowbird. Maybe you can get a job with Governor Crist.

Obama health-care supporters: Democrats outraged by Florida doctor who tells Obama supporters to go elsewhere

2010-04-04T11:04:00.005-04:00

Tough guy Democrat party politicians whine like little school girls with no date for the prom. "Free speech for me but not for thee" seems to be their operation plan.

Obama health-care supporters: Democrats outraged by Florida doctor who tells Obama supporters to go elsewhere
Stephen Hudak, Orlando Sentinel
April 3, 2010

MOUNT DORA — Doug Bell isn't a patient of Dr. Jack Cassell's, but he almost wishes he were.

The Sorrento salesman heard about the firestorm over a sign that the Mount Dora urologist posted on his office door — it reads, "If you voted for Obama…seek urologic care elsewhere" — and wanted to see it himself.

"We need more people like him to speak out and take a stand against Obama-care," said Bell...

But Cassell's former medical partner in Eustis, urologist Dr. James Young, 57, a self-described liberal Democrat, said a patient's politics should be no more important to a doctor than his favorite baseball team.

"It'd be like me saying I'm not going to treat a Cubs fan," said Young, a lifelong fan of the St. Louis Cardinals. "There are a number of thoughtful doctors who feel like Jack and probably a like number who feel the exact opposite, but they're not going to put a sign on their door. As doctors, our chief concern should always be what's best for the patient."

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Democrat hate-activists make a living by character assassination of anyone who dares to challenge the plantation owners. Free speech, to Democrat hate-speech activists, is a privilege for those who agree with them; speak contra the prevailing Democrate hate culture and your free speech privileges are suspended.

Florida Obama poll: Voters turn against Obama, Nelson and health care bill - OrlandoSentinel.com

2010-03-28T08:07:00.004-04:00

I attempted to sway Rep. Kosmas' vote on the health care takeover plan, but they rammed it though anyway, disregarding voters. This makes Kosmas, Obama and Nelson the co-chairmen of our new national death panel.

Florida Obama poll: Voters turn against Obama, Nelson and health care bill
William E. Gibson
Orlando Slantinel

WASHINGTON - Florida voters have turned sharply against President Barack Obama, Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson and a sweeping health care law they helped push through Congress, according to a Mason-Dixon poll released Saturday.

The statewide poll of 625 registered voters found that Obama's favorable ratings have plunged to 37 percent from 50 percent when he was elected in 2008...

Only 25 percent of those polled who were 65 and older said they support the bill that was signed into law. Nearly two-thirds, 65 percent, said they oppose it.

"I'm a Democrat, but I'm going to vote Republican," said Arnold Ruskin, 74, of Margate, who was not polled but reflected the changing attitude of many senior citizens. "I want this [health care law] repealed. I'm not saying the Republicans are right. But I think the Democrats are just brutal on this thing..."

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What they did is an enormous blunder. This kind of pride, hubris will lead to them falling. I hope it happens before the USA collapses catastrophically when the overleveraged entitlements overwhelm the economy.

Democrats are now the nationwide death panel

2010-03-20T13:32:00.001-04:00

Woe to the government politicians that ram through this health care takeover.

Democrat party is now the nationwide death panel.

Natalee Holloway skeleton?

2010-03-20T07:13:00.006-04:00

Whether or not this is Natalee Holloway's skeleton, or whether it is even a skeleton at all, someone will have to dive down to this location to verify.

Click for larger view.

Maybe it is a skeleton, though. I took the image from foxnews.com, then modified it slightly, to bring out details, using the simple color controls in the Apple Preview application. A real photo-analyst could probably do better, but here is what I did:

Optimized sharpness
Desaturated the color to black and white
enhanced contrast, brightness and exposure.

but when I did these enhancements, it did bring out some maybes:

Near arrow, a human mandible, slightly detached from skull?
Near arrow, a row of human teeth?

Maybe an expert photo-analyst will have more success.

Some caveats:

I am not sure why the image is all blue; did the news agency do this for some reason?
Also, I am not sure if that banded creature in the lower right is a sea snake or a moray eel. I thought sea snakes were only in the Indian and Pacific, not the Caribbean.

Everyone hopes that this and all the other mysterious disappearances are solved as soon as possible.

Rep. Kosmas, keep your vote NO on health care bills; no ram through!

2010-03-17T05:46:00.002-04:00

Rep. Suzanne Kosmas contact info:

Email form
Telephone in D.C., (202) 225-2706
Fax: (202) 226-6299
Telephone in Port Orange office (386) 756-9798
Fax: (386) 756-9903
Telephone in Orlando office (407)-208-1106
Fax: (407)-208-1108
Toll free hotline 1-877-9-KOSMAS
(1-877-956-7627)

Hon. Suzanne Kosmas, forget the speaker's ARM scheme. Your fiduciary responsibility is to us voters in your district.

Why, yes, Madame Speaker, I'd love to co-sign your A.R.M.

2010-03-17T05:21:00.003-04:00

Why, yes, Madame Speaker, I'd love to co-sign your trillion dollar A.R.M.

Tim Cahill slams Barack Obama, Dems on health care
By Jessica Van Sack

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

State Treasurer Tim Cahill, taking swipes at both Gov. Deval Patrick and President Obama, boosted his bipartisan chops yesterday, telling Herald columnist Howie Carr on WRKO, “I voted for John McCain, believe it or not.”

Cahill, saying he was barred from the 2008 Democratic National Convention because he wouldn’t endorse either Obama or Hillary Clinton, said, “My own party basically voted me out.”

“I was afraid of what we had already been getting in Massachusetts, and at that point in 2008, I was aware that it wasn’t working,” he said. Separately yesterday, Cahill accused Obama of “propping up” the Bay State’s health plan with federal aid in order to help push the Democrats’ plan through Congress.

And Cahill's official .gov website contains the following statement:

State Treasurer Tim Cahill today faulted Gov. Deval Patrick for mismanaging the state’s health care initiative and warned that the consequences would be disastrous if a similar health care program were enacted nationally.

“If President Obama and the Democrats repeat the mistakes of the health insurance mandate in Massachusetts on a national level, they will bankrupt this country within four years,” Cahill said. “It is time for the President and the Democratic Leadership to go back to the drawing board and come up with a new plan that does not threaten to wipe out the American economy.”

Thanks for selling our A.R.M. to the Chinese, Madame Speaker.

Tim Cahill slams Barack Obama, Dems on health care

2010-03-17T05:20:00.000-04:00

Tim Cahill slams Barack Obama, Dems on health care

Office of the State Treasurer - - Press Release

2010-03-17T05:19:00.000-04:00

Office of the State Treasurer - - Press Release

Ereck Plancher -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution roundup

2010-03-10T11:10:00.003-05:00

Atlanta Journal-Constitution has an Ereck Plancher roundup page.

Somewhat out of date! Come on, AJC, no slacking!

Hon. Suzanne Kosmas, keep it NO!

2010-03-10T10:55:00.000-05:00

I sent another mail message to Rep. Kosmas this morning, related to the Rasmussen poll results:

Fifty-seven percent (57%) believe that passage of the proposed health care legislation will hurt the economy. Just 25% believe it will help. (Rasmussen)

---

Rasmussen poll looks grievous for health care scheme.

Hon. Suzanne Kosmas,

The poll from Rasmussen today indicates broad LACK of support for this health care takeover fiasco. I highly recommend you keep your NO vote a good solid NO.

You stay WITH us, not with Speaker Pelosi and her kamikaze charge AT us.

Daily Presidential Tracking Poll

2010-03-10T10:46:00.003-05:00

Bad news from Rasmussen polling: America is refusing to buy it.

Daily Presidential Tracking Poll
Fifty-seven percent (57%) believe that passage of the proposed health care legislation will hurt the economy. Just 25% believe it will help...

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Reprise: Three Cheers for Mike Sola!: Meet the Patriot Who Took on Dingell

2010-03-09T17:31:00.004-05:00

When I advocate against the health care takeover, I think most about Mike Sola and his son. Blogger Debbie Schlussel wrote in August:

Three Cheers for Mike Sola!: Meet the Patriot Who Took on Dingell

He admits that the health insurance he has (and that most people have) is bad, but notes–as all of us opposed to ObamaCare know–that government health care is far worse.

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Let's stand with Mike Sola and his son.

Rep. Kosmas, keep your vote NO on health care bills

2010-03-09T17:21:00.003-05:00

To Hon. Suzanne Kosmas,

I still cannot consent to this health care fiasco. It is way over-leveraged and has INFINITE AND ETERNAL DEFICIT written all over it.

Creating another Ginnie Mae-Freddie Mac to cause an economic collapse and dollar collapse is no way for a liberal to plan for the future.

No offense, but you guys are just not smart enough to craft this thing safely and reliably. Your own leader, Pelosi, has come up with some real whoppers in this context. You voted NO in 2009 on this health care fiasco. Keep it NO.

Mike Sola, defending his son

Speaker Pelosi, Super-Genius

2010-03-09T16:30:00.005-05:00

It seems inevitable that this speaker of the House of Representatives goes down in flames, with verbal gaffes like this:

But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it...

It reminds me of another famous super-genius beloved by Hollywood: Mr. Wile E. Coyote.

Ereck Plancher death: UCF attorneys laughing at the family's suffering

2010-03-07T14:44:00.006-05:00

For some reason the atletic program seems to accept that their attorneys can obstruct and even laugh at the suffering of the family of Ereck Plancher.

Ereck Plancher died as a result of intense football team practice from which he ought to have been excluded, if anyone had realized he had sickle cell trait. Now it appears that the head athletic trainer, Mary Vander Heiden, cannot remember if she went over the test results with young Plancher.

However, under questioning by Plancher's family's attorney in a deposition, the UCF attorneys tell Mary Vander Heiden to keep her mouth shut. Getting too close to the truth, probably.

Ereck Plancher death: Family attorneys question whether UCF told football player he had sickle cell trait
Iliana Limon, Orlando Sentinel
11:16 p.m. EST, March 6, 2010
OrlandoSentinel.com

Vander Heiden gave a second deposition Feb. 16 in the pending wrongful-death lawsuit filed by Plancher's parents. The deposition transcript was entered into Orange County Circuit Court records Thursday and obtained exclusively by the Orlando Sentinel.

When Plancher family attorney Steven Yerrid asked whether Vander Heiden told Plancher about his condition she responded, "Well, I can't say with certainty that, yes, I did or, no, I didn't."

Yerrid then asked Vander Heiden, "Ma'am, you didn't tell Mr. Plancher, did you?" UCF attorney Daniel Shapiro objected because it the question was addressed during a previous deposition and advised Vander Heiden not to respond. Yerrid was forced to move on to other questions...

The exchanges between attorneys from both sides were at times heated in a deposition that took more than nine hours to complete and filled 416 transcribed pages.

When UCF attorney Daniel Shapiro objected in the first 10 minutes of the deposition, Plancher family attorney Steven Yerrid responded, "I'm going to let that go a little bit longer and then we're going to, we're going to stop and go see the judge again because you made 33 form objections to the last deposition that I participated in. You gave a lot of instructions not to answer. And that's not in the spirit, nor within permissible conduct of an attorney conducting the defense of a deponent's deposition."

Shapiro responded by saying he did not need a lecture.

After more disputes, UCF attorneys eventually called Circuit Judge Julie H. O'Kane to request that she force the Plancher family attorneys to behave professionally. She was out of the office and did not respond. The Plancher attorneys argued that UCF's legal team was laughing, making disparaging remarks and constantly interrupting the deposition.

It seems inconceivable to me that an attorney can display this kind of cowardly, raucous, callous laughing at the pain of Ereck Plancher's family.

Pelosi says bill worth election sell-out by Kosmas

2010-03-01T13:38:00.006-05:00

I certainly hope that Rep. Kosmas can keep her vote intact, NO, instead of selling out Florida voters to purchase some pie from Nancy Pelosi.

Pelosi says bill worth election risk
Pelosi said that "in a matter of days" Democrats will have specific legislative language on health care to show to the public and to wavering lawmakers. She predicted voters will warm up to the bill once they understand its details.

"When we have a bill," she said, "you can bake the pie, you can sell the pie. But you have to have a pie to sell."

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It is obvious that our district does not want the Pelosi/Reid health care takeover plan rammed through. If she changes her vote, it will be a response to Pelosi, not to us voters.

PETA won’t use golfer’s image because he is not sufficiently vulnerable

2010-02-27T13:36:00.005-05:00

Bloodsucking PETA concerned about little dogs and cats but won't abuse Tiger Woods on the streets where he lives, because he has lawyers and a billion $$ in the bank. However, some politician off the beaten track will suffice.

Tiger Woods billboard: PETA won’t use golfer’s image - OrlandoSentinel.com

The animal-rights group PETA has put its plans "on hold" for a cheeky billboard with Tiger Woods' image.

Instead, the group plans to use South Carolina's governor as the poster child to encourage people to spay and neuter pets.

The People for Ethical Treatment of Animals said it decided to temporarily abandon the idea of using Woods' image for the ad after having "conversations" with the professional golfer's attorneys.

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This shows how much real compassion the PETA have for animals: zero. They care about control and abuse of vulnerable people like this Governor Btfsplk from South Carolina... and Tiger Woods as long as nobody is looking.

Teleprompter phony

2010-01-25T12:12:00.007-05:00

The president is a total phony with his Teleprompter use.

He deliberately sets them so that they are above eye level, forcing himself to always be looking up. This is campaign artifice designed for tv cameras. His audience is usually not above his eye level, so he ends up talking to the sconces and ceiling.
Even in an elementary school he feels the need to pose for the cameras. What a worthless phony. And he thinks the kids will appreciate him more? They spot a phony faster than anyone else.

CNN calls Obama a liar. Pelosi, too.

2010-01-07T13:42:00.002-05:00

It's a rough day in the DC Beltway when the CNN talking heads turn on the DC Beltway establishment.

Good for you, Cafferty. It's been a long time since I felt like listening to CNN.

Breitbart.tv » The C-SPAN Lie? See Eight Clips of Obama Promising Televised Healthcare Negotiations

2010-01-06T12:27:00.003-05:00

Breitbart.tv » The C-SPAN Lie? See Eight Clips of Obama Promising Televised Healthcare Negotiations

It could not be more clear -- that campaign promise is unfixably, deliberately broken. Pathetic leadership.

Rep. Kosmas, keep your vote NO on the health care takeover

2010-01-06T09:15:00.004-05:00

Rep. Kosmas, please keep your vote NO on the health care conference bill.

The fact that your leadership is keeping it some kind of top secret and not letting it go through a normal conference procedure is a BAD sign, like a Ken Lay Enron scheme.

It is like a used car salesman pushing back the odometer in the dark of night. Very bad.

If it is supposed to be secret and cannot even be allowed on CSPAN, you are carrying water for a bad piece of legislation. Your leadership is willing to sacrifice YOU.

Plus, the little I do understand about this scheme is that I will lose my Blue Cross Blue Shield coverage if I change jobs, or when the most lovely woman alive finds a new job here. She will lose her Cigna coverage and I will not be able to enroll her in my coverage. She is a breast cancer patient.

I am a schoolteacher. And we are about to buy a house. We are first time homebuyers. So if we get foreclosed because you vote for higher insurance premiums or I have to pay for her cancer care out of pocket, how will that make you feel?

So you have GOT to stay solid on your NO vote on the health care takeover.

Prodded by Obama, House and Senate Democrats to skip formal talks, act quickly on health bill - OrlandoSentinel.com

2010-01-06T09:10:00.000-05:00

Prodded by Obama, House and Senate Democrats to skip formal talks, act quickly on health bill - OrlandoSentinel.com
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is prodding House and Senate Democrats to get him a final health care bill as soon as possible, encouraging them to bypass the usual negotiations between the two chambers in the interest of speed.

Obama delivered the message at an Oval Office meeting Tuesday evening with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and his No. 2, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., joined in by phone.

They agreed that rather than setting up a formal conference committee to resolve differences between health bills passed last year by the House and Senate, the House will work off the Senate's version, amend it and send it back to the Senate for final passage, according to a House leadership aide, speaking on condition of anonymity in order to discuss the private meeting.

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This shows how weak the congressional health care takeover is. Another rush job (like the pork-o-rama stimulus bill that didn't work) and they have to jam it through without ordinary public scrutiny. A bad business.

Senator Bill Nelson, please vote against the health care takeover

2009-11-20T14:22:00.002-05:00

Senator Bill Nelson, please NOT support the health care takeover legislation!

Our public debt is too darn large, and it is going to kill us in the future.
I think you can be a good liberal and still vote down this monstrous debt magnet.
I absolutely do NOT believe any of the "assurances" that you guys give that it will not accumulate monstrous public debt.
I expect you guys to really mess it up.
Set it aside for another day, and take it up again when you can
1. construct it within our means and
2. with less political division.

Obama to 9/11 victims: You don't count.

2009-11-15T09:10:00.004-05:00

It is amazing that someone could govern in such a callous way. Yet that is how the current president and his attorney general govern: ignore the public now that they have unchecked power.

Ram though health care takeover in the middle of the night and no public review.
Ship the 9/11 terrorists from Guantanamo Bay to New York and give them a regular trial instead of a military tribunal.
etc.
Then fly off to Japan to escape immediate scrutiny: get to the fresh sushi, evade embarrassing questions.

He has unchecked power but no courage.

A Florida student now has spoken out against the terrorists getting a trial in NYC.

9-11 victim's brother at UCF: Don't have trials in NYC
By Willoughby Mariano
Orlando Sentinel Staff Writer
November 13, 2009

News that self-described 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed will be tried in New York federal court drew mixed reactions from victims' families.

Locally, University of Central Florida freshman Brian Holland, 18, worries the decision will make it easier for killers to escape justice.

"It's all of our worst fears — them getting off scot-free," Holland said Friday.

Brian Holland's brother Joseph Holland III, 32, a trader, died during the World Trade Center attacks. The new father was killed 10 days after the birth of his son Joseph Holland IV...

During the proceedings, as authorities described Mohammed's alleged actions, he looked toward family members and smiled, Joseph Holland Jr. told his son.

"They have no remorse for their actions," Brian Holland said. "They sat in court happy about what they did."

The civilian legal system offers loopholes that can help Mohammed get off on a technicality, Brian Holland said. The trial's New York City location puts that city under too much risk for more terrorism, he said.

"We don't agree with bringing them to America," Holland said.

They are going to be smiling with glee at our entire nation from the NYC courtroom. This is a disaster.

Terrorists are cowards that hide behind women and children and innocent civilians. Now our own president has shown the same kind of cowardice by refusing to protect innocent victims in NYC and elsewhere.

But at least the sushi is fresh and healthful in Japan.

Yay

2009-11-05T17:37:00.003-05:00

Some notable sayings from a citizen of the ozone layer.

Teachers never have an empty class.
They always have at least two pupils.
Dentists are always sad.
They look down in the mouth.
Eye doctors live to a ripe old age.
They dilate.
Chiropractors are the hardest working profession.
They work their fingers to the bone.
The profession I trust least is podiatrist.
They get their knowledge from footnotes.
Lawyers are buried in 10-ft. graves because they are really nice guys down deep.
Mail carriers don't die -- they lose their zip.
Professional bowler -- brought up in an alley.
Dead parachutist -- nothing opened up for him.
Violinist couldn't succeed.
He was too high strung.
The trapeze artist couldn't get into the swing of things.
The magician was a huge success but he suddenly vanished.
Ideal couple:
He had money to burn -- she was a perfect match.
Cleaners work for a tidy sum.
Politicians build pies in the sky using our dough.
Diplomat -- when it comes to the parting of the ways, he uses both.

New wave of Hannitization

2009-08-19T13:52:00.007-04:00

I got Hannitized in 1993-1994, before getting Hannitized was cool. It was the Hilary Health Care mess. Now we face another attempt from BHO.

But the more the Democrat politicians rig their town hall meetings or duck the town hall electronically, the more they will Hannitize their voters.

I expect a new wave of Hannitization to sweep the land before this health care takeover takes place. Leave a comment with your Hannitization story.

Click image to see who the president is fixating on.

Alan Grayson hosts town hall meeting in Orlando

2009-08-18T22:35:00.007-04:00

Honorable Grayson of our House of Representatives did not act like a leader last night. He acted like a suit, on account of his being owner of a big telephone calling card company. The article in the Orlando Slamtinel shows a missed opportunity. Can you see it?

Alan Grayson hosts town hall meeting in Orlando

By David Damron and Willoughby Mariano
Orlando Sentinel
August 18, 2009

Grayson's hastily called meeting took place in the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union hall, which limited attendance to about 120 members of the public. It also was scheduled just after a regular meeting of local Democrats, some of whom stayed behind for the town hall in the scarce seats.

Outside the building, hundreds of frustrated people who could not get inside waved signs and chanted for and against the proposals.

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And the Fox news local reports more on the missed opportunity, viz.

Tensions flare at health care town hall
VALERIE BOEY, FOX 35 News
Tuesday, 18 Aug 2009,
12:24 AM EDT

Before the public meeting began at 7:45 p.m., the Democratic Executive Committee gathered for a special question and answer session with the congressman. While they were asked to give up their seats at the conclusion of the session, not all of them left.

Outside were dozens of angry people who thought they would have a chance to be heard.

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Grayson had the Orlando executive committee present. These are esperienced political activists. Also, there were tons of people to talk to, nore than could fit in the meeting hall.

Grayson ought to have shooed out his executive committee members, all of them, to let more regular civilians in. He ought to have told those executive committee members to stay out in the parking lot and improvise a mini-town hall meeting with the folks who could not get in. If he had a sense of leadership, he would have deployed his people to get the message out and broaden contact.

It is what I would have done.

Unfortunately he did not have this instinct. Instead, he kept his bodyguard close, like the suit that he is.

PROFILE IN COURAGE: Grayson picks union hall for "balanced" town hall meeting

2009-08-17T13:25:00.006-04:00

The Orlando Sentinel reporter seems to be reporting several inconvenient facts about the Hon. Alan Grayson's town hall meeting at 820 Virginia in Orlando, 7:45 PM, Monday, Aug. 17.

Grayson picks union hall for "balanced" town hall meeting
David Damron
Orlando Sentinel
12:29 p.m. EDT
August 17, 2009

U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Orlando, picked a somewhat small union hall to host a town hall meeting tonight at 7:45, but a spokesman said the location was not picked to "stack the deck" and avoid critics.

Grayson's spokesman Todd Jurkowski said moments ago that the choice of venue -- the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union hall at 820 Virginia Dr., which holds 125 to 150 people -- was picked because it was free, available, and would not hold a crowd so large as to become unwieldy.

A union meeting will be breaking up right before the meeting is to start -- but Jurkowski said the timing of Grayson's session was not planned to keep out critics.

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This reminds me of all the innocent guys in prison. Somehow, they all got framed or something. Similarly, the honorable Grayson

is not stacking the deck,
is not avoiding critics,
did not time the event to pre-fill the hall with IBEW union thugs,
and did not withhold notice until the day of the event to keep it out of the news as long as possible.

No, Hon. Grayson is innocent.

And if a politician claiming innocence is not enough, it appears that the address they published is just a narrow storefront, not designed for crowds. Maybe this is just a coincidence.

And regular IBEW meetings are mostly on Tuesday nights. Why all of a sudden on a Monday night?

View Larger Map

What a profile in courage. Honorable Alan Grayson, multi-zillionaire, cannot risk exposure to his constituents without a bodyguard from IBEW. What a joke.

Why pharmaceutical companies were puffing up Kosmas and Grayson

2009-08-08T00:16:00.005-04:00

A few weeks ago, I asked, "Why are pharmaceutical companies puffing up Kosmas and Grayson?"

It did not compute that some nefarious "enemy" like "big pharmaceutical" would support re-election of politicians like Kosmas and Grayson if they were in the health care takeover scheme up in D.C.

Now it is much more transparent: the White House made a deal with nefarious "big pharmaceutical" through PhRMA, the source of the pro-Kosmas and pro-Grayson advertising.

Drug Dealers:
The White House buys
Big Pharma’s silence.
Wall Street Journal
REVIEW & OUTLOOK
AUGUST 7, 2009, 11:39 P.M. ET

Democrats are trying to explain opposition to ObamaCare as a sinister conspiracy controlled by the hidden hand of the health-care industry. Psychologists call this projection. Why bother with a new conspiracy when you’ve already clinched a secret deal with the President?

...This week it emerged that the pharmaceutical industry’s supposedly voluntary peace offering to cut drug costs by $80 billion to help finance ObamaCare was an explicit quid pro quo in exchange for White House protection.

After the industry trade group PhRMA announced the plan in the Rose Garden in June, liberals on Capitol Hill promptly declared that they were “not bound” by it, as Henry Waxman and Nancy Pelosi repeatedly put it.

It seems incredible that Billy Tauzin and PhRMA could fall for the backstabbing tricknology of the White House and Waxman.

Also, it makes a stark contrast with general claims that people opposing government health care takeover are organized mobs in the employ of some nefarious domestic industrial complex like "big pharmaceutical" or any other "big X" you care to name. That criticism applies to Grayson and Kosmas. They belong to "big pharmaceutical."

When will Suzanne Kosmas hold a town hall on health care?

2009-08-07T14:40:00.004-04:00

When will Suzanne Kosmas
hold a town hall on health care?
Zack Stein
August 6, 2009 2:51 PM
WDBO Local News
wdbo.com

Democratic Representative Suzanne Kosmas was in town today for a small business summit. WDBO caught up with her to ask her if she plans to get any public input on health care reform.

Kosmas says she's already held forums where she's discussed health care, as far as any town hall style meetings...

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Kosmas hiding from her 24th District Constituents

2009-08-07T14:34:00.003-04:00

Kosmas hiding from her 24th District Constituents
Suzanne Kosmas, freshman Congresswoman for Florida’s 24th District, has scheduled no town hall meetings or public interfaces with her constituents.
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Kosmas dodges face to face with constituents by using Tele-Town meeting

2009-08-07T13:22:00.009-04:00

I just got off the phone with Rep. Kosmas' office in Port Orange. No conventional face to face town hall meetings for US.

Instead, her constituents get

A Tele-Town Hall telephone conference
no date specified yet
The Kosmas staff will let people know when-where-how info by "robocalls" in the 48 hours prior to the conference call.
They will also let people know when-where-how info by email in the 48 hours prior to the conference call.
The staff member answering the call could not refer me to a spec sheet on how Tele-Town Hall works.
Instead she referred me to Kosmas press-sec. Marc Goldberg, 202-225-2706 up in D.C.
Why no conventional town hall face to face meeting? According to the staff member, Kosmas excused her own absence because holding six town-halls in one month was logistically impossible
and that telecom is more equitable.

I do not view this excuse as credible. She makes plenty of campaign stops when she has to. But now that she has our vote, she is just not that into us: face to face is not logistically practical.

Sounds as dim as that boss in the film Office Space.

I decided to go ahead and do about 30 seconds of digging about Tele-Town Hall.

Apparently one needs to obtain the "Control Sheet" with codes etc.

How Tele-Town Hall Works

On the day of your event, you will receive a Control Sheet with detailed instructions for conducting your Tele-Town Hall. The Control Sheet will include a unique ID and password for you to login to a simple web interface used to control the event through your web browser (such as Internet Explorer or Firefox). In addition, the Control Sheet will provide you with the contact information for your operator, the member of the Tele-Town Hall staff who is assigned to initiate the dialing process and monitor your event.

When the event begins, our system will dial out to the list of households you submit...

So if Kosmas does not want you on her list of people permitted to speak to her, you are S.O.L. That does not seem very open or inclusive.

A phone call to the Kosmas hotline, 877-956-7627, got me to Vinny, in Orlando. Very courteous lad, same basic information.

Still $137,775 in Central Florida from recovery.gov

2009-07-31T10:41:00.006-04:00

Not much progress in Central Florida from the Acme Recovery Engine purchased for $787 billion by Congress.

Still contracted for the big $137,775 paving project.
Under grants, there are millions of dollars going to internet diploma factories like Everest College, owned by Rhodes Colleges, Inc., which is a California for-profit corporation.
There are many Central Florida "loans" to aid small businesses which are unable to obtain financing in the private credit marketplace, like $135,000 Steve Ruff et al. at Floridel LLC, principal address at a rough neighborhood in Chuluota, Florida, pictured below.

View Larger Map
Steve Ruff's hard luck neighborhood, between House B which is a 4/4 home selling for $1.65 million, and house A which is a 4/4 home going for the bargain rate of $599,900.

Other businesses at this neighborhood of so many small businesses which are unable to obtain financing in the private credit marketplace:

Steve Ruff et al., KDS Music Studios LLC
The Steve Ruff Insurance company
Steve Ruff's Elite Wealth Strategies.

It is good to know how alert the federal government is to patriotic small businesses which are unable to obtain financing in the private credit marketplace. I am so happy to support this set of businesses with my future tax money obligations.

Martinez, Nelson, Kosmas, Grayson have fiduciary responsibility to us.

2009-07-29T09:40:00.002-04:00

Postcards to senators and representatives today.

Main idea:

You have a fiduciary responsibility to us.

So these trillion dollar health care takeovers and cap trading schemes have to be NO GO.

You have to cut up Nancy Pelosi's credit cards.

And even if we could afford it, I do not want Barney Frank running my health care. And that cap trading seems like Enron on steroids. NO GO.

Congressman Conyers, another snowbird from Michigan

2009-07-29T07:22:00.007-04:00

It appears that another snowbird will soon be heading down Interstate 75 from Michigan to the Sunshine State: Democrat Congressman John Conyers. He would be welcome in Palm Beach County, Theresa LePore's old stomping grounds, because he surely has the political acuity. Just listen to this video.

Yep. Honorable Conyers has the chops for PBC. According to the traditional Old School PBC Democrat Party Ethics Training Camp Checklist®, Conyers is a stone cold lock:

Cant be bothered to read 1000-page bill affecting millions of people?
No observable sense of fiduciary responsibilty toward constituents?
Has frequently screwed up a cup of coffee?

Check.

You're in, Congressman. PBC needs you. When you are ready to semi-retire to PBC, you'll follow the illustrious footsteps of political genius Theresa LePore. Situation normal.

University of Central Florida eliminates four programs.

2009-07-23T17:39:00.007-04:00

It was inevitable. The UCF board of trustees cut several academic programs today, some of them fairly large.

cardiopulmonary sciences
radiologic sciences
engineering technology
management information systems

Also, the actuarial program was suspended, but the statistics program was NOT cut or suspended.

College budget crisis:
University of Central Florida
eliminates four programs
Luis Zaragoza
Sentinel Staff Writer
July 23, 2009
OrlandoSentinel.com

UCF trustees voted today to eliminate four academic programs and suspend a fifth within the next two years to cut spending by more than $4 million a year.

The cuts will lead to 33 faculty and four staff layoffs and affect more than 1,000 students who will have to switch majors or transfer to another school if they can't graduate before their degree programs close.

Officials say the cuts are needed because of anticipated budget deficits at the 50,000-student school within the next two years caused by reductions in state funding.
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It is inevitable that such a huge and fast-growing university will have to cut some programs that are judged expendable.

However, now that I look over that list again, I see that no humanities programs got the axe, only technical programs. That seems unusual.

Fatherless thieving SOBs at recovery.gov

2009-07-20T17:15:00.003-04:00

The links on Drudge Report for ham and cheese look nice, but you might go to the recovery.gov site and try to replicate that ham and cheese data through the search feature.

The search 'cheese'

http://www.recovery.gov/?q=search/node/cheese

yields no results.

But Drudge's link to Bongard's Creameries in Norwood MN,

http://www.recovery.gov/?q=content/contracts-recipient-summary&id=12-AGDPDVVDOC02502&mode=details&primeid=35

returns you a big page of data, with the

OMG! They changed it already!

At 8:30 AM this morning it had a field "Description of Work/Service performed" containing the text 'PROCESS CHEESE' but now you can't get that field's contents.

Those SOBs have rigged it up and out of view. Now those links make Drudge look like a liar.

Wait, you can scroll over the 'PIID' link and it shows 'PROCESS CHEESE' but this morning it was out in the open.

And none of it will show up in Google cached pages, I am guessing.

These guys are thieving fatherless SOBs.

Florida largesse from recovery feds

2009-07-20T10:23:00.005-04:00

According to recovery.gov, the Florida master plan includes just $137,775 in the Orlando area. That is one raindrop for a fair-sized desert.

Unbelievable! $137,775 would not get you one median-priced home in Orlando.

In the diagram above, most of the big circles represent work scheduled at military bases and ports, e.g., Jacksonville, Cape Canaveral and Eglin.

Recovery.gov is unsearchable.

2009-07-20T08:30:00.008-04:00

The seach method on Recovery.gov is disabled significantly. One can enter a keyword but it does not effectively search their database for "Description of Work/Service performed" information. Today Drudge Report published some links to boondoggle recovery grants.

DRUDGEREPORT 2009
June 20, 2009

LINK: RECOVERY.GOV // AWARDED: $5,708,260 FOR 'PROCESS CHEESE'... The Bongard Creamery, Minnesota

The link above to the Bongard Creamery grant contains 'PROCESS CHEESE' as description of the work performed.

However, when I looked at the recovery.gov site, I could not use "cheese" in their search box and get back a link to the Bongard Creamery page, even though their database obviously has a field for "Description of Work/Service performed" among others. My attempt seach for "cheese" returned no results.

It should be a basic seach feature -- make a query based on kind of of work performed.

There is no advanced search method.

What this means is that they have disabled their search function. They do not want people searching on the "Description of Work/Service performed" field. I consider that dishonest.

I also typed in "coffee" and "Orlando" -- nothing returned. A bad business.

A Congress Full of Michael Jackson Wannabes

2009-07-17T08:07:00.007-04:00

Ben Shapiro comments on Congressional goofing and spoofing with their House Resolution 600 concerning global humanitarian and musician, Michael Jackson, viz.

A Congress Full of Michael Jackson Wannabes by Ben Shapiro on Creators.com - A Syndicate Of Talent

Their resolution runs a full 1,539 words, almost six times as long as Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. And it's just as eloquent, tracing the entire course of Jackson's life... "Whereas Michael Jackson began his stellar recording career as the featured member of The Jackson 5 … Whereas, on Jan. 10, 1984, Michael Jackson visited the unit for burn victims at Brotman-Memorial Hospital in Los Angeles, and demonstrated his concern with people suffering from grievous injuries... " The resolution finally concludes by labeling Jackson a "global humanitarian and a noted leader in the fight against worldwide hunger and medical crises," as well as "an accomplished contributor to the worlds of arts and entertainment, scientific advances in the treatment of HIV/AIDS, and global food security." According to Congress, Jackson is the Madame Curie of 1980s rock.

Congressmen, like Jackson, are sitting on piles of cash they can spend at will. And Congressmen, like Jackson, live in Neverland.

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The key here is that Congress is also piling up the debt, just like Michael Jackson, but it looks like there is no credit limit on THEIR Visa card.

CBO is calling. Florida voters are calling. Senator Martinez, are you listening? Senator Nelson, can you figure out how to stop the credit binging? Representatives Kosmas and Grayson, are you going to start voting NO on some of this credit card mania?

Somebody, anybody: spend your $61.95 and get a cattle prod so you can pry that card out from her clutching fingers!

Congressional Budget Office: borrowing is unsustainable.

2009-07-17T07:30:00.003-04:00

CBO Director's blog

Under current law, the federal budget is on an unsustainable path, because federal debt will continue to grow much faster than the economy over the long run.

Coming from the director of the Congressional Budget Office, that is fairly sobering news. Can we somehow beam this directly into Nancy Pelosi's mind, by mental hypnosis or something? How about Florida senators and representatives?

Now letters to Senator Nelson and to Senator Martinez

2009-07-17T06:43:00.006-04:00

Now my letters to Senator Nelson and Senator Martinez:

Please snag a few generals and colonels from that high tech coffee wagon behind the Pentagon, and go storm the House chambers to clandestinely secure Nancy Pelosi's mad money credit card and, on behalf of Florida civilians that have credit limits and must pay their own credit card bills, CUT UP NANCY PELOSI'S CREDIT CARD!
Please!  Before it's too late.

If nobody restrains this mad credit card binge up there in D.C., the rest of us civilians will get the chop: no job, no home, a global depression.

If you want to contact Nelson or Martinez, here are the links.

Contact Bill...
Please use the following form to contact the Office of Senator Mel Martinez with your comments and concerns.

To get information on legislation or share an opinion, call Senator Nelson’s office at (202) 224-5274. Senator Martinez has a phone in D.C., (202) 224-3041, and several Florida offices.

Letter to Kosmas and Grayson: enough with the credit card buying!

2009-07-16T13:40:00.004-04:00

I am going to write a simple letter to Congressman Alan Grayson and Congresswoman Suzanne Kosmas.

CUT UP NANCY PELOSI'S CREDIT CARD!

No more of this spending they are enacting willy nilly, like the $787 billion stimulus bill that nobody read before voting it.

And I thought this stimulus bill was supposed to avert imminent disaster. So far, it hasn't done JACK. And unemployment is still going up.

So all these nice program makeovers for the nation, they sound good but they are running up the bills. No more credit card buying!

Start using your head, you members of Congress. Cut up that credit card and voters everywhere will love you. Keep hitting the plastic, and when it all comes apart, your name will be on the bill and you'll be voted out of office.

If you want to contact Kosmas or Grayson, here are the links.

Pharmaceutical companies get tripped up, now need Grayson and Kosmas

2009-07-16T10:19:00.004-04:00

Now the tables are turned on the pharmaceutical companies. The Congress is double crossing an under the table deal, and playing the pharmaceutical companies for patsies.

Big Pharma Gets Played
REVIEW & OUTLOOK
JULY 16, 2009

Mr. Tauzin -- the former Democratic Congressman turned Republican turned pharmaceutical frontman -- has been assuring his CEO employers that he can get them a good deal if they negotiate with Democrats instead of opposing them on health care. And to show its bona fides, the drug lobby announced in June an agreement with Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus, promising $80 billion over the next decade to defray drug costs for seniors and to finance the Obama plan. Mr. Tauzin believed this giveaway would spare his industry from price controls and the reimportation of cheaper foreign drugs that would reduce company margins and profits.

Mr. Tauzin should have demanded a pre-nup. House Democrats declared last week that they aren't bound by Senator Baucus's deal. And this week they released a health-care bill that pocketed the industry concessions for senior drug coverage, and also imposed the very price controls Mr. Tauzin thought he'd shelved...

In case this isn't enough of a doublecross, Senate Democrats are also considering hefty new taxes on health insurance and . . . pharmaceutical companies. Price tag: $100 billion. Let's just say the companies' return on their investment in Mr. Tauzin's political strategy is looking negative.

Now Hon. Kosmas and Hon. Grayson can charge a higher price for their vote, and the pharmaceutical companies will have to pay or be shut out. Meanwhile, regular citizens get the shaft.

My plan is to only support health care reform if

The Senate and House have to go on the same medical plan as we civilians get, or
we civilians get the same medical plan that Senate and House have right now.

Otherwise, it is a ripoff.

Why are pharmaceutical companies puffing up Kosmas and Grayson?

2009-07-07T16:18:00.006-04:00

A big pharmaceutical lobbying firm has been running commercials to re-elect Rep. Grayson (8th) and Rep. Kosmas (24th) on local television in Central Florida. The fine print at the bottom of the screen names

the Healthcare Leadership Council and
another outfit whose approximate name is Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturies of America, which might be a misspelling of Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.

I presume this is the HLC's Health Access America (HAA) Campaign.

Both outfits are in Washington, D.C., and they seem to be lobbying about health care reform. Former member of Congress, Hon. Billy Tauzin, is in charge of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.

They want voters to think of Kosmas and Grayson as white knights defending grandmother and homeless children. How does that help the pharmaceutical companies?

I am guessing that Healthcare Leadership Council and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturies of America want to hard wire the health care "reform" mechanism so that the pharmaceutical manufacturers continue to get well paid by the Medicare prescription drug system. For instance, the PRMA is against importation of drugs to the US from countries where they must sell at lower prices.

Kosmas and Grayson, so compassionate and caring, are they stacking the deck for the pharmaceutical companies? More light fingers in D.C.?

I learned how to use Twitter to follow the Iran election

2009-06-20T06:22:00.004-04:00

I read that Twitter is the only semi-reliable way to read news about Iran and the freedom movement there. So I figured out how to view the messages. It reminds me of IRC internet relay chat from the 1990s.

I also followed some interesting YouTube videos from Tehran. I like the generic videos made by civilians, not high production professionals. E.g., this one:

It isn't specifically Florida news, but I guess we Americans on top of the Floridan Aquifer can cheer on the civilians marching atop the Tehran Aquifer!!

GO IRAN GO!!!!

Caylee Anthony autopsy and lab analysis

2009-06-19T20:17:00.003-04:00

The sad story now has more details. The autopsy report and lab analyses are available on Orlando Sentinel website: Autopsy of Caylee Marie released

A few findings seem important:

Concentration of gaseous chloroform in the trunk of Casey Anthony's car was roughly a million times higher than a similar Pontiac car trunk that was used for comparison.
The remains found in December were only a skeleton and hair. Apparently animals scattered the remains before it was completely decomposed, judging by sets of vertebrae found together and not scattered to individual locations.
Duct tape adhered to the front of the skull and kept the lower jaw (mandible) from falling away -- it was still in contact with the upper skull (maxilla), meaning that the tape was attached before the body decomposed.

The FBI report analyzing the plastic bags was difficult to understand.

A sad end to a precious life.

Letterman ought to recieve discipline

2009-06-12T20:31:00.004-04:00

It is horrible what this big tough guy David Letterman said about that 14 year old girl.

He did not even have the grace to apologize.

Letterman ought to be disciplined.

If a high school principal had spoken that way at an assembly, or a parks supervisor had spoken that way in the meeting of new kids with summer jobs, or an athletics coach had spoken that way during recruiting or coaching, then he would publicly and clearly receive discipline.

It is a free country. I am free to stop watching his television show -- not that I ever watched it much. But he used to have a problem with a stalker up in Connecticut, so I did feel sorry for him. Not any more. Nothing can justify that kind of ugly talk about a 14 year old girl.

UPDATE: Skeleton found - not Jennifer Kesse's remains

2009-05-24T13:08:00.006-04:00

News from Orlando:

The skeleton did not belong to a homeless person.
The person was not a murder victim.
Police are notifying relatives.

This rules out the Jennifer Kesse conjecture, but sad news must now go to the true family.

Mother Teresa of Calcutta sacrificed to help the poorest of Calcutta, especially those who would otherwise die alone. She once said,

"I once picked up a woman from a garbage dump and she was burning with fever; she was in her last days and her only lament was: 'My son did this to me.' I begged her: You must forgive your son. In a moment of madness, when he was not himself, he did a thing he regrets. Be a mother to him, forgive him. It took me a long time to make her say: 'I forgive my son.' Just before she died in my arms, she was able to say that with a real forgiveness. She was not concerned that she was dying. The breaking of the heart was that her son did not want her. This is something you and I can understand."

Mother Teresa sets a noble example to follow, for everyone who reads this page.

Required reading for Pres. Obama and the other congressional know-it-alls.

2009-05-20T11:19:00.003-04:00

This article should be required reading in the Oval Office and Capitol Hill. Then our wallets could finally rest at night.

Why Government Can't Run a Business
By JOHN STEELE GORDON
The Wall Street Journal, page A17
May 20, 2009

The Obama administration is bent on becoming a major player in -- if not taking over entirely -- America's health-care, automobile and banking industries. Before that happens, it might be a good idea to look at the government's track record in running economic enterprises. It is terrible.

In 1913, for instance, thinking it was being overcharged by the steel companies for armor plate for warships, the federal government decided to build its own plant. It estimated that a plant with a 10,000-ton annual capacity could produce armor plate for only 70% of what the steel companies charged.

When the plant was finally finished, however -- three years after World War I had ended -- it was millions over budget and able to produce armor plate only at twice what the steel companies charged. It produced one batch and then shut down, never to reopen.

Other examples include Medicare and the ATT telephone monopoly being taken over by... THE POST OFFICE!

5) Government enterprises are almost always monopolies and thus do not face competition at all. But competition is exactly what makes capitalism so successful an economic system. The lack of it has always doomed socialist economies.

When the federal government nationalized the phone system in 1917, justifying it as a wartime measure that would lower costs, it turned it over to the Post Office to run. (The process was called "postalization," a word that should send shivers down the back of any believer in free markets.) But despite the promise of lower prices, practically the first thing the Post Office did when it took over was . . . raise prices.

So if the politician brainiacs who invented Amtrak, hanging chads and who run the Post Office want to take over ANYTHING else, there is going to be a lot of tortured screaming.

Skeleton found - is it Jennifer Kesse's remains?

2009-04-21T19:46:00.005-04:00

I wonder if this skeleton is the remains of Jennifer Kesse?

Human bones found in Apopka woods

Susan Jacobson, Orlando Sentinel
3:39 PM EDT, April 21, 2009

APOPKA - A high-school student who took a shortcut home through some woods today stumbled on something he didn't expect: a human skeleton.

The boy found a skull and "numerous bones" in thick woods near Tilden Avenue and Sixth Street, Apopka police spokesman Officer Steve Popp said...

The car shuttling in the Jennifer Kesse case means that transport of her body to a place far from her apartment would probably have involved the Interstate 4. Here is a Google map between approximate locations, Jennifer Kesse's neighborhood and the Apopka neighborhood where the skeleton was found today.

View Larger Map

The Apopka neighborhood is near railroad tracks and a large trucking terminal of some kind, as seen in satellite view.

Don't ask questions to tough guy Biden

2008-10-26T12:41:00.010-04:00

Unbelievable. The Democrat Party tough guy candidates want to negotiate with Iran, but they can't handle 4 minutes of straight questions from Orlando news anchor Barbara West?

WFTV's Barbara West on her interview with Joe Biden: "I don't think I was rude or inconsiderate to him"
Hal Boedeker
Orlando Sentinel
Oct. 24, 2008

The Barack Obama campaign called Barbara West's interview with Sen. Joe Biden unprofessional and combative...

In a call to me Friday evening, West (pictured) said of Biden: "...These are questions that are rolling about right now and questions that need to be asked. I don't think I was rude or inconsiderate to him. I think I was probing and maybe tough. I can't believe that in all of his years in politics, and all of his campaigning and such, that he hasn't run into some tough questions before. He's certainly up to it in giving good answers."

Tough guy Biden asks the interviewer, "Who writes your questions?"

Such sneering snobbery is going to backfire. Who is next to get "the treatment" from these tough guys?

I left a blank space for you to fill in your name, if you dare to ask a tough question.

Curious Google Maps cybergap for Georgia road network

2008-08-16T18:28:00.013-04:00

The Russians appear to be surrendering in the forward direction, taking up more real estate. But it is hard to see their position on Google Maps.

Georgian leader signs cease-fire, faults West as Rice looks on; will Russian troops leave?
MATTHEW LEE and ANNE GEARAN
Orlando Sentinel/AP
3:45 AM EDT, August 16, 2008

TBILISI, Georgia (AP) _ Georgia's president grudgingly signed a truce with Russia Friday, even as he denounced the Russians as invading barbarians and accused the West of all but encouraging them to overrun his country. A stone-faced Condoleezza Rice, standing alongside, said Russian troops must withdraw immediately from their smaller neighbor...

Associated Press reporters had seen a convoy of some 50 Russian army trucks and armored personnel carriers roar without warning southeast from the city of Gori on Wednesday, some shouting they were heading to Tbilisi, the Georgian capital. But they veered into a field outside the town of Igoeti and set up camp conspicuously within sight of the road. The Russians were still visible there Friday.

I read this and wanted to get an approximate location for the town of Igoeti in Georgia. Is it close to Gori or Tbilisi, and what are the directions? Naturally, I drop 'Igoeti, Georgia' into the Google Maps text entry box. No Igoeti. I drop 'Tbilisi, Georgia' into the box. No maps:

We are sorry, but we don't
have maps at this zoom level
for this region.

Try zooming out for a
broader look.

This was at the 500-foot scale setting, one notch below top scale setting. This seemed curious. When I zoomed out, as suggested, the country of Georgia looked like a desert: no road network, just empty white space. Yet Russia to the north and Turkey to the south appear loaded with road networks. To the south and east, the other small countries, Azerbaijan and Armenia are also roadless.

View Larger Map
That is the 50-mile scale. Yet the Google Maps service has adequate satellite and terrain information at the 50-mile scale. Click the "Sat" and "Ter" buttons to view the overhead satellite view and the relief map. Drag the map around to see nearby areas.

No maps of the Georgian road network.

This seems curious to me. Is Google fighting the Russians?

Here is a sequence of screen grabs of the curious maps business. Click the image for full size view.

1000-foot scale

2000-foot scale

One-mile scale

50-mile scale, road networks in Turkey and Russia visible.

Helping students get textbooks without sub-prime mortgage

2008-07-28T12:22:00.003-04:00

Bookstores on campus are going to howl about the unfairness: the government wants to help students purchase textbooks economically.

Students already know how to do this in some circumstances. If they know the ISBN code for the textbook, then they can shop around the internet.

TCC works to make purchasing books more affordable
ANGELINE J. TAYLOR, Tallahassee Democrat
July 28, 2008

The Florida Legislature has provided some relief in tough financial times by passing a bill addressing the need for affordable textbooks at Florida's colleges and universities.

TCC has taken the first step in minimizing student costs by posting required textbooks on the bookstore's web site.

The fine point here is the posting of required textbooks.

If this includes the ISBN code, it will help. A little-known fact, perhaps a "dirty little secret" of academia, is that websites for many campus bookstores do NOT list the ISBN codes for textbooks. This makes it difficult for students to hunt for bargains outside the bookstore system. Also, it forces the student into the bookstore to look up the ISBN. However, their websites DO make available the ISBN of general books like The Pelican Brief. So they CAN post ISBN codes for textbooks but choose not to do so.

I smelleth a rat.

Bad odor in Orlando in Caylee Anthony missing child case

2008-07-28T10:41:00.010-04:00

This case gives me the creeps, but I am not sure what it is. Something is not right with the mother of the missing child, Caylee Anthony, and something is not right about the grandmother of the missing child. I worry that these good hearted people from around Orlando are getting used.

Dozens hold vigil to pray for Caylee's return
Susan Jacobson
Orlando Sentinel

July 28, 2008

More than 60 people showed up in a rainstorm Sunday night for a candlelight vigil for Caylee Marie Anthony, the 2-year-old Orange County girl reported missing nearly two weeks ago.

Friends and strangers gathered in the frontyard of Caylee's grandparents' Lee Vista-area home to pray for her safe return.

Caylee's mother, Casey Anthony, 22, remains in the Orange County Jail on child-neglect and other charges.

She has told investigators that she left Caylee with a baby sitter last month and has not seen her since.

"Bring Caylee home," the group chanted, led by Cindy Anthony, Caylee's grandmother.

It is mostly visual, so you cannot pick it up from the newspaper so much, but it is all over the Orlando television channels. That is where you get a good eyeball on the behaviors in this family.

The mother of the missing child displays unusual levels of emotion, unusual kinds of emotion, considering her circumstances. Most tv commentators mention this.
Why is the grandmother so glib about getting in front of the tv cameras? Even her daughter complained about grandmother's "cameo" appearances on tv. It rings false, how much the grandmother inserts herself into view. I have not heard any tv commentator take note of this.
Similarly, the grandmother inserts a lot of herself into testimony in court. I have seen one tv commentator take note of this, although perhaps there have been others.
Watch the video of the high school classmate who goes to the jail to visit and encourage the mother. She clearly cannot remember the guy, but she strings him along.
1. Maybe she just wants normal contact, even if she can't recall the face of her caller, or
2. maybe she is stringing him along until she can figure out a way to use him.
So far, I have not heard any tv commentator take note of this. However, I have seen this behavior in other criminals behind bars, manipulating good hearted civilians showing ordinary human compassion.

For these reasons, when I see these good hearted folks come in from out of town for a prayer vigil, I worry that they are getting manipulated. I also worry that some of the family members are getting manipulated, too.

It breaks your heart, the emotional avarice you sometimes see in these crooks, manipulating others in order to gain while avoiding normal exchange of emotion with others.

As for the crime itself, I wonder if this Caylee Anthony missing child case is related to or similar to the Trenton Duckett missing child case northwest of Orlando. Trenton Duckett was also two years old when he went missing, and with a mother who had serious psychological problems.

Literacy still important enough to strip from Jacksonville budget

2008-07-17T16:40:00.006-04:00

Mayor Peyton's fountain pen is talking again. Whenever that happens, books for kids disappear.

Peyton's 'wartime' budget scrimps on library books
RON LITTLEPAGE
The Times-Union
July 17, 2008

In his budget message, Mayor John Peyton used the word "war" 13 times.

He made another nine references to "taking back" Jacksonville from criminals.

"There are good guys and there are bad guys," Peyton said. "Everyone has to choose a side."

Unfortunately, our commander in chief isn't willing to pay for the ammunition needed to make the fight.

If Peyton truly believes his oft-repeated statement that "we can't arrest our way of this problem" - that problem being that Duval County is the murder capital of Florida - then we must stop potentially good kids from becoming the bad guys.

One of the tools for doing that are our public libraries. Yet, the budget Peyton proposed to the City Council on Monday actually reduces spending on libraries over what Peyton proposed last year...

Peyton's budget for next year slashes that to $3.6 million, which is $1 million less than the library system had this year.

Peyton says that state grants will make up for the $1 million cut.

However, the budget he presented to the council isn't so clear on that point, saying the loss of $1 million "will be somewhat offset" by the state money.

Another politician's euphemism: "will be somewhat offset."

This is like your deadbeat cousin's promise that the I.O.U. "will be somewhat offset" by a big hot load of money on the way: the check's in the mail.

Final analysis requires the mayor to answer this question: How does it improve the city that your public libraries are books-free zones, just so that the honorable mayor can have a new hybrid SUV to save money with?

Heartache for UCF athlete's family

2008-07-17T16:25:00.004-04:00

Crushing news from the medical examiner in Orlando. Young Ereck Plancher died because nobody caught his sickle cell trait.

Medical examiner: UCF football player Ereck Plancher had sickle cell trait
Iliana Limón and Kyle Hightower
Orlando Sentinel
4:12 PM EDT, July 17, 2008

The full autopsy of UCF football player Ereck Plancher revealed that he had a pre-existing medical condition called sickle cell trait, a blood disorder that has been traced as a cause of death for several athletes during workouts...

UCF officials said Plancher passed two physical examinations, including tests for the sickle cell trait. They said Plancher's medical exams and family history indicated that he was healthy and did not require more advanced tests before being cleared to play football.

This young man's family with an already broken heart now gets crushed. The heart of every teacher and coach at UCF must go out to them, for young Ereck's sake.

Can we get this for the IRS, please?

2008-07-17T15:13:00.006-04:00

In Jacksonville, there is trouble with people requesting reduction and exemption of their "fees" owed to the city for sewer and garbage pickup.

Excellent.

If only we could get the IRS to make the transition to user adjustable tax rates.

New fee collections are not pouring into Jacksonville's coffers [Emphasis added]
TIA MITCHELL
The Times-Union, Jacksonville

Officials say requests for rate adjustments have slowed receipts.

Jacksonville is $7 million behind where it wants to be in proceeds from two new fees, but thousands of requests for rate adjustments have slowed collections.

The fees were first billed in May. They would bring in $26.1 million - $18.4 million in stormwater fees and $7.7 million for a solid waste fee.

So far, $15.2 million has been collected.

More than 51,000 of the 285,401 property owners billed have asked for the charge to be lowered....

The City Council approved the fees last fall to soften the blow from state property tax reform and to diversify funding streams. The solid waste fees cover a portion of the costs of garbage collection. The stormwater fees will be used to treat runoff and reduce pollution.

But as always with politicians, check your wallet: "diversify funding streams." ← sounds like a City Council euphemism. I guess they mean to divert from the taxpayer's hip pocket for property tax and help themselves from the taxpayer's loose change in the side pockets.Like Willie Sutton leaving Philadelphia to diversify his revenue stream at the banks in Brooklyn.

Good for the taxpayers of Jacksonville. One out of six taxpayers are asking for rate adjustments, and it would be an easy guess to say that all requests are for lower fees.

Raccoon break and entry, monkeys not talking

2008-07-07T17:01:00.007-04:00

Monkey attack. Sheriff's deputies go on alert.

Only in Florida. How can you refuse to love Florida when it has so many adventurous stories like this one?

Raccoon bites man tending to his monkeys
By ADAM H. BEASLEY
Miami Herald
Mon, Jul. 07, 2008

A raccoon bit a Parkland man Monday as he was tending to his monkeys in his backyard, according to the Broward Sheriff's Office.
Paramedics transported the 77-year-old owner of a home at 5948 NW 72nd Way to a nearby hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Originally, BSO deputies responded to a call of a monkey attack at that address...

The raccoon apparently got in through an open door, and then escaped after biting the man...

"Apparently" -- I guess this means that the monkeys are lawyered up and not talking to police.

At least the victim is safe, no life threatening injuries.

Politicians' vicious streak and Obama's Jacksonville gambit

2008-06-21T05:51:00.009-04:00

I was sitting in a hospital waiting room in Michigan, and I saw a man and woman come in and sit down near me. Maybe they are brother and sister; maybe husband and wife. They were middle aged, dressed nicely; the man wore a suit and nicely polished cowboy boots. I figured that the woman was there for treatment; the man was there for support. In the waiting area, every patient had one or two companions: a mate, friends, a granddaughter and so on.

It is the place where breast cancer patients come to check in for chemotherapy treatments. There are other cancer types going through this facility, too. The nurses and doctors take the patient's vital signs, give them a quick physical exam and then send them down to another floor for the hours of intravenous infusion: adriamycin, cytoxan, herceptin or some other tumor-fighting medicine.

So we wait.

And it is a very comfy waiting room: soft chairs, free wireless internet and even a few electrical outlets for geeks to plug in their laptops. I was the only geek present. I was working on a website, putting together this and that piece of content, "talking" to people on email and so on. I have a big deadline next week.

The man in the nicely polished cowboy shoes spoke on his cell phone for a long time. His voice was loud enough, and I was close enough that I could not help but overhear his end of the conversation. Mostly I worked on my laptop, and like many people who can concentrate in a busy place, it was as if everything else became doppler-shifted to a lower frequency, below the audible range of frequencies. But every once in a while I came up for air and caught a few sentences from this man with cowboy shoes: Vicious ripping on the mayor of Detroit, Kwame Kilpatrick and some other politicians with names I cannot recall, and it was to a reporter. I know Kilpatrick is in the news, but I am not too familiar with the case, other than headlines about perjury etc.

But it is not Kilpatrick; it is this man with the nicely polished cowboy shoes who is the occasion for amazement here.

Here is a man helping someone with medical care, possibly an arduous round of chemotherapy, a true work of mercy, but that does not take him into a graceful, encouraging or compassionate attitude. Instead: viciousness. It was stunning to observe these wildly contradictory behaviors, like a Rottweiler sipping tea in Buckingham Palace seated next to Queen Elizabeth.

I am guessing the man with the nicely polished cowboy shoes is a politician of some kind.

It totally disgusted me that vicious backbiting like that is so natural for a politician that he thinks nothing of it, even in a waiting room where some seriously ill people are awaiting treatment. A regular person would maybe go down the hall to do something so incongruous, or out in the parking area or the hospital cafeteria. Politicians don't get it, though. For them, vicious backbiting is as commonplace as checking your watch or reading a book.

For the next few days, I belong to a political party, but I am going to resign and become an independent. I am not sure whether the man with the nicely polished cowboy shoes was a Democrat or Republican or Green or Socialist or what, but it does not matter to me now.

And this gets me to Barack Obama. Bad signs here in the Jacksonville newspaper. Discouraging.

Dems thrilled with Obama turnout
Florida Times-Union
Friday, June 20th, 2008

Obama told the crowd he is confident that he will win on the issues. As a result, he said, the Republican strategy will be "to make you afraid of me."

He ticked off charges that will be made against him: too young, too inexperienced, "he’s got a funny name."

Then he paused and added, "Did I mention he’s black."

I can just imagine the vicious cell phone calls going out from Democrat politicians in nicely polished cowboy shoes behind this gambit. As if being a black man means you cannot be criticized in any way and that you are always right.

Soon I will not be a party to this kind of thing.

Stalker slays student in Orlando

2008-06-12T17:59:00.007-04:00

Another horrible stalker kidnap and slaying in Orlando.

Jogger abducted, killed by someone familiar with area, investigator says
Amy L. Edwards, Sarah Lundy and Walter Pacheco
Orlando Sentinel Staff Writers
2:02 PM EDT, June 12, 2008

A jogger killed Tuesday night in east Orange County was abducted from the trail by someone familiar with the area, a sheriff's investigator said today.

Nicole Ganguzza, a graduate student at the University of Central Florida, probably was killed where she was found, off the Little Econ Greenway just north of Colonial Drive, sheriff's Sgt. Allen Lee said.

Police think it is someone who knows the area near this park.

Television viewers will have their hearts broken to hear the sadness in this woman's voice.

On Wednesday night, Jessica Gallo came to the overpass on Econlockhatchee Trail to pray for Ganguzza's family. Gallo said Ganguzza was her marriage counselor.

"She's just truly a great person. Just wonderful. I mean she helped so many people," Gallo said.

"My prayers are with her family. In my heart, she's my family, and I love her so much," she said.

Who is this person that kills young women in Orlando? Is it the same person who "disappeared" Jennifer Kesse two years ago? On the surface, one would say no, it is clearly another person. Even so, I wager that the police are double-checking very carefully.

And there seem to be undercurrents. From the same news report:

"Investigators think the killer planned the attack carefully and may have sat off the trail, working up his nerve, Lee said." So perhaps the bloodhounds found this beaten down patch of grass near the trail? If working up nerve, was Ganguzza the planned victim or just the first potential victim to come by?
"Detectives have searched transient camps in the area ..." This is a small similarity to the Jennifer Kesse case. There is a transient camp behind the shopping center near where her car was found.
"Investigators planned to review surveillance tapes from local convenience stores for any signs of Ganguzza." I hope they find something, but why are they looking for signs of Ganguzza at convenience stores? Not the murderer? She was jogging the trails. Did the reporters make an error here? Or have the police inadvertently let slip a small piece of evidence? Usually they are very careful to avoid that.

I sincerely hope that this guy gets caught quickly, and then the police can get back on the Jennifer Kesse case.

Soon, oh Lord.

Rev. Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright and the words of shock and awe

2008-04-28T09:02:00.004-04:00

Since there has been so much national and local discussion about the Rev. Wright's remarks suggesting that God damn America, it is worthwhile to actually see what he said.

Rev. Wright Says Controversy Over Sermons "Unfair"

Friday, 25 Apr 2008, 1:23 AM EDT
By RACHEL ZOLL
AP Religion Writer
Fox 35/MyFoxOrlando.com

NEW YORK -- The Rev. Jeremiah Wright, former pastor to Barack Obama, said that publicizing sound bites of sermons in which he condemned U.S. policies was "unfair" and "devious"...

Since the harm of being "taken out of context" is an equal-opportunity problem for every public speaker, it is good to read the transcript or listen to the actual sermon that offends so many. Here is the video, in four parts:

Full, unedited speech April 13, 2003 (streaming video)

The "God damn America" is in one of the middle segments.

Pastor Wright speaks about confusing God with the government. Politically, this is more of a conservative concept; political liberals do not ask adherents to make this distinction as frequently.

In my opinion, his objective is good, some of his paragraphs are good, but over the length of the entire message, his argument gets tangled up. He contradicts himself a little bit and makes a few small errors such as one about the infamous Tuskegee Experiment -- normal for a speaker going from notes, not from a script. Overall, it is standard liberal/left polemic; it could have been heard in any number of "mainline" Protestant churches in the US, though perhaps not with his style of delivery. I.e., transcript-for-transcript, there are many comparable sermons in mainline Protestant churches.

His passage about "God damn America" is, in my opinion, not worth saying, although he does temper it by admitting that America ought not act as if it is God, a fairly conservative concept. What struck me is that as he was shouting out "God damn America," many of his congregation stood up cheering. That seems alarming. So if Barack Obama and his family were present for that sermon, I would want to know how he reacted at that moment. He was not a U.S. senator then.

My own feeling is that I would like to know how he would invite any American to reconcile with him as a brother, as a member of his flock. I would ask him the same question he asks his congregation: "What makes for peace?"

Hillary with the football, NO GO

2008-04-23T05:32:00.003-04:00

I got a chill of sober fear when I heard Hillary Clinton threaten Iran from the studio of Good Morning America: fear that an imbecilic egomaniac above the law is going to have the launch codes.

Dumbing down the presidency

Kathleen Parker
(Washington Post Writer's Group)
Orlando Sentinel
April 23, 2008

"I want the Iranians to know that if I'm the president, we will attack Iran," Clinton said. "In the next 10 years, during which they might foolishly consider launching an attack on Israel, we would be able to totally obliterate them."

This is a truly lethal mixture, in a President.

imbecilic because she is she thinks GMA is the right place to lay down a nuclear weapons threat;
egomaniac above the law because it was Hillary Clinton

It would be like giving a loaded handgun and a Ferrari to a sociopath: recipe for a drive-by shooting. Multiply by a billion for Hillary with the launch codes.

Florida Democrat party clueless; a solution

2008-03-15T09:55:00.000-04:00

Not unusual: the Florida Democrat party bigshots are shooting themselves in their electoral foot, whilst Michigan gets its act together to organize an emergency primary election for presidential candidates.

June 3 Is Target for Mich Do-Over
KEN THOMAS, Associated Press
March 14

WASHINGTON (AP) - Michigan Democrats agreed Friday to push a do-over primary in early June to give them a say in the close presidential race between Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama.

Amid talks with the two campaigns, the four Michigan Democrats said in a statement they were "focusing on the possibility of a state-run primary in early June which would not use any state funding."

...Detroit City Clerk Janice Winfrey has expressed concern they may not have the time or manpower to pull it off. She said they are trying to work through those issues.

Winfrey and associates are attempting to solve the problem. Good. It looks like the Michigan politicians have an IQ edge over the klutzes here in Florida, e.g., the leader of the gang, Karen Thurman:

Mail-in Dem vote for president not likely
Tamara Lytle and John Kennedy
Orlando Sentinel
March 14, 2008

Florida Democratic Party Chairwoman Karen Thurman outlined plans Thursday for a do-over presidential primary by mail, but she acknowledged it's likely to be rejected by party leaders as well as the Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama campaigns.

In Washington, Florida's nine congressional Democrats quickly dismissed the idea. An alternative would seek to persuade the national party and candidates to count half of Florida's delegates, apportioned by a negotiated formula or results of the state's Jan. 29 primary...

Sen. Nelson floats plan for counting half of Democratic delegates
John Kennedy
Orlando Sentinel,
Tallahassee Bureau Chief
March 15, 2008

Friday, Leon County Democratic activist Jon Ausman formally appealed the DNC's penalty against Florida, in an attempt to get at least half the delegation seated as well as all 23 of the state's superdelegates...

Well, at least Ausman is trying to do something.

Here is a simple solution, a new deal that might cut through the proverbial knot:

In response to Ausman's appeal, DNC makes all of Florida's delegates super-delegates
1. 23 original recipe super-delegates and
2. 188 new-style super-delegates,
each open for persuasion up until the convention. Advantage: side-steps Hillary Clinton sleight-of-hand in initial election, cheating claims become null.
Schedule a dozen "listening sessions" around the state for voter input, prior to convention, and each super-delegate must attend at least one session. Advantage: Florida not totally disenfranchised.
DNC commutes penalty: Ban the 188 new super-delegates from first nominating ballot only, activate for second and later ballots. This has the advantage that
1. it will allow significant decision-making for Florida delegation being as how the current delegate count is neck and neck which means the first ballot might not get a majority;
2. if first ballot does have a victor, the second ballot can be unanimous, Florida delegation can vote with all, thereby converting the entire scheme into an elaborate fig-leaf, but still worth doing;
3. significant decision-making will also keep Florida in the headlines.

Disadvantage: this would have to be implemented

by DNC, i.e., Howard Dean, so prospect of a smart decision is mighty bleak,
and by Florida geniuses, who fall into Theresa LePore mode at the drop of the proverbial hat.

Yeah, that's the ticket.

2008-03-08T19:09:00.000-05:00

Yeah, right.

This is like the meeting at the liars club. "We'll mail in the ballots and that will be 100 percent honest and fair for sure. Yeah, that's the ticket."

Even if Theresa LePore stays out of it, how can a normal human being honestly trust the validity and reliability of a mail ballot primary election in which the two candidates are

a Chicago machine politician and
Hillary Clinton

It would be an act of unnatural credulity.

Crist proposes state oversight of a revote
BY MARC CAPUTO
Miami Herald
March 8, 2008

Gov. Charlie Crist said Friday he'll lobby fellow Republicans this weekend to help the Democratic Party out of its election quandary with a "blended" revote plan in which the party would pay for vote-by-mail balloting while the state would oversee it.

"If the Democratic National Committee would be willing to pay for it, the appropriate thing to do would be for the state to oversee it to ensure the integrity of the process," said Crist, who discussed the plan with U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson...

Howard Dean, chairman of the DNC, says the national party, which stripped Florida of its delegates for holding its Jan. 29 primary too early, won't fund a new election.

Republican House Speaker Marco Rubio of West Miami said he doesn't like Crist's plan because "our elections supervisors are already over-burdened."

"We already had an election. A record number of Democrats voted. Why can't they just . . . respect those votes and move on? I don't understand why Howard Dean is so obsessed with punishing Florida's Democrats."

Those ballots are going from the printers for a quick vacation in Chicago before the election, and then after the election they will be disappeared faster than a Gulf Coast attorney in a John Grisham novel.

Rubio has the right evaluation of New York bigshot Howard Dean. Obssessed.

This will not end up well. There is no graceful resolution, thanks to Dean and his associates.

Joyful noises

2008-03-07T06:00:00.000-05:00

Band director Michael Simmons (left) talks to his Memorial Middle School class about their new instruments Tuesday. (ROBERTO GONZALEZ, ORLANDO SENTINEL / March 5, 2008)

I love this story, and you know the students are enjoying the new musical adventure. This is the perfect antidote to all the bad news today. One good teacher can make a difference, and Michael Simmons just did so.

Middle school emits squeaks and bleats after readers donate instruments, cash
Leslie Postal, Orlando Sentinel

Juanita Horgan planned to spend her bonus on a new wedding band for her husband. But the ring will have to wait.

The Florida Hospital nurse is among the hundreds of Central Florida residents who opened their wallets and dusted off their old instruments after a Feb. 10 Orlando Sentinel story about Memorial Middle School's band and the aspiring musicians whose families couldn't provide them with clarinets, trumpets and flutes.

School officials say the community's outpouring has been overwhelming.

"People are sending checks, in memory of so-and-so, because they loved kids and music," Memorial Principal Stefanie Shames said. "It has been wonderful."

So far, the school off Orange Blossom Trail has cataloged nearly 100 donated instruments and about $11,000, and more contributions are on the way...

Band director Michael Simmons said he expected a few donations but was stunned by the extent of Central Florida's generosity, which he called "a true blessing."

Now Simmons has a more typical problem for a middle-school band teacher: Getting eager novices to focus on the basics.

"We might move slow, but we're going to move right," he told his students. He helped the woodwind players adjust their reeds, showed them how to curl their lower lips and then told them to blow.

A terrific squeak followed.

"You guys just made your first sound," Simmons said. "Congratulations."

The local definition of joy.

Memorial Middle School students learn it's not easy to make music. (ROBERTO GONZALEZ, ORLANDO SENTINEL / March 5, 2008)

Democrat circular firing squad, Florida style

2008-03-07T05:05:00.000-05:00

Nelson: vote again.
Dean: we won't pay for it.
Obama: ban Florida delegates, ignore vote.
Hillary: An individual may contribute a maximum of $2,300 per election (the primary and general are separate elections). Thank you and have a nice day, Florida.

This is the party which brayed the loudest about Theresa LePore and the butterfly ballots, but here they are setting up Florida once again.

Sen. Bill Nelson: Florida ought to have primary do-over
By TAMARA LYTLE
Orlando Sentinel
March 7, 2008

U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, Florida's top elected Democrat, threw his weight Thursday behind a new presidential-primary vote in hopes that the state's votes will be counted toward the Democratic presidential nomination...

But Dean stuck to his hard line, appearing on numerous television shows to say Florida has only two options: a do-over contest before the party's deadline of June 10, or asking the convention credentials committee to seat the delegates.

Asked whether the DNC would pay for a do-over — a new primary, mail-in ballot or caucus — Dean said no.

"Of course not," he said on CBS' The Early Show. "We can't afford to do that. That's not our problem. You know, we need our money to win the presidential race."

...But the Obama camp made it clear it would not support seating Florida's delegates based on the Jan. 29 vote.

Hold onto your wallets, Florida. Prepare for the worst.

Theresa LePore's new assistant, Donald Brown

2008-02-25T22:01:00.000-05:00

I never thought it would be possible to get lower than Theresa LePore for public stupidity, but now Donald Brown, a state representative from De Funiak Springs, Florida, has taken the proverbial cake.

Lawmaker whistles Dixie for Confederate tag
Bill Cotterell
Tallahassee Democrat
Feb. 25, 2008

A Panhandle legislator with a proud disdain for political correctness and no fear of bucking Gov. Charlie Crist or the state Republican Party wants Florida to issue license tags honoring "Confederate Heritage" -- complete with images of Dixie flags and buttons from Rebel uniforms.

This level of stupidity is like a geographic feature: it exists and there is no use arguing against a hill or any other box of rocks. As rascally as those politicians are in Tallahassee, it looks like even they have the sense to actually put the chop on this bill. Good.

Zimmermen, TV newsman-government spokesman-child abuser

2008-02-06T06:57:00.000-05:00

DCF Didn't Run Check On Ousted Official
by THOMAS W. KRAUSE and CATHERINE DOLINSKI
The Tampa Tribune

Published: Feb 5, 2008

TAMPA - The state Department of Children & Families is launching a probe into the backgrounds of all of its employees...

DCF is combing through its personnel files and running criminal background checks on all agency employees, including those hired before late 2006, when the department began requiring all new personnel to be fingerprinted, agency Secretary Bob Butterworth said at a news conference Monday in Tallahassee.

Among those hired before the rule change: Al Zimmerman, 40. He was fired from the agency that protects children after his arrest Friday on charges that he asked two teenage boys to take sexual pictures of themselves.

Butterworth said it appears the department chose Zimmerman for the job without contacting his prior employers, which was a violation of department policy. His file also lacks a required state application. Butterworth said he wants to know whether the department has been following hiring procedures and to make sure it does so in the future.

A man makes his living with a camera, graduates to a job where he might eventually get access to a computer database of vulnerable children? Mark that down a an example of career criminal rising.

And the state official who made the decision to hire this creep against the procedures... he ought to be kicked out immediately and I hope he is not another criminal. I hope there isn't a ring of child pornographers in the DCF.

Howard Dean insists on violating the Voting Rights Act

2007-10-30T17:09:00.000-04:00

Now Howard Dean from up in D.C. insists on disenfranchising Florida Democrat party voters, but denies it is a violation of the Voting Rights Act so he can go ahead and do it.

Dean, DNC answer Sen. Nelson's lawsuit
Bill Cotterell
Florida Capital News Political Editor
Tallahassee Democrat, Oct. 30, 2007

The Democratic National Committee today asked a federal judge to dismiss U.S. Sen. Bill nelson's lawsuit seeking to force recognition of the Florida presidential primary and seating of state delegates to the national nominating convention next summer.

DNC Chairman Howard Dean said the party is not a state entity, so it is not violating the Voting Rights Act...

Even if voters are disenfranchised by party rules, Dean's attorneys argue, the state party could remedy the situation by holding caucuses after the Jan. 29 primary to choose delegates.

Man, if that isn't arrogance, what is?

Bait and switch is ON. Take away the vote, then tell the people you rip off to organize a caucus. What the heck is a caucus, anyway? Well, one thing is for sure: it ain't a vote in an election. And the handy part if you're Howard Dean is that you have lawyers arguing it is all perfectly legal, just like the used car salesman.

Governor Light-Fingers cuts water help, fleeces students

2007-10-27T18:14:00.000-04:00

As this site has previously mentioned, Florida budget aces and a light-fingered governor have managed to shear the families of students for the high-dollar faculty at state universities and colleges. This week, something really needed, alternate water supply programs, feels the whisper of the blade, viz.

Crist signs $1.1B budget cut plan; OKs tuition increase
AP, Florida Times-Union
Oct. 27, 2007

Gov. Charlie Crist has made final $1.1 billion in state budget cuts - but he did so grudgingly and without fanfare.

Crist fixed his signature Friday to the budget revision bills sent to him two weeks ago by the Legislature. They enact tuition increases at public universities and colleges and cuts to the state's water supply projects, among other things...

An alliance of business groups and environmentalists failed to convince Crist to veto a $30 million reduction in the state's alternative water supply programs.

"I don't care what you cut in the budget, but it should not be water. We have drought, we have shortages, we have water wars starting," said Sen. Paula Dockery, R-Lakeland. "This is the very last place we should cut."

Here is an article from the Times-Union about water supply trouble ahead.

Water needs could fog area's growth picture
DAVID HUNT, The Times-Union
Oct. 27, 2007

Northeast Florida is going to need at least 554 million gallons of fresh water every day to continue growing past 2030.

That's 180 million gallons more than the region is using today, according to projections prepared by the St. Johns River Water Management District. The additional need would be enough water to fill more than 270 Olympic swimming pools...

Utility managers are keeping watch as their counterparts to the south look for alternative supplies. The Floridan Aquifer as close by as Orlando is not expected to support growth past 2013, which has caused debate throughout Central and Northeast Florida over a controversial plan to draw up to 262 million gallons daily from the St. Johns and Ocklawaha rivers.

"Somewhere down the line, this is going to be a problem in North Florida and we have one of the best water supplies in the world," said Ray Avery, executive director of the Clay County Utility Authority.

It is amazing that Florida sits atop a huge aqifer yet always has a dry season that can go directly to drought if a few months are dryer than usual.

From my experience living out West, the water supply is the main limiting factor for populations of many wild species, and ought to be the limiting factor for "tame" bipedal primate species, as well. Every environmentalist who wants to be environmentally sensitive and move to the Rockies does so at the expense of elk habitat. Humans love to build vacation homes and live where elk live.

A relative of mine wanted to move to the Rockies because she had money and didn't like California. I told her to find a place in California, that the wildlife she reveres would thank her.

Amazingly, Florida sounds like it will soon be getting population pressure on the water supply. But by then the governor will be retired and living by the Potomac River, if his ambitions pan out.

Democrat candidates punish Florida but still ask for Florida dough

2007-10-27T16:11:00.000-04:00

Democrat politicians prove once again that they really love the Theresa LePore tradition: screw things up then blame GOPers. Exhibit D* is a report about the out-of-state Democrat candidates who keep their word to avoid the Sunshine State citizens who do not pony up the cash money.

Lack of presidential candidates looms over Democrats' convention
By BRENDAN FARRINGTON
AP, Florida Times-Union
Oct. 27, 2007

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. - Three thousand Democrats came here Saturday and rallied around their top politicians and party leaders, but the biggest impression was made by who wasn't there: Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barack Obama, John Edwards and other presidential candidates.

The candidates skipped the convention to honor a pledge not to campaign in Florida because the state violated party rules by setting its primary date before Feb. 5...

"The Republicans want you to believe that just because a few of our friends aren't joining us Florida Democrats are going to start voting Republican. Can you all believe that?" [Florida Democrat Chairman] Thurman said as the crowd jeered. "I will put one of our all-stars up against their benchwarmers all day long."

How does this link up with Theresa LePore?

Just re-read the words of Karen Thurman carefully: Democrat "all-stars" versus GOP "benchwarmers."

As amazing Spider-Man Peter Parker sometimes says, "What the--?!"

Thurman trash talks her all-stars against the other side's scrubs? No wonder Theresa LePore got the butterfly ballot into use in Palm Beach County.

Next on the schedule: after establishing Democrat footshooting, somebody blames the Republicans!

* Cf. recent LePore-isms, exhibits A, B and C here.

Republicans avoid LePore-style footshooting.

2007-10-24T14:16:00.000-04:00

At least the Republicans have kept their honor in avoiding the "punish Florida now" movement that currently owns the Democrat party's national bigshots.

GOP candidates talk tough
John Kennedy and Jim Stratton
Sentinel Staff Writers
October 22, 2007
Orlando Sentinel

Republican presidential contenders battled in a nationally televised debate Sunday night...

"We're not going to keep Hillary Clinton out of the White House by acting like Hillary Clinton," said former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

Romney, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson and Arizona Sen. John McCain took the toughest shots -- at Clinton and one another -- as they sought to surge ahead in a crowded Republican field...

Also taking part in the debate were former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Reps. Duncan Hunter of California, Ron Paul of Texas and Tom Tancredo of Colorado...

The 90 minutes of verbal fencing did little to help Chris Hart make up his mind.

Hart, a former Hillsborough County commissioner, said he went into the debate favoring Giuliani and Romney. Both, he said, performed well, but neither did enough to push him off the fence...

...the primary path for Florida Democrats has proved rocky. Leading Democratic presidential candidates are boycotting next weekend's party convention because the Jan. 29 primary date violates a party rule allowing only the four early states to hold contests before Feb. 5.

With Republicans facing no such prohibition, McCain, Romney, Giuliani, and Thompson all spent the weekend courting Florida Republican activists at the Orlando convention.

Thompson also will launch a two-day bus trip across Central and South Florida today -- his second barnstorming tour in a month.

It's good to see that not every politician is as arrogant as Howard Dean and his footshootists.

Florida is bad and must be punished, but while we are here...

2007-10-21T11:19:00.000-04:00

Now the national bigshots like Howard Dean, who want to punish Florida for disobedience to the national committee's primary election dictum, decide that campaigning in the Sunshine State is verboten but fund raising from Florida is OK.

Florida Democrats open wallets for '08 field
Tamara Lytle, Washington Bureau Chief
Orlando Sentinel
October 21, 2007

Ironically, the Democrats' edge has been achieved even though the candidates are coming to the state only to pick up checks. Because Florida's Jan. 29 primary is earlier than the national party allows, the major candidates have pledged not to campaign in Florida -- except to raise money.

That has angered some state Democrats. But even earlier in the year, virtually every visit by the candidates was to collect cash, not to meet voters....

Morgan said public financing would have to be total -- and compulsory.

"Make my day by making it all illegal and publicly financed," he said. "Till then I'm not going to let the prescription-drug companies and HMOs have their way. I'm going to elbow my way in to speak for people who don't usually have people who speak for them, like consumers."

Now we see the intentions of the noble politicians in Washington.

USE FLORIDA.

Florida Democrat and Republican politicians decided locally to hold a primary election on a certain day, and this must be punished. (Cf. "Status of Democratic votes undecided...again") So their delegates in the national convention are banned for life, but while we have your attention would you mind donating some cash money to Hillary, Barack or John Edwards?

USE FLORIDA.

And speaking of the handsome and talented poverty expert John Edwards, in keeping with the Theresa LePore tradition, there are plenty of Florida types willing to help out-of-staters have their way with the citizens of the Sunshine State. Exhibit A: John Morgan, wealthy trial attorney, probably AG if Edwards gets elected, or at least he ought to be if you ask Morgan's #1 supporter. This is the same John Morgan, the trial lawyer, who went on the radio in 2004 to advocate for handsome and talented John Edwards, and said that Edwards would even be a great president because he had won a big lawsuit concerning flameproof pajamas for children. Big credentials there. In this election cycle, he wants to "speak for people who don't usually have people who speak for them, like consumers."

Yeah, okay.

Abe Lincoln had a saying for situations like this: Whenever a politician tells you he is an honest man, check quickly that your wallet is still in your back pocket. Mutatis mutandis, whenever John Morgan speaks up for people, check quickly that your wallet is still in your back pocket.

What the politicians don't want you to see.

2007-10-14T08:22:00.000-04:00

The Miami Herald reports today, "Some Miami-Dade and Broward judges aren't following tough new rules meant to prevent the wrongful sealing of court records."

Boring? Not if you read the list of who benefits from sealed court records.

New rules on court records often ignored
Oct. 14, 2007
BY PATRICK DANNER AND DAN CHRISTENSEN
MiamiHerald.com

The cases include the divorce of a prominent Broward homicide prosecutor, a defamation suit against a Miami doctor, and a Fort Lauderdale law firm's fee dispute in a probate matter.

The Supreme Court unanimously adopted the rules after The Miami Herald reported that hundreds of civil and criminal cases in at least a half dozen counties were hidden from public view. Broward had the most concealed cases, and they often involved the divorces of judges, lawyers, politicians and businessmen.

Talk about the fox guarding the henhouse!

Considering that these professions especially, lawyers and doctors, have licensure boards that are hardwired for their own protection, not the protection of civilians, it is amusing to see them seduce the judges in South Florida, thereby inducing court orders for further obscuring and sleight-of-handing that benefits nervous lawyers, doctors et al.

And as the used car salesman says, "It's all perfectly legal."

Maybe.

Maybe not. Danner and Christensen quote another lawyer who smells a rat. "You always have to wonder if there's something more nefarious going on when the rules aren't being followed, and whether judges are ignoring them thinking they can get away with it," said Thomas Julin, an attorney in Miami who defends media organizations against defamation, including the Girls Gone Wild company, MRA Holdings. Hmmmm, another fox guarding another henhouse? Well, this time, I will agree with the counsellor. Keep an eye on those rascally judges!

Putin, government and media

2007-10-14T07:52:00.000-04:00

Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice is worried about the health of the Russian government. Secretary Rice is a Russian speaker, an expert on Russia.

Rice worried by Putin's broad powers
Oct. 14, 2007
By MATTHEW LEE
Associated Press Writer

"I think there is too much concentration of power in the Kremlin. I have told the Russians that. Everybody has doubts about the full independence of the judiciary. There are clearly questions about the independence of the electronic media and there are, I think, questions about the strength of the Duma," said Rice, referring to the Russian parliament.

When Secretary of State Rice speaks of government institutions, she mentions media along with executive, legislative and judicial. I think that, even in America, the best country on Earth, many people act as if the media is a part of the government, yet they do not use the word "government" to describe the press.

Nobel Peace Prize and why I pity Al Gore

2007-10-12T12:43:00.000-04:00


Theresa LePore (left); Al Gore (center); Jimmy Carter (right)

Al Gore, UN Panel Share Nobel for Peace
By DOUG MELLGREN and MATT MOORE October 12, 2007
Orlando Sentinel

OSLO, Norway - Former Vice President Al Gore and the U.N.'s climate change panel won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for spreading awareness of man-made climate change and laying the foundations for counteracting it.
...which expanded the Norwegian committee's interpretation of peacemaking and disarmament efforts that have traditionally been the award's foundations.

This has to be the most pitiful turn of events in Al Gore's history, being tagged with a Nobel Peace Prize. His previous claim to ill fame was the singlehanded demolition of the ordinary rules of courtesy nationwide when, with completely graceless lust for power, he took back his concession of the 2000 election to his opponent, pushing Theresa LePore into the global spotlight, underlining the ineptitude of Florida Democrat political action, and giving permission for Gore partisans everywhere to refuse their rabies shots and launch a global thermonuclear vendetta that destroys anything and builds nothing except bank accounts of political thug squads. One big notch in Al Gore's gunstock.

The reporters report that this event has "expanded the Norwegian committee's interpretation of peacemaking." That is their euphemism for "What the heck?"

Now former VP Gore joins the company of Jimmy Carter, recipient of a Nobel Prize for breaking the protocol of smiling and hushing up when tempted to criticize successor presidents publicly, something he did not have the gumption to do until 2001 or so. I voted twice for Jimmy Carter, never once for Ronald Reagan, but a few years ago I became embarrassed by Carter when his mouth lost its governing sense of ordinary courtesy.

People remember Carter for the Iran hostage debacle, and they forget the peace treaty he negotiated between Israel and Egypt, a peace treaty that still stands. But he did not receive anything for that - he was off the Nobel radar until he began trolling for the prize, trashing his successor, after Al Gore implicitly gave him permission to do so.

It used to be that there was some nobility in the Nobel Peace Prize: Martin Luther King, Jr., Albert Schweitzer, Mother Teresa, Lech Walesa, Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin. This last prize, to the two fighters who became peacemakers in Egypt and Israel, the two men who made me read the Bible for the first time, that year the prize did not also go to Jimmy Carter. Too bad: that would have been fitting and right. Now, the peace prize is nearly 100% joke.

That being the case, I have to feel pity for Al Gore who doubtless will now go around bragging about his shiny peace prize. Unfortunately, that is like bragging that you own a Mustang. 40 years ago, it would have meant something. In 1964 Martin Luther King, Jr. won the Nobel Peace Prize; good decision. In 1965, the Shelby Mustang came out: good car. In 2007, forget about it!

But the true mockery of the peace prize, which causes me to pity every other recipient, even Jimmy Carter and Al Gore, is that it once went to Yasser Arafat, a terrorist until the day he died. My dad the ACLU attorney taught me about Yasser Arafat, simply by his outrage that such a criminal would go to the U.N. and brandish a pistol. I remember him pointing out the photo in the evening paper to me. [Yasser Arafat carrying pistol in holster at UN in 1974; Kurt Waldheim upper left.]

Apparently, the Nobel committee cannot even blush. Jeremiah the prophet warned Israel as we should take warning today:

For from the least of them even unto the greatest of them every one is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely.

They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.

Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore they shall fall among them that fall...

Where is Abel thy brother?

2007-07-11T11:49:00.000-04:00

Burial fiasco appalls family
July 10, 2007, ANI MARTINEZ, Miami Herald

Fort Lauderdale's Sunset Memorial Gardens cemetery has come under fire once again over allegations that it mishandled a grave site -- this time allowing a casket of a 28-year-old murder victim to float in a pool of water in an open grave.

Errol Williams said he found the coffin of his daughter, Cassandra Williams, of Coconut Creek, in the open grave on July 2, following a heavy rain. Her funeral was two days earlier, on June 30...

Cassandra Williams and her boyfriend, Chris Thompson, were shot to death in the 5200 block of Northwest 16th Court in Lauderhill on June 16. Their bodies were found that night stuffed in a car trunk a few miles away in Sunrise, said police...

Family and friends attended Williams' 3 p.m. service at Grace Funeral Chapels, 5980 W. Oakland Park Blvd., on June 30. From the funeral home, they traveled to the cemetery at 3201 NW 19th St.

After a quick service there, the family left, thinking the grave site would be covered. It was not.

On July 2, Errol Williams returned at 9:30 a.m. to visit his daughter's grave site one more time before he and his wife returned to their Cape Coral home in Lee County.

He was distraught to find the open grave.

The precious daughter Cassandra is murdered, then her family suffers again to see their daughter's body neglected and alone.

It seems impossible that Earth can keep spinning once per day and not crack apart into a million fragments because of this cruelty and pain.

And the Lord said unto Cain, "What hast thou done? The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground."

Literacy important enough to strip from budget

2007-07-10T14:39:00.000-04:00

Budget Cuts Take Bite Out Of Library Hours
July 9, 2007, Jacksonville News

Jacksonville book lovers recently got some bad news as the continuing story of the city's budget bind takes a bite out of local libraries.

In response to the 2007-2008 budget cuts, the library will cut nearly $3 million by reducing services and programs.

Last week, Mayor John Peyton pointed in his inauguration speech about how important literacy is to youth.

"Literacy is the No. 1 predictor of educational success," Peyton said.

"Therefore, I must now rip $3 million from kids and their families who want to use the library."

Jacksonville News photo

That last quote is not the mayor. It was his fountain pen talking.

The old joke asks how one can tell that a lawyer is lying. Answer: his lips are moving. Similarly with this politician, his mouth says one thing and his actions say quite another thing.

He did have the decency to do it straight, and not hide behind a nefarious smokescreen of accounting.

However, Mayor Peyton will doubtless find a good reason for buying a new SUV to chauffeur him around town on official business, or for stipulating a pay raise for a nephew or some other politician trick.

Meanwhile, kids and their families are left high and dry.

2007-07-08T18:16:00.000-04:00

Twisted elitism, Orlando style.

Elitism is defined as favored treatment, as if it were an entitlement, due to supposedly superior economic or intellectual status. I.e., railroad tracks - there is a right side and a wrong side of the railroad tracks. Elitists are on the right side. "These people" are on the other side of the tracks.

Except in Orlando.

Otherwise, someone could explain why a "scholarship" service for lower income kids to go to summer camp is actually elitism. It is as if the elitists have quantum-tunneled to from the right side of the tracks but did not land on the wrong side of the tracks: they landed in a parallel universe. OOPS.

"YMCA is ousted from kids' program
Orange County says the nonprofit's limits on voucher use 'gave the appearance of elitism.'"
July 8, 2007, David Damron, Orlando Sentinel

Orange County officials are upset with area YMCAs for not expanding a program for low- and moderate-income children to the nonprofit's facilities in more affluent communities such as Winter Park, Dr. Phillips and Lake Nona, saying it smacks of elitism.

The county has dropped the YMCA from its list of participants for The Club, which provides $300 vouchers to about 1,000 children to help pay for costly summer camps, because the YMCA insisted the vouchers be used at its facilities in less affluent areas such as Tangelo Park or South Orlando

Tell me this isn't a government operation.

I guess it is another episode in Florida's continuing daytime drama inspired by the true story of Theresa LePore, the Democrat election supervisor in Palm Beach who biffed an entire national election and then blames the Republicans.

In the big scheme of things, if it is more important to help kids from well-off neighborhoods and criticize those who help kids from poorer neighborhoods -- the wrong side of the tracks -- then either I am a monkey's uncle or Al Gore really DID invent the internet.

Governor Crist makes it official: pony up time for students and their families.

2007-06-28T15:49:00.001-04:00

Tuition goes up to pay for more faculty who probably will not have to teach enough to lighten the teaching load significantly, although that is how the U bigwigs sold it at Wednesday's meeting, no doubt. Students and their families' wallets will be much lighter.

Tuition will jump at 3 universities
June 28, 2007, Luis Zaragoza and John Kennedy, Orlando Sentinel

TALLAHASSEE - Thousands of new college students will start paying a premium next year to attend a trio of Florida's top-ranked public universities.

Gov. Charlie Crist unexpectedly reversed his opposition to legislation that will allow the University of Florida and Florida State University to charge up to 40 percent more than the state's base tuition rate. The University of South Florida will be able to charge a 30 percent premium...

Crist had earlier vetoed a 5 percent, across-the-board tuition increase for the state's 11 public universities, saying he opposed hiking costs for students and their parents...

Crist huddled behind closed doors Wednesday with Florida's university presidents and told them that he would sign the bill...

UCF President John Hitt said after Wednesday's meeting that the loss of the anticipated money for growth translates into dozens of faculty members whom the school won't be able to hire and hundreds of courses that it won't be able to offer.

The way that you can see their nefarious selling strategy is: John Hitt's statement. When he says, "dozens of faculty members whom the school won't be able to hire," it is code for dozens of expensive-to-hire hotshot research faculty who will have light teaching assignments. President Hitt and UCF do not care much about faculty who teach lots of students. Ask any faculty member at his university. These U bigwigs only care about researchers who can give them the reputation of "elite, research-oriented public schools in other states." I wager that the governor got sucked in when they dangled elite in front of the governor's eyes: dollar signs, national recognition, national office, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue etc. etc. Cf., e.g., the 4th chapter of Matthew for an anecdote from the past of an amusingly similar blandishment:

Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.

And if you want to find the devil here, look in the numbers. We do not know the exact numbers the U bigwigs quoted to the governor, but we can make an estimate.

Dozens of faculty ←for a conservative estimate, let's call that 24 faculty.
Hundreds of courses ← for a conservative estimate, let's call that 200 classes.

The approximate teaching load for these new faculty would be about 8 classes per year! NOBODY teaches 8 classes per year, not even the lowest ranking lecturer on punishment.

Or put it another way: $70 million annually for this new fee for the three schools, once it is fully in effect. Let's say that they share the money equally, and use it for 24 new faculty at each U. Under this estimate, $70 million between 72 faculty members, comes out to about $97,000 per faculty member. But not all of that goes to salary. Part of that $97,000 goes to benefits like health insurance, some goes to overhead like office and light bill and so on. And that is only if there is ZERO "startup package" for the faculty member. Not many faculty will be happy with salary that far south of $97,000 and no startup. Recruiting will be tough.

So the numbers paint a picture of impending failure. No new faculty will want relatively low pay without startup package for the privilege of teaching 8 sections per year.

But the governor did not catch that, or he ignored it. Or perhaps they gave him different numbers, shorter numbers: some of the science departments across the state can break into the first rank nationally with just a few more research faculty.

But the public purpose, to help the teaching of students, is going to suffer.

They should be building up both kinds of faculty, hotshot researchers and faithful teachers and, best of all, faculty who do both tasks well.

For the reporters and editors of this article, the embarrassment is that the person who pays, the persons who receives this service -- the student and his family -- are left to the last few lines. But I will make them prominent here:

Teri Stonebraker, a Kissimmee resident who will have two children enrolled at FSU this fall, said she understood how the increasing cost of keeping quality staff and programs in place could raise costs for students.

"I just wish the state would find other ways to allow all students to get an education," she said.

Even for the Orlando Sentinel editor, this looks like an afterthought. But the teaching of students should be the priority, top of the article, not at end of page two.

Status of Democratic votes undecided...again

2007-06-21T19:14:00.000-04:00

This article's headline about manipulation of Democrat party voting makes one think of nefarious GOPers deviously at work.

But on account of this being Florida, it is actually Democrat party smartness messing things up.

"Status of Democratic votes undecided,"
June 21, 2007, BETH REINHARD, Miami Herald

Whether Florida's Democratic votes in the Jan. 29 primary will count remained in limbo Thursday after a closed-door meeting in Washington between members of Congress and Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean.

Dean has said the state's primary ''essentially won't count'' because the date violates national party rules that allow only four smaller states to vote that early. Candidates who campaign in scofflaw states lose any delegates to the national convention that they earn in those states, even if they win the most voters.

Huh? "The state's primary essentially won't count." ←Planned voter suppression, courtesy of Howard Dean! Politicians can flip-flop on policies and ideas, but they should resist the urge to flip-flop the franchise.

Also, I consider it loathsome for Howard Dean and these other suits in D.C. to call the shots for Florida by remote control. Let it be the decision of Florida Democrats: state officers and county executive committees. They like Jan. 29. So does the Republican party of Florida.

Actually, this might work out. Just have Theresa LePore design the ballots for the primary. Hold the primary on Jan. 29. Then start counting. Since they are Theresa LePore ballots, it will take multiple recounts, mutual restraining orders and a chain of federal judges to ensure an "accurate" tabulation of returns, and by that time, Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina voting will be long over with and done, ancient history. So Florida CAN vote early and still meet all DNC party rules.

Shifty-eyed politicians, vote-counting fish stories

2007-06-20T16:36:00.000-04:00

Whenever a politician tells you he is an honest man, check quickly that your wallet is still in your back pocket. Abe Lincoln followed that principle.
This article describes the fog of rhetoric surrounding a Florida election recount, with politicians navigating by foghorn. Facts are optional.

Senators seek inquiry into GOP's Duval acts,
6/20/2007, J. Taylor Rushing, Capital Bureau Chief, Florida Times-Union

The U.S. Justice Department has been asked to investigate whether there were intentional efforts by the Republican Party to suppress Jacksonville's African-American vote during the 2004 election.

The request, by Democratic U.S. Sens. Edward Kennedy and Sheldon Whitehouse, suggests the Senate Judiciary Committee has uncovered e-mail evidence supporting an investigation. Kennedy and Whitehouse are members of the committee...

"It's malicious and absolutely untrue that I tried to do this," said [Tim] Griffin, the former U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas who resigned two weeks ago during the controversy over U.S. attorney firings.

But Jacksonville's African-American community praised news of the request and eagerly backed an investigation. Juan Gray, board chairman of Jacksonville's chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, said black leaders have long suspected Republican foul play in both 2000 and 2004.

"I'm delighted that we have congressional oversight," Gray said. "It's way overdue."

NAACP Jacksonville Branch President Isaiah Rumlin said he was personally unaware of the specific voter suppression tactic suspected by Kennedy and Whitehouse but said there were "significant problems" before and during the election.

"We wouldn't be one bit surprised, and we welcome an investigation," Rumlin said. "If there's evidence out there, that needs to come forth. Just because I don't recall this specific tactic doesn't mean it didn't happen."

Kennedy and Whitehouse accuse the Republican National Committee of "vote caging"...
Both Hightower and Scheu, who was the interim supervisor of elections during the 2004 election, note they participated in daily meetings with local black leaders in which the subject of caging was never raised.

Trouble:

DOJ investigation requested but without evidence from anyone in Jacksonville -- Rumlin: "If there's evidence out there, that needs to come forth." No offense to Mr. Rumlin, but probable cause is a normal part of an investigation.
Community leaders suspected foul play but nobody mentioned it in daily meetings with election supervisors.

Knowing a bit about pollwatching on election days, I would tend to believe the men and women from Jacksonville, not so much Rumlin or Hightower but the people at the polls: clerks, inspectors, deputies plus pollwatchers independent of the government. Unfortunately, nobody bothered asking them; the article mentions no pollworkers or pollwatchers. Least credible are the senators from D.C., neither of which is actually from Florida. What have Senators Nelson and Martinez got to say? That would be nice to know. Who benefits from the investigation? Some bigshots in D.C. or regular voters in Jacksonville? As always, when a politician shifts his gaze toward you, hold onto your wallet.

But Florida being what it is, there is probably a mare's nest of foolishness shared equally by mules and elephants ←the Theresa LePore tradition. If anyone has YouTube footage of a pollworker stuffing secret ballots into his socks or a pollwatcher nagging a voter like somebody's mother in law, then I hope punishment is savage: forcible conscription to work another election!

Great Wall of China not welcome in Jacksonville

2007-06-20T16:31:00.001-04:00

It is always amusing to see citizens mobilize against the nefarious economic forces that want to pull a fast one. The unnamed lady (sixth paragraph) has the most powerful geometric objection to the storage facility.

Julington Creek residents voice apprehension about storage facility
6/20/2007, TIFFANY PAKKALA, The St. Augustine Record

Carrabas. A movie theater. A post office.

There are plenty of neighbors Julington Creek Plantation residents said they would like to have.

A 75,000-square-foot self-storage facility isn't one of them.

That's the message that more than 100 residents of the master-planned community brought Tuesday to a meeting with Ash Properties. The company has plans to put a three-story, climate-controlled storage building within Julington Creek...

[Julington Creek resident, David Taus] pointed out that the 35-foot-high building will be just 15 feet from the sidewalk.

"It will be like walking right next to the Wall of China!" one woman cried out...
[Ash Properties Vice President Randall] Whitfield said his company has already met with neighbors in the nearby South Bridge townhouses, and they gave Ash a relatively "good response."

But then Annette Winter, who lives in one of the town homes, spoke up.

"I was at that meeting, and there were only two other people there," she said, adding that none in attendance approved of the storage building.

Also lovely is Annette Winter, demolishing Whitfield's attempt at sleight of hand. Way to go, Annette!

Lies, boldfaced lies and accounting

2007-06-19T08:25:00.000-04:00

In my opinion, the keepers of money -- accountants -- have mastery of information that would hornswoggle a rocket scientist. When they are government accountants, they hornswoggle under color of law. Or, as the used car salesman said, "It's all perfectly legal."
If hornswoggling by government accountants were false, then this newpaper article from Tallahassee would never appear.

Fuzzy math in new tax plan?
June 19, 2007, Paige St. John, Tallahassee Democrat
FLORIDA CAPITAL BUREAU

City and county government officials are accusing Gov. Charlie Crist of deliberately putting out false information in an effort to win property-tax cuts.
They're reacting to Crist's assertion that local governments are fighting property-tax cuts even as they sit atop $9 billion in reserves. Local officials say the governor's "reserves" are grossly inflated, lumping general-fund reserves from unspent property taxes with other pools of money, including debt reserves and money for construction projects...
"I will refrain from calling them boldfaced lies," said Rockledge's upset city administrator, Dave Henderson. He said he had $6.3 million in reserves, less than half of the $14.7 million claimed by Crist's office.

Mutual aspersions and accusations. Lies, boldfaced lies and accounting. Tsk tsk. Government accountants should serve the public, or, as the truism goes → "We're from the government and we're here to help."
BRAINWAVE: Maybe they could hire Theresa Lepore as a consultant to straighten out this accountant ruction.

Jennifer Kesse case similar to Ft. Lauderdale case?

2007-06-18T08:34:00.000-04:00

This Ft. Lauderdale kidnap/murder case has a few factors that resemble the Jennifer Kesse kidnap case up in Orlando.

LAUDERHILL: 2 bodies found in trunk
June 18, 2007 Nirvi Shah and Jennifer Mooney-Piedra, Miami Herald

An hour after Lauderhill police were called and told that someone was placing what looked like a body in the trunk of a silver car Saturday night, Sunrise police found a car matching the description about a mile away...
The car had apparently been driven from the 5200 block of Northwest 16th Court in Lauderhill to an apartment complex about a mile away at 6121 NW 11th St. in Sunrise near Sunset Strip, Lauderhill police said.

The similarities are that the criminals drove a mile away and dumped off the car at an apartment complex near a shopping center with easy access to major highways. The Fort Lauderdale crime involved a group of three criminals, not an individual.
Geographic layout of Lauderhill/Sunrise crime scene

Five learning curves

2007-06-17T14:34:00.000-04:00

Five different offenses to learn in five years ←enough to discombobulate any normal humanoid! In this case, however, you have a pro player who also has the amusing penchant for using the classic line, "They are the same, only different."

Garcia: "I’m Not Where I Want To Be"
June 14, 2007 Beth Gaddis/ROY CUMMINGS TBO.com

TAMPA – For a guy who is said to be "way ahead" of everyone else in the battle for the starting quarterback job, Jeff Garcia sounded an awful lot on Thursday like a guy who is way behind his competitors...
One reason Garcia is so behind mentally is that this is the fifth offense he’s been forced to learn in the last five years. He said this is "similar but different" than the others but that he’s catching on – slowly.

Nice work, Jeff Garcia!

Fewer students so that more faculty can be hired

2007-06-16T16:39:00.001-04:00

Apparently, the politicians feel it is better to have fewer students if the savings can guarantee more faculty and staff. And tack on a surcharge at UF, FSU and University of South Florida (Tampa-St. Pete) so that more faculty and staff can be hired.

"FSU will freeze enrollment to curb costs,"
June 16, 2007, Luis Zaragoza, Orlando Sentinel

Florida State University will freeze enrollment as part of a cost-cutting campaign it blames on years of state under-funding for enrollment growth, the loss of a tuition increase and uncertainty about revenue, officials said Friday...
The University of Central Florida and other state universities also are looking at spending cuts for the same reasons, but FSU is first to announce an enrollment freeze.

And here is a comment that is eloquent in its omission: "Other cuts at FSU include putting off repairs and maintenance, reviewing travel and reducing journal subscriptions." The omission → no mention is made of the suits cutting their own salary raises! Ditching journal subscriptions will not save much.

I wager that if the legislators could interview individual faculty members, departmental accountants and other low level staff members, without the deans and provosts around, the legislators would learn that a big part of the under-funding is a result of paying huge startup fees for sexy new research faculty instead of paying for the teaching infrastructure that is now suffering neglect. Ditto for new research "centers of excellence." Each is an example of robbing Peter to pay Paul, because the state wants to push and shove its institutions up into the club of famous top-tier research universities like Harvard and Cal Tech, a good goal and attainable if done carefully.

It was not done carefully.

You can see it was not done carefully because of the current jam they are in, not enough faculty to carry the teaching load.

The danger is that new savings and new fees, if they go through, will be diverted to more startup fees but not help with the teaching load or keeping the universities open to more students.