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

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... Shared via AddThis

Kosmas hiding from her 24th District Constituents

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

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

1. A Tele-Town Hall telephone conference
2. no date specified yet
3. The Kosmas staff will let people know when-where-how info by "robocalls" in the 48 hours prior to the conference call.
4. They will also let people know when-where-how info by email in the 48 hours prior to the conference call.
5. The staff member answering the call could not refer me to a spec sheet on how Tele-Town Hall works.
6. Instead she referred me to Kosmas press-sec. Marc Goldberg, 202-225-2706 up in D.C.
7. 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
8. 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

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

1. Still contracted for the big $137,775 paving project.
2. 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.
3. 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.

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

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

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.

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

1. cardiopulmonary sciences
2. radiologic sciences
3. engineering technology
4. 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. Posted using ShareThis

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

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

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.

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.

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A Congress Full of Michael Jackson Wannabes

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.

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

Now my letters to Senator Nelson and Senator Martinez:

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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.

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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.

1. Contact Bill...
2. 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.

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

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.

1. Contact Representative Alan Grayson
2. Contact Representative Suzanne Kosmas

Pharmaceutical companies get tripped up, now need Grayson and Kosmas

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

1. The Senate and House have to go on the same medical plan as we civilians get, or
2. 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?

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

1. the Healthcare Leadership Council and
2. another outfit whose approximate name is Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturies of America, which might be a misspelling of Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.
[Click links for board of trustees and membership lists.]

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

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

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:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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

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

News from Orlando:

1. The skeleton did not belong to a homeless person.
2. The person was not a murder victim.
3. 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.

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?

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

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?

1. Sarah Palin
2. Joe Wurzelbacher
3. Barbara West
4.                  

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

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.

1. 1000-foot scale
   


2. 2000-foot scale
   


3. One-mile scale
   


4. 50-mile scale, road networks in Turkey and Russia visible.
   

Helping students get textbooks without sub-prime mortgage

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

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.

1. The mother of the missing child displays unusual levels of emotion, unusual kinds of emotion, considering her circumstances. Most tv commentators mention this.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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

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

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?

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.

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Raccoon break and entry, monkeys not talking

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.