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.

---

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.

Politicians' vicious streak and Obama's Jacksonville gambit

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

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:

1. "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?
2. "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.
3. "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

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

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.

1. imbecilic because she is she thinks GMA is the right place to lay down a nuclear weapons threat;
2. 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

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:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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

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

Yeah, that's the ticket.

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

1. a Chicago machine politician and
2. 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

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

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

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

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.