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Monday August 15, 2011

End flood damage workshop will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Aug. 16 at the Monroe County Government Center, second-floor meeting room, 2798 Overseas Highway, Mile Marker 47.5, Marathon.

[Fireman Fired] “Freeman said the department kicked him out of the outfit after he originally filed the lawsuit ...and was subsequently dismissed, he said in retaliation for filing the lawsuit.”

Oh poppycock. There's a back story here, involving several people and their motives. In the end, Mr Freeman established that he considered himself an "employee", not a volunteer. In response, the Key Largo Fire Dept said they did not have any openings for "employees", and since he was - by his own definition - no longer a volunteer, his membership as a volunteer was terminated. He brought that action down on himself by claiming to be an employee.

As this goes forward, remember Mr Freeman chose to pursue this action, to the detriment of the fire department, community, county, and all volunteer systems, and probably ultimately to himself. The question is why did he decide to claim to be an employee? That's where the back story starts - money, personalities, and relationships, occurring in various layers.

This is going to be the battle of the lawyers, at the taxpayer’s expense. All the lawyers will be making their careers and a lot of money on this case (another motive is lawyer ego.) Books will be written, tv interviews will be done and for what? Some people could not agree or get along, egos got hurt, they decided to swing back and here we are!   ~chasertwo@yahoo.com

[Ice] Vodka and ice will ruin your kidneys.
Rum and ice will ruin your liver.
Whisky and ice will ruin your heart.
Gin and ice will ruin your brain.
Coke and ice will ruin your teeth.

Warn all your friends to stay away from ice!

Barbie's measurements if she were life size: 39-23-33.

Aguapolooza photos. Photo Gallery > Picnic Island

[Michelle Bachmann] Okay, I'm at a loss for words other than, what the f**k was she thinking? didn't she know that cameras are everywhere?

[Medicine's future] There's an app for that! Listen to the entire video, it is well worth your time. http://bit.ly/qVxtxw

Little Brother by Cory Doctorow is a novel about several teenagers in San Francisco who, 
in the aftermath of a terrorist attack on the San Francisco – 
Oakland Bay Bridge and BART system, defend themselves against the Department of 
Homeland Security's attacks on the Bill of Rights. Download the entire book at http://bit.ly/cuC8aY

[The Felon Next Door]  This will surprise you. Type your address in the search bar and a lot of local felons and what they did will pop up all over the map around you. Ick. Don't take chances, stay safe.

[Cat database] Have your cat micro-chipped.

Convert text to binary code. Enter test in box and hit the “To Binary” button.

bigpinekey.com is: 01100010011010010110011101110000011010010110111001100
101011010110110010101111001001011
10011000110110111101101101 in binary code. http://bit.ly/XceX

Babies are born without knee caps. They don't appear until the child reaches 2-6 years of age.

[Cat Database] Put a loud bell on its collar and you might save the cat’s life and a few hundred bug eating birds too!

[That’s Bull] El grande torero manolete. The final faens. http://bit.ly/o2Hqvg

I really enjoy the animated banners on the CT. There're some very creative minds at work. Good variety, too.

[Solar System] On this date in 2001 astronomers announced the discovery of the first solar system outside our own. Two planets orbiting a star in the Big Dipper.

[Twinkie's & Bacon] That also applies to fat women. A sweet center wrapped in fat.

[Cat Trapping] If you are concerned about your cat getting trapped and removed from the ecosystem, keep it indoors where it belongs and is not a threat to wildlife.

Today's harangue is a sequel to yesterday's homeless experts, Key West post. Yesterday I was nice. Not today. Read all about it by clicking on this link: expert witnesses – Key West homelessness, if you want to hear the truth. Otherwise, just keep reading the occasional homeless reports in The Citizen instigated by people who are not experts on homelessness in Key West and the Keys. It’s your choice.

[76% of all the land in the Keys is already held in conservation] Talk about spin. This poster is a master at making it seem only 3000 plus commercial acres are left to develop. Look at it this way, the Twin Towers were one acre each by so many stories high. How many big ugly monstrosities could the greedies build on 3000 plus acres? Too many! Keep the Keys the Keys.

The Big Dipper in the northwest is now dipping down and around into its water-holding position.

[Dumb TV] I have known a lot of smart people who loved the dumbest TV shows. I don't think there is any correlation between brains and taste. Personally, I think that anyone who enjoys "Three and a Half Men" or any reality show should not be driving or voting.

[Opera] Three Kids From Italy. I don't care what your musical taste/preference is. Please take the time and listen to this. These kids are freakin' unbelievable. I thought they were fake and I tried everyway I could to find out if they were for real. All searches bring up nothing to indicate otherwise. Real deal here boys and girls. Check it out. This is a gift. Get ready for some goose bumps. http://bit.ly/jXycm7

Caution: NATIONAL POLITICS and Religion, etc

[Republican Leadership] Bush was the worst President in American history. He allowed the only foreign attack on American soil in our history. He let our country be attacked by Muslim Kamikazes. He squandered a record budget surplus and ran it into a record deficit and drove our economy into recession, He lowered the taxes of the rich, he started two arbitrary wars, He lowered the World’s view of Americans, he also suspended habeas corpus, allowed illegal wire taps, rendition and torture.

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As long as the Muslim population remains around or under 2% in any given country, they will be for the most part be regarded as a peace-loving minority, and not as a threat to other citizens. Perhaps we should be very suspicious of all Muslims in this country. They obviously cannot be both 'good' Muslims and good Americans. Call it what you wish, it's still the truth. You had better believe it. The more who understand this, the better it will be for our country and our future. The religious war is bigger than we know or understand. (United States: Muslim 0.6%)

["God told me to ..."] Cut them a little slack. Usually that means they prayed about it and had a good long think through the various scenarios before choosing one. They credit God's influence in their thought process, but aren't claiming he stood in front of them and spoke. Thinking the problem through is not a bad thing.

[Rights as an American] It’s time to change the Constitution so it includes the rights of national security, healthcare, education, and old age security.

[Term Limits] Think of all the good that would get done for this country if there were term limits and politicians didn’t have to worry about reelection.

America is on the decline. Yesterdays poster was correct in comparing us to Rome.

[Big Business = Republicans] Big Business wants ObamaCare to be Big BusinessCare and issue vouchers that are good for use at their insurance companies so the insurance companies can continue to rape us.

[Jobs] I’ve been watching the Republican candidate’s speeches. They all stress job creation, but none of them have a plan that will work. I say leave the current administration in charge. They kept us out of a depression. The world is in need of jobs, it’s not just America that is in trouble, and so far no one has any ideas. No one!

[Republican View] “We are so afraid of helping one another because we are afraid that someone less fortunate or dumber than us will get some of our money” If you've read the research you'll note that conservatives give and give and give way more than the noisy libs. They just don't like having it demanded and required of them. Those who earn the money should be allowed to choose who to help with it and how. Churches and charities who help those in need are more likely to receive donations than the raucous, demanding, loudmouth, guilt-accusing socialist organizations who are more likely to use money they receive to further their own cause than to actually help people. That makes those organizations resentful of the people who choose their causes carefully.

[Tea Party and the Taliban] There are times when one has to stand up and say what’s on their mind instead of being politically correct. Now is one of those times for me. I truly believe that the Tea Party and the Taliban are equals in their own respective countries. Just look at the similarities of their actions.

Ever wonder what a world run by tea-partiers might look like? To get an idea, consider Ken Cuccinelli, Virginia's new attorney general, a self professed lover of the tea party movement and perfect example of why prosecutors with a political agenda are so scary. Since assuming office in January Cuccinelli has been on a freakish non-stop crusade to enforce a moral order common to both the Tea Party and the Taliban.

In his few short months in office Cuccinelli has used the power of the state to try to rescind anti-discrimination policies for gays and lesbians, approved a new policy allowing sectarian prayer by police chaplains at public events, and even tried to cover up the bare-breast of the Roman Goddess who has graced the state seal since 1776. His explanation: "Just because we've always done something a certain way doesn't mean we always have to continue doing it that way."

Of course, Cuccinelli has also faced criticism--in particular for carrying on a private practice even after being sworn in as Attorney General. But as the tea partiers and Taliban both seem to know, theocrats are supposed to enjoy special privileges (the recent case of George Rekers, the anti-gay crusader whose European frolic with a well endowed gay hooker from Rentboy.com comes to mind). Now thus far Virginia seems to be fine with a chief law enforcement officer who introduced a bill to make the inability to speak English in the workplace a legitimate reason to disqualify a laid-off worker from receiving unemployment benefits, sought to shield concealed handgun permit application data from FOIA requests, supported legislation to give cops overtime pay while on vacation, and challenged the Clean Air Act's EPA fuel standards. But with his latest target, the Tea Party's Taliban may have gone one step too far. Covering up statues because there are breasts showing?

The Taliban and Osama’s followers hate our president with the same rage as the tea party. Coincidence? Hardly.

[Do away with social security and let the states set up their own retirement plans] Do a little research and see how that worked out for Galveston TX back before the feds made it impossible. They've got a good thing going there.

[Corrupt] When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe.  ~Thomas Jefferson

Hey FTR guy. If I agreed with you, we'd both be wrong.

Trump this!

Informative political news site. http://politicalwire.com/

[Voice of God] Sorry, no matches were found containing Bush said God told him to invade Iraq.

[From the Right] The entrance of Texas Governor Rick Perry to the Presidential race has liberal panties in a mega wedgie. The liberal propaganda machine is working overtime cranking out Donkey Dung. One of the smelliest items is their claim that Perry has announced that “God told me to run”. That is designed to portray him as a religious whacko. Natch, the sycophants at CT liberal center have latched onto that. But, I think that it is pure and refined Donkey Dung. I urge any and all CT liberal folks to provide us with any documentation what so ever that Texas Governor Rick Perry has ever said “God told me to run for President.” I know that he did not say that in his announcement speech. Look it up and read it for yourself. I eagerly await the response. But, what if Perry said that? What the hell, did you know that Mr. Obama prays each and every day for God to guide him? Sorry, but you’ll have to wade through this whole screed to find the proof. Do you suppose that God wants to continue the policies that have nearly bankrupted our country? Do you suppose that God is eager to continue to keep in place nine plus percentage unemployment? Do you think that God demands that we stifle the growth of business? Do you believe that God is mandating that we keep increasing our debt? Do you think that God has declared war on our achievers? All of that and much more has been wreaked on us by the catechisms, mantras, and sacraments of the apparently anti God liberal forces. Ask yourself if you’ve ever wondered if God or some superior entity has ever influenced your life. How many times have you excitedly said: "Oh My God"? Have you ever been really threatened with death or severe harm and uttered: "God save me"? Have you ever asked God to save a loved one? How do you feel about Mr. Obama ending many of his speeches with the benediction: “God bless you and may he continue to Bless the United States of America?” Methinks that the air is redolent with the stench of liberal hypocrisy. Ooops I almost forgot to remind our liberal CT community that the following words were uttered in a speech announcing a run for the Presidency, in fact the words were the opening words of the speech: “Thank you so much. Praise and honor to God for bringing us together today. Thank you so much. I am so grateful to see all of you.” The candidate was Barak Husein Obama. It is fascinating that the Obama campaign edited out the reference to God in their official transcript. Would you be surprised, perhaps horrified to know that every day, twice a day, Mr. Obama prays and asks the Lord to “make me an instrument of your will?” That really should be a very private matter, but he brags about it in a speech. Well, now we know that Mr. Obama claims to be a very religious person, do our Liberal pals have any problem with that? If that is true, and I doubt that it is, I don’t. But, I despise the hypocrisy of his acolytes, his campaign flaks, and his propaganda machine. May God bless you Mr. Obama, and forgive you.

Monday August 15, 2011

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Sunday August 14, 2011

[Short Term Rental] The poster says BPK is ugly because of the short term rental ban. I can prove he’s wrong. All the time we allowed short term rentals no one ever tried to improve the US1 corridor. The poster also says there were no empty stores. The poster failed to admit the there were many new stored built since then. If the poster likes to live in a busy and noisy place with lots of traffic I suggest he move to Hilton Head that he admires so much, where it’s beautiful and the streets are paved with gold. The poster must have a short term rental there too.

Public safety activities such as providing fire protection and maintaining a fire department are at the top of the list of duties of a local government, way ahead of some of the other things our tax money is spent on. Marathon citizens should insist on having the top design option for the Grassy Key fire station and be willing to chip in and pay for it of course.

[Pee Team] US Olympic hopeful dismissed for urinating on 12-year-old. Robert Vietze can sign up for the US National Pee Team now.

[Couple from King of Prussia] I think I saw them playing kissy-face with the whites of teeth in gay-ass Conch Color magazine.

[Comparing Hilton Head Is to Big Pine Key] Hilton Head has a population of almost 34,000 full time residents. Big Pine has only 5,000. Hilton Head has hotels, marinas and thousands of condos to house visitors. Big Pine has none (well maybe the two or three bed & breakfasts and the crappy Big Pine Motel). Where do you think the money will come from to fix BPK to your standards? We are a rural community of working class people and retirees and not a destination resort of rich people. Comparing apples and oranges to make your point is not fair or helpful.

[Corporations are people too. ~Mitt Romney] Huh? Well then, why don't they die?

[Music] Be The Rain. Save the planet for another day - hey big oil what do you say? http://bit.ly/pFWl9I

“Put your ad where people HAVE to read it. If you advertise in newspapers or radio people may not be listening or they may skip the page your ad is on, but not on the Coconut Telegraph. They HAVE to see your ad. No other advertiser will promise you that.”

That is so true. I never knew before, for example, who Nirra Tacco was, and I am not looking to buy or sell any real estate, but I even see her at Winn Dixie from time to time. If I had a business, I would probably use bigpinekey.com

[The Twinkies of Death] Deep fried and wrapped in bacon! Ummm bacon.

[76% of all the land in the Keys is already held in conservation] Two of our female Board of County Commissioners want to change the way we govern ourselves, they want a 4/5 supermajority claiming it’s needed to stop rampant development. What they really want is to hold their fellow commissioners hostage. Worse, they are telling us (the voters of Monroe County) that we are not capable of electing qualified commissioners, and these two women question the two we just elected/re-elected to office.

Rampant development is not possible, the facts speak for themselves as there is very little left to develop because most of the lands in the Keys are already held in conservation. There are 73,317.9 acres of land in the Florida Keys, of that 55,519.5 acres (equivalent to 76% of all Keys lands) are already held in conservation and can never be built on!
4,988.2 acres (or 6.8%) is developed residential.
4,025.7 acres (or 5.5%) is military.
3,236.6 acres (0r 4.4%) is undevelopable right-of-ways.
3,028.9 acres (or 4.1%) is developed commercial properties, parks, schools, and other public buildings.

Leaving only 3.2% of the Keys lands as privately held undeveloped land. (If those properties are even developable and can make it through the processes of Tier/ROGO/Mitigation/Environmental Reporting/etc.)

Monroe County Voters, how many more lawsuits are we going to lose over these few remaining properties? How much has this County (we, the taxpayers) paid out over the years in lawsuit losses from these illegal private property takings cases? How much do we stand to lose in current/ongoing litigations? Are we going to bankrupt this County through lawsuits/takings cases when 76% of all the land in the Keys is already held in conservation?

Ladies, stop the “they’ll pave the Keys over” development scare tactics already, we’re not buying the lies anymore.

And yes, elections are right around the corner, but don’t count on the vocal minority to save you this time, fiscal conservatives (democrat and republican alike) are damn tired of bleeding money for lies.

[Skin lesions after getting tattoos] Damn! Just when I was really ready to get my first tattoo. Now I have to wait another 20 years to get enough bravery back again. I'm ready to live with the social judgments. It's the diseases part that keeps scaring me off.

Did you know that you can not donate blood for 365 days after getting a tattoo? What do the blood people know that makes that rule necessary? I'm sticking to blood donating, which is more useful and important to me than physical decorations. I'll just keep wearing jewelry.

[Marc the Funny Guy] I come from a stupid family. My uncle heard that most deaths occurs within 10 miles of the house, so he moved.

A former Key Largo firefighter's lawsuit could change the way volunteers with the department are reimbursed, and could end up costing the taxing district that funds the department hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The Key Largo Volunteer Fire-Rescue and Emergency Medical Services District was added to a lawsuit this summer that was filed last year in federal court by Corey Freeman, 23, who says the volunteer fire department should have paid him minimum wage and overtime for his seven years of service.

His attorney, Tom Woods of Tavernier, said the department's policy of reimbursement is at the core of his client's case.

Chief Sergio Garcia said the department pays volunteers what would be the equivalent of $5 an hour. This, he says, is so volunteers don't have to pay things like food and gas out of their own pockets.

But Woods said since the department has three full-time firefighters who earn about $18 an hour, reimbursement should be around $3.60. This would be about 20 percent of what the paid members make. Going over this amount crosses a "nominal" line that Woods says makes Key Largo volunteer firefighters employees who are eligible for the $7.25-an-hour minimum wage, plus overtime pay.

Woods says Freeman is owed $20,913 in back pay and $8,149 in overtime. Freeman is also suing the department and taxing district for legal fees and because he said the department kicked him out of the outfit after he originally filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court-Southern District of Florida in December 2010. He said that in March of this year, the department gave him a form to sign stating he was never an employee of the fire service. Freeman said he refused to sign the document and was subsequently dismissed, he said in retaliation for filing the lawsuit.

The court on Wednesday ordered Woods to amend the lawsuit to give more details on what makes his client an employee.

"Alleging he was an employee wasn't enough," Woods said.

Woods has 30 days to rewrite the complaint to give more details about what Freeman's duties included for the fire department.

"This is all going to continue," Woods said.

The taxing district hired mainland attorney Dale Morgado to fight the lawsuit. Morgado did not return phone calls for this story. The district is paying him $200 an hour and has set aside $35,000 for the case.

Kenneth Casebeer, a University of Miami labor law professor, said in an email that he doesn't believe Freeman is necessarily eligible for the back minimum wage pay since not all the firefighters do the same jobs or have the same hours.

Garcia said not all firefighters who show up at a given day are reimbursed for their time. During many shifts, only a handful of firefighters show up to volunteer, and they are usually compensated. However, some shifts see many firefighters hanging out in Key Largo's two stations, and only a few will be reimbursed.

"We're only allowed so much money in the budget to reimburse the volunteers," he said.

Newly-appointed emergency services district Commissioner Tom Tharp said at the board's meeting Monday that if Freeman wins his case, the results would be "catastrophic" for not only Key Largo's department, but potentially for volunteer department's nationwide.

[Robert Vietze Peeing on People] He sounds more like an embarrassment to the U.S. Ski Team, his parents, and America, in general, to me. I'm surprised the girl’s father didn't feed him his teeth.

I saw Canned Heat in Albuquerque in a rodeo barn in '69. The Bear was rolly-polly for sure. He was stoned and wandering around in the crowd. I always remembered his manner and attitude. Years later when I saw Dune the giant worm reminded me of him!

[Wait, if you call now we'll double ... “] I know there are no stupid people living in the Keys, that is why I do not understand how come there are so many paid programming channels selling absolute crap on TV. Is America that dumb? Are all the old widow women that gullible? Just another thing that worries me about this once great nation.

Now that's a puppeteer! I can’t figure out how he makes the puppet’s fingers move. http://bit.ly/pGJH4f

Late at night, the waning Moon passes bright Jupiter.

[The ISP's server automatically censored the email and would not send it.] The server only caught that because the user (your friend) told it to, by setting the security settings to a certain level. So, sorry, but this is not Sieg Heil, just somebody clicking some buttons not heels. Don't go so techno-schitzoid over a little email rejection. Change the subject line and see what gets through.

A day in the life of a rescued dog. http://bit.ly/oEZmpB

[Mars]  A portion of the west rim of Endeavour crater sweeps southward in this color view from NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity. This crater -- with a diameter of about 14 miles (22 kilometers) -- is more than 25 times wider than any that Opportunity has previously approached during 90 months on Mars. Endeavour crater has been the rover team's destination for Opportunity since the rover finished exploring Victoria crater in August 2008. Endeavour offers access to older geological deposits than any Opportunity has seen before. (It looks like Arizona)

[Civil Disobedience In Edinburgh] The Scots, yet again, doing it right.  http://bit.ly/oxeiZw

So you want to go on a cruise, eh? Better bring your barf bag. Video

[Cat Database] I have a beautiful kitty, adopted from the shelter a few years ago, that goes in and out our doggie door. He has important afternoon meetings with his fellow felines outdoors, then he comes in for a little siesta, then back out to stroll. He has a collar, but often loses it in his wanderings. Who do I call if my cat goes missing and I want to check to see if it got trapped? Is there any way to let the cat hunters know that a particular cat is a pet?

Cell phones blocked by Big Brother in SF to hinder transit protest. http://yhoo.it/nkORYd

[Commercials] I get a kick out of the TV ad where the mom and dad get all scared when she realizes that she forgot to buy their kid's favorite cereal. That says it all about today's family and the kind of kids running loose amongst us.

Help identify the London rioters. Now you know what the pole and building cams are all about. They’re watching you! http://londonrioters.co.uk/

Caution: NATIONAL POLITICS and Religion, etc

“The measure of a civilization is how it treats its weakest citizens.”  ~Ghandi.

America is no longer great. Sure, patriotism is still great, but that’s just rhetoric and it’s all we have left. We were once as great as Rome was, but like Rome we’ve lost our way because we’ve lost our will to help each other. The greed of Americans is overwhelming. We are so afraid of helping one another because we are afraid that someone less fortunate or dumber than us will get some of our money. Instead of weeding out the abusers we try get rid of the whole social program.

Blind patriots will not see what has happened to us. The only greatness we have left is our great greed. To hell with everyone else’s welfare. The only time we help others is if they have something we need. If they don’t have something we need it usually takes about ten years of genocide or other atrocity for international pressure to mount until we finally help, but only in a half-assed way. Most legislation these days benefits the rich and takes from the poor.

No I don’t love America but I will not leave it. I will stay and fight the only way I know how and that is to vote and to try to get others to see how far we’ve fallen. My goal is to make America great once again. United we stand is just hollow phrase, a sound bite with no substance. Am I the only true patriot left?

[God Made Me Do It] I’m afraid of politicians who believe that a mythical being is telling them what to do. I’m afraid of Mitt Romney (his holy underwear) Michele Bachman, Sloan Bashinsky and Rick Perry. I remember when Bush said God told him to invade Iraq. God was sure wrong on that one!

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“Obamus Maximus” Is FTR in 3rd grade? Seriously.

The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.  ~Thomas Jefferson

[Obamacare Kills Granny] Page 50/section 152: The bill will provide insurance to all non-U.S. residents, even if they are here illegally.

Page 58 and 59: The government will have real-time access to an individual's bank account and will have the authority to make electronic fund transfers from those accounts.

Page 65/section 164: The plan will be subsidized (by the government) for all union members, union retirees and for community organizations (such as the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now - ACORN).

Page 203/line 14-15: The tax imposed under this section will not be treated as a tax. (How could anybody in their right mind come up with that?)

Page 241 and 253: Doctors will all be paid the same regardless of specialty, and the government will set all doctors' fees.

Page 272. section 1145: Cancer hospital will ration care according to the patient's age.

Page 317 and 321: The government will impose a prohibition on hospital expansion; however, communities may petition for an exception.

Page 425, line 4-12: The government mandates advance-care planning consultations. Those on Social Security will be required to attend an "end-of-life planning" seminar every five years. (Death counseling..)

Page 429, line 13-25: The government will specify which doctors can write an end-of-life order.

Finally, it is specifically stated that this bill will not apply to members of Congress. Members of Congress are already exempt from the Social Security system, and have a well-funded private plan that covers their retirement needs. If they were on our Social Security plan, I believe they would find a very quick 'fix' to make the plan financially sound for their future.

[Inspiration] We all need to worry about people who say, "God told me to ...". God told Dubya to invade Afghanistan. Serial killers say that a lot too. I had a friend who back in the 70s was doing a lot of PCP and was following Linda Rondstadt around the country until her bodyguards beat him up in NYC because, what's that? yup, God told him to do it.

What if I told Michele Bachmann that God told me we were supposed to have a love child together who would grow up and create a machine that makes time travel possible? Would she say that sounds kind of crazy? In this picture she looks like she just ate potato chip that looks like Christ.

Ever wonder how Obama keeps going in the face of the constant GOP onslaught? I bet he just calls his bank in the morning and asks "What's it up to now?" and they answer back something like, "$11 million and climbing."

Some Tea Party members have a lot of gall. They scream" forget Medicare for our seniors give them a voucher instead. Rick Perry the new tea party diva wants to do away with social security and let the states set up their own retirement plans. They want to cut average Americans entitlements, but guess how they feel about their own self-serving programs? They want to save them and collect millions of taxpayers dollars with no shame at all. What gall.

The biggest recipient is Rep. Stephen Fincher, a Republican from Frog Jump, Tenn. While the self-described Tea Party patriot lists his occupation as "farmer" and "gospel singer" in the Congressional Directory, he doesn't mention that his family has received more than $3 million in farm subsidies from 1995 to 2009, according to the Environmental Working Group. When asked whether he would be willing to see all his subsidies go away, Fincher would not directly say he would no longer take any more subsidies.

"We need a good, better, we need a better farm program and we need to streamline it," he said. "We need to look at many many options. And that's a long way off."

Rep. Vicky Hartzler, R-Mo., who also was swept into office with the Tea Party movement, received $774,489 in farm subsidies over the same period, according to the EWG's numbers.

According to the EWG report, Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-Ind., received almost $180,000 between 1997 and 2009.

ABC News' Diane Sawyer grilled the lawmakers on the subject in January during her exclusive Tea Party interview with 10 freshmen members of the House and Senate.

"Are you ready to vote against all farm subsidies? That's $20 billion by one estimate, at least," Sawyer asked.

"Well, I think everything should be on the table," Hartzler said. "And, yes, there's a lot of us farmers that have participated in the program."

Sawyer then asked Rep. Stutzman about the more than $100,000 in farm subsidies he received and whether he would vote to cut them.

Stutzman told ABC News that he is in favor of eliminating farm subsidies, including his own.

"Yes, I would vote to eliminate farm subsidies. It manipulates the market," he said. "And that's the problem here in Washington: The adult conversation, I think, has to be, 'no.'"

Hartzler said she was open to "starting the discussion and look at it."

But she added, "I think we need to make sure that everything is looked at before we just pick on the farmers."

How do we keep these TEA Party heroes out of our pockets? Any ideas?

[Rick Perry] Is God ignoring the governor of Texas? I hope so, that guy is another religious nut case.

Sunday August 14, 2011

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(eD:  No edIT SatuRDAY!!!!!!......b-cuz u assd 4 iT!!!!!!!!!

[No-Edit Saturday] For those of you visiting for the first time, don’t judge the Coconut Telegraph by today’s un-edited episode. This is the Editor's almost day off. Tune in tomorrow for the edited version. You’ll find its format and graphics more pleasing. (Note to friends of the Editor: I can get out of here a lot sooner on Saturday if you don't send in any photos, attachments or Classified Ads for Saturday publication. That's because it takes a lot of time to resize and re-format them. Please email them to us by 6am on Sunday  for Sunday's publication. I'll appreciate it a lot.)

Saturday August 13, 2011

I need dockage on Big Pine for 18' outboard. Classified Ads > Wanted

[Lost] Severe Macaw, last seen Thursday evening on Constitution Avenue, off Ships Way on Big Pine. Answers to Jack and is banded. If seen please call Chuck at 305-393-4248. He is dearly loved and missed. Classified Ads > Lost & Found

Caution: NATIONAL POLITICS and Religion, etc

Sometime this year, we UK taxpayers will again receive another 'Economic Stimulus' payment.

This is indeed a very exciting program, and I'll explain it by using a Q & A format:

Q. What is an 'Economic Stimulus' payment ?
A. It is money that the government will send to taxpayers.

Q.. Where will the government get this money ?
A. From taxpayers.

Q. So the government is giving me back my own money ?
A. Only a smidgen of it.

Q. What is the purpose of this payment ?
A. The plan is for you to use the money to purchase a high-definition TV set, thus stimulating the economy.

Q. But isn't that stimulating the economy of China ?
A. Shut up.

Below is some helpful advice on how to best help the U.K. economy by spending your stimulus cheque wisely:

* If you spend the stimulus money at Asda or Tesco, the money will go to China , Taiwan or Sri Lanka .

* If you spend it on petrol, your money will go to the Arabs.

* If you purchase a computer, it will go to India , Taiwan or China .

* If you purchase fruit and vegetables, it will go to Mexico , Honduras and Guatemala ...

* If you buy an efficient car, it will go to Japan or Korea .

* If you purchase useless stuff, it will go to Taiwan .

* If you pay your credit cards off, or buy shares, it will go to management bonuses and they will hide it offshore.

Instead, keep the money in the UK by:

1) Spending it at car boot sales, or

2) Going to night clubs, or

3) Spending it on prostitutes, or

4) Beer or whisky or

5) Tattoos.

(These are the only UK businesses still operating in the U.K. . )

Conclusion: Be patriotic - go to a night club with a tattooed prostitute that you met at a car boot sale and drink beer day and night !

No need to thank me, I'm just glad I could be of help.

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Saturday August 13, 2011

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Friday August 12, 2011

[Cat Scandal] Key Deer Refuge publicly admits to luring pets onto the Refuge. The biologist who set up the cameras, openly admits that he is using cat food to lure the cats onto federal land. If he keeps this up, pretty soon every cat on Big Pine will be enticed to visit the Refuge. What are these Federal employees thinking? Job security would be my guess. Here, kitty, kitty!

[Lobster Mobsters] At Bahia Honda today I was saddened to find someone’s lost take-bag of lobster at low tide. It contained 6 lobsters, only one was legal size.

[Pet of the Day] Madagascar Day Gecko is not a lizard. Lizards have toe nails and eye lids, geckos do not.

[Mark the Funny Guy] To me drunk and disorderly is less of a crime and more of a mission statement.

[Development] This is the heart of local county politics. We the people do not want more development, and to protect that end, we do want the 4/5 rule for County land use decisions.

Commissioners not yet on board with that had better get on board by the August BOCC meeting’s vote. The voters are watching. If not done now, 4/5 will be a prominent 2012 campaign issue and problem for those commissioners voting against implementing the 4/5 rule in a few weeks. No threats, just predictions.

That rhetoric "empowering minority" is baseless argument without foundation, substance, or legitimate basis. It's also code for I'm developer friendly.  The 4/5 rule has extensive historic tradition, being used for constitutional amendments. The founding fathers recognized the enduring validity of the 4/5 rule. It's time for the County Commissioners to do the same.

[The Hukilau Restaurant] I worked for Allan Merrill when I first came to the Keys 25 years ago. What a great guy. He stayed at the Ahwanee Hotel where I worked in Yosemite Park. The Hukilau was funny. They had all these bathrooms in the place. It seemed an awful lot of them. Everybody who was anybody was there every Friday. It was the power happy hour. You would be hanging with Mel Fisher, the Mayor, and all the other politicians. Pete was the queen bee. Mary was like 70, and the fastest bartender in the Keys. Linda was a riot. There were some notorious pirates that worked there. The names will remain anonymous to protect their reputations (that is if they are still alive). Allen sure had a magnificent effect on everyone he came in contact with. I haven’t seen Allen in 21 years, and there are tears in my eyes today. What great parties he threw. I still tell the crazy stories of working there. We catered everything, and everywhere.

Fair winds, and following seas you old pirate. You were loved, and will be greatly missed.

[Adopt a Cat] Don't forget the Forgotten Felines cat adoption event this Saturday at the PurrFect Thrift Store in Marathon. The store is located across from the Community Park (in the old Overseas Lounge Building) and the event will run from 10:00 - 2:00. Lots of furry friends will be there, hoping to find their forever homes.

[Two-Faced] The doctors or doctor who fixed that woman's monkey-eaten face should get the Nobel Prize for Medicine.

Crane Pont Hammock in Marathon wants to install a zip line to attract tourists, but in today’s Citizen article no one explains what a zip line is. Is it like a zip code?

Clogged nozzles - Epson printers. This is very common problem on all Epson printers. http://bit.ly/oijioB

[Diver’s Body Found] Body of missing diver found 17 years later in Lake Tahoe, NV. http://bit.ly/o08wld

Thinking about upgrading to Windows 7? You must do this system test first on your old computer. Two of my three old computers cannot run Windows 7. http://bit.ly/2wmBJy

[Cartoons] My compliments on several of the recent cartoons. The one regarding the opening of deer season made me laugh out loud. I needed a good laugh after the recent downturn(s) in the stock market. Ed and posters please keep up the good work.

[Bad Editor] That graphic you included with my post yesterday was truly tasteless. To infer that children starve to death because they're lazy, makes me question your sense of humor.

[Captain Doom] It is amazing to me how people are falling for the old Bait and Switch con in the stock market and the housing market fiascos. Don't you people see that it is the big Land Barons who are manipulating, through the banks and credit companies, our future? What does it take to show you these suites are going to ruin everything world wide? It is probably too late to do anything anyway, but saving your pennies and stocking up on food and wawa might be a good idea. Keep your tools in shape because that will be the only way to feed your family after the paper money is all burnt up trying to heat your house. Have a skill? No? Then what are you going to do?

[Good Booze] My income is probably just one quarter of FTR's and my poison of choice cost over $100 a bottle. Not all of us drink a lot, but if we are having a drink we want the best.

[Prejudice] Free your mind and the rest will follow! En Vogue http://bit.ly/cfua7y

[Governor and State Health Care] So he signed up for the plan after criticizing health care reform, big deal. After all he's is not getting a salary. If he really wants to score points he should opt out of the state retirement plan.  He isn't going to be Governor for the rest of his life plus he doesn't need it.

[Juno Lifts Off] The Juno spacecraft launched aboard an Atlas V rocket from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Friday, Aug. 5, 2011. Juno will make a five-year, 400-million-mile voyage to Jupiter, orbit the planet, investigate its origins and evolution with eight instruments to probe its internal structure and gravity field, measure water and ammonia in its atmosphere, map its powerful magnetic field and observe its intense auroras.

[Huh?] If the coffee guy comes around, please don’t order any additional coffee. I will let them know that the service will be ending the end of September.

[Aguapolooza] One day to go to. Great band. Weather forecast is good. Music starts at 1pm this Saturday. See you at Aguapolooza concert at Picnic Island.

How the world turns. One day, cock of the walk; next, a feather duster. ~Aunty Entity in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome

[Johnny Walker Blue] A Scotch like that is meant to be savored. Just because someone says they have acquired a taste for something doesn't mean they’re buying a bottle a day, week or ever.

Burton Cummings lead singer from The Guess Who joins the Steve Miller Band on stage and performs Swingtown in Paso Robles, CA on July 20. http://bit.ly/pESIld

Today's Naval air show starts out with a county commission outing on a Navy aircraft carrier, and then returns to land to face the music. This ain't going to be pretty, but then, nobody thought it was pretty when County Growth Manager Andrew Trivette went offshore fishing with developers who wanted big favors from the county. And the folks at Key Haven and around the golf course certainly didn't think the F 18s were pretty while they were flying low overhead. Most unpretty of all is when a county commissioner becomes the Navy's spokesperson that the F 18 is not louder than a number of prior aircraft. Read all about it by clicking on this link: rich has it privileges – F 18 Super Hornet – NAS Key West

[Joke] Deer Camp. Four guys have been going to the same deer camp for many years. Two days before the group is to leave, Joe's wife puts her foot down and tells him he isn't going. Joe's friends are very upset that he can't go, but what can they do. Two days later the three get to the camping site only to find Joe sitting there with a tent set up, firewood gathered, and dinner cooking on the fire. "Dang man, how long you been here, and how did you talk your wife  into letting you go?" "Well, I've been here since yesterday. Yesterday evening, I was sitting in my chair and my wife came up behind me and put her hands over my eyes and said, 'Guess who?'" I pulled her hands off, and she was wearing a brand new nightie. She took my hand and pulled me to our bedroom. The room had candles and rose petals all over. On the bed she had handcuffs, and ropes! She told me to tie and cuff her to the bed, and I did.  And then she said, "Do what ever you want." So, Here I am.

Caution: NATIONAL POLITICS and Religion, etc

Definition of Irrelevant: Polls on potential Presidential opponents for an election in 15 months in the future.

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[Editor a Racist] Of course you are free to speak (type) , but that does not mean the listener (Deer Ed) has to repeat (publish) it. My question was to Deer Ed regarding CT's policy on racism, and how hard it is to recognize these days. That picture just wasn't funny, no matter what skin hue appeared. There was no joke there, no punch line. If you want to do racist jokes, at least make them funny so we can recognize it as a joke and not a racist slur.

I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.  ~Thomas Jefferson

[Review: Congress] Let’s take a look at how American people think this new Congress is doing. You know who we mean, they are the “job creators”, we were told.

Cloning sheep. Cloning humans, even. Caning teen vandals. Believing that aliens have descended from space and abducted humans. These are all things that, at one time or another, have enjoyed more public backing than Congress is getting right now. Even President George W. Bush, at his lowest of lows during the 2008 financial crisis, was more popular than the men and women who currently occupy Capitol Hill.

Ragging on Congress, with its slug-like reaction times and inspiring displays of public bickering, has long been a favorite national pastime.

But recent polls indicate that Congress’s approval ratings have sunk to all-time lows. Which is pretty bad for an outfit that’s been around since 1787. A recent CNN poll found that just 14 percent of Americans surveyed approved of how Congress has been doing its job.

And a new Washington Post poll found that only 17 percent of Americans surveyed thought their representative should be reelected in 2012.

“These are notably low,” said Charles Stewart III, a political scientist at MIT.

Stewart said Congress might possibly have been even less popular during the days leading up to the Civil War, or during the less-remembered political upheavals of the 1880s and ’90s. But it has never been rated lower since the advent of widespread public polling on Congress, which Stewart dated to the 1970s, than it has been in recent days.

“It’s undoubtedly reflecting a generalized disgust with the institution,” he said.

For a little comparison, a 1997 ABC poll found that 39 percent approved of cloning sheep. Pollsters for Johns Hopkins University found in 2002 that 18 percent approved of human cloning.

A survey from Gallup in June showed that Americans have more confidence in banks and even HMOs than in Congress.

And Americans, as polled by CNN in 1997, were 3 ¹ / ₂ times as likely to believe in alien kidnappings than they now are to approve of Congress.

And 37 percent of respondents told the Los Angeles Times in 1994 that they thought it was a good idea to cane teen vandals, after an 18-year-old was famously sentenced to a beating in Singapore.

There was no available information on what percentage of Americans think it’s a good idea to cane members of Congress — or to abduct them.

The causes of the revulsion are both obvious and bedeviling: a constitutional system set up to promote divided and gridlocked government. General anxiety about a lagging world economy that makes Congress’s clashes appear even more reckless. A media environment that caters to partisans and spotlights conflict.

And, maybe most important, a political class that reflects real and deep divisions among the people it represents about the proper size and scope of government. “If the Constitution was designed to create gridlock, and we’ve discovered the Congress and the president are in gridlock now, who should we really blame here?”

So where are the jobs they promised?

Al Gore goes on a rant over climate change. Click here: AUDIO: Al Gore Goes on a Rant Over Climate Change - Fox News Video - FoxNews.com

Felonious Munk Presents: Stop it B! Special Edition "Bin Laden Is Dead, Now What? http://bit.ly/rauZ1J

Robert Green Ingersoll (August 11, 1833-July 21, 1899) was one of the most remarkable Americans most people never heard of. Civil War soldier, lawyer, politician and social reformer, he was also the best-known public speaker of the 19th century. He gave thousands of lectures, talks and speeches all across the country on almost any subject you could think of, from farming to human rights. He spoke against slavery and for equal rights for women. More people heard him speak than anyone in history before the invention of radio and motion pictures. He was also an agnostic who very publicly rejected religion in talks like Mistakes of Moses, Blasphemy, Religious Intolerance and many more.

“If a man would follow, today, the teachings of the Old Testament, he would be a criminal. If he would follow strictly the teachings of the New, he would be insane.”

Benny Hill and Obama. Video

[Global Warming] If one thing more than any other is used to justify proposals that the world must spend tens of trillions of dollars on combating global warming, it is the belief that we face a disastrous rise in sea levels. The Antarctic and Greenland ice caps will melt, we are told, warming oceans will expand, and the result will be catastrophe.

Although the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) only predicts a sea level rise of 59cm (17 inches) by 2100, Al Gore in his Oscar-winning film An Inconvenient Truth went much further, talking of 20 feet, and showing computer graphics of cities such as Shanghai and San Francisco half under water. We all know the graphic showing central London in similar plight. As for tiny island nations such as the Maldives and Tuvalu, as Prince Charles likes to tell us and the Archbishop of Canterbury was again parroting last week, they are due to vanish.

But if there is one scientist who knows more about sea levels than anyone else in the world it is the Swedish geologist and physicist Nils-Axel Mörner, formerly chairman of the INQUA International Commission on Sea Level Change. And the uncompromising verdict of Dr Mörner, who for 35 years has been using every known scientific method to study sea levels all over the globe, is that all this talk about the sea rising is nothing but a colossal scare story.

Despite fluctuations down as well as up, "the sea is not rising," he says. "It hasn't risen in 50 years." If there is any rise this century it will "not be more than 10cm (four inches), with an uncertainty of plus or minus 10cm". And quite apart from examining the hard evidence, he says, the elementary laws of physics (latent heat needed to melt ice) tell us that the apocalypse conjured up by
Al Gore and Co could not possibly come about.

The reason why Dr Mörner, formerly a Stockholm professor, is so certain that these claims about sea level rise are 100 per cent wrong is that they are all based on computer model predictions, whereas his findings are based on "going into the field to observe what is actually happening in the real world".

[Satire] Colorado Bear Tragedy.This is a very sad story about a bear. Everybody should heed the warnings not to feed wildlife because they become dependent and don't forage for themselves any longer. It is such a tragedy to see what has been done to our country's wildlife. The photo below captures a disturbing trend that is beginning to affect U.S. wildlife. Animals that formerly were self-sufficient are now showing signs of belonging to the Democrat Party. They have apparently learned to just sit and wait for the government to step in and provide for their care and sustenance. This photo is of a black bear in Colorado turned Democrat. He's nicknamed Bearack Obearma. It is believed that he has become a campground organizer.

[From the Right] The only reason Wisconsin politics is important to us is because the liberals and the unions have decided that it is vital to their national power. Wisconsin was drowning in debt, it was a Democrat controlled state. In the mid term elections Republicans managed to take control of their legislature. In the general election the Republicans managed to elect Governor Scott Walker. Walker set about slashing spending and reigning in the untrammeled power of the public employee unions. The unions went bonkers. We’ve talked about the maelstrom that they kicked up. They ultimately spent tens of millions of union dues dollars to attempt to recall 6 Wisconsin State Senators. It has been reported that the unions spent nearly twice as much as the Reps. The unions lost, big time. They lost 4 out of 6 of the contests. Even with the wasting of all those hard earned union dues, the Reps still control Wisconsin’s legislature. Coming soon is a recall election aimed at 2 Democrat Senators. Whichever way the vote goes, the Reps will still control their Senate. This is of little import to us, except that you should know what the Reps have accomplished in the short time that they have had power. Wisconsin is rapidly becoming one of the most desirable states in which to do business. In one recent month they added about 10% of all of the new jobs added in the USA. School districts are not longer forced to by their insurance from Union owned insurance companies and they are saving hundreds of millions of dollars. School districts throughout the state are now able to have balanced budgets because staff is paying into their retirement and health programs. The state has passed and Walker has signed a balanced budget That budget erases a deficit of more than $3 billion dollars, ushers in significant education reforms and freezes local property taxes…all without raising taxes. Wisconsin and their new Conservative governance rocks.

(Part 2) Things seem to be getting more mature here in CT, but we still see some silliness. Yesterday one dude was suspicious as to how this old cop could have afforded to acquire a taste for the very pricey scotch, Johnny Walker Blue. Well maybe FTR was in on payoffs, corruption, maybe FTR was a dirty cop, maybe he was Dining with Democrats or maybe he flew around with union bosses in their private jets. Maybe that’s how I came to acquire the taste for such expensive booze. I wonder just how much time that dude has to spend when he takes the time to look up the price of JW Blue on the web just to play gotcha with this old fart? His time would have been better spent in trying to figure out how we’re going to pay off $14.5 trillion in debt by only cutting spending by $1 trillion. Or is the $1 trillion target for one year or for 10 years? In the off chance that you’re curious, my minder, myself, and another couple were celebrating Christmas Eve at a KW restaurant and saw that they had a jug of JW Blue. We all wanted to see just how good it was. We ordered a shot and split it 4 ways. It was spectacularly good and spectacularly expensive. $45 a shot. I hadn’t had it before nor since, but still, I’m totally in favor it.

Friday August 12, 2011

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Thursday August 11, 2011

[Mini Season] The first day of lobster season Tuesday August 9 was marred by all the pleasure boaters out there competing for the delicious crustaceans with the commercial guys. My friend, a commercial lobsterman, said there were about twenty boats around them as they pulled and baited 200 of their traps. I drove 30 miles to Key West Tuesday and saw as many boats as I saw during mini season.

I would think there would be less raping of our reefs and lobster holes it we all came out on the same day. Mini season was supposed to alleviate that congestion. Get rid of mini season it’s proved to be a scam that benefits few.

[Tea Party Hypocrite] Gov. Rick Scott, a critic of the federal health care overhaul, is paying  less than $400 a year for health  insurance for himself and his wife. While Scott is accepting no salary for his job as governor, the multimillionaire chose  to enroll in the taxpayer-subsidized health insurance plan offered by the state of Florida.

When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains,
And the women come out to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains
And go to your gawd like a soldier.  ~Rudyard Kipling

The Orangutan and the Hound. http://bit.ly/7T1LTr

The Last of the Lobstermen. http://nyti.ms/ncntCG

Can you send a truly anonymous email? http://bit.ly/nxinIS

Just 2 days till Aguapoluzza. Gas up your boat. Get your dancing water shoes on and come on out to the party at Picnic Island this Saturday. The music starts at 1 pm.

[Texas Rattlers Don’t Rattle] Ya'll need to forget about those itty, bitty snake-proof boots and find yourself a full snake-proof suit and hat! We have killed 57 rattlesnakes on two separate ranches this year. 24 at South Bend & 33 at Murray, since mid May. Not one has buzzed! We provoked one fair sized boy with a stick and he coiled and struck at the stick a couple of times before he buzzed up and rattled. The purpose of this explanation is that I have been hearing the same from fellow ranchers and hunters in regards to the lack of warning with rattlesnakes.  I had lunch with a friend today and he offered a theory about the fact that these buggers aren't rattling anymore. He raised pigs for years and reported that when he would hear a rattlesnake buzzing in the sow pen, the sows would bee line to it and fight over the snake. For the uninformed, pigs love to eat rattlesnakes. Therefore, the theory is they are ceasing to rattle to avoid detection, since there are plenty of feral pigs roaming the countryside. I have a neighbor ranching lady who was bitten 3 weeks ago 2 times by the same snake without any warning. She spent 5 days in ICU, after 22 vials of anti-venom she is back at the ranch and still may lose her foot or worse yet her lower leg. The days of perceived warning are over. Keep your boots on and use a light when out and about. As you all know, one can pop up just about anywhere.  Rattlesnake Bite Suffered Near Yosemite. On July 21, just after my 13th birthday, I was bitten by a Northern Pacific rattlesnake (the snake was originally identified as a Western Diamondback rattlesnake but that species is not found near Yosemite). I was on a trail in a hiking area near Yosemite National Park, California . The bite occurred when I was sitting on a small boulder at a distance of 4.5 miles from the trail head with my cabin group at camp. I had my arms dangling at my side and a five foot long rattlesnake bit me in the middle of my left palm. From this point, an amazing rescue took place, taking four hours to transport me the 4.5 miles to the trail head.

The camp director had previously called the hospital and a helicopter was waiting at the trail head. During the 30 minute helicopter ride I was going in and out of consciousness, having trouble keeping my eyes open.

We arrived at the Modesto hospital, where the doctor in the emergency room decided that my case was too severe to treat at that medical center. He told me this and it was the last thing I heard before going unconscious. Although I was unconscious for approximately the next 24 hours, I have heard about the following events from my parents.

I was taken from the Modesto hospital to the UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, the trauma center for Northern California . My snake bite was determined to be too severe for Modesto to deal with. At the UC Davis hospital I underwent a fasciotomy, which involved the doctors cutting open my arm from the palm up to about the middle of my biceps. This was to relieve the extreme pressure that had built up in my arm from the rattlesnake venom, making my arm as hard as a rock until the fasciotomy.

I spent the next 35 days in the UC Davis hospital, had eight surgeries performed for cleaning out the dead tissue from my arm, and finally had a skin graft from my leg to close up my arm, which had remained open for 30 days after the fasciotomy until the skin graft surgery. That is 10 surgeries in total at UC Davis.

I was released from the hospital on August 24, had four months of intense physical therapy, and flew to Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina for a follow-up surgery. This was a vascular flap surgery, during which they took a chunk of skin and muscle from my back, attached its blood vessels to the ones in my arm using microsurgery, and then stitched it to my arm. Although 2 emergency surgeries were required within 24 hours on account of blood loss, the vascular flap was a success, and after six more months of physical therapy, my hand had a significant improvement in mobility from when I left UC Davis and could move each finger only 2-3 millimeters.

My hand now has fully mobility and is about 80% as strong as it was before, thanks to my Dad and I resuming our rock climbing after a one year break due to the lack of strength in my left hand. I use it for about 90% of the things I used to do with my left hand (I am right handed). 13 surgeries, $700,000 worth of helicopter flights, surgeries, and hospital stays (paid by my insurance), and 20 months later, I am very happy with the outcome of this experience and my good fortune of getting through all this without any significant loss.

[Polygamist Masturbates All Day in Jail] How is polygamist leader and convicted rapist Warren Jeffs dealing the knowledge that he will spend the rest of his life in jail, never again to feel the sweet caress of his harem of child brides? With constant exhibitionist masturbation.

I understand that the MoonDOG’s Scruffy had his 259th (in dog years) wedding anniversary yesterday. Congrats to Mrs. Scruffy for putting up with him for so long!

The offspring of riches: Pride, vanity, ostentation, arrogance, tyranny.  ~Mark Twain

[Military SNAFUs] Interesting WWII trivia from Col D. G. Swinford, USMC, (Ret) and history buff. You'd really have to dig deep to get this kind of ringside seat to history:

1. The first German serviceman killed in WW II was killed by the Japanese in China in 1937, the first American serviceman killed was killed by the Russians in Finland in 1940; highest ranking American killed was Lt Gen Lesley McNair, killed by the US Army Air Corps. So much for allies.

2. The youngest US serviceman was 12 year old Calvin Graham, USN. He was wounded and given a Dishonorable Discharge for lying about his age. His benefits were later restored by act of Congress.

3. At the time of Pearl Harbor, the top US Navy command was called CINCUS (pronounced 'sink us'), the shoulder patch of the US Army's 45th Infantry division was the Swastika, and Hitler's private train was named 'Amerika.' All three were soon changed for PR purposes.

4. More US servicemen died in the Air Corps than the Marine Corps. While completing the required 30 missions, your chance of being killed was 71%.

5. Generally speaking, there was no such thing as an average fighter pilot. You were either an ace or a target. For instance, Japanese Ace Hiroyoshi Nishizawa shot down over 80 planes. He died while a passenger on a cargo plane.

6. It was a common practice on fighter planes to load every 5th round with a tracer round to aid in aiming. This was a mistake. Tracers had different ballistics so at long range if your tracers were hitting the target 80% of your rounds were missing. Worse yet tracers instantly told your enemy he was under fire and from which direction. Worst of all was the practice of loading a string of tracers at the end of the belt to tell you that you were out of ammo. This was definitely not something you wanted to tell the enemy. Units that stopped using tracers saw their success rate nearly double and their loss rate go down.

7. When allied armies reached the Rhine, the first thing men did was pee in it. This was pretty universal from the lowest private to Winston Churchill who made a big show of it and Gen. Patton who had himself photographed in the act.

8. German Me-264 bombers were capable of bombing New York City, but they decided it wasn't worth the effort.

9. German submarine U-120 was sunk by a malfunctioning toilet.

10. Among the first 'Germans' captured at Normandy were several Koreans. They had been forced to fight for the Japanese Army until they were captured by the Russians and forced to fight for the Russian Army until they were captured by the Germans and forced to fight for the German Army until they were captured by the US Army.

Bench, Bob is a rich guy. Get to know him, he might give you some. http://bit.ly/pfLRgC

[Pet of the Day] My Madagascar Lizard.

[Marc the Funny Guy] Require members of congress to wear uniforms like NASCAR, to display their corporate sponsors for all to see.

[Conch Color Magazine] I in no way meant to disparage homosexuals by using the colloquialism gay. Our fearless Lea-Deer made it seem that way with the “homophobic” title. I love homosexuals. I don't perform sex acts with them. Conch Color is gay.

[No Money?] If the state, county and municipalities are so broke, what is with the 4 new SUV unmarked cop cars I saw today? They are really nice and fast? I saw them driving down the middle of US 1 running people off the road. Law Enforcement American style.

[Howard Livingston] They say timing is everything and I got a little dose of that recently. I have an obsession with banana trees. I love them! So, in a stroke of genius I decided to plant a new tree. I did everything by the book, fresh planting soil and bark chips. It looked just great. However, what I did not anticipate was the gutter spout, which directs all the water from my roof to one location. Guess where the gutter was pointed? It dumps all the water right into my newly planted banana tree. Now normally you would think that would be a good situation for a brand-new tree trying to get its roots. But thousands of gallons of water coming out like a fire hose was a bit overkill. Normally in a heavy rainfall we have standing water around our property. In fact during a heavy storm we get some water around our tiki bar under our house. The water comes in, the storm passes, and the water goes away. No harm no foul. But, this time was different; the water came and brought with it all the new black soil that I had just painstakingly put around my new tree. So, when the water left it looked as if a dump truck had raised its bed and left loads of black dirt all over the place. Then just for fun they threw in bark chips to make the cleanup just a little more interesting. I started to dive into the mess a few times but each attempt was aborted as I ran for shelter because another wave of storms was coming through.

Today the sun has returned and it is time for me to reclaim my bar from Mother Nature, or borrow it. But for now I am feeling a bit lazy and will just keep writing and have another espresso. By the way the tree is doing great, it’s a strong one.

Key West Lobster Fest Street Party Saturday, August 13th. Lobster season is upon us again and it is time to celebrate our favorite crustacean with an all day party right on Duval Street at the intersection of Duval and Greene Street. The party goes from 1:00 until 10:30 pm with music all day long. We take the stage from 8:30 until 10:30. Come hungry! For more details visit http://www.keywestlobsterfest.com/

[Racism] “If Obama were all white.” It's still called freedom of speech and we haven't lost that yet. Oddly enough I bet if someone posted a picture of Obama with much darker skin no one would have said a word.

[Toilets] This model is not a side by side. It is a double-wide for fat chicks.

[Microsoft Fix It Site] Every time I have used this, it worked perfectly! At last MS did something right. http://support.microsoft.com/fixit/

[Color Test] These are the things we're  supposed to do to remove the cholesterol around our brain and try to  slow up Alzheimer's Disease. It took me 2 times before I could finally tell this brain of mine to concentrate. A great test to keep trying until you get 100%

http://bit.ly/9RVSgC

FTR admits he has acquired a taste for Johnny Walker Blue. How can an ex-cop afford such a taste? Check out the cost per bottle. The cheapest I found on the web was $179 a bottle.

[If Obama were all white] Jeez, Louise, lighten up. If Obama was all black he would look the same. No Photoshopping required.

Today's westerly tango hosts a strong denial by County Commissioner George Neugent to this in yesterday's rich folks, po folks, Navy folks, and the F-18 Super Hornet, NAS Key West post: "As is incomprehensible, County Commissioner George Neugent, against whom I now have run twice without even causing him to break sweat, lately saying the F-18 really isn’t loud and the county ought to give that one to the Navy." Which led into email back and forth with George, along with comments from County Commissioner Kim Wigington, retired Navy aircraft carrier pilot John Hammerstrom, and the new head of the Department of Community affairs, whom George gave high marks on US 1 Radio yesterday afternoon, even though this fellow is about as pro-development as it gets, all of which you can read all about by clicking on this link: the Navy said, and other intrigue – Key West. Or, if that link doesn't work for you, go to goodmorningkeywest.com and click on the Today's Cock-a-doodle-doo file. Ciao

Pop!

[Boaters and Marriage] I have suspected for some time now that my wife has been cheating on me. The usual signs: if the phone rings and I answer, the caller hangs up; she goes out with the girls a lot. I try to stay awake to look out for her when she comes home but I usually fall asleep. Anyway last night about midnight I hid in the shed behind the boat. When she came home she got out of someone's car, buttoning her blouse, and then she took her panties out of her purse and slipped them on. It was at that moment, crouched behind the boat, that I noticed a small, hairline crack in the outboard engine mounting bracket, just to the right of the bolt holes. Is that something I can weld or do I need to replace it?

[Stricter Rules Mulled For Land-Use Changes] The Monroe County Commission finally may vote on a proposal to make it harder to change its comprehensive plan that guides land use in the Florida Keys. The commission will vote Aug. 17 on an ordinance that requires a super-majority vote — four of the five commissioners — to change the policy document the county follows to determine where and how much development can occur.

Commissioners discussed the issue in December and asked the staff to explore various options, including also requiring a super-majority vote to change the county’s land development regulations, which are more specific than the comprehensive plan, and requiring a unanimous vote if one of the commissioners is absent from a meeting. The issue has been dormant since. Commissioner Sylvia Murphy, who has resurrected the issue, was an open supporter of the failed statewide ballot initiative Amendment 4, which would have required voters to approve any comprehensive land use plan changes. Murphy and others who are concerned about uncontrolled development began to raise concerns about county land use policies after Gov. Rick Scott began to dismantle the state planning office. The state Department of Community Affairs oversees development in the Keys. Murphy and others are worried the Keys will not have adequate state oversight and a future County Commission may not be as responsible when it comes to development. Murphy called the comprehensive plan “vitally important.” “If you can get four people to vote in favor of something, then it’s probably not a bad idea,” Murphy said. Commissioner Kim Wigington echoed Murphy’s sentiments and called the comprehensive plan the “people’s document.” “I think it should be difficult to change it,” Wigington said. Wigington said she would support requiring a super majority vote for “major comprehensive plan changes “and properties receiving new designations. There have been several major comprehensive plan changes proposed in the past several years, including a plan to change the future land use map designation for Wisteria Island and a plan to change the rules for working waterfronts on Stock Island. County Mayor Heather Carruthers and Commissioners David Rice and George Neugent have concerns about a minority vote dictating policy. “It would empower the minority,” Neugent said. “I can’t support that.” Rice said his mind is open and he will listen to input, but argued the better solution to uncontrolled growth would be voters educating themselves on candidates’ stands on development issues. “We need to be careful about who we elect and know what they stand for before we vote for them,” Rice said. Carruthers said she was “conflicted” on the issue because she understands the concerns about uncontrolled growth and lack of state oversight. But if the commission wanted to pass a comprehensive plan amendment that would make it harder to develop, such a measure could be blocked by a 3-2 vote.

After Scott took office and DCA’s future began looking bleak, Keys residents began talking about tighter local controls on development and the county going to a charter form of government, which would give voters the option of removing elected officials from office. DCA has been downsized and as of Oct. 1 will merge with the Agency for Workforce Innovation and the Office of Tourism, Trade and Economic Development. It will be called the Department of Economic Opportunity.

“If you can get four people to vote in favor of something, then it’s probably not a bad idea.” — Sylvia Murphy County commissioner

Caution: NATIONAL POLITICS and Religion, etc

You have a lot of gall to say that the Tea Party is out to destroy America! Your leaders are the ones who are bankrupting America and bringing us into 3rd world status. Starting with Fannie & Freddy, the Democrats were in charge of every fiasco that is undermining this once great nation. The working people who have had enough of their crap are what you call the TEA Party. You know it is an acronym for Taxed Enough Already. Do you like giving money to politicians who piss it away on pet projects and career welfare bums in exchange for votes? I don't. Helping those less fortunate is not a bad thing to do, but when those "unfortunate" ones own high dollar cars, gold jewelry, have plenty of money to buy booze and drugs and are 2nd or 3rd generation welfare recipients, something is terribly wrong. Those are the people who are bleeding welfare services dry, not the poor people who really need help. Our illustrious leaders want to tax the rich. Look at the salary those Gov't ticks suck off us tax payers. They are the rich ones. Why don't they take a pay cut or cut in benefits instead of telling the workers in this country to suffer. Most of them have never had a real job in their whole life. Politicians from both sides of the aisle are mostly from wealthy families and have never had to scrimp and save to buy anything in their life. They don't have a clue how to manage a business or household budget. Don't believe me? Just look at how poorly they are managing our national budget. They use class warfare terms like taxing corporate jets. (how many corporate jets are there in this country any way). Is taxing a hand full of jets going to make a pimple on an elephant's ass worth of difference? We need real leaders in this country not a bunch of clueless assholes like what is in our Government now.

Stephen Wozniak, co-founder of Apple computer, was born on this date in 1950. His simple, convenient designs have greatly influenced current personal computers and devices. “I am atheist or agnostic. I don’t even know the difference. I’ve never been to church and prefer to think for myself. I just felt that an intelligent person like myself could figure out good behaviors without going to a church and having to follow the thinking of a large group, all who follow it largely because they all do. I believe in encouraging free thinking and creativity for youngsters."

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Where is the Jobs Bill, Boehner? Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to disturb your summer vacation.

[Print New Denomination] The U.S. could pay all of its financial obligations by not being honest. To do this we would have to come up with somewhere around 100 trillion dollars. We have a debt of almost 15 trillion. Other expenses we are on the hook for are obligations like S.S. and Medicare. If we were a private company we would be obligated to enter those obligations into our balance sheet. Could America cover this debt? The answer is yes, but in order to do it we would have to start printing much more paper and the denomination would have to contain a lot more zeroes. The effect would be similar to selling your trailer for 20 million dollars so you could go to Winn Dixie and get a loaf of bread for $500 thousand.

The Tea Party started out as a bunch of thinkers trying to get the citizenry to realize they are the power in this country not the Government. The name Tea Party was coined by a dude in Florida three years ago and it caught on instantly as did the Boston tea party way back when. Of course the Fed couldn't allow this to happen, so they use their media to spin and twist the Tea Party idea into a bunch of rabble rousers, then to a political party, then to a subversive organization. It's all in the people's minds and the gov has the formula to control the simpletons into thinking anyway they want. Forget political parties and all the TV hoopla BS; it's only entertainment for those not in control. Money means nothing, but canned goods will be worth all the gold in the world in the future.

A poster said that 24% of children were living in poverty. The poster was wrong. It’s not 24% its 20% according to the National Center for Children living in poverty for children under 6 years old. They even list the criteria for their ratings. They go on to say that American children in comparison to other industrialized nations are 2-3 times more likely to be living in poverty. Why should any child in this food rich country, where politicians and others own farms and get free farm subsidies go hungry? The American tax payer is paying the freight for these subsidies so why shouldn’t this food be given to poor children born in very rural areas?

I read where the true mark of a great country is how they take care of their very young and very old. We can see which way its heading. We blame the very young because their parents are very poor and want to cut out their aid and now tea baggers want to give our very old vouchers. Then leave them to fend with insurance salesmen. The old saying about the greatness of a country is right and we are starting to fail miserably. I work hard for the things I have yet I will never get so angry with the fact that I work that I would turn a senior over to an insurance company’s mercy and to fend for themselves. I would never fuss about trying to tell others that "There’s no poverty" in rural households. I just wasn’t raised that way. It’s too bad Americans don’t hold our young and elderly more dear. Its the new America. It’s the me, me, me America.

The American Indians believe that no matter what, you should take care of the poor and the elderly, yet we thought we could improve on that. Mitacoye Oyasin said, "We are all related." The people before us had it right. 20% of children under 6 years old are living in poverty. We can do better if we want. But we don’t want.

Sarah Palin has been noticeably absent during the debt ceiling debate. She couldn’t think of any catchy sound bites. Now that the debate is over she should soon resurface with more sound bites and less substance.

[Zogby Poll] Rep. Michelle Bachmann leads among all announced candidates for the Republican Presidential nomination in a poll of GOP primary voters, while Mitt Romney does best when all of the announced Republican candidates are matched up against President Barack Obama.The June 17-21 IBOPE Zogby Interactive poll results show that Romney only trails Obama 42% to 41% among all voters, a statistical tie. The poll also shows 40% of all voters saying Obama deserves re-election, while54% say it is time for someone new.

[Commentary] Government Gone Wild http://bit.ly/pXASDq

[This Is How You Fix Congress] “The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the People; it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government - lest it come to dominate our lives and interests” - Patrick Henry -

The26th amendment (granting the right to vote for 18 year-olds) took only 3 months & 8 days to be ratified! Why? Simple! The people demanded it. That was in 1971, before computers, before e-mail, before cell phones, etc. Of the 27 amendments to the Constitution, seven took 1 year or less to become the law of the land. All because of public pressure.

Congressional Reform Act of 2011

1. No Tenure / No Pension. A Congressman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are out of office.

2. Congress (past, present, & future) participates in Social Security. All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system and Congress participates with the American people. It may not be used for any other purpose.

3. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do.

4. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.

5. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.

6. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people.

7. All contracts with past and present Congressmen are void effective 1/1/12.  The American people did not make this contract with Congressmen. Congressional representatives made all these contracts for themselves. Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their term(s), then go home and back to work.

[From the Right]  Here’s the story. A couple of days ago a poster lambasted us Right Wingers and published one of the oldest falsehoods in the Liberal Playbook. As I recall she said that 1 out of every 4 American kids go to bed hungry. The implication is that vast numbers of American children are starving and the greedy Right Wing folks are to blame. Without a doubt, making those claims made the lady feel very much the activist for the down trodden and hugely self righteous. Yesterday she submitted a Team Obama chart that the lady actually believes proves her point. It doesn’t. Here’s why it doesn't. The chart that she posted declared that 21% of families with children suffer from “low or very low food security”. (It’s worth noting that the number of affected families began rising in 2007 when the Dems took total control of Congress, and by the time those stats were gathered the number had increased by 30%.) But what does "food insecurity" actually mean? The USDA tells us that low food security means: “reduced quality, variety, or desirability of diet. Little or no indication of reduced food intake.” That sounds like all of those folks just shop at Winn Dixie. Very low food security means: “multiple indications of disrupted eating patterns and reduced food intake.” As an aside, Team Obama’s report author chose not to differentiate between the two. Why? Because the much larger combined figure strongly weighted toward the "low" only side suggests mass hunger and it feeds into the left wing need for class warfare. We must look elsewhere to determine how many kids are actually hungry and how often. Team Obama’s USDA published a document called “Food Security in the United States”. In that report they claimed that only 5.7% of American families have experienced “Very low food security”. That is a huge difference from the 25% claimed by our leftist poster. You must note that the report makes no mention if that situation is chronic or a one time or an occasional short term event. I hope you will join me in wondering why it doesn’t! It is vital data if we are to understand the issue. The report then chops it even finer. It claims that of those families with children under the age of 18, just 6.6% have had “very low food security.” I won’t even try to do the math on that. What is 6.6% of 5.7% of all American families with kids? You do the math, figure it out. For sure, it is a tiny, tiny but tragic number of American kids. It is sad that there is even one kid in such circumstances, but it is the fault of the parents, not society. It is not my fault, it is not your fault. Deer Friends, the stats quoted are all from Team Obama sources. Never doubt the importance of those poor kids. They are vital to the Left wing shibboleth that the masses are downtrodden by the evil achievers. Those poor kids are nothing but cannon fodder in the left’s battle for redistribution of wealth. Our left wing friends exhibit a huge character flaw when they make such outlandish claims and use helpless kids as pawns.

(Part 2) Can the United States pay 100% of its financial obligations? Of course. That is not the issue driving the downgrade of U.S. creditworthiness by Standard & Poor's. It beggars belief, but those were the opening words of somebody’s posting yesterday. Deer Friends, that is may well be the single most goofey comment ever in CT. It might as well have come from our Sec Treas Timmy (Tax Cheat) Geithner. How many remember when he recently testified under oath that the US of A will never suffer a credit rating downgrade? Think about the goofy comment! If we can meet 100% of our financial obligations, why in hell do we have to borrow 45 cents in order to spend a single buck? Why have we piled on nearly $6 Trillion in debt since the Dems took control of congress, why in the burning hell have we added $4 Trillion in the short 2 ½ years since Mr. Obama took office? Last, if that goof comment is true, why in the freak did our liberal leaders force us to increase our debt limit? Dummy.

Thursday August 11, 2011

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Wednesday August 10, 2011

[Sounds Good In Theory] How about we divide up America into sections. Like make Texas, it's big, a welfare only state. The West Cost States for freaks and geeks only, The Central States for holy rollers, and the North East Coast for industry and thinkers, and finally the Southern States, except for Texas, for rednecks.

Oops, it seems that's the way it is already!

Because of Bench Bob I still shop at CVS instead of Walgreens. It brings a smile to me just to see someone enjoying the simplicity of reading a good book.

[Re-districting] By lumping Monroe County and Miami / Dade together we will have a problem. We know who our incompetent and crooked politicians are here, but we don't know who they are up there.

[Response To The Citizen Editorial of August 7] When will the oratory stop?  The local paper editorial writers continue to bash the citizenry in its quest for fair, balanced and truthful conduct in regard to the military and their operations.

In November 2007, Monroe County voters commenced a political cleansing that was wholly supported by The Citizen.  Now this same broadsheet chastises these elected officials for following through on their promise to act in the best interest of the community it is sworn to represent.

State and local pseudo military organization records, documenting the actual reason for changing the Navy flight paths, are well known.  The real motivation to change the 2004 AICUZ was to allow a developer to force the County to issue building permits – not necessarily to build the development but to increase the potential market value in a “takings” procedure by the Navy.  The Navy Commander responsible for the AICUZ change readily admits that the modification of flight paths would not be in the best safety interest of the Navy pilots.  Both motivations are well documented in previous Citizen articles.

When an affordable housing development was proposed at the end of a runway in Big Coppitt and challenged by local residents due to high noise and potential crashes, those issues were ignored by the building organization.  The Citizen championed the rights of the poor to live under these conditions as long as it was economical.

And, the continued reference to “the estimated half a billion dollars that the military annually pumps into the County economy” must stop.

For almost a decade, Monroe County and its citizens have requested a true accounting of this economic engine.  With unemployment at its highest level, plummeting real estate values and over abundant minimum wage opportunities, where is “the estimated half a billion dollars” engine?  Or is this the same engine that runs on the millions of dollars of coal that the Navy purchases each year in Monroe County?

Concerning the Navy's environmental study, I’ll believe it when I see it.  And, leave our Commissioners alone -- doing the right thing is tough enough.  ~pressquote@gmail.com

[Stable] I am looking for a suitable place to keep my horse. I will do all of the work. He is well taken care of. The new stable owners want privacy. I am heartbroken. I like where I am.  Classified Ads > Wanted

[Pet of the Day] This is my buddy, his name is Kiss and yes, that's his recliner.

[Pet of the Day] Are we sending in cute pictures of our boat dogs now? Here's Jazz getting acquainted with a stone crab.

[Pet of the Day] Dishwasher assistance.

[Restrictive voter ID Law] I don't really see an issue here. The poster begins by commenting that Florida Gov. (sock-it-to-'em) Scott is following in the tracks of S.C. Gov. Haley in the voter identification arena. I understand the poster thinks this is a bad thing. Then at the end of the post, laments that Monroe County may well be lumped in with Miami-Dade’s non-English speaking voters and "who knows how many voting illegally".

The important thing here is the issue of complete verification of a citizen’s identity and right to vote in an election. Voting isn't a contest to see how many warm bodies can be bussed to the polling place to vote, but it's about selecting the candidates the legal, registered, informed voter feels is best suited and prepared to serve.

Responsible voting is the heart of our Republic. If illegals, illiterates or unauthorized voters sneak or are legislated through the identification process we will have public officials and legislators of the caliber of many we now have in our cities, counties and nation. This isn't about Jim Crow - it's about saving our falling star nation while we still can, and do it in the ballot box and not in the street.

[Homophobe] I just picked up Conch Color magazine for the first time. I've seen it for a long time but I thought it was a gay culture/drag queen publication that I’m not quite inclined to read. Right I was. That is the gayest thing I have ever seen. Conch Color, the magazine, is the biggest waste of trees I have seen since Dianetics was published. It reminds me of a yearbook for the middle aged. Pay for advertising, get your picture published kissing some weird looking important person. Grease my knob, pictures of your kids to cut out and put on the Frigidaire. How embarrassing.

[Smartest Pet of the Day] Is this the world's smartest dog? This is my 6 year old blue merle sheltie.

Polish arm wrestling. Video

The coconut hot-air balloon banner on Tuesday’s edition was great! Thanks, we loved it. (Ed: That was created by Bill who is a regular supplier of CT banners.)

[Feral cat unites with invasive iguana] They both look like someone's pets that appear to be inside a house. It's to bad humans can't get along like that.

Moondogs’ Kenny, aka Scruffy, happy 37^th anniversary! August 10^th, 1974. Time sure flies when you’re having fun!

[County Raises] My company took a financial hit and all employees survived. We took actual reductions in pay in the form of working a 3 1/2 day week. Our health insurance and retirement contributions were continued so we retained all benefits. We worked a flex schedule so the offices were still open from 8 to 5, but with a reduced workforce. Yes, the quantity of work produced in a week went down slightly, but the quality never did. We did the same good job, it just took longer. Our customers understood and were happy we were staying in business, no matter what it took. Yes, the lower salary was hard, but we adjusted because less salary and continuing benefits was better than no salary and no benefits.

Perhaps it's time for the county to reduce non-union employees' work hours, and explain to the taxpayers it may take longer to get something, but it keeps taxes down and the County employees still employed. And I suspect that after adjusting to flex hours, some employees may like working 3 1/2 or 4 days a week. If the scheduling is done properly, all County offices will be able to maintain their normal operating hours. Hello Roman, give this suggestion some thought, will you?

[Pet of the Day] Bubble dog makes baby laugh. Video

How fortunate for leaders that men do not think. ~Hitler

[Drunks on Simonton Street Beach] It's very simple. They don't mind getting arrested, as many of them have been arrested time and time again. It's called “three hots and a cot”.  And it’s all on your tax dollars. It's a damn shame that they get away with it.

[Pet of the day] Sit!

No Medical Marijuana for Nova Scotia Welfare Recipients] They no longer will be able to get medical marijuana, gym memberships or hot tubs as a special need. http://bit.ly/pOFI7S

[Foreign Aid] I wonder what these 3rd and 4th world shit holes would do if America said, “That's it, do it yourself from now on.” Oh, that's right the Russians would attack and conquer that country. Looking at most of those useless breeding pits, let Russia have them!

[Jewish Boycott] A short time ago, Iran's Supreme Leader Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged the Muslim World to boycott anything and everything that originates with the Jewish people.

In response, Meyer M. Treinkman, a pharmacist, out of the kindness of his heart, offered to assist them in their boycott as follows:
~Any Muslim who has Syphilis must not be cured by Salvarsan discovered by a Jew, Dr. Ehrlich.

~He should not even try to find out whether he has Syphilis, because the Wasserman Test is the discovery of a Jew.

~If a Muslim suspects that he has Gonorrhea, he must not seek diagnosis, because he will be using the method of a Jew named Neissner.
~A Muslim who has heart disease must not use Digitalis, a discovery by a Jew, Ludwig Traube.
~Should he suffer with a toothache, he must not use Novocaine, a discovery of the Jews, Widal and Weil.
~If a Muslim has Diabetes, he must not use Insulin, the result of research by Minkowsky, a Jew.

~If one has a headache, he must shun Pyramidon and Antypyrin, due to the Jews, Spiro and Ellege.
~Muslims with convulsions must put up with them because it was a Jew, Oscar Leibreich, who proposed the use of Chloral Hydrate.
~Arabs must do likewise with their psychic ailments because Freud, father of psychoanalysis, was a Jew.
~Should a Muslim child get Diphtheria, he must refrain from the "Schick" reaction which was invented by the Jew, Bella Schick.
~Muslims should be ready to die in great numbers and must not permit treatment of ear and brain damage, work of Nobel Prize winner, Robert Baram.
~They should continue to die or remain crippled by Infantile Paralysis because the discoverer of the anti-polio vaccine is a Jew, Jonas Salk.
~Muslims must refuse to use Streptomycin and continue to die of Tuberculosis because a Jew, Zalman Waxman, invented the wonder drug against this killing disease.
~Muslim doctors must discard all discoveries and improvements by dermatologist Judas Sehn Benedict, or the lung specialist, Frawnkel, and of many other world renowned Jewish scientists and medical experts.

In short, good and loyal Muslims properly and fittingly should remain afflicted with Syphilis, Gonorrhea, Heart Disease, Headaches, Typhus, Diabetes, Mental Disorders, Polio Convulsions and Tuberculosis and be proud to obey the Islamic boycott.

Meanwhile I ask, what medical contributions to the world have the Muslims made besides goat lip balm?

China bought an aircraft carrier from the sensible Russians who unloaded it because it was useless and too expensive. They should name it the Walmart which is where the money for it came from.

[Togetherness] Spend more time with your loved one.

[Malware] The W32/Blaster Worm with a few dozen variants is going around again. Keep your virus software and operating system up to date daily. Be careful out there!

[Speared Turtle Reward] $10,250 Reward. The reward increased by $7,500 on August 8 when long-time sea turtle volunteer and Turtle Hospital engineer Tom Luebke pledged $4,000, which was promptly matched by Hospital founder Richie Moretti who added $3,500 to his original reward of $500. The reward is for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person(s) who speared a loggerhead sea turtle that was rescued on August 3, 2011, offshore near Big Pine Key. Please call (305) 743-2552 with information. You may remain anonymous. After Richie Moretti pledged the initial $500 reward, Jason Martinez of Sugarloaf added $500 and the FL Keys Commercial Fishermen’s Association and the Organized Fishermen of FL, Marathon Chapter, added $500 more. Matt Bellinger of Bamboo Charters pledged the full-day fishing trips, and Captain Slate’s Atlantis Dive Center three free dives. Stacy Shippe & Pat McCarthy of Outta the Blue Marina added $250 to the reward. Nancy Mayhew, owner of Salsa Loca Restaurant in Key West, and The Horvats of Gulf View Waterfront Resort made donations toward Sara’s care. The reward increased another $1,000 on Sunday when Cee Dee Air Conditioning (owner Thomas Schenck & Chuckie D, former DJ for Thunder Country) pledged $500, as did Brad Brooks & Jessica Mootz.
 

It is wonderful to see such great people stepping up to help this turtle victim in ways from actual hands on rescue and help, to donating to the reward of finding this self-centered loser. Someone out there has heard something or knows something. Please Report any information you have to the authorities - Fish and Wildlife, the Sheriff's office or to the Turtle Hospital. Thank you everyone for protecting our ocean friends. Let's find this person trying to kill our sea turtles!

[Patriotic] This is the account of a little-known ceremony that fills the halls of the Army corridor of the Pentagon with cheers, applause and many tears every Friday morning.

It is 110 yards from the E ring to the A ring of the Pentagon. This section of the Pentagon is newly renovated; the floors shine, the hallway is broad, and the lighting is bright. At this instant the entire length of the corridor is packed with officers, a few sergeants and some civilians, all crammed tightly three and four deep against the walls. There are thousands here.

This hallway, more than any other, is the ‘Army’ hallway. The G3 offices line one side, G2 the other, G8 is around the corner. All Army. Moderate conversations flow in a low buzz. Friends who may not have seen each other for a few weeks, or a few years, spot each other, cross the way and renew.

Everyone shifts to ensure an open path remains down the center. The air conditioning system was not designed for this press of bodies in this area.

The temperature is rising already. Nobody cares. 10:36 hours: The clapping starts at the E-Ring. That is the outermost of the five rings of the Pentagon and it is closest to the entrance to the building. This clapping is low, sustained, hearty. It is applause with a deep emotion behind it as it moves forward in a wave down the length of the hallway.

A steady rolling wave of sound it is, moving at the pace of the soldier in the wheelchair who marks the forward edge with his presence. He is the first. He is missing the greater part of one leg, and some of his wounds are still suppurating. By his age I expect that he is a private, or perhaps a private first class.

Captains, majors, lieutenant colonels and colonels meet his gaze and nod as they applaud, soldier to soldier. Three years ago when I described one of these events, those lining the hallways were somewhat different. The applause a little wilder, perhaps in private guilt for not having shared in the burden ... yet.

Now almost everyone lining the hallway is, like the man in the wheelchair, also a combat veteran. This steadies the applause, but I think deepens the sentiment. We have all been there now. The soldier's chair is pushed by, I believe, a full colonel.

"Behind him, and stretching the length from Rings E to A, come more of his peers, each private, corporal, or sergeant assisted as need be by a field grade officer.

11:00 hours: Twenty-four minutes of steady applause. My hands hurt, and I laugh to myself at how stupid that sounds in my own head. My hands hurt. Please! Shut up and clap. For twenty-four minutes, soldier after soldier has come down this hallway - 20, 25, 30. Fifty-three legs come with them, and perhaps only 52 hands or arms, but down this hall came 30 solid hearts.

They pass down this corridor of officers and applause, and then meet for a private lunch, at which they are the guests of honor, hosted by the generals. Some are wheeled along. Some insist upon getting out of their chairs, to march as best they can with their chin held up, down this hallway, through this most unique audience. Some are catching handshakes and smiling like a politician at a Fourth of July parade. More than a couple of them seem amazed and are smiling shyly.

There are families with them as well: the 18-year-old war-bride pushing her 19-year-old husband's wheelchair and not quite understanding why her husband is so affected by this, the boy she grew up with, now a man, who had never shed a tear is crying; the older immigrant Latino parents who have, perhaps more than their wounded mid-20s son, an appreciation for the emotion given on their son's behalf. No man in that hallway, walking or clapping, is ashamed by the silent tears on more than a few cheeks. An Airborne Ranger wipes his eyes only to better see. A couple of the officers in this crowd have themselves been a part of this parade in the past.

These are our men, broken in body they may be, but they are our brothers, and we welcome them home. This parade has gone on, every single Friday, all year long, for more than four years.

[Sunrise/sunset] On Sunday, July 31, when Expedition 28 astronaut Ron Garan aboard the International Space Station looked out his window, this is what he saw: the moon. And, he saw it 16 times. Said Garan, "We had simultaneous sunsets and moonsets." For Garan and the rest of the station crew, this extraordinary event is a daily occurrence. Since the station orbits the Earth every 90 minutes, each day the crew experiences this about 16 times a day.

Caution: NATIONAL POLITICS and Religion, etc

[National Rights] Socialism only works in two places: Heaven where they don't need it and Hell where they already have it.   ~Ronald Reagan

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[Do the Math] The President ordered the cabinet to cut $100 million from the $3.5 trillion federal budget. I'm so impressed by this sacrifice that I have decided to do the same thing with my personal budget. I spend about $2000 a month on groceries, household expenses, medicine, utilities, etc, but it's time to get out the budget cutting axe, go through my expenses, and cut back. I'm going to cut my spending at exactly the same ratio, 1/35,000 of my total Budget. After doing the math, it looks like instead of spending $2000 a month; I'm going to have to cut that number by six cents. Yes, I'm going to have to get by with $1999.94, but that's what sacrifice is all about.

[Taxing the Rich and the Theory of the Road] Two men are friends, live in the same town and work for the same company. I will call them Jim and Frank. They both are married and have 2.3 kids. Jim lives in a single family neighborhood across the street from Frank who lives in an apartment complex and they both drive the same roads to the office, some days they even car pool.

Jim worked hard in school and went to college part time on student loans while Frank had a good time. Now Jim is an executive who works hard and long hours and Frank works in customer service 8 hours a day and spends the remainder of his time drinking. Jim who worked hard and graduated college makes 250k a year and Frank, the partier, is making 24k a year.

It cost Jim around 60k to live in America while it only cost Frank around 5k for the same services, opportunities and to drive the same roads. Why?

I am all for taxing corporations a fair amount and even penalizing them for their evil ways, however the idea that a citizen must pay more to live here, simply because they have more, is ridiculous. Imagine if every time you went to a store the store owner asked you how much money you had and then charged you accordingly!

The problem is not taxes, it is spending. The government must learn to live within its means. Get rid of the pork, balance the budget and bring the jobs back home. The way to help someone is to give them a job not a handout. Letting our jobs go abroad and replacing them with unemployment benefits is insanity.

[Bad Left] Have you ever seen a bunch as terrified of another bunch as the looney left is of the Tea Party? The ludicrous statements made by this bunch of braying donkeys is deafening to say the least.

[Budget Talk] Telling it like it is! It's about time someone spoke out. http://bit.ly/qZK7cl

[Cutting Government Spending] Yes, it will eliminate jobs, but it will also eliminate unnecessary offices and buildings (owned or rented), vehicles, travel, supplies, and everything else on which government people spend money. Federal government budgets have been cut since 1998, and yet government has grown larger, primarily in management and office space. There’s too much management and not enough laborers. Why do you think you are put on hold so often? Why do you think no real work gets done? The "pain" needs to be distributed, and government workers should not be considered immune, especially since anyone losing a job because of a reduction in force gets first choice at any other available job in government. Most private sector people don't get that special treatment.

[If Obama Was all White] I would still loathe his policies and the direction he is taking America. As a Republican I believe Hillary Clinton would have been the lesser of two evils. Of course, the democrats labeled anyone who didn't vote for Obama as racist. I am waiting to see how long it takes before the inevitable happens; some democrat suggests that America having it's credit rating downgraded by S&P was a move based on the President's race.

[Rights as an American] Time to re-read your constitution. The federal government was not established to provide your daily needs. That is your job. The govt is there to protect your freedom to do so on your own or with help from your family, but not by sponging off those working hard to take care of themselves and their families.

[Destroy America] Even the worst enemies of America have the dignity to say that their objective is to destroy America. The Tea party lacks that honesty. We have been told since we were kids that Americas worst enemies will come from within. Welcome to the Downgrade tea party of today.

Can the United States pay 100% of its financial obligations? Of course. That is not the issue driving the downgrade of U.S. creditworthiness by Standard & Poor's.

Rather, S&P's downgrade is a pointed critique of our political system -- the reality that we have a group of political extremists, nihilist, who have invaded and seemingly conquered the Republican Party of Ronald Reagan conservatives.

This band of political hooligans are both unable and uninterested in governing. Reagan would have a hard time recognizing these Tea Partiers as real Republicans.

Let's face it, the Tea Party has sought to shut down the Government by any means necessary. As another expression of their nihilism, fresh from the Tea Party's foray into vandalizing America's economic stability, they most recently blocked funding of the Federal Aviation Administration, purely for ideological reasons.

It is fair to assume that any rational American would agree that the FAA, responsible for our civilian air transportation system, is a critical agency to keep funded.

But we are not talking here about a group of people moved by the quaint notion that Government decisions must be made with reason, using empirical data, and a spirit, as the U.S. Constitution says, of promoting the "general welfare" of all Americans.

This band of Tea Party ideologues in Congress share a quasi-religious zeal that can withstand exposure to any contradicting data or objective reality. The whole world, including vast majorities of Americans, yelled at them "don't blow up the American economy!"

Yet they purposefully drove the country to the very precipice of calamity, to paraphrase Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.

Is it surprising then that such a radical, destructive agenda is creating significant market turbulence? Not in the least. In fact, it would be surprising if it didn't seriously rock global markets -- as it has.

They will not be happy until every person of age has to spend their entire retirement income on medical care and they wont be happy until the severely damaged infrastructure that we have know about for years is falling around us because they don’t want to repair it. Be careful on the next flight you take the runway you land on may have been scheduled for repair. Until your recent Tea party Congress wanted it stopped because your family’s safety is just to darn expensive. The money is better spent in tax breaks for Exxon. And it your own damn fault.

[Hungry Kids] FTR is contradicting himself again, or else he is doing his ugly American act. He's now an expert on children in metro slums and migrant camps but has never seen a single starving or chronically hungry child. Sounds like a case of looking but not seeing. So FTR, should they all just eat cake? Yours is typical conservative thinking, the poor are not a problem unless they run in front of my carriage and scare the horses.

[Hunger in America] In fact all kids in America are hungry three times a day. That's why they eat.

[Bad Government] My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.  ~Thomas Jefferson

[If Obama were all white] Hey Deer Ed, is this another racial prejudice joke? It sure seems like it. Where do you draw the line for the CT?

[New Gun] Smith & Wesson announced its newest gun called "The Congressman". It's overpriced, won't work and you can't fire it.

[From the Right] Certainly you recall the dust up in Wisconsin a few months ago where in the majority of voters in the state demanded major fiscal reform. As a part of that reform the new Governor, Scott Walker, set about cutting away the noose that the Unions had on education and on state employees. The union response was literally frightening. Riots! union thugs invaded the State House and occupied it for days. It was very much a ordered and well executed invasion and occupation. The Democrat minority of legislators formed a cabal and literally fled the state in order to guarantee the shut down of Wisconsin’s governance. The Dems and the unions sent the message that either they were going to get their way or there would be hell to pay. Their message was crystal clear: either we get our way or we close down the state. Sounds like a Banana Republic doesn't it! The forces of the left launched an all out political and physical attack. They set about trying to recall 6 Republican State Legislators. The unions have contributed tens of millions of dollars and have shipped in mobs and operatives. During all of this assault, Wisconsin, under the leadership of Walker, has managed to enact a balanced budget and has realized massive saving in government expenses. Prior to the Republican/Tea Party reforms Wisconsin was hemorrhaging jobs. The Wisconsin  Department of Workforce reported that in June a net increase of about 13K new jobs were created in the state. Deer Friends, that's nearly 1 in 10 of every job that was created in the USA in that month. That's the biggest increase in hires since 2003. New business = new jobs. It works every time. The election results are not yet in. But, Thursday Governor Walker opened the Wisconsin State Fair. His opening speech was mobbed by scores of left wing operatives/hecklers. They were all dressed in red, screaming and chanting either “shame”, or “hate”, it is difficult to tell from the video. Later at the fair mobs of thugs attacked fair goers. They beat, assaulted, and terrified fair goers. Go figure. There was not a single Tea Party thinker that rioted or beat up anyone.

Part 2) The left wing mind molding machine is doing a pretty fair job of trying to convince itself and its disciples of the cause of our most current fiscal atrocity. They scream, yodel, chant, and bellow that the Tea Party is at fault for the down grade. Is it? No, hell no! Without a doubt the whole mess is caused by the horribly excessive debt of the USA. The sole reason we have so much debt is that we spend so much more than we earn. We spend so much, that we actually have to borrow money just to open the doors of government every morning. If you had that much debt in your family or in your business, you’d be into bankruptcy in moments. All of that is not opinion, it is absolute fact. Can any liberal CT community member dispute it? Do you have the stones to try? How then, how did we come to owe so damned much, why does our government cost so freaking much to run? It seems to me that the excess spending started during the Bush administration when the Reps controlled Congress. In fact, the Dems won control of Congress in 2006 largely because of that fact. But, but, then the Dems found that they liked spending so much that they ignored their promises of frugality and started spending at a rate that dwarfed the Rep spending. That wave of spending went on for two years. Then, along came Mr. Obama. With his arrival, teamed with his Dem controlled Congress all hell broke loose. Their spending was a hurricane of money blowing out of the doors of government compared to a breeze by the Reps. I could bore you with stats, but you know them already. And so after two more years of tsunami spending, the Dems took a huge butt whipping in the midterms They were kicked because the majority of folks demanded a cut in spending and a return to fiscal sanity. You will note that the Tea Party created no debt whatsoever. The Tea Party had no currency whatsoever in the making of the debt, the Tea Party came into being because of the damned debt. The left is panicked by the Tea Party because the Tea Party is totally dedicated to cutting government spending and to cutting our debt. Put another way, the Tea Party is totally dedicated to restoring prosperity to America.

Wednesday August 10, 2011

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Tuesday August 9, 2011

[Lobster] Today is the first day fisherman can pull their traps. There will be lobster on the table tonight all over the Keys.

“Fix ugly BPK with just a fence here, a tree there, a coat of paint and/or a face lift” Ah, to be new to the area again and not know of Code Enforcement and their inspectors and fees. Poster, how bout you hop right on down to the government offices and start pulling those permits and paying those fees? That would be of course, if you could get the permit in the first place. How long is it that you have lived in Paradise?

[Aguapalooza] The count down continues music lovers. Aguapalooza this Saturday at Picnic Island. Weather permitting, the band starts at 1 pm.

[Reef Rape] I'm a part time captain and I took tourists out to Looe key for a dive trip. Their biggest impression was how many lobster they saw. That should be a positive thing, but it wasn’t.  What they saw was 50 to 60 lobster carcasses with no tails. Our reef was raped.  Who ever did it sucks and you know who you are, assholes!

I think Bench Bob is the richest man I know and I really don’t know him.

Why do drunks congregate at Simonton Street Beach in Key West day after day to drink? They should know by word of mouth that the location is inundated with police, even though they probably don't have computers to check out the Sherriff’s website.

[Happy Anniversary, I think] On August 9th, 1854 Henry David Thoreau published Walden.
(1995) Rock musician Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead died at age 53.
(1969) Actress Sharon Tate and four other people were found murdered in Los Angeles. Cult leader Charles Manson and a group of his followers were convicted of the crime.
(1945) The United States exploded a nuclear device over Nagasaki, Japan, instantly killing an estimated 39,000 people.

[Ugly Big Pine] To the people bitching about the beauty of Big Pine Key. I can't believe you can't enjoy the natural beauty that is here. It is a small town with all the amenities of a larger town. Have you ever got on a bicycle and ridden around on the island and actually looked at the pine forest, at the wildlife, and the slow pace of life? What you need to do is to go somewhere that is to your liking. I love this place, just the way it is. I see beauty that you cannot even fathom. Go away and take your bullshit with you.

You should play golf not other sports. Slides

The reason we get so hot at 90º is our skin temp is 89 degrees.

[Picture of the Day] Here's my dog and friend, Gecho.

[Ugly Big Pine] My husband and I lived on Big Pine from 1999 to 2006. We loved it there, but evacuations and skyrocketing insurance rates drove us out. While we lived there, we, along with other Piner friends, had a meeting with George Nugent about beautifying Big Pine. That was well over 5 years ago, and still nothing has been accomplished. Big Pine as a whole is mostly beautiful. Most of the island is a sanctuary and biking around the island is beautiful. Our only beef was driving thru Big Pine on U.S. 1. Islamorada did a fantastic job investing in beautifying along U.S. 1. Like one poster stated, some landscaping would go a long way on BPK. The unused telephone poles on Big Pine is a big eyesore too. Why not remove them? We still visit the Keys and are saddened that Big Pine has not been cleaned up on it’s main route through town. We vacation on Hilton Head quite often, and I am amazed at how much thought went into developing this island. All residential and commercial development was done at almost no expense of removal and destruction of trees. There are paved bike paths all over the island, which wind through and around trees. It is absolutely beautiful. All the buildings were built to look like it just blends in with nature. It is shameful, that with the beauty of the Keys as a whole, and U.S. 1 designated as a scenic highway, there wasn’t much thought and planning with the development along the highway.

[Short Term Rental] The reason Big Pine is ugly and looks like a town the interstate has bypassed is directly due to the short term rental ban. There are no customers (there used to be 2000 rentals in the lower Keys that turned over every week to support business much less landscaping and paint slinging. Sure there were a few rowdy parties. Now we have only one fifty year old motel that no one wants to stay a week in. When I moved here 20 years ago there were a lot of nice bars and restaurants and business and I can’t remember any empty storefronts. This is what happens when your nosy neighbors dictate what you can do with your property!

I want to go to nowhere special, but I don’t know where that is.

[Lower Keys Business Group] Wow! A huge thank you to everyone who attended the social on Saturday! I hope everyone had a good time. I know I did. Our next Social will be mid October and I will keep you posted with the details.

We are meeting this Thursday, August 11^th at the Big Pine Restaurant from 8-9 am

We are currently seeking volunteers to make a short business presentation even if you have already had a turn to teach us more about you and business. ~leslie.valant@gmail.com

[Pendulum Waves] The period of one complete cycle of the dance is 60 seconds. Watching this is great when you're stoned.  http://bit.ly/j2CRov

[Restrictive Voter Identification Law in South Carolina] The identical thing is happening in Florida, thanks to sock-it-to-us Scott. Monroe County is exempt from the new law because Monroe County is one of 5 counties currently under election control watch (due to many years of racial discrimination in voting rules and practices).

What is not yet known is whether the Monroe County Supervisor of Elections has the choice to follow the new, more restrictive, law or leave all voting procedures as they were last election.

Also tied into new voting procedure laws is the re-districting of all Florida's voting districts. This is 1000 times more serious for, and dangerous to, Florida voters. With Amendment 5 & 6 still tied up in court, re-districters are carving up the state as if Amendment 5&6 do not even exist. Their rational is that since the amendments are in court, they have no standing, therefore do not need to be followed.

To bring it to local level, in the worst case, Monroe County will be merged with Miami-Dade. Monroe voters will be outcasts in their own state and district, lumped in with so many non-English speaking people (and who knows how many are voting illegally) that the electeds will never need to be interested in Monroe people or our issues.

Sign up at www.floridaredistricting.org for continuing redistricting news.

Look at the rack on this Texas doe.

[Yesterday’s picture of the day] He looks like a wise old pooch.

[Right to Vote] Contrary to popular belief, there is no right to vote.

[Borrowing] It looks like our government will be borrowing another one hundred million dollars from China to feed Somalia.

Today's upheaval plays off something in the last Solares Hill Sunday supplement to The Citizen, the Keys daily newspaper headquartered in Key West. I put it aside after I read it, but after Todd German asked me yesterday if I had seen it, he said he figured I would write about it, because it was about angels, I said I would look at it again. You can read all about it, including the Solares Hill piece, by clicking on this link: allowing for the existence of angels – Solares Hill.

Feral cat unites with invasive iguana.  http://bit.ly/oKXf9l

Caution: NATIONAL POLITICS and Religion, etc

The rich are so afraid that some bum will get some of their money they are willing to ruin this country and our credit. There are bums and abuses, but there aren’t that many. You read about the few abuses and think the whole welfare system is like that. It’s not. Some people do need help, but the rich don’t care, they only say they do -- in public.

[National Rights] Americans should work together to make us great once again. My view of America is that our taxes should provide security, health care, education, and provide for our old age. I’m willing to pay more taxes for these things that I consider my national rights. Rich people don’t agree, but they should, it would be a better place.

[Fallout from S&P's credit downgrade] In light if recent events, the Iranian Board of Official Rhetoric has downgraded the US from "Great Satan" to "Somewhat Menacing Demon."

[Credit Downgrade] The U.S. government deserves the downgrade Standard and Poor slapped on its rating because the country has run up so many debts it will never get out of the hole,  The only way this country can save any shred of honor is to inflate itself out of this swamp that we and our willing weak politicians have put us in. That, my fellow citizens, is a back door way of default while still pretending to live up to our impossible promises. We are bankrupt! So hang onto what you can and learn to survive on a whole different level than what you are probably used to. Where the U.S. goes in the next few years is a toss-up. A grass roots effort must be made for this country to be the first country to regain its former status after losing it. I am sorry to say that I sincerely question this can be done with the present mindset of the population. At this time I think the idea that there is a free lunch is part of the DNA of way too many of our citizens. It seems every major country gets a shot at the brass ring, but eventually our human nature overtakes all of us.

[Sounds Good In Theory] Why is a man making 240k a year paying 10 time as much taxes as a man making 24k a year to live in the same country with the same services? As for using up resources it is the non taxpaying free loaders that use the most services by far without giving anything back. I am tired of paying for them. People that make the most money also spend the most helping to drive the economy. I'm am pretty sure you never got a job from a poor man.

The American dream is that if you work hard you can make something of yourself, the dream is not to stay home and let the government support you. Our great forefathers developed a system that would allow freedom and capitalism not welfare. Perhaps if some of the unemployed American work force would get off their asses and go do the work that currently is being done by illegal's then the illegal's would find no work and stay home, further cutting the usage of our resources.

Our forefathers never envisioned a government so large and out of control that we could not make a responsible budget and live within it. It's time to cut spending and tighten the old belt, bring the jobs and our solders home and take care of America for awhile. While we are out trying to save the world China is quickly becoming the number one super power, soon we will be number two. How's your Chinese?

The problems we face today are there because people who work for a living are outnumbered by those who vote for a living.

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[Gold] The price of gold is soaring due to the increased demand for it. It looks like the wealthy, who already have everything life has to offer, are pouring their tax windfalls, that they sucked out of our economy, into one of the most useless things God ever made.

[2011 Federal Budget Deal]
Federal Budget: $3,834,000,000,000 (3.834 trillion)
Income: $2,567,000,000,000 (2.567 trillion)
New Debt: $1,267,000,000,000 (1.267 trillion)
Amount Cut: $38,000,000,000 (38.0 billion) - about 3% of the total budget.

Let's Put This In Perspective. It helps me to think about these numbers in terms that I can relate to. Let's remove nine zeroes from those numbers and pretend this is a monthly household budget for the fictitious “Jones” family.
Amount of money the Jones family spent this month: $3,834
Total income for the Jones family this month: $2,567

Amount of new debt added to the credit card this month: $1,267

Outstanding balance on the credit card: $9,418 (This represents our national debt).
So last week, the Jones sat down at the kitchen table and agreed to cut $38 from their monthly budget ($456 a year).
 

Are you impressed? Me neither.

When you talk about cutting Government spending, ultimately you are talking about eliminating more jobs, you are talking about changing someone from a tax payer into a tax taker.

[Taxing The Rich] Yesterday, and most days, someone has complained that it is not fair to tax the rich at a higher rate than everyone else. I beg to differ.

I believe you assume everyone derives the same value from our government. That is not true. Anyone who makes a vast amount of wealth derives a higher proportion of value from our government. For example, that road that runs by your house, you find it convenient to get around, but those who make vast sums of money need it for their commerce. So to you, the value of that road may be X% of your wealth, to someone in business it is worth X% + Y%. So they should be taxed at a higher rate. The same is true with most things the government does, such as education (creates well trained employees), law enforcement (creates an open and secure market place where business can be done), military (allows international and domestic commerce to continue), and regulation (allows the marketplace to build rather than be destroyed by incivility).

To return to the idea of a road, imagine a homeless man’s value of your road. It is going to be less than yours which is why he should pay a smaller percentage than you. He doesn’t profit from it like you do, or have. In general you have profited more from having a government, than those who do not make as much as you. You have derived a higher degree of value than them. So be happy.

The debt ceiling should have been raised like it has been over 70 times before? Ever heard of that old saying, the straw that broke the camels back?

If Obama were all white.

[Twenty-Eighth Amendment] Where in the Constitution does it say that US workers can be forced into poverty to pay for the wealthy's tax cuts?

The Tea Party has damaged our reputation and now our credit is lowered, the stock market is crashing, and we are most likely entering a double dip recession as opposed to the modest recovery we were working our way through. I hope people learn a lesson from this, that it doesn't pay to elect thugs. Everyone except the top 2% will pay dearly with reduced Social Security and Medicare benefits while the very wealthy will continue to hire illegal aliens to clean their houses and buy expensive foreign autos.

Isn’t it ironic, Jill Biden is in Africa trying to get food in African kids mouths and Michelle is in the states trying to take food out of American kids mouths(?).

A religion, even if it calls itself the religion of love, must be hard and unloving to those who do not belong to it.  ~Sigmund Freud

["The left wing mind molding machine has gone into full panic mode."] Oh, FTR, if you were any more bat-shit-crazy, you'd have to have a constant Thorazine IV drip.

The Tea Party Congress is alive and living in the halls of Congress. Now if we can only figure out why the moderate republicans allowed the Tea Party them to take over their party and destroy Americas financial well being. The Tea Party supposedly hates Wall Street so much that it ignored warnings that its Taliban economic policy - threatening to decapitate the economy unless it got its way on spending cuts - would spook the markets, since the Street abhors uncertainty. For a moment, it looked as if the Tea team won, in that the market didn't tank as the deal wrangling went on and on. Instead, the market cratered post-deal, because this compromised compromise left so much up in the air. Republicans had been chastising the Obama Administration for creating uncertainty, yet they allowed their own radical wing to impose it for the foreseeable future. (Clearly, uncertainty about the resolution of Europe's sovereign debt crisis contributed to the market troubles, too. ) So S&P in effect, fired a shot across the Tea Party's bow: you mess with Wall Street, you will be punished. It had another for Obama: Lead, follow, or get out of the way. And the two parties blamed each other. "It happened on your watch, Mr. President," screamed Michelle Bachman, exhibiting the full extent of her knowledge of economics. In making its decision S&P said the downgrade "reflects our view that the effectiveness, stability, and predictability of American policymaking and political institutions have weakened at a time of ongoing fiscal and economic challenges to a degree more than we envisioned when we assigned a negative outlook to the rating on April 18, 2011."

Here's the other laughable irony. Congress had a chance to rein in the ratings agencies, but demurred. Even though the statutory authority that gave S&P, Moody's and Fitch an oligopoly on ratings was complicit in their contribution to the crisis, Congress nevertheless refused to remove the NRSRO status. The solons bought the idea that smaller agencies would be crushed if an unfettered free market was imposed on the ratings industry. Funny, that didn't happen in the airline industry when it was deregulated. And by the way, can you name the fourth, fifth or six largest ratings agency? . Republicans, heeding the deregulation call of their banking clients, (whose demands for deregulation a more than a decade ago, blessed by the Clinton Administration, led us down the path to the crisis) bent over backward to defang the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that was central to the Dodd Frank bill, whose hilarious formal name is the Dodd Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Wall Street, having blown trillions during the crisis, demanded not to be hampered by either reform or consumer protection as it recovered from the crisis, why should the ratings agencies be so encumbered.

So here's our reward, America: higher costs for our mortgages, and higher costs for the federal, state and local governments to borrow. As Fareed Zakaria pointed out in TIME's current cover story, a jump of a single percentage point in the interest rate the federal government pays will more than wipe out the savings anticipated by the current debt deal. Nice work, that. And we owe it all to an ethically and intellectually suspect ratings agency. S&P even made a $2.1 trillion error in its calculations, but dismissed it as "nonmaterial."

Yet it has occurred to me that maybe S&P has a point. After all, this is a Congress that let the banking industry run amok, bailed it out with access to trillions of dollars of credit, and has since done precious little to ensure that the process won't be repeated. Nor would Congress reform the ratings industry, which played vital role in the crisis. Nor did it agree a deal worked out between Obama and House Speaker John Boehner that would have preserved the AAA rating. If our Congress is that dumb, perhaps they deserve each other. As it turns out the Tea is toxic.

The Dirty Energy Money Campaign aims to end all government handouts to oil, coal and gas companies and persuade our elected representatives to reject campaign contributions from these Dirty Energy industries. http://dirtyenergymoney.com/

[From the Right] Yesterday an enraged, but good hearted, poster accused pore ol’ me of being a “misogynist”. Deer Friends I will gladly, even proudly, admit to many vices, but I deny that I hate women. Indeed, some of my best friends are women. I enjoy women and I respect them, in fact I’ve even entered into long term marriages with a couple of women (at different times). I love the look, the feel and the touch of women. I have loved not wisely, but too often. I suspect that the misguided critic just didn’t know the meaning of the word misogynist and simply copied it from one of my postings. So much for liberal’s thinking for themselves. The poster was choleric because I had stated that children are not starving in the USA. Just for the record, our children are not starving in the USA. Of course there may be a tiny subset of a tiny subset of a tiny subset of kids who are starving, but those kids are the victims of purposeful child abuse. There is no systemic societal caused hunger in any children living in America. There is a huge population of Americans who take great satisfaction in helping those who are underprivileged. Many of these folks give their lives meaning and purpose by involving themselves in various crusades. Hordes of those folks have become a ripe orchard for prime picking by unscrupulous faux charities. These phony charities reap millions if not billions from those good hearted Americans. Claiming “starving children” is a favorite ploy. The critic stated that I had no personal experience in observing conditions of poverty. The critic is wrong. In the course of my career I’ve worked in horrific slums, I’ve worked in migrant labor camps, and sundry pockets of what passes for American poverty. I have seen malnourished kids, in each instance it was at the hands of irresponsible parents or caregivers. In my nearly 40 years of law enforcement experience, I saw not a single starving or chronically hungry child. Thank God. My experience was in major metro slums and in migrant camps. Our communities are chock full of government, private social, and religious programs that are anxious to intervene in those few instances. Does poverty exist? Yes, but living in poverty in the USA is leading a reasonably comfortable middle class life in most of the rest of the world. I hope that you will remember that I challenged the poster to provide proof of her claim that one in four American kids are hungry. The most recent posting had no proof, only invective. No surprise there.

Tuesday August 9, 2011

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Monday August 8, 2011

[Bench Bob] Earlier this year everyone was irate that Bench Bob left because CVS removed his bench. The bench came back and so did Bench Bob. Life on Big Pine Key is good.

[Ugly Big Pine] Just because you brought it up you should read what has already been decided, but is still unpaid for now that our government has all of our money and would rather spend it abroad than on our homeland improving the lifestyle's of our children.

Big Pine Habitat Conservation Plan

Big Pine Master Plan

Big Pine Corridor Plan

SkeeterS marine Redevelopment

After you have studied the above government plans you might consider just why you should have been concerned about voting and going to the public meetings instead of playing ostrich with your head in the sand.

[Fly] What most people don't know is that first class passengers on a plane get a better pilot than those in coach.

[Men's Health] I just read of another study that says heavy coffee drinkers have lower risk of prostrate cancer. This follows the earlier study that said heavy coffee drinkers who are alcoholics have 80% less liver disease. Now if I just stop the jitters.

[The Movies] How come in a scary movie when one character calls out to the other character, they never answer? “Mary ... Mary, are you all right ...?”

An American robin lays her four eggs in a hanging basket and the home owners set up a camera to film the results. I can't imagine anyone of any age not enjoying this! The video clip in the attached link is amazing. http://bit.ly/gGDiX1

[Ugly Big Pine] I do not want anyone to move. Keep everything the same, but I am asking the owners of the highway properties to see what they can do to hide the ugly areas with landscaping or attractive fencing and then start thinking about improvements to their buildings with gingerbread, paint, or even a facelift. I just keep thinking about people driving the 100 miles seeing interesting sights along the way and how nice it would be if the drive got better while going through Big Pine and seeing all the clever ideas people do to their property. After all we are a designated scenic highway and there is no place like it on earth. See, I am not such a bad person am I?

Sacred cows make the tastiest hamburger.  ~Abbie Hoffman

Look at that rack on this buck in Texas.

[Lottery Winner] Just when you have thought you saw it all. Sunday morning I was at Winn Dixie when I was approaching the check-outs an elderly woman came running behind me. She was calling to her friend on the other side of the store, “I won 2,000 dollars” whiile waving what I think was a scratch off ticket. It’s never boring in Big Pine.

The feral swine are a non-native species suspected of escaping from game farms, and as many as a couple of hundred are roaming the state. http://reut.rs/qRvZdC

No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms. ~Thomas Jefferson

[Sex Taboo] Notice the picture that was chosen to go with this post. I would like to see pictures of men in the same pose! (Ed: Sorry I couldn’t find one! All I could find is Congressman Wiener’s weiner.)

I was at Parris Island for boot camp and on the first day a recruit, down the line, decked a drill instructor. We never saw either one again.

Where men are the most sure and arrogant, they are commonly the most mistaken. ~David Hume

I miss the picture of the day. Here's my dog.

[Heat] I took part in a survey some years ago about temperature and our comfort zones. It appears that Homo sapiens fall apart at 90º. I noticed that when it’s 90º I’m miserable, but any less and I can handle it. For me 90º is the breaking point.

[Music] Ron Tutt from Elvis' band. Jerry from the Dead. John Kahn from Jerry’s band and Maria Muldaur from Midnight at the Oasis. Nicky Hopkins from the Jeff Beck Group. All performing a Quicksilver Messenger Service tune. Check out this music on YouTube http://bit.ly/pFb6Yx

Local bank chairman’s son arrested again. I guess breaking the law runs in the family!

This PC goes in the box in 1 hour. We've both been sick, the PC is terminal. I will choose a new machine today. I narrowed it down to 3. Data transfer and setup should be done in a couple of days. More later if I can get back online.

Caution: NATIONAL POLITICS and Religion, etc

[Restrictive Voter Identification Law] On May 18, Governor Nikki Haley signed one of the most restrictive voter identification laws in the nation. This law has the potential to deny the right to vote to thousands of registered voters who, in many instances, cannot obtain the limited forms of identification the law requires. The law impedes access to the polls and is at odds with the fundamental right to vote.

The ACLU of South Carolina opposed the law while it was being debated in the legislature and continues to advocate for progressive election law reform. If you are concerned that you or someone you know will be unable to vote because of the new Voter ID requirement, please complete our typeable SOUTH CAROLINA VOTER ID QUESTIONNAIRE and return it to us.

On August 5, the ACLU, as part of a coalition of civil rights and advocacy groups, urged the Department of Justice to block implementation of a South Carolina law that would suppress the minority vote. The 15-page letter cites recent census data showing that African-Americans are less likely than whites to possess a driver’s license or other DMV-issued identification, one of the approved forms of identification. They also face social and economic barriers to obtaining acceptable forms of identification required by the new law.

[It's time to tax the filthy rich] To clarify this: "If a man rides a train across the country and that man earns $10,000 a year and is taxed 5% and another man rides the same train but earns $100,000 per year and is taxed 5%, why does he pay 10 times more for the same ride? In other words people are using America and her services the same, but you telling me the rich have to pay more for the same services than a useless eater?

[Raises] How did your social security increase work out for you this year? Was it comparable at all to the increases that Obama gave his staff during this difficult financial period?

Top pay raise of 86% increase was to the Director of African-American Media.
What the Hell is that? The guy must have done a great job doing whatever the Director of African-American Media does these days.

[The burden of paying to run the country should fall evenly on all, rich or poor] Sounds good in theory, but the fact is that wealthy bankers, lawyers, corporations, and others use their excess money to elect their favored Congressional candidates who, in turn, give them favored treatment on their taxes and everything else so they become even wealthier. And because of their wealth, they also use more of the resources of our country. Tax loopholes are an invention of the rich so that they don't have to pay their fair share, no matter how small. If wealthy people and corporations actually paid their fair share based on income, we wouldn't be having this discussion.

[Tax] We have enough problems putting food on our working men’s’ tables let alone having to give half or more of it to welfare. Tax all charities. Tax religion like every other business. Tax everyone that earns anything and throw out the bums.

The debt ceiling deal should never have been a deal. The debt ceiling should have been raised like all of the other 70 times in our history to preserve our credit rating without strings attached. Then, in separate negotiations and deals, the House and Senate should have discussed how to get our country back on the right track. That would have been the patriotic thing to do. S&P downgraded our credit rating because of "the prolonged controversy over raising the statutory debt ceiling". The Tea Party should never have sacrificed our credit rating for their agenda. When asked by a FOX News reporter on April 29, 2011 whether she would raise the debt ceiling, Sarah Palin answered "Hells no!" Michelle Bachmann stated that she would not vote to raise the ceiling, and she didn't.

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It seems some CT contributors are driven to find the most boring and ridiculous posts on the internet then to regale us with them as if they were exposing us poor fools to their unbounded wisdom and penetrating thought. Then they go on and on as if each line contains nuggets of knowledge, when in reality it takes the courage of Mike Tyson to finish the post.

[Debt Deal: What You Need to Know] After months of tense negotiations Congress agreed to a last minute debt reduction deal and raised the debt ceiling – a Congressional limit on government borrowing – just in time to meet the Treasury Department's August 2nd deadline to avoid a potential government default.

The agreement, signed by the President on Tuesday, sets a course for future reductions in federal spending. But the compromise is remarkably short on details and relies largely on the budget cutting recommendations of a soon to be formed Congressional "Super Committee." In many ways the deal reflects the inability of Congress to come to terms with spending cuts.

Here's what we know about the deal:

•Enacts $900 billion in federal spending cuts over 10 years

•Cuts include $350 billion in savings from the base defense budget already agreed upon earlier this year

•Authorizes the President to increase the debt limit by at least $2.1 trillion, eliminating the need for further increases until 2013

•Establishes a Congressional bipartisan Joint Committee, often referred to as the "Super Committee," tasked with identifying an additional $1.5 trillion in debt reduction, including discretionary (e.g., pay raises, procurement, etc.) and direct (e.g., Social Security, TFL) spending; the Committee will also consider tax revenue measures

•Requires $1.2 trillion in cuts if the "Super Committee" fails to reach an agreement, or Congress fails to pass the committee's recommendations by December 23

◦Cuts would be divided between defense and non-defense defense spending

•Ensures a vote on a balanced budget constitutional amendment by December 2011

Now that the deal is done all eyes will turn to the Congressional "Super Committee" made up of 12 members of Congress, six from each chamber, and six from each party. Their debt reduction recommendations are due November 23, 2011. Congress is required to vote on their recommendations without amendment by December 23, 2011.

The Super Committee is authorized to look at both discretionary and direct (mandatory) spending meaning that military retirement, TFL, Social Security, etc., are on the table for cutting.

However, if the Committee cannot reach an agreement on how to cut an additional $1.5 trillion from the debt or if their recommended cuts fail to be adopted by Congress, an enforcement mechanism (sequestration) will trigger automatic, draconian spending reductions starting in 2013. The cuts would be split 50/50 between domestic and defense spending (defense spending cuts would be about $50 billion per year). The severity of this process is intended to force Congress to act and prioritize what reductions should be made.

If sequestration is employed Social Security, Medicare beneficiaries (but not providers), federal civil service retirement, military retirement and low-income programs will be exempt from mandatory cuts.

MOAA is especially concerned about the prospect of sequestration if Congress fails to reach a $1.5 trillion deal by December 23. These automatic cuts would rely heavily on defense spending reductions. Although military retired pay, Social Security, and Medicare beneficiaries are protected from these cuts it could leave TRICARE and Medicare providers extremely vulnerable. The magnitude of these cuts may prevent a "doc fix" this year which would deeply hurt access to care.

And this is only the beginning of several years of successive budget reductions. Both the right and the left are looking to reduce defense spending and the quickest way there is cutting manpower and compensation.

In this environment, it will be essential for the military and veterans community to stay alert and actively involved to protect against abrogation of long-standing commitments. If you think Congress and defense leaders wouldn't do that, you need only look at the hard experience of the 1970s, 80s and 90s, when the military regularly RIFed large numbers, capped pay raises most years, cut retirement, kicked older retirees out of military health care, and much, much more.

Today's budget environment is worse than it was then, and the competition for limited dollars will activate massive lobbying, campaign donations and more aimed at protecting weapons and other programs that mean jobs in home districts. If we hope to protect the people programs that are the fundamental underpinnings to sustain a quality career force, we'll need everyone on board and active in protecting their interests.

The time to do so is right now, as decisions on how to cut $350 billion in DoD will be made in the next few months. Start by sending a MOAA-suggested message to you elected officials.

Who’ll pay the national debt? Video

FTR says that only Liberals believe propaganda.

Americans are discovering that this Tea Bag led Congress is the worst in American history. They are worried about silly things such as "is the President an American" or "Why is the Presidents wife worried about obese kids" while jobs bills have been sitting on their desks for months. Look at the tea bag Congressional approval ratings. It’s down to Bush percentages. In fact the ratings are the lowest since ratings have been recorded. Their main reason for living is to make Obama a one term President --  results be damned. And Americans are seeing it and that is what’s forcing their approval ratings into the toilet.

Some Republicans love to talk about "job-destroying" progressive policies, but hate to own up to their own trickle-down ways. It's not that hard to get specific about the tepid economic recovery and all the Republican-backed policies that are destroying jobs though. Let me tell you about one we almost experienced.

Just this week, after securing a deal slashing $1 trillion in discretionary spending, House Republicans held up funding for the Federal Aviation Administration, putting 4,000 employees on unpaid furloughs and the jobs of tens of thousands of construction workers at risk.

This at a time when so many Americans feel downright despairing about the economy. This on top of the stock market sinking, and with Americans still desperate for work. Why did Republicans choose to play chicken with American jobs?

It's because they believe that FAA workers have too many employee protections. Their hyper-conservative ideology required them to put hardworking Americans' livelihoods at risk to pressure the government to weaken workers' rights. House Republicans wanted the Senate to approve their reversal of a rule change on unions that makes it easer for airline employees to win union representation.

Republicans were tone-deaf to wage this battle. One Senate Republican called the behavior of the House GOP "not honorable and a raft of editorials from newspapers on both sides of the aisle called the funding roadblock deplorable. The New York Times noted that the move even defunded airport inspectors, who play a vital role in ensuring the safety of air travelers around the country. Remarkably, these inspectors continued to do their jobs without pay.

Congrats Tea bag swingers your Liptons are breaking records in your first go round. It just may be your last.