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2012 November

Monday, November 12, 2012

Congratulations to the Springer’s, Bob & Virginia, the new owners of “Springer’s Bar & Grill”, formally, Rob’s Island Grille & At The Curve, here in Big Pine Key. Their ‘Soft’ opening this past Friday was amazing. All the locals have been waiting with anticipation for the opening, and at last it’s done! Let me be the first one to say that the menu, and the pricing, has had much approval from everyone that was there Friday. I was overhearing comments & conversations from the patrons.

Bob hired local Chef, John Hines, who has his locally televised show “Cooking in the Keys”, as his head Chef, and John’s menu selection is absolutely exquisite, considering that Springer’s is a local watering hole and restaurant. I had the chicken wings, tortilla with salsa and guacamole dip, and it was delicious. The following day I returned and tried the Sugar-loaf Meatloaf since Chef John had recommended that I try the Bacon wrapped Meatloaf with mashed potato and mushrooms, and let me tell you, it was a very generous portion and just as delicious and well worth the price of just $8.95.

Sammy-Sam was there working on the 12 TV sets with individual DirecTV receivers on every set. The first thing he did was eliminate that eyesore of cables and the receivers sitting on that ugly rack at the far end of the bar. Now the whole bar is open and they have stools all around the bar. They also have the NFL Sunday Ticket, and soon there will be an additional 4 TVs added to the bar area, which will make it a total of 9 TVs — just in the bar alone.

The sign out front still says “At the Curve”, but that will change soon. Again, congratulations to Bob and Virginia, and the entire hardworking staff, and to Sammy-Sam for doing an outstanding job with the TVs. All us locals have been asking for and wanting a good, cozy, comfy locals joint to quench our thirst with local prices, and from what I have gathered, Bob Springer was listening. 5 thumbs up!

 

This is It” is half-submerged and floating around in Newfound Harbor as of yesterday.

[Marathon Journal] 1. Marathon’s City Council elections have ended, and another council year starts. The Keynoter has “polled” the members. Mike Cinque will most likely be the next mayor and Rich Keating the vice mayor. Polling elected officials on an upcoming vote is unethical at best.
2. Brutus Seafood Market & Eatery is a brand new business. They are at 6950 Overseas Highway, Marathon.
3. The Reef at Marathon Resort Club is located at 6800 Overseas Highway, Marathon, FL 33050. 
4. As many know, C. J. Geotis and I lost the election for Marathon City Council. I was the proud winner of fifth place in a five-candidate battle. I would be okay with that if I had exceeded my 2010 performance. Instead, I lost 200 votes compared with the 2010 election. I am not going to say never, but I feel that I will probably not run again. Win or lose I will fulfill my promises.
5. I am happy that my friend Islamorada Councilman Dave Purdo won his re-election.
6. Voting the Republican way was an atrocious disaster perpetuated on Floridians unawares. Reform is essential to get our voting methods correct. Count all votes, make it easier to vote, and open more voting centers.
7. Can a middle school student be arrested? What for? Why? Ask the Horace O’Bryant middle school student arrested for “loses control in school”.
8. Florida City Government Week was proclaimed by the Mayor’s Youth Council. The city and its youth should be praised. Learning about local government early increases the youth vote when they turn 18.
9. Keys-wide the voters opted for an elected FKAA. The vote was nonbinding, which is the problem. Rick Scott will not allow governor-appointed boards go by election. I wonder how much a waste of time that ballot question was. ~ Publisher@MarathonJournal.US

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DOT plans Keys hearing on it’s 5 year work plan. Link

 

Shrimp Road, Stock Island one of the last places from the “old Keys”.

Hot Damn! Finally I’m living in a Blue state (no, for real, not drug or morass induced). The Dem names can now go on the top line!

[Veteran’s Day] My husband’s urologist has put in writing, after his last week’s “scope”, that these abnormal cells are a pre-result of Agent Orange exposure during his time in Vietnam.  I think I am going to hook up with Veterans for Peace at some time because the V.A. has yet to acknowledge his cancer, since it has not formed into a mass or tumor yet. Squamous cancer cells are very aggressive, and we have been told by 3 doctor’s now, that they each, have only seen 1 case in their 30-40 years that did not develop, and they don’t know why.  Link
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On this date in 1815, freethinker and founding mother of the feminist movement, Elizabeth Cady (Stanton) was born.
“I have endeavoured to dissipate these religious superstitions from the minds of women, and base their faith on science and reason, where I found for myself at least that peace and comfort I could never find in the Bible and the church. . . the less they believe, the better for their own happiness and development. . . .

For fifty years the women of this nation have tried to dam up this deadly stream that poisons all their lives, but thus far they have lacked the insight or courage to follow it back to its source and there strike the blow at the fountain of all tyranny, religious superstition, priestly power, and the canon law.” ~Elizabeth Cady Stanton

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Kurt Vonnegut, WWII veteran, wrote in his novel Slaughterhouse Five: “During world War II, while I was serving with the Third Army in Germany, I removed a belt buckle from the uniform of a dead German soldier. The lettering on the buckle read Gott Mit Uns (God Is With Us).”

 

There’s a new Sheriff in town: Rick Ramsey.  Link

UK campaigner’s call for Nobel Peace Prize for Malala, the 15 year old girl shot in Pakistan by Taliban for wanting girls to get schooling.  Link
[Forgotten Felines] Hooray for the Keys! Out of the 714 shelters in Florida participating in The Animal Rescue Site $300,000 Shelter+ Challenge of 2012  with Petfinder.com, our Keys Forgotten Felines ranks 25th. The voting continues until 12/16 and you can vote every day. Benson, AZ won the last weekly $1,000 prize, and they are an even smaller community than we are. We can do this! Open your heart to Forgotten Felines. We’re more than just  one human family. Vote Here

 

Close to 900 runners compete in Key Largo  Bridge Run.  Link

Not so fast on an elected FKAA Board. The vote wasn’t binding! Link

The Curve sign is still there, but it’s a whole new show inside. Springer’s is a breath of fresh air for locals and tourists alike. They’ve gussied up the interior, they’ve managed to cut the sound level, and the atmosphere is very comfortable, clean, and fresh. They haven’t finished the decorating inside, but the restaurant is already head and shoulders above anything that was there before. The menu is varied and has plenty of comfort foods. The BBQ ribs are absolutely first rate. The meatloaf was nearly world class. The mixed drinks were good. (We were there for their soft opening and had a steak and the chicken pot pie both of which were only O.K., and the grilled veggies need work and the conch fritters were raw in the middle) Nonetheless, the overall service, food, and ambiance, while a work in progress, are very, very good. It’s worth your while to give them a try. There is no doubt but that we will be back again soon.

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County’s green projects are paying off. Link

 

The Moringa “really is a miracle tree” S. Fla. herbologist says.  Link

[Sewers] What a joke. The whole KLWTD special taxing district should be dissolved and FKAA (yes them, even with their own problems) should take over every aspect of Key Largo wastewater. At least FKAA knows how to run a utility, clearly the KLWTD Board does not have a clue. All they know how to do is create expenses that KL residents have to pay. By the way, those expenses including all the coffee and special occasions’ treats the office staff feels like ordering. Because some at the office think it is their customers’ obligation to pay for the staff’s treats.

Full Disclosure – KL’s monthly wastewater bills start as low as approx $65 a month and go up from there, all based on the number of gallons in. KL’s annual wastewater bill (based on per EDU – toilet, or fraction of toilet) on the property owners’ tax bill starts at approx $450 per year for 20 years, and that amount goes up every year, based on the interest of each of their current loans. Smart were the property owners who paid the total of about $5200 4 or 5 years ago.

 

 

Monday’s grammar lesson. 

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Hand print turkey cookies.  Link

What’s up with chicks named Paula cavorting with married Government Officials?  We had Paula Jones doing Clinton and now the latest entry, the one servicing Petraeus.  Both are a little on the doggy side if you ask me
The world will end in 41 days on December 21st. 
(?)For those of you that are involved, keep your mouth shut and they can’t do nothing to us, just keep quiet.

 

[“What would be wrong if Obama really was a Muslim”] Nothing, but Christians would think he supported terrorism. The rest of us would respect his religious beliefs as long as they didn’t overlap his Constitutional responsibilities. Christians say only Christians should be allowed to be President of the USA. We can only be a truly fee nation when we have total separation of Church and State. That includes removing In God We Trust too. Cut the cord and be a real democracy and not the modified theocracy that we are now.

Lenin’s well known statement proclaiming how important it was to have the gullible proletariat which he called “useful idiots” seduced by the propaganda which the power brokers were peddling — takes on a real life example when viewing most of the posts made by those of the left wing persuasion on the C.T.

 

[General Love] I thought I might be wrong when I posted that somehow, some way, the Right would tie the General’s affair to Obama. I was right. Predicting FTR rhetoric is like fishing in a barrel with a shotgun. You cant miss. But then when you lose an election by over a hundred electoral votes and millions of your own party don’t even vote, compared to the last Presidential election, and you still think it’s a “sliver” of a loss, you may want to use information that might be a bit more researched. Turn off the good-news-for-America filter you installed.

[“FTR: The FBI could not have gone after Piraeus’s emails unless they were specifically ordered to by Obama himself.“] Does FTR drink grape Kool-Aid or is he just paranoid? Obama didn’t even find out about the affair until Last Thursday. Like all conspiracy theorists you won’t believe anything you don’t want to.

 

New demographics roe red and blue states.

Mitt got less votes than John McCain did, so, no, Mister FTR, Mitt didn’t do well at all. America doesn’t want him or his likes.
I must give FTR credit for drawing to our attention how much improvement was evidenced by the Republican Party in last weeks election. He brought to mind a segment taken from Monty Python’s Life of Brian. Always Look On The Bright Side of Life
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It is day five into the current federal administration. Just what are they doing to increase jobs, without increasing the deficit and debt? Well I hear one important guy played golf on Saturday.

FTR is a sore loser and a little shell-shocked after the election. He can’t let it go. He will continue to go over and over the stats of the election searching for tiny bits he can use against the President.

Romney had said that he only needed 51% to win and that is all he cared about. Many Republicans know that they need to change in order to keep their party alive. Others refuse to change. FTR, in comparison, needs to change his postings in order to keep his readers interested and supportive. If he keeps writing the same old anti-Obama stuff that he always has, he will lose his readers. We are tired of it. As a work up to the election we understood all the postings, but it’s over–you lost! We don’t want 4 more years of his complaints. He needs to change and so does his party.

Wouldn’t it be great if he could come up with some useful ideas to bring the two parties together for our country’s sake. Instead of his old tear-down-Obama ideas, maybe he could accept the will of the American people and start thinking positively. Let’s work together for America, not just his version of America.

 

[FACT] Dear FTR Guy …

[Separate Church & State]  Freedom from Religion Foundation’s letter to President Barack Obama asking him to drop religion in the presidential oath and elsewhere.  Link
It looks like the Republicans have gone back to their long standing campaign of harassment, obstructionism, and distraction of President Obama as he tries to go about his task of solving the country’s problems.

[True Love] “Who, but his wife and family, cares if Petraeus had an affair. So what. He’s still a capable general and head of the CIA”.
Sadly, he is not. And that is the state of this country’s mentality. Anything secret, illicit is fodder – or access – for somebody who wants something. The nature of secrets is that they must be kept. And people who are vulnerable, no matter how stupid the reason, are a threat to those secrets. He had to go. And he knew it. And he knew it the whole time. He wrote manuals on security, and keeping personal control.

The real “bad” in all this is that he succumbed, couldn’t keep it in his pants. He traded his personal future, and security of the country for which he has worked so hard for – what – something he knew he should not be doing, knowing his fate.
So, perhaps, that’s what he wanted. Perhaps the thrill of the forbidden was the ultimate attraction. Or perhaps he, like a lot of men his age, is having that old mid-life crisis thing. Even men of power are not immune.

The ugly is the media frenzy. And now Washington is convening investigations. That’s the real fallout. Not just his failure, but the failure of the citizens and leaders to say – ok, it’s done, move on, we still have real problems to solve. But Washington loves distractions. Anything to avoid having to actually deal with each other.

From the Right

Well, well, well, our left field players are still intoxicated with their victory, because of that intoxication they are falling down wrong on any number of things. Some seem to blame Fox for the Petraeus imbroglio. If they had read the NYT on11/10 they would have learned that the Petraeus investigation began weeks if not months ago. The intoxicated Obama fans would have learned that an FBI whistle blower notified Eric Cantor of a potentially major security threat concerning Petraeus. Cantor in keeping with policy notified the FBI of the whistle blower call. The FBI in keeping with protocol neither confirmed nor denied the information. One would have to be hopelessly inane to believe that the FBI did not notify the President at the very instant that they “stumbled onto” evidence that Petraeus was highly suspect in a matter involving national security. They would be duty bound to so do. If they did not, heads should roll. And yet, we are expected to believe that Mr. Obama knew nothing of the investigation until two days after the election when Petraeus came to him and offered his resignation. That beggars belief. Nonsense, it’s even bad fiction.

Then there is the very important issue of the fact that the Petraeus affair was no secret for many months. It was the subject of gossip in his circle of friends and acquaintances. We must wonder why that potential horrific security breach was not discovered by the appropriate authority, and why was it tolerated by the Obama admin. Can the Obama admin say that they never knew of it? If they do claim that, then they are recklessly incompetent. If they say they knew, but tolerated it, they are recklessly incompetent. There is more, much more to come.

Part 2) The left’s foolishness knows no bounds. Some of our CT community seem to be of the view that Fox News is responsible for the bad news that plaques their house. These folks are demon dependent. They have to have a demon, just like little kids who are afraid of the monster under the bed. Fox is the demon du jour. Our Deer Left Field friends have convinced themselves that the Reps and Conservatives are a dying breed, going the way of the woolly mammoth.

The Washington Times, yesterday, reported that as a result of last week’s election, state legislature elections this year have produced the highest number of states with one-party rule in 60 years. Democrats or Republicans now have sole control of the governorship and both legislative chambers in 37 state capitals around the country.
The number of states with divided government is down from 31 just 16 years ago to 12 today; prompting speculation on the country’s evolving partisan geography.

But, which party’s reach is growing? After last week’s vote, the GOP for the first time since 1872 now controls the Arkansas House and Senate. Just 20 years ago, Republicans didn’t have a majority in a single legislative house in the states of the old Confederacy – now they control all 11.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), which tracks party representation in the country’s 50 state governments, Democrats now control all three bases of power – the governorship and both houses of the state legislature in 14 states and Republicans in 23.

It’s worth mentioning that Republican governors lead seven of the 10 states with the lowest unemployment rates. And 12 of the 15 states that have been ranked ‘best for business’ have Republican governors.” By the way, CNN, on August 30, reported that: “It is true that, according to the July 2012 BLS data, seven of the 10 states with the lowest unemployment rates have Republican governors, led by North Dakota, with 3.0%.”

Deer Friends, facts are facts. You can analyze facts any which way you choose. The facts are that nationwide in ’12 Obama received 7.6 million fewer votes than he did in ’08. That’s a huge loss. On the other hand, the Reps lost only 1.3 million voters. The Dems lost nearly 8 times as many voters than did the Reps. Where did they all go? Did many of them come to the Rep side, or did they just stay home? All in all, Obama won the popular vote by a scant 2%. It was a win, but it was not a ***WIN***. It bodes ill for the Dems ongoing.

Deer Friends, the left wing fantasy that the Reps/Cons are fading may give them comfort, but the facts are not on their side. America is still a center/right nation, but the current administration has managed to polarize us as has no other administration since before our Civil War. In the ’12 election, the Republican/Conservatives gained power, but the lost the Presidential popularity contest.

Here in Monroe, Obama won in ’12 by a scant 158 (or126 depending on the source) votes. In ’08 Obama won by 1962 votes. In ’12 the Obama vote in Monroe dropped by more than 10 fold. Not a good omen for our Dem/Liberal Friends.