Monday, November 25, 2013

[Sewer Maintenance] Here’s something people are not aware of. In, say, fifty years or so, the existing grinder pumps will be worn out or outdated and so will the tanks. They will all have to be replaced.That means the homeowner will have to tear up his landscaping and go through the unpleasant task permitting work and of having contractors tear up their yard with heavy equipment and then repairing the damage with new landscaping. Do you think these things will last forever? Stop burdening select homeowners with something that should be the burden of the sewer authority [FKAA] and shared among all sewer users. Put the shitty pumps in the right-of-way, not on private property!

[Rowell’s Marina Good] The Monroe County Commission’s decision to purchase Rowell’s Marina is a brilliant move that will benefit and reward its citizens in perpetuity. Our county commission, county manager and local residents worked long and hard for many years to secure this procurement. It was well researched and investigated. What a novel idea, government working in concert with the governed to obtain an objective that will add to the quality of everyone’s life. Businesses, residents and tourists will thrive at this prime location. Revenue will flow into our coiffeurs, as taxpayers experience the relief that this purchase will provide to them.

It’s unfortunate that Commissioner Danny Kohlage was blinded by the obtuse and myopic vision of an exquisite acquisition that all will benefit from. The negativity of those unable to see the value of this jewel, stems from them wanting to get a hand out to pay for their sewer connections. Unfortunately, that issue is water under the bridge as that ship has left. The time to address the government’s unfunded sewer mandate occurred many years ago. It appears that they were sold out by previous elected officials who were unable to protect and serve them. Except for Commissioner Kohlage, this has not been the case with our county commissioners. Every step of the way, along with the County Manager, they gave leadership, guidance and counsel as they navigated a course to our goal. Fail-safe methods were incorporated in this process to insure that there will not be any buyer’s remorse.

[Stock Island’s Cheap Labor] I came back from Islamorada where the local economy is dead. There is about zero affordable housing there. Businesses are desperate for labor, many are closed or have reduced staff. Those that are large enough to have built employee housing manage to survive. Stock Island is necessary as the Lower Keys are too far from the mainland. Many businesses cherish the large cheap labor force on Stock Island, including your local restaurant who you think is attempting to upscale the area with their foo-foo wood smoked pizza and wine selections. Stock Island will never upscale, it would destroy the local economy and by the time it would, it would be underwater like the rest of the Keys and most of S. Fla.

[“Phony seaplane pilot”] It was a personal ultra-light that carries two people and doesn’t require a pilots license for non-commercial use, much like a off road ATV, motorcycle, car or dune buggies doesn’t. He was using it over water and likely thought that was fine. His mistake was taking on paying passengers and that’s wrong as there are so many liability and safety factors at play that it’s against the law. If one or two people want to risk themselves then that’s one thing, but to risk the general public that’s an entirely different matter. Don’t believe everything you read, especially only the headlines.

[Sewer Money] I just watched the 1939 Over the Rainbow Sewer and there they were: Tin Man Kevin Wilson- no heart, drawing his line in the sand. Scarecrow Tom Walker with his Diploma from Oz, but still no brain. The Lion George Nugent without the courage to defend his constituents instead of FKAA. And of course, the Wicked Witch of the West Sylvia Murphy- greedy and scheming to divert sewer tax money to a “showcase” defunct marina with no business plan. (If it would have made money as an events park, some businessman would have bought it- and paid taxes). Here’s hoping for a happy ending with no grinder pumps or flying demon monkeys.

[Pot Holes] I am hoping that some FedEx workers who work in Marathon and BPK read this. Ask your corporate office to put pea rock in the parking lot in the Marathon office at the airport. It’s pothole heaven.

[Query] Why is there an ice cream truck for kids but not a frozen margarita truck for adults?

[Marathon Journal] The Journal interviewed Islamorada Florida Keys Ken Philipson.

Bio: He has served five years on the Islamorada City Council. He has been mayor and vice mayor during two terms. Ken has lived in Islamorada going on 30 years. He is a former buckeye from the state of Ohio. Us Ohioans do get around, you know. He sold his business Tropical Optical. Like many of us, he came down to the Keys for retirement. Soon enough then he was involved in his community any number of ways.

What is the number one thing in the Villages? There is a Youth Council that provides a positive influence. The goal is to develop future politicians. Also, there is an effort to get the cities and county to work together under the same goals – home rule.

What is the status of wastewater/stormwater projects? The city is ahead of schedule and under budget. The cost is spread over all residents. Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) money helps low-income residents hook up to the sewers.

What about affordable housing like Woods Corner? Financially sound Gorman is building workforce housing. The concentration is currently on rentals. Low income and middle income brackets are where the need is highest.

Future projects? They are finishing the wastewater project and starting the stormwater project. Another priority is buying back all the private roads and end of street accesses to the water.

Last thoughts? They want to change their elections to at-large elections with staggered terms. They want the mayor to be elected as well.

The Journal will interview former Marathon Florida Keys Mayor Mike Cinque next.

[“Yelled at a tourist”]  There must be something in the water on Big Pine.

In the above photograph taken on 1997 April 6, Comet Hale-Bopp was imaged from the Indian Cove Campground in the Joshua Tree National Park in California, USA. A flashlight was used to momentarily illuminate foreground rocks in this six minute exposure. An impressive blue ion tail was visible above a sunlight-reflecting white dust tail. Comet Hale-Bopp remained visible to the unaided eye for over a year before returning to the outer Solar System and fading. As Comet ISON approaches the Sun this week, sky enthusiasts around the Earth are waiting to see if its tails will become even more spectacular than those displayed by Comet Hale-Bopp.

[“50 million dollars for a bridge to nowhere; are we nuts”] I think the grinder pump fiasco clearly indicates that insanity rules. Seems that only Commissioner Kohlage consistently puts public service and taxpayers first and private agendas last.

[Grinder Pump System] From a Liberty Hill, Texas (population 1,012) city meeting report: “The Texas Water Development Board and the previous engineer thought it was a good idea to install a grinder pump system,” De La Rosa said. “They thought it was going to work, but time has proven differently.”

De La Rosa, who has years of previous experience working with other municipal public works systems, said grinder pumps are typically more effective in different types of terrain and work better with commercial customers.

“I’ve never seen it work well in residential applications,” he said. “But installation was cheaper, and they (the Council at the time) didn’t have much of a choice. That council and engineer made the best decision with the information they had at the time.”

[Dead Eagles] Wyoming wind farms and agreed to pay $1 million as part of the first enforcement of environmental laws protecting birds against wind energy facilities. Until the settlement announced Friday with Duke Energy Corp. and its renewable energy arm, not a single wind energy company had been prosecuted for a death of an eagle or other protected bird — even though each death is a violation of federal law, unless a company has a federal permit. Not a single wind energy facility has obtained a permit. Link

Fishing gear for sale. Penn 7500SS reels (2) with PS4811 ML 7′ rods
Penn 30SW International reel with International II IGFA 30 rod
Penn Senator 114 H60 reel with matching 3165 rod (has roller guides)
All equipment is like new and I would like to sell all together. Any reasonable price accepted.(305) 509-7039 Classified Ads > Boats

[Name That Plant] Can anyone ID this veggie plant?  I planted it ages ago, but lost the little tag.

Neat Sun picture. I found it on today’s Drudge Report.

For the supposed “local” who claims Roostica opened just this past summer. You are so very wrong. I was here when it opened.

[Doctor Who] The Countess of Wessex has hosted a reception at Buckingham Palace to mark the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who.

[Marina vs Sewers] I am ecstatic that the county commission has the funds to purchase a marina in serious disrepair, with no business plan, at a price that exceeds the average appraised value.  This means that they have appropriate funding from the sales tax dollars to properly install sewers in the remainder of the county, as noted of the referendum the tax payers approved.

Today in 1947 movie executives blacklisted the “Hollywood Ten.” saying they were Communists.

[Name That Bug] A bizarre new bug resembling the major 90s toy craze Troll Dolls has baffled scientists. Teams from the University of Harvard and museums around the world trekked for three weeks to explore the untouched rainforest of southeast Suriname. They managed to catalogue 60 new animal species – but one little critter has proved too tricky to record. The 7mm wide, six-legged bug has been whittled down to possibly fitting into four nymph families: Dictyopharidae, Nogodinidae, Lophopidae, and Tropiduchidae.

[Citizen of the Day Says] he loves the people and the melting pot of cultures here.

Things only ladies with big boobs will understand. Link

Link from a Texas town using grinder pumps: “Please make sure everyone who utilizes your home is aware of these facts.” Those include: “Electrical problems including house electrical breakers tripping, fire ants, and component failure.”

Fire ants! You guessed it — we certainly have fire ants in the Lower Keys. Link

[“Mongelli is a visionary in the restaurant biz”] Yikes! Someone has been drinking a little too much of the kool-aid. Been out the Keys much? Apparently not. Theme bars and restaurants with even better tasting food are widely available pretty much everywhere. Yes Bobby likes to make you feel welcome, gets to know everyone, that’s just good business. So is how he micromanages things and pays attention to details, it’s why he’s successful. But a visionary like Rayman Kroc or Harland Sanders? Not even close. What exactly did Bobby create or improve upon in the restaurant industry that forever changed things for the better? Heck Sunset Grill has a way better tasting Hogfish sandwich and there is a pool with pretty girls in the back, awesome view of the Seven Mile Bridge as well. They appear to do 10x the amount of all Bobbys restaurants combined and one doesn’t have to fight off the bums to get there.

[“Pawn Shop”] Joe’s Cash Flow is gone. That location is now Molly’s Pawn & More licensed pawnbrokers. Business Directory

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[Republicans] A poster yesterday made me think that the problem with the Republican ideology is they’re waging a war on truth and the future. They are against anything that doesn’t make the rich richer. Anything for the people is Socialist or liberal or for bums. Our political system is broken and I blame the Right. Money rules politics, let the people be damned, those lazy bums who are too stupid to work at high paying jobs where their employers will pay their health insurance. Screw them. Republicanism is, I got mine, where’s yours? Immigration reform, climate change, alternate energy, others less fortunate, all are slandered and lied about by Republicans. They like things the way they want them, they like being able to buy Congressman, elections, radio, TV. They like that they can say one thing and do another when it comes to them.

[Iran Deal]  Don’t make peace with our enemies, you can’t trust Iran. Nuke ’em instead.

My wife and I saw the “Hunger Games: Catching on Fire” last nite. We couldn’t help but to draw a comparison between President Obama’s big government plan for America and the film. A not-so futuristic version of North America & big government overreach. Regardless of political affiliation, the plotline of ”The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” is one that every freedom loving American should be able to get behind. The American people fed up with big government taking their inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I don’t think we will be the only ones seeing the film in this light. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire’ makes fighting for democracy cool again. Vote!

[Iran Deal] Sanctions work (except for Cuba). Inflation is so bad in Iran that they elected a moderate leader who in trying to get sanctions lifted and has agreed to the civilized world’s terms for nuclear reductions and inspections. If inspections are successful this could be a big step towards peace with Iran. We hurt them more with sanctions than with McCain’s bombs ever could.

[Iran Deal] Trust but verify! Never a Chamberlain solution of appeasement.

[Iran Deal] Get ready world for the Regressives to start criticizing Obama’s nuclear restriction deal with Iran. Get ready for them to call for war instead of peace. Get ready for them to start making stuff up.This deal might be more important to Obama’s legacy than Obamacare. Regressives are afraid of their own shadows, that’s why so many of them are armed. Too bad they can only see shows and not see the light.

[“Elect Republicans, no more talk about global warming, sea level rising, alternate energy, or the environment”] You mean no more whining about things we can’t solve yet or change? No money being wasted like on that idiotic non-spinning wind turbine? No more hair brained Nancy Pelosi types? No more deathtrap electric wimp-mobiles? Where do we vote?

[“FTR: We mirrored the national picture as we piled on $5 billion in debt”] How can we ‘mirror’ if it was different? More hyperbole?

Read Glenn Beck and Harriet Parke’s new novel Agenda 21.

[Iran Inspections Deal] Well yippy kiyay! Obama has given Iran more time and money to further enrich nuke bomb fuel. and basically all Iran promised was to cut back on nasty rhetoric. Damn, Obama may be the anti Christ!

That person praising Obama for the Iran deal. You were kidding right? because my sarcasm font detector has been acting up. It seems the Great Obama allowed billions of dollar to flow to the world leader of state sponsored terror and in return the west got cosmetic concessions. There is no other way to read it. I’m sure the sexually mangled women who have to get dressed in garbage bags are also huge fans of this deal that legitimized the regime all over again.

Liberalism is a revolting disease.  

[“John Boehner signed up for Obamacare”] Like duh, one has to sign up first in order to use the site. He makes too much salary to get a subsidy anyway, and likely ordered health coverage directly from the insurance company through an agent. What he likely did was signed up so he can see for himself what an abortion it is. He’s taking an incredible risk as the security of the ACA site is terrible. If one wants to see for themselves the plans and subsidies without signing up, then check out http://www.thehealthsherpa.com/. There’s no sign up.

It’s interesting how anxious our left fielders are to find even a speck of good news concerning the Obama admin.  Some are orgasmic at the just concluded 6 month agreement with Iran. They credit Obama and Kerry with parting the waters.

I fear that is not the case.  There is a huge body of evidence that is overwhelmingly convincing that the deal is a huge victory for Iran and will prove to be yet another humiliation for the U.S.

First and foremost we must remember that Iran is a secular state, the new President, Rowhani, while elected, serves as the handmaiden of the real power, the Ayatollah Khomeini. Never forget that Khomeini as has declared Jihad on America and every non Islamic nation. He has vowed to eradicate Israel, and his sworn goal is to establish a worldwide Muslim caliphate. Iran is the single biggest sponsor of Islamic terrorism. A fundamental precept of Rohani’s religion is that the world must end in a cataclysmic horror so that the Prophet Mohammed can return to rule the new Islamic world.

Then we must remember that Iran’s new “moderate” president, Hassan Rowhani, is also a Muslim cleric. His religious beliefs mirror Khomeini’s, if they did not he would not have been permitted to be a Presidential candidate. It was Rowhani who mercilessly crushed the 1999 student revolution. Rowhani has held many posts in Iran’s government including leadership in defense and their nuclear program. Deer Friends on the left, watch the video and worry. Link

It is important that you consider that Rowhani, prior to the June Iranian election, bragged how he, in his role as Iran’s top nuclear negotiator, deceived the West during negotiations on Iran’s illicit nuclear program even as Iran expanded its nuclear power.

The 6 month “deal” does not require scrapping of Iran’s nuclear abilities, it only requires a very temporary slowing of their progress. Actually Iran will continue to enrich uranium, but only to a lesser “purity”, and they will increase their stockpile of enriched uranium. Please recall that we have neither seen nor heard of any neutral inspection procedures to ensure compliance. There will be no actual hands on exams of their facilities, inspectors will only be permitted to view TV monitors fed from cameras in the facility.

The winners: Iran. It continues to enrich uranium for its goal of getting nuke weapons. It gets billions upon billions of money that has been seized. It gets billions and billions of new revenues from oil sales to China. It gets better access to Iran’s oil and strengthens its ties with Iran. Muslim terrorist organizations will be provided with massive fresh funding from Iran.

The losers: Israel for obvious reasons. All of America’s Mideast allies who are terrified of a nuclear armed Iran. So much so that Israel and Saudi Arabia are in the process of forming a mutual defense agreement.

It is highly likely that Iran is following the lead of North Korea. Make a deal, gain time, then break the deal and start over ad infinitum until they have have the bomb. Please never forget that Iran did not agree to all of the intrusive inspection regime that the International Atomic Energy Agency had said was needed to ensure that the Iranian program is peaceful.

I find it nearly incomprehensible that the Obama admin would cave to Iran when the sanctions obviously were hurting them. It would seem only logical that if the sanctions were hurting, that they should be tightened even further so as to force Iran to completely abandon its nuke ambitions, verifiably.

Probably the biggest loser is the United States of America.  We once more have alienated our closest allies and reduced our international stature.

Part 2) Let’s think about the Senate’s smashing of the rights of the minority party by killing a 250 year old rule that permitted filibustering.

Even though the Democrats have cried like deprived brats about the Republican use of filibusters, they will not tell you that until now Republicans have helped confirm 215 judges nominated by Obama and filibustered just two. Deer Friends, that proves that the left is not being truthful.

In 2005, the Republican-controlled 108th Congress, ten Bush judicial nominees were filibustered by the minority Democrats: Miguel Estrada, Priscilla Owen, Charles W. Pickering, Carolyn Kuhl, David W. McKeague, Henry Saad, Richard Allen Griffin, William H. Pryor, William Gerry Myers III, and Janice Rogers Brown. Please remember that in the current Senate, Republicans had helped confirm 215 judges and filibustered only two.

As a result of the ten filibusters in 2005, Senate Republicans, then in power, began to threaten to change the existing Senate rules by using what Senator Trent Lott termed the “nuclear option.” This change in rules would eliminate filibusters of judicial confirmation votes.

But the rules change never happened, the then in power Republicans compromised. Not so in the current Democrat controlled Senate. It is the Democrats who are the party of “NO….HELL NO!”

And speaking of hypocrisy, then Senator Obama, in 2005, when the Repubs were contemplating a similar step, condemned it by saying: “You know, the Founders designed this system, as frustrating it is, to make sure that there’s a broad consensus before the country moves forward,” He said “gridlock will only get worse.”

Harry Reid, Democrat Senate leader is now showing even deeper hypocrisy. In 2005, when Republicans threatened to change the rules to weaken Senate Democrats, Reid was a vocal opponent. He said: “For people to suggest that you can break the rules to change the rules is un-American” He also said that a rules change was an “abuse of power.”

Even then Senator Joe Biden weighed in of the Republican thoughts of changing the filibuster rule. He said of the Republicans: “The nuclear option abandons America’s sense of fair play.” Biden expanded on his then beliefs: “I say to my friends on the Republican side, you may own the field right now, but you won’t own it forever,” Biden concluded. “I pray God, when the Democrats take back control, we don’t make the kind of naked power grab you are doing.”  Hypocrisy? Damned right!

The difference between 2005 with the Repubs in power and now? The Repubs said “YES” to a compromise and the rules change never happened.

When you think of hypocrisy, you really should think about the fact that the D/L/P’s revel in calling the Republicans the party of “NO.” They say that even as they cast aside 250 years of rules and protection for the minority.  Shame on them. 

CLIMATE CHANGE