Tuesday, October 16, 2012

[Inconsiderate] Last Friday I trailered my boat to the Eden Pines boat ramp on Buttonwood Dr.in Big Pine. I couldn’t launch because some jerk with a black Ford pickup truck & a Continental trailer had launched his boat there & just left them there, preventing everyone else from using the ramp. I saw that somebody else before me had wanted to launch a boat had left a note on the windshield telling him that the next time he did that, he would find himself with 4 flat tires. I understand the frustration at the pickup owner’s inconsiderateness.

Former television host and actor Gary Collins has died of natural causes in Mississippi, Harrison County Deputy Coroner Brian Switzer said Saturday. He was 74. Collins was known as a TV and radio personality and was married to former Miss America Mary Anne Mobley.

He was an actor in the television series “The Sixth Sense” and “Born Free” in the 1970s and “Iron Horse” and “The Wackiest Ship in the Army” in the 1960s

[Vandals] I put out 2 signs for Steve Smith Dem. for Mosquito Control on Little Torch and a friend put 2 out on Cudjoe. All 4 have been taken while there are other political signs left in the same area. Someone must really fear Steve Smith!

In the 1950s and 60s woman used to have nervous breakdowns. I don’t think they have them any more. They must be called something else these days.

Pakistan sends girl shot by Taliban to U.K. for care.  Give peace a chance. Link

[Bench Bob] Bencher as defined in the Urban Dictionary: A person who sits on the bench at their hang-out spot. In order to be a bencher, you must hang out within close proximity of a bench. A bencher is the top of the hierarchy of a hangout spot. Bob is at the peak of the pile. Stay up there Bob, we are all below you.

Here’s a ballot question I have not seen discussed on CT yet – FKAA Board – elected by voters or appointed by politician (governor).  Pros? Cons?  I’m leaning to towards the electing method,  but probably don’t know all the facts.   Also, I’m trying to find out how other parts of the state do it,  and what works or doesn’t elsewhere. 

So far, comparing FKAA (appointed) to FKEC (elected), they both have billing,  customer service, and repair functions. FKEC Board sets their rates and business practices regardless what their customers (the voters) say.  FKAA Board sets their rates and business practices without needing to even think about their customers.  So, what’s the difference?  What will change at FKAA if their Board is changed to elected ?  What started this question to begin with ?  All I remember is Comm Neugent pontificating at a BOCC meeting (or 2 or 3),  but I can’t remember why he got fired up.

Where I come from, the water and sewer services are municipal functions, not their own entities. So this elected or appointed is new to me.

Tide tables for fishing 2012. Link

[Amendment 9] Besides having the phone ringing constantly, one of the problems with being an Independent voter is that you have to constantly fact check everything. A poster yesterday said that the amendments dealing with the Homestead Exemption were on the ballot because the legislature would not deal with them, so they were put on by petition. This is totally wrong. Both of these amendments are what are called Legislatively Referred Constitutional Amendments, which means exactly what it says. Amendment 9 was sponsored by Representative Shawn Harrison, and Amendment 11 was sponsored by Representative Jose Oliva. 

Madonna strips for Malala and dedicates a song to her; to bring attention to girl shot by Taliban. Women rock!

[Amendment 12] Would the poster who said that we should vote NO on all amendments please explain to us why he is against having student body presidents replace the president of the Florida Student Association on the Board of Governors of the State University system ? I’m curious about his logic.

Rising sea levels threaten U.S. coastline. Link

Firefighters Union rejects collective bargaining contract. Link

[The Movies] In zombie movies, how come grown men never know how to board-up a window? They always do it in a hap-hazard, pick-up-sticks kind of way, instead of nailing all the boards either horizontally or vertically. After all, their lives are at stake. You would think they’d give their defenses a little more thought.

Citizen’s is raising my windstorm insurance to $2577 per year. Assuming they don’t increase their rates, that’s almost $26K in the next 10 years! And this for insurance that does not pay for any damages unless they exceed $12K. I don’t even have the personal property coverage in order to try to save money. I am seriously considering dropping them, as I did flood insurance.

Regarding the “python” at the airport — it was a boa. Sorry to ruin a perfectly good panic and/or conspiracy theory. The snake person was very impressive. That would go over big time at Mallory Square- well, maybe not, someone may think it’s a python and start a flash mob attack.

[“Yes to Amendment 10”] This “independent” voter’s opinions aren’t so independent.  After using all the amendments’  explanation and reference sites already posted right here on CT,  this guy/gal who keeps trying to steer us – under the guise of doing us a favor –  has told us his/her own and seems like skewed opinion of how to vote. 

How would anyone know that Bench Bob is a trust fund baby? A bank employee would know. Shame on you for disclosing personal information. You should be fired!

[Conspiracy] “Will they simply feed us poison and hope that we die off like the birds” Nah, just sterilization drugs in your coco pops, tacos shells, grape aid and grits!

[GMC Pickup] Can anyone tell me why they make GMAC pickup trucks? They’re the same as Chevrolet trucks except the emblem.

I would rather see the “bench guy” at CVS than have to go by the homeless encampment in the trees between the bus stop and Walgreens. 

Stone Crab season is underway! Link

[NO on Amendment 8] 2012 Florida Constitutional Amendments. First of all, in general, I think making changes to laws statutorily through the legislative process is the best way to go.  The only reason people opt for the Constitutional Amendment route is because they couldn’t get a Legislator to pick up the gauntlet on the issue, so they went around that and got signatures to put it on the ballot as a CA.  State Constitutions don’t need to be needlessly buried under this, not that, no this instead of that, endless very specific issue amendments.  That is what the Statutes are for.  If it turns out be a bad deal, it is much harder to change a constitutional amendment than to change a statute.  On that basis alone, I am voting NO on all the amendments on the ballot out of general principle.  If it was a good, valid thing to do, a Legislator will be interested.  If they are not, it must be trouble.  

A secondary point regarding Amendment 8 (pka #7):  The Religious Freedom Amendment.  A recent poster explained their perspective on this amendment based on their research.  They attributed the thrust of the amendment to be associated with school vouchers to private religious schools.  The research I did personally, on an impartial site that outlined all twelve amendments (www.collinscenter.org), also talked about a subplot involving the school vouchers.  I have a lot of reservations about this, number one being the voucher subplot is not contained in the amendment wording directly.  A voter, or a legislator, should not have to assume this is meant, or surmise that the intent is to something beneath the language used.  Why the subterfuge?  Additionally, churches do not pay taxes for the expressed purpose of being able to run their programs and schools from the congregation tithing and other donations they may receive.  If they do not pay into the State or Federal Revenue system, I do not support their receiving any taxpayer monies for their organization.  In a larger, more expanded view, I am very concerned about Muslim organizations leaning on this amendment to get funding to launch their fight against our Freedom of Speech, support for Sharia Law equality, etc. on our tax dollars.  Ordinarily, I am not a prejudiced person against anyone or any religion.  However, the Radical Muslims hide their politics behind an illusion of faith, they are dangerous and doing everything they can to tear down our American Constitution, government, laws, and way of life.  I will vote NO for any open-ended, non-specific amendment to the State Constitution that poses an opportunity for Radical Muslim organizations, or any other political groups posing as religious organizations, to gain a right to taxpayer monies to fund their activities.  I urge a NO vote on Amendment 8, this one is a an open door for trouble to walk in. 

Political advertisement paid for and approved by Rick Ramsay Republican for Sheriff

[Sewer Fees] The proposed grinder pump stations at each of our homes will require the homeowner furnish 30 amp breaker and 220/240 volt power to be run from the home to the alarm panel.

Mosquito Control gets partner to genetically changed mosquitoes! Link

[TV Land] Les Nesmith, WKRP’s ‘meteorologist’s funniest stunt was dropping turkeys from a helicopter on Thanksgiving Day–except they landed with a thud. Les never thought of that as a problem.

Does Key West really want to become known as a mass tourism destination like Orlando? Before we even consider a study to widen the channel, the city should be undertaking a study and conversation with local citizens and all business interests – including hotels, restaurants, bars, galleries, fishing guides, eco-tours and others, on the topic of sustainable tourism.

The important question we should have asked long ago is how many tourists can our small island of 25,000 residents accommodate at one time? What type of tourist do we want to attract to Key West? What kind of experience do we want our tourists to enjoy? How many cruise ship passengers can our small, once quaint and funky island handle in a day or year, and still provide a quality, unique, memorable vacation experience?

For far too long the cruise industry has run the show. It is time to reverse engines and start managing the cruise ship industry, and not visa-versa, when it comes to our island. Do we really want the cheapest of the cheap cruise lines dictating the ambiance of our island? 
Let’s talk money. Disembarkation fees have to be used directly related to serving cruise ship passengers. And when it comes to my tax dollars – yes we all pay local, state and federal taxes! – before a channel widening study is undertaken I would hope the city would encourage a much broader conversation about sustainable tourism. We have no idea what the future holds when it comes to the viability of the cruise ship industry and their revenue. There is no guarantee of any revenue! yet we continue to cater to mass tourism and run the risk of losing land-based tourists and ultimately residents. 

[Vote Yes on 11] An independent voter’s quest to make sense of the Constitutional Amendments. Amendment 11
Here’s one more change to the Homestead Exemption. This one deals with low income seniors . Your first thought was that this was going to let a Billionaire with a good lawyer get out of paying taxes on his mansion. You have to start trusting people , there’s no way that can happen. There’s also no way you’ll live long enough to qualify for this either. So what are you going to do? You want to cut taxes, yours most of all, but you have to start somewhere so why not for a person like this. An elderly longtime Florida homeowner is a taxpayer, so it’s not as if you’re giving more money to some freeloader. How would you like it if after all those years of paying taxes that kept going up and up you had to leave your home because you couldn’t afford them any more ? That’s a little melodramatic isn’t it ? It is, but it’s still true.
YES on amendment 11

[“Add a Facebook and twitter share link to each post”]  NO No No! I do not want to see FB or birds all over every post.  How lazy can you be?  And just how fast do you need it?

Want to share a post?  Do like the rest of us  – copy and paste it into an email.  What could possibly be so critically urgent that it can not wait until you get to a computer?    Or else – just FB or bird the CT’s url: https://bigpinekey.com/

Do not  impose your need for techno life on the rest of us. Now if Deer Ed wanted to put FB or bird on a customers ad,  then fine. That’s between them.  But leave the general CT readership out of your needs.

Fanci Seafood has fresh local Stone Crab in the case!

Automotive commercial being filmed on Card Sound Road Wednesday from noon until 7 weather permitting. — plan accordingly. Could cause you to be late coming or going from the Keys. 

Huge mystery eyeball that washed up on beach identified as swordfish eye. Link

[Amendment 8] Here are some of the latest headlines from editorials over the past few weeks:

Miami Herald: Vote No on this blatant attempt to fund religious schools.

Palm BeachPost: Keep church-state separation by rejecting Amendment 8.

Sun Sentinel: Freedom of religion is a compelling issue, but this change seems more about allowing religious organizations to feed at the public trough than anything else.

Tampa BayTimes: The authors were hoping to sway voters with an exploitative and misleading title.

It is critically important that the public understands three key points:
1) Amendment 8, if passed, would break down the separation of church and state, and allow any religious sect to use public taxpayer dollars for religious purposes.
2) There is NO accountability built into the Amendment – and if passed, it would open the door to massive fraud and abuse.
3) The title “Religious Freedom” is actually a misnomer and the opposite of what the Amendment really does. 

[The Name Game] Social Security is now called ‘Federal Benefit Payment/Entitlement. Have you noticed, your Social Security check is now referred to as a Federal Benefit Payment?  For what legitimate reason?

Why doesn’t the poster want to be lectured on what he states is disrespectful?  After all, all the Right was doing was stating what everyone knows is merely hard facts concerning Obama. .Some folks just have a hard time accepting reality when reality differs from their ideology.

To Have And Have Not.  In a way this election looks like a battle between the haves and the have-nots.

As teen recovers from Taliban hit. “I , am, Malala”. Sign the petition. Are you? Link

Florida Officials and scientists urge Presidential candidates to address sea-level rise. Link

I love how the GOP, after bringing the economy to the brink of ruin in 2008, are now acting like someone else farted.

FTR has done it again. Now statistical data relating to the unemployment rate comes from a private corporation. Well done. ADP is not going to be impartial or accurate and therefore not statistically relevant. You may just as well scrawl your math homework on the back of an old hamburger wrapper. 

Anyone want to take a bet that this 2012 Presidential election has the smallest voter turn out ever?   I’m giving 1000 to 1!

 From the Right

When gas prices hit $4 a gallon in 2008, candidate Barack Obama blamed it on Bush. He labeled the high prices as being “the failure of Bush’s energy policy”. He vowed to do better.  Today, 4 years later, gas is twice as much as when Obama took office. And, you can expect energy prices to go even higher. Obama is in favor of even higher energy prices. A major component of our current energy mess are the result of the Obama foriegn policies. His foreign policies have proven to be an accelerant in the political fires that ravage the mid-east. He has accomplished nothing in terms of quenching those fires. Obama, recognizing the political hazard of high gas/energy prices, is now bragging that he has (recently) issued many permits.

His statements are terribly misleading. His record makes it crystal clear that that he is intent on strangling the petroleum industry. He disregards the fact that inexpensive energy is absolutely vital to our economic recovery. By the way, 4 years ago Mr. Obama vowed he would repair our economy.

Today, gas prices are more than twice than the price when he took office. Gas was over $4.00 in Key West yesterday. Our liberal friends are enraged when we Right Wingers point out that those prices are a clear sign of Team Obama’s decision to keep energy prices artificially high.   Obama’s and the Democrat policies are turning the 4 year squeeze on the middle class into a devastating vise-grip for millions of middle class Americans 

It was Candidate Obama who in ’08 said: “..(high energy prices).. are a clear sign of Washington’s failure to lead on energy which is turning the middle-class squeeze into a devastating vise-grip for millions of Americans.” Please note that claim was part of his campaign rhetoric, his governance has been proven to the polar opposite.

Obama has done nothing to free us from the grip of the vise of his creation. Obama has lectured us with sermon like speeches about energy and conservation thereof.  But, none of this has done a thing to bring down the cost of energy. Mr. Obama, when pushed, will tell us that only recently he has begun issuing drilling permits.  But, he doesn’t tell you that the vast majority of those permits have been for private lands. Experts agree that the amount of petroleum under public land dwarfs private lands. Team Obama has made it so difficult and expensive to produce oil on public lands that oil production thereon has declined by 14% in just the last year.

Obama has adamantly refused to O.K. the KeyStone Pipeline. There may be legitimate argument that some of the crude that passes though that line will be shipped offshore. But, it is dead certain that the pipeline will create thousands of new, good paying American career jobs. It is dead certain that it will increase the supply of crude, hence the supply of gas will increase, which will lead to lower energy prices. Try as he might, Obama cannot repeal the law of supply and demand.

Let’s face it; Obama is committed to overseeing the death of fossil fuels for the creation of energy. It is a fundamental part of his makeup. He has squandered billions on green energy schemes. Now we’re learning that the only sure way to have acquired Obama green energy funding was to be an Obama supporter/contributor. Only now we’re learning that there are thousands of investigations in progress for fraud and corruption in the program. We lost billions of tax dollars on his green energy debacles.

Obama seems so determined to scratch his itch that he is willing to make our middle class suffer.  We can see evidence of that in his choice of Steve Chu as his Energy Secretary. Chu infamously noted that an increase of gas prices to level of price in Europe would be a great idea. How much would that be? Between $9 – $11 per gallon. In a newspaper interview, prior to his appointment, Chu stated: ““Somehow,” … “we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe.”

Let’s hope that the debate will focus some time on our debt and our deficits. Perhaps someone will remember Mr. Obama’s famous quote from a 2008 speech. He said: “”The problem is, is that the way Bush has done it over the last eight years is to take out a credit card from the Bank of China in the name of our children, driving up our national debt from $5 trillion for the first 42 presidents – #43 added $4 trillion by his lonesome, so that we now have over $9 trillion of debt that we are going to have to pay back — $30,000 for every man, woman and child. That’s irresponsible. It’s unpatriotic.” (July 3, 2008).  Deer Friends, does that logic still hold today? Is that the standard that Mr. Obama wants to be judged by? I think not. Does he want to be judged on the fact that as of yesterday, each Americans share of the national debt has  nearly doubled since Obama has been in office? I think not.

Bush was in office 8 years. For the first 6 years of his presidency, national debt accumulated very slowly. In the last two year, with the Democrats controlling our spending, our spending and our debt exploded. The Debt increased by about $4.89 trillion during the two terms of the Bush presidency. Today, it is somewhere north of $16.2 Trillion. Never in our history have we accumulated so much debt. So Deer Friends, under Obama’s leadership we have piled on about $6 Trillion in new debt in not even 4 years. Let’s all hope that someone in tonight’s debate is  more interested in that than they are in Big Bird.

Part 2) It’s scary that for the most part the media have already forgotten the paramilitary attack on our Consulate in Bengasi.  That event has starkly revealed how wrong headed is our President’s foreign policy. That tragedy has added yet another chapter in the volumes of lies foisted on the American public by the Obama administration. Not even the most ardent Obama supporter can deny that Obama has bragged and preened about the death of Bin Laden. He has repeatedly claimed that the death of UBL was the death knell of AQI and much of the jihadist movement. Now, we know that none of that is even marginally true. AQI not only endures, it thrives.

The 9/11/12 paramilitary assault in Bengasi put the lie to the Obama story line. Now, Mr. Obama urgently needs you to believe that he did not know that the attack was a paramilitary operation rather than an unruly mob. How can that have been. The event was the single biggest foreign policy crisis that the President has had to face since he took office. It was the first such event in decades. We can be absolutely certain that Mr. Obama was notified of the event while the event was in progress. Protocols demanded it. The assault took place starting at about 9:30 PM in Bengasi, that would have been at about 3:30PM in Washington.  Routine working hours in Washington.  Would Mr. Obama have us believe that there were no special procedures in place on the 11th anniversary of 9/11/01? Obama was in Washington, he presided over a moment of silence to commemorate 9/11/01 on the White House lawn.  By 5 pm he was in a meeting with Sec Def Panetta. Has anyone asked Panetta if Obama broached the subject? No.

Washington based State Department officials, some of the highest placed officials, watched and listened to the hour’s long event in real time. The telephone conversations and real time security television feeds were monitored by Charlene Lamb, a SD official who was in charge of security and who reported directly to Mrs. Clinton.  Those real time feeds clearly revealed that there was no mob, there was only a coordinated military style assault armed with military weapons. There is absolutely no question but that Mrs. Clinton was fully aware of the event. There can be no rational doubt but that Obama was immediately notified of the event. There can be precious little doubt but that Obama himself actually viewed the real time events while the State Department officials were watching them.

If we are to believe that Obama was not told that the assault was in progress, then we must believe that his State Department failed him. If we are to believe that he was told that the assault was a mob action, then we must believe that he was lied to by his State Department. If either of those are true, Mrs. Clinton must be fired.

As of 7:15 PM Monday, we see growing evidence that Obama is throwing Clinton under the bus..  David Axelrod, in an interview on Sunday, speaking of the assault, stated that “there is no doubt but that some of these matters went into the security department at the State Department.  But it didn’t come to the White House….” 

At 7:45 PM we learned that Mrs. Clinton has fallen on her sword for the Bengasi assault.  Its all developing. Deer friends, the attack on Bengasi was a military attack on Americans on American soil.  Can any sentient American believe that Obama was not immediately notified?  FDR was immediately notified of Pearl Harbor, GWB was immediately notified on 9/11/01, even Bubba Clinton was immediately notified of the first World Trade Center assault. Sadly, once again that the President of the United States, Obama, is not to be believed. It’s time for a change.