Posts from — April 2009

In response to problems with Florida’s election law [Democrats won a state-wide office, and the Presidential contest in the state] the Republicans have proposed a complete new law.

The Miami Herald reports on the new bill: Changes at voting polls rile up critics

The 81-page bill was debated for just six minutes before it passed on a 10-5 party-line vote at a one-hour meeting at 8 a.m. of the House Economic Development Council. No other committee is slated to review the bill, so there’s no chance for additional public testimony in the two weeks left in the session.

Similarly, the Senate version (SB 956) was heard for the first time Thursday, passing the Ethics and Elections Committee 5-3 over Democratic objections.

On Friday, Republican Rep. Jennifer Carroll of Green Cove Springs suggested restricting debate to six minutes. When the committee chairman, Rep. Dave Murzin, R-Pensacola, allowed two people to make brief statements, Rep. Rob Schenck, R-Brooksville, insisted that no more testimony be allowed.

That’s right, a complete re-write of the election law with 6 minutes of public comment, and straight party-line votes, but the tea parties were about what the Federal government is doing.  The state of Florida has strong open government laws … well, except for the legislature which exempted itself from the intrusions.

The St. Petersburg Times does a follow-up on the Sansom/Richburg indictments: Grand jury calls on Florida Legislature to make budget process transparent

TALLAHASSEE — The grand jury that charged Rep. Ray Sansom and college president Bob Richburg with crimes Friday saved its harshest criticism for the Legislature itself — for backroom dealing and a culture dominated by special interest money that “has the potential to breed corruption.”

“The appropriation process that gives unbridled discretion to the president of the Senate, speaker of the House of Representatives and appropriation chairmen needs to be changed. This state should be guided in openness and transparency,” the grand jury report said. “This process allows taxpayer money to be budgeted for special purposes by those few legislators who happen to be in a position of power.”

Of course the Republicans say you can’t have a publicly debated budget – it would be too political.

As opposed to what? I would note that the Republicans also felt the grand jury report was political for noticing the lack of transparency.

Grand juries in Florida, and most states, have the right to investigate anything they feel like, not just what a prosecutor brings before them.

Over in the Business section of MSNBC they have this article, States spending money to keep stimulus funds, that essentially is a lot of kvetching by various states that they don’t have the money to do all of the reporting that the Federal government wants in return for millions of dollars in stimulus.

There is this ancient practice called “double entry bookkeeping” that deals with the transparency issues for business and shows you where the money is coming from, and where it is going to, so you know how the business is doing. The people who do this are called bookkeepers and they really aren’t that well paid, so you should be able to hire a few.

If you are running a state, you should already have some of these people in your employ, and since you are spending tax dollars, you should already have transparent programs in place. These are normal procedures to prevent waste and fraud. If your state doesn’t already do this, you might want to vote for different people at the next election.

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The World Privacy Forum has a convenient list and links to the Top Ten Opt Outs. These are the places you go to get your name off the mailing and calling lists that are being gathered to sell to various ne’er-do-wells, like credit card companies, catalog sellers, and various other spam/junk mail merchants like Citi “Corpse” and “AIiiieeG” Insurance.

In civilized countries you have to opt-in, i.e. agree to receive this garbage, but in the US you have to make them stop.

An example, when you send in a credit card bill that contains the mutilated remains of the card with a note saying “first, last, and only money you will ever receive from me”, do you really need to call a special number and then send a letter to a special address to indicate you are closing the account and you don’t ever want to speak to these people again?

The Northwest Florida Daily News actually reports on the law working for a change:

Tom McLaughlin takes some time away from the Sheriff’s Office to report that a Leon County Grand jury indicts Sansom and Richburg:

State Rep. Ray Sansom and Northwest Florida State College President Bob Richburg have been indicted for official misconduct, a third-degree felony.

Richburg has also been indicted on a charge of perjury.
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Kitten Kollege

Quiet over there!

[Editor: These are the litter-mates of last week’s kitten attempting to complete an important lesson in afternoon napping, but they were interrupted by Mr. Adventurous’ off camera battle with a waving palm frond.]

Friday Ark

Agriculture depends on seasonal labor because you don’t keep hired help on when there is nothing for them to do. In the US farmers have become dependent on cheap workers from Mexico to harvest crops, and sheep farmers in Britain have been dependent on Australian shearers. Thanks to the Global War on Terror™, that labor force is no longer readily available.

Australian Broadcasting writes that the UK knocks back Australia’s baa-rmy army

Each year, Britain relies on hundreds of Australian and New Zealand sheep shearers who work on UK farms in the summer.

But strict new visa requirements have stopped the flow of workers into Britain from outside the European Union.

The UK is now faced with a critical shortage of shearers and the prospect of serious health and welfare issues that emerge if sheeps’ fleeces are not cut.
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Joel Pett in the Lexington Herald-Leader has the ultimate answer to the teabaggers’ complaints.

This is just what what the wingers are really asking for, and it is available cheap.

If you think the tea parties were historical distortions, Australian Broadcasting has a new entry: ‘Bring back private pirate hunters’

A US politician known for broadsides at US foreign policy says Somali piracy has an age-old solution: “Letters of marque” empowering private citizens to chase the seaborne scoundrels from the oceans.

Republican representative Ron Paul and a handful of conservative theorists say it’s time that the US Congress used the technique – pioneered by European powers hundreds of years ago as a way to wage naval warfare on the cheap.

We are one of the few countries that hasn’t banned letters of marque, therefore, they are not recognized by most of the world, who would take a dim view of the practice and might sink the privateers as another type of pirate, or try them as pirates if they are apprehended. Further, the profit was the booty of the pirates, and these pirates have only open boats with a few weapons, so where’s the profit?

Why does every bad idea of the last thousand years have to be tried again?

The Times-Picayune has the latest installment of Governor Jindal quest to find green leafy things, this time in New York City and Boston, always known for their concern for good government in Louisiana.

The governor [AKA पीयूष “बॉबी” जिन्दल] is under time constraints because of the looming start of the 60-day legislative session. As the T-P reminds us: “State law forbids governors from raising money during the session, and 30 days thereafter.”

Yes, he is restricted to only 9 months a year for fund raising, which is a major impediment to someone who is not running for President in 2012.

The CBC reports that this year’s Manitoba flood to be 2nd worst in 100 years:

The flood forecast for Manitoba keeps getting worse, with officials announcing on Wednesday that the peak flow of the Red River in Winnipeg will exceed the flood of 1950.

The province’s chief flood forecaster, Alf Warkentin, said Wednesday the anticipated crest level for Winnipeg is more than a half-metre higher than what officials were predicting on Tuesday.

“It’s a very serious concern for the city,” he said at a flood briefing.

The crest, expected to pass through the Winnipeg within the next couple of days, is forecast to be 6.78 metres. Only the flood of 1997, with a crest of 7.35 metres, was worse in the past 100 years.

If not for the floodway diverting water around the city, the 2009 crest would actually be 9.1 metres, officials said.
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The NWF Daily News says that the F-35 to debut along Emerald Coast next week

The F-35 visit will also mark the first opportunity to hear, firsthand, how loud the “sound of freedom” will be. The JSF Program Office and Lockheed Martin, producers of the F-35, released a summary of F-35A acoustics testing from data collected October 2008 at Edwards AFB.

According to the summary, the worst case scenario for the F-35 at a distance of 50 feet is 145 decibels at military power, the same as the F-16 and one decibel less than the F-22A. Using its afterburners, the F-35 is the same as the F-18E/F at 148 decibels. F-15s, F-22s and F-16s are higher.

The summary also predicted community acoustics, from 1000 feet, would be worse than an F-18 and equal to an F-22A at military power. The Sound Exposure Level (SEL) would be 121 dbA. At minimum power, the SEL would be 94 dbA, 6 to7 dbA less than the F-18 and F-22.

The shortest distance between any of the three runways and Valparaiso is about 2000 feet. The longest runway, and the runway used by the current fighter wing is much further away and involves no overflights of Valparaiso.

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Excuse me, but wouldn’t these people normally consider tea parties something for “the feminized elite liberals”? Isn’t this supposed to be the beer and a burger crowd?

It would appear that even with all of the help of a certain cable news network the total is coming in at around 100K. That is a football/soccer match in most of the world.

The original Boston Tea Party was to protest a business tax break for the East India Company. Why are these people protesting a middle-class tax break?

I hope they are disposing of the tea bags properly. Damp tea bags are as bad as hairballs if you step on them.

I certainly hope they used Lipton’s floor sweepings, as I would hate to think of real tea being wasted like this.

They’re Having A Birthday!

yaaaaaaawwwwwnnnnnnnnn

[Editor: April 15, 2007 they showed up.]

Keith Kisser at Invisible Library is having his sixth blogiversary™.

Oh, yes, there’s this .