Category — Florida

Florida License Plates

Beneficiary

A weekend feature of Why Now.

Note: This is the only specialty plate for motorcycles, and the “beneficiary” is the Able Trust, also known as: Florida Governor’s Alliance for the Employment of Citizens with Disabilities. I’m not sure that I would appreciate the connotation if I were still riding.

The Associated Press has a wrap-up of the Florida legislative session. The Republicans used cleavers instead of scalpels to cut $5 billion in spending from the budget, a third of a billion dollars lopped off the education budget. The only state workers who will see a pay increase are the Florida Troopers, everyone else who still has a job will have to make do another year without a raise. Oh, they cut their piddling part-time salaries by 5%, BFD.

Sadly both Sinfonian and Mustang Bobby have reported that the Florida legislature didn’t clap loud enough or really have enough faith and the “I Believe” plate won’t get passed this year.

So I guess I can forget looking for sponsors for my new plate:

I think it would have been a hit with certain segments of the Florida population.

Florida License Plate?

Beneficiary

A weekend feature of Why Now.

This does not make me a happy camper, for reasons I’ll explain below the fold.

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Via Lisa at All Hat and No Cattle the local puppy trainer tells us that Dick “Dick” Cheney is coming to town. He’ll be here on Friday at a fund raiser for our local Congresscritter Jeff “What exactly does a clue look like?” Miller, who, with a 4 to 1 Republican majority, thinks he needs to build up a campaign fund.

While he will probably be flown from the base flightline to the Fairgrounds, which is sort of a semi-part of the base, they will shut down all of the local roads to fool terrorists. This will create a lot of terrorist thoughts among local drivers, but as “Dick” is fond of saying “So”.

Also in the paper was a report about the required environmental impact public meeting for the changes at Eglin AFB as a result of the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure law. Due to this round of BRAC, Eglin is getting the Joint Strike Fighter Initial Joint Training Site, and the 7^th Special Forces Group (Airborne).

The JSFIJTS means that all of the services will be training in the new F-35 at Eglin, and the base will eventually get over a hundred of the aircraft.

The 7^th SFG move means thousand more Army personnel and large training exercises.

The comments at the meeting were pure Twilight Zone.

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While in a waiting room I scanned my local “libertarian” puppy trainer, and their op ed was like the episode of Star Trek where Kirk causes the evil computer to self-destruct with a logical fallacy. The problem for the editorial board was the conflict between the right to bear arms and the rights of the property owner caused by Florida’s new “Take your howitzer to work” law. After wasting several inches of newsprint in a pong game between the Second and Fourth Amendments, they finally decided that they would side with the Fourth Amendment, because if you can’t violate the Bill of Rights on your own property, what’s it good for?

Florida License Plates

Beneficiary

A weekend feature of Why Now.

Lambert at Corrente tells us that the World’s greatest deliberative body calls in the cops, regarding $10 million dollars that magically appeared in a transportation bill after it had been passed without the earmark.

This turkey was way over ripe, because as I noted back in January, it was Too Much Even For South Florida. The local transportation authority in Lee County told the Feds they didn’t want the money, because they didn’t want to build the interchange the money was suppose to finance.

It turns out the only person who wanted the interchange was a developer who owned property in the area, and, from the generosity of his heart, dropped thousands of dollars into the re-election campaign of an Alaskan Congresscritter [OK, not a big puzzle, Don Young is Alaska’s only Congresscritter].

It is really depressing when being elected to public office in Alaska is almost in and of itself proof that you are corrupt. Almost as depressing as my belief that it would save time if anyone who runs for office in Florida as a family values Republican would be required to register as a sex offender.

People who don’t live here don’t understand why I would fly a modified storm warning flag whenever the lege is in session – I know the path of destruction they can visit on the state while supposedly doing “The People’s Business”.

The Republicans control everything, but that doesn’t mean they will get anything done.

From the Miami Herald‘s Naked Politics blog

Health care:

Republican Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottamp passed out a talking point or too yesterday to Democrats on the House floor yesterday during yesterday’s contentious debate over the House healthcare plan vs. the Senate/Gov. Charlie Crist’s plan. Some Republicans groused that Kottkamp didn’t even stop to talk to them.

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Most people have probably heard about the 8 teenagers who were involved in beating another teen senseless, so they could post the video of the beating on the ‘Net. The incident took place in Polk County, Florida, which is the home of Interstate 4 Jamming which has been following the case.

The Interstate 4 Jammer predicted at 7:15AM this morning that someone in the daytime sleaze media would get involved, someone like “Dr. Phil”.

Guess what: Bondsman: Dr. Phil Posted Bond For Teen Accused Of Ringleading Videotaped Beating

The teen accused of masterminding a videotaped “animalistic” attack against a fellow teenage classmate is out on bond, and she has celebrity talk show host Dr. Phil McGraw to thank for it, according to a bail bondsman.

The bondsman told media gathered at a Polk County jail Friday that Dr. Phil posted Mercedes Nichols’ $30,000 bond.

When Nichols was released from jail, a man arrived and idenfitied himself as a Dr. Phil producer and ordered local media to leave the area because the Dr. Phil Show had exclusive rights to the story, according to reporters on scene.

Good call Jammer.  Dr. Phil, you really need to see a shrink, because you are one sick puppy.

Florida License Plates

Beneficiary

A weekend feature of Why Now.

You know some states have “Take your child to work day”, well thanks to the Florida legislature we now have “Take Your Gun To Work Everyday”.

I loved this bit from Dr. Peaden:

Backers say the measure upholds the vision of the authors of the U.S. Constitution, who made the right to bear arms part of the Bill of Rights.

“The second thing they wrote about in that constitution was the right to bear arms,” said Sen. Durell Peaden, a Republican from Crestview, Florida. “It was what was dear in their hearts.”

The man has a JD in addition to his MD, but apparently doesn’t know the difference between the Bill of Rights and the Constitution, or that it isn’t “that constitution”; it’s “the Constitution” that he took oath to support when he entered public office .

He’s in his last term, but he is a true embarrassment to my county, although he doesn’t represent me. Even a guy who got his medical degree from Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara¹, Mexico, should be more attuned to health and safety issues than Durell, [or “Unreal” as some of us call him].

1. Note that the web site for the “School of Medicine” is in English, while the rest of the UAG site is in Spanish, and they have a “Medical Spanish” course. This school was set up for gringos who couldn’t get into a US medical school.

Florida License Plates

Beneficiary

A weekend feature of Why Now.