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Protest or Vandalism?

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Is Chris Young, credited with being a member of the Occupy Sarasota group, a protester, or a Vandal.  He himself stated, in a televised interview, that he did not know they were going to be there so, does that make him a member of the group, or just a cause that they can take up for more publicity?

Chris Young was arrested by Sarasota Police when he refused the order to stop writing on the sidewalk, by the officer who arrested him.  He has since be claimed by the Occupy Sarasota group, and the American Civil Liberties Union, as a sort of poster child for tree speech.

This, to the left, is a photo of Chris Young’s work,  published in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.  I take it that he was arrested before the completion of his  work of ART,  and so that might explain why the point of his protest is unclear.

This is a photo of Truman Adam, in another photo published by the Sarasota Herald.  This was taken as he was using chalk, much like Chris Young, to portray the United States Constitution.  This protest, of the earlier arrest, was carried out WITH A PERMIT.

Mr. Young‘s doodling have been compared to the recent Art Festival where a section of downtown road was closed off to allow chalk drawing, which were later washed away.  The second protest, with chalk, was permitted because the groups had promised to clean up after themselves.

Sarasota City commissioner Shannon Snyder, and ex-cop, had this to say about the chalk, “The city has an obligation to control its property,” Snyder said. Protesters have been doing the chalk thing for weeks, and “they weren’t cleaning it up. They were leaving it there, as part of their protest.”

In this country we believe in exercising out right to free speech.  My question would be : Does this give us the right, whether in chalk or paint, to deface other people’s property, be it that of a private citizen or government?  If I were to go to the homes of the Occupy Sarasota people to write slogan on THEIR sidewalks, or driveways, would they, or the ACLU, support my freedom of speech of would the have me arrested.

The most probable outcome would be my arrest, rightly, with both the Occupy Sarasota and ACLU telling me that they could NOT support a right to deface property.

In THIS I support the Sarasota City Police Department whole heartedly.

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While thy talk about a Balanced Budget

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Politician

Politician a scary sight.

While the candidates talk about things like a bananced budget, what goes through your mind?

For me it is a wonder that anyone believe they would do it.  When the Supreme Court decided that Corporation had the right of free speech I think it is a wonder that they did not also give them the right to vote.  Right now they seem to have the right, one we don’t have, to BUY the vote.  Most of us can not afford to put  that kind of money into our candidate.

Why do I put that little gem in there?  Well, look at it this way.  I would seem that the one with the most money, and best attack ads, wins.  Most politicians know that a company will only give money to the one who is in the best position to help their interest.  This company can even hide it behind a PAC to make it harder to determine which politician owes his soul to which interest.

Any politician, even one who is trying to do what he thinks is right, must understand that if he wants to stay in the office, or even get into one, he has to make himself attractive to the people with the money.  One of the common forms of this was the earmark where they slip an extra into a bill that adds money for a local project, which would be a plus for some interest.  The could even appoint a representative of that interest to a board, of some kind, that helps to govern the interest.

Remember just after Katrina hit New Orleans?  We found out the only qualification the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency had was having been a fund raiser for Bush II?

The point is: as long as politicians can put things in the budget and not have to pay for the beyond printing more money, or selling some more IOU s {bonds} we should not expect to see a balanced budget in the near future.  Then, when the BILL pill up so that the country is underwater they will be gone, and our descendant will be screwed.

The last reason I give for this unlikely even is one of the simplest ideas there is: anything they cut our as being more then we can pay for, or not needed, is going to be someones pet cause, and that can get you put our of office.

We need to not only watch what we do with our vote but we should watch what they do with it as well.   When we hear the attack ads, or barbs cast in a debate, we should have paid enough attention to what they were doing to be able to say “thats a lie” or “thats true”.  Not because he is our candidate, or because some reporter told us it was but, because we paid attention to what they said and we knew how true it was.

 

The FUTURE belongs to us, we should elect people for the job not because we think they will be able to defeat the opponent.

Thank you,

That Joe Guy.

 

 

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Dear Readers

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For those of you who actually read my articles:  I thank you very much…

I love hearing from people who give  me the idea that they have REALLY read my material.

On the other hand, there are those who write generic praise which, most likely, is a result of cut and paste and could refer to anything…   I particularly liked the one that put a comment on my “About Me” page that said something along the lines of “this is a great idea, I never would have thought about it like that”.

While I look forward to your comments: if the comment does not indicate you have read the articles then I will DELETE it…

 

Florida Presidential Primary : Who to Pick?

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It is Primary day here, and here I sit trying to think of whom to cast my vote for.

The first one I crossed off my list was Newt Gingrich…  I would have to say that my choice there was only partially religious…  He cheated on 2 out of 3 of his wives, and that is just what we know of….  I am not a right wing Christian wingnut, so why do I say my choice is partially religious?  Maybe Newt was married in front of a Justice of the Peace and the word “God” was never mentioned, in which case maybe he did not LIE to Jehovah.  Then again…  I believe they still say things like ”in the eyes of God”, or “before God”, so, as far as we know, Newt has lied to Jehovah God at least twice.  Then how are we supposed to trust what he says.    So he is out.

Mitt Romney : Newt has pointed to Romney’s control of the Damon Corp. and it’s large fines for ethics problems, and Newt would know about ethics problems, having be bounced from the House Speaker jobs for his problem.  One that even a Republican Majority could not ignore.  So the question about his comes down to the amount of control that Romney had over Damon.  Was he doing day to day control of the company, or was his interest just in getting it into shape to sell.  At Bain the idea was to take companies that were not making money, on the virge of failure, and turning them around.  When he was in charge of Damon, I don’t know how familiar he was with that operation or if he know that those practises, the ones that resulted in fines, were wrong, or if he was just getting rid of dead wood.  Newt makes it sound like Mitt was running thing on a day to day operation, rather then getting it ready for resale.  The whole idea that Bain could get a company, that was not performing, ready to be bought by another company and not hack off the parts that were not making money is rather strange.  After all, if you were looking to buy a company would you rather buy a healthy company or a company that was only standing up because of crutches?  Would you pay more for the healty company, or the one you would have to fix?  Me?  Not that I would ever have to make the choice, I would rather buy a company that I did NOT have to fix.

People will, it seems, look at these question through the filter of their belief: is Mitt Romney honest, or is he a greedy slug who just wanted to cheat medicare.  Mitt said he was one of the people who helped clean up the mess at Damon but, no one else seems to know about anything he did to fix anything.  Again, it is hard to decide this question.  It seems to me that either the Feds thought that he had nothing to do with it, as I don’t know of anything they have charged him with, or if they just could not prove charges and so did not level any.

Ron Paul :  He is a libertarian, which means he is not a big government liberal, and he is not a big bussiness syncaphant.  People would either love him, or hate him.  Ron Paul would probably get rid of a number of government agencies that DON”T carry their weight…..  One of these would be the Department of Education…  how maany schools do they run… and how many teachers do they have?

I would take aim at the guys in charge of the Federal Highway Administration.  What do they really do?  You think of these guys as the ones who build the Interstates but, the closest they get to this is telling the states where to build the Interstates.  If the Feds want to put in a new Interstate they tell the State DOT where to put the road, and the the STATE goes out to get the property, the right of way, and then gets the road built.  The USDOT/FHA does not even get it’s feet dirty.  They just hand out the money, which they often threaten to withhold if the stated does not pass laws that the USDOT want, but does not have the authority to pass.  Take the speed limits.  Feds have said that if a state does not have and enforce  a speed limit that the FHA likes then the feds will withhold highway funds, so the state can’t build the highways that the FHA wants.  This money comes from, at least one source, gasoline taxes.  Each state get back a certain about of money, as determined by what the Feds feel is needed.  That means that some states will see a less than a $1 comeback for every $1 they send in, while other states will get more than $1 for ever one they send in….

There are any number of ways that we can slime down the government, and do away with departments that just take up space…..  Did the Army Corp. of Engineers so such a good job around New Orleans?  How about the Securities Exchange Commision investigating Bernie Madoff?  How about the guys who were in charge of keeping an eye on the Deepwater Horrizen?  The did a BANK UP job.

Ron Paul might just make the world appreciate us more, when he pulls us back into our own borders.  Once the worlds whipping boy takes our marble and come home, maybe they will realize just how much they need us.  Maybe then they will understand that WE are not the source of THEIR problems…

In the mean time….  I am going for RON PAUL..  I think he will do the least damage.

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