To All

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It is really nice to receive comments that say I have made a good point, or that you might not agree with everything I wrote..  Sure I know which article you are commenting on but, could you at least include enough information to let me know that you are really reading the article rather then just pasting in a generic praise…..

I don’t mind people putting in their web sites, I just want to be able to separate those who cut and paste from those who are making real comments…. If I can’t tell the difference I will have to delete the comments, and I don’t really like doing that as I might miss someone who really had something to say..

Thank you,

That Joe Guy.

Servicewoman told DUI cost her a Christmas call from Obama | CharlotteObserver.com & The Charlotte Observer Newspaper

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Servicewoman told DUI cost her a Christmas call from Obama | CharlotteObserver.com & The Charlotte Observer Newspaper.

Coast Guard Petty Officer Golda Payne had been told that she would get a Christmas day phone call from the President…  As the article above states, only about 10 military people are on this list.

So, after giving an interview to the Coast Guard newspaper, imagine her surprise when she did NOT get the call..  or that the reason she did not get the call was because she had a DUI conviction in 2006, and the White House did not want the negative publicity….  “The Coast Guard has been hands down the best thing that has ever happened to me,” Payne said in an email. “It provided me structure and discipline when I needed it most.” . . .

So it  would seem that a young woman who turned her life around after a DUI arrest, and was nominated by her superiors, for this phone call,  as a result  her duties in the U. S. Coast Guard….  That is terrible.  To think that just a couple of years ago she got caught driving drunk, and then changed the course of her life for the better.  We would never want that kind of message to go out..

He is the President of the United States of America and as such he is due respect for his office but, as a person HE might be the one who did not deserve this phone call.

What do Politician have in common with a Vampire, or Roach.

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Or maybe the better question would be : What do Roaches and Vampire have in common the Politicians…I don’t know about you but, the first thing that come to my mind is Light.  You go into a room, and turn on the light.  What happens to the Politicians, uh, I mean the Roaches?  They head for the darkness.  With Vampires, of course it has to be Sunlight, or maybe its Ultra Violet light, but they will do the same, and scurry back to their holes.

What if we could do the same with Politicians?  In Florida we have the Sunshine Law, which we expect to make the working of government transparent….  though, as with many things they do, there are loopholes in the law..  For example:  The Herald-Tribune reports that a representative from Sylint, a forensic computer company, is giving city commissioners  one-on-one briefings about a report dealing with the search of two computers belonging to the top two administrators in Sarasota.  A possible breach of the Sunshine Law that requires government business be conducted in the open.  It is normally held that a meeting of more then two persons that deals with government business, would require a public hearing, so they do it with one at a time in an effort to keep this information from going public.

On a national scale we often find that groups who fund attack ads are increasingly hiding behind PACs, in and effort to hide who is doing the slandering.  While there are a number of sites that will examine claims made by these attack ads, and grade the accuracy of these claim, it appears that people are more likely to accept the claim that follow their view point, rather than take the time to determine if they are in fact true.

As voters we need to take the time to determine the truth for ourselves and not just depend on the views of unknown organizations.  My favorite example of this is : During the late 1980s there was a movement in Sarasota County to implement a 2 year building moratorium, during which a groups called the Argus Foundation came out against the moratorium, all the while saying they were a objective panel of experts.  This group did not point out that it was made up of the very people who had the most to gain from the failure of the moratorium, the real estate, chambers of commerce, banker, and builders.  The moratorium failed, and as far as I can tell this was due to people accepting the opinion of the Argus Foundation, rather than what common sense would tell them was going on.

Lets not just accept what people say, like this article  but, look at everything and determine, for ourselves, if they are in OUR interest.

The kind of government we vote into office is the kind we deserve, and it is our responsibility to vote for the right people.

Thank you for reading this,

That Joe Guy.

Peace in the Middle East? Don’t Make Me Laugh!!!

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Map of predominantly Sunni or Shi'a regions in...

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I have tried to think about what to make of this years Arab Spring..  Did it have to do with the idea of Spring Cleaning, where you throw out the old and bring in the new?  Or is the effort just a way to take the power from the Sunni governments, some of whom govern Shiite majorities, and place that power in the hands of the Shiite mobs.

The last American troops have pulled out of Iraq and, now that the oppressors are gone,  there is peace ..  NO?  Now that we are gone, who could they be fighting?

Each other?  No..  Surely, now that the United States has pulled out of the country, the are now attempting to work together to build up the kind of infrastructure that would allow a better life for the average Iraqi citizen?

No.  They seem intent of blowing up the country building by building, and for what reason?  Why because the peaceful Islāmic religion is as peaceful as the Protestant and Catholics were in Belfast.  They do have their problems, which seem to go way back to about 637 A.D.  when the Prophet Mohammad was murdered, but hey, that was a long time ago.  Can we say “holding a grudge”?  Even those Protestants and Catholics in Belfast were able to make PEACE, and who ever accused the Irish of being peaceful?

Evan the United States, after the War of Northern Aggression, was able to deal with our differences, though it cost the country 500,000 to 600,000 deaths, and that was only about 160, or so, years ago.  Since the days when the United States was founded we have been able to help rebuild, and make friends with, almost all of our old enemies.

After WWII the United States, along with it allies, went out on a limb, risking war with the Soviet Union, in order  to keep West Germany independent, and when the Berlin Wall finally  came down West Germany, who we helped rebuild, was vastly different from East Germany, who’s only help came from the Soviet Union, with sections of East Germany that were not much changed from the end of the war.

It is true that, after our invasion of Iraq, we did not seem to have a concise plan about how to help rebuild, and we did seem of have problems with local corruption but, we tried to help the Iraqi’s rebuild.  Maybe all we were able to do was to eliminate the one influence, Saddam Hussein,  who was keeping the lid on things, but you would think that once we were gone they would be willing to make up and take care of their citizens?

The Iraqi’s now have the chance, if they are willing to accept it, to use THEIR OIL to help rebuild the country and better their lives.  Sadly it would appear that once the adults have left the room the children have gone back to fighting, and don’t seem to show any inclination to become a civilized nation..

Related articles

So What would be the DIFFERENCE?

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Sarasota County Commissioners have said that they will stand behind the term limits that voters put in place in 1998…

John Thaxton, often quoted by the newspapers, suggested that the term limits would eliminate the experience gained by a sitting Commissioners, and would leave the voters at the mercy of unelected staffers…

My question is: and this would be different, how?

The Country Commissioners’ recently got rid of the Country Administrator, Jim Ley, after the blowup over the Country Purchasing Department…  Mr. Ley had been the Administrator for about 14 years..  Several of our Commissioners had been busy building up their experience during that time but, they obviously had not build up enough experience to know that the Mr. Ley had been blowing them off the whole time..  In spite of several complaints, from various contractors, about problems with the Purchasing Department which they handed off to Mr. Ley  who did nothing…

So.. Where did those years of experience get US?  Nowhere.

Which brings me back to a question I asked in one of my earlier articles, “what do they do?”.

Who do they work for?

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In 1998 %68 of Sarasota County voters passed a change to the County Charter that applied a 2 term limitation on County Commissioners.

Later a Circuit Judge would apply a State Supreme Court ruling to say that this was unconstitutional.  In a case starting in Broward County an Appeals court has held that this is not so.  This would seem to indicate that the Charter change was, in face, legal.

When the first judgement was rendered, why did they NOT appeal the ruling?  With such a large percentage of voters in favor, why did they not at least make sure that this would be the final ruling?   Who knows what the appeals court might have done then?  They might have even agreed.

The problem was that the politicians did not want to risk losing their jobs so, inspite of being elected to represent the will of the voters, and that will was voiced by the vote, they did nothing.

Now that I higher courts has overruled that decision, what have they done?

Instead of saying “we will follow the charter, and carry out the people will”, they are planning to put in another change that will allow them not only 3 terms, but will allow them to start the clock over again.

Think of it this way…  What if the U.S. Congress put up another amendment that would allow 3 terms of the President, and negate the terms already served?  An past President, still alive, could again run for office, and have a chance at 3 terms.  Would we want repeats of Bill Clinton, George Bush II, or even Jimmy “Peanut” Carter?

Then again, we could just limit their terms at the voting booth.  In the mean time, even if you believe we should have term limits on County Commissioners, you should vote against this change for the simple fact that we have limits IN PLACE that are being IGNORED, and even if we do pass it, what is say they won’t just IGNORE it when it is time for their terms to run out.

Think about this:  We passed a State Constitutional Amendment some years ago having to do with setting up a bullet train.  So where is it?  It was also IGNORED.

So remember this.  Not matter if it is the County Charter, the State Constitution, or the U. S. Constitution, it is only a piece of paper and means NOTHING if the people we elect IGNORE it…

 

Dear Spammers…

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I love to get comments from readers, as each comments means that my post are going somewhere.  I just have one request : when you leave a comment would you at least make it appear that you have REALLY READ the post?

 

Thank-you,

That Joe Guy..