Monday, November 19, 2012

[No Conch Fritters or Chowder] Federal fishery managers are considering placing queen conch on the federal endangered species list. If that happens, the U.S. importation of conch meat would be prohibited.

[Marathon Journal] 1. Mike Cinque voted mayor and Rich Keating the vice mayor. Mayor is largely ceremonial according to Keynoter. I still maintain that with two council
members support, the Mayor can do about anything. My year and a half as Marathon Planning Commission Chairman is an example.
2. Mike Puto was first absentee ballot cast, and I was the first early voter in Marathon. Mike is a good egg and laughed it off because I thought that
he voted first in early voting.
3. A Monroe County first, a father and son win their respective offices. Sheriff Rick Ramsay and Marathon Councilman Dick Ramsay accomplished that
odd stat.
4. Marathon City Hall and visioning plan, recent history – where, what, and how city hall is built according to the plan submitted Tuesday last. Don’t
forget the $50,000 visioning plan on the bookshelf. It is not so dated that it is of no use.
Here is your 2013 Marathon City Council.
5. Last two Keynoter editorials on GOP taking a gut check on several issues like Obamacare and Florida constitutional amendments most going down in
flames. I’ve always said that voters are not stupid.
6. Key West North Roosevelt is one way now. If you don’t know your way around, it may be days before you can escape.
7. Florida Keys’ Ron Saunders will be missed in the State House. One hopes that he may run again; we need him that much.
8. Florida City and Homestead along with most south Florida will suffer gridlock due to NASCAR. The race brings in a ton of money. Hope this helps the
local economy.
9. Congrats on Marathon’s Ed Davidson winning district three seat at the school board by a very narrow margin after a recount. Let’s get to work on a
bloated budget, top-heavy admin, and refocus on putting dollars into the classroom, students and teachers.
~Publisher@MarathonJournal.US

What’s with the weather? It used to be cold for a few days then be nice again. It seems this year the wind is blowing from the north and north north
east for way too long.

Twinkie Union Bad? Unreasonable contract? Will the union critics kindly print the contract or give me a link. I haven’t read the contract and can’t be
critical without this knowledge. This is especially important when writing to influence others. Maybe the economic conditions are the cause of so many
union contracts being voided. People are frightened that they will not be able to provided for their families.

[Signs] Now is a great time to decide who to vote for in the next election. All you have to do is look around and vote NO for anyone or any issue that
still has a sign laying around littering our islands.
Five Man Electric Band — Sign, Sign, Everywhere a Sign

[Crooks] Someone is stealing crab traps. I had six traps stolen since the season started. My traps were in Pine Channel near Port Pine Heights. 

Victoria’s Secret models without make up. They still look pretty good!

Contact Us Attach whatever you want. Please send links instead of videos and slide shows.

[If I Were The Devil] Do you remember the famous ABC radio commentator Paul Harvey–“And now the rest of the story”.  Millions of Americans listened to his programs which were broadcast over 1,200 radio stations nationwide. When you listen to this, remember the commentary was broadcast 47 years ago on April 3, 1965. It’s short, less than three minutes. You will be amazed. Link

[Smoking weed] No joke, it often made me feel uncomfortable. Believe me, it took me many years to realize that it just wasn’t for me. I have nothing
against it, legal-wise.

Did you know that real Shepherd’s Pie is made with lamb and not ground beef like we make it here. Link

A crazy substitute teacher from the inner city refuses to be messed with while taking attendance. Link

Captain Doom and Gloom‘s Sunday’s post said: “It never ceases to amaze me when a retailer has a new item that sells for a MSRP of say $100 then in a
few months sells at a sale price of $59.95, then they offer a super coupon mfg rebate of $20, then it is marked down for a Clearance Sale to $ 9.95. I
always wonder how they sleep at night knowing they screwed people from the Retail Price Level to the last dumping price?”

Did it ever occur to you that when a store sells a product that is marked down to that level they are actually losing money on that product and simply
have to get rid of it because it hasn’t sold? I own a store and average about $7 an hour and my employees make $10. We have no health insurance or
retirement. We work very hard and we are not ripping people off. There is a lot of expense that goes into having a business. For most products the
cost of goods paid to the manufacturer is more than half the product price, plus credit card fees, rent, employees and other overhead. We also sell
products at a loss regularly because stale products have to go. Perhaps there are stores that have high markups, but not all do. It is unfortunate that
there seems to be a certain segment that feels that we should not be compensated for working or the responsibility of employing workers.

Oh, no, Mister Bill!

Mosquito Commissioner: We might be overpaid. Link

Related story: Mosquito Control head in line for a raise. Link

Cooler weather to bring out snakes. They can’t stay underground and have to get into the sun to stay warm. They’re also a bit more sluggish in the cold. (888) IVE GOT 1 hotline or 888-483-4681 Link

[Choosing a SCUBA buddy] If you see a guy (or gal) with a new wet suit, big shiny knife, designer color coordinated mask, fins, snorkel, brand
new BCD and a cheap spear gun, give them a pass. (Actually, get on a different boat). Look for the diver who has a faded, torn dive skin, a rusty
utility sized knife, a ten year old regulator that is self maintained, old well used fins, a bit of a leaky mask, a teak spear gun without a line and who
keeps his snorkel in his BCD pocket until he needs it at the surface then slides it underneath his mask strap. That diver is the pro. Forget the sharks.
Typically the most dangerous thing underwater is your buddy.

Captain Doom and Gloom has never worked retail from his post, and has no understand of the retail market and what it entails just to stay in business. He seems to think that all retailers are rolling in money.

[“If I hit the Lottery for millions”] I’d pay off all my family’s debts, set up a trust for all of the young ones that included having to go to a collage or
trade school of their choice. Then I’d get a brand new pick-up for myself as I’ve never had a new vehicle of my own. Then I would find locals that
needed a hand up and some no kill pet shelters to finance. I have every thing else I need as everyone in my family is healthy and I have never been all
that materialistic.

Third offshore Cuba oil well comes up dry. Maybe our shores will be spared. Link

[Recounts] Why is Florida so lame when it comes to counting ballots. You simply take a ballot from a room-full and put it in a pile for A. You
take another ballot from the room an if it’s for B put it in a second pile. If it’s not clear put it in a third pile. Then go back and sort out the ‘not clear’
pile, then count pile A and pile B to see who has the most. If you can’t count just stack the ballots in each pile and whoever has the tallest stack wins.

[Bicycle in Tree] Please stop posting crap without checking it out first on SNOPES.COM. I am so tired of seeing the story about the kid who went off to war & chained his bicycle to the tree. 

Cheesecake recipes. Link

I’m glad Twinkies are going out of business. They are one of the reasons our country is one of the fattest countries in the world.

Dear Mr or Ms ex-weed smoker. Thanks for your mature post about people smoking MJ all their lives. But be prepared to feel the wrath of all the old 
burnt out heads that read the CT. They will never admit their error.

Marathon Garden Club’s Fall Festival is Nov. 24th. 9-4. Link

[“If I hit the Lottery for millions”] I hire a gardener and maintenance man to take care of my house, garden and vehicles. And then I’d go on a trip
around the world and stay in first class hotels and fly first class.

[No more Twinkies or Ding Dongs] Fret not, they will open plants in Mexico. One more business gone south.

[Sugar Smog] I was driving down Rt.27 from Central Florida and while passing the sugar cane fields they were burning the smoke was intense. They
have to have a lot of political pull to get away with it.

[Monroe County] “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” ~Martin Luther King Jr. 
In this county we, the taxpayers, have begun to die by keeping silent about the things that matter and allowing people with little or no morals to
govern out county. Wake up Monroe County taxpayers before we become Miami-Monroe.

Florida butterflies. Link

[Captain Doom and Gloom] The old idea of opening a Yellow Pages and inking out all the useless businesses and natural resource wasters has been
made Green. Now you just open the book and circle what is good for the world and wastes nothing. You will wind up with a few plumbers, well drillers,
farmers and a lot of ink left in your marker!

freedom of religion 1. To be able to pick which con game one wishes to follow to escape reality. 2. To be able to live sanely without some nuts
demanding what they think your should do with your life!

Flea Market thieves are not the only low life’s, try having a yard sale without friends to keep their eyes on your stuff! Poof gone!

The world will end in 33 days on December 21st.

I read Sunday’s FTR post with enthusiasm about the demise of Twinkie, pleased that he could write about anything other than his hate for the
President. But I was fooled. In his twisted, little mind, he was able to connect Twinkie’s closing to the President. Only FTR could do that.

Just what does Hamas hope to accomplish, other than totally pissing off the Israelis, by constantly bombing Israel? Do they think Israel will get in their cars and drive through the Red Sea and into the sunset.

Well, as usual FTR Guy lives up to his 1/4 truth moniker about the Hostess mess.
“Hostess Brands, the maker of such iconic baked goods as Twinkies, Drake’s Devil Dogs and Wonder Bread — announced Friday that it is asking a
federal bankruptcy court for permission to close its operations, blaming a strike by bakers protesting a new contract imposed on them. Hostess’ nearly
18,500 workers will lose their jobs as the company shuts 33 bakeries and 565 distribution centers nationwide, as well as 570 outlet stores. The Bakery,
Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union represents about 5,000 Hostess employees.” ~CNN

FTR Twinkie diatribe. I like where FTR is trying to connect Obama to Hostess Brands and the Confectioners Union, but it’s like trying to pin a turd on
your lapel instead of a flower.

FTR said workers and their union chiefs worked and made plenty of concessions while the CEO and upper management were doubling down on salaries
and any capital left on the table in the form of raises? Really?

The reality is that the CEO went from $750m to $2.25mm. It was Romneyesque. It is a classic vulture capitalism hum-job.

“Obama is the reason we no longer will have Twinkies?” Even the far left folks know its the fault of the dumb arse union people, but of course
Republicans don’t hold the people that make their future bleaker by holding out because, to Republicans, any business that goes under is automatically
the Presidents fault–if he’s a Democrat. It doesn’t matter why they closed, it’s all Obama’s fault.

That’s the difference between Democrats and the Republicans. Democrats say the union killed themselves and they deserve to be laid off. Republicans
cry, “woe is me” for the union members and pass the blame on to the President. The President wasn’t the one that held the company hostage — the
Union did! Why blame Obama? That logic makes zero sense. No wonder they lost the election.

You want to try and force your company into paying you more; and if they go under it’s your fault. You don’t have to worry the Republicans will blame
the President for you.

I’m afraid that since the FTR guy‘s hateful anti Obama rants are now irrelevant, he is moving into new areas in which he knows even less. His Hostess
company rant was something he must have made up out of his own prejudices because the only fact he got right is the number of jobs lost.

There was no mention of the Hostess management’s failure to change when the country’s dietary habits did. There was no mention of the private
equity people who borrowed to buy a controlling interest in Hostess and then put the loan on the books of the company. There was no mention of the
huge management fees charged by the private equity firm. There was no mention of the settlement with the Teamsters Union and the attempt by the
teamsters to get the Baker’s Union to accept a wage so low that they decided that they couldn’t live on it And no, FTR , it was not less than their
unemployment check. If you far righties learned anything in the election, it should be that facts trump bullshit.

It’s a shame that there are people like FTR who’s only goal in their old age is to criticize the President — as long as he’s a Democrat.

Kudos to Obama for visiting Myanmar and showing the oppressed what democracy has to offer.

McCain is blocking Susan Rice from becoming Secretary of State, but he defended his Rice candidate, Condoleezza, from that same post for the same
reasons. That is that she spoke from information she was fed by our intelligence community. McCain thinks it’s all right to say what she was told only if she’s a
Republican doing it. Politics at its worst.

From the Right

Deer Friends, if you listen to our liberal fellow travelers, (and they do desperately want you to listen), you might believe that the Republican brand is as dead as Twinkies. That just ain’t so! Especially here in Monroe. In 2012 the number of Monroe Dems voting declined by 1,515 from 2008. While the Dems declined, the reps roared back, number of Rep voters increased by 311. In 2008 Obama took Monroe by nearly 5%, this year he took
Monroe by only about .41%. The state of Florida largely mirrors Monroe. Obama won Florida by 2.8% in ’08, that declined to .86% in ’12. In ’08 Obama won 15 Florida counties McCain won 52. In ’22 the Reps added two counties to their win column while the dems lost two. The Obama vote was overwhelmingly centered in the high population counties such as Dade, Broward, etc. Broward County was overwhelmingly the highest scorer for Obama.
Nationwide, in 2012, Obama won the popular vote by only 3 percentage points. That’s a significant decline from his ’08 win wherein he garnered 7.2% of the popular vote.The slim nation wide dem majority comes from the inordinately high special interests populations to be found centered in urban areas.

The Republican brand is alive and well and will continue to thrive and grow as we suffer more of the consequences attendant to liberal governance.

Part 2) I have great faith in the American spirit. We are a kind and generous nation. The current infatuation with class warfare and divisiveness will not
last. It has been imprinted on us by a media that is overwhelmingly liberal. The liberal game plan depends on hate; it depends on demonizing those who
oppose them. That is on view in Mr. Obama’s insistence on raising the tax rates for those who are our achievers. There is only one just reason to
increase taxes: to raise revenue. The revenue raised by Obama’s threatened increase will raise only about $80 billion per year. That is only enough
money to operate the government for 8 days. That’s 2 tenths of one percent. There is no fiscal need to raise the taxes on anybody.

We do not have a revenue problem; we suffer mightily from a government addiction to spending. Let’s say that we can find alternate way to increase
revenue by about $80 billion per year. Remember that’s the amount of revenue that will be realized by Obama’s “Punish the Rich” scheme. We could
increase revenues through a simple change in our tax code that would top income tax deductions at $50K per annum. If we actually needed the
money, that would be logical and a superior alternative.

Obama is not interested in that compromise, instead he demands nothing less than a substantial increase in tax rates for our achievers. Nothing else
will do. He makes that demand in spite of the fact that the Congressional Budget Office predicts that the tax rate increase will cost us 200,000 jobs in
the first year. To put that in perspective the Bureau of Labor Stats reported that in October ’12, total nonfarm payroll employment increased by
171,000. So if Obama triumphs, our job growth will sharply decline. We simply can’t afford to feed his personal animus those who succeed, employers.
The President of the United States should not be a class warrior.