The heavy loads being carried by these trucks are undoubtedly doing significant damage to our roads and bridges. I suspect that completion of these current projects wii have to be followed by extensive repairs to the roads and bridges down which these trucks travel.

Given the fact that we are surrounded by water I wonder why all of this fill isn’t being brought down to the lower Keys and Key West by barge. A single barge could probably carry as much fill as a hundred trucks at a fraction of the cost for fuel and labor that is currently being expended. At the same time it would reduce significantly the damage being done to our roads.

[“Mosquito Control New to the Keys”] It’s not new. I’ve been here forty years and there’s always been Mosquito Control. They used to fly DC3s and spray, I think,  diesel oil mixed with bug killer over everything. With its black trail smoking it looked like a plane that was about to crash. I don’t know many people from “the good old days” referenced in Wednesday’s post, that are still living.

Ground breaks on Marathon Aquarium. Link

Fanci Seafood will be closed on Sundays until August. Everyone have a great summer!

[Developers] The governor vetoed Balfour Beatty’s tax exemption, but it’s hard to understand his logic for doing so. He says he “opposes any increase in taxes”. How about reducing ours? If Balfour is a private company and renting to civilians isn’t that basically raising our taxes to pay for their needs like school kids and other infrastructure.

[Beware Realistic Screensavers] I got this realistic aquarium screensaver. The other day I was woken from a nap by what sounded like water rushing from a broken pipe. I rushed through the house looking for it until I realized I’d left my computer speakers on and the water gushing was just the sound effect of the pretend aquarium’s “filtering system”.

As a local, I demand that things be as they were 30 years ago. My demands: 1. Cheap beer at every bar.  2. Cheap food at every restaurant.  3. My income in dollars the same as it is now. 4. No old people 5. No high end cars 6. No visitors from Michigan, New York, or New Jersey 7. No fat women 8. No building codes. 9. I want to wear no shoes and/or no shirt in any building. 10. No sewers.

[Sinkholes] Great info on sinkholes posted on June 12. In my opinion, homeowners in the Keys should reject the sinkhole option on their homeowner’s insurance.

[Broken Tail] My sweet kitty lives outside and came home with a broken tail. I searched the www. It happens. Maybe a vet will respond or cat loving human and give a poor big fat cat loving Irishman something to hold onto other than a broken tail. I love my sweet Bonnie. She seems unhappy.

[“Editor Sucks”] Yes, the editor does change your posts to suit himself sometimes. He has done it to me before. Of course it is not right. It makes you wonder how many other posts that you read have been tampered with.

[Drugs OK–Beer No] Years ago I went into a bar on Big Pine and got a six-pack and went out into the parking lot and popped a beer. I was drinking it and watching a guy sitting on the steps selling drugs like a drive through pharmacy! Car after car stopped as he passed out stuff. The barmaid came out seen me drinking the beer and told me to get out and don’t come back?

Jaco Pastorius was the greatest most badass bassist ever. I went to the Ft Laud. and stole away to the park in his hometown of Oakland Park, Fla named for him today. Kids kicking the ball. Had some business nearby. nobody knew who he was. He suffered. The infatuation and indulgences. My old lady said something after I told her the story of him tossing his Fender fretless (the MONSTER) off a bridge while on tour in Japan. I later met a tuxedoed bartender at the hotel bar who knew Jaco in the FtL years ago. “He would carry a mandolin (mandocello as played in Weather Report) to bars in FtL. Bands would stop and let him play it to mesmerized crowds. When he died I remember Rolling Stone describing it as Jaco was found in a pool of blood so deep they couldn’t tell where he was hurt. He got kicked out of his apartment in NYC, and his basses were stolen and the now bassist from Metallica, Robert Trujillo, found the “MONSTER” bass and returned it to his family recently. Jaco was killed by a bouncer and they left a little peice of Oakland Park to him. It’s really cool. Just up the Dixie Hwy at 40th St in Opa Locka.

He was in Weather Report for years, but his best shit was for Joni Mitchell. Man he loved her. Listen to it here.

Joni Mitchell–OverTure — Cotton Avenue

Hey non-gmo activist. Monsanto’s CEO thinks you’re an elitist. Link

Powers of Ten is a short educational film that deals with the relative size of things both big and small in our universe. Every ten seconds the viewpoint changes and gets farther away then comes zooming back into Earth and starts to magnify every ten seconds. I often wonder if our world isn’t simply a small speck under someone else’s microscope. Video

No Name Pub was a locals place at one time. What happened?

[Developers] Cong Garcia’s letter to the Governor says it all. Let’s wait for the court to decide – not the mouthpieces for Balfour Beatty and it’s lobbyists. Link

I know assaults on women in the military are in the news right now.  But Assaults on men in the military have been “carefully hidden from the public and covered up,” not only by the victims themselves but also by superiors within the chain of command. 

One day I’ll look up from my smart phone and realize my kids put me in a nursing home.

Charlotte NC, Smart car vs dump truck. Luckily no one died.

[Flood Insurance] 2,700 Policies dropped from National Flood Insurance Program, because the homeowner’s failed to get inspections.  Oh, oh! Link

[“Mangrove Mama’s used to be the center of the universe”] No disrespect meant, but perhaps you should reconsider the size of the universe.

New rules for 3 fish species. Link

Austrailian swimmer pulled from Cuba to Key West attempt after 11 hours.  Link

Your IQ test results came back negative!

Wow, can you imagine what this blog would be like if it went international? Between the terrorists, the commies, the Democrats, the Republicans, the rednecks, and the blondes, nothing would change!

New life for Keys Lighthouses?  Link

[“Editor Sucks”] I sent a post a couple of weeks ago and the editor added a sentence at the end which completely changed the gist of my comment. It appeared as though I had written it. In turn, there were several responses to my post that would not have happened if the all powerful editor hadn’t changed my message. Ed: If you want to add your own two cents worth at least let us know when you do it. I won’t feel comfortable sending another comment because you might change it. Either leave the posts alone or don’t post them at all because you are creating your own messages by adding to ours. The Springers embellishment was surely the tip of the iceberg.

[Role Reversal] A funny look at how men and women would interact in bars and clubs if roles were reversed. Video

[“Rape in the military”] Who says it is guys raping woman? It is more likely guys raping dykes or the other way around, or fags on straights, dykes on straight chicks, etc. Where is the evidence?

[Developers] “Today’s the day”  Either the Guv caves in to Balfour Beatty and signs their tax exemption bill , vetoes it, or says “what bill?” – the latter allows the law retroactively giving Balfour Beatty a tax break worth millions over the next 45 years. My guess is he will weenie out and just let it roll into law. Either way unless he vetoes it , we will remember as we all have to pay for the education of military kids from OUR property taxes for the next 45 years . Balfour Beatty gets a free ride. Federal School Impact Aid hardly pays the County anything to the School District – we make up the rest. Hardly fair to let this multi billion dollar company get away with this.  

And a big shout out to Rep Raschein  for claiming she is on our side when she apparently has done nothing to ask the Governor to veto it and seems to believe Balfour’s attorneys and lobbyists even when they are caught lying . Pity, I expected more from her. 

[Captain Doom and Gloom] Reading about the FKAA and our proposed sewage system, the key line that hit me like a ton of coconuts is, “… will service 10,000 homes and businesses”.  Well I am going to start counting all the homes and businesses in the existing Keys to see how close that 10,000 is. If it is less than 50% of that number, I am out of here before the developer shit hits the over-crowded fan!

[“Republicans on here will rail against anything Democrats do”] Of course they do.  It’s the reason behind what they do that matters.  Collecting data for a mailing list of second amendment supporters for fund raising is a far cry from collecting the same data to compile a list of “political enemies”.  The same holds true for the Patriot Act.  The original intent was to listen for terrorist activity and prevent another incident.  The current use is to listen for political enemies and enact revenge.

So, yes, Republicans look at not only the act, but the intentions.  Everyone should do the same.

Its true America is becoming the next Saudi Arabia. O.K. that’s a bit much but there is great news for American energy. The output of shale formations in North Dakota, texas, Pennsylvania and other states is surging.

B.P. in its annual review said U.S. oil production rose by 1 million barrels per day. That helped trim imports by 930,000 barrels per day. Imports to the U.S. are now a staggering 36% below 2005. Americas oil production rose to almost 14% from last year alone.

I cant wait to here how our anti Obama members tell us how this is terrible news for our country. My bet is they will give the credit to Bush because we all know when oil prices rise its all Obama’s fault but when great news happens it was in spite of Obama. Good news for America is Kryptonite for republicans.

Our resident whiner complains about the government knowing our health history under Obamacare. Heck, he publishes his chronic ailments often on the CT.

[Conspiracy man] The whole nation isn’t aware of the fact that the supposed Consulate in Benghazi, was not a Consulate at all, and Ambassador Christopher Stevens was really a CIA operative posing as an Ambassador. The supposed Consulate was actually a CIA terrorist holding cell, that was performing acts of torture on alleged terrorists, from Syria & Iran.

This is the reason why there wasn’t a strong Marine presence guarding the supposed Consulate. Have you ever been to an American Consulate? American Consulates are super guarded, especially after 9-11. Why would this Consulate be an exception, especially in a region where there is so much turmoil against the U.S.?

The reason why there is a cover up by the Obama administration is because they don’t want to disclose this information, due to the fact that it breaks many international laws that can open a can of worms against the U.S. & the Obama administration.

The purpose of the attack was to expose the clandestine operations conducted by the U.S. government, posing as, and using fictitious Consulates that are actually CIA torture chambers.

I’m not too worried about Obama tapping the phones and stuff, but I would be scared shiftless if the Right Wing-Republican-Christian-Tea Party-Bachman-Palin-Ted Nugent-NRA Family Values-Fox News-Moral Majority types got full control of the Government with that ability available to them.  It would be Sieg Heil time again for sure.

FROM THE RIGHT

We’ve been inundated with really rotten stinky news about the Obama administration for a couple of weeks. Let’s take a peek at some really good news about Florida.

ADP has just released a report that states that in May, in Florida, 17,440 new jobs were created in Florida. Florida was second only to Texas, and that by only a small margin.  The important thing to consider is that according to Obama Bureau of Labor Statistics the entire country only added about 175k new jobs.  Deer Friends, think about it, Florida created one out of every ten jobs that was created nation wide. That’s magnificent!

By the way, we need to have about 180k or so new jobs per month for five years if we are to recover to the  unemployment rate we had when the Democrats took control of Congress way back in January 2007. What ever the state of our economy is, it certainly isn’t growing jobs. The rich are getting richer, and the poor are getting poorer.

Think about it, Florida, under Republican governance has added about one in ten of every single jobs created in the USA for the entire month of May. Kudos and a huge tip of the FTR fedora to Governor Scott and Republican governance.

Then then is a very interesting factoid that has just been released.  Gallup is reporting that President GW Bush has surpassed President Obama in popularity by 49% v 45%. Shazam!

Part 2) The theme of Team Obama’s rationale for the brobdingnag snooping into and collecting every facet of our lives has been that it has actually saved us from deaths caused by terrorist attacks. They have cited as prime examples the arrests and convictions of would-be New York subway bomber Najibullah Zazi in 2009 and David Headley, who is serving a 35-year prison sentence for his role in the 2008 Mumbai attacks. Obama acolytes assured us that the NSA’s bulk monitoring of phone calls and internet contacts was central to intercepting the plotters. Democrat Congressman Mike Rogers said: “I can tell you, in the Zazi case in New York, it’s exactly the program that was used,” he said. The same story line was presented to the NYT and Rueters by an anonymous spokesperson for the admin.

The only problem with that narrative is that it is probably not true.

Law enforcement officials in the USA and Europe involved in the cases have said that our data mining played little, if any, role in breaking the cases.  The cases were broken by good old fashioned police work. Even one of the defense lawyers said that he was skeptical that our data mining could have I.D.’d his client. For the full story please read: Link

In that same vein, did you know that it has just been reported the IRS actually executed a search warrant on a California health care provider  and seized 60 million patient records. The matter is now under investigation by the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Perhaps the IRS’s role is changing from being simply a revenue collector to being some sort of all purpose enforcement arm of the Executive branch of government. We now know that they have laid siege to conservative groups. Perhaps that’s why IRS agents, normally trained to use computers, pencils, and calculators are now being trained to use assault style rifles.

Politico reports: “As chairman of the House Homeland Security oversight subcommittee, Duncan (R-S.C.) toured a federal law enforcement facility in late May and noticed agents training with the semi-automatic weapons at a firing range. They identified themselves as IRS, he said.” “When I left there, it’s been bugging me for weeks now, why IRS agents are training with a semi-automatic rifle AR-15, which has stand-off capability,” Duncan told POLITICO. “Are Americans that much of a target that you need that kind of capability?”

Deer Friends, as every day passes that question becomes more and more troubling.

[No Name Sewers] Can’t let that one go. Facist though it may be, the state does not mandate central sewers. Not in any legislation. It mandates treatment to AWT standards by whatever means, including on-site systems. In the legislation that allows Monroe County to force your hook-up in 30 days, the state says that central systems are the preferred method. If central was a mandate, there would be no remaining on-site systems, and there will be when all is said and done. The decision tree belongs to the BOCC on what properties to add or subtract from the wastewater master plan and that decision has thus far been based solely on cost per EDU. The estimate for NNK of $48,000 per EDU doesn’t meet the criteria for central service. Such anger would better be directed in-house where the true problems lie.