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2014 May

Thursday, May 15, 2014

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The-Coconut-Telegraph-w-CoconutsThe Original Unsocial Media. Anonymous Letters to the Editor with Pictures. Published Daily by Noon Since 2002. No Saturday Edition

no15
[Restrictions] The Sanctuary Advisory Committee decided to try to limit human impact in the Sanctuary by limiting the number of dive operators. How do they expect that to work? Limiting the number of operators doesn’t limit the number of divers. All it does is decrease competition in the dive business. Could that have anything to do with the fact that there are two dive business members on the Committee? How about some real data showing that the divers really harm the reef before figuring out ways to keep them out.
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[Politicians] Not being into politics as I should be, to make my vote count for something besides supporting which ever party seems sane enough not to start WW3, I have become very skeptical of all political parties in that all seem to be stage shows of untruths and misguided ideals that only create distrust, subterfuge, laughing stock candidates, and low level personalities, for nothing more than personal gain. Maybe it is time to run for a local office and get my big slice of the pie?
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Watson field
on a windy day in May.
[Sewers] Will Little Palm Island’s new sewer line be run underground through the harbor to the island? What will that cost them? Is that figure public or do they just pay the same $4500 we do?
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[The Great Wall] If the County incorporates features to counteract rising sea levels when it improves the infrastructure, then why does it take so long, and is so expensive, to get a permit to build a sea wall on canal lots that don’t have one?How can a few boulders, half falling down, held together with weeds protect against flooding when a nice tall sturdy concrete sea wall would do just that?In fact the County should subsidize anyone who wants to build a concrete sea wall– not punish them by making them jump through hoops.Since canal front homes are vulnerable to flooding, wouldn’t there be less flooding if every house had a contiguous, high concrete sea wall? I’m quantifying this as to minor flooding, not Wilma type flooding, but even then, some areas could have had less water intrusion to their landscape if the entire development had seas walls.
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[“Raccoons”] I too have noticed the decline of raccoons and snakes, black snakes in particular. I saw my first one in a long time last week. I did have a rare-on-BPK garter snake on the outside of my car’s side window lolling in the sun. I see the same amount of turtles as in the past. I photoed this one this morning on Key Deer Blvd.
San Francisco Bay vs the plastic bag. Video
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an_hawk2
[Raptors
] Please stop giving cats all the credit for eating birds. Raptors are an endangered species. Hawks love to eat birds, especially ground feeding birds. They have also been known to take a fawn down. They sometimes eat kittens and Chihuahuas. . Small cats should not be near an endangered species such as a raptor.
[“Firefox-only active tab is distinct”] Install Tab Mix Plus and in it’s options select > Display > Tab > Customize Styles where you can add a background color to the non-active tabs based upon RGB values (to better match your theme) or use the color picker. However the non-active tabs are square, which contrast with the new rounded active tab. Another option is Classic Theme Restorer, which the rounded tabs can be kept or the older squarer ones returned. Link
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[“Raccoons“] My neighbor left a jalousie window partially open when he left town. Raccoons jimmied it up and trashed his trailer. If you have ever been to the end of No Name Road when we had lots of raccoons you would know you couldn’t get out of the car. People had been going out there feeding them and they expected it and would crawl all over the car and you.
singer on_ knee
A fine example of someone belting out the blues.
Bobby ‘Blue’ Bland — Cry Cry Cry
[Tonight] Florida Keys Overseas Heritage Trail which is a 106-mile multi-use bicycle and pedestrian path that serves as a recreational and alternative transportation corridor for the Florida Keys.  Amanda Linfors, Park Ranger with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, will give an overview of the Trail master plan, including a status update on the Lower Keys segment.  She’ll also have lots of goodies to give away including free State Park passes, so be sure to bring a business card to be entered to win!  Social hour will start at 5:30pm and the talk will begin at 6:30pm at the Wharf Bar & Grill on Summerland Key.
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[“Big Cat”]The wild and untamed side of Ramrod. Keep your eyes and ears open. If you see anything suspicious call Key deer refuge for starters.
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overcast0I got this picture off the Coconut Telegraph Banner. Any possibility of getting a higher resolution file? The shot is spectacular. We want to make a print for our home on BPK. We will not sell the picture, just want to enjoy it. (Ed: I use all low resolution pictures so they will load faster. Maybe my art director, B, will see this and offer the original.)
[Table Turned] A pit-bull was attacked by an alligator in a Key Largo canal. Usually it’s the pit-bull doing the attacking.
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Cat saves boy from dog attack! Video
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[Firefox Browser
] Google ‘Colorful Tabs’. It’s great.
[Citizen of the Day Says] She loves to be able to see and photograph gorgeous sunsets and sunrises nearly every day.
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[“Raccoons”] You are right, our ecosystem is not balanced. The environment is messed up thanks to over building, pollution, peoples dogs running loose and a host of other things including too many people who don’t care.
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fat15
[Fatsos] Seen at a rest stop food court in Connecticut. Is it any wonder Americans are obese and unhealthy with junk like this being passed off as food?
[Spies Like Us] The Netflix star rating logs customer choices of movies. It is a heck of a people counter and people profiler. Just think how your taste/opinion/feelings can be sorted to build a physiological profile of you, your family and friends? It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that some people are Warlords, Sheeple, Crybabies, Commies, Hate mongers, Dreamers, Nuts, etc, etc. Be careful what you do online!
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[“Firefox tabs after upgrade are not clear”] My older eyes liked the classic very distinct tabs better, too. Here’s the fix. Link
usvirgin-islands[Homeless Vacation] I don’t know why I didn’t think of this before.  Since Key West hates homeless people, why not send them to the US Virgin Islands?  Plenty of soup kitchens, healthy food grows on trees all over the island, (oranges, limes, lemons, soursop, mangos, grapefruit, etc)  Fishing is way better than Key West.  The ocean is unbelievably clean (No MRSA)  There are no open container laws, (beer, wine, and liquor is way cheaper)  You would be hard pressed to walk more than 1/2 mile for your next drink.  Cigarettes are cheaper.  You get more in food stamps. It’s a dope smokers paradise.  The beaches are open 24/7.  You can sleep anywhere.  The temperature rarely, if ever, gets under 70 degrees.  The buses that run all over the island cost $1, free if you’re 60 or over. The locals are the friendliest people I have ever met, (unlike the elite in Key West)  No one judges others.  The guy who lives in a shack also owns a $40,000 fishing boat. I only see two bad things for the homeless in the USVI.  1) you can’t ride a bike in the mountains,  2) if you’re a racist, stay away, only 17% are White.
[“Get your county commissioner to promise…”] What a joke. I thought they were only for Joke Friday!
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shutters15[Shutters] Would you say most snowbirds put up the shutters on the day they leave for the north, all set to face the hurricane season, but also signaling would be thieves the house is unoccupied? Or would you say they keep them off until the last minute and hire someone to do it if need be (a hassle I’m sure), but preserving the appearance of a lived in house?So when do locals put them up? When should snowbirds put them up? Are there any years nobody puts then up at all? And is a house with all the shutters thrown and installed a dead giveaway the house is empty? Or does none of the above even matter?
[Vegan] By definition, if a raccoon eats wasps, scorpions, red ants, roaches and centipedes it is not a vegetarian.
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[“To arrive at the new findings, researchers…”] The researchers were from the Migratory Bird Center. I think it was obvious what the findings would be before they ever started researching.
kim15
[“Kim Kardashian”
] Search for ‘porn kardashian’ and uncheck your adult filter if you can stomach that woman! Music Video
The only restrictions I see the Marine Sanctuary putting in place are restrictions aimed at the prevention of it’s demise, or, at least slowing the rate of deterioration.  Sorry if your ox is being gored.
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You poor grinder pump stickees.  I always thought that in America the Government was supposed to protect the minority from the majority when necessary.  Apparently this concept does not apply to the Keys.
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scale15
[Power of the Pentatonic Scale] I have always called the Pentatonic scale, all my safe notes. I have used it or parts of it for ever. Video
Woman’s Poem
Before I lay me down to sleep,
I pray for a man who’s not a creep.
One who’s handsome, smart and
strong, one who loves to listen long.
One who thinks before he speaks,
one who calls, not wait for weeks.
)h send me a king to make me a queen,
a man who loves to cook and clean.Man’s Poem
I pray for a deaf-mute gymnast nymphomaniac
with big boobs, who owns a bar on a
golf course, and loves to send me
out to go fishing and drinking.
This doesn’t rhyme
and I don’t give a shit.
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[“Elephant painting”] I always thought he was the dude in N. J. that tattooed females only!
decal[National Safe Boating Week] Prior to Memorial Day each year, the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary participates in National Safe Boating Week. Preparing for the Summer Boating Season in the Florida Keys, the Coast Guard and the Auxiliary would like to emphasize the importance of wearing life jackets. When traveling to and from your favorite fishing or diving spots, consider putting on your life jacket. This traveling time is when a lot of accidents happen and drowning does occur. When life jackets are worn, drownings, decrease dramatically. With today’s comfortable and lightweight life jackets, putting one on for safety, only makes sense.The Big Pine Key Flotilla has scheduled its trailer to meet the public at the following locations during the National Safe Boating Week (May 17th thru the 23rd). Set up time each day is 8:00 A.M. till 12:00 P.M.
17 May – Public Boat Ramp, Scout Key.
18 May – Winn Dixie Parking Lot, Big Pine Key.
19 May – Big Pine Key Fishing Lodge.
20 May – K.O.A. Campgrounds, Sugarloaf Key.
22 May – Venture Out Resort, Cudjoe Key.We’ll have free packets for the public covering: Pre-underway check off list / Sample Float Plan / May Day and Americas Water Way Watch Decals / What is the U.S.C.G. Auxiliary /Information on U.S.C.G. Auxiliary Boating Skills and Seamanship Courses / How to obtain a Florida Boating Safety Education I.D. Card / copies of State and Federal Regulations and various other Safe Boating Brochures and information on obtaining a free Recreational Vessel Inspection and decal.To find out more about the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary and its missions, Free Recreational Vessel inspection and Safe Boating Classes, visit Link
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Injuring Innocent Felines] An aggressive cat-trapping policy enforced by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is being militantly pursued by the management of the Crocodile Lake National Wildlife Refuge in North Key Largo. This inhumane policy has begun to backfire on the FWS. Churches, civic groups, veteran organizations and the general public are coming out against this cruel and sadistic practice. They are displeased and disappointed by what is being done to these innocent creatures.Recently an individual’s pet cat that had never left his property was lured by cat hunters from its owner’s home with baited traps that were placed right up next to his backyard. This house does not have any fencing separating it from the wildlife refuge that it borders. During this cat-trapping procedure, his cat suffered facial lacerations and a bloody nose. Along with paying $75, if this family did not seek out and locate its missing cat, their pet would have been executed. Deliberately administering any type of cruel and violent punishment to an animal is a serious criminal act. There is not, nor will there ever be, a law that sanctions such behavior.According to FWS, this agency has no national policy on the trapping of cats. Its policy is to protect native wildlife from predation, disease and other impacts presented by feral and free-ranging cats. This policy does not call for the FWS to kill cats, nor does it outlaw the practice of trap-neuter-release. Any decisions reached between FWS and the affected parties must collaboratively reflect the humane handling and treatment of these animals. It appears that these directives and policies are not being adhered to by the FWS employees stationed at the Crocodile Lake National Wildlife Refuge. The pseudo-science used to justify some of their actions is spotty and shallow. Cherry-picking facts proffered by bureaucrats dependent upon the government for their jobs is not science. Opting to traumatize and kill one animal so that another animal might live is not a solution.The primary threat to the Key Largo woodrat is habitat loss and fragmentation caused by increasing urbanization. Development, land-clearing and construction practices have decimated the tropical hardwood hammocks that support life for the woodrat. Human intervention that could actually acquire land that would stop or slow habitat destruction so this endangered species might actually stand a fighting chance of survival has been absent. What a waste of time, taxpayer money and resources. Traumatizing and killing creatures that have been revered through the ages as gods and goddesses is distressing.
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burn14
Wanted. Small animal cages. If you have any small animal cages that you don’t need, please call 305-731-6362. Cheap would be good, Free would be fabulous. Classified Ads > Animals
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Yesterday I started anger management, but got pissed off at the teacher and stormed out.
mexico15
I got my gravity sewer system, how you doin’?  To bad you guys stuck with the grinder pumps don’t have the cajones to intimidate the BOCC like the Fix The Pigeon Key driveway (7 Mile Bridge) gang did when they packed that commission meeting all wearing their uniforms and all of a sudden got $80M from the State somehow.  And who knows what deals were struck behind the scenes?  Kind of reminds one of when that CNS guy went up to Tallahassee and, almost magically, the County rule about illegal downstairs enclosure inspections got squelched.  Aah, how nice to see politics as usual in full swing.I thought it obvious that any State money sent down here for the sewer project should be spent just for that and nothing else, no matter how it happens to be dispersed up and down the Keys.  We have already seen our local tax money ripped off by the bridge people and the marina people.   If someone wants to do some good with any extra bucks, switch the slated grinder pumps over to the gravity system.
cops-ct15Tough duty, huh?
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National politics is back. Click on this link to send your national political post anonymously. No one will know your name or email address, [Well, maybe the NSA will] not even me. FTR is going to be the new national politics editor. Do not fear, FTR promised to post everything, even if he hates it, he’s that kind of guy.
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from the right
A POSTER WROTE: “WAIT a minute! “We can leave W out of the mix because damned near every Democrat legislator voted for the wars. Then they had full control of the Congress for the last two years of W’s tenure.” EVERY damned Repub voted to curtail/CUT funding for the State Dept security and they have FULL control of the purse. (Congress always does) No, you DON’T get to leave your precious “W” out of the mix.”FTR’S RESPONSE: The poster is confused. GWB had absolutely nothing to do with the Benghazi tragedy. He had been out of office for nearly 3 years when the tragedy occurred. The poster suggested that the Republicans were actually responsible for the attack because funding for security had been diminished.That story line was headlines in the left press for quite some time, but it is absolutely untrue. It was Democrat propaganda writ large, and totally untrue.It is true that Congress did give the State Department slightly less money than they requested. But according to the official in charge of world wide security of diplomatic missions, that played no role in the assault and the defense from it.

Beginning in May 2013 Congressional hearings began.

Charlene Lamb was Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Programs in the Bureau of Diplomatic Security at the Department of State. She was the State Department executive directly responsible for the security of the Embassy. In fact she was responsible for security at diplomatic facilities worldwide. At the Congressional hearing she testified that lack of money had nothing to do with the assault or of her staff’s response to it.

During her testimony to the committee, the following exchange occurred.

QUESTION: It has been suggested that budget cuts were responsible for a lack of security in Benghazi. And I’d like to ask Ms. Lamb, you made this decision personally. Was there any budget consideration and lack of budget which led you not to increase the number of people in the security force there?

DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE CHARLENE LAMB: No, sir.

QUESTION: So there’s not a budget problem. It’s not you all don’t have the money to do this?

LAMB: Sir, (if) it’s a volatile situation. We will move assets to cover that.

Additionally she testified: “We had the correct number of assets in Benghazi at the time of 9/11……”

During that hearing, it was revealed that Lamb had received a request for temporary additional security for Benghazi by Eric Nordstrom, the regional security officer at the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli. He asked for additional security at Benghazi. Lamb refused that request.

The Independent Review Board of the State Department investigated the tragedy. In the reports “findings” section, item #2 is as follows: “…2. Systemic failures and leadership and management deficiencies at senior levels within two bureaus of the State Department (the “Department”) resulted in a Special Mission security posture that was inadequate for Benghazi and grossly inadequate to deal with the attack that took place.”

That means that Charlene Lamb, ultimately was cited for failures in leadership from the Department of State’s (DOS) own Accountability Review Board (ARB) report. It’s incredible but there are reports that she has been promoted.

Benghazi is solely the result of management failure of the State Department.

Finding #23 of the report states: “The Board recognizes that poor performance does not ordinarily constitute a breach of duty that would serve as a basis for disciplinary action but is instead addressed through the performance management system. However, the Board is of the view that findings of unsatisfactory leadership performance by senior officials in relation to the security incident under review should be a potential basis for discipline recommendations by future ARBs, and would recommend a revision of Department regulations or amendment to the relevant statute to this end.”

At the time of the assault, Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State. The blame for the Benghazi tragedy falls squarely and totally on her shoulders. Her performance, and especially her post incident behavior, and the behavior of the President after the tragedy was appalling. They purposefully, for political gain, lied to the nation, they lied to the victims families. Her tenure as Secretary Of State was an abysmal failure. I challenge any and all to cite any successes that she had. She is unworthy of your trust or your vote.

I urge all who have an interest to read the review boards report: Link

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A POSTER WROTE: “Maybe the ‘Mesmerized Benghazi poster was thinking of another attack that happened ‘more than 4 1/2 years ago’? He/She must be referencing the ‘Attack on the Constitution’ that did, in fact, happen more than 4 1/2 years ago with the election of Barak/Barry.”

FTR’S RESPONSE: None needed.

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Part 1) The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) released 36,007 convicted criminal aliens last year who were awaiting the outcome of deportation proceedings, according to a report issued Monday by the Center for Immigration Studies.

The group of released criminals includes those convicted of homicide, sexual assault, kidnapping and aggravated assault, according to the report, which cites a document prepared by the ICE.

A majority of the releases were not required by law and were discretionary, the organization says.

According to the report, the 36,007 individuals released represented nearly 88,000 convictions, including:

193 homicide convictions

426 sexual assault convictions

303 kidnapping convictions

1,075 aggravated assault convictions

1,160 stolen vehicle convictions

9,187 dangerous drug convictions

16,070 drunk or drugged driving convictions

303 flight escape convictions

You have to ask yourself why, and why now. To this Olde Fart the answer is obvious. Team Obama has made repeated professions of his focus on the removal of criminal aliens. But Team Obama’s policies routinely favor political considerations over the public’s safety. Team Obama has now loosed hundreds more of illegal aliens with serious criminal convictions onto the streets of America and an unsuspecting public in order to curry favor with certain elements of his base constituency.                     .

Why now? The midterm elections are just around the corner, and the move is designed to curry favor with the Democrat base. That is fundamentally wrong.

National Politics. Your name and email address are not required. Please be civil. I Have Something To Say About National Politics–Click Here