Rick Scott for Governor

Now, before all ye Alex Stink . . . er Sink . . . fans get all upset with me, let me assure you this was the toughest pick to make this election cycle. That's why it's the last one I'm featuring in a post in the dryer.

Mostly, because there was so much mud slinging.

By both candidates, admittedly.

At the end of the day, though, more mud sticks to Sink.

The most effective ad of the season were the ones showing old tape of Stink . . . I mean Sink . . . endorsing the ObamaNation's economic policies and stealth scare plans.

In light of her record as a typical Tallahassee politician who is constantly trying to find scapegoats for her own missteps and failures, I have to go with the anti-politician. It's just that type of year . . .

I hope ye socks will join me in voting for Rick Scott for Governor of Florida.

Pam Bondi for Florida Attorney General

Both major candidates in the race to become Florida's next attorney general have demonstrated their prosecutorial skills.

Each of them have contributed to making our state a safer place by putting criminals behind bars.

But, Dan Gelber has vowed to pull Florida out of the ongoing lawsuit to thwart ObamaCare. He supports the government takeover of our nation's healthcare system.

Pam Bondi, on the other hand, has promised to keep up the fight on behalf of the majority of people in this state--indeed, the majority across the nation--who recoil at the costs to personal liberty.

Our attorney general is not simply the state's "top cop," he (or she!) must also be willing to stand up to federal infringements on state sovereignty.

On that basis, I strongly endorse Pam Bondi for Florida Attorney General.

Exercise your discretion in considering Labarga

Justice Jorge Labarga is another candidate for the state supreme court that our illustrious governor placed on the bench ahead of more qualified jurists.

In fact, he helped him pad his resume during the process by appointing him to a seat on the 4th District Court of Appeal . . . where he served for ONE WHOLE DAY!

Labarga may be better remembered for his role in the disputed 2000 presidential election when, as a Palm Beach County judge he rejected the idea of a re-vote down there.

But attorneys who had to defend their clients against criminal charges in his courtroom remember him better for being overly anxious to crank thru his cases. Speed trumped justice in Labarga's courtroom.

A case in point was the first degree murder charge against one Mark Barrow. Despite requests to the contrary, Labarga would not allow the jury access to transcripts of testimony during their deliberations. Re-reads take too much time, he explained.

It is true the question of re-reads are completely up to the discretion of each judge. But, an appeals court subsequently slammed Labarga for proclaiming a blanket policy in lieu of actually exercising the discretion on a case-by-case basis.

Did I mention said slam was issued by the same 4th DCA on which Labarga had served for that very lengthy term of JUST ONE DAY?!

Since making the move up to Tallahassee, Justice Labarga has further distinguished himself by siding with the previously profiled Justice Perry to throw judicial roadblocks in the way of those trying to exempt Florida from ObamaCare.

Yeah, this guy is a real winner. Not.

Vote NO on retaining Labarga.

Dump Judge Perry

One of the first things Governor Charlie Crist did last year after literally embracing The ObamaNation's agenda at a pro-stimulus rally was to appoint a Democrat to the state supreme court.

Said Democrat is James Perry, who lives in nearby Longwood but is a native of North Carolina and passed the bar in neighboring Georgia before moving to this little corner of heaven.

Perry was suggested to Crist as a candidate for the high court by the Orlando NAACP.

Since taking his seat on the bench up in Tallahassee, Justice Perry has distinguished himself by throwing judicial roadblocks in the way of ongoing efforts to exempt Florida from ObamaCare.

Way to go, Charlie!

The bad news is, while we know Crist is leaving Tallahassee in January, in this case the results of his maladministration will linger unless the voters of the state VOTE NO on the question of Perry's merit retention.

Delusions of Competence

It is no mere coincidence that the updated jobless numbers were released this Friday before a long holiday weekend. The ObamaNation would rather not trumpet the fact that 125,000 more people are without work and the unemployment rate still hovers around 10%.

If too many people were focused on the report, they might start asking questions. And, the answers would inevitably reveal that things are even worse than the official statistics. The truth is there are more like 24 million unemployed and underemployed, a much higher rate of misery.

This is not the sort of "hope and change" they promised, is it?

Poor Christina Romer. She's the unfortunate soul who chairs the president's Council of Economic Advisors. So, it was her unenviable task to spin the dismal results of her advice on all the cable news outlets today. When the folks at Bloomberg TV pressed her on what the administration is going to do now, her frightening response was: "We're always talking about what more we can do."

What MORE they can do?!?

One might argue that all the tinkering they've already done is exactly what is prolonging this great recession. And, if they want the business environment to improve, the best thing they could do would be to exercise restraint. Romer et al would do us all a great service if they encouraged the president to pursue a simple three-point strategy on the economy: (1) extend the low '01 & '03 tax rates, (2) stop discouraging banks from lending, and (3) repeal the many and onerous mandates of ObamaCare.

Instead, she is busy sputtering her flimsy defenses and laughable claims that her boss still has job creation at the top of his agenda.

Actions speak louder than words.

Since taking office, Mr. Obama has made socialized medicine and relaxed immigration policy his primary domestic concerns, not job creation.

Today's jobless numbers reflect that misdirected focus.

And, don't even get me started on the Gulf oil leak. It is, after all, the Friday before a long holiday weekend . . .

My congressman is indeed nuts . . .

I just don't see how Alan Grayson was ever elected to public office in the first place, but we've been stuck with his "representation" of this little corner of heaven for the better part of the worst year and a half we've seen since the Great Depression.

I cringe every time I see his goofball image pop-up on a tv screen, because I know he's going to say something even more preposterous and embarassing than he has already done to bring shame on his Central Florida constituents.

Well, the latest shenanigans invaded my Sunday routine when he got his mug on my favorite CBS morning show.

Now, I realize that a lot of folks around here depend on the tourits industry, and they've been suffering greatly during the ObamaNation's lurch toward socialism.

Perhaps that is why Mr. Grayson was on the airwaves this morning, pimping his latest scheme to mandate paid vacations?

I know, I know. I'm a Grinch. But, can somebody out there explain to me just when exactly did it become the purview of the federal government of the United States of America to decree what has always been a "perk" voluntarily agreed-upon in the free market would henceforth be an entitlement?!

What's that? Oh . . . yes . . . I suppose January 2009 WOULD be a likely timeframe . . .

Seriously, Gibbs . . . it HAS been a month, already!

Were any of ye socks at least a little bit stunned by the White House press secretary's behavior at today's news conference?

No?

OK, maybe, yours truly is too tuned-in to the ongoing saga that is the Gulf oil spill and the never-ending series of flubbed efforts to stem the flow of the disaster.

Despite making somewhat disturbing remarks early on in the crisis about putting boots on necks, the federal response has been a disappointment to a lot of folks.

Not yours truly, mind you. I never have very high expectations from government, particularly this administration.

But, as Robert Gibbs wiped away his fop sweat today, I hope that was the conclusion of more folks out there. Despite their bluster/rhetoric, government is NOT capable of handling every situation. Nor should it be.

And, that applies to a whole host of issues, not just environmental disasters.

I thought he left the party a long time ago . . .

There has only ever been one conservative in the U.S. Senate race in this little corner of heaven, and it's never been our illustrious governor . . .

Crist campaign is toast

Our illustrious governor was twice burned yesterday.

And, that's not a tasteless reference to his famously perennial suntan.

Ye socks who have followed his inexplicable career to date have no doubt noticed his predilection for hitching his wagon to greater stars in the political universe.

Remember in the rosy days following the dawn of the ObamaNation how he gleefully embraced the disaster-in-waiting otherwise known as "the stimulus plan?!"

More recently, he's been pimping whatever conservative credentials he thought he had left by invoking the name of his supposed-mentor Connie Mack.

I can only imagine how he felt when his hug buddy paid a whopping 27 minutes of lip service to the future of Florida's Space Coast. It was painfully clear the real presidential focus was on getting away from Cape Canaveral as quickly as possible to attend a big Democratic fundraiser down in Miami. His announced policy shift essentially left the country's space program in shambles, and thousands more Floridians worrying about their jobs.

And, as for Mack, he walked away from Crist's senate campaign in the wake of his veto of the education bill.

Whispers abound this morning that Mitt Romney will soon be joining Mike Huckabee and Rudy Giuliani in endorsing Crist's primary opponent Marco Rubio.

Methinks in the past 24 hours or so that Charlie may have discovered just how few real allies he has.

So, could he seriously be considering a run as an independent?!

Stranger things have happened, I suppose. I mean, this IS Florida, after all!!

I suppose I should feel SOME relief . . .

I didn't wait until the very last minute to mail off my tax return for 2009.

It got stamped and posted this afternoon.

I suppose I should be kicking myself in the rump for not filing sooner, as it looks like I should get a pretty decent refund this year.

Still, it's hard to get overly-excited.

I mean, yeah, I'm getting SOME of what DC swiped from my paycheck all year.

But, they're still holding on to the lion's share of that money pile.

And, it just feels like it's all being flushed down one big toilet bowl . . .

I suppose this is hope and change?!

Let's mic Joe, 24/7!

This is a family friendly dryer, ye socks.

So, yours truly will not quote our illustrious vice president's recent characterization of the ObamaNation's stealth scare scheme.

Rather, let us harken back to a day when the English language didn't always get boiled down to four-letter words.

I mean, you might have to exercise ye olde noggin, but you can craft some pretty artful and witty statements if you try.

For example, here are a few of my favorite zingers, none of which employ foul language. Feel free to co-opt them for your own use(s):

"He has delusions of adequacy," said Walter Kerr. [Could definitely be applied to a large proportion of the current "leadership" of this country, no?!]

"He has all the virtues I dislike, and none of the vices I admire," said Sir Winston Churchill. [Wow, didn't know he had a chance to meet Joe!]

"He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends," said Oscar Wilde. [Especially when he uses potty language?!]

"He loves nature, in spite of what it did to him," said Forrest Tucker. [Ouch, that had to hurt!]

"His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork," said Mae West. [Or, at least washed his mouth out with soap, in this case!]

"He can compress the most words into the smallest idea of any man I know," said Abraham Lincoln. [Wow, did he know Joe's boss?!]

March Madness

Having had another 24 hours to further digest the recent constitutional travesty, I am pleased to see our state's attorney general Bill McCollum is taking the lead on filing a lawsuit against the ObamaNation's stealth scare scheme.

Florida, along with eleven other states (so far!) have filed suit in federal court at Pensacola, claiming the socialist agenda is unconstitutional. I'm pleased to see the AG from Louisiana, a Democrat, standing by our side on this one.

Virginia, for a variety of reasons, has filed a separate suit up in Richmond. The basis of their claim is that the mandates issued from on high by Pelosi, Reid, and their ilk, conflicts with existing state law.

Furthermore, it is my understanding that at least 32 other states have either put into place, or are in the process of creating, legislative and constitutional challenges in a variety of forms.

So, America isn't just sitting back and taking it.

I love it!

It sounds like this version of "March madness" may just be settled in the courts, too!

Hope and change, y'all!

Rights vs entitlements

What a travesty last night's vote in Congress was.

Simply put, it is the product of ignorance.

I'm not saying the perpetrators of Socialized Stealth Scare are ingorant. Far from it. Rather, the people who drink their KoolAid are the real dopes.

For instance, let's clarify the definitions of the words "right" and "entitlement."

Rights are endowed by our Creator. They are inalienable. They are NOT granted to you by the government. You are born with them.

Entitlements are simply government hand-outs. They are given or taken away at the whim of our illustrious leaders.

Of course, Socialists have been purposely using the word "right" for "entitlement" for many years, and not just as relates to Stealth Scare.

Back in the days of the late great Soviet Union, they decreed every comrade had the "right" to free food.

Those of us with a little gray hair remember how well that worked for them. Everytime we saw a news report about a grocery store in Moscow, it showed lines of people snaking around a city block. And, when the reporter asked them what they were waiting for, they never knew. They just figured since everyone else was in line . . .

Eerily similar to what's going on in the ObamaNation, no?!

I fear we have not only trashed the Constitution, but have also bankrupted ourselves and future generations . . . wonder if our unborn great-grandchildren are experiencing buyers remorse this morning?!?

I guess they're entitled to feel that way . . .

Presidential Identity Crisis

Did any of ye socks catch any of the coverage of the Republican retreat up in Baltimore today?

I know, I know. This is not the sort of event that generally attracts a lot of attention.

But, it was really worth watching this time, because they invited Barack Hussein Obama, Jr., to appear as a guest speaker.

You really have to give the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue some credit for accepting that invitation.

When I heard he had agreed to be there, I'll admit there was a glimmer of "hope" that he was going to undertake some "change" we really could believe in.

But, that glimmer was quickly dashed.

The ObamaNation is not interested either in learning from its many mistakes over the past year or in compromising with the current minority party in Congress.

Instead, the rabble-rouser-in-chief took this opportunity to tell his hosts what he is NOT.

Apparently, he's neither a Bolshevik nor an idealist.

Well, you have to give him that. Bolsheviks at least gave lip service to the working class, while this administration is clearly more interested in keeping people OUT of work than anything else.

And, as far as the idealist thing goes, did anyone else out there think his rejection of the label sounded an awful lot like Nixon's infamous claim, "I am not a crook?!?"

Baltimore was not about dialogue for Mr. Obama, just another opportunity for pontification and grand standing. He's pretty good at that theatrical kind of stuff. It's the legislating and governing stuff he's still struggling with . . .

A coupla billion here, a coupla billion there . . .

Confession: yours truly avoids Orlando International Airport like the plague.

Until this afternoon, I don't think I'd set foot on the property in years.

And, my aversion to air travel isn't the only reason.

Just driving down there to pick someone up means taking your life into your hands.

Seriously, who were the traffic engineers that designed that piffle and nonsense?!?

Anyway, it seems that our illustrious commander-in-chief is bent on making OIA an even more interesting place to visit.

He and his second banana were down in Tampa this fine day to announce they are going to spend billions of our tax dollars to connect that city to our own. One of the terminals will be at OIA. Great.

I guess this is supposed to make up for the billions they are apparently going to cut from the NASA budget. Sounds like a great big ponzi scheme to me . . . one that's going to displace a lot of Central Florida workers.

Hope and change!

Pre-empting the State of the Union

Unlike so many of ye socks (tongue planted firmly in cheek), yours truly does not plan to watch this evening's State of the Union address.

Instead, I plan on tuning-out the coverage that is blanketing the airwaves and cable channels more heavily than the recent Haiti earthquake coverage. The alternatives offered by our friends at Netflix are far more palatable.

I did, however, read an advance copy of the speech.

Not only did it reaffirm my viewing choice for this evening, it also made it abundantly clear the White House still doesn't "get it."

The American people want the economy (and JOBS!) at the top of the priority list, not a federal takeover of our healthcare system.

And, even if we did, the manner in which the president's minions in Congress have been conducting business should be repudiated.

At the end of the day, Americans of all political persuasions prefer basic fairness to back door deals like the Cornhusker Kickback, the Louisana Purchase, union exemptions, etc., etc.

It's piffle and nonsense like this that is causing people to turn to DVD's in their mailbox instead of their representatives in DC these days.

Obama's not his only distant cousin . . .

The New England Historic Genealogical Society has let it be known that our illustrious commander-in-chief is a distant cousin of the recently elected Senator Scott Brown of Massachusetts.

That "kinnection" was made thru a fellow named Richard Singletary, who died at Haverhill, Massachusetts, back in 1687. The way the genealogists figure it, this common ancestor makes the current occupant of the White House and the latest Republican sensation no less than tenth cousins.

Well, ye socks, after doing some sleuthing of my own, I have discovered a slightly more recent "kinnection" to Brown. Like yours truly, he is descended from a woman named Sarah Starbuck--albeit his line springs from her second marriage whilst my own comes from her first marriage to a fellow named Joseph Austin of Dover, New Hampshire.

My descent from Sarah and Joseph's daughter Deborah Austin is spelled-out in detail on my oft-cited ahnentafel page:

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~oldpinecastle/ahnentafel.html

Senator Brown's descent goes like this:

1. Sarah Starbuck married secondly 2 March 1664 to Humphrey Varney; and died at Dover on 6 June 1719. Their son:

2. Ebenezer Varney (1670-1753) married Mary Otis, and had

3. Samuel Varney (born 2 April 1712), who had by his wife Mary

4. Timothy Varney (1 Sept 1742 - 30 Sept 1808) married 4 January 1764 at Dover to Abigail Hussey, and had

5. Mercy Varney (8 March 1771 - 31 Oct 1840) married 30 Dec 1790 to Amos Hill of Berwick, Maine, and had

6. Timothy Varney Hill (28 Dec 1808 - 22 Jan 1883) of Wells, Maine, who married Rosamond Blaisdell and had

7. Mercy O. Hill of Wells, married Frelinghuysen Moody of Lynn, Massachusetts, and had

8. Charlotte W. Moody (23 Aug 1881 - 2 May 1964) married Charles W. Coleman, and had

9. Bertha Louise Coleman (2 July 1905 - 26 June 2001) married Phillip Newton Rugg, and had

10. Judith Ann Rugg (born 9 May 1938) married 23 November 1937 at Pease Air Force Base to Claude Bruce Brown, and had

11. Scott Philip Brown (born 12 Sept 1959 at Kittery, Maine), the senator-elect in question.

This common descent makes us ninth cousins, one generation removed.

Anyone else out there got a closer "kinnection?"

Breathe! We're 25% thru this nightmare!

Yours truly is wondering, given last night's results out of Massachusetts and the earlier reverses in New Jersey and Virginia, if our esteemed "leader" would revise the letter grade he so humbly awarded himself on the Oprah show. ("B")

What is blowing my mind this morning is the level of criticism he is receiving from liberals.

Folks at Human Rights Watch and the ACLU aren't happy with him. And, the anti-gun Brady Campaign went so far as to give him a big fat "F" for his first year's work.

All I can say, ye socks of whatever political stripe, is that this maladministration is like a kidney stone. And, this too shall pass!

Hope and change, y'all! ;)

Get ready to get scrooged.

In case ye socks ever doubted the fact that The ObamaNation is completely out-of-step with the real concerns of the American people, I offer you the following poll results.

53% of the American people put the economy & jobs at the top of the national priority list.

Yet, the current occupant of the White House is spending most of his time pimping his global redistribution of wealth plan as THE answer to global warming (an issue only 2% of us put atop said priority list).

And, his minions in Congress are ramming thru their stealth scare legislation in the middle of a blizzard, thumbing their noses at the typical holiday recess.

Only 10% of us put health care reform atop the national agenda. Even that is a misnomer. Health care in this country is the best to be found anywhere in the world. Access to it, and affordability are the things that really need to be reformed. And, you don't accomplish that by socializing the delivery mechanisms.

Yet, this is the path we are on. Printing up more greenbacks to hand out to developing countries so they will halt development in the Quixotic pursuit of global cooling. And, the double-whammy, we're poised to hand over 1/6 of our national economy to the DC beltway brain trust.

Yeah, those things will kickstart the economy and put people back to work.

Hope and change?!

The ObamaNation's impression of itself

Were any of ye socks as stunned as yours truly was to hear tonight that the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue gave himself high marks for his track record to date?

Seriously.

He told his guru/benefactor Oprah that he would give himself a B+.

Self-deluded much?

I mean, really, how do you get that kind of a grade with only a 46% approval rating?

When I was going to school back in the Stone Age, a 46% was pretty much an F-.

He must be grading on one heck of a curve.

I tried to engage in some Al Gore style fuzzy math to figure it out, but got about as far as his presidential ambitions.

For instance, I'm willing to concede that roughly 25% of the population is never going to approve of the ObamaNation.

And, I figure there's another 25% who will always goosestep behind this guy, or any other Democrat for that matter.

So, really, you'd have to grade him on how well he's doing with the remaining 50% in the middle.

Well, by my caluclations, 46% - 25% loyal supporters = 21% real approval rating x 2 = 42% of actual middle of the road type folks.

But, that result is even worse than the poll numbers, and still yields a big fat F-.

Hmmm . . .