charli's Blog

Looks like Phyllis has her hands full to restore the Elections office reputation after the Buddy debacle.  At least the BOCC approved part of Buddy's request in order to pay the workers.  It was true that Buddy used some money to pay for his campaign at what could be the residents' expense... pens with his name on them, the "Educate the Voter" ads on TV and radio (in which he appeared)... not disclosing that the ballots cost extra... and, I love this, deciding that he would be better at the book keeping than the BOCC... the stupid thing is that they believed him and let him take over.  Then there were his "personal" money problems... not paying taxes on some property, using the trick to make some property "environmental" to get out of paying taxes, etc. 

Buddy needs to go to jail.

Over the weekend FOX and what's left of the Trib mentioned something about the  legislature revisiting the issue of talking/texting while driving.  Something to do with the cops not being able to pull you over while doing one of them, but ticketing you if you are in an accident and it is found you were on the phone at the time of the accident. 

Here is what I propose... (This is after seeing 2 near accidents where the driver was on the phone and swerving into other lanes...)  If a cop sees the driver talking talking/texting and there are kids in the car... the cop has the right to arrest the driver for child endangerment! 

On the way home from work yesterday this one woman was busy on the phone, turning around to yell and 2 kids in the back seat... she almost rearended the car in front of her.  A few blocks later she swerved and almost ran off the road.  She came to stop at a red light.  When it changed to green she just sat there!  Horns blared!  She then decided to switch lanes to make a right hand turn cutting off a car that was in the left turn lane!

Definately child endangerment!

Buddy owes the county a lot of money...  Iread on. I could not believe that Buddy did not show up at the Commission meeting today!  Doesn't surprise me... but...  $1800 for the ballot "disposal" boxes!  Over time pay... because he had stored "early votes"  some place that were not found until after election night... his fault.  The thing that got me, why I say that Buddy owes money, is the comment about getting new stationary, etc. printed when Phyllis takes over.  Buddy used  funds to promote his own campaign... "Buddy Johnson, Supervisor of Elections" on all the things the department sent out... voter registrations, voting locations, etc.  Pam did not do that... have her name on all mailings as part of the letterhead, logos, etc.  Mailings just said "Supervisor of Elections".  If not the whole 2.3 million dollars, Buddy should pay the $300 thous for the printing out of his own pocket!

What if Mom or the grandparents buried the body some place outside of any possible search areas and then moved the bag after the area was searched?    ... they searched the area before... waded through the water, etc.  Mom was out of jail during the searches.  I have mixed feelings about the finding of the bones... glad that they were found and can put that poor baby to rest, and sad that they may be the bones of that young child... murdered by her mother.

Only caught part of the story (WC break) but my question is this... were all decorations banned, or just Christian related ones?  We are coming into a holiday season celebrated by many civilizations... Chanukka, the ancient celebrations of good crops and getting ready for the new ones... just to mention a few.  The ancients celebrated the time with decorating trees, lighting candles, etc.  Jesus was not born in December but the new Christians took over the days of the ancient's celebrations to force them to celebrate his birth. 

Holiday decorations are okay... reds and greens, lighted trees, family dinners, Santa Claus (who was originally a man who went about giving gifts to children at the hard time of the year... when times were tough)... but keep religion out of it.  It was not a religious holiday!

 

Okay, turned on FOX this AM... no rain predicted today, some possible tomorrow.  Got drenched at lunch time!  Got on the computer and no rain was shown for today.

Okay, we have rain and a cold front, the coldest one this season, predicted for the weekend.  Will it be colder than predicted... with snow?  Remember that last cold front, election week... we froze our tails off.  Predictions were for highs in the 70's... never made it.  FOX guys are still the best, but even they have been off too many times this past year... not as bad as the other stations, but....

As FOX, and other stations, flood us with the DTV conversion coming up, there is one thing noticably missing from all the reports...  how to get rid of old TV sets.  Yes, the converter boxes are cheap but we are coming into the holiday season and many people will opt to get new TV's. 

Did you know that over 70% of heavy metals found in landfills come from TV's and CRT's?  That your TV or monitor contains up to 8 pounds of lead, as well as mercury, cadmium, and others?  FOX has been asked repeatedly to inform people of this, and the proper disposal, whether you live in the county or the incorporated areas.  The City of Tampa used to hold collections, but they are few and far between.

So... the county holds 3 collections a month.  They prefer that you take electronics to the collections and not go to the other facilities and toss them into the dumpsters (that go to the landfill because they are mixed in with other waste!)  You can call the county for the information on the collections or go to the website.

 

for the bad!  5:30PM newscast announced that there were more changes being made to the Trib, including laying off one of their best writers.  The excuse given was that they wanted to concentrate more on the on-line version.  The last thing I want to do in the AM is get on the computer to read the news, down load my crosswords, etc. 

Rec'd something in the mail this week from the Trib... they now have a "Reward" program and I had earned 750 points!  They go on to mention how well the changes were rec'd by readers. 

I am canceling my subscription first thing on Wednesday morning!

If the Trib were affiliated with FOX these changes would not have been made.

Started out as only 3 voting prescincts, people receiving only one page, finding some votes already entered when they got their "sheets" as they checked in, then went to include a problem with USF not receiving enough ballots, then spread to absentee votes, then some early votes.  What part of "record turnout" did Buddy not understand a few months ago.  Blame the soft ware.  Odd that the only position left hanging (sorry about that) was the one between Buddy and Phyllis. 

What is even harder to understand is why Buddy got so many votes after all that came out in the news about him.  I've known Phyllis for years, before either one of us worked for the county.  Hadn't seen her for many years and was happy to see that she was running.  My only fault to find was that she didn't campaign hard enough... but Buddy was messing up his campaign without help from anyone. 

What the heck happened with the weather?  I wake up to hear of a high near 80, sunny.  As the sun came up, where was it?  At the polls standing in line?  Nothing but clouds and fog all day.  Temp never got out of the 60's.  I came back from lunch and went to FOX for the temp.... nothing showing, went to the current conditions page, again, zippo.  Temp info "unavailable".  Went to the NOAA site... no temps there either!  A while later I pulled up Howard's clip... time stamp was 12:34PM and Howard was showing the high to be 80.  A short time later the temp finally appeared... 67, then down to 66 at 3PM, 65 as I type this. 

Now here is why this qualifies for news... political news... someone conjectured that one of the candidates got China to help him/her out by making the weather cool for all the people standing in line... China has boasted that they can change the weather on command.  Someone else added that they should have made the temps in the 90's, no breeze, hot sun and t-storms... to punish those people who waited until the last minute! 

My question... how did FOX get the weather so wrong?

Local stations are running programs on the upcoming conversion.  None of them address the serious situation of what we face if a hurricane comes our way.  How much money were the stations paid by satellite and cable companies?  If a 'cane comes to Tampa, our emergency battery operated TV's will be useless... first off, cable is always the first to go out.... when the electricity goes out we go to our battery operated TV's to keep track of the storm... the converter boxes do not work without electricity!!!!!!!  Not everyone lives in an area that they can have emergency generators... condos, apartments, etc.  Not everyone lives in an area where cable is available.  I got a big kick out of the WFLA show a few minutes ago.... the conversion was done, this is funny, so that "Public safety" issues could be handled... using the analog frequencies... duh... not being able to get updated weather news is not a Public Safety issue. 

It is bad enough that Brighthouse switched the local county info channel to a "upgraded" (aka more money for service) channel so that I can not, as a county employee, get the news and "calls for duty during an emergency" updates.

We have all used this system in our lives.... Since the Electoral College has made a mess of our voting system... Here is what I propose...  talk about "popular vote"....

A person runs for the prez position... no veep candidate.  The person who gets the most votes is the Prez, second place becomes the Veep...  even if from a different "party".

 

Driving while drunk is looking better every day!  You have to be drunk to put up with drivers texting while driving or talking on cell phones while driving!  I  hit the bottle the minute I get home from work... dodging people on cell phones while driving is very unnerving!  Previous surveys showed that driving while on a cell phone was worse than driving drunk...  they even did a test on "Myth Busters" that showed being drunk scored better than being on a cell phone.

My drive home today took 20 minutes longer than normal... no traffic jams... just people on cell phones not driving the speed limit (slower), weaving in and out of traffic or drifting into my lane, not seeing light changes.  I had to use my horn 3 times... and all 3 drivers were on cell phones!

There is no reason for the prices of gas to go up so much before and during the weekend.  People panicked because of news reports that the prices would go up, thanks to Ike.  I know of one station in Apollo Beach that was limiting to 10 gallons... Friday AM!  I know of one station in Brandon that had a big sign out listing Regular at a very low price. .. $3.57.  People got in line, only to find the pumps not working, forcing people in line to fill up with medium or high test.   A coworker who lives near the station saw them put the sign up, drove home to switch cars, and found the "switcheroo"! My BP gas station, on Habana and Sligh, raised the price of regular to nearly $4, and the other grades are over $4!

As Suntan Christ said, there is plenty of gas available... no reason for the outrageous prices.  If the prices go up, it should not be for a few weeks, until the damage is assessed.  REPORT YOUR LOCAL GAS STATIONS! 

I agree that there are some problems with the rural bus routes, but the one mom on the hoity toity Harbor Island... Drive your kids to the bus stop, or to school.  Why make us tax payers pay additional money for the job you do not seem to want to do... be a good parent!  If you do not like the system, take the care of your child into your own hands... do not make the rest of us do it.

When I was in 1st to 5th grade I had to walk to school, up hill, in the snow.  I lived a mile or so from the school.  When I was 11 or so I moved to a very rural area and, literally, had to walk up hill, both ways, to catch the school bus.  When I was a young teen, we moved to Miami Beach... I had to walk to the junior high through the neighborhood.  For high school I had to take the public bus... we were inside the "school bus limit" but too far to walk to school.  THERE HAVE ALWAYS BEEN SEXUAL PREDATORS! 

Again, I say... do not blame others for what you should be doing!