The Way I See ItBy cj pollickClearwater City Election - Former Clearwater City Councilmember Bill Jonson is running for election against Joe Paige. Who is Joe Paige? A person who said he would not increase taxes and is a fiscal conservative. A New Community Center For Largo? - Talk about millions of dollars, the City of Largo is thinking of building a new Community Center at a cost of about $10 million. Recession? What Recession! Underground Utilities At Indian Rocks Beach? - City leaders at Indian Rocks are discussing ideas about funding underground utilities on Gulf Blvd. They are trying to decide how to find about $3 million to help cover the costs of such a project. Forty-Nine Days Remain In 2009 - Thanksgiving is in two weeks and retail stores are already reminding us of Christmas sales. However, with our nation still in the grip of a recession and over 10% unemployment, many Americans are hoping for signs of economic recovery in 2010. The good news? Economists believe our nation has hit the bottom of the recession. The bad news? The same economists believe our nations' financial recovery might take longer than once expected. Signs of economic recovery in late 2010 might not be felt by workers until 2011-2012 at the earliest. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Cut The Deals And Won - With her radiant smile and hand-waving to an array of favorite news reporters, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Cal.) garnered enough Democrat votes in the House of Representatives to pass her 1990 page healthcare bill. The controversial House Bill now moves to the US Senate where it is expected to meet tougher challenges. Only one Republican supported Pelosi in passage of the healthcare bill, thirty-nine Democrats opposed the Bill. President Obama, as expected, immediately offered his congratulations to Speaker Pelosi and her "courageous" supporters . With enough potential Democrat votes to pass the healthcare bill in the Senate, it should be interesting to observe partisan politics at play. One thing is assured, Florida's Sen. Bill Nelson has already stated his support for national healthcare. On the other hand, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) had stated he would do his best to derail any federal government take-over of our nation's healthcare industry. Again, interesting days are ahead in the US Senate. President Obama Told ABC News - President Obama does not support the taxpayer abortion funding ban in the House health care plan. Obama also said jail time is an appropriate punishment for not buying health insurance. Interesting set of priorities and punishment by the President …. According To The Associated Press - Upon final analysis of the Obama administration's stimulus jobs report, more than two-thirds of the 14,506 jobs allegedly created by Head Start programs simply involved pay increases for the same employees. Now, that is called creative accounting! Army Officials Should Have Known Better - There is little question that political correctness throughout America has resulted in military officials trying to be … politically correct. For example, it has been an unwritten rule in the military that gay and lesbian soldiers can be part of our military under a code of "Don't ask, don't tell." Thus, gay and lesbian soldiers exist in the military, but under a silence code. The message? Leave them alone--but, they will not flaunt their homosexuality. A good message? Time will tell. Then there is the Army psychiatrist who recently killed at least 13 people at Fort Hood. This radical doctor warned a group of senior Army physicians over a year ago in a meeting that the US military should avoid "adverse events" and allow fellow Muslim soldiers to be released as conscientious objectors. The Muslim doctor warned that US Muslim soldiers should not be required to fight fellow Muslims regardless of where they are located. Of course, this same doctor obtained his medical degree from the Army (paid for by American taxpayers.) It now is known that this doctor wanted a free medical degree and training, but wanted to design the rules of how he would participate as a US soldier and US Army doctor. The bad news is that Army doctors knew of this fellow's radical opinions many months before he killed innocent soldiers waiting for vaccinations (prior to deployment.) Nothing, however, was done to address his warning to other senior Army doctors. Call this military correctness or whatever other candy-coated words some politicians might use. Enough Talk About Bi-Partisan Support In Congress - Remember when candidate Barack Obama said he would change politics in Washington? Remember when he said he would bring an era of bi-partisan support when bringing forth new legislation? Well, those statements were nothing more than campaign rhetoric. Washington politics could not be more divisive than the days when minority Democrat leaders such as Ted Kennedy, Chris Dodd, Al Gore and Maxine Waters regularly chastised President Bush and Republican leaders in Congress. Partisan politics has not changed since Barack Obama took office, same old, same old. Then there is Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), a man who has served in elected office since 1965, and who proudly offered this advise to President Obama when trying to pass healthcare reform in Congress,"Knock their heads together." Forget about developing bi-partisan dialog and support, simply pound heads until you have the votes. Oregon RB Reinstated After Punching Incident - When Boise State beat Oregon in an important football game a few weeks ago, many of the football players from Boise State were excited about the upset win and talked "smack" to departing Oregon star running back LeGarrette Blount as he was leaving the field. Blount retaliated by confronting one of the Boise players (with his helmet off) by sucker punching him in the jaw. The Boise player was injured and Blount continued his physical outburst by confronting Boise fans as he left the field. All of it was captured on television and the Oregon coach was left with few options but to suspend his star player. Oregon football team, nevertheless, went on a winning streak and now could use their suspended running back. Bottom line? The guilty running back was reinstated this week. The message for all other star football players? Sucker punching an opposing team player after a football game results in about a three game suspension. "Don't ever take down a fence until you know the reason it was put up." |