Talk To Me

Weekend Zen

2012-02-10T09:56:00.001-05:00

I can't get no...satis-fac-tion
I can't get me no...satis-fac-tion
And I try and I try and I try t-t-t-t-try try
I can't no - I can't get me no

No no no no
Hey hey hey
That's what I say

Devo. Satisfaction. 1977.

Matt in the Morning

2012-02-10T05:55:00.001-05:00

Brevard's head newsie slings the FLORIDA TODAY business model to the locals.

Listen here.

School Counselors and the Florida Legislature

2012-02-09T06:15:00.000-05:00

Can't get a return phone call back from Johnny or Susie's school counselor?

Florida Senate Bill 1654 aims to free up communication and reduce administrative duties often assigned school counselors.

(...)

GENERAL BILL by Education Pre-K - 12; Detert

Certified School Counselors; Requiring that each school district have an overall ratio of at least one certified school counselor for every 400 students; requiring that each elementary, middle, and high school within the school district have a specified maximum ratio of certified school counselors to students; requiring that each school have a minimum of one full-time certified school counselor and assign additional half-time or full-time certified school counselors only after reaching the maximum ratio; prohibiting certified school counselors from being used as support staff for administrative duties, etc.

Senate Committee References: Education Pre-K - 12 (ED) , Budget Subcommittee on E
Last Action: 02/08/2012 Now in Budget Subcommittee on Education Pre-K - 12 Appropriations
Effective Date: July 1, 2012

Read more over at the Florida School Counselor Association.

Reading for Thinkers

2012-02-09T06:03:00.000-05:00

"Whenever I'm asked why Southern writers particularly have a penchant for writing about freaks, I say it is because we can still recognize one."

--Flannery O'Connor, Mystery and Manners

Short Shorts: Pandemics and Food Stamps

2012-02-08T06:25:00.002-05:00

Based on the most recent food stamp comments by Newt Gingrich, my challenge for the remaining GOP presidential candidates is not only to live off food stamps for one month, but to also navigate the social services network in attempt to gain housing for themselves and family members.

Hey, just for kicks, toss in an uninsured pregnant twenty-something daughter.

Ground rule # 1. Walking into a homeless shelter not permitted.

***

A study by DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research has evidence that reflects closing schools during a pandemic will drop the number of outbreaks.

Data gathered during school summer closings led to the findings.

(...)

"The data that we obtained were so good that our plots immediately revealed a huge drop in incidence when schools were closed for the summer. Using state-of-the-art modeling, we then demonstrated that transmission was reduced by at least 50 percent."

The model also indicated that seasonal changes in weather significantly affected influenza transmission in cities in Alberta, but that they were much less important than school closures, Earn added.

Of course, doing so will wreak havoc with parent schedules, only underlining a long-standing joke among educators that students will soon be housed in this nation's schools.

Or in this case, hospitalized.

Offset by Default

2012-02-07T00:50:00.006-05:00

I dreaded filing my tax return this year.

I missed a quarterly payment due on a loan taken against my 403(b). The consequences of doing so meant claiming the balance due as income and paying taxes to Uncle Sam.

Last night, I pushed up my sleeves and filed online. Didn't hurt as much as anticipated, but I still face a 10% penalty and whatever other fun fees assigned the default.

And according to 403bwise, the loan stays on my account and continues to gain interest until I reach 59 and a half, become disabled, sever employment or die. At that time, the loan will be zeroed out as an offset distribution, offsetting the amount due me from my 403(b) account balance.

It never ends.

Yo. Rocking Hyundai

2012-02-06T00:08:00.001-05:00

I'm a sucker for the Rocky theme.

That being said--with all bias admittedly stated upfront--hands down, the Hyundai ad gets my vote for best Super Bowl commercial aired during last night's Big Game.

Also enjoyed listening to one time Brevard County resident and former Bengals wide receiver Cris Collinsworth co-broadcast the game.

And Madonna, not too shabby, girlfriend. Not too shabby.

FLORIDA TODAY: You Can't Read Just One

2012-02-05T10:46:00.002-05:00

As a writer and blogger, I've been compared to many things, but to a bag of chips?

That's the impression I took away this morning after reading Matt Reed's Sunday column, Would you buy this column? written to introduce FLORIDA TODAY's move from an advertising-based model to a business model.

(I honestly have no idea how long the public will have access to the column online as the transition is scheduled for Monday, 2/6/2012. Those who wish to read the column via the FT site for "free", today would be the time to do so).

As for the chips....the gist of Reed's column encourages newspaper-loving Brevard County readers to consider the worth of "paying" for online access to Space Coast news, an amount equivalent to the same few cents a person with the grumbly hungries would drop into a vending machine to purchase a snack.

I "get" the transition. I want my local paper to survive. But--in my opinion--the column took a nasty tone.

(...)

"Is a local newspaper or mobile site worth as much to you as a snack-sized bag of chips?

The news industry will ask that question daily this year as it overhauls subscriptions to include its websites and mobile sites, forcing Space Coast consumers to rethink their choices."

As a long time Brevard County local, I think I can speak for my fellow residents. Force is not the best frame of reference to gently prod the present readership into accepting a change in mindset.

As a former community contributor, I remain somewhat baffled by the classy email heave ho and today, threw my two chips into the commentary mix.

Talk Shatsky

It's the bag of chips that drew many readers online to the Public Interest page: Opinion Matters, Talk to Me, Right Turn, the community columnists and the Sunday/Monday debates. Failure of FT to embrace these community-written, popular columns and blogs within the business model, complete with "... traffic numbers (that) show it has a loyal audience that reads deeply.." (your words, Matt) appears a risky venture.

1451 posts for FLORIDA TODAY later, Talk to Me is back home for those who wish to continue the conversation. www.talktomeblog.net

(Yep. I never erase an email).

Could be the decision all comes down to one bag of chips.

Without community contributors, the FT readership will be forced to read only the journalists.

Onward and forward. :)

Super Bowl Zen

2012-02-03T21:15:00.001-05:00

Corny or not, hands down, the best rendition of the Star Spangled Banner ever--

--Whitney Houston--accompanied by The Florida Orchestra-- sings in Super Bowl XXV.

Casino Gambling DOA?

2012-02-03T14:18:00.003-05:00

Guess the moral high road trumps job creation for the Florida Legislature.

Looks like no cash in for the controversial casino gambling bill.

(...)

The bill to bring three resort casinos to Florida may have to wait until next year to pass because sponsors don’t appear to have mustered enough votes to get it out of a crucial House committee.

Read more over at The Miami Herald.

Cleaning House

2012-02-03T06:16:00.003-05:00

The Florida Legislature is about to be "swiffed".

(...)

The Republican-dominated House voted 80-39 along party lines Thursday to give preliminary approval to three redistricting maps drawn according to the new anti-gerrymandering standards of the Fair Districts amendments approved by voters.

The amendments prohibit lawmakers — for the first time in Florida history — from drawing the districts with any intent to protect incumbents or political parties and the results have shaken up the political landscape from Tallahassee to Jacksonville and from St. Petersburg to Miami.

The disruption, however, is mostly apparent in the House, where 38 of the chamber’s 120 incumbents are been drawn into districts with another member. The Senate and Congressional maps, by contrast, don’t appear to end the political careers of any incumbents. Story here.

Reading for Thinkers

2012-02-03T00:35:00.002-05:00

Writer Joyce Carol Oates picks up the pieces of her life following the death of her husband.

(...)

"... the death of a "loved one" is a universal experience yet, to the bereaved, it is singular as a mountain thundering downhill in an avalanche that swallows you up utterly, batters your brain and fills your mouth with rubble."

Read the Oates essays In Rough County.

Short Shorts

2012-02-01T21:00:00.001-05:00

As Romney edges out Gingrich in Brevard, voters regardless of political party find themselves playing bumper cars with wild hogs out by the I-95 Pineda extension.

Opinion Matters is the first FLORIDA TODAY community blog to go dark.

Do six out of every 10 Republicans approve of President Obama? That's what this blogger thought she heard on the way to work this morning on what passes for conservative talk radio in this area. Check out the audio here.

And do 10,000 pythons really call the Everglades home? Ask the last raccoon heading north (if you can find one). Read the research here.

Talk to Me.

Talk to Me is Home Sweet Home

2012-01-31T20:12:00.006-05:00

1451 posts for FLORIDA TODAY later, Talk to Me is back home.

Please update your links and bookmarks. Thanks!

Talk to Me

Tuesday Zen

2012-01-31T00:11:00.002-05:00

Roxanne
You don't have to wear that dress tonight
Walk the streets for money
You don't care if it's wrong or if it's right

Roxanne. The Police.

One Last Dance

2012-01-30T00:53:00.003-05:00

The party is over.

(...)

As of Feb. 6, FLORIDA TODAY will be discontinuing the citizen-opinion features on (the) Public Interest pages, in print and online. FLORIDA TODAY is relaunching under a new business model, to include online subscriptions and new host technology. The same changes has forced updates to our content. For you, it means:

1. ...Opinion Matters blog will disappear Feb. 9.
2. ...The final "Monday debate" will publish Feb. 6.
3. ...Other semi-regular blogs and guest columns also will drop from our lineup the week of Feb. 5-11.

What that means for Talk to Me.

This will be my final post for FLORIDA TODAY, followed tomorrow by a final Weekend Zen, albeit the zen will fall on a Tuesday.

I wish to thank all those who followed this blog. For some, we may have vehemently disagreed, but I thank you all the same. I extend a special thanks to the vets who reached out to me as well as those disenfranchised by Florida law.

Thank you to my Sunday/Monday writing partner Marshall Frank and my former community blogger partner, Right Turn blogger, Jim Manely.

And of course, many thanks to my former FT editor, John Glisch.

I have a couple of irons in the fire, but for now, those who wish to keep in touch can find me at my Twitter feed (Talktomememe) or at Talk Shatsky on Facebook and of course, at my Blogger archive Talk to Me, found here at www.talktomeblog.net.

It's been a great 5 years, almost to the very day.

I leave you with a couple of thoughts.

I love Florida with every fiber of my being. I have no doubt she can return to the Paradise she once was, but it is up to those who love her as much as I to wrestle her away from those who have spoiled her magnificence.

I leave this format with two IKEA boxes full of published clips. I have the satisfaction of knowing that one day years from now, someone can access my work and read what I had to say over the last several years. That being said, support the public libraries who archive the print editions of your local paper.

For as so noted in our digital world, in a moment, it can all be gone.

See ya.

And thanks again.

Weekend Zen

2012-01-27T00:30:00.004-05:00

Hey now baby, get into my big black car
Hey now baby, get into my big black car
I wanna just show you what my politics are.

Hey, hey, hey
I wanna just show you what my politics are.

Politician. Cream.

A Day at the Rep

2012-01-26T06:37:00.001-05:00

Well, I can see why Mitt Romney hesitated the release of his tax return and I'm not buying his story he feared the $4.1 million tithe to his church would be used against him by his challengers.

The man is clearly a one percenter. I'd stake my claim the man's estimated worth of $250 million will not sell to those living in tents pitched throughout this country. (Per the AJC, "...only 8,274 filers reported income above $10 million.")

Newt Gingrich is a pauper ($3 million, give and take some change) compared to Romney. On the other hand, Newt pulled a toxic salary of apparently $1.6 million over several years (and several contracts) from Freddie Mac.

In the spirit of transparency, Newt released his 2006 contract with the reviled mortgage company, which he insists details compensation as a consultant, not a lobbyist for Freddie Mac.

A second contract recently released reflects $25,000 compensation paid monthly to Newt's consulting business.

I can't wait to the see the contract stipulating the dollar amount Newt received as a historian for Freddie Mac.

Talk to Me.

State of the Union Highlights

2012-01-25T06:27:00.000-05:00

Highlights I took away from last night's State of the Union address. Feel free to post highlights of your choice.

Manufacturing:

(...)

"Tonight, my message to business leaders is simple: Ask yourselves what you can do to bring jobs back to your country, and your country will do everything we can to help you succeed.
We should start with our tax code. Right now, companies get tax breaks for moving jobs and profits overseas. Meanwhile, companies that choose to stay in America get hit with one of the highest tax rates in the world. It makes no sense, and everyone knows it.

So let's change it. First, if you're a business that wants to outsource jobs, you shouldn't get a tax deduction for doing it. That money should be used to cover moving expenses for companies like Master Lock that decide to bring jobs home.

Second, no American company should be able to avoid paying its fair share of taxes by moving jobs and profits overseas. From now on, every multinational company should have to pay a basic minimum tax. And every penny should go towards lowering taxes for companies that choose to stay here and hire here.
Third, if you're an American manufacturer, you should get a bigger tax cut. If you're a high-tech manufacturer, we should double the tax deduction you get for making products here. And if you want to relocate in a community that was hit hard when a factory left town, you should get help financing a new plant, equipment, or training for new workers.

My message is simple. It's time to stop rewarding businesses that ship jobs overseas, and start rewarding companies that create jobs right here in America. Send me these tax reforms, and I'll sign them right away."

Trade:

(...)
"I will go anywhere in the world to open new markets for American products. And I will not stand by when our competitors don't play by the rules. We've brought trade cases against China at nearly twice the rate as the last administration - and it's made a difference. Over a thousand Americans are working today because we stopped a surge in Chinese tires. But we need to do more. It's not right when another country lets our movies, music, and software be pirated. It's not fair when foreign manufacturers have a leg up on ours only because they're heavily subsidized.

Tonight, I'm announcing the creation of a Trade Enforcement Unit that will be charged with investigating unfair trade practices in countries like China. There will be more inspections to prevent counterfeit or unsafe goods from crossing our borders. And this Congress should make sure that no foreign company has an advantage over American manufacturing when it comes to accessing finance or new markets like Russia. Our workers are the most productive on Earth, and if the playing field is level, I promise you - America will always win."

Job Skills and Training:

(...)
"Jackie Bray is a single mom from North Carolina who was laid off from her job as a mechanic. Then Siemens opened a gas turbine factory in Charlotte, and formed a partnership with Central Piedmont Community College. The company helped the college design courses in laser and robotics training. It paid Jackie's tuition, then hired her to help operate their plant.

I want every American looking for work to have the same opportunity as Jackie did. Join me in a national commitment to train two million Americans with skills that will lead directly to a job. My Administration has already lined up more companies that want to help. Model partnerships between businesses like Siemens and community colleges in places like Charlotte, Orlando, and Louisville are up and running. Now you need to give more community colleges the resources they need to become community career centers - places that teach people skills that local businesses are looking for right now, from data management to high-tech manufacturing.

And I want to cut through the maze of confusing training programs, so that from now on, people like Jackie have one program, one website, and one place to go for all the information and help they need. It's time to turn our unemployment system into a reemployment system that puts people to work".

Education:

(...)

"We also know that when students aren't allowed to walk away from their education, more of them walk the stage to get their diploma. So tonight, I call on every State to require that all students stay in high school until they graduate or turn eighteen.

When kids do graduate, the most daunting challenge can be the cost of college. At a time when Americans owe more in tuition debt than credit card debt, this Congress needs to stop the interest rates on student loans from doubling in July. Extend the tuition tax credit we started that saves middle-class families thousands of dollars. And give more young people the chance to earn their way through college by doubling the number of work-study jobs in the next five years.

Of course, it's not enough for us to increase student aid. We can't just keep subsidizing skyrocketing tuition; we'll run out of money. States also need to do their part, by making higher education a higher priority in their budgets. And colleges and universities have to do their part by working to keep costs down. Recently, I spoke with a group of college presidents who've done just that. Some schools re-design courses to help students finish more quickly. Some use better technology. The point is, it's possible. So let me put colleges and universities on notice: If you can't stop tuition from going up, the funding you get from taxpayers will go down. Higher education can't be a luxury - it's an economic imperative that every family in America should be able to afford."

Home Owners:

(...)

"There's never been a better time to build, especially since the construction industry was one of the hardest-hit when the housing bubble burst. Of course, construction workers weren't the only ones hurt. So were millions of innocent Americans who've seen their home values decline. And while Government can't fix the problem on its own, responsible homeowners shouldn't have to sit and wait for the housing market to hit bottom to get some relief.

That's why I'm sending this Congress a plan that gives every responsible homeowner the chance to save about $3,000 a year on their mortgage, by refinancing at historically low interest rates. No more red tape. No more runaround from the banks. A small fee on the largest financial institutions will ensure that it won't add to the deficit, and will give banks that were rescued by taxpayers a chance to repay a deficit of trust."

Taxes:

(...)

"... we need to change our tax code so that people like me, and an awful lot of Members of Congress, pay our fair share of taxes. Tax reform should follow the Buffett rule: If you make more than $1 million a year, you should not pay less than 30 percent in taxes. And my Republican friend Tom Coburn is right: Washington should stop subsidizing millionaires. In fact, if you're earning a million dollars a year, you shouldn't get special tax subsidies or deductions. On the other hand, if you make under $250,000 a year, like 98 percent of American families, your taxes shouldn't go up. You're the ones struggling with rising costs and stagnant wages. You're the ones who need relief.

Now, you can call this class warfare all you want. But asking a billionaire to pay at least as much as his secretary in taxes? Most Americans would call that common sense.

We don't begrudge financial success in this country. We admire it. When Americans talk about folks like me paying my fair share of taxes, it's not because they envy the rich. It's because they understand that when I get tax breaks I don't need and the country can't afford, it either adds to the deficit, or somebody else has to make up the difference - like a senior on a fixed income; or a student trying to get through school; or a family trying to make ends meet. That's not right. Americans know it's not right. They know that this generation's success is only possible because past generations felt a responsibility to each other, and to their country's future, and they know our way of life will only endure if we feel that same sense of shared responsibility. That's how we'll reduce our deficit. That's an America built to last."

Washington:

(...)

"I recognize that people watching tonight have differing views about taxes and debt; energy and health care. But no matter what party they belong to, I bet most Americans are thinking the same thing right now: Nothing will get done this year, or next year, or maybe even the year after that, because Washington is broken.

Can you blame them for feeling a little cynical?

The greatest blow to confidence in our economy last year didn't come from events beyond our control. It came from a debate in Washington over whether the United States would pay its bills or not. Who benefited from that fiasco?

I've talked tonight about the deficit of trust between Main Street and Wall Street. But the divide between this city and the rest of the country is at least as bad - and it seems to get worse every year.

Some of this has to do with the corrosive influence of money in politics. So together, let's take some steps to fix that. Send me a bill that bans insider trading by Members of Congress, and I will sign it tomorrow. Let's limit any elected official from owning stocks in industries they impact. Let's make sure people who bundle campaign contributions for Congress can't lobby Congress, and vice versa - an idea that has bipartisan support, at least outside of Washington.

Some of what's broken has to do with the way Congress does its business these days. A simple majority is no longer enough to get anything - even routine business - passed through the Senate. Neither party has been blameless in these tactics. Now both parties should put an end to it. For starters, I ask the Senate to pass a rule that all judicial and public service nominations receive a simple up or down vote within 90 days.
The executive branch also needs to change. Too often, it's inefficient, outdated and remote. That's why I've asked this Congress to grant me the authority to consolidate the federal bureaucracy so that our Government is leaner, quicker, and more responsive to the needs of the American people.

Finally, none of these reforms can happen unless we also lower the temperature in this town. We need to end the notion that the two parties must be locked in a perpetual campaign of mutual destruction; that politics is about clinging to rigid ideologies instead of building consensus around common sense ideas."

Veterans:

(...)

"Above all, our freedom endures because of the men and women in uniform who defend it. As they come home, we must serve them as well as they served us. That includes giving them the care and benefits they have earned - which is why we've increased annual VA spending every year I've been President. And it means enlisting our veterans in the work of rebuilding our Nation.

With the bipartisan support of this Congress, we are providing new tax credits to companies that hire vets. Michelle and Jill Biden have worked with American businesses to secure a pledge of 135,000 jobs for veterans and their families. And tonight, I'm proposing a Veterans Job Corps that will help our communities hire veterans as cops and firefighters, so that America is as strong as those who defend her."

Working together:

(...)

"One of my proudest possessions is the flag that the SEAL Team took with them on the mission to get bin Laden. On it are each of their names. Some may be Democrats. Some may be Republicans. But that doesn't matter. Just like it didn't matter that day in the Situation Room, when I sat next to Bob Gates - a man who was George Bush's defense secretary; and Hillary Clinton, a woman who ran against me for president.

All that mattered that day was the mission. No one thought about politics. No one thought about themselves. One of the young men involved in the raid later told me that he didn't deserve credit for the mission. It only succeeded, he said, because every single member of that unit did their job - the pilot who landed the helicopter that spun out of control; the translator who kept others from entering the compound; the troops who separated the women and children from the fight; the SEALs who charged up the stairs. More than that, the mission only succeeded because every member of that unit trusted each other - because you can't charge up those stairs, into darkness and danger, unless you know that there's someone behind you, watching your back.

So it is with America. Each time I look at that flag, I'm reminded that our destiny is stitched together like those fifty stars and those thirteen stripes. No one built this country on their own. This Nation is great because we built it together. This Nation is great because we worked as a team. This Nation is great because we get each other's backs. And if we hold fast to that truth, in this moment of trial, there is no challenge too great; no mission too hard. As long as we're joined in common purpose, as long as we maintain our common resolve, our journey moves forward, our future is hopeful, and the state of our Union will always be strong.

Thank you, God bless you, and may God bless the United States of America."

***

Read the President's speech in it's entirety here.

Short Shorts

2012-01-24T00:07:00.000-05:00

Florida Reps head to the polls, Ron Paul skips the sunshine.

President Obama is expected to set the tone for his reelection through delivery of the State of the Union address this evening. Expect a reach out to the middle class via his vision for college affordability.

Gabrielle Giffords calls it a day. We wish her the best.

The Supremes rule that yes, indeed a warrant is needed before law enforcement attaches a GPS to citizen's vehicle. The decision was unanimous.

Talk to Me.

Piracy Smiracy (© 2012 S. Shatsky)

2012-01-23T06:15:00.000-05:00

As reported by The Baltimore Sun, 1/20/2012:

"...the U.S. Justice Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigations ... shut down file-sharing website Megaupload and charged seven people associated with it of running an international enterprise based on Internet piracy.

Megaupload is one of the most popular Internet services that lets users transfer large documents, music, photos, and movies anonymously. The movie and music industry has accused Megaupload in the past of copyright infringement.

A New York Times report shows Megaupload, run by Kim Schmitz, also know as Kim Dotcom, of causing $500 million in damages to copyright owners and generating more than $175 million in ad revenue and selling premium subscriptions to users."

Soon after this story broke, Republican U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith who proposed the Stop Online Privacy Act aka SOPA, withdrew the bill from congressional consideration.

My guess is the Megaupload arrest spotlighted the fact that laws are currently in place to curtail copyright infringement and online piracy.

Which causes me to ask why yet another law when those in place seem to do the job?

It's simple. Laws like SOPA and the Protect IP Act (PIPA) are (were) a not so cleverly veiled attempt to shut down your voice and mine and make it look like said copyright infringement and online piracy.

And let me be the very first to recall that the Internet is a populist response to a media who has served to report but failed to question and investigate the superficial nonsense offered up by politicians--regardless of party--that curtail the rights of everyday citizens through unnecessary laws (such as SOPA and PIPA) that remain standing until the courts kick the garbage to the curb.

How very annoying to your run-of-the-mill politician when an "alternative" media points out the obvious.

Whether you frequent Red State or Daily Kos, together we must stand united on the right to be heard.

Because it's a brand new world, baby. These informational times, they are a'changing.

2012-01-20T00:43:00.001-05:00

If you see my little red rooster
Please drive him home
Ain't had no peace in the farm yard
Since my little red rooster's been gone.

Score One for Online Privacy and Rubio Backs Down

2012-01-19T00:46:00.000-05:00

Florida Senator Marco Rubio (R) jumped ship fast after website after website after website--including both Google and Wikipedia--went dark today in protest of congressional attempts to net the Net.

One "blacklist" bill was co-sponsored by no other than Rubio himself.

Rubio--sensing the anti-censorship sharks circling his political boat--issued the following disclaimer via Facebook.

(...)

On the Senate side, I have been a co-sponsor of the PROTECT IP Act because I believe it’s important to protect American ingenuity, ideas and jobs from being stolen through Internet piracy, much of it occurring overseas through rogue websites in China. As a senator from Florida, a state with a large presence of artists, creators and businesses connected to the creation of intellectual property, I have a strong interest in stopping online piracy that costs Florida jobs.

However, we must do this while simultaneously promoting an open, dynamic Internet environment that is ripe for innovation and promotes new technologies.

In other words. Man overboard.

Rubio's bill would essentially create a blacklist of potentially millions of websites that may or may not be engaged in copyright infringement regarding movies, television, and music. Think YouTube.

FYI. Supporters of the Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect IP Act (aka SOPA and PIPA) include the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Motion Picture Association of America, the Walt Disney Company and the Motion Picture Association of America, to name a few of the companies standing in support with politicians now finding themselves in deep censorship waters without a life boat.

Find out how you can help turn the tide via the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

(...)

January 18th is just the beginning. We’re also gearing up for a day of action on January 23rd when the Senate will be back in session and getting ready to vote on the Protect-IP Act, SOPA’s sister bill. We’re calling on digital activists and Internet users everywhere to call Senators on the 24th and voice their opposition to this censorship legislation. Despite the chorus of opposition from human rights advocates and the tech community, Senators are still trying to push through this dangerous censorship bill. We need all hands on deck to make sure that doesn’t happen.

All hands on deck.

Short Shorts

2012-01-18T06:28:00.000-05:00

At the seque, WTKS-FM Real Radio 104.1 Orlando radio celebs Jim Philips and Soul Brother Kevin tossed back and forth the topic of a National ID card. Is this conversation back and why? Mother Jones says, 'eh maybe not such a bad idea.

(...)

"...But here's the thing: we already do this for most people. Most of us already have picture IDs in the form of driver licenses. And nearly all of us have a permanent ID number in the form of a Social Security number. So like it or not, if you're worried about having tons of information about yourself collected into computerized databases — well, that ship sailed a long time ago. It's already happened."

Read more from Kevin Drum's The Friendly Future of a National ID Card here.

***

Facebook Status of the Week

"It is getting so boring how so many people are complaining and moaning about the economy, about money, about this and that, yada yadda yadda. As long as your brain is fully operational you have the ability to create whatever world you want. So stop taking the lazy route of blaming everything and everyone for your situation and get off your (buns) and do something about it. Your life is your responsibility not anyone elses."

-- Happiness Is Not an Illusion, John Fahey, Author

***

Off to work. Busy day.

Talk to Me.

Zappos Zapped

2012-01-17T00:40:00.000-05:00

Those who love shoes love Zappos.

As do hackers.

The online merchandiser found itself the target of thieves who cracked the customer database and made off with enough information to make a customer's life miserable.

(...)

Zappos customers should be on high alert for "phishing" e-mail crafted to lure them into divulging sensitive information, such as a Social Security number, or to clicking on a seemingly trustworthy Web link that actually installs a virus.

And they should be aware that the hackers are likely to attempt to use their Zappos account e-mail and password to access their other online accounts.

Zappos has contacted and advised 24 million customers to create new passwords.

Might want to update the virus protection as well.

Curtains for Credit

2012-01-16T00:51:00.002-05:00

I'm more of a Dave Ramsey fan than Suze Orman.

Yet, a comment made by the personal financial advisor during a Press Pass interview with David Gregory rang true to me.

"...The middle class has disappeared. Today as I sit here, there is a highway into poverty. There's not even a sidewalk any more to get out. Once you find ... you lost your house, you lost your car, you don't have any money left, you can't find a job, you are stuck there. If you look at the face of who's in there, it's the face of middle class."

Orman also discussed the future of credit scoring through her introduction of the Approved Card, a prepaid debit card that would be the first to report back to the credit bureau TransUnion with the ultimate goal to create a FICO score for people who pay cash instead of credit.

If the middle class grabs hold of this out-of-the-box idea, using other people's cash for purchases could prove a thing of the past.

Find out more about the Approved Card here.

Weekend Zen

2012-01-13T01:17:00.000-05:00

One more cup of coffee for the road,
One more cup of coffee 'fore I go
To the valley below

Bob Dylan. One More Cup of Coffee.

Out of the Hunt

2012-01-11T01:38:00.003-05:00

Like many Democrats, I can't figure out why more voters who lean right don't stand in support of Jon Huntsman, especially after reading his recent op ed, Wall Street's Big Banks Are the Real Threat to our Economy.

(...)

As president, I will break up the big banks, end future taxpayer bailouts, and restore capitalist principles – competition and creative destruction – to our financial sector.

We will accomplish this by imposing a fee on banks whose size exceeds a certain percentage of GDP, proving them an incentive to slim down and localize.

Many of us can recall an earlier time when we had community banks that were actually a part of the community, instead of a faceless Wall Street entity. They sponsored our kids' baseball teams. You knew the president on a first name basis. Your small business or farm's credit was based as much on your reputation and character as your FICO score.

We need banks that are closer to our communities that, if mismanaged, are small and simple enough to fail – not financial public utilities.

The federal government cannot afford to wait until the next financial crisis is upon us to act, which will be too late and cost taxpayers too much.

Whether it is ending Too-Big-To-Fail, reforming the corrupted culture of Congress, or eliminating special interest preferences in our tax code, we need a president who is not indebted to the power brokers in Washington or on Wall Street.

My guess is the last paragraph of the above citation isn't quite the Huntsman fundraising magnet, but more than that, any Republican who worked for a sitting Democratic president pushes one point home.

Huntsman is his own man.

Bringing me back to ask the original question.

Why aren't more Republicans supporting this guy?

Talk to Me.

Grade "A" Bucks

2012-01-10T00:58:00.000-05:00

The Florida Department of Education has been holding out on Florida teachers employed at "A" schools.

Instead of releasing School Recognition Funds prior to the holidays as in years past, the DOE held on tight to more than $100 million in bonus money to schools. Reasoning?

Might not be enough cash to go around.

(...)

Last school year, the state Department of Education handed out the school recognition money in two phases, giving non-high schools their bonus money in September 2010 after their grades were released, then later doling out high schools' money in January 2011, since their grades came out later.

But this year, the state decided to delay payments to elementary and middle schools pending the release of high school grades. The decision was made at least in part out of concerns that the pot of money for the Florida School Recognition program - set at $129,914,030 this year - might not be sufficient, especially as the number of A schools in the state has risen.

Makes a girl want to toss her teacher contract to the wind and embrace state-financed merit pay. (Not).

Looks like February before the bucks roll in.

Read it and weep here.

Penny for Your Slots

2012-01-09T01:48:00.001-05:00

FLORIDA TODAY asked community contributors to weigh in on a casino gambling bill which would increase regulation of gaming in Florida communities where voters give the go-ahead.

Read what seven contributors (including myself) had to say here.

What I found especially refreshing is the offered insights didn't necessarily match the professed political ideology of several commentators.

What's good for Florida--especially beleaguered Brevard County--might cause us all to try on the definition of progressive I offered some time back to a Tennessee Gannett newspaper reader--

Progressives put "We, the People" first, before profits and special interests, and believe the common good is necessary for individual well-being. Progressives meet life's challenges cooperatively, democratically, holistically and nonviolently with solutions that maximize liberty, imagination, leadership, justice, sustainability and respect for all.

Meaning, roll up your sleeves and let's work together to bring Brevard back to her former glory.

Is Nevada-style casino gambling the right or wrong way to go? My guess is many of the area unemployed will gladly pull the lever (fingers crossed) in hopes of rolling of a triple Yes! Yes! yes! Yes!

Talk to Me.

One Cup for the Road

2012-01-06T12:56:00.000-05:00

My excuse to travel to Savannah over winter break was to replace a broken souvenir coffee cup purchased from Paula Deen's restaurant, The Lady and Sons.

Yet, only I would arrive home to break both the replacement and the extra cup. (Heavy sigh).

As I wait for a return call from the retail store to reorder (with a request to go heavy on the bubble wrap) as The Lady herself would say...

...Happy New Year, y'all!

I'm back to regular posting next week.

(And honestly, does anyone need an excuse to travel to Savannah?)

Christmas Zen

2011-12-23T00:29:00.000-05:00

There's no place like home for the holidays. On that note, I'm heading out to spend much needed quality time with my family.

May your Christmas be wonderful and your New Year be everything you hope.

As always, thank you for reading and being a part of Talk to Me.

Enjoy this bit of Christmas Zen.

***

I really do believe in you,
Let's see if you believe in me.

Eartha Kitt. Santa Baby.

Jeb ... Twice in One Week

2011-12-21T06:44:00.001-05:00

It's all rainbow and roses and whiskers on kittens for me and those who work for Brevard Public Schools as we head into a well-deserved break.

While I'm out shopping, check out the feelers the Orlando Sentinel has tossed in the water.

Yep. After penning his Wall Street Journal op-ed, the spin has thrown the Jeb Bush name back into the GOP Presidential candidate pool.

FYI. The man's not running.

And he won't run in 2016. The man has way too much baggage that Florida bloggers and media would love to splash nationwide, but it's more than that.

Jeb's a behind the scenes guy. He's the new Dick Cheney. And what Jeb Cheney wants is Marco Rubio to run for the Big Chair in 2016.

Why not run Marco now?

Jeb shares similar views with President Obama in regards to education, so that little ship he doesn't wish to capsize.

And Jeb also knows what most Reps don't seem to quite fathom.

President Obama will be reelected in 2012.

Booyah.

Talk to Me.

Jeb on the Right to Rise

2011-12-20T00:45:00.000-05:00

Former Florida governor Jeb Bush waxed rhapsodic about the "right to rise" to economic freedom for the Wall Street Journal, 12/19/2011.

The underlying theme of less business regulation nearly jumped off the page to strangle the reader with poor me; however, Mr. Bush reassures his thoughts are not merely for himself, but for all, for anyone one of us who aspire to "entrepreneurial capitalism".

(...)

We have to make it easier for people to do the things that allow them to rise. We have to let them compete. We need to let people fight for business. We need to let people take risks. We need to let people fail. We need to let people suffer the consequences of bad decisions. And we need to let people enjoy the fruits of good decisions, even good luck.

We need to let people fail. We need to let people suffer the consequences of bad decisions. Interesting choice of words, considering so many can't get hired much less start up a business because of a "bad decision" lurking in a background or credit check.

Which takes us back to what I blogged last week.

Poor decisions made at 14 years of age have many adults working at jobs meant for 14-year-olds. These people have been so squashed by life that the right to rise has more to do with bread dough or the time the alarm blares than the quest for economic freedom Jeb would have us believe is possible for every American.

Mr. Bush and his thesis prove yet again, that those born with silver spoons have no idea how to polish the silver.

Read for yourself here.

Working Minors Need Protection

2011-12-19T21:01:00.008-05:00

Tony Bellenti, Tampa newsboy, age 4

***

FLORIDA TODAY Monday Debate (12/12/2011)

Should child labor laws be rolled back?

George Greentree worked for his brother selling newspapers. The two hit the Jacksonville streets before 6 every morning, often working until midnight.

At age 6, George and his 12-year-old sibling boss earned $1 a day to help provide for the family,
In Tampa, the Bellenti boys — Crosoria, 10, Joe, 9 and Sam, 7 — worked similar hours for similar pay, but boasted an irresistible member of their sales team guaranteed to bring in a few extra cents.

Four-year-old brother Tony was the youngest newsboy in Florida.

Back in the early 1900s, these boys worked instead of attending school, ironic in the sense they couldn’t read the headlines of the papers pitched.

Popular opinion of the time downplayed the illiteracy of working youth. The positive spin suggested the employment of children not only benefited their poor families, but helped keep the kids off the streets and out of trouble.

Yet, the newsies soon would become the news, thanks to the photographs of Lewis W. Hine.

From 1908-1912, the former teacher traveled the country to discover children as young as 3 working long hours in unsafe conditions in places far worse than slinging the news on the streets. His photographs gave these premature workers a face and a voice that ignited child labor reform.

GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich recently referred to current child labor laws as stupid. Such a derisive statement should prompt anyone who cares about kids to review the Hine photographs archived by the Library of Congress and think long and hard about what child labor law rolled back could look like.

Not a pretty picture.

In fact, the Gingrich photo opportunity should prompt every state to review and strengthen current child labor law beyond federal minimum requirements, particularly so in the governance of agriculture. Florida has taken such steps to better serve and protect working minors while encouraging them to remain in school.

Interestingly enough, state law sets the minimum age of newspaper delivery workers at 10.

More than 100 years too late for George, Joe, Sam and Tony.

***

Mark Clancey · Cocoa Beach Realtor at Cocoa Beach Realty, Inc.It was already late, after 6:30, and the thought of customers calling the switchboard to report their Sunday morning newspaper as undelivered filled my head as I pointed my bike down Calle Bienvenidos, one of the steepest streets in San Clemente, CA.

Thanksgiving fliers made this week's paper so massive that I would have to make two, maybe even three round trips down the feared incline with my bike overloaded with newspaper sacks on both the front and rear racks. Parked cars whizzed by on the infamous grade as I began to apply my single rear brake.

The Orange County Register had been so pleased with the service I provided on my first route that the local paperboy manager persuaded me, my parents and the newspaper to give me a second one, making mine the largest in the south county. It had been a big challenge that, so far, I guess I had met. But this was the true test – Sunday delivery over a holiday weekend.

My mind snapped back to the immediate reality at hand as the bike first wobbled then shook as I approached the base of the hill doing, probably, 40 MPH just as the sweeping, hairpin turn came up to meet us. My meticulous weight distribution back in the garage as my family slept mattered for nothing now as my trusted Schwinn warned me of impending doom, then went down.

By the time I gathered myself and the scattered newspapers, and pushed my bloodied body and twisted bicycle back up the mountainous hill, there was no way I was going to get the more than 100 homes delivered before a flood of calls would get me fired. I had no choice but to wake my dad and ask him to drive me.

From that day forward for almost two years, I would wake up on Sunday mornings, fold my papers, pack them in the family station wagon, catch a catnap as the noisy coffee pot brewed, and then wake up my dad. He would always come home after our deliveries and go back to bed.

Twenty years later when my dad passed away, the pastor asked my mother and siblings to recall some of our fondest memories of him. For me, there was one overwhelming image of a man so dedicated to his family and his youngest son-paperboy that he actually looked forward to our early Sunday outings together.

If progressivism had ruled in the '60's, as it does now, I would have been denied a lifelong lesson of love and generosity from a man who is with me as I open my Sunday FLORIDA TODAY.

***

Talk Shatsky

Browse the 5000 plus child labor photographs as documented by Lewis W. Hine by following this link--

http://www.lewishinephotographs.com/

***

Talk Shatsky

Thanks for sharing your story. Great writing What was your age when you began delivering the paper?
My guess is you were not four years of age.

***

Mark Clancey · Cocoa Beach Realtor at Cocoa Beach Realty, Inc.

I was 3 1/2 and had a killer tricycle. Relax Sheree, nobody's talking about employing toddlers in the U.S. workplace. The rhetoric on this topic is a little too much. But I do thank you for the kind comment. Best wishes for a Merry Christmas.

Reply ·
· Monday at 6:15pm

***

Karen Berman · Top Commenter

As I said on the other opinion article regarding this --- things have changed. You can't do now what you did 20 years ago. Those jobs for kids are gone. In addition to the fact that it's just not safe anymore. Colleges don't care how many paid jobs the kid has -- they look at volunteer hours, service hours, extra curricular activities. Heck, my 11th grader is so swamped with homework in her 3 AP classes that doesn't even have time to spend with family during the week. Yes, lets just be like Africa and other 3rd world countries and grab onto child slavery. NOT!!

· Monday at 4:46pm

41-23

2011-12-19T06:27:00.000-05:00

Without question, a New England friend of mine now living and working out West gets my vote for Best Post-Game commentary.

It's a fun day to be a Pats fan in Colorado.

The Patriots clobbered the Broncos 41-23, taking Denver quarterback Tim Tebow to his much talk-about knees.

Was the defeat foretold?

Put on your best game face and enjoy this skit from SNL.

Can't view the link? Watch here.

Weekend Zen

2011-12-16T00:44:00.000-05:00

And every stranger's face I see
Reminds me that I long to be
Homeward bound.

Simon and Garfunkel. Homeward Bound.

Read of the Week: What Do Low Income Communities Need?

2011-12-15T00:50:00.001-05:00

Megan McCardle of The Atlantic opines that the provision of jobs doesn't take the poor out of poor.

The thought is a middle class value.

(...)

Welfare reform, by pushing mothers into work, produced real if modest improvements in most measures of average well-being. But as Jason De Parle (author, American Dream) documents, it didn't make them act like middle class parents. They were still single mothers with a lot of kids and no very helpful men available, and their kids did not start going to school more--in fact, more work hours meant the kids were less carefully supervised, and the daughter of one of the three women he followed got pregnant at 17, continuing a major portion of the "cycle" that welfare reform was supposed to break.

If poor people did the stuff that middle class people do, it's possible--maybe probable--that they wouldn't be poor. But this is much harder than it sounds. As John Scalzi once memorably put it, "Being poor is having to live with choices you didn't know you made when you were 14 years old." Which often means, he might have added, spending your whole life doing the sort of jobs that middle class people sometimes do when they're 14."

That friends, is one profound statement, to think that actions taken before reasoning is fully developed can effect one's social and financial standing for life.

Read McCardle's What Do Low Income Communities Need? in entirety here.

Short Shorts

2011-12-14T00:59:00.000-05:00

Child homelessness is up, but how far depends on just who is counting.

National Center on Family Homelessness indicates "one in 45 children in the USA — 1.6 million children — were living on the street, in homeless shelters or motels, or doubled up with other families last year."

HUD counts only those families on the street or living in shelters. Although a narrower standard, the stats cited by the feds are still way too high: 28% increase in homeless families, from 131,000 in 2007 to 168,000 in 2010.

States who treat homeless kids best? Vermont, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota and Maine.

***

FYI. Families making a move to North Dakota won't likely be homeless for long . Unemployment is at 3%, thanks to jobs created by the current oil boom predicted to make the state the third largest oil producer in the country within the year.

Take a look at what employment opportunities may await you at ND Oil (and Wind) Jobs here.

***

Wrapping up my week on labor, check out the HBO documentary Triangle: Remembering the Fire.

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City’s Greenwich Village claimed the lives of 146 workers--122 of them women and children--all who either burned to death or leaped eight stories to their deaths March 25, 1911.

No detail is left unexamined. As reported by the New York Times, "...the exit door kept locked to prevent theft; the ladders that reached only the sixth floor; the elevator operator who kept returning, through the flames, to the ninth floor, until his car was halted by the weight of the bodies that had fallen into the shaft and onto its roof. But it’s the images of corpses stacked on the Greenwich Village sidewalks where they fell, as a crowd of thousands helplessly watched, that get to you, as dreadful now as they were a century ago, when they inspired a wave of workplace reform in New York State."

The laws of that that time did not require the installation of a fire sprinkler system that might have extinguished or at the very least controlled the fire long enough to allow the workers a chance to escape the building.

Check out the short short here.

The Photography of Lewis W. Hine

2011-12-13T06:35:00.000-05:00

When writing my half of the FT Monday Debate, I often wish online resources could be embedded within the column.

Talk to Me allows me to do so, post-Monday.

The topic--Should child labor law be rolled back?--was a hot one in the early 1900's following the publication of the photographs of Lewis W. Hine. The former teacher photographed kids on the job for the U.S. government from 1904-1924.

The ignited reform of the laws supposedly in place at that time to protect children and working conditions on the job was due to the public reaction to the resulting 5000 plus photographs. Read more about Lewis Hine here.

Click here to view the photographs and read his underlying notes. A search on "Florida" or your own home state will bring up a catalog of regional work.

Also, refer to Florida law regarding Child Labor Law here. The state is very clear on guidelines for those who employ youth age 14-17; however, youth may apply to the state for exemptions.

What is the most violated child labor law in the Sunshine State?

Breaks for working minors. Section 450.081.(4), Florida Statutes, provides that minors cannot work more than four (4) continuous hours without a 30 minute uninterrupted break.

Talk to Me.

School Choice

2011-12-12T06:25:00.002-05:00

I am big believer in school choice for parents.

Not every child fits squarely into the peg of their neighborhood school.

Yet, in these lean financial times, should choice schools and out-of-area requests to attend a school other than the assigned district school be limited?

FLORIDA TODAY ran an excellent article Sunday, 12/11/2011 edition asking exploring this very question.

Does Brevard offer too many choices?

And what is the impact of those choices on the neighborhood school?

One quote stood out for me.

“Why would any regular public school be closed before any of the choice schools are closed?” asked Dawn Fearon, a parent at Sea Park Elementary, at a recent school board meeting. “Cut the fat first, choice schools are a luxury supported by the tax dollars.”

The Brevard School Board had considered closing Sea Park earlier this year.

What do you think?

Talk to Me.

Weekend Zen

2011-12-09T00:47:00.003-05:00

All my life's a circle;
Sunrise and sundown;
Moon rolls thru the nighttime;
Till the daybreak comes around.

All my life's a circle;
But I can't tell you why;
Season's spinning round again;
The years keep rollin' by.

Hartley Wormhood / Nick D'Alessandro / Lucille Vienyough / Dick Barron

All My Life's a Circle.

Great Scott!

2011-12-08T06:31:00.001-05:00

Life has come hard at myself and my family of late.

As a result, my focus here at Talk to Me has been otherwise diverted. Look for a return to regular posting next week.

That being said, my attention did catch that Guv. Rick Scott is attempting to pitch a life preserver in the form of $1 billion dollars to state schools, a fine fair thee well considering even legislators are referring to the dollars as "essentially level funding".

The Guv plans to rob those bucks from the poor, specifically "$1.16 billion decrease in money for road-building" and "$1.8 billion (from Medicaid) most of which would come from changing how much hospitals are paid to treat patients."

While Scott governs his fantasy personal agenda, state schools remain seriously understaffed. And Florida kids are paying the price for the governor's obsessive frugality.

No wonder the guy's popularity has dropped to 26%.

Talk to Me.

Child Labor

2011-12-07T06:30:00.002-05:00

The subject of my upcoming Monday Debate with fellow community columnist Marshall Frank--

Should child labor laws be rolled back?

We will kick it around on December 12th.

***

“It is tragic what we do in the poorest neighborhoods, entrapping children in child laws which are truly stupid…These schools should get rid of unionized janitors, have one master janitor, pay local students to take care of the school.”

~Newt Gingrich, advocating for an end to child labor laws so businesses can fire union workers and replace them with cheap labor.

Read 18 equally inspiring Gingrich quotes here.

Weekend Zen

2011-12-02T21:22:00.001-05:00

Our house is a very, very, very fine house
With two cats in the yard
Life used to be so hard
Now everything is easy
'Cause of you.

Crosby Stills Nash & Young. Our House.

In Search of a Few Good Comments

2011-12-01T00:54:00.000-05:00

FLORIDATODAY.com will institute a major overhaul next week regarding online commentary offered by readers. Beginning December 5th, commenters must log-in via Facebook to express viewpoints.

The Home Team crowd did not go wild. (Read what is fast becoming the last of commentary as presently known here).

FT is not the first online news website to make the switch. ConnectAmarillo.com recently made the move as well in the search for more productive conversation. A possible drop in the level of online participation didn't appear to be much of a concern. "...if we end up getting fewer comments, but more of those we do get are thoughtful, relevant and respectful to the views of others and consistent with the values of our community, we are OK with that."

ConnectAmarillo further reported that. ... "...websites that have adopted the Facebook commenting platform have noticed a significantly reduced backlog of off-color comments and “trolls.” The priority of the paper is to welcome all opinions by real people "...willing to stand behind their point of view, rather than hide behind a cloak of anonymity."

In other words, it's time to own your comments.

TechCrunch agreed, indicating though hundreds of comments were posted prior to switching to Facebook, "...roughly half of the comments were more or less useless." Yet, the prime motivation for the switch was "...about making all aspects of our site useful to readers. And killing trolls."

It was just a matter of time.

But it's more than short-sheeting those with a talent for the snark. Facebook is a 100% free platform to connect worldwide. For newspapers struggling to find foothold in a 24/7 high tech brave new world to choose not to integrate within a ready made international audience holding discussion in real time about the events of the day well, that would be plain dumb.

I'm Sheree Shatsky. And I stand behind that comment.

Ferretting Out Affordable Housing

2011-11-29T00:02:00.002-05:00

The ferret scooted around the corner, leaving his pal the rabbit caged in the bedroom, the tiled floor ripe with what unsupervised ferrets leave behind from their behind without the benefit of a litter pan.

The owner and soon-to-be-booted tenant had left the creatures on their own, enclosed in the apartment, walls Sharpied with depictions of mythical mushrooms, a bulbous jellyfish with comic eyes and various random thoughts on how tough life can be. My gaze followed the trail of ink to a blown glass object left on the dirty stove top, which upon close inspection revealed itself as the type of item purchased at a shop apt to feature mythical mushrooms, a bulbous jellyfish with comic eyes and various random thoughts screaming black light vivid how tough life can be, instead of merely pale filthy.

Comic relief kicked in as a car screeched to a stop outside this 'shroom of a place, emptying out a purple-haired young woman inked with a tattooed sleeve just about the moment prospective renters slammed the door shut on one confused ferret bent on escape.

This is what low-rent looks like.

Yet, I saw the potential beneath all the drama. As did those who saw the apartment before us, signing a lease on what could be a charming place.

I've learned quite a bit about low-cost housing this past week, specifically that the Section 8 waiting list for Brevard County residents is closed and that the wicked stepsister otherwise known as"sliding scale" HUD housing isn't a place one would want a ferret to live.

Above all else, I discovered suitable housing offered to those living on a dime is as few and far between as the private individuals who provide the decent digs.

For those of us who advocate for others, never give up. These landlords are out there, somewhere past the toadstools.

I know, because I found one.

Fingers crossed, last week's young lady in need may soon have a place of her own, all due to the caring compassion of private individuals.

Thank you.

Thanksgiving Zen

2011-11-23T00:46:00.008-05:00

I'm out and about, enjoying the holiday.

Safe travels to those visiting family and friends.

Until next week.

Happy Thanksgiving.

***

I like bread and butter.

The Newbeats. Bread and Butter. 1964.

I can mash-potato (I can mash-potato)
And I can do the twist (I can do the twist).

The Contours. Do You Love Me?

Cause two out of three ain't bad.

Meatloaf. Two Out of Three Ain't Bad.

I’m gonna be ’round my vegetables.
I’m gonna chow down my vegetables.
I love you most of all, my favorite vegetables.
If you brought a big brown bag of them home, I’d jump up and down and hope you’d toss me a carrot—

Brian Wilson. Vega-Tables.

Oh, and there we were all in one place,
A generation lost in space
With no time left to start again.

Don McLean. American Pie. 1972.

Drumsticks

2011-11-22T00:29:00.004-05:00

The court is still out after hearing the state defend the requirement that Florida state employees pay 3% of their salaries toward retirement costs.

But if commentary made by Circuit Judge Jackie Fulford during the October 26th proceedings is any evidence of how she might rule, the law will be declared unconstitutional. "He's paying more and getting less," Fulford said about the projections of the impact of the law. "You're punishing him for coming to work."

The suit filed by the FEA and other state and government unions also addresses the elimination of cost-of-living adjustments for future retirees.

Fulford has given no indication of when she might rule; regardless, the judicial decision will likely move forward to be heard by the Florida Supreme Court.

***

The UC Davis video of passive students seated at the wrong end of pepper spray has gone viral.

Several campus police officers were placed on leave as a result of the incident. Eleven students were treated and two hospitalized due to the effects of the spray.

Watch the video here.

***

The Super Committee did not consider itself too big to fail because fail they did by not reaching an agreement in terms to reduce the federal debt by $1.2 trillion over ten years.

The concession triggers automatic cuts in military and domestic programs beginning 2013.

President Obama will veto any legislation that attempts to circumvent the cuts. “There will be no easy off-ramps on this one,” Mr. Obama said.

Read the possible impact on payroll taxes and unemployment benefits here.

***

Dallas remembers the assassination of John F. Kennedy, forty-eight years ago today.

"The President of the United States had just been shot, twice, while riding in a presidential motorcade in Dallas."

Step back in time here.

Charity Doesn't Ring True for the Middle Class

2011-11-21T00:04:00.002-05:00

Middle Class America is not given to handouts.

Yet in these tough economic times, many who once considered social agencies providers for the poorest among us have foregone pride to reach out for help themselves.

I spent several days last week researching and advocating for funds to assist a young lady in need of dollars to make the rent.

What I found is most agencies sheltered under the United Way umbrella sent a clear distinct message--Middle Class America is expected to care for its own. Those down on their luck who a) are not on the streets or in a shelter or b) have not lost their home due to a disaster are pretty much out of luck.

Several agency representatives asked me if the young lady could live with family members and save dollars for rent. Others debated the definition of homelessness. Call local churches was advice offered more than once. One agency offered to help with partial assistance, but upon learning the recipient was housed in a motel, quickly reneged, indicating difficulties working with the managers at this particular establishment.

The Salvation Army provided a particularly disappointing response. Although rental assistance is listed on the local United Way website, apparently, that's not what "assistance" really means. If a family is short in the rent or needs financial help with utilities, the S.A. is more than happy to help, which sounded perfect for the young lady caught between a rent due date and a first paycheck date a couple of weeks off, but according to the spokesperson, no, not really. When I questioned her rationale, the answer received was an irritated, "The Salvation Army just doesn't do that." (Perhaps the next bell ringer I pass by this holiday season can provide me with a better answer).

One charitable organization remains in the mix and my hope is all hopes will not be dashed.

This is what I do know.

Middle Class America is hurting. And asking for assistance hurts double.

As a long time contributor to the Salvation Army and the United Way, I'm sadly disappointed in the lack of response.

I expected better.

Paraguay

2011-11-14T00:02:00.001-05:00

A bruise resembling Paraguay outlines my upper right foot, a paw print from The Millie Girl that serves to remind that being human is sometimes inhumane.

A week or so before my foot became a map, my pinkie finger found itself wrapped around the Girl's leash and has never quite straightened out to the previous length, now sporting a knot just below and to the left of the knuckle.

If that's not enough, over the last few days, I've pulled a muscle in my shoulder painful enough to lose a day's work while also enduring two "shoe wounds", raw horizontal lines branded on the back of my heels from walking in bad shoes in a hurry to get somewhere fast.

With a mind always swirling here and there, my guess is I haven't been paying careful attention.

I'm taking the week off to relax, to clear my head and to spend Saturday south in enjoyment of the Miami Book Fair, a wonderfully warm tropical salve to soothe that what ails.

And I may finish reading BUtterfield 8.

Look for me next week.

See ya.

Weekend Zen

2011-11-11T00:48:00.001-05:00

Up in the mornin' and out to school
The teacher is teachin' the Golden Rule
American history and practical math
You study' em hard and hopin' to pass
Workin' your fingers right down to the bone
And the guy behind you won't leave you alone

Ring ring goes the bell.

Chuck Berry. School Days.

Health Care Constitutional--Again

2011-11-09T00:23:00.000-05:00

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has ruled health care constitutional.

Reagan appointee and "icon of the conservative movement" Judge Laurence Silberman wrote the majority opinion upholding federal health care law that will require Americans carry individual health insurance beginning 2014.

(...)

"The right to be free from federal regulation is not absolute, and yields to the imperative that Congress be free to forge national solutions to national problems, no matter how local—or seemingly passive—their individual origins..."

The Supreme Court will decide in the next few days whether to hear a challenge to the health care law in the current term. If so, a decision could be rendered by June 2012.

At this date, only a single court ruling has determined the individual health care mandate unconstitutional.

It's All Local

2011-11-08T00:16:00.004-05:00

Once in awhile, a FLORIDA TODAY reader will email me a news happening not covered by the paper or covered, but not to the reader's satisfaction.

The latest such Reader Report voiced dismay over the lack of FT coverage of an alleged murder that took place in Titusville just this past week and apparently, the 4th such murder in the area this year.

I googled "Titusville murders" and found coverage of a double murder that occurred up that way, back in May 2011.

The Orlando Sentinel filed that story, which certainly helps to make the reader's point.

Leading me to pitch the idea of a stand-alone citizen-journalism site. As noted by Poynter.org (The Eleven Layers of Citizen Journalism) such sites can be edited or unedited to concentrate mostly on local news coverage by citizens.

(...)

An advantage of sites like this is that citizens can cover issues and events that local mainstream media ignore. If you as a community member think that your fellow citizens should know about a stop sign that was knocked down and the county government won’t fix, then this is an outlet to publicize news that’s not big enough to get on the radar screen of the local newspaper or TV news outlets. Citizens likewise have a way to publicize big stories that local media outlets are avoiding.

An example of an edited site can be found at iBrattleboro.com Online News and Information, a bit bland for my taste, but certainly informative. The FLORIDA TODAY online Forums are an example of an unedited site gone wild. Giving credit where credit is due, Local News is a provided Forum hangout to spill citizen news, particularly breaking news like the Titusville story reported to me.

Until an iBrevard site becomes a reality, the online edition of any newspaper is an opportunity to make your voice heard, whether as a commentator, a contributor of news items or as an opinionated blogger. :)

As pointed out in the Poynter.org column, Got a complaint about the local press? Go around them.

Report the news you seek.

Brevard School Closings

2011-11-07T00:26:00.000-05:00

When Old Dixie Elementary School opened the doors to Titusville students in the 1960s, the very last thought on anyone's mind was the permanent closing of those same doors.

But slam shut they did.

Old Dixie's bell rang for the last time in 1977. Reason? Decrease in student enrollment.

Times were similar. The Apollo layoffs were in full swing, families were forced to sell homes, leave Brevard and start over somewhere else.

My guess is the families who remained in the Titusville area reacted much the same way as those presently lobbying to keep several Brevard Public Schools from the same fate as Old Dixie.

Yet, when the first symptoms of financial belt-tightening by the Brevard School Board became evident, the taxpayer fingers pointed at a top-heavy county administrative staff and teachers who were paid way too much for what some like to refer to as a part-time job.

But after several years of cutbacks that have left county offices and public schools seriously understaffed, parents seem alarmed, almost surprised that this nasty business has suddenly become personal. Hey, wait a minute. Our school can't be closed.

Parents realize that schools are so much more than educational centers. Schools are a community within the community.

And closing a school is symptomatic of something gone terribly wrong.

Time to point the finger toward Tallahassee.

The Florida Legislature has not upheld its state constitutional duty to adequately fund Florida schools.

And because of such malfeasance, it's no longer the teachers and the custodians and the cafeteria workers and the clerks and the support staff and the administrators feeling the pain.

It's our kids.

Talk to Me.

Andy Rooney

2011-11-05T08:37:00.002-05:00

"Death is a distant rumor to the young."

--Andy Rooney

RIP.

Weekend Zen

2011-11-04T00:24:00.001-05:00

Under the bridge downtown
I gave my life away.

Red Hot Chili Peppers. Under the Bridge.

Investing in Florida Infrastructure

2011-11-03T00:47:00.005-05:00

Driving through Jacksonville a few years back required nerves of steel, quick reaction time and fingernails to chew past the Modis Building.

But once the I-10/I-95 interchange reconstruction was complete, I could actually cast an admiring glance toward the skyscraper without fear of collision while driving past.

The "Big I" project is an example of investment in America's transportation infrastructure.

Sixty-nine companies provided services that employed 470 people through the project phases which included the construction of "...17 bridges, 21 ramps, and 25 lane miles built over and around traffic moving through one of the busiest interchanges in the state."

Originally built in the 1950s, the interchange "... needed upgrading because geometric elements were well below current standards. For instance, the I-10 WB to I-95 SB turn was so sharp; traffic had to slow to 35-45 mph before making the movement. This condition is undesirable on a high speed facility because it increases the number of accidents and increases travel time and congestion."

And reduces the number of fingernails chewed down to the quick.

Lack of funding has caused many cities to delay the initiation of similar projects and forgo critical repairs and maintenance.

Fifty billion dollars is slated for investment in both infrastructure and the American worker should Congress pass the transportation piece of the American Jobs Act.

The Senate is expected to vote today.

***

The Modis Building is presently known as the Wells Fargo Center.

The Freshman 15

2011-11-02T00:10:00.008-05:00

With the news lit up over Rick Perry's animated New Hampshire speech and the wish of Herman Cain's accuser to publicly address the candidate's protests over alleged past indiscretions, the story of the week has all but been missed.

"Freshman 15 weight gain is a myth."

I'd be the first to dispute the New Facts, having held the proof in my hand: a 1976 photograph of myself during a visit to Gatlinburg, dressed in a navy blue Phi Theta Kappa tee shirt and matching gold gym shorts.

But that's wasn't all I wore.

A couple of pounds (or more) rounded out the gymnast build, effectively creating a muscular, strong, petite tank of a nineteen-year-old.

(...)

The study used data from 7,418 young people from around the country who participated in the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, Science Daily reports. Participants' weight was recorded throughout each year of college.

The study found that women gained an average of 2.4 pounds during their freshman year, while men gained an average of 3.4 pounds, according to Science Daily. No more than 10 percent of college freshman gained 15 pounds or more -- and a quarter of freshman reported actually losing weight during their first year.

Actually, my weight gain plummeted after my college boyfriend and I called it quits.

I stopped eating every time he drove through Burger King.

Which gives credence to the findings--freshman weight gain (or loss) is attributed to lifestyle changes.

If that's not bad enough, a glass of red wine a day is no longer a woman's best friend.

A single glass of alcohol daily can lead to a increased risk of breast cancer. As reported by the American Medical Association, "drinking increases the levels of estrogen in the body fueling tumor creation and growth."

Raise your glass.

Raise your risk.

Talk to Me.

Bachman's a Drag and Cain's Pain (Not what you think).

2011-11-01T00:13:00.003-05:00

We can only hope.

Is Michele Bachman dragging the tea party down with her?

--The Christian Science Monitor

"Don’t look at us – we’re not the first to raise this question. We’re just repunditing an idea from Ned Ryun, head of the tea party group American Majority.

On Thursday, Mr. Ryun posted a piece on the American Majority blog entitled, “Bachmann’s Floundering Can Damage Tea Party.” In it, he argues that since Rep. Bachmann won the Ames, Iowa straw poll her campaign has been hampered by a loss of staff, poor fundraising, and an apparent lack of direction. He anticipates that she will shift even further right in coming weeks as she competes for votes in conservative Iowa, straying from the core tea party message of fiscal responsibility.

“It’s time for Michele Bachmann to go,” wrote Ryun."

Read more parting shots here.

***

iPads, Charter Flights and Travel. Oh my!

--The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

"Herman Cain's two top campaign aides ran a private Wisconsin-based corporation that helped the GOP presidential candidate get his fledgling campaign off the ground by originally footing the bill for tens of thousands of dollars in expenses for such items as iPads, chartered flights and travel to Iowa and Las Vegas - something that might breach federal tax and campaign law, according to sources and documents.

Internal financial records obtained by No Quarter show that Prosperity USA said it was owed about $40,000 by the Cain campaign for a variety of items in February and March. Cain began taking donations for his presidential bid on Jan. 1.

Prosperity USA was owned and run by Wisconsin political operatives Mark Block and Linda Hansen, Cain's current chief of staff and deputy chief of staff, respectively.

The authenticity of the records was verified by two individuals close to the firm.

(...)

Election law experts say the transactions raise a host of questions for the private organization, which billed itself as a tax-exempt nonprofit, and the Cain team."

Read the financial records here.

***

"When you have got an elephant by the hind legs and he is trying to run away, it's best to let him run."

--Abraham Lincoln

Bank Robbery, Pure and Simple

2011-10-31T00:09:00.010-05:00

Gather round. I'll tell you a scary story.

This customer (meaning myself) pays off $30,000 in debt owed Bank of America over a seven year period.

The zero balance--it's a beautiful thing.

Expecting to see the beautiful zero balance upon review of what this customer believed to be the final statement from B of A before formally closing the account, the charge $2.22 jumps off the page as the new balance.

Customer calls Customer Service to question how zero morphs into triple twos over a thirty day period.

Answer: Residual interest.

CreditCards.com:

"Residual interest is the amount of interest that accrues between when a credit card bill is sent, and when payment is received. It applies only when you carry a balance on your credit card. Consumer advocates call it an unfair practice because unless you call your issuer and ask exactly how much it will cost to pay your bill in full on the date you expect your payment to arrive, you'll still owe interest on your next bill, regardless of whether you make any more purchases with your card."

Here's the scary part.

Imagine how much money Bank of America makes off customers through assignation of such a charge.

And imagine how easily two dollars and twenty-two cents cha-chings into $51.22 once the $49 late fee rolls over. (And over and over and over again for those customers not quite so mesmerized by the beautiful zero balance, those who don't bother to bid a final adieu to a debt long owed, choosing instead to toss the statement in the trash, with a smug that's paid in full.)

Multiply those figures by Bank of America customers in over 150 countries and you've got the answer of why people continue to Occupy Wall Street through a historic early October snow.

On Saturday, October 29th, an online payment $2.22 was paid Bank of America.

My account is officially (and forever) closed.

Hopefully.

Happy Halloween.

American Madness--Bank Rush--1932

Weekend Zen

2011-10-28T00:25:00.003-05:00

I fell into a burning ring of fire
And it burns, burns, burns
The ring of fire
The ring of fire.

Short Shorts: Undervotes, Student Loans and the CBO gets OCCUPIED

2011-10-27T00:43:00.004-05:00

Under what?

When what serves as local Talk Radio starts dishing conversation about undervoting the 2012 GOP candidate for President (whoever he or she might be) well, all I can say is that outlook certainly doesn't scream confidence.

Check out the Brevard County conservative rationale for "Just Don't Stroke" here.

(Hold your nose. The commentary is about two minutes in, just before the 30 second break).

***

How do college students spell relief? O-B-A-M-A.

Americans have gone so Dave Ramsey on credit card debt, student loan debt is the new gangster tying middle class Americans to the tracks.

But out there on the horizon, who is that hero in the distance? President Obama, utilizing executive action to relieve the costs borrowed in order to garner an education and as a result, maintain even footing in the said middle class.

Who will such action help? Well, off the top of my head, hmmm...myself, my daughter and my son, who also holds a private school loan hidden among the federal. But have no fear, grasshopper.

Tennessee Democrat Rep. Steve Cohen is working on ways holders of private school college loan debt can discharge such debt through bankruptcy, an option not currently permitted.

Read more here.

***

Ooh, there it is.

The Congressional Budget Office released figures today that concretes credence to the OCCUPY movement.

Between the years 1979-2007, income grew by 275 percent for the top 1 percent of households.

(Rim shot).

Income for the rest of us poor schlubs (sadly) looks like this:

65 percent for the next 19 percent,
Just under 40 percent for the next 60 percent, and
18 percent for the bottom 20 percent.

Pull up your Gini Index and peruse the facts behind America's income inequality here.

Talk to Me.

Thanks a Rot

2011-10-26T00:44:00.005-05:00

Alabama farmers have a bean to pick with state legislators.

After passage of the most severe immigration laws in the country, labor has simply vamoosed. Alabama's unemployed aren't beating back the strawberry bushes to replace the backbone of the state's $5.5 billion agriculture industry--the field worker.

And sweet potatoes don't dig themselves out of the earth.

(...)

"Alabamians don't want to do hard farm work."

"Two of them left in 30 minutes; didn't even tell us they [were] going to leave. ... One worked an hour and says it was too hard on his back."

"We need help doing it and we need help that's going to come back every day. The work is hard, and when local people ask ,,, about a job, they want to drive tractors, not labor in the fields."

"Without a viable labor source we can't survive. When you've got payments to make and a family to feed and a farm and land that may have been in your family for 5 generations, there's a lot on your shoulders."

Illegal and legal immigrants alike have left the state, leaving farmers facing the very real prospect of being financially plowed under.

Much like the sweet potatoes.

Read more over at NPR.

Florida Drug Testing Law Blocked

2011-10-25T00:20:00.000-05:00

I've lost count of Guv. Rick Scott's legal losses, but chalk up yet another.

A federal judge has temporarily blocked Florida's drug testing law required of welfare applicants prior to the release of benefits.

(...)

The drug test can reveal a host of private medical facts about the individual, Scriven wrote, adding that she found it "troubling" that the drug tests are not kept confidential like medical records. The results can also be shared with law enforcement officers and a drug abuse hotline.

"This potential interception of positive drug tests by law enforcement implicates a 'far more substantial' invasion of privacy than in ordinary civil drug testing cases," Scriven said.

Read more here.

The legal challenge was filed by Luis Lebron, a Navy vet and single father who applied for benefits while completing his college degree. According to TIME US, 1600 applicants joined Brody in refusing to be tested.

The Temporary Assistance For Needy Families program gives qualified applicants $180 a month for one person or $364 for a family of four. The average TANF household payment is $253-a-month and the average time receiving benefits is just under five months.

Cost of drug test to applicants: $30-$35, the cost of a bag of groceries.

Marco Rubio's Ring of Fire

2011-10-24T00:43:00.002-05:00

My grandfather spun a great story about how he once ran moonshine over the Tennessee mountains with Johnny Cash.

We kids hung on every word, but as we grew older, the story seemed to change here and there and the timeline didn't really add up, but that didn't keep us from passing the hyperbole forward as a part of our family lore.

Marco Rubio spun an equally awesome story during his run for the U.S. Senate. How his parents left Havana in 1959, fleeing Fidel Castro's communist revolution, when actually, the Rubio family left Cuba in 1956.

May 1956.

Castro returned to mount his revolution in December of that same year.

The kicker? The family moved to the States for economic opportunity. No fleeing involved.

Rubio has since indicated the factual dates were relayed to him only recently. “What’s important is that the essential facts of my family’s story are completely accurate.”

Essentially.

Meaning, somewhere in Rubio's story a man may have gone over the mountain, but with whom and with what depends on just who's telling the story.

Weekend Zen

2011-10-21T00:05:00.005-05:00

Those Were the Days My Friends (Mary Hopkins) and Give Peace a Chance (John Lennon and Yoko Ono) were two top contenders for this week's Weekend Zen.

But the choice came down to one woman's personal triumph over Corporate America.

Me paying off Bank of America.

And I feel good.

James Brown.

Occupy Melbourne

2011-10-20T00:35:00.006-05:00

As Jon Stewart dished a compare and contrast of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor's pro-Tea Party vs. anti-Occupy oratory, I made a mental note to research Cantor's birthday.

June 6, 1963.

I looked up a few other dates.

1955-1968: The Civil Rights Movement.

1960's-1980's: The Feminist Movement.

1964: The Anti-War Movement.

1960's: The Peace Movement.

Eric Cantor was a mere babe back in the day.

As a result, the GOP Representative wouldn't recognize a "movement" if it hit him square between the eyes. He simply has no experience to pull from.

What he has learned of people power is through the distorted lens of politics.

Cantor has since recanted his initial characterization of Occupy participants as "angry mobs", choosing to describe the movement as "...a growing frustration out there across the country and it is warranted. Too many people are out of work.”

What he failed to see is what many of us who date ourselves by our experience of those times do.

The Occupy Movement is a microcosm of individuals who have had enough, citizens stepping up to make their voices heard by a government who has counted them out.

It's a response to a non-response.

And it's you and me. Our parents and children. Our friends. Our co-workers and colleagues. It's political and it's apolitical.

Rep. Cantor himself occupies a place on the sidewalk somewhere, albeit at the moment, for all the wrong reasons.

All we are saying, is give the people a chance.

***

Occupy Melbourne. Friday, October 21, 2011. 5:30 PM.

At the corner of Evans Road and 192 in front of the Chase Bank.

Ratigan: Your Congress is Bought.

2011-10-19T00:03:00.000-05:00

I'm not much of a Dylan Ratigan fan, but hey, I appreciate a good hissy fit as much as the next guy (or gal).

Enjoy.

Hopes for the Holidays

2011-10-18T00:28:00.006-05:00

Unemployment claims have dropped in South Florida.

--The Miami Herald:

September saw 8 percent fewer first-time unemployment claims compared to August, and the nearly 15,500 filings marked a 25 percent drop from the prior year. Both match past trends and suggest employers have dramatically scaled back the job cutting seen at this time last year. On Friday, Florida releases its closely watched unemployment report for September, which will show whether South Florida is gaining or losing jobs at a time when economists are warning a second recession may have already begun.

That's good news for Florida and good news for retailers.

Per Florida Trend, the sale of Halloween decorations are expected to pull in a bundle. And judging from my weekend trip to Big Lots, peeking out from behind the zombie masks and witch brooms, the twinkle of holiday lights may be the true measure of this country's economic recovery.

Short Shorts: Numbers

2011-10-17T00:24:00.000-05:00

GOP Presidential hopeful Herman Cain has found out the price of being a front-runner.

Cain's 9-9-9 tax plan just isn't adding up for this country's economists.

And that includes conservative economists.

Read more here.

***

I'm debt-free! (Sort of). This past weekend I paid off the last of $30,000 owed Bank of America.

I feel good.

***

GAP is closing 189 of its U.S. stores.

But at the same time, the retailer is taking its boyfriend jeans and opening stores overseas.

Snap?

***

Indycar driver and St. Pete resident Dan Wheldon was killed Sunday, fatally injured as the result of a 15-car collision that injured several other drivers at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

The two-time Indianapolis 500 winner was 33 years old. He leaves behind a wife and two children.

RIP.

Talk to Me.

Weekend Zen

2011-10-14T00:04:00.004-05:00

Power to the people, right on.

John Lennon.

O'Bama

2011-10-13T00:47:00.002-05:00

Guess who stopped by Orlando's Harp and Celt?

The out of work construction workers that chatted with President Barack Obama over a beer at a downtown Orlando pub say they had no idea they were about to meet the president.
A photo published on the front page of the Orlando Sentinel shows Obama toasting his Guinness with four people at the Harp and Celt restaurant and pub on Magnolia Avenue after Obama attended a fundraiser at a nearby hotel Wednesday evening.

(...)

"Flabbergasted. I didn't even really know what to do at first, and there was his hand, so I shook it, and I stood up and went, 'Oh, Mr. President. Nice to meet you. It's an honor,'" one of the men said.
The group said it was the chance of a lifetime to talk to the president about what they need the most -- jobs."There's work to be done right here in Orlando and there's workers ready to do it," Obama said at his previous speaking engagement.

The group said they were impressed by Obama's manners when he paid for their beers and nachos with cash -- including a nice tip.

Sláinte.

Super Eyes Me

2011-10-12T00:52:00.001-05:00

Florida school personnel who have ever had the distinct pleasure of preparing for FTE will certainly agree that one's eyeballs feel like the tips of lit matches after a long day spent peering at a computer database.

Between that and reviewing my financial assets and liabilities later that evening, my middle class consciousness couldn't afford (no pun intended) much more aggravation.

So, I made haste of the day with an early retreat to bed, which meant missing the Republican debate held at Dartmouth, but I figured my favorite conservatives might stop by and talk to me a bit about how the whole shindig went down.

Knowing a bit about New Hampshire types, (my mother a fourteen-year-resident and Supervisor of the Checklist--a sort of local Gestapo of the state and federal electoral process--my guess is NH will swing toward next door neighbor Mitt. But again (knowing New Hampshire types) I wouldn't place my bets on possible shenanigans on primary day, particularly if the Live Free or Die primary date jumps back to Halloween.

Did note before hitting the hay that the jobs bill crashed and burned in the Senate.

Sort of like my tired eyes at the end of the day.

Talk to Me.

Occupy Wall Street's Jesse LaGreca

2011-10-11T00:19:00.001-05:00

Imagine if the Tea Party and the Occupy protesters linked arms and raised voices collectively as one?

Daily Kos blogger Jesse LaGreca explains to a FOX reporter why that scenario will never play out.

Read the transcript here.

***

"... I find that a lot of these conversations about the government tend to deflect away from Wall Street, because let's be honest. The lobbyists have enormous power, and they've shut out the voice of American people.

So I think we should demand a government that is listening to people. And I find it ironic that when people demand action from their government, so many people tend to overreact and say, "Well, that's out-of-control government."

Our government is a function of our democracy. By attacking the government, we are attacking democracy. So to me, I think, yes, we should ask our government to represent the will of the people. And if the will of the people are demanding action, then they should follow suit."

--Jesse LaGreca

This Week with Christiane Amanpour

10/9/2011

Occupy Orlando

2011-10-10T00:09:00.005-05:00

I sat cross-legged in protest of the Vietnam War as a thirteen-year-old eighth grader.

As I joined my fellow revolutionaries between classes at what was then known as Johnson Junior High, I remember thinking a) how happy I was to have worn Levis that day as my typical miniskirt would not have proved conducive to a sit-in on a brick patio and b) how fairly terrified I felt to engage in passive resistance against teachers and administrators who yielded true power over my every day existence, as in detention, suspension and a phone home to parents who (back in the day) held true boundaries defining just who was in charge on the home front.

The demonstration broke up after a couple of No More War! chants and I managed to scoot into my next class a few seconds prior to the tardy bell. My expression of protest has since been relegated to print, my words more powerful expression than a preoccupied 1960's self-proclaimed hair-parted-down-the-middle flower child scared to death of her parents and at the same time not wanting to disappoint them wannabe.

Yet, I've always held those who stand in peaceful protest in high esteem, fearless guardians serving to remind the rest of us when the societal line has indeed been crossed. That being said, the Occupy movement has caught my attention.

I do have a theory, based on my past experience as an eighth grade yippie and the years since as an adult, who hasn't worn a pair of Levis in who knows how long.

This economy is the first event to touch our young people in years. Mom and Dad can't make it right and, by God, now it's personal.

Not remotely personal in the same way as Vietnam, as when the draft reached out and quite effectively grabbed the attention of young men deemed eligible to put their life on the line of their country, like it or not.

But the Occupy movement has created movement, a movement of young people to the streets, their voices joined in protest of corporate threat to their future.

It's about time.

Read more about Occupy Orlando, October 15, 2011 on Facebook here.

Power to the People.

MONDAY DEBATE: SHOULD TAXES BE RAISED ON THE WEALTHY?

2011-10-07T20:44:00.004-05:00

YES: Rich benefited most from tax cuts

2011-10-04T00:05:00.003-05:00

When I got the call from Howard Schultz, I thought, "Finally! My idea to open a Starbucks in Downtown Melbourne is about to become a reality!"

Instead, the CEO of Coffee robocalled to invite me to become a "catalyst for change", part of bipartisan effort to get our country back on it's fiscal feet and get America back to work. (Read more over at Upward Spiral and No Labels).

Living in an area deemed by Forbes to be the worst place in the country to find a job, I signed up to hear more about this message of positive change and as a result, Howard emails me quite often with the latest updates on the citizen movement.

His most recent communication offered specifics that I felt might help those looking for work or has an idea to start a business.

(...)

Many of you have reached out and shared what you are doing to reverse America’s jobs emergency and accelerate job creation. I’d like to share with you some of what we are doing at Starbucks, and also invite you to join a new initiative that will foster job growth in many of our communities across America that need it most.

First, Starbucks is hiring approximately 200 new partners every day to support our growth plans and in response to normal attrition, equating to more than 3,500 net new jobs in 2011. In addition, in 2012 we plan to remodel 1,700 existing stores and open a net of at least 200 new stores. And within the next 18 months we plan to both expand our existing U.S. roasting and manufacturing plant capacity, and to add a fifth U.S facility. In the aggregate, we expect our FY2012 investments to contribute to more than 2,000 net new direct and indirect part and full-time jobs across the country.

Second, I am delighted to share with you an exciting initiative we are launching on November 1 -- Create Jobs for USA. Create Jobs for USA will help our country and our economy by pooling contributions from Starbucks customers and partners, and channeling 100% of the money raised into a new nationwide fund to support small business lending. Create Jobs for USA starts with the premise that we can help put Americans back to work if we first thaw frozen channels of credit in local communities, enabling small businesses to expand and hire and consumers to spend.

... Starbucks will be partnering with the Opportunity Finance Network, a nationally recognized and respected nonprofit organization to make sure that all funds raised are directed to businesses and organizations that will hire in local communities across America. The Starbucks Foundation will be seeding the fund with a $5 million contribution.

Great fortunes have been made before in poor economies. It could be you this time around.

PGP Me: Teacher Evaluations

2011-10-03T00:47:00.001-05:00

I spent a substantial amount of my weekend hammering out my Professional Goal Plan, lovingly known by all Brevard County educators as the PGP.

My guess is many of my fellow colleagues spent their own precious free and family time doing much the same as the deadline for submission (no pun intended) approaches.

The new teacher evaluation system is quite complicated minutia, but the choice being do it or do it, well, professionals do it and the best they possibly can.

Saturday afternoon, I took a break from the template with a quick run to the corner drug store to grab a bag of coconut M & M's and a box of aspirin. On the way out, I caught the headline of a FLORIDA TODAY article running down the right side of the front page:

Teaching tool or trouble brewing?

The article by Mackenzie Ryan captured fairly well where most of us BPS folks would like to file the PGP, so I could only imagine what the FT online commentary might add to the mix.

Went home, brought up FT, couldn't find the article.

Searched Local, Brevard, News, Education, Florida and searched on the key words.

Nada.

Until Sunday morning, where I once again searched on the key words to finally track down the Saturday front page print piece within the great within known as online media.

Here's the kicker. Not one comment.

Which typically happens when a news article is stashed.

But I am happy to report that at 10:20 pm Sunday evening, two comments were posted by FT readers in support of teachers.

For those so interested, the article on the latest scourge on educators can be read (and commented upon) here,

Get your motor running.

Weekend Zen

2011-09-30T00:01:00.002-05:00

Everybody's working for the weekend.

Loverboy. 1986.

Back to School, Back to School

2011-09-29T00:40:00.004-05:00

Funny.

Three years ago, all heck broke loose over President Obama's to school children.

Wednesday afternoon, not one peep.

This year, the President extended his words of encouragement past the desks to those in front of the class.

America's teachers.

"Now, teachers are the men and women who might be working harder than anybody. Whether you go to a big school or a small one, whether you attend a public, private, or charter school – your teachers are giving up their weekends and waking up at dawn. They’re cramming their days full of classes and extra-curriculars. Then they’re going home, eating some dinner, and staying up past midnight to grade your papers.

"And they don’t do it for a fancy office or a big salary. They do it for you. They live for those moments when something clicks, when you amaze them with your intellect and they see the kind of person you can become. They know that you’ll be the citizens and leaders who take us into tomorrow. They know that you’re the future.

Read the President's complete remarks here.

To Be or Not to Be a Job Creator

2011-09-28T00:38:00.007-05:00

I beat a path to the office printer several times a day.

After hitting print on my computer, I head up, punch in my access code and run my copies.

It's an irritating method to cut down costs, especially when the click count runs out mid-copy, the print request doesn't send from point A to point B (causing yet another trip back to point A) or the shoes worn to work that day aren't the best for the print power walk.

Most irritating of all is the laser printer that served me well all last year, now sits idle, just a simple reach back from my zebra office chair. Problem being, the print cartridge is empty and the school budget no longer covers the $140 price tag.

Therefore, I waste a lot of time trotting back and forth.

I passed by a gentleman on a recent midday run. He carried a bag full of print supplies--apparently offered at reduced costs to individual educators--and was headed to install print cartridges in other printers also sitting idle throughout the building.

A job created from the demands of the marketplace. In this case, his own small business.

Question.

Is a small business considered a "job creator" if only one job is created?

Economist Justin Wolfers--professor of business and public policy at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania--recently discussed the facts behind the political rhetoric associated with small business on NPR.

Wolfers observed that many small businesses are a one man or one woman show with no further ambition other than to bring home the bacon. No thought is given regarding the hiring of additional employees.

In other words, the printer guy is a job creator who creates no jobs.

Listen to the Wolfers interview in its entirety here.

Spaced Out

2011-09-26T00:09:00.003-05:00

Overheard Sunday at the Melbourne Main Street Fall Festival:

"All in the same weekend, the Buffalo Bills beat the Pats, Herman Cain wins the Straw Poll in Florida and a six ton satellite falls to Earth."

"The stars are not aligned as I thought they would be."

Discuss among yourselves.

Then come back and Talk to Me.

Weekend Zen

2011-09-23T00:30:00.003-05:00

Money don't get everything it's trueBut what it don't get I can't use
I want money

That's what I want.

Money. That's What I Want.

The Flying Lizzards. 1979.

How Troy Davis May Impact Gov. Rick Perry

2011-09-22T00:11:00.008-05:00

During the wait for the U.S. Supreme Court to reach a decision regarding a stay of execution in the case of Troy Davis--sentenced to death for the murder of an off-duty Savannah, Georgia police officer--the on-air discussion centered on what fuels opponents of the death penalty.

What if an innocent man or woman is put to death?

Seven witnesses who gave testimony during the Davis trial have since recanted. Public servants associated with the case have come forward to ask Davis be granted a stay, haunted by the real possibility an innocent man is scheduled to be put to death, concerned the case is riddled with inconsistencies and procedural irregularities.

As the state of Georgia permitted the scheduled hour for execution to come and go, Barry Scheck, co-founder of The Innocence Project, discussed the freeing power of DNA with Hardball host Chris Matthews. DNA has exonerated many persons on death row, more than 130 people since 1976.

But also offered by Scheck during the interview was a review of due process that--when pursued with rigor--ensures the possibility of innocence vs guilt be visited and revisited and revisited yet again before a death sentence is carried out.

Coincidentally, also on Wednesday, the state of Texas carried out the execution of Lawrence Russell Brewer, one of three men convicted for the dragging death of James Byrd. As expected, the conversation turned toward the Texas execution rate and Gov. Rick Perry's oft heard remarks about it's efficacy.

(...)

"The state of Texas has a very thoughtful, a very clear process in place of which -- when someone commits the most heinous of crimes against our citizens, they get a fair hearing, they go through an appellate process, they go up to the Supreme Court of the United States, if that's required.

"But in the state of Texas, if you come into our state and you kill one of our children, you kill a police officer, you're involved with another crime and you kill one of our citizens, you will face the ultimate justice in the state of Texas, and that is, you will be executed."

Those words may come back to haunt Perry during his run for the GOP nomination for President.

The thoughtful clear Texas process of which Perry played a part may have absolutely sent an innocent man to his death.

Trial by Fire--written by David Grann for The New Yorker--details the conviction of Cameron Todd Willingham for the horrific death of his three children, who died in a house fire a jury determined was set by their father. As in the Davis case, glaring errors and a conviction based on "junk science" became evident years afterwards, but the process stopped at the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court, who declined to hear Willingham's case.

His last recourse was to appeal to Gov. Rick Perry for clemency.

Perry refused. "A spokesperson for Perry (said), “The Governor made his decision based on the facts of the case.”

In light of the extensive coverage and public attention paid to the Davis case, expect this question to be asked of Perry while on the campaign trail: Did Texas execute an innocent man?

At 10:22 PM, the U.S. Supreme Court denied a stay in the case of Troy Davis.

The Financial Woes of Rep. John C. Fleming

2011-09-21T00:27:00.002-05:00

John C. Fleming (R-LA) clears about $600,000 of his $6.2 million income.

After reinvesting $400,000 in his Subway and UPS franchises, he only has around $200,000 left to feed his family.

Once Fleming made the financial reveal during a recent interview, beginning teachers all over Brevard County rubbed forefingers against thumbnails in circular fashion, suggestive of a tiny record player playing "My Heart Bleeds for You." (Starting salary for a first year teacher is $36,000 annually).

Yet, I remain uncertain as to what family members Dr. Fleming is feeding (yes, he is also a physician) as his bio reads he has four grown children. Perhaps like the 8,000 grandparents in Brevard caring for their own grandchildren, it's possible Fleming and his wife contribute financially toward their own two grandkids.

His barely-able-to-make-it income certainly explains why the Heritage Foundation picked up the tab for Fleming's round trip to Charlottesville, Va and back to Washington DC made January 14-16, 2010.

Also listed on the Representative's 2011 personal financial disclosure: several rental properties, where I imagine the costs for upkeep and maintenance continually pull the green from the good doctor's hip pocket.

Guess we will never know for sure.

After the televised display of his total disconnect from Middle Class America, Fleming's not talking.

He's too busy dislodging his foot out of his mouth.

Register to read to good doctor's personal financial disclosure over at Legistorm.

Keeping in mind the poverty level for a one person family is designated as $10, 890, follow up with a review of salaries earned by the Subway employees. The average starting salary of an assistant store manager is $16,941.

These workers are just a single example of Americans who barely have enough left over after the bills are paid to feed their families.

Talk to Me.

The Wealth Tax

2011-09-20T00:48:00.003-05:00

Law professors Bruce Ackerman and Anne Alstot ask the obvious over at The Los Angeles Times.

"Rather than draconian cuts to Medicaid or Medicare, why not a wealth tax?"

(...)

"President Obama is right to insist on the "Buffett rule": Millionaires should not be paying income tax at a rate lower than their secretaries'. But correcting this inequity is only a small step toward fairness.

The more serious inequality problem facing the United States involves overall wealth, not just income. While the top 1% of Americans earned 21% of the nation's income, they owned a staggering 35% of the wealth in 2006-07, the most recent year for which statistics are available. We should be taxing that wealth directly, and not merely focusing on million-dollar incomes.

We propose a 2% annual wealth tax on households owning more than $7.2 million in net assets. Such a tax would target the 0.5% of Americans at the top of the pyramid, and would yield at least $70 billion a year. This calculation is based on Federal Reserve data that we have updated to take into account the recession's impact on housing and stock prices to 2009. Because we have used very conservative assumptions, the revenue yield could well be higher.

Obama's operational proposal for a "Buffett tax" is vague, so it's hard to predict how much it would raise. But our initiative would generate at least half the $1.5 trillion in deficit reduction that Congress' super-committee is aiming to achieve over the next decade. And the burden would fall on the Americans who have suffered least from the economic downturn.

There is more at stake than fairness. Our proposal would address a deeper issue. There comes a point at which extreme wealth concentration threatens the very existence of democracy, and we are reaching that point."

Read how the United States ranks as far as the degree of inequality in the distribution of family income over at the CIA.