OK, so now it’s time to be a little pro-active. And I mean, pro-active over demonstrations getting out of hand, like we saw in VA and NC. Where the police were held back until it was too late.
We deserve to know that if a legal and permitted protest or demonstration is going on, the police will be there to insure the safety and the protection of the permitted group and their constitutional rights, should a rowdy and violent group (from any side) try to crash it, disrupt it, and hurt people.
Pensacolans need to know! We want to get the Mayor, the Pensacola Chief of Police, and the Escambia County Sheriff on the record, TODAY. Do you have our back from a public safety standpoint, or not? There is no gray area in public safety, or the 1st Amendment.
Let’s not forget why there is a federal holiday called Memorial Day.
And count the number of times our fallen soldiers are thanked and remembered here in Pensacola this weekend, making all of this possible.
What happens in Pensacola on Memorial Day weekend, and days before that, has earned this part of the Gulf Coast the label, The Gay Riviera. That’s when a couple hundred thousand people come to enjoy themselves and trash the beach in the process. You won’t (or maybe you will) want to miss stuff like this:
“Sexacola Beach Memorial Day Weekend: Produced by Atlanta’s favorite lesbian hangout My Sister’s Room, the highly popular weekend-long women’s party Sexacola Beach takes place over four days and consists of several great parties”
The City of Pensacola has been grappling with the problem of what to do about panhandlers, aka beggars, in the downtown area. The County has the same issues at intersections and on/off ramps all over the place.
The “problem” is the image portrayed in a City trying to attract residents and business when beggars are sitting and laying on the sidewalk, some with dogs. Not to mention the human problem of the situation they portray themselves to be in.
You might get the impression that there is no help for them, when there is. They just don’t choose to take advantage of it. And no one is making the case that making it easier for someone to stay on the streets is not humane, like Houston Mayor Annise Parker did in 2014. The panhandlers have made begging their livelihood, their “business.”
Always tuned in to how to get into your pockets, I don’t know how this idea has escaped the politicians? Do what they are prone do, regulate. Regulate the Begging Industry right out of business. Like Bill Clinton and Barack Obama tried to do to the Coal Industry.
If begging is your business, you must have a Begging License, that’ll cost you. I don’t know, say $150 a year. And since the real estate for your business is the public sidewalk or right-of-way, you’ll have to pay rent to the city or county for that. How about $100 a week or $400 a month for “rent?”
See how getting off the street and seeking help is starting to look more attractive, not to mention financially rewarding?
But wait, there’s more. Small businesses have to pay 6% sales taxes to the State and 1.5% to Escambia County every month. This requires verifiable record keeping. Failure to pay your taxes will result in shutting down the business, and possibly jail time.
All the city has to do is to think of them as small business operators and do, for government, what comes naturally. I bet the “problem” will go away. But, that will never happen. It’s easier to give in to threats of lawsuits from the Beggar’s Lobby than to take proactive steps to help get them off the sidewalk.
Fidel Castro died at 90. Reaction to the news from Miami is a celebration. People filling the sidewalks waving American and Cuban flags. Making drums out of a pot and a big spoon, and beating them. Traffic is a slow-moving parade of cars, horns blowing, waving out of the windows, in both directions.
President Obama making a statement about Castro’s death. Pointing out his contribution to the world.
OR, President Obama making a statement to Americans about the five police executions in as many days, and that the very idea of attacking law enforcement is unacceptable. And maybe call for mandatory death sentence for anyone killing a cop, under any circumstances.
After the terrorist attack in Orlando, liberals from President Obama on down jumped on guns as the problem. Their reaction is full of emotion and, disconnected from the problem, which is terrorism. Not a gun. It is a “crisis” this administration will not let go to waste. And so came the bogus attacks at Florida Senator Greg Evers (R-2), candidate to replace retiring Rep. Jeff Miller (R-1), for a contest in support of our 2nd Amendment right to keep and bear arms to give away the most popular rifle sold in America, an AR-15. Critics said he was being disrespectful to the victims and families of that attack. When in fact, ignoring the attack for what it was is disrespectful to the victims and families of that attack.
In reality, we are all victims of that attack, you might say ‘once removed.’ In solidarity, and humanity, I pray for those victims and their families. I also pray for a leader who will fight terrorism. Not the Founding Fathers.
That was an attack on America. And to blame it on guns, and in Obama’s case, to blame it on freedom and liberty too, just adds insult to injury. And because of that, the 2nd Amendment is under fire (no pun intended). No. The response is, Obama’s failure to prosecute the war on terror has made us victims in our own cities. And the pressure belongs on him and Democrats. Not on Republicans, the National Rifle Association, or Greg Evers.
Evers’ campaign gimmick perfectly illustrates this disconnect and, brings a dose of reality to both attacks. The ongoing attack on the Bill of Rights, and the ongoing terrorist threats and attacks from ISIS and related Islamic Extremists. And the latter is not just on Americans. It’s on the whole world who are not ‘believers’ in their brand of Islam.
Obama says he wants to change laws to ‘fix’ this. The law he needs to change is Sharia. The laws he wants to change is our Bill of Rights, which are God-given. Says a lot about him. To focus on guns as the problem, as the administration is doing, is the huge miss-direction from the problem.
It is Obama’s policies, restrictions, that he has imposed on the FBI and DHS that makes preventing attacks like Ft. Hood, San Bernardino, Boston, Orlando, and others more difficult. It is his CVE (Countering Violent Extremism) program. The one that excludes common sense from the task of combating terrorism. Because of that, Obama is more responsible for the advance of terrorism around the world, and for terror attacks on our soil, than any inanimate object.
The rage over the Orlando attack needs to be focused on the problem, the failures of the Obama administration, not a gun.
Early voting is underway for Florida’s primary election. NOTICE to all minorities. You have a week to get to the polls on March 15, or, you can make it to one of the early voting locations and vote whenever you want. Or, you can vote by mail and get a ballot mailed to you if you request one today.
Most important, call 911 immediately if any Republican operative prevents you from voting. That would be illegal. However, if you are not happy with the unemployment and falling family income that has beset you, you might consider voting for a conservative Republican president for a change.
I voted early. I’m not telling you who you should vote for, but I will tell you why I voted for Ted Cruz. It’s because I believe his stance on the founding principles (Constitution included) of the country (and I don’t mean the Democrat’s slavery platform) is what this country is sorely lacking in a president, and what can best turn this ship around. In case you haven’t noticed, Cruz does what he says, and does what people elected him to do. He listens to the
Big in the national and local news as well as on the campaign trail is the plight of, among others, the Syrian refugees seeking asylum in this country. Only, they’re not seeking refuge in this country. This administration is hell-bent on bringing them to the United States instead of supporting/protecting them in and around Syria. Some are coming here to Northwest Florida.
When asked if they would rather be home or here, they prefer to be home, or close enough to home so they can return after the civil war is over and ISIS is destroyed.
Catholic Charities of Northwest Florida President/CEO, Mr. Christopher Root
NGO’s are bringing the “refugees” and embedded terrorists here, financed with grants from the federal government. Attempts to speak to Catholic Charities CEO Christopher Root have fallen on deaf ears. Neither phone calls or in-person requests for a meeting on the subject of the refugees have been returned or acknowledged.
Mr. Root is hold up in a secure office building on Garden Street, just what you might expect for a non-profit Catholic charity. What?
In an attempt to get some transparency, and for Mr. Root to justify why, in spite of administration officials (and the terrorists themselves) saying that there will be terrorists among them, why he feels sacrificing our national security is necessary? I think the reason can be summed up in money. As in grant money. National security? Not the Catholic Charity’s problem.
Below is a letter-to-the editor submitted Dec 1, 2015. It has not been published yet. Meanwhile, there have been plenty of articles and other letters published that are sympathetic to bringing the refugees here. And, at the same time, disparaging those, like many in the country, who want no part of them coming here. Only the leading Republican candidates are talking about helping them in and around their own country in safe zones. People like President Obama are quick to say, “that’s not who we are.” Sorry, but importing terrorists to do us harm is not who we are. Democrats are all-in for bringing them here. After all, Muslims tend to vote 80% Democrat. What he means is, just like illegals flooding our borders on foot, building a permanent voting block is who he is. But that’s not who America is.
It is not just Christopher Root, but the talking heads at UWF who must justify why Syrians must come here, knowing of the high risk of terrorist embeds, and also how plucking them out of their country, continent, culture, and language will be more beneficial, for the refugees.
Letter to the editor follows.
For the U.S. to participate in helping refugees from anywhere when they come here is one thing. But to take them out of their country, continent, culture, and language, to bring them here is not only presumptuous of us to know what’s best for them, but is endangering ourselves in the process.
They need help there, in safe zones, so they can return home when their civil war is over and the dust settles. We had our civil war and no-one left the country. For the Syrians to leave their own country would be taking the opposition to ISIL away. Taking Syria’s future away. That’s not compassion.
What the media and academe won’t tell you is, it’s not the U.S. government bringing them here. It is NGO’s (Non-Governmental Organizations) who are getting government grants who are bringing them here. Money talks. And money tends to change focus and re-arrange priorities from more important factors like our homeland security from the terrorist hotbed, Syria.
How about someone from an NGO like Catholic Charities, or a university like UWF, make their case that Syrian refugees are better helped with a one-way ticket here, instead of in and around their homeland?
There was supposed to be a ‘raise the minimum wage’ rally downtown last evening. Organized by a local labor union.
I couldn’t be there. Had to work. But I wanted to see a fat protester holding up a sign whining about having to work for a ‘starving wage.’ (found a pic on google)
So it was with eager anticipation to check the local newspaper this morning to see what happened. Nothing there. Zip, zero, nada. Nothing in the local alternative media either. Feeling a mild case of Schadenfreude here.
UPDATE: 11/11/2015 Thanks to one of the participant’s feedback, the “rally” wasn’t really a rally. I was mistaken. Instead of a rally, it was a “forum” held somewhere in town. Probably a union hall somewhere. Regardless, there was no rally. And no news coverage of the forum either. I mean really, who thinks labor unions would want the folks to know why they are supporting raising the minimum wage, for non-union workers?
In our tri-state area of Alabama, Florida, and Georgia, there are 1144 (abortion free) clinics that provide comprehensive women’s healthcare to low-income, medically under-served populations. By comparison, there are 29 Planned Parenthood clinics in the same tri-state area.
The next time you hear a politician scoff at the idea of stopping federal dollars (500,000,000 of them) from going to 700 Planned Parenthood sites, the nation’s largest abortion provider (327,653 in 2013), remind him or her that there are 13,540 other federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) and rural health clinics (RHCs) nationwide that do everything Planned Parenthood does, and more, but do not perform abortions and sell the remains. Something taxpayers should not be forced to support.
Critics of Planned Parenthood are not against women’s health. On the contrary. And if proponents of Planned Parenthood were for women’s health, they too would be calling to send that half-billion dollars to the thousands of other locations women go. Because there are 20 comprehensive health care clinics for every Planned Parenthood.
Belly up to the counter. Politics are on the menu and Ross is on the grill.
