Category Archives: Pensacola

2008 Election, Pensacola, Politics, War On Terror

Military Absentee Ballots Rejected In Virginia

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Seems like Deja Vu of 2000 on election night down at the Court House, when hundreds of us were chanting ‘count every vote, every vote counts.’ That’s when Democrats sent their lawyers here to deny our military absentee ballots from being counted. Now, Fairfax County, in Virginia is rejecting 98 percent of the absentee ballots they have received, on a technicality that is of no fault of the voter. The ‘voter’ being the ones whose vote should count more than anyone’s, the ones who are actually fighting for that right.

Fairfax County Registrar Rokey Suleman is disqualifying an overwhelming majority of the military federal write-in absentee ballots received in his county on the basis that no address had been given for those witnessing the voter signatures on the ballots.

When asked how many ballots had been rejected, Herrity responded, “Out of the 260 military federal write-in ballots received to date, only five included an address for the witness. The other 255 have been set aside for rejection.”

The instructions say this in STEP 1:

Block 6: Provide any information that may assist the local election official in accepting this ballot or application.

Block 7: Sign and date in the presence of a witness. The witness must sign and date the form.

Then, STEP 2 of the instructions say to put the ballot into the security envelope. STEP 3, Submission Options describe where to mail the envelope.

Only in STEP 4 is there a mention about requiring the address of the witness, which says it was supposed to be put in block 6, which is actually part of STEP 1.

STEP 4: Follow-up

* Check the “Important Dates” section at the top of this page for deadlines.
* Registered Virginia voters can use the FWAB simultaneously as an absentee ballot request and ballot for Federal offices as long as it is received 5 days before the election. The FWAB Declaration/Affirmation must contain the residence address where the voter is registered in Virginia, the voter’s current military or overseas address, and the voter’s and witness’ signature and date. The witness must provide his or her printed name and address in Block 6.
* If you receive your state absentee ballot after submitting your Federal Write-In Absentee Ballot, fill it out and return it. The state absentee ballot will be counted instead of the back-up ballot if it’s received in time.

If you use just a little common sense here, chances are good that the witness is not a resident of Fairfax County, or of the State of Virginia. Their current address is in the war zone. Are county officials going to call or write them to verify that the address they gave is correct? Would it not be logical to assume that they are not looking for witness’s war zone addresses?

I wonder if those instructions were written by the genius in Palm Beach County that made the butterfly ballot in 2000? Nevertheless, the instructions were misleading at the very least. Especially considering the ‘voters’ are in a war zone conducting the war and their ballots were not created by ACORN. Those ballots, all of them, should be counted.

links: Military Ballots Being Rejected in Virginia | Federal Voting Assistance Program

Pensacola, Race Relations, Uncategorized

Renaming Alcaniz Street, Part 2

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Well, I went to my first City Council meeting to provide my input on the above subject. The meeting room was packed, but thinned out after the first two agenda items finished, which concerned downtown development and appointing some people to terms on some community redevelopment board. While listening to that go on, and on, I came to realize that these meetings sometimes go late into the night. The term cruel and unusual punishment came to mind for having to sit there and listen to it, let alone report on it.

I did have a brush with greatness though, well, aside from speaking to the entire (except for Donovan) city council. I sat in the front row next to Mark O’Brien and not far from Sam Hall.

As I pointed out in my previous post on this subject entitled Pensacola Call To Action, I was not aware of any groundswell of public opinion to change the remaining portion of Alcaniz St. to MLK Drive. On that, I can report that the driving force behind it is an organization headed by Leroy Boyd called Movement for Change.

Being unfamiliar with the proceedings, I let several others offer their public input before I offered my two cents.

Mr. Boyd was the first to speak. I was interested to hear why Mr. Boyd wanted to revisit this issue and replace Alcaniz Street entirely, since this matter had already been decided eight years ago in a way that both honors Dr. King and preserves the historical aspect (Alcaniz is a city in Spain) of Alcaniz Street.

He couldn’t have made a worse case for wanting to change it. He told the city council that people on Alcaniz St. south of Cervantes are racist. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, but that is the case he presented. He said it was all about race, and that that was the reason that the entire street didn’t get renamed eight years ago. The historical aspect of Alcaniz St. totally escaped him, and, he did not accept the others’ opinions from eight years ago that it was about history and not race.

When it was my turn, I was pretty nervous. I hope I didn’t make too much of a fool of myself while speaking to the Council. I attempted to make my case that the council ought to just leave the street where they left it eight years ago. That way, they won’t be erasing a part of Pensacola’s history from a few centuries ago for the sake of the civil rights movement of the last century. The way it is, everyone, except perhaps Mr. Boyd, can be satisfied by respecting history and Dr. King.

Then I stated that, although I did not know Mr. Boyd, that his making a street name change proposal all about race was not the best way to get anything done. I said something like pushing the race button on this issue is not the way to go. What happened next was kind of cool.

Mr. Boyd took to the floor again to address me and what I had said, as though he was going to carry on a debate with me or something. Mayor Fogg correctly told Mr. Boyd that he had his one chance for public input. When I heard that, since I hadn’t met Mr. Boyd yet, I felt that the time was right. So I got up, walked over to him, and motioned for him to follow me out of the room so we could meet each other, let the council resume their business, and discuss the issue further.

Mr. Boyd followed me into the open space where the elevators are and I introduced myself. A few other people followed too, I suppose to insure our mutual safety. ?? Our meeting was nothing but civil. My question to him was simple. ‘Why are you making the street name issue a racial one?’

Boyd: Because it is. It’s all about race.

ross: How can you say that? I don’t see any signs down there that say ‘whites only.’

Boyd: Because the prices of homes there are too expensive. The whites have priced blacks out of the neighborhood.

ross: Real estate values are not racist. They are what they are. Barack Obama could get a place down there if he wanted to.

Boyd: I probably could too, but Aragon Court was supposed to be affordable and it isn’t. You can’t name 10 black families that live down there.

ross: What’s Aragon Court got to do with renaming Alcaniz Street? So, because it is expensive, that makes it racist? Are people on Pensacola Beach racist also? It’s even more expensive there.

Boyd: Oh, you don’t want to go there. Many blacks have disappeared on the beach.

ross: What? I’ve been here for 26 years and I haven’t heard of anything like that.

Boyd: That was more long ago than that.

ross: So why Alcaniz Street, that has history in it for the city? Whats the matter with W or A street for example?

Boyd: You’re not going to tell me where I can name a street. It is about race, and making all of Alcaniz to be MLK is my goal, and that’s that.

By this point there wasn’t anything else to discuss. He made his point and I made mine. We shook hands and I left. He went back inside. I don’t know what else went on at the council meeting. But at least I found out first-hand who and what is behind the name change. For Leroy Boyd, it is unfinished business, part of a movement. History be dammed.

This video is Leroy Boyd making his case on why the remainder of Alcaniz Street, from Cervantes Street south to Main Street should be replaced with MLK Drive.

And this is my public input to the matter. At the very end of the video you can hear me accept Mr. Boyd’s wish to talk to me by inviting him to follow me outside, which he did. And the dialog from that discussion is what appears above.

related links: Move on to rename Alcaniz Street | Pensacola Call To Action

Pensacola, Politics

Pensacola Call To Action

According to Derek Cosson’s blog, Progressive Pensacola . . .

At Monday’s meeting of the Pensacola City Council’s Committee of the Whole, the issue of renaming the remaining portion of Alcaniz Street to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive will be raised.

Monday’s meeting is tomorrow, October 20, 2008. The matter of naming a street after Martin Luther King, Jr. was brought up and settled eight years ago in the year 2000. For lack of any groundswell of public opinion to revisit this issue, apparently somebody is bringing it up again.

If you can, attend the Committee of the Whole meeting on Monday and speak to them in person. The meeting starts at 3:15 PM, and will be held in the Hagler/Mason Conference Room on the second floor of Pensacola City Hall.

For our local readers of The Lunch Counter, please take a moment to provide your input to your city commissioner.

Here is a sample of my input. Your mileage may vary . . .

Absent of any public groundswell of opinion to rid the city of a street named Alcaniz, please vote NO to what I understand will be a topic at the council meeting tomorrow, Monday 10/20/2008 to change what remains of Alcaniz St. to MLK Blvd..

This matter was ‘settled’ a few years ago by the city dedicating a few miles of road to the name of MLK Blvd.. Anyone supporting a further change is more ignorant of the city’s history than any elected representative of the city should be.

Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

The city has more pressing problems than wanting to, or needing to, erase part of its history.

H/T Progressive Pensacola

related link: Renaming Alcaniz Street, Part 2

2008 Election, Pensacola, Politics

For Barack Obama, Character Matters

By the time a person rises to the level of the leader of his party and becomes their nominee for the office of President of the United States, people already know a lot about what kind of person he is. Like John McCain, they know his history, his legislative background, his core beliefs, and his character. That is, until now. So when you have a candidate for the top spot that has limited legislative experience, no executive experience, and no public presence beyond a well delivered speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, knowing more about who our candidate is rises to a level that it would not otherwise be.

Critics of Obama, and I’ll include myself in this, are wrong when they bring up Obama’s ‘associations’ with unsavory people. Until I read Thomas Sowell’s article regarding who ‘the real’ Barack Obama is, I’ve come to the realization that it is not Obama’s associations that matter as much as his ‘alliances.’

From Thomas Sowell’s article . . .

Critics of Senator Barack Obama make a strategic mistake when they talk about his “past associations.” That just gives his many defenders in the media an opportunity to counter-attack against “guilt by association.”

We all have associations, whether at the office, in our neighborhood or in various recreational activities. Most of us neither know nor care what our associates believe or say about politics.

Associations are very different from alliances. Allies are not just people who happen to be where you are or who happen to be doing the same things you do. You choose allies deliberately for a reason. The kind of allies you choose says something about you.

About the names that are part of Obama’s past and present, Sowell writes . . .

Jeremiah Wright, Father Michael Pfleger, William Ayers and Antoin Rezko are not just people who happened to be at the same place at the same time as Barack Obama. They are people with whom he chose to ally himself for years, and with some of whom some serious money changed hands.

Some gave political support, and some gave financial support, to Obama’s election campaigns, and Obama in turn contributed either his own money or the taxpayers’ money to some of them. That is a familiar political alliance- but an alliance is not just an “association” from being at the same place at the same time.

Obama could have allied himself with all sorts of other people. But, time and again, he allied himself with people who openly expressed their hatred of America. No amount of flags on his campaign platforms this election year can change that.

What we do know about the kind of politician Obama is, is not well known. A testament to the effectiveness of his enablers in the mainstream media in reshaping and repackaging their chosen candidate. Ask yourself if this is the first time you’ve seen or heard this about Barack Obama.

The story of Obama’s political career is not a pretty story. He won his first political victory by being the only candidate on the ballot- after hiring someone skilled at disqualifying the signers of opposing candidates’ petitions, on whatever technicality he could come up with.

Despite his words today about “change” and “cleaning up the mess in Washington,” Obama was not on the side of reformers who were trying to change the status quo of corrupt, machine politics in Chicago and clean up the mess there. Obama came out in favor of the Daley machine and against reform candidates.

Senator Obama is running on an image that is directly the opposite of what he has been doing for two decades. His escapes from his past have been as remarkable as the great escapes of Houdini.

So the next time a liberal, like Pensacola’s Air America Radio host Mike Papantonio, tries to defend Obama by equivocation, by bringing up McCain and the ‘Keating Five’ association of 20 years ago, bring up the alliances that Obama has had for the 20 years since then.

related links:Thomas Sowell, The Real Obama | ‘Character Attacks Emerge’ Says MSM

2008 Election, Economy, Energy, Pensacola, Politics

Gov. Sarah Palin Rocks Pensacola

A week ago, Pensacola was preparing to welcome Gov. Palin outdoors at the end of the runway at the airport. It’s a good thing they changed the venue to the Civic Center for two reasons. The original thousand tickets got swallowed up in a few hours, and, it rained. I was among the 10,000+ people who stood in line in the rain to get in the Civic Center. Afterwards, I found out that the fire Marshall had declared the event full and not everyone that came could get in.

The anticipation and enthusiasm of the crowd was as good as it gets for any rock concert I’ve been too, and I’ve been to a lot in my day. Most of them I can remember, but I digress.

The big difference was that the people in line were sober, orderly, polite, of all ages, and anxious to see Sarah Palin.

She spoke of how John McCain and she will change and shake up things in Washington and get the economy going with lower spending, lower taxes, on energy, and that we will continue to win the war instead of merely end it. She listed contrasts between the Obama campaing and what they want to do and the McCain campaign and what they want to do. She effectively laid it out as a clear choice for voters.

She didn’t let Obama slide on some of his unsavory alliances or associations as relates to his judgment and character. She reiterated the Bill Ayers saga. Today for the first time, she also referenced two of his recent economic advisers who were also heads of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. And from their roaring response, the audience knew who she was talking about without mentioning Johnson and Raines by name.

Having been to the last VP visit prior to the 2004 election, when Vice President Cheney held an event at PJC, the difference in turnout and enthusiasm was striking. I think if they were asked who you would rather have a cup of coffee with or go hunting with, Cheney or Palin? Palin would win by a landslide. 😆

Below was the scene when Gov. Palin took the stage. Just a 60 second sample of the excitement. My position was beside the media’s camera platform where there was zero commotion during the entire event.

Judiciary, Media, Pensacola, War On Terror

Delivering Propaganda?

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When I saw the heading of William E. Jackson, Jr.’s column in Editor & Publisher, ‘Delivering Propaganda, As If It is Toothpaste,’ it got my attention. But to learn that it was the documentary ‘Obsession‘ that he was talking about, my next thought was, maybe he should have targeted the NYT and the MSM with a title like that, ‘Delivering Propaganda,’ instead of this documentary.

That documentary has a history to it that Mr. Jackson apparently is not aware of, or chose to ignore. Because of pressure from the CAIR crowd, it was pulled from a multi-faceted series on PBS about radical Islam and the War On Terror. It correctly shows radical Islam for what it is, what it does, and what it believes.

No movie distributor would carry it, probably out of fear. And no major TV network would air it. It was that powerful of a presentation. So now that it is literally given away, Jackson calls it propaganda. Newspapers isn’t the only distribution method for Obsession. They are also using direct mail.

His article illustrates why some think that the mainstream media serves as the marketing wing of the DNC, and in some cases, al-Qaeda.

related links: Delivering Propaganda, As If It is Toothpaste | Obsession – Radical Islam’s War Against The West

Pensacola

aSide Order

As hurricane Ike headed to Texas, the surf went up on Pensacola Beach, which attracted, of course, surfers. As a public safety issue, the ‘red’ flags were out. That means that people are supposed to stay out of the water. Since law enforcement doesn’t usually apply the red flag warning to surfers, for obvious reasons, you have to wonder what this officer was thinking? Was he going to drive out there and apprehend a surfer? Was he going to ride the waves in his 4-wheeler? Most likely, he was just too close to the water and learned what storm surf can do, the hard way. One thing is for sure, he will get at least 15 minutes of fame on YouTube.

Look for this headline in the Pensacola News Journal, ‘Surfers Rescue Officer, From Surf.’ So far, there has been no mention of this in the local media and it is election time in the Sheriff’s Department.

This is turning out to be a video day on aSide Order. Here is one that happened not too long ago. It has a by-line, ‘you can ‘t fix stupid.’ Here’s a guy who goes into a gambling casino, sits at a card table, and bets a bag of weed. You have to see it to believe it.

link: Man attempts to bet marijuana at a casino

This video epitomizes the dumb blond stereotype. If you have to go pee, you probably should do it before watching this.

link:How the blond thing got started.

And finally. Have you ever heard of a baseball player being so good that he wasn’t allowed to play?

Nine-year-old Jericho Scott is a good baseball player – too good, it turns out. The right-hander has a fastball that tops out at about 40 mph. He throws so hard that the Youth Baseball League of New Haven told his coach that the boy could not pitch any more. When Jericho took the mound anyway last week, the opposing team forfeited the game, packed its gear and left, his coach said.

link: 9-year-old boy told he’s too good to pitch

Pensacola

Paradox In Pensacola

In reference to a post a couple days ago entitled Pensacola Welcomes World, wherein the subject was about a survey of young people who believe Pensacola is a loser of a city. I happen to disagree. I mean there are things here that could use improving, mostly in a political sense. But the city, the beach, the people, for the most part is fine. Then again, I’m not among the generation that was polled.

So I quickly became amused when in today’s paper I see another ‘Best of’ survey is being done by the Pensacola News Journal. That wasn’t what was amusing to me. What was amusing to me were the categories. I ask you, does this look like a community in distress?

  • Best Massage
  • Best Facial
  • Best Pampering for the Day
  • Best Hair Salon
  • Best Nail Salon
  • Best Tanning Salon

related links: Best of the Bay | Pensacola Welcomes World

Pensacola

Pensacola Welcomes World

In response to an article in the Pensacola News Journal, citing a survey of the ‘quality of life’ in Pensacola, there are plenty of places worse than Pensacola to live. And that’s not to run down Pensacola, that’s just a fact.

We moved here in ’82 and love it. Sorry if I appear to be out of touch with the younger crowd that was surveyed, but IMHO, Pensacola isn’t all that bad. What is bad, and what gets all the negative vibes going, is all the political friction in the city and county governments here. It’s kind of like scrapple, if you knew what goes in it, you probably wouldn’t want it. And it tends to stoke the frustration of the younger, characteristically impatient, set.

FWIW, our family has lived in Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, Louisiana, and now (and lastly) Florida. And in each state, our kids would lament, why do we have to live here? There’s nothing to do. There are no jobs. There are no girls. (we have 3 boys) They always seem to feel like the grass is greener over there, or there, or anywhere than where we are living at the time.

It would be nice, and convenient, if everyone who grew up here could continue to work and live here. But to expect that is being a little selfish, if not unrealistic. There are only two ways to get a job. Create your own by starting a business, or work for someone else who did. And to do the latter takes some initiative, some guts, and some determination. On second thought, that’s what it takes to do either. All the ingredients of a success story in the making. It may even include moving away from home and making your own home in a city or place where your job takes you. Having been there, done that, I can attest to the fact that America is full of nice places to live with nice people living there. Human nature being what it is, nice people will gravitate to nice people. Miserable people will gravitate to miserable people. The choice you make is the path you take.

In Pensacola, the weather is great, hurricanes notwithstanding. Being from the Jersey shore, hurricanes don’t bother me. But more than that, the people here are great. Compared to people in the northeast, there is a discernible difference in attitude. A little more laid back, a little more friendly. There is a reason that people are not migrating to the north as fast as they are moving south. That is something that the people in Florida, Pensacola included, can be proud of.

link: What’s your quality of life? by Rebekah Allen

Pensacola

Pensacola Is Ready For Gustav

If the lines at the checkout counters in grocery stores and gas stations are any indication, I’d say Pensacola is ready. Fortunately for us, so far anyway, it looks like the eye of Gustav will be far to our west. This means we’ll have some rain and strong winds, not hurricane strength winds. They are projecting a rather small storm surge of 4 to 6 feet in the Florida panhandle. It also means bad news for New Orleans. But at least they are also looking better prepared this time.

I’m feeling sorry for the Mississippi gulf coast though.  They’re expecting a storm surge of over 20 feet, which will wipe out all the rebuilding that they’ve managed to do so far since Katrina.

During our last hurricane, Dennis, Gulf Power Company cut the electric when the winds got to be 35 mph rather than wait for wind damage itself to cut it off. We’ll see what happens this time. If all goes well, we’ll be OK here too with the emergency generator and a good supply of gasoline to run it. Am hoping to be able to stay hooked up to the Internet.