Had one of those chance encounters with greatness last week that I want to share with you. This has absolutely nothing to do with politics, but has to do with one of my other, more relaxing interests. I’m a big fan of R&B music, slow jams, and the like. People like the late Barry White and the late Luther Vandross is the kind of talent that I thoroughly enjoy listening to.
Last week, this tall good looking black man came into my shop for the first time. He looked familiar to me, and when I heard his voice, it was like I was hearing and seeing Barry White. In fact, it was his son Darryl D. White that I was talking to.
I’m so pleased to share this video with y’all, or yooz guys.
In an astounding example of liberal logic, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) figures that since pornography is not permitted on public airways, political speech should also be subject to the approval of Washington. Remember when the First Amendment meant something? Schumer thinks we have to be consistent. What?
Asked if he is a supporter of telling radio stations what content they should have, Schumer used the fair and balanced line, claiming that critics of the Fairness Doctrine are being inconsistent.
“The very same people who don’t want the Fairness Doctrine want the FCC [Federal Communications Commission] to limit pornography on the air. I am for that… But you can’t say government hands off in one area to a commercial enterprise but you are allowed to intervene in another. That’s not consistent.”
As the liberals prefer, when you can’t compete in a free market, just change the market so it is no longer free. It is the market-based version of shooting the messenger when you don’t like the message.
Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-MI) calls for investigation into Aunti Zeituni’s info leak; Joe the Plumber however, is still on his own. Turns out Aunti Zeituni Onyango, one of Democrat presidential candidate Barack Obama’s many relatives made famous in his memoir, is an illegal alien.
According to Barack Obama, he did not know that she was an illegal. Yeah right. He didn’t know she was an illegal alien just like he didn’t know that Rev. Jeremiah Wright, after attending his church for twenty years, was all about hating whitey with his black liberation theology.
A senior official in South Sudan who ordered a crackdown on young women wearing tight trousers has been sacked, officials said Saturday.
Attention Air America Radio talk show hosts, and anyone else wishing to spread the wealth around. The Iraqi government is putting a luxury yacht that belonged to the late dictator Saddam Hussein up for sale.
The 82m (270ft) Ocean Breeze is equipped with swimming pools, an operating theatre, a helipad and an escape tunnel leading to a submarine.
Asking price is only $34,450,000 but could probably be had for $30 million. Photos
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.
War update. More than 100 Taliban killed when their ‘surprise’ attack was put down. Doubly good news is the fact that neither the Afghan or coalition forces suffered any casualties.
And on the other side of the border, signs that Pakistani tribesmen are turning on al-Qaida, a start of what eventually brought the successful route of al-Qaida in Iraq. Its only a start, but its a start.
Debt update. A watched clock never moves – unless it’s the National Debt Clock. In fact, the digital counter has been moving so much that it recently ran out of digits to display the ballooning figure: $10,150,603,734,720, or roughly $10.2 trillion, as of Saturday afternoon.
It will be replaced in 2009 with a new clock, said Jordan Barowitz, a spokesman for the Durst Organization. The new clock will be able to track debt up to a quadrillion dollars, which is a ‘1’ followed by 15 zeros.
Food update. Joey Chestnut, 24 year old eating champion from San Jose, CA and two time winner of Nathan’s Hot Dog eating contest has added another notch to his belt. This time winning a pizza eating contest. He downed 45 slices in 10 minutes Sunday to win the first Famous Famiglia World Pizza Eating Championship in New York’s Times Square.
Breaking down the numbers. At 8 slices/pie, Joey Chestnut ate 5 whole pies and 5 slices, in 10 minutes. Oooomph!
Pensacola politics has been a topic of major concern for at least a dozen years. Topics of contention or debate come and go, and come and go again, and never seem to get settled. They range from soccer fields, to waterfront parks, to sewage plants, to the port, to consolidation with the county, to a commission form of government, to a weak mayor, to a strong mayor, a city manager, or not, to a theater for the arts, paid firemen or volunteer firemen, to whether or not there should be one-way streets, and a freaking statute.
Pensacola politics operates like a blender and all we get out of it is mush. The Bass-O-Matic comes to mind. It is like a ship without a rudder. I suppose that this is why I have not paid much attention as to the ‘why’ things are the way they are. Until recently.
We read in the paper nearly every day about the good old boy network and how it has to go. That’s a given. Today I found out what that means and in a very practical sense. Reading a couple local blogs concerning local politics, this statement arose that, according to the first-hand source, was said by one city councilman to another. Sam Hall did not mention any names until I flat out asked who it was that behaved like that. I’m getting interested in local politics so I want to know. Wouldn’t you? This statement was made by Ron Townsend of D-7 to ‘the newcomer’ Sam Hall of D-2.
‘It’s not that I don’t support you Sam, it’s that you came in here gangbusters and you had to be taught a lesson.’
That sort of statement screams of arrogance from someone with a very big chip on his shoulder. It also begs the question, who is Mr. Townsend beholden to? Who ‘taught’ him his lesson? And, what lesson does Mr. Townsend have to teach Mr. Hall? Are there more? And, who else on the city council needs to be taught something? Just who does Ron Townsend think he is anyway?
It gets better, or worse. Sam recounts . . .
[o]ne member got mad at me for recruiting a candidate in his district. He said, “Sam, we’re peers, we’re brothers. That ain’t right for you to do that. We’re supposed to support one another. How can you be against me like that?”
Apparently Ron Townsend is feeling a little territorial. What, no one can enter his district without his permission? In addition to a chip on his shoulder, it seems he is feeling a bit insecure.
From this experience, it is becoming apparent as to why things are the way they are in the city. Mr. Townsend could take the high road now and apologize for his crass statement and attitude, and vow to get along. Not only to Mr. Hall, but to the city residents he represents. There is no excuse for that kind of behavior from a representative of the city.
Here’s the video that Time-Warner had pulled from YouTube yesterday, claiming some sort of copyright violation. Maybe its really because they are in the tank for the Obama campaign? The video recounts the economic mess we are in today and the major players that created it, all Democrats. But don’t take my word for it. Please see for yourself.
Here’s a sign of progress on the Afghanistan front. The Taliban leader Mullah Omar is offering a safe exit if we would just go home. Even radical Islamists believe in ‘hail marys.’
‘Reconsider your wrong decision of wrong occupation, and seek a safe exit to withdraw your forces,’ said the message, which the Taliban said came from Omar.
Darn if this doesn’t take ‘big brother’ to a whole new level. Have to admit, the company has a good sales pitch to municipalities. Use our product and get more taxes.
A new high-tech aerial photography system that can spot an illegal porch from 5,000 feet is being marketed to tax assessors as a way to grow revenue.
And
A fire chief can look at the image of a house and the nearest fire hydrant and know exactly how much hose to run. A police chief can mark the distance between his sniper and a dangerous man with a gun, or map out where a car chase is headed.
