Saturday, April 17, 2010
Herbicides Spraying
They are now spraying herbicides by way of a air boat in Lake Ashton. They are going up and down every stream spraying this crap. They said it will not harm you but they said the same thing about Agent Orange. This stuff is poison, if it kills the weed then what will it do for you and the fish. I did call the State Control Center for Herbicides and they put a stop to it. I also called "Do nothing" Joe Hunter and he said he will look into it. Doesn't he know some of us eat the fish. Now its back on the books and now they are using an Air boat spraying this crap all over the Lake. Joe Hunter is busy killing the alligators now he's killing the weeds and the sport of fishing. This guy has no respect for the residents of Lake Ashton. Call him at 324-5457 and tell him to stop this damn spraying.
Friday, April 16, 2010
Article Courtesy of The Tampa Tribune
By LAURA KINSLER
Published April 15, 2010
SAN ANTONIO - First they bid adieu to bankrupt developer TOUSA. Now homeowners at Tampa Bay Golf & Country Club can't get rid of the Falcones fast enough.
"I'll hold the door open while someone kicks them in the butt," homeowner Paul Frahm said Tuesday after a meeting hosted by Starwood Land Ventures representative David Ivin, aka "the new sheriff in town."
Starwood, a Bradenton-based investment company, bought TOUSA's Florida assets in February for $81 million. Less than two months later, officials announced they had reached a tentative purchase agreement with The Falcone Group and its lender for the community's golf courses and amenities.
The master homeowners association would pay $3.5 million to buy the amenities, which include the swimming pool, tennis courts and country club. The purchase price is virtually identical to a proposal residents made in 2009 that Falcone rejected.
But Ivin warned residents the agreement is tentative, and Falcone isn't going quietly. "There's not a lot of agreement between Falcone and Starwood except for the fact that we need to go our separate ways," he said.
Ivin said the master association would no longer continue to funnel 75 percent of its revenue to Falcone, who "doesn't believe he needs a contract or to show his financials."
Ivin warned that if The Falcone Group rejects the sale, it could lock residents out of the facility or sell it to another private operator.
If, however, the sale goes through, the HOA expects to cut fees almost immediately. That's because the association would operate the club as a not-for-profit business, eliminating the profit margins the Falcone brothers built into their budget. It also would be exempt from taxes, and the association would be able to borrow at a lower interest rate.
Association board members will have 45 days to inspect Falcone's books and financial records before voting to approve the purchase. Dozens of homeowners offered their expertise to help with the review.
Once the final analysis is presented, homeowners will have a chance to vote on whether to go through with the purchase. Chatter on the message boards has been mixed, but the response at two standing-room-only meetings was overwhelmingly positive.
"It sounds good, and I hope a lot of people go along with it," homeowner Bobbi Nichols said.
Izzy Forman, one of several homeowners who formed a company and sought to buy the amenities from Falcone, said he supports the Starwood plan wholeheartedly. "We're behind it 1,000 percent," he said.
Even neighborhood skeptic Dominic Gualtieri said he believes Starwood officials are "sincere in the efforts." He and three other residents who sued the HOA over its dealings with Falcone agreed to drop the lawsuit.
Two things helped sway the decision. First, Ivin didn't fight the lawsuit. "We really kind of agreed with them," he said. "To us, the things they were asking for seemed reasonable."
Also, Ivin assured homeowners that if the HOA is able to complete the purchase of the amenities, Starwood would turn the association over to the residents.
By LAURA KINSLER
Published April 15, 2010
SAN ANTONIO - First they bid adieu to bankrupt developer TOUSA. Now homeowners at Tampa Bay Golf & Country Club can't get rid of the Falcones fast enough.
"I'll hold the door open while someone kicks them in the butt," homeowner Paul Frahm said Tuesday after a meeting hosted by Starwood Land Ventures representative David Ivin, aka "the new sheriff in town."
Starwood, a Bradenton-based investment company, bought TOUSA's Florida assets in February for $81 million. Less than two months later, officials announced they had reached a tentative purchase agreement with The Falcone Group and its lender for the community's golf courses and amenities.
The master homeowners association would pay $3.5 million to buy the amenities, which include the swimming pool, tennis courts and country club. The purchase price is virtually identical to a proposal residents made in 2009 that Falcone rejected.
But Ivin warned residents the agreement is tentative, and Falcone isn't going quietly. "There's not a lot of agreement between Falcone and Starwood except for the fact that we need to go our separate ways," he said.
Ivin said the master association would no longer continue to funnel 75 percent of its revenue to Falcone, who "doesn't believe he needs a contract or to show his financials."
Ivin warned that if The Falcone Group rejects the sale, it could lock residents out of the facility or sell it to another private operator.
If, however, the sale goes through, the HOA expects to cut fees almost immediately. That's because the association would operate the club as a not-for-profit business, eliminating the profit margins the Falcone brothers built into their budget. It also would be exempt from taxes, and the association would be able to borrow at a lower interest rate.
Association board members will have 45 days to inspect Falcone's books and financial records before voting to approve the purchase. Dozens of homeowners offered their expertise to help with the review.
Once the final analysis is presented, homeowners will have a chance to vote on whether to go through with the purchase. Chatter on the message boards has been mixed, but the response at two standing-room-only meetings was overwhelmingly positive.
"It sounds good, and I hope a lot of people go along with it," homeowner Bobbi Nichols said.
Izzy Forman, one of several homeowners who formed a company and sought to buy the amenities from Falcone, said he supports the Starwood plan wholeheartedly. "We're behind it 1,000 percent," he said.
Even neighborhood skeptic Dominic Gualtieri said he believes Starwood officials are "sincere in the efforts." He and three other residents who sued the HOA over its dealings with Falcone agreed to drop the lawsuit.
Two things helped sway the decision. First, Ivin didn't fight the lawsuit. "We really kind of agreed with them," he said. "To us, the things they were asking for seemed reasonable."
Also, Ivin assured homeowners that if the HOA is able to complete the purchase of the amenities, Starwood would turn the association over to the residents.
Trailer Park
Two good ol' boys in an Arkansas trailer park were sitting around talking one afternoon over a cold beer after getting off work at their local plant.
After a while the 1st guy says to the 2nd, "If'n I was to sneak over to your trailer Saturday & make love to your wife while you was off huntin' and she got pregnant and had a baby, would that make us kin?"
The 2nd guy crooked his head sideways for a minute, scratched his head, and squinted his eyes thinking real hard about the question.
Finally, he says, "Well, I don't know about kin, but it would make us even."
After a while the 1st guy says to the 2nd, "If'n I was to sneak over to your trailer Saturday & make love to your wife while you was off huntin' and she got pregnant and had a baby, would that make us kin?"
The 2nd guy crooked his head sideways for a minute, scratched his head, and squinted his eyes thinking real hard about the question.
Finally, he says, "Well, I don't know about kin, but it would make us even."
A Simple Solution
After being married for 44 years, I took a careful look at my wife one
day and said, 'Love, 44 years ago we had a cheap apartment, a cheap
car, slept on a sofa bed and watched a 10-inch black and white TV, but I
got to sleep every night with a hot 25-year-old girl.
Now I have a $1,000,000 home, a $70,000 car, nice big bed and plasma
screen TV, but I'm sleeping with a 69-year-old woman. It seems to me
that you're not holding up your side of the bargain.'
My wife is a very reasonable woman. She told me to go out and find a hot
25-year-old girl, and she would make sure that I would once again be
living in a cheap apartment, driving a cheap car, sleeping on a sofa bed
and watching a 10-inch black and white TV.
Aren't older women great? They really know how to solve a mid-life
crisis.
day and said, 'Love, 44 years ago we had a cheap apartment, a cheap
car, slept on a sofa bed and watched a 10-inch black and white TV, but I
got to sleep every night with a hot 25-year-old girl.
Now I have a $1,000,000 home, a $70,000 car, nice big bed and plasma
screen TV, but I'm sleeping with a 69-year-old woman. It seems to me
that you're not holding up your side of the bargain.'
My wife is a very reasonable woman. She told me to go out and find a hot
25-year-old girl, and she would make sure that I would once again be
living in a cheap apartment, driving a cheap car, sleeping on a sofa bed
and watching a 10-inch black and white TV.
Aren't older women great? They really know how to solve a mid-life
crisis.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Developers Embrace New 'Flip Tax'
Article Courtesy of The Housing Watch
By Charles FeldmanPublished April 14, 2010
Apparently, developers feel they haven't been getting theirs. With new home development stalling, developers seem to think that the only way they can increase profitability is to build it into their work. Behold then, the latest financial scheme from the housing industry: a flip tax that gets paid to the developer every time the home gets sold.
Not surprisingly, developers are embracing the private transfer fee -- a sort of lien attached to a newly built house (or land), reports the Washington Post. Every time that house is sold over a 99 year period (thank God we're not talking about 100 years!!), 1 percent of the price gets kicked back to the original developer and, in some cases, is shared with their investor partners. When you figure that the average homebuyer these days keeps a house for about 6 years, that's one hell of a revenue stream for developers and their investors!
Reportedly, a New York company, Freehold Capital Partners, is signing up developers for this fee scheme left and right, though it refused to tell the WashPo just how many clients it now has. It's Web site, however, claims the owners of $300 billion in real estate projects have now gone into business with it.
And as if we haven't learned a lesson about slice-and-dice packaging of mortgages, Freehold Capital apparently wants to "securitize" pools of transfer fees that can then be spun off and sold to investors.
Now this is, as you might imagine, controversial. So much so, some states have apparently either limited or banned these "private transfer fees." OK, I should have known you'd want to know which ones: Kansas, Oregon, Florida and Missouri, just plain ban the practice, according to the paper, while Texas and California have some restrictions on it.
But most states do not address the issue of these fees at all, so it is something you the potential home buyer should look for before signing a contract for a new home. That's vital because the fees (which are paid by the seller) are not subject to negotiation. If you end up selling a house one day that has one of these private transfer fee deals attached to it, you either pay a trustee at closing or, sorry, no sale!
Developers think this is a swell concept because they can, over years, get back some of the initial upfront costs of the project without having to have the first buyer of the property cough up the entire amount. However, others argue that, in the long run, homes with transfer fees attached will actually become more difficult to sell, which, if you happen to be the current homeowner, is not such a good thing!
If you think you may be able to fight this in court someday, think again. Not so easy, apparently.
On the PR Newswire this past weekend, one expert on private transfer fees delivered a commentary of sorts. Says attorney RJon Robins, a member of the Florida Bar's Real Property, Probate & Trust Law Section, "...absent a specific statutory prohibition, a well-crafted private transfer fee covenant will likely be enforceable, particularly when undertaken in connection with a real estate development project."
By Charles FeldmanPublished April 14, 2010
Apparently, developers feel they haven't been getting theirs. With new home development stalling, developers seem to think that the only way they can increase profitability is to build it into their work. Behold then, the latest financial scheme from the housing industry: a flip tax that gets paid to the developer every time the home gets sold.
Not surprisingly, developers are embracing the private transfer fee -- a sort of lien attached to a newly built house (or land), reports the Washington Post. Every time that house is sold over a 99 year period (thank God we're not talking about 100 years!!), 1 percent of the price gets kicked back to the original developer and, in some cases, is shared with their investor partners. When you figure that the average homebuyer these days keeps a house for about 6 years, that's one hell of a revenue stream for developers and their investors!
Reportedly, a New York company, Freehold Capital Partners, is signing up developers for this fee scheme left and right, though it refused to tell the WashPo just how many clients it now has. It's Web site, however, claims the owners of $300 billion in real estate projects have now gone into business with it.
And as if we haven't learned a lesson about slice-and-dice packaging of mortgages, Freehold Capital apparently wants to "securitize" pools of transfer fees that can then be spun off and sold to investors.
Now this is, as you might imagine, controversial. So much so, some states have apparently either limited or banned these "private transfer fees." OK, I should have known you'd want to know which ones: Kansas, Oregon, Florida and Missouri, just plain ban the practice, according to the paper, while Texas and California have some restrictions on it.
But most states do not address the issue of these fees at all, so it is something you the potential home buyer should look for before signing a contract for a new home. That's vital because the fees (which are paid by the seller) are not subject to negotiation. If you end up selling a house one day that has one of these private transfer fee deals attached to it, you either pay a trustee at closing or, sorry, no sale!
Developers think this is a swell concept because they can, over years, get back some of the initial upfront costs of the project without having to have the first buyer of the property cough up the entire amount. However, others argue that, in the long run, homes with transfer fees attached will actually become more difficult to sell, which, if you happen to be the current homeowner, is not such a good thing!
If you think you may be able to fight this in court someday, think again. Not so easy, apparently.
On the PR Newswire this past weekend, one expert on private transfer fees delivered a commentary of sorts. Says attorney RJon Robins, a member of the Florida Bar's Real Property, Probate & Trust Law Section, "...absent a specific statutory prohibition, a well-crafted private transfer fee covenant will likely be enforceable, particularly when undertaken in connection with a real estate development project."
Former condo manager accused of fraud
Article Courtesy of The Charlotte Herald
By Jason Wirtz
Published April 7, 2010
CHARLOTTE COUNTY - Investigators arrested a former Port Charlotte condominium manager who is accused of embezzling thousands of dollars from residents of a local retirement community.
Stacey Herrin Tuck, 35, of North Port, was charged Sunday with scheme to defraud and grand theft, after an 18-month investigation.
"She was the No. 1 suspect from the beginning," said Charlotte County Sheriff's Office spokesman Bob Carpenter.
Tuck's arrest stems from a complaint in September 2008 by representatives of Chelsea House, an association of Charlotte Square condos, a 55-and-older complex near Fawcett Memorial Hospital.
At the time, association representatives told detectives that its June and August bank statements did not balance.
Carpenter said investigators eventually traced more than $100,000 to Tuck, although condo officials estimate that up to $4 million is missing from various association accounts.
Charlotte Square consists of nine buildings, called houses, with each having its own association. Each of the associations is independently run by an elected board of directors.
Stacey Herrin Tuck
According to authorities, Charlotte Square hired Star Hospitality Management, Inc., as its community association manager, and in 1996, the Punta Gorda-based company put Tuck in charge of all day-to-day operations.
Star Hospitality Management representatives did not return calls seeking comment.
Tuck reportedly managed the maintenance and financial affairs for the entire complex, including access to monthly and annual bank statements.
Detectives said the alleged scheme began in 2006, although it was not noticed for two years.
A former president of the Cambridge House called for an audit in 2006, 2007, and 2008 but was voted down.
Carpenter said the investigation has been technical and exhausting, as many of the residents who filed complaints are snowbirds.
Tuck is being held at the Sarasota County jail on $100,000 bond. She will be extradited to Charlotte County.
More charges are pending.
By Jason Wirtz
Published April 7, 2010
CHARLOTTE COUNTY - Investigators arrested a former Port Charlotte condominium manager who is accused of embezzling thousands of dollars from residents of a local retirement community.
Stacey Herrin Tuck, 35, of North Port, was charged Sunday with scheme to defraud and grand theft, after an 18-month investigation.
"She was the No. 1 suspect from the beginning," said Charlotte County Sheriff's Office spokesman Bob Carpenter.
Tuck's arrest stems from a complaint in September 2008 by representatives of Chelsea House, an association of Charlotte Square condos, a 55-and-older complex near Fawcett Memorial Hospital.
At the time, association representatives told detectives that its June and August bank statements did not balance.
Carpenter said investigators eventually traced more than $100,000 to Tuck, although condo officials estimate that up to $4 million is missing from various association accounts.
Charlotte Square consists of nine buildings, called houses, with each having its own association. Each of the associations is independently run by an elected board of directors.
Stacey Herrin Tuck
According to authorities, Charlotte Square hired Star Hospitality Management, Inc., as its community association manager, and in 1996, the Punta Gorda-based company put Tuck in charge of all day-to-day operations.
Star Hospitality Management representatives did not return calls seeking comment.
Tuck reportedly managed the maintenance and financial affairs for the entire complex, including access to monthly and annual bank statements.
Detectives said the alleged scheme began in 2006, although it was not noticed for two years.
A former president of the Cambridge House called for an audit in 2006, 2007, and 2008 but was voted down.
Carpenter said the investigation has been technical and exhausting, as many of the residents who filed complaints are snowbirds.
Tuck is being held at the Sarasota County jail on $100,000 bond. She will be extradited to Charlotte County.
More charges are pending.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Tax time problem!,She didn't go to Acorn(The Obama's people)
A woman walks into an accountant's office and tells him that she needs to file her taxes.
The accountant says, "Before we begin, I'll need to ask you a few questions." He gets her name, address, social security number, etc. And then asks, "What is your occupation?"
"I'm a whore," she says.
The accountant is somewhat taken aback and says, "No, No, No, that won't work. Let's try to rephrase that."
The woman says, "OK, I'm a high-end call girl."
"No, that still won't work. Try again."
They both think for a moment and the woman says, "I'm an elite chicken farmer."
The accountant asks, "What does chicken farming have to do with being a prostitute?"
"Well, I raised a thousand little peckers last year."
"Chicken Farmer it is."
The accountant says, "Before we begin, I'll need to ask you a few questions." He gets her name, address, social security number, etc. And then asks, "What is your occupation?"
"I'm a whore," she says.
The accountant is somewhat taken aback and says, "No, No, No, that won't work. Let's try to rephrase that."
The woman says, "OK, I'm a high-end call girl."
"No, that still won't work. Try again."
They both think for a moment and the woman says, "I'm an elite chicken farmer."
The accountant asks, "What does chicken farming have to do with being a prostitute?"
"Well, I raised a thousand little peckers last year."
"Chicken Farmer it is."
War Story
A U.S. Army Ranger squad was marching north of Fallujah when they came upon an Iraqi terrorist who was badly injured and unconscious. On the opposite side of the road was an Green Beret in a similar but less serious state.
The Green Beret was conscious and alert and as first aid was given to both men, the squad leader asked the injured Soldier what had happened. The Green Beret reported, "I was heavily armed and moving north along the highway here, and coming south
was a heavily armed insurgent. We saw each other and both took cover in the ditches along the road.
I yelled to him that Saddam Hussein was a miserable, lowlife scum bag who got what he deserved.
And he yelled back that Barack Obama is a lying, good-for-nothing, left wing Commie who isn't even an American.
So I said that Osama Bin Laden dresses and acts like a frigid, mean-spirited lesbian!
He retaliated by yelling, "Oh yeah? Well, so does Nancy Pelosi!"
"And, there we were, in the middle of the road, shaking hands, when a truck hit us."
The Green Beret was conscious and alert and as first aid was given to both men, the squad leader asked the injured Soldier what had happened. The Green Beret reported, "I was heavily armed and moving north along the highway here, and coming south
was a heavily armed insurgent. We saw each other and both took cover in the ditches along the road.
I yelled to him that Saddam Hussein was a miserable, lowlife scum bag who got what he deserved.
And he yelled back that Barack Obama is a lying, good-for-nothing, left wing Commie who isn't even an American.
So I said that Osama Bin Laden dresses and acts like a frigid, mean-spirited lesbian!
He retaliated by yelling, "Oh yeah? Well, so does Nancy Pelosi!"
"And, there we were, in the middle of the road, shaking hands, when a truck hit us."
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Disable boat in Lake Ashton drifted to shore with caption.
Yes, it does happen in Lake Ashton. A 1948 Chris Craft boat run out of power with no one around. The caption had to stay with the boat until it drifted to shore. The Caption had to jump out and wadded to shore in waist deep water in front of the alligator's. How lucky can one be. He went back the following day and had another boat tow him back to the boat dock.
Finally, the WSJ published something good!!!
A "deadly" article regarding Obama, at the Wall Street Journal, which today is the most widely circulated newspaper in America.
Article from the Wall Street Journal by Eddie Sessions:
"I have this theory about Barack Obama. I think he's led a kind
of make-believe life in which money was provided and doors were opened
because at some point early on somebody or some group took a look at this
tall, good looking, half-white, half-black, young man with an exotic
African/Muslim name and concluded he could be guided toward a life in
politics where his facile speaking skills could even put him in the White House.
In a very real way, he has been a young man in a very big hurry. Who else do
you know has written two memoirs before the age of 45? "Dreams of My
Father" was published in 1995 when he was only 34 years old. The "Audacity of
Hope" followed in 2006. If, indeed, he did write them himself. There are some
who think that his mentor and friend, Bill Ayers, a man who calls himself a
"communist with a small 'c'" was the real author.
His political skills consisted of rarely voting on anything that might be
deemed controversial. He went from a legislator in the Illinois legislature
to the Senator from that state because he had the good fortune of having
Mayor Daley's formidable political machine at his disposal.
He was in the U.S. Senate so briefly that his bid for the presidency was
either an act of astonishing self-confidence or part of some greater game
plan that had been determined before he first stepped foot in the Capital.
How, many must wonder, was he selected to be a 2004 keynote speaker at the
Democrat convention that nominated John Kerry when virtually no one had ever
even heard of him before?
He out maneuvered Hillary Clinton in primaries. He took Iowa by storm. A
charming young man, an anomaly in the state with a very small black
population, he oozed "cool" in a place where agriculture was the antithesis
of cool. He dazzled the locals. And he had an army of volunteers drawn to
a charisma that hid any real substance.
And then he had the great good fortune of having the Republicans select one
of the most inept candidates for the presidency since Bob Dole. And then
John McCain did something crazy. He picked Sarah Palin, an unknown female
governor from the very distant state of Alaska. It was a ticket that was
reminiscent of 1984's Walter Mondale and Geraldine Ferraro and they went
down to defeat.
The mainstream political media fell in love with him. It was a schoolgirl
crush with febrile commentators like Chris Mathews swooning then and now
over the man. The venom directed against McCain and, in particular, Palin,
was extraordinary.
Now, nearly a full year into his first term, all of those gilded years
leading up to the White House have left him unprepared to be President. Left
to his own instincts, he has a talent for saying the wrong thing at the
wrong time. It swiftly became a joke that he could not deliver even the
briefest of statements without the ever-present Tele-Prompters.
Far worse, however, is his capacity to want to "wish away" some terrible
realities, not the least of which is the Islamist intention to destroy
America and enslave the West. Any student of history knows how swiftly Islam
initially spread. It knocked on the doors of Europe, having gained a
foothold in Spain
The great crowds that greeted him at home or on his campaign "world tour"
were no substitute for having even the slightest grasp of history and the
reality of a world filled with really bad people with really bad intentions.
Oddly and perhaps even inevitably, his political experience, a cakewalk,
has positioned him to destroy the Democrat Party's hold on power in
Congress because in the end it was never about the Party. It was always
about his communist ideology, learned at an early age from family,
mentors, college professors, and extreme leftist friends and colleagues.
Obama is a man who could deliver a snap judgment about a Boston
police officer who arrested an "obstreperous" Harvard professor-friend,
but would warn Americans against "jumping to conclusions" about a mass
murderer at Fort Hood who shouted "Allahu Akbar." The
absurdity of that was lost on no one. He has since compounded this by
calling the Christmas bomber "an isolated extremist" only to have to
admit a day or two later that he was part of an al Qaeda plot.
He is a man who could strive to close down our detention facility at
Guantanamo even though those released were known to have returned to
the battlefield against America. He could even instruct his
Attorney General to afford the perpetrator of 9/11 a civil trial when
no one else would ever even consider such an obscenity. And he is a man
who could wait three days before having anything to say about the
perpetrator of yet another terrorist attack on Americans and then have
to elaborate on his remarks the following day because his first
statement was so lame.
The pattern repeats itself. He either blames any problem on the Bush
administration or he naively seeks to wish away the truth.
Knock, knock. ; Anyone home? Anyone there? Barack Obama exists only
as the sock puppet of his handlers, of the people who have maneuvered
and manufactured this pathetic individual's life.
When anyone else would quickly and easily produce a birth certificate, this
man has spent over a million dollars to deny access to his. Most other
documents, the paper trail we all leave in our wake, have been sequestered
from review. He has lived a make-believe life whose true facts remain
hidden.
We laugh at the ventriloquist's dummy, but what do you do when the
dummy is President of the United States of America ?"
Al Legatzke
legatzke@wbhsi.net
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Article from the Wall Street Journal by Eddie Sessions:
"I have this theory about Barack Obama. I think he's led a kind
of make-believe life in which money was provided and doors were opened
because at some point early on somebody or some group took a look at this
tall, good looking, half-white, half-black, young man with an exotic
African/Muslim name and concluded he could be guided toward a life in
politics where his facile speaking skills could even put him in the White House.
In a very real way, he has been a young man in a very big hurry. Who else do
you know has written two memoirs before the age of 45? "Dreams of My
Father" was published in 1995 when he was only 34 years old. The "Audacity of
Hope" followed in 2006. If, indeed, he did write them himself. There are some
who think that his mentor and friend, Bill Ayers, a man who calls himself a
"communist with a small 'c'" was the real author.
His political skills consisted of rarely voting on anything that might be
deemed controversial. He went from a legislator in the Illinois legislature
to the Senator from that state because he had the good fortune of having
Mayor Daley's formidable political machine at his disposal.
He was in the U.S. Senate so briefly that his bid for the presidency was
either an act of astonishing self-confidence or part of some greater game
plan that had been determined before he first stepped foot in the Capital.
How, many must wonder, was he selected to be a 2004 keynote speaker at the
Democrat convention that nominated John Kerry when virtually no one had ever
even heard of him before?
He out maneuvered Hillary Clinton in primaries. He took Iowa by storm. A
charming young man, an anomaly in the state with a very small black
population, he oozed "cool" in a place where agriculture was the antithesis
of cool. He dazzled the locals. And he had an army of volunteers drawn to
a charisma that hid any real substance.
And then he had the great good fortune of having the Republicans select one
of the most inept candidates for the presidency since Bob Dole. And then
John McCain did something crazy. He picked Sarah Palin, an unknown female
governor from the very distant state of Alaska. It was a ticket that was
reminiscent of 1984's Walter Mondale and Geraldine Ferraro and they went
down to defeat.
The mainstream political media fell in love with him. It was a schoolgirl
crush with febrile commentators like Chris Mathews swooning then and now
over the man. The venom directed against McCain and, in particular, Palin,
was extraordinary.
Now, nearly a full year into his first term, all of those gilded years
leading up to the White House have left him unprepared to be President. Left
to his own instincts, he has a talent for saying the wrong thing at the
wrong time. It swiftly became a joke that he could not deliver even the
briefest of statements without the ever-present Tele-Prompters.
Far worse, however, is his capacity to want to "wish away" some terrible
realities, not the least of which is the Islamist intention to destroy
America and enslave the West. Any student of history knows how swiftly Islam
initially spread. It knocked on the doors of Europe, having gained a
foothold in Spain
The great crowds that greeted him at home or on his campaign "world tour"
were no substitute for having even the slightest grasp of history and the
reality of a world filled with really bad people with really bad intentions.
Oddly and perhaps even inevitably, his political experience, a cakewalk,
has positioned him to destroy the Democrat Party's hold on power in
Congress because in the end it was never about the Party. It was always
about his communist ideology, learned at an early age from family,
mentors, college professors, and extreme leftist friends and colleagues.
Obama is a man who could deliver a snap judgment about a Boston
police officer who arrested an "obstreperous" Harvard professor-friend,
but would warn Americans against "jumping to conclusions" about a mass
murderer at Fort Hood who shouted "Allahu Akbar." The
absurdity of that was lost on no one. He has since compounded this by
calling the Christmas bomber "an isolated extremist" only to have to
admit a day or two later that he was part of an al Qaeda plot.
He is a man who could strive to close down our detention facility at
Guantanamo even though those released were known to have returned to
the battlefield against America. He could even instruct his
Attorney General to afford the perpetrator of 9/11 a civil trial when
no one else would ever even consider such an obscenity. And he is a man
who could wait three days before having anything to say about the
perpetrator of yet another terrorist attack on Americans and then have
to elaborate on his remarks the following day because his first
statement was so lame.
The pattern repeats itself. He either blames any problem on the Bush
administration or he naively seeks to wish away the truth.
Knock, knock. ; Anyone home? Anyone there? Barack Obama exists only
as the sock puppet of his handlers, of the people who have maneuvered
and manufactured this pathetic individual's life.
When anyone else would quickly and easily produce a birth certificate, this
man has spent over a million dollars to deny access to his. Most other
documents, the paper trail we all leave in our wake, have been sequestered
from review. He has lived a make-believe life whose true facts remain
hidden.
We laugh at the ventriloquist's dummy, but what do you do when the
dummy is President of the United States of America ?"
Al Legatzke
legatzke@wbhsi.net
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1,000 pets killed in building blaze
Breaking News
1,000 pets killed in building blaze
More than 1,000 animals - mostly guinea pigs - have died after a fire at a pet breeding centre, police said.
Officers were called to a "significant fire" at the animal breeding centre in Lewdown, Okehampton, Devon, at 1.45am on Tuesday morning.
The centre is used for breeding domestic pets, Devon and Cornwall Police confirmed.
A force spokesman said: "The fire has resulted in the death of over 1,000 animals, mostly believed to be guinea pigs.
"The cause of the fire has not been established and fire and police investigators are in the process of conducting investigation and inquiries."
1,000 pets killed in building blaze
More than 1,000 animals - mostly guinea pigs - have died after a fire at a pet breeding centre, police said.
Officers were called to a "significant fire" at the animal breeding centre in Lewdown, Okehampton, Devon, at 1.45am on Tuesday morning.
The centre is used for breeding domestic pets, Devon and Cornwall Police confirmed.
A force spokesman said: "The fire has resulted in the death of over 1,000 animals, mostly believed to be guinea pigs.
"The cause of the fire has not been established and fire and police investigators are in the process of conducting investigation and inquiries."
Monday, April 12, 2010
Golf community teed off over fees
Article Courtesy of The Tampa Tribune
By LAURA KINSLER
Published September 24, 2009
SAN ANTONIO - Tampa Bay Golf & Country Club is threatening to double homeowners' fees after the residents refused to buy the struggling golf course and country club.
Homeowners are outraged by a letter - on stationery from the defunct Transeastern Homes - that informed residents the golf course owner would stop making mortgage payments on the course and clubhouse, double homeowner fees and cut services.
"It's a threat to the community," homeowner Don Mounts said. "They're trying to force us to purchase the amenities."
"They" is Transeastern founder Robert Falcone, who kept the community's golf course and country club after TOUSA-backed Engle Homes took over development of the retirement community. The company charges homeowners a monthly amenity fee of $125 for access to the swimming pool and clubhouse.
Falcone's TBG&CC Recreation LLC also receives thousands of dollars every time a house is sold in the community. But with TOUSA mired in bankruptcy and new home construction ground to a halt, Falcone sought to unload the golf course and country club. He began negotiating with a group of neighborhood association presidents this year, but those talks broke down.
"He wanted over $6 million," Mounts said. "The Presidents' Council came back and offered him $3.8 million. He rejected it in less than an hour."
The letter, which was posted on bulletin boards throughout the community, references those negotiations and states:
"To help cover debt service and club operations, the club is amending the Membership Plan to allow the monthly amenity fee to increase from $125 to $185. We will also be implementing a $750 food minimum per household for the restaurant."
Mounts said the food charge equates to a fee, and with those added charges, a homeowner would go from paying $1,450 a year to $2,920.
Management also plans to eliminate meal services, stop heating the pool this winter and possibly close the executive nine-hole golf course. Club manager Rich Unger did not return phone calls.
"As always, we welcome continuing dialogue with the Presidents' Council to help facilitate a potential sale of the club operations from the Falcone Group directly to the residents of Tampa Bay Golf & Country Club," the letter stated.
The negotiations have been controversial from the start because only the TOUSA-controlled Master Homeowners' Association has authority to buy the amenities. Domenic Gualtieri, a vocal critic of the association, said the presidents' council overstepped its authority when it made an offer without allowing the homeowners any say in the matter.
Gualtieri also pointed out that Falcone cannot unilaterally raise fees. The threatened increases would have to be approved by the master homeowners association, which has not addressed the matter.
TOUSA executives from Jacksonville and Orlando hold a majority vote on the board. Deer Hollow resident Joan Hedlund represents the only homeowner voice on the board. None returned phone calls.
By LAURA KINSLER
Published September 24, 2009
SAN ANTONIO - Tampa Bay Golf & Country Club is threatening to double homeowners' fees after the residents refused to buy the struggling golf course and country club.
Homeowners are outraged by a letter - on stationery from the defunct Transeastern Homes - that informed residents the golf course owner would stop making mortgage payments on the course and clubhouse, double homeowner fees and cut services.
"It's a threat to the community," homeowner Don Mounts said. "They're trying to force us to purchase the amenities."
"They" is Transeastern founder Robert Falcone, who kept the community's golf course and country club after TOUSA-backed Engle Homes took over development of the retirement community. The company charges homeowners a monthly amenity fee of $125 for access to the swimming pool and clubhouse.
Falcone's TBG&CC Recreation LLC also receives thousands of dollars every time a house is sold in the community. But with TOUSA mired in bankruptcy and new home construction ground to a halt, Falcone sought to unload the golf course and country club. He began negotiating with a group of neighborhood association presidents this year, but those talks broke down.
"He wanted over $6 million," Mounts said. "The Presidents' Council came back and offered him $3.8 million. He rejected it in less than an hour."
The letter, which was posted on bulletin boards throughout the community, references those negotiations and states:
"To help cover debt service and club operations, the club is amending the Membership Plan to allow the monthly amenity fee to increase from $125 to $185. We will also be implementing a $750 food minimum per household for the restaurant."
Mounts said the food charge equates to a fee, and with those added charges, a homeowner would go from paying $1,450 a year to $2,920.
Management also plans to eliminate meal services, stop heating the pool this winter and possibly close the executive nine-hole golf course. Club manager Rich Unger did not return phone calls.
"As always, we welcome continuing dialogue with the Presidents' Council to help facilitate a potential sale of the club operations from the Falcone Group directly to the residents of Tampa Bay Golf & Country Club," the letter stated.
The negotiations have been controversial from the start because only the TOUSA-controlled Master Homeowners' Association has authority to buy the amenities. Domenic Gualtieri, a vocal critic of the association, said the presidents' council overstepped its authority when it made an offer without allowing the homeowners any say in the matter.
Gualtieri also pointed out that Falcone cannot unilaterally raise fees. The threatened increases would have to be approved by the master homeowners association, which has not addressed the matter.
TOUSA executives from Jacksonville and Orlando hold a majority vote on the board. Deer Hollow resident Joan Hedlund represents the only homeowner voice on the board. None returned phone calls.
Chinese drywall
There are now 18 homes in the Lake Ashton Community that have Chinese Drywall, most of them are in the West. Some of them are residents that has hired an inspector to look for this drywall. In the summer when the Sun is pointing at your house you will smell this drywall.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Barbara Follett
What is wrong with this activity person? I send her a E-Mail on the latest news about Cancer and she sends me an E-mail calling me an idiot. Where does she keep her brains? Joe Hunter sure does not know how to hired a person with some. Here she is, reading my Blog every morning along with all the other cast of characters including Joe and I get this bull from her. I still can't get a straight answer from her if she ask Margot Stevens to take a road call to get rid of Jeff Salvin as president of the CDD. She seems to know all the answers but the right answers. She should look in the mirror and maybe she will see an ----.
Phil Mickelson Captures Third Masters Title
Breaking News Alert
The New York Times
Sun, April 11, 2010 -- 6:56 PM ET
Phil Mickelson Captures Third Masters Title
Phil Mickelson won the 2010 Masters on Sunday. Mickelson's
spectacular run through the final nine holes put him at the
head of a pack in which several players vied for the lead.
Mickelson's Masters win capped off an emotional stretch in
which both his wife and mother were diagnosed with breast
cancer, leading to the golfer taking time off from the sport.
Phil Mickelson won the 2010 Masters on Sunday. Mickelson's
spectacular run through the final nine holes put him at the
head of a pack in which several players vied for the lead.
Mickelson's Masters win capped off an emotional stretch in
which both his wife and mother were diagnosed with breast
cancer, leading to the golfer taking time off from the sport.
The New York Times
Sun, April 11, 2010 -- 6:56 PM ET
Phil Mickelson Captures Third Masters Title
Phil Mickelson won the 2010 Masters on Sunday. Mickelson's
spectacular run through the final nine holes put him at the
head of a pack in which several players vied for the lead.
Mickelson's Masters win capped off an emotional stretch in
which both his wife and mother were diagnosed with breast
cancer, leading to the golfer taking time off from the sport.
Phil Mickelson won the 2010 Masters on Sunday. Mickelson's
spectacular run through the final nine holes put him at the
head of a pack in which several players vied for the lead.
Mickelson's Masters win capped off an emotional stretch in
which both his wife and mother were diagnosed with breast
cancer, leading to the golfer taking time off from the sport.
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