How Low Can You Go?

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I am just sooooo tired of you airheads. Politics ain’t a limbo contest.

limbo barAn open letter to Jim Messina and Stephanie Cutter on the Left, Matt Rhoades and Kevin Madden on the Right:

The Thief-in-Chief calls the Candidate-in-Chief a “liar or a felon” over the date he signed some papers.

Let us not forget that the Loyal Opposition has long claimed the Thief-in-Chief has no papers.

The Candidate-in-Chief retorted “liar liar pants on fire” about the Thief-in-Chief.

Let us not forget that the Loyalists have long claimed the Candidate-in-Chief is an evil, religious, rich guy.

I don’t give a hoot.

I don’t have a job.

Barack Obama made more money in Illinois selling political favors than you made in all of 2001. I don’t care.

Mitt Romney made more money last night than you made last year. I don’t care.

See, I read the news. I already know what Barack Obama has done to this country for the past three years. No amount of sleight-of-hand or political spin will change that although I have noticed he is running on “change” again. I also know what Mitt Romney has done for the past twenty years.

“I fixed the auto industry!” Mr. Obama crows in his ads. Sure. Stealing General Motors from its stockholders and introducing the worst selling car since the Aztek (which itself sold 112 more cars than the Edsel) is a great fix.

Mr. Obama? Quit it. Just stand up there in front of your record unemployment, your record public debt, your Chicago politics and tell us step-by-step how you are going to fix what you’ve done.

“I know what it’s like to worry whether you’re gonna get fired,” Mr. Romney said in New Hampshire.

Mr. Romney? Quit it. Just stand up there in front of your record at Bain, good and bad, your Olympics record, your Massachusetts record, and tell us step-by-excruciating-step what you will do to fix this mess.

otterMy friend Dean “Dino” Russell is a roofer in the middle Keys. Dancing about on roofs all his life has made him the most physically fit man in the Home Depot and gives him a unique overview of life. Dino noted that, “What this country needs is a veterinary service that will spay and neuter otters at a reasonable rate, not another third-rate carnival barker who can do the limbo.”

And, for the record? Until the IRS tells me otherwise, I figure Barack Obama and Mitt Romney followed the tax code to the letter and paid exactly the taxes they each owed. As did Mortimer Zuckerman and Warren Buffett and David Koch and Sheldon Adelson. And me.

And I don’t even have a job.

Lordy Lordy™.

UPDATE – UPDATE – UPDATE – UPDATE – UPDATEJuly 21, 2012 — “We will pull all the ‘comparison’ ads.”

July 22, 2012 — CBS Sunday Morning today aired the singing Romney ad. “Approved by Barack Obama. Paid for by Obama for America.” CBS’ Face the Nation today aired the “You can change” ad. Paid for by Karl Rove’s American Crossroads PAC.

Good to see nothing ever changes.

Thursday Thoughts

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parking meter46 years ago today, the St. Albans City Council approved $100 for training meter maids.

On Monday, the St. Albans City Council praised the police department for its investigation into the death of Christopher Davis. The inquiry and five arrests “took the entire department” and cost $36,000.

St. Albans no longer has meter maids.

I Can’t Count That High

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One of the cops running for Monroe County, Florida, Sheriff told an election forum that it’s common to have 13 deputies with 13 supervisors on any shift. “One supervisor for every deputy isn’t right,” he said. The current undersheriff, also a candidate, said studies show the Sheriff’s Office division of ranks is very similar to other Florida departments of equivalent size.

Well, sure.

5-pointed starThe stable population of Pinellas County, Florida is 928,031 with over 3,000 Sheriff’s Office employees in five major service bureaus. The Broward County Sheriff’s Office handles both law enforcement and fire rescue duties with 6,300 employees for 1,753,578 population. The Monroe County Sheriff’s Office employs 543 people for a population that in peak season (January until April) may reach as high as 150,000 but is stable at less than half that.

Each Florida county also has municipal departments. Key West P.D., for example, has 108 employees and Key Colony Beach another five. And we haven’t counted the state police, the highway patrol, or the FDLE.

BSO revenues are about $65 million annually (BSO receives about $700 million each year).

As a point of reference, the Franklin County, Vermont, Sheriff’s Office is the county’s primary law enforcement agency. Franklin County has about half the Monroe County population at 47,806, and 23 FCSO employees. Even counting St Albans City P.D., Swanton P.D., there are fewer than 70 law enforcement personnel in total. Even the Vermont State Police has fewer troopers statewide than any one Florida county.

FCSO revenues are about $2 million annually.

As a side note, every organization of long standing will swell its supervisory ranks; good people need promotions or they don’t stay. And more supervisors need more people in the trenches to, well, supervise.

Sheriffs are usually the only county-wide “local” law enforcement agency. The Staties can be run anywhere in the state and municipal police officers report to town/city officials. Sheriffs Departments provide civil process, law enforcement assistance to small towns, help with emergencies such as the recent Floods, perform death investigations, and help stranded motorists.

Most sheriff’s offices provide law enforcement services under contract to municipalities and townships in their County. Each Vermont sheriff may receive up to 5 percent of the value of the contracts as an “administrative fee.” Reports are mixed on the administrative fees available to sheriffs in other states.

All of that adds up to a single question:

Is Vermont under served or does Florida generally and the Keys in particular have way more policing than anywhere else in the nation?

Thorsday Thorn: Not a Single Dime

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“You will not see your taxes increase by a single dime, not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains tax …”

“It’s a tax,” Chief Justice John Roberts decreed.

Liberals and conservatives alike threw out George H. W. Bush when he promised “no new taxes.” Conservatives are already on on board to dump Barack Obama for that and a litany of other evils.

It’s time for the liberals to fish or cut bait: you can either dump your great and exalted O for lying to you or run off with your tail between your legs and pretend that a tax is not a tax is not actually a tax.