Yeah. You read that right. I had to fill in for my boss at work and that meant spending over three hours at a large meeting with a professional, card carrying political lobbyist. It was a primer of sorts, on how my employer can get funding from the State of Florida. Which politicians might be friendly to our needs and desires, and which wouldn’t. What steps we could take to influence the state politicians so that when we needed their vote on a matter, they would come through for us.

The worse part was I had to keep my mouth shut. That part was mandatory.

I actually found the whole thing very interesting.   In a nutshell, the people of a certain district vote to elect someone to be their representative in Tallahassee. And then other groups, such as large companies, hire lobbyists and pay them very handsomely to convince the representative to represent their interest, and not necessarily the interests of the people who elected them as their representative.

Of course, it helps if large companies help the representative to get elected by donating large sums of cash to their political campaigns.

After getting a closer look at how elected representation in Florida works, I came away with one suggestion.

Let’s try to get truth in politics. Instead of referring to these politicians as our “elected representatives”, let’s call them what they really are.

Whores.

By the way, I have more photos over on my other blog, somecameraguy.com

Peace out people.

sCG

I decided today to stretch myself, and try to find a positive story to positively talk about.  Despite continuing to be in an especially cranky mood. Living in South Florida, this is no easy task. I thought about the Miami-Dade School Board food fight yesterday, where the distinguished governmental bureaucrats who serve as role models for our children got into a huge fight over the nitwit running the F rated school cluster, Rudy Crews. But while I find pompous adults almost coming to blows and the school board meeting ending while half the members storm out in a snit amusing, others might actually find that disgusting. So, I’m passing on that rant.

I searched for more interesting and perhaps uplifting stories, but failed. Until I found this one printed in the Idaho Statesman. Actually, it was one of the headline stories. It seems Kenneth Casey, whose job was to drive fellow inmates to job sites for the Department of Corrections in Boise, Idaho, kind of got distracted. He may have actually robbed two banks in Boise, Idaho, before fleeing in a Mustang that he acquired after dumping the Department of Corrections van. He wound up in Baker City, Oregon, where he caused a huge ruckus. Baker City is about 140 miles from Boise, Idaho, for those of you interested.  Baker City has a population just under 10,000, or, twice the normal attendance of a typical Florida Marlins baseball game. (For those of you who are unaware, the Florida Marlins is rumored to be a professional baseball team based somewhere in South Florida. And please don’t insult them, after all, as one of my readers has pointed out to me, baseball is America’s Pastime. OK. Moving right along.)

Casey, 47, told reporters he took the wrong exit as he pulled off the freeway for a cup of coffee about 2 a.m. Tuesday. He said he had been through Baker City in 1999 and knew he could find a cafe near the freeway that was open all night, the Baker City Herald reported. Here is the first uplifting part – a place that serves such good coffee that a guy remembers it from nine years ago! Awesome!

He mistakenly took the south Baker City exit and traveled through downtown Baker City.  He was just a few blocks from the Baker Truck Corral when two police officers pulled him over after noticing there was no light over the license plate of the Ford Mustang he was driving.

When the officers told Casey to step out of the car, he instead locked the doors and sped east toward the freeway. He traveled north for a short stretch before crossing the median and returning back toward town. He drove onto the shoulder of the highway and then into the gravel.

Casey then left the car and ran from police. He eluded searchers until Tuesday morning when Jessica Profitt, an off-duty police dispatcher, spotted him in the parking lot of the Baker City post office, 1550 Dewey Ave.

Casey then jumped into the Powder River and floated toward the police department where officers arrested him at gunpoint.

Here is the best good news part. The guy apologized to the residents of Baker City, Oregon!

“I made some very bad choices,” Kenneth Casey told reporters Tuesday afternoon in a conference room at the Baker City Police Department. “I’m sorry I basically turned your town upside down for 12 hours and I hope you guys can forgive me. I just hope everybody can understand how sorry I truly am,” he said.

What an inspiring and uplifting story for Good & Happy News Thursday, eh!!!??

When was the last time one of South Florida career criminals, like the mayor or police chief, apologized????

Here is a photo of the Baker City Oregon police HQ that I pulled off their website.

Notice the police HQ is encircled by a rainbow? I wonder if this means that the entire Baker City Police Department is gay?

Somehow, I think not.

By the way, if you go to the police department’s web site, they actually display the names and email addresses of every patrol officer.  Kind of cool.

OK, I have to get dressed now. Yep, you’ve been reading my blog while I sat here in my boxer shorts. Poor you.  And…I have to find some slightly unwrinkled slacks, a long sleeve shirt and a tie that almost matches, and drive to the Stupid Factory for another fun filled day dealing with people with PhDs who can’t figure out which side of a coffee cup to pour coffee into.

Someone pray for me please….

Peace the heck out, OK?

SCG

I’m not a fan of porn shops. Not at all. But I am a fan of neon. Caught this picture on Sunrise Blvd about 10:15 PM ths evening.

SCG

South LA councilperson Jan Perry is concerned about the residents of her South LA district. Why? Because they are fat! And unhealthy! The culprit? Fast food!

The solution? Make it illegal to open any more fast food places in South LA.

The LA Times has the story:

A law that would bar fast-food restaurants from opening in South Los Angeles for at least a year sailed through the Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday.

The council approved the fast-food moratorium unanimously, despite complaints from representatives of McDonald’s, Carl’s Jr. and other companies, who said they were being unfairly targeted.

Coucilwoman Jan Perry, who has pushed for a moratorium for six years, said the initiative would give the city time to craft measures to lure sit-down restaurants serving healthier food to a part of the city that desperately wants more of them.

“I believe this is a victory for the people of South and southeast Los Angeles, for them to have greater food options,” she said.

The ban covers a 32-square-mile area for one year, with two possible six-month extensions.

The problem? Government. Government knowing what is best for us. And passing laws “for our own good”.

Oh, there is another problem with Perry’s law.  What is the difference between going into the drive through at McDonald’s or some other fast food place and purchasing a salad or maybe a baked potato, and going to a regular sit down establishment and scarfing down an entire plate of pasta? One could easily say a salad is a lot healthier than a giant plate of pasta. So, Perry’s law is illogical, flawed, and doesn’t make sense.

Oh wait! I forgot! She is part of a bureaucratic government, and they never, ever have to actually make sense!

Maybe Perry actually has concern for her residents. I don’t know her, other than she is a bureaucratic politician, so the chances of her giving a rat’s ass about anything other than her personal gain and personal career is pretty slim, at best. But the idea that Government knows best, and is here to help us, even if it means passing laws to force us to comply irks me.  What’s next? A fine or tax for eating bad?

We need to get government out of our lives. Out of our way. If we want to eat greasy burgers, that’s our right.

The last thing we need is government protecting us from our own freedom of choice.

SCG