A news and political blog for Palm Bay and Brevard County. Shining the light of truth on our local elected officials... whether they want it or not. |
Should be fun... the last time I was in-studio on election night I think was 2 or 3 years ago, but the time before that... well, that was in November 2000. Apologies in advance if this election turns out to be as crazy as that one. :) Talk to you Tuesday night!
The next Presidential election here in the USA is in 249 days. The national debt stands at $15,356,000,000,000 (over 15 trillion) and is rising. The unemployment rate remains above 8%, higher if you account for people who have given up looking for work at all. Gasoline prices at the pump are now slightly more than double what they were at the start of 2009, and our Secretary of Energy just told Congress that's a good thing. The value of the American dollar is falling due to the Federal Reserve's policy of printing money until the presses catch fire. Inflation is here, with the prices of groceries and other consumer goods on the rise. Economic growth is so slow that we're not even creating enough jobs just to keep up with the number of new college and high school graduates who are entering the job market for the first time. And Iran, a nation that has dedicated itself to eradicating Israel and the USA, stands on the verge of building its first nuclear weapon. These are all problems that have either been created or worsened by the leftist policies of President Barack Obama, and if the election is about these issues, Obama and the Democrats will lose in November. And what are we conservatives talking about right now?
We, uh, do actually want to win the elections in November, right? Just asking. Obama and the political left are keeping the national conversation away from their own economic and foreign policy blunders, the issues
they know they're the most vulnerable on right now. They are masters at staying on-message. We conservatives need to be too if we
want to win.
I see it's also been an eventful two weeks news-wise in Brevard, in Florida, and across the USA, and there's simply no way to do everything justice. So, on the theory that something is better than nothing, here's some quick capsule takes on the events of the past two weeks.
And who is that man? Why, none other than Governor Charlie Crist. Crist and Greer are birds of a feather. And I won't let you forget otherwise. Obama on Memorial Day
Mazziotti does the Twist
Gov. Crist signs new budget
Crist spares funding for St. John's Heritage Parkway
New Brevard Schools budget
No end in sight for oil leak
Titusville to property rights: drop dead
Titusville considers furloughs
Commissioners dry out wetlands development idea
Palm Bay considers new tax
Memorial Day parade gets scratched
Cocoa redevelopment
Cocoa Village Playhouse
Ultrasound bill
Possible tax office closure
Paula bows out
Government employee unions
Here's what I'll be talking about tonight at 8:00pm on The Vince Young Show on AM-1300 WMEL, as well as streaming live online at http://1300wmel.com. Call in at 321-631-1300! See ya on the flip side!
Library bumper-stickers were privately-funded
Thank you, Cathy! I'm more than happy to set the record straight on this issue. I also still have an outstanding inquiry with County Commissioner Trudie Infantini to confirm this, but given that Schweinsberg is a government employee whose e-mails are subject to the Sunshine Act, I doubt she'd risk lying to me by e-mail. I'm very glad to hear my tax money is not being used to print these stickers up. Of course, I now have a different beef: why are our libraries being used to distribute what basically amounts to political literature? Remember, the libraries are distributing these bumper stickers right from the Reference Desks. The purpose of these bumper stickers is to put political pressure on the County Commissioners to raise the library tax rate and increase library funding, all during a time when Brevardians are seeing their incomes drop and can't afford to see an even higher chunk of their income being seized from them by the government. That's a political message, one that not everyone agrees with. What if I decided to print up my own bumper stickers with this message: "I'M TAXED ENOUGH AND I VOTE! Freeze the library tax rate." Somehow I doubt the libraries would agree to distribute my bumper stickers from the Reference Desk right alongside their "I LOVE MY LIBRARY" bumper stickers. Just a guess there. Brevard Libraries consider keeping R-rated movies away from children
Then again, I also found it hard to believe that many librarians argue that it's wrongful censorship to tell a 6-year-old kid, "Sorry, but you can't check out Brokeback Mountain unless your mommy says it's okay." But apparently that's the case, since the American Library Association opposes any restrictions at all on checking out movies. That's the stance Brevard County's libraries have been following as well. I understand some parents don't worry about what their children watch. Hey, they're your kids. Raise them the way you want to. If this policy passes, you won't have to do a thing, and your 5-year-old can still run down to the local library and check out the entire Saw collection without you having to lift a finger. But for those parents who do give a darn what their children are watching, I don't think it's unreasonable to give them more control. Is it always going to work? Heck no. As Advisory Board member Barbara Jagrowski said before voting in favor of the new rule, "No matter what you put in place, children who are determined are going to find a way around that rule." That's always true, not just of children, but of adults as well. Murder is illegal, and people still commit murder anyway. So of course kids are going to find ways to check out R-rated movies, most likely with the library card of someone with inattentive parents. But that's no reason not to put this rule into place. Right now, parents have no control at all over what their children can check out from the library. This rule will change that, allowing parents who care to have at least some control over what their own children can check out. Some control is better than none. Ethics complaint filed Tobia over exam waivers
One aspect of this case that doesn't get talked about much is the fact that there were only 5 candidates in that race that year: 4 Republicans and 1 independent write-in candidate who chose not to campaign. There were no Democrats, and all 4 candidates expressed varying levels of conservative views. As this case moves forward, Tobia will no doubt argue in his own defense that he offered the same waiver to students who campaigned for his opponents. But considering the age of Tobia's students and the tendency towards younger citizens to be more liberal, there's a very good chance that many of Tobia's students were faced with this choice: campaign for a politcal candidate you vehemently disagree with, or take a final exam. Tobia apparently saw nothing wrong with this. Really says something about Tobia's approach to ethical concerns, doesn't it? If his attitude towards professional ethics was this cavalier in just this one incident, there's a good chance he's been equally loose in other situations that we just haven't heard about yet. I'm a registered Libertarian and can't vote in this primary, but let me offer some advice to my Republican comrades. If you stick with John Tobia, I promise he will burn you someday. If you re-elect him, don't come crying to me for sympathy when he blows up in your faces later. Will Dr. Heidar Heshmati get double-paid by the taxpayers?
Meanwhile, Brevard County began the search for a new health director to replace Dr. Heshmati, and they've narrowed down the list to three candidates. One of them is -- get this -- Dr. Heshmati. Yep. He's re-applying for the exact same job he retired from six months ago. And get this: thanks to a loophole in state law, if Dr. Heshmati gets re-hired, he'll get to keep collecting his retirement pension checks and his bi-weekly paychecks as the health director, both at the same time. It's called "double-dipping," and it's the exact same loophole Property Appraiser Jim Ford took advantage of when he won re-election, retired before his current term expired, and then took office to start the new term he'd just been elected to. Of course, Dr. Heshmati says it's not really double-dipping. But Florida Today's Matt Reed disagrees, and Reed is correct on this. Thank goodness a new law to close the double-dipping loophole takes effect later this summer. I'm tired of government employees looking
for ways to game the system at the expense of the taxpayers. Let Dr. Heshmati stay retired and hire someone else who actually cares more
about the people he's supposed to be helping.
Here's what I'll be talking about tonight at 8:00pm on The Vince Young Show on AM-1300 WMEL, as well as streaming live online at http://1300wmel.com. Call in at 321-631-1300! Thursday night will be my last show
This won't be the end of my involvement with WMEL -- I'll just be working here in a behind-the-scenes capacity. I plan to keep updating this website, vinceyoung.com, as local news continues to affect our lives, our money, and our freedom, so keep hitting that Refresh button every now and then. And if I can ever work out a way to fit a radio show back into my schedule, I'll do it. I still have plenty to say, and one way or another, I'll find a way to say it. Alright... two shows left. Let's get going. County Commission continues to ignore reality
Let's face it: this economy sucks right now, and the future outlook doesn't look much better. The slow unraveling of the world's economy, the debt load of the federal government, the looming end of the space shuttle program, and the DeepWater Horizon oil spill all threaten to combine into another serious dent in Brevard's economy. That will lead to tax revenues for the county continuing their current decline. Simply put, Brevardians simply don't have as much money as we used to have, which means there's less money available for the Brevard County to seize from us in the form of taxes. And that truth is only going to get worse next year. And what is Brevard County's government looking at to balance the budget? Small-dollar gimmicks like keeping the thermostats warmer in government buildings, combined with raising taxes on a population that is making less money. Our government tries to do too much at too high a cost. It's time for someone to have the guts to look at every budget line-item, every government program, every individual employee, and ask the following question: "Is this needed to protect our citizens' rights to life, liberty and property?" If the answer is YES, then do whatever you have to do to keep it. If the answer is NO, then cut it. That will mean that some people in Brevard County who are used to getting extra stuff from their government won't be able to get it anymore. Too bad. The reason they were getting it is because the County government took money away from their neighbors and used that money to buy that stuff. We need to acknowledge that it is more important for hard-working citizens of Brevard to be allowed to keep the money they worked so hard to earn than it is for a few Brevardians to get some extra goodies from the government. That will also mean some government employees will lose their jobs. Too bad. Government is not a jobs program. Every time a government worker gets paid, they get paid with money that was taken away from their neighbors. If that government employee is doing a vital job that helps protect the rights of the citizens of Brevard, then hey: that's money well-spent. But if that government employee is just shuffling paperwork around on their desk and can't explain how the work they do protects anyone's rights, then it's time for them to go. We need to acknowledge that it is more important for hard-working citizens of Brevard to be allowed to keep the money they worked so hard to earn than it is to pay a government paper-pusher to do an unnecessary job. Or we can just keep doing what we're doing: nibbling at the edges of our bloated budget and taxing ourselves even more. Hey, it's worked so well for us so far, right? Blue Crab Cove price tags starts to grow
Well, now it looks like the County Commission was just getting started with the spending on Blue Crab Cove. Now they've voted 3-2 to spend an additional $1,800,000 over the next ten years to "upgrade" the land. Meanwhile, the County government is crying about how low on cash they are. To Mary Bolin, Robin Fisher and Chuck Nelson, I have a simple question: will anyone's rights to life, liberty, or property be threatened if this plot of land is allowed to stay exactly as it is now? No? Then why are we spending this money? Economic Development Commission stays alive -- for now
How many more tries should the EDC get at $1,500,000 a pop? This money is being poured down a rabbit hole, and we're getting no economic benefit in return. Quick hits:
Here's what I'll be talking about tonight at 8:00pm on The Vince Young Show on AM-1300 WMEL, as well as streaming live online at http://1300wmel.com. Call in at 321-631-1300! County Commission may "roll-up" library property tax rate
It looks like the battle lines are being drawn in the County Commission, with a proposal gaining steam to "roll-up" the library's property tax rate. What that means is that the property tax rate for funding the library system would be set to whatever rate is needed to keep the library's funding amount the same as last year. Since property values are dropping across the Space Coast, that means the tax rate itself would have to be higher in order to bring in the same amount of revenue. Moderate Commissioners Mary Bolin and Chuck Nelson and liberal Robin Fisher are for it, while conservatives Trudie Infantini and Andy Anderson are opposed. Any final vote on the tax rate would probably happen in July. It sounds like an ideal split-the-baby sort of compromise, doesn't it? The libraries get the same amount of money, and everyone's tax bill stays the same, right? Well, not exactly. First of all, the economy here in Brevard continues to sputter, with many people continuing to see their pay cut or losing their jobs entirely due to layoffs. People are making less money than they used to. If their income drops while their tax burden stays the same, that means you're taking a higher percentage of their income than you used to. To those residents, that's a tax increase, plain and simple. Bolin, Nelson and Fisher are also forgetting about the nastiest aspect of our property tax system here in Florida: the recapture rule. Here's how it works. Right now in Florida, there is a cap on how much your assessed property value is allowed to increase by from year to year, which in turn acts as a cap on how much your property tax bill can increase by. You probably know it as Save Our Homes. What a lot of people don't realize is that if your assessed value is capped one year due to Save Our Homes, the government can come along the following year and continue to increase the assessed value of your home towards what it would've been had it not been for the Save Our Homes cap -- even if your home's value actually dropped that year. That's the recapture rule, and every year it nails homeowners all across Florida. So how does this tie-in with "rolling-up" the library property tax rate? Well, if the recapture rule bumps up your home's assessed value, that alone will increase your property tax bill. Add in the library property tax rate being increased, and your property tax bill will increase even more -- even as Commissioners Bolin, Nelson and Fisher keep telling you that your tax bill will stay the same thanks to their brilliant compromise. The libraries need to be smarter about how they spend their money, plain and simple. Don't even try to tell me they aren't wasting a single penny of their funding right now. No government agency is that efficient. BCC votes to turn over Cocoa Village Playhouse to city
Long-story-short, this is no time for the City of Cocoa to take on yet another spending program, not with the economy continue to falter and with tax revenues continuing to drop. Let the Cocoa Village Playhouse go private, and let them figure out ways to run more efficiently to turn a profit just like other private theatre groups do all across the nation. And if the Playhouse is as valuable to Cocoa Village as people claim, then it seems to me that the businesses in Cocoa Village will see plenty of incentive to support the Playhouse themselves voluntarily as a smart business decision. Getting the taxpayers involved in funding the Playhouse by force is simply not needed, and it's not what Cocoa needs to be getting into right now. Gun-toting vigilantes run rampant along Space Coast!
Crist signs red-light camera bill into law
Yeah, don't tell me it's about traffic safety and not about revenue. A few cities in Georgia have proven what a lie that is. Linda McKinney wants Tea Partiers to get active
Supreme Court rules sex-abusers of children can be jailed beyond their sentence
Quick hits:
Here's what I'll be talking about tonight at 8:00pm on The Vince Young Show on AM-1300 WMEL, as well as streaming live online at http://1300wmel.com. Call in at 321-631-1300! FairTax show encore tomorrow night!
Libraries waste money to complain about funding
Case in point: those "I LOVE MY LIBRARY AND I VOTE" bumper stickers that have been popping up on cars all around the Space Coast lately. Guess who paid for them? You did... whether you wanted to or not. I called the Cocoa library myself not too long ago and spoke with a very nice librarian who cheerfully and proudly declared that the Brevard library system paid to have all those printed up, and that I could get one for myself at the Reference desk. So, let me get this straight. Brevard County's libraries are under-funded and desperately need more money in these hard economic times. But they have the budget to print up bumper stickers to promote a political viewpoint? This is outrageous. I pay property taxes in this county, including the library tax. When I pay that library tax, I want the library to spend it on maintaining the library buildings, operating their computer systems, buying books and research materials, and paying the wages of the employees. I don't want the library to spend my money to print up political bumper stickers expressing a viewpoint I disagree with. Unlike some political commentators on the Space Coast, I like libraries. I think they serve a valuable role to improve the educational level of our population, and they open up access to books and to the internet for people who would otherwise find it difficult to pay for that access. When the library sticks to that purpose, library funding is money well-spent. But printing up political bumper stickers is not the library's mission. And make no mistake: "I LOVE MY LIBRARY AND I VOTE" is a political message, a threat to vote against any elected official who wants to freeze or cut library funding. If some private volunteer group wants to print up bumper stickers with that message, great: they can take up donations, print 'em up, and slap 'em up on their cars. Free speech. It's wonderful. But the instant they want the taxpayers of Brevard County to pay for those bumper stickers, they have crossed a big fat line that should not be crossed. Hey, Library Board: if you're really so short on funding, don't waste your valuable money printing up political bumper stickers. Spend your money more wisely, and we won't be so tempted to take it away from you. Hard times call for hard choices
Given these truths, Binggeli could be running around demanding higher tax rates and increased funding. Instead, he's combing through the budget and looking for ways to hire more teachers to meet the new rules while cutting spending elsewhere in order to be able to afford those new teachers. He's proposing to eliminate vacant (and thus unneeded) school jobs and to lay off media assistants that, while nice to have, aren't needed for the proper education of our children, and he's pushing for other spending cuts as well. As Binggeli recently told the School Board, "Everyone must share the burden. We are going to tell our community that there are some things they might be used to seeing that they aren't going to see anymore." See, Brian Binggeli gets it: there's only a certain amount of money available for him to work with, and raising the tax burden on Brevard's citizens during this economy will simply make it even more difficult for already-struggling families to pay their bills. No matter how good or worthy a spending project is, if you don't have the money to pay for it, you don't have the money to pay for it. He knows he's going to anger some people by cutting unneeded programs and laying off unneeded workers, but he also realizes how important it is to make those cuts to save the rest of the school system. But it's a tough job, and I applaud Binggeli for having the guts to do what needs to be done. Looking to our north, New Jersey's new Republican Governor Chris Christie has similar choices to deal with. Facing a deficit of $10,700,000,000 on a state budget of $29,300,000,000, Christie has rolled up his sleeves and started cutting. He has no choice: it's either drastically cut the state's spending programs across the board, or watch New Jersey slide into utter financial ruin. And despite this stark reality, the people whose government programs and government jobs are being cut are screaming bloody murder about it, basically declaring that their own selfish gain is more important than preventing the financial collapse of an entire state. Christie, to his credit, isn't listening to them. Government officials and elected representatives at all levels need to take a lesson or two from Brian Binggeli and Chris Christie. The old ways of spend-spend-spend lead to nothing but huge public debts and people who are so dependent on government that they have lost the ability to take care of themselves. More of that model will simply lead to more of those problems. Kudos to Binggeli and Christie for recognizing the need for change -- true change. Confirmed: Cocoa Village Playhouse loses money for BCC
My idea remains the same: let the Playhouse go private, and let them make the decisions they need to make to operate
more efficiently as a for-profit business. They wouldn't be the first for-profit theatrical group, and I'd be willing to
bet that many Cocoa Village merchants would see it as a wise business decision to support the Playhouse to increase their
own customer base.
Here's what I'll be talking about tonight at 8:00pm on The Vince Young Show on AM-1300 WMEL, as well as streaming live online at http://1300wmel.com. Call in at 321-631-1300!
What I'm not a big fan of is government funding of the arts. When I was a musician, I never stuck my hand out to ask for a government grant. It sure would've been convenient to ask the government to take money out of someone else's pocket and put it in my hands so that I could've devoted more time to my music, but as convenient as it would've been, it would've been wrong. If my music had been good enough, people would've been willing to make a private decision to support my music, either by giving me donations or by buying copies of my songs. Instead, I never made a penny off of my music, because nobody thought it was good enough to pay for. And if it's not good enough for someone to choose to buy it, then why should the government have the power to come along and force everyone to pay me for my music anyway? So, it was with great interest that I read a story on Florida Today this afternoon saying that Brevard Community College has asked the city of Cocoa to consider taking over the Cocoa Village Playhouse. The city is nowhere near making a final decision, but the City Council has stated they're interested, though they want to study the Playhouse's financial situation first. Now, BCC is already a government institution in and of itself, but it tries to run itself somewhat similarly to a business so that it doesn't have to rely on quite as much government funding. So switching control of the Cocoa Village Playhouse from BCC to the City of Cocoa would put it more directly under government control. For that reason alone, I prefer the Playhouse to stay under BCC's wing. But ask yourself this question: why does BCC want to give up control of the Cocoa Village Playhouse? Think about this. BCC has limited financial resources based on a combination of government funding, private donations, and student tuition payments. There's only so much money to go around. If the Playhouse is making a profit off of box office ticket sales, then there's no way BCC would want to give up such a valuable source of income. So, that must mean one thing: the Playhouse is losing money, which means it's costing BCC money. That would be a great incentive for BCC to want to hand over control of the Cocoa Village Playhouse to someone else to free BCC of that burden. If the City of Cocoa takes control of the Playhouse, that means the City of Cocoa would be losing money on the Playhouse instead of BCC. That means the city would need to make up the difference between the ticket revenue and the bills and expenses. And how would they get that money? By taxing you, of course, since the City of Cocoa doesn't have a single penny of money that it hasn't seized from somebody through force of law. That's how governments get their money. But if Cocoa is like the rest of Brevard's cities (and it probably is), their land values are dropping, which means their property tax revenues are dropping. And between the unsettled economy and the upcoming end of the space shuttle program, that's likely going to continue for the forseeable future, which means less money available for the City of Cocoa to spend. Given the trouble every city in Brevard has been having just paying for the expenses that are already on the books, can the City of Cocoa really afford to add one more thing to spend your money on while that money is drying up? Taking over the Cocoa Village Playhouse would be a costly mistake, one the city can't afford right now. If Brevard Community College is concerned about the money they're losing on the Cocoa Village Playhouse, then it's time for them to cut the Playhouse loose and let it stand on its own, as a private business. Let them study their income and expenses and figure out how to save money and run more efficiently. There are theatre groups all across the nation, including here in Florida and even right here in Brevard, that operate privately, either as private charities surviving on donations and ticket sales, or even as for-profit businesses. There is absolutely no reason -- no reason -- why the Cocoa Village Playhouse can't convert to that model too. It will be difficult, but many of things worth doing in life often are. Art will not shrivel up and die in this nation without government funding. Hollywood seems to do just fine. So does Broadway. So do small-time musicians and artists in concert venues and museums all across the country. If art is worthwhile, people will pay for it voluntarily on their own. They already do it every day. There's no need for the government to force people to pay for it at the point of a gun as well. Let's tax existing businesses to bring in new ones!
But here's a bigger question: where is Titusville going to get the money to pay for these cash incentives? That's right: by taxing the citizens and business owners who already live in Titusville. Remember, this is an added expense to the city's budget, which is already facing a $5,000,000 shortfall due to rising spending and declining tax revenue. That means the city will need to take more money away from the businesses that are already in Titusville to pay for bringing in new businesses. How does this make any sense at all? In order for Titusville's economy to grow, existing businesses need to be supported in addition to bringing in new businesses from outside. But instead, Titusville is going to make it harder for the businesses that are in the city right now to stay open by taking more of their money away. That shiny government grant may bring in a new business from outside, but at the cost of killing off a business that was already there by taxing them too much to stay profitable. As usual, Titusville is missing the point here. There's a reason businesses are avoiding your city: your taxes are too high and your regulations are too strict. Lower your taxes and loosen your rules, and you will see businesses lining up from outside to join the ones that are already here. That's the road to prosperity, not coming up with more ways to spend money that you don't have. Oops! Add $115,000,000,000 to the ObamaCare price-tag
Quick hits:
Here's what I'll be talking about tonight at 8:00pm on The Vince Young Show on AM-1300 WMEL, as well as streaming live online at http://1300wmel.com. Call in at 321-631-1300!
I've talked before about Crist's other famous flip-flops, so add this one to the list. Back in 2008, Crist softened his stance against offshore oil drilling as public support turned in favor of drilling. Now that public opinion has turned against offshore drilling again, now Crist is against it again. What a surprise. To those of you who still support Crist's run for the US Senate as an indie candidate: can you please tell me what, exactly, Crist truly believes in? Can you honestly say that he won't ever change his mind on the issues that matter to you? He may agree with you today, but there's no guarantee he'll agree with you tomorrow. Titusville faces $5,000,000 budget gap
Titusville's solutions? Well, they're talking about raising taxes, of course. No surprise there. They're also talking about cutting spending programs, to which I say good. But they're also talking about eliminating vacant city government jobs, thereby admitting that those jobs are unneeded, since the city government didn't fall apart when the person who previously held that job left it. That tells me something very important: that job wasn't needed in the first place. If those now-vacant jobs weren't needed, why did they ever exist at all? Why was the city of Titusville seizing money from its citizens in the form of property taxes to pay the salary of a government employee who was carrying out a job that was not essential to the operation of the city? And more importantly, how many un-needed city employees are still on the payroll right now, sucking down tax money? Government is not a jobs program. And there should never be such a thing as an "unessential" government employee. Either they're essential, or they shouldn't be a government employee. Cut 'em loose. If it ain't broke, don't break it!
In both cases, things are working just fine the way they are now. Why try something different just for the sake of trying something different? That's how you end up with things like the Viera traffic circle. Aren't we taxed enough already?
Leave the tax rate alone: we're taxed enough already, and we used to be taxed too much. (Some would argue we still are.) Cut federal spending and get the debt under control that way. Work a job, or get free money? Hmm...
Hey, why work an honest job for eight hours a day outside when you can make almost as much money sitting on your butt at home watching Elimi-Date on TV? And it gets even better since Congress keeps extending everyone's unemployment benefits. Who needs a job? Florida Republican Party releases credit card records
On the other hand, if Crist pushes that story too far, it could blow up in his face. Who was the chairman of the state party who made the decision to hand out those credit cards? Why, none other than Jim Greer, who also paid very little attention to who was charging what on those cards. And who was the close political ally who called in multiple favors to make sure Jim Greer got that chairman job? Why, none other than Charlie Crist. And remember, though Crist himself didn't have a party credit card, he has acknowledged that some of Jim Greer's credit card charges were on Crist's behalf. Crist got the guy into office who issued those cards and made this whole mess possible, and Crist benefited directly from the existence of those cards. That means Crist has far more to answer for on this issue than Rubio. By the way, how much did everyone charge on these cards anyway? The St. Petersburg Times has the totals. Let's compare and contrast! Jim Greer charged $478,000 to his card, and Greer's own right-hand man Delmar Johnson charged a mind-blowing $1,400,000 to his card. Marco Rubio? Try $87,000 total. Quick hits:
Here's what I'll be talking about tonight at 8:00pm on The Vince Young Show on AM-1300 WMEL, as well as streaming live online at http://1300wmel.com. Call in at 321-631-1300!
Tonight, it's time to change that. I'll be joined in the WMEL studios tonight by Earl Medlen from the Florida FairTax Educational Association as we lay out the case for switching to the FairTax. The basics
The side most people never see is businesses taxes. When a business owner decides what prices to sell their products at, they have to make sure they're setting a high enough price to cover their expenses: paying their employees, paying rent, paying for utilities... and paying taxes. Businesses look at taxes the same way they look at any other business expense, and they set their prices high enough to cover all of their expenses. In a way, businesses don't actually pay even a single penny in business taxes; you do, every time you buy something from that business. The amount varies depending on the product, but studies have shown that for every dollar you spend buying something (a loaf of bread, for instance), about twenty-three cents of the price is to cover that business's tax bill. Economists call this an "embedded tax." But you never see it, just like you never see how much of that dollar is to cover their electrical bill, or their payroll, or any other expenses. All you see is that it costs you a dollar to buy that loaf of bread. That brings us to the FairTax. The FairTax is a national sales tax on all goods and services purchased at the retail level. Under the FairTax, all personal and business income taxes would be eliminated and replaced with a national retail sales tax rate of 23%. In addition, every American citizen would receive a "pre-bate" check every month to cover the cost of any FairTax you would pay for the basic necessities of life, with the amount based on the number of people in each household. What would this mean for you? First of all, look at your paycheck. Remember those three chunks the federal government takes out of each paycheck for Social Security, Medicare, and income taxes? Gone. Your gross pay becomes your take-home pay. But what about when you need to buy something, like that loaf of bread from before? Doesn't it cost more now? Actually, no. Remember, the $1.00 price tag on that loaf of bread included $0.23 cents in embedded taxes: 23%. But now the store doesn't have to pay income taxes anymore either. Those embedded taxes go away. Of course, now we have the FairTax, and the store has to account for the FairTax in the price of that loaf of bread: 23%. Notice how it's the same percentage as the embedded taxes used to be? So you still end up only paying $1.00 for that same loaf of bread. Before, the store would spend $0.23 cents of that dollar to pay their income taxes. Now, they take that same $0.23 cents and send it to Washington as the FairTax on that loaf of bread. And that's just the start. April 15th now becomes just another pleasant spring day, as Neal Boortz likes to say. The pre-bate checks make sure that poor families aren't overly burdened by the new tax system. The underground economy starts paying taxes too, as drug dealers and under-the-table workers who used to just hide their income by not filing their income tax forms now start paying sales taxes whenever they buy something. (Hey, the crack dealer down the street has to buy bread too, and he buys it the same way you do: at the store.) Want to know more?
If you want to learn more about the FairTax, a great place to start is, of course, FairTax.org. Clicking on the "About the FairTax" link in the upper-left corner will take you to some good general information and FAQs. Earl Medlen's group, the Florida FairTax Educational Association, has a great website for hooking up with other Floridians who support the FairTax. There's also FairTax Nation if you want to use the Internet to reach out to other supporters across the USA. And of course, if you're a real policy wonk, you can read the actual text of the Fair Tax Act of 2009 that is being considered in Congress right now: H.R. 25 in the House of Representatives, and S.296 in the Senate. Oh, books too! WMEL radio talk show host Neal Boortz and Georgia Representative John Linder (Republican) have teamed up and written two excellent New York Times bestselling books on the FairTax, with Linder providing the intellectual heft and Boortz providing the entertainment value. (A book on tax policy that's fun to read? Who knew!) The FairTax Book introduces the concept and answers many questions and concerns. And FairTax: The Truth: Answering The Critics offers rebuttals to many of the tired, old, and often wildly inaccurate criticisms of the FairTax that have come out as the plan has gained political traction across the USA. EDIT: If you have any questions you'd like to ask Earl Medlen about the FairTax, he
has graciously allowed me to share his phone number with you here on the website: (772) 202-4062. He lives in Barefoot Bay,
so don't worry: while it's technically long-distance, it's a cheap call. And hey, if you have a cell phone with free
long-distance calls, then you're set.
Since my show gets pre-empted for Orlando Magic basketball games, the Magic's NBA Playoffs schedule affects my schedule. The Magic have already won their 1st-round series, so they're waiting for the 1st-round series between the Atlanta Hawks and the Milwaukee Bucks to end so that the Magic can play the winner in the 2nd-round of the NBA Playoffs. The Hawks won Game 6 last night, forcing Game 7 to be played Sunday night. That guarantees that I will have a show on Monday night, May 3rd at 8:00pm, since the NBA won't force the winner of Game 7 to immediately play the Magic the very next night. As for the rest of next week... from what I can tell, the Orlando Magic will play the winner of the Atlanta/Milwaukee series on Tuesday 5/4 for Game 1 and on Thursday 5/6 for Game 2. That means I would get pre-empted Tuesday night and Thursday night, along with the Friday Night Locker Room pre-empting me on Friday night. That would leave me with another show on Wednesday night, May 5th at 8:00pm. But that schedule hasn't been confirmed by the NBA yet, so it's still subject to change. But for now, I'm going to aim for Wednesday night being FairTax Night with Earl Medlen from the
Florida FairTax Educational Association. I'll update this website if that changes.
Here's what I'll be talking about tonight at 8:00pm on The Vince Young Show on AM-1300 WMEL, as well as streaming live online at http://1300wmel.com. Call in at 321-631-1300! Yes, it's Friday night, and I have a show!
Next week's schedule still unknown
Basically, just watch this website. As soon as I know my on-air schedule for next week, I'll post it here.
Keep in mind where the EDC gets the money for "creating" these jobs: by taxing hard-working business owners and citizens here in Brevard County in the form of property taxes and business license and permit fees. That's money that people could've spent to pay bills, improve their businesses, or -- *gasp* -- hire new workers. For far too long, the EDC has been immune to spending cuts and has ceaselessly chanted the mantra, "We're creating jobs. It's money well-spent!" I'm thrilled to see Infantini holding their feet to the fire and demanding results. This is precisely why we sent Trudie to Viera: to bring more accountability to the County government. Great job! More local pork, this time in Titusville
What allowed this culture of federal pork to flourish? Attitudes like this:
It's not your money, President Obama. It's our money. We earned it through our own hard work. And how, exactly, do you calculate the figure of "enough money?" $100,000 a year? $50,000 a year? We consider $15,000 a year to be "poor" here in the USA, but I can think of a few poor Ethiopians who would consider $15,000 to be "enough money." Who gets to make that decision? This way of thinking is dangerous. But I would expect nothing less from a borderline socialist like Obama. Oil spill spreads
The second-guessing is getting more serious too. Some critics are pointing out that the Deepwater Horizon lacked an extra safeguard device that could've helped stop the leak, though it's important to point out that federal law didn't require the rig to have that device. It's also important to point out that other countries do require that device on their offshore rigs. As loathe as I am to support federal government interference in how businesses operate, I think we may want to rethink the decision to make this safety device optional. Considering how much this oil spill is interfering with the Constitutional rights of other marine companies to do their business, I do believe there is a valid role for the federal government to step in here. But while I do think there's room to consider more safety rules for offshore drilling, I also believe the calls from some corners to abandon offshore drilling altogether are outright foolishness. Solar, wind and nuclear power are simply not ready yet to take over the nation's energy burden, and may not be ready for quite some time. Until they are ready, we still need oil. And we can either get it from within our own borders using environmentally-safe practices that far outshine the rest of the world, or we can buy all of our oil from hostile foreign nations and ship it into the country using oil supertankers with a far worse spillage record than that of American offshore oil rigs. That's why I had to chuckle when I saw Jeff Schweers on FloridaToday.com criticizing Republican State Senator Mike Haridopolos for supporting offshore drilling in Florida just days before the spill. If Schweers is shocked by that, I can't wait to see his reaction to me continuing to push even harder for offshore drilling after the spill. As for Haridopolos, well, he has some pretty lofty company:
Yep, that's the Democratic President of the United States of America, just a couple of weeks before the spill, pushing for offshore drilling. It'll be interesting to see if Jeff Schweers posts this on his website too. Speaking of the safe record of offshore drilling in the USA (41 years between major oil spills, doncha know), the liberal Huffington Post website inadvertantly made that point for me with their list of 9 major American oil spills. Let's review: While trying to make the case for how dangerous offshore oil drilling is, their list includes 4 oil tanker spills, 3 refinery spills... and just 2 offshore rig spills from 1964 and 1969, 41 and 46 years ago. HuffPo wants us to stop drilling offshore for oil, but since we don't have any way of replacing that oil with anything greener at the moment, that means we'll have to switch to foreign oil being shipped in on supertankers. (See: major spills in 1976, 1989, 1996, 2010, and other tanker spills not on the list.) And the HuffPo thinks they're being environmentally responsible with this? Let's get real. Increased safety rules on offshore oil drilling? Absolutely. Stopping all offshore drilling immediately? No way.
Palm Bay defends code enforcement
Illegals to Arizona: "You can't arrest us! We're leaving!"
By the way, while I do have concerns with how broadly-written Arizona's new illegal-immigrant law is and the potential for a few rogue cops to harass law-abiding citizens, I'm in favor of this law overall. Any officers who do overstep their proper role can be punished by their superiors, just like what happens now if an officer gets too zealous enforcing any other law that's already on the books. If a cop mis-behaves, it's not the fault of the law; it's the fault of the cop. Bottom-line: if the federal government had done what we've been asking them to do for over a decade now and secured our borders, Arizona wouldn't have felt the need to pass legislation like this at the state level. If a poor family with no money and little education can get across our border, then so can a trained Islamic terrorist with money, training and equipment. That concerns me a hell of a lot more than some guy named Pablo Gonzales sneaking into Texas to mow lawns. Quick hits:
My apologies to all of you and to Earl Medlen from the Florida FairTax Educational Association... there's been a last-minute change to WMEL's on-air schedule for tonight. Instead of my show, we're carrying a special Thursday-night edition of the Friday Night Locker Room and their coverage of local high school baseball from 7:00pm until about 9:00pm, pre-empting my show for tonight. For those of you who were looking forward to Earl Medlen, fear not: he will be back, and he's an absolute saint for driving all the way up from Barefoot Bay to Cocoa only to learn at the same time I did that we wouldn't have a show tonight. As soon as the Orlando Magic's schedule for the 2nd round of the NBA playoffs gets set, I'll pick a new day for Earl to come back in here, and we'll get the FairTax show on. We'll also be dedicating a second show at some point to code-enforcement abuses, an issue that Earl has some first-hand experience with. The only good news in all of this? Since the Friday Night Locker Room is covering a Thursday night game this week, that
means I'll have a rare Friday night edition of The Vince Young Show on Friday, April 30th! So I'll talk to
all of you on Friday night at 8:00pm, on the Talk-To-Me Station, AM-1300 WMEL!
Here's what I'll be talking about tonight at 8:00pm on The Vince Young Show on AM-1300 WMEL, as well as streaming live online at http://1300wmel.com. Call in at 321-631-1300! Thursday night is FairTax Night!
A correction and an apology
While I've been keeping my eye on this story, Florida Today ran an article today talking about how the Loop Current in the Gulf of Mexico could pick up part of the oil slick, pull it down between Cuba and the Florida Keys, and then carry it north along the Gulf Stream current -- potentially all the way to the Space Coast. Nobody's saying it's likely, but it's certainly possible. As I read the article, something in my brain clicked. So I pulled up VinceYoung.com, searched for the phrase "Loop Current," and found this:
The Florida Today article is long-gone at this point, buried behind their pay wall. But from what I remember of it, both Amy Tidd and Tony Sasso, local environmental activists, were both taking the usual shots at offshore oil drilling, trying to paint it as horribly filthy and polluting. In the process, they were of course completely ignoring the fact that, prior to last week's explosion and spill, the last major oil spill from an offshore rig in American waters happened in 1969, 41 years ago. Going 41 years between major accidents is quite an accomplishment, one that Sasso and Tidd want you to disregard entirely. But I digress. At one point in the article, Tony Sasso painted a scenario in which an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico could get picked up by the Loop Current and carried to the shores of the Space Coast. I remember reading that at the time and thinking it was ridiculous, since the Loop Current flows counter-clockwise around the Gulf of Mexico, meaning that any oil slick in the Gulf would get carried away from Florida and wouldn't get the chance to come around to us. Boy, did I get that one wrong. The Loop Current actually goes clockwise around the eastern half of the Gulf of Mexico, putting it in the perfect position to possibly pick up this new oil slick and carry some it around to our coast, making Sasso's scenario come true. Turns out what I was thinking of is called the Loop Current Eddy, a current that sometimes breaks away from the main Loop Current and causes a counter-clockwise flow in the western half of the Gulf of Mexico. The Loop Current and the Loop Current Eddy are two different things, and when Tony Sasso mentioned the Loop Current, my brain jumped to the Loop Current Eddy instead. Stupid. So, on this one point, I feel the need to correct the record and apologize to Tony Sasso. On the Loop Current, you were right and I was wrong. That said... In defense of offshore drilling
But as a growing nation with growing energy needs, the USA still needed to get its energy from somewhere. So, we turned back to our old standbys: oil, coal, and natural gas. And rather than basing our energy systems around cleaner nuclear power as much of Europe has done, we stuck with our addiction to pollution-heavy fossil fuels. And we've paid the price for it ever since. Heck, had it not been for our over-reaction as a nation to Three Mile Island, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig that exploded and sank last week might not have been needed at all, thus averting the slow-motion disaster playing out today. One isolated accident in 1979 was enough to derail nuclear power and keep us addicted to oil. Now, the Deepwater Horizon has the potential to become the Three Mile Island of offshore oil drilling. Nobody is disputing the seriousness of this accident, with 42,000 gallons of oil leaking into the Gulf of Mexico every day. A full investigation is needed to find out why existing safety rules weren't enough to head off this disaster, and every offshore oil drilling rig in the future will need to apply the lessons learned from this spill to keep it from happening again. But remember: this is the first major spill from an offshore oil rig in American waters since 1969. You cannot dispute that 41 years between major accidents in any industry is a darn good track record. And it's a far better track record than any environmental activist would care to admit. As much as "clean energy" gets pushed by the environmentalist movement, they've been telling us for the past 20 years that clean energy is "just 10 years away." We still don't have any way of fully relying on solar cells or wind turbines to power our nation. The sooner we can reach that point, the better. But in the meantime, like it or not, our energy economy is still centered on fossil fuels and oil, which means in the short-term, we need fossil fuels and oil. We can get them from one of two places. We can drill for it on American soil and in American waters, cutting down on transport costs and controlling the environmental impacts as best as we can. Or we can buy it from foreign nations, many of which are hostile to us and which have environmental standards that are far below those of the USA, and then ship it in across the ocean in giant oil tankers with a far worse spillage record than American offshore oil rigs. Think the Deepwater Horizon spill is bad at 42,000 gallons a day? It would take 262 days for Deepwater Horizon to top the 11,000,000 gallons spilled by the Exxon Valdez oil tanker in 1989. And that's still nowhere near the top of the worst oil spills in history, not even among tanker spills alone. I prefer to get our oil from right here in the USA, thank you. And to do that, we'll need to drill more on land and drill more offshore right here in the USA. If we let Deepwater Horizon scare us away from that, we'll stay stuck right where we are right now: buying oil from hostile and polluting foreign nations and shipping it in on tankers with a bad spillage history. And we can all agree that's not a good place to be. Crist to go Indie on Thursday
Part of me is annoyed, since Crist going indie threatens to split the Republican vote and tip the Senate race to the Democrat. But as a third-party Libertarian troublemaker myself, part of me is thrilled. Once again, someone has a chance of winning a major election without needing the support of one of the two major parties: Jesse Ventura, then Joe Lieberman, then the Conservative Doug Hoffman in New York's Congressional race in November 2009, and now Charlie Crist. The stranglehold of the two major parties on the American political system is slowly slipping away. And the sooner these two bloated and corrupt political dinosaurs die off, the better. That said, my support in this race is firmly behind Marco Rubio. He's simply the most conservative candidate in the Senate race. Titusville selects new motto
Quick hits:
Here's what I'll be talking about tonight at 8:00pm on The Vince Young Show on AM-1300 WMEL, as well as streaming live online at http://1300wmel.com. Call in at 321-631-1300! Magic sweep means more talk-time for me!
Looking ahead, the Magic will play the winner of the Atlanta Hawks-Milwaukee Bucks series in the next round of the playoffs. But with Atlanta and Milwaukee tied at 2-2, that means that series won't end until at least Friday night. And if the Hawks and Bucks split their next two games, that would force a Game 7 on Sunday, which means the Magic might not even have their next game until next Tuesday or Wednesday night. But it all depends on what happens in the Hawks-Bucks series. As soon as I know the Magic's schedule for next week, I'll also know my schedule for next week, and I'll post it right here on VinceYoung.com. Thursday night is FairTax Night!
Now, there are two provisions in the bill which should help cut down on some of the biggest abuses of red-light cameras that have popped up in other states. All cases would have to be reviewed by a police officer watching video of the violation, so it won't just be a private monitoring company with a per-ticket commission making the call. And cameras would not be allowed to target drivers who make a rolling right turn on red, which is both the most-common and least-dangerous red-light violation. But overall, red-light cameras are still a bad idea. Proponents of the cameras always say it's about traffic safety, not about raising money through extra ticket revenue. But six cities in Georgia proved what a bunch of malarky that is back in 2009 after they each shut down their red-light cameras. Why? Because the red-light cameras weren't making any money. A new Georgia state law took effect in January 2009 which forced cities with red-light cameras to make their yellow lights last one second longer. And when the yellow lights got a second-longer, red-light running at the camera-equipped intersections plummeted overnight, even at intersections where the cameras had been up for well over a year. Fewer violations means fewer tickets, which means less revenue for the cities. And suddenly, the same city councils that had been claiming the cameras were about "safety, not revenue" were shutting down their cameras due to the lack of revenue. The same story also played out in Denver, Colorado and in San Carlos, California under similar circumstances. See, it turns out there's a study that shows that making yellow lights one-second longer does more to reduce red-light-running than red-light cameras do. This is because the vast majority of red-light violations are violations of less than a second, while most red-light violations that cause actual crashes are violations of more than a second. This means that red-light cameras are mainly catching the sort of violators who only rarely cause accidents. And when Schaumburg, Illinois realized that their red-light cameras were targeting the wrong type of violators under the false guise of increasing traffic safety, they took down their cameras too. I've seen people attack the longer-yellow study, so let me point this story out as well. Remember those cities in Georgia who took down their cameras after making their yellow lights longer? Well, the longer yellow lights are still working, and red-light running remains down. When a city puts up red-light cameras using the "safety, not revenue" argument but then takes them down when they stop making money, that really puts the lie to the safety argument, doesn't it? But thanks to the Florida Legislature, red light cameras are about to get a lot more common here in Florida. Smile! (Oh, and if you don't think these cameras can be abused, check out this old story from Vancouver, Canada. State budget deal reached; state worker pay will stay the same
Less money, that is, unless you're a state worker. While many of us in the real world have been dealing with salary cuts and layoffs, state worker pay will stay exactly the same. I guess they get a special exemption from economic reality. Tobia gave students extra-credit for working on his campaign
Protests erupt over Arizona's new illegal immigrant law
Cut field trips? Or cut Blackberries at Viera? Hmm...
Oil rig spill continues to spread in Gulf of Mexico
Quick hits:
You'll have two chances to meet me in-person this weekend at local events here on the Space Coast! First up: Friday night at 6:30pm, Clerk of the Court Scott Ellis and Melbourne Councilwoman Joanne Corby will be hosting a forum at Kay's BBQ in Cocoa, on 520 just west of Clearlake. Topics will include code enforcement abuses, the possible creation of a new elected Comptroller position here in Brevard, and the ongoing county charter review. I'm not an official part of the event, but I'm planning to be there, and I hope you'll drop by and say "Hi." Second, Sunday afternoon from 12-noon to 5:00pm, I'll be manning AM-1300 WMEL's table at the Melbourne Art Festival in downtown Melbourne. Check out the artwork displays and the live performances, and then come introduce yourself to me at WMEL's table. We'll have various WMEL staffers and on-air hosts at the table all weekend long, not just me, so keep stopping by and see who's there. See you this weekend, and then I'll talk to you on the radio again on Tuesday night at 8:00pm on the Talk-To-Me
Station AM-1300 WMEL!
Here's what I'll be talking about tonight at 8:00pm on The Vince Young Show on AM-1300 WMEL, as well as streaming live online at http://1300wmel.com. Call in at 321-631-1300! Sunken rig in Gulf of Mexico is spilling oil -- lots of oil
Given how hot a topic offshore oil drilling in Florida has been over the past couple of years, I fully expect drilling opponents to point to this explosion and oil spill as Exhibit A in the case against drilling. And make no mistake, supporters of drilling in Florida will have to factor this into their thinking. You don't downplay an accident that kills at least 10 people and spills over 1,000,000 gallons of fuel and oil combined into the ocean. But if we're going to discuss this accident, let's discuss the whole picture. First of all, while 1,000,000 gallons is not a small amount, it pales in comparison to the Exxon Valdez oil spill along the coast of Alaska in 1989, which spilled 11,000,000 gallons of crude oil. And the Exxon Valdez spill itself is dwarfed by even larger oil spills that have occurred in other parts of the world. The Valdez spill also occurred just offshore, while this week's spill in the Gulf of Mexico is much further away from the coast. So between the size and the location, the environmental damage from this explosion and spill will be much, much smaller. Digging even deeper... right now, the USA gets a rather large amount of oil from overseas. We pump it into giant oil tanker ships and float it all the way across the ocean into our ports, where we pump it out and refine it. Now, take a look at a list of worldwide oil spills over time. Pay extra attention to the spills here in the USA. Notice what they're almost always caused by? Oil tankers crashing into things and spilling their load. Very, very few spills in American waters have come from offshore oil drilling rigs. In fact, the spill we're seeing in the Gulf of Mexico right now is the first such spill since 1969, when a rig spilled oil just offshore from Santa Barbara, California. That was 41 years ago. Going 41 years without a major oil spill from an offshore rig in American waters shows just how good a job we do of protecting the environment, and it shatters the myth that offshore oil drilling will automatically ruin the coasts of Florida. Look: I want to see the USA get completely away from burning oil someday. Nuclear, wind, solar, tidal, hydroelectric... those will be the power sources of the future. But the future is just that -- the future. Right now, we need oil -- a lot of it. We're not ready to stop burning oil, not even close. And in the meantime, we need to get that oil from somewhere. We can either drill it right here in the USA using offshore oil drilling rigs that have major oil spills about once every 41 years, or we can ship it in from overseas using oil tankers with a pesky history of regularly crashing into things and spilling that oil. This week's explosion in the Gulf of Mexico is a tragedy. But it really doesn't change the argument in favor of offshore oil drilling. One accident in 41 years shouldn't derail the entire concept of offshore oil drilling. The last time we made that mistake was Three Mile Island, which derailed the concept of nuclear power in the USA for decades -- leaving us dependent on oil. State workers whine about proposed pay cut
Mr. Martin... you do realize that many, many workers in the private sector haven't been getting raises lately either, right? Government is not a jobs program, and government employees have no right to demand pay increases. Every penny of their pay comes from being seized from the citizens of the state of Florida in the form of taxes. So whenever a government employee demands a raise, they are saying that they deserve your money more than you do. In this economy, we're all hurting. Government employees do not deserve some special exemption from the economic realities the rest of us have to deal with every day. Arizona House may pass bill requiring presidential candidates to show birth certificate
Quick hits:
Here's what I'll be talking about tonight at 8:00pm on The Vince Young Show on AM-1300 WMEL, as well as streaming live online at http://1300wmel.com. Call in at 321-631-1300! Florida F.A.C.E.OFF
Thank goodness, my one and only Code Enforcement encounter turned out to be mercifully simple and quick. But the instant heartburn that I got from seeing their initial violation notice for something I didn't even do is a testament to the well-deserved bad reputation that Code Enforcement agencies everywhere have picked up. When law-abiding citizens fear their government, that means government is too powerful. Time to find a new balance. Another flip-flop: Crist now admits he's considering going indie
Of course, if Crist goes indie, it will yet another classic Crist flip-flop. As recently as April 8th, Crist's campaign was denying that they were even thinking about going indie. Given his past record, I'm not entirely surprised to see him flip-flopping on a big issue yet again. Most famous is his interaction with President Barack Obama. First, back in February 2009 Gov. Crist embraced the newly-elected President -- both literally (an on-stage man-hug at a speech) and figuratively (by welcoming Obama's government-stimulus cash). But later, as Obama's popularity began to wane and as Crist's lack of conservative credentials began hurting his poll numbers in the Senate race, Crist pulled about-face. He downplayed the man-hug, calling it an attempt to be "civil," and took out radio campaign ads that slammed Obama for over-spending -- never mind that a lot of that over-spent money came to Florida specifically at Crist's request. There's also been Crist's slow turn-around on for state Republican Party chairman Jim Greer, who was elected to that chairman's seat specifically because of strong support from Charlie Crist. As criticism of Greer's authoritarian control and over-spending reached a fever-pitch, Crist stood by his man -- until his man resigned in disgrace. And now Crist is suddenly in-favor of investigating Greer's spending, despite the fact that he opposed all such calls while Greer was still chairman. And finally, there's Crist's veto of the teacher merit-pay bill. Don't get me wrong; I opposed the bill, and I'm glad Crist vetoed it. But Crist was all in-favor of the exact same bill early on, when nobody in the state was even aware of the bill. As more and more people found out about the merit-pay bill and how it would strip even more power away from local school systems, opposition to the bill grew. And as that opposition grew, suddenly Crist had concerns about the bill and ended up vetoing it, even though the substance of the bill itself remained virtually unchanged. That means Crist's veto had nothing to do with principle and everything to do with pandering to the voters. So why, oh, why are so many Republican leaders telling Crist they want him to stay in the Republican party? This is a man with no consistent philosophical principles whatsoever, no core beliefs, no central idea of what government is supposed to be. When he has to make a decision, he licks his finger, sticks it up to see which way the wind is blowing, and then flashes his perfect politician's smile as he follows along. Let him leave the Republican Party. He never belonged there to begin with. Crist signs bill to replace FCAT, toughen graduation requirements
Hey Titusville: help businesses first, pick a new motto later!
Mom complains about principal adding son to a bully-list
MSNBC decries use of phrase "Obama regime"
Quick hits:
Here's what I'll be talking about tonight at 8:00pm on The Vince Young Show on AM-1300 WMEL, as well as streaming live online at http://1300wmel.com. Call in at 321-631-1300! County Commission limits rural family to one pig
Now, how big is an acre? Glad you asked. Basically, take a football field. Chop off both end zones, and then chop ten yards off one end. There you go: that's an acre of land. Basically 90 yards of a football-field. To legally own a pig at your home in Brevard, you have to own 2.5 acres, basically 225 yards of football-field. And Cindy Williams owns 219 yards, 6 yards short. Thanks to that tiny fraction, Cindy Williams isn't allowed to own a pig, let alone the two that she owns. When someone filed an anonymous code enforcement complaint against her for this egregious violation of the law, county inspectors swooped in and told her she had to either get rid of both pigs or get a zoning variance from the County Commission -- at a total cost of $1,447 in fees to the county. And even then, the variance would only allow her to keep one pig, so she'd still have to give one away. Never mind that it's unincorporated land out in the middle of nowhere. Never mind that her land is just 3% short of the required size. Never mind that many of her neighbors own higher numbers of farm animals than she does, also against county rules. So Cindy Williams drove to four different meetings in Viera to finalize the permit. And at the final County Commission hearing, she was told that the County Commission was -- get this -- doing her a favor by letting her keep one pig, as if she's supposed to be grateful.
Rich, huh? Here's a sitting County Commissioner, wagging a finger at a homeowner for daring to have two whole pigs on her rural plot of land out in the middle of nowhere simply because it's only 97% of the size it's supposed to be to allow pigs. And by the way, Nelson actually voted NO on her variance, meaning that if he'd had his way, she wouldn't be allowed to have any pigs at all. I understand zoning rules. I understand telling someone who owns a half-acre in the middle of a subdivision that, no, you can't raise farm animals in your backyard. Neighbors have rights to enjoy their own land too. But tell me who is being hurt when a woman with over 2.4 acres of land in a rural farming area owns a whopping two pigs. This is a case where the County Commission should've granted her a full variance, and really should've considered waiving the fees too. Cindy Williams was hurting nobody, and as long as you aren't hurting anyone else, I believe your private property rights should be respected by the government. As to the anonymous neighbor who filed the zoning complaint: get over yourself. If you don't like pigs, don't move to a farm area. Go move into some deed-restricted neighborhood somewhere where all your neighbors have to paint their houses the correct shade of beige, and get elected to the Homeowners' Association if you really feel the need to get people in trouble for their grass being a quarter-inch too tall. Knock yourself out. In the meantime, we'll be over here, away from you and enjoying our freedom and our property. State budget talks stall over the weekend
But keep this in mind. We're still in a down economy. The recovery (if you can even call it that) is slow. Tax revenues are still sluggish. Florida's unemployment rate remains above the national average, and it's about to get worse with the end of the space shuttle program. And despite all of this, both the House and the Senate want a 2010-2011 budget that is higher than the 2009-2010 budget of $66,540,000,000. And remember too, that was the same budget that was balanced through a combination of federal "stimulus" money and massive fee increases on driver's licenses, car tags, hunting permits, business licenses, boat permits, and basically every tiny little sticker or piece of paper that the state sells you to give you permission to do anything in this state. And it was also the same budget that was voted on by every single member of Brevard's legislative delegation, all of whom are Republicans. And they're all poised to do it again: voting yes on spending even more of your money in a down economy. Boy, do we need some primary challenges this year. What did Senator Mike know and when did he know it?
The transformation of Haridopolos from an "Aw, shucks!" community college professor to a stereotypical political weasel has been nothing short of remarkable -- and disappointing. And as cool as it would be to have a Brevard Senator in charge of the State Senate, I'm sorry, but I'm going to say it right now: Haridopolos needs a Republican primary challenger this year, and Haridopolos needs to be defeated by a true conservative who won't let political power go to his head. The Republican party needs to clean house, and you Republicans right here in Brevard can get it started. And y'all wonder why I'm still a registered Libertarian. Bill McCollum's poll lead over Alex Sink narrows
How many people attended last week's Brevard Tea Party?
Titusville narrows new motto list down to 3
Quick hits:
Here's what I'll be talking about tonight at 8:00pm on The Vince Young Show on AM-1300 WMEL, as well as streaming live online at http://1300wmel.com. Call in at 321-631-1300! How can we cut the national debt?
This is what happens when we take our responsibility to take care of ourselves and turn it over to the government. As more and more people expect more and more goodies from the government, the cost of providing those goodies continues to increase. And it gets harder and harder to find ways to pay for it. This is simply unsustainable. And yet what is President Barack Obama's answer to this growing national menace? Obama is content to simply reduce the yearly deficit. Problem is, any yearly deficit just adds on to the total debt. A smaller deficit is better than a larger deficit, but it still means a larger debt. We're in a car racing towards a cliff at 50 miles per hour, and Obama wants to slow us down to 30 miles per hour and then proclaim what a great thing he's done. But we're still heading towards that cliff. It's just going to take a little longer to get there. Someone needs to stop the car and get us turned around. Will it be the Republican Party? Or will someone from the backseat have to climb up front and say "my turn"? Only time will tell. Governor Charlie Crist vetoes teacher "merit pay" bill
Of course, given how many conservative Republicans in the State Legislature were for "merit pay," Crist's veto has led to another round of rumors that Crist will drop out of the Republican Senate primary race and run as an independent candidate instead. Polls show he could win a 3-way race, but he'll have to make up his mind by the end of April. Stay tuned... Moving endangered turtles? Okay. But at $1,700 per turtle?!?
Personally, I'm just green enough to go along with saving the turtles, rather than the old practice of burying them alive and moving on with the project. But $1,700 per turtle? A surveying project? Excavation jobs? Somebody is way overthinking this, and it's driving up the price tag. Just send me out there with a big box and some sunscreen. I'll walk around and find all the holes, and then I'll grab the turtles one at a time and move 'em. And I guarantee I can do it for less than $1,700 per turtle. This isn't an environmental issue; it's a wasteful-spending issue. There is no reason to overspend on something that needs to be done. County tries to educate drivers about Viera traffic circle
Here's what I'll be talking about tonight at 8:00pm on The Vince Young Show on AM-1300 WMEL, as well as streaming live online at http://1300wmel.com. Call in at 321-631-1300!
Well, I always like to get the whole story, so I visited the site for myself and found the initial round of reporting to be pretty much spot on. But then I noticed the site's message board. I got curious and clicked on it. Towards the top of the main forum, I saw a thread titled, "Tea-Baggers are SO gullible!" Looks like it's all a hoax... a very well-executed hoax, but a hoax nonetheless. That thread states that the whole purpose of the site was to expose how paranoid tea-partiers are by getting them to believe in a non-existent organized plot to infiltrate them. Of course, many people don't believe that thread, and think the claim that the site is a hoax is the hoax, that such a plot really does exist. You know what? There's a great way to handle this, and it kills two birds with one stone. If you're at a tea party, and you see someone with a racist sign or someone saying truly offensive and bigoted things, challenge them. Reject them. Chase them off. A true conservative believes in equal constitutional protections for everyone regardless of their race, and any racist who claims membership in the tea party movement is a walking contradiction who needs to be expelled. Whether they are a sincere racist or a lone-wolf liberal infiltrator (and make no mistake, they do exist, even if the particular website up above is a hoax), they need to be kicked out before they get the chance to discredit the entire tea party movement. The tea party movement is about freedom, not hatred. It's great to spread that message outside the movement, but we need to remember to spread that message inside the movement too. (By the way, don't forget about the Brevard 2010 Tea Party later this week. It's this Thursday night April 15th, 6:00pm to 8:00pm, at the Wickham Park Pavilion in Melbourne on Wickham Road just south of Brevard Community College.) Union leader prays for NJ's Republican governor to die!
Governor Chris Christie is a conservative Republican who just ousted a powerful and wealthy Democratic incumbent in last November's election. He campaigned on fiscal responsibility to get New Jersey out of their dangerous budget situation, and his proposed spending cuts have angered a lot of powerful liberals and union leaders. So, along comes this liberal Democrat, president of a county-level teachers union, who writes an internal memo to his fellow union members literally praying for the death of a governor he disagrees with politically. The memo got leaked to the press, and here we are. Gov. Christie responded forcefully, calling for the president of the state teachers union to fire that local president. The state union president refused. The local president issued an apology, calling it a joke that was never meant to be made public, as if keeping it private would have made it any less offensive. Now, just imagine if I got on this microphone and this website and said that exact same prayer verbatim, but changed the ending to declare that Barack Obama is my favorite president. The Secret Service would be on me within 48 hours -- and rightfully so. They really wouldn't care if I later said it was a joke. They'd still investigate me fully to make sure I didn't pose a threat to the president's life, and in the meantime there's a very good chance I'd lose this radio show. Again, rightfully so. But it's okay to pray for the death of a conservative governor, of course. After all, they're the mean ones, right? Superintendent Brian Binggeli wants to cut 155 school jobs
Cape Canaveral man sued over negative comment on eBay
58%: repeal ObamaCare
Here's what I'll be talking about tonight at 8:00pm on The Vince Young Show on AM-1300 WMEL, as well as streaming live online at http://1300wmel.com. Call in at 321-631-1300! Cocoa City Council may be trying to pull a fast one
Well, it's almost time for the next City Council meeting: next Tuesday night, April 13th at 7:00pm at City Hall. The agenda for that meeting was released earlier today on the city's public records website, and Holiday On Ice isn't listed there. But something else is, and it makes me wonder if the City Council is trying to get sneaky on us. Check out page 3, section VII (Council Business), item #3:
This triggered something in my memory: a Florida Today article on Holiday On Ice from March 10th. Check out these two paragraphs, with emphasis added by me:
The Cocoa City Council has already linked Holiday On Ice and Mardi Gras together in the past in order to cover the ice rink's losses. And since Mardi Gras is officially on the discussion agenda for next Tuesday night's City Council meeting, they could very well bring up Holiday On Ice under the theory that the City Council considers it to be part of the Mardi Gras event. That would allow the City Council to sneak Holiday On Ice onto the agenda without announcing it ahead of time. Now, is that what they're actually doing here? I don't know. But I wouldn't put it past them to try something that tricky. So, I still think it's important for you to show up for the Cocoa City Council meeting next Tuesday night, April 13th at 7pm just to discourage them from any dirty agenda tricks. Let them know you're watching, and while you're there, fill out a speaker's card and tell them that losing $105,000 on Holiday On Ice is already enough, and that we don't need to lose any more on it. Crime rises in Cocoa and Rockledge, drops everywhere else in Brevard
Crime in Cocoa continues to grow, and it's starting to spill over into their neighboring city of Rockledge as well. Drugs are rampant, violence is spreading, and people are dying needlessly in this city. And yet the Cocoa City Council continues to spend most of their time on other issues and seems convinced that the only part of the city that actually matters is Cocoa Village. The primary job of any government is to preserve, protect and defend our rights to life, liberty and property. All three of those are in ever-increasing jeopardy in the city of Cocoa, and yet the City Council seems to think their primary job is to set up outdoor ice-skating rinks downtown. Now, the crime statistics are on the discussion agenda for next Tuesday night's meeting. If the City Council has their way, they'll discuss crime a little bit and then move on. And that's where you come in. If you go to that meeting and make it clear that solving the crime problem in Cocoa is your number-one concern, you can force the City Council to change their priorities. But you're going to have to be vocal, and you'll have to make sure they know that you stand ready to vote them out of office if they don't start taking crime more seriously. Make sure the candidates for the next City Council special election know how you feel too. Next Tuesday night. April 13th at 7:00pm. Cocoa City Hall. Be there. How does a community college professor pay for a $252,000 condo IN CASH?
Income tax: half pay none; top 10% of earners pay 73%
Here's what I'll be talking about tonight at 8:00pm on The Vince Young Show on AM-1300 WMEL, as well as streaming live online at http://1300wmel.com. Call in at 321-631-1300! State Senate passes merit pay for teachers; House is next
Supporters of the bill hail this as a new era of accountability for Florida's teachers, and I'm all for holding our teachers more accountable. However, you don't hold employees accountable for factors that they don't have much control over. A recent study by the University of Florida shows that a student's performance on the FCAT is mainly affected by the city and neighborhood they live in, much more so than who their teacher is. Higher-income families find it easier to stay involved in their child's education, so a good family situation at home usually translates into better FCAT scores. Therefore, a lousy teacher with a classroom full of rich kids with involved parents can end up with a higher salary than a great teacher with a classroom full of poor inner-city kids with uninvolved parents. That is simply not fair, no matter how you slice it. There's also a subtle point that I think keeps getting missed: the pay rate is not tied to the FCAT scores, but rather to how much the FCAT scores improve by. But what if one teacher gets a classroom full of rich kids who already aced the FCAT test last year? If they're already doing about as well as they can, there's not much room for improvement... which means their teacher is already screwed no matter how well they do. Teachers needs to be held more accountable, but this plan is not the way to do it. County Commission approves lease deal for Merritt Island "working waterfront"
State House unanimously approves school supply sales tax holiday
Is Obama shunning Posey on planned space visit?
Hmm... I wonder if it has anything to do with Posey's bill in Congress to require all future presidential candidates to prove their eligibility to hold the office. Posey has been raked through the coals over this bill and has been repeatedly labeled as a "birther," even though he's made it clear that he believes Obama is an American citizen and is eligible to be President. (For the record, so do I.) And every time Matt Reed mentions Posey's bill, he gleefully points out that Posey has accepted campaign money from birthers. But regardless of your opinion on Obama or on birthers, this bill makes sense. Right now, joining Little League requires more proof of eligibility than becoming President. Why would anyone think this is okay? If Obama is shunning Posey on his NASA visit just because of this bill, then Obama has reached a new level of political
pettiness.
Here's what I'll be talking about tonight at 8:00pm on The Vince Young Show on AM-1300 WMEL, as well as streaming live online at http://1300wmel.com. Call in at 321-631-1300! Obama's first pitch? Tiger's first press conference? Who cares?
No, I didn't watch today's press conference with Tiger Woods. Tiger can nail a 400-yard par-4 (among other things), but he can't use the force and authority of government to seize my money and limit my freedoms at the point of a gun. There are people out there right now who can name off half of Tiger's former mistresses but who can't name their Senators, their Congressional representative, or even the Vice-President of the United States. And that is nothing short of pathetic. Look... I'm as much of a sports fan as any red-blooded American male. (Go Irish! Go Magic!) But why were these the top two stories today on CNN? Don't we have more important things to worry about? Cocoa City Council meeting: next Tuesday 4/13
And to the Cocoa City Council, I have this warning. If you bring back this boondoggle, don't you dare insult our intelligence later by telling us that you need to cut back spending on the police department, the fire department or other essential services in order to balance the city's budget. If you think I'm angry now, you ain't seen nothin' yet. Come election-time, I will make sure the people of Cocoa remember how you voted on this. Florida's budget to INCREASE?!?
Oh, and this is a budget that was put together by Republicans too. And all my Republican friends wonder why I'm a registered Libertarian. Tea Party? Or tea party?
As the Florida GOP turns...
And again... all my Republican friends wonder why I'm a registered Libertarian.
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For anyone jonesin' to hear my voice on the
radio again, I'll be co-anchoring the Election Night coverage alongside John Harper on The Talk-To-Me Station AM-1300
WMEL, starting at 7pm, with Jerry Durney running the control board and providing assistance as well. We'll be bringing
you all the results from the local and state races as they come in, as well as analyzing the national battles for the
House, the Senate, and of course the Presidency.
Abortion, birth control,
Wow. It's hard to
believe it's been two weeks since the last edition of my radio show on WMEL. It's been an eventful two weeks for me as well, so I'm only
just now able to catch my breath, look around, and get back into updating this website again.
Jim Greer arrested
Cocoa considers taking over Cocoa Village Playhouse
Crist flips again on offshore drilling
Infantini: Show me the jobs!
Red-light cameras could go statewide!
"Crash The Tea Party"?
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E. Vincent Young. All rights reserved. So there.
Any opinions I give on this page are mine, and mine alone. Nothing I write here should be taken as the opinion of WMEL Radio, any political candidates, figures or organizations, or anyone else I work for or am associated with. Kinda sad that I have to write this, but hey, that's life in the 21st century I guess. |