Wednesday, November 29, 2006
It's Almost Over....
OK, it's November 29, and we all know what that means! OK, maybe not...for those not used to watching the weather in the Atlantic and Caribbean, there's only one more day left in hurricane season. This was one of the calmest years I can remember, and boy did we deserve it after getting slammed the last two years. Hopefully this will not only give residents time to continue rebuilding, but also allow Florida's citrus industry to recover. If you've been paying more for orange juice, that will be good news for you, too.
Meteorologists are attributing the relative lack of hurricane activity in part to El Nino -- yes, the same El Nino that creates so much weather chaos elsewhere actually does create conditions unfavorable to hurricane development in the Atlantic. While it is possible to have hurricanes form after the official end of the season, such storms are exceedingly rare, and tend to be less severe.
That "expert" at Colorado State blew it again. I've always considered that suspect. I mean, really...if you want to study hurricanes, you probably ought to do it from someplace just a little bit closer to where they actually exist.
Meteorologists are attributing the relative lack of hurricane activity in part to El Nino -- yes, the same El Nino that creates so much weather chaos elsewhere actually does create conditions unfavorable to hurricane development in the Atlantic. While it is possible to have hurricanes form after the official end of the season, such storms are exceedingly rare, and tend to be less severe.
That "expert" at Colorado State blew it again. I've always considered that suspect. I mean, really...if you want to study hurricanes, you probably ought to do it from someplace just a little bit closer to where they actually exist.
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
Working on Turkey Day
Yeah, I fell behind with my posting, so I'm trying to make up for it with a second post today.
Who else has to work on Thanksgiving Day, and what sort of work do you do? My hats are off to all the people who give up even part of their Turkey Day to provide essential services -- police, fire and rescue personnel, doctors and nurses, and everyone else, especially those that are spending their holiday overseas in uniform.
But I work in retail, and we are expecting very little business tomorrow. The store will be open Sunday hours (9 am to 9 pm), so we have two shifts going. I have been working on a project to hopefully bring in some institutional sales, so I am looking at the day as a chance to finish off the project with minimal distractions. The company is giving us money for food, but since there won't be many restaurants open, our options are limited. We are planning to get take-out from the Japanese place in our shopping center. (There's something to be thankful for -- Chinese and Japanese restaurants that are almost always open on Thanksgiving and Christmas!)
Needless to say I will be working on Friday, and I'm also scheduled for Saturday and Sunday. My plan is to take off early on Sunday and head to Mom's for leftover turkey. Actually, I was a day late last year, too, although for different reasons. Thursday afternoon I went to my car, and I had a flat tire. Since there was no place to get a new tire, I had to wait until Friday.
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone, and if you are in the Delray Beach area, come on into Books-A-Million and say hello!
Who else has to work on Thanksgiving Day, and what sort of work do you do? My hats are off to all the people who give up even part of their Turkey Day to provide essential services -- police, fire and rescue personnel, doctors and nurses, and everyone else, especially those that are spending their holiday overseas in uniform.
But I work in retail, and we are expecting very little business tomorrow. The store will be open Sunday hours (9 am to 9 pm), so we have two shifts going. I have been working on a project to hopefully bring in some institutional sales, so I am looking at the day as a chance to finish off the project with minimal distractions. The company is giving us money for food, but since there won't be many restaurants open, our options are limited. We are planning to get take-out from the Japanese place in our shopping center. (There's something to be thankful for -- Chinese and Japanese restaurants that are almost always open on Thanksgiving and Christmas!)
Needless to say I will be working on Friday, and I'm also scheduled for Saturday and Sunday. My plan is to take off early on Sunday and head to Mom's for leftover turkey. Actually, I was a day late last year, too, although for different reasons. Thursday afternoon I went to my car, and I had a flat tire. Since there was no place to get a new tire, I had to wait until Friday.
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone, and if you are in the Delray Beach area, come on into Books-A-Million and say hello!
SNOW!
No, you didn't accidentally stumble into my brother's blog and his Montana weather. But Florida was hit with a cold front this week, and last night there was SNOW in Orlando. Eat your heart out, Dave.
Sunday, November 12, 2006
$500,000 in postage?
Somebody in Broward County made a big mistake with their absentee ballot. Make that two big mistakes -- but it will make some money for my county.
First, they didn't include any form of identification so the ballot could be verified as legitimate.
Second, they mailed it in using what is probably the rarest and most valuable stamp in the U.S., if not in the world.
And NO, I didn't do it. I dropped my absentee ballot off in person.
First, they didn't include any form of identification so the ballot could be verified as legitimate.
Second, they mailed it in using what is probably the rarest and most valuable stamp in the U.S., if not in the world.
And NO, I didn't do it. I dropped my absentee ballot off in person.
Thursday, November 09, 2006
A Few More Election Notes
Yesterday I mentioned a proposed amendent to the state constitution that would require at least 60 percent of voters to vote yes for future amendments to pass. No other state has such a rule in place, and Florida already has the strictest requirements for even putting a proposed amendment on the ballot. For example, 600,000 signatures are required, which is even more than California, which has more than double the population. Well, guess what? That amendment passed -- with 58 percent of the vote. That means it didn't even meet its own standard, yet it becomes law.
Four of the other five proposed amendments reached the magic 60 percent mark. Two pertained to property taxes: one giving more relief for disabled veterans and another allowing local governments to increase the homestead exemption for low-income seniors passed with 78 and 76 percent of the vote, respectively.
Another prohibits the use of eminent domain to transfer property to private developers (remember that Supreme Court ruling?) unless an exemption is approved by three-fifths (hey, that's 60 percent!) of both houses of the legislature. That got 69 percent of the vote. And 60 percent voted to require the state to use at least 15 percent of the state's settlement with the tobacco companies for anti-smoking programs directed toward children.
Even the remaining amendment -- a very complicated proposal (at least to me) about how the state spends certain types of revenue -- got 59 percent of the vote, more than the "Amendment Amendment."
A few other notes of possible interest:
- Remember a while back I mentioned our Secretary of Agriculture, Charles Bronson? He was re-elected in a landslide. I'm sure the name doesn't hurt.
- I know you remember Mark Foley. His replacement in the election, Joe Negron did much better than expected considering the obstacles he faced, but not well enough to win. Negron received 47.6 percent of the vote, compared to 49.6 percent to Tim Mahoney. There also was an unaffiliated candidate, Emmie Ross, who received the remaining 2.8 percent. That may sound small, but she received 6473 votes -- almost 2000 more than the difference between the two major-party candidates.
- Also last night I wrote about a neighboring district where one could vote for Beer for Circuit Court Judge -- not another amendment, but an actual judicial candidate named Jerry Beer, who was running against David French. It took until Wednesday to determine that he lost what might be called the "French-Beer Campaign." French beer...now that sounds nasty.
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
A Couple of Election Night Notes
- The governor of South Carolina was turned away when he tried to vote today. Registration problems? Real or alleged felony conviction? No, he forgot his voter registration card! His wife voted while he went to get the missing card.
- I have been seeing campaign signs that read, "Beer for Circuit Court Judge." No, it's not a proposed amendment, it's a candidate for the judiciary named Jerrald Beer. (Not sure if I spelled his first name correctly.)
- In the category of "This Is Clearly In Error," earlier tonight I saw a count on the Tim Mahoney-Joe Negron race. This is the U.S. House district from which Mark Foley resigned -- Negron had only five weeks to organize his campaign, and he had to overcome having Foley's name entrenched on the ballot. Still, I can't believe that with any precincts reporting he actually had 0%, as was indicated on one of the reports earlier tonight. (Surprisingly, too close to call as of 10 pm.
- One of the propsed amendments to the Florida constitution is about, well...proposed amendments. It would require future amendments to receive at least 60 percent of the votes cast in order to be implemented. (I see it as a way to give lobbyists more power and make it more difficult for the public to have its say when they aren't being truly represented by the legislature.) Ironically, it might pass with less than 60 percent of the votes cast.
- Looks like the Rhode Island Republican Lincoln Chafee will lose his seat in the Senate. However, his approval rating is better than 60 percent. Why are they voting out someone they like? Speculation among the commentators on television is that the voters are actually voting against the president...but I don't see why that would be so much more prevalent in Rhode Island than in other states.
I'm sure I'll have more tidbits later....
More Voting Aggravation
Two years ago, before I had my blog, I wrote to my friends about the trouble I had trying to vote. I had a problem getting my absentee ballot, and it took a phone call to one of the television stations to actually get them to send it to me. When I did receive it, it dropped off the ballot at one of locations for early voting, and since that was on Halloween, the poll workers were wearing costumes -- clown costumes.
This year, I again requested an absentee ballot, for a number of reasons. First, I don't trust the touchscreen voting machines, where there is no paper trail. Second, I wasn't sure at the time what my work schedule would be, so this way I wouldn't have to worry about being late to work because I was standing in line or risking getting to the polls too late. Third, no standing in line for who-knows-how-long. (When I dropped off my ballot in 2004, there were probably 200-300 standing in line for the early voting.)
Since early voting ended Sunday, I figured I would drop it off at the library on my way to work -- just run in, walk past the people in line, drop off the ballot, and run back out. The only difficulty was likely to be finding a parking space.
Yeah, right.
When I got to the library, I was told that they would not accept absentee ballots there. The lady there told me that I could leave it, but they would just throw it out. I told the lady that I had dropped off my ballot there two years ago without any problem, but she insisted that they have never accepted them at the polling locations. I was welcome to stand in line and vote (I'm sure I would have been there for well over an hour), or I could take it to the Supervisor of Elections office in downtown Fort Lauderdale, which would mean fighting traffic, paying for parking, and generally lots of hassle.
I ended up taking the ballot to the Deerfield Beach branch of the SoE office, which is a lot less hassle than going downtown. But I was thinking about my vote two years ago, and I wondered if that ballot had been thrown away. You know, the ballot WHERE I VOTED FOR PRESIDENT. At the SoE office, I started to ask about that, but the woman there -- and this is not a volunteer, but a regular staff member -- told me that they are supposed to accept absentee ballots there. She said that the pollworker "was probably just teasing you." Well, she refused to accept the ballot, so that's not what I would call teasing.
The current SoE was appointed by the governor a couple of years ago because the previous supervisor was deemed incompetent after a number of problems. (No, I'm in Broward County, not Palm Beach County, although I DID live in PBC in 2000.) Apparently there is still some work to be done.
This year, I again requested an absentee ballot, for a number of reasons. First, I don't trust the touchscreen voting machines, where there is no paper trail. Second, I wasn't sure at the time what my work schedule would be, so this way I wouldn't have to worry about being late to work because I was standing in line or risking getting to the polls too late. Third, no standing in line for who-knows-how-long. (When I dropped off my ballot in 2004, there were probably 200-300 standing in line for the early voting.)
Since early voting ended Sunday, I figured I would drop it off at the library on my way to work -- just run in, walk past the people in line, drop off the ballot, and run back out. The only difficulty was likely to be finding a parking space.
Yeah, right.
When I got to the library, I was told that they would not accept absentee ballots there. The lady there told me that I could leave it, but they would just throw it out. I told the lady that I had dropped off my ballot there two years ago without any problem, but she insisted that they have never accepted them at the polling locations. I was welcome to stand in line and vote (I'm sure I would have been there for well over an hour), or I could take it to the Supervisor of Elections office in downtown Fort Lauderdale, which would mean fighting traffic, paying for parking, and generally lots of hassle.
I ended up taking the ballot to the Deerfield Beach branch of the SoE office, which is a lot less hassle than going downtown. But I was thinking about my vote two years ago, and I wondered if that ballot had been thrown away. You know, the ballot WHERE I VOTED FOR PRESIDENT. At the SoE office, I started to ask about that, but the woman there -- and this is not a volunteer, but a regular staff member -- told me that they are supposed to accept absentee ballots there. She said that the pollworker "was probably just teasing you." Well, she refused to accept the ballot, so that's not what I would call teasing.
The current SoE was appointed by the governor a couple of years ago because the previous supervisor was deemed incompetent after a number of problems. (No, I'm in Broward County, not Palm Beach County, although I DID live in PBC in 2000.) Apparently there is still some work to be done.
