Rob Smith Jr is a fan of
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I’ve been involved on all sides of the train issue for some 20 years. In that time I’ve seen a drive towards getting one thing, and one thing only, built - Consultants bank accounts. Here in Florida we seem too apt to repeat the disaster of 100 years of Everglades cleanup. Millions and millions of dollars to people who claim to be working on solutions and the most that is produced is 100s of pages of “solutions” and very little work for the money.
This time it’s BILLIONS of tax payer dollars for something that the polls consistently show the people want but the people won’t ride. My argument, from the very first time I heard of this when I worked in government, was let the private sector pay for this. I learned early on that they won’t from their very employees, who stated they can’t build it because they know this can’t make money.
So the lowly taxpayers get stuck with a worthless project that will bleed them dry and probably will never see a train built.
What’s interesting about the “Orlando” to “Tampa” route Obama is touting is that so little work has been done for that proposed route. Most of the effort and money has been put into a trail that goes from western Volusia County to western Orange County. More reason to need to blow away more taxpayers dough!
I could go on. This is a financial disaster that will never meet its expectations. 1 million riders is a conservative estimate of ridership. Dade County’s MetroRail would love to see that number in 5 years. And they’re in a more congested area.
The cartoon is an amalgam of ideas from Ken Culotta, Sally Baptiste and Mark Duren.
Hillsborough County, Florida, dumps their annual dinner name for a name less controversial…That is, if you’re ignorant of history.
Here’s the story:
Here’s my commentary:
OK, so Jefferson and Jackson had some questionable decisions. But the Democrats would stare at a few mistakes and ignore the overall human being.
One that was the first territorial Governor of Florida and a reason why Americans are in the state at all. The other being a father of our country, who actually had the guts to fight for the liberties so that we can write what we’re writing here in this great country to begin with????
So they pick a former President who used more beds than a Sealey Posturepedic factory. Graham is OK, but why group him with that nasty Kennedy group. I’m setting aside that Graham’s family dredged and filled part of the Everglades for Miami Lakes and now Bob hugs trees. Hey, Bob! Wanna help the trees? Tear down those lousy homes, refill the land and help save the ‘Glades!
More reasons why the Democrats are a mess.
I’m afraid the liberals now see this as her Waterloo and now they just push her to being exiled in Alaska. I know she has the spunk to move on. But will she?
This was entirely drawn using Photoshop. There is no rough pencil. Also, Ken Culotta and I collaborated on this with Ken writing the initial idea.
I actually penciled this back in February and inked it on an airplane going from London to Washington, D.C. I waited on this to use while we were gone. I sent this from our hotel room in Charleston, South Carolina.
This what I see happening. Stimulus money going to a select group of workers in the road building industry, while the rest of us are stuck in the traffic snarls they cause. I’ve been there and watched this stuff happen. Much worse that even more of my tax dollars are used to perpetuate these sweetheart deals of unneeded, costly roads that go on for miles so that the road builder makes an even larger profit.
To see the cartoon at Glenn Beck’s site click here.
This originally was going to be more extensive with interrogators and tables and papers around. I had spoken to Ken Culotta about this we had discussed crazy things going on involving the interrogators torturing themselves to stop hearing Biden speak. As I drew it I realized I just didn’t have the room to draw even a few people and have it make sense. It’s not easy getting identifiable interrogators in the background dunking themselves in the water boarding bin. And playing Russian roulette. So I cut them out, extended the text and ended up with a mediocre cartoon.
What a dopey move! Referring to this story. I’m a Republican and I’d rather not see government funds for tourism either. BUT, if you take this away, you can kiss the New Port Richey economy and specifically Tarpon Springs, good-bye as Disney, Universal and the beach communities take over with advertising. All to undo the wonderful recent actions to spotlight the ENTIRE state and it’s wonders (Been There Haven’t Done That). I would like to hope that local government would step up to the plate for this. Most have been busy with corporate welfare to developers and claim to be broke.
If Fasano wants to end stupid spending, let’s stop funding developers with tax-payer dollars. Let’s be strict about concurrency and abide by the Growth Management act so that the developers pay for schools, roads and the like.
Our state has too much to offer to throw it away and we’ve got to keep tourism to keep economic levels that have buoyed us for over a century. Folks should be visiting the ENTIRE state not just silly kiddie amusement parks. That unfortunately means us taxpayers helping out.
