Florida Native Musings

Florida Native Musings: I was in the Barber Shop on Main St. in Chattahoochee FL

2009-09-11T07:43:00.000-04:00

Florida Native Musings: I was in the Barber Shop on Main St. in Chattahoochee FL

My Tiger is Double Digits Today!!!!!

2009-03-05T12:31:00.003-05:00

My Sport, My Shadow and My Clone is a Big 10 today. RP is the name a famous Uncle had and he reminds me of it now and again...So Happy Bday my Little Man....Your Daddy will always be your Caddy..

Yours in the Bond

Paycut for Folks Making over $100K on State Payroll

2009-03-03T11:10:00.002-05:00

Treasure Coast courts have 42 officials earning $100,000-plus
By George Andreassi

Monday, March 2, 2009

The Treasure Coast court system has 42 judges, prosecutors, investigators, public defenders and administrators who are paid more than $100,000 per year.

Circuit judges, who preside over major criminal and civil cases, are paid $145,080 per year under a state salary scale that went into effect Oct. 1, 2006. That makes Florida's circuit judges the 11th highest paid trial judges in the nation, according to a 2008 survey by the National Center for State Courts.

But the pay of Florida's circuit judges would slide down to 17th place nationwide if the state government enacts a Senate bill calling for all state employees earning more than $100,000 per year to take a 5 percent pay cut.

Some lawyers and judges said a $7,254 per year pay cut, combined with the increasing case load, could push some veteran jurists back into more lucrative private practice and prevent top lawyers from aspiring to the bench.

"If they're talking about pay cuts in Tallahassee, that is adding insult to injury," said 19th Circuit Chief Judge William Roby. "Our judges are working their tails off."

"A judge making $145,000 a year more than likely would be making twice that at a medium-sized law firm in private practice," Roby said. "At some point in time, if we don't get pay raises or relief, practical aspects are going to start kicking in and judges are going to be leaving the profession."

But Roby said the judges aren't asking for a raise until the economy improves.

State Sen. Mike Haridopolos, R-Melbourne, said no one is immune from the fallout from the state's budget crisis, including judges.

"We think that judges do very good work, but like anybody else in this weak economy we need to look at everything," Haridopolos said.

"$145,000 to most folks is a lot of money," Haridopolos said "I think that clearly in the private practice of law there is the likelihood to make even more money, but I think (judges) are willing to give back to their community."

Despite the long hours and relatively modest pay, the prestige of a judgeship and the opportunity to serve the public will likely continue to compel many top lawyers to aspire to the bench, Roby and others said.

"There are intangible benefits to being a judge, like your first name becomes 'Judge,' " said State Rep. Adam Fetterman, D-Port St. Lucie, who earned $112,634 last year as general counsel for the St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office. "There's a certain respect that goes with somebody who sits on the bench."

SIX-FIGURE SALARIES

19th CIRCUIT: Serves Martin, St. Lucie, Indian River and Okeechobee counties

CIRCUIT JUDGES: $145,080 per year salary

William Roby, chief judge

INDIAN RIVER COUNTY

Robert Hawley, Paul Kanarek, Robert Pegg, Cynthia Cox

MARTIN COUNTY

Gary Sweet, Steven Levin, Robert Makemson, Elizabeth Metzger, Sherwood Bauer Jr.

ST. LUCIE COUNTY

Barbara Bronis, Larry Schack, Dan Vaughn, James McCann, Burton Conner, Robert Belanger, Dwight Geiger

OKEECHOBEE COUNTY

F. Shields McManus, Lawrence Mirman

COUNTY JUDGES: $137,020 per year salary

INDIAN RIVER COUNTY

David Morgan, Joe Wild

MARTIN COUNTY

David Harper, Stewart Hershey, Kathleen Roberts

ST. LUCIE COUNTY

Cliff Barnes, Kathryn Nelson, Philip Yacucci Jr., Thomas Walsh

OKEECHOBEE COUNTY

Jerald Bryant

STATE ATTORNEYS OFFICE: 150 employees

$153,140: Bruce Colton, state attorney

$147,877: Thomas Bakkedahl, chief assistant state attorney

$119,814: Nita Denton, attorney-in-charge, Martin County/Florida Prosecuting Attorneys Association, education coordinator

$117,838: Bernard Romero, assistant state attorney, major crimes

$116,286: Bruce Harrison, attorney-in-charge, St. Lucie County

$115,900: Patrick Gillen, assistant state attorney, felony appeals

$110,428: Pamela Robuck, assistant state attorney, Martin County Juvenile/Drug Court and Mental Health Court coordinator

$107,019: Linda Craft, assistant state attorney, major crimes/sex crimes and Jimmy Ryce Division

$105,728: Nora Pfeiffer, chief investigator

PUBLIC DEFENDERS OFFICE: 80 employees

$153,140: Diamond Litty, public defender

$146,163: Mark V. Harllee, chief assistant public defender

$118,277: John Hetherington, assistant public defender/head attorney of Stuart office

$107,151: Patricia Armold, [Lau: CQ ]administrative director/budget analyst

ON THE WEB

19th Judicial Circuit: http://www.circuit19.org

19th Circuit State Attorney's Office: http://www.sao19.org

19th Circuit Public Defender's Office: http://www.pd19.org

Martin County Bar Association: http://www.martincountybar.org

St. Lucie County Bar Association: http://www.slcba.org

Indian River County Bar Association: http://www.irclaw.org

Florida Bar Association: http://www.floridabar.org

Florida Conference of Circuit Judges: http://www.flcircuitconference.com

Council of County Court Judges of Florida: http://www.countyjudges.com

National Center for State Courts; state judge salary survey: http://www.ncsconline.org/D_KIS/Salary_Survey/home.asp

© 2009 Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers

I Need More CowBell..

2009-03-03T08:03:00.000-05:00

Settlement to cost state $10.4-million

2009-01-16T11:13:00.000-05:00

By Steve Bousquet, Times/Herald Tallahassee Bureau Published Thursday, January 15, 2009
TALLAHASSEE — Facing a $3.5-billion deficit next year, Florida desperately needs all the money it can get. But millions more will disappear because the state has settled a lawsuit that affects millions of motorists.
The Legislature will spend $10.4-million to settle a class action lawsuit over allegations that the state illegally sold drivers' personal information to marketing firms over a four-year period in violation of a federal law barring the practice. The state made $27-million each year on the deal, according to the lawsuit.
The settlement to drivers?
$1.
Drivers who held a license, car registration or state-issued ID from June 1, 2000, through Sept. 30, 2004, will get a one-time credit of $1 when they register or renew a registration between July 1, 2009, and June 30, 2010.
"Just one dollar?" Sen. Gary Siplin, D-Orlando, asked in a committee hearing on the settlement.
The four South Florida motorists who sued will get $3,000 each, and five law firms that pursued the case for more than six years will divide $2.85-million in legal fees, which is separate from credits paid to consumers.
Gov. Charlie Crist and the Cabinet approved the agreement in August, but the Legislature has to appropriate the money. The Senate Transportation Committee was briefed on the settlement Wednesday.
The personal information that was sold includes a driver's photo, Social Security number, driver ID number, name, address, phone number and medical condition.
The preliminary settlement requires the state motor vehicle agency to post on its Web site a system to obtain names of the mass marketers that bought the personal information, as well as a reference on license and registration forms on state and federal disclosure laws.
The state formally denied any wrongdoing.
"No one's hurt, no one's injured, and we're paying $10-million?" asked Sen. Larcenia Bullard, D-Miami.
"It's $10-million or the potential is in the billions," replied Steven Fielder, a lobbyist for the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.
The state's maximum liability was estimated at $39-million, based on a $2,500 penalty for each violation of the federal Drivers Privacy Protection Act.
Congress in 1999 amended the law to prohibit states from providing drivers' personal information unless the state had drivers' permission to do so.
But Florida, the lawsuit alleged, continued to market the data anyway. The Legislature passed a law in 2004 ending the practice.
Anyone affected by the settlement has until March 16 to file an objection with the court in Miami. The case is before U.S. District Judge Jose Martinez
Sen. Carey Baker, R-Eustis, said it looks to him as though consumers should have gotten more.
"The victim really doesn't benefit very much, and the attorneys make out on attorneys' fees."

Yours in the Bond

Soldier dies after bar fight over Jimmy Buffett song in Steamboat

2009-01-06T10:30:00.002-05:00

A soldier from Fort Bragg died this morning in Denver from injuries suffered from a bar fight in Steamboat Springs on Friday night over a Jimmy Buffett song.
Richard Lopez, 37, of Fayetteville, N.C., was pronounced dead at 4:16 a.m. today at Denver Health Medical Center. An autopsy by the Arapahoe County Coroner's office is scheduled for Tuesday.
"This is a very sad and serious case," said Capt. Joel Rae with Steamboat Springs police.
So far, no suspects have been arrested, although police have talked to two individuals involved in the fight.
"We know where they are and they have been interviewed," said Rae.
The case is being investigated as a homicide.
The incident occurred before 12:15 a.m. Friday when police were called to a fight between five people outside the Tap House.
"The initial disagreement was about music being played on the jukebox," said Rae, adding that it was a Jimmy Buffet song.
"Richard Lopez and two other individuals put on the song, but two other individuals did not agree with it."
It was not known which Jimmy Buffett song was being played at the time, but the fight was taken outside the bar.
By the time officers arrived on scene, the fight was over and Lopez was on the ground at Lincoln Avenue and Seventh Street.
Two of Lopez's friends, who were not identified by police but are from Steamboat Springs, were also injured in the fight.
Lopez was initially taken to Yampa Valley Medical Center, but later airlifted to Denver Health Medical Center.
Lopez's friends, identified by the Steamboat Pilot as Timothy Mottlau of Norfolk, Va., and Wesley Mottlau, of Fayetteville, N.C., were taken to the hospital with cuts and bruises.
Calls to the Mottlau's home in Steamboat Springs were not returned today.
Rae said that all three were on leave from the military - Lopez and one of his friends were with the Army, while the other friend was in the Navy.
A call to Fort Bragg indicated that Lopez was part of a special forces unit. More details were not available about his service.
Rae said the case is still under investigation.
"Somebody died," he said. "We're taking this very seriously."
While he said barfights were not uncommon in the town, it was unusual that a person died in a fight not involving any weapons.
"This is the first time that a physical fight has resulted in a loss of life from the use of hands and fists," he said.
"It's a shame that it had to happen."

Sad State of Affairs....WWJBD...

Yours in the Bond

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www.howObamagotelected.com

2008-11-18T06:49:00.001-05:00

www.howobamagotelected.com

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Uh...Change...

2008-11-06T07:53:00.002-05:00

Yours in the Bond

Mac is Back

2008-11-03T17:49:00.000-05:00

The Time to Choose....Go Vote Florida

2008-10-31T13:42:00.002-04:00

Yours in the Bond

Grunt Bait Proven..

2008-10-28T08:41:00.004-04:00

Years Ago while I was a little boy growing up in the Panhandle I got to know folks who were Professional Grunt Baiters...whereby you drive a stake into the ground and rub a piece of steel on it to make Worms come the surface where you bag 'em and tag 'em for fishing.

Now its official, It's proven how it works and it happened in Liberty County with the help of some local "Pros".

The secret of worm grunting, a mysterious technique used by fishermen to tempt worms to the surface, has been unearthed.Worm grunting is popular in the United States - they even hold grunting festivals - and involves driving a wooden stake into the ground and rubbing it repeatedly with a length of steel.To most people such behaviour might be regarded as, at best, eccentric but to fishermen it is a tried and tested means of providing enough bait to keep them going for hours.A biologist intrigued by the practice has now established that the apparently suicidal behaviour of the worms in coming to the surface, where they are easy prey, is driven by a desperate desire to escape their deadliest of enemies - moles.Moles are such voratious eaters of earthworms that the invertebrates would rather risk being caught by a bird or dried up by the sun than come within range of one.Dr Ken Catania, of Vanderbilt University in the US, found that the vibrations created in the soil by rubbing steel on the stake mimicked those made by moles digging through the soil.Fishermen had happily made use of the practice, known variously as worm grunting, tickling, snoring or charming depending on where it is done, but didn’t know why it worked.His conclusion, reached after a series of experiments in the Apalachicola National Forest, in Florida, confirmed a remark made by Charles Darwin in his 1881 book The Formation of Vegetable Mould.“It has often been said that if the ground is beaten or otherwise made to tremble, worms believe that they are pursued by a mole and leave their burrows,” he wrote.Dr Catania, reported his findings in the online journal PLoS ONE, after carrying out a series of experiments in Apalachicola National Forest in Florida where eastern American moles, Scalopus aquaticus linnaeus, are plentiful.He said: “Eastern moles don’t come to the surface when they are foraging, so fleeing to the surface provides the worms both immediate safety and the most efficient means for getting away from them.“The moles are quite noisy. Often you can hear the sounds of a mole digging in the wild from a few feet away.”The finding supports observation of gulls and wood turtles which have suggested the animals knew that by slapping their feet on the ground they would bring worms within reach.He found, with the help of veteran worm grunters Gary and Audrey Revell, that hundreds of earthworms came to the surface within 12 metres of the stake.“This makes it possible for an experienced worm grunter to collect thousands of worms in a day,” he added.

http://timesonline.typepad.com/environment/2008/10/secrets-of-worm.html

Yours in the Bond

Turn about is Fair Play

2008-10-27T13:15:00.000-04:00

Yours in the Bond

Wounded Hero...Please Pray

2008-10-26T21:39:00.005-04:00

A old friend of mine from my hometown of Blountstown...Col Edwards of the United States Marine Corp. serving in Afghanistan was wounded in action this past week while leading his troops in a Mountainous region.

He was struck in the head even with his helmet on. He is now in US, and responding..Keep him and his family in your prayers...

Ty's Website

Happy Birthday Hooters!!!!!!

2008-10-25T10:04:00.003-04:00

As I always celebrate all things Florida I want to give a shout out to a Fine Dining establishment that hails from Clearwater.....Hooters...or Hootiers (a fine French rest. as I tell my wife when she looks at the Credit Card Bill).

This Outstanding Artistic Commercial done by God Fearing Southern Girls who are just doing the Lords work Feeding the masses with Greasy Chicken Wings and Celery Strips celebrates the day...stop on by on the 25th of each month and this year and congratulate them.

Yours in the Bond.

Fla. Voters Offered Free Beer

2008-10-23T08:43:00.000-04:00

PENSACOLA, Fla. -- If a chance to help choose the next president of the United States isn't enough to get some voters to the polls, maybe a free beer is.

The HandleBar in Pensacola is offering a free beer to anyone who votes.

Customers must trade their "I Voted" stickers for the free drinks.

The offer is good for early voters and those who vote on Nov. 4.

This is the third year that the HandleBar has offered free beers to voters.

Yours in the Bond

You Gotta Love Our State DL Being used in this Ad.....

2008-10-22T15:38:00.001-04:00

Yours in the Bond

So long, suckers. Millionaire hedge fund boss thanks 'idiot' traders and retires at 37

2008-10-21T11:39:00.004-04:00

The boss of a successful US hedge fund has quit the industry with an
extraordinary farewell letter dismissing his rivals as over-privileged "idiots"
and thanking "stupid" traders for making him rich.
Andrew Lahde's $80m Los Angeles-based firm Lahde Capital Management in Los Angeles made a huge return last year by betting against subprime mortgages.
Yesterday the 37-year-old told his clients that he had hated the business and had only been in it for the money. And after declaring he would no longer manage money for other people, because he had enough of his own, Lahde said that instead he intended to repair his stress-damaged health; he made it clear he would not miss the financial world.
"The low-hanging fruit, ie idiots whose parents paid for prep school,
Yale and then the Harvard MBA, was there for the taking," he wrote. "These
people who were (often) truly not worthy of the education they received (or
supposedly received) rose to the top of companies such as AIG, Bear Stearns and
Lehman Brothers and all levels of our government," he said.
"All of this behaviour supporting the aristocracy only ended up making it easier for me to find people stupid enough to take the other side of my trades. God bless
America." Lahde became one of the biggest names in the investment industry
when one of his funds produced a return of 866% last year, largely by
forecasting the US home loans industry would collapse.
In his farewell letter, which concluded with an appeal for the legalisation of marijuana, Lahde said he was happy with his rewards and did not envy those who had made even more money.
"I will let others try to amass nine, 10 or 11 figure net worths.
Meanwhile, their lives suck," he wrote, citing a life of back-to-back business
appointments relieved only by a two-week annual holiday in which financiers are
still "glued to their Blackberries".
Lahde's retirement came amid an implosion among the hedge fund industry - some 350 of the funds have liquidated this year, according to Hedge Fund Research.
His final words of advice?
"Throw the Blackberry away and enjoy life"

Andrew Clark in New York
The Guardian,
Saturday October 18 2008
Yours in the Bond

Famous Floridian...Fruitcake Lady

2008-10-01T17:25:00.002-04:00

This was the "Fruit Cake Lady" from Jay Leno fame. She died a few yrs back over north of Tampa and was a Instant hit as a Floridian. She in fact was Truman Capote's Cousin and was in the movie "to Kill a Mockingbird"...Great Lady.

My Uncle Ken applied for the Wal Mart Greeter job...

2008-10-01T17:13:00.003-04:00

North Florida Fire Alarm

2008-10-01T17:11:00.000-04:00

Rebels on SI Cover...3rd time in History

2008-10-01T13:09:00.000-04:00

Hotty Toddy...What a Week for Ole Miss

2008-09-28T10:56:00.006-04:00

As many who read my blog have known for sometime, I am a Native Floridian....BUT I did attend the University of Mississippi for college. People have often asked me why and I tell them 4 Ms. America's, why not hunt in a baited field.

This past Sat. marked a ballgame I dread, the Ole Miss/FL game. It was in the Swamp, Gators would supposed to devour us in short order and low and behold we won. Tap this on to the Debate that happened Friday night in Oxpatch and Ole Miss had a Great Week.

As Fellow Alum Shep Smith from FoxNews says,

Hotty Toddy We always
win the Party

Yours in the Bond

Claudius Maximus....THE Gov. of Florida

2008-09-24T08:37:00.003-04:00

In my ongoing series I guess on Florida Gov's, I have to list my favorite Gov of All Time in our State. My parents knew him, btw he is still alive and well living in Palm Beach, and said he was the Real Deal...The True Maverick.

Gov. Kirk once said after hearing of a Killing in a Nightclub in Quincy (the town of my birth)..."That's just another Sat. Night in Gadsden County"...Good Stuff.

As the article below will tell he was a Stud and a Great Promoter of Florida. They Don't make 'em like Claude anymore.

Yours in the Bond.

He was a playboy bachelor, the first Republican governor of Florida since Reconstruction and a promising candidate for the vice presidency. His name was Claude Kirk Jr.

Four decades later, the legend of Kirk endures. He was a Florida original, a pure character, a combination of Huey Long, P.T. Barnum and Jesse Ventura. At his inaugural ball in January 1967, the 41-year-old governor was accompanied by a ravishing, 33-year-old green-eyed blonde known only as "Madame X." If Charlie Crist weds Carole Rome, he will be the first governor to marry in office since the man the Miami Herald dubbed "Claudius Maximus" exchanged vows with Erika Mattfeld.

Born in California in 1926, Claude Roy Kirk was raised in a hardscrabble section of Montgomery, Ala. He joined the Marines at age 17 and fought in World War II and Korea. The GI Bill put him through Emory University and the University of Alabama law school. In 1956, Kirk founded American Heritage Life Insurance Co. in Jacksonville.

The 1960s transformed Florida and Kirk. He switched his political allegiance to the Republican Party in 1960 and chaired the "Floridians for Nixon" campaign. By the mid-1960s, the convulsive social and cultural change sweeping the country - free love, drugs, anti-war protests, black power, race riots, youthful rebellion and political alienation - convinced Kirk that a Republican could win Florida.

When he announced his candidacy for governor in 1966, few commentators noticed. Florida had not voted in a Republican governor since the election of Ossian B. Hart in 1872.

"I got elected," Kirk recalled, "because I could read numbers. I was a businessman, an insurance man."

It helped that the Democratic Party was imploding. Gov. Haydon Burns, a former five-term mayor of Jacksonville, fully expected to be renominated by his party in 1966. His term in office had been turbulent: He helped lure Walt Disney World to Orlando but had mishandled civil rights and, overall, was an ineffective leader. The conservative Burns was challenged by Lakeland businessman and populist Scott Kelly and Robert King High, the liberal mayor of Miami.

The May 1966 Democratic primary was hard fought, bitter and close. Only 40,000 votes separated the three candidates, with Burns and High qualifying for the runoff. In that primary, writes Kelly biographer Dorothy Smiljanich, "Governor Burns would make the mistake of his political life." Burns spread a malicious lie that Kelly was offering his political support to High for $500,000. Outraged, Kelly swore vengeance. He volunteered to help High for the pure pleasure of defeating Burns.

Kirk read the headlines and beamed. Precisely at the moment that Americans were becoming disillusioned with Lyndon Johnson's Great Society and questioning the wisdom of Florida Democrats, the party nominated High. Kirk could not have dreamed a better scenario for November.

Signs began to appear on lawns in Central and North Florida: "I'M A DEMOKIRK."

Kirk routed the hapless High in the fall election, carrying 56 of the state's 67 counties and winning by almost 160,000 votes. Kirk received 62 percent of the white vote. He and Winthrop A. Rockefeller of Arkansas, who also won in 1966, became the first Republican governors elected in the South since Reconstruction.

Kirk proved to be a better campaigner than governor. He faced a Democratic-controlled Legislature. Critics charged that the flamboyant governor was more interested in jet-setting to glamorous locales than governing. Faced with a rising crime rate, Kirk hired a private security firm to combat the problem.

The governor did have a sense of humor. When newspaper reporters discovered that a state commission had paid for his German honeymoon, Kirk quipped, "Very good reporting!" He then added, "Suppose a political enemy instead of the press had found it? That would have been terrible."

He was also a great salesman. At a 1967 Republican Governors' Conference, Kirk was a one-man show, giving dozens of interviews. When Time magazine accused him of "hogging the spotlight," he responded with a burst of candor, "I'm just sellin' orange juice. Sellin' juice, sellin' Kirk, sellin' Florida."

In January 1968, Brandon astrologer Teresa Maddux said the stars were aligned for new Tampa Mayor Dick Greco and the new governor.

By late July, it seemed that Kirk might become Republican presidential nominee Richard Nixon's running mate. The Tampa Tribune was not impressed. In an editorial July 28, 1968, "Trying Harder Won't Put Kirk in No. 2 GOP Spot," the Tribune called the governor an overrated, "gallivanting chief executive."

Frustrated and fuming with the Legislature, local school boards and governor, Florida teachers did the unthinkable: They struck. In February 1968, thousands of teachers from kindergarten through high school walked off their jobs, closing down a third of Florida's schools. Floridians were furious. By the fall, 63 percent of Floridians disapproved of Kirk's performance in office.

Kirk, however, turned out to be a good environmental governor. He appointed Nathaniel Reed as his environmental adviser, and together they accomplished much.

It was President Johnson and other Democratic leaders who had authorized the Cross-Florida Barge Canal. It was to connect the Gulf of Mexico with the Atlantic Ocean, stretching from Palatka to the mouth of the Withlacoochee on the Gulf Coast. Environmentalists fought furiously to stop the project, fearing that the canal would slice through the aquifer. Kirk helped persuade President Nixon to stop construction in 1971.

Kirk lost his bid for a second term to Democrat Reubin Askew.

At age 81, Kirk remains active. He and Erika live at Bear Island in West Palm Beach.

Gary R. Mormino directs the Florida Studies Program at USF St. Petersburg. He would love to hear from teachers who remember the 1968 Florida teachers strike.

Fuller Warren...no not the bridge, the Gov.

2008-09-23T14:21:00.005-04:00

Fellow Calhoun County resident and Gov...who once said when dedicating the Bridge from Btown to Bristol over the Apalachicola..."Finally the folks from Calhoun County can have a better way to go visit their relatives in Chattahoochee (State Mental Hosp.) and Starke (State Prison)....good stuff. I knew some family members and I wish I had a chance to meet him, but I was 6 when he died.

Yours in the Bond.

Fuller Warren (October 3, 1905 – September 23, 1973) was the 30th governor of the U.S. state of Florida.

Born in Blountstown, Florida, he attended the University of Florida in Gainesville and was a member of the Tau Chapter of Theta Chi Fraternity. While attending the university, he was elected to the Florida House of Representatives at the age of 21 in 1927. Following graduation, he moved to Jacksonville, Florida and began practicing law. He served on the city council from 1931 until 1937 and returned to the Florida House in 1939. During World War II, he was a gunnery officer in the U.S. Navy. During the election for governor in 1948, the debate over whether Florida would become a "dry state" heated up. Warren has been held to have delivered a speech more often attributed to Noah S. Sweat, the famous "if-by-whiskey" remark:

"If you mean the demon drink that poisons the mind, pollutes the body, desecrates family life, and inflames sinners, then I'm against it. But if you mean the elixir of Christmas cheer, the shield against winter chill, the taxable potion that puts needed funds into public coffers to comfort little crippled children, then I'm for it. This is my position, and I will not compromise."

Fuller Warren won the election and assumed the office of governor on January 4, 1949. During his term, he set the foundations for the state's turnpike system, began the Florida reforestation program, quality control programs on Florida's citrus crops were instituted and new laws were established that forbade cattle to wander freely. After he left office on January 6, 1953 he moved to Miami, Florida and practiced law. He ran for governor again in 1956, but lost the election to LeRoy Collins. He died in Miami in 1973.

The Fuller Warren Bridge in Jacksonville, Florida is named for him.

Red White and Boooooooooo.....

2008-09-22T16:03:00.004-04:00

For those of you that watched it you know we had a great Ryder Cup Match this week up in KY. Our guys played stellar as did the Euro's. The one shining light this week was a Fellow Floridian from my neck of the woods, Boo Weekley. Boo is from the metropolis of Milton FL between Pensacola and Marianna where my people are from. Boo is a Good Ole Boy done good. He says Yes Sir and No Sir, calls people who interview him Mr and Mrs and is a hoot to answering questions. He has God given talent on the golf course, one of the best ball strikers you will ever see...this from a guy who got into golf on a whim when he was 14 yrs old.

This interview was done just prior to the Ryder Cup match and it illustrates how great Boo is...from his Mossy Oak Team Camo Hat that he wears on tour to his fishing pole in his golf bag...Boo is keeping it Real..

The last Video is from Boo from Last Year...Classic.

Enjoy

Yours in the Bond