The Way I See ItBy cj pollickClearwater Has A Choice - If Clearwater city planners, due to cash flow problems, are forced to close city recreation centers and libraries, would it be appropriate to review any and all financial opportunities to keep those city services open? Case in point: The Sheriff's Office made a proposal to Clearwater officials that would save the city about $10 million per year in city spending for the same, or better, police services. Clearwater police officers would essentially wear Sheriff uniforms instead of Clearwater police uniforms. First year savings? Over $2 million and $10 million a year thereafter. How did Clearwater officials react to this proposal? They like the idea of keeping their current police form of services. The tens of millions of city cash flow savings as presented by the Sheriff's office, which could perhaps help to save citizen recreation centers (like at Morningside), could be rejected by city council members. Even though the person wearing the uniform would be the same police officer currently serving Clearwater. Time will tell if this budget saving proposal from the Sheriff's Office, such as was done in Dunedin and other nearby cities, is fully debated by the city council. Meanwhile, the Gazette would like to know how Clearwater citizens feel about this budget-saving idea. New Polling Results: Rubio 39%, Crist 31%, Meek 18% - New Florida voter polling numbers from Rasmussen Report reflect a falling Charlie Crist and a rising Marco Rubio (Meek remaining at about 18%.) Gov. Crist had a brief "bump" of polling numbers when he announced he was running for the US Senate seat without party affiliation, but recent poll numbers show Crist has lost support and is losing, in fact, ground to Rubio and Meek. News of the Crist campaign calling Democrat leaders in Washington for support may be one of the reasons why an anxious Crist campaign continues to lose support from Florida voters. Who could have imagined such a dramatic fall of popularity by a Florida politician? Newsweek Magazine Sinking While Staff Looks For Work - If you have followed the slow and methodical sinking of Newsweek Magazine, you would know that the magazine had been losing advertising revenues for years as it bathed in liberal rhetoric from its top writers. Can't afford to keep losing money, said owners at the Washington Post (parent company of Newsweek.) Thus, it is only a matter of time before Newsweek is sold to new buyers with perhaps a new political "spin." Can you imagine if Newsweek magazine was incorporated into the Wall Street Journal? A once-a-month magazine with real business and contemporary news written by writers from the Wall Street Journal! As the staff of Newsweek Magazine looks for work elsewhere, ad revenues continue to drop. Tax Relief - If you read the Wall Street Journal, you know that more than one respected economist has suggested extending the Bush era tax cuts while our nation is trying to recover from a great recession. "Can't do it," say leading Democrats in Congress. "Tax the wealthy," was the first theme to raise federal money as presented by President Obama, then the tax platform went on to lower the definition of who was a "high earner" worker. The word "wealthy" began to mean more people that could be defined as "middle class" workers. Thus, the bottom line of this thinking was to place higher taxes on people that earned more money than some other workers. On Tuesday another tax planner suggested that this is not the time to increase taxes for working Americans, even those who earn over $200,000. On the other hand, those people who invest in America are wondering if the long-term capital gains tax might change from 15% (current tax) to over 35% in 2011. If such an "investment" tax occurs, the thinking of investors might change from acquisitions to tax favored investments. How would the pullout of equity markets by investors further hurt US businesses? Tax relief? President Ronald Reagan believed tax relief was necessary to stimulate our nation's economy-and, he was later proven to be correct. Reagan pulled our country out of a recession by offering tax relief. This topic should be another key point in the elections of 2010-can America afford to increase taxes during a recession? Voters will decide in November the direction of our country. Entitlement Mentality - According to the Tax Foundation, 60 percent of Americans now receive more in benefits from government than what they pay into government. Washington's Peaceful Diplomacy With Iran Fails - Leaders from Turkey and Brazil welcomed the opportunity to embrace Iran in its quest for nuclear power and economic trade. Turkey will help Iran in working with nuclear material and Brazil will continue to be one of Iran's leading providers of food products. Thus, Iran showed President Obama and Sec. of State Hillary Clinton how to handle major diplomacy deals. US sanctions were made virtually unimportant by leaders from Brazil and Turkey. As President Obama traveled the world apologizing for "nasty Americans", world leaders saw a weakness in American leadership and seized the moment to support Iran. How will Israel react to this recent development? One commentator explained that if Israel did react to damage some Iranian nuclear facilities, it would only delay nuclear redevelopment for a year or two. Thus, delays in stopping Iranian nuclear development by peaceful negotiations from Washington has been a failure. A nuclear Iran? Yes, thanks to the diplomatic efforts of Sec. Hillary Clinton. Would Brazil, Turkey and Iran have acted in this bold and aggressive manner if Ronald Reagan were president? Oil Spill - BP Oil Company has a big problem. It owns the rights to oil exploration and drilling rights in the Gulf of Mexico. Oil drilling rights were granted to BP Oil Company (who delegated certain drilling duties to companies that work with BP Oil Company.) BP Oil is trying to say they were not the culprits in the giant oil spill; they contracted the oil platform and drilling portion to other "unrelated" companies. Thus, BP and other companies are running from what could become an enormous financial liability. BP Oil has tried to cap the damaged and leaking pipe while trying to limit oil slick damage. Which, of course, has nothing to do with their weak safety program and oversight. BP petroleum can try to run from their financial responsibilities, but our government has the duty to demand their total performance in settling all financial damages (hopefully, without protracted court proceedings.) The BP oil spill is a reflection of weak safety standards. President Obama, to his credit, recently supported offshore oil exploration and drilling. But, little was he aware of how our government would regulate these oil companies and their affiliates. This is not a partisan issue, both Democrats and Republicans should be appalled to observe how long it would take an oil company to contain an oil well leak at the ocean's floor. The giant oil spill will result in large financial damages to several coastal states and people that work in the fishing industry. We can only hope the oil spill does not reach our coastal beaches and resort communities. Tourism is already taking a hit from visitors that are canceling reservations. If, as is currently projected, the oil spill reaches the Loop Current (offshore), the oil spill is projected to flow down the offshore coast to the Florida Keys (perhaps the Dry Tortugas area) and turn north along Florida's east coast and possibly touching the Carolinas and mid-Atlantic coastal states before heading east into the Atlantic. Blame BP Oil for their overall responsibility? Yes. Blame politicians in Washington for minimum oversight of BP Oil (and other such oil companies)? Yes. Arizona Law Tough To Challenge - A 2002 Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel memo concluding that state police officers have "inherent power" to arrest undocumented immigrants for violating federal law is making it difficult for the Obama administration to challenge Arizona's new immigration law. "Those who desire to give up freedom in order to gain security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one." -Benjamin Franklin |