Celebrate and cherish America’s independence!

Florida politicos: in the immortal words of the Silhouettes, get a job

This is a radical idea that will never go anywhere but it’s fun to contemplate. We, the voters of Florida, say thank you for your service to our many public servants telling them they have 16 (we could live with 12) years to do whatever they want to do in the public arena. You can be a county commissioner for 16 years or perhaps a county commissioner for eight years and serve in the Florida House for eight but then, alas, you have to find a real job - a lobbyist perhaps? So many politicians, about six months into their first or second term, start looking around for their next political world to conquer. The names Rubio, Buckhorn and Putnam come to mind. Problem is the job they were elected to do gets ignored while they seek to move on up. Just for kicks, we will make an exception if some two-term Florida governor wants to seek the White House. We’ll call it the Jeb exemption. Does it put Florida at a bit of disadvantage as far as Congressional seniority is concerned? Yes, but think of some of the empty suits we’d be clearing out with our 16-year rule. And who knows, maybe some other states would follow our lead and also eliminate the career politician. Real jobs can be fun guys and gals.

Around the bay:

1. In the same vein as our lead item, we don’t agree that often with former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, but his suggestion that there be term limits on U.S. Supreme Court justices makes all too much sense. Too often, we’ve seen justices stay into senility – right Ruthie? Give them long enough terms – say twenty years and stagger the terms so some president isn’t stacking the deck. But after twenty years, go write your memoirs.

2. Not all vetoes are bad. Governor Scott’s veto of $6 million to build a new 78-foot research vessel for the Florida Institute of Oceanography makes financial sense. Vessels that size can be built for less than half the number. The institute needs to come back to the state with a proposal to build a sensible research vessel – not a $6 million dollar floating Mercedes Benz.

3. Always remember that if someone uninitiated asks you what Clearwater is famous for, you don’t have to lower your head and mumble something about a cult. Instead, stand proud and declare we are the home of the very first Hooter’s Restaurant!

4. And on the same subject, Tampa International Airport decided not to include a Bloomin’ Brands (Outback, Carrabba’s etc.) restaurant in their upcoming renovation saying the Tampa-based chain had grown so big they lost the local flavor the airport was seeking. So Carrabba’s is being replaced by a P.F. Chang’s – now there’s some local flavor!

5. Three things we really miss – Siple’s Garden Seat, Maas Brothers and the Vinyl Museum. How about you? What three local things do you really miss?

The diamond, the media and other stuff:

6. Should New York Governor Andrew Cuomo be doing a victory lap when two escaped convicts made over a thousand New York law enforcement officers look like the Keystone Kops and his prison system proved to be riddled with corruption and incompetence?

7. As fireworks stands sprung up all over the county, our Rants and Raves focus group (comprised of three old, cranky people) remembered when fireworks were shot off only on Independence Day - not on New Year’s, Thanksgiving and Groundhog Day.

8. The site Fan Sided Daily recently did a list of the 30 greatest starting pitchers of all time. From the era when we may have actually seen the pitchers (thereby eliminating Cy Young and Walter Johnson), the top five are, in order, Ryan, Maddux, Seaver, Carlton and Spahn. Hard to argue with the list, but we might lobby for Bob Gibson or Sandy Koufax – but at the expense of which of the five?

9. After reading your HB’s (humble blogger’s) rant on the mass media from last week, my oldest friend from college days reminds me I really didn’t major in Mass Communications in college but rather pinball machines and pizza (along with him). The truth hurts.

10. Factoid: Presidents John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both died on July 4, 1826. James Monroe died exactly five years later making July 4 the day when the most U.S. Presidents have died. March 8 (Fillmore and Taft) and December 26 (Ford and Truman) have also experienced multiple presidential deaths.

The made in USA top five:

This is the weekend when a lot of oldies radio stations around the country run a “made in the USA weekend” featuring America’s top groups like the Beach Boys, Four Seasons and the Supremes. Since most of those stations focus on the sixties, we thought we’d give you the Top Five made in USA songs from that decade (the top two songs from the sixties were from a British group – the Beatle’s Hey Jude and, surprisingly, a Canadian orchestra leader – Percy Faith’s beautiful Theme from a Summer Place). But the top five USA songs from the sixties will also surprise you a bit. In order they are 1. Bobby Lewis’ Tossin’ and Turnin’ 2. The Monkees’ I’m A Believer 3. Heard it Through the Grapevine by Marvin Gaye 4. Aquarius by the 5^th Dimension and 5. Elvis Presley’s Are You Lonesome Tonight? Now there is a list with which you could win a lot of bar bets!