Florida homeowners: When did we secede from the U.S.A.?

by Baitball Blogger Thu Apr 05, 2012 Original

It seemed like a simple cause and effect scenario. The case before the Florida Supreme Court would have decided who was responsible for the repairs of defective construction work in a development. But before the Court ruled on the case the Florida legislature came up with House Bill 1013. What it does is interfere with a basic American principle: the right to due process of law. Due Process is a simple concept. It’s defined as “[f]air treatment through the normal judicial system, especially as a citizen's entitlement.” The key words are “citizen’s entitlement.” For most of us, that translates to, constitutional right. We just assume that the courts will be available to reinforce our rights, when nothing else will. It’s just the ordinary concept of checks and balances. But that’s what the Florida legislature interfered with when it passed House Bill 1013. Homeowners are blocked from relying on the court for remedies for shoddy workmanship. So now, instead of holding the developer responsible, homeowners will have to resort to special assessments among their own members to resolve faulty construction work. In some towns and cities, this will mean hardship for future homeowners because much of this work is performed before the first homeowner moves in. If anyone is expecting the local government to act like some fail safe system, performing building inspections to ensure that work meets appropriate standards, they can check into my website, www.keystoneworksite.com for the rude awakening. There’s a lot about this state that many people don’t realize until it’s too late. When you sign that contract and become a homeowner a transformation begins which turns you into something less significant than what you were before you moved in. Like Pinocchio on Donkey Island, none of us realize what we’re in for until it’s too late. Except here in Florida, where the borders are surrounded on three sides by water I’m always reminded of a school of fish which is herded into one big bait ball for someone’s easy pickings. In this case, the special interest group which benefited from the bill at our expense was the Florida Home Builder’s Association. You can understand why they would lobby for this law, but what’s the legislature’s excuse for it? Or the excuse of the people who voted for them? I mean, who in their right mind elects a politician who turns around and treats them in this manner? If this isn’t bad enough, the bill applies retroactively, which will have the effect of hamstringing the one case which the Florida Supreme Court reviewed in December and might have given the homeowners some relief. Right now the bill is on its way to the governor’s office where Rick Scott’s signature will turn it into law. As long as people continue to vote based on party labels, we’re going to see this drift away from the rights that every American assumes is theirs from birth. It’s just hard to comprehend that this roll back in rights is coming from a Republican led state legislature. The disconnect is classic Florida. The Republicans voters, who claim they are against a government that encroaches on their freedoms, vote for representatives who pass laws which encroach on our freedoms. There is no other way to see it because nothing can be more American than the system of checks and balances, yet the bill will prevent us from setting the process in motion. Even the cry for “no-new-taxes” rings hollow when the kind of laws that continue to come out of a Republican led legislature whittles away at our consumer protection laws. House Bill 1013 is just another example of how we exist to feed the system, but we are never allowed to break even. That’s the reality. If you walk into this state for the sunshine and climate, be prepared to pay for it in ways you never dreamed of. I’ve lived here long enough to know that change will not come from within, so the hope is that someone on the outside will step in and remind our Florida leaders that we didn’t relinquish our citizenship at the border. Of course, the extreme would be to throw up our hands, admit defeat and acknowledge that we no longer are part of the union. It might be easier for everyone concerned to just begin the cumbersome process of updating the textbooks to describe the United States as a nation composed of 49 states instead of 50. Though the whole costly mess can be avoided if you allow Puerto Rico to take our place. This entry was inspired by an opinion piece in the Orlando Sentinel. http://www.orlandosentinel.com/..

Mitt Romney: Portraying Obama As A Wimp

   Sommetime one just has to love those Russian Federation newspapers, especially when it comes to their coverage of the American election season. Even the Russians understand that Mitt Romney is an “ Etch A Sketch “ ass-hat in a suit.

   Portraying Obama as a Wimp

By Sergey Markov      Translated By Joanna Swirszcz

It is necessary to analyze Mitt Romney’s statements in the context of the campaign battle. It’s clear that Romney assumes that he has already won the Republican primaries and is preparing for the battle with Obama.
Insofar as Obama has been getting relations with Russia back on track, Romney’s task is to prove that Obama is carrying out flawed policies because Russia appears to be the main adversary of the United States. And Romney wants to portray Obama as a wimp who would make concessions to Russia, while at the same time presenting himself as a cool guy who is defending American interests.
But Barack Obama actually defends the real interests of the U.S. more than Romney.
Romney is just suggesting the same style of politics that those radicals and aggressors, such as Dick Cheney and George W. Bush, followed and who managed — through their actions — to make so many people all over the world begin to hate America.
Barack Obama is currently trying to fix their mistakes. He’s betting on the fact that the U.S. has become a peaceful leader, engaging in continuous dialogue with other countries.
But the neoconservatives, who are trying to gain control over Romney, are striving to make America the lord of the whole world, subjecting all other nations to its rule without a thought for their interests.
Romney, if he becomes president, will implement the policies of the neoconservatives.
And it’s not worth justifying his words as campaign talk. This will not absolve him of responsibility.
This is Romney’s most grave geopolitical mistake.
During the 2008 presidential campaign, when Republicans were battling with Obama, they instigated the war with South Ossetia.
I suppose that John McCain, Dick Cheney, and Condoleeza Rice led Saakashvili to believe that the Republicans were interested in provoking Russia into military action. And all this in order to simulate the start of the Cold War, the very conditions under which the “wimp” Obama would be likely to lose against the “strong” McCain.
So, now Romney is ready for a nuclear war, just for the sake of his own victory?! If you go with his claim, that sort of conclusion is possible.
Undoubtedly, the United States is now the strongest nation in the world. But strength should not give rise to irresponsibility, as it has among the neoconservatives. On the contrary, great strength means great responsibility. This is what we expect from America’s political leadership.
Some would have liked for Romney’s words to have turned out to be “a slip of the tongue.” Or that he would have apologized for them — not to have apologized to Russians or to Russia, but rather, to have apologized to the voters whom he has been leading into deception.
Or maybe Romney wants the U.S. budget neither to serve the American people nor to increase their wealth, but instead to serve new foreign policy adventures?
In the beginning, they were fighting mythical weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Afterwards, they got tangled up in an adventure in the Caucasus in order to hold Russia in check ...
But I am sure that the American people are a smart people, and they would hardly pick a presidential candidate for whom Russia is the main geopolitical foe.
Romney’s words about Russia’s continued support for Syria testify to his ignorance of foreign policy. Russia doesn’t support Syria. We support the principle of nonintervention into the internal politics of independent nations. The principle of opposing the outbreak of civil war.
During his time, Vladimir Putin told George W. Bush, “It’s not necessary to start a war in Iraq!” And during that time, the American press also wrote that Russia was holding an anti-American position and supporting Saddam Hussein’s criminal regime.
But as it turned out, President Bush quickly took an anti-American position by starting the war in Iraq. If he had heeded Putin’s advice, if he had not started that insane war, then America might have been more respected in the world.
This is the same thing that we tell the United States with regard to a possible war in Syria: Don’t do anything stupid! It is unnecessary to be aggressive simply because you want to punish and bomb Syria. There is no reason to bomb anyone! And the rest of the world will have a much easier time dealing with a non-aggressive United States!
These are the common truths that Mitt Romney, too, must come to understand.   Original ( In Russian ) 

 

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