James Stabile Informational Newsletter
April 2005
Too Strange, Weird or Just Funny....
A treadmill for an animal? Yes sir, that’s what the administrators of an Alaskan zoo are planning to do. Maggie an overweight elephant at an Alaskan zoo is going to be put on a treadmill to lose weight. What will they think of next?
In the March 8, general election in Miami Dade County hundreds of ballots were inadvertently deleted from the electronic voting machines by an inexperienced poll worker. The voting machine data was not backups and opps, there goes the data. The Miami Dade County Supervisor of Elections has resigned in the midst of the controversy. I wonder if it was really an accident. The "Las Vegas" style gambling issue was on the ballot. It was narrowly defeated in Miami Dade County - the Jeb Bush home county, home to many Republican Cubans, the county where the Elian Gonzales fiasco took place. I wonder.
Speaking about the state of Florida and elections - In the November 2002 general election the voters of Florida overwhelmingly passed the class size reduction amendment. By 2010 Florida elementary, middle and high school class size is to be reduced significantly. Personally, I feel that class size is directly related to student achievement in all schools and grade levels. I believe that lower class size results in higher achievement and more student success regardless of any other variables. Apparently the voters of Florida agreed with me. However, the governor says that lowering class size is too expensive and wants to put the repeal of the amendment on the ballot in the near future. Instead of lowering class size, he is proposing setting uniform minimum teachers' starting salaries throughout the state by 2010 or so. Number one, Florida is a big state. The standard of living is as different throughout the state as the types of people. He says nothing about the salaries of veteran teachers. And by 2010, the starting salaries will probably be higher than his proposed standard salary anyway due to cost of living and inflation natural raises. What a crock. This proves that the governor as well as the state legislature are no more concerned about student achievement as they are concerned about honoring the bullet train amendment, passed years ago and virtually ignored for years. Once again if the Republican governor and Republican control state legislature doesn't like something, then they make the people vote on it again and again until they get the results that they want. Let's face it - money is the only thing these mongrels care about. In the future, any ballot initiative that will affect my tax obligation adversely, I will vote against. That's the major reason that I voted for the slot machines in Broward, and it overwhelming passed. From now on, especially as I approach senior citizen status, my financial well being will be first and foremost in my set of priorities when I enter the polling place.
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Strange, Weird or Just Funny