Florida Senate President, Senator Mike Haridopolos (R-Glomming His Living From The Florida Taxpayers Since He Was 23 Years Old) has, as almost everyone knows, set his sights on getting elected U.S. Senator in 2012.

Now, in a earlier post, I took note of his really shady book deal that netted him 152 grand. Mike dismissed this scandal as being ” 3-year-old or 4-year-old story“.  Well, I beg to differ.  When Mike or his campaign put the book on sale as an eBook on Amazon on 27 February 2011 (See here), he tore open that old wound whose scars, he thought, were fading from the public mind.  (Note: He even got a review from Brevard Community College professor, David Bradford.  I’m sure it is PURE coincidence that Senator Haridopolos started his academic and political career from the same Brevard Community College. /s off)

Now folks, remember he got a 152 THOUSAND dollars for a book that had only one copy printed and then had it made available for reading as a Ebook on February 27, 2011 and only on Amazon! What’s a matter Mike? Is your Staff too lazy to upload it to Barnes and Noble, or even better, Smashwords, where you can upload your masterpiece and have it distributed to all the various E-readers, including Apple IPods, IPads and Sony eReaders?  The only reason I am bring this up is to prove to the average American that, thanks to the Internet, you can write anything you want and, as long as it isn’t obscene, you can have it published and made available on all the E-readers in this great nation of ours.

My question now (and it is directed more at the MSM including Adam Smith and Marc Caputo of the St. Pete Times)…Have we got a “Jim Wright” scandal/scenario on our hands?  Does Haridopolos get to keep the profits from the eBook (which is approximately $7.00 per download) and if so, should he open up the sales record to see if we have people who are perhaps using this eBook as a vehicle to funnel funds to the good Senator on the side?  Or is the State of Florida the recipient of the profits since they “paid” the Senator upfront for his “Scholarly Tome”?

Either way, the public needs (and has a right) to see what is going on and who paid for what with regards to the Haridopolos work that is now for sale on Amazon as an eBook.  With the ability of anyone, including elected officials, to put anything they wrote (even a short story) on sale and set the price of the work..well you can see how someone can buy off a Senator or Congressman…legally.

To Adam Smith and Marc Caputo: I’m asking the questions that you should be asking.

Let’s face it, Mike Haridopolos started off his tenure as Senate President getting “admonished” for his failure to fully disclose over a hundred thousand dollars and a $400,000 home on state ethics forms as required by Florida law. (Lucky for Mike, the Republicans who elected him Senate President have complete, absolute control, of the chamber so no fines were levied).

I ask you. Is this the type of man that you can expect to buck the Washington establishment?  Is this a man who can relate to the average guy who sees the his hard earned dollars being spent on such truly offensive projects that netted our “esteemed” and “admonished” Senate President with 152 grand for a piece of academic crap?  Is this guy even remotely qualified, ethically or intellectually, to be a U.S. Senator  from the Great State of Florida?  If he can’t even manage his own finances, what makes you think he can help manage the Nation’s?

The only thing that has been proven is that Mike Haridopolos is your typical slick politician (who supported Charlie Crist over Marco Rubio) who has made a damn good, if scandalous, living off the Florida taxpayer. If he is elected U.S. Senator, I assure you, his sole goal will be to get elected again in six years and not take the hard, necessary choices and votes that might torpedo his chances of re-election in 2018.

Bluntly put, Mike Haridopolos has a documented history of poor judgment, poor management and has basically been on the public payroll since he turned 23.  His entire concept of self-worth is based on what gets him elected, nothing more, nothing less.

My fellow Floridians: We can, and must, do better…

Finally, as proof that anyone can get published in this day and age (without taxpayer money), then read this next sentence and click on the sights provided. I wrote two short stories and have them now for sale: “Two Pulps For A Buck”  on Amazon, B&N and Smashwords (Yes, I am shamelessly plugging my two short stories here, but, unlike Mike’s book, not one penny of your taxes went into its writing).  I’m hoping for a Pulitzer Prize, but I’ll settle for 99 cents per copy downloaded.  (Please leave reviews!)

Also, to the first person who can find what I consider the most glaring mistake (and failure of proof reading) in my second story, Caveman (©2011 by E.R. White, Jr.),  I will personally send that person an autographed copy of my soon to be released to the eBook world, my novel, “Scrambled Hard-Boiled” (ISBN 978-1-257-02615-9).  You can pay 12 bucks for a trade copy from LuLu if you like (also there is a free preview on the LuLu site), but once the hardcopy is listed on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, etc.,  I intend to make it available to the public as an eBook for $2.99.

Also, this is further proof you don’t need to pay a guy 152 grand upfront to write a book and get it published hardcopy.

I just received a couple of Emails, from a friend, who is letting me know that the good Colonel’s staff, specifically his campaign manager, Mr. Geoff Ross, is quite upset with my piece on his boss.

Click here to read my original piece.

In the emails that I received I am accused of being a “gutless coward” because I’m “anonymous”.  Evidentially, Mr. Ross didn’t go to my site and look under my Bio where my name and where I live are posted. For the record, I am E. Royce White, Jr , I live in Niceville and I’m in the Phonebook.  Just click at the top of my Blog Front page on “BloggyBayou” and the information is all there.  And also for the record, I am a Trusty Shellback!  You need to work on your web skills and data mining techniques, Senior Chief.

Second, I am not a “Hater”.  What I wrote was sarcasm.  Hate is a powerful word.  Islamic Fascists  ”Hate” Jews.  I don’t “hate” Colonel McCalister because I only have seen his speech.  I do think he is a buffoon who overstates his reserve duty in order to give the impression that he was a full time Warrior.  But that is not hate…just irritation.

I walked into that meeting in Fort Walton Beach hoping to like the good Colonel (I knew nothing of his background) and what I got was a man bragging about what he had done in the military and what he knows that we don’t.  He did not ONCE say that he was a reservist and he left the opinion that he had been serving on the front lines vice being a glorified paper pusher.  It may fool some people who never served active duty, but I knew better once I read his “Curriculum Vitae” .  It is really poor form to brag about once having a Top Secret clearance and it is silly to make it one of the cornerstones of your campaign stump speech.  As any good intelligence officer will tell you, the most perishable stuff in the world is intelligence.  Most of it has a short shelf life.

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Folks, I don’t know about you, but I’m growing increasingly worried about how our Congressional House leadership is, well, leading….

Take for example, my own Congressman, The Honorable Jeff Miller. I just perused through his official congressional web page and there was absolutely NOTHING explaining the reasoning behind his support for the last two congressional continuing resolutions.

Another observation I made is that as of today, 20 March 2011, on his  “Jeff’s Blog- Insight and Opinion” web page,  Jeff has evidentially has had no “Insight or Opinion” since March 21st 2010!  (To be fair, I guess as entrenched, excruciatingly boring backbenchers go, this ain’t bad. /s off)

His twitter page boasts 8 less followers than @InfamousHooker.  To his credit, his YouTube page does have a recent post of Ole’Jeff making a 2 minute speech on Veteran affairs last week.  Other than that, his two previous YouTube posts were from the from when the new congress convened and one from 6 months ago.

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Here is the vote count. The Right Honorable Jeff Miller joins the RINOs.  I expect him to put out an Email explaining WHY he voted “Aye”.  I want a logical, specific and detailed letter as to his reasons for and the logic behind his vote.

I visited his site and there is nada, zip, zilch on this vote.  I “Emailed” him using his weblink and I got the usual form letter:

Dear Constituent,

Thank you for your recent e-mail.  I value your interest in the legislative process and appreciate your comments about the issues important to you.  Your input helps me do a better job serving you and all Americans.

Your input is very valuable and your patience is appreciated as it takes time to respond to the large amount of mail that comes into my office.  Please allow several weeks for a written reply.

To receive my newsletter, please visit my website at http://jeffmiller.house.gov/Forms/Form/?ID=414.

Thank you again for your interest in the policies that affect both Florida and our nation.

With warm personal regards, I am

Sincerely,

Jeff Miller-Member of Congress-Florida, 1st District

Yep, nothing says “warm personal regards” like a computer generated Email that requires no human intervention whatsoever!

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Florida is going to be one of the KEY battleground states in the 2012. Indeed, considering how staunchly Democratic both New York and California are,  the “Sunshine State” will likely be the most hotly contested state in the Union.  While that may be good news for the local TV and radio industry in terms of ad revenue, it will a) extremely costly for ALL candidates running statewide and b) Extremely Nasty.

So let me throw the first stone!

Now I might be a plain old simple country boy, but I can’t help thinking that one of the memes that will be a major line of attack against Obama and his congressional minions will be the handling of all issues economic. This means holding accountable Democrat incumbents who voted for Obama’s essentially bankrupt, partisan and all around ridiculous economic vision, plan and budgets.

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This is my Grandfather, Emmett (NMN) White.  This picture was taken as he was preparing for the “Great War”.  As you can tell in the background, he was in the artillery.  By the time I was born, Granddaddy White was already partially paralyzed from a stroke and had to use a cane.  He speech was somewhat slurred and his habit of always chewing rock hard molasses “plug” tobacco (brass spittoon and all) didn’t help matters either.

He was born in North Carolina in 1895 and died when I was 14 in 1972.  The one time he spoke of the Great War with me, he was telling me how he and his fellow soldiers were lobbing shells into the German lines in the spring of 1918 when they saw this cloud of dust in the horizon.  They kept lobbing shells and looking at the dust until they suddenly realized that the cloud of dust was the entire German Army who had broken Allied lines in their last great push to win the war.  I eagerly asked him what did he do (expecting a great tale of battle) and was stunned to hear him say “Hell, we did what we had to do, we dropped everything and ran like hell away from them!”

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From the diaries by Erick

Question: What do you call a man who is in his just beginning his tenure as the President of the Florida State Senate at a time where the State is facing dire economic times and is already making plans to run for the U.S. Senate when he is term limited out in 2012?

Answer: A GUY WHO SHOULDN’T BE RUNNING FOR U.S. SENATE.

Question: What do you call a College Professor (who also was also an Elected member of the State Legislature) who got 152 grand of Taxpayer’s money  to write a 175 double-spaced book on “politics” in Florida that, until the scandal broke, had only one copy published?

Answer: A rip-off artist and lousy guardian of the Public Treasury. If a regular person had done such a deed, he would have gone to jail.  This act alone should disqualify Haridopolis from the Senate and a CRIMINAL INQUIRY needs to be set in motion over this. PERIOD.  Enough is Enough.

Question: When said above Politician gets caught RIPPING OFF the taxpayer and then, in a desperate effort to prove he really wrote a book worthy of the 152 grand, now has it for sale for 9.99 on Amazon Kindle, what does that tell you about his attitude towards voters in Florida?

Answer: He thinks we are fools who will buy into this crap. Anybody can publish a book on Kindle. For example, here are some books currently outselling Haridopolos’s “Book”.

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Let’s see, you got the press pouncing on Governor Scott  at every opportunity, facts be damned… Check.  The Governor has inherited a State Government that has yet to face up to the fact that they cost more than the taxpayer ponies up of their hard earned dollars…Check.  You have an opposition party that is trying to “derail” your decision to “derail” the High Speed rail between Orlando and Tampa….Check … Woops, my bad..It’s his OWN PARTY that is fighting for this prime example of government gone wild.  In addition, let’s not forget the letter sent by the Democrat Senators GOP Senators BEMOANING the fact that Governor Scott decided to actually look at the facts and decide that the High Speed Rail was a “One Way Ticket to Tax Hell”.

My own freshman Senator , Greg Evers PROUDLY put his signature to the above mentioned letter and quicker than you can say “Pissed Off Republicans In Okaloosa County Screaming Bloody Murder Over This Nincompoop Signing This Letter And Vowing to Unseat His Dumb Ass ASAP“, Senator Evers rescinded his signature within days. I swear, If I get laid off from my job, I think I will run for State Senator in Florida District 2 Dressed Up as “Bozo The Clown“  so when Evers and I debate I will be the hands down favorite to win due to having more “Gravitas”.

Note to Greg Evers: When Don Gaetz backs off signing a letter, just pull a “monkey do as Monkey sees” and follow his lead.

Note to Don Gaetz: Better late than never..welcome back to the real world….

Good luck Governor. One thing in your favor. With all the public unions making complete asses of themselves up north…You should have an easier time down here making the necessary changes to make Public Servants donate more of their money to their own retirement and DECREASE the influence of the Public Sector Unions on our Budget.

Next issue: We got a new RPOF Chairman but obviously no one is minding the Online site. Since the New Chairman was elected on January 15, the site has updated its Front web page….ONCE. (not counting “the occasional Tweet”..) Click on the Newsroom Link and it is apparently obvious that the space-time continuum ceased to exist on 19 November, the date of the last News story.

Earth to RPOF: The gloves have come off in the Local MSM corner and any pretense of neutrality of reporting the actions of our Governor has been abandoned. DO SOMETHING!!!!!!!!!!! Look at your site: You have as of 2 March 2011 at 11:29 AM 6,291 “likes” or “Fans” on Facebook.

On the other hand, this Facebook site, “I USED TO KILL THE HOOKERS IN GRAND THEFT AUTO TO GET MY MONEY BACK“, has 393,059 “Likes” or “Fans”.

Lesson: RPOF, Get your online act together.

Lesson To Governor Scott: You need to tell senior GOP bigwigs (Both Formal and Informal) that they need to put their money where their mouth is and start competing with the Tampa Buzz and St. Pete Times on what ground truth is in today’s Florida.

Lesson To Senator Evers: Keep being stupid and You’ll Recognize me in 2016…I’ll be the guy in the clown outfit ripping you a new one at the Debate.

My Next post will be on State Senator Mike Haridopolos, his hair and why did he first vote for High Speed Rail after I personally sent him information in 2009 proving is was a black hole for taxes?

“The Greatest Game Ever Played” The New York Football Giants versus The Baltimore Colts.  Legendary Names. Pat Summerall,  Sam Huff, Frank Gifford, Vince Lombardi (The Offensive Coordinator for the Giants), Tom Landry (The Defensive Coordinator for the Giants), Weeb Ewbank (The Colts Head Coach), Raymond Berry, Art Donovan and of course, the immortal Johnny Unitas.

The game was played on December 28th, 1958 at old Yankee Stadium.  It went into sudden death overtime and if you want to listen to it, here it is as it was broadcast on radio.  Over 40 million Americans watched it on T.V.

The 1958 NFL Championship Game Part 1

The 1958 NFL Championship Game Part 2

The 1958 NFL Championship Game Part 3

The 1958 NFL Championship Game Part 4

The 1958 NFL Championship Game Part 5

The 1958 NFL Championship Game Part 6

I remember the game like it was yesterday.  I was only 15 months old and Dad had it on the new Admiral T.V.  Dad knew that there was something special about this game even before it started.  We broke out the Falstaff Beer, Swisher Sweets and Moon Pies . Together Dad and I bonded as we popped open a few cans of beer, lit up and savored the Swishers and watched the game.  Mom drank iced tea and smoked Viceroys.  My older sister was three and she was left alone in her room, left to her own devices for entertainment. She ate a couple of the Moon Pies and had a  shot of Jack Daniel’s Black and disappeared into her room after that.

This post is in honor of the men who played the game the way it was meant to be played. With brutal violence, screw the concussions and no victory dances in the end zone.

Here’s a picture of Art Donovan.  This mean SOB is 85 now and could still kill most of the defensive line of the Steelers with one hand, rip every hair out of Troy Polamalu’s head, wipe that grin off Heinz Ward’s face and still have time for breakfast. Don’t even get started on what he would do to Ben Roethlisberger.

This is all the posting I’m doing today.  I’m off to exercise and will tack on an extra 15 minutes in order to do penance for what I am about to inflict on my body this afternoon and evening, culinary wise.

And no one dare even talk to me or remind me of this Championship game played in 1940.  And you thought France had a bad year that year….

Already, before they have even formerly regained the House, the Republican leadership is back to business as usual.  They want the Bush tax cuts extended for all. Fair enough.  In order not to disrupt tax schedules, employers staffing, pay checks, etc.. John Boehner and Mitch McConnell  (essentially the same leadership that served us so “ably” during the Bush years) agreed to extend unemployment benefits for an additional 13 months.  Ok, if it had stopped there, you might have got me to grudgingly agree.  But this whole lame duck process has turned this bill into the 2010 “Son Of Porkulus” Bill.

Remember the Stimulus Bill of 2009 (aka Porkulus)?  Remember all of us concerned Republicans screaming in protest that it was a hastily arranged, incoherent, slapdash amalgamation of Democratic pork and pipedreams that did nothing to truly address a) our need for energy independence and b) How it was bankrupting the country?

How about Obamacare?  Remember Speaker Pelosi saying that they would have to pass it before they could fully explain its benefits? Remember the two thousand page bill that no had time to read before it became law?

Both of these pieces of legislation have proven to be complete and utter disasters.  They were rushed to vote, not fully vetted and the cost to the taxpayer and business were buried in the fine print. The result of these two bills was a political revolt that led to the crushing of the Democrats who had crammed these two pieces of legislation down the throat of American taxpayer, throwing Pelosi and company out of power in a historic defeat that was breathtaking in its scope and size.

I thought Republicans would have learned from the mistakes of their opposition and also from their abandonment of fiscal restraint during the Bush years.

Well, I was wrong. I could outline all the reasons why this deal is bad for America, bad for the taxpayer and bad for my teenage Son and his peers.  Instead, I’ll bow to a much more eloquent and intelligent man than I, Charles Krauthammer. Read this post by Mr. Krauthammer.

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