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Captain Mike Fewless of the Orange county Sheriff’s office teamed up with Volusia County Sheriff Ben Johnson, and Major Ken Davis of the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s office, and went to Tallahassee to lobby against SB 234. For those who do not know, SB 234 will allow those people in Florida who have a concealed weapons permit to carry a weapon openly. This law doesn’t change who carries a weapon, only how they carry it.

Fewless used his access as a law enforcement officer to research alleged members of a biker gang, take their pictures, and gave those pictures to the legislators on the Judiciary committee. He then told the judiciary that these are the types of people who would be openly carrying weapons, since these alleged gang members were CCW permit holders.

“I actually stopped by every one of your guy’s offices this morning and dropped off seven photographs of some biker outlaw gang guys that have carry and concealed firearm permits,” Fewless said to the committee.

In so doing, Fewless became a criminal himself. He violated more than one law in using his police powers to search restricted databases, and then released that information to the public. If it is true that the bikers would be permitted to openly carry firearms because they have concealed weapons  permits, this means one of two things: That the bikers in question have not broken any laws, or that they HAVE broken the law, and the cops themselves haven’t done their jobs. It is also illegal for public employees to lobby the legislature while on the clock.

According to Florida Statute, the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services must suspend the licenses of those persons arrested or formally charged with a crime that would disqualify an individual for a license until final disposition of the case, and a licensee who is under an injunction that restrains them from committing acts of domestic violence or acts of repeat violence. Finally, the agency must revoke the license of a licensee who have been found guilty of, had adjudication of guilt withheld for, or had imposition of sentence suspended for one or more crimes of violence within the preceding three years. So if those men are in fact criminal bikers, they should not have permits.

Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office Major Ken Davis told of a recent traffic stop of six Tampa Bay Outlaw motorcycle gang members. “Although the six Outlaws were certified gang members, and had histories of criminal arrests, most were also concealed carry permit [sic] holders”, he related.

Note that he was being misleading: They had a history of arrests. So what?  Were they convicted? He doesn’t say. I myself have been arrested. I was innocent until proven guilty, and since I was never convicted, I have a concealed weapons permit.

I would also note that Fewless’ boss is Orange County Sheriff Demmings, whose wife is Val Demmings, the police chief of Orlando. She ‘lost’ her gun  in 2009, when she left it in her unlocked vehicle in front of her house. The two agencies have had nearly a dozen firearms stolen from unmarked vehicles in the past five years, including a suppressed machine gun.

It bothers me less that a biker gang member who has never been convicted of a crime has a weapon than it bothers me that the cops carry them. Cops kill more people every year than do biker gangs. Cops have stolen more money from me at gunpoint than have biker gangs. and biker gangs are not lobbying the state legislature to grant them rights while simultaneously attempting to restrict mine. I feel safer with the bikers.

The Republicans claim the largest spending cut in US history this weekend, by cutting $38.4 billion from the $3.7 trillion budget. This represents a one percent cut, and leaves us with a trillion dollar plus deficit. That is what we are left with- a one percent cut.
Putting this in perspective, it took George W Bush two and a half years to borrow a trillion dollars. It took Clinton three and a half years, George HW Bush three years, and Reagan did it in six. No other President has borrowed that much money. In fact, it took 204 years for the government to borrow its first trillion. 

Explain to me how Republicans are different from the Democrats, again.

In Florida, you cannot use the fact that a woman told you that she is over 18 as a defense to sexual molestation charges. Even if she produced identification that said she is of age. This guy may well be innocent, but he is going down.

Look what happened to this guy. The woman in that case was 13 years old. She said on her MySpace page that she was a 19 year old divorcee. Under Florida law, the belief that the girl is of legal age, and the girl’s promiscuity cannot be used as a defense. That is too bad, because this is the second time she has gotten a man thrown in prison because she lied about her age and had sex with him. The girl’s family admits that the girl still stays out late and has yet to delete her misleading MySpace page.

I had a discussion yesterday with an Obama supporter. I had made the comment that Obama had abandoned all the promises that he had made as a candidate. A nearby coworker jumped in and said that he had voted for Obama, and that the President was doing his best.
The conversation went like this:
DiveMedic: “Is this what you voted for? We are still in Iraq, still in Afghanistan, still have prisoners in Gitmo, and now we have invaded Libya.”
Obama Supporter: “Things are more complicated than that.”
DM: “He is the Commander in Chief. The way that works, is he picks up the phone and gives the order. The military obeys.”
OS: “He ended don’t ask, don’t tell.”
DM: “No he didn’t” (Obama signed a law in December that authorizes the President to end DADT, but the policy won’t end until 60 days after the President gives the order, which he hasn’t done, yet. You can’t give him credit for that one, yet.)
OS: “You just don’t like him because he is black.” There it is, the trump card. At this point, the discussion is over, because there is no possibility of having a discussion based upon logic at this point.

Rick Scott just signed a law that forces merit pay on to teachers and school districts. Merit pay is a code word for “no raises” and has very little to do with merit or with increasing incentives to excel, and everything to do with cutting the pay of employees. How do I know that? I will explain…

Firefighters are not hired here in Florida the way that they are in most other states. Here in Florida, we are a ‘right to work state’ and in combination with some other factors, this has made the way we are hired a bit different. In most states, the fire and police departments hire you, and then put you through a training academy. Not so in Florida.
Here in Florida, you attend the fire academy on your own dime. Like college, you pay to go to the school and attend the 480 hour school on your own. Then, you take and pass the state firefighter exam to get your license. You also have to attend the 266 hour EMT school on your own, and pass that state licensing exam. There is also a state required 16 hour EVOC course. Since many departments will not hire you unless you are a paramedic, you also attend paramedic school and pass that licensing exam, another 1200 hours. In total, it takes about two years to become a licensed Florida firefighter.
Then you start looking for a job. You take any job you can get, because your firefighter certification is only good for two years, then if you are not working by then, you start over.

What does all of this have to with merit pay? Well, when I was originally hired by my current department in 1998, you were hired at a base rate of pay, which in my case was $8.44 an hour. You received an automatic 8% raise every year on your anniversary date. All of that changed just two years after I was hired when we went to a ‘merit pay’ system. Merit pay started out great. It was designed so good employees got a 5% raise, and outstanding employees get a 5% raise and a $1,000 bonus. The first year, I got both. The second year, the raise went away, and good employees got a $500 bonus, and outstanding employees got $1,000. I got $1,000. The third year, outstanding employees got a 3% raise. No one else got anything. I got nothing that year. Not only were raises getting smaller, they were getting hard to earn. Less than 2% of employees got a raise.

After my fire department had done this for about 5 years, we were the lowest paying department in the area. We were bleeding people like crazy. We hired 40 people, and a year later all but two of them had left to take jobs with a higher paying department. They were taking their skills and education where the money was. So, the department gave everyone a 10% raise. That was in 2005. I have only gotten one raise since. I make just 3% more per hour than I did in 2007. We still do employee evaluations, but there is no longer any money tied to it. Explain how a merit pay system that gives no raises can possibly incentivize anyone into doing anything.

This is where our education system is headed.