Labor Day

While many of us will be out trying to enjoy barbecues and some time with family this Labor Day weekend, please take a moment to stop and remember what this day represents. Labor Day is not only a day celebrating how laborers overcame bad working conditions and low pay, but it is also a day to remember the accomplishments and achievements workers provide to companies. On September 5, 1882 the first Labor Day parade was held in New York City where twenty thousand workers marched in a parade up Broadway. In 1894, Congress voted Labor Day a federal holiday.

On this Labor Day the WayneWho staff would like you to think of a few famous quotes that are still relevant today:

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron." -- Dwight Eisenhower 1953 speech

"No business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country. By living wages I mean more than a bare subsistence level–I mean the wages of decent living." -- Franklin D. Roosevelt

"If any man tells you he loves America, yet hates labor, he is a liar. If any man tells you he trusts America, yet fears labor, he is a fool." -- Abraham Lincoln

Be safe and enjoy your weekend!

Comeuppance

The WayneWho staff would like to thank the Osceola News-Gazette for finally showing that it does have a pulse and the ability to write an editorial piece that speaks truth to the typical style of "Ax The Tax" politics that have been practiced in this county for too long. Mr. Chalifoux's last mailer which was produced by Guetzloe’s taxivist Ax the Tax Political Club which attacked the people who did what we teach are children to do, follow the law, was ridiculous. We are glad to see that the Gazette decided to call out candidates practicing these kinds of politics and we hope that this is a trend that will continue. It is easy to spread untruthful information with political mailers if no one is going to push back and say, the stuff in your mailer is just not true.

It is not only these type of tactics, but this type of governing that we believe just got its comeuppance during this primary season. Not only were long time incumbents shown the door, but so were candidates that spent more time attacking false issues than honestly answering questions from the community. Many of the underdog candidates that have run time and time and time again were shut down by the electorate because of the the lack of substance in their campaigns. Empty promises on what plans and ideas candidates are calling for no longer have a place in our community. If you are promising to bring jobs to our community, explain how you are going to do it. If you are committed to public safety and law enforcement, explain what you mean? Does that mean more funding or less time spent hassling the unions? The residents of Osceola County have clearly stated that they want honest answers from those seeking to serve and we are glad to finally hear it.

We hope that during the next couple of months that the candidates who have now made it through the first stage of the democratic process take the time to explain their ideas for our community. Showing contrasts in ideas with opponents is acceptable, but candidates need to develop their own campaigns before they begin the inevitable attacks. The residents are hungry for ideas from their government on what will help them. Give them the answers you believe will help, or face a knock-out punch at the ballot box on November the 4th.

Congratulations

The WayneWho staff would like to congratulate all of the winners during last night's elections. Watching the returns come in was exciting and filled with surprises. We would have done very poorly at attempting to pick any winners or in trying to make any type of endorsements. To both the winners and those who did not win last night we congratulate you on jumping in to the democratic process that makes our country great.

From the news last night, and this morning it seems the elections office ran into problems again. We hope that these problems can get ironed out long before a general election that, by all appearances, is going to have a huge turn-out.

Crackers Strikes Back

Before we begin our normal article, we would like to remind everyone of the City of Kissimmee Commission Meeting that will be held today at 3:00pm. This meeting is because last week's meeting was canceled because of Tropical Storm Fay. It is also where the commission is going to set the rate for the Fire Fee for the upcoming year. We find it sad that elected officials would reschedule a meeting as important as this during a time where the average citizen cannot speak to the issue. We hope that some people can make it out to this meeting, because after the last meeting where they passed an item that was not on the agenda, we believe that our government needs to be held by a tighter reign.

And now our normal article: Crackers Strikes Back

Like our local political scene has not seen enough mischief with phantom phone calls, stolen websites, and campaign mailers with questionable statements, "Crackers the City Crime Fighting Chicken" has returned to save the day for the County voters in District 3. We have just received copies of a mailer that has been sent out from Steve (Crackers) Burke who now lives in the great state of Montana attempting to help Commission Candidate Tony Ferentinos. In the letter adorned with the taxivist logo for the fringe group known as Ax the Tax and calling himself the "Honorable Steve Burke", he lays out an attack on Wendell McKinnon and Jeanne Van Meter. The letter from Crackers, who claims he is still the "Ax the Tax Osceola Campaign Chairman," even though he lives in Montana, lays out that both Mr. McKinnon and Mrs. Van Meter are pro-tax, pro-government, pro-bureaucratic officials. While we cannot argue with the latter of the statements, if Crackers would have checked the record he would have noticed that both candidates have actually cut taxes during their times in office. They have failed on being able to spend collected tax money in the appropriate areas (homeless bathing fountains, All America City trips, etc.), but both have voted to cut taxes. We suggest that Mr. Burke and our blogger friend from across the great divide focus a little harder on trying to put the band back together and start a blog chronicling their zany adventures.

In other political news, it seems that one City of Kissimmee Mayoral candidate, Jorge Miranda, is looking to sue over the use of the "All America City" logo on the mailer of Mayoral Candidate Jim Swan. What is funny is that it may not matter if the use of the logo follows election laws, but because the logo is copyrighted by the National Civic League who charges anyone who wants to display the logo a hefty fee (even winners), the city may find itself in trouble with the law in a completely new way. Right now multiple candidates are using the logo and we have not been able to determine by their campaign reports if they have paid the NCL for its use. We hope that they do not expect the city taxpayers to pay for its use, and we have to wonder if the claims that Jerry Gemskie and Jim Swan are making about "honesty and integrity" could be challenged if they illegally used this logo. It would also really hurt the "experience" claims they are making if they tried to claim that they used the logo by accident.

Automated calls from an organization calling itself "Citizens for Osceola Values" have been attacking County Commission candidate Fred Hawkins on behalf of sitting Commissioner Bill Lane. The calls basically refer to Mr. Hawkins as a liar which we have not been able to prove or disprove at this time. We believe these calls were made in response to a piece that Mr. Hawkins Campaign sent out that stretched the truth on votes that Mr. Lane had made. While we find it sad that both of these candidates have reduced their campaigns to a school yard name calling session, we knew that eventually it would happen. The best part about the the auto-calls being generated by the Lane Campaign was the response from the campaign manager for Mr. Hawkins. In her e-mail she defends her candidate and claims that she would not have worked for Mr. Hawkins as a paid campaign manager if he broke any of a list of certain conditions. The third condition on her list was "3. He would never tell me an untruth or distorted version of any issues or question." which must be a small problem because of the mailer that the Hawkins Campaign sent out distorting a vote made by Mr. Lane. We guess that when you are on the payroll it is easier to overlook some levels of distortion.

We know there is more silliness going on than we were able to cover in this article, but we just don't have the space to do it. We would remind everyone that tomorrow, Tuesday, August 26th is primary election day, so GET OUT AND VOTE! Just beware of people dressed up in chicken suits.

Hiding Behind Faith

Christians fear God. Most will deny that they don't and many religious leaders will answer any question about fearing God with a resounding, no. Those who would answer 'no' would claim that according to the New Covenant we do not need to fear God, and that only the Old Covenant taught the fear of God. This is clearly an unbiblical argument because the New Covenant scriptures attest to the biblical fact that the New Covenant complements and enlightens the old and does not deny or contend with it.

To understand this discussion we must first define the word "fear" according to scriptures, because the Bible defines the word fear in two diverse ways. God speaks of fear both as something which is sinful, and as something which is an evidence of godliness and wisdom. There is Godly fear which comes from true belief, and then there is the fear which comes from unbelief. Hebrews 11:31 "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God!" Many Christians do not understand that a Godly fear is actually good. The most righteous and Godly prophets trembled at the presence of the Lord. Because they understood the Omnipotent, Omniscient, Glorious Sovereign God whom they were standing before. Thus how could they not fear?

Why is any of this important you might ask? Especially coming from Osceola County's Most Trusted Name in Un-News? We asked the same question when some politicians began injecting religion into the local political discussion. Mailers on prayer at meetings and debate questions centered on the same topic are in many respects designed to illicit fear. Fear in the answer, and fear for asking the question. While most residents in this community rely on a Higher Power everyday, we must ask ourselves from where or who this Power speaks from or through? Do elected, or trying to get elected, officials speak the Word? If this is the case then what does it say when a elected official lies, cheats, or steals?

Very few people in this community would argue against some form of prayer at public meetings given by those who have made this their calling, but having elected officials demand a right to a calling not answered is questionable. In other words, seeking spiritual guidance from an elected official is like seeking spiritual guidance from a blog. It is probably a mistake. A mailer or a blog post is not evidence of godliness and wisdom. While we do not question the self interpreted faith of candidates, we also believe that our own faith, and not fear, should guide us in the ballot box.

Politics In The Barn

Due to the "Politics In The Barn" event being rescheduled from the past Tuesday until today because of Tropical Storm Fay, rumor has it that there may be some format and/or attraction changes made to the event to make sure people come out to pay their money to vote in the straw poll. While many candidates are busy trying fill the room by giving tickets away to "supporters" who will hopefully cast a BBQ smeared vote in their direction, the organizers of the event are taking no chances when in comes to turn out.

We have heard from someone who once met someone who might be helping to organize the event that a new headline guest has been added to the roster to ensure high turn out. Considering the event already promises "Lots of Fun" (whatever that means), BBQ, and live musical entertainment from Kenyon Lockery who we believe is most well noted for his spoon playing abilities (we could be wrong on this), even the WayneWho staff was surprised by the news that the hottest (even if frozen) celebrity in the south was going to show up tonight. Yes, you guessed it, Bigfoot is scheduled to make an appearance at tonights event. "Arrgh gharaargh," Bigfoot shouted at reporters as the CVB rushed him off for a fun filled time at Disney before his performance tonight.

"The taxpayers of this county would be upset if we did not show Mr. Foot a good time while he was here. We don't need to keep looking like some little hick-town now do we," responded one of the last remaining staff members from the CVB. "Mr. Foot is a well respected celebrity and we are glad to see he made it through his scuffle with the folks in Georgia. We are all sad to hear about the fighting over there and Mr. Foot is a recognized icon for peace after what he has been through."

Bigfoot is well know in political circles for his "Preservation through Building" position and his book "Green means eating live fish out of a stream you dummies." The WayneWho staff just hopes the residents of St. Cloud understand the importance of such a visitor. We must say that we are just a little jealous.

Hide the DRI

Just in case you missed it, the fourth Development of Regional Impact (DRI) has been approved leaving only two more housing projects to go. With our local infrastructure (roads, schools, public safety services) already stretched thin because of bad planning and government's ability to burn through tax money like a drunken sailor on shore leave stranding us with no way to pay for improving it, we had to ask ourselves how something like this could happen. With all of the supposed extra checks that should happen when a DRI is approved how could anyone look at the damage a project like Tohoqua is going to do and still approve it? The answer lies within the shadow boards, councils, and agencies that have been created for government officials to hide behind so they can assure their constituents that they are powerless to do anything to stop growth.

When you look at a project like Tohoqua, a 1,200-acre development on the east shore of Lake Tohopekaliga that will probably have 3,220 homes and 150,000 square feet of strip mall space and is the fourth of six mega-developments to gain approval, you have to watch its path along the approval process very closely to see how governments are able to approve these projects without the public's knowledge or input. To do this we need to look at one of those shadow "Councils" known as the "East Central Florida Regional Planning Council." It sounded official to the WayneWho Staff until we took a look at the minutes where the Tohoqua project was approved and realized that the same players that have created such a problem for us locally were involved in this "Regional Planning Council" as well. The ECFRPC members included elected officials from across the region, staff members from cities and counties from across the area, Tri-County league of city members, and paid staff members from the ECFRPC itself. You will also notice many of development and investment firms such as Neptune Investments, RJ Whidden Associates, and others whose names are normally associated with candidate financial contribution forms on our local level, but who have now found a way to get projects approved without public oversite.

The process is simple. Create a bunch of boards that sound official. Let the development community come in to give the empty sales pitch. Gain the shadow boards approval. Local governments throw their hands in the air and say we can do nothing to stop this because the board with the fancy name has already approved it. Money gets put into the campaign coffers of those who followed their marching orders. Done deal. Pretty simple right?

For all of those promises we hear from incumbent candidates and candidates that are in the pockets of special interests about how they are going to control growth, these shadow boards are their way out of the dog house. They can make promises about controlling growth fully knowing that they have the shadow boards to hide behind. County Commissioner John Quinones was the representative from Osceola County that seconded the motion for approval of the Tohoqua DRI after only a brief discussion that sounded more like a drum circle chant of how great the developers in Osceola County are and how much they do for the public. Since the number of developers and investors in the room rivaled the number of duly (if not wrongly) elected officials in the room, the rubber stamp of approval slammed down once again. Did Commissioner Quinones ever once stand up and say, "Mr. Chairman, the people of the great county of Osceola do not want this development approved because it will choke the life from our community?" Nope. Nothing. Only the word "Second."

And that is how a DRI is born.

False Destiny

We have been getting in some reports from last week's Kissimmee Chamber of Commerce Hob Nob and we are almost sorry that we decided not to part with our $20.00 for the side show after all. As campaign supporters filled the room and voted for their own candidates in the straw poll, people milled about trying to get one of the dainty portions of food that they were promised. While many will focus on the candidates in the room for the evening, we have heard about a surprise exhibitor that was in attendance. The representatives from the housing project know as Destiny have finally come out from under their rock to start making their pitch to the public. We know they have already made their pitch to their selected candidates because of the campaign contributions we continue to see funnel into some candidates pockets, but we were shocked to hear they showed up to greet the public. After the e-mails we have received, we now know why.

It is often said that you cannot polish a turd. It is also said that you know how bad a used car is by the excellence of the used car salesman it takes to sell it. The housing project known as Destiny is no different. We were very surprised to find out that Randy Johnson was there as the organ grinder's monkey doing his little dance in hopes the visitors to the hob knob would be mystified by his cute performance. Randy Johnson is after all an ex-State Representative who was the former chairman of the Growth Management Committee and co-author of the Growth Management Act of 2005 which is sited again and again as the reason local communities are held hostage by developers. The Growth Management Act of 2005 was written as a "how-to" document for developers on how to build anything, anywhere, and at anytime. Thus, the continued build out on housing as the rest of the country wisely pulls back because of the housing and credit crisis. In this area of course we hear our politicians say, growth is going to come anyway, and I am really not interested in protecting your property values, because that would be in conflict with what our developer friends want. Hence, horrible growth legislation from people who are now the Chief Operating Officers (Organ Grinder's Monkey) to projects like Destiny.

The second surprise on the Destiny project is the new sales pitch they are using to confuse our local politicos into going along with it. Now billed as "America's First Eco-Sustainable City", the Destiny marketing people are pulling out all the stops on finding ways to use "Green-Guilt" to make you think their project is good for the environment. With a slick brochure printed on recycled paper, the Pugliese Company would lead you to believe that they are going to help the environment by digging it up and plopping a bunch of homes down on it. We won't even go into the discussion on the number of cars added to the roads, pollution created by those cars, or the pollution created to provided power to a housing project of this magnitude. Looks like our destiny is one of congested roads, smog and no drinkable water.

What we find sad about all of this is the sales pitch being used to sell us this project that current residents of Osceola County are going to get stuck paying for. If the Destiny Project is so great, tell us how it is going to improve the quality of life of those of us who already live here. Tell us how this is going to be good for our community over just being good for Commissioners like Bill Lane who has racked in the campaign contributions from the Destiny group. Tell us how lowering our property values is somehow going to be a benefit to us. If nothing else, the WayneWho staff would request that you keep the monkey dancing so we are distracted from the reality of the destiny you have in store for us.

Graffiti Gemskie

An interesting campaign mailer arrived in our mailbox just a little while back from our good friend, to coin a line from Jay Wheeler, Jerry Gemskie. Besides gloating over the 2008 All America City award that has only seemed to fill incumbent candidates with pride, is his claim that he is the anti-graffiti commissioner. We did not know that we had a Graffiti Czar in the city, but with the way meetings are run and secret agenda items, anything is possible. The WayneWho staff decided it would be fun to take a quick drive around the area just to see if we have less graffiti now than we did before the creation of the Graffiti Czar position.

Nope.

There is more graffiti now that we can remember at any time in our city's past. Based on conversations with some of our friends over at the Kissimmee Police Department, much of the new graffiti is related to actual gangs and is not the harmless prank graffiti that we have had before. It would appear that our anti-graffiti commissioner, Graffiti Czar as we like to call him, is losing the war on graffiti.

One place that we found graffiti was on the new mobile home park the CRA built in downtown Kissimmee. The trailer housing project which was touted as a great redevelopment success, based on the sign they put in front of the trailers, has already been tagged (for us older folks, that means that the sign on Patrick Street has graffiti all over it). With multiple requests already made to remove the sign or at least clean up the graffiti, the Graffiti Czar has remained powerless to do anything about it and nothing has been done.

We have to wonder if this campaign claim is false, what other claims on Mr. Gemskie's mailer are false? How about the promise to be a full time commissioner, which is not a requirement for being a commissioner to start with. How can you be a full time commissioner when so much time is spent traveling abroad going to conferences that do very little to improve services to the public? Maybe if Mr. Gemskie spent more time in town, he would notice the graffiti problem that we have to deal with. Hail to the Czar.

Adiós El Nuevo Dia Orlando

Although the on line version of El Nuevo Dia Orlando is still live, many reports indicate that the Spanish daily is in the process of closing it's doors. Quoting consistent losses over the past several years of operation, the owners have decided to end the Orlando based operation which will affect about 50 employees. The WayneWho staff is sad to see another voice silenced, especially during such a critical election year.

El Nuevo Dia was a great publication that portrayed local news honestly to the Hispanic community. Unlike TV personalities such as Danny Ramos and some of the radio personalities who like to sensationalize stories to remain relevant, El Nuevo Dia stuck to good old-fashioned reporting. Many of their stories over the years were important stories that other mainstream media outlets ignored or refused to cover. They also had a great talent pool of writers who could keep a story feeling local instead of giving even the most localized issue a nationalized view. They stuck to just good reporting.

We were sad to read of the paper's impending closure in the Orlando Sentinel whose article seemed to be almost joyful as they hoped to regain some of the lost market share. Our fear is that as all of our local papers struggle to stay afloat, the news that our community needs to function could cease to exist. Newspapers scared to rock the boat on hot button issues for fear of advertising revenue retribution could easily table important stories. Facts on popular issues and on popular politicians could easily find themselves on the cutting room floor if they might be offensive to the target markets that advertisers are interested in reaching. We just hope that in the new paperless digital age, news will still just be news.

Political Hob Nob

Tonight the Kissimmee Osceola Chamber of Commerce has its "Osceola Hob Nob" scheduled at 5:30pm in the Kissimmee Civic Center. This is a chance for the average citizens to feel like big time lobbyists by funneling their hard earned money to a special interest group. The $20.00 entrance fee for "access" to the candidates and the top business leaders tied to those candidates would be better spent, in our opinion, in your gas tank. The chamber has all of the money it needs.

The big finish to the night is the straw poll in which you have to pay your entrance fee to vote. Sounds like a DRI housing vote at the county chambers, but who are we to judge. While the evening promises to be a shining example of the separation of real voters from the inner circle of those who work to rake our county over to their benefit, we recommend you skip the cheerleading session and spend your money elsewhere. That is unless you just really enjoy the keystone cop nature of how our local politicos act. Hey, there might be some fireworks between Commissioner Gemskie and Commissioner Irizarry or County Commissioner Bill Lane and Candidate Fred Hawkins, the guy who promised Bill he would not run against him. On second thought, your $20.00 might be well spent.

Secret Agenda

The WayneWho staff had decided early in the week that the Kissimmee City Commission Meeting for August 12, 2008 (last night) wasn't going to be worth having our Access Osceola source record it for our viewing pleasure. We had looked at the agenda early in the week and saw that there were no items, as usual, under the Public Hearings sections. We have written articles before about the current commission's adjustment of Public Hearing topics to the Discussion Items category so they can lock out public input if they feel like the issue might not go their way, but even the Discussion Item section only contained board appointments the commissioners can not seem to fill. So we figured it was going to be boring with only a slight hope of Commissioner Gemskie and Commissioner Irizarry getting into one of their cat fights for some excitement, and did not put much effort into following up with the meeting. Luckily our meeting source had their recorder set to copy the meetings every Tuesday night, and they dropped off the copy early this morning. We decided to go ahead and watch it just in case, and we were shocked with our findings.

If you look at a copy of the Agenda (the set of directions the commissioners follow) you will notice that under the section called "Public Hearings - First and Second Readings" there are no items to be discussed. During the meeting however, the second and final reading of the changing of an ordinance to remove the automatic fee increase section of the transportation impact fees was not only heard but approved without questions. We double checked our agenda and sure enough, the second and final reading was not on our sheet. So we went and got a new copy this morning and sure enough, no items under "Public Hearings - First and Second Readings," so there would be no way as a resident of this city you would know that this was your last chance to speak on this issue. We assume that the people who attended last night's meeting got a copy of the secret agenda so we will do our best to get our hands on one of them to compare the agendas meant for the public against the secret agendas meant for those who attend the meetings. We might need to inquire that if the item that was approved was not properly advertised to the public, was the motion legal or does the commission need a do over on this one. We would hope that they would at least give the public one more shot before they blindly approve another ordinance.

The funny part is that this ordinance change should be approved. There should never be a automatic fee or tax increase used to levy citizens. There should always be discussion on fee changes even if the governing body does not understand what they are doing. In this case, the ordinance change should be approved, but the reason the City Manager gave the commission about not increasing the Transportation Impact fees because the developers have had a hard year is completely wrong. What about all that "Growth should pay for itself" talk? The transportation needs of our community have not changed, so this commission plans to shift the burden away from the people who have created the transportation nightmare onto the backs of our hard working residents? This does not even make sense. At the previous week's meeting, the City Manager said that this would help get the development going on the Vine Street area, which the plans that it shows right now are for more residential units. This means we are going to have more residents and not enough money to pay for the roads we need to move them around. The roads will still be needed, so guess who is going to pay for it? The residents who have already paid their fair share.

From all outward appearances this looks like those running for office making sure that the campaign donations stay flowing. The problem with that theory is that this assumes that the commissioners actually understand the depths of their decisions. We would at least hope that instead of trying to set the shortest meeting records, they would actually start taking their jobs more serious and start explaining their intentions to the public the way they are supposed to. Just remember, intent of the commission on decisions has come back to help explain why a set of commissioners has made a decision one way or another. Your discussions on an item are important for future commissions and the public you are supposed to represent. Secret agendas and gold medals for quick meetings should not be your legacy.

Osceola editorial is dead...long live Osceola editorial

Well, it’s official. If you picked up the Sunday Orlando Sentinel this week, you noticed that the Osceola section no longer contains anything but community announcements and advertising.

On the other hand, if you turned to the main editorial section, you probably read the most relevant editorial written about Osceola in a long time. Jane Healy’s “Osceola County – neglected from the start, neglected still”

It was a hard-hitting editorial on how Senator Paula Dockery pretty much single-handedly delayed commuter rail for Central Florida this year, and how her constituents in Osceola County were powerless to stop her.

And, it had all kinds of relevant discussion points:

1. Osceola County has been the region’s neglected stepchild /“bedroom community” since tourism came to Central Florida.
2. Osceola (and Polk) elected leadership have been putting development before infrastructure at least as far back as the ‘60s, when Poinciana was developed.
3. Paula Dockery represents almost half of Osceola’s voters, yet put the wants of Lakeland above Osceola County when forming her position on commuter rail.
4. Osceola’s other elected state officials are powerless to supercede Dockery.
5. In spite of all of this, not a single person came forward to oppose Dockery in this year’s election, handing her another term on a silver platter.


We’ll happily give up our Osceola section and it’s recurring series of “remember when we could do (fill in the blank, usually involving horses) in Osceola County?” editorials to get this kind of coverage on a regular basis.

Cut-n-Paste-gate

The WayneWho staff received an e-mail with what amounts to a very serious charge of possible plagiarism or at least some level of copyright infringement based on Mr. Hennecy's campaign website. It seems that the website for Mr. Byron Hennecy is pretty much a direct knock-off of the one for United States Senator, Gordon Smith (Rep) of Oregon. If you take a look at both websites http://byronhennecy.com/ and http://gordonsmith.com/ you will instantly see they are very similar to each other. These areas of similarity caused the WayneWho staff to dig a little bit deeper into who U.S. Senator Gordon Smith is, and why he would steal Mr. Hennecy's campaign website. A serious charge we know, but the truth must be uncovered.

The charge of plagiarism is no small one, and the WayneWho staff realized that if we were going to take on a sitting US Senator for stealing not only the look of Mr. Hennecy's campaign, but much of his wording as well, then we needed to investigate this Senator. Mr. Smith is a well respected Republican leader who was recently criticized for trying to tie himself to Senator Obama and his presidential bid to soften his Republican image. We figured this is where the idea must have come from to steal a once Republican turned Democrat local candidate's campaign message, so we sought out some smart people to help us find the evidence and solve this technology riddled case.

By bribing our grandchildren with a good amount of ice-cream we soon discovered amazing similarities in the web sites. As we looked at each page of information side by side, we could easily see the similarities:

From Byron Hennecy's 'About' Page:
Byron Hennecy has served his home state of Florida in the County since 1999 and the Fire Department since 2003. He has earned a reputation for independence and effectiveness, working with both Republicans and Democrats to do what is right for our County.

From Gordon Smith's 'About' Page:
Gordon Smith has served his home state of Oregon in the United States Senate since 1997. He has earned a reputation for independence and effectiveness, working with both Republicans and Democrats to do what is right for Oregon.

From Byron Hennecy's 'Roots' Page:
Thank you for your interest in Byron's GrassRoots. Over the next year, Byron's GrassRoots will be a highly visible and active part of Byron’s campaign that will involve people from across the county working together to elect Byron and benefit Democratic candidates throughout Florida. Our goal is to build Byron's GrassRoots into one of the largest grassroots campaign organizations in our county’s history and with your help we’ll reach that goal.

From Gordon Smith's 'SmithRoots' Page:
Thank you for your interest in SmithRoots. Over the next year, SmithRoots will be a highly visible and active part of Senator Smith’s campaign that will involve people from across the state working together to re-elect Senator Smith and benefit Republican candidates throughout Oregon. Our goal is to build SmithRoots into one of the largest grassroots campaign organizations in our state’s history and with your help we’ll reach that goal.

Even the first page promise of 'Cutting Taxes' read the exact same on both web sites: "Byron Hennecy believes you should keep as much of your hard-earned money as possible..."

We wanted more proof of the crime, so with a little urging and the promise of Happy Meals, the real truth was discovered. Technology people and grandchildren know how to read the code that makes up any website. Kids today are much like the characters in the movie the Matrix that can look at a screen filled with weird symbols and make sense of it. It is deep in this code where we found the truth. If you go to the page http://byronhennecy.com/about.aspx and then click on the 'View' menu button at the top of your internet explorer and then click on the 'Source' button on the list that appears (we recommend asking a younger person to help you). A new screen will appear that shows a bunch of strange signs. Ignore all of this. On the scroll bar on the right of this window, scroll down about half way. You will see a line that reads "Helping grow the Oregon economy is a top priority. As a member of the powerful Senate Finance Committee, Gordon is using his clout to cut taxes and help working families keep more of their hard-earned money." You will also see a line that says "Gordon Smith is making public policy that does not leave Oregonians high and dry." Yep, we felt pretty stupid too. We did not expect to find Gordon Smith's campaign message hidden on Byron Hennecy's website. We would like to apologized to the Gordon Smith Campaign for thinking they were the ones who had copied a website.

At this point we had to wonder if all the "Green Building" messages Mr. Hennecy had been writing about were his own ideas or if they were somebody else'. Maybe this wasn't Mr. Hennecy's fault, but that of his campaign staff, or his campaign consultant Shawn Van Dusen of Fortis Management Group who had also worked on the campaign of St Cloud City Council Member Tom Griffin. Mr. Van Dusen has been writing lengthy essays for St. Cloud in The News to educate all of us on his theories of economic development. Or maybe the consultant running the campaign is really the campaign itself with Mr. Hennecy being the willing puppet who will do anything or say anything to get elected? The scary part about politicians is that in the absence of the consultants used during a campaign, special interests become the voice of truth after the election is over.

We understand that the problems we face in this community are dire, but the fake-it-till-you-make-it mentality has been an ongoing problem with Osceola County politicians. Candidates should also learn to trust the voters of this community. Voters of this community, when told the truth, are capable of making the right decisions. Lying to the voters is what messes up the whole process.

For now we will leave you with a quick note that we have e-mailed the Gordon Smith Campaign and our local media sources with all of the original material we were sent. We cannot take credit for these findings and offer our thanks to those who keep us informed and on track. I guess we will just have to wait for any type of response from the affected campaigns.

Randomized for your Convenience

Some laugh when crazy, straight jacket fitted fringe candidates scream and file lawsuits against the Osceola County Supervisors of Elections. Then we see an article that the office mistakenly prints incorrect information on the absentee ballots that have already started to be sent out to voters. Are the loonies really loony?

Year after year and election after election there are charges, spoken or whispered, leveled at the Elections Office for improper practices which most people just ignore or chalk up to "That's just how things are done in Osceola County." The problem is that the balance of power between "Special Interests" and the people has come to a boiling point because the "mistakes" that are made always seem to favor candidates backed with developer dollars. Mistakes on ballots, voting precincts with no lights turned on in the heavy voting times of the early morning hours in heavily Hispanic communities, and counts that magically shift hours after the majority ballots have been counted, all seem to point to something much bigger. But who is to say?

Some candidates figure the voters are stupid anyway, so what does it really matter. “What concerns me is there is a percentage of voters who do not look at the candidates and just check the first box on the ballot,” Eck said, “Hopefully, absentee voters are more educated and it won’t make a difference.” Which translates to, "We know the voters are stupid, which is how we keep passing stupid crap by them without their knowledge, so why are are we even talking about this?"

The article in the Osceola News-Gazette states that "Click called every one of the Kissimmee candidates to apologize, she said." What about calling the voters and apologizing to them. Voting is not about candidates. Voting is not about who gets the most developer money. Voting is about the freedoms the citizens of this country are able to exercises because of the power and belief of one vote actually being able to make a difference. While many may just sluff off mistakes made on a ballot with a quick "Oops, we did it again!" mentality, voters need to demand more from an office that wields invisible and final power over our rights and our freedoms. The WayneWho staff dug through several biographies of those around the authors of the Constitution of the United States of American and could find no evidence that anyone in that room in Philadelphia uttered the word "Oops" or that after the final draft was put out that anyone had to redo the document because of a "Clerical Mistake." Maybe pride in one's work counts for something when it comes to protecting developers rights. Oops, we mean voting rights. We apologize for that.

Chicken?

The political mailer wars have begun which means that political season is in full swing. As voters, we usually do not pay attention to campaign mailers because the messages they contain can put even our brand of un-news to shame. But with the local media not capable of covering the elections, except for the ads they are happy to get paid to print, mailers are sometimes all we see of our local candidates. Many times, trying to track down a candidate phone number that actually works or is answered by a candidate is as tough as finding the lids to plastic food containers after you run them through the dishwasher. The lids, like the candidates, can never be found.

Again, we emphasize that mailers are not the best judge of any candidate running for office. They are usually filled with tabloid-esque fairy tales that do little to explain a candidate's understanding of the issues. A good example is a mailer sent out by Mayor Jim Swan of the City of Kissimmee who is seeking re-election. On his mailer he proudly states that "While Mayor of the City of Kissimmee, we have worked diligently to reduce the financial burden on home owners," which is only true because the the State of Florida and the voters forced the local governments to cut property taxes. The city, including the Mayor was a vocal opponent of the tax cuts, and wasted meeting after meeting explaining why the voters should vote against Amendment 1. We guess when you claim that you have "Honesty and Integrity," no one will notice when you stretch the truth a little.

Another piece we got our hands on was a mailer from County Commissioner Bill Lane who is also running for re-election in the District 5 race. His piece is great because it drives home the point of prayer at public meetings and how he believes so strongly in it. The piece is great because it is being used to cover up a flip-flop on this issue once held by Mr. Lane. This is not his first flip-flop of course. He flip-flopped on the necessity for the "Preserve" project that originally he supported and then was against. We assume that we will see a mailer defining his position on this issue as well, and we will hope that this one will look a little nicer.

The newest mailer in the mailer wars that we have seen come out is one by Thomas Chalifoux who is trying to run for State Representative in District 79. Thomas Chalifoux has ended up in a real mess of a situation by not making sure he did everything possible to comply with a vague law that describes when a sitting candidate has to resign before they can attempt to run for another seat. Rumor has it that Mike Horner helped someone file a lawsuit against Mr. Chalifoux to stop him from being able to run. The WayneWho staff believes that if Mr. Chalifoux has broken the law, even if it is a horribly vague law, he should not run. If Mr. Horner happens to be the one to catch the mess-up, then so be it, he should not take flack for pointing out a law that is on the books. What we find sad is that Mr. Horner does not have the political will to stand up on his own and point out the issues and instead has decided to hide behind someone else for fear of his campaign being derailed. If he is going to hide on an issue like this, then we have to wonder what he will do when his friend Randy Johnson comes in and tries to bully his way around to suck our county dry for his beloved "Destiny" housing project. Will he go hide when tough decisions need to be made?

Regardless of all that, we think the mailer that is being sent out by Thomas Chalifoux is great. As you can see it has a picture of Mike Horner and it has a picture of a chicken. No one can miss that symbolism now can they? We also like the fact that he points out that Mr. Horner was once a democrat but has changed parties to run for office? Seems like there is a lot of that going around these days. Maybe the Democrats just need to change their name to the "Formerly Republican Party."

Fractures

The cracks are beginning to appear. Every election cycle brings them out because politics is a full contact sport. What surprises us this year is not as much the fractures that are beginning to appear in individual campaigns, but in the larger organized parties that are supposed to represent Republicans and Democrats.

While we were enjoying some needed rest, the local Ronald Reagan Republican Club released a list of endorsements before the Republican candidates have had a chance to narrow the field during the Republican Primary. Is the because Art Otero, who has been a long standing Ronald Reagan Republican Club member is looking for a public boost? We have heard from other long time Republican committee members that they are upset that these endorsements went out because this has caused the other Republicans in the race to become very upset with their own party and has only heightened the infighting in the club. The endorsements did give an indication that the Republicans are not looking favorably at incumbent candidates this year. Bill Lane did not get the nod, and as far as we can tell is not getting much support from the rest of his party.

Our real problem with the endorsements made by the Republican party are that they made endorsements in Non-Partisan races. City races are not supposed to be controlled or influenced by parties, but once again a party has stepped in to try to change the outcome of the race. This is probably the best reason that city races should be party affiliated races so those in parties with less ethical standards have less control. Of course this was something that the Kissimmee City Commission refused to even discuss during the charter review banter, which is interesting because all but one of the sitting commissioners is a Republican.

The Democrats have their own dilemmas even if they are working to keep them out of the spotlight. While the Democrats are doing their best to stay out of the limelight before their primary contest, the invasion of Republicans into the mist has upset many in the party. The District 5 race on the Democrat side has Byron Hennecy and Chuck Dunnick who both switched to the Democrat Party to run. While some of the party faithful were concerned that Jonathan Harrell lacked the ability to put together a winning campaign, e-mails to us show that they have have been impressed with his campaign over the past several months. It has been reported to us that both Republican and Democrat party members were shocked by the "August Surprise" the Harrell campaign produced this past week with a website that is complete with videos of the candidate explaining his positions. After its publication of the website on another blog, the e-mails started to pour in and it seems it has led many to believe that Harrell has a lock on the race which has upset others in the race.

We have no idea about who will win, but all the bickering has left us a little annoyed that once again background politics have taken over and ideas on what will help Osceola County are not being discussed. There have been many loose campaign promises made besides the old "Leadership and Experience" line that we would like to hear more about, but it seems that once again we are going to have to put up with campaigns that focus on crying about what others on doing instead of putting the focus on their own campaigns for not being able to close the deal and win the election.