Yesterday's "town hall" meeting in the Belleview City council chambers was anything but interesting. The slide presentation Congressman Stearns presented consisted mostly of the many, and wrong, reasons that we must drill for oil in ANWR and off the Florida coastline and the incredibly wrong statement that "there has never been an oil spill from an offshore oil platform". Wow.

(Reprinted from The Buzz)
Gov. Charlie Crist has just signed the controversial bill (HB 503) prohibiting businesses from barring workers from bringing guns to work and leaving them in locked vehicles. Only employees with concealed weapons permits would be allowed. Businesses could also not post signs banning customers from doing the same.

And with that, the Florida Retail Federation and Florida Chamber of Commerce will be filing a lawsuit challenging the law, scheduled to go into effect July 1.

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It seems to me that there are much more important issues to be discussing than this ill-advised and potentially dangerous bill. Besides the obvious OSHA objections surely to follow, it's clearly unconstitutional in regard to private property rights. Imagine as a private property owner, not being able to dictate conduct by guests while on your property. Imagine the multi-digit lawsuits which will surely result from the next workplace shooting naming not only the shooter but now the workplace itself. Astonishing. I would have voted no.

We have had an overwhelming positive response to our request for help to staff the Headquarters office. Initially, we only thought we could staff the office for 4 hours a day Tuesday through Saturday. However, we have been able to get several volunteers more to help us out and so we can now open 6 days a week, Monday through Saturday. For those of you that may have some free time available to help us out we still have a couple of shifts left: Tuesday 2-4PM, Thursday 12-2PM and Saturday 2-4PM. If you have only 2 hours a week to spare from now until November, please call Barry Leach at 245-6704. When we work together we will be assured of victory this election.

All hands on deck!

Starting next month the Marion County Democratic HQ at 3391 E. Silver Springs Bvld. will be open daily, Tuesday to Saturday from 12-4. All local Democrats looking to be part of history can help us in many ways, such as volunteering for our office staff for just 2 hours a week, contacting citizens, being a neighborhood leader, passing out campaign literature and signs, writing to media outlets, poll canvassing, or sponsoring a candidates night at your home and much, much more. Please contact me at 352-245-6704 for more information and help us be successful in this historical democratic process. The more volunteers we get, the more certain we can be of an overwhelming November victory.

Now is the time to step up to the plate.

Barry Leach
Volunteer Coordinator
Marion County DEC

Last Saturday, January 26th, the Marion County DEC conducted what is the first in a series of Precinct Captain seminars. Lasting only about 3 hours the course is designed for any Democrat with aspirations to become a local democratic community leader. Continuing seminars will be held on the third Saturday of every month until September 2008. If you're interested, contact Barry Leach at 352-245-6704 or email at barry@mariondems.org.

Our next precinct captain training will therefore be on February 16th starting at 10am at Democratic HQ on 3391 E. Silver Springs Boulevard in Ocala (map).

As the "new guy" on the DEC it occurs to me that month in and month out basically the same audience is in attendance at our meetings. The occassional candidate wanders in to promote his/her platform and we have an occassional speaker from "elsewhere" regale us in what's new in their neck of the woods. I think it would be a good idea to take our DEC monthly meetings on-the-road. A visit to Dunnellon one month, Salt Springs another, Macintosh another and Weirsdale and The Villages another. I think that the road trips would generate their own publicity and would naturally draw local democrats from their porches. Of course, all the candidates currently running would attend and introduce themselves. I just have to check on our by-laws to see if this is permissable. If it is: let's just do it.

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

I'll stand fast with the above inscription from the inside of Lady Liberty in New York Harbor. It was good policy then, and it's good policy now.

Google Earth is a pretty cool program. This Christmas week I decided to spend a little time with it and cruise around Nevada (of all places). The Chamber of Commerce slogan of "what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas" can only be described as wishful thinking. Cruising in low Earth orbit with Google I noticed something amiss north of Las Vegas - The Nevada Test Site. Of the 1032 above and below ground atomic testing the US has done, 900 of them have been here. A quick search of "atomic test site" loaded up a ton of information as to what I was actually looking at. This link (http://bravolima.netfirms.com/nevada.jpg) is a capture of what can only be described as ground zero for the US nuclear arsenal test site. Literally hundreds and hundreds of varying sized depressions resulting from underground nuclear tests. The area is so huge it encompases thousands of square miles. Testing was done on warhead sizes from .05 to 1000 kilotons or more including, absurdly, nuclear artillery. The Hiroshima bomb was about 12 kilotons. Before I came across this shot I had no idea that we were testing so extensively. Like most Americans, my idea of the nuclear scientist was a bespectacled smart guy/gal with an accent working in isolation on theoretical engineering models and computer simulations. What was I thinking. There is now an area of Nevada approximately the size of Connecticut that will be uninhabitable to humans - forever. It is sickening. The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty was signed by President Clinton in 1996 but was never ratified. Maybe it's time to do so. Why does the word - stewardship - come immediately to mind?

I've been thinking on a couple of ideas that may be considered as a couple of first steps on the way to us being greener and more environmentally friendy. What are your thoughts?

First: would it be possible to amend the county building code to require at least 1 solar panel for hot water heating for every new residence? The plusses are many and fit in nicely with both our own Democratic principles and also Governor Crist’s new enviro-friendly statements. Additionally, we could also be on the leading edge for retro-fitting existing homes with some sort of joint county/state/federal rebate program that would reduce the cost for existing homeowners to about 10% of the estimated $5300 appliance. The retro installations would, of course, be optional, but the new construction installations would not. The logical starting point would be investigation by a county task force on the specifics, costs and impact.

Second (and more involved): The Marion County Land Preservation Act (new) - a program whereby a 2% transfer fee is imposed on every deed transfer based on the dollar amount of the sale (in addition to existing fees). This fee would not kick in until the home value was above $200K or the land value was above $50K. For example: A home sells for $275,000. 2% of $75,000 is $1500. This money would go into a separate fund specifically intended for purchasing tracts, or the development rights, of environmentally sensitive or naturally significant land. The fund would be managed by a board of governors with representation from the county commissioners, environmental groups and concerned citizens. Combining this fund with the resources of other groups (Nature Conservancy, etc.) would enable us to be more proactive in protecting our most precious natural resources that are constantly under development pressure. An expiration date could be attached whereby after, say, 4 years, voters could elect to continue the program or not based on its success.

A recent trip to the Greek Island of Limnos, beside being one of the best vacations I’ve ever had, was interesting in another way. The way the populous manage energy use. Frugality would be an understatement, including the hotel we were staying at. We received a key for the room and another card. I didn’t ask at first what the other card was for. Entering the room, none of the lights worked. Calling the front desk, I was enlightened as to what the card was for. In order to turn on the lights, and anything else for that matter, the card must be placed into the receiver just inside the room. Also when leaving the room, removal of the card turns out all the electricity for the room and enables the door to be locked. I thought that was a little overboard until I asked why. It seems that in addition to basic energy costs, property taxes are attached to their electric bill as a percentage of use. Use more electricity, pay more taxes. There is no separate property tax bill from the other levels of governments. Naturally, the thought came to mind as to how that would go over back here in the US. Conservation would surely increase, taxes would be lower for the lower use end of the demographics (typically seniors) and be higher for larger footprint businesses. It was difficult to identify a down side.

What do you think?

Barry Leach