Cuban coffee is like a liquid Havana cigar!

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ah, The Hurricane. My mouth is watering already tfhr. Yup. Terrifical call, Trooper. Some margueritas on the top deck with some grouper nuggets and smoked mackeral spread, watching the stellar Gulf Coast sunsets. Didn’t get there on my last trip back, but Pass-a-Grille (that particular area’s name) is one of my favorite haunts on the peninsula.

… and the Cubano food! Heavenly. Just watch out for the Cuban coffee. When that liquid mud hits, you’ll go for hours. The Columbia may be the most famous Ybor City place. There’s also another location on that strange pyramid pier in St. Petersburg where you can watch the activity on the bay, or the squall lines roll in. But there’s also thousands of authentic little haunts that are fabulous too.

And yup… Mike’sA will probably tell you that you should have stopped at the grouper (lawdy, I miss having that fish around…). But again, you think like I do on the subject that is not to be mentioned. (ha)

Gotta sign off on this subject. I’m drooling over the keyboard with grouper envy…

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Several points in one post – in the order of importance per topic, not target.

First
@Old Trooper:

Try the Grouper sandwich at the Hurricane if you get over to St Pete Beach during your visit. Otherwise, there are a slew of good Cuban restaurants in Tampa that are worth checking out.

Second
@MataHarley:

No panic here – just a hesitancy to hijack a thread with a OT subject but since you’ve reminded me of the rules, I’ll take that green light. By the way, the mention of MickeyD’s takes me back to that new photo caption opportunity provided by FA. The Karzai hat begs to ask, “Senator, would you like fries with that goat?”.

The point taken from your minimum wage design for former members of Congress is worthwhile and should be no less than that applied to flag officers and others in the military that have worked on DoD related acquisition programs that could represent a conflict of interest. That effort to limit conflict of interest (and fraud or waste) is not the best example of success, as Old Trooper can probably tell you, but it is at least an effort to limit the opportunity for corrupt people in positions of power to use the tax payers’ money to line their post government employment pockets. The application of guidelines and rules to prevent conflicts of interest and outright corruption must be more stringent, particularly when dealing with members of Congress.

Third
@Mike’s America:

I understand your point about throwing out the good with the bad. Obviously a man of George Washington’s caliber would have been an asset in government to the very last day in public office. I’m also sure you wouldn’t disagree that the best don’t need to be told when to leave. One of the reasons we all admire Washington is that he opted not to install himself as a permanent fixture in our government when he could easily have done so. Unfortunately there are very few people in politics today that posses the qualities of a man like Washington. There is also no need to harp on the damage done by FDR’s overstay – we live in that legacy today – but the reasons term limits were applied to that office are just as valid when applied to the national legislature.

Washington’s cherry tree legend aside, I’m sick of corrupt-to-the-core opportunists like Charlie Rangel shaking the tax payer money tree for every last nickle and dime of “ill gotten gains” and for getting away with it for decades. Rangel is so safe in his district that it is still likely that the man will be returned to office despite his history of felony tax evasion. The system that rewards seniority with powerful committee chairmanships gives an entrenched criminal like Rangel the leverage to ward off other members of Congress that do not want to anger him for fear of what he could do to their own efforts to stay on and on and on…..

It’s not just the overtly crooked Rangel, seniority based chairmanships allow individuals to exercise disproportionate influence for far too long and at enormous cost to tax payers. Think of the waste and abuse perpetrated by people like Robert Byrd and Ted Stevens. These two guys managed to siphon off incredible sums of tax payer dollars to serve their states to the point of shameful excess. Inouye comes to mind as another example. All three of these guys come from places with relatively small populations but they’ve hauled off disproportionate sums of money because of their advantage in seniority.

Old Trooper would leave this matter to the states. I say, “fine”, if we’re talking about state level politics. Let your state senator in Hawaii serve in Honolulu for 90 years if you want but when the people of Maui or Molokai send a representative to the United States Congress, they are impacting every American citizen, business, and institution from Maine to Monterrey. We all have a stake (steak for Old Trooper) in what happens in Washington, D.C. and it should be carried on in accordance with the spirit intended by the founding fathers. Hawaii gets two votes in the Senate and votes in the Congress proportional to the population of the state. Having a bigger hand in the cookie jar than other states because Inouye has good genes is wrong. Any effort at TERM LIMITS will fail if the measure is not across the board in all 50 states pertaining to members of Congress.

It’s not just about the money. Members of Congress live in a world of their own design. They are allowed to increase their pay with little fan fare or public scrutiny. The perks and privileges of “serving” in Congress are famous and promote a lifestyle and attitude that is as unrepresentative of that experienced by most Americans as it is insulating. Our members of Congress really don’t have to live with the legislation they design and can count on a retirement package that will sustain their standard of living despite the damage that Congress and various Presidents may do to the rest of us through bad legislation, etc.

I think TERM LIMITS would solve much of the problem.

I would also add that parties could have internal votes to select representation for each committee position.

I would suggest that compensation packages for members of Congress should not exceed that available to flag officers or SES level civilians, though it could certainly be less, and only if they have managed to serve twenty years by being elected to no more than two consecutive terms in either the Senate or House. Accumulated terms with breaks in service would be needed to amass twenty years if we’re talking about serving only in elected federal office. They could add to federal service by holding other jobs in federal agencies. For instance, you postal carrier could get elected as your Congressman after hauling junk mail to your house for 18 years. For just serving out that single term in the House, I’d let the guy take the pension (50% of his salary at highest paid federal position served for three years or more – so I guess he’d want to do well to get that final term in Congress and retire at 22 years of federal service).

Public service is one description of what members of the military perform in their duties. It is voluntary and we enter that realm of public service with few real guarantees of what our lives will be like twenty years down the road. I cannot fathom why we would offer a better arrangement for our members of Congress. Americans always have the option to pursue other career opportunities, and as American service members we can do that upon release from our obligation to the country. If an American wants to serve in Congress, there should not be any compensation delivered above that which is offered to members of the military. When did it become an expectation that public service should be comfortable and convenient? If the job is about serving the country, then it will attract the right kind of people. If it is about serving oneself, then Rangels will always be ready to stay around as long as they can.

There you go. I probably should’ve stopped at the fish sandwich for Old Trooper, but you got yours with a side of TERM LIMITS.

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Update…

Expect an announcement from Karzai tomorrow Re: the Afghan election.
I reckon the Afghan chapter of ACORN wasn’t active enough on his behalf. He does not, according to the Afghan Chad counters have enough votes to trigger a runoff.

Now our Pretender can ACT on the Troop request or NOT.
Playing Whack A Mole with Predator UAVs w/Hellfire Missiles isn’t cutting it.
Oh the Humanity of it all!
Place your bets here folks!

My money is on former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah who was his challenger.
*********************************
On Term Limits, being a rabid 10th Amendment supporter, leave it up to the States to decide as the voters reside there, not that they are getting much representation these days anyway.

The Fed Gummint can stay out of it as they have fooled around and meddled too much in things that are not their business since the Pretender took Office with no harmonious outcome in anything so far.
*********************************
Sen. Kerry is in Kabul tonight enjoying some goat and rice and telling War Stories to the Afghan Defense Ministry and meddling in Afghan Affairs. Something about Christmas in Cambodia and very Top Seekrit. Your Tax Dollars at work, By God!

I had some excellent grouper in Tampa this evening and don’t recommend the goat. The eyes are NOT a delicacy, believe me!

That is all the Un-Classified Info for tonight folks.

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“term limits for Pakistanis…”… uh, wouldn’t that be the length of time for the next Taliban bomber to implode upon his jihad self?

on topic enuf, oh benevolent thread nanny?

P.S. You’re both WRONG about term limits~!

TIME!! FOUL!!!!! :0)

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@MataHarley: AHEM! Would one of you care to put up a separate post on term limits so we can avoid the confusion before someone thinks we are talking about term limits for Pakistanis?

P.S. You’re both WRONG about term limits~!

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tfhr… hang, guy… Count me with my “aye” vote along with you for term limits. In fact, I’ll “double down” (as Larry likes to say) and add that upon leaving Senate, they are required to do two years in a minimum wage job prior to accepting some big dollar position that exploits their beltway contacts. I figure by then, with term limits, that means all their influence is with those *also* working in a MickeyD’s somewhere.

And since I’m catching up to the various threads, I can see the tangents OT everywhere. Conversation goes where it goes. If any of us are out of the line, the original author of the post can reign us in. Dat’s da rules…. :0) Don’t panick until the post author gets on your back.

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@Mike’s America:
@MataHarley:

I didn’t intend to get off track with the TERM LIMITS tangent but when the next Rangel or Byrd based post comes along, we should discuss the possibilities and consequences.

Back to Chris R., who is still a dick and is likely a strong supporter of those that feel that it is their right or “Choice” to have an abortion. My guess is that Chris R. has never had an abortion, so I wonder how he could possibly hold such a view. That old, tired attempt to discredit anyone that supports the use of the military by suggesting that they cannot hold such a view unless they are on the battlefield themselves is pathetic but if he wants to keep trying it, just remember that it works both ways.

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Mike’A: Sorry but term limits would only throw out the good with the bad. You’d be stuck with just as many RINOS as before.

Not quite… Less powerful RINOs and liberals, with more to lose if they accepted the lobby bribes, and returned home to get a job. Term limits isn’t the subject, I know, but the only legit argument against it has to do with individual states’ rights. Nothing more.

Feeling benevolent with that superb cuisine, Troop? Like letting Chris R off easy. They musta put something in the FL drinking water. HA

Chris R, if you’re planning on playing the “you didn’t serve” armchair general game here at FA, you’ve parked your tush on the wrong sofa, guy. You might want to google-surf around for a more gullible cyber audience to that tired talking point.

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MataHarley, Just doing my part here in sunny FL. Great restaurants here. Grand Company as well!
Folks that know their jobs and do them damn well. Unclassified info is public info. Too bad that the broadcast and print media don’t cover the straight dope and real considerations in OPs in that part of the World or anything in the US for that matter. It is All the flavor of the day that the Current Regime has cooked up and approved for Public consumption.

ROE in brief needs to be explained. It is All about Politics, not the UCMJ, the Geneva Conventions or the Golden Rule. It is about the Media Effect and to quote a young man from Montana that went from Helicopter Crew Chief to Pilot during the Vietnam War:

“Do not fear the enemy, for your enemy can only take your life. It is far better that you fear the media for they will steal your honor.” – Bobby McBride, Crew Chief, 128th Assault Helicopter Company, RVN 1969-1970

CW4 McBride, USA Ret. got it right. That is why I despise “Newsies”.
“Newsies” have no Honor. The only Ernie Pyle type that I trust is Michael Yon.
the rest are shameless whores.

( Add Career Politicians to that because they lie straight faced and don’t even blink )

Lets All go easy on Chris R. He obviously had a Kool Aid OD and subsequent brain damage.
Caleb is just trolling. FA folks stole his bait but put the hook in his backside.

HOOHAH!

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