Thursday, February 18, 2010 www. dcadvocate.net The Dixie County Advocate S174NE351 Hwy. P.O. Box 5030" Cross City, FL 32628 Ph. 352-498-3312 Fax (352)498-0420 PRINTERS & PUBLISHERS Letters to the Editor, Ads Editor(@.dcadvocate.net News Editorddcadvocate.net $24.99............:..............In Dixie County $29.99................................ Elsewhere Includes Tax OFFICIAL ORGAN of DIXIE COUNTY Katherine McKinney..................... Editor Danielle Ridgeway... ............. Receptionist/UPS David Ryman.............Webmaster / Angel Lee............ .............. Reporter John Kelley.:...................... Football Reporter The Dixie County Advocate is owned by LSA Media, LLC. of Dixie County Deadline for news and announcements is 5:00 p.m. on Monday Deadline for advertising and classified ads is 12:00 Noon on Tuesday. Classified ads are $5.00 for 20 words or less; .10 cents additional word. Classified ads are payable in advance.. Please mail ad with check to the above address. 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Every Week without Fail, Since July 1, 1921 How to lose the war on terror It seems like every time I read an opinion piece from the St. Petersburg Times I am r minded of why I left that town. That paper's:many skilled writers are just out of touch with how things work in the real world. A recent Times column by Robyn Blumner which showed up in the Gainesville Sun was entitled, "Giving due process rights to terror suspects works." Amazing. But when you think about it, a lot of things can be said to "work," depend- ing on what your idea of a favorable outcome happens to be. I'm sure Vladimir Lenin felt that way about bo omu-. nism, but it seems doubtful that hip viewpoint w s shared : by the millions of Russians who suffered under that form of government for three-quarters of a century The column was a defense of the Obama administration's decision to try "underwear bomber" Umar Farouk Abdul- mutallab and other Islamic terrorists in civilian courts, claiming that this was actually a more effective method of dealing with. terrorists than those favored by Republicans (who actually do not favor hanging suspects by their thumbs, as Ms. Blumner suggested). Abdulmutallab has supposedly offered "valuable intelli- gence" to the FBI despite having been advised of his right to remain silent and have a lawyer on hand when being questioned. We're told that this had something to do with the fact that his family also cooperated, which they "appar- ently" would not have done, had he been placed in military custody It's true that Abdulmutallab's father tried to alert US au- thorities of the company his son was keeping, however that happened before the flight in which his drawers failed to ex- plode, so in that respect he could have just as well have been at Guantanamo. Any additional info he disclosed, with or without the advice of his family, got filtered through his lawyerss. Attorney General Eric Holder is feeling a lot of heat over his role in moving terrorist trials to civilian courts. Howev- er, in his defense, Blumner quotes him as telling Senate Re- publicans (you know, those guys who want to string terror- ists up by their thumbs) that the criminal justice system has proven to be the best way to persuade an uncooperative individual to "talk." Seems to me that's not what got Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to spill the beans. Remember "shoe bomber" Richard Reid (no relation to "Dingy Harry," at least as far as I know)? Ms. Blumner re- minds us that he was tried in civilian court and is now serving a life sentence. Right. And his little caper occurred about three months after 9/11. We've had quite a bit of time between then and Barack Obama's inauguration to pass-leg- islation and otherwise sort out more efficient means of dealing with terrorists. Besides, Reid should have been exe- cuted. There's no reason to keep feeding those bastards for years after they've been caught. Good liberal that she is, Blumner of course insists that the kid glove treatment of terrorists is good PR, and will show the world that we're really the good guys after all. Alas, when will these people realize that Islamic terrorists want us dead, or at least enslaved? We could buy captured terror- ists ice cream from now till hell freezes and they'd still want to kill us. To them, any accommodation is a sign of weakness, and what bigger sign of weakness than allowing them civilian trials with all the accommodations afforded US citizens accused of crimes? The cost of civilian trials for terrorists wasn't mentioned in Ms. Blumner's column, but that in itself should be suffi- cient reason to rule out any such absurdity--millions, per- haps billions, as compared to less than 40 bucks a day at Guantanamo. Too bad, but liberals just don't seem to know a bargain when they see one. Mr Prater: I'm with John Wayne (and you) on this one. Put 'em in front of a military tribunal, and give 'em "a fair trial, and a fine hangin'. "By the thumbs is optional. --Ed Viewpoints * You have the right to life, liberty, and deep-fried Oreos 1 by Kathy McKinney "Do you want to be a big fat-fatty? Come oin me, it's sweeeeet." Glen Beck said this one day on his show--and it must have been how he said it, because it doesn't look so funn y in print--but it hit us just right and Georgia and I almost had to go change our pants, we laughed so hard. It's become something of a running joke in our house, applied to al- most everything. We said - it countless times on Thursday when we went -* -- * to the Florida State Fair V.V'" ,..LI in Tampa.' t AtM It was an easy thing to '. think about being a big -fat-fatty. Only at a state fair could you eat fried cheese on a stick, fried, . candy bars on a.stick, . fried Oreos, fried - Twinkies, and something called a Krispy Kreme DEEP hamburger all in the FRIED same place. It seemed like each booth was trying to 'outdo the next one in sheer deep-fried fatty imagination. We saw one guy hawking "'Deep fried Pepsi." No, I have no. idea "No diet will remove all the fat from what it was, and I didn't try brain, you might look good, but all you any (You can ask Tank & Debbie Lee about the Krispy Kreme hamburger, though, they tried one. They said it was a hamburger with a doughnut on it.) Yay for the inge- 'nuity of capitalism! I did eat one of the kids' deep-fried Oreos. It was pretty good, all hot and gooey inside. Not something I'd make at home, but as they say, when in Rome...ya gotta eat the deep fried Oreos. Or something like that. If you get a chance to.go to the fair you should go and try all that neat stuff. Next year, it'll probably be illegal. You'll stop to pick up a little cheese on a stick, offering your five dollars, and Nancy Pelosi will jump out of the fryer with a bunch of .State De- partment goons who will confiscate your glob of deep-fried gooey goodness in the name of National Security. Think I'm exaggerating? Yeah, maybe a little bit, but not much. Michelle Obama has started up her new raison d'etre to justify her space in the White House. She's declared war onfat kids. When I was little, I was taught that-you weren't supposed to pick on the fat kids, or the goofy kids, or-the : kids with glasses. I guess government officials can poifit ahnd laugh because they think it's for our own good. Apparently, Ms. Obama thinks we're fat because we live in "food deserts in this nation, which makes it difficult for fam- ilies trying to access good options." Food deserts? Really? In a nation with countless grocery stores, fruit stands, and fast food places piously serving up sliced' apples instead of fries in "green" packaging, she says we're in the desert? Here's a thought, Michelle, send all those kids trapped in public Letter to the Editor: I am Declan Moeller, a resident of Dixie County since my birth in 1987. I am a product of the Dixie County school system. I have operated my own lawn mowing and yard maintenance business in this county and the surrounding counties since I was sixteen years old. In October of 2009, I appeared before the Dixie County School Board and requested that the school board open bids for mowirrg services. I pointed out to the board that they had not put up the school mowing contracts for competitive bids for over five years. After dis- cussion, the board decided to accept bids for mowing ser- vices at the Dixie County schools for the year 2010. Based upon the board's deci- sion, bids specifications were provided to prospective bid- ders. These specifications gave a description of the work, required verification of insur- ance coverage and required that each prospective bidder own and maintain certain items of equipment. As part of the bid process, bid- ders were provided with a bid sheet that required that bidders submit sealed bids no, later than January 6, 2010 at 1:30 p.m. Bidders were permitted to submit separate bids on each of the five school mowing areas which were as follows: Dixie County High School and Vocational School Anderson Elementary School Ruth Rains Middle School Old Town Elementary School Old Town Educational Complex Among the documents required to be reviewed and initialed by the prospective bidders was a "Vender Bid Checklist for Lawn Maintenance Services". Paragraph 9 of this checklist reads as follows: "I understand that bids will be accepted until the posted dead- line and late bids will not be ac- cepted, A contract will be awarded to the lowest bidder for each location unless the principal of that center writes a justification of why that low- est bid should be rejected. If just cause is shown, the con- tract will then be awarded to the next lowest bidder for that location. " The bids were opened on Janu- ary 6, 2010 at 2:00 p.m. Those bids were as follows: After the bids-were opened, I realized that I had substantial- ly underbid the mowing con- tact for the Dixie County High School. Despite that realiza- tion, I elected not to withdraw. my bid on the high school for two reasons. First, I was 'taught to be a man of my word and to expect others to do the same. Second, because I was the successful bidder on Old Town Elementary School and Anderson Elementary School, I figured that any potential loss I might have on the high school would be offset by the other two contracts. On January 6, 2010, Charlotte Lord, Director of Safety, Facili- ties and Special Projects, wrote letters to the principals of each school and to the Director of Finance at the Old Town Edu- cational Complex. Each letter advised the recipient that the acceptance of the lowest bidder for their facility would be rec- ommended unless the recipient gave written reasons why the bid of the lowest bidder should not be accepted. Buddy Schofield, principal of Dixie .schools learning to sing hymns to your husband outside to run or play dodgeball once in a while! (Oh, I forgot. We can't play dodgeball anymore, it's not politically correct. And they wonder why kids are fat.) Ms. Obama apparently hasn't seen the cornucopia of dining options available at the State Fair. You didn't have to limit your choices to the "fried" menu. There was fresh roasted 'corn on the cob, fresh fruit everywhere, grilled chicken kabobs, smoothies, fresh. lemonade, raw sugar cane, even a place where A B you could squeeze your own 3 orange -.juice...I .. mean sure, if you want- ed to eat badly, you could. Most people I saw did splurge on the fried fun. But that was their choice. Ti your body because the brain is entirely fat. Without a coulddo is run for public office."-- George Bernard Shaw And therein lies the real truth to the Obama's "War on fat." It's not a war against obesity, but a war on you. See, in the eyes of the skinny ruling elite, you, being the moronic knuckle-dragging peasant that you are, are too stupid to decide to eat "well," or even to pack your own kids' lunchbox. Since your elected rulers are oh-so- much-smarter-and-better-looking than you, they've declared war, not on fat, but on your right to make your own choices. If you recall, I warned you all that this was coming back during the campaign when Obama said, "We can't drive our SUVs and eat as much as we wantand keep our homes, on 72 degrees at all times ... and then just expect that other coun- tries are going to say OK." Elections have consequences, so welcome to the White House Diet, in which the government will tell you how much and what you're allowed to eat. Sure, it'll start with government schools, because that's where they have the most control, but it won't belong before you open your snack cabinet at home one Saturday afternoon and Rahm Emmanuel pops out like a demented Keebler Elf to lecture you about limiting your calorie intake for the sake of Big Brother Bariy afind the w~l6fi'e d the cet five. Our Founders guaranteed that*the government wouldn't in- tei'fere with our God-given freedoms of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness., They didn't add, "unless it's bad for you," or even "unless it raises your insurance premiums." You eat that fried cheese on a stick if you want to, and tell Washington and Michelle Obama what they can do with the stick. County High School, Denee Hurst, principal of Anderson' Elementary School, and Karen Tillis, principal of Old Town Elementary School personally signed off on their copy of the letter indicating that the rec- ommended acceptance of my bids to provide mowing ser- vices to their school. Based upon the signed letters from the school principals, on January 21, 2010, Ms. Lord wrote a letter to Mark Rains, Superintendent of Schools, rec- ommending that the bids of all of the lowest bidders be accept- ed. Because there was no objection * by the principals and various department heads, the award of the mowing contracts was placed on the "Consent Agen- 'da" for the school board meet- ing on February 9, 2010. Mat- ters onthe "Consent Agenda" are matters about which there is no genuine controversy and they are usually passed with- out debate. During the school board meet- ing of February 9, 2010, with- out notice to any of the bid- ders, the matter was moved from the Consent Agenda to the Regular Agenda. Board mem- ber, Cheryl Pridgeon, first made a motion that the bids of all of the lowest bidders be ac- cepted and that mowing con- tracts be awarded to them. This included the bids I sub- mitted for the Dixie County High School, Anderson Ele- mentary School, and Old Town Elementary School. The mo- tion was initially seconded by board member, David Keen. Board member, Dwayne "Top" Rollison, then made a motion that the mowing contract for Dixie County High School be awarded to William Andrews and the mowing contract for Old Town Elementary School be awarded to Jody Robson. The motion was seconded by , board member, Glen Osteen. Although board member David Keen initially seconded the motion of Ms. Pridgeoh, he then voted in favor of award- ing the high school and Old Town Elementary School con- tracts to William Andrews and Jody Robson respectively, de- spite the fact that these were -not the lowest bids. Ms. Prid- geon voted against the motion. During the entire process, board chairman, Tim Alexan- der, raised no objection to the board's award of the contracts in violation of the bid specifi- cations. The end result of the actions of the school board as set forth above is that the tax payers of this county are paying $14,606.00 more than was neces- sary It is difficult to under- stand how the board can take an action such as this and yet claim that their current finan- cial circumstances are such that they are hard pressed to * pay for the educational services necessary to properly educate our children. The board's action also sends a deeper message to the general public of this county including the present and past students of the Dixie County School Sys- tem. That message is that the members of the school board and the principal of the high school are not men of their word and cannot be trusted to do what they say they will do even when they have said it in writing. Please note that I have used the word "men", not "women" of the school board. Sincerely, Declan Moeller, Old Town Page 2 VENDOR HSNOC ANDERSON RRM OTE OTANNEX Wliamndrews $19,200 $5,600 Nobid Nobid Nobid Jody4 m No bid No bid $9,652 $12,300 $3,030 Dei nieH ton Nobid No bid Nobid $13,600 $4,00W S$5,695 $4,270 $11;10 $11,199 $4,979 m m I c