Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Jobs to be had but no workers because of the e-verify program?....

It turns out that there have been several States with plenty of jobs and work to be had only to be prevented from hiring eager workers due to the faulty e-verify program required by law. Georgia farmers have already found themselves short of workers to harvest their crops once ready and many of their crops rotting in the fields....

In Georgia, crops are rotting in the fields because migrant workers aren't there to pick them.

"We don't have a workforce," said Bryan Tolar, the president of the Georgia Agribusiness Council, a group that represents about 700 farmers and agricultural businesses in that state. "Where are we supposed to get it?"

It turns out there have been numerous problems with the e-verify program resulting in many migrant workers moving on to other States that are not required to use the program for identification to obtain the job....
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Here in Virginia we are also quickly approaching harvest time in many agriculture zones and will there be manual\seasonal labor to do the work? The obvious problem will be if we do not have this seasonal labor to do the work due to the faulty e-verify program, crops and the farming community will suffer as well as the consumer in higher produce prices....





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Monday, July 25, 2011

Fishing the Wall..... Florida Keys

Had the opportunity to fish with Captain Jim Sharpe aboard the SeaBoots which is the sportfishing boat that I worked on while spending my time in the Florida Keys back in the 90's...

Jim was running a "family" trip offshore with friends from the area which also included 3 of the better Captains in the Keys so there was plenty of local knowledge and experience on the boat.



30 miles south of Summerland Key is an area called "Woods Wall" where the water depth goes from 800 feet to almost 1,900 in less than a half mile. Very large drop off and favorite place to find LARGE fish such as Marlin and Swordfish. While catching Dolphin mahi-mahi we had two 300-400 Blue Marlin come in chasing the Dolphin...




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Friday, July 22, 2011

If we really wanted to lower the unemployment rate and put Americans to work.....





Written by IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates and IHS Global Insight, the study shows that increasing the pace of permitting in the Gulf would boost employment opportunities in almost every state, enhance tax and royalty revenues, and help stabilize America’s energy security.



Specifically, the study shows that aligning the permitting process with the industry’s production capacity could result in:

230,000 American jobs;
More than $44 billion in US gross domestic product;
Nearly $12 billion in tax and royalty revenues for state and federal treasuries; and
$15 million reduction in the amount the US sends to foreign governments.


And that’s by the end of 2012.

Florida Keys & Key West ~2011~

Outside of the Customs House

In Key West is a very large statue of the "Dance at Bougival" from the painting by Pierre-Auguste Renoir that attracts much attention due it's size and location in old town Key West....


Ronald Reagan once quoted: "The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.'"

Had the opportunity to go out on a half day trip aboard the SeaBoots Sportfishing charterboat out of Summerland Key which I fortunately worked on during my years spent in the Florida Keys. Captain\owner Jim Sharpe was taking some local friends out to look for some Dolphin mahi-mahi and graciously offered a chance to fish the waters of the Keys once again...


Spent my five days in the Keys with an old friend who is the Captain\Owner of the Compass Rose Light Tackle Sportfishing fleet and with that got to play with many of the features of the two boats he now operates.... It is common practice to take my vacation during the "Slow season" in the Keys but Capt. Mike Weinhofer was booked the whole week I was there while many other boats sat idle. This I know is the result of the 21 years that Capt. Mike has been fishing in the Florida Keys and making connections with sportfishermen who continue to return to the Keys and Compass Rose year after year.






Friday, June 17, 2011

Fort Hancock ~Sandy Hook~ NJ....

Trip up to New Jersey last week with a stop out on Sandy Hook to visit Fort Hancock...http://www.nps.gov/nr/twhp/wwwlps/lessons/37hancock/37hancock.htm














Monday, May 30, 2011


"Worst Oil Spill ever"... Where did the oil go?....


“It cannot be repeated often enough,” says Louisiana marine biologist Jerald Horst. Crude oil is a natural substance; it’s biodegradable. It’s a feast for microbes. And these consumed most of it from the BP spill.” The horrid black goo that leaked into the Gulf of Mexico from the BP spill last year is certainly toxic - but so are broccoli, beer and salt. It all depends on the dosage. In fact, that horrid black goo has spilled naturally into the Gulf for millenniums - at the rate of two Exxon Valdez spills annually".

FONTOVA: From worst disaster to biggest embarrassment
Environmentalists and the press demolished their credibility hyping the BP oil spill
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The Washington Times has an interesting article regarding how the massive amounts of oil from the Gulf "disaster" and where it has gone...
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"Not all these gushers lie below the Gulf, however. In fact, one of Mother Earth’s biggest “spills” is off Southern California’s coast at Coal Oil Point, not far from the homes of “environmental activists” Leonardo DiCaprio, Charlie Sheen, Barbra Streisand, Brad Pitt, Ed Begley Jr. and many, many others of their ilk. This spill gushes an estimated 3,000 gallons of crude oil daily into the waters off Malibu beach. Yet none of the above “activists” appears overly agitated over this “disaster.”
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“Ah,” you ask, “but what about that poisonous chemical used as a dispersant for the oil?”

You probably ingested traces of this poisonous chemical compound with last night’s dinner, and other traces probably coat your pots, pans, cups, spoons and forks right now. Some people call the dispersant Corexit 9500 - and some call it soap. Essentially, it’s Dawn dishwashing detergent.

“Dispersants are not very toxic,” explains Robert Dickey, director of the Food and Drug Administration’s Gulf Coast Seafood Laboratory. “They are detergents and solvents, and they become rapidly diluted. One square mile of seawater one foot deep is 200 million gallons. We added 1.8 million gallons in the whole Gulf.”