Banana Republic.

I live in Palm Beach County, Florida. I'm sure this brings you instant thoughts of wealth, beaches, sunny weather and plastic surgery. I must admit there are certain items of attraction that often make me say "thats why I live here!". The weather and beaches are two of them; other reasons I like it are my family, friends and church are here. Other than that, I would have to say this place is for the dogs. It's not just the nasty traffic that often builds up, or the influx of New York visitors and transplants, it's the lack of leadership from a civic standpoint. Let me tell you about this.

Election 2000 - we all remember the whole hanging chads deal. What an embarassment! This really set me off and proved to me that we have a bunch of incompetent leaders, too scared to make a decision because it might cause a law suit. Spineless sycophants. Thats right sycophants! The whole election debacle was brought on by on by a bunch of complaining elderly in the southern part of our our county (think Boca Vista of Seinfeld fame). These folks often complain and the first person they call is Democrat stalwart Robert Wexler. He's a former famed attorney that tries to make himself look like he's a "for the people guy" but my gut instinct tells me he is a powermonger that seeks every opportunity to get his face on tv, especially national tv. The whole outcry by Wexler and his Gore people was the voting card was unfair (although created and approved by hard core democrats) and we should have a re-vote (bet you didn't hear this on CNN or MSNBC). Anyway, I could go on and on, but I think you get the point. It was a joke around here during Election 2000.

Dixie Highway - in our biggest city, West Palm Beach, there is a main road named Dixie Highway. Five years ago the city, county and state all set out to re-do this road. Well, it still isn't finished! The reason? They are all bickering over funding, mean while the contractor say's "I have other jobs, so while you all are fighting we will go start another job." The road still sits there, like a battle zone in Baghdad.

Church Zoning - the county commissioners here in Palm Beach County want the Planning and Zoning Department to draft an amendment to the land development code that would severely limit the size of any future church to a scale based on the density of the neighborhood population. Under the proposal, a church in a high-density area could have 750 seats, while a medium-density area could have 500 seats. Buildings in low-density areas would be limited to just 250 seats. I'm so glad that our Banana Republic down here in SoFlo has taken it in their hands to determine the size a church! God really needs their help in this matter.

Terrorism Connections - there are a few terrorist connections to our wonderful county. First of all, five of the terrorists that flew planes into the WTC and Pentagon trained here in PBC. They lived here for over six months and learned to fly airplanes out of our local small plane airports. They also had gym memberships at a local Golds Gym. Secondly, do you recall the whole anthrax scare? Well, it started right here in PBC. The National Enquirer building in south county was ground zero for the contamination. Is this all a mere coincedence? I don't think so.

There are other things I could bring up, like the mayor of West Palm Beach was the first director of the Palm Beach County chapter of the National Organization of Women. Or just recently in a local election, a declared winner was un-declared a day later after a bad vote count was determined. I will stop there.