Do Not QUIT now people, we are getting er done for our servicemen, no retreat, no compromise, no surrender

If you have been following the previous posts:
Tallahassee, Florida a State Capital where patriotism is dead.
Keep it going people don't let this issue die while our soldiers do.
Tallahassee Florida refuses to honor our fallen and the people are responding

In response to the lack of respect shown MSGT Simmons KIA in Afghanistan by the city of Tallahassee then you know what this is about. But this is not just about MSGT Simmons, this is about every soldier that is serving or has served in the past. This about bringing, respect, honor and dignity back to the those who put their lives on the line for us. Whether they make it home alive, or come home to their final rest. Both Papa Joe and Hollywood have received significant responses from "ONE" county commissioner. That is because "YOU THE PEOPLE" are standing up for those who stand for you. That my friends is Brotherhood, Do not quit now. NO SURRENDER!!!

FROM HOLLYWOOD:
On Mon, 7/14/08, Cliff Thaell <thaellc@leoncountyfl.gov> wrote:

From: Cliff Thaell <thaellc@leoncountyfl.gov>
Subject: Fwd: RE: Police escorts
To:
Date: Monday, July 14, 2008, 2:19 PM
Fyi...in addition, I agree that we should coordinate an opportunity for the

community to grieve as you suggest.  We can talk more upon my return from
Kansas City tomorrow (850-606-5377 Aide Martin Green).

--------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Cliff Thaell"
To:
Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2008 14:10:42 -0400
Subject: RE: Police escorts
On a further note, and after reading the attached, I plan to bring back a revision of this policy as it relates to Sheriff Deputy Escorts for military funerals from here on in. i will make the request at the July 22 meeting and expect that it will be heard on September 1st. I would appreciate your support for my effort to revise this policy and would hope that the unhappy circumstances of this past Saturday may yet have a positive outcome in the event of future and similar sad occasions.
Sincerely yours,
Cliff Thaell
Leon County Commissioner
At Large

From: "Cliff Thaell"
To:
Date: Mon, 14 Jul 2008 14:10:42 -0400
Subject: RE: Police escorts
On a further note, and after reading the attached, I plan to bring back a revision of this policy as it relates to Sheriff Deputy Escorts for military funerals from here on in. i will make the request at the July 22 meeting and expect that it will be heard on September 1st. I would appreciate your support for my effort to revise this policy and would hope that the unhappy circumstances of this past Saturday may yet have a positive outcome in the event of future and similar sad occasions.

Sincerely yours,

Cliff Thaell
Leon County Commissioner
At Large

From Robert:
> As a Florida resident and active duty military member, I am
> appalled that the county will escort a college football team
> but WILL NOT escort a fallen soldier. I am ashamed to let it
> be known that I was born and raised in the state. Me nor my
> family will spend any of our hard earned dollars in your
> county until this is changed. You do not have to support
> the war, but it is quite a kick in the stomach that you
> will not support a fallen HERO.

SENT IN BY PAPA JOE and ARTIE

This is the first one

First of all, I am very sorry that the county did not provide a police escort for Sgt. Simmons funeral. If I had had an advance notice of the situation, I would have strongly recommended that we waive our policy in this instance. I believe I would have had full support from the Board of County Commissioners.

I was unaware of the situation as I am, and have been since Friday morning in Kansas City (MO) attending a meeting of the National Associaton of Counties (NACo) of which I am a longstanding member. That is the reason I was unable to attend Sgt. Simmons funeral. Otherwise I would have certainly been there.

You may be interested to know, that the Leon County Commission, on my Motion July 8th, voted unanimously 7-0 to honor Sgt. Simmons with a Special Resolution of the Board at a future meeting of the commission. I trust and hope that this recognition of Sgt. Simmons life and sacrifice for our freedoms will be accepted in the spirit it is and was intended.

With best regards,

Cliff Thaell
County Commissioner
At Large
And here is the 2^nd:

On a further note, and after reading the attached, I plan to bring back a revision of this policy as it relates to Sheriff Deputy Escorts for military funerals from here on in. i will make the request at the July 22 meeting and expect that it will be heard on September 1st. I would appreciate your support for my effort to revise this policy and would hope that the unhappy circumstances of this past Saturday may yet have a positive outcome in the event of future and similar sad occasions.

Sincerely yours,
Cliff Thaell
Leon County Commissioner
At Large

Kudos to Commissioner Thaell for having respect and honor enough to respond to those who have taken the time to write. But where are the rest of them??? Where is Tallahassee??? If Commisioner Thaell is willing to stand up then we need to support him and redouble our efforts on those who apparently are afraid to pulicly declare their support for our servicemen. Let them Know we have noticed. If you are not from Tallahassee area or Florida, let them know that your town knows what patriotism is. Sometimes you have to teach people. Including Commisioners.

Tallahassee Commisioners: Use this link to contact all of them at once
http://www.talgov.com/email.cfm?id=commissioners

Use this link to contact all the County commissioners at once:
http://www.leoncountyfl.gov/BCC/email/

"WE THE PEOPLE" are the government. Raise the Flag in Tallahassee!Add to Technorati Favorites

Florida Department of Highway Safety proudly announces WHAT?

See all the pretty dignitaries (oh believe me this is not all of them) and the police motorcycles that have nowhere else to go. See Just some of the pretty motorcycles that came to the Capital to hear what the pretty dignitaries had to say. And just what was it that the all the pretty dignitaries invited all the pretty motorcycles to the capital to hear?

Why they wanted all the pretty motorcycles to hear them announce their brand new "Ride Proud, Dress Loud" Campaign, that you get to help pay for with the set aside motorcycle safety money that comes out of your tax dollars.

You see, apparently we are not pretty enough, or at least "Proud Enough to dress Loud enough" to keep cell phone addicted, burrito munching, soccer moms, deal making politicians and text messaging young un's from running over us.

And yes it is our fault isn't it when somebody violates our right of way and kills us. I mean after all, we were not aware that wearing those pretty green fluorescent shirts and painting our motorcycles bright orange (wouldn't that clash?) would save our lives and that failure to do so would absolve all the distracted, negligent, disrespectful drivers on the road from any responsibility for turning us into flat people.

We were also reminded of the new law that requires us all to get lern't up via one of them there motorsickle training courses fer about $200 plus, that uses a curriculum that has not been proven to be effective. Which I'm damn sure glad they did. Cause that way we can avoid Billy Bubba Bob when, without any edye-cation at all, he can get himself a drivers license, a four wheel drive pick em up and drag a loaded trailer behind him through busy downtown streets while callin Walmart on his cell phone to see if his order fer deer pee is in yet.

Now I understand that this is probably a difficult concept fer dignitaries to unnerstand. but see I'm thinkin some of them folk what run over us do see us and just don't give a damn cause after all their vehicle is bigger than our vehicle. And besides, all they gots ta do is say, "well gee officer I didn't see them" and they maybe gets an $80.00 ticket and not even a bill for "Flat people" clean up!

Now one reporter, I mean like this was a real reporter. We could tell. Know how? Cause rather than just write down blather he asked an intelligent question (did you get that wanna be reporters? Or does we need to explain it further?). Yepper, he asked about what about "other vehicle drivers", which some of "we" promptly jumped in on because we knew they didn't want to answer questions based on the fact that they said they didn't want to have an open question period.

In fact, some of "we" even asked for specifics. Well we got our answer from one of the official police dignitaries. He said he was going to direct his officers to enforce the law????? What???
I thought officers went to school to learn that, as a police officer it is your job to enforce the law? He did recover quickly to say that he was going to instruct his officers to be on the look out for people who were driving in a reckless manner that could endanger motorcyclists.

Well hell, add a fluorescent green shirt to that and ride worry free.

It must have comforted some because they quit listening and headed to the free food and sodas.

Some of we however stuck around to ask a few more questions to which we got, blah, blah blah.
And try to make a few comments about driver distraction, penalty inequities, cell phones and Inattentional blindness (which blows the Dress loud gig right out the window. But when we mention inattentional blindness people stare. Why you reckon that is I wonder).

We even passed out a 17 page press packet full of all sorts of facts, figures, and links. Now lets see if anybody reads them! Does anybody want to wager any money on how many wanna be reporters will read them and use them in their stories? I thought not.

You got to admit however that the Dept. of Highway Safety is pretty quick though. Some of "we" were braced to rebuke NHTSA statistics. They got wind and switched to state statistics. Which in itself is cool because it is an acknowledgment that even they do not trust NHTSA statistics.

Some of "we" did express loudly that we felt it was a bit unfair that the states expectation is that the motorcyclist should carry the lions share of the burden for the ignorance of negligent and distracted drivers. But then since we are going to be the lions share of dead. Unless of course the Officer dignitary can achieve that for which he is not equipped.

One thing this "we" did get an opportunity to say to one D.O.T. official, is that this "we" is tired of it and is gonna fight back.

Now we would be remiss were we not to mention that the Florida Department of Highway Safety (who assured us that things would change because we have a new administration??????
Hello, ain't this administration a bit older than new?) used your motorcycle safety grant monies to hire a marketing firm to publicize this event. And aren't we ever so grateful that they went to so much trouble to insure we were informed about what most bikers already know.

I feel so safe now I'm heading out to Northeast Capital Circle during rush hour tomorrow with a pretty green shirt and Big Sign on the Back that says, "CAN YOU SEE ME NOW ASSHOLE"!

Mark my words, this is a prelude to new and improved laws to further restrict your rights. Have we lied to ya yet?Add to Technorati Favorites

Tallahassee Florida refuses to honor our fallen and the people are responding

Proud to say that people are responding to our post:

Tallahassee, Florida a State Capital where patriotism is dead.

Wherein we expressed our disgust at the way returning servicemen are treated in Tallahassee, Florida. The state capital. Which was particularly evidenced at the funeral for KIA MSGT Simmons:

Master SGT Shawn Simmons Laid to Rest-PGR mission accomplished

Following are some more responses that people say they have sent Tallahassee commissioners:

From Bob: It is so sad to think that such blatant disrespect could be shown in the Capital of Fl., shame on you all and REST IN PEACE Master Sgt. Shawn Simmons.

And From Dave:
I was one of the blockers and almost got run over by some woman at Gaines and Monroe that tried to go around me as I was sitting in front of her at the intersection. I emailed the Sheriff and he responded:

Dear David, Please know that there is nothing I would feel more honored to do than provide an escort for M.SGT.. Simmons funeral. However due to insurance problems, and others presented by a local funeral home, we had to stop the service. For example, I did not provide one for my Mother, or for L.CPL. Daniel Chaires, a close friend. This is not something any of us wanted to have happen. In addition to insurance problems, one local funeral home refused to work with us in trying to coordinate the number of funerals occurring at any one time.In example we were advised "they could do 20 on a Saturday morning" and that is what they would do and expect the service for each. If I could resolve the insurance, I could not resolve the manpower. We offered the opportunity for off duty deputies to handle the escorts but they could not work out the insurance problems either. Some larger areas such as Jacksonville have enough volume that they can do it. We can't.
I asked the Tallahassee Police Department to assist us with funeral escorts and they refused.
We do not escort the FSU Football team from Thomasville. That is done by retired FHP Major Billy Smith. We join them near I-10 to help get them to the stadium on time. These are not the run red lights, stop signs, etc. most people think of. It is simply a "shadowing escort" to insure nothing occurs that will prevent them from reaching the stadium on time. Same for the referees under an agreement all ACC Schools have on this subject.
Sir I was a member of the USMC and hold our military heros in the highest esteem. Please know my heart is with you but the circumstances outlined preclude me doing the escorts. Semper Fi, Larry --------------- This is complete BS! They do not run red lights for the football team? Maybe I need to video that this season and throw it in the face of the sheriff. They can escort there own, but not a fallen military hero? Without our military there would not be a land for law enforcement to protect! I think it is time to campaign against the current sheriff so the public can see him for the sorry POS he is.

Amen Bob And Dave. Not that at the little Dog and Pony show put on by the Dept. of transportation today they managed to find two MC Sherrifs Deputies, Two MC Tallahassee PD and Two MC State Troopers who had not other purpose than to line their bikes up in front of the podium and look pretty for a couple hours. That equals a couple of escorts for returning service men!

If you are reading this and want your voice heard in support of treating our servicemen with respect when they return and accept no excuses or compromise just as our soldiers do not compromise with the enemy. Let your voices be heard.

Go to either or both of these sites:
http://www.talgov.com/email.cfm?id=commissioners

http://www.leoncountyfl.gov/BCC/email/

And demand our elected officials heed the lessons of past wars. Copy it to us and we will post it.

And if you have a neighbor that complained about being caught in their air conditioned vehicles in the traffic that the procession created and cussed those who blocked them, tell them:

As of this writing it is 112 degress in Baghdad, our soldiers are wearing heavy gear in that heat, some may die in that heat and if your bitch is that you had to stop for the escort of a KIA Green Beret, well BITE ME!Add to Technorati Favorites

ABATE of FLorida no longer receiving state money

A conversation with D.O.T. Yesterday reveals that ABATE of Florida has not received any state money since April of this year and will not receive any for at least the remainder of the year. This includes money that comes down from NHTSA through safety grants.The last money they received, was reportedly for last year. Which seems to cloud the issue a bit if I remember correctly Doc's crowing about how they received half a million dollars for this year.  These things are so hard to understand.I was in the middle of a PGR run and could not investigate further.  And don't even know if I want to. But it is relevant to our cause. If we do not learn from the mistakes of others we will be subject to make the same mistakes ourselves.Add to Technorati Favorites