Category: ‘Florida Legislature’

Deadline Day problems with HealthCare.GOV

December 23, 2013 Posted by Frank M

Log-in to HealthCare.Gov

It’s easy to beat a dead website- to stomp around it’s 404 pages and polite apology screens. So we won’t. Except to post a screen shot from the much vilified website on deadline day, telling you to wait because “HealthCare.Gov has a lot of visitors right now!” If one didn’t want to stick around while the page refreshed it self to see if you could log in, there was an option to type in your email, and they would drop you a line as to when the coast was cleared.

Newshole[DOT]Info sat on the screen for a bit in the late afternoon, coffee in hand and obviously not much going on. We randomly got in. The apology screen turned into the actual website. We logged in and tried to hit the market place. Running pretty smoothly for a time, we were asked what exactly we planned to file income-tax wise. This thing seems be fixed! Aaaaand just as we were going to the Florida options, it crashed. At least for us.

Kill Screen. (And not the fun Donkey Kong kind.)

We are not sure what kind of creature wouldn’t expect this; the website is famous for its’ inability to handle large volumes of traffic, and today is the day the procrastinating levee breaks; the last day.

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Categories: Florida Legislature, MIAMI-DADE, NATIONAL, Original

State Rep. David Richardson Opines on the Miami Beach Convention Center

December 23, 2013 Posted by Frank M

Photo via State of Florida


Editor’s Note: This article was also submitted to the Miami SunPost. They incorrectly credited the byline to their Film Critic and not author FRANK MARADIAGA. A link will be posted when the problem is corrected.

State Representative David Richardson opines on the Convention Center; warns of a Miami coup. By Frank Maradiaga

In his first public commentary on the future of the Miami Beach Convention Center, State Representative David Richardson made it clear to the new City Commission that he was “very very supportive” of a “world class” facility in the city.

The legislator broke his silence at the first real meeting presided by the vastly different dais, who rode into power by promising the opposite of their predecessors but have yet to address what they will do with the ancient center.

“I want to say publicly that I am very very supportive of Miami Beach having a convention center that is world class, and that will be state of the art,” Richardson said.

He says he has kept quiet and resisted endorsing or supporting any project out of respect to the city’s officials, and the work they were elected to do. Additionally he is not “wedded” to any contractor or contract and has faith in the city’s leadership to hammer that out.

However, there was a sense of urgency in his statement, a warning against stalling in a project famous for false starts and no gos.

“I do think that , we have been for 11 years in this community talking about getting it done, and 11 years is too long,” said Richardson. “And I think if we are not able to get something done, the conversation is going to shift to Downtown Miami.”
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Categories: Florida Legislature, MIAMI BEACH

Flying Spaghetti Monster soars over Florida’s State Capitol

December 18, 2013 Posted by Frank M


Photo from wiki commons.

It’s one of those feel good holiday stories of religious tolerance. This one comes with a spaghetti monster.

A display went up at the Florida State Capital this week depicting the pseudo-God of Pastafarians everywhere, namely The Flying Spaghetti Monster.

Typically portrayed by followers as a caboodle of spaghetti noodles with big googly eyes, the display at the capital is a collection of shredded cardboard strips on top of a red chair.  Googly eyes included. There is also a sign which reads: ” A closed mouth catches no noodly appendages.”- ProvHerb 3:27″

Beautiful. Profound. Serious.

According to the Tallahassee Democrat, Peter Wood, an FSU student, applied for the display.

“It’s OK for us to have different views in society and I think it’s important to realize there are more than one way to view things,”Wood told the newspaper.

Followers of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster are called Pastafarians if you didn’t already know, and the pasta puns are aplenty.

One lovable slogan says “he boiled for your sins” and usually accompanies a picture of the big FSM in the sky cutely caught in a spaghetti drainer.

The church’s official texts are very satirical and read tongue in cheek, but they maintain that they are a “real religion.”

Joining the religion is incredibly easy according to the church’s website; if you think it, you are.

“So you want to be a Pastafarian? Great. Consider yourself a member. You’ll notice there’s no hoops to jump through. You don?t need to pay anything,?” it says in it’s joining section.

The FSM is mostly associated with atheists and the secular- all around the web one can find nifty artwork and memorabilia.

This display follows the placing of a Festivus Pole made of empty beer cans at the capital. Festivus is a fake holiday created by television character Frank Constanza from Seinfeld, when he became frustrated with the commercialism of the holidays. This display however, came with a sobering “separation of church and state” message.

Watch out Red-Florida, the atheists are coming for Baby Jesus.

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Categories: Around FLA, Florida Legislature