President Obama made his 2012 State of the Union address and as expected, it was
primarily a campaign speech to reinforce his changes for re-election in November. He is not the
first President to have done this, and will probably not be the last. However, this speech was
different because what Americans need to look at now, and consider when voting in
November, is not just the State of the Union, but the State of the Constitution. The fact is that if
we discard our Constitution there will be no union. The United States of America will cease to
exist.

Unfortunately, the Obama administration, with the help of the leftist elite in the U.S.
Senate, the House of Representatives, and even some Federal judges are systematically
destroying our Constitution, our freedoms, and our country. It is not an accident; it is being
done with malice and design. Here are the facts about what has occurred in the three years
that Obama has been in office.

Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution has been violated by Congress passing the
Obama health care bill. Congress has no authority under that section or any other section of
the Constitution to enact legislation requiring the American people to purchase health care
insurance, or to provide free health care to illegal aliens. Yet, this among other things is what
has been done. I am confident that the U.S. Supreme Court will rule that it is unconstitutional;
yet, President Obama has repeatedly shown his disdain for the rulings of the Judicial Branch of
government.

Article 1, Section 1 of the Constitution also gives Congress the sole legislative powers in
the federal government. Article 2 of the Constitution that establishes the Presidency and the
Executive Branch of government gives no such legislative powers to the President. In other
words, only Congress can make laws and the President and his cabinet appointees can only
enforce laws made by Congress; the President has no authority to make laws. Yet, that is
exactly what Obama is doing.

By misusing the power to issue Executive orders to enforce laws or take emergency
action if Congress is not in session the President is bypassing Congress and the Constitution to
implement his personal agenda on immigration, cap and trade, gun control, and in many other
areas. He actually brags about this in his taxpayer funded campaign speeches, and during the
State of the Union Address he stated that he plans to continue the practice if Congress doesn’t
do exactly what he demands.

In addition, ever since he took office Obama has continuously violated Article 2, Section
2 of the Constitution by making appoints to major positions in the Executive Branch of
government without the required Senate approval. I’m referring of course to the over 40 Czars
that the President has appointed. These appointments are in numerous areas from overseeing
the takeover of the automobile industry to regulating free speech on the internet. These Czars
are not under the control of the Congress, and are given massive budgets at taxpayer expense.
By the way, the very use of the term Czar violates Article 1, Section 9 of the Constitution that
specifically forbids the U.S. government from bestowing titles of nobility on anyone.

Article 2, Section 2 of the Constitution does give the President the right to make short
term appointments when the Senate is in recess. The important point here is that the
Constitution only empowers the Senate to declare when it is in recess. Obama recently showed
his disdain for that part of our governing document by making several high level appointments
when the Senate had not formally declared a recess. Obama claimed he has the right to decide
when the Senate is in recess. The purpose of these appointments was to put people in positions
of power that the Senate would not have approved. The reasons are already becoming clear
because the new appointees to the National Labor Relations Board are preparing to order
companies that are not unionized to turn over the private phone numbers and email addresses
of their employees to labor union organizers. This is a clear violation of the right of privacy of
these individuals.

Article 2, Section 2 also authorizes the President of the United States to sign treaties
with other countries; however, the Senate must ratify the treaties by a two thirds vote of those
Senators present and voting. Now Obama has decided that this Constitutional requirement
should not keep him from doing what he wants. Since the SOPA and PIPA bills were withdrawn
in Congress Obama is looking for a new way to take control of the Internet and limit freedom of
speech.

According to the U.S. Justice Foundation Obama is going to sign and enforce an
international treaty “which will give governments and special interest groups the power to shut
down websites, and terminate your access to the internet, without the due process of law.” It is
called the ACTA Treaty and Obama does not intend to send it to the Senate for ratification, but
instead will do it as a “sole Executive Agreement.”

There is nothing in the Constitution that allows such agreements although Federal
courts have allowed Presidents to enter into some international agreements that are minor in
nature. The ACTA agreement is not minor, but would allow websites to be shut down, such as
my blog site, at the whim of the President. I also suspect that Obama is planning to use the
same approach to enter into and enforce the United Nations “Small Arms Treaty” that would
virtually eliminate the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution that protects the rights of Americans
to keep and bear arms.

The state of the constitution is not good; in fact it is gravely ill. This article has just
scratched the surface and in my next post I will talk more about Obama’s all out assault on the
Bill of Rights. A good friend of mine recently said that this upcoming election is not about
personalities or even the economy. It is instead a referendum on the Constitution and whether
it and our American way of life are to survive. I concur with that statement.

Michael Connelly
mrobertc@hotmail.com
www.michaelconnelly.jigsy.com
www.constitution.jigsy.com

By Kristi Dunn

In Florida’s Republican Party, like many around the country, we are told that unity is always supporting the Republican Candidate who wins their primary race. When attending Republican Party functions, we are told that we are to “come together at election time” by the leaders of the party. It is rare, however, that these same party leaders do not see their candidate win in the primary. The win allows them, with immunity, to demand total support for the candidate that so many in the grassroots were working to defeat, which often leaves these workers in a state of utter confusion and wondering how they can be expected to so drastically change their support.

In the case of Governor Charlie Crist, many of the Republican Party leadership, who knew exactly what Charlie stood for, supported him and his decisions to the end. That end, of course, was when Charlie changed parties, and now Charlie is despised. He has become a talking point for Republicans in the 2010 state elections for what is wrong with Florida; however, many of those same Republicans supported and demanded that others support him before his party change. Did Charlie’s actions or beliefs change? Did Charlie suddenly morph into someone that aspired to beliefs that were not in line with the Republican Party? The Answer is no. Charlie did not change; rather, simply his affiliation with the Republican Party changed.

In Duval county we have a mayor that claims to be a Republican, yet has proposed tax increases the last two years. These increases were supported by the mostly Republican City Council, but were protested by many of the hardworking, grassroots people of Duval County. Meanwhile both years the Republican Party leadership declined to participate in the discussion, because to do so would have been to go against a fellow Republican. What issue pertains more to the Republican Party than low taxes? Yet, Republican leaders would rather remain silent, then true to principles.

At a time when so many within both parties are disenfranchised and ready for another option, perhaps demanding loyalty to a party is short sighted. It is because of these types of demands that so many organizations and groups have sprung up. From the Tea Parties and 912 groups to the Republican Liberty Caucus and Campaign for Liberty, these groups are now standing for what the Republican Party was always supposed to be: The Party that represented small, limited, Constitutional Government, less taxes, a strong national defense, and State and National Sovereignty.

Now is the time to examine the political system to determine if, perhaps, the idea of loyalty to an organization or party, that often asks the people to dismiss their personal convictions and standards and offer their blind loyalty to the title “Republican”, is somehow missing the big picture. Does supporting someone like Charlie Crist, only to have them prove that they have always stood for different principles, lend credibility to the Republican Party leadership?

Many serving on the executive committee take a loyalty oath to support the party. This oath has often been enforced with a stern hand. Meanwhile, who is enforcing the oath to the Constitution that our elected officials take? Should their failure to uphold their own oath to their constituents void any oath to unconditionally support them? They have forgotten that they serve the people, and their primary duty is to uphold the US Constitution. If we continue to blindly support them, forcing loyalty on those working to get them elected, we are creating an infrastructure that will collapse on itself.
To pretend that America’s problems started the day that Obama was sworn into office is to dismiss the damage that Republicans, such as John McCain and Olympia Snow, have been doing to the party for years. It was the Republican Party that supported them and enabled them to continue their harmful ways without accountability. The Party needs to figure out what it stands for and what it stands against so that the people working to get “Republicans” candidates elected in the fall will know exactly what these candidates stand for.

Organizations such as the Republican Liberty Caucus stand for accountability within the party at all levels and with every elected official. When officials fail to uphold their oath to the Constitution, or to support the principles that the stated Republican platforms claims to uphold, they deserve to be called out and in turn voted out.

If those in party leadership would unite under principles, they could harness the growing power of the Tea Parties, the RLC, the 912 groups, and thousands of disenfranchised voters.

Now is the time to decide if uniting under a title is more important than returning this country to its roots and seeing real change take place in our cities, counties, states, and Nation

Great things are happening across America. The actions of a few brave and noble state legislators and state officers around the Republic may well demonstrate that the most important election in the nation may not be the run for the President of The United States. The most important upcoming elections for all Americans may be those for their state House of Representatives, State Senate, Attorney General and their Governor’s races. When this country was created the office of the President was intended to have a relatively minor influence on the citizens of each state. It appears that some legislators and state Attorney Generals are dusting off the Constitution and working to get their house in order.

In Oklahoma the state legislature has a Bill pending to re-assert their state sovereignty.  The short caption of the bill reads:

“Joint Resolution claiming sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over certain powers; serving notice to the federal government to cease and desist certain mandates; and directing distribution.”

Essentially, Oklahoma has asserted that the federal government and those in Washington D.C. are no longer going to dictate the way they run their state education, industries, National Guard, state police and they are especially not going to run rough shod over their state legislature. Oklahoma has told Washington, enough is enough. GET OUT!

In Montana the Governor and the State Legislature are reasserting their sovereignty and telling the Director of Homeland Security they have no constitutional authority to force the National ID on its citizens.

In New Hampshire a group of legislators are diligently working to introduce sound money backed by gold and silver as a state currency.

In Nevada the State Legislature rules the Federal Reserve Corporation unconstitutional.

It is All About Sovereignty

When we look at the source of the problem, most every problem in America today stems from a failure to respect and understand sovereignty: national, state, local and individual. The national police state and (FBI, DEA, CIA, OSHA, Corp of Engineers, Homeland Security, IRS, Fish and Wildlife, EPA, Fusion Centers, etc., etc.) runs rough shod over the state police, local sheriff’s offices and citizens in each state. The dire problems in this country were created by unconstitutional, unconscionable actions of the U. S. Congress. These agencies undermine the liberties of all Americans, violate the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and undermine the sovereignty of each state. Take a look at a list of all Federal Agencies. You will not believe it (http://www.usa.gov/Agencies/Federal/All_Agencies/index.shtml ).

The financial problems created by having to feed this machine seem so complex and overwhelming that most Americans have developed a sense of hopelessness and despair. When it comes to dealing with issues such as the national debt, the growing federal bureaucracy and the national police state, the citizens and states have no viable avenue for redress. When citizens have more fear of the IRS and the federal government than of dying, we have a problem.

When it comes to protecting one citizen from another, the sheriff of each county is the legitimate constitutional protector of the rights and liberties of the citizens. Their offices are charged with both protecting the liberty of the citizens and prosecuting those who commit criminal acts against another citizen. Should the sheriffs’ office ever engage in violating the rights of its citizenry, the citizens have immediate recourse by calling a town meeting or replacing the sheriff at the next election. The sheriff is immediately answerable to those who entrust him with such power. This is the proper order of things.

With a Federal Police state or federal regulatory bureaucracy, there is no redress for the citizens of the state. Can one vote out the director of the US Army Corps of Engineers or the head of the Internal Revenue Service in Washington D.C.? Write your Congressman and see what kind of results you get. Additionally, the U.S. Congress and its agencies treat our states and city municipalities as low level extensions of Congress. They have forgotten that, THE STATES CREATED THE CONGRESS and gave them their limited powers. The national police and federal regulatory agencies routinely undermine the citizen’s inalienable right of self defense by placing limitations on gun ownership. The federal government has undermined the citizen’s right of freedom and life through the personal income tax and regulation of every area of one’s life or business. The average state citizen now works nearly 4 months of the year for the federal government. The sad irony is, we created the federal government to protect our liberty and privacy and now it is the federal government we need protection from. This is not how the Founders intended.

Debt, Taxes and Inflation

In order to pay for the federal behemoth, the U.S. Congress and Federal Reserve Corporation have saddled the American people with an unrecoverable $13 trillion of debt. Half of this debt was accumulated in the past 8 years. This is now expected to be repaid by our children and grandchildren. No generation has the right to pass on a debt to the next generation.

Unfortunately, the U.S. treasury is empty, we are taxed until we cannot be taxed anymore and the federal government has borrowed until it cannot borrow anymore. According to the former Controller General of the United States David Walker, the U.S. has another $50 trillion in social service, Medicare and Medicaid obligations coming due over the next 30 years. http://www.federalbud….

Walker says, the U.S. Government is already insolvent and operates only off of borrowed money. The income taxes collected are primarily paying the $1.5 billion a day interest payment. Assuredly, he states, at our present course the U.S. Government will cease to operate.

Privacy

Did you know that the federal government has passed legislation requiring every citizen to obtain a National Id Card? The little known legislation is known as the Real ID Act was passed into law by Congress in 2003 and began being implemented in May of 2008 ( http://www.realidstates.com/category/real-id-act/ ). Florida, my home state, implemented the program in January 2010. The national ID Card is a centralized federal government file database on every American. This legislation allows the director of the Department of Homeland Security to track all of your financial transactions (i.e. political affiliations, social clubs, service clubs, gun ownership, types of guns purchased, places traveled) health records, biometric data, blood type, DNA information and social security number and will have the ability to be directly connected to your ATM or Debit Card.

People often say that if you have nothing to hide why should you care?

First of all, it smacks of a modern version of the required papers required by the Gestapo in Nazi Germany and secondly the government was created to protect our privacy not invade it. Read a little on the Nazi police state for a brief history lesson. Also, I am uncomfortable knowing that my small children, for their entire life may have every doctor visit, everywhere they travel and everything they ever purchase collected, maintained and analyzed by the government official in a federal government database.

So with all of this, what can possibly be the good news?

The Solution

The good news is that our founding fathers anticipated all of this and they gave us the ability at any time to bring the house in order. When this Republic was founded, we referred to one another as Floridians, Alabamans, Georgians, and Virginians.

When referring to the states collectively it was states the “United States are” …

Today the federal government would have us to believe the “United States is” one large collectivist national state, run and operated out of Washington D. C.

This issue probably would not be resurrecting itself if it were not for Washington seeking to strip our liberties and God given rights from us, enslave us through taxation, burden our children with debts, and collapse the dollar we trade in until our entire nations wealth disappears through inflation. As a result, few leaders in Washington can be trusted. Our founding fathers repeatedly warned us to not trust those in power. We must follow Oklahoma’s lead, dust off the Constitution, re- assert our state sovereignty and turn to ourselves to preserve our liberties and our prosperity.

Our solution will be a long arduous battle that begins at the local level, then state level, one legislator at a time. Eventually we will have a legislature and governor willing to stand up to the federal leviathan. During the process they will be under tremendous pressure to abandon the course. Their careers will be threatened, if they own businesses they will be threatened with loss of business or contracts, they will be ridiculed by the media as anachronistic and the weight of their party will bear on each of them. There are trillions of dollars being spent at the federal trough and the pigs will not leave until they are starved out. This plan will take governors calling governors and legislators calling legislators. We must follow the Founders advice and the states must re-assert their sovereignty. The states must refuse to allow the US Government to continue to run roughshod over their legislatures. We must do as Oklahoma has done, tell them enough is enough.

We need to find, educate and elect officials who think deeply about the principles this county was founded upon. Leaders that understand that taking office is a burden not a popularity contest. We need leaders that do not allow themselves to become compromised. We need leaders with the courage of their convictions to tell those in Washington D.C. that our state is not going to take it anymore. As Oklahoma has said, enough is enough. We are here to take it back!

If you are committed to the cause of liberty and limited constitutional government please join or contribute to the Republican Liberty Caucus of Northeast Florida www.rlcnf.org.

Regards,
Will Pitts, Chairman

Republican Liberty Caucus of Florida

Florida Liberty Candidates

Here are some good candidates to support in Florida:

Charles Perniciaro, State Senate District 8
http://www.charlesperniciaro.com

Luis Melendez, State House District 16
http://www.electmelendez.com

Marcus Rivchin, State House District 117
http://www.marcusrivchin.com

Francisco Rodriguez, State House District 83
http://www.rodriguez2010.com

Nathan McDonell, State House District 26
http://www.nathanmcdonell.com

Roger Shealy, State House District 29
http://www.shealy2010.com

By Chaumont

In the Madisonian republic that the citizens of the several states have managed to sustain, above all else, including such abstractions as “the common good” and “general welfare” for example, stands the rule of law.  It is with strict adherence to and equal application of a supreme law of the land that we are able to live, at worst, relatively free and, at best, with ultimate liberty and maximum personal responsibility.  As Madison explains in Federalist Paper #57, the same laws that apply to the citizens also apply to the representatives.  No man–not the executive, nor the legislative– is above the law.  It is with this understanding then that we must allow ourselves to be guided when making judgments and decisions on our elected officials.

We must learn to set aside our own “special interests” when seeking out the best candidates to rule us.  Citizens of the modern states excel at disdain for the organized interests of business, for example, who employ professional lobbyists, but fail to draw the parallels between their own intentions and the intentions of these organized groups.  Each citizen who makes a judgment of a candidate based upon any issue that is personal to them commits the same offense against the Republic that the professional lobbyist does.  The only difference is that the professionals often do so with more money than the common citizen.  But, in principle, there is no difference.  Each is trying to influence the system based on their own personal values and ambitions.  As secondary considerations, this practice is not so harmful; however the primary qualification for office in a constitutional republic is this:  Will the candidate respect the limits place on his power by the Constitution?  If no, then the candidate must not serve, no matter what a voter may like about the candidate’s views on other issues.

Contrary to what so many people believe, and what the lobbyists hired by the special interests practice daily, the elected representatives do not serve us.  They serve the Republic.  When representatives serve the people, then by consequence they will serve the majority at the expense of the minority, the rich at the expense of the poor, the influential at the expense of the commoner.  This is the evil which we see today where the elected are divorced from the electorate.  We must elect moral men who will bound themselves with the chains of the Constitution, vote for no legislation that is not authorized by the Constitution, and represent the interests of the whole of their constituency in the interest of maintaining the republic.

Much of my message here to you has been a nice way of saying the following:  Nobody cares what you think.  Your opinion does not and should not matter.  Your influence must be defended against by every liberty-loving citizen of the states.  It MUST be this way.  We have a rule of law and a system of government designed, as its primary function, to protect me from you .  My motivation for electing a representative to government is to make sure they will keep you from forcing your values upon me, to keep you from stealing my property, to prevent you from forcing my children to march off to foreign lands to slaughter innocent citizens of another geo-political union.  I know you’re my enemy when I see you supporting issues like the Fair Tax, which is a different disguise of theft of my fortune.  When you support aggressive and pre-emptive war, I know you are willing to kill my children to further your agenda against the enemies you’ve made for yourself.  When you support a ban on gay marriage, I know you are telling me that you own the definition of marriage and, at any time, you can further clarify that definition to exclude me.

I must find a moral man who recognizes the threat you pose to me and my liberty, and do everything I can to put him between you and me to provide protection.  THAT is what this republican form of government and our Constitution is designed to facilitate.  Only candidates who run on this platform are fit to serve our Republic.  Stop being selfish and become self-interested.  Cease looking for ways to participate in the power-grab which has become modern-day politics.  Find it in yourself to be brave enough to give up the tendency to use the power of government to force others to think like you, act like you, and vote like you.  Instead, choose liberty for all to do as they please so long as they do not rob another of life, liberty, or property!  Be loyal, not to a flag or another man or a government; rather be loyal to the principle of liberty that this country was founded on!

by James A. Hunter

The long arm of state law and your purchases in the produce aisle….

So who cares about tomatoes, you ask? I hope you will, but bear with me and follow along… I think you will.  Much is being made lately of the vast over reach of our federal government into what would be seemingly innocuous aspects of our daily lives but which have devastating effects on our economy, the free market and our day to day existence.  Whether it be the strong armed tactics of an ecologically oriented energy policy that pushes oil rigs out to mile deep waters to drill where disasters can’t be contained or to the punitive taxation of producers that drive jobs overseas and prop up the welfare state or even the overreaching measures that would force FREE peoples to purchase such consumer goods as health insurance or be subjected to fines and possible imprisonment, all such examples and there are many, are formulated under the guise of good intentions and advancement.    Likewise at a local level the examples are numerous whether it is the home owner who has to pull a building permit to simply repair an existing structure such as re-pouring the broken concrete of a driveway or putting new shingles on a roof of a home that has been there for 30 plus years or the debates of immanent domain that spring up periodically; in either case, a good case can be made that it is none of the governments business or that the government body that is supposed to protect its citizenry is in fact functioning as their persecutor.  Perhaps it might only be the fact that our local tax dollars are used in ways we don’t support or the cronyism that is prevalent in the sweetheart deals and contracts that are made with no bid.    My goal is not to rehash all of the draconian federal missteps that are now viewed in the light of the laws of unintended consequences nor lament at any great length about the pet peeves of a personal nature.   Rather, I seek to make the reader aware of such similar overreaches of state government as well as take away the point that your patriotic work to educate and make aware yourself and others of big government interloping extends beyond the sound bites of national press.  It is of equal importance to recognize it, and fight it, in your city and state as well.  The path to restorative healing in our nation starts at your driveway and extends through your city hall and your state capitol long before it settles inside the beltway of DC.  So, I’ve told you all of that to draw your attention to just one of thousands of what is surely to be considered inhibitive, inane and incomprehensibly burdensome intrusions by the great state of Florida.

Strange as it may seem, transporting uninspected tomatoes is a crime in the State of Florida.  Yes, it is a second degree misdemeanor as per Florida Statute 603.151.  So is transporting all manners of uninspected citrus and avocados.   Florida’s chief agricultural exports are, you guessed it, tomatoes, limes, grapefruit, oranges and avocados.  Because Florida owes so much of its existence to the hay day of its agricultural enterprise prior to the housing boom, long before it was known to be a retirement Mecca, way before its sunny beaches and theme parks made tourism its primary industry and despite its always robust fishing industry…. The agricultural footprint of the state caused it to create one of the most powerful agencies of any in the state, the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (DOACS).  This department’s power resides in its ability to make sweeping Administrative Rules that are enforceable by state statute.

Who might seek to have such a law made, you ask? Well, in Florida we have a Citrus Committee and a Tomato Committee.  Who or what is that?  They are, at least in the realm of agricultural enterprise, fairly powerful consortiums that lobby our state legislators and the Division of Fruits and Vegetables within the DOACS for such rules and laws.

You ask, what could their interest possibly be in seeing such laws enacted? Well, according to the Tomato Committee website under the link for regulatory information, “These regulations are in place to assure that wherever you find a Florida tomato, you can be certain that it is of the highest quality.” (Found at:    http://floridatomatoes.org/index.html)     You might think this sounds logical.  I mean if something is so important to the economy of the state and the very reputation and image of the state hangs in the balance shouldn’t you want the products bearing the “Fresh From Florida” brand to be the premier, tastiest, best looking product you could find?  After all, the DOACS pumps millions every year in to marketing to include sponsorship of several race cars and even the whole race.  See here:  (http://www.florida-agriculture.com/racing/index_old.htm) or (http://www.automobilsport.com/grandam-daytona-continental-tire-200-race-results-fresh-from-florida—75498.html) or ( http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2007-07-24/news/RACECAR24_1_fresh-from-florida-florida-produce-florida-fruits )

So who cares, you ask? Well, you might and in fact, should.  You see these committees, consortiums…. Aw heck let’s just say it, CARTELS, Are comprised of the biggest growers in the state.  Their seemingly good intentions amount to little more than a vice grip on a small portion of an industry but which drives up prices at the store and impedes fair and free market competition.

How might it impede the free market and drive prices up? Well, to get a 25lb. box of tomatoes inspected it costs approximately 4 dollars a box in inspection fees that are paid directly to state inspectors.  That 4 dollar per box in fees might not sound like much until you are purchasing a tractor trailer load full at 1600 boxes and the state wants the 6400 dollars in extorted state taxes masquerading in the form of fees.  Making matters worse is the fact that small time growers who have a much smaller bottom line and 4 dollars a box cuts deeply into the already small profits they are able to show whereby scratching out a living.  An amount of less than 50lbs (2 boxes) is the only exemption and must be for personal use.

Who might enforce such rules you ask? Well, it is the law enforcement arm of the department.  The Office of Agricultural Law Enforcement is comprised of approximately 225 sworn law enforcement officers in uniform, administrative, managerial and investigative functions.  These officers are fully sworn to enforce all state laws but give primary focus to their “niche” as it pertains to Agriculture.  Now I don’t tell you this to besmirch any of the fine men or women that work for this agency as they do enforce many laws that have legitimate purpose and do protect the consumers of the state and the agricultural industry from invasive plant species and pests but in this one narrow aspect of their function they do serve as the henchmen for the Citrus and Tomato cartels which truly hurts the small growers, the free market and again every resident of this and every state in the cost of purchasing Florida tomatoes for their salads and burgers.

Further complicating the issue is the fact that this only applies to tomatoes that are grown in what is referred to as “Regulated and Production Zones” which encompass everything but the panhandle and therefore growers in the panhandle are not subjected to the fees.  Why? Because there is no way to enforce it except in these areas.  If you look at the top of the regulated area line on the map found here:  http://www.floridatomatoes.org/map.html and connect the dots on the map of Agricultural Inspection Stations shown here:  http://www.fl-aglaw.com/bus/bus_locations.html.  Can you see a correlation?

What happens to someone who is caught transporting uninspected tomatoes of regulated kind? I’m glad you asked.  They may be formally charged, carried to jail and immediately bonded out for not more than 500 dollars for a first offence and progressively steeper bonds for subsequent incidences.  What then? The driver of the load is then permitted to either donate the load if less than a full load so as to avoid being delinquent in the distribution deadlines for their remaining cargo or they may elect to return to an approved packing house to have their tomatoes inspected before they attempt to exit the state again.  Who approves packing houses and authorizes them to conduct such inspections? Well, the Tomato Committee, of course.

Now let me really blow your mind….

First, Thanks to NAFTA and CAFTA we are being inundated with Tomatoes from Mexico.  Mexican Tomatoes have no inspection fees, they are grown and sold at costs well below what it can be produced for domestically and when you add to that Tomatoes and Citrus fruit being shipped in from California and other areas the laws that were designed to supposedly protect the industry in this state are KILLING IT!!!    Why would anyone in their right mind pay even 5 dollars more money for their domestically grown, inspection fee included box of Florida Tomatoes let alone the 10 or 15 dollars a box more it may likely be over a box of Mexican Tomatoes that are already selling in some cases in excess of 2 dollars a pound?

Second, these regulations don’t pertain to Cherry Tomatoes, Roma Tomatoes, Ugly Tomatoes, and other varieties that are considered less than perfect in shape, size, or breed.  Why, you might ask again?  Well because ….. Well just because!!!!   But wait, there is a plan afoot.  There hadn’t been any previous regulation on those sorts of tomatoes but now just this last year it has been unveiled in what is being called Tomato – Good Agricultural Practices (T-GAP) now all tomatoes must be washed and certified as such at…. You guessed it, at “Approved Packing Houses”

Why do the tomatoes need to be washed, you ask? Well because somewhere, someone got salmonella poisoning and blamed it on a tomato.  I’ll wait for you to stop laughing… yes; they blamed it on a tomato.  Now if you don’t know why this is funny, it is because salmonella doesn’t grow inside a fruit.  It could be picked up on the surface along the way from other methods related to handling but if washed today it could still pick up a microbe tomorrow before it hits the supermarket shelf.   Making matters worse yet, now when tomatoes are transported in violation of T-GAP rules they can no longer be donated.  That’s right, because someone might get salmonella from it at the county jail or boys home who frequently received the donated produce in the past.  The  State of Florida is now destroying THOUSANDS OF POUNDS of perfectly good tomatoes every week and leaving them to rot in land fills while unwashed uninspected Mexican tomatoes are filling the shelves of Florida supermarkets and elsewhere.   If you’re not scratching your head yet you might want to see a doctor and ask them to undo the lobotomy you received.

Let me ask you a few questions for once.  WHO DOESN’T WASH THEIR FRUITS AND VEGITABLES BEFORE EATING THEM? If you don’t, I’m sorry but you deserve whatever you get and if it was due to the negligence of the restaurant’s salad bar preparation staff then your issue is with said restaurant.  OK, let me ask you another question.  WHY DON’T WE HAVE THE SAME RULES FOR CUCUMBERS, BEANS, SQUASH, ETC? That is an excellent question but one for which I have no answer and can offer only the following speculation in the form of a third question.  HOW LONG DO YOU THINK IT WILL TAKE FOR THE MENSA CANDIDATES IN TALLAHASSEE TO FIGURE OUT THAT THEY CAN EXTORT FEES FROM ALL GROWERS OF ALL PRODUCE PASSING ON TO ALL CONSUMERS THE FEES FOR THE PURPOSE OF PROTECTING US FROM SALMONELLA? Maybe the cretins who make up such arbitrary rules for us and industry should take an extended leave of absence.  Maybe we should all pay just a little more attention to what seemingly innocuous, silly or inane laws are being passed by our legislators and rules passed by government agency.

One last question from me to you.  HAVE YOU GIVEN ANY THOUGHT AS TO WHO IS RUNNING FOR COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE? If you had the opportunity, wouldn’t you love to hear anyone running for such expound on their thoughts about tomatoes in Florida?  Do you think anyone with the knowledge of the subject as laid out above would be able to keep a straight face while arguing for such an intrusive and arbitrary set of laws / rules?   I don’t think so.

Other links of interest:

http://www.doacs.state.fl.us/fruits/Tomatoes.html

http://www.floridatomatoes.org/FoodSafety/TOMATO_QA_on_T-GAP_and_T-BMP11-8-06.pdf

http://www.doacs.state.fl.us/fs/TomatoBestPractices.pdf

http://townhall.com/columnists/PaulJacob/2007/01/21/the_liberated_tomato?page=full&comments=true