Suwannee Countians, it’s time to speak your mind! How? By calling the Suwannee Democrat Rant and Rave hotline. The hotline never closes and is your way to let it out. You can let everyone know how you feel — as long as you express yourself in a respectful way.

Note: In written entries to Rant and Rave, errors in spelling, grammar or punctuation are those of the authors.

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To the person whose daughter can’t find work:  Read two articles in the same newspaper where your Rant and Rave was published.  They are on Page 6A – Our View and The Voice of Small Business.  Our current Administration in Washington has created a situation where small business is not able to invest, grow and hire.   Eighty-five percent of jobs are created by small businesses.  I ask you, if your bills were much more than you earn, you can’t pay them, you can’t afford food and medicine, your car is broken and you can’t afford to get it fixed, you’re one payment from being evicted from your house, would you hire a cleaning lady?  This is the situation right now with small business.  It’s compounded by the policies of our small community that also stifle small business.

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TO YOU, THE VOTERS: The mid-term election in November is OUR last chance to save freedoms and liberties we once enjoyed – for which hundreds of thousands of beautiful, brave, young men and women gave their lives. They died defending our beloved America from foreign enemies. How ironic that our ultimate destruction will be from those we elected to protect us – those who swore on the Bible to protect us and our Constitution. America is hanging by a thread, gasping for the life and vigor she once enjoyed under THE CONSTITUTION of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. While you still have time, find out what your party STANDS FOR. Make sure the people you vote for share your goals and values. Only you can save us.

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Hey Nobles – Don’t you ever think before you  speak? Apparently not!   You statements are so insulting!!!

I read in Wednesday’s paper  that you didn’t want a room full of beautiful looking retards.  What if you had a child, grandchild or other family  member who was physically and mentally challenged.  Would  you be happy to hear someone saying that about them?  I think not. Not all  of us are the same, physically or mentally.  Maybe you should pray for forgiveness  for your stupidity.

How about taking your shoes out of your big mouth (again)!

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Hey Mr. Mayor, I just read the article on “It’s belt tightening time in Live Oak,” and you said the  most reprehensible thing I have ever read. Talking about beautiful, retarded kids. That is so illiterate and dumb, and I wouldn’t expect anything better from you.

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i would like to say are sheriff  tony Cameron  is doing a grate job every week you see so many drug dealers off the streets of Suwanee county he is making are streets safe for are children this man deserves a round of applause

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Why is it that there is no uproar over Internet cafe, operating 24/7 but when you mention making the counting wet or serving beer on Sunday the opposition thinks you should move out of the county. Now I’m not opposed to Internet cafe I’m opposed to the double standard applied.

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I recently retired after 46 years of working and paying in to the social security system heard that they only pay like 255.00 towards your funeral which now cost around 7500.00.Rather than burden a family at a time like that , why couldn’t they just take out an extra 5.00 a week or something and give a person a nice funeral?

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How many of our canidates are good ole pension double dippers? These people need to go home and play with the grandkids if they haven’t left here to make a living. This is the kind of thing you need to look at before voting. You can’t get work here unless you got kin in high places, period. By the way, Al Lawson supports term limits in congress so we don’t have 80 & 90 yr. old millionares running our country & lives for 40 or 50 yrs. That applies locally also, we clearly need younger open minded people in office at all levels of gov’t, especially here.

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Dear Editor & Staff, you are to be commended for your research, time, effort, and courage to print “Who makes what in Suwannee” and your opinion on important matters.

Now that we all know who makes what in Suwannee would you like to know the rest of the story?  Like, how could this happen? VOTER APATHY!  The past City Councilmen and County Commissioner, after election, become complacent; confident in their re-election, and voted themselves raises until their salaries have gotten as high as they are.  Years ago when I comment on how high my tax appraiser’s salary was he told me it’s not his fault for his salary was set the people in Tallahassee.  If this is true and our elected official’s salaries are determined by those in Tallahassee perhaps we should vote those people in Tallahassee out who are so generous with our tax dollars.  Years ago, as an outsider, I ran for county commissioner and then for the city council.  I learned a lot. I learned that running for public office in Suwannee County/Live Oak is a popularity contest. Not one person asked what my platform was and what my plans were to help the citizens of the city and county. Less than half voted and the ones that did vote were family or friends of the person running for office.  So, this is the rest of the story.

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I received my proposed tax bill this year. I am not too happy that my tax is proposed to be higher even though if I were to have my property appraised for a loan, the value would be much less than the fair value declared on my property by our government official.  What I really would like to know is who and when was permission given by the voters to change the office of Suwannee County Tax Collector to “Suwannee County Taxing Authorities”?  I do not recall having been given an opportunity to vote on this change nor did I realize that my backwoods Suwannee County Florida was marching to the Communistic Socialistic beat of the rest of the country.  Suwannee County Tax Collector is just fine. The Authority is implied and not to be displayed.  Please correct this issue.

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Thank you Mr. Boyd for taking 68 million $ of taxpayer money & giving it to a telecom corp.  that operates a gov’t. granted monopoly with truly lousy service. If Windstream wants the revenue, let them pay for it, not me. This is called investment, free enterprise& competition. Whatever giant corp. awarded this monopoly should be required to expand & provide decent service as part of their lucrative contract. Hopefully there is a nice big campaign contribution in all this. Typical N.Fl. welfare grant politics, ya’ll just don’t get it. No one named Boyd will get any votes in this household.

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Recently a reader wrote in with very poor language skills concerned about socialism and citing a passage from Revalations. Many biblical scholars feel this book was added as a political statement, imagine that. It sure isn’t where I would go for comfort or guidance in the Bible. By combining obsessive religous fervor & bad politics, we’ve got an oligarchical theocracy that passes itself off as a gov’t here instead of an actual democracy. We are headed for anarchy which makes socialism seem appealing. Balance reading text books with the “Good Book” and it will surely help this situation.

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Educated at what? Years of practice in manipulating the system to their own benefit, covering their backsides, voting raises, vacations,multiple pensions, campaign”funding”, hiring freinds & kinfolk & scandal maybe? How about political science,economics,business management,history or social sciences? Polical types often have law degrees to create, bend, thwart, enforce or change rules to fit their agendas. Laws that folks don’t want or need & are forced to pay for anyhow. Find out who thay are, who & what they represent, what they are qualified & willing to do, THEN GO VOTE. Far too many of these people are focused on personal wealth & power, not what you want,need, expect or pay them to do.

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Thanks you for your article on who makes what in Suwannee County. Now that we know who’s holding the highest paying jobs in local and state government in the county, the next question should be how many of these 50 thousand an up positions are held by African Americans? Maybe we could also include the private sector with this pay comparison.

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Attention Suwannee County:  Our county commissioners do not have term

limits.  Some have served for to many years.  When you vote on August 24

please remember to vote the incumbents out.   We must set their term limits

for them.

-concerned Suwannee county resident-

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Allen Boyd has got a lot of nerve stating he “Supports Conservative Democratic Ideas”. Are you kidding me he is in the back pocket of Obama & Pelosi the two most liberal politicians ever? When they needed his vote to pass Obama care they got it. Boyd using the term “CONSERATIVE” is a joke.

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Yes, I would like to see you give two thumbs up to the Animal Control man named Wayne. He works for the city of Live Oak. Myself and my family have used him several times here in town for opossums, raccoons and wild cats and an abundance of feral cats. And he is always on time, he does what he tells you he is going to do, he helps in any way he can and goes above and beyond his job description and I just want to say thank you Wayne, you are doing a number one job with the Live Oak Animal Control. Thank you.

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Good morning, my hat is off to, if I’m not mistaken, to Hahira, Georgia for the law they just passed forbidding young men to wear their pants halfway down their legs, exposing their underwear.  What I would like to publish is my hat’s off to them for passing that law, and if more cities and counties would pass and enforce that law it would be very appreciated. Many men and especially women would thank the local law jurisdiction if that law would be passed in Suwannee County, and that is my rant and rave. Thank you.

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Yes I am calling about the collection site attendant’s position that was put out in your paper and it stated that the closing date was Wednesday, July 28th. I went up to put in an application for it and waited for two weeks and called them back, and had not been interviewed. When I called them about it, I was told that the attendant had already been picked and that only certain people … [message ends].

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Yes, my message is in regards to the 1 for English and 2 for Spanish operator call. It’s been some 15 or 20 years, that I remember, it was voted, it was supposed to be English only for the state of Florida. I was wondering what our legal officials are doing to put a stop to the  translators and why are we willing to  spend so much money on translators when the law clearly states, it is supposed to be English only. These people are not going to never learn English until we put a stop to translating for them. Thank you very much. Goodbye.

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Are you ready citizens of Suwannee County? Ready to voice your true feelings and let the elected officials know that we are tired of all their lies and taking our hard-earned money? Get ready to vote and let them know we are not going to put up with it! Vote!

Vote! Vote!

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Why is it in Suwannee County, come election time that we have posters and pamphlets of an individual and which church they belong too, and pictures of them posing with the good ole boys saying that he has values, ethics, desires to serve our community and his legal experience and opinion with an exceptional background. Why not give information on the qualifications of an individual so that the voters of Suwannee County would have an intelligent way to vote on people for election. Thank you.

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I would just like to remind the parents of our children heading back to school to please check your children for lice. It is very easy to do. If you don’t know how, call your health department. A new school year is here, let’s start it off right.  

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Callers to 386-208-8314 may express their thoughts, good or bad, 24/7 about community issues and politics, but not about private individuals or businesses. If you prefer, you may email your comments to nf.editorial@gaflnews.com. You don’t have to give your name, and please, keep submissions to less than 45 seconds (that’s about 150 words). We want everybody to have a chance to be heard. Submissions that are overly long will be discarded. If 45 seconds isn’t enough time, write a Letter to the Editor. (Guidelines for letters appear on Page 6A of our print edition.)