Richard holds a Doctorate of Education, a Master’s Degree in Management Information Systems, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts. Rich is a 23-year Army veteran who retired as a Lieutenant Colonel in 1990. He was awarded the Legion of Merit for his years of service. Additionally, he was awarded the Bronze Star for Heroism in ground combat, Presidential Unit Citation, and the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry while serving with the 101st Airborne Division in Vietnam. He is a graduate of the Field Artillery Officers Basic and Advanced Courses, and U.S. Army Command and General Staff College.
Richard was the Founder/CEO of Sarasota Online, a high technology company that was sold to Comcast Cable in 1996. Richard twice chaired the Sarasota Better Business Council and sat on the Board of the Greater Sarasota Chamber of Commerce.
He currently serves on the Board of the Community Foundation of Sarasota County and on an advisory committee to the Sarasota County School Board. He is President of the Sarasota County Veterans Commission, and has been appointed as Chairman of the Sarasota National Cemetery Advisory Committee by Congressman Vern Buchanan.
At Your Service!!! Lee F. Kichen September 2008 BATTLING INSIDE THE BELTWAY Federal Legislative Update Senate Completes a “Bare Bones” National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA)-Last month, in this space we criticized the Senate Democrat leadership for its failure to complete work on its version of the National Defense Authorization Act for FY 09. As the legislative process unfolded this week, we fell victim to a classic example of “if you want it bad, you’ll probably get it bad.” When the... Read Full Story
Dear loyal readers, I have been asked to be the Editor of Red County - Sarasota. This is a fantastic opportunity for me to get our conservative message out to a huge audience. I will keep this blog active so you may look at my past articles on key topics. However, I ask that you now put in your favorites list Red County - Sarasota. Here is the URL for my new blog: http://www.redcounty.com/sarasota/ Please go to this new web site daily and read the great center-right articles from my... Read Full Story
There has been much discussion about healthcare insurance. Let me add my humble voice to this discussion. I recently went to my doctor and he said to me that healthcare insurance is a civil right. He even had a poster taped to his desk saying so. That is wonderful and noble but wrong headed. Healthcare insurance is not a civil right, it is a bet with an insurance company that I will not be healthy. Each of us makes decisions each day on what we will spend our hard earned dollars on. I am... Read Full Story
Mark Twain said, "Never pick a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel". What is amazing is there is a new quote today, "Never pick a fight with a hockey mom". The liberal media, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune and their liberal owners the New York Times are drowning in their own ink. The more they attack Governor Sarah Palin the more they sink into a "quagmire". The harder they try to throw dirt at her the deeper they sink and the media is taking the Obama campaign with it. As they say... Read Full Story
In the wake of the 2006 congressional elections, in which Republicans received a well-deserved drubbing at the polls, Republican members of Congress spent a weekend together at an east coast resort. Either as testament to their mind-numbing political insensitivity, or as a cruel joke on their constituents, they even had the temerity to call their weekend meeting a “retreat.” With the political “earthquake” of 1994, Republicans were given the opportunity for leadership that millions of... Read Full Story
This is priceless. It is a Mastercard moment. Let me relish this. We have the liberal Herald-Tribune pounding the Democrat Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections for losing ballots in their article, "The latest election whodunit"? Amazing. The editorial board even remembers the butterfly ballots of the 2000 election. Wonderful!!! Finally, a liberal newspaper is admitting that Democrats don't know how to properly run an election. You see Palm Beach county's Supervisor of Elections in... Read Full Story
Democrats, between sniggers of derision and snorts of disgust, contend that Sarah Palin, John McCain's vice-presidential pick is ridiculously unqualified to be president. It's a reasonable objection on its face except for this small objection: it surely needs to be weighed against the Democrats' claim that their own candidate for president is self-evidently ready to assume the role of most powerful person on the planet. At first blush, here's what we know about the relative... Read Full Story
Senator Barack Obama is proposing to remake American society in a way that the American public does not yet understand. In his July 2, 2008, speech calling Americans to national service, Obama departed from his prepared remarks to announce his support for a mysteriously named “civilian national security force”: We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we've set. We've got to have a civilian national security force that's... Read Full Story
This editorial from Boston.com is from L. David Alinsky, son of Marxist and socialist Saul Alinsky, a community organizer. Obama has patterned himself after the Saul Alinsky model in everything he has done since arriving in South Chicago. "ALL THE elements were present: the individual stories told by real people of their situations and hardships, the packed-to-the rafters crowd, the crowd's chanting of key phrases and names, the action on the spot of texting and phoning to show instant... Read Full Story
What makes you qualified to write a biography on Barack Obama's mother? It is rather rediculous that you write a blog and distribute it to the masses as a legitimate biography.
