Tag: Florida

Obama In Miami — Whole Lotta Audacity Going On

Buck Banks

In what could be the last opportunity for a 2008 Democratic presidential candidate to campaign in Florida without being punished by the Democratic National Committee, Barack Obama spoke today before a packed house at a local Democratic fund-raiser. Today was also the day that the Florida Democratic Party had to lobby the national party to not punish it because the state’s Republican-controlled legislature moved Florida’s primary to Feb. 5, violating the opposite party’s rules.

Overall, Barack Obama was a hit, keeping his audience fired up and on its feet most of his speech.

But nobody mentioned that at the rally, a grass-roots Miami-Dade Democratic committee fund-raiser for its mostly state-level local candidates. An early speaker at the event — and there were many of them — noted that in 2000, nobody could have imagined holding a Democratic Party event in Little Havana for a black presidential candidate.

Indeed, just seven years ago, the Miami Cuban voting bloc was perceived as fundamentally and monolithically Republican, with Spanish speakers seen as loyal to the Republicans who seemed to hate Fidel Castro and were willing to impose an ongoing economic embargo until the Third World island nation saw the error of its ways, collapsed economically or Castro died, whichever came first.

But today a Cuban candidate for the state house stated unequivocally and to thunderous applause that the Republican Party could no longer count on the South Florida Hispanic vote.

Obama said that if he were elected he would remove all restrictions on travel to Cuba and lift all restrictions on sending money or goods to family members. But when he said that he would leave the embargo in place “as an inducement to change” and “use aggressive diplomacy” to begin moving toward normalizing relations with Cuba, he received a few scattered boos and some of the Cuban faction began to leave the theater.

But for the most part, it was a rousing rally with at least 3,000 in attendance, and Obama performing his stump speech, often with the spirited inflections of a preacher and with more piss and vinegar than he usually shows in his nuanced television appearances. Indeed, starting with a woman in the balcony hollering, “We love you, Barack!” to which he responded, “I love you, back, baby,” in a convincing Barry White imitation, there was a casual, ongoing call-and-response aspect to the proceedings that continued throughout his speech.

Not to sound too corny, but I think people felt Obama was speaking to them, not at them, and were inclined to holler out questions to which he invariably responded. These were not hecklers, as they waited for an appropriate pause or responded to a comment from Obama before calling out a question or comment.

Obama hit the “audacity” theme pretty hard, saying that if the Washington press corps were there, they would be calling him a “hope peddler” and “hope monger,” monikers he gladly accepts, but it resonated very well with a very mixed audience of blacks, whites and Hispanics who had paid either $30 or $100 for seats.

Busloads of college students from Florida Atlantic University were brought in (the school bought blocks of tickets) to the event, and most responded enthusiastically to Obama’s positions on affordable education and job creation.

Overall, Barack Obama was a hit, keeping his audience fired up and on its feet most of his speech — and that was after an hour and a half of short speeches by local commissioners, state legislators, party officials and music by Democrat folk singer Ellen Buckstell and a rousing number by the Miami Northwest High School marching band.

Obama hit all his stump themes: universal health care, energy independence and green tech, education, jobs and wages, and the failure of the Iraq War and the failure of the Bush administration to make us safer and more secure.

His abiding message, however, is that to him, politics is a mission, that we all have a stake in each other, and that he has both faith and hope in the “decency and generosity in the heart of the American people.”

UPDATE: You can watch an unedited video of Obama’s entire speech here.

Quotes from Barack in Miami

Buck Banks

Barack Obama’s stump speech is well-oiled and filled with quotable lines. But as often as he has given it — often to crowds 10 times the size of the 3,000 assembled in Little Havana today — it is still delivered with passion and vision. Here are a few choice quotes:

“Crowds remind me of a couple of things: pundits are not right about much, and when it comes to what’s wrong with this country, it’s not the American people who are the problem; the American people are the answer.”

‘I don’t trust Alberto Gonzales with my civil liberties.’

“The American people are tired of being sick and tired. Enough is enough! The American people want to turn the next page in American history.”

“We’ve never had a better marketing agent than George Bush for the Democratic Party. Though Dick Cheney gives him a run for his money.”

“I don’t believe in little change. I believe in big change, and we need big change in America.”

“I’m asking you to be hopeful at a time when it’s easy to be cynical.”

“You can disagree without being disagreeable, and you can find consensus without compromising your beliefs.”

“I want us to out-educate the world today so we can out-compete the world tomorrow.”

“I’m sick and tired of an administration treating our Constitution as something to be negotiated around instead of as the foundation of our democracy.”

“If we can get enough Republican congressmen to change their minds, we can end this war without George Bush.”

“I want to go before the United Nations and say, ‘America’s back.’”

“I don’t trust Alberto Gonzales with my civil liberties.”

Barack and Me in Miami

Buck Banks

So, having seen Barack Obama in person today, what did I come away with? An increased appreciation for the man as orator, an excitement about the Miami-Dade Democratic Party and a nagging thought that will warm the hearts of my co-editors:

Maybe I should join the Democratic Party, if for nothing else, to vote against Hillary Clinton and for Barak in the primary.

It’s probably not likely I’ll drink the Democratic Kool-Aid, but if Obama continues to inspire and motivate people the way he clearly did today in this political backwater of a Third World country, I might just be so inclined.

Not that I’m ready to do that. There’s a lot that could happen between now and primary time (especially if the national Dems punish the Florida Dems and render any party switch or vote of mine meaningless).

Frankly, I wish Dennis Kucinich had a snowball’s chance. I like him, not just for his chutzpah, which he has in spades, but for his sense of humor and mostly for his really progressive ideas, which I agree with. Mostly.

But today I was impressed by my local Dem pols, for a change. Not that I gained any respect for the Florida Democratic Party and Karen Thurman, who fortunately had nothing to do with today’s event. But if the Miami-Dade Dems can pull off a series of these events (which they promised Barak was the first of), and if I see some coalition of Dems in Miami and an ongoing robust intensification, organization and concentration of effort, then I might be inclined to give up my independence and drink the Kool-Aid.

Today I saw representatives of Equality Florida, who are backing a Fairness for All Families measure aimed at providing rights to nontraditional families (read:gays), I listened to the first openly gay Hispanic elected official in Miami and I heard my city commissioner talk about passing a bill of rights for the City of Miami that includes “equality for everybody” (Miami is the only city in South Florida that doesn’t have a bill of rights), I heard a song about how religion shouldn’t be used to take away my right to choose, and at the end of the rally I heard a high school choir sing the old Bill Withers song, “Lean On Me.”

It’s probably not likely I’ll drink the Democratic Kool-Aid, but if Obama continues to inspire and motivate people the way he clearly did today in this political backwater of a Third World country, I might just be so inclined.

But don’t hold your breath, Jon and Trish.

Murder-Suicide Claims Prominent GOP Strategist; Gaydars Going Wild

Trish
The Gonzalez crime scene

Ralph Gonzalez, a former executive director of the Georgia GOP while Ralph Reed was its chair, was found shot to death yesterday with two other men in a home he with shared with one of them in Orlando.

Gonzalez was among the three people found inside the home, and their bodies may have been inside since Tuesday, authorities said.

“The third person was the shooter. He shot my son first and then shot David and then killed himself,” Eva Gonzalez said.

A prominent Republican Party consultant is one of three men found dead in a Central Florida home Thursday in an apparent double murder-suicide possibly sparked by a lovers’ quarrel, according to detectives

The home where the deaths occurred was also listed as the headquarters of the Strategum Group, a Republican consulting firm whose clients include Jack Abramoff-linked U.S. Rep. Tom Feeney (R-Fla.).

The other victims were identified as David Abrami and Robert Drake. Gonzalez lived in the home with Abrami, and Drake was a former roommate who was visiting from out of town.

“(It was) horrible. I can’t believe he lied in there, and the more I see all that blood, it was sickening. Why would anybody want to shoot my boy?” Eva Gonzalez said.

The police have an answer for that, Mrs. G. but you might not like it.

A prominent Republican Party consultant is one of three men found dead in a Central Florida home Thursday in an apparent double murder-suicide possibly sparked by a lovers’ quarrel, according to detectives…

“We are working it as a homicide, but there is some early evidence to suggest that this may in fact be a murder-suicide,” Orange County sheriff’s Sgt. Allen Lee said.

An attack ad from the Strategum Group’s portfolio

Reed himself, the former head of the
Christian Coalition, also flies under
the gaydar in Republican
conservative circles. If he’s not gay,
he fooled me.

Our sympathy goes out to
family members of the three men,
along with our hope that you will have answers soon and that you will make your peace with whatever they turn out to be.

Florida Democrats Still Fighting to be Counted — But By Our Own This Time!

Trish

Florida Democrats are having that deja vu all over again feeling some more. But while being disenfranchised feels very familiar, having our own party do it to us is brand new.

Florida Democrats are over this whole, “Your vote doesn’t count but maybe next time,” thing.

Buck explained that the DNC is considering yanking our delegates if Florida holds its primary before Feb. 5, 2008 as the Republican-led legislature recently mandated. Maybe what he, as a registered Independent, didn’t tell you is how galling is this prospect.

Our own FDC Chair Karen Thurman actually summed it up well in a missive yesterday.

Our state has seen far too much of this in the past: the 2000 election debacle, eligible voters purged from the voting rolls based on race, Black voters intimidated at the polls, 18,000 votes vanishing because of touch screen machines in 2006, the list goes on and on.

The list does go on and on, since she didn’t even mention the shenanigans in 2000 in nearby Duval County that led to the ouster of the Jacksonville supervisor of elections and served as the impetus for establishing early voting sites there.

Florida Democrats truly have had it up to here (holds hand over head) with having zero representation at the local level, feeble representation in Tallahassee, and dwindling representation in Washington. If our own party takes away our voice in the 2008 election, I for one would — Jon please cover your eyes — consider leaving this trainwreck of a party and joining Buck in the land of purists, contrarians, and exiles.

Thurman did supply a link to a page where you can register your feelings on this subject, which the FDC will then use to bombard DNC Chair Howard Dean. The page doesn’t even ask for money after you hit “submit.”

Go tell Howie that Florida Democrats are over this whole, “Your vote doesn’t count but maybe next time,” thing. No more.

Yikes — Florida Dems’ Electoral Future Rests on Karen Thurman’s Shoulders

Buck Banks

The only good thing I can say about the fact that Florida Democratic Party Chair Karen Thurman will be in Washington tomorrow lobbying the national Democratic Party to not punish Florida Dems because the Republican-controlled Florida legislature moved the presidential primary to Jan. 29 is that she won’t be at the Barak Obama fundraiser in Miami. I bought tickets to see Obama and was not looking forward to having to listen to Thurman if she was participating in the event.

The potential smack-down by the national Democratic Party could have far graver repercussions than just screwing up Florida’s primary.

Instead, she’s going to be arguing her case before the Democratic National Committee, which holds the keys to whether Florida’s primary counts and whether candidates will be punished for campaigning in the state. As co-editor Trish admitted in an e-mail yesterday, the very thought of the defense of Florida’s electoral fate falling to Thurman made her feel queasy. Thurman sent an e-mail today asking Florida Dems to write messages explaining why their party should not be punished for something it — as the minority in the state legislature — could not have stopped.

As an Independent, I don’t get to vote in the presidential primary, and I have no plans (as my wife does) to switch to the Democrats just so I can. But the potential smack-down by the national Democratic Party could have far graver repercussions than just screwing up Florida’s primary. If candidates face punishment for campaigning in Florida, it’s likely some will just skip the state, which would help the Republicans. Worse, if the national party takes away delegate seats, it could mean that once again Floridians’ votes won’t count. But I’m not really worried — Karen Thurman is on the case. Yikes, I’m feeling a mite queasy myself.

Actually, the only thing that makes me feel optimistic about Thurman’s task tomorrow is that I don’t believe the national Democratic Party would be stupid enough to fault Florida Dems for breaking rules that they could not in any way not violate. It’s simply not the Fla. Dems’ fault that the Republican-dominated Florida legislature moved the primary date (Although one could argue that in a way it is, because the Florida Democratic Party is, as we Crackers say, useless as teats on a boar hog, and has, therefore, through its ineffectiveness ceded power to the Repugs).

So maybe this trip to Washington is just a formality, and it won’t really come down to how well Karen Thurman can make her case before Howard Dean, et al. Then maybe Trish will get over her queasiness and the Democratic Party won’t shoot itself in the foot and blow the presidential election.

Yeah, and the Army Corps of Engineers will fix the Everglades, Charlie Crist will admit to being the father of a love child and the Miami city administration will go a month without having a corruption scandal. Oh, and pigs will fly, too.

Press One for English? Not in Central Florida!

Trish

Poor Adam Putnam. The third highest-ranking Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives has a constituency that is inflamed.

What are the residents of Lakeland and Central Florida so upset about? Is it the grinding violence in the occupation of Iraq? The lack of access to health care, causing middle class families to lose their savings? The impending housing market and mortgage lending collapse, which threatens the entire economy?

No, it’s much bigger than any of those things.

Their most frequent complaint is dialing a business and getting “Press one for English and two for Spanish,” he said.

That’s right. They are sick and tired of having a foreign language offered them by automated phone systems. Enough already! Someone needs to pass a law! Hey Adam Putnam!

“It is hotter than Iraq, hotter than abortion. I have never had an issue that so overwhelmingly overshadows everything else,” the Bartow Republican said. “I would say it is ahead of every other issue by 4 to 1.”

…The almost absolute opposition to immigration has a lot to do with a cultural concern as well as other issues of border security and a feeling of fairness to those who immigrated legally.

“What I am hearing from them is that we are losing our cultural identity. Instead of being the traditional melting pot, we are becoming factions,” he said. “Now all of these things are not necessarily government’s responsibility, but there is a growing concern that there is no assimilation anymore as there has been throughout our history.”

Something’s wrong here. Either Putman’s staff is throwing away the emails and letters from residents concerned about real — as opposed to Rovian manufactured — issues, or Central Florida is in big trouble. I tend to believe that Putnam, who continued to peddle the “Nancy Pelosi wants a bigger plane” story even after it was exposed as false, is ignoring the real issues in favor of the ones that appeal to the base.

Putnam is chair of the House Republican conference committee, which coordinates the party messages and manages media relations for House Republicans. It’s his job to make the Democratic House leadership look as bad as possible. If automated phone systems are the best he can do, like I said, poor Adam Putnam.

Mark Foley Doing Pretty Good in Fake Election

Trish

A poll being conducted by the Stuart (FL) News has some participants seeking career opportunities with the paper, since it is obvious employees are encouraged to drink on the job.

The question asked is, if an election were held today, would you vote for former Rep. Mark Foley (R-Ephebophile) or Rep. Tim Mahoney (D-Palm Beach)? Although at one time disgraced page molester Foley led, the results are currently:

Mark Foley — 30% (83 votes)
Tim Mahoney — 69% (185 votes)
268 total votes

Who is that 30 percent? No doubt it’s the same 30 percent who would support George Bush, no matter what, even if he too were caught instant messaging teenage boys about what turns them on. And it’s that same 30 percent who think Bush is doing a helluva job, no matter how bad things are.

Some of the comments reflect this conclusion.

“Amazingly, the vote is split. This has to be either a haven for pedophiles or die-hard Republicans or both!”

“Is the 44% up there now for Foley voted by peodphiles? Do we have that many in our area?”

“No, they’re not pedophiles, they’re just dyed-in-the-wool Republicans. These are the same people who will vote for Rudy Giuliani. They’ll swallow their objections to his stands on abortion, gay rights etc. just because they think he is the only Republican who can beat Hillary Clinton. Hypocrites! All of them!”

There’s more. Take a moment and vote yourself, or just read the comments.

Karen Thurman, Please Return from Lunch

Trish

Update: One reader was evidently confused about the letter in question so we drug it out of the trash, brushed off the coffee grounds, and posted it for his or her edification. On the back of the part you tear off and fill out with McCain-Feingold required disclosure info about yourself is the phrase, “Paid for the by the Democratic State Parties and the DNC as a joint fundraising program, www.democrats.org/victory fund. This communication is not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.”

We were just standing around the virtual Pensito Review water cooler, chewing over one of our favorite subjects: How stupid is Florida Democratic Party Chair Karen Thurman?

I think she’s regular stupid, hovering somewhere between feather head and judgement-challenged. Buck thinks she’s too stupid to live, brush her teeth unassisted, or wipe her own backside. Jon, a California resident, agrees with both of us.

Well moments ago, from whom should I get a letter in the mail? It’s our very own K.T., and she’s got great news for me!

The response to our 2007 Annual Fund Drive has been so overwhelming that we have decided to extend the deadline for gifts to September 14, 2007.

There are so many things wrong with that opener that I hardly know where to begin. For starters, was she really going to cut off donations because they didn’t come in by some arbitrary deadline? “Sorry, your check arrived too late. We don’t want it now.”

And where do you go, in requesting urgent financial assistance, after you’ve just described the response so far as “overwhelming?” It doesn’t exactly make me look over my finances and decide I can pay the electric bill next week but right now I must help Karen! She needs me!

I’m beginning to see it Buck’s way. This woman really does need to find additional new employment, besides her job as a lobbyist in an agency headed by the former chair of the Florida Republican party. I hope the response by Democrats to extending Karen’s deadline at the helm of the party is not overwhelming.

Republican Florida Lawmaker Bob “Blow Job” Allen Being Squeezed Out by GOP

Trish

For Florida State Rep. Bob Allen (R-Merritt Island), denial is not just a river in Egypt. Allen is out on bail on charges that he offered a male undercover officer $20 for oral sex. He has spent this time offering explanations for his behavior as varied as “just checking the bathroom three times because I helped secure funding for the park” to “I was afraid of the guy because he’s black and everyone knows black people are dangerous.”

Well, poor Bob has come up with another totally ridiculous explanation, this one for why he is being stripped of all his committee assignments in the upcoming legislative session.

…because [House Speaker Marco] Rubio wants to give younger lawmakers the chance at leadership positions.

Allen…said he was told that House leaders “wouldn’t do anything to hurt my defense.” “I know the Speaker has talked about giving other younger legislators a chance,” Allen said. “It’s tough to gain experience in the eight years before term limits, and some senior members might serve in another position.”

Riiiight. But others in the Republican wing of the Florida State House wish Allen would not only show up missing from committees, but go away altogether.

Meanwhile, [GOP Chairman Jim] Greer told reporters Tuesday that Allen should consider the best interests of the GOP, as well as his family and constituents, in deciding whether to resign.

“I’m not going to say what’s in the best interest of the party or ask him to step down or resign,” Greer said. “I’m just asking him, as of today, to consider the best interest of the party.”

So far Allen hasn’t considered the best interests of anyone but himself in obtaining homosexual sex, so why would the GOP expect him to consider the best interests of his party? Not only is Allen not leaving quietly, he’s attempting to call in a few political IOUs. After all, one thing all Republicans have on another in abundance is dirt.

When told of Greer’s comments, Allen said he stood by Greer during the “innuendos and nasty politics” hurled during Greer’s campaign for the party chairmanship. “I know Jim appreciated that and I hope he hasn’t lost that memory,” Allen said…

“I intend to show up at the session as a man who is free of this charge and all of this ridiculous politics and be able to get back to what they want me doing during the session,” Allen said. “I don’t think I’ll be bogged down with this during the session.”

We presume that none of those Nile River crocodiles will be shedding any of their famous tears if it doesn’t work out quite that way.