Tag: Florida

Third World to Tancredo: Stay in Colorado, Dumbass

Buck Banks

Loose cannon: Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo was ungraciously uninvited to speak before the Miami Rotary Club today after the organization received complaints from the restaurant that hosts the club’s meetings and club members. Tancredo, if you remember, called Miami a “Third World country” a few weeks ago while making an insightful argument about illegal immigration.

I hope to someday return to Miami when it has been able to extricate itself from the clutches of the radical multiculturalists.
— U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo

With the typical class we in the Third World have come to expect from the representative from Colorado, Tancredo responded to the cancellation with this pithy reposte:

”I knew speaking your mind could be dangerous in Havana — I guess it’s equally dangerous to do so in Miami,” Tancredo said in a statement. “Apparently, there isn’t much of a difference between the two anymore.

“I hope to someday return to Miami when it has been able to extricate itself from the clutches of the radical multiculturalists.”

The multiculturally challenged congressman was slated to speak on the topic of immigration in an address titled Renewing America: The Need for Assimilation. Kind of like asking Mel Gibson to speak on the future of Israel. Or asking Michael Richards to address the NAACP. Or asking Britney Speares to model underwear.

Still, it was a lame-O reason the Rusty Pelican Restaurant gave for the cancellation:

”We have a small parking space and limited entrance area, and we were very concerned about the safety of our guests and employees,” said Randy Palmer, the Rusty Pelican’s regional manager. “We’re not trying to make a political statement, but there was an implication of boycotts — and shock, being that we’re part of the community, that we would consider hosting this event.”

In November, Tancredo pointed to Miami as an example of what will happen to the United States if immigration policies are not tightened:

”You would never know you’re in the United States of America,” he said in an interview with a conservative online news site. “You would certainly say you’re in a Third World country.”

A Third World country where you can get a good cup of java, Tancredo failed to add. Plus, some of those Third World chicks on Miami Beach are hot.
[…]

Miami Rep. Pushes Castro Killing in Video

Trish

Did she say it or didn’t she?

U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Miami) claims a video of her saying she welcomed the assassination of Fidel Castro is sliced and diced. The makers of the British documentary, 638 Ways to Kill Castro, say it’s not.

…the Havana-born lawmaker, recently tapped to become the top Republican on the House International Relations Committee, says the filmmakers spliced clips together to make the sound bite.

“It’s twisted in a way that gives the viewer a totally wrong impression,” Ros-Lehtinen told the Miami Herald. “I’ve said the community has moved on, that those strategies are not being used today, but apparently the filmmakers think we’re still in a ’60s mentality.”

Still, she said, it was possible she has, at some point, mentioned Castro’s potential assassination.

“If someone were to do it, I wouldn’t be crying,” she said.

Oops, she did it again!

Florida’s New Governor Flip-Flops Again

Trish

In what is probably a harbinger of his new administration, Florida Republican Governor-Elect Charlie Crist has again caved to public pressure and reversed himself. He is cancelling his inaugural ball, planned as the most extravagant in the state’s history, and bought and paid for by developers, Big Sugar, military contractors, and other greedy bastards who want to own a piece of the new governor.

No wonder columnist Mark O’Brien is asking Santa for a backbone for “Charlie Crist (R-All Things to All People)” this year.

Amid mounting criticism from the public and media, Gov.-elect Charlie Crist on Saturday abruptly canceled plans for a pricey inaugural ball, saying he should not have approved the solicitation of donations of as much as $500,000 to pay for events…

Crist’s sudden reversal came on a day when the Times and several other newspapers in Florida carried columns, editorials and cartoons critical of the party plans.

A Tampa Tribune editorial Saturday said “Crist’s solicitations don’t set the right tone for the new day he has promised in Tallahassee.”

In an editorial headlined “The lobbyists’ governor,” the Palm Beach Post said the $500,000 solicitations mean that Crist’s nickname, “Chain Gang Charlie,” should be changed to “Ka-Ching Charlie.”

In the Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville, cartoonist Ed Gamble’s cartoon Saturday showed a cigar-chomping lobbyist telling two average-looking guests at the ball: “You don’t have to worry about the $2.5-million cost! We covered it!”

Crist’s handlers want his decision/chickening-out to be seen as listening and responding to the will of the people. Throughout his campaign, Crist certainly did that.

He began by introducing himself as Jeb II, promising to continue the previous governor’s policies and initiatives, including using the Florida Comprehensive Achievement Test as the only measure of success in public schools. When his opponent moved up in polls by claiming that the test is eroding, not improving, our educational system, Charlie allowed as how he might make some changes. When his opponent said he would require insurers to offer property coverage if they were permitted to offer more profitable auto coverage in the state, Charlie signed on. Twisting and turning, he waffled his way into the governor’s mansion.

Floridians can probably expect more of the same, with Charlie saying one thing one day and something else the next, depending. They don’t call him “Crist-Crossing Charlie” for nothing.

No wonder columnist Mark O’Brien is asking Santa for a backbone for “Charlie Crist (R-All Things to All People)” this year.

State May Hate Crippled Boy, But Floridians Show Their Love

Buck Banks

Warm fuzzies: We reported yesterday that the state of Florida had actually gone to court — spending thousands of dollars — to deny Kevin Estinfil, a severely disabled 12-year-old $360 for thermal blankets his caretakers say he needs to maintain his health and comfort. The media coverage of Kevin’s plight brought forth an outpouring of money — and shame.

Crist said he was not aware of the litigation until he read about it Wednesday in The Miami Herald.

Floridians across the state opened their checkbooks Wednesday, including Gov.-elect Charlie Crist. Of course, it was Crist’s attorney general’s office that was fighting in court to deny the boy $360 a year for the blankets. In an admission of cluelessness that hearkens back to the heyday of Ronald Reagan — and one that seems sure to be a hallmark of his tenure as Florida’s governor — Crist said he was not aware of the litigation until he read about it Wednesday in The Miami Herald.

Crist said he ordered an immediate halt to the attorney general’s office’s role in the case, calling the legal fight “unconscionable.” Sorry, Charlie, but we think its unconscionable that you were not aware of what your office was doing (Big Sugar, take notes!), but thanks for ponying up a $360 check for another year’s worth of blankets for Kevin. Fell better now?

Of course, that still doesn’t resolve the $248 for surgical masks for Kevin’s caretakers the state still won’t pay for. Hey Charlie, why not reach for your checkbook while it’s still warm, or, better yet, why not call for an investigation of how such health-care travesties happen in Florida.

Spending Explodes as New Florida Repub$ Take Over

Trish

Incoming Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio (R-Miami) is practically throwing taxpayer dollars from the back seat of the Hummer limo.

The new speaker of the Florida House, a self-described fiscal conservative, now employs the highest-paid spokesman in state government, adding to a growing list of staffers drawing six-figure paychecks.

“These fiscal conservative Republicans are spending money like drunken sailors,” said Rep. Susan Bucher, D-West Palm Beach

Rep. Marco Rubio’s press secretary, Jose Fuentes, is getting an annual salary of $119,484.

That’s $23,000 more than Gov. Jeb Bush’s communications director, and just $9,500 less than the governor himself…

The Miami Republican has hired a $10,000-a-month financial consultant, former Bush adviser Donna Arduin, given a $100,000-a-year job to former Republican lawmaker Ken Sorensen and created a parliamentarian position that pays $133,908.

Rubio has given jobs to a number of longtime government workers who might otherwise be unemployed with the departure of Bush. Many are paid more than $100,000 a year…

Expanding the payroll is only the beginning. Rubio thinks it’s time for a little remodeling also.

A $550,000 revamp of the Florida House ordered by House Speaker Marco Rubio includes a members-only dining room, a first for the Capitol building…

The building now has a cafeteria in the basement and a snack bar on the 10th floor, both of which are open to the public. The new dining room…has its own kitchen and a plasma TV on the wall…

The irony of this profligate spending isn’t lost on everyone, however.

“These fiscal conservative Republicans are spending money like drunken sailors,” said Rep. Susan Bucher, D-West Palm Beach.

But it’s all for the good of the citizenry, Rubio asserts.

Rubio did not talk with a reporter Tuesday, issuing a statement instead.

“…we felt we had to provide our members with the most talented and experienced staff possible. Attracting such talent often requires paying salaries competitive with the private sector.”

He’s got us there. Parliamentarians probably make, like, a real lot in the private sector.

State of Florida Hates Crippled Kids

Buck Banks


Bah, humbug: In this season of giving, it’s interesting to know that an agency of the Florida state government is spending thousands of dollars in litigation to avoid spending $360 for thermal blankets for a severely disabled kid. And this was the state that went to bat to keep Terri Schiavo in a permanent vegetative state. Well, here’s a kid who responds to the voices of his mother and sisters, but that’s about it. And he needs some thermal blankets to regulate his temperature. Oh yeah, and some surgical masks for his caregivers because of his compromised immune system.

Give the kid a blanket. His life is hard enough.

The state won’t pay for the masks, either. Read the rest of the story here:

Kevin Estinfil is a badly disabled kid. He has severe cerebral palsy, is blind, has a shunt in his brain to drain excess fluid and has daily seizures. And his body can’t control its own temperature.

Kevin, who is 12, can get as cold as 93 or 94 degrees, and he can’t communicate when he feels pain or discomfort.

What would help keep Kevin warm, his doctors say, are special thermal blankets, which cost $10 each. He needs about three a month, for a cost of about $360 a year.

But for more than a year, the state Agency for Persons with Disabilities has refused to pay for them. The blankets, they say, “have not been determined to be medically necessary.”

To make its case, the state has racked up thousands of dollars in legal fees fighting Kevin, who lost an appeal before a state hearing officer and is now appealing to the Third District Court of Appeal in Miami-Dade.

‘I keep thinking, `It’s a blanket. It’s not like he’s asking for a car,’ ” said Lizel Gonzalez, Kevin’s lawyer at Legal Services of Greater Miami. “Give the kid a blanket. His life is hard enough.”
[…]

Miami is to Third World as Tancredo is to Ass

Buck Banks

Second World wannabes: Okay, so in a lot of ways Miami is like a Third World country. I mean, we have lots of undocumented workers, illegal immigrants from all over the world, high crime, high unemployment, we’re in a housing construction bust, cops are shooting civilians, there’s poops in the bay and on the beach, and traffic is horrendous. But I’m allowed to say that because I live here. I’m allowed to drive a car with a bumper sticker that refers to my city as a banana republic.

But Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo can’t, not on mine and Gov. Jeb Bush’s watch, no sirree Bob — or Tom.

Here’s what happened, according to the Miami Herald:

Tancredo, who has championed building a fence along the border with Mexico, pointed to Miami as an example of what could happen to the United States if immigration policies are not tightened. He said of Miami in an interview with a conservative on-line news site, “You would never know you’re in the United States of America. You would certainly say you’re in a Third World country.”

How do you reason with a guy whose supporters make Genghis Khan look like Gandhi?

Gov. Jeb was quick to come to our defense:

”The bottom line is Miami is a wonderful city filled with diversity and heritage that we choose to celebrate, not insult,” Bush said in the letter addressed to Tancredo’s Washington office. “Miami has been my home for years and I am looking forward to returning there in January.”

Of course, Jeb’s not. Returning to Miami in January, that is. No, he just bought a million-dollar condo in Coral Gables, which technically is near Miami, though legally a sovereign city unto itself, without virtually any Third Worldliness about it at all.

I, on the other hand, live in the City of Miami, and therefore I can call Miami Third World because I have seen the chickens running in the streets and I’ve also seen them lying in the road, hapless victims of a Santeria ritual intended to give Tio Santos good luck on his traffic court hearing.

But even I cannot top Ana Menendez, star columnist for the Herald whose column on Tancredo’s “naivete,” as Jeb so boldly characterized it, appeared today in the same edition as the article on Tancredo’s name-calling. She asks the age-old question that we here at Pensito Review pose at least several times an hour:

[…]

Bad Week for Mark Foley: Dad Dies, Criminal Probe Announced

Trish

Paging Mark Foley. At last Jon has an answer to his question. He’s been wondering about the whereabouts of the missing former Florida Congressman, who checked into rehab and hasn’t been heard from since.

Turns out his dad died of cancer on Tuesday and Mark did show up for the funeral.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement has opened an investigation into whether former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley broke any criminal laws with sexually explicit computer messages he sent to former male teenage pages

Edward J. Foley Jr., a former teacher and high school principal and father of former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, died Tuesday.

Mr. Foley, of Ocean Ridge, had been ill with cancer since 2003. His daughter, Donna Foley Winterson, notified The Palm Beach Post of her father’s death.

…A proud Irish-American who loved to tell stories, preside over family gatherings and play golf, Mr. Foley believed in his family, his church and his community.

Mr. Foley, a native of Newton, Mass., moved to Florida in 1958 after living briefly in Arizona. He came here with his wife, Frances, whom he met in Catholic school. They were married 62 years.

But that wasn’t the only bad news for Mark this week.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement has opened an investigation into whether former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley broke any criminal laws with sexually explicit computer messages he sent to former male teenage pages on Capitol Hill.

“It was a preliminary inquiry before, but we found the basis to open up a criminal investigation,” Kristen Perezluha, an FDLE spokeswoman, said Thursday. She did not elaborate. The FBI is also investigating Foley.

…Meanwhile, Foley has returned to Florida to attend his father’s funeral after spending more than a month in an Arizona rehabilitation facility for alcoholism, said his attorney, David Roth.

Wonder what the deal with Arizona is? His parents lived there and he went there for rehab. And let’s not forget John McCain.

Anyway, Mark’s been on a bit of a downward cycle lately. If you didn’t really mind people who can’t accept themselves and try to deny who they are and demonize others just like them, you’d almost feel sorry for him. Or not.

GOP Hypocrisy Blows the Top Off the Bottle with Martinez Appointment

Trish

The Republican attack on Florida governor candidate U.S. Rep. Jim Davis consisted of slamming him for campaigning. A TV ad was played nonstop for weeks, depicting an empty chair whizzing around Washington, while a Florida tourist family (with vaguely Ohioan accents) trails behind. “Do you think we’ll see him next time, Dad?” the son asks. “I don’t know, son. I just don’t know.”

Martinez was chosen in large part because he’s Cuban, and the Republicans did almost as badly with Latino voters this time as they did with African-Americans

Davis missed votes, we were told. He was too busy with politics to do the work we sent him to Washington to do. Wonder if the GOP will be trotting those ads out in 2008, when Florida Sen. Mel Martinez is running the Republican National Committee?

Doubt it. Predictably, Martinez’s split shift workday is being hailed not as a callous ditching of responsibility, as was Davis’s campaigning, but a big ol’ plus for Florida.

“It’s awesome for Florida. It says a great deal about this state and its strength,” said Republican Party of Florida chairwoman Carole Jean Jordan.

…Martinez, who will keep his Senate seat, will bring that much more attention to a state that is already considered to be a top prize in presidential politics.

Oh come on. Martinez was chosen in large part because he’s Cuban, and the Republicans did almost as badly with Latino voters this time as they did with African-Americans. While 8 percent of all voters were Latino, only 26 percent to 42 percent (it’s an estimate) of them voted Repug.

…Florida Democrats noted that their party won the Hispanic vote in last week’s election for the first time in three decades.

“This reflects the renewed emphasis by Democrats in using multimedia communications to win support from the fastest growing community in the United States, as well as Hispanic support for finding real solutions to raising the minimum wage, affordable health care and the war in Iraq,” said Florida Democratic Party executive director Luis Navarro in a statement.

It also shows Republicans are doing something wrong.

Mel was one of the chairs of the Bush campaign in 2000, helping Katherine Harris in her strategy to keep the votes from being accurately counted. He has been consistently rewarded for his nefarious deeds while Harris has been treated like the embarrassment she is.

But at least one analyst noticed Mel already had a job when he took on his new one.

…the duel role will be difficult, said [Poltical Scientist Matthew] Corrigan.

“Being a senator is a full-time job, so is taking on the RNC. I think it is a serious challenge,” he said. “How he balances those roles is an important question.”

It’s also a question not nearly enough people are asking.

First Mehlman, Next Karl Rove?

Trish

Somebody measure the drapes in Karl Rove’s office. It didn’t take long for Georgie’s vexation at his party’s sorry showing in the midterm elections to manifest. First Rumsfeld was gone and now Ken Mehlman has gotten the ax. Yes, the Republican National Committee’s chair is outta there at the end of the year.

No one’s pointing a finger at the guy who was really in charge of all the losing strategies. Yes, I’m talking about Turd Blossom himself, Karl Rove

And while rumors abound about both men — Mehlman being pretty much known to be gay and Rumsfeld’s head supposedly on the chopping block for at least a week before his “resignation” was “accepted” — no one’s pointing a finger at the guy who was really in charge of all the losing strategies. Yes, I’m talking about Turd Blossom himself, Karl Rove.

Karl has shown the pressure lately. After Florida Governor candidate, now Governor-elect, Charlie Crist failed to attend a rally with the President in his honor just before the election, Karl was feeling it. One moment of Rovian pique was even immortalized by Crist’s campaign workers at a victory party.

…dozens of campaign staff then arrived wearing black T-shirts that said “Ask George LeMieux.”

…Asked [earlier] by CNN why Crist wouldn’t appear with the president at an election eve rally in Pensacola, a miffed Rove snapped that the reporter should ask George LeMieux.

LeMieux was Crist’s campaign manager.

Mehlman was hand-picked and cultivated by Rove, so his failure and subsequent exit can’t be good news for Karl.

A protege of Bush’s top political adviser, Karl Rove, Mehlman became RNC chairman after managing Bush’s re-election campaign in 2004, when the president won re-election and Republicans expanded their majorities in the House and the Senate…Before that campaign, he served as White House political director under Rove.

Bush’s comment to reporters post-election speaks volumes about his current feelings toward the man who more than likely took a fall for Bush in the Valerie Plame affair.

Bush also got in a dig at his trusted top political adviser, Karl Rove. Rove is widely credited with Bush’s presidential victories in 2000 and 2004 and GOP gains in the 2002 congressional elections. As recently as last week, Rove predicted Republicans would retain both House and Senate.

“I obviously was working harder in the campaign than he was,” said Bush…

Ha ha, funny. Unless you’re Karl Rove, and then there’s a big sweat stain spreading under both your arms. People contrast George with his little brother, Jeb, finding the elder sibling more affable, down to earth, etc. (Not me, of course, but people.) Jeb has always made it abundantly clear he’s a conniving, nasty, petulant asshole who will take you out if you cross him. But I think this trait, inherited from Mom’s side of the family, is present in all the offspring.

And Karl Rove should be putting his affairs in order.