Month: October 2009

Trying to Look Republican, Florida Gov. Claims He Didn’t Know Pres. Obama Was in State

Trish

crist-obama-2We told you that Florida’s Gov. Charlie Crist (R) wasn’t planning to hobnob with the president when he came to Florida this week. We knew that the political realities for Crist, who is in a very competitive race for U.S. Senate with an actual Republican conservative, would keep Charlie from appearing too chummy with Obama. After all, a handshake-turned-shoulder-hug this spring still rankles the far right in the governor’s party.

But even we are astounded at Charlie’s excuse for not welcoming the president to his state.

…the governor said he didn’t know President Barack Obama was in the state Monday to honor sailors and Marines at the Jacksonville Naval Air Station, less than 200 miles from the Capitol.

“Where was he?” Crist asked Tuesday. “First I’ve known of it.”

While the president was saluting the nation’s fighting men and women, Crist was visiting the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood for a 40th anniversary celebration with tribal leaders.

Shocked reporters didn’t let Crist’s assertion that he knew nothing about the proposed visit, which has pretty much lead every news broadcast in the state for the past week, stand. They kept getting the governor on record throughout the day.

Crist got a second chance to talk about his decision to ignore Obama’s visit, but instead said again he wasn’t aware of the Jacksonville stop.

“Explain that comment? Is it unclear?” Crist responded after being asked a couple of hours later following a Cabinet meeting. “I didn’t know that he was in the state.”

Asked a third time, Crist said he was aware that Obama was coming, but didn’t know the itinerary.

White House spokeswoman Gannet Tseggai said Tuesday that Crist’s office was notified of the president’s Florida visit.

Don’t expect Charlie to start telling the truth now. He’s down in the polls and truly worried about his chances for grabbing that Senate seat.

It’s hard to imagine what will become of Crist if he doesn’t make it out of the primary. He’s thrown away the governorship, so he would likely have to fall back on whatever he did before he was on the taxpayer dole. Even if he follows in Jack Abramoff’s shoes and becomes a high-priced lawyer/lobbyist for the gaming industry, it’s hard to see his socialite wife hanging around for long. When she leaves, she can always claim she didn’t know Charlie would be out of the public spotlight one day.

Verbatim

Buck Banks

And so this idea that we’re suddenly going to establish litmus tests, and all across the country, we’re going to purge the party of anybody who doesn’t agree with us 100 percent — that guarantees Obama’s re-election. That guarantees Pelosi is Speaker for life. I mean, I think that is a very destructive model for the Republican Party.

— Newt Gingrich, in an interview on Fox News.

MSBNC Now Number One in Prime Time Among Legit News Channels, Fox Trails Wrestling

Jon Ponder

See Minute 3:22 for MSNBC’s “We’re Number One” promo

Now that Fox is officially the GOP informercial network, it has lost its top spot in news channel rankings, leaving the field to MSNBC:

For the first time, MSNBC’s “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” beat CNN’s prime-time highlight, “Anderson Cooper 360,” and … Rachel Maddow’s programs both finished solidly ahead of “Larry King Live” in the prime-time hours.

In the past few months, the ruse that Fox was a news channel has collapsed under its own weight. In August, a poll found that three-quarters of Fox viewers said they believed as articles of faith lies and distortions about health care reform — Republican disinformation that nonpartisan analysts had debunked without equivocation.

At a real news network, a report that 75 percent of the audience was misinformed would taken as a sign of gross incompetence in delivering the news. Heads would roll. But because it’s Fox, no one is surprised because it’s an open secret that Fox’s objective is to disinform. From Fox’s point of view, they have succeeded.

Recently, the Obama White House has generated headlines by calling Fox an “ideological unit” and by excluding it in the president’s round of Sunday shows last month.

With Fox out of the picture, the new ratings reflect MSNBC’s rising influence:

For the month, CNN averaged 202,000 viewers between the ages of 25 and 54 — the group that television news organizations use as their basis of success because of their advertising sales. [It] trailed MSNBC, which had 250,000 viewers in that group and HLN, which had 221,000.

The only CNN show from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. that did not finish last was Larry King, which was [second], ahead of the new Joy Behar show on HLN. [First] was Rachel Maddow on MSNBC with 242,000. Mr. King averaged 224,000 and Ms. Behar 181,000.

At 7 p.m. CNN’s host, Lou Dobbs was [last], barely beaten by Jane Velez Mitchell on HLN, 166,000 to 162,000. [First] was Chris Matthews and “Hardball” on MSNBC, with 79,000 viewers.

CNN’s performance was worst in the 8 p.m. hour. Mr. Olbermann, with his first-run program, was [first] with 295,000. Close behind was the first edition of Ms. Grace’s show with 269,000. Campbell Brown on CNN trailed with only 162,000.

For the record, Bill O’Reilly, Fox’s top rated GOP infomercial host drew 881,000 viewers, trailing by nearly 3 million viewers its closest in-kind competitor — wrestling. WWE Friday Night Smackdown had 3.8 million viewers for its Oct. 2 anniversary show.

H1N1, Dengue Co-Infections Up in El Salvador

Buck Banks

Byline: Loida Avelar Martinez

In the eastern zone of [El Salvador], there have been reports of patients with simultaneous infection [co-infection] of influenza A (H1N1) and classical dengue fever, confirmed by the Vice Minister of Health, Eduardo Espinoza. In total, there have been four such cases of
co-infection in the country nationwide.

Of these, two are from the eastern zone, and the other two are minors who were treated at the Benjamin Bloom Children’s Hospital months ago, said the health official.

A day earlier, the head of the Health Surveillance Unit, Julio Armero, said he feared that in Upire, Nueva Esparta (La Union), where a fourth outbreak of the virus had been reported to the Department, there was a cross of influenza A (H1N1) and dengue, which could lead
to a major outbreak.

The Vice Minister of Health, Violeta Menjivar, does not believe that there will be an intersection of the disease at the national level, because preventive sanitary measures have been implemented and reinforced, and there is a focus on identifying and finding
preventive processes.

Communication with Honduras has been established in order to implement joint sanitary policies and avoid a major outbreak related
to the flow of people, she said.

“In La Union, there are combined [infections with] (H1N1) and dengue, so we have concentrated efforts of monitoring, education, prevention and elimination of [mosquito] breeding sites,” said the deputy minister.

Also, the Ministry of Health closed the case of the 9-month-old infant that had died in Guajiniquil, and he was suspected of having
had H1N1. The mother took the infant from the [health center] before specimens were obtained, and, in addition, there was no autopsy. But the death was most probably due to H1N1 because three of the sisters of the child had H1N1, and one of them was also co-infected with dengue virus.

Up to the present, El Salvador has reported 6 deaths from dengue hemorrhagic fever and 22 from H1N1 infection.

# # #
– —
Communicated by:
ProMED-mail Rapporteur Mary Marshall

[This press report does not indicate whether the influenza cases described are consequences of infection by seasonal A (H1N1) influenza virus or the pandemic (H1N1) 2009 influenza virus. According to the PAHO Regional Update of 16 Oct 2009, trends of acute respiratory disease were reported as decreasing or unchanged in Central America, with the exception of El Salvador, which reported a new increasing trend. The intensity of acute respiratory disease was mostly low/moderate in Central America, again with the exception of El Salvador, which again reported high intensity [infection] ().

Therefore, it is likely that the La Prensa report refers to patients simultaneously infected with dengue virus and the pandemic (H1N1)
2009 influenza virus.

As of 16 Sep 2009, according to WorldPress (), so far this year (2009), El Salvador has reported 2431 confirmed cases of dengue fever, which constitutes a
significant increase from last year’s 927 cases.

Consequently, it not surprising that a number of co-infections have been recorded. Unfortunately, this report gives no description of the
course of the illnesses resulting from these co-infections, which appear to have been non-fatal (with the exception of one possible but
unconfirmed case of co-infection).

[Of note, the 18 Sep 2009 edition of China View
(ProMED archive no. 20090921.3322) reported that the 2431 cases are for the 1st 8 months of 2009, with the outbreak continuing.
Doubtless, there are more cases than that to date, as the DHF death total in this report is 6, versus 3 in the earlier report. Of
concern is that all 4 dengue virus serotypes are circulating in El Salvador at the time of this most recent report. – Mod.TY]

Verbatim

Buck Banks

Callista and I are going to think about this in February 2011. And we are going to reach out to all of our friends around the country. And we’ll decide, if there’s a requirement as citizens that we run, I suspect we probably will. And if there’s not a requirement, if other people have filled the vacuum, I suspect we won’t.

— Newt Gingrich, asked if was going to run for president in 2012 on C-SPAN this morning.

Where’s Charlie? Governor Missing from Florida Headline Story

Trish

When the nation’s largest solar electric generating plant goes online outside a small, sun-baked Florida town this week, Pres. Barack Obama will be there to herald the dawn of a new era of energy production. The state’s governor, Charlie Crist, made a name for himself as the “green governor” in his first two years of office, staging an annual environmental summit where P.R.’s own correspondent, Buck Banks blogged live. So naturally you’d expect Charlie, who would push your paraplegic mother out of the way if she were blocking his photo op, to be there smiling for the cameras and taking credit for Florida’s accomplishment.

But you’d be wrong. The hot button issues from two or three years ago are today’s nuclear meltdown issues, if you’re a Republican. Back then, Charlie was against oil drilling off the Florida coastline. Today, he thinks it could be a great idea. Back then, Charlie wanted to be seen as a moderate good guy in contrast to his predecessor Jeb Bush, who wore his partisan condescension like a white silk tux. Today, with a primary challenger for U.S. Senate whose conservative creds are his selling point, Crist echoes tough rightwing stands. His campaign web site (ironically a clone of the Obama formula) doesn’t even mention the environment among its list of “Issues.” Instead, a page shows Charlie in his red, white, and blue tie with a double American flag lapel pin pumping his fist in the air and looking generally tough, or as tough as a closeted gay guy whose whole life is a lie but is playing the role of the strong, patriotic Senator-to-be can look.

Today, Charlie’s big issues are:

    crist-site

  • Better Health Care
  • Defend Our Second Amendment Rights
  • Education
  • Protect Our Family Values
  • Stronger America
  • Tough on Crime

No doubt research revealed these are the issues today’s tea baggers care about, and today’s Charlie needs to harp on them, while staying as far away from the president as he can. Still, Obama-haters aren’t letting go of Crist’s past.

Conservative voters, who make up the core of Republican primary elections, are still fuming that Crist appeared with Obama in February to promote the $787 billion federal stimulus bill, said David Johnson, a Republican political consultant. Appearing as a leader on climate change issues or glad-handing with Obama are out of the question now, Johnson said.

“Being seen with him again would be a nail in the coffin,” Johnson said.

To repair the damage, Crist is running radio ads on conservative stations in which he now blasts Obama for all of the federal spending.

“Enough is enough,” Crist says in one of the ads. “That’s my message to President Obama. We can’t spend our way into prosperity or tax our way into growth.”

So is anyone buying the new Charlie? His Republican primary challenger, former State House Speaker Marco Rubio, sure isn’t.

Rubio, who was in Sarasota two weeks ago to speak to a local Republican Club, has made Crist’s change of emphasis a key part of his stump speech.

“The biggest problem in American politics today are people that will be whatever you want them to be,” Rubio said. “‘What do the polls say? That’s what I’ll be for.'”

Ouch. Crist, malleable and amenable as he is, will have his hardest time during this campaign spinning away the truth — and when it comes to exposing Charlie’s raw ambition, Rubio definitely has the truth on his side.

Crist Losing Ground in Senate Race

Trish

A new poll on the Florida Senate race supports the idea that Republicans are dissatisfied with their party because it’s not conservative enough. Gov. Charlie Crist, the so-called moderate, is getting chomped by the so-called conservative, former State House Speaker Marco Rubio.

The Oct. 12-18 Quinnipiac University poll finds the governor comfortably leading former House Speaker Marco Rubio for the Republican U.S. Senate nomination, 50 percent to 35 percent among Republican voters. But Crist’s lead has been cut in half since Quinnipiac last polled the race in August.

Labels in this case are deceiving. Crist has lurched to the right like one of Florida’s many elderly drivers, who often prefer the parking lane to the road. His signature recently graced a bill to remove decision-making power from Florida’s water management board members, who receive input from residents at public meetings, and hand it to agency directors, who receive input from the governor and developers whose plans depend on privatizing the public’s water resources.

He also signed a developer and Realtor-sponsored bill to remove “concurrency” requirements for speculators who want to add projects in metro suburban areas without providing infrastructure such as roads and sewer lines. This gift to private interests comes wholly at taxpayer expense.

Rubio, on the other hand, can’t rightly be labeled a conservative, if by the term you mean an office-holder who believes in keeping government out of social issues. From his web site:

As a state legislator, I supported various pieces of pro-life legislation that, among other things, would require doctors to perform ultrasounds before performing abortions and another bill that would ban the use of taxpayer dollars to fund stem cell research.

Rubio also supported informing parents of children’s use of social network sites, as well as man-lady marriage.

Both Crist and Rubio are easy to lampoon. @FakeCharlieC tweets an endless stream of reasons Crist is the taking the day off.

# Taking the day off in honor of Zac Hanson’s birthday. MmmBop, Indeed.
# Taking the day off in honor of the anniversary of the execution of Mata Hari.
# Taking the day off to celebrate the 1961 birth of wrestler Bam Bam Bigelow. I like wrestlers. And movies about gladiators.
# Taking the day off in honor of the anniversary of Princess Diana’s death. I never got why people thought she was so pretty, though
# Taking the day off in honor of the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina making landfall.
# Taking the day off to figure out who this George LeMieux guy is.
# Taking the day off in honor of the birthday of American rapper Mase, born today in 1977.
# Sorry, had to take a few days off from taking all these days off.

@FakeMarcoRubio recently tweeted,

# 16 tweets about the Gator game yesterday! That’s the type of Senate-ing you can expect from me!

And it was true. I follow the real Marco Rubio and learned more about that game from his tweets than I would have if I’d watched it.

Much as it amazes me, I support Rubio in his primary bid against Charlie. Rubio seems real, if a little full of himself (the wallpaper at FakeMarcoRubio shows his delight at his portrait in the Capitol at Tallahassee). And Charlie wouldn’t know real if it bit him on his tanned and buffed ass. But the best reason to support Rubio is that this same poll, and others, show he would be easier for his Democratic challenger, U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, to beat. Go Marco!

Verbatim

Trish

“Who cares what – Yeah, yeah, I can see the headline now. I’m getting better, guys. I’m getting a little better, you know what I mean?”

Vice Pres. Joe Biden, in response to reporters asking about criticism of the Obama administration’s Afghanistan and Pakistan policies from former Vice Pres. Dick Cheney.

Verbatim

Buck Banks

As some Republican senators have said publicly — that if we kill Obama on this, and we destroy this, and we defeat this, that will drive a stake through the political heart of this administration. I just find that about as irresponsible of a thing as I can think of.

— Former Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE), quoted by The Hill, on the health care reform efforts.