"Next year in Jerusalem" is right now for FL-17 Rep. Frederica Wilson, courtesy of AIPAC. But that's bad news for Americans, esp. her constituents.
The very constituents that she ought to be meeting with in-person right now during the summer recess. In places like ocean-side Hallandale Beach, for instance.
A city in the FL-17 CD that she never had a public event at before last August's primary.
Some of you out there in the South Florida part of the blogosphere may've seen this telling little bombshell in the Sun-Sentinel's Broward Politics blog earlier in the week:
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Broward Politics blog
Congresswoman Frederica Wilson in Israel
By Anthony Man August 8, 2011 01:25 PM
Notice what it doesn't say?
Correct, who's paying for Wilson's trip.
Only THE most obvious and important question one could ask.
Somehow, and for whatever reason, THAT answer didn't seem important enough for Anthony Man to include in the small post, that over 72 hours later, still has not drawn a single reader comment.
Assuming he didn't first find out about it from a press release from her office, which is entirely likely given how rarely Rep. Wilson's name ever appears in the Broward Politics blog, this is par for the course here in South Florida as far as the press digging for information goes, and Man in particular.
Actually, her own press release about the trip neglects to mention AIPAC also:
Somehow I have a strong feeling that the source of the trip's funding would've come up in the blog post if it had something to do with an oil company PAC for instance, or one representing almost any other corporate interest.
(For the record, I disregard almost everything Anthony Man writes, in large part because over the years I've found so much of what he has written or said on public policy TV shows to be factually incorrect, lacking crucial context, completely unpersuasive, or, as if that wasn't enough, when it comes to the dreaded Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, he's seemed like her trained pet poodle.
Her Boswell.
What Man has written about this FL-20 House member -who has never run in a non-gerrymandered CD and never faced a competitive opponent in a general election, a most-charmed situation!- seems so over-the-top that it was embarrassing to read.
Not unlike Alex Leary's recent story in the St. Pete Times that I commented on recently.)
I first learned about the departure of nearly one-fifth of the U.S. Congress for Israel in The Washington Post on Tuesday and wondered how in the world that could possibly be a good idea for either American public policy, esp. foreign policy, or, their own constituents suffering the slings and arrows of Obama's economic malaise.
Does Rep. Wilson really think going to Israel for the first time is more important than meeting with her constituents?
"Asked and answered, your honor."
Washington Post
House members travel to Israel, courtesy of AIPAC lobby, not taxpayers
By Al Kamen
Published: August 9, 2011
A record 81 House members, about a fifth of the chamber, are spending a week in Israel this month, courtesy of a foundation set up by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a pro-Israel lobby.
Read the rest of the article at
I hadn't had time to read the Broward Politics blog on Monday due to being so busy, but even if I had, which article tells you more?
The Post didn't neglect to discover the source of the funding, they put it right there in the headline so nobody could miss it.
As I have here, too.
The next day, my daily Morning Brief email from Foreign Policy magazine arrived and one of the posts there made all the points I made in my head and planned on sharing here -better than me.
Foreign Policy
How the World Is Really Run blog
The congress is in session, it turns out … in Israel
Posted By David Rothkopf
Wednesday, August 10, 2011 - 11:44 AM
This week's reports that 20 percent of the U.S. Congress will be visiting Israel this month are stunning. Eighty-one members of Congress -- two thirds of them Republicans, 47 of them freshmen -- apparently think it is more important to be visiting Israel than it is to be at home dealing with the worst economic crisis in modern memory. America's economy is in flames and these guys are taking lobbyist-funded trips to what, watch Israelis take to the streets to protest the high-cost of living in that country?
Read the rest of the post at:
I acknowledge that it sounds petty but I'd love for someone with a TV camera rolling to ask Rep. Wilson what she thinks of the success or failure so far of Operation New Dawn.
No, it's true, I don't think very highly of Rep. Wilson, and I don't think this cipher in Congress that represents the people in my part of Hallandale Beach would know what that operation is, that is, without prompting.
But it hardly matters.
Frederica Wilson will fight tooth-and-nail over the next year to make sure that she can keep this cushy, no heavy-lifting (or thinking) job of hers that pays $174k a year, and will do anything she can to make sure that the FL-17 congressional district remains nice and gerrymandered so that she NEVER has to run against a competitive candidate in a general election and can stay in office as long as SHE wants.
More soon on what's happening with congressional redistricting and whom I'd love to see run against Wilson next year in a new, more logically-drawn CD that more accurately represents the interests of this area of south Broward and northeast Miami-Dade counties.
And while I'm at it, let me just state that it sure would be nice if a single legitimate reporter or columnist in South Florida reported on what group former City of Miami City Manager Tony Crapp, Jr. is working for now in the redistricting battle on behalf of his new bosses at
Why is nobody asking or reporting on this?
I feel like I'm pulling teeth sometimes.
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See also:
Foreign Policy magazine: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/
The Crespo-Gram Report: http://www.crespogram.com/
