Peggy Noonan thinks dithering & detached "O" has now become "creepy. "Obama increasingly comes across as devious and dishonest." She's right, of course.

Audiobook: What I Saw At the Revolution -A Political Life in the Reagan Era by Peggy Noonan. http://youtu.be/nDvF7SispPU

Peggy Noonan thinks dithering & detached "O" has now become "creepy. "Obama increasingly comes across as devious and dishonest." She's right, of course.

In this installment from the audio version of the book I bought the first day it was available in 1990 at The Trover Book Shop on Capitol Hill, where I spent hundreds of hours over the years, Peggy Noonan recounts the end of an era of innocence in the days before the 1960 Presidential election on Massapequa , Long Island.Noonan shoots and she scores with: "[Obama's] hermetically sealed inner circle, which operates with what seems an almost entirely abstract sense of America."


From personal experience I can tell you that when you are seated just a few feet away from her and she starts talking about these sorts of cultural issues in that lilting voice of hers, it's positively mesmerizing.

After reading/listening to her impart a little bit of what she saw and remembers that Fall of 1960 about what America was about, you know exactly why her criticism of Obama and his myopic cronies rings so true and causes so many heads to nod in agreement, which is precisely why I placed the audio here for you to listen to yourself. 
The proof is in the pudding.

And even the Europeans have finally come to see him for what he is, esp. the Poles.
Unreliable.


American Crossroads: Operation Hot Mic
http://youtu.be/-Czo5Vf8KZs


Wall Street Journal
Declarations
Not-So-Smooth Operator
Obama increasingly comes across as devious and dishonest.
By Peggy Noonan
Updated March 30, 2012, 6:35 p.m. ET,

Something's happening to President Obama's relationship with those who are inclined not to like his policies. They are now inclined not to like him. His supporters would say, "Nothing new there," but actually I think there is. I'm referring to the broad, stable, nonradical, non-birther right. Among them the level of dislike for the president has ratcheted up sharply the past few months.

It's not due to the election, and it's not because the Republican candidates are so compelling and making such brilliant cases against him. That, actually, isn't happening.

Readers comments at:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303816504577312043447691520.html#articleTabs%3Dcomments
-----
http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/168909-1 
C-SPAN: In Depth with Peggy Noonan. March 3, 2002. Three hours.
When this first aired, I made videocopies of it for friends overseas.

Archive of Noonan's WSJ columns at:
http://online.wsj.com/search/aggregate.html?article-doc-type={Declarations}

http://online.wsj.com/public/page/peggy-noonan.html

http://peggynoonan.com/ Read the rest of the column at: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303816504577312043447691520.html

Contrary to MSM's contention, while I'm neither an Undecided, Early, Hispanic or I-4 voter, it looks like I "may hold key" to 2012 Florida GOP Presidential Primary

Wall Street Journal video: Florida Tea Party to Vote Against Mitt Romney. January 31, 2012. http://youtu.be/6V1muYp0bGU

Contrary to MSM's contention, while I'm neither an Undecided, Early, Hispanic or I-4 voter, it looks like I "may hold key" to the 2012 Florida GOP Presidential Primary. I am definitely NOT undecided.

Before I leave to go cast my ballot in today's Florida primary, can I please make two quick points about ALL the very bad reporting that I've seen the past year, nationally and in Florida, along the lines of "What's new with the Tea Party?"

First, in a large grass-roots movement that is intentionally decentralized, in large part because so many of its supporters have regular lives, jobs and family responsibilities, and do NOT have a taxpayer-paid PR flack like members of Congress to arrange sit-downs with reporters, the news media's insistence that any story about the Tea Party, esp. one that is filmed, involve a conversation with a purported "leader" is especially problematic.

Problematic since 99.9% of the people within that particular state who support the movement in a general way, likely have never heard of this person interviewed.

And frankly, in many cases, it makes them wonder why if this bottom-up point is so well understood by them, and is actually part of its appeal to them and many others, i.e. effort over ego, why does this person in the news video -any video- seem so unaware of the central tenet of the movement and unwilling to say so during the interview.

Is it simply the way the piece is edited they wonder?

And so it is today in this Wall Street Journal video at the top of the post.

Why does the MSM persist in expending so much time and energy looking for someone that is simply not there? 

There's no Tea Party Oz behind the curtain.

Certainly many liberals want to believe that there is, despite all the evidence to the contrary,  because this fits into their mindset that,

a.) people who think differently than they do are clearly sheep being led around by someone else that the sheep are too stupid to see for themselves,

b.) they'll have a face in particular to hate and a person to write snarky comments about in newspaper and blog reader comments at 2 a.m., when they can't get their venom out of their system and fall asleep.

You see this more and more frequently all over the blogosphere and on YouTube, when you see the time stamp next to their remarks, that is to say, when they aren't posting meet-up times and locales for their local Occupy Wall Street protests, on news stories that have nothing to do with it.

Second, Tea Party supporters are the main reason that the GOP took over the U.S. House of Representatives in the election of November 2010, NOT some grass roots movement that desperately wanted to see much more of uninspiring, charisma-challenged, Cincinnati tear-jerker John Boehner appearing on Sunday morning TV chat shows.

In the process, they defeated many of the few remaining moderate House Democratic incumbents -some of whom I'd met- and elected many conservative Republicans in districts that weren't necessarily leaning GOP, but had gotten past the goal line because of a larger-than-expected Tea Party turnout.

This, of course, also had the practical effect of making the Democratic Party in Washington MUCH more liberal and less able to keep itself tethered to reality, given that the most liberal Democratic members of Congress also have long had the advantage of being able to run from gerrymandered districts.

Unlike most of the Dems who lost, who'd previously won elections in either Neutral or Leans GOP districts, but had somehow found a way to win, either personality, experience or campaign fundraising.

But that momentous election was just 15 months ago, not 15 years ago, yet judging by many of the news stories I've seen and read, there's literally an army of reporters and columnists who have been waiting to declare the Tea Party moment dead or dying, because...

Well, they can't point to anything specifically, but they keep telling us that they 'feel' it.

They were especially keen on mentioning this during the Fifteen Minutes of Occupy Wall Street a few months ago.

The problem is that there is not a national election for Tea Party supporters to weigh-in on for another nine months, and it's as predictable as hurricane warnings in late August down here that lots of well-known liberal columnists and Beltway pundits will be talking about the Tea Party being dead without any tangible evidence, other than them simply wanting it so.

But don't you actually need elections first before you do post-election analysis?

No, for them, their intuition is enough.

"The Obamas": You've heard the anecdotes, now meet the author Saturday & Sunday on C-SPAN2's Book TV: NY Times reporter Jodi Kantor

Jodi Kantor, The Obamas 
Saturday at 11 p.m.; Sunday at 9:45 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. Eastern

        

Jodi Kantor, Washington correspondent for the New York Times, examines the relationship between President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama. The author reports on the changes to the couple's relationship as they entered the White House and their efforts to raise their children and balance their personal life against the requirements of their public life. Jodi Kantor discusses her book with David Brooks, columnist for the New York Times at Sixth and I Historic Synagogue in Washington, DC.

It's interesting to imagine whether or not someone in the audience will say something about the criticism of Kantor -from a pro-Michelle Obama p.o.v.- like how can she possibly know what was in Mrs. Obama's mind or what she may've said to Carla Bruni about the fish-bowl existence in The White House, when everyone knows, most especially David Brooks, her colleague, that Times columnist Maureen Dowd -a subject of past blog posts here- has made a speciality over the years of putting dozens and dozens of well-known Washington pols or power brokers on the psychiatrist couch in her columns, and tried to explain their actions without ever speaking to them, which many greatly resent.


She especially milked it in trying to draw distinctions or explain away the policy and emotional differences between Bush 41 and Bush 43, as well as the differences between their respective supporters and friends, like Brent Scowcroft's constant criticism of Bush 43's foreign policy.
Just saying... BOLO! 

Even with his 57 states, Wash. Post says O is the loner president -'Beyond the economy, the wars and the polls, President Obama has a problem: People'

While we were busy dodging downpours of rain on Friday in South Florida, trying NOT to get drenched walking from a parking lot to wherever we needed to be, or NOT get blindsided on the local, often-poorly lit roads by one of the LARGE NUMBER of South Florida drivers who DON'T believe in using their headlights when it rains -a higher percentage in HB, it goes without saying- the Washington Post was running White House correspondent Scott Wilson's latest piece, and it's devastating.

It's one of the most insightful and persuasive articles of the year, detailing how President Obama's own personality comes into conflict with what he needs to do on a practical level in order to be successful with his own supporters on Capitol Hill, let alone, House Speaker John Boehner and the Hill Republicans and the nation at large.

The Washington Post

Obama, the loner president

By Scott Wilson

October 7, 2011

Beyond the economy, the wars and the polls, President Obama has a problem: people.

This president endures with little joy the small talk and back-slapping of retail politics, rarely spends more than a few minutes on a rope line, refuses to coddle even his biggest donors. His relationship with Democrats on Capitol Hill is frosty, to be generous. Personal lobbying on behalf of legislation? He prefers to leave that to Vice President Biden, an old-school political charmer.

Obama’s circle of close advisers is as small as the cluster of personal friends that predates his presidency. There is no entourage, no Friends of Barack to explain or defend a politician who has confounded many supporters with his cool personality and penchant for compromise.

Read the rest of the article at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/obama-the-loner-president/2011/10/03/gIQAHFcSTL_story.html

WaPo reader comments at:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/obama-the-loner-president/2011/10/03/gIQAHFcSTL_allComments.html?ctab=all_&#comments

2,830 comments as of Sunday the 9th at 2:10 p.m.

But who's counting?

Miami Hurricanes scandal -Michael Putney interviews U-M Trustee Mike Abrams re his disappointment with Donna Shalala & UM's pathetic public response

Channel 10/WPLG-TV News: Trustee: Shalala's Response To UM Scandal Disappointing.

UM President Refuses To Speak To Reporters. August 19, 2011

Story and video at: http://www.local10.com/canes/28919960/detail.html

Local10's Senior Political Correspondent Micheal Putney interviews University of Miami Trustee Michael I. "Mike" Abrams about the national scandal that broke this past week Courtesy of Yahoo! Sports involving the university's football team, and the school's response to it, particularly, President Donna Shalala's.

I've always liked Shalala personally and since returning to South Florida from the Washington area in late 2003 -where she had been President Clinton's HHS Secretary- I have often found myself defending her efforts to improve things in Coral Gables, mainly by raising academic standards - and expectations- against other sports fans who seemed a little too quick to intentionally misunderstand her and paint her with too broad a brush.

Given the flood of information that has already appeared in so many different national media outlets about her longstanding love of athletics, how anyone can remain ignorant of all that, I don't know, yet even after all her time down here, I still hear her attacked by know-it-all dopes on local Miami sports radio stations as being part of the (genuine) anti-athletics adademe, which could NOT be further from the truth.

(As I've written in this space a few times previously, what I've personally long found most galling about the UM's varsity athletic program -and never ever see anything about in the South Florida news media- is how truly un-competitive the UM Women's sports teams are nationally and within the ACC, and in particular, the very strange choices the school has made about what teams to field.

The decision to have a Rowing team but NOT field either a Field Hockey or Lacrosse program -or both- when the ACC is by far the most-dominant conference for those two popular sports nationally -esp Maryland, North Carolina and UVA, where my niece goes- while elsewhere in the state, the Gators have become a clear top-caliber Women's Lacrosse program almost overnight -making it to NCAA Quarterfinals- by actually investing resources and actively recruiting many top-flight players from the Mid-Atlantic areas where the sports are huge is a very, very puzzling and hugely disappointing choice indeed.

I'm not saying this just because all three of my nieces play(played) both sports, but both sports are very popular among female high school students in a fertile recruiting area for the UM student body, so NOT having them puts the UM at a real dis-advantage, and frankly, in my opinion, makes it hard to take the UM's commitment seriously.)

Frankly, because of Shalala's demonstrated ability to think both clearly and long-range, skills sadly lacking in numbers in South Florida, I've long thought that if this were a more normal part of the country, she'd actually already be the Mayor of Miami-Dade County.

She'd make sure there was a LOT MORE accountability to the taxpayer with the public dime than the crowd in downtown Miami is used to.

She's friendly-but-firm, and demands a lot of herself, but also expects others to produce RESULTS, not excuses, and a steady diet of excuses is what South Florida residents have been hearing everyday from their local elected officials since I returned to this area.

I could very easily write pages and pages here on the blog about the latest scandal involving the University of Miami football team, based on the extensive things I have read and heard and know.

I could also write about the many side-stories that, curiously, are NOT appearing in print or TV but which really ought to be.

I'll soon be writing about one of those important journalism side-stories that EVERYONE in South Florida is currently ignoring, and when you hear it, trust me, you'll have to nod in agreement -everyone really is ignoring it.

Surprise! It involved the Miami Herald.

But for now, at a little past 1 a.m. on a Saturday morning, both tired and bored silly from watching the dreadfully tedious Dolphins-Panthers preseason game earlier tonight, I'm going to confine myself to one thing at a time.

In this case, Michael Putney's very interesting interview airing Friday night with University of Miami Trustee Mike Abrams, whom I first met in 1976.

Mike has become the very first person with any weight in South Florida thus far to publicly go on the record about their dis-satisfaction with the way this whole story has been dealt with from Day One the university's administrators.

I sort of botched my comments on Channel 10's website and approved them before I noticed some small mistakes. I'll have more on this scandal in the days ahead, but for now, here's what I meant to post there:

I know from longstanding personal experience what a straight-shooter Mike Abrams is, and how dedicated he is to the UM and how much he wants it to strive to be even better. This scandal must really pain him, both as both an alumnus and as a Trustee, and when he says that the school administrators need to be more forthright, from President Shalala on down, he is 100% right.

Since it's not mentioned here, for context's sake, I should mention that before he graduated, Mike was the UM Student Government president in 1969, and years later, became the Dade County Democratic Party Chair in the mid-1970's -when I met him and began working with him- as he played a crucially important role in helping underdog Jimmy Carter win the 1976 Florida primary -a win that helped make Carter a national candidate in the minds of voters and the national news media- which helped propel him to the Democratic nomination.
(I worked in all sorts of capacities for the Carter-Mondale presidential campaign.)

Later, Mike became one of the most-influential and respected members of the Florida Legislature while representing my hometown of North Miami Beach and surrounding NE Dade in the State House.
I'm also pretty sure that while I was living up in the Washington, D.C. area, Mike was tapped and invited into the UM's Iron Arrow Honor Society, the most prestigious honor for a UM student or alumnus.

So who's going to be the next person in South Florida -after Mike- to stand up publicly and demand that the UM be more publicly accountable to the larger South Florida community?
Those of us who care about this school and this community will be watching carefully

-----

Some information about me and my longtime interest in the U-M and the Hurricanes, copied from my other blog, South Beach Hoosier, http://southbeachhoosier.blogspot.com/

which is soon to be renovated before the new college football season starts with a new face in charge at IU.

Not mentioned below is that my nephew Mario graduated from the UM in 2010.

SEBASTIAN THE IBIS, THE SPIRITED MASCOT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI HURRICANES

Before going to my first U-M game at the Orange Bowl in 1972, a friend's father often would bring me home an extra 'Canes game program. That's how I came to have the Alabama at U-M game program from Nov. 16, 1968, which was the first nationally-televised college football night game in color. (A 14-6 loss to the Crimson Tide.)

After that first ballgame against Tulane, as I often did for Dolphin games if my father wasn't going, I'd get dropped off at the Levitz parking lot near the 836 & I-95 Cloverleaf in NMB, and catch a Dade County Park & Ride bus, going straight to the Orange Bowl. Onboard, I'd get next to the window and listen to WIOD's pre-game show on my Radio Shack transistor radio.

A few times, I was just about the only person on-board besides the bus driver, which was alright by me. Once at the Orange Bowl, if I didn't already have a ticket, I'd buy a game program for myself and one or two for friends or teachers before heading to the ticket window, since you usually couldn't find a program vendor once inside.

I probaly had a friend or my father with me for just under 40% of the U-M games I ever went to, but you have to remember that the team, though blessed with several talented players, like Chuck Foreman and Burgess Owens, was just so-so to average at best, and the games were usually played on Friday nights, so it wasn't exactly high on everyone's list of things to do.

Depending upon the opponent, if I was alone, I'd often have entire areas of the Orange Bowl to myself. (Wish I had photos of that now!)

For instance, I had a good portion of the East (open) End Zone to myself against Oklahoma in the mid-70's, when the Boomer Schooner and the Schooner Crew went out on the field after an Oklahoma TD, and the Schooner received an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty from the refs, as would happen years later in an Orangle Bowl Classic game. (Against FSU?)

I was there for the wins and losses under Pete Elliott, Carl Selmer & Lou Saban, and the huge on-field fight in '73 when under eventual national champion Notre Dame (under Ara Parseghian), they called a time-out with less than a minute to go, and already up 37-0. Their rationale?

To score another TD and impress the AP football writers; final score 44-0. Well, they got their wish and beat Alabama 24-23 for the title at the Sugar Bowl. A year later, thanks to my Mom's boss, she and I saw Ara's last game as head coach of the Irish in the Orange Bowl Game from the East End Zone -in front of the Alabama cheerleaders!!!- in an exciting 13-11 Notre Dame win over Alabama and Bear Bryant, a rematch of the '73 national title game.

I was also present for the U-M's huge 20-15 win under Pete Elliott against Darrel Royal's Texas Longhorns, the week Sports Illustrated's College Football preview issue came out with Texas on the cover, below. I was also present for lots of wins against schools called College of the Pacific, UNLV and Cal-Poly San Luis Obsispo, which I'd then never heard of before.

THE ISSUE I TOOK WITH ME THE NIGHT OF U-M'S 20-15 UPSET OF #1 TEXAS AT THE ORANGE BOWL

College Football, Texas No. 1, Hook 'em Horns, September 10, 1973.

Living in North Miami Beach in the '70's, my Sports Illustrated usually showed up in my mailbox on the Thursday or Friday before the Monday cover date. And was read cover-to-cover by Sunday morning!

And for those of you who forgot or never read my previous references to it, on January 2nd, 1984, at the 50th Anniversary Orange Bowl game where the Hurricanes upset Nebraska 31-30 for their first national championship, I was out on the field celebrating within seconds, having watched the entire last quarter in the row directly behind the team's bench. Now THAT was a night to remember!

MIRACLE IN MIAMI

The Hurricanes Storm Past Nebraska, Halfback Keith Griffin, January 9, 1984

Contrary to contention of MSM, DNC & DWS, latest Rasmussen poll shows 61% of U.S. favor state laws that shut down 'repeat offenders hiring illegals

CNS News video:Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz denounced Republicans last week for believing illegal immigration "should in fact be a crime."

http://youtu.be/cUqJO6sk7AA

Related article at:

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/new-dnc-chair-faults-gop-wanting-illegal

While I'm generally not a fan of polls conducted among Likely Voters -as opposed to habitual Voters- contrary to the U.S. Mainstream Media, the Democratic National Committee's army of apparatchiks on the blogosphere and their sycophants across the country in TV news rooms and newspaper editorial boards, not to mention, DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman-Schultz -who represents part of Hallandale Beach, and NO, it's NOT the blue-collar neighborhoods!- the latest Rasmussen Reports poll on immigration policy comes as absolutely no surprise to those of us with at least one foot anchored in reality.

In fact, it's precisely what your own common sense and sense of fairness would tell you about Americans even before you saw the results -61% of the U.S. favors state laws that shut down 'repeat offenders hiring illegals.
Because, simply put, most Americans believe that everyone should have to abide by the rules and laws of THIS country.

Locally, no amount of biased, one-sided Miami Herald editorials or fact-free 'news articles' by Alfonso Chardy and Patricia Mazzei can change that.

These Herald articles all have something in common -they almost never publicly state that the position advocated by the very people the reporters seek to paint as sympathetically as possible, is, nevertheless, overwhelmingly opposed by the majority of the people living in this this country and this state, and they never reveal just how low that level of support is.

Amnesty for illegal immigrants does not and will not ever enjoy the popular support of the American people, and no amount of public demonizing by La Raza and the professional Latino advocacy/self-interest community will make it so.

Since their argument is not supported by either logic or reason or the 'numbers,' the reporters just ignore those inconvenient facts, and instead, write paens to the foreign-born parents who broke the law, intentionally overstayed their visa, never showed-up in court for their legal hearings, and in many cases, never learned much in the way of English in their 15-20 years in the United States, even as their foreign-born kids turned out to have figured it out.

Or, alternately, the Herald reporters try to make modern Peru or Colombia seem like a veritable hell-hole that no reasonable person would want to live in, even though the Herald itself, of course LOVES, LOVES, LOVES Latin America.

So which is it?

Emerging vibrant democracy or hell-hole?
It depends on what public image the Herald's editors want to convey to readers in their "news articles," doesn't it?

As I've stated in this space before a time or two, it's very, very curious that whenever they cover U.S. Naturalization ceremonies in South Florida, craving that money shot of the cute little kid waving the American flag, South Florida TV and print reporters -but ESPECIALLY the Miami Herald- NEVER EVER ask the new Americans who came thru the system LEGALLY after following the rules and doing the things required of them over a number of YEARS, whether they believe that immigrants who came to the United States illegally should benefit from breaking the law and get the same benefits as THEY now do.

No, that is a question that is NEVER EVER EVER asked by the South Florida news media.
And everyone knows why.

It's because the answers from the new Americans would NOT conform to the pro-amnesty bias of the reporters themselves and the media organizations that employ them. PERIOD.

They're so afraid of the truth and the power of that message being uttered by immigrants who followed the law, that the question never gets asked.

-----

Rasmussen Reports

61% Favor A State Law That Would Shut Down Repeat Offenders Who Hire Illegal Immigrants

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

The U.S. Supreme Court late last week upheld the legality of an Arizona law cracking down on employers who hire illegal immigrants, and most voters support having a similar law in their own state.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 61% of Likely U.S. Voters favor a law in their state that would shut down companies that knowingly and repeatedly hire illegal immigrants. Just 21% oppose such a law, and another 18% are undecided.

Read the rest of the story at:

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/current_events/immigration/61_favor_a_state_law_that_would_shut_down_repeat_offenders_who_hire_illegal_immigrants

-------

See also:

Washington Post
Supreme Court upholds Ariz. law punishing companies that hire illegal immigrants
By Robert Barnes
May 26, 2011

Arizona, the state at the forefront of efforts to crack down on illegal immigration, may revoke the business licenses of companies that knowingly employ undocumented workers, the Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

In a 5 to 3 vote, the court rejected arguments that control over illegal immigration is solely a federal responsibility and endorsed narrowly drawn state efforts to regulate the employment of those in the country illegally. Eight other states — Colorado, Mississippi, Missouri, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia — have passed similar laws that would punish companies for hiring undocumented workers.

Read the rest of the article at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/supreme-court-upholds-ariz-law-punishing-companies-that-hire-illegal-immigrants/2011/05/26/AGhHG2BH_story.html

-

Fox News Channel video: President Obama's Border Speech Falls Short
http://youtu.be/yJcCQ5FthcM


For U.S. Government Accountability Office information on Criminal Alien Statistics: Information on Incarcerations, Arrests, and Costs for Criminal Alien Statistics, see http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-11-187


Federation for American Immigration Reform YouTube Channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/fairfederation

Bullseye! Ruth Marcus in Washington Post: The president is often strangely absent from the most important debates:"Obama's 'Where's Waldo?' presidency

Spot-on analysis and anecdotes from the talented Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post -and Mona Charen's childhood friend- which is why she's getting so much flack from the very indignant Mainstream Media for telling the truth about 44.
Sometimes, it is what it is. Period.

--------
The Washington Post
Obama's 'Where's Waldo?' presidency

By Ruth Marcus
Wednesday, March 2, 2011; 12:00 AM

For a man who won office talking about change we can believe in, Barack Obama can be a strangely passive president. There are a startling number of occasions in which the president has been missing in action - unwilling, reluctant or late to weigh in on the issue of the moment. He is, too often, more reactive than inspirational, more cautious than forceful.

Each of these instances can be explained on its own terms, as matters of legislative strategy, geopolitical calculation or political prudence.

Read the rest of the post at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/01/AR2011030105489.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

Reader comments: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/01/AR2011030105489_Comments.html

Do you recall me telling you months ago that FL State Rep. Joe Gibbons no longer lived in HB? Bob Norman hammers some more nails in that coffin!

For those of you living outside of Broward County specifically and South Florida in general, the subject of FL State Rep. Joe Gibbons, and specifically, his NOT actually living in the legislative district he has represented in Tallahassee -as it happens, MY district- is an old and familiar story with me and many South Florida civic activists, elected officials and members of the news media.

People whose job and personal interests lead them to follow what goes on down here at the intersection of government, politics and personal ambition, very, very closely.

My April 18, 2010 post on Gibbons was to the point and appropriately titled:In case you'd forgotten what sort of person Joe Gibbons was, here's a quick reminder: Y-O-U are at the bottom of his pyramid 
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/in-case-youd-forgotten-what-sort-of.html

To quote myself: You might be interested in knowing that just this year, I have been approached about five times at myriad events throughout Broward, all by different but clearly well-informed people, each specifically asking me variations of the same question: Did I know that Gibbons and his family really live in/near Jacksonville, and NO LONGER live in his FL House District?

I didn't.
Who does he think he is, Steve Geller?

Sometimes that discussion has taken the form of heated personal conversations around South Florida, but more often than not, it has come in the form of fact-filled, link-filled emails about the rights and responsibilities of public officials in South Florida -and the commensurate responsibility of law enforcement organizations and the news media- to NOT treat Gibbons with kid gloves.

To NOT make excuses for him in public that simply don't hold up to even the lightest form of scrutiny.

That opinionated back-and-forth, with few if any defending Gibbons, has actually happened even a handful of times in the immediate month before the election, as yours truly even toyed with the idea of contacting interim Florida Secretary of State Dawn K. Roberts, http://www.dos.state.fl.us/ and asking that a formal investigation take place, as well as a formal complaint to the Florida Commission on Ethics. http://www.ethics.state.fl.us/

If Gibbons lied on state documents, he needs to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law for each and every violation, and needs to be expelled from the Florida House of Representatives.PERIOD!
Even in the past week, Gibbons' name has continued to pop-up in the news, as last week, Gibbons was named as incoming Democratic leader pro tempore, the No. 2 in the Democratic Party leadership ranks.
http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/broward/blog/2010/11/two_broward_democrats_named_to.html

So, that all said, when those very same well-informed people got on their computer today and saw that the topic of Bob Norman's Daily Pulp blog, the most popular and insightful one on current events in South Florida, was the subject of Joe Gibbons and where he lived, they knew they were already better-informed than the majority of the regular readers.

So, how many nights a year does Joe Gibbons actually sleep in his House District?

If his wife and kids live in Jacksonville -and she does- and his Akerman Senterfitt office is in Tallahassee -and it is- and he's making visits to Milton in Santa Rosa County, so close to Alabama that it's actually on Central Time, where do you think Gibbons REALLY lives? 
THAT certainly explains a lot.
Below is the highlighted Google Alert that I received in August that only shines more light on this issue.

OUR State Representative should be running for re-election from -wait for it- Jacksonville, NOT from Broward County. It's my understanding that in order for Gibbons to have been an eligible candidate in the first place, he MUST already live in the House district for which he filed his candidacy paperwork.

Not where he used to live, actually LIVES.
Right now.

The people in this part of the state are entitled to be represented by someone who lives HERE, NOT Jacksonville.
Where's the formal investigation of whether FL State Rep. Joe Gibbons legally met the requirements for office when he filed his paperwork?
That's coming, I promise.

And how long has it been since Gibbons actually lived here in Southeast Broward at least as long as so many of the tens of thousands of wintering Canadian snowbirds?


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Google Alerts
Date: Wed, Aug 11, 2010 at 9:58 PM
Subject: Google Alert - "Hallandale Beach

Freedom Fund banquet is Saturday
Pensacola News Journal
Joe Gibbons , D-Hallandale Beach , will be the speaker. Attorney Alishia W . McDonald will be the mistress of ceremony. Gibbons, a Harlem native, ..

FYI: The Freedom Forum Banquet was Aug. 14th in Milton; tickets were $40 per person.

-----
BrowardPalmBeach NewTimes
House Pro Tem Investigated For Homestead Fraud
By Bob Norman
Monday, November 15, 2010@ 10:15AM

State Rep. Joe Gibbons, who has been named the No. 2 Democrat in the Florida legislature, was investigated for homestead fraud earlier this year -- and government records indicate he lied to officials during the probe.

The Broward County Property Appraisers Office investigation also found that Gibbons' homestead in Hallandale conflicted with with another controversial homesteaded property in Jacksonville owned by his wife, Florida Board of Governors member Ava L. Parker.

Read the rest of the post at:
http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/pulp/2010/11/joe_gibbons_investigated_homestead_fraud.php


And, incredibly, just days ago...
Douglas C. Lyons covers the state capitol for the Sun-Sentinel Editorial Board.

South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Talk Back South Florida blog
Why not Joe Gibbons as chair of Florida Democratic Party?
By Doug Lyons 
November 10, 2010 09:18 AM

He may not appreciate me using his name as a trial balloon, but here goes ... I believe the Florida Democratic Party needs a shot of new blood. So I'm throwing out a name to replace the current party chair, Karen Thurman, since everyone else is.
My choice would be state Rep. Joe Gibbons, D-Hallandale Beach.

Read the rest of the post at:
http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/theslant/blog/2010/11/xxxxx_12.html

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www.sun-sentinel.com/business/custom/consumer/fl-psc-proposals-20091104,0,2671078.story
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Legislators consider tightening PSC ethics rules Proposal come in light of allegations of "cozy ties" with utilities
By Julie Patel Sun Sentinel
November 5, 2009

Florida legislators Wednesday held the first in a series of hearings on proposals to tighten ethics rules for the Public Service Commission — including legislation to restrict communication between agency staffers and the utilities they regulate.

Critics have pointed to what they say are "cozy" ties between the two groups.

Members of the Florida House Energy & Utilities Policy Committee heard presentations from the commission's director, the state utility consumer advocate and others that touched on proposed changes lawmakers are expected to deliberate when they convene next year.

The proposals come in the wake of criticism of PSC ties with Florida Power & Light Co. officials that emerged during the commission's public hearings on FPL's proposed $1.27 billion base rate hike.

National utility experts say Florida's utility regulation laws are comparable to those in other states but there some gaps. For instance, a Florida law bars commissioners — but not PSC staffers — from communicating with utility employees on pending matters, such as a rate hike proposal.

"That's an absolute must," said Public Counsel J.R. Kelly, the state-appointed advocate for utility customers, about a proposal to extend the rule to include commissioners' advisors, as other states do.

Among the legislative proposals lawmakers are expected to deliberate.

Electing, not appointing, commissioners. Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, and Rep. Tom Anderson, R-Dunedin, have written bills that would require PSC members, now appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Senate, to be elected. Candidates would be prohibited from accepting contributions from utility employees.

Expanding restrictions on PSC, utility communications. Sen. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach, has filed a bill to make the rules more like those for judges so all communications between commissioners and utility employees are made public. Fasano is drafting legislation that would adopt all the recommendations from a 1992 grand jury report that examined how to improve the integrity of utility regulation, including adding provisions to Florida's so-called "ex parte" law that bars commissioners from communicating with utility employees on substantive pending matters.

The Sun Sentinel reported that a key PSC official and two staffers who have since resigned attended social functions with FPL employees around the time the utility asked for a base rate hike. Others exchanged phone calls and text messages with utility representatives.

Restricting utility hires of government officials. Fasano is drafting legislation to restrict the hiring of former PSC regulators by utilities. In September, the Sun Sentinel identified 18 former regulators and government officials who have been hired as FPL employees, consultants or lobbyists or work for law firms that were hired by FPL.

Public disclosures. Rep. Mark Pafford, D-West Palm Beach, is drafting legislation that would require individuals who provide public comments at PSC hearings to disclose any ties to utilities or vested interests. A Sun Sentinel analysis in September found that more than a third of the customers, politicians and business leaders who praised FPL at three South Florida forums had financial or family ties to the company and its employees.

FPL officials have defended their handling of the rate case, saying they want the proposal to be judged on its merits.

Some regulatory experts also recommended fixing what they say is a disparity between consumers' access to regulators and those of utilities.

For instance, most conferences available to regulators are presented by groups representing utility interests. Commission Director Mary Bane told lawmakers the PSC will explore banning PSC members from attending certain conferences at a Nov. 24 meeting on ethics proposals.

Rep. Joe Gibbons, D-Hallandale Beach, asked Kelly if the Office of Public Counsel's small budget "gives you what you need to bring [rate cases] to a successful conclusion?"

Kelly said it does and noted that the office plans to spend about $300,000 to fight FPL's request to increase base rate by $1.27 billion. Meanwhile, FPL plans to spend $5 million, including $3.7 million from customers' base rates, utility records show.

57 states of Obama Nation feeling blues as TIME's Mark Halperin says "Obama's alienation of independents and white voters" may lead to GOP Congress

The 57 states of Obama Nation are already starting to feel the winter blues as TIME's Mark Halperin says that "Obama's alienation of independents and white voters" may lead to GOP Congress.

And clearly, some of those new GOP seats will definitely be coming in Florida, perhaps even Ron Klein's that hugs Broward and Palm Beach Counties.
http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/juice/2010/07/allen_west_blacklisted_cystic_fibrosis_klein.php

Whatever they do, they can't make stiff and humorless John Boehner the Speaker, and should instead select Hoosier Mike Pence like I've been saying all along, or Eric Cantor of Virginia.


TIME
One Nation
Dems Start to Panic As Midterm Reality Sets In
By Mark Halperin
Monday, Jul. 19, 2010

President Barack Obama during a meeting with house speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate majority leader Harry Reid on financial reform at the White House, April 14, 2010

Under pressure, the Democrats are cracking. On both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, there is a realization that Nancy Pelosi's hold on the speakership is in true jeopardy; that losing control of the Senate is not out of the question; and that time, once the Democrats' best friend, is now their mortal enemy. Since January, when Scott Brown won Ted Kennedy's Massachusetts Senate seat, the President's party has tried to downplay in public what its pollsters have been saying in private: that Obama's alienation of independents and white voters, along with the enthusiasm gap between the right and the left, means that Republicans are on a trajectory to pick up massive numbers of House and Senate seats, perhaps even to regain control of Congress.

Read the rest of the article at: http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,2004646,00.html

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Politics Daily
Nearly 6 in 10 Lack Confidence in Obama to Make Right Decisions
By Bruce Drake
July 13, 2010

Nearly 6 in 10 Americans say they have "just some" or no confidence in President Obama to make the right decisions for the country, and they give even lower marks to congressional Republicans and Democrats, according to a Washington Post/ABC News poll conducted July 7-11.

Read the rest of the story at:
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/07/13/nearly-6-in-10-lack-confidence-in-obama-to-make-right-decisions/

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National Journal
RULES OF THE GAME
New Battle Lines Drawn Over Redistricting
Reformers Admit It's Still A Battle, But There's New Passion Behind Transparency Efforts
by Eliza Newlin Carney
Monday, July 19, 2010

The golden nugget of this article for my purposes is this:
In the House, the Democratic Blue Dog Coalition has backed legislation authored by Rep. John Tanner, D-Tenn., that would pull back the curtain on the secretive redistricting process and force more public participation and input.

"The present system makes bipartisanship difficult and sometimes virtually impossible," said Tanner when the Blue Dogs endorsed his bill, the Redistricting Transparency Act, earlier this year. Tanner pointed to data from the Cook Political Report showing that fewer than 100 of 435 House districts are competitive within a 4-point margin of error.

Read the entire article at:
http://www.nationaljournal.com/njonline/po_20100719_6570.php

See also: http://www.fairdistrictsflorida.org/home.php

As most of you who come to this blog fairly regularly know by now, I'm a Blue Dog Democrat.
It's hardly a secret.

To go to a website full of compelling, fact-filled arguments against all the bad public policy prescriptions now flying around D.C. go to http://www.house.gov/melancon/BlueDogs/

The BDC advocates fiscal responsibility, with an emphasis on cost-saving and bipartisan common sense. Not surprisingly, given that approach, the only member from Florida is Allen Boyd from North Florida.

Thinking the way I do so publicly in Broward County means constantly running into people here who are extremely liberal and who have drunk the Obama Kool-Aid straight, with no chaser, and who for reasons of either birth, convenience or lack of perspective, have Broward or South Florida or The East Coast as the center of the universe, with no earthly conception of genuinely competitive congressional races.

Similarly, for them, the small-town life of inter-dependence depicted so tellingly in NBC's fabulous Friday Night Lights might as well be set in Mars, as it's terra incognita for them.

It also means that, more often than not, these people have no conception of people like Stephanie Herseth Sandlin or Baron Hill and what makes them or the blue-collar constituents they represent in Congress from South Dakota and Indiana, respectively, tick.

This is reflected in the fact that they actually think they are clever by calling someone like me or others names, simply because we have a different opinion about how one goes about actually solving genuine problems, with the Broward NewTimes and Sun-Sentinel Broward Politics blog comment forums being their preferred sites, though they know not the first thing about me, or, judging by what they write, this country.

It's all rather pathetic and self-serving to a fair-thee-well, of course, but then look at who does it and consider as well who the South Florida news media regularly shows as the Broward County man with the real power in the Democratic Party, lobbyist Mitch Caesar.
Now there's a role model!

He's a person who despite all his lip service about community, somehow never saw fit to make it his business to speak before the Broward Ethics Commission to share his thoughts on what was going on in this corrupt county amongst his friends, even while folks like myself and Charlotte Greenbarg were both speaking on the record and writing about it.
But not him.

And as you know from previous posts here, his bosom pals like Broward Comm. Stacy Ritter chose to use their visits there as a chance to rip people they disagree with rather than to distinguish themself.

http://www.redstate.com/etcartman/2010/04/07/lt-col-allen-west-responds-to-democrat-lies-and-accusations/

http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/pulp/2010/01/monday_quick_takes.php-

http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/search/index/collection:all/keywords:stacy+ritter/sort:dateDesc/

Mitch Caesar's bluster, even at supermarkets reportedly, makes him personally toxic and a member in good standing of Broward's endemic culture of corruption.

You never heard Caesar ask publicly why Steve Geller waited so long to ACTUALLY move into the Broward County Commission District that he's been running for, in order to meet the residency requirements, did you? Nope.
So even while Geller's over on A1A in Hollywood Beach, his wife and kids still live back in Cooper City? Yes.

To me, Caesar is the personification of what scares much-needed high-tech companies and jobs from coming to Broward, since companies that can actually choose where to locate don't want to have to pay-to-play -and they don't.

Closer to home, if you run around in the same bi-polar circles -round and round and round- like the human defamer West Hollywood Dissident or the the one-man hit squad that blogger extraordinaire Chaz Stevens has quite accurately dubbed Hallandale Beach's own little Unabomber, manifesto writer and Political Commissar, Andrew Markoff, well, need I say more?
The political proof is in the pudding -as well as all around you in Broward County.

See also:

http://www.nationaljournal.com/njonline/
http://www.politico.com/
http://www.politicsdaily.com/