Showing posts with label Lt. Col. Allen West. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lt. Col. Allen West. Show all posts

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Give the devil her due: nobody in Florida demagogues & obfuscates like the dreaded DWS; Politico: "Wasserman Schultz says GOP seeks ‘dictatorship..."

Give the devil her due, nobody in Florida demagogues & obfuscates like the dreaded Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL-20) -Politico: "Wasserman Schultz says GOP seeks ‘dictatorship..."


POLITICO
Debbie Wasserman Schultz says GOP seeks ‘dictatorship … spark panic'
By Mike Allen
July 27, 2011 5:52 PM EDT
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), chair of the Democratic National Committee, said Wednesday that House Republicans are trying to impose “dictatorship” through their tactics in the debt-ceiling negotiations. She said the GOP rhetoric could “spark panic and chaos,” which she called “potentially devastating” to the economy.
Read the rest of the post at:

Meanwhile, north of here in the Panhandle part of Florida I've never ventured into, Tallahassee Democrat Senior Political Writer Bill Cotterell weighs in on the recent contretemps between DWS and Allen West that I wisely avoided writing about since it was everywhere you looked, and you could only NOT know about it if you lived in... well, no, you'd know about it there, too.


Tallahassee Democrat
The art of the political insult
Today's lack elegance, but they get the job done
By Bill Cotterell
6:33 PM, Jul. 27, 2011

The above piece by the very insightful Bill Cotterell, is an exception to what I've often written here of the hagiography that goes on in the Florida press corps with regard to DWS, esp. at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and local Miami TV stations.

The female reporters in South Florida are especially reluctant to ask DWS questions that are either hard or original, just the same softballs, year-after-year.
It's monotonous with a capital "M."

But then that's why so many female reporters here are simply not taken seriously by well-informed people regardless of gender.
Simply put, too many of the reporters are personally shallow AND happily uninformed and really ought to be in much smaller media markets.

But like DWS -and most of the female sideline reporters at ESPN- they are gerrymandered into their current positions.

In some cases by virtue of this area's low-pay and need to have a certain demographic group represented on TV, regardless of how unappealing they are -dopey women who really do think stories on plastic surgery ARE imp0rtant, and ought to be on within the first ten minutes of a newscast- but nothing short of video of them shooting someone will get them off the air or off the newspaper beat.
The joke is on us, the readers and viewers who have to tolerate the towering mediocrity.

Here's a recent example of the sort of hagiography I meant, which actually compelled me to write in and comment because it sounded so much like a puff piece from her own paid govt. flack.


St. Petersburg Times
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz uses her resolve to fight cancer, lead DNC.
By Alex Leary, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Sunday, July 17, 2011

Back on the 16th I wrote:


Is there no end in sight to the number of articles that can be written about this woman and cancer? Are there so few compelling political or government stories in the fourth-largest state in the country that this sort of filler must continue to be churned out, over-and-over? Simply put, there is nothing here that hasn't been written a dozen times before -and better.
And I surmise THAT is something that both liberals and conservatives can agree on.
For instance, how about writing about the number of State House and Senate members that DON'T live at the addresses they claim they do, both before and after the election, and how the legislature just looks the other way, despite the fact that it's illegal?
There are three of them in just South Florida alone!
Just saying...
Alex, what happened to you? You used to show such promise.
Is this how it ends, with a banal whimper?

Saturday, November 6, 2010

Contrary to what Broward NewTimes says, Allen West's win will cause "Unsettling Two Years" for lazy, know-it-all South Florida reporters, NOT voters

Above, September 9, 2010 photo by South Beach Hoosier of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel & Miami Herald newspaper vending machines in Hallandale Beach, FL. Neither newspaper's Editorial Board endorsed FL-22 GOP candidate Allen West and he won anyway, with momentum on his side at the end. Yes, media 'payback' is going to be a bitch.
And also fun to watch!






Above, September 10, 2010 photos by South Beach Hoosier of just some of the Ron Klein congressional campaign signs on Hallandale Beach Blvd., west of U.S.-1/Federal Highway, Hallandale Beach, FL. Unfortunately for Klein and his supporters, the areas where these signs were placed by his supporters are not only NOT in the FL-22 CD he was running for re-election from, but are actually quite far from it.
Yet they were there for weeks.

Contrary to what Lisa Rab of the the BrowardPalmBeach NewTimes wrote on Wednesday -below- Congressman-elect Allen West's win over incumbent Ron Klein will cause "Unsettling Two Years" for lazy, know-it-all South Florida reporters, NOT voters.

And West and his staff will REALLY, REALLY enjoy getting the news media's goat now, and even baiting them occasionally.

This is really great news for South Florida residents and news junkies alike, since the one thing that all civic activists and elected officials I know in South Florida are in complete agreement on, whether they are conservative, liberal or libertarian, is the overwhelming sense of mental and physical laziness of the majority of the South Florida news media, print and electronic.


And in many cases, their almost complete lack of curiosity, causing you to wonder why they are in that profession. Some are like ciphers. It's one thing to have a detached sense of professionalism, another to act like you just don't care or are above it all.

As I've stated here previously, there are a lot of print and TV reporters in South Florida who I believe ought to be in smaller media markets but are here for reasons NOT having to do with either quality or talent.

Oh, and did I mention how many want everything on a silver platter, when
THEY want it?


So many show-up for events not really having a good understanding of what previously happened -
or didn't- that necessitates another public meeting to take place.
Is it really too much to expect that they do some research and homework before showing-up?


Not that this sounds at all surprising to anyone who comes to this blog regularly, since I'm forever decrying how much worse the South Florida's news media's curiosity and work ethic is now compared to when I was growing-up down here, despite the advent of technology that makes their jobs easier than ever.

The thing is, nobody I ever meet at public policy events ever disagrees with that sentiment.
It's the dispiriting consensus opinion.

Showing-up really matters, as is showing-up on time, and the current crop of reporters, by-and-large, prefer to do their reporting by telephone -or by calling me or other people after-the-fact to find out what happened.

That is simply NOT a satisfactory way to cover news in such a dynamic-if-corrupt part of the United States.

Not by any stretch of the imagination
.


If you don't think
Allen West and his staff know exactly which members of the South Florida
news media were crass, patronizing, punky, condescending and less-than-professional in their months-long coverage of his race against Ron Klein, and some of the nuttier elements of the liberal South Florida establishment, and were phoning-it in from the get-go, guess again.

http://www.allenwestforcongress.com/

http://www.youtube.com/user/AllenWestForCongress

You don't have to be a friend of Allen West or even someone who voted for him to know that he is one person who is NOT at all interested in being South Florida's or the national MSM's "pet," like Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, who has STILL never run in a competitive congressional race.

Thanks to Amendment 5 & 6 passing on Tuesday, we just might see such a thing in a few years, and that would be good for everyone concerned.
Plus, competitive races generally (but not always) prevent the sort of endemic lapdog journalism DWS has enjoyed in South Florida for years.

We need more watchdog reporting and less lapdog!

The latest news on Allen West is here:
http://www.google.com/search?q=Allen+West

Meanwhile, a year ago...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VP2p91dvm6M



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Lthfkdb0Gs



Minority GOP Candidates Make History

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2j2RBqiNlho


Below, an example of what I'm talking about:
opinions masquerading as journalism.

-----

Allen West Wins Congressional Seat, Voters to Deal With Unsettling Two Years

By Lisa Rab
Wed., Nov. 3 2010 @ 6:18AM


Well, it's only two years. But with Allen West serving as the congressman for the coastal congressional District 22 that spans Broward and Palm Beach counties, those years could be rather unsettling.

Read the rest of the screed at
http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/juice/2010/11/allen_west_wins_congressional_seat.php

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Marco Rubio appearance in Hallandale Beach Tuesday night at 6 p.m.


Marco Rubio campaign appearance in Hallandale Beach

Tuesday June 23rd

6:00pm - 9:00 p.m.
Hallandale Beach Culture Center
400 South Federal Highway
-west of HB City Hall
-main entrance via S.E. 3rd Street


Confirmed Speakers:
RNC Secretary Sharon Day,
Broward GOP Chairman Chip LaMarca,
Marco Rubio, Candidate for US Senate,
Lt. Col. Allen West, Candidate for
U.S. Congress,
Joyce Kaufman 850 AM Radio Host,
and a special video presentation from
Michael Steele.
National Anthem by National Vocalist Lou Galterio.
--------------------

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Conservative Republicans meet to plot course

By Anthony Man
June 21, 2009

HALLANDALE BEACH

After losing control of Congress in 2006 and taking a drubbing in the 2008 presidential election, Republican activists have been looking inward.

Moderates and conservatives are struggling over which direction is best for their party.

"The big thing in the Republican Party is everyone wants to know what we stand for and where we are," said Ed Napolitano, organizer of a Conservative Conference for Broward Republians on Tuesday.

Napolitano, a Hallandale Beach contractor, is membership chairman of the Broward Republican Party and president of the Southeast [Broward] Republican Club. The club is the event's sponsor.

President Barack Obama's administration is a powerful motivating force for conservatives.

"Everything this president does influences me. Every day I wake up and am horrified at the things this guy is doing," he said. "I'm completely against I think 90 percent of the things this guy is doing."

Chip LaMarca, chairman of the Broward Republican Party, plans to attend the conference. But his priority is bridging differences and unifying the party.

"You need to come together with a common message that all the different members of the Republican Party have in common. That's how you win elections," he said. "If someone votes with our issues most of the time, that's the person we want to get elected."

Although the Republican divide is getting lots of attention, LaMarca said the Democrats have a similar internal division.

In Congress, liberal Democrats are pulling in one direction and so called Blue Dog Democrats are pulling toward the center. The health care debate is an example; moderate Democrats are balking at some of what their liberal colleagues want.

Broward Democratic Chairman Mitch Ceasar welcomed the conservative gathering. "It'll make my job in election years much easier."

"The conservative conference seems to be at odds with political reality. Broward County, Florida, and the United States has indicated clearly that the populace is moderate. Most folks are somewhere philosophically in the middle. So I welcome and encourage their conservative conference," he said.

Speakers for the event include Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio, who's the more conservative candidate in the 2010 Republican primary for U.S. Senate against the more moderate Gov. Charlie Crist.

Napolitano said he isn't taking sides in the primary and invited Crist to the event.

And regardless of who wins the Senate primary, Napolitano said he'll support the winner. "As far as I'm concerned any of these Republicans are better than any of these Democrats."

Anthony Man can be reached at aman@sunsentinel.com or 954-356-4550. More on the conservative conference on the Broward Politics blog at SunSentinel.com/browardpolitics
In the near future I may(?) also post some comments about the clueless Beth Reinhard column on Rubio from Saturday's Herald that was one of the worst of the many bad columns
she's penned since I returned to South Florida:

Where's the insight or originality?
She's truly the personification of
South Florida conventional wisdom.
But by embracing DeMint, Rubio risks moving too far to the right. DeMint
advocates sending illegal immigrants back to their home countries and
making English the official language of the United States, which could
mean that Rubio's Spanish-speaking constituents would not be able to
get ballots and other government documents in their first language.

Having already written a few things
already, I may be compelled to turn it
into a blog post picking that column
of her's apart, as it is full not only of
intellectual laziness, but factual errors,
not the least of which is the comments
about the language of the ballots,
since the DOJ has oversight over
certain states because of the federal
Voting Rights Act, and that includes
Florida.
You know, where we live?

Plus, because South Florida's county
officials have decided that it's good
public policy that ballots also appear
in Spanish (and Creole), and that is
supported by the majority of the
local populace, Reinhard's
argument is a straw man.

A good reporter would already
know that.
That Beth Reinhard doesn't,
or acts like she doesn't, in
order that she can write something
that's pandering to local Hispanic
sensibilities, gives you some true
sense of her profound political
ignorance.

Not that this is exactly Breaking
News to me or most of you.

See also:

Justices Let Stand a Central Provision of Voting Rights Act


Frankly, I almost always groan after reading

something that Reinhard's written.

In fact, it was after reading some
real nonsense she'd written about
DWS, while I was having breakfast
at a Denny's, that I decided that I
needed to finally listen to my friends
back in D.C., who'd been urging
me for years to start a blog when
I was still living there, and all my
media and political connections
close at hand, and finally start
one.

Though I'm a moderate Democrat,
I'll try to swing by the event
and hear what's what and snap
some photos.