Barack Obama Information Clearinghouse In this section, we give you news, video, and facts necessary to make an informed decision about Barack Obama when you go to the polls on November 4, 2008.
John McCain Information Clearinghouse In this section, we give you news, video, and facts necessary to make an informed decision about John McCain when you go to the polls on November 4, 2008.
Yesterday was the day we were hoping for a ruling in Norman Braman's lawsuit against the city, the county and the Marlins. Two counts of his lawsuit remain (the others were thrown out.)
Instead of a ruling yesterday, all in court were treated to a 90-minute video of the Florida Supreme Court wrangling over a recent ruling in an Escabmia County case, in which the court ruled that property-tax money used to pay off bonds needs to go to a public vote. They later agreed to rehear a motion, and haven't yet ruled on it.
Judge Jeri Cohen then said that until the Supreme Court issued a final decision on this race, she can't rule on the big question at stake in the Braman case: whether the funding plan for the $3 billion "Mega Plan" is illegal because it uses millions of dollars of community redevelopment money without a public vote.
Unfortunately, the Florida Supreme Court is on break until the end of August!
After she dropped that bombshell, she told both sides to be prepared Wednesday (today) with closing arguments on the other question: Does a new stadium serve a proper public purpose?
I contend that the answer is no. If the team and the stadium were owned by the taxpayers of Miami-Dade County, and we could use the profits to serve the community, perhaps. But the Marlins are owned by one man, Jeffrey Loria. It is a private corporation, and I don't think public funds should be used to put more money into the pocket of a private entity!
Add to this insult the fact that the Marlins were not required to give any financial accounting of their business. If any of us were to apply for a government grant to fund our own businesses, you'd better believe that every nook and cranny of our books would be pored over with a fine-tooth comb! How do the Marlins escape the scrutiny to decide whether or not they're fiscally responsible to be granted such a huge gift at our expense?!?!
The three hours of the show flew by this morning with your calls... a few disagreeing with me, but most of the calls were on the same page.
We heard from AFC-CIO South Florida President Fred Frost, and Carolina Delgado of South Florida Jobs with Justice, who expressed concern that the residents of Little Havana have been left out of the equation. A survey of residents found that virtually none have been queried about their wishes for their neighborhood, nor have they been informed of the plans.
If you'd like to get involved, you can call Jobs with Justice at 305-324-1107, or visit their website at www.sfjwj.org.
To be continued....
Following up on something we talked about yesterday, the recent news that the Bush Administration is working with the Dept. of Health & Human Services to have common forms of contraception re-categorized as abortion is real. I know that it sounds like something alarmists and tin-foil-hat-wearing folks might have made up, but it is real.
Right now, I'm working with HillPAC to lead the fight on one very important issue, and we need your help.
The Bush White House is working to rewrite the definition of abortion in federal regulations to include common forms of birth control. This would undermine women's health and put family planning services in danger. Simply, it puts women at risk -- it could even prevent victims of sexual assault from receiving emergency contraceptives.
I need your help to speak up for the health of millions of American women who are in danger, once again, from the latest assault from the Bush administration.
Will you join me in sending a strong message to Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt to put women's health ahead of right-wing ideology?
Imagine being told common forms of contraception like birth control pills could now fall under the definition of an abortion. This is another assault by the extreme right on the rights and health of women everywhere. They will do anything in their power to impose their beliefs -- no matter what the risk to women.
We've worked hard to guarantee women have access to a full range of health and family planning services, and we can't let the right wing undermine those efforts. This issue is far too important not to act, so I hope you'll join HillPAC and me today in speaking out to protect women's health.
It sure feels like the dog days of summer, and August hasn't yet arrived. I've been taking advantage of one of the few things I love about South Florida, and it's something we can all enjoy for free: the beach.
I grew up down here, and used to spend countless hours at Garfield Street beach in Hollywood. It recently underwent a facelift, and Alison and I checked it out yesterday. A brand new parking garage sits where a parking lot used to be. I hadn't been to Garfield street in a while, as it was torn up for the construction, and I was worried about the fate of the paddleball courts.
Thankfully, they survived. A bit of my adolescence....
If you haven't done it in a while, let me suggest something to take the edge off a stressful day. Pack a bathing suit in your car. Take a detour to the beach on your way home from work.
A dip in the ocean at around 6pm is ideal. It's no longer the oppressive heat of the day, and the crowds are, for the most part, gone. It's a truly peaceful time, and a great way to calm your mind. It works for me, anyway....
This morning, I shared with you an email I received from Luis, a listener, whose wife -- along with 399 others-- lost her job at Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines yesterday. All 400 now former employees were based down here in South Florida. As Luis said, it's an epidemic in this country. All the more reason we need a big change at the top.
Barack Obama is in the Middle East, proving that he has a much greater grasp on foreign affairs than his opponent. John McCain continues to make serious mistakes. Whether he really doesn't know that Iraq and Pakestan don't share a border, or it was just another in a string of "senior moments," this is not the guy I want representing us on the international stage!
We had a great time Friday evening! Thanks to all who came out to our screening of "Who Killed the Electric Car?" and an even bigger thanks to those who brought electric cars to show the rest of us.
Andrew Roddy, the PR Director of the Florida Electric Auto Association brought his Ebox, a conversion of a Scion by AC Propulsion, a company in California. (Scroll down to Thursday's entry to see this car.)
Foreign Affairs, a West Palm Beach auto dealership who sells electric cars, brought the Zenn Neighborhood Electric Vehicle, and allowed a few of us to test drive it.
After the movie, a couple of guys who are just starting on their own conversion gave us a short presentation about the Miami EV Project (as they're calling it), and their plans to document the project online and produce a documentary about the experience.
It was a wonderful event, and I'm looking forward to our next one!
The Netroots Nation (formerly known as "The Yearly Kos") gathering took place last week, and Al Gore was a surprise speaker. He then turned up yesterday on Meet The Press, where Tom Brokaw cemented his standing as my least favorite network "news" anchor and/or interviewer.... ever! By comparison, he showed how skilled Tim Russert was at conducting tough interviews. I'm all for asking tough questions, but what Brokaw did yesterday was worthy of Fox.
The Dueling Columnists were here today, as they are every other Friday morning, on the days that their dueling columns appear in the Sun Sentinel. Today, they faced off on the "flip-flopping" question.
If you've listened to this show for any length of time, you know that I consistently bemoan the fact that the Republicans have a well-oiled machine that allows them to "catapult the propaganda" and turn every talking point into a bumper sticker that the lemmings repeat as if on cue.
So, the Republican-leaning dueler, Kingsley Guy echoed those very talking points in his Sunday column, which infuriated the Democratic-leaning dueler, Stephen Goldstein... so that was the topic of today's duel.
In case you needed some evidence of John McCain's actual flip-flops (as opposed to the mostly-manufactured supposed Obama flip-flops), read "61 McCain Flip Flops" from AlterNet.
In the 8:00 hour, I had the opportunity to speak with Barack Obama's sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng. She's in the Tampa Bay area for a couple of days, where she headlined a "Women for Obama" reception and discussed her brother's commitment to improving the lives of women in Florida and the US. I chose to ask her more personal questions about Barack the brother (literally, her brother.... you know what I mean!)
First, the good news.There's a cool new services from SnagFilms.com that allows you to embed full-length documentaries right into your website/blog or even social networking page. Today, we were planning to share the brilliant documentary Super SizeMe. Unfortunately, the bad news is that there seem to be bugs in the new service, so we’ll try again tomorrow….
Today, we talked a lot about the sad state of the economy. A couple of reports in today's Miami Herald drove home the fact that as bad as it is around the country, it's even worse here in South Florida!
Like this one, Inflation at highest rate since 1991. It shows that while the national inflation rate in June was 5.0 percent, here in South Florida it was 5.8 percent, tying with Seattle for the highest of 10 metropolitan areas tracked by the government for the month!
And there's this one, Florida Job Losses Fuel Gloomy Forecast, which points out that in 3 years, Florida has gone from #1 in the country in jobs created to #51 (including WashingtonDC)! That's pretty scary stuff.
We wrapped up the show in hour 3 with a conversation with Thom Hartmann about how history repeats itself. He put our present situation into historical perspective, and basically, it's a perfect storm... all the conditions are in place, just as they were at the time of the stock market crash and depression in 1929. Just saying.....
If you need something to cheer you up this morning, check out this video. I know nothing about the kid, other than he's 7 years old. And if you need some newsworthy reason for me to include this today... well, Billy Joel played a show last night at Shea Stadium in New York, and he'll play one tomorrow night too. It'll be the final performance at Shea, which will then be knocked down. (I don't recall such a sendoff for the Orange Bowl, do you??)
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