Politics in General (national, international, local, statewide)

[PeterSmith]

Originally Posted by spellbound

That officer really saved face.

To be honest, I have never really gotten any of your previous jokes, but, man, do I love a good pun.

[1772]

Originally Posted by PeterSmith

Update: Apparently, the guy police killed was eating the face off his victim. So... kudos to the police officer for killing that guy and ending the zombie apocalypse...

But then he has to kill the victim aswell. Otherwise the infection will spread.

[Hia-leah JDM]

It has started....

[Aceventura]

Mike Miller 4 Guvnah!

[Endeavor305]

Those of you in Florida opposed to the racket that is Traffic Violation Cameras, please sign the following petition for removal of cameras...

https://www.change.org/petitions/sta...ation-cameras#

[spellbound]

Nice to see a Miami-Dade College student introduce Jill Biden at the DNC tonight. She did a nice job in what had to be a nervous moment!

http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.co...chieve-success

[dave8721]

http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/01/2...anny-diaz.html

Former Miami Mayor Manny Diaz considering bid for governor.

Manny Diaz, who was mayor from 2001-2009, would be the only Democratic Hispanic candidate among those who have announced or are considering a bid to challenge Republican Gov. Rick Scott.

By Marc Caputo

mcaputo@MiamiHerald.com


Former Miami Mayor Manny Diaz looks ready to run for governor and has spent the past three weeks lining up support from strategists, financiers and elected officials.

Diaz, who hasn't taken calls from The Miami Herald for three weeks about his plans, finally returned a text message on Friday and said he wasn't ready to speak about the matter, in part because he was attending a charity golf tournament.

Diaz met Friday morning with top Democratic strategist Jeff Garcia, who said he'd like the former mayor to run.

"His potential candidacy presents a unique opportunity for Democrats and Floridians to take the state in a completely new and positive direction," said Garcia, U.S. Rep. Joe Garcia's chief of staff who met Friday morning with Diaz. "I'm excited he's considering running. It adds something new and fresh to the field."

Diaz, mayor from 2001-2009, would be the only Democratic Hispanic candidate among those who have announced or are considering a bid to challenge Republican Gov. Rick Scott. Hispanics, the fastest-growing segment of the electorate, helped President Obama win his reelection campaign in Florida.

If elected, Diaz would be the first Democratic Hispanic governor. The state's first Hispanic governor was a Republican, Bob Martinez, from 1987-1991.

Diaz has made no formal announcement for the election, which is still nearly two years away.

Former Democratic state Senate leader Nan Rich, of Weston, has announced her intention to run. Former state CFO and the last Democratic governor's candidate, Alex Sink, is mulling a run as is former Gov. Charlie Crist, a former Republican, who helped President Obama's campaign in Florida this year.

Diaz was a big help to Obama's Florida campaign as well. In the waning days of the election when he cut a Spanish-language ad rebutting a spot from Republican Mitt Romney's campaign, which suggested the president was a socialist.

As a past leader of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, Diaz has some close allies in top spots. He wants to hire some of U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson's campaign team.

New York Mayor and media tycoon Michael Bloomberg wrote the forward to Diaz's book, Miami Transformed, which Diaz is promoting.

Diaz is also on good terms with former Baltimore Mayor and current Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, who recently stepped down as head of the Democratic Governor's Association.

One Democratic source said the DGA is nervous about a potential Crist candidacy because of the former Republican governor's "baggage."

But Diaz has some, too, according to his critics in Miami-Dade, home of the largest bloc of voters in the state.

His successor, Republican Tomas Regalado, faulted Diaz for leaving the city's budget in bad condition.

Regalado noted that as mayor, Diaz spent more money than Miami took in, draining the reserves from $120 million at the beginning of his tenure to just $20 million by the end.

"He's going to have a hard time explaining the way he left Miami," Regalado said.

Regalado also faulted Diaz for pushing for a new stadium for the Miami Marlins baseball team.

Diaz won't, however, need to explain anything after recently changing his party affiliation from independent to Democrat, Regalado said.

"Thankfully, Charlie Crist has already done that," he said.

Other Miami movers and shakers, though, say Diaz did an excellent job in trying times.

"Manny is a visionary leader who has never lost his footing or his roots," Eduardo J. Padrón, Miami Dade College president, said in blurb about Diaz's book. "He epitomizes the immigrant success story and the fruition of the American Dream."

[CF221]

Did he ever line his pockets with money from corruption?

[ftlauddude]

What do you guys think about this new Dolphin Stadium deal with tax payers money? As a Broward resident, I don't get to vote but I'd like to hear the opinion of Miami-Dade; is it just another Marlins Stadium fiasco? Could this push for the Orange line extension of Metrorail?

[1772]

Broward should pay aswell. It's ourageous that Miami-Dade pays for a stadium that will benefit Broward aswell.
The Marlins was another deal since it's in the middle of Miami-Dade.

[spellbound]

Originally Posted by ftlauddude

What do you guys think about this new Dolphin Stadium deal with tax payers money? As a Broward resident, I don't get to vote but I'd like to hear the opinion of Miami-Dade; is it just another Marlins Stadium fiasco? Could this push for the Orange line extension of Metrorail?

It's a public/private partnership with the tax revenue coming solely from hotel rates, not local residents (with rare exceptions). FAR different than the Marlins deal, which I'd hope even those who oppose it would at least acknowledge. Ross and the NFL would be funding over half of this plan.

It stands very little chance of passing. I'd give it 10%. I don't believe it would be the end of seeing future Super Bowls in South Florida but I do think they'd become very infrequent with so many newer facilities built or being built around the country.

As for Metrorail, no factor either way. That extension is dead and unfunded--at least for a very long time.

(and completely agreed this should be a Dade/Broward co-funding thing!)

[ftlauddude]

Originally Posted by 1772

Broward should pay aswell. It's ourageous that Miami-Dade pays for a stadium that will benefit Broward aswell.
The Marlins was another deal since it's in the middle of Miami-Dade.

Originally Posted by spellbound

It's a public/private partnership with the tax revenue coming solely from hotel rates, not local residents (with rare exceptions). FAR different than the Marlins deal, which I'd hope even those who oppose it would at least acknowledge. Ross and the NFL would be funding over half of this plan.

It stands very little chance of passing. I'd give it 10%. I don't believe it would be the end of seeing future Super Bowls in South Florida but I do think they'd become very infrequent with so many newer facilities built or being built around the country.

As for Metrorail, no factor either way. That extension is dead and unfunded--at least for a very long time.

(and completely agreed this should be a Dade/Broward co-funding thing!)

I agree; however, it's gonna be a tough one to sell since such stadium is not within Broward Co limits. How could you tell residents to pay for a tax for something that is located in another jurisdiction? The only way I see it is that if both counties share the taxes/revenues generated by any event hold there, which you and I know that it's not gonna happen.

It's a shame really that MDT don't use this opportunity to push for that Metrorail line extension.

[spellbound]

Agreed it would be a tough sell, but again let's be clear that this is not a residential tax hike but rather a hotel bed tax. If you don't stay at a hotel you don't pay a dime of it.

Both counties benefit pretty equally from events at the stadium, not much doubt about that. It virtually straddles the two.

This should really be a regional effort to make it a first-class facility on a par with others (which it really isn't anymore). With Ross and the NFL funding most of the project, anyway, spreading that bed tax across county lines would have easily raised the money needed with very little pain.

But, of course, a LOT of things in South Florida could be accomplished better by thinking and acting regionally. This is par for the course.

[Hia-leah JDM]

The Future Of The Republican Party Is By The Pool At The Biltmore
The talk at the Miami hotel, where Jeb Bush works and Marco Rubio works out, is of the next president. But can the young senator get out from under Jeb’s shadow?



CORAL GABLES, Fla. — As a teenager in the late 1980s, Marco Rubio's favorite place to get drunk with his high school buddies was the golf course surrounding the Biltmore Hotel, a towering Mediterranean-style structure at the center of town. A decade later, the young lawyer and his wife Jeanette spent their wedding night in one of the Biltmore's suites. On election night in 2010, Rubio celebrated his unlikely election to the United States Senate in one of the Biltmore's ballrooms.

And sometime this year, the swirling circle of donors, activists, and politicos who spend their evenings gossiping at the Biltmore's bar will decide whether Rubio gets a chance to become president in 2016 — or whether that honor should be given to Miami Republicans' other favorite son, former Florida governor Jeb Bush.

In the months that have followed the 2012 election, the Biltmore, a 400-room luxury resort surrounded by banyan trees, has emerged as a national center of gravity for Republican politics: a must-stop for campaign fundraisers, and a favorite vacation spot for retired presidents. Bush runs his foundation out of an office at the hotel, and Rubio, who lives just a few miles away, has been spotted at the hotel gym's morning spin classes.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/mckaycoppins...ool-at-the-bil

[1772]

How about Jeb goes and buy the Marlins and make it a top-tier team; Rubio goes back to law or whatever and they leave the election to someone that could win it; like Rand Paul.

[Endeavor305]

Originally Posted by Hia-leah JDM

The Future Of The Republican Party Is By The Pool At The Biltmore
The talk at the Miami hotel, where Jeb Bush works and Marco Rubio works out, is of the next president. But can the young senator get out from under Jeb’s shadow?

CORAL GABLES, Fla. — As a teenager in the late 1980s, Marco Rubio's favorite place to get drunk with his high school buddies was the golf course surrounding the Biltmore Hotel, a towering Mediterranean-style structure at the center of town. A decade later, the young lawyer and his wife Jeanette spent their wedding night in one of the Biltmore's suites. On election night in 2010, Rubio celebrated his unlikely election to the United States Senate in one of the Biltmore's ballrooms.

And sometime this year, the swirling circle of donors, activists, and politicos who spend their evenings gossiping at the Biltmore's bar will decide whether Rubio gets a chance to become president in 2016 — or whether that honor should be given to Miami Republicans' other favorite son, former Florida governor Jeb Bush.

In the months that have followed the 2012 election, the Biltmore, a 400-room luxury resort surrounded by banyan trees, has emerged as a national center of gravity for Republican politics: a must-stop for campaign fundraisers, and a favorite vacation spot for retired presidents. Bush runs his foundation out of an office at the hotel, and Rubio, who lives just a few miles away, has been spotted at the hotel gym's morning spin classes.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/mckaycoppins...ool-at-the-bil

I happened to watch the Republican response, which Rubio delivered, after last night's State of the Union Address. In it Rubio states he still lives in a modest neighborhood surrounded by folks that are "not millionaires". Yet he works out and hangs out at the Biltmore Hotel. With that said I don't have any problem with Rubio. I honestly don't care where he hangs out, who he hangs out with, and how much money he has. He may be a breathe of fresh air for the Republican party and politics in general. He may actually be a nice guy too for all I know. However, I do not like this complete turnaround the republican party has done. A full about-face. It's blatantly obvious the republicans are only now putting on a mask to win over minority votes, mainly Hispanics. Rubio is being used as a prop only to help the republican party win back the power they feel they are entitled to as elitists. I'm not a democrat either. I support whoever I believe is more in touch with reality and the common American.

[Endeavor305]

Originally Posted by 1772

How about Jeb goes and buy the Marlins and make it a top-tier team; Rubio goes back to law or whatever and they leave the election to someone that could win it; like Rand Paul.

I think Jeb would make a fine President. Unfortunately (for him), he happens to be related to George. That could cost him his chance.

[ftlauddude]

His response was awkward. He was acting up like if he was on x; sweating with no control of his thirst that made him even stop bickering to Obama and grab a bottle of water. WTF! He completely blew his chance to provide a decent rebuttal; and I agree with Endeavor305, he's been used by the GOP to win back Hispanics, which I think it's gonna take more than that.

[Bobdreamz]

Originally Posted by 1772

How about Jeb goes and buy the Marlins and make it a top-tier team; Rubio goes back to law or whatever and they leave the election to someone that could win it; like Rand Paul.

[spellbound]

Rubio was amateurish last night. I think the Democrats would LOVE to see him as the nominee, frankly.

Christie is the only GOP guy (at this juncture) I would give any realistic shot to. He's moderate enough to appeal to many across partisan lines and he's shown a strong independent streak. Let's be honest, though. The dude has GOT to get in better shape.

Any of them will have an uphill climb if the Democratic nominee is Hillary. Christie could at least engage her intellectually. Rubio? She'd eat that ham sandwich for lunch.