Florida Latin Connection

Comments (0) May 30 2011

The New Hampshire Republican Party found out Sarah Palin would be coming to town by hearing about it in the news.

Where would she be stopping? They didn’t know. Palin’s staff wouldn’t even return their calls, leaving them to ask reporters for more answers.

And they’re not alone: With hours to go before Palin’s bus tour is supposed to begin, it’s still unclear what she’ll be doing when she gets to the first stop. It’s even more of a mystery what her second stop will be.

Or when.

Or why.

Once again, the former vice presidential nominee has proven she can tilt the political world on its axis in an instant. Last week, Tim Pawlenty, Mitt Romney and Michele Bachmann took their campaigns to Iowa, but it was the news of Palin’s bus tour that really had people talking. She made a simple announcement on her website, and she got all the attention, all the interest.

“She’s not your typical politician, and from what I can tell, it doesn’t really matter,” said Republican strategist John Feehery. “She’s going to have a following; she’s going to create news, and she does it in ways that don’t have structure to them or seem to have any kind of strategy.”

Surely she’s intending to use her swing through the early primary state to gauge what kind of support she’d have outside the social conservative base in Iowa and South Carolina — or is she?       Read More: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0511/55878.html

Politico/Barr/ 05/29/2011

Florida Latin Connection/ Arnoldo Varona, Editor

Sarah Palin’s political mystery tour

Comments (0) May 29 2011

The elections supervisor in Rick Scott’s home county refuses to recognize a new law the governor signed out of concerns that the U.S. Department of Justice hasn’t decided whether it violates a law protecting minority voters.

In a letter to the state’s elections division, Collier County Elections Supervisor Jennifer Edwards pointed out that her county is one of five in Florida that needs Justice Department pre-approval “or preclearance” under the 1965 Voting Rights Act before it makes any voting changes.

“Since assuming office in 2000, it has been my practice to meticulously comply with the requirements,” she wrote May 21. “The purpose of this letter is to inform you that due to our ‘covered’ status, I will not implement any changes resulting from the Governor’s signing of CS/CS/HB 1355 until we receive notification that the bill has been precleared by the U.S. Department of Justice.” … Read more

St.PetersburgTimes/ Leary/ 05/29/2011

Florida Latin Connection/ Arnoldo Varona, Editor

Elections supervisors in key counties — including Gov. Scott’s — refuse to implement new law

***********************************************************

Troxler: Government secrecy in Florida is out of hand

Howard Troxler’s Sunday column in the St. Petersburg Times:

Here is one of the truest things I know: Secrecy is a sure sign of bad or dishonest state and local government.

Look, I’ll give the feds some of their spy and national-security stuff. But I will not give the governor or the mayor a nickel’s worth.    

This is true even when — no, especially when — the secrecy is about “economic development” or “trade secrets,” the most common excuse. It mostly means that the government is in cahoots with somebody. Column here.

St.PetersburgTimes/Leary/ 05/29/2011

Florida Latin Connection/ Arnoldo Varona, Editor

Troxler: Government secrecy in Florida is out of hand

*************************************************************

“Gov. Spaceman reinforces our reputation for electoral dysfunction”

Carl Hiaasen: “According to a new Quinnipiac University poll of Florida voters, Rick Scott is now one of the country’s most unpopular governors, a dubious feat after only four onths in office.”

It’s bad news for Republican Party bosses, but all is not lost. Scott recently signed a new election bill that is callously designed to suppress voter turnout, making it harder for many disgruntled Floridians to cast a valid ballot in 2012.

Democrats outnumber Republicans in the state, so GOP leaders are desperate to find ways to keep certain people away from the polls. One of the Legislature’s top priorities was to change the voting rules to avoid a repeat of 2008, when Barack Obama won the state’s 27 electoral votes on his way to the presidency.

Obama benefited from early-voting days, which proved popular among minorities, college students and retirees. Republican officials became incensed during the election when then-Gov. Charlie Crist — one of their own — decided to extend polling hours to accommodate the long lines.

The nerve of that guy, making it easier for common citizens to vote!

Determined not to let this whole democracy thing get out of hand, the GOP-held Legislature crafted a bill that reduces the number of early voting days from 15 to eight, and requires some voters who have moved to cast provisional ballots, a deliberate inconvenience aimed at students. …

Upon signing the anti-voting bill into law, Gov. Spaceman said the following: “I want people to vote, but I also want to make sure there’s no fraud involved in elections. All of us as individuals that vote want to make sure that our elections are fair and honest.”     

Those who recall what happened here in the 2000 presidential election can’t help but chuckle at the comic aspect of a Republican governor pretending to fret about voter fraud.

Interestingly, the officials who are most familiar with the fraud issue — the county supervisors of elections — are mostly opposed to the new voting law, and say current voter-data bases are fairly accurate. They actually asked the Legislature for more early-voting sites, and were of course rebuffed.

The statewide association of elections supervisors also warned Scott that imposing the restrictive provisions could cause a fiasco at the polls in 2012, just what we need to reinforce our national reputation for electoral dysfunction.

“When the governor promised to bring all those new jobs to Florida, who knew he was talking about lawyers?”

The GOP’s dream scenario is a low turnout dominated by a grumpy, aging core of conservative white people who can’t stand Obama. With their party outnumbered on Florida’s voter rolls, top Republicans hope that rigging the voting rules will improve their chances to recapture the White House.

You could call it democracy with selective exclusion.

Or you could call it what it is.

“GOP won’t let democracy get out of hand“. Related: “Republican Legislators Push to Tighten Voting Rules“.

FLAPolitics/ 05/29/2011

Florida Latin Connection/ Arnoldo Varona, Editor

“Gov. Spaceman reinforces our reputation for electoral dysfunction

Comments (0) May 29 2011

Colombia, the second-largest producer of mild arabica coffee bought by companies such as Starbucks Corp. (SBUX) and Nestle SA (NESN), said consumers will have to get used to higher prices because of rising demand and reduced supply.

Production next year will fall short of consumption, keeping the cost of arabica coffee in a range of $2 to $3 a pound for the next 12 months, according to Colombian National Coffee Growers Federation’s Chief Executive Officer Luis Munoz. Higher prices also reflect increased farming costs, he said.

Coffee has almost doubled in the past year as storms hurt plants in Colombia and demand increases globally. Rising costs are prompting Starbucks to boost the price of bagged coffee sold at U.S. cafes by an average of 17 percent, according to spokesman Alan Hilowitz. The company will likely continue to be an “important” buyer of Colombian coffee, Munoz said.

“The final consumer is realizing that you have to pay a bit more for those little enjoyments,” Munoz said yesterday in an interview at the federation’s headquarters in Bogota. “Not just Starbucks, but the industry in general, wouldn’t have been able to do anything besides raising prices.”

Starbucks rose 0.05 percent to $36.46 at 4:30 p.m. New York time. The shares have gained 13 percent this year.  Read More:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-26/coffee-drinkers-won-t-get-price-break-as-colombia-supply-slumps.html

Bloomberg/Walsh/ 05/28/2011

Florida Latin Connection/ Arnoldo Varona, Editor

Business: Starbucks Drinkers Won’t Get Break as Colombia Supply Drops

Comments (0) May 28 2011

Here we go again, Rudy Giuliani edition.

A new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation national poll shows the former New York City mayor atop the slow-forming Republican primary field.

The survey shows Giuliani getting 16 percent of independents and Republicans, with nominal frontrunner Mitt Romney a point behind at 15 percent.

Sarah Palin gets 13 percent.

Neither Palin nor Giuliani are sure things for the 2012 election, and their perches in the new poll — the first taken by the news organization since Mike Huckabee, Mitch Daniels and Donald Trump bowed out — speak to how wide-open the race is.

Palin, the former Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential nominee, has increasingly sent signals that she might jump in, and is launching a bus tour on Sunday that will take her to New Hampshire for the first time since the 2008 race.

“Giuliani has the top spot in a 12-candidate field, but he doesn’t generate a lot of enthusiasm. Only about a quarter of Republicans nationwide said that they would be enthusiastic if Giuliani won the nomination,” said CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. “But he’s not alone — only a quarter would be enthusiastic if Palin got the party’s nod, and only one in five would feel the same way if Romney became the GOP’s standard bearer in 2012.”

Giuliani, who has not closed the door to another run in 2012, is headed to New Hampshire for events next week.

Politico/Haberman/ 05/28/2011

Florida Latin Connection/ Arnoldo Varona, Editor

Rudy Giuliani leads new national poll

Comments (0) May 28 2011

Starting Sunday, Sarah Palin enters enemy territory.     

The bus tour that stands to return her to the 2012 spotlight is taking her to the part of the country that’s the least friendly to her — the northeastern U.S.

It’s a part of the country she’s mostly avoided since 2008, conspicuously not setting foot in early presidential state New Hampshire at all during her two book tours and her 2010 tea party campaign swings. Now, however, with her luster dimmed and her national relevance in question, she has chosen to venture into the belly of the beast.

“There’s no doubt in my mind the northeast is the least favorable area of the country to Sarah Palin,” said Terry Madonna, a longtime Pennsylvania pollster and analyst who directs the Center for Politics and Public Affairs at Franklin & Marshall College. “But she has to show she can broaden her appeal. She can’t just go to where she’s already won voters.”

Nevertheless, it’s clear Palin is picking her spots carefully.

Though the tour begins Sunday in Washington, D.C. — home to the political establishment with which Palin has a well-documented relationship of mutual loathing — it’s at a motorcycle rally, the annual Rolling Thunder bikerfest that streams over the Memorial Bridge en route to the Vietnam Memorial.

Read More: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0511/55865.html

Politico/Ball/ 05/28/2011

Florida Latin Connection/ Arnoldo Varona, Editor

Sarah Palin goes behind enemy lines

Comments (0) May 28 2011

A spokesman for Gov. Rick Scott today told Politic365 today that the governor’s officedid not order anyone removed from Thursday’s budget signing at The Villages, and that the event was meant to be public. Only, that’s not true.       

First, here’s what Scott spokesman Lane Wright said, according to the political website. “Governor Scott did not have these individuals removed. This was a public event. It was brought to our attention that the local authorities had removed some. We don’t know first-hand who was removed or why.

“We are only seeing what you’re seeing in the news reports,” Wright added. “It’s disappointing to know that anyone who made the effort to be at such an important event wasn’t allowed in.” … Read more

St.PetersburgTimes/Sharockman/ 05/28/2011

Florida Latin Connection/ Arnoldo Varona, Editor

Gov’s office says (incorrectly) that they didn’t kick anyone out of budget signing

Comments (0) May 28 2011

Comments (0) May 28 2011

A crack is forming in U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio’s tea party.

Conservative activists — still raw over what they say was his role in blocking illegal immigration legislation while speaker of the Florida House — say the burgeoning Republican star needs to deliver on campaign rhetoric for tougher enforcement.

“We’ve been waiting for him to come up with something and to be a leader on this issue,” said Danita Kilcullen, founder of Tea Party Fort Lauderdale.

When President Barack Obama traveled to Texas recently to call for a renewed immigration debate, Rubio said the borders need to be secured before anything. He demanded action on an employment background check system called E-Verify.

But Rubio has not made an effort to sponsor immigration legislation or even highlight the issue — it is not listed on his website, tea party members note. And he remained on the sidelines as E-Verify was narrowly defeated this month in the Florida Legislature, where Rubio is held in almost holy regard. … Read more

St.PetersburgTimes/ Smith/ 05/28/2011

Florida Latin Connection/ Arnoldo Varona, Editor

Marco Rubio seen as ducking on immigration

Comments (0) May 28 2011

Palm Beach County Republican Chairman Sid Dinersteinsays presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich, who headlined the local GOP’s annual Lincoln Day dinner in February, has “viability issues” after slamming the Paul Ryan Medicare plan as “radical” and “right-wing social engineering” and then backtracking on the criticisms.

And Dinerstein says Gingrich or Sarah Palin as the party’s 2012 nominee would distract efforts to defeat President Obama.     

“If Newt Gingrich or Sarah Palin, who I like, were our nominees, then instead of the election being a referendum on the president, which is what we need it to be, it would be a referendum on them, which is what we don’t need it to be. And Republicans have to be sophisticated enough to make this election a referendum on the president,” Dinerstein said Thursday night before a Boca Raton Republican Club dinner.

Palin has been looking a lot like a candidate lately.

“I’m hoping that she doesn’t get in the race. I am a fan. She falls under the ‘Life’s not fair’ category that I have. But, yes, I don’t want her in the race,” Dinerstein said.

Dinerstein is neutral in the presidential primary, but he’s never been shy about prognosticating. Back in April 2007, Dinerstein said that eventual 2008 GOP nominee John McCain was“yesterday’s candidate” and Mitt Romney lacked “traction” while enthusing over Rudy Giuliani‘s prospects in Florida.

PostPolitics/ Bennett/ 05/27/2011

Florida Latin Connection/ Arnoldo Varona, Editor

County GOP Chairman Dinerstein hopes Gingrich, Palin don’t get nomination

Comments (0) May 27 2011