The Raw Story
By Muriel Kane
Friday, April 6, 2012 19:14 EDT
Heavily armed neo-Nazis are said to be patrolling the streets of Sanford, Florida to protect “white citizens in the area” in case of race riots.
According to a blog at the Miami New Times, the patrols were initiated by Jeff Schoep of the Detroit-based National Socialist Movement in response to the shooting of African-American teen Trayvon Martin by self-appointed neighborhood vigilante George Zimmerman.
“We are not advocating any type of violence or attacks on anybody,” Schoep insists, “but we are prepared for it. We are not the type of white people who are going to be walked all over.”
“Because nothing diffuses racial tension,” blogger Michael Miller comments wryly, “like gun-toting racial separatists patrolling an already on-edge commnity.”
Schoep is described by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors extremist hate groups, as “a neo-Nazi true believer since age 10 who has managed, largely by luck, to end up heading one of the largest explicitly Hitlerite groups in America. Schoep’s group is known for the crudeness of its propaganda, the violence it works hard to provoke, and the faux SS outfits that have caused many other neo-Nazis to deride NSM members as ‘Hollywood Nazis.’”
Schoep’s group is best known for the rally it staged against “black crime” in an inner-city neighborhood of Toledo, Ohio in 2005. NSM members had to be rescued from an angry crowd by the police, and the day ended with some local residents attacking police and 100 being arrested. The NSM considered this outcome a great success.
Schoep asserts that he and the Florida residents he has recruited are acting “totally within the law” and that their patrols “wouldn’t intimidate anybody” and are simply meant as a “show of solidarity with the white community down there.”
He says he decided to launch the Sanford patrols following an offer by the New Black Panther Party to pay a $10,000 bounty for a citizen’s arrest of Zimmerman, which he took as proof that “the possibility of further racial violence… is brimming over like a powder keg ready to explode into the streets.”
“We are a white civil rights organization,” Schoep said of the National Socialist Movement, describing himself as a while equivalent of Reverend Al Sharpton. He added that he wasn’t even taking sides on the shooting because Zimmerman is “half Hispanic or Cuban or something. He certainly doesn’t look white to me.”
Showing posts with label Florida. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Florida. Show all posts
Monday, April 9, 2012
Monday, March 19, 2012
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Sun-Sentinel: Florida-Cuba ferry plans stuck in U.S. "black hole"
By Doreen Hemlock, SunSentinel
February 12, 2012
Nearly two years after applying for a license to run a ferry between Port Everglades and Cuba, a Fort Lauderdale company still awaits government approval.
Havana Ferry Partners wonders why it can't get the go-ahead, when the Obama administration has authorized about a dozen U.S. airports to offer more charter flight to Cuba.
"Are they just burying this in a file?," asked Leonard Moecklin Sr., Havana Ferry's managing partner.
At least three more companies are eyeing Cuba ferry services through travel licenses allowed as exceptions to Washington's 50-year-old embargo against the communist-led island.
Video: Judge orders man to treat wife to night out
Orlando's United Caribbean Lines and Paris' Unishipping applied years back. Balearia, the Spanish company that operates a new Port Everglades-Bahamas ferry, is interested.
The U.S. Treasury office that oversees the embargo does not comment on specific licenses, an official wrote in an e-mail.
Havana Ferry is so frustrated that it's pushing for one-time permission to carry passengers to Cuba for Pope Benedict XVI's visit scheduled for March 26-28.
The company first sought a license for Cuba ferry service in 2010. Its plan: to operate a ship that can hold 500 to 600 passengers and their luggage and later, to haul freight and maybe vehicles.
For now, passengers would be mostly Cuban-Americans, who are allowed by the Obama administration to visit family on the island whenever they wish. About 400,000 Cuban-Americans visited last year on authorized charter flights from Miami, Fort Lauderdale and a handful of other U.S. cities, operators say.
Ferry companies had high hopes for approvals last year, when Treasury let Fort Lauderdale and other airports offer Cuba charter flights.
U.S. elections have made chances more remote this year. Approval of new U.S. business could alienate conservative Cuban-American voters who want to tighten the embargo, executives said.
"In an election year, that company has a better chance of joining Newt Gingrich's colony on the moon," said John Kavulich, senior adviser to the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, a New York-based group that helps companies interested in business with the Caribbean island.
United Caribbean Lines has turned its focus to starting ferry service between Tampa and Cancun, Mexico, assuming Washington won't act on new Cuba business in 2012, said founder Bruce Nierenberg.
"They're afraid of this becoming a political hot potato in South Florida," Nierenberg said from Orlando. "If the Democrats win, we'll likely see a continuing development of trade and travel with Cuba over time. But if the Republicans get in, who knows? They could cancel new charters and new people-to-people exchanges" that permit more U.S. civic groups to visit with Cuban citizens, he said.
Broward County leaders from the mayor to port officials have backed requests for Cuba flights and ferries, hoping the area can cash in if Americans eventually travel freely to the island. In the 1950s, before Cuba's government turned communist, ferries frequently plied Florida waters to Havana.
Beyond politics, ferry executives have heard at least one financial argument for Washington delays: costs to add U.S. Customs and Immigration staffing at seaports.
Havana Ferry has offered to pick up its share of the staffing tab and charge passengers a fee, likely $5 to $7 per ticket. The company expects to sell its ferry tickets at prices at least $50 cheaper than Florida-Cuba charter flights, which now start at around $400 round-trip, said Moecklin.
Once Washington gives the nod, there's also the problem of getting Cuban permission to land ferries. That could take months or years too, executives said.
Moecklin first is looking for his U.S. license: "They're giving us the black-hole treatment."
dhemlock@tribune.com, 305-810-5009 or Twitter @dhemlock
February 12, 2012
Nearly two years after applying for a license to run a ferry between Port Everglades and Cuba, a Fort Lauderdale company still awaits government approval.
Havana Ferry Partners wonders why it can't get the go-ahead, when the Obama administration has authorized about a dozen U.S. airports to offer more charter flight to Cuba.
"Are they just burying this in a file?," asked Leonard Moecklin Sr., Havana Ferry's managing partner.
At least three more companies are eyeing Cuba ferry services through travel licenses allowed as exceptions to Washington's 50-year-old embargo against the communist-led island.
Video: Judge orders man to treat wife to night out
Orlando's United Caribbean Lines and Paris' Unishipping applied years back. Balearia, the Spanish company that operates a new Port Everglades-Bahamas ferry, is interested.
The U.S. Treasury office that oversees the embargo does not comment on specific licenses, an official wrote in an e-mail.
Havana Ferry is so frustrated that it's pushing for one-time permission to carry passengers to Cuba for Pope Benedict XVI's visit scheduled for March 26-28.
The company first sought a license for Cuba ferry service in 2010. Its plan: to operate a ship that can hold 500 to 600 passengers and their luggage and later, to haul freight and maybe vehicles.
For now, passengers would be mostly Cuban-Americans, who are allowed by the Obama administration to visit family on the island whenever they wish. About 400,000 Cuban-Americans visited last year on authorized charter flights from Miami, Fort Lauderdale and a handful of other U.S. cities, operators say.
Ferry companies had high hopes for approvals last year, when Treasury let Fort Lauderdale and other airports offer Cuba charter flights.
U.S. elections have made chances more remote this year. Approval of new U.S. business could alienate conservative Cuban-American voters who want to tighten the embargo, executives said.
"In an election year, that company has a better chance of joining Newt Gingrich's colony on the moon," said John Kavulich, senior adviser to the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, a New York-based group that helps companies interested in business with the Caribbean island.
United Caribbean Lines has turned its focus to starting ferry service between Tampa and Cancun, Mexico, assuming Washington won't act on new Cuba business in 2012, said founder Bruce Nierenberg.
"They're afraid of this becoming a political hot potato in South Florida," Nierenberg said from Orlando. "If the Democrats win, we'll likely see a continuing development of trade and travel with Cuba over time. But if the Republicans get in, who knows? They could cancel new charters and new people-to-people exchanges" that permit more U.S. civic groups to visit with Cuban citizens, he said.
Broward County leaders from the mayor to port officials have backed requests for Cuba flights and ferries, hoping the area can cash in if Americans eventually travel freely to the island. In the 1950s, before Cuba's government turned communist, ferries frequently plied Florida waters to Havana.
Beyond politics, ferry executives have heard at least one financial argument for Washington delays: costs to add U.S. Customs and Immigration staffing at seaports.
Havana Ferry has offered to pick up its share of the staffing tab and charge passengers a fee, likely $5 to $7 per ticket. The company expects to sell its ferry tickets at prices at least $50 cheaper than Florida-Cuba charter flights, which now start at around $400 round-trip, said Moecklin.
Once Washington gives the nod, there's also the problem of getting Cuban permission to land ferries. That could take months or years too, executives said.
Moecklin first is looking for his U.S. license: "They're giving us the black-hole treatment."
dhemlock@tribune.com, 305-810-5009 or Twitter @dhemlock
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Vulture Capitalist Wins Florida
If you thought that things were "bad" under Barack Obama, wait until the voters of the United States put a Vulture Capitalist in the White House.
Mitt Romney would be a bigger disaster (Category 5) than the guy from Chicago.
On the Cuba issue, Barack Obama has been a huge FRAUD. He has continued the genocidal Cuba embargo, and his out-of-touch Secretary of State, has as a hobby the constant denigration of our neighbor to the south.
Poor United States. Has it entered the slippery road of total decline?
Should people vote for the lesser of two evils? I don't know! Should we abandon principle and dignity? NO!
Mitt Romney would be a bigger disaster (Category 5) than the guy from Chicago.
On the Cuba issue, Barack Obama has been a huge FRAUD. He has continued the genocidal Cuba embargo, and his out-of-touch Secretary of State, has as a hobby the constant denigration of our neighbor to the south.
Poor United States. Has it entered the slippery road of total decline?
Should people vote for the lesser of two evils? I don't know! Should we abandon principle and dignity? NO!
Thursday, January 26, 2012
The Salamander Wants to Bomb Cuba
Newt Gingrich prepared to bomb Cuba (TheAustralian.com)
* From: AFP
* January 27, 2012 12:00AM
NEWT Gingrich was ahead in the rhetorical war among Republican presidential hopefuls on who could be toughest on Cuba's communist regime, suggesting yesterday that he would bomb the island if there were a popular uprising.
The former house speaker and his top rival, ex-Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, were engaged in heated campaigning in Florida days before Wednesday's Republican primary. And both were desperately wooing the state's large Cuban-American community, nearly a million strong.
Mr Gingrich was asked to explain comments that if elected, he would "not tolerate four more years of a Cuban dictatorship".
If the US planes bombed Libya, should they do the same with Cuba?
"If there was a genuine, legitimate uprising, we would, of course, be on the side of the people," Mr Gingrich told Spanish-language network Univision.
"In that sense, I don't see why Cuba should be sacrosanct, and we should say, 'Oh, don't do anything to hurt' - you know, we're very prepared to back people in Libya. We may end up backing people in Syria. But now Cuba? Hands off Cuba. That's baloney.
The full digital experience
"People of Cuba deserve freedom."
The audience at the Miami venue where Univision held the interview broke into applause.
Mr Romney said if he were president, he would punish foreign companies doing business in Cuba.
Former Cuban president Fidel Castro dismissed the tough talk. "The selection of a Republican candidate for the presidency of this globalised and expansive empire is . . . the greatest competition of idiocy and ignorance that has ever been heard," he wrote in Cuban media yesterday.
Mr Gingrich also defended himself against accusations of being a hypocrite for criticising then president Bill Clinton over his affair with Monica Lewinsky.
Mr Gingrich spoke out against Mr Clinton at the same time he, as house speaker, was cheating on his wife. He said he wasn't criticising Mr Clinton's relationship with Ms Lewinsky but Mr Clinton's response to it.
"I have never lied under oath, I have never committed perjury, I have never committed a felony," Mr Gingrich said.
------
JG: What a f***ing idiot!
* From: AFP
* January 27, 2012 12:00AM
NEWT Gingrich was ahead in the rhetorical war among Republican presidential hopefuls on who could be toughest on Cuba's communist regime, suggesting yesterday that he would bomb the island if there were a popular uprising.
The former house speaker and his top rival, ex-Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, were engaged in heated campaigning in Florida days before Wednesday's Republican primary. And both were desperately wooing the state's large Cuban-American community, nearly a million strong.
Mr Gingrich was asked to explain comments that if elected, he would "not tolerate four more years of a Cuban dictatorship".
If the US planes bombed Libya, should they do the same with Cuba?
"If there was a genuine, legitimate uprising, we would, of course, be on the side of the people," Mr Gingrich told Spanish-language network Univision.
"In that sense, I don't see why Cuba should be sacrosanct, and we should say, 'Oh, don't do anything to hurt' - you know, we're very prepared to back people in Libya. We may end up backing people in Syria. But now Cuba? Hands off Cuba. That's baloney.
The full digital experience
"People of Cuba deserve freedom."
The audience at the Miami venue where Univision held the interview broke into applause.
Mr Romney said if he were president, he would punish foreign companies doing business in Cuba.
Former Cuban president Fidel Castro dismissed the tough talk. "The selection of a Republican candidate for the presidency of this globalised and expansive empire is . . . the greatest competition of idiocy and ignorance that has ever been heard," he wrote in Cuban media yesterday.
Mr Gingrich also defended himself against accusations of being a hypocrite for criticising then president Bill Clinton over his affair with Monica Lewinsky.
Mr Gingrich spoke out against Mr Clinton at the same time he, as house speaker, was cheating on his wife. He said he wasn't criticising Mr Clinton's relationship with Ms Lewinsky but Mr Clinton's response to it.
"I have never lied under oath, I have never committed perjury, I have never committed a felony," Mr Gingrich said.
------
JG: What a f***ing idiot!
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Do Winter Haven Police Have a Habit of Harassing Poor and/or Homeless People?
I was a witness today to an incident that made my blood pressure go up, and it was not the first time.
I visited the beautiful and very modern Winter Haven Public Library this morning. While entering the parking lot my car was almost hit by a K-9 Winter Haven police cruiser. It was going against the flow of traffic in the parking lot. There was a second police cruiser already parked in the lot.
There is a public phone in the outside foyer of this great library. Citizens can make local phone calls for free.
After I parked my car, I went in. The K-9 police officer was going through the personal belongings of, what appeared to be, a poor person. Apparently he had been cited for some "violation."
After the person left the library and when he was unlocking his bicycle, I tried to ask him what had happened. He was very afraid to talk to me and just rode his bike away from the library.
When I talked to the police officer who was in charge, I was informed that they have a right to issue a trespassing violation document if the person is "behaving suspiciously." When I asked this police officer what the person was doing that was suspicious, she refused to answer my question and told me that if management calls they have a right to cite the person.
When I went inside the library I asked one of the managing clerks If anyone had called the police. No one had called the police.
This was not the first time that I had seen the WH Police Department behave in an improper or non-normal manner.
A year ago I was at the balcony of my apartment. It faces north. I was reading a book. All of a sudden sirens start wailing and five police cruisers (I counted them) were converging on a refuse dumpster to the side of a take-out pizza restaurant. There was a person inside the dumpster. Apparently, I guess, he was looking for food.
I could not hear the conversation from my balcony. To this day I do not know why the Winter Haven Police Department had to send five cruisers to check on what people call a dumpster diver. Did they think that the person was a "terrorist" who was going to blow up the pizza place? Or was this one more incident of policemen overreacting to a very simple incident? Or were they there to harass a poor person?
This year we have seen police use brutal force to clear out "Occupy [city name]" protesters. Are policemen and policewomen taught to hate people who are not capitalist millionaires?
I visited the beautiful and very modern Winter Haven Public Library this morning. While entering the parking lot my car was almost hit by a K-9 Winter Haven police cruiser. It was going against the flow of traffic in the parking lot. There was a second police cruiser already parked in the lot.
There is a public phone in the outside foyer of this great library. Citizens can make local phone calls for free.
After I parked my car, I went in. The K-9 police officer was going through the personal belongings of, what appeared to be, a poor person. Apparently he had been cited for some "violation."
After the person left the library and when he was unlocking his bicycle, I tried to ask him what had happened. He was very afraid to talk to me and just rode his bike away from the library.
When I talked to the police officer who was in charge, I was informed that they have a right to issue a trespassing violation document if the person is "behaving suspiciously." When I asked this police officer what the person was doing that was suspicious, she refused to answer my question and told me that if management calls they have a right to cite the person.
When I went inside the library I asked one of the managing clerks If anyone had called the police. No one had called the police.
This was not the first time that I had seen the WH Police Department behave in an improper or non-normal manner.
A year ago I was at the balcony of my apartment. It faces north. I was reading a book. All of a sudden sirens start wailing and five police cruisers (I counted them) were converging on a refuse dumpster to the side of a take-out pizza restaurant. There was a person inside the dumpster. Apparently, I guess, he was looking for food.
I could not hear the conversation from my balcony. To this day I do not know why the Winter Haven Police Department had to send five cruisers to check on what people call a dumpster diver. Did they think that the person was a "terrorist" who was going to blow up the pizza place? Or was this one more incident of policemen overreacting to a very simple incident? Or were they there to harass a poor person?
This year we have seen police use brutal force to clear out "Occupy [city name]" protesters. Are policemen and policewomen taught to hate people who are not capitalist millionaires?
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
"I am a Cuban Exile Opera" starting Marco Rubio
U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio’s bedroom eyes, pouty lips and honeyed voice make him the perfect candidate for a regular telenovela leading man.
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Tuesday, November 1 2011, 5:28 PM
U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio’s bedroom eyes, pouty lips and honeyed voice make him the perfect candidate for a regular telenovela leading man.
Maybe that could be a change for the Cuban-American Republican senator from Florida and big Latino hope of the GOP, if, after his political career, Fox News can't find a has-been spot for him. One way or another, he's getting plenty of practice now.
For the last few weeks, Rubio's been the protagonist in one of those reality shows Florida is famous for, such as the ratings-busting sagas of “Elián González, the Dolphin Boy,” “Terry Schiavo: Unplugged,” “Electoral Hanging Chads 2000” and “Alberto Cutié, a Priest in Love,” to name just a few.
Rubio has been on the A-list as a vice presidential candidate to help attract disgruntled Latino voters. In the first episode, we see and hear that hype punctured when in early September birthers declared him not fully American.
Being the darling of the Tea Party didn't help him any in this purity test. Rubio was born in Miami in 1971, when his Cuba-born parents were not yet citizens themselves. According to the birthers' interpretation of the Constitution, this renders him ineligible to run for President or vice president.
In the second capítulo of the soap opera, the hero falls victim to an evil Spanish-language television plan that, according to Rubio's staff, tried to blackmail him into sitting down for an interview with who they consider the Lord Voldemort of Univision, anchor Jorge Ramos, the pro-immigration reform Fearless Warrior, in exchange for (the plot thickens) toning down a report on the drug bust of Rubio's brother-in-law two decades earlier.
The latest chapter finds El Marco caught in a biographical lie or the usual plot device of Deep Dark Family Secret that threatens the hero's success. Rubio has billed himself as “the son of exiles” who left the island to escape the death rays of Fidel Castro, the Cuban Darth Vader; this was a centerpiece of his narrative and a main selling point to win the vote of the Cuban community in Florida's Boardwalk Empire.
But in a surprising plot double-twist worthy of Alfred Hitchcock, an Enterprising Reporter digs out the fact that Rubio’s parents had actually come to the U.S. as run-of-the-mill immigrants in 1956, when Castro was still a beardless exile (a real one) in Mexico. The parents then (gasp) return to Havana in 1960 or 1961 after (double gasp) the revolution, maybe to stay for good … or to nurse the Grandfather who was run over by a bus… or not.
Millions of television viewers wait with bated breath for the conclusion of the story. But as with all classic Spanish soap operas, you have to hang in there for 30 or 40 more episodes to find the answer to questions such as: Can El Marco overcome all the bad publicity and still be picked as a running mate for the Republican nominee? If he is, will it make any difference to Latinos who are sick and tired of all the Republican hate-mongering and death by electricity at the border? Will he get a better haircut? Or, will he end up being the Sarah Palin of 2012, all coiffed and nowhere to go?
Stay tuned.
doloresprida@aol.com
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Tuesday, November 1 2011, 5:28 PM
U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio’s bedroom eyes, pouty lips and honeyed voice make him the perfect candidate for a regular telenovela leading man.
Maybe that could be a change for the Cuban-American Republican senator from Florida and big Latino hope of the GOP, if, after his political career, Fox News can't find a has-been spot for him. One way or another, he's getting plenty of practice now.
For the last few weeks, Rubio's been the protagonist in one of those reality shows Florida is famous for, such as the ratings-busting sagas of “Elián González, the Dolphin Boy,” “Terry Schiavo: Unplugged,” “Electoral Hanging Chads 2000” and “Alberto Cutié, a Priest in Love,” to name just a few.
Rubio has been on the A-list as a vice presidential candidate to help attract disgruntled Latino voters. In the first episode, we see and hear that hype punctured when in early September birthers declared him not fully American.
Being the darling of the Tea Party didn't help him any in this purity test. Rubio was born in Miami in 1971, when his Cuba-born parents were not yet citizens themselves. According to the birthers' interpretation of the Constitution, this renders him ineligible to run for President or vice president.
In the second capítulo of the soap opera, the hero falls victim to an evil Spanish-language television plan that, according to Rubio's staff, tried to blackmail him into sitting down for an interview with who they consider the Lord Voldemort of Univision, anchor Jorge Ramos, the pro-immigration reform Fearless Warrior, in exchange for (the plot thickens) toning down a report on the drug bust of Rubio's brother-in-law two decades earlier.
The latest chapter finds El Marco caught in a biographical lie or the usual plot device of Deep Dark Family Secret that threatens the hero's success. Rubio has billed himself as “the son of exiles” who left the island to escape the death rays of Fidel Castro, the Cuban Darth Vader; this was a centerpiece of his narrative and a main selling point to win the vote of the Cuban community in Florida's Boardwalk Empire.
But in a surprising plot double-twist worthy of Alfred Hitchcock, an Enterprising Reporter digs out the fact that Rubio’s parents had actually come to the U.S. as run-of-the-mill immigrants in 1956, when Castro was still a beardless exile (a real one) in Mexico. The parents then (gasp) return to Havana in 1960 or 1961 after (double gasp) the revolution, maybe to stay for good … or to nurse the Grandfather who was run over by a bus… or not.
Millions of television viewers wait with bated breath for the conclusion of the story. But as with all classic Spanish soap operas, you have to hang in there for 30 or 40 more episodes to find the answer to questions such as: Can El Marco overcome all the bad publicity and still be picked as a running mate for the Republican nominee? If he is, will it make any difference to Latinos who are sick and tired of all the Republican hate-mongering and death by electricity at the border? Will he get a better haircut? Or, will he end up being the Sarah Palin of 2012, all coiffed and nowhere to go?
Stay tuned.
doloresprida@aol.com
Monday, October 31, 2011
The facts of the matter: Marco Rubio is a typical capitalist politician: HE IS A LIAR!
The spin meisters at Marco Rubio's office are working overtime trying to contain the scandal surrounding Marco 'Baby Face' Rubio.
No matter what he or his spin handlers are saying, the facts of the matter are this: Marco Rubio's family left Cuba in May 1956, when the U.S. favorite political puppet, General Fulgencio Batista, was murdering the Cuban people right and left. He is only a "refugee" from Cuba's darkest seven years.
Like George W. Bush, when he invaded Iraq, Rubio has built his life and fake ideas on a LIE.
Would you buy a used car from this man? BUYER BEWARE!
No matter what he or his spin handlers are saying, the facts of the matter are this: Marco Rubio's family left Cuba in May 1956, when the U.S. favorite political puppet, General Fulgencio Batista, was murdering the Cuban people right and left. He is only a "refugee" from Cuba's darkest seven years.
Like George W. Bush, when he invaded Iraq, Rubio has built his life and fake ideas on a LIE.
Would you buy a used car from this man? BUYER BEWARE!
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Florida Capitalists are Desperate. They Turn to Gambling.
Where gambling goes corruption surely follow (see Nevada and New Jersey).
I was not surprised to read in the local printed media that a huge gambling conglomerate named Genting Corporation, a Malaysia based company, is willing to invest $236 million dollars in gambling facilities in Dade and Broward Counties in the state of Florida.
U.S. supported Cuban Dictator General Fulgencio Batista let the American Mafia come into Havana with their corrupt casinos in the 1950's.
The Cuban people wised up and they expelled General Batista and the American Mafia on January 1st., 1959, Cuba's Day of National Liberation.
Batista died in a Portuguese colony, forgotten by all. The American Mafia hightailed it to Miami, Florida, where they still reside.
I was not surprised to read in the local printed media that a huge gambling conglomerate named Genting Corporation, a Malaysia based company, is willing to invest $236 million dollars in gambling facilities in Dade and Broward Counties in the state of Florida.
U.S. supported Cuban Dictator General Fulgencio Batista let the American Mafia come into Havana with their corrupt casinos in the 1950's.
The Cuban people wised up and they expelled General Batista and the American Mafia on January 1st., 1959, Cuba's Day of National Liberation.
Batista died in a Portuguese colony, forgotten by all. The American Mafia hightailed it to Miami, Florida, where they still reside.
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Marco 'The Idiot' Rubio: he doesn't want you to fly to Cuba from Tampa
St. Petersburg Times
Rubio defends his stand against more Cuba flights
By Steve Huettel, Times Staff Writer
Posted: Oct 27, 2011 02:38 PM
TAMPA – Sen. Marco Rubio and Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce officials chose not to rekindle a battle over new flights to Cuba.
But during a visit here Thursday, the Miami Republican bristled at a reporter's suggestion that he tried to block flights from Tampa to protect Miami travel businesses.
"The idea that I'm a friend of the fly-to-Cuba-from-Miami crowd is absurd,'' he said at a press conference. "No one would criticize someone going to Cuba to see their dying mother. What we're opposed to is expansion of these new flights from Miami or anywhere else. The add more money to the (Castro) regime.''
In February, Rubio proposed an amendment to a Federal Aviation Authority funding bill that would have prohibited any additional flights between the United States and countries, such as Cuba, designated as "state sponsors of terrorism'' by the State Department.
At the time, charter flights to Cuba were restricted to three gateway cities: Miami, New York and Los Angeles.
Chamber CEO Robert Rohrlach fired off a letter to Rubio, saying that [he] benefited his hometown of Miami at the expense of Tampa Bay and four other Florida metro areas that were seeking non-stop flights to the island nation.
"I sincerely hope that you will withdraw (the amendment) in order to more accurately reflect the resolve of the entire state as opposed to the interests of a few.''
The amendment failed in the Senate. Tampa International and airports in Orlando, Fort Lauderdale, Jacksonville and Key West subsequently won federal approval for Cuba flights. Charter companies now fly twice weekly from Tampa International to Havana. Two additional weekly flights — one to Havana and one to Holguin— start in November.
Contact Steve Huettel at huettel@sptimes.com or (813) 226-3384.
[Last modified: Oct 27, 2011 02:39 PM]
-----
JG: Florida voters ought to have their heads examined for having elected this idiot to the U.S. Senate.
Rubio defends his stand against more Cuba flights
By Steve Huettel, Times Staff Writer
Posted: Oct 27, 2011 02:38 PM
TAMPA – Sen. Marco Rubio and Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce officials chose not to rekindle a battle over new flights to Cuba.
But during a visit here Thursday, the Miami Republican bristled at a reporter's suggestion that he tried to block flights from Tampa to protect Miami travel businesses.
"The idea that I'm a friend of the fly-to-Cuba-from-Miami crowd is absurd,'' he said at a press conference. "No one would criticize someone going to Cuba to see their dying mother. What we're opposed to is expansion of these new flights from Miami or anywhere else. The add more money to the (Castro) regime.''
In February, Rubio proposed an amendment to a Federal Aviation Authority funding bill that would have prohibited any additional flights between the United States and countries, such as Cuba, designated as "state sponsors of terrorism'' by the State Department.
At the time, charter flights to Cuba were restricted to three gateway cities: Miami, New York and Los Angeles.
Chamber CEO Robert Rohrlach fired off a letter to Rubio, saying that [he] benefited his hometown of Miami at the expense of Tampa Bay and four other Florida metro areas that were seeking non-stop flights to the island nation.
"I sincerely hope that you will withdraw (the amendment) in order to more accurately reflect the resolve of the entire state as opposed to the interests of a few.''
The amendment failed in the Senate. Tampa International and airports in Orlando, Fort Lauderdale, Jacksonville and Key West subsequently won federal approval for Cuba flights. Charter companies now fly twice weekly from Tampa International to Havana. Two additional weekly flights — one to Havana and one to Holguin— start in November.
Contact Steve Huettel at huettel@sptimes.com or (813) 226-3384.
[Last modified: Oct 27, 2011 02:39 PM]
-----
JG: Florida voters ought to have their heads examined for having elected this idiot to the U.S. Senate.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Friday, October 21, 2011
The Lies of Florida Senator Marco Rubio?
by The Associated Press
MIAMI October 21, 2011, 10:37 am ET
MIAMI (AP) — Florida's freshman U.S. senator and rising GOP star Marco Rubio is fighting back against allegations he embellished his family's history by claiming his parents were Cuban exiles.
Rubio's website says his parents came to America following Fidel Castro's 1959 takeover, and he has always publicly identified with the exile community. In turn he has maintained a strong and loyal political following within its Miami hub.
But media reports Thursday revealed his parents emigrated to the U.S. in 1956, when Cuban dictator Fulgencia Batista was still in power and Fidel Castro had just been released from prison and exiled in Mexico. Rubio's father was a bartender at a Havana hotel when he and his wife left, and Rubio's staff said he came for economic reasons.
The story was first reported by the St. Petersburg Times.
Rubio responded to the report with a statement saying his parents had tried to return to Cuba in March of 1961 in hopes that things were improving on the island post-revolution but quickly left because they did not want to live under communism.
"My parents are from Cuba. After arriving in the United States, they had always hoped to one day return to Cuba if things improved and traveled there several times," he wrote. "In 1961, my mother and older siblings did in fact return to Cuba while my father stayed behind wrapping up the family's matters in the U.S. After just a few weeks living there, she fully realized the true nature of the direction Castro was taking Cuba and returned to the United States one month later, never to return."
The return date is significant because it means Rubio's family planned to return to the island just as more than a thousand Cuban exiles from Miami were preparing for their doomed April 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion in order to topple Castro's fledgling government.
Even if his parents were initially hopeful that things would be better under Fidel Castro, they would have been among the many Cubans who later fled the country after supporting the revolution and opposing the corruption under Batista.
Source: TPM
Friday, October 15, 2010
~ Disney Magic Kingdom & Epcot ~
Too bad my eyes were closed...The second portion of our trip in Florida had us spending two days at Disney World. The first day we went to Magic Kingdom which was very busy due to it being a holiday (Columbus Day). The whole park was Halloween'ed up with orange banners & Mickey Mouse pumpkins everywhere. Of course the first attraction we hit was Space Mountain which is always a blast. I did not realize they did a major renovation of Space Mountain in 2009 and added an additional track. The Haunted Mansion was even better than I remembered from my last trip in the late 1980's. Epcot was wonderful as well and I really enjoyed "Captain EO" and "Mission Space."
I had so much fun in Florida I did not want to come back to Maryland. The mid 80 degree blue skies and pool time will be missed. Back to Fall...well at least we have Halloween to look forward to soon!
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