FlaNative's Blog

Please delete my last post concerning Ms Thompson.  Didn't realize she had two posts with same subject.

Once again, the Democrats are backtracking, now saying they will give Fla and Mich FULL voting at the convention!!!

So, does that mean Fla will vote for Hillary?  What about Mich?  If both states vote for Hillary, does she have enough votes to win, or has there been a backroom deal where they are ONLY given their rights IF they vote for NoBama????

First, they deny the candidate with the popular vote the nomination (although it was wrong for Bush to win against Gore without the popular vote according to them).  Now, they are going back on their word about penalizing Fla and Mich.

What will they lie about next???

Well, looks like we are about to be bombarded with the coverage of the Democratic Convention next week. 

You know. the SAME DEMOCRATS that cried, whined and complained about Bush winning the election although Gore had won the "popular" vote.

So, my question is....Hillary won the popular vote during the Democratic nomination, but Barrak is the nominee.  Why hasn't there been the SAME OUTRAGE????  Where are the leaders of the DNC on the nightly news saying the election was STOLEN from Hillary?  Why no slogans of Barrack cheating his way into the nomination????

If (and that's a BIG "IF") the DNC had ONE OUNCE of integrity (yea, that's gonna happen) they would select Hillary as the nominee of the party!!!!!

 

 

Why I'm Voting Democrat
 
I'm voting Democrat because I believe the government will do a better
job of spending the money I earn than I would.
 
I'm voting Democrat because freedom of speech is fine as long as nobody
is offended by it.
 
I'm voting Democrat because when we pull out of Iraq I trust that the
bad guys will stop what they're doing because they now think we're good
people.
 
I'm voting Democrat because I believe that people who can't tell us if
it will rain on Friday CAN tell us that the polar ice caps will melt
away in ten years if I don't start driving a Prius.
 
I'm voting Democrat because I'm not concerned about the slaughter of
millions of babies so long as we keep all death row inmates alive.
 
I'm voting Democrat because I believe that business should not be
allowed to make profits for themselves. They need to break even and give
the rest away to the government for redistribution as THEY see fit.
 
I'm voting Democrat because I believe three or four pointy headed
elitist liberals need to rewrite the Constitution every few days to suit
some fringe kooks who would NEVER get their agendas past the voters.
 
I'm voting Democrat because I believe that when the terrorists don't
have to hide from us over there, when they come over here I don't want
to have any guns in the house to fight them off with.
 
I'm voting Democrat because I love the fact that I can now marry
whatever I want. I've decided to marry my horse.
 
I'm voting Democrat because I believe oil companies' profits of 4% on a
gallon of gas are obscene but the government taxing the same gallon of
gas at 15% isn't.
 
I'm voting Democrat because I believe $4 a gallon for an abundant
resource is plenty low enough.
 
 

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't the Republicans PREDICT higher unemployment if the minimum wage was raised???   In Florida, didn't the Republicans PREDICT higher than national average unemployment if voters approved a 1 dollar above the minimum wage increase, that passed????

So now, unemployment has increased (some the typical summer increase), and everyone wants to blame Bush!!!!!

Why have FOX, CNN, MSNBC, etc reported this???  The Republicans once again were correct...the Dems once again are trying to blame Reps for something THEY caused!!

 

At the TAXPAYER expense, Tim Mahoney, D-Palm Beach Gardens, sent our flyers this 4th of July with a picture of a veteran wearing his medals  on the front.  Problem is, it was a SOVIET RED ARMY SOLDIER!!!   Maybe the Dems need to figure out which military they support!!

"Is a taxpayer-funded mail piece featuring a Soviet veteran who defended communism really the way that Congressman Mahoney wants to 'honor' our men and women in uniform?" Greer stated. "Floridian's hard-earned tax dollars should never be used to promote a communist veteran, whether it is a mistake or not, and it is time for Tim Mahoney to reimburse the taxpayers of Congressional District 16 for this ridiculous waste of money, not to mention his insensitivity and complete lack of understanding of veterans' issues."

http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2008/jul/02/mahoneys
-office-apologizes-for-using-soviet-on/

OK, I've never been accused of being the sharpest knife in the drawer, but I have a little bit of sense.  Does Obama support the decision or not???

I thought "Wild" Bill was bad about leading by opinion poll, but he seems to have had nothing compared to Obama!!

Obama said he has "always believed that the 2nd Amendment protects the right of individuals to bear arms, but I also identify with the need for crime-ravaged communities to save their children from the violence that plagues our streets through common-sense, effective safety measures."

The newest quartley report is out on Iraq today....

Why is it, with the surge working, continued improvements in Iraq, the Obama still wants out immediately???   There is still work to do, granted, but to cut, run and surrender when we are THIS CLOSE is just stupid!!!

Will he go to each family who lost a loved one there and say "your son died in vain, too bad"????

 

The report, required by Congress, says violence in Iraq has fallen to its lowest level in four years, with some categories down as much as 80 percent. Still, there are dozens of attacks every day, most of them in Baghdad and three northern provinces, with about 40 large-scale attacks in the month of May.

Admiral Mike Mullen (file photo)

The report praises the Iraqi government for progress in developing and using its security forces against both Sunni and Shiite extremists, and for progress on some political issues. But the report also calls the gains "fragile, reversible and uneven." That sentiment was echoed Monday by the top U.S. military officer, Admiral Mike Mullen.

"Iraq's in a much better place than it was a year ago, across the board - politically, economically and from a security standpoint," said Admiral Mullen. "I see that when I visit there, and clearly just to talk to the brigades who have recently returned, they confirm that. But we're not at the sustainable point yet. We're not at the irreversible point yet."

The Pentagon's quarterly Iraq report says a major factor in the progress has been the willingness of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis to reject extremism and begin to work with the government. The trend started among Sunnis in al-Anbar Province, but the report says it has now spread to Shiites in many parts of the country. The report says there are now more than 100,000 men in so-called 'Sons of Iraq' groups, working with the Iraqi police and army to maintain order and keep insurgents and terrorists out of local areas.

According to the report, Iran continues "to fund, train, arm and guide" Shiite militias, in spite of promises to stop. The report says, during recent operations in Basra, Iraqi security forces found caches of weapons that were manufactured in Iran this year.

The report also points to improvements in the capacity of the Iraqi army and police, but says the progress varies from place to place. On Monday, the Number Two U.S. commander in Iraq, Lieutenant General Lloyd Austin, said the Iraqis still need to be backed up by U.S. forces, but he believes U.S. and Iraqi troops can continue to make security gains, even though U.S. troop levels are being reduced by about 20,000.

"We have, over the last several months, been engaged in some pretty significant activity from time to time," said General Austin. "As we faced al-Qaida in the north, we also faced a pretty significant fight against JAM [Jesh al-Mahdi, Mahdi Army] Special Groups criminals in the areas of Basra and Sadr City. And we did all that while our footprint was getting smaller. But I think the results speak for themselves. We've been fairly effective."

http://voanews.com/english/2008-06-23-voa62.cfm

 

This would be REALLY funny if not so true....

 

OLD VERSION:
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.

The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.

Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed.  The grasshopper has no food or shelter, so he dies out in the cold.

MORAL OF THE STORY:  Be responsible for yourself!

MODERN VERSION:
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.

The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.

Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.  CBS, NBC, PBS, CNN, and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food. America is stunned by the sharp contrast.

How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?
Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper, and everybody cries when they sing, "It's Not Easy Being Green."

Jesse Jackson stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house where the news stations film the group singing, "We shall overcome."  Jesse then has the group kneel down to pray to God for the grasshopper's sake.  Nancy Pelosi & John Kerry exclaim in an interview with Larry King that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and both call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his fair share.

Finally, the EEOC drafts the Economic Equity & Anti-Grasshopper Act retroactive to the beginning of the summer.

The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the government.  Hillary gets her former employer, the Rose Law Firm, to represent the grasshopper in a defamation suit against the ant, and the case is tried before a jury comprised of single-parent welfare recipients.  The ant loses the case.

The story ends as we see the grasshopper finishing up the last bits of the ant's food while the government house he is in, which just happens to be the ant's old house, crumbles around him because he doesn't maintain it.

The ant has disappeared in the snow.  The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize the once peaceful neighborhood.

MORAL OF THE STORY:  Be careful how you vote.

 

 

Some interesting stuff.  Delegate vote fixing?  In fighting?  What else is there??

 

http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_politics/2008
/06/obama-wont-like.html

It is not going to be a good day for Barack Obama's Florida finance chairman Kirk Wagar.

Late Thursday, Florida DNC member Jon Ausman released excerpts from a series of e-mail exchanges in which Wagar, a Miami lawyer, criticizes U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson and rips into Ausman with the kind of language we'd never get into the newspaper.

"You (expletive) us," a June 6 note from Wagar to Ausman says. "We are dealing with it. You need to accept the fact that you (expletive) us."

Another note reads: "If 30 people are all that are (expletive) off ... we have done pretty well."

About Nelson, Wagar wrote, "I am getting very sick of Nelson making a bad situation worse" and "Let me be clear as a bell: As of right now, you (Ausman) have made a difficult situation worse. We have been put in a bad situation by Leonard (Joseph) and Nelson and you have just thrown your lot in with them."

Leonard Joseph is the executive director of the Florida Democratic Party.

The dispute centers on how delegates to the Democratic National Convention will be selected. Ausman has said he is concerned that the Obama campaign will try to remove some delegates -- as many as 30 -- and replace them with people who have been more supportive of the Illinois senator.

Ausman said that dismissing some delegates in favor of handpicked supporters would hurt party unity and make it harder for Democrats of different stripes to rally around the presumed nominee.

Ausman is the Tallahassee Democrat who drew national attention with his efforts to get Florida's representatives to the Democratic convention reinstated. The DNC had stripped the state of those delegates as a punishment for violating party primary rules. During his campaign, Ausman kept in constant touch with the media, e-mailing them with updates on his progress.

After an agreement was reached on how to seat the delegates -- each one would get half a vote -- Ausman and Wagar began corresponding over who would actually be seated. Ausman, in the message sent late Thursday to reporters, suggests Wagar became hostile.

Wagar, in an apology/explanation he prepared said he was "sorry" for and "embarassed" by the language and tone he used. But he said Ausman had become difficult to work with.

"At every turn, Jon Ausman demanded his pound of flesh," Wagar's e-mail said. "This was about Jon's ego and his view that control over party rules was his only power."

With respect to Nelson, Wagar said that he and the senator also disagreed over the process for selecting the delegates. But Wagar insisted that he didn't "malign (Nelson) in private nor in the excerpts Jon blasted out." He accused Ausman of using "out of context snippets" from what were admittedly "sometimes heated arguments."

The details of the dispute will matter only to political wonks, but its disclosure makes for bad public relations. The Obama campaign desperately wants to win Florida, but it now may first have to explain why its finance chief here is dissing a sitting Democratic senator and dropping the "F-bomb" on other party officials.

Ausman's e-mail is included below followed by Wagar's response.

Dear Mr. Wagar:   This evening I received an email from you (which is provided in its entirety below) in which you are surprised and hurt that some of the notes I received from you are painful.  I have never told a single person you have mistreated me.   When I filed the appeals before the Democratic National Committee Rules and Bylaws Committee I was trying to begin the healing process so Florida Democrats could unite and more forward together.   However, Kirk, as the Obama Florida Finance Chair you represent the campaign.  When you make disparging about others to me, issue threats or insult me directly some might call that mistreatment.   As an ambassador for Senator Obama I would hope you would be more temperate, more inclusionary, more embracing of others, more unifying.   We are at a point in time when we need to heal and come together.  Help me understand how these messages, which you have sent to me in writing, help Senator Obama's campaign.  I only am sending you some of the more recent messages you have sent me.   

You (Jon Ausman) (expetive) us. We are dealing with it. You need to accept the fact that you (expletive) us.

 

Kirk Wagar, 6 June 2008, 4:40 PM

 

 

   

The process is just beginning and we are trying to amass credentials so   no one gets (expletive)….People (already selected as delegates) who simply want a   free trip to Denver are not my concern.

 

Kirk Wager, 6 June 2008 at 7:17 PM

 

 

   

Let me be as clear as a bell, as of right now you (Jon Ausman) have   made a difficult situation worse. We have been put in a bad situation by   Leonard (Joseph) and (Senator) Nelson and you have just thrown your lot in   with them.

 

Kirk Wager, 6 June 2008 at 8:14 AM

From: Kirk Wagar
Sent: Friday, June 13, 2008 12:41 AM
To: Kirk W.B. Wagar
Subject: Jon Ausman's email

 

Friends and fellow Democrats

 

I don’t know if you have received Florida DNC member Jon Ausman’s email about me yet but I assume you will.  He has chosen to subject folks to out of context snippets from some ongoing and sometimes heated arguments we have had over the course of this campaign.  I apologize for the profanity that you were subjected too.  it is a vice of mine that I try to minimize but seems to rear it’s head with more frequency when I deal with Jon.

 

I have been told over the years that I should ignore Jon and never engage with him, even when I agree with him, because in the end, it is all about Jon.  That seems to be the case.  I will not go chapter and verse through the substance of his email but I will provide my context for anything that I think might be misconstrued.

 

Number 1, when I was referring to making a difficult situation worse, I was specifically talking about the fact that we asked that at the very least, the PLEO and AT Large Delegates not be selected until after the DNC Rules and By Laws Committee ruled.  I asked both Leonard Joseph and Senator Nelson’s office to support waiting and they made a decision to go forward for tactical reasons.  I disagreed with it but they were perfectly entitled to make that decision and I don’t fault them for it.  I don’t think it is debatable that it made the delegate situation harder to deal with after the fact given that the Obama campaign did not participate in the elections, but it is not like anyone died.  It was and is simply a situation that has to be dealt with.  Both Leonard and Senator Nelson’s office know that I wanted a different outcome and I did not malign them in private nor in the excerpts Jon blasted out.  I have worked with Leonard for years, long before he came to Florida, and I have worked very hard for and with Senator Nelson.  On this issue we disagreed and despite Jon’s effort to twist it into something more, it isn’t.

 

Number 2, I fundamentally believe that the Obama campaign should be able to send the delegates that most deserve it to the convention and because that the campaign did not participate in the process and strike anyone, people who knew the system were able to get a slate passed of people that were important to them and their local politics.  There is nothing untoward about those individuals putting forth a slate in the absence of the Obama campaign participating.  I do not think it is appropriate that that slate stands unchallenged now that the DNC RBC has ruled on Jon’s appeal, but that is MY opinion, not of the campaign.  I have great respect for both Dianne Glasser and Bret Berlin and consider Bret a good friend.  I would have done exactly what they did.  My point has always been that I personally don’t think that it should be binding on a campaign that did not participate and now that there is an opportunity to at least try to fix the situation, we should.

 

Number 3, I have no idea what he is talking about with regards to Gerry McEntee because I would have never in a million years thought he would be having conversations with Jon Ausman. 

 

For the past 2 weeks, I have poured over the lists of Obama delegates, tried to find every avenue to have everyone who should be a delegate either be one or get similar credentials, talked to numerous party leaders to try to find a way to make sure everyone or almost everyone would end this final process of the primary pleased and united.  At every turn Jon Ausman demanded his pound of flesh.  The mistake I made, in addition to language that I am extremely embarrassed about circulating to good Democrats around the state, was trying to rationally discuss alternatives with Jon.  This was about Jon’s ego and his view that control over party rules was his only power.

 

I am sorry you were brought into this.  I am sorry that I used unprofessional language with Jon, despite it being a two way street in the back and forth, but most importantly, I am sorry that we cannot do anything in a simple and succinct manner so we can win this state in November for Barack Obama.

 

I have no idea who Jon sent this to so if someone forwards you something with a “What the heck is this” email, please feel free to forward my response.

 

 

Kirk Wagar

 

If 30 people (after we purge them) are all that are (expletive) off…we have   done pretty well.

 

Kirk Wager, 6 June 2008 at 7:17 PM

 

 

 

…you (Jon Ausman) really convinced yourself that you are doing anything   other than fighting for political backroom deals?

 

Kirk Wagar, 12 June 2008, 7:27 PM

 

 

 

That would suck. Tell him   (AFSCME International President Gerald McEntee) we will remember.

 

Kirk Wager, 3 June 2008, 9:45 AM

 

 

 

I am getting very sick of (Senator) Nelson making a bad situation   worse.

 

Kirk Wager, 1 May 2008, 4:33 PM

 

 

 

 

So you are comfortable with the 4 people, for example, that Dianne   (Glasser) negotiated on (Bret) Berlin's slate that have done nothing for   Barack and no one in Broward knows?  Come on!!!

 

Kirk Wager, 6 June 2008, 8:14 AM

It would be my suggestion the Obama Florida Finance Chair publicly apologize to Senator Bill Nelson, AFSCME International President Gerald McEntee, Florida Democratic Party First Vice-Chair Diane Glasser and Florida Democratic Party Executive Director Leonard Joseph.

 

Rather then criticizing others in a most negative way it might be more helpful for Senator Obama if you praise those who can make a contribution to the effort to defeat Bush's candidate to carry on his failed policies.  Praise, oddly enough, often encourages people to work harder.

 

If you have any questions, please either call me at ... or write me at ...

With respect, I am,

Jon M. Ausman, Member

They used to be called "bums".  Then it was "homeless". 

Today, I was surfing some channels (NASCAR off week) and Beach Patrol is on.  Lifeguards/cops at a California beach.  They approach a few bums/homeless urinating and exposing themselves in the park, but several times referred to them as "OUTDOOR PEOPLE"!!!  Guess that's going to be the new name!!  I always thought "outdoor" people were the folks camping at KOA or state parks, not living under the overpass trying to get you to give them a buck!!!

 

Yea, it's been around for awhile...but it's still funny...and TRUE!!

The Republican Fisherman

A woman in a hot air balloon realized she was lost. She lowered her
altitude and spotted a man in a boat below. She shouted to him, 'Excuse   me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but  I don't know where I am.'

The man consulted his portable GPS and replied, 'You're in a hot air
balloon, approximately 30 feet above a ground elevation of 2346 feet
above sea level. You are at 31 degrees, 14.97 minutes north latitude and 100  degrees, 49.09 minutes west longitude.'

She rolled her eyes and said, 'You must be a Republican.'

'I am,' replied the man. 'How did you know?'

'Well,' answered the balloonist, ' everything you told me is
technically correct, but I have no idea what to do with your information, and I'm  still lost. Frankly, you've not been much help to me.'

The man smiled and responded, 'You must be a Democrat.'

'I am,' replied the balloonist. 'How did you know?'

'Well,' said the man, 'you don't know where you are or where you are
going. You've risen to where you are, due to a large quantity of hot air. You  made a promise that you have no idea how to keep, and you expect me to solve  your problem. You're in exactly the same position you were in before we  met, but, somehow, now it's my fault.'

Seems Howard Dean is having second thoughts on seating Fla delegates...again.  It's going to be really interesting to see who he allows to be seated, and who they will HAVE to vote for!!!   Wonder who is paying who off in this!!

Howard Dean said for the first time Wednesday that he will do everything he can to seat Florida's delegates at the presidential-nominating convention in Denver and that they will even have some hotel rooms to sleep in.

What the Democratic National Committee chairman didn't say was how many of the state's 211 delegates would be invited -- and for whom they would be allowed to vote.

After a morning meeting with a Florida delegation, including state-party Chairwoman Karen Thurman, Dean said many details still need to be worked out and approved by presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

But the Floridians said the chairman's promise to work to seat Florida's delegation was a breakthrough in the impasse that has left state Democrats wondering whether they would be left out of the August convention.

"We are committed to do everything in our power to seat the Florida delegation," Dean said after meeting with Florida's nine House Democrats, U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson and Thurman. It was a marked change of tone for Dean, who has been critical of Florida and Michigan, also stripped of its delegates, for breaking party rules by moving up their primaries.

The DNC took away all 211 of Florida's delegates. Clinton won the Jan. 29 primary by 17 percentage points and has pushed for using those results to allot the 185 delegates that were supposed to be awarded by the vote.

That would give her 38 more than Obama, with 13 others pledged to former candidate John Edwards. She currently trails Obama by about 150 pledged delegates nationally.

By contrast, the Obama camp has proposed divvying up the Florida delegates evenly because the Jan. 29 vote was not legal under party rules.


Previous proposals

The meeting with Dean comes after the state party rejected a proposal to redo the primary with a mail-in ballot. Subsequent proposals by Nelson and others to allow seating half the Florida delegation also have gone nowhere.

For his part, Dean didn't say how many delegates would be invited to Denver or how they would be allotted. Instead, a joint statement released by Dean and the Floridians said, "We all agree that whatever the solution, it must have the support of both campaigns."

Spokesmen for both campaigns reacted cautiously.

"You really have to take a look at the particulars," said Clinton spokesman Phil Singer. "The devil is always in the details."

Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs said Dean's statement was "consistent with what we'd like," but how to split the delegates still needs to be worked out.


Legislators optimistic

Florida lawmakers were upbeat. U.S. Rep. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, hailed "a breakthrough to have the chairman say he's going to do everything he can."

Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Weston, a Clinton supporter, said Dean's tone was much less combative than it had been.

"He's finally realized it's counterproductive to our goal of electing the next president of the United States to continue to insist on punishing the state," she said.

The joint statement declared: "While there may be differences of opinion in how we get there, we are all committed to ensuring that Florida's delegation is seated in Denver."

Florida is the largest of the nation's swing states, and both parties will target it in the November election. A Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday showed Clinton would edge presumptive Republican nominee John McCain by 44 percent to 42 percent if the race were held today. McCain would beat Obama 46 percent to 37 percent, according to the poll.

Clinton is ahead of Obama by 9 percentage points in the next large primary contest: Pennsylvania, according to the Quinnipiac poll.

Wasserman Schultz said no Florida deal is likely to be hammered out until after that April 22 Pennsylvania vote. But in the meantime, Florida Democrats at least know they will have a place to sleep in Denver, according to Dean. Previously, the DNC had said there was no room at the inn for Florida.

"You would not believe the importance of having a hotel," said U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown, D-Jacksonville.


http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/politics/orl-dems0
308apr03,0,3423992.story

 

In typical liberal actions, the "I support the troops but not the war" liberals at UCF once again show their true colors, defacing signs of support that were to be sent to the troops in Iraq.  Good job cowards!!!

 I have tried to practice my retirement with gusto
> and refrain from
> getting involved in things my kids' generation
> should be attending.
>
>
>
> Since they are not 'attending' and in view of the
> current wave of chaos
> and discontent, I have a plan:
>
>
>
> a.. Back off and let those men who want to marry
> men, marry men.
>
> b.. Allow those women who want to marry women, marry
> women.
>
> c.. Allow those folks who want to abort their
> babies, abort their
> babies.
>
> d... In three generations, there will be no
> Democrats.
>
> I love it when a plan comes together.
>
> May as well be his...he will get blamed anyway!!!