Your Morning Sift

Good morning.

Sheesh, you folks were busy last night. I suppose it was the holiday weekend push before the computers get turned off for the next few days. Here's your TGIF, Memorial Day Weekend morning Sift.

A- Obalesque whips out some stinging political commentary after Republicans decide they really don't want to say half of the United States are Socialists.

A rational observer might question the re-branding strategy after a failed campaign that tried labeling the opposition candidate a Muslim, Alien, Elitist, Narcissist, Socialist, Pretender, and of course, Radical. But then, rational people wouldn’t have launched a war against a nation that didn’t attack or threaten us, while abandoning efforts to bring to justice those that did.

I keep hearing (from BOTH sides!) how a strong opposition party is essential to preserve the integrity of our government. But the current opposition party, working on about a 20% popularity rating among the citizens, seems hell-bent on putting the lie to that axiom. Maybe this is their way of remaining faithful to their conviction that evolution is a myth.

Or maybe they just hate America. There’s a cheery thought to start your Memorial Day weekend.

B- South Beach Condos Blog has the news that Penthouse at Continuum South Beach sold for $15 million under it's listed price. A link to some pretty gorgeous pictures are included in the post.

C- Sex and the Beach posts Part 2 of her experience at the Rum Renaissance Festival.

Among those I managed to sample: Rhum J.M from Martinique, Cruzan from St. Croix, Appleton Estate from Jamaica, Mount Gay from Barbados, Zaya from Trinidad, Oronoco from Brazil, Castries Rum Creme from Saint Lucia, Caldas from Colombia, Zacapa from Guatemala and of course, the ubiquitous Bacardi from Puerto Rico.

D- Oh, how Eye on Miami despises County Commissioner Seijas.

E- Food For Thought submits SoFla's first review of the new Pizzavolante.

So - best pizza in Miami? Too early to tell. I'll need to complete the Pizza Showdown before making any pronouncements. But there's already much here to enjoy: multiple varieties of fresh mozarrella with lots of savory accompaniments; really good pizza with high quality ingredients at a very fair price: and good cheap wines to wash it all down.

F- Artlurker discusses an exhibition at the Dorsch Gallery that bears a very long name.

G- Miami City Diggs profiles the Meridian Lofts, a place I almost always drive past on my way to or from South Beach.

The Meridian Lofts are located on Meridian Avenue and right off the Miami Beach Golf Course. The building is located on the tip of a high end residential area of South Beach and it is also a couple of blocks to all of the hot spots. It is easy to catch a cab from this location or just walk to your destination.

H- Brickell Life has an old video from the '70's that shows what life was like back then on South Beach.

Those were different times and South Beach was a different place. If I close my eyes hard enough, I can faintly remember visiting my old and frail grandmother on the Beach just before they moved her into a senior home off Kendall Drive. This was a poor South Beach, where Grandma Bessie and her friends lived meagerly off social security checks and walked to the local delicatessen occasionally for something to eat. It was a landscape dominated by the flickering of black and white TVs in windowpanes and folding chairs scattered around the front porches of once proud art deco buildings.

I- Bark Bark Woof Woof on "preventive detention."

This isn't a liberal or a conservative issue; it's the basic foundation of our system of justice: you are innocent until you're proven guilty, not until we can find enough evidence to make the case. There shouldn't be exceptions to this, and it shouldn't be based on the question of whether or not a suspect is a prisoner of war, an "enemy combatant," a person of interest, or just a bunch of anti-Semitic crack addicts in the Bronx. The United States Constitution wasn't written in the abstract; it was -- and still is -- a clear and practical foundation of both laws and ideas. The men who wrote it knew all too well what the unlimited reach of a monarch could do, and they knew all too well what it was like to live in reactionary times; the American Revolution was still a vivid and recent memory at the time it was crafted. Put in perspective, the times were just as perilous for the nation then as they were on September 12, 2001. Yet the Founding Fathers did not waver from the idea that justice had to be based on the evidence and that defendants were owed a fair trial based on what the prosecution could prove.

J- Both President Obama and Dick Cheney gave speeches yesterday and Generation Miami compares and contrasts them.

Besides the ridiculousness of a disgraced former VP continuing his No Shame tour, today’s dual speeches should be an eye opener. This is not merely “two opposing worldviews”. This is the contrast between the rule of law and a rogue government. Bottom line is one trusts our system and institutions, the other does not. One abides by our laws, hard as the process may be. The other disregarded and ignored them, tried to put himself and his office above them or tried to rewrite them when convenient. One is openly discussing the black marks left on our country by torture. The other is trying to justify those black marks, after trying his damnest to keep those black marks away from the public eyes forever.

K- Shorter 26th Parallel...

Dick Cheney is da bomb!

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