Your Evening Sift

The weekend is here, folks!

It was a pretty good Friday in the SoFla blogosphere but I have to say that I've reached my limit with Michael Jackson posts. No more. There's a lot more to come, unfortunately, but from this point on, SFDB will be Jacko Free. Count on it.

Have a great evening and enjoy your Sift...

A- The Cuban Triangle explains in very simple terms why wet foot/dry foot delays change in Cuba.

The reason is simple: our exceptional immigration policy toward Cubans tells them that if they want to come to the United States, they will be admitted even if they have no visa, and once they arrive they will receive federal benefits. One can argue that this makes sense on humanitarian grounds, but the policy and the message it sends strongly undercuts any impetus toward political change. In effect, it encourages Cubans who are discontented and want to do something about it, to leave their country rather than stay and work for change.

B- New photos of Miami's underbelly are posted over at The Street.

C- Bark Bark Woof Woof addresses the hypocrisy of the Republican Party when it comes to sexual scandals.

When the news broke that Sen. David Vitter (R-LA), Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) and then Gov. Mark Sanford (R-SC) had confessed to having extramarital affairs (and in the case of Mr. Vitter, engaged the services of a prostitute), the knee-jerk reaction among the conservatives was to respond with "Spitzer-Edwards-Clinton did it too!" even if no one had brought up the former Governor of New York, the former Senator from North Carolina and presidential candidate, or the former president. It was a preemptive attempt to inoculate them from accusations of hypocrisy by distraction. It's a juvenile response and it really doesn't work because a) it's irrelevant, and b) why would conservatives, who make a living bashing liberals or anyone who doesn't toe their line of granular morality, want to compare themselves to people they view as moral degenerates?

D- The Grove is full of unique characters, as Coconut Grove Grapevine shows us.

E- Miami Bike Scene posts the 411 for next week's Loose Cannons ride.

F- Anthony's Coal-Fired Pizza wins Food For Thought's pizza poll but Round 3 of the Pizza Crawl is next week.

G- Get acquainted with the owner of Kafa Cafe, an Ethiopian restaurant, and the food they serve with this interesting post from Sex and the Beach.

The food at Kafa Café is delicious and even more so because it's home-cooked and unpretentious. We like that kind of thing around here! For me, it's like comfort food with an exotic twist. Come here enough and I'm sure you'll feel the same way.

H- Holy Crap takes FIU to task for the energy-sucking plasma TVs that the school is using.

Why were all these plasma TVs bought when the school has such a big budget deficit? You would think that the Graduate School of Business Administration would like to waste less money. Do you know how much electricity those plasma waste? 650 watts apiece. At four plasmas in the main area that’s 2600 Watts.

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