Your Evening Sift

I think it's here that I lament the passage of another weekend. Not going to this week because each one brings me closer to my fall excursion to the Colorado mountains where folks actually walk to their cars in the morning without sweating through their shirts. Can you imagine? Here's your evening Sift.

A- Discourse posts a passage from a Washington Post political writer who says that the Republican Party's strategy of bringing this Nation to her knees with a gun to her head could actually work.

B- Swampy South Florida commentary from Swampstyle.

C- There's lots of business news over at Belle Isle Blog.

A block away, the under-construction Fresh Market is taking shape toward a possible October opening.

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South Florida Cartoons

Chan Lowe, Sun-Sentinel

Jim Morin, Miami Herald

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Up, Up and Away!

Videos and photos from the 12th Lorraine World Air Balloon Festival, in Chambley-Bussieres, France, for your Sunday afternoon...



More photos here.

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Your Mid-Afternoon Sift

We're still alive here at SFDB HQ, just making it a lazy Sunday drinking coffee and watching movies while the world seems hot enough to melt outside. Enjoy your mid-afternoon Sift.

A- Duffy's Sports Grill doesn't make a very good mojito, according to Miamism's latest mojito review.

B- Make some mango jam with Redland Rambles.

Voila! We had jam! It wasn’t that difficult to make. The hardest part, and it’s not really that hard, is to track down canning supplies. Kattia bought jars, lids and canning paraphernalia at a nearby Super Wal-Mart. If your local store doesn’t carry what you need, you can find canning kits and jars online. Labels would be helpful if you’re making a batch to give away.

C- As part of their Miami Music Week, The Heat Lightning takes a look at Pool Party.

D- South Florida Food and Wine asks Chef Youssef Hammi of The Secret Garden at The Pillars Hotel in Fort Lauderdale a few questions.

South Florida Food and Wine: Where do you get your culinary inspiration?

Youssef Hammi: Many times, people ask me this very same question, personally, I get inspired by the seasons and my surroundings. Also, the fact that I go shopping every day, and see what’s fresh in the markets is in itself a blessing that many chefs don’t get to enjoy.

E- Bark Bark Woof Woof looks back at 10 years in Miami.

In a way, it's hard to believe it's been a decade that I've been back in Miami. In a lot of ways I still feel like a newcomer. I still have a strong connection with New Mexico, including being the defender of New Mexico Spanglish among a lot of other different accents and dialects. I still miss the glory of the mountains and the spectacular New Mexico sunsets, and I still have yet to find a place in South Florida that does huevos rancheros the right way. But I'm glad to be here and able to look back at all the amazing blessings that have come my way.

F- Eye on Miami issues a fever-induced review of their commenting policy.

I decided to take this opportunity, half zoned by fever, to talk about your comments that I have been moderating while sick. When we allow anonymous comments it does bring out the crazies. We just don't get the crazies from Miami we get the Republican Trolls who look for key words and pounce upon them. They do this Nationwide. Their comments are easy to identify, they came out in force on my post about a Sarah Palin on Friday. I am determined not to give these folks a voice.

G- The Reid Report looks at what a "win" would look like for the politicians currently engaged in trying to iron out our economic problems.

I can’t remember who originated this, but someone on Twitter threw out the brilliant line last week that somewhere, Nancy Pelosi is watching all of this, smiling widely and stroking a bald, white cat. Pelosi on the one hand has been marginalized in the debate, since no one seems to be negotiating with her. On the other hand, she gets to sit back and watch John Boehner demonstrate day after day that he can’t do her job. As speaker, Nancy Pelosi ran circles around poor Boehner, and he knows it. Now, all she needs is for him to come to her, as he’s going to have to, and watch her deliver the votes. In the process, she can exact a price — protecting entitlements and critical programs like Pell grants, WIC and assistance to the poor. Then, she’ll be a hero to the liberals in her caucus, and to Democrats around the country.

Personally, I would settle for a win for America.



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SFDB Saturday Night Turndown Service

Pat Metheny, And I Love Her



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Your Evening Sift

Things were a bit busier in the South Florida blogosphere today than they were last Saturday. The SFDB Weekend Widget in the right sidebar continues to be updated so check it out. Enjoy your evening Sift and your evening, readers. Stop back in for a nice, easy turndown service tonight at 10.

A- Roy Black responds to critics of his last post that urged UM to improve their law school.

What would happen if the football team was ranked 77th? Would the fans and student body say the rankings are unimportant? Or the polls didn’t use the right factors? Or don’t worry, by summer we will go to the beach and forget it? Can you envision a stadium full of fans with orange foam fingers with #77 on them? Cheerfully chanting “we are number 77!” I am willing to bet the coach would be immediately fired. An enormous effort would go into radically changing the program. No one would stand for it. We would do a national search for the right coach and pay him several million dollars to fix the disaster. Lots of money would be thrown at the problem. The president of this university takes football personally. It is a point of pride. Too bad she doesn’t feel the same about the law school.

B- In what may be the first Basel-related posting in the South Florida blogosphere this year, Beached Miami announces that Neon Indian will be playing at Bardot during the big art show.

When Neon Indian last came to Miami, in October 2009, they had just plowed through the blogosphere as the mysterious darlings of chillwave on their way to Pitchfork permanence. “Deadbeat Summer” was on everyone’s playlist and the band from Denton, TX, was arguably the country’s hottest new indie thing. On Dec. 1, they’ll return as the undisputed kings of the hotly disputed genre to perform at Bardot during Art Basel, according to neonindian.com.

C- Food for Thought reveals some of the more interesting choices on the "Mainland" for Miami Spice.

Perhaps the most interesting Spice news to some is that Michael's Genuine Food & Drink, probably the most popular restaurant in town, is back on the list. I'd initially thought Michael's had never done Miami Spice. Chef Schwartz thought they'd skipped the past two years. Turns out it was actually three years, even though they did a Spice-like summer special in 2008 despite not being an official participant. Anyway, they're back, and there will be much rejoicing.

D- Discourse says that all is not lost on August 2nd if the debt ceiling isn't raised.

Also, please note that if and when the US hits the debt ceiling we will not have a “default”. Nor will the nation lack the fundamental capacity to pay its bills — as of this writing T-bill interest rates are low (i.e. prices are high, and rising). Rather, due to an utterly artificial block by the Congress, the US will not have the cash on hand to pay all its obligations. As a result some obligations such as monies due by contract or monies due by legislation, but almost certainly not bond debt, will not be paid on schedule.

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SFDB Saturday Afternoon Chuckle

 -via The Daily Wh.at

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Allen West Says Tea Party People Are Schizo

When Allen West says you're mentally disturbed you know you have problems...




Then again, Allen West calling you schizo is a little like Rush Limbaugh telling you that you could stand to lose a few pounds.

-via Think Progress


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South Florida News Story Of The Day

We all know that there is no place else in the world like South Florida. The sun, heat and humidity cause the locals do strange things. And then there are the people who visit...

[Thomas] Swindal, of Merritt Island, was fishing Wednesday with his brother Kenneth off Marathon in the Middle Keys. The brother told the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office the two men were in about 200 feet of water when they spotted a wrapped brick of something floating near the boat.

The brothers snagged it, decided it was probably cocaine, and tossed it into the boat’s live bait well. Kenneth Swindal told deputies they talked about what to do with their find, but went back to fishing without making a decision.

Apparently, Thomas Swindal made his own call, in retrospect a bad one. His brother said he looked back and saw Thomas open the brick and eat some of what was inside. That’s when things got weird.

Kenneth said within a half hour, Thomas went nuts. He started tearing around the small boat, tossing things like a cellphone and a radio into the drink. Then, he attacked the engine with pliers and a knife, prying the cover off and letting it fall into the water. Grabbing a gaff, a big pole for snagging fish, he stabbed the engine with it, causing so much damage it wouldn’t start.

[...]

After a stop at a Keys hospital, he was taken about 100 miles north to South Miami Hospital, where he died Thursday. An autopsy was ordered to figure out what killed him.

Police aren’t sure what Swindal may have eaten, because his brother tossed the suspected cocaine brick back into the water, where it floated away. The autopsy may provide some answers.

And while you contemplate that bizzaro series of events, consider the warning that police issued as a result.

It may seem a bit odd, but deputies felt compelled to remind boaters not to eat things they find floating in the water, and said don’t bring it into the boat. Instead, they said, boaters should call police and report something they may think is illegal, like a brick of cocaine, and let cops figure out what to do with it.

It's after these type of warnings and events [and the election of someone like Rick Scott] that I hear voices that urge me to get the hell out of this godforsaken state and move to a place in the world where there is intelligent life.


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Your Mid-Afternoon Sift

I have a big collection of posts for you this afternoon. Enjoy your mid-afternoon Sift.

A- Worst Pizza gives Delray Beach's Scuola Vecchia Pizza a strong 7 out of 8 slices.

The basis of great pizza is the crust. Thick or thin, it must be excellent or the rest of the pie will fail. The crust under a pizza made by Shaun Aloisio (co-owner and chef at Scuola Vecchia) is beyond perfect. Then on top of that go the ingredients ñ all fresh, all Italian, all the best you can get.

B- Restaurant Gal has a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

When my first table was a nice lady from Denmark who spoke perfect English, and who wanted the most expensive breakfast Benedict we offer, plus a side of bacon and a mimosa, and who sat alone at my four-top for two and a half hours working on her laptop, thereby preventing me from turning said four-top, and who tipped me exactly nothing at the end of two and a half hours, despite the multiple refills of coffee, a free side of multigrain toast, and some great conversation that I provided, I knew it was but the start of a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

C- Looking for a place to have a nice Sunday brunch? The Chowfather has a solution if you're up in Fort Lauderdale.

D- Great photos from last night's Critical Mass ride are up at Beached Miami.

E- Political Cortadito goes to extraordinary means to verify Hialeah city council candidate Alex Morales' claims of residency.

When I caught up with Morales, 44, at the apartment one afternoon, he was wearing shorts, socks and a Miami Dolphins t-shirt but was in a hurry because he had to change for a meeting. The minimalist Ikea furniture looks pretty new but he brought his desk from the house and it was covered with neat stacks of paper: mail, his latest city/campaign work -- including a long list of current and former council members who collected pensions while they served -- and monthly electric and internet service bills, dating back to last year, which he volunteered to show before Ladra asked. There was lots of clothes and shoes in the closet and his bathroom sink had been used that day. Yeah, I went there. Here, too: His freezer was full of Lean Cuisine and all he had were some canned and bottled beverages in the fridge. That's right: I asked him to open the fridge. I have no boundaries when it comes to establishing or exposing candidate residency. That is Ladra's favorite bone. That's why I spoke to Morales' wife, Ada, who found it funny that she would be interviewed about her husband's strange, politically-motivated living arrangements.

F- Learn to make sushi at China Grill in Fort Lauderdale. South Florida Food and Wine has the details.

G- PhinPhanatic tosses the around the loss of Ronnie Brown, Ricky Williams and Channing Crowder.

So now I have a signed Ronnie Brown football, and memories of Ricky Williams and Channing Crowder and I realize that the three of them were the personalities that made up this team since the departures of Zach Thomas and Jason Taylor and while I’m a bit saddened by the news and the reality of NFL business that the three of them will more than likely move on for good, I can’t help but be excited at the prospect of adding upgrades to those positions.

And new identies as well.

H- In some of the more stronger language that I've seen him use, Bark Bark Woof Woof condemns the Republican Party for putting party before their country.

They should be held accountable for this kind of terrorism, and a year from now, long after this moment of brinksmanship has passed, we should be reminding every voter of who it was that held the country hostage while they played with the nuke. Given the short attention span of the American public -- oh, look, another white woman is in trouble -- I don't hold out a lot of hope, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't do everything we can to limit their contribution to politics to calling in on C-SPAN or baying at the moon.

I- Miami-Dade Dems has a wrap up of Thursday night's fundraiser for the Miami-Dade Democratic Party that featured Dan Gelber.

To cut to the news here, Dan Gelber was featured speaker Thursday at a fundraiser for the Miami-Dade Democratic Party, and said he’s still looking for an electoral fight. Inspired by the brilliant job that Gov. Rick Scott is doing to alienate the public, Gelber made this listener think he’s not running for anything in 2012 and is more likely to plunge into the statewide pool in 2014, when Scott either will have quit or will try to buy Tallahassee again with his ill-gotten gains.

J- The Miami Shores Britto sculpture has been vandalized again, according to Miamism.

A Britto sculpture by the Miami Shores Country Club pool was found vandalized for a second time today, with the words “Meaningless Bliss” and “error”. It is obvious that someone wants to make a point, but their approach to freedom of expression has crossed the line.

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Your Evening Sift

Okay, so where's the rain? It's the end of July and my lawn is supposed to be lush and green. Instead it's browning. There is no way I'm watering the lawn in July. I refuse. Enjoy your evening Sift, readers. It's a pretty good one.

A- We'll start out tonight with a visit by Dolphin training camp where Some Blogging Guy and Miami Beach 411 sweated it out with their cameras. From the latter...

There was a certain buzz in the crowd with the team’s signing of former Heisman winner (then giver-upper) Reggie Bush. People were clamoring to get their first look at him in orange and white. Quarterback Chad Henne took his first snaps of 2011, lineman got in their first contact, and receivers ran their first routes. Only a month late, but it looks like the season is in full swing.

B- Crap. Mango&Lime is moving to Texas.

In hearing the news, people have asked me what I’m going to do with mango&lime. Jokes have been made about possible new names for the blog involving cattle and chili but for now I plan to keep the name — and continue writing in this space. Of course things may change but I’ll have to see how things shape up once I’m settled in what will become my new city.

C- It's good to hear that Allapattah residents are taking an interest in their community...over at Blogging Black Miami.

Residents and artists are teaming up for an outdoor drawing event in the center of Allapattah tomorrow, Saturday, July 30th at 8:30 a.m. They will meet at Juan Pablo Duarte Park, 2800 NW 17th Avenue, and then walk along Miami’s 17th Avenue from NW 36th Street and NW 14th Street. Allapattah residents will form groups, each one getting an architect who will turn their ideas into art. The architects will spend the morning drawing the residents’ visions of 17th Avenue with them.

D- South Florida Lawyers notes that it seems like everyone in the South Florida legal community is writing letters demanding that federal judges be appointed forthwith.

E- New Haven-style apizza is on its way to Boca Raton, reports Eater Miami.

Nick’s New Haven-Style Pizzeria & Bar will feature 18-inch pies that are made to order. There’s also traditional pies with sauce and specialty white pies (sans the sauce). Nick is best known for his specialty white clam pie, made with freshly shucked Rhode Island littleneck clams.

F- Boy Writes Miami does Sugarcane Raw Bar Grill.

Sugarcane is a great place to eat and drink. It’s laid back and good for a Friday-after-work good time.

G- Travel back into social media history as The Heat Lightning looks at MySpace and Flickr.

Flickr was one of the first serious attempts to merge social networking tools into a website whose primary functionality was not staring at hot classmates. The end result wasn’t just a hosting website – it allowed tagging and categorizing not only across your photo sets but also across groups of similar locations, photographic styles, or other themes. At it’s peak, Flickr seemed poised to represent a new social method of organizing photographs.

H- Political Cortadito is traveling around the county with Mayor Gimenez and you might say she is impressed.

Gimenez was on his A game. He has an A game. He was funnier, much funnier, friendlier, happier, spontaneous, more confident, natural and -- dare I say it again? -- sexier. Sorry, sir. But it's that new swagger. It's how you naturally basked in the warmth of the mass well-wishing and respectfully rose to the challenges to the changes you champion. It's how you patiently and, like a public servant should, answered every single question -- there had to have been more than two dozen -- with specific details, consistency, context, authority, honesty and a frankness and openness that I've never seen in municipal government. For a new mayor, you seem to have an old hand for this, I told him after the dialogue with the community.

I- Because facts on the current economic crisis are hard to come by these days, make sure you check out the post at Discourse that shows us the origins of this country's debt.



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Flashback Friday

2002...




Are you looking for answers
to questions under the stars?
Well, if along the way you are growing weary,
You can rest with me 'til a brighter day
You're okay

Dave Matthews Band, Where Are You Going


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The Kleenex Party

Oh, for Christ's sakes...

At a meeting of the House Republican freshmen and their leaders on Wednesday, there wasn’t a dry eye in the room — including the speaker’s.

Representative Martha Roby of Alabama had just finished reading an e-mail of support from a one-time Tea Party opponent, recognizing the tough choices that the new Republicans faced in the vote to raise the debt ceiling.

Mr. Boehner, who has become well known for his occasional displays of emotion, joined others in the room by crying a bit during the closed-door session.

“He wasn’t sobbing, but he definitely teared up,” said Michael Steel, the speaker’s spokesman.

This just 24 hours after they use a movie about going out and kicking someone's ass for motivation.

Sociopaths, psychos or just grown men with a softer side? You decide.





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The New Marlins Stadium Roof

Buildipedia offers a fascinating look at the new Marlins stadium's retractable roof and the special engineering that goes along with it.

The roof structure of the Florida Marlins’ ballpark will be supported by several 130' tall reinforced concrete “super columns.” The movable portion of the roof structure is comprised of three panels, one upper and two lower, for a total surface area of 338,000 sq. ft. The panels are made of metal roof decking with a TPL membrane, and they can operate together or independently. In one configuration, the seating is entirely exposed; in others, it can be partially or completely shaded. The retractable roof provides protection not only from the brutal tropical sun, it also withstands hurricane conditions of up to 150-mph winds. The roof panels weigh a whopping 19 million pounds, but, according to Wilcox, “They must be heavy-duty in order to handle those kinds of winds.” An opening in the center, with an area of 280,000 sq. ft., lends visual lightness to the structure and allows sunlight to reach the natural grass field.

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SFDB Morning Chuckle

"Ah, knock it off, Gary. The girls aren't watching, anyhow."


-via Dependable Renegade


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The Cooler

Here's your review of this morning's mainstream media, readers. Enjoy.

A- Herald: Same as the old boss.

Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez is demanding concessions from county employees in a bid to cut spending. At the same time he is handing hefty salaries to his new coterie of top advisors that rival -- and even surpass -- some of the pricey compensation packages paid in the previous administration ousted by a voter recall.

[...]

But, as Gimenez has called for county employees “to make shared sacrifices for the greater good,” he’s making few demands on his new inner circle when it comes to compensation.

B- Herald: Borriqua!

Two brothers have been arrested after being accused of striking a pilot and a flight attendant onboard an American Airlines plane grounded at Miami International Airport.

Luis and Jonathan Baez were waiting for their flight to depart to San Francisco when a flight attendant noticed Jonathan didn’t have his belt buckled during the taxi on the runway.

She attempted to have him fasten it, but he was unresponsive and appeared intoxicated or on narcotics, according to the arrest report.

She told the pilot, who decided to return to the gate and escort Jonathan Baez from the plane. Luis Baez accompanied his brother off the plane, when Jonathan threatened the pilot, saying “If you fly to San Juan, I will have you killed,” the report said.

C- Herald: They write letters.

Right to bear arms

A right-wing, highly religious, gun-toting nationalist, obsessed with the perceived threats of multiculturalism and immigration, guns down and kills scores of people.

The big surprise is that it didn’t happen in the United States.

Tim Bricker, Key Largo

D- Sun-Sentinel: Chan Lowe.

E- Palm Beach Post: Exciting day at the car wash.

BOYNTON BEACH — A car wash employee is recovering from injuries he suffered Wednesday when he lost control of a customer's car at Main Street Car Wash on East Boynton Beach Boulevard.

According to a statement released by Boynton Beach police this morning, 68-year-old Lenom Berreth got into a white Dodge Charger as it was exiting the car wash bay to bring it to be dried off. When he pressed down on the gas, the car spun 360 degrees and went through hedges onto East Boynton Beach Boulevard.

Berreth was thrown from the driver's side of the car and into the street. Unoccupied and still moving, the car completed another rotation, according to the statement.

Fergino Demesin, 22, who was driving by at the time, jumped into the driver's seat of the Charger and stopped it. He was not injured.

F- CBS4: Video, Heroes.

G- WSVN: Bringing his talents to South Beach.

MIAMI (AP) -- Nine years later, the Miami Dolphins have again traded for a New Orleans Saints running back who won the Heisman Trophy.

This time it's Reggie Bush.

The Dolphins finalized a trade for Bush on Thursday by negotiating a new two-year contract for nearly $10 million with him, a person familiar with the talks said. The person confirmed the agreement to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the teams had yet to announce the deal.

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Your Morning Sift

Good morning.

The Great Weekend Blogging Slowdown is under way, readers. However, the SFDB Weekend Widget in the right sidebar continues to be updated and I will be here with you through the weekend. Oh, and TGIF! Here's your morning Sift.

A- The Street, Baghdad edition.

B- Where the country is on a political scale at Bark Bark Woof Woof.

Another part of this discussion is that the needle has moved far to the right on the scale. What used to be considered way-out far-right extremism is the new normal to the point that Ronald Reagan wouldn't stand a chance with the Tea Party crowd, and Richard Nixon, who gave us such things as the EPA and wage and price controls in an attempt to control inflation, was a Commie (ironic, given how he rose to power as a red-baiting acolyte of Joe McCarthy). If Barack Obama, who's to the right of Bill Clinton and right-wing compared to Lyndon Johnson, is considered a lefty, then the scale hasn't just moved to the right; it's tipped over.

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SFDB Late Night Politics

Watch this Daily Show brilliance and then head over to your favorite whiny conservative blog and laugh.

The Daily Show - GOP - Special Victims Unit
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

"The most free range, organically grown, disingenuous, ideologically marinated un-selfawareness I've ever seen in the wild."

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Your Evening Sift

The SFDB Weekend Widget in the right sidebar was just updated as it will be throughout the upcoming weekend. Let's see what bubbled up in the South Florida blogosphere this afternoon. Enjoy your evening Sift.

A- In a bit of good gastronomic news for Miami, it looks like the old Pizzavolante space will soon be occupied by chef Michael Schwartz, says Eater Miami.

Michael Schwartz is opening his third restaurant, Harry's Pizzeria, named after his son Harrison, in early fall. "The success we've achieved with Michael's Genuine Food & Drink in Miami and Grand Cayman, in tandem with the developmental health of the Design District, has us poised to make our next move in the neighborhood," says brand manager Jackie Sayet.

B- Swampstyle offers up a little swampy commentary on the current fiscal problems of this country.

Where are those who got us into this trillion dollar mess. Bush is toast, Pelosi is out to pasture, and Boehner is hanging on by his lavender ascot.

C- Chuck E. Cheese pizza somehow gets 4 out of 8 slices from Worst Pizza.

The new pizza is crispier and thinner. My son was happy to tell my wife (who by the way doesn’t let him get the pizza when she takes him) that the new pizza was “just like a pizzeria pizza.” I think this is exactly what the mouse was going for in this new campaign.

D- Get your weekly review of the South Florida theater scene at South Florida Theatre Scene. Makes sense to me.

E- Go Hydrology! tells us about H.P. Williams Wayside out in the swamp and why you need to be careful if you go there.

F- There's three new restaurants opening in Fort Lauderdale, according to FTL Collective, including the much anticipated Old Fort Lauderdale Breakfast House.

G- Everything you want to know about Panic Bomber and his new CD can be found at The Heat Lightning.

In other words, Panic Bomber has managed to bridge the gap between dance music fanatics and those who would previously dismiss the form outright. He boasts enough of an organic element to sway the DJ haters, but enough bass-heavy hookiness to please those ready to shake butts. It’s an approach that seems to have especially endeared him to the so-called “livetronica” crowd.

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Critical Mass Rules Of Engagement

Miami Critical Mass is tomorrow night and if you've never participated in this very popular event, Tropicult has a post that will get you familiar with the basic do's and don't's so you won't end up embarrassing yourself in front of everyone.

As Tropicult notes, it's not real complicated so go out there and have fun, but play nice.

Though having a laugh, doing something socially/environmentally healthy, and staring at a plethora of hot girl/guy’s perfectly-jeaned rumps is what Critical Mass is all about, studies show that turning on your brain every once in a while during the ride helps the overall experience. LOOK where you’re going, and notify others. LISTEN to volunteers and organizers. Yeah, it’s that simple. I know, right?

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PCWorld Declares Twitter Obsolete

PCWorld says that Twitter is so over now that Google+ has been introduced...

Suddenly, however, [Twitter] has been rendered obsolete by Google's new Google+ service, and also by the company's failure to capitalize on its five-year window of opportunity to innovate its way to indispensability.

It's only a matter of time before Twitter becomes a ghost town.

The reason? Google+ does almost everything that Twitter does, only better.

Today, Twitter still has a lot of fans and defenders, even on Google+. Twitter is currently a better megaphone than Google+; it's better for talking at a large audience without having them engage you back. It's much better today for quick news because all the news sources have established feeds on Twitter. It's easier to skim, unlike Google+, which is wordy and time-consuming. And Twitter allows anonymity, which is better for people who want to criticize repressive governments.

But that's today. Tomorrow, most or all of those advantages will be erased by improvements to Google+, the addition of third-party add-ons and apps, and the participation of businesses, publications and a lot more people.

I don't see how Twitter can defend itself from the Google+ challenge.

When you add up what Google+ can do today and what it will do tomorrow, it's clear that Twitter is perfectly obsolete.

So far, the few commenters for the PCWorld post are not big fans of this prediction and think the author is a Google hack.

I have not even looked at Google+ other than to view their introductory video. I wasn't too impressed by the complexity of the whole thing and, as a result, haven't explored it any further. Meanwhile, there are rumblings of diminished traffic at the Google.

Who has tried Google+? And what do you think of PCWorld's assessment?



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Understanding Terrorism

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-via Dawn Geary


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The Cooler

Not a whole lot for you this morning in the Cooler. Enjoy.

A- Herald: How the mighty have fallen.

The most recent move in the broadcast career of former Channel 7 and CNN anchorman Rick Sanchez looks like an open field zig-zag: radio color analyst on Florida International’s 12 college football games this season.

[...]

He said he’s been writing and blogging since CNN fired him last autumn. The offense was a radio interview rant that both claimed The Daily Show host Jon Stewart made sport of him because he was a minority and dismissed the idea of Jewish people as an oppressed minority.

B- Herald: Just an "oversight."

Campaign documents show that Miami Mayor Tomás Regalado received at least $8,000 from individuals and corporations in the Dominican Republican during the 2009 election campaign, something that Florida election officials say is illegal in Florida.

“Contributions to candidates from individuals and corporations abroad are prohibited under state and federal laws,” said Chris Cate, spokesman of the Florida Division of Elections in Tallahassee. “It is not permitted to contribute, donate or use these funds in federal, state or local campaigns.”

[...]

Attorney Raquel Regalado, campaign treasurer and the mayor’s daughter, told El Nuevo Herald that it was “an oversight” to have accepted contributions from the Dominican Republic in a campaign that received hundreds of checks for $5, $10, and $20. Raquel Regalado is now a Miami-Dade County School Board member.

C- Herald: Video, lobstah!

D- Sun-Sentinel: Chan Lowe.

E- Miami Today: Renting is hot in Miami.

From the Miami River to Midtown, downtown Miami condos are hot commodities among international buyers, brokers say, not least because renters are lining up to lease them.

"Gentrification is in full force in the triangle of Midtown, Wynwood and the Design District," said Rita Regev, broker associate at Optimar International Realty.

[...]

While prices are rising in some buildings, he said, they're still only about half of preconstruction prices, "so the values are tremendous. Besides South American buyers, we're also seeing a lot of Europeans.

"Miami real estate is becoming a commodity like gold and stocks."

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Your Morning Sift

Good morning.

In case you haven't noticed, it's Thursday and the SFDB Weekend Widget is up and running in the right sidebar. There's a lot of things to do this weekend so make sure you check it out. Let's get into your morning Sift.

A- Food for Thought picks out a few of the more notable Miami Spice choices for restaurants on South Beach.

B- Under the Sun asks marine scientist and author Ellen Prager a few questions about lobsters, her work at the Aquarius Reef Base program in Key Largo and her latest book.

Maine lobsters appear to use urine as a means of communication. In their pee are hormones that can signal aggression as well as pheromones that act like “Love Potion No. 9.” I guess you could say it is a part of the lobster language. I am not sure if the spiny lobster uses its pee with as much alacrity as the Maine lobster.

But researchers have discovered that spiny lobsters, like the Maine lobsters, have an incredible sense of smell – essentially the ability to detect chemicals in seawater. In fact, researchers have found that spiny lobsters can even detect disease in their fellow lobsters and may shun infected crustaceans from entering communal lobster dens.

C- A Mom, a Blog, and the Life In-Between is 34 today.

I technically am not old, nor do I look old; in fact, despite some recent weight gain as I've figured out and set out to fix a doozy of a health issue, this is the best I feel in ages. And yet, age has been heavy on my mind.

D- As usual, Bark Bark Woof Woof makes a good point.



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Your Evening Sift

Welcome, readers. I have a good Sift for you this evening so get comfortable and settle in. Enjoy.

A- Get to know Animal Tropical at The Heat Lightning.

It’s definitely much easier to imagine them drunk on a futon than it is to compare their shows to anything controlled. This isn’t meticulous performance here, people – this is the product of 4 people who know one another so well that their f*cking [Ed.] around comes off as magic. Aside from their friendship, Jose, Kris, Jorge, and Jarret get along onstage for a simple reason: they’re are all extremely talented. They’ve been doing what they do a long time and it shows.

B- Roy Black gets very specific with how UM's law school can be improved.

My solution is to radically reform the curriculum. I suggest we become the MIT of litigation. After the first year of required courses, we create a program designed to intensely train trial lawyers. Not with the usual clinical courses, or useless apprenticeships, but with rigorous courses, taught by experienced professionals, using mock trials and moot courts, to teach students how to litigate. This will make the UM law degree more valuable in the marketplace. When a law firm needs young litigators, we will be the first place they look.

No other law school does this; it is time for a new brand at UM. We should advertise as the school to learn trials. The vision should be a school go-to for the finest litigation education and experience.

C- Shorter Babalu Blog [via Twitter] and Breathless John Birch, Jr....

Protecting the environment, ensuring the quality and safety of the food we consume and legislating new laws through a democratic process are all signs of a dictatorship!

D- Southern District of Florida Blog notes that Florida's drug law has been deemed unconstitutional.

E- A Miami Beach hotel makes the list of TripAdvisor's Top Ten Dirtiest Hotels in the US, reports Random Pixels.

F- Boy Writes Miami says Wynwood Kitchen & Bar is okay if you're in the neighborhood.

If you happen to be in the area, go for it. If you have to drive more than 5 miles to get there, don’t bother.

G- Beached Miami previews a very long sci-fi film that is showing at the Miami Beach Cinematheque this weekend.

Speaking of time, World on a Wire is Fassbinder at his most sluggish, and those hoping for a fast-paced, futuristic action flick will be disappointed (and possibly lulled to sleep). Indeed, the long pauses the actors take between sentences, a Fassbinder stylization that can grow weary over a few hours, may serve as silent lullabies if you don’t have enough caffeine coursing through your veins.

H- Morgan's South Beach opens on Saturday, according to Eater Miami.

I- Close to 20 new photos are up at The Street.

J- Can too much development affect the amount of rain we receive? The answer is at Go Hydrology!

K- There's a new gourmet popcorn store on Washington Avenue on South Beach and The305.Com tells us about it.


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The Boston Globe's Tour de France, Part II

Another fantastic set of colorful, picturesque and big photos from the Tour de France here. Enjoy!


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SFDB Post Of The Week

SFDB selects its Post of the Week by going back and reviewing all the Sifts that we've done over the past 7 days. We find the best post of the week and note the runners ups as we judge them to be.

It was an interesting week for posting in the South Florida blogosphere. That's about as far as I'm going to go with that so let's get on with the Post of the Week selections.

Runners-Up:  Miami Beach 411 gave us a good look at what goes down at the cooking classes at the Williams Sonoma on Lincoln Road. Eye on Miami's hard luck story of a condo handyman falling on tough times was memorable. A perfect server and co-worker departs suddenly and leaves Restaurant Gal a reason to write Please Come Back, All Is Forgiven.



Winner:  Food for Thought is an old hand at writing up his Cobaya underground dining experiences and it shows. Each course is photographed and meticulously chronicled and described in a way that always seems to be complimentary to the meal and the host. Last week, the event was held in Fort Lauderdale at Market 17 and Food for Thought once again did justice to the wonderfully innovative feast that featured kangaroo on the menu. Cobaya 17 - Dinner at Market 17, Fort Lauderdale gets my vote for this week's SFDB Post of the Week.



'Til next time, keep on blogging!

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SFDB Culinary Adventure Of The Day

Bacon-wrapped eggs!



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-via The Daily Wh.at


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The Cooler

Don't miss Michael Putney's opinion piece on Allen West this morning. That and more in your Cooler.

A- Herald: Bad apples.

The snapshot speaks volumes: Two Miami Beach police officers in uniform, one smiling, the other making a face and mugging for the cameras, posing with five young women out partying at a South Beach night club.

The photo, released by Miami-Dade prosecutors Tuesday, now will be evidence against former Miami Beach officer of Derick Kuilan, who investigators say took one of the women on a predawn joyride on his department-issued ATV and promptly plowed into two beachgoers hanging out to see the South Beach sunrise.

The accident left the two victims with severe injuries, one still hospitalized.

“It is mind-boggling that they felt comfortable enough to do something like that,” said Miami Beach Police Chief Carlos Noriega, after Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle announced Kuilan’s arrest Tuesday on felony drunk driving charges with serious bodily injury.

“It was reckless,” the chief said.

The officers’ behavior was “so unprofessional” that one woman at the Clevelander hotel bar suspected the pair were not real officers, rather “entertainment” for the bachelorette party, Fernandez Rundle said.

B- Herald: Community outrage standing by.

Four children were wounded at a popular Northwest Miami-Dade park Tuesday night when masked gunmen in a car opened fire on a crowd with high-powered weapons, Miami-Dade police said.

The innocent bystanders wounded in the spray of bullets meant for someone else were: 11- and 13-year-old boys and a 16-year-old girl; a 3-year-old boy was grazed, according to Miami-Dade police spokesman Roy Rutland.

C- Herald: Like a chameleon.

Brickell’s landscape will soon sport a giant color-changing glass cube. This isn’t an art installation, but a bank.

The $3.8 million project is veteran developer Tibor Hollo’s latest addition to Brickell’s financial district. Inspired by New York’s famous Fifth Avenue Apple store, the 2,500-square-foot, 30-foot high structure is the site for a new TD Bank.

[...]

Special glass that changes color with sunlight gives the Cube its visual appeal. SageGlass — manufactured by Minnesota-based company Sage Electrochromics — adjusts its tint with the time of day to maintain a steady temperature inside the building. This is the first time it is being used in Miami. At the push of a button, the energy-saving glass can go from transparent to a dark tint.

D- Herald: Morin.

E- Herald: Putney slams GOP thug Allen West for comments about Wasserman-Shultz.

Last weekend West was greeted as a conquering hero at a GOP event in Plant City. He’s an exciting presence and can be an electrifying speaker. But this latest episode of shoot-from-the hip bluntness will come back to haunt him.

Women don’t like being told to shut up, which is essentially what he told DWS, and she is demonstrably no coward. Sure, her strident partisanship can be annoying, but West doth protest too much. If this combat veteran can’t take small-arms fire from his own member of Congress — he lives in her district — what will happen when the big guns open up? And in the next election cycle they will.

F- Sun-Sentinel: Enjoy them while you can.

The South Florida Water Management District estimates that sea levels could climb 5 to 20 inches during the next 50 years.

The NRDC report warns of a larger sea level threat for Miami — a 1.5- to 2.3-foot sea-level increase by 2050 and 3 to 5 feet by 2100.

The projections are more severe for the Florida Keys, which could lose more than 90 percent of land area to rising seas by 2100.

G- Sun-Sentinel: Chan Lowe.

H- Palm Beach Post: Hmmmm. Which BS story to believe?

Greenacres Public Safety officers responded to a home in Greenacres around 11:40 p.m. Monday regarding a domestic battery call.

Once they arrived, they found Almanza-Flores outside.

He told police he came home and had a fight with his former sister-in-law.

"I told her that I was not feeling comfortable with us having a sexual relationship," a probable cause affidavit says.

He told police that the woman then punched him about four times in his face, after which he went outside.

Angelica Rosales, the alleged victim, and a relative had a different story that they told police.

Rosales said Almanza-Flores walked into her bedroom and asked if he could have her left over pasta. She said he could have the pasta. But then he walked toward her, tripped over the dresser and hit his head. He then started choking her, she told police, and she screamed for her help.

I- South Florida Business Journal: Not even close.

Bloggers who worked out the math from recent ApplebizWatch and GooglebizWatch earnings have concluded that the iPad has outsold tablets that use the Android operating system by a more than 24-to-1 margin.

Daring Fireball's John Gruber wrote on Monday that it is likely that there are only about 1.2 million tablets sold that use Google's Android.

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Your Morning Sift

Good morning.

Happy Hump Day, readers. Things were pretty quiet in the South Florida blogosphere as you slept last night. Just a few things for you in this morning's Sift. Have fun.

A- This is the driest start to the wet season that we've had since the early '90's, according to data compiled by Go Hydrology!

B- Republicans are trying to get inspiration to solve America's fiscal problems by watching movies, according to Bark Bark Woof Woof.

C- Theater lovers in Boca Raton have some reason to smile, says the South Florida Theatre Scene.


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SFDB Late Night Politics

The Norwegian Muslish Terrorist's Islam-esque Atrocity!

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

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Your Evening Sift

It's always an interesting mix out there in the South Florida blogosphere. Here's what was served up today. Enjoy your evening Sift.

A- Transit Miami starts us out tonight by insisting that FDOT add cycle tracks to South Florida roads.

There are numerous studies that show cycle tracks are proven to increase ridership tremendously versus unprotected, striped lanes. A new protected lane on Manhattan’s busy First Avenue saw cyclist counts rise by 152% throughout the year the facility was opened. As most people cite safety issues as their biggest barrier to cycling for transportation, cycletracks offer a solution that not only makes traveling safer for the cyclist, but for the motorist as well. Numerous studies have found that crashes between bicycles and traffic diminish when a protected cycle track is available.

B- Ipanemic loses some co-workers and suddenly finds himself as the senior guy on the job.

When I went into work on Sunday, I looked at the schedule and Carlos’ name was no where to be found. Another person’s name was where his should’ve been. And it hit me, Carlos didn’t work there anymore. Carlos, who had been there nearly ten years, working as a “delivery boy” (as the owner calls us), gone.

C- Greek is coming to the Design District, says Eater Miami.

Scheduled to open August 3, Egg & Dart, the Design District's 200-seat modern Greek restaurant/bar is the latest from Costa Grillas (Maria's, Miami) and Niko Theodorou (Sea Satin Market, Mykonos). "With the culinary diversity of Miami's Design District, we are excited to bring a hip modern slice of Greece to the neighborhood," says Grillas. The menu, under the direction of Theodorou's mother, who runs a catering company in Athens and a restaurant in Tzia, will feature food from all over Greece...

D- Miamism tells us about The Pink House in Miami Shores and drops some links if you need to know more.

Many factors make this house interesting, but its controversy has always intrigued me. Designed by Laurinda Spear and Bernardo Fort-Bescia of Arquitectonica for Spear’s parents in 1976, it’s a series of planes and framed views together with clever climate-minded design which maximizes East/West breezes.

E- Man or Maniac? has a message that is worth me noting.

F- Random Pixels shares a couple old WPLG TV clips that gives us a glimpse of life on Miami Beach in the early '70's.

G- Beached Miami takes a look at the recent shooting near Churchill's and whether or not the media got it right.

For many, a shooting one block away from Churchill’s might as well have happened in front of Churchill’s, but the distinction is important to Michael, who says the club has experienced a backlash since the shooting reports broke, with several bands cancelling upcoming shows and patrons saying they plan to stay away from the 30-year-old dive bar from now on.

H- Rakontur posts a great story about supporting the troops and how the favor was returned.

I- South Florida Lawyers has an update on the appointment of new federal judges in the Southern District of Florida.



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South Florida Cartoons

Jim Morin, The Miami Herald


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SFDB's Name That Spot #6

Name That Spot is a periodic feature in which SFDB readers attempt to identify the South Florida location of the photo that is displayed.

Past winners include South Florida Food and Wine (1), Whack-A-Mole (1) and Alex de Carvalho (1). There's been one Stumper and one identified by "Anonymous."

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CBS4's Most Valuable Miami Blogger

CBS4 [or CBSMiami] is doing their part to recognize South Florida bloggers with a contest that started yesterday...

There seems to be an award for everything, so why not for blogs? CBSMiami wants to know what you think are the best local blogs, or the best blogs writing about local stuff, from the Dolphins to the traffic on the Dolphin expressway. The Most Valuable Blogger Awards give you the chance to share your opinion by nominating your favorites, and then, in August, by voting on the nominations.

The contest divides blogs into six categories:

• Dining/Entertainment
• Sports
• Lifestyle/Family
• Local Affairs
• Health/Fitness/Medical
• Everything Else

In a short video that accompanies the story, they highlight Broward Bulldog which is an excellent investigative Broward-based blog that has not yet made it to the SFDB blogroll.



It should be interesting to see how CBS4 structures the voting process and if they plan on doing anything to restrict the number of votes that can be cast by one person/IP address...although I'm not sure that can even be done.

In any case, this is your chance to at least give your favorite South Florida blog some attention in the mainstream media, which is always a good thing.

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The Cooler

Some good stories out there in this morning's mainstream media. Here's some of them.

A- Herald: Life in South Florida.

The tragedy played out at around 12:38 a.m. on Monday, when the couple was getting gas at the Mobil on 16691 NW 57th Ave., police said.

A grainy surveillance video captured at the gas station has given police detailed evidence of what transpired between the couple and the three to four carjackers.

It shows a green Nissan Pathfinder drive up to another pump as several men approach Soler’s beloved white Cobra.

One of the assailants taps on the driver’s side window, apparently flashing a gun at Soler.

After a few seconds of conversation, Soler gets out of the vehicle with his hands up in the air and starts to back up, the video shows.

For some unknown reason, the man opens fire on Soler. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Then a second man forces Duran, the single mother of a six-year-old boy, out of the car. She was shot in the chest, Suarez said.

Miami-Dade Fire Rescue transported Duran to Jackson Memorial Hospital where she later died.

B- Herald: But the important thing is not one extra cent in new taxes! Woot!

As North Miami Beach officials consider ways to balance their 2012 budget, one of the proposals being considered is to fire 24 police officers — more than 20 percent of the force — plus 13 civilian employees in the department.

C- Herald: Bad apples.

The two Miami Beach police officers accused of yelling anti-gay epithets at a tourist, kicking him and falsely arresting him after he called 911 to report them beating a man in a South Beach park are going to be fired, according to city officials.

[...]

Though the alleged incident involving the officers happened in early 2009, the announcement that the city plans to fire the men, who would be the third and fourth Miami Beach police officers fired this month, comes on the heel of a seven-week stretch in which Miami Beach police have been involved in two controversial incidents.

D- Sun-Sentinel: Chan Lowe.

E- WPLG: Duuuuude.

MIAMI -- A father was arrested Saturday after his 2-year-old son, one of his 22 children, was found wandering alone on a Miami street corner.

George McKinley Frye, 41, and Pascale Martin, 37, are both charged with child neglect with no great harm.

[...]

According to the arrest affidavit, Frye is the father of 22 children with five different mothers.

F- WPTV: What will be the total body count this year...and I'm not talking about the lobsters.

PORT SALERNO, Fla. - Parking is always at a premium at Sandsprit Park and by Tuesday night, all of the spaces will be full.

Lobster mini season begins at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday and boaters are already preparing for a busy 48 hours.

[...]

Thousands of people are expected out on the water for the 2-day season and that can sometimes lead to problems.

Lobster mini season claims at least one life every year. Many of the deaths in the past were middle-aged divers with undiagnosed health problems or rusty skills.

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Your Morning Sift

Good morning.

I was browsing through some old posts here at SFDB last night. It's crazy that I should be passing the 7500 mark here shortly. Enjoy your morning Sift [#7368].

A- Miami Beach 411 gets the set of Rock of Ages in Miami and burlesque dancer Isadora Bull together for a photo shoot.

B- The Miami Bike Scene has a pretty unique stolen bike alert out of North Miami.

C- Almost 20 new photos are up at The Street.

D- Justice Building Blog shares some thoughts on convicted SoFla cop killer Manuel Valle.

24 days was way to fast. But 33 years of legal maneuvering seems just a bit disrespectful to the memory of Officer Pena and his family. It's cases like these that the public latches on to and causes them to believe this is typical of the justice system. Nothing about Manuel Valle's case has been typical. But enough is enough. It's time for this case to end.

E- The Miami Herald really, really likes the new Marlins stadium...and it shows, according to Random Pixels.

So, here's a suggestion for those in charge at the Herald: If you're going to continue to run one-sided puff pieces on the stadium at regular intervals between now and Opening Day 2012; why not drop any remaining pretense of objectivity?

Just come out and tell your readers not to expect any more honest journalism when it comes to the Marlins.

Of course you'll need to rename and re-design the paper.

F- Both Bark Bark Woof Woof and Discourse post thoughts on President Obama's speech last night. From the former...

I'm not sure why President Obama thought it was worth the time to make this pitch. He was clearly trying to talk over the heads of the Republicans while Mr. Boehner was talking down to us, but on the whole it was a waste of time. We're no closer to solving the problem.

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SFDB Late Night Politics

Get used to it, John Boy.

Most Americans don't like the USA being used a pawn in a high stakes political chess match.


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Your Evening Sift

I'm running a little late with this tonight so let's get right to it. Enjoy your evening Sift.

A- Gourmet in the Park is coming to Fort Lauderdale this Wednesday and FTL Collective tells us what they plan on sampling from the food trucks that will be there.

The rally called Gourmet In The Park will be located at Esplanade Park (the park just in front of the Museum of Discovery and Science). While I wish Broward had more representation at some of these local rallies, I’ll just be happy that these Miami trucks are willing to drive across county lines.

B- Spokes 'n' Folks has the incredible story of a local Miami cyclist who recently found his bike after losing it 39 years ago.

C- The Heat Lightning posts some images of their favorite South Florida band performances during the past 3 years.

D- Photos from a ride up U.S. 27 at Some Blogging Guy's place.

E- The Burger Beast reveals his mobile food truck tracker app that's almost ready to launch.

F- Miami Dish reviews the Miami Rum Renaissance...that happened 3 months ago.

Held every spring, Rum Renaissance is in its third year, and while it may be young as far as festivals go, there’s no shortage of experts and top producers. Rum is of great importance in tropical Miami, celebrated as a native spirit by both our Caribbean and Latin American cultures.

G- Beached Miami previews Leo and the Pharmacists upcoming gig at Churchill's.

Leo released The Brutalist Bricks early last year (his first with Matador Records), a strong album that played out like an athlete’s triumphant comeback. After 2007’s disappointingly boring Living with the Living (during whose tour Leo last visited Miami, at the now-defunct Studio A), folks began to question the 40-year-old’s ability to continue to make brainy punk cool. Brutalist Bricks shut us all the hell up as it proved to be one of his strongest albums ever, showcasing his signature alchemy of hardcore, mod-punk, and folk, even mixing in some sparse industrial rises.

H- The Miami Bike Scene shows us all the new bike lanes and sharrows around town.

I- Soul of Miami posts plenty of photos from Miami's 115th birthday celebration on Brickell Avenue this past weekend.

J- The Republicans continue with their childish games in their latest attempts to gain political points...at Bark Bark Woof Woof.

Okay, at the risk of being breathtakingly obvious, the debt ceiling process is not about holding President Obama "accountable." (What is up with the middle-school neener-neener nyah-nyah name of this bill anyway?) The debt ceiling is the responsibility of the Congress, which, unless they've changed the Constitution in the last eight hours (which is certainly not outside the realm of possibility), is the branch of government that holds the purse strings. They are the ones who write the budget and allow the the spending, not the Executive branch. So this passing-the-buck for their profligate ways, including the indulgences under the Bush administration (see below), is just infantile.

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Stephen Colbert: It Gets Better

This has been out for a while but in case you haven't seen it, Stephen Colbert steps out of character and provides some words on coping with bullies.





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Republicans: We Don't Need No Latinos!

Last month I noted a group of Latino Republicans who had spoken out forcefully against Marco Rubio and his virulent anti-immigrant policies that are being driven by the Tea Party. Somos Republicans took Rubio to task in a press release and put him on notice that a nativist approach to America's immigration headaches was not something that they could support.

Somos surely anticipated some push back from the Tea Party and last week they got it when Tea Party hack Javier Manjarres and his Shark Tank blog smeared Somos as "phony" and characterized them as a "Democratic front group." His proof?

Upon inspecting their website, in the top right corner you will also notice a sponsorship for the left-leaning voter registration movement Rock the Vote.

Rock the Vote is "left-leaning," of course, because they want more Americans to vote. A conservative ideologue like Manjarres knows full well that when more Americans vote, Democrats win. So this link constitutes all the proof Manjarres needs that this well-organized group of Latino Republicans is a Democratic front group.

On Saturday, the Tucson Citizen printed a letter from "Arizona Hispanic Republicans" that fired back at Manjarres...

Javier Manjarres is a tea party extremist from Florida who lives in his own little southeast bubble. He has no clue what is going on in the rest of the nation, nor does he understand what the rest of the Latin demographic views are. He is isolated to Cuban Floridian politics. He is livid that we do not support Marco Rubio’s immigration views because he is another apologist and shill for tea party extremists like Ann Coulter (on the record for referring to Muslims as “towel heads”), Allen West (who wanted to hire a radio show host who said “illegals should be hung”), and so forth.

Javier’s biggest beef is that we promote a strong Latin get out the vote via “Rock the Vote”. He thinks “Rock the Vote” is left leaning, but loses sight of the fact that we want ALL 21 million eligible Hispanic voters to participate in our political system and be responsible voters. He thinks Hispanic Republicans who register Latinos via Rock the Vote are phony Republicans but yet we don’t see Javier willing to go out to the Latino neighborhoods while rolling up his sleeves to help Latinos empower themselves via the vote.

Javier is a restrictionist. He doesn’t understand that you have to put People before Party. It’s unfortunate that his need to feel wanted by the Republican party takes priority over getting people involved and politically aware. What he is really concerned about is how we are hell bent on voting out all tea party anti-immigrant extremists — that includes his hero Senator Marco Rubio.

I suspect that the real reason that Manjarres believes that Somos Republicans is a Democratic front group is simply because it's made up of Latinos. Everybody knows that unless you're white, straight, wealthy, paranoid or Cuban-American, you really have no business voting Republican.

Now that's an argument that would have made sense.

In the meantime,  it's heartening for me to see right wing extremists like Javier doing their best to disenfranchise everyone in their party who isn't .

You go, Javi!

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