Do you miss Van Jones?

The last time I saw Van Jones speak was in Washington DC early on inauguration day, Jan. 20, 2009, and the world was going to be all right with him in the White House as the "Green Jobs" czar. We remember how the far right hated the very idea of the black lefty firebrand from Oakland with some authority. Glenn Beck raged, and in not too long a time Van Jones was out. It was one of my early disappointments with the Obama era. How could this happen?

So it was good on Friday to have Van Jones giving the post-breakfast keynote at Netroots Nation, the DailyKos-sponsored bloggers' convention. Bittersweet to hear him say, "In the last two years all my dreams came true, and my nightmares, too."

You can see the whole speech at this link from Netroots Nation.

Keep on watching into his interview done by Ari Melber of The Nation, who asked Van Jones whether Big Ed Schultz had been correct in his fierce speech the night before, when he insinuated there was a "sissy room" in the White House. "This is harder than it looks," Jones said of life in the White House. It's one thing to perform strongly in an election campaign, and another much more difficult thing to have won and then have to govern and legislate and face "a toxic and hostile media environment."

Jones also said that what we're dealing with now is "a ferocious backlash." Yet he tries to keep his sunny personality in good order and urges us to be more beautiful, keep the hope alive. "You have the power to do it."

He was introduced in a recorded video statement by Howard Dean. "Our job," Dean said, "is to keep their feet to the fire in Washington."

To quote Van Jones (from a different context), "This is harder than it looks."

Alex Sink at Democratic Party fundraiser in Little Havana

We see a little furrow of worry on the president's brow in this painting, and it's because Florida might not be quite up to putting him over the top again in 2012. We did it in 2008. And whether we do it again will depend a lot on whether we campaign long and hard this year, right now, and make Alex Sink Florida's governor.

Having her as a Democrat in the driver's seat for two years before election day 2012 will make a world of difference. She will veto the next Republican attempt to wreck our public schools -- you know it's coming up again, sure as Jeb Bush is calling the shots from his cave. She will drive the agenda and put a Democrat atop the news budget again. She will deploy her business skills to build jobs in partnership with the federal government -- not in blind opposition like the Republican contenders. With her in charge and the Fair Districts amendments in the Florida constitution, redistricting will be done fairly and we can expect our delegations to the Florida and US House to reflect public opinion more than Republican ideology.

We must be far-sighted in this. Quibbling about minor matters must stop. Enjoy watching our local Republicans show how NOT to get along.

This photo comes from the Thursday fundraiser at Cuba Ocho Art and Research Center in Little Havana, where Alex Sink was introduced by State Rep. Luis Garcia in his own District 107, where he's going for his second re-election in a formerly Republican district. Garcia calls Sink, currently the chief financial officer in state government, "the best mind in Tallahassee." He's 100 percent for making her the check and balance we need to block the Republican majority in the legislature.

Her view: "Tally is out of touch and out of control."

Our mission is to elect her.

She had a special request: "Put me on your Facebook page." You'll see her in fresh text and photos on the Miami-Dade Democrats group page. Now it's your turn.

NY Times mag piece -- What do you think of this view of Obama as party boss?

From the opening teasers for this Sunday magazine piece about Barack Obama as "Democrat in Chief," your blogger was in disapproving mode. Why is author Matt Bai saying the president is the only recent holder of the office who wasn't a party strategist? I was asking myself. Didn't we elect him because he wasn't a party hack like the two Bushes? Didn't we choose a transformational president?

What do you think? The comments are available for you to let it out.

And why would the NY Times be saying this about the president as we head for mid-term elections for which the president's political arm is gearing up a strong campaign? We want Democrats to hold Congress as strongly as possible and to do well in statehouse races in Florida and nationwide. This is why we're working with Organizing for America to make it happen, and why we're recruiting volunteers, and why we're energizing our Miami-Dade County Democratic Party.

We're also hoping to learn from this tremendously successful political campaigner who's now in the Oval Office, and who has new ideas that the NY Times finds dubious.

Nostalgic moment in kickoff for 2010 election campaigning

Phone banking has its moments, and there was one for me today. The list of names and numbers was supposed to be of people who voted for the first time in 2008 -- the ones who made the difference in Barack Obama's big victory, and who must come out in good numbers to make the November 2010 general election work for the Democratic ticket.

The first two pages were routine, few people home on a Saturday midday, some too rushed to speak, a couple glad to hear a Democrat calling. Then came a name with a pleasant memory jolt attached -- Nathaniel Sherwood. Wait, is that our Nate Sherwood, the first or second local staffer of Obama For America we received in Miami-Dade County? I checked the contacts in my phone. Sure enough, the same number. Living in mid-Beach then. Long gone now -- Was it to Colorado? -- but still in the local voter list two years later.

Nice to see you, Nate.

Here's an image of other  phone bankers in action on Saturday, Barbara Bizno and Peter Medvin, joining a nationwide drive as Organizing For America (the new name of Obama For America) starts contacting the throngs waiting to be summoned to vote again.

Obama transcript in the Oil Spill. Read it and be grateful the other isn't president

This remarkable document came to me by email from the White House press office because I'm a registered blogger and the White House is much more open that it was when Dick Cheney met with the oil kings to decide energy policy. Your blogger gets things like this a lot. Reading this transcript for the second time, however, made me think how grateful I am that Barack Obama is the president, and not John McCain or George W. Bush. We have a president who understands and takes things forward, and lets people talk about the right amount. 


My only comment/piece of advice at this point is: As much as we want to help the people of the Gulf coast, we have to avoid futility. Darn, they may want to stay for the sixth generation now, but their home may be about to be gooed up by oil for years to come. We have to avoid futile efforts that won't work. This will be a hard judgment call, and there's another reason I'm grateful that we have a wise man as president now, and not some martinet neocon.


Read and enjoy the result of your electoral labors:

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
IN CONVERSATION WITH LOCAL RESIDENTS

Camardelle’s Live Bait and Boiled Seafood
Grand Isle, Louisiana

    THE PRESIDENT:  Everybody knows the Mayor.  The Mayor has gathered up a group of local businesspeople.  Butch, for example, owns a marina; Terry, a shrimp boat; Floyd, oyster fisherman; and Patti has a convenience store; Chris is the owner of this bait shop.
    And so we were just talking about the economic impact that this has had.  And just to give you a sense of perspective -- Terry has been shrimping out here for 46 years.  His grandfather did it before him.  And right now things are completely shut off for him.

Floyd, he leases the oyster beds from the state.  The state now, obviously, and properly so, has said he can't be pulling seafood out of these waters right now.  He’s got oil that's starting to seep in into these oyster beds where he’s got leases and, as a consequence, Floyd is trying to figure out how long this damage is going to last.

FLOYD LASSEIGNE:  I'm a fourth generation, and I've got a son who is a fifth generation, so we've been -- somebody lease has been -- been in the family for 100 years.

THE PRESIDENT:  Butch was talking about the marina and making the point that these three, four months are basically when all the business comes down.  And normally all his slips would be full right now -- sounds like about only a third of them are full and it may get worse from there.

BUTCH GASPARD:  Our charter boat guys are hurting real bad, too, because all the charter boat business is shut down.  They make a living off of taking people out fishing.

THE PRESIDENT:  So right now, Butch isn’t taking a salary so he can pay his employees, but he doesn’t know how long that's going to last.

Then you’ve got Patti, who owns a convenient store.  Obviously that store is dependent on these guys -- the boats coming in, filling up with gas, buying ice, buying soft drinks.  So she’s down 85 percent on her business right now.

So this is just a sampling of what’s happening out here.  And part of what we talked about was what we can do to prevent oil from coming into these areas; part of what we talked about is -- in terms of the relief effort -- can we deploy folks who’ve got boats here to help save their livelihoods right where they are, as opposed to having to go to other places.  And so I'm going to ask Admiral Allen to make sure that he’s looking at where people are being deployed, where vessels are being deployed, to make sure the people who know the waters best end up being hired there.

And the final thing is we've got to talk about -- what we talked about up in New Orleans -- which is are we making sure that claims are being processed effectively.  And right now, after that initial $5,000 check that BP wrote, the claim center has been taking in claims, but it sounds, based on what I'm hearing, that there’s a lot of process but not much actual action.  And so we're going to see if we can do something better on that.

But the main point I think I want to make -- and, Mayor, feel free to chime in on this -- is these are communities that have had a way of life for generations, and what people are concerned about right now is not just the damage done in the short term -- because these are some tough folks.  They’ve been through hurricanes and --

VOICE:  Low prices.

THE PRESIDENT:  -- low prices --

VOICE:  High cost of fuel.

THE PRESIDENT:  Terry was talking about how the walls stay up on a building around here; a hurricane comes, you wash out the mud and a week later everybody is back in business.  So these are folks who are used to hardship and know how to deal with it.  But what they’re concerned about right now is, is this going to have a lasting impact that they can't recover from.  And that's why Thad and the rest of the federal team is so committed to making sure that everything that can be done will be done.

This is going to be bad, no matter what we do.  But we can hopefully minimize the damage, but it requires good coordination between the state, federal and local; and it requires BP to make sure that, as I said up in New Orleans, folks aren’t getting nickled-and-dimed and that we're doing what we need to do early to prevent the worst-case scenario from happening later.

So, Mr. Mayor, anything you want to add?

MAYOR CAMARDELLE:  Well, again, the main concern is to block these five passes that we talked about.  The barges are available, Admiral, right there all along the coast, from Venice to Harvey Canal, all the way back to Homer. They’re standing by, and hopefully we can get the President to get on BP -- between both of you guys -- so we can put some barges there temporary to block these passes so we can save Claiborne Parish, LaFourche Parish, St. Charles Parish, Orleans Parish, Jefferson Parish, Plaquemines Parish.  And Jefferson Parish, where we live at -- if we can block them five passes right now, these fishermen can tell you that we can save -- continue to save the rest of the 2 million acres of oysters.

We have $2 billion worth of seafood that comes out behind me, right in this estuary -- $2 billion worth.  We have a billion dollars of recreational license -- recreational fishing -- that generates to the marinas, to all the stores, all the way across Louisiana.  But these guys -- this woman here with the convenience store, if we lose the estuaries in the back, we're history.  And they’ll tell you that.

We're born and raised -- our grandfathers, grandmothers.  We made a living right here behind us.  There’s no reason why this shrimp boat should be tied up, it don’t have skimmers on it, to make sure we can block the oil until we put these booms.  And I'm asking you to --

THE PRESIDENT:  To go to work.  Last week when I was talking to the Mayor, he started choking up just talking about the fact that out of his own pocket he was having to provide some help and some loans to his buddies, to fishermen, folks in the area.  That's what we should be able to prevent.  There’s oil washing in, but people can help each other.  And the company that's responsible can make sure that it’s responding quickly and effectively.

And when the Mayor told me that story it was, I think, an example of what’s happening all across this Gulf Coast.  And it’s going to be multiplied not just in Louisiana, but in Alabama, in Mississippi, in Florida.  There are small communities like this all across the Gulf and they’ve got to make sure that their voice is being heard day in, day out.

And I know that they’ve got a fierce advocate in Thad Allen.  But I wanted you to know that behind Thad Allen stands the President of the United States.

MAYOR CAMARDELLE:  And like I said, since the last time you’ve been here, the Coast Guard is unbelievable.  Admiral, I want you to know that.  You guys are really working 24 hours for us.  And you did push BP.  And, like I said, I'm very emotional because I'm still giving -- I'm not going to cut the water off, I'm not going to cut the electricity off, and I'm not going to cut the gas off.  I have one of the businesses right now that has a $5,200 electricity bill, and I'm calling energy to make sure not to cut him off.

When these businesspeople come up to you and say it’s time to help, it’s not easy.  And Patti can tell you -- the night before last I told her that I'm going to keep you strong, I'm going the try to bring you more business.  Butch calls me, telling me we need more boats, get some vessel of opportunities. He’s fighting to save his oysters.  I'm trying to keep Grand Isle alive, to try to get tours.  I opened the beach Memorial Sunday at 3:00 p.m. -- people were calling me.  So the marinas can sell a towel so these young kids can lay on the beach.

And watching oil come across the shore -- some people think I'm better than God, you know.  That's how serious this is.  And they’ll tell you, I live right down the street.  I've been averaging two hours of sleep, just going in and looking at the ceiling fan and wondering what’s going to happen tomorrow, and praying to God that no more oil comes on the beach.

So, like Terry said earlier, his wife is sick.  I bring seven people a day to -- New Orleans in a van, to cross that long bridge you crossed, and putting gas in the truck to make sure that we can keep the help.  And we help each other.  And we don't have no money, don't matter.  We help each other.  That's what we do.


THE PRESIDENT:  Well, that's supposed to be what the entire United States does, is helping each other.

MAYOR CAMARDELLE:  Exactly.

TERRY VEGAS:  We're not bitter at the oil companies for what’s happening. We're just bitter at those that cut the corners and cause the havoc that we're having right now.

VOICE:  It’s not getting cleaned up fast enough.

VOICE:  -- the oil company down here and we enjoy the business.  We support them.

THE PRESIDENT:  Well, I think the point with the oil companies is they’ve got to support you the same way you support them.  And they’ve got to make sure that -- because there are a lot of folks in the oil business who do the right thing and who aren’t cutting corners.  We've just got to make sure that we find out what happened and that those who are responsible are held responsible; that we fix whatever is wrong.  We're still going to need the oil production, but we've got to make sure that we do it in the right way, because we just can't have a situation like this happen again.

VOICE:  Can't have that happen all the time,, no.

VOICE:  Have to follow the rules.

VOICE:  Just tell the truth.

VOICE:  From day one they lied to us -- BP.  They said 1,000 barrels a day, then said it’s 2,000 -- put the tube in there, it was 5,000 -- now it’s up to 12,000 to 19,000 barrels a day.  Just tell the people the truth, you know.  That's all we want.

MAYOR CAMARDELLE:  Like I said, the biggest shrimp dock in America is right here in Grand Isle.  It’s Blanche’s Seafood.  And he’s completely shut down.  They’ll tell you, the boats are tied up.  How many boats does he have right now -- about 100, close to 100 boats just tied up.  And you’ve got the Vietnamese families, you’ve got the true Cajun people here, and they’re just sitting on the deck of the boat and just waiting on the vessel of opportunity.

And I want to respect the Admiral and BP, where they try.  It’s just since you left, they’ve made a big change.  Since you came to me, you made a big change and we support you for that.  But we just worry.  You hear us here and we worry.  And we don't know what’s going to happen tomorrow.  And that's why we depend on you -- both of you guys -- to make sure that -- and you heard them today.  We don't want to be on food stamps -- none of my people -- we want to just untie the boat, be able to see your two daughters right here and kiss them in the evening and Daddy’s going to work.
                       END

Time: Obama doing great in runup to 2010 midterms

This excellent summary of the Obama administration so far appears in Time magazine of last week. Not being a regular reader, I missed it. Thanks to following OFA-FL on Twitter, I was reminded and nudged to check it out. If you sometimes struggle in argument against the nay-sayers in our camp as well as in the opposition, it's good to commit some of this article's points to memory.

Let's see: Biden and Emmanuel are pluses, as well as the national security team, who get along and no scandals have emerged. Health care passed and will start to make a difference before the November elections. Obama is as good at personnel decisions in office as he was in the campaign. It will happen again later this year.

Feel better?

Barack Obama in Miami -- fixing problems, getting laughs, calling our candidates' names

Tucked in my box of campaign memories from 2008 is an event at the University of Miami, when candidate Barack Obama gave what seemed a mild shout-out to our Democratic challengers to the incumbent Republicans in the US House of Representatives. That may not be an accurate or full picture of what happened. But since we were struggling to get media coverage, endorsements, donations -- anything! -- it was always disappointing when the result didn’t seem whole-hearted.

Well, this was not the problem Thursday evening in Miami when Barack Obama, who buzzes in on Air Force One now, started his speech at the Adrienne Arsht Center with full-voiced shout-outs to:

• Alex Sink, running for governor
• Loranne Ausley, running for chief financial officer
• Kendrick Meek, running for the open seat in the US Senate
• Joe Garcia, running for open Florida District 25 in the US House
• Scott Maddox, running for commissioner of agriculture and consumer affairs
• Suzanne Kosmas, seeking re-election in Florida District 24 in the US House.

Sorry I didn’t get my Flip camera running quickly enough to get Obama calling Alex Sink’s name and her happy wave in response, but the others can be seen in tiny images -- Hey, the Flip only has a two-power zoom.

It was also super to hear the president thank the brilliant Esperanza Spalding, who thrilled the house with three jazz numbers before the political speeches. If you haven’t heard of her, check out the long profile of her in the New Yorker. Think the rare woman playing bass, think lovely singing, think beautiful. She was a treat.


Let me note that the president called Joe Garcia “a great friend of mine.” Joe has just left his high position with the Department of Energy to run for the open congressional seat in District 25, and we should be on track to a win.

Also on stage with the president were our own US Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, FL-20, a vice chair of the Democratic National Committee, and DNC Chair Tim Kaine, former governor of Virginia.

Kaine noted that the pundits predict the president’s party loses 28 House seats in the typical mid-term election. “They under-estimate us,” he countered. “We’ve got a great president.” There’s a major health law that will look better and better, Kaine went on, and we Democrats have enough fine candidates that we’re going after some Republican seats -- not merely defending. Hey, there’s Joe Garcia again, running for the seat long misrepresented by Mario Diaz-Balart, who’s escaping to FL-21, vacated by his retiring brother Lincoln. (What is it with these Republican quitters?)

And as the president declared in his humor-laced speech, “We’ve begun to fix the problems” -- chiefly health care to this point (long applause there), but coming soon is financial reform (long applause again for levying fees on banks to recoup all that bailout money).

Obama reminded us that the recovery act included a lot of tax cuts for the middle class, and said he was “amused” that rallies were being held on this Tax Deadline Day to protest supposedly high taxes. “You would think they’d be saying, ‘Thank you,’” he said, drawing one of a string of big laughs.

From this very pleasant time at the Arsht Center (well worth the money), your blogger is predicting that the president will be using his charm and gentle wit to cut the Party of No down to the Party of Nothing in the coming months.

Come to the Health-Care Watch Party Thursday morning

Are you coming to the Health-Care Watch Party on Thursday?

10 am, 801 Arthur Godfrey Road #402, in Miami Beach, the OFA office.

Below, from the White House, is what the good guys will have in mind to discuss. No telling what the other side will want to say.

Overview of the President's Proposal

The President's Proposal puts American families and small business owners in control of their own health care.

-- It makes insurance more affordable by providing the largest middle class tax cut for health care in history, reducing premium costs for tens of millions of families and small business owners who are priced out of coverage today. This helps over 31 million Americans afford health care who do not get it today -- and makes coverage more affordable for many more.

-- It sets up a new competitive health insurance market giving tens of millions of Americans the exact same insurance choices that members of Congress will have.

-- It brings greater accountability to health care by laying out commonsense rules of the road to keep premiums down and prevent insurance industry abuses and denial of care.

-- It will end discrimination against Americans with pre-existing conditions.

-- It puts our budget and economy on a more stable path by reducing the deficit by $100 billion over the next ten years -- and about $1 trillion over the second decade -- by cutting government overspending and reining in waste, fraud and abuse.

It includes a targeted set of changes to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the Senate-passed health insurance reform bill. Key changes include:

-- Closing the Medicare prescription drug "donut hole" coverage gap;

-- Strengthening the Senate bill's provisions that make insurance affordable for individuals and families;

-- Strengthening the provisions to fight fraud, waste, and abuse in Medicare and Medicaid;

-- Increasing the threshold for the excise tax on the most expensive health plans from $23,000 for a family plan to $27,500 and starting it in 2018 for all plans;

-- Improving insurance protections for consumers and creating a new Health Insurance Rate Authority to provide federal assistance and oversight to states in conducting reviews of unreasonable rate increases and other unfair practices of insurance plans.

For more information, check out:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/health-care-meeting

Video shows Obama administration position on jobs and recovery

When someone says no jobs have been created -- as I've heard repeatedly from having C-Span on for hours with the conservatives' talk-fest in Washington -- just yell out "Joe Wilson!"

FL-18: Ros-Lehtinen's economic knowledge leaves out Great Depression

Thanks to the Miami Beach Tuesday Morning Breakfast Club we have some better understanding of how poor our representation in Congress is. My representative, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, now over 20 years in the US House, spoke to us last Tuesday and put out a ton of verbiage revealing how little she and her Republican colleagues understand of economics.

Her main theme was the deficit, and if you look at these clips you’ll see that she wants to freeze spending, and to do it now. She apparently hasn’t heard that the Great Depression of the 1930s was on the road to recovery in FDR’s first term until he was nagged to distraction by criticism of his spending, and so his administration put on the brakes and then came the double-dip of 1937, I believe. I’m not even looking it up -- it’s such common knowledge. But not among today’s Republicans. Their mantra is stop deficits now. NOW!

OK, we know that the family budget should be balanced. But that’s not really applicable to running the world’s biggest economy, and families, too, have to borrow for major expenditures. Ros-Lehtinen led off her  speech with the stop-deficit talking point, and then in the Q-and-A she was given two chances to modify it, but instead she mischaracterized economic thought.

No, Congresswoman, no economists think that deficits are OK, as you say. They may say that deficits are necessary to help end a recession, but then you’re supposed to get to a balance of income and outgo.

Anyway, check out this clip. Note that she’s reading from a paper but still says clearly false things about the national debt and the size of President Obama’s budget proposal in relation to the national debt.




It has taken me forever to process this, and I apologize. New computer gear slowed me down, plus winter visitors from the frozen North.

Inspiration to finish came Saturday evening as C-Span replayed another Republican member of the US House, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, the deputy whip of her party. She had done the Friday morning call-in program, and my, was she an eloquent spouter of the party line, leading with the deficit. I was struck by the way her message was identical to what Ros-Lehtinen had said on Tuesday in Miami Beach.

The Republicans all have been told what to say. This is the balky line we will hear until the Obama administration brings out the hammers of logic and a disciplined majority.

Blackburn was asked what should happen in the summit President Obama has called for Feb. 25, and I was stunned to hear her say that the Tennessee governor should be called in to explain how health care should be run. Yes -- she wants to go back to Year Zero and start from scratch.

I think this is going to be one heck of a year in the US Congress, and we should gear up to let even our Republican members of Congress know what we think of their no-knothing, er, know-nothing way of representation.

Blackburn said there would be town halls during this break for Presidents Day. We should find out where the Republicans are appearing and let them know their knowledge of economics gets an F.

Thanks, by the way, to Ros-Lehtinen for coming out and speaking to the general public in Miami Beach. There are more good clips of her talk that I’ll try to grind out. She has been in the US House since 1988, and my member of Congress since 2002, and this is the first appearance I know of outside her usual friendly circle.

The first question to her was about her husband Dexter Lehtinen and his legal work for the Miccosukee Indian tribe, which does a lot of business with the federal government, and whether that might be a conflict of interest.

“It’s about ethics,” the questioner, Mike Burke, cried when she didn’t know what he was asking about. Ethics? She didn’t know, just like her economics. I’ll try to get this clip up, too.

Final note: While the rest of you were glued to the screen watching the snow games, your blogger was editing his crude video and looking at C-Span. Such is devotion.

Herald buries story of Alex Sink's big turn against big banks

Your blogger is admitting here that he was dubious about Alex Sink's banking background -- Is it a good qualification for Florida's governorship at a time when banks have led the United States to the brink of disaster?

Now I see the light. Alex Sink on Tuesday ripped into the state's chief financial regulator -- someone she nominated for the job -- and said he hadn't aggressively pursued litigation against the Bank of America. BofA -- that's her former employer!

And where did the Miami Herald place this story? On page 4 of the local section. So here I'm posting the link to the St. Petersburg Times' story instead of the Herald's reprint of the St. Pete story.

There was room on the Herald's front page for a Tallahassee story, but instead of the Democratic candidate for governor and her sharp words at a cabinet meeting, we Herald readers of the front page got a featurish story about texting while driving.

Your blogger calls a foul.

And I'm thinking it's a schizo day when our Democratic candidate for governor seems more combative about big banks than our Democratic president. Sorry to point it out, but I'm getting this from Simon Johnson on Huffington Post, and it doesn't make me happy.

Nonetheless, it's great to see Sink raising her game against the world of finance that she must know very well. This blog has tried repeatedly to say much more needs to be done about the way Florida has been ripped off by Wall Street. It's good to see Alex Sink quoted as saying:

"My main frustration ... is the sense of do-nothingness and inaction in the face of all sorts of scams in our state."

That gets a big fist-pump and YES!

Watch this to see what to do

Don't let your morale get down. You still are the best and smartest campaigners in the land.

What did Alito say?

We're reached a pretty point when the Supremes are giving the President the Bronx cheer (even if sotto voce) during the State of the Union.

http://www.dailykos.com/tv/w/002512/

What did he say? Some think he was mouthing "Not true." I just saw on the Jimmy Kimmel show on ABC that he was saying "Nachos."

How do they get the president to sign a Christmas card to me?

I did work like a dog to help get him elected, but I didn't expect to get a video showing Barack Obama signing a Christmas card to me.

How do they do it?

Too much

I made the mistake of clicking on the Flickr link to the White House photostream. Too much. On p. 2 we learn that the Oval Office has a deputy director of operations. He's shown holding the door open for the president. Too much.

Pool Report: President Obama in Miami Beach Monday night

By Beth Reinhard of the Miami Herald:

At the Fountainebleau Miami Beach hotel, President Obama gave largely the same speech he gave in New York City last week at a DNC fundraiser. He ticked off his accomplishments: saving economy from brink of disaster, expanding insurance to poor children, ending ban on stem cell research, pledging to close Guantanamo. "I don't rattle. I'm not going to shrink back,'' he said to reassure supporters that his critics don't have him on his heels.

Obama spoke to a reception of about 150 people who had paid the minimum $500 ticket price and then to a room of about 300 bigger donors who were eating dinner across the hall. He began speaking at about 7:12 p.m. and wrapped up across the hall at 7:57 p.m. The fundraiser raised about $1.5 million for the DCCC and DSCC.

Some quotes: "I am absolutely confident we are going to get heath care done by the end of this year."
"We have to take the long view on this process,'' referring to all of the many goals of his administration.
"We are closer than we have ever been to passing healthcare reform,'' he said. But he added, "It's  not going to get easier from here on in. It's going to get harder.''

U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek said he met Obama on the tarmac in Miami, along with Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink (candidate for governor), state Sen. Dan Gelber of Miami Beach (candidate for attorney general), U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Weston and Miami Mayor Manny Diaz.

 About 200 protesters gathered across the street from the hotel with a wide range of gripes, from healthcare to immigration to the president's golf game, which until Sunday had never included a woman. The crowd included Haitians calling for asylum, anti-abortion activists, gun rights advocates and
opponents of toppled Honduran president Manuel Zelaya.

I received this report by email thanks to my participation, as a blogger, in a White House regional media group. Almost every day I get news releases and invitations to listen in on conference calls where Obama administration officials brief  reporters. In my previous life as an AP reporter I occasionally helped cover a visiting president and on a few rare occasions wrote a pool report like this for other reporters who were not able to observe the president in action.

 From other sources and my own observation while headed west on the Julia Tuttle Causeway about 6 pm, I can report that traffic on 41^st Street and the east-bound causeway was bad bad bad while the president was in the neighborhood. lt

Obama + Nobel Peace Prize = Amazing!

This is a triumph of hope.

Imagine the horror: Glenn Beck is your secret police interrogator

This is about as strange a sight as I have seen in several trips around the globe. Here we have a right-wing talk show flamer wearing ... What IS Glenn Beck wearing on the cover of his book about to hit the foaming-best-seller list? I've had the dubious pleasure of being in East Germany, the old DDR, and have seen their troops in their strut. Der Glenn is wearing an East German army uniform!

What can he possibly have had in mind when choosing this to adorn the cover of his latest attempt to take over the Misleader Sweeps with a book likely co-written by Karl Rove? Something truly convoluted and tear-stained must lie behind the arrogant mug and out-thrust lower lip. There's a perfect little Nazi there, or a perfect little Stasi interrogator -- either way, a perfect little totalitarian practitioner, and it's the guy who's taken down Van Jones, who's taking down ACORN, and who wants to take down Barack Obama.

The question to me is why would he want to portray himself as a totalitarian on the cover of his own book. I can only assume that this is an unaccustomed outbreak of veracity, and he IS a totalitarian. Somewhere between the covers of this misleading book there may lie some alternate explanation, but this is what I'm hearing, and I'm sticking to it: Glenn Beck wants to be your secret police interrogator, with the full range of Bush-approved torture methods at his disposal. And he's gone around the bend.

In case you wonder what an East German army uniform looks like, here's the link. I found it by Googling "east german army uniform." See the identicality? For the record, a Borders bookstore in Miami-Dade County had this display up to be seen first thing upon entering the store.

Text of Obama's schools message

http://www.whitehouse.gov/MediaResources/PreparedSchoolRemarks/

Wow, this is so controversial. He says study hard and he once lived in Indonesia.

UPDATE: Here's a link to Dan Gelber's blog, with his post about the Obama talk to students. Gelber points out that it's routine for public officials to speak to schools. And never to get filtered, which is nonetheless what's happening at the school where Gelber's three kids go in Miami Beach. As he said, what's happening is "absurd and sad."

UPDATE 2: It's late Wednesday and maybe too late to add to this item, but I just learned that Noah Gray, our local youth videographer, did reporting from Palmetto Senior High, where students could opt out of listening to the president if they had a note from a parent. Here's a link to the report on Channel One News, a youth production that I hadn't seen before. Noah Gray appears in a later part of the segment. Hope the link lasts. Good show, Noah!

Miami Herald birthers deserve a thrashing

Have I calmed down enough to write about this? Browsing the Miami Herald web site today, I’m afraid I let my blood pressure get outa control.

Today’s Question (It's on the upper left of the page):

Do you have questions about President Obama's citizenship?

The Vote buttons below the Q started to waver as my brain raced through questions that I would have thought impossible before seeing this purported Question.

• Have birthers taken control of Florida’s supposed flagship newspaper even though the state voted strongly in favor of the Democratic nominee less than a year ago?
• How could this have happened? Why would they think this was a good idea?
• Haven’t they seen that even Lou Dobbs is taking a drubbing for his coy jitterbug around this issue?
• Do they think coy is a good way to deal with anything at all in this world above the level of a grade-school flirt?

Please join with me and email the Herald in protest. The major word in my short message was despicable.