Rest assured the NLC will be informing the webcast audience about the blessings of government-run healthcare and how it will supposedly take a huge burden off of the cities and municipalities that the webcast is targeted towards. These local government leaders will then have their marching orders to convince their employees of the wonders of ObamaCare, and on and on it goes. And lo and behold- look who’s one the speakers on the guest panel- none other than noted tax cheat and failed Obama Cabinet pick Tom “Puff” Daschle. Coincidence?  Hardly.

These behind the scenes efforts of the Obama Administration, along with the accompanying propaganda campaign are part of the effort to create a sense of inevitability about this law and to bury any chances of its repeal.  The time is now to resist these propaganda efforts with intensified efforts on our side to communicate the truth about socialized medicine to those who haven’t fully formed an opinion on the matter.

LIVE WEBCAST

Tune in August 3rd at 12:00 p.m. (EDT)

With the passage of comprehensive health care reform have come many questions about the impact that reform will have on America’s cities and towns.

The National League of Cities, with the generous support of ICMA-Retirement Corporation (RC), an NLC Capstone Corporate Partner, will be hosting a webcast to address these questions. The NLC TV webcast – which will help you understand the responsibilities that America’s cities and towns will have around health care — will be shown live on Tuesday, August 3rd at 12:00 p.m. (EDT).

The webcast will be introduced by Gregory Dyson of ICMA-RC and moderated by Rita Patel, partner, DLA Piper.

The webcast will feature expert speakers, including former Senator Thomas Daschle, shed light on the future of health care in America, and answer questions about the impact the law will have on cities and towns in the years to come. Speakers will discuss reforms that will take place immediately and those that will take place over the next several years, and what you must do to insure that your city or town is in compliance with the law.

The speakers will include:

* Thomas Daschle, Senior Policy Advisor, DLA Piper, Washington, D.C office and former U. S. Senator, South Dakota
* Paolo Pasicolan, Associate, DLA > Piper, Washington, D.C. office
* Anne Pachciarek, Partner, DLA Piper, Chicago Office
* Mark Boxer, Partner, DLA Piper, San Francisco Office
* Jonathan Helton, Associate, DLA Piper, Chicago Office.

At the conclusion of the presentation, Ms. Patel and her colleague Mark Muedeking, a partner with DLA Piper, will participate in a live question and answer session.

Bookmark the Event Site [1] for quick access to view the live broadcast.

http://www.nlctv.org/events/healthcare/100803/

The full event will be available in the archives 24 hours after the event for future viewing.

EL Sharko and the Shark Pack will be in attendance as well, do not miss this!

Saturday, July 31   @2:00-3:30pm

Ft. Lauderdale Convention Center

“In addititon to the judiciary candidates I am supporting, I would emphatically urge you to discount the 30 million dollare smear campaign being conducted against an honorable,hones and hard working true Republican witha solid  track record of accomplishments second to none, Bill McCollum. His opponent(Rick Scott) in the primary reminds me of Obama, “never mind my past; this is what I’m going to do.” Many Republicans were fooled by this type of rhetoric and should not be fooled once more.”

In his address to the members of the BREC and visitors, Mr. Kennedy reiterated his “predjudice” for McCollum in the Governor’s race, and when confronted by angry BREC members, Mr. Kennedy stood by his statement he wrote in the letter.  Mr. Kennedy also went on to hedge on whether he would vote for Rick Scott, if Scott were to win the Gubernatorial primary race against Bill McCollum.

Have your say, leave us a comment

I have known Ed Kennedy to be an honorable and stand-up type of guy, but this kind of rhetoric is uncalled for and unhelpful to the more important goal of retaining the governorship.   And in true form, REC Chairwoman Cindy Guerra, whose boss happens to be AG McCollum, did not recognize motions from the floor to speak, and she abruptly closed the meeting.

Karen Harrington,GOP Congressional Candidate in District 20, is upstaging her opponents by releasing this attack Ad against Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D). Harrington is considered to be the frontrunner in the GOP race over Donna Milo and disgraced candidate Robert Lowry. This past FEC reporting cycle shows Harrington out raising her opponents by a margin of 4 to 1. Since Brian Reilly dropped out of the GOP primary in this race, Harrington has has taken the reigns and is out in front. Donna Milo of North Miami, who by all accounts, won the first debate held in this GOP

 primary-she too is making a strong case and run to face DWS. Speaking of DWS,
Robert Lowry seems to have lost steam and has become irrelevent in the race. Lowry’s demise is surely contributed to all of his missteps and gaffes over the past year or so. Among other things, Lowry has recently been named in a lawsuit,is supported by a fringe activist element that has doomed other campaigns, and is still trying to get past his ‘maccaca’ moment when he and  his campaign scribbled the initials ‘DWS’ on a target and then shot at it.  

Word around the political watercooler is that, many politicos are in fear of a Lowry victory because they feel the Democrat Party will use his troubled candidacy to bring down other Republican candidates. 

Here is the Harrington press release and video:

Karen Harrington Releases New Campaign Commercial for the Web: “Out of Touch”
 
Pembroke Pines, FL. — Last week, The White House tried to bury a very inconvenient forecast in the Friday ‘news dump’- it expects that our national unemployment rate will stay at or above 9% through 2012.  As the Obama Administration conveniently hides the anticipated results of its dismal tax and spend economic policies, the Karen Harrington for Congress Campaign has released its first campaign commercial for both television and the web- “Out of Touch”, a video that directly takes aim at Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s unwavering support of President Obama’s reckless economic policies that continue to hurt working families and small businesses.
 
“I am proud and excited that our campaign’s first commercial takes to the web effective immediately.  I believe that the so called “new normal” for the U.S. Economy as defined by the Obama Administration and Debbie Wasserman-Schultz- unemployment stalled at 9% or higher for the next several years- is a totally unacceptable outcome for the American people,” said Karen Harrington, candidate for Congress in Florida’s 20thCongressional District.
 
“I can confidently say that this anticipated  failure is not written in stone if we change our fiscal policies and our current leadership in Congress.  Debbie Wasserman-Schultz would like for you to forget that her and her Party promised Americans that if we passed the so-called ‘Stimulus’ bill, unemployment would top out at 8% and begin to decline after the third quarter of 2009.  That promise has now been shown to be completely fraudulent.  Debbie Wasserman-Schultz is completely out of touch when it comes to the real world concerns of working families and small businesses, and our new campaign video makes that point abundantly clear,” said Harrington

Last Saturday, July 24, 2010, El Sharko could not attend the Fort Lauderdale Tea Party’s Judicial Candidate forum! Lucky for him that I was on the scene to cover the event for the Shark-Tank and its loyal readers.  The feeding frenzy soon discovered a late July misstep that could turn the outcome of the August 24, 2010 for a certain Crist appointed Judge.

The Local Fort Lauderdale Tea Party who consists of a very large diverse ethnic group of individuals flexed their newly acquired political muscles in vetting 22-Broward judicial candidates. All politics is local and this group asked serious questions stemming from candidates legal experience to whether they supported wholeheartedly the 2nd amendment inalienable right to bear arms.

Tempers flared with candidate (incumbent) Judge Carlos Rebollo who is currently challenged by Attorney Bob Nichols. When Judge Carlos Rebollo spoke it seemed he lacked passion/emotion as commented by many Tea Party members after the event. He stuck to his talking points and tried to “take” more time than the event coordinators would allot him. The proverbial “shizel hitting the fan” was when his opponent dropped a bomb shell in the room quoting the incumbent Judge (D) who two years before was appointed by Gov. Charlie Crist. Conservative candidate Bob Nichols alleged that Circuit Court Judge Rebollo stated two days earlier:

“I believe that it is immoral for any candidate to ever run against a minority incumbent, no m
atter how experienced he is, unless that minority has been involved in some significant scandal.”

It seems that both candidates attended a joint interview with members of the Editorial Board of the Sun Sentinel on July 22, 2010, including Earl Maucker and Gary Stein of the editorial board. The question on the table was why each of them felt that they were the best qualified for the bench. The underdog challenger Bob Nichols replied accordingly, but the former Democrat nor Judge became frustrated by Nichols responses and then blurted out, “I believe that it is immoral for any candidate to ever run against a minority incumbent, no matter how experienced he is, unless that minority has been involved in some significant scandal.”

Candidate Nichols further stated that this was not the only time, but the Crist appointed Judge had announced on two (2) prior occasions that Nichols is IMORRAL solely because he decided to run against a minority candidate. The Members of the Tea Party were seriously shaken by these anti-democratic statements by Rebollo and were very vocal about the accustaions after the forum ended. Maria Moncada attended the event from start to finish and this race stuck out the most in her mind. “If this is true then Judge Rebollo’s character is flawed and as a minority I do not know if I can support someone who says things like that,” said Maria. “Those comments sound so un-American…I mean…who is he to say who can run in a race and who can’t”

While Candidate Bob Nichols was speaking Judge Rebollo seemed to get quite upset and from the opposite side of the room the attendees could see he wanted more time to rebut the accusations. One of the event coordinators, Jack Gillies, commented to the Shark Tank that, “We are blessed to have the Jib Room allow us to be here and hold the event, but they had a Class Reunion party starting at 5:00 PM, and we frankly did not have the extra time for candidates to rebut since we had to get out.”  Jack Gillies continued, “People were free to talk to the candidates after their presentations in the next room or outside, but we had 22 Judicial Candidate with limited times and they all had equal amount of time to present their case.”

After having his request denied Judge Rebollo made his way across the room to the table where a Tea Party volunteer (minding his own business) was harmlessly videotaping the speakers. Judge Rebollo’s face did not look happy! Judge Rebollo came to the table asking for the volunteer’s business card to later obtain a copy of the video. Since this humble volunteer looked like he didn’t want to get into the middle of a dog-fight, I offered my business card in attempts to accommodate Judge Rebollo and take the pressure off the young cameraman. Judge Rebollo thanked me and soon after left the event without incident.

During the after-glow “the immoral” comment incident was on everyone’s minds. Patrick Castronovo, a staunch Marco Rubio supporter, left me these thoughts, “It’s not only a shame but it’s scary to know that we have an elected Judge like Judge Rebullo that thinks that just because he is a minority that he is entitled to be on the bench just because he s Hispanic…..the judicial bench is not a government entitlement program!”
Gabriel Jose Carrera, Esq. is a Attorney with no political party affiliations who founded the International Law Office of Gabriel Jose Carrera, PA., and practices law in Florida and Federal Courts in South Florida.  Moneyline- Min. 4:28

Here’s the money quote:

One thing West did say that is true, is that what we have to worry about is “an ideology that is totalitarian, theocratic, political and imperialistic in nature.” It’s called the American right wing.

How cheeky!  The “American Right Wing” and its ‘totalitarian’ ideology, hmmmm.  I suppose one can write a full length book in response to such an insipid and ignorant comment such as this one, but musings such as these are par for the course for the leftist blogosphere these days, as they are almost unwilling to compete in the arena of ideas to defend their policies as compatible with the Constitution, free markets, or a truly free people.

Even as their hero-in-chief, Barrack H. Obama, imposes his statist political objectives on an ever more disapproving electorate – healthcare mandates, cap and trade, amnesty for illegals, unsustainable government spending, new entitlements, so called “stimulus” plans and bailouts that went right to his constituency groups, his appointment of avowed Communists and other progressive ideologues (Van Jones), the revival of the “Fairness Doctrine” and the misleadingly named “Net Neutrality”, Barack H. Obama is using one coercive measure after another as he crams down his neo-Marxist/socialist/fascist ideology on a public that now is beginning to see through his emperor’s clothes- and through the progressive rhetoric that masks his true intentions.

And yet, the “American Right Wing”, with its reverence and respect for the Constitution, free markets, and limited government, is the “totalitarian ideology” in the eyes of the Reid Report. For the record, the “American Right Wing” is perfectly happy & content for the bloggers @ the Reid Report to spew their nonsense (albeit disappointed that such ignorance abounds)- but please, we’d encourage them to take a look at the Constitution and our founding documents to see just how completely incompatible those liberty-enabling monuments are with the statism that you are too busy cheerleading and providing cover for.  It is the the leftist blogosphere who are are enablers of the soft tyranny that is now manifesting itself that will ultimately lead to our ruin.  The “American Right Wing” is interested in governing under the limitations provided by our Constitution, whereas the Left is much more interested in ruling by ignoring it.

The Reid Report- what decades of indoctrination in public schools can’t accomplish to completely marginalize the Constitution and American heritage in the minds of the perpetually aggrieved, they will finish. Check ‘em out! (not).

By now, Republicans in Congress should be under no illusions as to the serious threat Obama poses– this administration’s uncheceked spending, powergrabs, bailouts, apppointments, corruption, and disregard for the rule of law have literally placed our national security, sovereignty, prosperity, and our rights in serious jeopardy, and Republicans should be using all available means at their disposal to thwart any further legislative victories by this administration.

But in spite of all this, Senator George LeMieux still appears to be ignorant of the corrupt nature of this administration.  As Senator LeMieux rightly criticized the Obama administration’s inept, incompetent, and what many people believe was his intentionally negligent reponse to the BP Oil rig explosion, you might think that Sen. LeMieux would have far more reservations about supporting any further legislative proposals emanating from this White House, since it seems disinterested in doing everything that it should properly be doing, and much more concerned about cramming through its highly partisan agenda in the limited window of opportunity that it has- roughly 5 months.

Last Thursday, Senator LeMieux broke a Republican fillibuster as the Senate voted 60-37 to end debate on an amendment that, as it was slickly packaged by most media outlets, “would create a $30 billion fund for community banks to lend to small businesses.”

Senator Richard Shelby, ranking Republican on the Banking Committee, got it right. “I believe this is the same old song and dance, expand the reach of the heavy hand of government,” he said. “Like TARP, this program does not lend money directly to small businesses; it would have the government take ownership interest in hundreds of banks. This is TARP-2.”

That’s what makes Senator LeMieux’s vote to break this filibuster completely inexcusable.  This IS yet another bailout bill, this IS more crony capitalism, regardless of how Senator LeMieux spins it.  The same reasons why the first TARP was wrong are the same reasons why this bill is wrong.  The size of the giant banks who were the recipients of the first TARP funds as compared to these community banks is a moot point.  The fact that these community banks weren’t responsible for the last financial crisis or weren’t selling mortgage-backed securities are also moot points.  What’s causing a lack of lending by these community banks is the weak business demand for credit, a terrible existing business climate, and a dismal economic outlook that forsees additional taxes, regulations, and the anticipated costs of Obamacare- enough worries to throttle any economic recovery.

Memo to Senator LeMieux- this administration is not interested in the well being of our nation’s small businesses.  Whatever rhetoric it employs to express “concern” about our present unemployment situation or our lack of an economic recovery is completely betrayed by every one of the laws that it has already passed or its pending legislative proposals. This administration is solely interested in expanding the power of the federal government and enabling its toxic brew of special interests and constituency groups at the expense of everyone else.  If you are unable to come to that realization, you should probably go home in 2012.

This past Friday, I completed my travels on the Rick Scott for Governor Bus tour that started off in Miami and ended in the panhandle. Day 1 and Day 2 of my trip are already documented and Day 3 took the tour to Clearwater and Tampa. The day started very early when Scott bolted to an early breakfast, then to a couple of other mid-morning meet and greets, before  his lunch engagement in which Hillsborough GOP Chairwoman Debbie Cox-Rousch introduced Mr. Scott, and where State Senator Paula Dockery joined him on his bus tour.
That same morning, we released the video of Mr. Scott supporting Marco Rubio, as well as the video of him stating that he would be forgoing his Governor’s salary if elected Governor.  Just to clarify, the videos posted before and during Rick Scott’s purported ‘gaffes’ at those earlier events. I was not present at these early morning and mid-morning events, but I was present at the lunch event.

So in all fairness to the parties that are questioning my objectivity, I am posting up what was reported by my colleagues earlier that day.

1. Rick Scott is being accused of  making a gaffe, not a ‘maccaca’ moment, when speaking about education, as reported by the St. Pete Times.

2.The Palm Beach Post also reported that Scott said,”Marco’s lost his momentum.”  The Scott campaign confirmed that he did say this but, in all fairness, what was the context in which he said it?  Regardless, Scott did make that comment.  So what does Scott really think of Marco Rubio? Rick Scott Supports Marco Rubio (VIDEO)

3. On Day 1 of the bus tour, there was an issue with the campaign and a local TV reporter, when the reporter questioned Mr. Scott’s mother on tape. I did not join the bus tour until shortly after this incident, so I can only go by what I was told and what is on tape.  See the story here: WPLG Local 10

Rick Scott and AG Bill McCollum are still locked in a war on the airwaves, and both camps seam to have sharpened their attacks as we approach the August 24th primary. From the looks of it, Scott has surged ahead in the polls and has very strong momentum, but McCollum is benefiting from a number of  important endorsements he has received, and seems to have great support from the veteran Republican leadership and grassroots behind the local REC’s.

This past Friday night, I flew back to Fort Lauderdale and drove up to the opening of the Palm Beach GOP Victory office opening,which was more like the McCollum HQ, because of the amount of literature and collateral that was distributed around the office. Because I flew in so late, I missed AG McCollums remarks to the crowd. But from what I was told, AG McCollum show some great ‘pep-in-his-step’ when he addressed the guests-something I have personally noticed that past several times I have seen him speak.

From what I saw, the overwhelming majority of the people in attendance were supporting McCollum for Govenor, including Representative Adam Hasner and Palm Beach GOP party boss Sid Dinerstein. To be fair to Rick Scott, I spoke to a good dozen or so people that were quietly supporting him. What is most important to me- and seemed to be a prevalent feeling amongst the Republicans that I spoke to–was that they will support whomever wins the primary.

This race will no doubt go down to the wire, and we can expect that both candidates will pull out all the stops to win. The candidates have finally agreed to two debates, the first on being on August 5th.