World Politics

Will Any GOP 2012 Candidate Even Want Rick Scott's Endorsement?

​Here's a fun game to watch play out as several announced and potential candidates for the Republican's 2012 presidential primary start visiting Florida: will any of them meet with Governor Rick Scott let alone seek his endorsement? Former Utah Governor and ambassador to China John Huntsman is ... More >>

Florida's Attempt at Arizona-Style Immigration Bill is Likely Dead

​It generated one of the most controversial and heated debates of the legislative session and is a key agenda item for Governor Rick Scott, but it seems likely that conservatives' efforts to pass an Arizona-style immigration bill in Florida is dead, despite the fact both houses are controlled by R ... More >>

Rick Scott's Administration Really Hates Sunshine Laws

​"Are there things we don't want you to know? Yes," Brian Burgess, Rick Scott's communication director (or misdirector in many cases) tells the Times/Herald's Tallahassee Bureau. "There are things we don't want to broadcast to our opponents."Florida's Sunshine Laws are supposed to foster an o ... More >>

Bay of Pigs 50 Years Later: Miami Mourns, Cuban Gov Celebrates - But for How Long?

via Wikimedia CommonsBay of Pigs Memorial in Little Havana.​They landed silently in the pre-dawn darkness: small groups of armed men seeking to overthrow Fidel Castro and his young government. Then everything went wrong. Two days later, the mission was in flames.This Sunday marks the 50th annivers ... More >>

Rick Scott Had His Facts Wrong When He Trashed High Speed Rail

​Perhaps Rick Scott's biggest action during his first 100 days in office was the killing of Florida's federally-funded high speed rail project. It would have revolutionized our transit system and had an effect on the economy like no other project in recent Florida history. So, you would have hoped ... More >>

Conservatives Outraged as Hispanic Republicans Water Down Florida's Arizona-style Immigration Bill

​Florida's so-called Arizona-style immigration bill, which Governor Rick Scott campaigned on, is looking less and less Arizona-style as it makes it way through the state legislature. Republican state Senator Anitere Flores, who had authored the original Senate version of the bill, helped approve a ... More >>

Tea Party Claims Victory in Alvarez Recall ...Uh, Wait, What?

Fox News declares a Tea Party Revolt​"Tea Party Revolt: Miami Mayor Recalled," proclaims Fox News' Fox Nation website, while other Tea Party segments of the world wide web take glee in the ousting of Carlos Alvarez. True some of the politics involved share similarities: raising property taxes was ... More >>

You Can Now Buy Mike Haridopolos' Crappy Book for $9.99 on Your Kindle

​So, this weekend the Associated Press published a story on some crappy book Florida Senate President and likely US Senate candidate Mike Haridopolos got $152,000 in taxpayer money from Brevard Community College to write. Besides being of questionable quality, only one copy of the book existed. We ... More >>

Marco Rubio Doesn't Really Want to Join the Senate's Tea Party Caucus

​Last year, Marco Rubio ended up on the cover of The New York Times magazine with the headline "The First Senator from the Tea Party?" Well, there's no question anymore about whether or not he's a Senator, but now that he is, he's not so sure he wants to join the actual Tea Party caucus. It's not ... More >>

Palin and Beck killed 'em in Tucson

Will Gay Voters Save the Republican Party?

​After their success in the midterm elections, many Republicans probably think their party is in pretty good shape and doesn't need to be saved. But one local GOP group is thinking long term. It argues that the party needs to moderate itself on social issues and attract gay voters in order to rema ... More >>

Latin American Round-Up: Hugo Chávez Gets Decree Powers, Raúl Castro Gets Depressed

Cheer up buddy. I've got decree powers!​Hugo Chávez won't be making any Obama-like compromises in 2011. The Venezuelan National Assembly is expected to pass a ley habilitante today that would allow the bombastic president -- best known for his twitter histrionics -- to pass laws by decree for 12 ... More >>

FAIR-y tales: The immigration saga continues

Christian Family Coalition Asks Rick Scott to Stop Selling Pornography to Latinos

The Christian Family Coalition, a Miami-based group that hems way to the right on social issues, is calling Gov-elect Rick Scott to stop selling pornography to Latinos. So when reviewing Scott's business past they weren't, like every other sane person, so much concerned that he ran a company that wa ... More >>

Former Argentine President Nestor Kirchner Dead

​Nestor Kirchner, the former president of Argentina and husband of current president Cristina Kirchner, has died this morning due to heart failure at the age of 60. The leftist-Peronist politician was widely expected to mount another presidential campaign in 2011.

Operation Streamline treats migrants like cattle

Sore Loser Maurice Ferré Endorses Rick Scott To Spite Dems

Maurice Ferré, who 25 years ago was the mayor of the City of Miami, thinks he didn't get a fair shake in his long shot run for Senate in the Democratic primary. Somehow he's claiming this is "an insult to every Hispanic voter in our state." So what does he do to get back at the Democratic party? He ... More >>

Marco Rubio to Appear with Sarah Palin This Weekend

Tea Party dreams do come true! Two stars of the conservative movement, Florida's Republican senate candidate Marco Rubio and right wing queen bee Sarah Palin will share a stage this weekend in Orlando. Somewhere an eagle is surely weeping with joy.

World Hunger: Good News, Bad News

​First, the good news: The number of chronically hungry people in the world has dropped for the first time in 15 years, according to "The State of Food Insecurity in the World" report that will be jointly released by the Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and ... More >>

If Republicans Lose Both Governor and Senate Races, Is the Tea Party to Blame?

via OnePennySheet​Back in early 2009 it seemed that Charlie Crist was a guarantee to win the Senate race as a Republican, and Bill McCollum had the edge in the Governors race. Now the latest Quinnipiac poll shows that GOP candidates are trailing in both the Senate and Governors race. What happened ... More >>

Alex Sink to Pick Boring Rod Smith as Running Mate

​According to two state papers, Florida gubernatorial candidate Alex Sink is set to announce Rod Smith as her running mate this Thursday at an event in West Palm Beach. Yawn. A former state senator, Smith lost the 2006 Democratic primary for governor to similarly boring Jim Davis. The move seems t ... More >>

Hamid Karzai likely had Louis Maxwell killed

Cuban punk rockers Gorki and Gil used music to take on Castro

Cuban Dissident Leaders call for Lifting Travel Ban

Hardliners opposed to lifting the travel ban to Cuba have been among the staunchest champions of the Communist island's increasingly vocal dissident movement. But a letter released Thursday by 74 of the Cuba's most prominent dissenters undermines some of the key arguments made by leaders of Miami's ... More >>

Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp No Longer Has Mustache or Sense of What He's Supposed to Be Doing as Lieutenant Governor

Where has Kottkamp's Mustache gone?​Besides the monumentally important task of sitting around and waiting for the Governor to die, the Lt. Governor of Florida has very few duties actually spelled out by law. Usually the Lt. Gov and Gov work closely, but ever since Charlie Crist announced ... More >>

No Green Party, Twitter-Driven Miracle In Colombia as Santos Wins Big

Millions of Colombians turned out to the polls yesterday to elect a new president, and the environment, Facebook, and free-thinking lost out to security, money and familiarity.via Antanas Mockus' facebookMockus' Green Party captured just 21 percent of the vote in Colombia on Sunday.That's oversimpli ... More >>

The Tea Party is the KKK

Human Rights Watch: Cuba More Repressive Than Ever

Cuba has been on a repressive kick since the beginning of a year. After well-known critic Zapata Tamayo died in February, other Cubans took to the streets in protest. ​Another one, Guillermo Farinas, is said to be at death's door. The government, in turn, responded by beating some them -- the Lad ... More >>

Betrayal: Sen. George LeMieux Says He'll Support Rubio over Crist

​Talk about betrayal! Sen. George LeMieux says the he'll support the Republican nominee over his old friend Charlie Crist: "I will support our Republican nominee and will continue to do everything I can both in Florida and across the country to increase the number of Republicans in the United ... More >>

Latest Poll: Kendrick Meek Only One Point Behind Marco Rubio

​It's looking more and more like Charlie Crist won't survive the Republican primary. That's a tremendous coup for Marco Rubio, but it's looking more and more like he could be vulnerable against Democrat Kendrick Meek in the general election.A new poll from Daily Kos/Research 2000 (yes, Democrat le ... More >>

If you thought Cuba's National Mule Census is dumb, think again

Cuba Hates All Florida's Senate Candidates the Same

With months to go before the primary elections, candidates are still locking down endorsement. One bit of support that none of the candidates want though is that of Cuba's government controlled press. Luckily, Granma published a story yesterday critical of all four major candidates. In reaction to ... More >>

Miami-based National Circle of Journalists from Cuba can't find a recipient for its award

President Obama fails to go after those responsible for the financial meltdown

Moussavi Supporters Protest Iran Elections in Downtown Miami

Ann Horwich-ScholefieldProtester at yesterday's Iran protest in downtown Miami.Think all the craziness in Iran is far away and meaningless to you? Think again. For two hours yesterday, from around 6 to 8 p.m., the plaza near The Torch of Friendship was taken over by a crowd of about 200 people wavi ... More >>

Rio de Politico

War on Hugo Chávez

An outlaw and former spook takes on the Venezuelan dictator

Diam's

Cigar Aficionado Does Cuba. Will the County Ban it Again?

Letters from the Issue of August12-18, 2002

Triumph of the Zealots

A small cadre of exile fanatics now controls the Bush administration's Cuba policy, and Fidel Castro couldn't be happier

Cows to Cuba

A South Florida rancher is using bovine diplomacy to improve relations with the island nation

Exile on Main Street

A thorn in the side of both el exilio and the regime, Eloy Gutierrez-Menoyo waits for U.S.-Cuba relations to thaw even as his assets are frozen

What's Up With The FTAA ?

All Around the Neighborhood

A quick look at our amigos from Toronto to Tierra del Fuego

Free as a Jailbird in Havana

When ex-con Mario Mora was deported to Cuba, he swapped one prison for another

Return of Three Mile Island?

Exelon plans to build a new nuclear power plant. Ho-hum.

Dialogueros

Caught between Iraq and a hard-line place