I was just lying down in my bed and I thought about something that explains the question that is the topic of this post. I think the reason why I thought about this is because I actually watched the whole democratic CNN debate last night and I could see myself supporting Obama but that party views on the war is just going to keep me from doing it.

One thing that Obama likes to talk about is diplomacy, so (as the title asks) what is diplomacy?

In my view diplomacy is a tool that we as a nation use to acquire and maintain allies. We cannot combat our enemies with diplomacy, we combat our enemies with the military.

I just wanted to share this thought..do you think this sums up what diplomacy is?

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/clinton-obama-steal-bushs-final-show-2008-01-29.html

There's not really much to cover on the Republican side so I'm going to make a post about what I think is going on with the Democratic Party. The big news right now (as far as I know) is that Ted Kennedy has endorsed Obama. The reason why this is big news is mostly because he did not support Hillary Clinton. I think the reason why he and so many others in the Democratic Party hasn't endorsed Clinton is because they are tried of them being the face of their party, more then likely they feel like they have been taking credit and all of the spotlight for things that others have been doing for the party. Yeah, they understand that the Clintons helped their party in the 90s but they also understand that they also damaged their party in 94 witch helped the Republicans gain control. I see them doing the same thing know, if the Democratic Party was to support Clinton over Obama they would probably used the black vote so I think for them as a party it's a good thing to see them moving away from the Clintons and supporting Obama, because at lest if Obama doesn't get the nomination blacks won't be able to blame the party but the blame would be on the Clintons witch would help the Democratic party move forward to a future without the Clintons.

Finally he's gone. Now him and Huckabee can stop splitting the vote between them just in time for the big battle in Florida. I hope he endorses Huckabee since most of his supporter probably had Huckabee as their second choice but this is unlikely. The pundits are saying he's probably going to endorse McCain.

This is kinda sad but not really to me. When the talk started about Fred running for President I was really interested in his candidacy but then a few weeks after watching his official campaign I realized that he was not a viable candidate and I started looking at the other candidates and I found Huckabee. I support Fred, like many at first, but after a few weeks I knew he wasn't viable. I wonder what Human Events going to do now that their preferred candidate is no longer in the race.

I just wanted to let y'all know that I'm aware of Huckabee's lost and I was very disappointed but at the same time I understand how challenging this primary is for all the candidates. Huckabee is a long way from being out but there's a lot of work to be done.

Huckaboom is coming to Florida. Better call Allstate and  negotiate your insurance rates!

This is a response to a local issue in my hometown of Gainesville, FL

The county commission is not sure if they should outright oppose the property tax-cut plan that voters will vote for (or against) on Jan 29. I say they should take a neutral position so that regardless of what happens they can say they did their duty as elected officials to "inform" the voters.

I thought that I was going to have something to blog about today and would just work on my Florida Sunday post but I read Ann Coulter's article in Human Events and now I have something to talk about.

The article is called "The elephant in the room".

In the article she basically is saying that Republicans who don't support Mitt Romney does not do their research on the candidates and that we should vote for Mitt Romney because the other party is afraid of him, because they are always calling him a flip flopper. I'm not sure if he's a flip flopper but I do know that he doesn't come across as someone who you can trust.

To use her logical the Democrats should nominate Hillary Clinton because thats the candidate that their opposition is attacking so much. Obviously that wouldn't be the smartest move for them. She goes on in the article and talks about how Mitt Romney had to govern in a pro-choice state. But what about Huckabee? he had to govern in a larely Democratic state and had to contend with them having a majority in the state government and he was able to still govern as a social Republican.

The polls (if anyone cares about them) doesn't show Mitt Romney beating any of the front runners in the Democratic race but it does show McCain doing so? Anyone who have every seen a Huckabee speech, appearance, or debate performance comes away with nothing but a favorable view of the candidate. But they let people like Ann Coulter (witch I loved btw. I actually got to see her in person. She signed my copy of slander) make them think that he's not acceptable for the Republican party witch is totally not true.

Ann why don't you do your research on the candidates that you are attacking before you try to sway me to vote for someone who clearly would lead to our parties defeat!

I just want to end this post with the follow quote from her article:

"It's also possible that Romney will turn out to be a conservative Republican"

Well, Ann it's also possible that Huckabee could too.

This post is subtitled: Does the Democratic Party want to change the tax code?

I was just thinking about our Tax system. One of the reasons why I'm supporting Mike Huckabee, among others, is because he supports the Fair Tax. I recently read a article  that had a lot of good questions about how is the Fair Tax is going to actually work. Then I realize reading about the Democratic race and watching about 10 mins of their debates, that they do not talk about tax reform. Why is that?

Is it because their main view of taxes is that its a way to increase revenue for government?

Or is it that they don't feel like the tax system needs to be reformed?

This presidential election is going to be one of America's most important elections and I would love to see both parties campaign on tax reform, social security reform, as well as health reform. Changing these three major issues will improve this nation if its done the right way. Imagine what it would be like to go into the next presidential election with a new tax system, new social security system, and a new health care system something that this country hasn't changed in years.

Wouldn't that be amazing!?

I've waited until 50% of the Precincts reported in before I posted this, because I think that the media has gotten all to comfortable calling the election, even if it is just a primary, way to early. ABCNews.com called the primary for Mitt when less then 10% of the precincts had reported in (I'm not lying). I still remember in 2000 when we didn't know who was our next President for days and I also remember all the elections afterwards where the media when they got scared to call the state said it was "too close to call" now they are all jumping to call a primary within 30mins after polls closed. I think we should be very careful about doing that seeing how crazy this primary has been. Alright enough about the early reporting.

I'm going to give y'all my take on Mitt winning the Michigan Primary. All the political news that I soak up within a week I think qualifies me to give my take on the primary result so here I go!

First I want to say Congrats to Mitt for his first primary victory that actually matters. So far the primary voters have basically told us they like Huckabee (so do I!), McCain, and Mitt. Mitt's latest win means that there is no real front runner in this race. McCain is leading the national polls but he is far from being considered the front runner. Mitt's win basically gives him additional life in this process, he may even have enough life to go all the way Super Tuesday witch is very likely. The only thing that would prevent Mitt from making it to Super Tuesday is placing third in a primary witch is likely to happen.

What does this mean for McCain?

Mitt's in means almost nothing to McCain. Is it a lost for McCain? of course. But is it one that could derail McCain? No. Seeing that Mitt, McCain and Huckabee has each won a primary Mitt's win doesn't narrow the field in anyway. McCain can still go into the next primary witch is Saturday with some injury but nothing major. However the South Carolina primary will be vary hard for McCain to carry and it may lead to the beginning of the end for McCain. McCain has secured himself a place on the Republican ticket regardless of who actually gets the nomination, but rather he accepts a second place spot is entirely up to him. I just can't see a Romney-Mccain ticket. I can't even really see a Romney on a ticket Republican or Demoratic come to think of it.

What does this mean for Huckabee!?

Ah! My favorite out of all the candidates. This is probably going to be the easiest part of this blog to write because I've been watching Huckabee a little bit before his surge. I was a supporter of his when he barely had any money to report he raised and I must say that he has come a long way. Anyone who looks at what Huckabee is doing has to admit that what he has been able to accomplish is amazing. For those of you who don't know I will share a little with you, and no I'm not going to rave about him being a preacher..that's not whats important to me.

Huckabee a few months ago was running below 5th place and no one seriously thought he had a chance to win a primary. He had no money, no major endorsements from the leaders of the right wing of the Republican party, he had no money (he barely has any now), and he has been harshly criticized for his record as a Governor of Arkansas however he won the New Hampshire primary by a wide margin over Romney.

So you say but he hasn't won a primary since and he mainstream of the party doesn't support him so he doesn't have a shot. That's what many people believe, it's true that he hasn't won a primary since it's also true that no other Republican candidate has either. Huckabee in my opinion is well place in this primary contest. He has one win under his belt and in all of the other primary contest he has ranked 3rd. Huckabee become a dark horse again. His third place finishes position him to come in and replace one of the current top two when one of them fall, most likely it will be Mitt. Huckabee is expected to do very well in the South witch has two primaries coming this month in South Carolina and Florida. Where he will place no less then second place, and I'm going to predict he places first in South Carolina becoming the first Republican to win two primaries in this race. So I think Mitt's win in New Hampshire today is a good thing for Huckabee, because it doesn't allow either Mccain or Mitt to come down south with any major momentum.

If Mitt places anything below second place, witch is likely in the South, his presidential bid will be history and he will probably go back with into private life with a substantially smaller bank balance. He surely won't be missed by the Republican Party...but the TV networks and his campaign staff will remember him fondly because of how much money they wasted...I mean made working to help elect (derail) him President.

I may get into trouble for this but i'm going to do it anyway because I don't hear even Dick Morris talking about it.

Two years I ago (I think) I brought a book called "Condi V.S. Hillary" by Dick Morris. In the book he talked about how Condi could beat Hillary in a 2008 Presidential Election. The reason why I'm bringing this up is because in the book Dick Morris described a situation that I will call the battle of the black vote that is now playing out between Obama & Hillary. We didn't get Condi as a Republican Presidential candidate (dang!) but however we got the same issue that Dick Morris far saw  would happen if a black candidate was to run against Hillary.  The following is from the book "Condi V.S. Hillary".

"Condoleezza Rice can defeat Hillary - and it may be that no other Republican can. Where she to run, her candidacy would strike directly at the three pillars of the Democratic Party's political base: African Americans, Hispanics, and white women. The Democratic Party cannot win without fully tapping all three sources of votes. If African Americans had not voted solidly for Kerry in 2004, the Democrat would have been beaten in a landslide. The only reason why the Massachusetts senator carried New Your, California, Illinois, New Jersey, Michigan, and Pennsylvania was the solid support he got from African Americans ." Chapter 3

"A Hillary Clinton candidacy is particularly strong because of her appeal to all three bastions of Democratic power. Because of her husband's long identification with minority voters, her efforts to court Hispanic voters, and her own gender and record of feminism, she stands to cash in on the support of all three groups in a huge way" first paragraph Page 52

"How would the black community vote? Their heads would be for Hillary" Mike Espy predicts "But their hearts would be with Condi" When Dick Morris pressed him for a numerical prediction he said "My guess is that the race [among African American voters] would be pretty much even. Hillary may have a bit of an edge because of the hegemony of the Democratic Party base, but Condi would run much, much better then any other Republican. My guess would be a 60-40 Hillary margin" last paragraph page 52

After getting this prediction from Espy, Dick Morris then questions a black Democratic congressman from a swing state who he says was in office (might still be) and because of witch this congressman was reluctant to make a prediction but he did so off the record. So we won't know who to give the credit to but here it goes. Page 53:

This congressman went even father then Espy saying that he thought Condi would carry the black vote.
"I think black America would be torn" he predicts (much as they are now between Obama and Clinton) "But I think they would ultimately come down on the side of Condi Rice. Even with President Clinton campaigning for Hillary, I think Condi would represent a serious thread to Hillary. I'm for Mrs. Clinton. But I think Rice would be a very strong candidate". first paragraph page 53

Dick Morris then goes on and talk about how a major shift of black people voting for Republicans would be a major shift in American politics. But the Obama-Hillary contest is being fought out (or should I say race contest?) inside the Democratic Party so this part of the discussion does not address what I'm trying to address in the post. So If you want to read about that I suggest you by the book, it's really good by the way, you're probably can get it real cheap used on Amazon.com. Maybe Dick will follow up with an Obama V.S. Hillary book.

The rest of the chapter really doesn't fit with where I wanted to go with this post. But it was just interesting to me how what Dick wrote about in this book is actually happening just instead of it being against Condi a Republican and Hillary a Democratic it's an Obama A Democratic and Hillary a Democratic. I really do think that if Obama does not snag this nomination (as I said in my vlog) it will damage the Democratic Party. I don't know how they will fix the problem, because the out cry from the community will be so strong that there's no way Obama will be Hillary's Vice President. The community wouldn't support that...I don't think.

My first vlog!

I'm so excited to bring this to y'all. The vlog is on how the race fight that is being carried out by Obama and Clinton will benefit the Republican Party. Enjoy!

The Vlog!

Welcome to Florida Sunday!

The proponents of a referendum on cutting property taxes that will be on the Jan 29th ballot have been claiming that it would double the homestead exemption actually maybe exaggerated a little. It's being reported that the increased exemption would fall far short of doubling the value of the current $25,000 homestead exemption.

Representative Jack Seiler says that by telling voters that a yes vote would double the homestead exemption is just the simplest way to promote the tax cut. He claims that "If someone goes to the polls and truly thinks they're getting double, then they haven't been reading up on it".

I think it is very important for voters to be knowledgable about what they are voting on before they go vote, but It doesn't give them the right to say if you vote yes on 10 it will double the homestead exemption if it actually doesn't. They can easily just say vote yes on 10 and your homestead exemption will increase or something. Then they won't have worry about having to explain that it doesn't really double or why they said it would double if it isn't. Many people will find this to be misleading.

(Source http://www.theledger.com/article/20080106/NEWS/801060482/1039)


State lawmakers started back to work this week. The Senate finance committee members where briefed throughout the week on the state of the local government investment pool. Senators this week also got the latest information on the property insurance market as they reviewed rate requests that where submitted to the office of Insurance Regulation. Last year lawmakers passed a measure to increase the money in the hurricane fund in the hopes that it would help lower property insurance rates witch it did not and now lawmakers are trying to figure out what happen.

Another major issue witch the Legislative will be facing is the budget. Our state is excepted to bring in $2 billion less then what was previously expected.Last year they cut $1 billion out of the budget and this year it look like they will have take cut $2 billion more in spending. The major causes of this budget shortfall is our local housing market and the national economy.

This week the Supreme Court stepped into a partisan clash over access to the ballot box. The case is about Indiana's voter identification law, which requires every voter to present a photo id card. Democrats and civil rights groups charge that the law is a Republican ploy to present thousands of poor, elderly, and minority citizens from casing ballots. Republicans however say that it won't present any qualified person from voting. Instead they say, it guards against vote fraud and heightens public confidence in the integrity of elections.

Why is this case important to Floridians? it is important because this case is the first big election law dispute heard by the supreme court since it decided the 2000 presidential election. The court is expected to decided on this case before the 2008 general election. I feel that voters should have to provide some type of identification in order to vote. We need identification to do almost anything that the government is involved in why not require it for voting also? Voting fraud would be harder to commit if we require voters to prove that they have the right to vote then if we don't require them to do so.

Gov. Charlie Crist continued this week to push for passage of a property tax amendment. The Gov said that the amendment would signal a radical shift in the state's economy. Supports of the amendment say that homeowners would see a 26 percent savings on property taxes if the referendum is passed.

Stiffer penalties are being sought in our state for the use of fake weapons during a robbery. Apparently robbers are opting to use what are known as hoax guns to commit crimes because they are aware of a loophole in Florida law which prevents them from being charged with a first-degree felony because the Florida law does not consider hoax guns as a firearm. Orange County Sheriff Kevin Beary says "There's no difference, A robbery is a robbery, and when you use devices" like a hoax gun "it ought to be a first-degree robbery." Currently criminals who use hoax guns can be charged with a third-degree felony, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison.

This week U.S. Education secretary Margaret Spellings visited Florida to congratulate educators on leading the nation in accountability and collected data. Florida was Spellings first stop on a national tour to promote the reauthorization of the education reform law No Child Left Behind. The law requires that all states test students in reading and math and report which schools are failings. House Minority Leader Dan Gelber said that the law forced "state governments to spend sorely needed school funds on testing" and should be overhauled or left to Sunset.

Accountability is needed in the school system, we can no longer just hope that children who are attending school are learning we need to be able to know if that child is learning or not and if not we needed to find out what the children are not learning and provide help either for that student or for the school. The No Child Left Behind Act and the FCAT may not be the most perfect system but they do allow us to measure the progress that schools are or are not making and that is very important. I know that people have varying views on this but I think we all can agree that we need to be able to tell if the children are being educated or not.

In other Education news this week our state schools ranked 14th Nationally with a grade of C+ on a report card issued Wednesday by Education Week Magazine, although our state placed 38th in public education spending. They credited our teaching profession and our system of standards, assessments and accountability for our rankings. It has been proving that more money does not mean that we get better schools. Accountability provides the highest rate of return in my opinion.

This week the Senate Finance and Tax Committee where looking at a potential sale tax revenue of $35.3 billion. This extra sale tax revenue would come from repealing sale tax exemptions on such items as Super Bowl tickets, collectible coins and other items and some services witch are currently exempt from sale tax. The Republican Chairman of the committee said that if any exemptions or exclusions are repealed, that the money should be used to lower other taxes. So that there are no net increase in state revenue. The Vice Chairman of the committee said that any additional revenue that is raised from the repeal of these exemptions should be used to avoid impending budget cuts to schools, health care, and other public services.

I don't understand why people think that the government shouldn't cut its expenses when the government is taking in less money. If the money is not there to spend its not there. The government does provide very important and critical services to the public and those services should be funded as long as the government can afford to fund them. I wonder if when there's every been a study done to see if when government revenue goes down if the use of some government services goes down as well. This type of study would be very helpful in helping to figure out witch services should be fully funded and witch services the government could cut back funding on until it can provide additional funding. 

I have some very big news!

I will start doing DAILY updates on this blog!

I've been of course keeping up with what's going on in politics lately and after seeing my candidate Mike Huckabee winning...thats right WINING in Iowa things in politics has been getting very interesting and I think as An inconvenient Republican that people will be interested in hearing my views on the election, political news, policy issues among other things.

The reason why i'm so execitied is because for a long time, very long time now I have been trying to think of a way I can bring my views and opinion on politics to the public and of course my first thought was a blog here in TownHall seeing that it already had a build-in audience so I created this blog and started giving a try at it but it didn't fulfill what I really wanted. So this week, I was thinking again how can I get my views on politics out in a way that I would enjoy doing and in a way that people will enjoy listening to me. Well, god sent me the asnwer and I can't wait until you'll get to see it!

A inconvenient Republican will re-lanch by the end of this month stay tuned (litterly)!

In the mean time I want you'll to take a look at this and tell me what you think. By me being an African American I can't help but also pay attention to what Obama is doing.

http://www.newshounds.us/2008/01/04/juan_williams_says_blacks_support_clinton_because_of_patronage_politics.php

Republicans raise money

Some refreshing news shows that the GOP is not dead but is alive and well and is just waiting on candidates that they can support to put their money behind. The top fund raisers for President Bush's 2004 re-election campaign has yet to open their wallets to the GOP so there are still a lot of money out their for our nominee. Don't get discourge we will be competivie come election day. Let's pray we have Mike Huckabee as our presidential nominee.

I just want to say I did watch (online..don't like to watch tv much) the Travis Smiley Forum, A lot was covered but not much worthy of a blog posting I will like the "professionals" handle coverage of that. I do however want to say that I think it was great that some (like Mike) Republicans did take the time and discuss issues that concern the minority at a minority forum and I think the Republicans that went should be applauded for that. After watching Alan Keys I was a little disappointed, but thats probably because I've never seen him in action before. Don't get me wrong I have nothing against Alan Keys, but I think he would be better promoting policies via his own foundation or a think tank he's not presidential at all. I would have loved to have seen Star Parker at a forum like this, but not a Presidential forum. I haven't seen here live yet either...but i'm sure if I go on YouTube I could easily.

Anyway let's get on to the Mike Huckabee interview. I found this interview by searching google news. There's two parts of this interview that I personally found most interesting and that was his campaign strategy and his campaign dispute with the Club For Growth which I don't fully understand, it makes me question the organization because if they where to endorse a candidate there's no one better then Mike but maybe they're still holding out hope for Fred Thomson who knows.

The Mike Huckabee Interview