Posted on 03/10/2005 3:30:17 PM PST by al_again
ORLANDO, Fla. -- A grand jury issued four indictments Thursday in an investigation into whether a worker for Mayor Buddy Dyer's re-election campaign illegally collected absentee ballots.
The indictments were immediately sealed.
Prosecutor Brad King said he couldn't name who was listed in the indictment until they were served with the documents or in custody. When asked if the Orlando mayor was included, he said, "I can't say anything about who those four names are."
"This grand jury worked diligently to do what they thought was right and just," said King, who was brought in from Marion County for the investigation.
Dyer's attorney, Bob Leventhal, said he couldn't immediately comment.
State authorities had looked into allegations that Ezzie Thomas, a campaign consultant for Dyer, illegally gathered absentee ballots in predominantly black neighborhoods.
Thomas as hired by Dyer's campaigns for Florida Attorney General and Orlando mayor to perform get-out-the-vote activities.
Does anyone else see redundancy in those three words?
Agreed....but will they do time? That is the question. Some serious examples need to be made.
Remember during the presidential campaign how the Dems were trying to spin this investigation as an attempt to suppress the Black vote? Both Bob Herbert and Paul Krugman wrote columns about it. I wonder if they will revisit this issue now that criminal indictments have been served. Answer: Hell, no!
Orlando and Kissimee are the armpit of Florida.
It's paradise here compared to Seattle, the gay, lesbian and leftist capitol of the world!
Amen to that. I can't wait to get out of here.
In all honesty, Winter Park and much of Lake County are OK. Osceola County on the other hand should be condemned en masse, including the home of a certain glorified rodent.
If you get out in the burbs in Seattle, they are much more conservative. I live in Issaquah and Rossi was our state senator (he didn't run for the office again, because he was running for Gov) and, Jennifer Dunn was my Rep to Congress, but she decided not to run again this year - we put another pubbie in to replace her.
You think that's true you should drive to Liberty City sometime.
Orlando is tourist and suburbia hell, but it's a far cry from the Miami 'suburbs.' [shudder]
I do agree with you about Liberty City and North Miami. Those are some of the worst ghettos in the country.
If I had to live in Florida again, I could tolerate Coral Gables/South Miami, Palm Beach (the town, NOT the rest of the county), and even parts of the Panhandle along the coast.
Miami has beautiful women that put up with Yankees, something Central Florida lacks. 8^]
I have been to all the places that you speak about, and while I don't think Central Florida is all that impressive a place any more, it's certainly not as disparate as Miami is in that Orlando doesn't have the kind of dumps Miami does. Orlando is a better average, though, and has plenty of high end neighborhoods that put the noveau riche money in Miami to shame. Maybe you've never been to any place out of Winter Park that you liked in the Orange County area, but the Lake Eola area is really nice. So are Celebration, Lake Nona, Maitland, Lake Tibet, and Windermere. So is Isleworth, which is one of the "celebrity capitals" of the U.S. And I think saying that those few areas of Miami "blow OC away" is going overboard, when you consider that even Miami's beaches are a place normal people fear to tread at night, while Orlando's DOWNTOWN is a touristy area people hang out in to the wee hours. You stretch it to call Key Biscayne and Coral Gables Miami, too, because the people that live there generally never go INTO Miami--or out of Key Biscayne or Coral Gables, period.
Now, I would never live in that suburban hell, either, and I would prefer to go back to South Florida closer to Islamorada or some other place that cannot be developed any more than it is (Key Largo is pretty close to that, and I'd like to end up there). But I won't say that generally, Miami is a better place to live than Orlando, unless your definition of paradise is purely urban. On that level, Miami is the top city in Florida.
What decade are you living in? South Miami beach is filled with Euros, upper class Latins, and New York fashionistas at all hours of the night. I used to walk along the beach at 2AM with friends and never had a problem. This aint 1980 anymore.
Besides, places like Kissimee and St. Cloud are just as dumpy as Hialeah now.
Let's agree to disagree.
As for your contention that downtown Orlando gets many "tourists," all I can say is that South Miami Beach attracts the most sophisticated people in the world at all hours of the day and night, while Orlando attracts fat rubes in bad clothes. ;-)
These aren't normal people. New York City denizens generally aren't regarded as normal people, no matter how often Seinfeld runs. :)
...Kissimee and St. Cloud are just as dumpy as Hialeah...
No argument, but the Parramore will never be Liberty City. My contention is that if you or I were given a parachute and given a choice to be dropped out of a plane over a random section of the Orlando metro area or the Miami metro area, both of us would pick Orlando in a heartbeat.
BTW: The "city" of Miami is actually quite small. Apart from the financial district on Brickell, most of the business activity is actually in the Gables (where many multinationals keep their Latin American headquarters) or west of the airport in Doral. Most people who say they live in Miami actually live outside the city in Miami-Dade County.
Amigo, I grew up there. My parents met in Florida while teaching at a high school in the Ft. Lauderdale area. I know. Most people who live nowhere near Orlando or Miami or Tampa say that they live there because nobody outside of Florida knows where the hell Yeehaw Junction or Howey-in-the-Hills is. Lots of folks INSIDE Florida don't know where those are!
As for your contention that downtown Orlando gets many "tourists," all I can say is that South Miami Beach attracts the most sophisticated people in the world at all hours of the day and night, while Orlando attracts fat rubes in bad clothes. ;-)
Disney World attracts more of them than South Beach ever did, whether they'll admit it or not. And while Disney and O-Town attract thousands if not millions of fat rubes in bad clothes, have you seen retirees in Miami lately? I mean, geez, that place is God's waiting room for fat rubes! 8)
Now, on THAT, I'm pretty sure we'll agree. ROFLMAO.
BWAHAAAAA! Retirees in bad clothes sharing Washington Ave with some rather convincing transvestites. Very true.
This is an outrage! Has Mary Francis-Berry been notified?
I live in Seminole County, which has a massive GOP lean. Coming from Boston, it's refreshing.
Nevertheless, who wants to live in Florida and not be near a beach (by near, I mean a less than 15 mile drive)?
We're about 45 minutes to Daytona Beach and about an 1 plus change from Tampa.
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