Lt Gov Brogan: "I told Alec he could meet us here -- in front of the flag."
Gov Jeb Bush: "Geesh; no wonder he's lost…"
The Jeb Bush Nobody Knows -- Part 12: The Top 3 Reasons Alec Baldwin Visited Jeb in FL
Written by summer - a former Dem, now an independent and a FL certified teacher
Reason #3 - THANK YOU, JEB. Although not reported in the media, Alec actually came to Tallahassee to personally thank Jeb, for instituting an equal opportunity program - one which the Clinton/Gore Administration approved as complying with federal and state civil rights requirements. (Gov. Jeb Bush's equal opportunity program is known as : "One Florida.")
From this statement, by Gov. Jeb Bush:
"The U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights has found the One Florida Initiative fully consistent with Florida's historic federal/state civil rights partnership agreement. This welcomed action by the Clinton/Gore administration suggests that the truth about One Florida's positive impact is beginning to shine through. I remain committed to sharing that truth with all Floridians."
Reason #2 - THANK YOU, JEB.Although Gov. Bush Jeb and Alec were mentioned today on Page Six in the NY Post, the brief blurb did not include another reason Alec came to thank Jeb. Gov. Bush recently appointed two highly qualified, new judges to serve FL's highly diverse population:
(a) Gov. Jeb Bush appointed a highly qualified male immigrant was appointed to the bench in Pinellas County. This new judge may be the first Korean to be appointed to such a position in FL.
More information is available here.
An excerpt from above link:
Tuesday, March 5, 2002
St. Petersburg Times
Judge is pioneer on the bench
By William R. Levesque
Seung Woo "Sonny" Im moved to Florida from his native South Korea in 1974, an 11-year-old overwhelmed by a different language and culture.
Before long, he found himself fascinated by the government of his new country.
"Coming from a country where political leaders came to power by various means, it amazed me in the United States to watch people step down from power in a peaceful way. I became fascinated with the Constitution," Im said.
On Monday, Im fulfilled his parents' immigrant dreams when Gov. Jeb Bush appointed him to a Pinellas County judgeship, making Im the first Asian-American in Pinellas-Pasco, and perhaps the entire Tampa Bay area, to be appointed to the bench.
Im, 38, said he thinks he may be the first Floridian of direct Korean descent to be appointed to a Florida judgeship.
"It's a validation, of sorts," said Im, a Republican who specialized in criminal and corporate law. "If you had stopped us at the Miami airport in 1974 and pointed to me and said, "That boy is going to be a judge,' they might have laughed at you."
This is Bush's second notable judicial appointment in the area. In November, the governor appointed Debra Roberts as a Pasco judge, the county's first African-American jurist.
...The Asian population in the Tampa Bay area has more than doubled in the past decade, according to the U.S. Census. In Hillsborough, about 21,000 people listed their race as Asian for the 2000 census. In Pinellas, the figure was nearly 19,000.
Prabodh C. Patel, president of the Florida chapter of the Asian-Pacifica American Bar Association, said he thinks Im is the second person of Asian descent to have been appointed to a Florida judgeship. He said another judge in Broward holds the distinction of having been the first.
Patel said Bush's appointment sends a positive message to the Asian community.
"I think we are achieving racial balance in the appointment of judges," he said. "I would say that it inevitably leads to more understanding of cultural and social problems of the Asian community."….
(b) Alec also thanked Gov. Jeb Bush for appointing another highly qualified person to the bench. Alec read about this "unexpected but widely acclaimed choice" in a Miami Herald article here.
Excerpt of Miami Herald article:
Tuesday, March 5, 2002
Miami Herald
Black lawyer appointed judge of Circuit Court
By Beth Reinhard and Brad Bennett
In an unexpected but widely acclaimed choice, Gov. Jeb Bush on Monday appointed an African-American lawyer born in a Fort Lauderdale housing project, Elijah H. Williams, to serve on the Broward Circuit Court.
Williams, 42, joins Judge Ilona Holmes to become the second black judge on the current Broward circuit bench, and only the fifth ever.
He has been in charge of legal affairs at the Broward Sheriff's Office since 2000. As a youngster, he worked at a Fort Lauderdale florist's shop and dreamed of joining the stream of lawyers coming and going at the courthouse.
A black man has not served on the circuit bench for nearly two decades, since Henry Latimer resigned in 1983.
''The historic significance will be irrelevant unless I do an outstanding job as judge,'' Williams said in a statement.
Greg Durden, president of the T.J. Reddick Bar Association of black attorneys, said: ''The whole black community is buzzing with the news.''
Only three of Broward's 77 judges are black: Holmes on the circuit court and Mary Rudd Robinson and Zebedee Wright on the county court. ….
''I want to thank the governor for helping to diversify the bench,'' Holmes said. ''This is historic.'…'
Reason #1 - THANK YOU, JEB. In addition to thanking Gov. Bush for his recent, historic appointments to the bench, Alec wanted to thank Jeb for setting an example worthy of notice to People for the American Way, as that organization reportedly opposes a judicial nominee supported by blacks in Mississippi, as explained here:
NYT - NATIONAL DESK | February 17, 2002, Sunday
Blacks at Home Support a Judge Liberals Assail
By DAVID FIRESTONE (NYT) 1641 words
Late Edition - Final, Section 1, Page 22, Column 1
LEAD PARAGRAPH - Back in Washington, his opponents have depicted Judge Charles W. Pickering as the personification of white Mississippi's oppressive past, a man so hostile to civil rights and black progress that he is unfit for promotion to a federal appeals court.
But here on the streets of his small and largely black hometown, far from the bitterness of partisan agendas and position papers, Charles Pickering is a widely admired figure of a very different present….
Thank you, Governor Jeb Bush, for being the one to set an example others should follow.
The "Animated" Alec: "Thank --- you ---JEB!!!"
------------------------------------------------
Note: The above "Animated Alec" was created by: pt17, FR poster.