The Jeb Bush Nobody Knows -- Part 12: The Top 3 Reasons Alec Baldwin Visited Jeb in FL

Re: Jeb's new judicial appointments - www.jeb.org ^ | March 8, 2002 | summer

[summer]

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.

[summer]

BTTT to your post # 174, backhoe! (And, a big BTTT to all big-rig drivers -- including women who drive big-rigs!)

:)

[summer]

.... Sounds to me that that's exactly what Gov. Bush is trying to do. Kudos to him.

Thanks for your post #175, nicmarlo. Gov. Bush's judicial appointments have been great, IMO. I appreciate your post.

[summer]

Actually, I think what you said is certainly worth repeating:

People should not be chosen, FOR ANY JOB, "because of:" their race, creed, color, sex, weight, height, hair or eye color, smile to frown ratio, number of blinks in an hour, . . . which are all equally ludicrous. QUALIFICATIONS, and only qualifications, should be considered. And, obviously, the best qualified person for a particular job, which may require a particular TEMPERAMENT, should be the SOLE reasons why a selection is made from among many candidates. This elevates no particular race, sex, or creed, just the best person for the job.

Perhaps anyone in a position of leadership who is NOT doing this will take note of your wise advice! :)

[summer]

Good to see our elected officials decently conducting the business of government. My sense is of an inexorable steam-roller simply going about its business, oblivious to critics.

Well said. I think that's an apt description of our current FL gov, Jeb Bush. Thanks, March I up. And, glad to know you enjoyed this post! :)

[summer]

Thanks for bumping this thread! :)

[B4Ranch]

The Washington N.A.A.C.P. will have an upset stomach for years! Just imagine an educated, respected black man is a Judge on the bench sending his own people to prison for violation of the law. How in the hell are they going to keep pushing racism when something like this happens. This man sounds like a fellow that I would be proud to have as a dinner guest in my home.

[grannie]

Why don't everyone boycott Alex Baldwin & Barbara Striesand? I don't give that bunch of Hollywood commies a penny of my money, I have better things to do than to go watch them.... Give to the Republican party rather then to the commies from Hollywood, They only corrupt your mind just like the liberal news media such as CBS,ABC,NBC.If you want the truth go to Fox news!!!!!!! Grannie

[summer]

Yeah, I must say: while the black community was "buzzing" with this news about this judicial appointment by Gov. Bush, and others were thrilled about headlines regarding his other highly qualified appointment, Alec seemed to lose a lot of traction on this this trip, as he abruptly changed the topic from "unequal opportunity" to election reform.

Yet, even with that new topic, he only drew 200 people -- probably since FL DID reform its election procedures and everyone in FL knows that. Even Al Gore publicly praised FL on that!

Alec couldn't even later persuade Hillary Clinton to agree with his very offensive comparison of Electoin 2000 to 9-11, as reported today in the NY Post:

'BUSH LEAGUE' BALDWIN IN 9/11 INSULT

By ROBERT HARDT Jr.

NY Post - March 9, 2002 -- Actor Alec Baldwin raised eyebrows at the '21' Club yesterday when he compared the Sept. 11 attacks to President Bush's victory, referring to the election resu lts as "the other catastrophic event that happened in this country."

Fresh from a trip to Florida where he called for voting reform - and also equated the deadly 9/11 terror with the results at the polls in 2000 - Baldwin made his remarks at a luncheon with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton that was sponsored by The New Yorker magazine.

After Clinton had responded to several questions about the terror attacks and her role in winning federal rebuilding aid, Baldwin, who was among the 200 guests, posed a question.

"Senator, I want to ask you a question about the other catastrophic event that happened in this country before 9/11 - which was the election of 2000," Baldwin said to laughter from some and raised eyebrows from others in the audience.

Clinton didn't address Baldwin's comparison to 9/11, and spoke of her legislation to reform the country's election system.

Baldwin, a well-known Democratic activist, made comparisons to Sept. 11 that were even stronger on Thursday when he told a Florida A&M University that the controversial presidential vote "has done as much damage to our country as any terrorist attack could do, in some ways."

"I know that's a harsh thing to say, perhaps, but I believe that what happened in 2000 did as much damage to the pillars of democracy as terrorists did to the pillars of commerce in New York City," Baldwin said to applause from the audience in Tallahassee.

Baldwin also said in Florida that he believed that the White House and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld hope the war in Afghanistan continues indefinitely because of the political benefits.

"When Donald Rumsfeld and the Pentagon spokespeople say to you ‘Well, this is going to be a long war. We're going to be in Afghanistan for the long haul,' what that euphemism means is that the moratorium on criticizing the government must be extended longer and longer and longer - ideally, beyond the 2002 election."

Florida Gov. Jeb Bush - President Bush's brother - made light of Baldwin's presence in his state, saying: "He had promised he would leave the country if my brother got elected. Well he's back, I guess."

Baldwin fumed in response: "You can tell Gov. Bush to rest assured that I'm not going to leave the country, because we have to get him out of office and we have to get his brother out of office in 2004.

"Bush wasn't elected, he was selected - selected by five judges up in Washington who voted along party lines."

Jeb Bush is up for re-election this year.

Baldwin, who's from Massapequa, previously got himself into hot water in December 1998 when he urged the audience on Conan O'Brien's "Late Night" TV show to kill Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.).

"I'm thinking to myself if we were in other countries, we would, all right now, all of us together, all of us together would go down to Washington and we would stone Henry Hyde to death," Baldwin said.

At yesterday's luncheon, Hillary Clinton said that improving the voting system in Florida was something that all residents there should support.

"There ought to be a tremendous outcry in Florida on a non-partisan, bipartisan basis," Clinton said.

[grumpster-dumpster]

Here's your bump! Thanks for the Ping!

[summer]

Thank YOU, grumpster-dumpster! Always nice to hear from you. Hope you got a chuckle out of (1) the animation of Alec on post #114 from weegee, and from (2) the animated Alec by pt17 at the end of my article. :)

[grumpster-dumpster]

Sure did! Great job (as always!)! Good to hear fm you too... I was off line for about 10 days while the 'puter was being fixed...otherwise I would have replyed to some of the other Pings!

[summer]

Thanks, grumpster-dumpster. And, no problem! Great to have you back!!! :)

[rockfish59]

looks like he's 'rapping'
what an idiot!

[John SBM]

summer, you raised some good points, and in a very nice way! I understand your comments about "educating" many in the voting public about the meeting point between diversity and qualifications. If it is done properly, the point can be made effectively that qualifications come first, and diversity can be a bonus. I guess I am oversensitive to this issue because it seems there are so many times when the conservatives cowtow to the liberal idea of diversity, and stress that above the value of qualifications. The emphasis is the difference between conceding the premise and making a good point.

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

Because, IMO, other voters and other people -- perhaps not conservatives, but disillusioned Dems and independent/swing voters -- need to KNOW . . I think there's nothing wrong with telling those who may not expect it: Yes, this IS the normal course -- HIGHLY QUALIFIED -- and, yes, that DOES include highly qualified white, Koreans and blacks.

I think that you are right about this summer. It is a fact that the Dems and the media make it seem that conservatives are racists, and that many of the sheeple believe it. That is why this information needs to get out. Conservatives may feel resentment that we should have to defend ourselves against unfair and unjust charges, and in a perfect world we would not, but this is a far from perfect world.

I think that both John SBM and Dakmar were reacting in part to this section of the story:
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."….

It seems clear that Patel was present because of his leadership position in the ethnic community involved, but was stating his own agenda when talking about racial balance, NOT acting as an agent of Jeb Bush.

By the way, summer, it looks like I was wrong in my attitude of this Baldwin thing the other day. While not important in himself, Baldwin stands in well as a symbol of the Hollywood Trash leadership of liberalism in this country, and his remarks are justly drawing a visceral reaction around the country, and not just from movement conservatives.

It is also rather amusting that to get the best possible audience for this speech, the organizers held it at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University in Tallahassee, which is the historically black public university in our state system. With a 90% black student enrollment of about 12,000, and 85% black faculty and staff of nearly 1700, they must have figured that their assemblage of radical politicians and celebrities would draw a good crowd. Well they got about 200 attendees, including their travelling circus. I guess that the rest of the thirteen and a half thousand FAMU family had better things to do with their time. Shows good judgement on their parts.

Loved the pictures, especially the animations, on this thread. Wish that I could do this sort of thing myself.

[Truth Addict]

Gov. Jeb Bush meets with families of the Truckers Association.

I had to laugh when I saw this picture of Jeb in front ot that BIG red truck! I wonder if he arranged that on purpose to contrast with Reno's red truck tour.

Thanks for the ping, Summer; this is another great article!

[Angelique]

I hope the appointments were warranted.

[summer]

See posts #172, 175 and 179. And, thanks for posting, Angelique! :)

[summer]

PS Especially see my post #179. :)

[summer]

LOL....yes, it does look like he's "rapping"! :)