It was confusing enough that Florida Senator Marco Rubio’s parents were/weren’t Cuban exiles, with media accounts countering Rubio’s written reflections.
Now the AP is adding confusion to that public perception of Rubio – by their conflicting accounts, Rubio does/doesn’t want to devote his time to being a senator.
The AP‘s recent portrayal of Rubio discarding the idea of being his party’s vice presidential nominee so as to devote his time to the Senate was attached to their announcement that he’s publishing another book, so obviously Rubio isn’t devoting all his time to the Senate (first link below). To the AP‘s credit, they reiterated that Rubio’s parents are Cuban immigrants, not Cuban exiles.
But that credit was immediately offset by the demerit of the AP failing to note that they’d previously written about Rubio teaching part time for Florida International University, which – along with the new book deal – further indicates he isn’t devoting his time to being a Senator (second link below).
Under pressure, the Washington Post changed its headline to reflect that there was debate over whether Iran was seeking a nuclear weapon (third link below). Fox is now under similar pressure to drop their asinine assertion that the latest Muppet movie’s mission was manipulation, not entertainment (fourth link below).
The AP‘s pressure to play straight should be internal, and constant … publications pay the AP for legitimate news, if the AP is instead providing propaganda, that’s fraud.
Rubio is teaching and writing and spends all his time in the Senate making sure that he obstructs any bill that will help his floundering Floridian constituents (fifth link below), limiting his pro-activeness to double-talk that doesn’t stand up to the slightest scrutiny (unanswered letter sent to Rubio via his webform, below).
The AP likely shares my hunch that Rovian Poster Child Rubio will likely accept his party’s nomination as their vice presidential candidate, if offered. That’s probably why their article seems a typical political “trial balloon,” testing the air currents for Rubio’s vice-presidential viability.
Here’s hoping more than one blogger lets some hot air out of that balloon, and that the publications that pay the AP for news start suing when they don’t get what they pay for.
http://www.fox10tv.com/dpp/onpolitix/florida_onpolitix/fla-sen-rubio-to-teach-part-time-at-fiu
http://leftaction.com/action/tell-fox-lay-muppets
http://action.ourfuture.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=157
A letter sent to Senator Marco Rubio via his webform on December 3, 2011 …
Subject: disAGREE Act, Pedro Rubio, innocence matters
Dear Senator Rubio,
I have a number of concerns and questions regarding your AGREE Act email of November 15th, and a couple of other matters to address.
First, I disagree that a Delaware Democrat who wants to monkey still more with corporate regulations is an indication of bipartisanship – to my knowledge, Delaware is still the “friendliest” state to incorporate in.
Your use of BLS stats got me to wondering what are the BLS current statistics – state by state – of displacement of well paid workers by slave wage prison laborers?
” … the United States must attract the most talented, highly skilled individuals … ” you wrote in promoting revised immigrantion caps. Surprise, sir; they’re already here – our universities, colleges, trade and technical schools produce the mot talented, highly skilled individuals in every field of endeavor each year. With immigrants that will accept very low wages for their equally high skills, likely having no student loans to worry about, how will our graduates find jobs if the caps are revised? How will our jobless graduates pay back their government loans if the caps are revised? How will the federal government cover losses on student loans if the caps are revised?
As a former CEO and Board Chair, what in the world are these officers and directors whining about … if their books aren’t straight enough to “go public” without a do-over, exactly what makes them legitimate enough for continuance, let alone a public offering?
In real business accounting, +Assets -Liabilities -Equity = -Incomes +Expenses still holds true, so why would a legitimate business want to screw up the value of their assets by fully writing off the value of equipment put into service within the year? What legitimate business would deliberately make itself undesirable to banks for lines of credit and loans?
How can audits now be such a big freaking deal when you can’t run a business properly without being ever-audit-ready? Audits are only expensive, incidentally, if your books aren’t in order. And if your books aren’t in order, you won’t pass an “acid test” when you need to.
If any of the advice I’d given the Big Three, Yellow Freight, Baxter, UPS, Cisco or 2,000 other customers ever matched the caliber of your AGREE Act, I’d have been out of business the following week. What killed my business was a judge every bit as ignorant of corporations as you … he, too, refused to his homework. All he had to learn was one sentence: Corporate officers can’t make loans to the corporation on a on-demand basis if the corporation has no liquid assets equal to the loans. It’s not just the law, it’s common sense.
You only have one sentence to learn, too: If tax credits and deregulation spurred economic growth, we’d already have full employment. The layman’s definition of insanity is repeating a behavior that failed and expecting the outcome to change.
One more question, sir, off topic but important … is former FBI agent Pedro Rubio, who resides in Brevard, related to you?
It’s your grandfather’s name and therefore not a stupid question, and it very much matters if you have family ties to the FBI like Florida Senate President Haridopolos and CFO Atwater. The FBI is supposed to investigate public corruption that affects trial outcomes without waiting for an invitation or a direct order from the President of the United States, but the Brevard FBI field office in Haridopolos district is disinterested in the rampant conviction corruption there, and the Tampa FBI office that is likely still responsible for their oversight remains disinterested, too.
There are innocents behind bars while the rapists and killers they’re serving time for are finding new victims. I’ve spoken to Senator Nelson personally about conviction corruption in Haridopolos’ district, where Nelson once lived. It’s time for my senators to jointly author a very strong joint Dear Colleague letter that insists that Oversight of the FBI isn’t instead Overlook – lives and liberty depend on the FBI and DoJ doing serious work instead of raiding legal medical marijuana clinics.
Thank you for your time. I look forward to your answers.
Sincerely,
Susan Chandler
From: “Senator Marco Rubio”
Date: November 15, 2011 4:26:14 PM EST
To: [Susan Chandler]
Subject: Responding to your message
Dear Ms. Chandler,
Since my first day in office, I have been contacted by you and thousands of other Floridians demanding action to improve our weak economy and alleviate its effects on unemployment. I have repeatedly said I will work with anyone, regardless of party affiliation, who is willing to propose a serious and effective plan for job creation. This is why I have introduced the American Growth, Recovery, Empowerment and Entrepreneurship Act (AGREE Act) with Democratic Senator Chris Coons of Delaware to address our nation’s unemployment problem.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), our nation’s unemployment rate is at 9 percent, which means we have nearly 14 million unemployed people residing in the United States. Currently, Florida’s unemployment rate is just below 11 percent. Jobs will only be created when job creators feel confident in the economic climate. We must encourage America’s small businesses to expand and incentivize foreign investment in the private sector to get our economy back on its feet.
The AGREE Act puts politics aside and proposes real job-creating measures. The main provisions of the AGREE Act address tax policy for small businesses, high-tech research and development, and help promote opportunities for our veterans.
The AGREE Act is a bipartisan package that would help resolve some of the more basic problems we are currently facing in regard to job creation. Our state is home to hundreds of thousands of small businesses, which account for almost 45 percent of Florida’s private-sector employment. Major sectors include construction, retail, scientific research and development, and health care. In order for these small businesses to expand, we must reduce burdens that impede job creation, as well as include the extension of noncontroversial tax relief. In particular, the AGREE Act includes the following tax relief provisions:
-Extending bonus depreciation through 2014, allowing companies to write off the full cost of new capital assets placed into service that year;
-Maintaining current expensing rules for small businesses; and
-Eliminating capital gains taxes for certain small business stock through 2014.
In order to attract high-tech job growth in the state of Florida, we must modernize the research and development (R&D) tax credit. Florida is home to over 25,000 technology based companies including IBM, Motorola, and Electronic Arts. As a state, Florida employs nearly 250,000 people in aerospace, financial services, medical technologies, and microelectronics. The AGREE Act would implement measures that encourage investment, specifically for Florida based businesses by:
-Extending the traditional R&D tax credit until 2013;
-Establishing a Domestic Manufacturing R&D tax credit for businesses that create jobs in the United States; and
-Increasing the alternative simplified tax credit and making it permanent.
Our state of Florida is home to the second highest population of veterans in the United States at over 1.6 million. According to BLS, unemployment among veterans who left the service after 2001 is over 12 percent, compared with 9 percent overall nationally. The unemployment rate among veterans is unacceptable and we must do more for those who have served our country. To help do this, the AGREE Act incorporates a 25 percent tax credit for veterans to go towards qualified fees to offset the high cost of opening a franchise, up to $100,000.
When a business decides to sell stock of their company to the public for the first time, it is called an initial public offering. Public offerings are an important component to job creation and Florida is home to many growing companies and small businesses that wish to go public, including banks, airlines, and members of the cruise industry. Currently, companies going public are required to complete an external audit of internal reporting controls which has proven to be a lengthy and burdensome process, and has stunted growth in the private sector. The AGREE Act would help relieve some of this burden by:
-Providing an exemption from the required audit for companies with total revenues below $250 million or the first five years of a company going public; and
-Directing the Securities and Exchange Commission to conduct a study and report to Congress on the compliance costs of conducting the audit, and subsequently determine the ways the SEC could reduce such burdens.
In order to remain competitive in the global economic marketplace, the United States must attract the most talented, highly skilled individuals to contribute to our economic growth and help create desperately needed jobs. Our broken immigration laws establish arbitrary per-country caps limiting the number of family sponsored and employment based visas for natives of any single country. Any country, regardless of its size or visa demand, is limited to just 7 percent of the total available visas in any given fiscal year. These backlogs do not just gum up our nation’s legal immigration system; they separate family members from their loved ones and put our nation’s employers at a competitive disadvantage by preventing them from hiring the most talented individuals, especially in high tech industries. The AGREE Act would help address the problems posed by these backlogs by eliminating the per-country caps for employment based visas and would raise the per-country limits on family based visas from 7 percent to 15 percent. This bill does not increase the total amount of visas available in a given year, nor does it increase the amount of people who will be able to immigrate to the United States. This bill does reallocate the visas that the US currently makes available in a way that better serves our national interest.
I encourage you to visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w82vPBxW4fw where you can hear me personally explain the AGREE Act and what it aims to do for Florida and for our nation.
The AGREE Act is a vital first step in resolving the high unemployment rate of our nation and Florida, and addresses some of the burdens placed on our nation’s businesses. I am hopeful these initial solutions will set the tone for a bipartisan atmosphere to help encourage job creation, and I look forward to working with members of both parties to continue moving toward economic prosperity. I thank you for your input, and hope you will join me and Senator Coons in supporting theAmerican Growth, Recovery, Empowerment and Entrepreneurship Act.
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