RPOF/CNN/HLN Debate Venue is Univ. of North Florida
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RPOF Chairman Lenny Curry is pleased to announce that the University of North Florida in Jacksonville will serve as the venue for the Jauary 26th Republican Presidential Debate. The debate is co-sponsored by RPOF and Hispanic Leadership Network and will air internationally on CNN.
“This is a great event for Jacksonville and for UNF,” Curry said. “This venue will highlight how important Jacksonville and the First Coast region are to Florida and the nation by hosting a debate that includes our next president.”The debate is expected to be the final televised debate before Florida Republicans head to the polls on January 31. Floridians are reminded that anyone who registers as a Republican on or before January 3rd can vote in the Republican Presidential Preference Primary.
The Republican Party of Florida is proud to welcome the Hispanic Leadership Network as a co-sponsor for the January 26 Republican Presidential Debate that it is co-hosting with CNN. The debate will air live domestically on CNN and CNN en Español.
The Hispanic Leadership Network’s Inspiring Action conference in Miami will play an integral role in serving as CNN’s main remote location for the January 26th Jacksonville Debate. The two day conference kicks off with the live televised presidential debate and demonstrates the important role that Florida’s Hispanic communities will play in 2012 and in the larger national policy debate over the direction of our country.
“The Presidential debate, just days before the January 31 primary, will present a great opportunity for our candidates to make their case to Florida’s Republicans,” explained Chairman Lenny Curry. “We wanted Florida Latinos to join the conversation, and this partnership with the Hispanic Leadership Network allows it to happen.”
“Hispanics and Republicans naturally share many of the same core values,” said Governor Jeb Bush, who serves as the Hispanic Leadership Network Conference Co-Chair. “This debate is an opportunity for Hispanic voters to hear from the candidates on the issues that will shape the future of our country.”
“The Hispanic Leadership Network looks forward to partnering with CNN and the Republican Party of Florida as co-host of the Republican presidential debate in Florida,” said Jennifer Sevilla-Korn, Hispanic Leadership Network Executive Director. “With over 4.2 million Hispanic Americans in the state, many are acutely concerned with the candidates’ positions on center-right issues of importance to the community. Co-hosting this debate as part of our ‘Inspiring Action’ Conference will provide the Hispanic community a direct line to the presidential hopefuls on center-right issues.”
CNN, Republican Party of Florida to Produce Key Primary Debate
As Florida plans to move their primary up to Jan. 31, 2012, speeding up the GOP presidential nomination process, CNN and the Republican Party of Florida announced today they will co-host a debate. It will take place at the end of January in Jacksonville, Fla. among the 2012 Republican presidential candidates in the pivotal early voting state.“With the Florida Republican primary now scheduled for Jan. 31, that state’s central role in helping Republicans choose a nominee is now secure,” said Sam Feist, CNN Washington bureau chief and senior vice president. “CNN is proud to present voters in Florida an opportunity to hear from the candidates one final time before they head to the polls.”
“The Republican Party of Florida is excited to be working with CNN for a debate linked to the state’s primary date,” said Republican Party of Florida Chairman Lenny Curry. “The opportunity to host it in my home city, Jacksonville, helps shine the spotlight on another Florida city that our eventual nominee must win.”
Florida Governor Rick Scott said of the announcement, “After national debates in Tampa and Orlando, this latest partnership with CNN for a debate in Jacksonville in January demonstrates the crucial role Florida will play, not only in the Republican Presidential Primary, but in the general election next November.”
Rush Limbaugh on Ron Paul: You Couldn’t Blame TSA For Detaining Ron Paul, He “Almost Sounds Like An Islamic Terrorist Sometimes”
Limbaugh said, “Kentucky Senator Rand Paul has been detained by the TSA at the Nashville airport. He set off the alarms and refused a pat down, so they detained him. He sent his dad a note about it and it became a big story out there. Now if this had been Ron Paul, you couldn’t really blame the TSA. You have to admit Ron Paul almost sounds like an Islamic terrorist sometimes. But this wasn’t Ha-ha-ha, gotcha, this was Rand Paul.”
Ron Paul may be a lot of things, but he bears no resemblance to an Islamic terrorist. But in the Republican Party if a person disagrees with their position on anything, they get labeled an enemy of freedom. Rep. Paul may be a lot of things, but unlike Rush Limbaugh, he has actually served his country in the military. While Limbaugh has hidden behind his microphone, Ron Paul has repeatedly and successfully run for office.
I disagree with the majority of Ron Paul’s domestic policy positions, but to compare him to an Islamic terrorist is way over the top. (Even if Limbaugh pulled out his standard just kidding defense, comparing Ron Paul to terrorist is inappropriate). Rush Limbaugh’s joke is evidence of why the Paul clan will never be able to take over the Republican Party. The Pauls aren’t just viewed as outsiders. They are seen as a threat. The long term goal for the Paul movement has always seemed to be more about created a third party, a new Republican Party than overthrowing the existing order.
Rand Paul claims he was detained, but in reality he wasn’t, and the fact that this incident that Sen. Paul provoked in Nashville just so happened to occur on the same day as a huge Republican presidential debate that his father is participating in is I am sure irrelevant. (To put this into context, if you or I would have done what Sen. Paul did, we would not have been able to board a flight a few hours later, and head off to our destination. In fact, there is a chance that we really would have been detained, arrested, and found ourselves on the no fly list).
What Little Rand’s stunt did today was take some of the attention off of Gingrich and Romney before their big showdown in Florida tonight. Ron Paul needed something to get his campaign some attention and a new issue to rail on about, and he is certain to be asked about it at tonight’s debate.
Rand’s provoked TSA run in, which was provoked because he decided not to follow the rules that everyone who flies has to follow, proves that the Paul family are politicians not terrorists, and Limbaugh’s comments about Ron Paul prove that his douchiness knows no partisan affiliation.
During an ill-informed rant about the Stop Online Piracy Act SOPA on Friday night’s Real Time, host Bill Maher dropped in one of the more appallingly casual racist remarks I’ve heard in a long time. Speaking about the “moral dimension” to the online piracy debate, Maher said, “I call it ‘Caucasian looting,’ to laughs from panelist Buddy Roemer, and shocked silence from former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm. It’s just the latest example of Maher’s affection for racial stereotypes.
The right loves to hold up the frequently over-the-line things that Bill Maher says as examples of “lefty hate,” but just because he spends most of his time attacking Republicans doesn’t mean he’s one of us. Politically, he’s a left-leaning libertarian (“libertarian” is a word for conservatives who reserve the right to smoke pot and screw), but philosophically, he’s a privileged contrarian dick. His SOPA rant is perfect evidence of this, as he begins by stipulating that he knows nothing about the proposed legislation, then gives his uninformed opinion, anyway.
That opinion appears to be that online piracy costs him money, so even if the proposed law might chill free speech (again, without bothering to read it), let’s not be too hasty. “Moral dimension” notwithstanding, most of the people who watched Religulous for free online probably weren’t the same people who would have otherwise paid twenty bucks for the DVD, so Maher should calm down about the real dollars he lost. Online piracy is wrong, but as today’s Up with Chris Hayes panel pointed out, it’s not nearly worth the risk this proposed solution presents.
Of a piece with that sense of entitlement (to a completely uninformed opinion, to even more money than he’s already got, possibly at the expense of free speech) is Maher’s remark about “Caucasian looting,” which not only posits IRL looting as the exclusive province of black people, but conversely evinces a belief that black people generally lack the capability or opportunity to engage in online piracy. From Maher’s perch, he’s not insulting black people, he’s simply slamming white people using an observation that, let’s face it, “we” all know is true, wink, wink.
Ron Paul Slams Rick Santorum in South Carolina Debate
Ron Paul Uses Gotcha Question To Slam Rick Santorum! (ALL The Time Dr Paul Got In First Segment)
Fox News personality Juan Williams offered Newt Gingrich the opportunity to play the victim card tonight, pressing Gingrich on his call for young people from lower income families to work as janitors in their schools.
The question drew boos from the audience, and Gingrich’s spirited defense — addressed icily to “Juan” — received over 30 seconds of raucous applause. It was Gingrich at his best, knowledgeable and unflappable.
On Fox News this evening, Senior Political Analyst Brit Hume said that he agreed with most pundits that Ron Paul, “has about as much chance at winning nomination as RuPaul.”
RuPaul is a drag queen who made headlines for trailing Ron Paul in New Hampshire.
Hume added that Paul’s finish was, “better than expected” but said that Newt Gingrich was perhaps the only candidate left who could challenge Mitt Romney for the Republican nomination.
“Thanks Brit.” said Fox News Anchor Brett Bair after the segment, “We’ll forward all the Ron Paul hate mail to you.”
TAMPA BAY, Fla – The St. Petersburg Times (Tampa Bay Times), NBC News, National Journal and the Florida Council of 100 today confirmed new details for their previously announced Republican presidential primary debate.
The GOP debate will air live on NBC on Monday, Jan. 23, from a small theater on the Tampa campus of the University of South Florida. NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams will moderate, along with a panel including Times Political Editor Adam Smith.
The Florida primary is Tuesday, Jan. 31. The debate will follow the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire and South Carolina primaries.
“Florida will be at the center of next year’s presidential election, and this is the state where national issues like the economy and health care loom especially large,” said Paul Tash, Times Chairman and CEO.
This will be the first weekday primetime airing of a primary debate on a broadcast network in the 2012 election cycle. Telemundo also will broadcast the debate, which was first announced in April, in its entirety with simultaneous Spanish-language translation. The event will stream live on tampabay.com and usf.edu.
USF Debate in Tampa on NBC
It also marks the third time the St. Petersburg Times and USF have partnered to produce nationally televised political debates. The first was the vice presidential debate in 1996; the second a series of back-to-back U.S. Senate and gubernatorial debates a year ago.
“USF is the perfect place for candidates to tell us their ideas for our future,” said USF President Judy Genshaft. “Universities represent
the future, and students will want to hear how anyone who wants to be president can shape the years to come.”