Demonstation in Miami Against Obama

From Voto Por America, via Net For Cuba:

SOUTH FLORIDA’S CONSERVATIVE PRESS “TEA PARTY”

We invite South Florida residents who disagree with the present administration of President Obama, and the direction he is taking the nation, to participate in a rally 12:00 PM this Saturday on the Tropical Park sidewalk, at SW 40 ST and SW 79 AVE.

Connect, attend, participate and let your voice be heard: No more Obama in 2012! God bless the United States of America!

Rosa Peña, Member of Tea Party

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Por este medio, estamos invitando a aquellas personas residentes en el Sur de la Florida que estén en desacuerdo con la presente Administración del Presidente Obama y el rumbo que está llevando a la nación a que participen en el rally que está teniendo lugar este sábado a las 12 del mediodía en la 40 calle y la 79 avenida del SW en la acera que corresponde a la entrada del Tropical Park.

Conéctate, asiste, participa y expresa ¡No más Obama en este 2012! ¡Dios bendiga a Estados Unidos de America!

Rosa Peña, Miembro del Tea Party

 

Interview with the creators and cast of “Wassup en LA?,” a Cuban American family sitcom

Just a little while ago, I joined three of the people behind “Wassup en LA?” for a Google+ Hangout. “Wassup en LA?” is a sitcom about a Cuban American family that moves from Miami to Los Angeles when one of the kids decides to chase his acting dreams.

We talked about being Cuban, portraying a Cuban family for mainstream TV audiences and the experiences, art, politics and history that inform their approach to making the show.

The creators are currently raising money on Kickstarter to get the project moving. Get more details and, if you’re so inclined, contribute to the Kickstarter fund here.

Here’s the interview. There’s a good chance we’ll chat with “Wassup en LA?” again, so let us know in the comments if you still have questions for next time.

Today in Cuba News: Boxing, Jubans and radio censorship

Britain’s Stalker, Cuba’s La Cruz suffer shock defeats in Olympic boxing quarterfinals
Yamaguchi Falcao of Brazil also upset top-seeded Cuban light heavyweight Julio La Cruz 18-15 in an eventful final day of quarterfinal bouts.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olympics/upset-central-britains-stalker-cubas-la-cruz-stunned-in-last-olympic-boxing-quarterfinals/2012/08/08/b3f527f8-e1ad-11e1-89f7-76e23a982d06_story.html
Cuba says tourism income up 12.8 percent in 2011
In an undated report posted recently on its website, the National Office of Statistics said tourism income was $2.5 billion in 2011, compared with $2.2 billion the previous year.
In all, the island hosted 2.7 million visitors, up 7 percent from 2.5 million in 2010.
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2012-08-09/cuba-says-tourism-income-up-12-dot-8-percent-in-2011
Cuban pole vaulter snaps pole at Olympics
Borges had his pole break in half while he was beginning his ascent into the air in the Olympic pole vault final, sending fiberglass flying in different directions. Luckily, he was OK and not injured.
http://www.freep.com/usatoday/article/56910532?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Ctext%7COlympic%20Sports%7Cs
Injury forces Cuba’s Robles out of 110m hurdles final
Robles, the defender of the title obtained in Beijing four years ago and the fastest in the world for the event with a time of 12.87 seconds, could not retain the crown due to an injury in his right thigh that forced him to stop after the fifth hurdle.
http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/sports/2012/08/08/injury-forces-cuba-robles-out-110m-hurdles-final/
Cuba lifts radio ban on Anti-Castro artists
Though the Communist authorities do not acknowledge it, for five decades state radio stations have blacklisted musicians who abandoned Fidel Castro’s 1959 Revolution and/or spoke out against it, the BBC reports. Now, that may be changing.
http://rbr.com/cuba-lifts-radio-ban-on-anti-castro-artists/
Foreign business in Cuba: Beware the dangerous embrace
So a strange incongruity exists in Cuba today: Havana is bending over backwards to attract foreign currency at the same time it is imprisoning some of its biggest Western investors. For all Cuba’s reforms, this Castro appears to be as intent on maintaining an iron grip on the country as the last one.
http://www2.macleans.ca/2012/08/08/cuba-risky-business/
Navigating humanitarian deliveries to Cuba is tricky for Miami terminal operator
International Port Corp., which offers maritime service from the Miami River to Cuba, is finding the Cuban government is picky about which items it will accept in humanitarian shipments. New Cuban Customs fees could also complicate the business.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/08/07/2940671/navigating-humanitarian-deliveries.html
Summer Nights: Cuban ‘Jubans’ In South Sudan
In Juba, the capital city of South Sudan, there’s a small corner of Havana. A number of Jubans who studied in Cuba have tried to recreate some of the atmosphere of the Caribbean island in their southern Sudanese homeland.
http://www.npr.org/2012/08/08/158448841/summer-nights-cuban-jubans-in-south-sudan

NEWS

Britain’s Stalker, Cuba’s La Cruz suffer shock defeats in Olympic boxing quarterfinals

Yamaguchi Falcao of Brazil also upset top-seeded Cuban light heavyweight Julio La Cruz 18-15 in an eventful final day of quarterfinal bouts.

Cuba says tourism income up 12.8 percent in 2011

In an undated report posted recently on its website, the National Office of Statistics said tourism income was $2.5 billion in 2011, compared with $2.2 billion the previous year.

In all, the island hosted 2.7 million visitors, up 7 percent from 2.5 million in 2010.

Cuban pole vaulter snaps pole at Olympics

Borges had his pole break in half while he was beginning his ascent into the air in the Olympic pole vault final, sending fiberglass flying in different directions. Luckily, he was OK and not injured.

Injury forces Cuba’s Robles out of 110m hurdles final

Robles, the defender of the title obtained in Beijing four years ago and the fastest in the world for the event with a time of 12.87 seconds, could not retain the crown due to an injury in his right thigh that forced him to stop after the fifth hurdle.

Cuba lifts radio ban on Anti-Castro artists

Though the Communist authorities do not acknowledge it, for five decades state radio stations have blacklisted musicians who abandoned Fidel Castro’s 1959 Revolution and/or spoke out against it, the BBC reports. Now, that may be changing.

Navigating humanitarian deliveries to Cuba is tricky for Miami terminal operator

International Port Corp., which offers maritime service from the Miami River to Cuba, is finding the Cuban government is picky about which items it will accept in humanitarian shipments. New Cuban Customs fees could also complicate the business.

Summer Nights: Cuban ‘Jubans’ In South Sudan

In Juba, the capital city of South Sudan, there’s a small corner of Havana. A number of Jubans who studied in Cuba have tried to recreate some of the atmosphere of the Caribbean island in their southern Sudanese homeland.

OPINION

Foreign business in Cuba: Beware the dangerous embrace

So a strange incongruity exists in Cuba today: Havana is bending over backwards to attract foreign currency at the same time it is imprisoning some of its biggest Western investors. For all Cuba’s reforms, this Castro appears to be as intent on maintaining an iron grip on the country as the last one.

Searching for “The Shift” Part 12

This is the 12th in a series of analyses of the election results to see whether or not the Cubans are abandoning the GOP. Other posts in this series can be found here.

In this part I wanted to examine how the three Cuban-American congressional incumbents from South Florida fared in comparison to John McCain. In order to do this I had to total presidential election results for the 587 different precincts that comprise the three districts in the county (because I’m interested in the Cuban-American vote I only looked at Miami-Dade County’s election results even though the three districts contain parts of other counties).

congdist1.jpg

As you can see above John McCain actually lost the Miami-Dade portions of two of the congressional districts.

congdist2.jpg

Of course we know that all three incumbents won but it’s telling that their personal popularity is significantly higher than McCain’s was. They not only achieved higher PERCENTAGES than McCain, they received more ACTUAL VOTES than McCain. That is to say that the three candidates did not win because of the substantial number of voters who came to the polls on election day only to vote for Obama.
There’s already been a flurry of news stories about polls indicating that a majority Cuban-Americans are against the U.S. embargo on Cuba. The above elections results show that such polls are B.S. The three congresspersons that were re-elected last month are the staunchest defenders of the embargo and also represent the greatest number of Cuban-Americans in the country. The people have spoken.

Another remarkable thing to note is the total rejection of Raul Martinez in the District 21 race. In 2006 an unknown Democrat named Frank J. Gonzalez ran against Lincoln Diaz-Balart and obtained 36.7% of the vote in Miami-Dade despite only raising $16,430. Martinez, the much ballyhooed former mayor of Hialeah, was only able to obtain 40.2% even after raising almost $1.9 million and that doesn’t even include the substantial money spent by the Democratic party on the race.

Searching for “The Shift” Part 11

This is the eleventh in a series of analyses of the election results to see whether or not the Cubans are abandoning the GOP. Other posts in this series can be found here.
2004-2008.jpg
The chart above shows the 2004 and 2008 election results in the 6 zip codes I’ve analyzed. These are 6 of the most Cuban zip codes in the county.
As you can see the net gain for the Democratic candidate was 4.4%. Hardly the monumental shift that the local and national media was projecting. In fact voters in these precincts preferred John McCain to Obama by a margin of more than 2-1. I have no doubt that even this minor shift was driven partly by younger Cubans who voted for Obama but it’s not clear whether their votes were driven by ideology (meaning that they identify themselves as liberal Democrats) or simply because of anti-Bush sentiment, the economy and the charisma of Obama.
Notes: The population statistics are from the 2000 census and are therefore outdated but are the best I could obtain.
Also note the vast differences in total votes from one election to the other. That’s because absentee ballots were handled differently in 2004. They were attributed to “absentee precincts” rather than the traditional precinct the voter belonged to. In 2008 all ballots are attributed to the voter’s precinct.

Searching for “The Shift” Part 10

This is the tenth in a series of analyses of the election results to see whether or not the Cubans are abandoning the GOP. Other posts in this series can be found here.
In Part 6, I analyzed the precincts that are located in the 33010 zip code. According to 2000 census estimates (the latest info I could get) the zip code is 66.1% Cuban. We discovered that in those 10 precincts John McCain obtained 63.2% of the vote.
Well I went back to the 2004 election results and found that in the 6 precincts (there was a new one in 2008 that didn’t exist in 2004) George W. Bush obtained 70.9% of the vote. That’s a shift of 7.7%. This is more of a shift than we’ve seen in the other zip codes thus far. Consider that the proportion of Cubans in each zip code could also be shifting.
There are some other pretty big caveats to this analysis. First off some of the precinct boundaries have changed and even the locations of the precinct houses have changed. However the precincts still generally represent the same areas. The next caveat is that absentee ballots were reported differently back then. They had something called absentee precincts. Nowadays all ballots are attributed to the voters precinct regardless of whether the voted absentee or on election day (or early voted).
Until next time, I’ll be searching for the shift.
UPDATE: This post was updated to reflect the county’s revised election results as of 11/14/08.

Searching for “The Shift” Part 9

This is the ninth in a series of analyses of the election results to see whether or not the Cubans are abandoning the GOP. Other posts in this series can be found here.
In Part 4, I analyzed the precincts that are located in the 33144 zip code. According to 2000 census estimates (the latest info I could get) the zip code is 69.7% Cuban. We discovered that in those 7 precincts John McCain obtained 69.7% of the vote.
Well I went back to the 2004 election results and found that in the same 7 precincts George W. Bush obtained 70.4% of the vote. That’s a shift of 0.7%.
There are some pretty big caveats to this analysis however. First off some of the precinct boundaries have changed and even the locations of the precinct houses have changed. However the precincts still generally represent the same areas. The next caveat is that absentee ballots were reported differently back then. They had something called absentee precincts. Nowadays all ballots are attributed to the voters precinct regardless of whether the voted absentee or on election day (or early voted).
Until next time, I’ll be searching for the shift.
UPDATE: This post was edited to reflect the county’s revised election results as of 11/14/08.

Searching for “The Shift” Part 8

This is the seventh in a series of analyses of the election results to see whether or not the Cubans are abandoning the GOP. Other posts in this series can be found here.
In Part 1, I analyzed the precincts that are located in the 33175 zip code. According to 2000 census estimates (the latest info I could get) the zip code is 56.6% Cuban. We discovered that in those 14 precincts John McCain obtained 68.7% of the vote.
Well I went back to the 2004 election results and found that in the same 14 precincts George W. Bush obtained 71.8% of the vote. That’s a shift of 3.2%.
There are some pretty big caveats to this analysis however. First off some of the precinct boundaries have changed and even the locations of the precinct houses have changed. However the precincts still generally represent the same areas. The next caveat is that absentee ballots were reported differently back then. They had something called absentee precincts. Nowadays all ballots are attributed to the voters precinct regardless of whether the voted absentee or on election day (or early voted).
Until next time, I’ll be searching for the shift.
UPDATE: This post was edited to reflect the revised election results as of 11/14/08.

Searching for “The Shift” Part 7

This is the seventh in a series of analyses of the election results to see whether or not the Cubans are abandoning the GOP. Other posts in this series can be found here.
In Part 3, I analyzed the precincts that are located in the 33165 zip code. According to 2000 census estimates (the latest info I could get) the zip code is 61.3% Cuban. We discovered that in those 16 precincts John McCain obtained 68.6% of the vote.
Well I went back to the 2004 election results and found that in the same 16 precincts George W. Bush obtained 71.5% of the vote. That’s a shift of 2.9%.
There are some pretty big caveats to this analysis however. First off some of the precinct boundaries have changed and even the locations of the precinct houses have changed. One precinct house was actually was moved to a neighboring zip code. However the precincts still generally represent the same areas. The next caveat is that absentee ballots were reported differently back then. They had something called absentee precincts. Nowadays all ballots are attributed to the voters precinct regardless of whether the voted absentee or on election day (or early voted).
Until next time, I’ll be searching for the shift.
UPDATE: This post has been edited to reflect the county’s revised election results as of 11/14/08.

Searching for “the shift”, a partial recap

So far, since the election, I have analyzed six of the most high density Cuban zip codes in Miami-Dade County. The aggregate Cuban density in these zip codes is 64.5% according to 2000 census data.
electionszips.jpg
As the table above indicates, 67.6% of the votes cast for president in these six zip codes were cast for John McCain. Remember that McCain only got 41.7% of the vote in the county. This a testament to the continued identification of Cuban-Americans with Republican candidates.
Assuming that Cuban-Americans are more likely to vote for the GOP candidate than the non-Cuban 33.5% living in these zips, and also assuming that the electorate resembles the overall population, then it follows that McCain’s percentage for these zips is a baseline and that Cuban-Americans voted for McCain at a rate higher than the the baseline with the non-Cubans bringing it down to the baseline.
I’ll be trying to do a comparison to 2004 (although the precinct boundaries changed a bit). To see how much movement there was toward Obama relative to what Kerry got in those same zips. I suspect there was some movement but questions still remain:
1. Was the movement “generational”?
2. If so, was it ideological or simply a reflection of the generalized (but perhaps temporary) anti-GOP sentiment out there, discontent with economy, and the general appeal of Obama?
This second point is an important distinction. Remember that proponents of the “shift” basically allege that.
Older Cubans are Republicans because of the Cuba issue and young US-born Cuban-Americans don’t care about Cuba therefore young Cuban-Americans are “smarter” and more willing to embrace flaming liberalism.
I don’t believe that young Cuban-Americans (as a whole) have embraced flaming liberalism any more than than the rest of the country. We shall see.

Other posts in this series can be found here.

Searching for “The Shift” Part 6

This is the sixth in a series of analyses of the election results to see whether or not the Cubans are abandoning the GOP. Other posts in this series can be found here.
Each time I will be examining a different zip code with a high proportion of Cuban-Americans living in it. This time it’s 33010.
33010.jpg
As you can see from the map above this zip code is basically the southern end of Hialeah.
Unfortunately the demographic data that I can obtain is somewhat dated (2000 census):
Total pop: 45,353 (100%)
Hispanic: 41,439 (91.4%)
Cuban: 29,982 (66.1%)
Median age: 39.4
So this an area that is more than 60% Cuban (at least in 2000).
There are 10 different precincts located in this zip code that reported results. For reference they are: 333 335 339 340 342 376 380 381 382 and 387.
A total of 10,414 votes for president were cast in these precincts.
John McCain received 6,583 of those votes or 63.2%
Barack Obama received 3,800 or 36.5%
Again we don’t exactly know how many of those votes were cast by Cubans or the median age of those Cubans but it’s pretty clear that this area like the others we’ve looked at thus far with it’s large Cuban population was firmly in McCain’s camp.
This is another zip where McCain’s percentage is lower than Cuban pop. That would suggest that the Cubans in this zip were (at least slightly) less likely to vote for McCain than in other zips. But again the census data is from 2000 and doesn’t necessarily reflect voters but population instead.
Until next time, I’ll be searching for the shift.