Mitch Perry Report for 4.14.15 — All Marco, all the time

Greetings once again from the 305 area code.

A random thought for Tuesday — I went running along Doral Boulevard in the Miami Springs/Virginia Gardens area early, when I came across a correctional institution.

When I ran across it again on the way back, I noticed all of the concertina wire placed atop the roofs of the various buildings in the facility.

It sort of blew me away. Just the starkness of — you ain’t getting out of here, and if you try, well,  you’re not going to be able to.

We hear so much about “freedom” from politicians, and most of us, luckily, are free. We may have all types of problems — like barely making enough money to get by in this life. But at least we’re not confined (most of us) to our house — with the threat of being shot if we dare escape.

Okay, enough with those pleasantries!

Monday was definitely Marco Rubio day in the American political landscape, and I was immersed in it down here in his hometown in Miami.

You can read our story on his big presidential speech last night in downtown Miami, where there was a definite carnival atmosphere. The  Miami Heat was playing across the street in their second to last regular season game of the year, and a group of environmental activists standing across the street from the Freedom Tower was yelling, “Marco has a Koch problem.” That was in reference to the financial support Rubio has received from the libertarian Koch Brothers, who share a disdain for believing in man-made climate change.

One thing’s for sure: the Democratic National Committee and its friends in the immigration, environmental and other progressive movements had a field day in sending out negative press releases about the Florida U.S. senator’s record.

Nobody was more caustic than DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who was in rare acidic form at a news conference in a Miami hotel hours before Rubio’s speech.

NextGen Climate called out Rubio to get his act together when it comes to believing in man-made climate change.

OK, that’s it. I’ve got a 400-mile commute to endure.

Mitch Perry

Mitch Perry has been a reporter with Extensive Enterprises since November of 2014. Previously, he served five years as political editor of the alternative newsweekly Creative Loafing. Mitch also was assistant news director with WMNF 88.5 FM in Tampa from 2000-2009, and currently hosts MidPoint, a weekly talk show, on WMNF on Thursday afternoons. He began his reporting career at KPFA radio in Berkeley and is a San Francisco native who has lived in Tampa since 2000. Mitch can be reached at [email protected].



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