Discussion for article #244213
Lack of transparency is a good thing. It should be used by his campaign as a slogan.
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Why is anyone surprised that Mr. I-Can’t-Be-Bothered-To-Do-My-Job is doing things like this too.
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Finally the trickle starts. I’m so surprised the national press isn’t printing the same stories the FL press is printing. There’s some serious dirt there.
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If Rubio does well in Iowa and NH…remember the name Orlando Cicilia. Because you will be hearing it a lot more often after that.
When Univsion started investigating what role Rubio had in his parole hearing/release, all the records of it in both Florida and Atlanta were destroyed just days before the FOIA request was required to be acting upon. Rubio then launched a scorched earth policy against Univision, escalating it all the way up to the RNC, demanding that they pull the 2012 debate from them…which they did, and they still cannot repair that bridge today largely because of Rubio.
And Cicillia was not just a one time smuggler who made a bad decision. He was one of the big time early Cocaine Cowboys and a top lieutenant in one of the most violent Cuban drug rings in Florida. The guy that Scarface is loosely based on? Yeah, that was the kingpin.
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My only question is, why is it that all ex-felons are not granted the same opportunity to re-enter into society to become upstanding citizens. I hate this issuance of a professional license on case-by-case status! This process is unconstitutional and this practice must stop!
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Sure…that makes sense. No one should drag Rubio’s past judgments and oversights into today’s race but they sure as hell should drag the past lives of their opponents into it. Or their opponents spouses.
When Rubio was a member of the Florida legislature he did nothing to fix Florida’s arcane anti-exFelon laws. He never gave a thought to the other felons that too had “paid their debt to society” and were being obstructed in their post prison rehabilitation. He did nothing to stop that. He fixed it for folks that were important to him. ( as he did here ) The rest of Florida could go fuck itself.
Folks I live in Florida. This is Rubio. It’s what you’ll get on a grander scale from a President Rubio.
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Because unless you’re an ex-Felon its not you. Its someone else getting fucked with and we like that.
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I’d rather have dinner with any of the ex-cons I know than any of the REALTORS® I know.
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Because Rubio’s parents only had so many daughters.
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Boom!
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Well, in Florida, we certainly know as an ex-felon you’re removed from the voter roles along with any Democrat that has a name similar to the felon’s. If it weren’t for the glaring hypocrisy Rubio is displaying for a family member, while he and his party are railroading every other felon from becoming productive members of society after their release, I wouldn’t have many problems with his actions.
You mean we’ll get an Orlando Cicilia - Secretary of the Interior? : 
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Florida is ground zero for Private Prisons. Private Prison companies see rehabilitation as an affront to profits. Gotta keep the beds full, and recidivism is the best and easiest way to do that. Many won’t even allow AA groups or other 12 step programs in the facilities in the hope of maintaining the addictive behavior that will ensure a prisoner’s return. There was a great New Yorker article on this:
Excerpt:
No more chilling document exists in recent American life than the 2005 annual report of the biggest of these firms, the Corrections Corporation of America. Here the company (which spends millions lobbying legislators) is obliged to caution its investors about the risk that somehow, somewhere, someone might turn off the spigot of convicted men:
Our growth is generally dependent upon our ability to obtain new contracts to develop and manage new correctional and detention facilities. . . . The demand for our facilities and services could be adversely affected by the relaxation of enforcement efforts, leniency in conviction and sentencing practices or through the decriminalization of certain activities that are currently proscribed by our criminal laws. For instance, any changes with respect to drugs and controlled substances or illegal immigration could affect the number of persons arrested, convicted, and sentenced, thereby potentially reducing demand for correctional facilities to house them.
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Rubio had only this to say when asked for a comment on the matter concerning his brother-in-law…“Say hello to my little friend”.
Cicilia was convicted in 1989 of distributing more that $15 million worth of cocaine, and he served more than 11 years in prison.
$15 million? 11 years? Holy shit, even the guy’s sentencing seems like an act of leniency.
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Rubio needs to make contact with Trump’s Teflon supplier:
Donald Trump knew a man he named as a senior business adviser in 2010 had been convicted in a major Mafia-linked stock fraud scheme, according to Associated Press interviews and a review of court records.
Trump had worked with Felix Sater previously during the man's stint as an executive at Bayrock Group LLC, a real estate development firm that partnered with Trump on numerous projects after renting office space from the Trump Organization. But Sater's past was not widely known at the time because he was working as a government cooperator on mob cases and the judge overseeing Sater's own case kept the proceedings secret. After Sater's criminal history and past ties to organized crime came to light in 2007, Trump distanced himself from Sater.
Less than three years later, however, Trump tapped Sater for a business development role that came with the title of senior adviser to Donald Trump. Sater received Trump Organization business cards and was given an office within the Trump Organization's headquarters, on the same floor as Trump's own.
Trump said during an AP interview on Wednesday that he recalled only bare details of Sater.
***"Felix Sater, boy, I have to even think about it," Trump said, referring questions about Sater to his staff. "I'm not that familiar with him."***
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/politics/ct-trump-felix-sater-felon-adviser-20151204-story.html
"I have the world’s greatest memory," Trump said. "It’s one thing everyone agrees on."
http://www.newser.com/story/216536/trump-on-911-claim-i-have-the-worlds-greatest-memory.html
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I think this will leave a marc(o). It’s just the kind of thing people hate in general-pols using their power to help friends and family members in a way that they wouldn’t extend to others. Plus, his brother-in-law was convicted of moving millions of dollars in drugs, cocaine, not marijuana. This will not play well in NH which has been plagued by the heroin epidemic. It won’t play well in Evangelical Iowa either. People, particularly Republicans, can forgive a person for being an addict, but there’s very little sympathy for a reformed drug dealer.
Also, Trump is probably going to have a field day with this one. It ties in quite beautifully with his campaign kick off comments about immigration and brown people bringing in drugs. It allows him to dog whistle Rubio’s ethnicity and hit someone who he’s been previously unable to land a punch.
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“Marco has recommended scores of Floridians for various professional positions and after Orlando paid his debt to society, Marco was happy to recommend him as well. He believed Orlando should be judged on his own merits and felt it would be highly inappropriate, and could be perceived as exerting undue pressure, if his letter stated that Orlando was a relative,” Harris continued.
That was very considerate of Senator Rubio. Who wouldn’t believe this explanation?
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I wouldn’t be surprised at all if this has the Bush Crime Family’s paw prints on it somewhere in the background.
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Sure, and the rabble that were qualified for no more than washing dishes or mowing lawns Marco couldn’t be troubled with.
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Rubio —Back scratching his BIL? Maybe that where Marco’s boat and expensive digs came from.
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