California 2 Puerto Rico » Politics

Quote From the New York Times

Stefan — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 17:07:10 +0000

I was reading an article in the New York Times about Fortuño being elected Governor of Puerto Rico by more than 220,000 votes. They said it was the largest margin in history. It’s funny, they didn’t mention until later in the article that the current governor is being indicted on Federal charges for misappropriation of public funds…$56k to be exact. Hmm, I wonder if that is why many people didn’t vote for him. Any who, here is the quote that I wanted to share with everyone, it really is Puerto Rico.

Many Puerto Ricans are simply fed up. Voices rise to a shout when politicians are named, and the corrosiveness of a government that is weak, broken and accused of stealing can be seen in a wider disrespect for law and order. San Juan is now a city of rising crime, where drivers ignore red lights and residents make multiple copies of every government bill or notice because they expect the bureaucracy to mishandle it.

Note: Ignored Red lights, mishandled paperwork and crime. Come on…really?

Politics and Utilities

Stefan — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 13:25:24 +0000

For the past two months, we have been loosing power to the house regularly. We have had plenty of tropical storm action blowing harsh winds and dropping dozens of inches of rain on us here in Rincon and I have attributed the regular power outages to the weather conditions. Well, last night at poker, some of the local guys were talking about how much the power has been going out and why (power went out twice last night forcing our poker game to slow down and run on candle power).

A few of the guys said the reason the power is going out so much is because it is election time. I didn’t really understand, so I asked what the elections had to do with the utility company. They all agreed that every election season things go wrong, in this case, the electric company is having problems supplying power to Rincon. They continued to explain that the current mayor will announce that he has fixed the issues with the power company right before the election and that we will not have any more power outages. In short, the current government is making the power go out so they can look like champions and get more votes by saying they fixed it right before voting day.

I have to admit that election time is in November and Puerto Rico gets a lot of heavy weather systems, tropical storms and hurricanes in the months prior to election day. To me, logic dictates that the weather is the reason for the power problems in Rincon but what do I know about Puerto Rico? This country has its own way of doing things. What do you guys think?

Hillary Clinton is in Rincon, Puerto Rico

Summer — Tue, 27 May 2008 16:58:36 +0000

Surprisingly enough, we see quite a few celebrities in our sleepy little town of Rincon, PR. Around Christmas time last year Vanessa Williams and Rick Fox were seen taking a ride on the “Pintos R Us” horses at sunset and Glenn Close was spotted enjoying a meal with family at The Lazy Parrot/Smilin’ Joes.

Currently, presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are both in Puerto Rico for the 2008 Democratic primaries. While Barack is in San Juan, working. Hillary is kicking back at The Horned Dorset in Rincon. Sounds like someone is on vacation…

Here is a video of Hillary Clinton at a local Puerto Rican bar, sucking down a Presidente beer and doing a little dance to Enrique Iglesias “Just Wanna be with You”:

Can anyone of you locals guess what bar Hillary was at? The video was taken at a bar in San Juan.

Our Driveway, 4WD and the Mayor

Stefan — Wed, 14 May 2008 13:00:44 +0000

The daily rain still hasn’t begun, but we have had a few great downpours in the afternoon that our plants love! Every time the rain comes, I am reminded of how slippery and muddy our unpaved driveway gets. Five out of ten times leaving the driveway when it is raining, Summer and I have to engage four-wheel drive. I don’t really mind it too much, but it sure is awkward when friends come over and can’t pull into our driveway. Instead, they are forced to carefully walk down our slippery slide of a driveway. It can’t be done without getting your shoes covered in mud (unless you are a ninja of course).

This is not our driveway getting paved, but it could be!

One of our friends down here that we play poker with (he has been forced to walk the driveway) offered to go down to city hall and talk to the mayor about paving our driveway with us. Everyone in our neighborhood understands that we haven’t been able to pave the driveway, but they are sick of our mud tracks and splatters all over the first 500 feet of the road. So, with that said, it is also an election year and everyone in our neighborhood (including me) will be voting for a Mayor in November. In essence, with the power of our vote alone, we are going to try to get the city to pave our driveway.