Ex-Employee: (Fl. "Dem" candidate) Jeff Greene Took Vacation In Cuba

[Billy Burnett]

Source: WJXT Jacksonville

During Monday night's debate, Greene was clearly rattled when asked about the alleged 2007 visit to the communist island aboard his mega-yacht, the "Summer Wind." Greene denied that he visited Cuba on what his opponent, U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek, called a "party trip."

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On Tuesday, while speaking to a reporter in Tallahassee, Greene acknowledged that he was, in fact, on the yacht, but he said the Cuba visit was an emergency stop as they traveled from Honduras to the Bahamas.

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But in an interview with WPLG, Billy Blackwell, who was working on Greene's yacht at the time, said there was no mechanical failure and that the trip to Cuba was a vacation.

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Blackwell told Local 10 on the phone Tuesday afternoon that Greene and his girlfriend spent three or four days touring and shopping on the island.
"Well, they came back with bags and me and the deckhand had to help them bring the bags onboard. Jeff Greene actually had a box of Cuban cigars," Blackwell said.

Read more: http://www.news4jax.com/politics/24507799/detail.html

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As usual, all Florida politics boils down to the US sanctions against Cuba and Americans.

[Dappleganger]

1. Yeah, but he has a sequined "D" after his name.

:sarcasm:

[DCBob]

2. HA! caught! Greene is a total fake.. I have no idea why so many Democrats support this jerk.

I guess $6M spent on ads works.

[seafan]

3. Florida politics boils down to those with obscene amounts of money vs. all the rest of us.

Right now we have David and Goliath politics going on the the governor's race and the US Senate race in Florida.


Rick Scott, a multimillionaire who was the CEO of Columbia/HCA while it committed major Medicare/Medicaid fraud scams is running for governor.


Jeff Greene, a billionaire real estate mogul who parlayed his fortune from credit default swaps on doomed mortgages in California that he helped create, came out of nowhere and moved to Florida 2 years ago and is running for US Senate.



And if it's up to them, their thirst for power and absolute control will stomp the needs of the people of Florida into the dirt. Permanently.


This is about the corrosive influence of money in the wholesale destruction of our now-threadbare democracy that was created at the outset to serve the needs of the people.



And it is time to end the poisonous influence of Big Money on our government.



As Crisis Papers writes today, "Come the Revolution: Are We There Yet?"

[Roland99]

4. At least we have Grayson.

[rocktivity]

5. Greene really DID have mechanical failure

if his yacht runs on tobacco.

:eyes:
rocktivity

[Mika]

6. Why should going to Cuba even be an issue, especially played by Meek.

As much as I loathe Greene, this is an example of how polarizing an issue that anything to do with Cuba isin Florida.

As OP's comment notes, it's pure pandering by Meek to be playing the Cuba card in this way and is a demonstration of the ridiculous US policy against Cuba (the US embargo on Cuba and the US travel ban on Americans) being used purely as a US political tactic and has nothing to do with Castro/communism/etc.

Just like the US sanctions on Cuba, its a no win tactic. Not many Cuban-Americans are going to vote for Meek, and now they won't be voting for Greene. They will vote for Rubio (if he's not shit canned for some of the scandals he's involved in).

If the Dems would just kill all US sanctions on Cuba (and Americans) then this element would be a non issue. (Oh.... wait.... it would kill campaign funding for Dems too. :( )

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[MikeW]

7. well for starters

Its against the law.

There are a lot of laws that I dont like either hell I think the speed on my street is to slow but they are there.

You cant just break em if you dont like them.

Esp. if your a public figure.

The only thing this shows is actually how dumb the guy is he had to have known someone was going to pull this out on him
sooner or later.

[Mika]

10. Its against the law? I guess that you would say that to Rosa Parks?

How the F do you think that any progress has been made? Its been made by people attempting to trample down injustices. Now, to be totally clear, I certainly am not saying that scumball Jeff Greene is any Rosa Parks, but your comment "its against the law" is weak when it come to unjust laws trampling our constitutional rights.

BTW, President Obama granted Cuban-Americans and Cuban resident aliens their FULL constitutional rights, in that they are able to travel to Cuba unfettered by government restrictions. The rest of us are travel banned (iow, we non-Cubans have our constitutional right to unfettered travel infringed upon).

For political gain, Jeff Greene should have declared his right to travel to Cuba, and his trip there to be a protest against injustice and government overreach into our personal rights. Why? Because the latest polls of Cuban-Americans and Cuban resident aliens shows majority support for all Americans to be able to travel to Cuba without US government restrictions.

Those polls were posted a while ago in DU's Latin America forum.


Maintaining this policy is unproductive on many levels. Calling political opponents out for travel there (maintaining the political strawman), politicians who have traveled there (and there are many) should be decrying the fact that the rest of us are travel banned by our own government from going to a small caribbean nation that intends no harm upon the American people, (in fact, the Cubans have offered disaster assistance and medical assistance to the US, for free, and free medical training to US students).

Cubans are our friends. We need not continue all of this. It harms both of our nations, and all of our people.

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[MikeW]

11. ok I'll try your method

on my street ... If I get a ticket Im gonna hit you up for the money.

[rocktivity]

12. DING DING DING! Mika, you're our grand prize winner!

...Greene should have declared his right to travel to Cuba, and his trip there to be a protest against injustice and government overreach into our personal rights. Why? Because the latest polls of Cuban-Americans and Cuban resident aliens shows majority support for all Americans to be able to travel to Cuba without US government restrictions.

That's EXACTLY what he should have done. But instead, he LIED...

The question was raised during a debate Monday night.

"Didn't you just take your yacht down to Cuba recently, or is that not true?" Greene was asked.

"No, the yacht went to Cuba," Greene said.

"Oh, the yacht went to Cuba but you didn't?" Greene was asked.

"No," Greene said.

On Tuesday, Greene had a different response. "As it turns out, there was a Jewish mission that I knew about going on. I had a chance to go visit some of the Jewish synagogues in the community in Cuba," Greene said.

...then lied some more!

On Tuesday, while speaking to a reporter in Tallahassee, Greene (said there was) "...a hydraulics problem and the captain said, 'Can we stop at Hemingway Marina and fix it?' And I said, 'Is it legal?' And he said, 'As long as we don't spend any money, it's legal to stop there. Otherwise, it could be dangerous,'" Greene said...

But in an interview...Billy Blackwell, who was working on Greene's yacht at the time, said there was no mechanical failure...(and that) Greene and his girlfriend spent three or four days touring and shopping on the island...

Meek, meanwhile, wondered "if I need to slide my chair over because a bolt of lightning is going to come in and hit Jeff..."
(link)

:rofl:
rocktivity

[Mika]

13. Thanks. Its time for this red herring to evaporate and disappear.

:hi:

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[formercia]

14. Red Herring is an apt description.

Just another conservative asshole sandbagging the Dem platform.

[truthisfreedom]

8. Here's a list:

1] Billy Blackwell is a rat fink.
2] The Cuba thing is bullshit.
3] Dems have to be extra-specially careful not to break the law because they're held to a standard 200 times higher.
4] The list goes on and on.

[bc3000]

9. Who cares? It's a non race. Florida Democrats will support Crist.