Drive The Discussion Exchange '09

From a short little advertising spot on Facebook, I found a link to Drive The Discussion, a website focusing on young Republicans and how to revitalize and refresh the look of the Republican party. Pretty cool concept, I guessed, because the stereotype is that Democrats are supposed to be young and hip, while Republicans are old and stuffy. Case in point - the candidates for the 2008 Presidential Election.

They were holding an "Exchange," a discussion-based event sponsored by the Republican Party of Florida on August 22nd, 2009. Since it was being held 15 minutes away from me, why not attend something like this? It was free, it was on a Saturday, and it was important to me. I never thought I would learn so much and be as motivated towards my future and the party I support after having attended this event.

It was being held at the Gaylord Palms Resort in Kissimmee, FL and I got there right on time at 10AM, and found out the speakers didn't go on until 1PM, but we were free to hang out, talk to other young Republicans aged 18-35, check out booths, etc. They had some cool raffles, t-shirts,frisbees and other freebies, and I was interested in what was going on and what we were going to hear.

At 1PM, the speakers started giving their brief speeches about who they were and why they were young conservatives. We heard from former Miss California / Miss USA first runner up Carrie Prejean, who, as you can see from this video, maintains her conservative position against gay marriage, something that most likely cost her the Miss USA crown. Also, 14 year old Jonathan Krohn, author of Define Conservatism (at age 13!), and one of the most politically educated young adults I have ever met.

We then heard from Todd Herman, Director of New Media for the Republican National Committee, and learned about how to get the message out about our views online - NOT through Facebook and Twitter (which aren't searched through Google searches), but through blogs like this very one you are reading! Facebook and Twitter are great for spreading the word amongst friends, unless you are one of my friends who hate hearing about politics, but they just don't get searched, and therefore, as was the case and still is, they don't help spread the word enough towards people looking for answers online. So get yourself a blog and start getting your views out there for others to hear!

Here's an example Todd produced - search "obama ama rejected" in Google, do this for yourself, I'm not providing a link to it, and see what you come up with. Notice the headline from the (currently) 4th listing by the "All Barack Channel" as Todd called it:

AMA Straddles the 'Public Plan' Option

Doctors' Group Remains Wary of Government-Based Health Care Option

Now how condemning does this sound towards the truth that the American Medical Association outright rejected Obama's plan? How does this even point the finger at Obama, or even the AMA, directly? Why are they so lax on Obama's plan towards FREE (read: socialized) HEALTH CARE, but just searching the word "Palin" on Google brings you to some of the most damning, offensive, ridiculous websites the internet has to offer, right at the top of the list! The point is, you have to search for quite some time to find anything controversial on Obama, using many different search terms to get you there, but just put in any Republican's name and voila, plenty of anti-conservative websites abound!

You can even follow Todd on Twitter like I am! My Twitter link is right here, in case you missed the new link to it on the menu bar on my main page - you must be granted permission to follow me though. Next, we got to hear from Matthias Shapiro (website | Twitter), creator of the 10,000 pennies video in which he visually represents how the Obama administration needs 90 days to figure out how to take $100M out of a $3.5T budget. Check out his other videos here and learn something about politics at the same time! He was even invited to Washington to meet with Michael Steele for his video, and a cool video of him during that event with Todd Herman can be found here.

Next we got to hear a panel discussion from young members of the Republican party talking about ways to get people active in politics and how they became interested in politics. Ranging from a CEO of a tech company who just found politics to be valuable to a 26 year old female lawyer running for mayor of Fort Myers, FL. Even young Jonathan Krohn from earlier got to speak more about his views, very powerful stuff for any age group!

Then the Exchange '09 came to an end with motivational and inspirational speaker Bruce Jenner. Aside from being known by the gossip crowd as the step-father to the Kardashians, namely Kim who he said was the most Google'd name on the internet, he was the gold medalist in the 1976 Olympic Games for the Decathlon. He talked about reasons why he gave up so many years of his life to be the best in the world at doing something like winning the gold medal in the Olympics. Why would someone not work and focus on becoming a superstar in ten different events for the decathlon? Very powerful speech and had a great message for young Republicans to get motivated in things they believe wholeheartedly in.

While getting to meet and hear from such powerhouses as Jim Greer and Charlie Crist, the event was really focused on the younger crowd. Greer, while speaking to Crist, asked what demographic was the most important to pay attention to for the next election. Minorities, women, lower class, etc were all important demos, but one thing a lot of those have in common to are young adults, 18-35. They are the ones who played the most important role in the 2008 Presidential Election, and therefore must be a source of focus for the future.

This was a great event and I hope to participate in more just like it!

Facebook Link

Facebook has updated their system to become a little more like Myspace in that you have your own username now to find people by. As if it wasn't easy enough to find me if you've been to this page before, what with the links to my page posted everywhere, you can now find me by going to:

http://www.facebook.com/garciam25

Of course, the same rules apply - if I don't know you, I'm not adding you! I've got a lot more information about me there than I do on this blog and public website, so I'm not adding everyone and anyone under the sun...... simple condition: if I've met you and I can recognize your name when adding me as a friend (or you can do something to help me recognize), I'll add you! I'm not one of those lonely saps on a social network with over a thousand friends, just over 200 right now that I could tell you a lot about each one from knowing them for years or having conversations with them out and about!

Celebration Exotic Car Show - 4.18.09

There are people even in this economy that are recession proof. From the yacht owner in the previous blog to the owners of these incredibly high end cars, if there's one thing for certain, it's that people who love their luxurious lifestyle find a way to be recession proof!

Let's compare this year and last at the Celebration Exotic Car Show, hosted by the Make-A-Wish foundation, in Celebration, FL. Last year there were three $1.8M Bugatti Veyrons, this year, there was only one. Poor economy to blame? Hardly - there were just as many high-end cars there this year, though the quality of them wasn't as good. Going back through the pictures from last year:

http://picasaweb.google.com/garciam25/CelebrationExoticCarShow41908

and then comparing them to this year:

http://picasaweb.google.com/garciam25/CelebrationExoticCarShow41809

You won't see the Maserati MC12, the yellow Enzo, or the two missing Veyrons (the red Enzo was there, just not pictured this year), but people like Michael Fux, founder of Sleep Innovations, selling the company, company declares Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, and now becomes CEO of it during the reinstatement, sure had a lot of vehicles I've not seen before going to these exotic car shows in Florida. I've read that his white-on-white Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano has been a big hit in previous shows that I've not seen, as was the yellow-on-yellow Rolls Royce Drophead convertible that were at this show. Some even talk about seeing the $2M Ferrari FXX or the Aston Martin DB9R he partnered with Bell Motorsports on, but he didn't bring those to this show!

Missing from this show was the two Ariel Atoms from last year, but the Ferrari F40 and F50 made a return. The yellow Drophead was the only one there this year, there were two others last year too. So like I said, the quality dropped off a bit, but there were even more "celebrity cars" than last year - the original Batmobile, the Munster Coach, and the Monkey Mobile weren't there last year, nor were all the Star Wars characters (unless they were there before I got there last year, a possibility). Vendor booths weren't as wild this year, but there were still some great companies represented. All in all it was a great show, check out the pics at the links above if you missed it and want to be a part of the Florida exotic car show lifestyle that I certain love!

Yacht Day in Palm Beach

My father was invited by an alumni of the boarding school he went to for a day out on his exquisite yacht up and down the Palm Beach shore. Pass it up? Yeah right!

There was more food on board than for a wedding of 100 people, and only 18 people were on board, not counting the crew.

It was a small boat, only 145-foot (sarcasm), and only costs between $95-105K per week to charter. In other words, our 2 hour expedition we took today ran at least $13,500. What recession???

For more information on the yacht, take a look at some old pics of it (and probably old pricing info as well) by checking it out here, and you can see my full list of pictures from today on my Picasa page by clicking here.

Central FL Road Course / Kami Speed Track Day

Went out [very briefly] today for the Central Florida Road Course Meet and Greet track event sponsored by Kami Speed.

It was cool getting to see the new track in person, and getting a feel for it in the MINI. Called a "meet and greet," Kami Speed rented the track to promote their company name as well as get Central Floridians out on the new roadcourse. We got to do 4 "parade laps" where cars were very quickly inspected visually and drivers without safety helmets let loose on the track. I'm glad to say that by 1PM, there weren't any accidents!

Unfortunately though, there were too many ricers at the event, and cars like the one in front of me in the picture above were full of issues that I didn't want to be a part of. That 240's trunk lid wouldn't latch down, so under hard braking, it would open. And luckily nothing fell out to hit my car...... Other reports of mufflers falling off were relayed to me by track officials after finding out the owner used plastic washers to bolt the muffler to the exhaust pipe!

I still had a good time taking the MINI out on a track again, but next time I'll make sure it is more competitive and less rice!

The REAL FastLane

Previously, I had all my information about my car(s) on this, my own personal website designated with my real name. Unfortunately, there were some internet trolls that obtained the link I had attached to my signature in certain online automotive forums who just couldn't deal with the fact that I had personal information on the website owned by me, and tried to publically chastise me for saying what I wanted or needed to say on my own damn site....

While they have been dealt with, the situation remained that I still had to take care of - separating my personal site with that of my cars. If you know me, you know my cars are an extension of me - I don't think a car defines a person, but the feeling I get by throwing the throttle to the floor around turns in the MINI certainly thrills me! Separating the sites meant having to buy a new domain just for the cars and not having any personal information on it, and not linking it back to here. Now, obviously, I can link THIS site to the site with the cars no problem, if you know this address, good for you, you already know who I am and what I'm all about!That's great, but what to call it? I started a business in college with a partner and named it "Fast Lane Tuning, Inc." where it could be shortened to FastLane, one word. Fast Lane Tuning dot com (no link to it because I don't own it any longer) was the original site address, and once that was lost mistakenly, it became The NEW FastLane dot com, where we focused the brand name just on MINI performance parts and accessories.

That was stolen from me by a guy my family and I trusted for many years before starting me out on a successful career path after graduating college, and after he turned out to be a fake and a thief in more ways than domain name theft, I lost that one too. So I came up with The REAL FastLane so no one would get the wrong idea. Plus, I was out of ideas, and hopefully I want to end up owning many fast cars during my lifetime, so it seemed fitting to keep FastLane closeby!

And there you have it! Check out the site for pictures of my cars, past and present, and the work I did to them. Let me know what you think, thanks for reading!

main page update: BLOG!

Well, I've finally done it.... joined everyone else in the world and made a blog! But not just ANY blog.... one that is framed over my actual website. Take a look for yourself and follow along!

• Check out the website address of this page - while you're actually viewing mikegarcia25.blogspot.com, it's framed over using the index.html file from my own website.
• Check out the title bar of the page - it would normally read my blogger user name, but instead, it's that of my actual website.
• Lastly, click on the links on the right hand bar under "other elements of my site." They link directly to other parts of my actual site and that of my cars' website, The REAL FastLane.

So there you have it. I can now update my homepage quicker and easier using blogging technology, and hopefully that means many of you will come back to it more often then to just see pictures of stuff, see what new firearms are in the safe, or how much more work I've done to my cars! Take a look back at some of the previous blogs I dated back in time before I had the blog (or the site for that matter) that were featured on my original style homepage. You can also leave comments to each one of my blogs, give it a try now (if you aren't a registered member, they will have to be approved by me before they are published, however) and let me know what you think of the changes or click on the "reaction" you choose, thumbs up or thumbs down!

It was a bad day to be a Republican..........

Now that I've had ample time to cool off from the devastation that occurred yesterday, I'm ready to make a few comments about what happened in this year's elections. I liked Jay's introduction to his note, and I'll start by saying the same thing - these are my views, and if you don't like them, feel free to comment with an EDUCATED response.... many of you haven't been working in politics as much as I have this year, some of you have and I love being able to respectfully debate issues with you, but regardless, I'm not being racist, blasphemous, or otherwise arrogant, and I trust that you won’t be either. I’m going to put a lot of this in the language that everyone will understand because this is how I understand it best – I’m not a political guru, but I will be analyzing the facts as best and as unbiased as possible. I look forward to comments from those who have voted Democrat, but only if they are more educated than “ha ha, look who won!”

While I didn’t anticipate the disaster that occurred yesterday, I was paying attention to the signs that could have led to its occurrence. The two candidates had to make a choice earlier this year to determine how they would be raising money for their campaign, and the two choices were to accept federal money valued at $87 million and NOT be allowed to accept donations or to attempt to raise money via political contributions. Both McCain and Obama stated they would be accepting federal money, only McCain upheld his word, as Obama decided he would try to raise the money to campaign on his own. The average contribution to Obama's campaign was $175.... there were over 3 million people that contributed to his campaign.... doing the math, that's $525,000,000, and correlates to the fact that he did indeed spend over half a BILLION dollars on campaigning.... Let that sink in for a minute - he spent over 6 times the amount McCain was ALLOWED to spend since he accepted Federal money to campaign with, and there are millions starving who voted for him in hopes that he will SAVE them! What would liberals be saying if McCain spent $525M and Obama "only" spent $87M and McCain won? They would say he BOUGHT the election..............

There are people like Joe the Plumber whom we’ve all come to love or hate or ignore, and then there are people like Peggy the Moocher as she’s come to be known:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P36x8rTb3jI

Does anything strike you about what she says? I’ll copy some of the quotes – she says that after attending an Obama rally that it is “the most memorable time of her life” even though she’s there with her daughter…. as if her daughter’s birth wasn’t the most memorable time of her life. When questioned why it was so memorable, she states “because I never thought this day would ever happen. I won’t have to worry about putting gas in my car, I won’t have to worry about paying my mortgage. You know, if I help him, he’s going to help me.” This may not be the views of anyone I’m friends with (Lord, if I am friends with you and you believe this way, first delete yourself from my friends list, then deport yourself to another country and stop being a burden on society), but this is how many Obama supporters felt about what he was saying to them about supporting the middle class! No, I’m not taking this out of context either – she believes that if she votes for Obama and helps him become president, she’ll get something out of it in the form of being able to pay less money for gas at the pump and less money on her mortgage. I’m not assuming she truly meant that Obama was going to pay those things for her (or is she?), so don’t assume I’m that much of a cynic or poor loser. 

Gas prices are plummeting and soon interest rates will too once the bailout comes into effect. This is still occurring in Bush’s second term, by the way. For all those who blamed Bush for high gas prices and the failing economy, both of which have been attributed to the war in Iraq / Afghanistan, as the weak link between the two negatives and the Middle East revolve around oil and deficit, what did anyone have to say about the recent drop in gas prices or the 70 month equivalent of the war in Iraq (we spend $10 billion per month fighting the war in Iraq, 70 times that equals the amount of the bailout just approved by the senate, the house, and President Bush)? Is that Bush’s fault too? Interesting how some people have selective memory when it comes to what they’re putting down our president for....

McCain’s concession speech included something very important if you caught it – he commended Obama on being able to get people to believe in his cause and to get out there and vote in a way that has never been done before. Hundreds of celebrities and musicians attempted to do the same thing in past elections, but during the last two, they didn’t do a good enough job of promoting Gore or Kerry, and now they succeeded. Unfortunately, the millions who had never voted before or were too young to vote before didn’t know what to do about voting for other candidates in other races, and nearly achieved a supermajority, preventing the possibility of any opposing viewpoints to be heard – very UN-American if you ask me. Since 1994 and through Bush’s first term, it was a Republican majority in the house and senate, but the latter half of his second term had a Democratic majority in the two, which was “coincidentally” when we had the worst of our economic problems. I still don’t know why all the problems weren’t solved in the first 100 days as Nancy Pelosi said they would be though…. but anyways, dozens of important Republican members of all facets of government were ousted as the hoards of uneducated voters stormed the polling places yesterday because they simply went “DEM” all the way down the ballot. 

My father has always questioned my voting record – not because he wanted to condemn me if I voted differently than him, but to question whether or not I knew who or what I was voting for after casting the ballot, insuring that I was voting for something or someone because it was what I truly believed in. My father lost in his campaign to become Supervisor of Elections for Orange County, Florida because those millions called out to vote uneducated on the issues or candidates, as did many, many other more-qualified-than-their-opponent candidates in Orlando and in every other city nationwide, without reason. 

Obama won the country with 7.488 million votes, but the states that mattered most in this election were much closer:

NEW MEXICO – Obama leads by 120,000 votes (788,000 total, or 15% lead)
NEVADA – Obama leads by 120,000 votes (942,000 total, or 13% lead)
IOWA – Obama leads by 141,000 votes (1.495 million total, or 9.4% lead)
NORTH DAKOTA – Obama leads by 27,000 votes (309,000 total, or 8.7% lead)
VIRGINIA – Obama leads by 155,000 votes (3.429 million total, or 4.5% lead)
OHIO – Obama leads by 204,000 votes (5.142 million total, or 3.96% lead)
FLORIDA – Obama leads by 195,000 votes (8.011 million total, or 2.4% lead)
INDIANA – Obama leads by 26,000 votes (2.708 million total, or 0.96% lead)
NORTH CAROLINA – Obama leads by 14,000 votes (4.232 million total, or 0.33% lead)
MONTANA – McCain leads by 16,000 votes (456,000 total, or 3.5% lead)
MISSOURI – McCain leads by 6,000 votes (2.878 million total, or 0.2% lead)

By saying Obama won “BIG TIME” with 364 electoral votes verses McCain’s “dismal” 174 electoral votes is misleading…. In the states above, the battleground and party change states, just over 1 million votes decided the election where only 120,300,954 voted in a country with 301,139,947 residents, representing only 39.95% of the total population of the United States. By the numbers again, 0.85% of the lead was taken in those states above by those who actually voted. Just over 8/10ths of one percent of the amount of votes decided this race in the big deal states listed above declared Obama 44th President of the United States. 

The last point I want to make is that although it will take some time for me and probably a lot longer for others, this is still democracy, this is still America, and we should still support our president. The one quality I admire most about those I learn so much from in Republican politicians is to be non-partisan after the elections are over. Not to say that everyone in the right-wing follows that concept, but many like John McCain exhibit traits of both parties and vote according to their better judgment and with help from advisors rather than up and down party lines. A very hypocritical thing to do that occurred daily from 2004 until yesterday was to be unsupportive to President Bush and still enjoy the freedom of living in America – in dozens of other countries around the world, like Cuba namely, unpatriotic comments about the leaders would involve harsh consequences, but in America, they have their own channel to be unpatriotic (MSNBC). Bumper stickers like “Impeach Bush” and “1.20.09 – the last day Bush is in office” are not only disgraceful to the president, but to the country. I will continue to be critical of our next president, and will most likely not agree with a lot of his plans to CHANGE this great country, but I was always taught to be respectful. I am deeply saddened by the loss for many Republicans who deserved their positions, but look forward to see how the Democrats will CHANGE America given all the power necessary to do so, and then compare the quality of life without bias in 4 years from now.

The Bass Fisherman & The Balloonist

A woman in a hot air balloon realized she was lost. 

She lowered her altitude and spotted a man in a bass boat below. She shouted to him, "Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don't know where I am." 

The man consulted his portable GPS and replied, "You're in a hot air balloon, approximately 30 feet above a ground elevation of 2346 feet above sea level. You are at 31 degrees, 14.97 minutes north latitude and 100 degrees, 49.09 minutes west longitude." 

She rolled her eyes and said, "You must be a Republican." 

"I am," replied the bass fisherman. "How did you know?" 

"Well," answered the balloonist. "Everything you told me is technically correct, but I have no idea what to do with your information, and I'm still lost. Frankly, you've not been much help to me." 

The man smiled and responded, "You must be a Democrat." 

"I am," replied the balloonist. "How did you know?" 

"'Well," said the bass fisherman. "You don't know where you are or where you are going. You've risen to where you are, due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise that you have no idea how to keep, and you expect me to solve your problem. You're in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but, somehow, it's my fault now."

Obama's Political Views and Votes - KNOW YOUR CANDIDATE

Okay, so even with 130 PRESENT votes in the Senate, he must have voted on SOMETHING, right? here's Obama's stand on the issues, did you know this? for all the Obama supporters, do you even know which way your candidate choose? or are you just so sucked up in the HYPE--i mean HOPE-- that he's going to lead us in the right direction.......... 


Barack Hussein Obama's Political Views 
----------------------------------------------- 

Unsuccessfully sponsored measure to expunge some criminal records and create an employment grant program for ex-criminals. (2002) 

Voted against making gang members eligible for the death penalty if they kill someone to help their gang. (2001) 

Voted against letting people argue self-defense in court if charged with violating local weapons bans by using a gun in their home. (2004) 

Voted against restrictions on public funding of abortion. (2000) 

Being gay or lesbian is not a choice. (Nov 2007) 

Ok to expose 6-year-olds to gay couples; they know already. (Sep 2007) 

Legal rights for gays are conferred by state, not by church. (Aug 2007) 

Gay marriage is less important that equal gay rights. (Aug 2007) 

Gay rights movement is somewhat like civil rights movement. (Aug 2007) 

Let each denominations decide on recognizing gay marriage. (Jul 2007) 

Supports health benefits for gay civil partners. (Oct 2006) 

Opposes gay marriage; supports civil union & gay equality. (Oct 2006) 

Extend welfare and Medicaid to immigrants. (Jul 1998) 

Support granting driver's licenses to illegal immigrants. (Nov 2007) 

Forthright on racial issues and on his civil rights history. (Jul 2004) 

Supports affirmative action in colleges and government. (Jul 1998) 

Include sexual orientation in anti-discrimination laws. (Jul 1998) 

Miscegenation a felony in 1960 when Obama's practiced it. (Aug 1996) 

Voted NO on recommending Constitutional ban on flag desecration. (Jun 2006) 

Voted NO on constitutional ban of same-sex marriage. (Jun 2006) 

Rated 100% by the NAACP, indicating a pro-affirmative-action stance. (Dec 2006) 

Need justice that is not just us, but is everybody. (Jun 2007) 

Videotape all capital punishment interrogations. (Oct 2006) 

Battles legislatively against the death penalty. (Jul 2004) 

Supports alternative sentencing and rehabilitation. (Jul 1998) 

Voted NO on declaring English as the official language of the US government. (Jun 2007) 

Voted YES on allowing illegal aliens to participate in Social Security. (May 2006)