HOBSON'S CHOICE
(All Photos: DBR)Pedro Dijols Mardi Levey Cohen Bernie Bober
Ever notice how some lawyers, whether Democrat or Republican, always contribute to the incumbent candidates?
It could be their best friend challenging, yet they will always pony up the bucks for the sitting judge. Smart business, or simply too chicken to buck the system, they always send the message to the incumbent (and the rest of the sitting judges) that they can be counted on to maintain the status quo.
It makes us wonder. What will happen after the August 26th primary if Mardi Levey Cohen and Pedro Dijols are left to duke it out in November?
No slight against Mr. Bober, but if he finishes third, and Judge Dijols does not win more than fifty percent of the vote, it will be Dijols v. Levey in a high turnout national election in a Democratic/Jewish county. Fund raising will start all over again, and the establishment (for lack of a better word) lawyers who have not already given will face a tough choice.
Don't forget, Mardi Levey Cohen is married to a sitting 17th Circuit Court Judge. She would also be favored in a November runoff, for the reasons stated above. Do you, as a lawyer used to the traditional political climate in Broward County, donate to Dijols, thereby appeasing other members of the 17th judiciary, or do you please the likely winner and her sitting judge husband (and their allies) by donating to Levey Cohen?
What's that you say, give to both? OK, but spineless and expensive, and elephants have shorter memories than judges regarding their opponents' contribution lists. Give to no one, even if it means straining friendships that go back many years? OK, inexpensive and it probably won't get you to the end (or front) of some very long calendar call lines, but still spineless.
But don't beat yourselves up just yet. The Republican machine may pull Dijols through like it did the ever unpopular Aleman, or Hollywood may be enough to make this a breeze for Bober. Whatever happens, it's all good, because when Broward has choices, Broward wins.
VIVA DEMOCRACY!
Dear JAAB aka Bill Gelin, Marshall Williams, Jeff Ivaschuk, etc
The above post is extremely unfair to Pedro Dijols, but that's expected from your ignorant bunch.
Unlike JAAb, I am not going to get into conjecture but rather state facts. Pedro has done a great job raising money - and that is key. Pedro has over $200,000. Bernie less than $20,000 and Mardi Ann Levey Cohen Fingleheimer Schmitt has raised what, $1,000.
Pedro is the incumbent, sitting in the most difficult assignement, criminal and doing a great job. Pedro's bar polls were great. Bernie's were mediocre and Mardi Ann Levey Cohen Fingleheimer Schmitt were the worst. 90% considered her unqualified. Mainly because she is. Bernie is mediocre at best and had no business running.
YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST - CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE PEDRO DIJOLS WILL WIN EASILY ON AUGUST 26, 2008.
Broward voters are intelligent voters and will not vote for a mediocre attorney -Bernie Bober.
AND WILL DEFINITELY NOT VOTE FOR AN INCOMPETENT ATTORNEY - Mardi Ann Levey Cohen Fingleheimer Schmitt.
I just submitted a comment on the Dijols-Bober-Levey race. It's 11:30 PM Sunday night. There is nothing inappropriate in it. Can JAAB tell me why it has not been posted?
Come on guys stop the censorship
Come on Marshall. You guys are better than that.
Judge Pedro Dijols, the incumbent, has received the endorsement of the Miami Herald and the Sun-Sentinel. Bernie Bober and Mardi Levey Cohen the endorsement of JAAB. That says it all.
Does anyone actually look at the stuff that gets submitted for moderation and upon review then decides it ok and then subsequently post it? It seems that it all just gets deleted.
I had one comment posted 12 hours later.
So much for Jaab an open forum.
Maybe it's because it's gone 11pm at night and people are doing other things?
Dig deep before the gathering gloom in deciding what's best for Broward. With as many people holding their hands out these days in judicial races, we're left in a quandary as to whether or not just to shelve the idea all together of giving to any of the contenders. With so much at stake, it's a tough call.
That's why so many candidates are financing their own campaigns. Look at the amount of money they're opening their campaigns with. A smaller percentage seems to be coming from contributors than ever before.
Hey, A-Turd: All three of the candidates are good. No need to malign Bober or Cohen just because you're for Dijols. But I guess that's part of your character apparently. Bober's anything but mediocre, you moron, and Cohen doesn't deserve your brand of crap either. Bober has tried and won more cases than you ever will and Mardi could put you out with the trash. No matter who wins, it's a good contest. So grow up. You're not the political expert you think you are.
Didn't Dijols loan his campaign the 200,000.? It didn't come from contributors.
Why even make the joke Mardhi ( whats your real Name) will win in Nov. Remember last time against an unknown she lost after spending a fortune. Now a few years later after she has run her Husbands practice into the ground she will try again. Rember the bar poll do you think that may come out before the election to show what a fine attorney she is. Also she is not running as a "cohen" because she did not want her name in the middle of the balot. What a class act. All she can run on is the race card and the public can not really be that stupid. Let her keep blogging about her self but after august 26, sh will crawl back into the hole she came out of since she has no clients and has no real practice.
By the way same for you Ian Richards --> go back to Dade where you belong and take Elen " i did not choose Julio because he is a dark hispanic" feld.
Why the censorship and moderation is this becuase you are afraid of Jack" the __ ss" or you ar becoming like him ?
Dijols is getting opposition because he is a minority. If either that moron Cohen or Bernie Bober really wanted change- why not run against Levenson or Green or some of the other judges that have actually said terrible things and been completely unjudgelike? Why? because their name is not Pedro and they are not hispanic and black. It sickens me to my stomach that all the minority judges are getting opposition. Dijols is a decent judge. Bernie might not be a bad choice- but picking to run against someone because you think you can beat him because your name is not Hispanic like his (especially when you are hispanic) has made me lose all respect I previously had for him. And Mardi is a moron- completely and she is also lazy. She would be the worst judge ever.
I have been commenting for at least a year. I have never been deleted. Are the anti Jaab players lying again? I wonder what the content of the deleted post was? Why not submit it again or rephrase? Or are you lying as usual?
Cohen has no business running for Circuit Court Judge except to get an income. She is unsuccessful in private practice and has no judicial temperament. I do no know much about Bober. I do know that Dijols has done a good job as a judge, is fair and is willing to listen to proper legal arguments. My money goes to experience and that is Dijols. Maybe that is why some of the sitting judges get campaign contributions.
Replying to 9:19 it was probably something about howard that the jaab wasn't happy with, so they probably didn't want to post it, and it is getting closer to election day and they don't want any trouble for howard? They don't want anything negative about howard.
I've read allot of things on this blog so your argument falls short of any degree of success. It's probably more like your mouth is as dirty as your mind, and there's a profanity filter of some sort. Try again when you've dropped the expletives.
MARDI LEVEY COHEN FOR JUDGE, 17TH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT. VOTE FOR CHANGE. VOTE FOR INTEGRITY. VOTE FOR MARDI.
If we're talking fine candidates, Mr. Bober is about as good a man as you'll find. Don't know Levey but I've heard allot of things about Dijols. Not all of them have been good. Like maybe he's got a little temperament problem from time to time? Never been before him though. Seen Bober many times. A real gentleman and great lawyer.
I think Dijols is a good judge now. The operative word is "now." He was a maniac before Bober/Cohen announced. Now, like magic, he is fair and reasonable with no impressions of a spoiled stupid 5 year old when things don't go as planned. He was the worst before he had to fight for the job.
He'll probably win anyway. The only real question is whether he will revert back to bonehead hammer for the state attorney's office or whether he will stay a good judge as he has been recently.
That's one of the things I like about judges getting opposition, or I should say some judges. When they forget what it's like to practice law it's a bad sign. When they realize they have to fight for the position they work at becoming better judges.
Liz, you are so transparent. Get a life. Grow up.
This is not about being anti-JAAB. I am not anti-JAAB. This is about the moderation/possible censorship that is going on with comments on JAAB.
I submitted the first comment, the 11:26pm comment. It was not posted as of 1pm last night. After it wasn't posted I complained with comments 11:28, 11:29 and 11:30PM. Miraculously it was posted there this morning with the time I submitted it, 11:26 pm (last night).
Perhaps JAAB should show when a comment is submitted and when it is actually posted. As the first 5 comments read right now they are not correct. 11:26 the comment in question was not posted by JAAb until way after the complaints. Also it is incorectly posted as 11:26 when it was probably posted this morning.
Maybe someone from JAAB can explain?
JAAB may be moderating comments with expletives, but they are also moderating comments without expletives.
Can someone from JAAB explain?
11:26 was not by Ahearn, or Bri Si or Liz Schere. JAAB needs to take a long look at what it claims it does and wants to do and what it is actually doing and encouraging, e.g. encouraging unqualified people like mardi levey aka mardi cohen to run for judge.
Mardhi, you must be very bored with no clients and no practice. that you must spend all your time blooging about yoourself. your should be a dog catcher
Mardi Anne Levey (I'm leaving off COHEN because I'm a hypocrite) has no more business being a Judge then she does being an attorney. She is horrible in court, still whines about her last loss and already making excuses for when she will lose this time.
As far as Bober; running on his brother's win in Hollywood isn't enough to secure him a judgeship.
Don't worry, Pedro, we're going to do our best to keep you in the seat you have earned to remain in.
The technical bug appears to have been fixed. Thank you.
What confuses me is this, the algorithm needed to decide automatically whether a post is 'pro' or 'anti' anyone would have to be an incredibly complex one. I have a degree in Computing, and, whilst I have a rough idea of how to go about a filter like that, I don't see something not a million miles from Artificial Intelligence being implemented by a blog.
When a post is flagged, it is dropped into a seperate 'bin' for humans to go over and confirm the content. What usually sets this off is things like Hyperlinks, or maybe a word that has an expletive as part of the word (Some place names, personal names etc can sometimes contain a string of letters that spell an expletive).
At gone midnight, it's highly unlikely anyone is looking through the posts that have been dropped into moderation, it could easily be 12 hours until someone opens the Mod-box, especially at the weekend.
I'm not saying whether Jaab are censoring or not, but I think people are giving a little bit too much credit to their built-in moderation routine.
After he's creamed he can revisit why he wasn't very liked because of his BAD ATTITUDE.
VOTE SHAK FOR SHERIFF
VOTE SHAK NOT LEMACK
SAY NO TO SPRINKLES
PEDRO IS WELL LIKED. ESPECIALLY BY THE MIAMI HERALD AND SUN-SENTINEL BOTH WHOM HEARTILY ENDORSED HIM.
Sorry fake-Shaq and spechler-lemack, but it's gonna be Israel v. Lamberti. May the best man win.
To 12:28 where jaab may be moderating comments with expletive, but they are also moderating comments without expletive, we think this has to do with finkelstein , jaab wants to make sure there is nothing negative or something that cause problems for finkelstein. After the elections you want see any moderation, right jaab?
After the election you more than likely won't see Arreaza.
The level of AI you are talking about to decide whether a post is pro- or anti-Finklestein is not possible at this moment in time.
The name Finklestein obviously doesn't set off the moderation flag, so what you are talking about is something that actually 'reads' your posts and understands the meaning behind what you are typing.
If that kind of technology is being implemented, then the guy who coded this blog is in the wrong job, they should be working for NASA or something.
The problem was not that they were moderating posts without expletives, it was that some words contain strings of letters that spell expletives, the blog was grabbing groups of letters and comparing them to an internal dictionary, but wasn't taking into account the entire word, in truth, it wasn't that the moderation system was being clever, the problem was the fact it was being stupid.
And in the interests of fairness, by 'guy who coded this blog', I mean 'person who coded this blog', apologies to female web-designers for that.
"JAAB needs to take a long look at what it claims it does and wants to do and what it is actually doing and encouraging, e.g. encouraging unqualified people like mardi levey aka mardi cohen to run for judge."
So u r saying Pedro Dijols is more qualified? How? Because he played a game of golf with some powerful people and got his name to the top of the judge list? Come to think of it, didn't he put in for County and wind up with Circuit? How is he more qualified than any lawyer with 20 years in?
finally, a person with common sense
"Pedro has over $200,000."
uh, hello...most of that was from his own funds. THAT DOESN'T COUNT!
And, as for the bar polls, why don't you pull some scripts BEFORE he got an opponent. he wasn't the softer kinder pedro but a seemingly mean judge who antagonized even the mentally ill clients. and, something tells me that, if he is able to pull through this, he will go right back to his old self.
"you have earned to remain in."
can anybody tell me how most of these judges have "earned" their positions? i mean, joining the same fraternity or playing golf with the governor doesn't necessarily "earn" these oh-so-coveted positions. how about working your butt of your entire career and then giving back to the community with the huge pay cut (a la judges krathen and tobin, kudos to you!). the problem is that, with most of these judges, the position is a HUGE pay increase as opposed to a way to end a successful career.
leave her alone, will you. mardi is yesterday's news already.
"is willing to listen to proper legal arguments"
i guess you consider the "deer in headlights look" to be listening??
"judge Pedro Dijols, the incumbent, has received the endorsement of the Miami Herald and the Sun-Sentinel."
AND?
Not to completely disagree, but the level of AI you're talking about IS actually possible right now... now, it's perhaps not fiesable given the nature of the board and the desire for real-time results, but the ability is there.
Sorry, I'm a software engineer, so I get picky about those types of things.
After the election you're going to hear this while sitting at counsel table from the box, "Hey judge. I want to fire my lawyer, Mr. Dejols, he ain't done nothing on my case". You're out the door Pedro, you were always a cop, sorry.
Thanks Marshall. Do you expect more technical bugs in the future?
LOL True, I did say so a bit earlier but sort of rounded it off for this post
Yup, the algorithm is possible, though complex, lots of comparative evaluation etc, certainly, in my opinion, far too complex to implement as part of a Web-form.
Not impossible, just highly impracticable and unlikely, and thinking about trying to write it in a form-friendly language or the like makes me cry