Watching Broward ultimately began life as martyrubinstein.com which by the way is still online.

When I originally created martyrubinstein.com the intent was to advertise myself as a political candidate.  Successfully, I might add.

When there was no longer such a need, martyrubinstein.com morphed into an opinion site, sometimes local and sometimes general politics.

But there was a need for other types of opinion based sites and certainly some of those were filled.

Watching Sunrise begins.
I created Watching Sunrise in 2009 to opine on Sunrise elections.  And yes, I was working for several candidates at the time.  Watching Sunrise, however, was not funded by any of the campaigns.  It was simply another domain added to my base multi hosting site at martyrubinstein.com, and a method of communication from me to the rest of the community. 

And I had no problem being direct and open with criticism.  Criticism that some just didn't like, even to the point of questioning if I ever intended to run again.  A veiled threat if I ever heard one.  But many got used to the idea and actually began to like a politician who spoke his mind and not just what they wanted to hear.

Watching Sunrise eventually morphed into commentary on other things Sunrise and then went dormant for a time, being updated infrequently.

Enter Watching Tamarac. 
That site grew out of discussions with others who knew the Sunrise site and "wouldn't it be nice to do commentary on other cities at election time?"  Commentary, yes, but that's not how it worked out.

The commentary on Watching Tamarac went essentially from my personal opinion and not that of anybody directly connected with the Tamarac campaigns.  There was more than enough fodder for opinion and commentary.

The idea.
The idea of covering cities was alluring to say the least, but registering a domain name for every Broward city was just out of the reach of sanity.  That's the moment that the idea of Watching Broward was born.

After the Patty Atkins Grad election but before the special Mayoral election in Tamarac, Watching Tamarac morphed into Watching Broward.

And so, Watching Broward was born.
Watching Broward not only provides the ability to comment on any city, but the county and school board as well.  Essentially all things Broward.

If you want my opinions on national issues, navigate to martyrubinstein.com.

Here's the mission statement.
Since Watching Broward is a commentary and opinion site, the license to publish is a broad one considering the first amendment.  But I also view that right to be just as much a responsibility as well.

Everything I have ever published has been based in fact with opinion and commentary drawn from it.  And that's the way I intend to continue with Watching Broward. 

I will never intentionally publish anything I know not to be true.

I reserve the right to draw conclusions from available facts and information. 

I reserve the right to ask questions.

I reserve the right to a unique point of view having been on both sides of the dais.  And that's something that other writers of political commentary and opinion cannot claim.

I will NOT add the ability for readers to feed back.  Most of the blog feedback I read is from stupid people who hide behind phony names and who haven't got a clue as to the realities of life or public service.  Most of the readers who count already have my e-mail address and phone numbers.

When it comes to Bloggers, respected Journalist Helen Thomas says it best:
"They can ruin lives, reputations, and once you send something into the air, it’s going to land, and there’s nothing that can curb them from saying anything they want. Everybody with a laptop thinks they’re a journalist, and everybody with a cellphone thinks they’re a photographer."

The last thing we need here is the bumper sticker mentality of "kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out."  Leave those to Buddy and Bob.

The late Senator and Vice President, Hubert H. Humphrey said it best: "The right to free speech does not guarantee the right to be taken seriously."

Because of my unique position, I have many friends in the political arena.  I have many detractors as well.  You can't make an omlette without breaking a few eggs.

Because of my friendship with many electeds, I will take opinion and commentary by others with a grain of salt, especially since I've been on both sides of the dais.

But I intend to call a spade a spade, if you'll pardon the expression.

Last, but not least, a few words about Defamation of Character and what the Supreme Court says about it.

Defamation of Character: the act of making untrue statements about another which damages his/her reputation. If the defamatory statement is printed or broadcast over the media it is libel and, if only oral, it is slander. Public figures, including officeholders and candidates have to show that the defamation was made with malicious intent and was not just fair comment.

The (Supreme) Court declared that the First Amendment protects open and robust debate on public issues even when such debate includes "vehement, caustic, unpleasantly sharp attacks on government and public officials." A public official or other plaintiff who has voluntarily assumed a position in the public eye must prove that defamatory statements were made with knowledge that they were false or with reckless disregard of whether they were false.

All articles published here are Copyrighted and fall under the provisions of the general US Copyright code. 
If you want to quote or lift something from here, go ahead and do it.  All I ask is a credit and a link back to this site.