What's doin' in the upcoming Hialeah Election? By Geniusofdespair

According to information obtained from a reliable source who heard it from an unreliable source: a political analyst speaking this week on a Spanish radio talk show, said absentee ballots requested from voters in the city of Hialeah surpass 5,400.

According to the elections department, earlier this week, a lesser number of absentee ballots from Hialeah had been received, but more were expected through today. And, my unreliable source heard from my reliable source that candidates not on the Mayor's slate are prohibited from campaigning in the government-owned housing or homes for the elderly, where its suspected that most absentee ballots will come from once all the votes are tallied. Why do we care? Because some candidates in the past have won elections by absentee ballots and this is nothing new in Hialeah.

An example of this was when Adriana Narvaez lost to Eddy Gonzalez in 2003 as a result of him getting a few extra votes that came from the absentee ballots. Reliable or unreliable, it still sucks doesn't it? Sometime I wonder why candidates ignore the 3 and 2's (voted in the last 2 or 3 elections). The 4 and 5's ALWAYS seem to go to the incumbent.

Krome Gold Photo Contest continues! by gimleteye

Send us your electronic photos of the South Florida housing bust, your tired, your poor, your neighborhood planning disaster yearning for publicity.

It's the one and only Krome Gold Photo Contest. We have two finalists this week, chronicling the zoning mistakes by local legislators that no paid PR flak can paper over: God bless Suzi (first photo) and Pat (second photo) for sending in these spectacular examples. It's inspirational, really!

Assign points to your favorites, based on our point scale of the unreformable majority of the county commission, and note in the comment box which you favor! Their smiling faces are costing Miami Dade County taxpayers billions of dollars in unfunded infrastructure deficits!

(Krome Gold is not a trademark of Kodak: it's the name of a partnership owned by sprawl boosters near Krome Avenue at the western edge of Miami-Dade County--Florida's most populous and politically influential. The corporate name, Krome Gold, confidently predicts that more open land next to Everglades National Park could be turned into tens of millions of dollars, if only the speculators/owners lobbied the county commission hard enough and state policies and federal concerns for protecting the Everglades can be pushed under the bus. So give a big hand to Krome Gold and their grantees at the county commission, below!)

For fifty extra points, guess which Krome Gold partner from Miami is also chairman of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission!

The outcome of pending lawsuits will be catastrophic! By Geniusofdespair

I hope you all read the Miami Herald Story about Jorge Perez's Related Group: Condo-buyer lawsuits mount. The outcome of pending lawsuits could be catastrophic to either developers or investors. I can't seem to muster any sympathy for either side.

On the one hand the buyers seem both greedy and naive to have invested with intent to flip (on unbuilt condos) and they are now crying foul as closings approach. On the other, the developers' reps should not have made grandiose claims on profits from flipping and they should not have sold condos to people without income checks. The down payment was not enough! According to real estate analyst Jack McCabe:

''The question for the developer would be, how could you accept contracts from a housekeeper who obviously didn't have the income or the wherewithal to close -- unless you were guaranteeing she could flip them for a profit?''

To me the following is the most important consideration and the question lenders should be asking (also from McCabe who said if what the housekeeper said is true):

"...it would illustrate just how speculative the condo-building boom in South Florida became. In essence, it would mean developers relied in part on shell buyers to meet presale requirements and qualify for construction funding."

And what is with the Miami Herald? In the article they say that the housekeeper had used the money from a lawsuit settlement from a car accident to put a down payment on 6 condos. The Herald calls her settlement "winnings." An accident settlement is not a lottery. Have we all gone mad?

Saturday Speak-up: Yesterday's Posts By Geniusofdespair

That's all I have today...read our posts of yesterday, they were very good. What have you got readers...? And we would like to hear your opinions on them.

Everglades: Well at least the New York Times Cares. by geniusofdespair

(Aren't you embarrassed to see this New York Times photo of Palm Beach County...I am. We let this happen - our politicians let developers run wild. Florida Hometown Democracy can stop this, we can take back the power and stop the rape of what is left of Florida! this article is just too important not to print in its entirety.)

Effort to Save Everglades Falters as Funds Drop
By ABBY GOODNOUGH - New York Times -11/2/2007

MIAMI, Oct. 31 — The rescue of the Florida Everglades, the largest and most expensive environmental restoration project on the planet, is faltering.

Seven years into what was supposed to be a four-decade, $8 billion effort to reverse generations of destruction, federal financing has slowed to a trickle. Projects are already years behind schedule. Thousands of acres of wetlands and wildlife habitat continue to disappear, paved by developers or blasted by rock miners to feed the hungry construction industry.

The idea that the federal government could summon the will and money to restore the subtle, sodden grandeur of the so-called River of Grass is disappearing, too.

Supporters say the effort would get sorely needed momentum from a long-delayed federal bill authorizing $23 billion in water infrastructure projects, including almost $2 billion for the Everglades.

But President Bush is expected to veto the bill, possibly on Friday. And even if Congress overrides the veto, which is likely, grave uncertainties will remain.

The product of a striking bipartisan agreement just before the 2000 presidential election, the plan aims to restore the gentle, shallow flow of water from Lake Okeechobee, in south-central Florida, into the Everglades, a vast subtropical marshland at the state’s southern tip.

That constant, slow coursing nurtured myriad species of birds, fish and other animals across the low-lying Everglades, half of which have been lost to agriculture and development over the last century.

The plan calls for new reservoirs and other storage systems to capture excess water during South Florida’s rainy seasons, guaranteeing an adequate water supply for cities and farms as well as the Everglades. That provision helped win the support of the powerful sugar industry, whose farms have long encroached on and polluted the Everglades, and of Jeb Bush, then the governor.

Mr. Bush is the younger brother of President Bush, and supporters of the restoration hoped his close ties with the White House would guarantee its early success. But while Jeb Bush invested heavily in the project, federal enthusiasm seemed to fade after its champions in Congress, including Senators Bob Graham and Connie Mack of Florida, left office and the Iraq war, Hurricane Katrina and other crises emerged.

A changing economy, too, hurt the plan. It passed in a year with a record budget surplus, but the climate changed sharply after the terrorist attacks of 2001. Some state officials say the plan, which involves dozens of complex engineering projects, also got bogged down in federal bureaucracy, a victim of “analysis paralysis.”

Some environmentalists believe that having Jeb Bush in Tallahassee even hurt the restoration because the White House effectively handed it off to him. As a result, pressing state priorities — enough drinking water and flood control to accommodate rapid population growth in South Florida — took precedence over restoring a clean flow of water to Everglades National Park and the surrounding ecosystem.

Nathaniel P. Reed, a conservationist who was an assistant interior secretary in the Nixon and Ford administrations, said that Karl Rove, President Bush’s former political strategist, supported the restoration because he thought it was good politics — “the Bush brothers saving a dying ecosystem,” Mr. Reed said. With Mr. Rove gone and the clock running down on the president’s tenure, he said, the Everglades are more vulnerable than ever.

“Everything now depends on 2008,” Mr. Reed said. “Everglades restoration depends on electing a president who can reignite the national consciousness that this great program should not fail.”

So far, though, most presidential candidates have yet to utter the word “Everglades.” In the only mention that has made news, Fred D. Thompson, a Republican, suggested he might allow oil drilling there.

While the Bush administration says it remains committed to the restoration, critics say its actions suggest otherwise. Although the cost of the effort was to be split evenly between Florida and Washington, the state so far has spent about $2 billion and the federal government only $358 million, though it has also helped finance some projects planned before the 2000 legislation.

Moreover, earlier this year, the Department of the Interior asked the United Nations to remove Everglades National Park from its list of endangered World Heritage sites. While largely symbolic, the removal sends the message that the Everglades no longer need help, said Senator Bill Nelson, Democrat of Florida.

“I have to deal in a world of perception and symbols,” Mr. Nelson said, “and when I’m begging each year for appropriations for Everglades restoration and suddenly the perception is, ‘Well, the Everglades is making a lot of progress,’ it’s tying my hands behind my back in trying to get the federal share.”

Florida, too, has done things to jeopardize the effort, said former Senator Graham, a Democrat who started the movement to save the Everglades in the 1980s. In 2003, the Legislature, under pressure from the sugar industry, postponed enforcement of strict pollution limits in the Everglades until 2016.

“It’s so important to avoid doing anything to send the signal that there’s less than full commitment in the state where the Everglades is located,” Mr. Graham said. “Frankly, there are people in Washington looking for any sign of lack of commitment in Florida.”

Florida has another perception problem, Mr. Graham said, in that it continues to permit development in environmentally sensitive areas — sometimes even in the restoration footprint. Although the state has bought 55 percent of the land needed for the restoration, crucial land remains private.

Meanwhile, the South Florida Water Management District revealed in September that farmers had missed a phosphorus reduction target for the first time in 11 years, despite the recent construction of 45,000 acres of filter marshes to reduce contaminants in agricultural runoff.

“That is a very loud warning bell that some additional work is needed,” said Charles S. Lee, advocacy director for Audubon of Florida.

State officials say that despite financing challenges, they have made significant progress acquiring land, building filter marshes south of Lake Okeechobee and restoring a more natural water flow to the Kissimmee River, south of Orlando, which is the headwater of the Everglades ecosystem. The state has also broken ground on a reservoir it calls the largest public works project in the world.

Supporters of the restoration have praised Gov. Charlie Crist’s appointees to the water management district’s board and to the state agency that regulates development. But Mr. Crist, a Republican who took office in January, is facing a budget crisis due to the real estate slump. “Florida remains committed,” Mr. Crist said in an interview. “But we do have to face facts. We do have some economic challenges.”

Like many others, Mr. Crist is pinning his hopes on the federal bill that provides $23 billion for water projects, including wetlands restoration in hurricane-ravaged Louisiana and beach replenishment around the country. The bill finances several projects that are crucial to restoring a clean flow of water through the Everglades.

It went to President Bush last week, and he has pledged to veto it because, he says, it is stuffed with political pork. Other critics agree, and say the bill does not ensure that the most crucial projects, including those in Florida and Louisiana, would get the highest priority.

They also say the bill should have included major changes to the Army Corps of Engineers, which executes the projects but has been accused of misjudgments in engineering, design and the degree of potential harm to the environment.

Corps officials have said the long delay in passing the water bill has hurt their ability to function well, but the critics say the problems are deeper than that.

“This is just a recipe to keep the corps as dysfunctional as ever,” said Michael Grunwald, a senior correspondent at Time magazine who wrote “The Swamp: The Everglades, Florida, and the Politics of Paradise” (Simon & Schuster, 2006), the most exhaustive recent book on the subject.

Echoing the criticism of many scientists, Mr. Grunwald also said the plan does not go far enough to restore a natural water flow to the Everglades and depends on dubious technology for storing billions of gallons of water.

“Until they fix the plan, until they fix the corps and until we get a handle on growth management in South Florida,” he said, “it’s going to be hard to make a lot of progress in the Everglades.”

So, too, will progress be difficult without support from lawmakers outside Florida. Rising land and construction costs have pushed the total estimated price to more than $10 billion.

Mr. Nelson took Senator Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat and chairwoman of the committee in charge of the water bill, on a tour of the Everglades in September. He has also been known to carry jars of polluted Everglades muck around the Capitol to draw the attention of his colleagues.

Mr. Grunwald said focusing on Everglades National Park and the surrounding ecosystem, not providing water to farms and suburbs, is crucial to reviving national interest in the overall plan.

“It’s the Everglades that’s the national treasure,” he said. “That’s why the guys from Iowa and Montana are going to support this thing.”

Home-buying dollars stretch farther, by gimleteye

The weeds are already growing over the housing bust in South Florida. Finally, the mainstream media is picking up the story.

Here and everywhere, financial derivative-driven sprawl piled up inventories of empty tract houses like MBO’s on the secondary market. It is because of a system that dispersed accountability to the point of vanishing, that what is unfolding in economic terms is occuring as a slow-motion disaster.

Do you think that the insiders at Merrill and Citigroup didn't realize, last year, their respective liabilities, or, where the financial executives so completely blinded by the blizzard of fees and commissions and bonuses that they hoped for a "soft landing"?

The Miami Herald reports, “For the first time in 15 years, state sales tax collections have declined for a 12-month period.” How could it possibly be a surprise, given the way the Growth Machine hijacked common sense and reason during the building boom, shoveling tract housing in wetlands across the state of Florida as fast as as a skilled carpenter can shoot a nail gun.

But the political and economic elites won’t give up: they don’t know any other way than to feed the growth machine any way they can. It takes great infusions of cash, zoning changes, and open lands owned by farmers or land speculators--often one and the same. It's relentless, mind-numbing, and represents a collosal waste of democracy.

At a public meeting the other day, a luncheon at a Miami hotel meeting room, the debate raged whether or not Floridians should be given the opportunity to directly vote on changes to local municipal comprehensive development plans.

People are just so frustrated and fed up with the costs of growth. State-wide voters would no doubt approve the measure proposed by Florida Hometown Democracy if it gains enough signatures to qualify for the November 2008 ballot.

The realtors are desperately trying to throttle the measure—and pledged to raise as many millions of dollars as it takes. They--the Chamber of Commerce, the production homebuilders, the cement manufacturers, the 1000 Friends of The Growth Machine--all are indignant: "You don't trust your public officials! Shame on you!"

Representative democracy, in their view, is not about doing what people want, but about electing public officials to represent what is best for people: and that would be, in the case of Florida, whatever the Growth Machine wants. They know better than you.

See, it is only when you have people who understand how to facilitate growth, that you can possibly plan for the 1000 people per day moving to Florida.

That’s the statistical cudgel wielded by everyone from Jeb Bush to the Miami owner of a local theme park, who made the comment about the 1000 people. His park once was a jewel of an attraction and is now surrounded by so much bad planning and pollution it looks like an apostrophe on the side of Florida’s paved-over quality of life.

Nowadays, moving van companies say there is heavier traffic leaving the state than entering. If there really are 1000 people a day moving to Florida, they’re carrying their own baggage.

Turning the sow's ear of Florida’s downmarket, poorly planned future into a silk purse for production home builders is the latest task before the spinmeister’s of the real estate game. Every week it’s requiring greater leaps of creativity.

It’s “the right time to buy” in Homestead, Florida—advertised in a special advertisement section in Friday’s paper paid for by the interests The Miami Herald will not criticize: Caribe Homes, Lennar Homes, Lowell Homes, and United Homes.

The section is thin as a couple of sheets of paper stapled together. The ad on Homestead, the sprawl-ridden corner of Florida, just north of the Keys--now features a couple (who knows if they’re real or not… since nothing else about the promotion for the housing bubble was real, the young and hopeful newlyweds featured as ecstatic about their Homestead starter home to stretch their devalued dollars could just be pure fabrication.): he will be “at sea to keep the country safe.” She sums up her happiness: “I’m marrying my sailor and w’re getting our new house. All my dreams are coming true.”

Along those lines of hyperbole, “An unstoppable force!” is what then-chairman of WCI Communities told the Washington Post in 2003 of suburban sprawl. Al Hoffman, who chaired both the finance committees for the election of Jeb! to the office of Governor in 1998, and, George W. Bush two years later represents the blue chip economic elite of Florida who, only a few years ago, dominated the political landscape like top predators.

Things change. WCI Communities, Inc. had to be sold in a fire sale to a corporate raider after its advisor, Goldman Sachs, threw up its hands in despair. The company was the first sprawl developer in Homestead, Florida before moving to greener wetlands in Collier and Lee County on Florida’s west coast where the enthusiasms of the housing boom were accompanied by toxic red tides.

Today, former potato fields and vegetable row crops have been converted into the same kind of Mortgage Backed Security Friendly Disasters that you find in Hackensack or Crystal City or Bakersfield: now half-occupied, indifferent and listless as the last shrimp floating in a plastic bowl after the campaign victory party has wrapped up.

Eyeonmiami has been blogging about the housing crash for nearly a year. Read our archives to see how the origins of the housing boom—now turning into the most vicious credit debacle in a generation—grew out of the hubris and political calculation of Florida homebuilders, thinning out but still game to defy reality at every single opportunity. And don't forget Homestead.

Homestead, with its unique location situated between two national parks--the Everglades and Biscayne National Park--chose the sickly flame of suburban sprawl, the quick buck, and the fast deal over sustainable growth. "We have so many poor people," is what the political leaders said, as they fed in the trough of the Growth Machine, abandoning hope for a race to the bottom, or, a NASCAR speedway, or, a failed baseball stadium, or anything but common sense: you were neighbors to two national parks and you turned your nose up like you were just too good.

“I’ve never seen numbers like this,” said Tony Villamil, chief executive of The Washington Group, a Coral Gables-based economics forecaster that helped cheerlead the explosion of the housing bubble. “This is a pretty severe downturn all across the board. What this is telling us is that Florida is leading the nation into a severe slowdown. It definitely feels like the R word.”

And in the paid advertising section, Homestead City Manager Curt K. Ivy, Jr. says, “The housing boom has been more than even the developers expected." Soaring inventories, is that what Mr. Ivy means?



In Florida, the latest chapters of this story are exactly as neighborhood activists, environmentalists warned: that the permanent footprint on Florida's irreplaceable natural landscapes indelibly scars the hopes and aspirations of one of the nation's fastest growing and most politically important states with cynicism.

The St. Petersburg Times accurately totalled the damage from one point of view: that during the time of no net loss of wetlands, US Army Corps of Engineers permitted more than 80,000 acres of Florida wetlands to be covered by suburban sprawl.

Economist Villamil says, “This is going to last through the fall and early next year.” Not a chance. The slow motion train wreck of Florida’s economy is just starting. And as far as those wetlands, those coral reefs, those bays and estuaries are concerned: don't wait for an economist to tell you when they will come back.

They were sacrificed for a greater good: so your home-buying dollars could stretch further.

Bad County Commissioners but stupid Waste Pro may have had the wrong lobbyists. By Geniusofdespair

The question every vendor grapples with is: Is one very expensive Uber Lobbyist (Rodney Barreto) better than 4 or 5 second string lobbyists? And, dare I ask the question on everyone's mind: Does the RIGHT lobbyist-go-between funnel money back to Commissioners from the Corporations? Are there kickbacks?

I don’t rightly know but apparently the County Commission has their preferences because they rejected the pleas of 4 lobbyists on behalf of Waste Pro, Inc. for a recycling contract. This is a sordid tale and frankly I can’t explain it mainly because there is more to it than meets the eye. But it stinks and it is costing us taxpayers money.

The short: rather than go with one company with the expertise and track record for the whole county (at less money mind you) the commissioners appear to want to divide the contract up and give it to a few local companies that bid higher than Waste Pro. Commissioner Barbara Jordan appeared to be pushing "zones" the most. What the Commissioners said in discussion is that they didn't want to use Waste Pro, even though they had the lowest bid, because they were from out of town: Longwood Florida. According to a Pinzur Article in the Miami Herald October 30th:

The discussion revealed strong feelings among some commissioners about directing contracts to local firms. ''That needs to be the first consideration because otherwise we're not developing and growing our businesses,'' said Commissioner Barbara Jordan.

However, I say they are speaking in forked tongues: The offices of the other contract that they awarded (for a different service under the SAME resolution mind you) to Waste Management, Inc. are in Houston, Texas!

And, as a reader pointed out, Waste Pro is not going to bring in workers, they would hire locally, bringing in jobs. Their discussion is meaningless - a red herring. There is more to the story (the underpinnings crafted by lobbyists that we will never know).

Let’s start with the November 1st, Miami Herald Editorial:

Wrong to scrap good recycling contract
OUR OPINION: DEAL WOULD HAVE SAVED MONEY AND HELPED ENVIRONMENT

If Miami-Dade commissioners want to know why there is such unbridled anger among the electorate about local-government spending, they should look no further than the majority's decision to scuttle a recycling contract that would have saved taxpayers about $250,000 a month.

The recycling deal had been painstakingly negotiated. Yet the commission scuttled it in October, even though the deal would expand the county's household recycling program to include recyclable waste now dumped in landfills. A deal that is good for taxpayers' wallets and good for the environment -- what's not to like?

A more-expensive deal

Could it be that lobbyists' interest held more sway than a good deal? Commissioners offered a dubious explanation, saying that they didn't want to give the contract to an out-of-town company. So, they rejected the agreement with Longwood-based Waste Pro Inc. Then commissioners came up with a new plan for divvying up the recycling dollars, one that could cost almost $500,000 more per year than the Longwood company would have charged.

Commissioners conveniently overlooked the fact that lobbyists' clients have only themselves to blame for the administration's deal with the Longwood-based company. Any of them could have made an offer low enough that the county couldn't refuse.
-SNIP-

Also go to listen to the AUDIO with Katy Sorsenson Bid impasse stalling new recycling plan - Related Content- hit on audio.

Now let’s go to the Minutes from the County Commission meeting for what transpired, I left out some parts to make it more understandable:

073049 Resolution
RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING EXECUTION OF AGREEMENT WITH WASTE PRO OF FLORIDA, INC. TO OBTAIN CURBSIDE COLLECTION, WASTE MANAGEMENT INC OF FLORIDA, PROCESSING SERVICES
REPORT: After discussion, it was moved by Commissioner Jordan that the Board approve the County Manager’s recommendations for award of the contract for processing of recyclable materials to Waste Management, Inc. The motion provided that the award of the processing contract be subject to the subsequent award of the collection contract. This motion was seconded by Commissioner Seijas, and upon being put to a roll call vote, passed by a vote of 8-4, (Commissioners Edmonson, Heyman, Martinez, Moss, Seijas, Sosa, Jordan and Chairman Barreiro voted “yes”) (Commissioners Gimenez, Rolle, Sorenson, and Diaz voted “no”) (Commissioner Souto was absent).

... motions were made to reject the County Manager’s recommendation for award of the collection contract to Waste Pro, Inc., and to direct the County Manager as to the process to be utilized by which the five proposers could further compete for award of collection contract(s). The motion failed to obtain the necessary two thirds vote for approval.

It was moved by Commissioner Gimenez that the Board waive the bid protest process for the recycling. This motion was seconded by Commissioner Martinez. The Chair declined to call a vote on this motion.

Following Commissioner Diaz’ comments that the County Manager be allowed to come back with a comprehensive process, Chairman Barreiro remanded the matter back to the County Manager for the Manager to meet with the affected proposers and develop a recommended process by which selection of firm(s) for award of the collection contract(s) can be made that includes consideration of: zones, local preference and best price. The Manager was directed to report back to the Board at its next meeting as to how to proceed.

Now let’s go to the lobbyist list (note there are more companies involved that I have not listed simply because I don't know the name of the companies):

WASTE SERVICES INC
MITCHELL BIERMAN, GENERAL GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS 3/22/2007
RICHARD J WEISS, GENERAL GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS 3/22/2007
ALFREDO BALSERA, COUNTY CURBSIDE RECYCLING PROGRAM 10/12/2007
ROBERT HOLLAND, COUNTY CURBSIDE RECYCLING PROGRAM 10/16/2007

WASTE SERVICES OF FLORIDA INC
RODNEY BARRETO, NONE 7/13/2007

WASTE PRO OF FLORIDA, INC
PAIGE CARTER-SMITH, SOLID WASTE RECYCLING 10/15/2007
ROBERT J HYRES, SOLID WASTE RECYCLING 10/15/2007
SCOTT C MADDOX, SOLID WASTE RECYCLING 10/15/2007
SYLVESTER LUKIS, NONE 10/29/2007

WASTE MANAGEMENT OF FLORIDA INC
DUSTY MELTON 4/26/2005, RECYCLING ISSUES Open
SERGIO PEREIRA 12/16/2002, WASTE RELATED ISSUES Open

If anyone has a clue as to the REAL STORY -- which this isn't -- lets post it. Can we finally "OUT" the Commissioners who have more to gain than the tired old, and untrue, claim: "I want jobs for my constituents." Bullshit!

Book on Fictional Terrorist Attack at Turkey Point. by Geniusofdespair

Editorial Review of - "Terrorism: Turkey Point" (Paperback) by Clyde E. Roach (Author)
Book Description:
"A fictional account of a terrorist act points out the very real possibility that our security measures, since the demise of the World Trade Center Towers, may be woefully inadequate.

An innocent young Arab boy is used by suicide bombers to attack the electrical generating plant at Turkey Point. Problems of placing an atomic bomb in a nuclear facility are highlighted in detail. If you feel safe, don’t read this." http://www.amazon.com (Thanks "Pulp Fiction" for telling us about the book, we will have to send it to the commissioners).

Here is the CSI TV Show clip of terrorists attacking Turkey Point. It seems like I am not the only one worried about a terrorist attack at Turkey Point. You know, I don't think terrorists have much of an imagination, i.e. At flight school a terrorist asked: "Can you teach me how to fly, but don't bother teaching me landing." It is nice of us to explain what they should do in this case (on TV,in a book and on the NRC website) so they don't have to take a class again. It would appear that terrorists have been afforded a wealth of information, the best of which: They should just go to work at Wackenhut for easy entry and a good night's sleep (see my post yesterday about the real-life guards caught sleeping while guarding the Turkey Point Nuke Plant.)

How Evil is Natacha Seijas? Read this Article from Miami Today. By Geniusofdespair

The overt subversion of the charter review incensed Murray Greenberg, retired county attorney and task force member. "It shows what the commission really thinks about this group," he said.

Charter review's cave-in needn't be a permanent collapse - By Michael Lewis

Nothing was more predictable than the Miami-Dade County Charter Review Task Force's unwise cave-in to support election of a property appraiser.

The charter review, which should have been independent, was forced under the county commission's heavy thumb from day one. With the commission clawing for power against a newly strengthened mayor, it was clear that review of the county's constitution would become a convenient battleground.

In this case, commissioners forced the task force to recommend election of a job Mayor Carlos Alvarez had filled less than a month before, pulling the rug from under him. Election of a complex technical post now seems headed to voters. (hit read more).

Commissioners tried to ensure that last month, when Natacha Seijas quarterbacked a committee move to put the question on the ballot,bypassing the charter review and pressuring the task force — which had deadlocked — to get in line. It misguidedly did two weeks ago, 12-4.

The overt subversion of the charter review incensed Murray Greenberg, retired county attorney and task force member. "It shows what the commission really thinks about this group," he said.

But that disregard was evident from day one, when commissioners decided to control membership — naming 13 of the 21 — and study time, initially just three months and now six. Commissioners also kept a firm grip on what's to go to voters — nothing without commission OK.

Commissioner Katy Sorenson, recognizing the problems, had suggested that commissioners appoint from lists nominated by outsiders and let the task force work 18 months.

Instead, commissioners decided to name their own teams, the impact of which was evident when Miguel DeGrandy, Ms. Seijas's pick, defended her move to bypass the task force on electing an appraiser.

"We failed to move the ball," he told members. "The commission was within its rights to proceed" — though the task force hadn't yet decided anything; it just hadn't hastened to do Ms.Seijas's bidding.

Task force chairman Victor Diaz Jr. then announced the job ahead is to keep in closer touch with commissioners — no doubt to be sure the review yields predetermined results.

So much for an independent review. The word spineless comes to mind.

The task force had already caved in by rubberstamping commission structure, the county's greatest flaw. No commissioner is now elected countywide, and the charter team says none will be, so parochial views will linger.

Nothing, however, points up charter review failures more clearly than the buckling to commission pressure on electing an appraiser.

That job today has stringent county requirements: at least a bachelor's degree in real estate, business administration, public administration or a related field, plus 10 years of progressively responsible management in property appraisal.

The appraiser supervises 283 employees and is responsible for more than 955,000 personal property parcels in the state's largest assessment roll, with a taxable value of $245.3
billion.

Were the office to become elective, anyone who could muster the votes would be solely responsible for "planning and directing all tax-roll functions in conformance with Florida statutes and Department of Revenue rules and regulations, establishing and installing departmental policies, directing complex divisional property-appraisal operations, supervising fiscal activities and preparation of the annual departmental budget," and far more.

How many good vote-getters would also be skilled enough to handle this complex job?

On Sept. 26, Mayor Alvarez appointed Marcus Saiz de la Mora, who'd been acting in the job since Jan. 1 after receiving four major promotions in the appraisal department, which he had joined in 1984. He has a bachelor's in economics with a minor in finance from Florida International University, is a licensed real estate broker, a certified Florida appraiser and an accredited senior appraiser. He is also past president of the National Association of Hispanic Public Administrators.

Compare those qualifications with this county's average political candidate and quake in your boots.

We should elect posts that require general oversight and policymaking, appoint to jobs requiring expertise. We can't allow this job to become a popularity contest, where election is a recipe for disaster. But that's what our county commission has pushed the charter review task
force to recommend.

Why contemplate this perilous step?

Because an elected appraiser, no matter how weak, would not report to the mayor. The commission can slice up the mayor's power and hang the consequences.

Bad as all this sounds — you'd be justified to throw up your hands in disgust — it remains possible that the charter review could do the right thing on the property appraiser, election of county commissioners and more.

"I just feel like I'm wasting my time. I think we all are," Mr. Greenberg told task force members two weeks ago. "Maybe they should just disband us."

Or maybe task force members should decide, what the hell, let's do the right thing regardless. What do we have to lose? Forget the pressure, recommend what's best and send it forward. Let commissioners do their own hatchet jobs, rather than having the task force be the bad guys so commissioners can get their way but still look clean.

Force commissioners to act on good recommendations and something worthwhile might actually make it onto the ballot. That's better than a task force quietly caving in to the worst county commission instincts.

P.S. This is why we need Hometown Democracy. We need to stop the Evil Queen Natacha Seijas.

Now the shoe is on the other foot: how the housing crash looks, in South Florida, by gimleteye

Muted. Muted in the press. Muted on the street. The Conference Board's guage of consumer confidence has fallen to 95, whatever that means.

We've become so used to indicators of economic health that really don't mean much to ordinary people, that no one really wants to think--or to write--three essential questions: if the housing crash is, like Robert Shiller says, "like an accident in slow motion", how far are we from the accident being over?

Who is at fault? And how do we make sure that whoever was at fault, allowing the building boom and housing bubble to tranform Miami-Dade County into a deficit-ridden mess of infrastructure needs totalling billions, is never allowed close to County Hall?

In an interview with Marketwatch, Shiller declined to take up the interviewer's question about the recession. I've been saying for months, that Florida is in a recession now based on a frozen real estate market and that we are heading into the worst real estate crash in nearly 100 years, since binder boys stood on the street corners in downtown Miami and traded property titles like tulip bulbs in Holland in the 17th century.

That's a lot further back than most writers on the economy are willing to go who are, nonetheless, summoning demons of the Savings and Loan debacle (which also had a Miami flavor to it). No, what we have going on here is unprecedented in scale. It's not just Florida housing markets, or housing markets in California or elsewhere that are frozen. The US dollar is plummeting and investors who had been buying US assets on the cheap are starting to wonder about the basketcase the United States is turning into.

The local view of that basketcase was on full display in Miami, in 2005, when the lobbying crowd representing land speculators and production home builders were on the warpath with a powerpoint presentation showing the incessant growth of population necessitated opening more space for development, more zoning for houses, for malls, for office parks in suburbia. The civic side scarcely got a word in edge-wise: either in public forums or in the mainstream press.

Every homebuilder in Miami-Dade County was itching for more, more, more even as the smart money was leaving the table.

Today the Wall Street Journal reports, "Some vendors of religious supplies say St. Joseph statues are flying off the shelves as an increasing number of skeptics and non-Catholics look for some saintly intervention to help them sell their houses." Where is the powerpoint presentation on THAT?

Shiller says that market has worsened in the past month. The biggest drop since 1991, the last housing cycle bottom. "It looks like the market is getting worse and worse." And among economic experts, Shiller is not alone.

I wonder what local banks are in trouble, in addition to shareholders and executives of Ocean Bank--one of the prime local instigators of "growth at any cost".

Although the New York Times reports that the high end of the real estate market, houses in excess of $1 million, is holding up well in comparison to lower cost homes, the S&P Case-Shiller Home Price Index shows Miami takes the prize, for highest relative values in the nation.

According to Dow Jones Newwires, the Standard & Poor's S&P/Case-Shiller home price index shows why "the fall in home prices is showing no real signs of a slowdown or turnaround."

We're waiting for the Miami Dade County Commission to reject the four applications to move the Urban Development Boundary. With the worst housing market in a century, don't you wonder what your county commissioners will do?

"So far we've held up, but it's a little precarious. At this point things do seem to be worsening," Shiller tells Marketwatch on the national economy.

I think it is time for the day of reckoning with the growth machine in Florida. We watched how it chewed up the public interest in quality of life, on its meteoric rise gobbling up wetlands faster than espresso at noon on Calle Ocho.

The growth machine laughed at the arguments of civic activists and environmentalists and neighborhood people. Now the shoe is on the other foot.

But has the other foot forgotten entirely, what it is good for?

Confused about the Petition EYE is pushing? By Geniusofdespair

Check out this You Tube video: Florida Hometown Democracy. Anyone who has seen our County Commission in action knows how important this petition drive is. I was just at a meeting last week of the Planning Advisory Board. The 32 professional planners working for the county advised against this body recommending to move the Urban Development Boundary for 4 applicants. The Advisory Board voted to move it for 3 of the applicants. Most of the appointments on the Planning Board have development ties. It is "developers gone wild" people, so we have to take action as voters. Politicians are beholden to developers. We are not.

Copy and send this link to your pals: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rvnM1uZhZk
This issue is very important people -- PULEEZ get petitions signed (Hit on Hometown Democracy link on right side of our page for copy of petition).

Guards Caught Sleeping at Turkey Point Nuclear Power Plant by Geniusofdespair

(Hit on images to enlarge)

I hate to sound like a broken record on Turkey Point safety. Hey wait a minute, it is not me it’s the FEDS! according to reporter Curtis Morgan in the Miami Herald today:TURKEY POINT: FPL's guards slept on job at nuclear plant, feds say:

“Security guards at Florida Power & Light's Turkey Point nuclear power plant slept on the job, or covered for snoozing colleagues, on a number of occasions from 2004 to 2006, federal regulators said Tuesday.”

So, when I figured (a month or two ago) that I could have gotten on the “secured” site with a bit of effort - I might have been right! I wonder if I can become a guard? I too like to sleep.

I found this other disturbing document on the Nuclear Regulatory Website (in addition to the other disturbing document about a hole someone drilled in a pipe that the FBI is still offering a $100,000 reward for, to apprehend the unknown culprit - see FBI letter in my July 2nd post). If I am reading the document below right...the number of staff to cover most of the safety is four? Could that be? Am I reading this right? And what if two might be sleeping?

I was amused to read that “feel good about two new reactors (to total 4) at Turkey Point” Op Ed piece in the Herald a few days ago, put out by Florida Power and Light, touting their great safety history. I feel real good about this "Clean Energy" expansion! Not.

Big Sugar and The Miami Herald

I'm sorry. It is such a conditioned reaction of mine, to read the New York Times and wonder: why in the world wasn't this opinion or news report first printed in The Miami Herald?

The collapse of the paper's news coverage of Big Sugar and its effect on the environment and landscape is tragic. It is almost as though The Miami Herald has given up.

When Martha Musgrove wrote for The Miami Herald editorial page, she was a bull dog on coverage of the Everglades. Following her resignation from the paper as associate editor in 2001, after 35 years, the subject area was virtually abandoned by the editorial page as though it had never existed. That's tragic, for a newspaper whose history is so intertwined with Marjorie Stoneman Douglas.

By 2001, Miami and its suburbs was swept up the housing boom. Perhaps the paper's executives believed that the Everglades had been "solved", or, that there was no point in irritating a popular governor from Miami, Jeb Bush, who had gone his own way on the Everglades, arguing that no one else (ie. environmentalists) knew what they were talking about. Just let us get the job done. Just let the benefits of building to the edge of the Everglades take care of itself.

And then, too, there was the fact that when President Bill Clinton came to Miami, he either stayed with or arranged to spend time on the golf course with his buddy, Alfie Fanjul. And, that Senator Bob Graham was--for his entire career--a strong supporter of whatever Big Sugar wanted, notwithstanding his claim to be father of Everglades protection.

Big Sugar, of course, employed legions of attorneys and consultants and lobbyists in Miami-Dade County over the decades. These Indian chieftains became powerful community leaders in their own right--at Miami churches and synagogues, for instance--and soon enough, so many college educations and braces were paid for with the largesse of Big Sugar's fees, that pressure built in Miami, to say nothing or as little as possible. (This accounts, for the fact too, that PBS in the Palm Beaches and Greater Miami area always sugar-coated its coverage of the Everglades.)

Big Sugar has always entertained a special relationship with the Cuban American political elite in Miami. One of Jorge Mas Canosa's first businesses, for instance, was selling farm equipment to sugar farmers in Okeechobee.

Over the decades, Big Sugar has had its finger in any governmental effort, whether state or federal like the creation of the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, that might be considered to advance the cause of limiting development.

Along with their public relations firm, Wragg and Casas (Joanna Wragg was a long-time Herald executive), Big Sugar has exerted a powerful influence in Miami: the Herald is only one example.

The Orlando Sentinel, the Palm Beach Post (especially), and other smaller papers have done a better job of documenting Big Sugar's influence in the Everglades and on the South Florida landscape. And today, the New York Times.

Here is today's editorial from the Times:

October 30, 2007
Editorial
Sugar’s Sweetheart Deal

Of all the government’s farm-support programs, there are few as egregious as the tangle of loans, quotas and import tariffs set up to protect the well-connected club of American sugar producers at the expense of American consumers and farmers in the developing world. This year’s farm bill will add American taxpayers to the list of casualties.

Under the current system, the government guarantees a price floor for sugar and limits the sugar supply — placing quotas on domestic production and quotas and tariffs to limit imports. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, sugar supports cost American consumers — who pay double the average world price — more than $1.5 billion a year. The system also bars farmers in some of the poorest countries of the world from selling their sugar here.

The North American Free Trade Agreement is about to topple this cozy arrangement. Next year, Mexican sugar will be allowed to enter the United States free of any quotas or duties, threatening a flood of imports. Rather than taking the opportunity to untangle the sugar program in this year’s farm bill, Congress has decided to bolster the old system.

Both the House bill, which was passed in July, and the Senate version, which could be voted on as early as this week, guarantee that the government will buy from American farmers an amount of sugar equivalent to 85 percent of domestic consumption — regardless of how much comes in from abroad. To add insult to injury, both also increase the longstanding price guarantee for sugar.

The bills encourage the government to operate the program at no cost to the budget, by selling the surplus sugar to the ethanol industry. That’s not likely. Ethanol makers will never accept paying anywhere near sugar’s guaranteed price. According to rough estimates from the Congressional Budget Office, supports for sugar in the House bill could cost taxpayers from $750 million to $850 million over the next five years.

Big Sugar is not the only beneficiary of this corporate welfare. The farm bill is larded with subsidies and other rewards for agricultural producers. The eagerness of members of Congress to please their sugar daddies is not surprising. Campaign donations from the sugar industry have topped $3 million in each of the last four political cycles. American consumers and taxpayers, as well as poor farmers overseas, shouldn’t have to pay the price.

President Bush has been on the right side of the debate over farm subsidies. Big Sugar’s sweet deal gave him another good reason to veto the farm bill if it doesn’t cut back on all the goodies.


Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

Funding AGAINST Hometown Democracy Petition by Geniusofdespair

According to the Florida Hometown Democracy Group:

"The Chamber of Commerce, which has long crusaded against the right of citizens to amend the Florida Constitution through petitioning, is now paying their professional collectors $3 per signature for their “Smart Growth” petition!  The Chamber, with a huge war chest funded by St. Joe Corp, Big Sugar, Miami Corp. and other major land developers, is rapidly buying their way onto the ballot!"

We wanted to know what the Miami Corp. was and here is what we found, this clip in the Daytona Beach Journal (hit to enlarge):

Don't be dopes get the Florida Hometown Democracy petition signed, you can see the stakes are really really really big.

Eye "Witless" Account: Woman gets pushed to ground by cop and Whole Foods Sucks by Geniusofdespair

Granted, a woman did create a ruckus in the Whole Foods Store. Probably couldn't find the granola. I heard the screaming but couldn't see anything. She left with no one accompanying her -- on her own. She was headed for her car. A cop car pulled up. She turned around and walked towards the cop. She was agitated and I said to myself, Good Lord, this woman is going to get beat up. Sure enough the cop started to try to grab her. She got upset. She tried to pull away screaming in protest...he fell to the ground holding her, she was then slammed into the sidewalk. Four or five cop cars later, the well dressed woman was subdued.

I was trying to take pictures of what transpired. I really don't care what happened in the store. I was watching a woman walk to a police officer. So I started to take pictures because it appeared overkill to me and to others around me. What do you think happened next? The Whole Foods Manager stepped in front of my camera-phone 3 times to block it!! I said what do you think you are doing? He said: "You can't take pictures you are in front of my store." So I took a picture of him. He said: "What are you going to do with these pictures?" I said: "Put them on my blog."

How dare he tell me what I can do. Anyway, as you can see - my pictures are pretty shitty....except of the Whole Foods Store Manager. This wasn't about what happened in the store. This was about the police and the woman. Had the Whole Foods store manager stayed out of my picture the Whole Foods store would not have been a centerpiece of this story and now it is forever on the internet to scar their good apple pie image.

Funny, everyone that I have told this story to asked: "Was she black?" Odd that I got that reaction. Would this have happened to a white woman? I honestly think race didn't play a role. It was more a cops reaction (or over-reaction) to an agitated woman. He could have listened for a minute before touching her.

The housing crash and the disappearing middle class, by gimleteye

The mainstream press doesn’t want to draw the connection, nor does Congress or the White House. State governments, local legislatures and lobbyists are all vested to the hilt in denial: that the downgrade by Moody’s of at least $50 billion in collateralized debt from AAA to junk is tied directly to a pattern of land development—suburban sprawl—that is a failed fiscal model torpedoing the middle class in America.

The biggest risk—and one that the mainstream press and Wall Street, both, should take into account—is that the coming recession will trigger a backlash against the bankers and financiers whose engineering did not, in fact, diversify risk (as derivatives were advertised to do,) but concentrated risk by raising the unquantifiable to exalted status.

It’s another way to say, we have been robbed.

We have been robbed in ways that are easy to catalogue; from liar loans and mortgage fraud, to lenders pushing toxic debt on consumers, to the wholesale conversion of local government to the purposes of the growth machine. Now the front and back cover of the catalogue are emerging like invisible ink revealed: massive uncertainty in world credit markets tied to the underpinning of sprawl--financial derivatives.

Yes, the stock market inches along near historic highs but it is an indicator increasingly irrelevant to most people.

The unease rippling through America is especially important to grasp with upcoming elections in 2008.

The Sunday New York Times Magazine disclosed a facet of the issue in its report how the base of Christian conservatives is no longer an anchor for the Republican party. Some evangelical leaders are apparently concerned how closely tied the religious right has become to corporate America.

There is an additional aspect, not covered by the Times: that is, the center of the religious right—organized in suburban megachurches—rose exactly in proportion to the false prosperity of a housing bubble that needed constant spiritual renourishment even as discomfort spread about the surrounding strip mall culture and economy pinning wage-earners to long commutes from home to work, while latch-key children languished at home.

The bursting housing bubble is fragmenting the religious right. It’s not a matter of evangelical convictions faltering. It’s a matter of home economics ruining families as lines of credit and home equity make fools of believers. It’s not just about church on Sunday. It’s about good believers of the middle class slowly coming to a boil over manifest inflation despite government assurances, it’s about vanishing home equity, and it’s about the growing fear that the middle class does not matter in a world where arks of privilege have stratified American society.

It’s in this context to consider two pieces of news: first, that Stan O’Neal—the CEO of Merrill Lynch—will be held accountable for the worst loss in Mother Merrill’s history, some $8.4 billion and yet will retire, according to press reports, with a $140 million payday.

The second piece of news is from the New York Times (Saturday, October 27, 2007), “As Housing in Florida Plummets, the Top Tier of the Market Just Dips.”

“Despite a record number of foreclosures and a raft of public auctions of unwanted houses, the upper tier of the real estate market in Florida remains relatively immune to the spreading disaster… As in other once-booming regions, in Florida the housing market seems to be not one market, but two. The lower end is littered with vacant houses and unfinished developments, and homeowners are struggling to meet their monthly payments as rates adjust upward. The luxury end has its unsold new condos and mansions lingering on the market, too, but as in New York, where the demand in pricey Manhattan is still strong, sales have fallen less. And Miami and other parts of Florida are continuing to attract interest among the wealthy.”

The Times points out that the upper tier of the market is being held up by holders of euros and other currencies, like the ruble. But there is little solace to the American middle class in the trashing of the value of the US dollar. In 2008, the “values voters” eagerly sought ought in churches by Republican candidates and Democratic ones, too, are going to be more sensitive to the value of currency than morals—which so many public officials wear on their lapel like pins of the American flag.

At the same time, the stratification of housing markets in places like Manhattan or tony vacation retreats in Florida appear to the middle class to be supported by the kinds of financial fraud that turned dreams of wealth into bankruptcy on Main Street and turned AAA rated paper to junk on Wall Street.

But it does not pass unnoticed by Main Street that Wall Street can walk away from its failures with hundreds of millions in net worth—or how speculators and bankers and developers in places like suburban Miami have squirreled away profits from developments at the edge of the Everglades foisted off as a public good.

These are the arks of privilege insulating the highest strata of society from the disintegration of the US dollar.

America’s political and economic elites have been perfectly happy with the arrangement that is inequitable to the foundation of democracy—a vibrant middle class.

If I were a betting man on the 2008 elections, I’d put my money on the ministers chasing the money-changers from the temple.

So much of what we grew up believing to be good and true of America has been distorted, chopped up and parceled out—all on the heels of a changing climate--a consequence of our own willful disregard of balance and equity.

It's hard to know what comes next.

November 5th is our one year Anniversary! by Geniusofdespair

Hundreds of thousands of you have visited our site over the past year. Thank you. Where do we go from here? Anyone have a present? What we would like is for you to send our link to all your friend! That would be a super gift.

Voters! by gimleteye

Dear Voters,

I've been reading blogs from Homestead (see link at right) and readers' views about upcoming municipal elections.

These lead to a single question: why isn't overdevelopment--especially in context of the collapse of the housing bubble-- the ONLY issue in municipal campaigns this fall? Not just Homestead, but everywhere in Florida?

The Sunday Herald touched on the competition in the City of Miami, between the incumbent Angel Gonzalez, a pro-growth ally of Mayor Diaz, and a young challenger, Mike Suarez. I don't know either. But I do know what the current city commission did because I drive by it every single day: condominiums soaring into emptiness and taxpayer hell. The distortion of civic values. Liar loans and mortgage fraud. It all starts with actions by local legislatures, so why not hold them accountable now?

In both cases, Homestead and the City of Miami, zoning and building permits were issued with next to no discussion about whether these helped or harmed the community at large.

Let's be clear: the collapse of the housing bubble is not an exercise without cause, like spontaneous generation. The bubble was spurred by the greed of Wall Street, by local bankers, builders and elected officials in their pockets. The collapse is dragging down the entire economy.

Who is responsible for turning the role of government from the purpose of the health, welfare and safety of people to the health, welfare and safety of people seeking zoning changes and building permits?

As result of your local elected officials beholden to special interests, there is a decade excess in inventory in condos and a multi-year excess of single family homes.

Amidst the economic uncertainty--that will hit home in 2008, count on it-- are you better off today, than you were before the current wrecking crew came into city hall?

The costs of additional services-- police, fire, roadways, water--all paid for by existing taxpayers. The costs to your quality of life, through traffic congestion, all imposed on you by zoning decisions of the people you voted into office.

The fraud and corruption that influences so much of the local and county commissioners' work: supported by your votes.

So when you have a chance to vote, why wouldn't you hold accountable your public officials or the interests they serve?

Sincerely,

Bewildered