My Opus: IPhone Video Masterpiece. By Geniusofdespair

I posted this yesterday with the wrong setting. Sorry. This is as good as it gets creatively from me and a view might calm your nerves after all those robocalls.

I took 4 videos on my IPhone last Saturday of dolphins swimming in Biscayne Bay. I edited them all together, sang the song and set the video to the music I wrote. I also did an additional soundtrack. I hope you like it. Watch it twice because it needs time to load - it stops in the middle if you don't let it load or watch it on YouTube.



We need an aquatic preserve for the dolphins as well as for us. Don't we want our children to see wild dolphins in the future? You can see the City of Miami in the background, it reminds us all that we share Florida's riches and we need to preserve them. Get some promises out of the Mayoral candidates!!

Politicians and their weiners: brought down by a Tweet ... by gimleteye

My wife asked me, what is going on with men? Referring to the serial, manifold errors of male politicians. "Are they out of their minds?" she asks. I attribute the die-off to pesticide exposure. Like what is happening to the bees.

Is Carfax an Auto's Scarlet Letter and a Windfall for Insurance Companies? By Geniusofdespair

I think the Carfax is both a windfall for insurance companies and it brands your car a loser. If you have an accident and the damage is $2,000 and you have a $1,000 deductible you would be crazy to go to through an insurance company to get it fixed. Even a new bumper, once it is on the Carfax, will take 15 to 20 percent off the value of your car when you go to sell it (about four thousand on a car worth $20,000). So rather than go through insurance don't you think people are going to eat the $1,000, get a collision guy who won't report it, and then trade it in? The insurance company benefits from these decisions to keep fender benders off the Carfax.

Carfax is good for buyers and bad for sellers. The moral of this story is: If you intend on selling your car within 3 or 4 years, lease it.

Dadeland? By Geniusofdespair

I was in the library downtown and happened upon a library worker talking to two tourists, one from Los Angeles and the other from Germany. The girls had come downtown from South Beach to go to the museums (closed on Monday). They stopped in the library looking for somewhere else to go (they had been to Bayside). The library worker sent them to Dadeland. Dadeland? Ick. But, as I was standing there trying to think of another place they could go to...my mind went blank. Every place the tourists pointed to on their map the library worker said wasn't worth going to.

The moral of this story is: Don't go to the library looking for ambassadors for our downtown.

I Just Got The Memo: Drug Tests for Bloggers. By Geniusofdespair

Yes bloggers in Florida must now submit to drug tests. We join welfare mothers and those known common criminals - yes, the unemployed, who also must be tested. We are in good company.

What kind of threat is China? by gimleteye

A fascinating book by former Wall Street Journal reporter Erik Larson focuses on American diplomacy in Germany, in the years before the outbreak of World War II. The story of the ambassador at the time, William Dodd, and his family is called "In the Garden of Beasts". The historical backdrop is as important as the insight how the Roosevelt White House fumbled its response to Hitler. Wall Street's preoccupation with the potential default of German's debt was primarily responsible for muddying the waters through which a tough US stand against Hitler never emerged until it was too late to avert war.

Arm-chair quarterbacking doesn't count for much. On the other hand, there is enough resonance with the current economic dependencies on China to cause concern. Today's front page of the Financial Times, "China says 'peaceful rise' policy holds firm", questions whether words match the belligerence of the Chinese military in the South China Sea. Hitler famously strung along the United States and western allies while consolidating his power within Germany and laying the groundwork for re-arming its military. 

It does not help that partisan posturing-- mainly by Republicans anxious to take the US Senate and contest for the White House -- is stringing along the national dialogue that should be taking place on China's role in the US economy. The debate about increasing our national debt limit could rock Wall Street, but Wall Street does not care who owns that debt. Our political leadership should, but on that score all you can hear are the leaves blowing in the trees.

Computer Program to Rig Elections? By Geniusofdespair

This is a guy who worked in Tallahassee he talks about Tom Feeney paying him to develop source code for voting machines in Florida. This video appears to take place in Ohio. Bizarre. Posted April 18, 2011 but appears to be recorded much earlier. Feeney has been out of office since 2008. The programmer in the video worked for NASA, Dept. of Transportation, etc, tells how to tamper with code but didn't realize that is what he was hired to do until after he did it and spoke to a Feeney staff member.

In September 2006, Feeney was named one of the "20 Most Corrupt Members of Congress" in a report by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. Watch the video, make your own conclusions.

Absentee Ballot Fraud is Alive and Well in Miami Dade County. By Geniusofdespair

The Election Department needs to do more. I have proof that absentee ballot fraud is going on. I have looked at hundred of envelopes at the Elections Department and have seen many questionable signatures (same signature for multiple ballots from the same household), traced signatures and even MISSING signatures on absentee ballots that were counted. I have brought a voter down to elections who was not allowed to vote election day because she was told she already voted absentee. She lived in an assisted living facility (ALF). She was an educated woman in her 60's. She looked at the ballot envelope that elections claimed was hers. She proclaimed loudly and clearly: "That is not my signature." I looked at her signature next to the signature on the ballot envelope. It wasn't even close.

The Elections Department knows fraud is going on. There was plenty during the Raul Martinez campaign and there was even a Rundle-fumble investigation brought by the campaign that I know Elections knows about because I sent it to Lester Sola 12/30/2010. I read the close-out report, it was enough to make you puke that they couldn't get a case out of it. The people being investigated are now working for Julio Robaina's campaign. Yes, that's a fact.

The good news: The Elections Department can take action. Here are a few things they can do:

Hire a handwriting expert. They know which nursing homes are suspect. Have the expert do random checks on signatures from some of these homes. A handwriting expert is the single most important thing that elections can do to battle fraud.

Send someone to monitor the absentee ballots at a senior (ALF) facility. It is simple, elections know when they arrive at a nursing home/ALF. On the day they arrive, during the meal, let them tell everyone that they are here to help them with their ballots, if they need help, and then have the elections' staffer instruct the people on what to do with the ballots and answer questions. We must have seniors understand the sanctity of the process. They cannot continue to hand over their ballots (what they were doing in the Diaz-Balart/Raul Martinez investigation) to campaign workers TO HELP THEM FILL OUT and/or MAIL.

Start an education campaign at senior centers. How much could it cost to have some staff go out into the field and educate seniors partaking in lunch and breakfast programs during the off-voting times?

Send out a flyer with absentee ballots on how the ballots should be handled and that they have to be mailed by the voter - not picked up by others. Design the flyer in comic book style - pictures with captions.

Anyway, I can think of a lot more, but I fault the Elections Dept. with the fraud that is running rampant in absentee ballots because they are looking the other way in denial.

Julio Robaina got 4,414 more absentee votes than he got on election day. We all shake our heads and know there is something going on with that but like sheep we sit by and accept it.

Here is what you can do: GET A PROMISE FROM THE MAYORAL CANDIDATES THAT THEY WILL HAVE ELECTION CHIEF LESTER SOLA HIRE AT LEAST ONE OR MORE HANDWRITING EXPERTS to train checkers, look at questionable ballot envelopes and spot check absentee ballot signatures against the database (that we and the media need a court order to view). As a strong mayor, they can certainly tell Lester Sola what to do (that is legal under election law) but get the promise now, in front of other people or the media, so it will happen after they are elected. I will hammer on them but good if you get the promise.

I am including absentee ballot return information from the Elections Website as the comments were in conflict, some thinking you are allowed to pick up absentee ballots. Absentee ballots must be returned as follows:

Jesus Christ the Musical. By Geniusofdespair

Link to video that I give a laugh-chuckle rating.

Controversy and lawsuits dog barely legal Gov. Rick Scott ... by gimleteye

Former Democratic minority leader Dan Gelber recently wrote, he never thought he'd wish Jeb! Bush was in the governor's office. What Gelber meant; at least Jeb! was someone who didn't completely ignore the minority party. I wouldn't go as far as Gelber; the former governor and key loyalists occupy the vacuum created by a governor who is off the rails and commands virtually no loyalty. Still, the radical right loves the wrecking ball that Gov. Scott represents. It's like Reverend Jim Jones and the poisoned cool-aide in Tallahassee, except that people get poisoned from what they are drinking. Gov. Scott has the lowest approval rating of any governor in the United States. Voters' remorse, to put it mildly. The barely legal governor held a budget signing ceremony that barred attendees with "liberal looking pins and buttons". Jeb! would have done it, if he thought he could get away with it. The latest lawsuits against Scott allege voter suppression in Florida: kick them out of public events, and kick them out of the polls. The worst drought in Florida history may be what God has in mind for those leaders who pray on Sundays and wreck the state, the rest of the days of the week.
Dear Governor Scott:

Following the state budget signing ceremony on Thursday, May 26, I have been asked numerous times if the event crossed any lines relating to the Florida Constitution, the Sunshine Law or other Florida statutes.

Reports from the press, media and at least one video aired on YouTube suggest that Sheriff’s deputies removed selected attendees from the ceremony, possibly at the request of the Governor’s Office. Those same sources, and my interpretation of the reports and video, indicate that those removed were participants who did not support the budget or who were wearing shirts or holding signs indicating their objection to your administration.

Florida Statute 119.07 permits the request of public records that may assist in resolving the numerous questions that have arisen as a result of the ceremony.  Rather that invoking 119.07, I am requesting that your office simply respond to some specific questions related to the event, and resolve the matter.

Respectfully, I request responses to the following questions:

• Was the event public or private and how was it promoted?
• Who had the authority to direct security and crowd control for the event and who made the decision to remove attendees?
• Which state employees were in attendance and were they reimbursed for travel?
• Were Sumter County Sheriff’s deputies contracted and by whom?
• Were participants removed at the request of the Governor’s Office? If so, why?

Thank you in advance for responding to these questions and providing any other information you or your staff feel is important to better understanding what exactly happened at the budget signing ceremony. #

I look forward to your response and appreciate your assistance and cooperation regarding this matter.

Sincerely,

MARK PAFFORD
State Representative, District 88

Did Hialeah Julio Robaina Pay-Off Black Candidates? Uncle Luke Thinks So. By Geniusofdespair

You have to love Luther Campbell - He doesn't hold anything back. Julio did not look happy, Gimenez comes off as a saint in this Miami New Times video.

Marcelo Llorente Endorses Carlos Gimenez for Miami Dade County Mayor. By Geniusofdespair

There was a press conference at 11, Former Mayoral Candidate Marcelo Llorente has endorsed Carlos Gimenez, he said because of his energy, ideas and experience to represent ALL the people of the County. Good. Llorente did get almost 15% of the vote in the election held May 24th so this is a big coup for Gimenez's campaign. Carlos said he was honored to have the endorsement. He said the families were tied together for years and that he anticipates working with Marcelo to move the county forward.

The police are coming! Swallow your SIM cards! ... by gimleteye

The weekend's shooting spree had Miami Beach police on edge, to put it mildly. From news reports, it was a chaotic mess. Still, today's news story about the police threatening and intimidating a man who filmed one of the shootings-- and only preserved evidence by hiding his cell phone SIM card in his mouth-- is over the top. Even for Miami.

It has been many years since I've braved Miami Beach on Memorial Day weekend. It's the traffic. The vibe is not for me. Thank you, no. Today, there are a lot more questions, than answers about what happened on Miami Beach with open gunfire on Washington Street. The US Department of Justice needs to be involved in sorting out conflicting stories. I am sure that when casinos are legalized in Florida, city law enforcement will improve and we will never have this kind of community upset.

The Legacy of Hialeah Mayor Julio Robaina. Guest Blog By Milly Herrera

I drove around the city of Hialeah this past weekend and took some photos, the one at the top was taken 3 blocks from Historic Hialeah Park. Julio Robaina has been the Mayor for the past 5 years but he has done nothing to beautify our city! In fact, in my own neighborhood, projects were approved for road repairs to prevent severe flooding and now there are no funds.

Is this what we would want for the whole county? Absolutely not but he makes a promise in his literature to bring his style of leadership to the entire County.

Mayor Robaina has been unsuccessful at correcting many problems in our city and leaves behind a mess. I have lived here for 44 years and it is worse now than ever. There have been severe cuts, but there was always money found for the mayor's select projects!

I am angry. I do not want this man to be elected Mayor of Miami Dade County. I just want the people of this county to "see" for themselves the way we live. I drive in other neighborhoods in the County and I am jealous of the clean streets. Here is a photo of a street not far from my home...

They don't allow pick-up trucks to park on swales in the City of Coral Gables overnight. I wonder what the mayor of Coral Gables would say if he saw this 18-wheeler that Hialeah allows to park overnight on a swale in a neighborhood.

Julio Robaina on the Campaign Trail. By Geniusofdespair

The next one will be better...

Dumb and Dumber: Palmetto Bay Village Council puffs up against the US EPA by gimleteye

It is disgusting: the pile-on by the GOP against the EPA attempt to regulate nutrient pollution in Florida. The EPA is the US Environmental Protection Agency. While the federal debt ceiling and health care reform get the top headlines, what Republican campaign contributors are really aiming for is the evisceration of environmental regulation. The big polluters, in other words, want you and me to pay for the costs of their pollution. That's what this whole nutrient standards uproar in Florida is all about. And it also ties directly to the plan to save the Everglades and assess the polluters the costs of their pollution.

Whether the Village Council of Palmetto Bay knows it or not, they are being enlisted as low level pawns in the grand plan to use the economic crisis to reverse decades of progress on the environment in the United States. That the EPA is finally taking on pollution problems in Florida, that the state will not solve in order to protect polluters, is long, long overdue. But if the polluters get their way, EPA will be permanently hobbled. And Palmetto Bay elected officials could play a role, which is strange because there are many, many Palmetto Bay voters and taxpayers who are in favor of protecting the unique attributes of their communities: one of the reasons that Palmetto Bay incorporated in the first place, not so long ago.

The full court pressure against the EPA has rippled down through the state legislature to local municipal governments. Palmetto Bay is poised on June 6 to take up a resolution opposing the U.S. EPA plan to clean up Florida waters because the state of Florida won't. I wonder who the polluter lobbyists are, pushing this measure.

Every big polluter in Florida, including Big Sugar, is investing in the jihad against EPA. So what comes next? Palmetto Bay and every municipality in Florida will issue their own little ordinances banning nutrient pollution? Who will do the enforcement, then? The dog catcher?

Let me tell you  what this whole nutrient issue is about: giving polluters a free pass so that taxpayers will have to cover the costs of pollution.

Florida's waters would not be such a disaster if the state had done what it is required to do for the public in the first place, by law: protect us and protect our water quality. The Council should vote no on the resolution sponsored by Council Person Howard Tendrich. The Council should reject  being used as a pawn by rich polluters. Let the EPA do its job because Florida won't. And when Tendrich is elected out of office, Palmetto Bay voters should lift a glass of dirty canal water in his memory.

Pity the Fool Pushing the Virtual School: Renier Diaz de la Portilla. By Geniusofdespair

What is the new hot way to make money? Buy a school and there is a website and a broker ready to help you. No problem from some members of the School Board, they too are supporting the new trend. School Board Member Renier Diaz de la Portilla wrote an Op Ed piece on May 15th. He said:

Sadly, some critics, including teachers’ unions, have been reluctant to embrace all forms of educational reform including charter schools, merit pay, school choice and virtual education.

Similarly, some want to deny parents choice when it comes to virtual education. Thankfully, there are more who disagree; like the countless parents of virtual-school students who this year rallied in Oregon’s state Capitol to advocate for their children’s right to have virtual-school options.

To that end, the Florida Legislature just passed a bill that highlights the need to expand virtual school choice. And it is school choice that sets Miami-Dade County Public Schools apart from countless school districts, not only across the state, but across the nation.

It is because of this that we must not allow critics of virtual education to limit or deny choice for students and parents across our state.

Expanding the use of virtual education in our school district would allow us to focus more on remediation strategies for students who have fallen behind in bricks and mortar classrooms, while those who are more academically advanced can participate in virtual classes.

Look at the language in the last paragraph. Stupid kids go to old fashioned schools (bricks and mortar) and smart kids get virtual (manipulating parents a bit there aren't we Renier?). He neglected to mention that legislative members are starting to invest in charter and virtual schools. It is big business at the expense of your kids. I am getting in on the bandwagon as Rick Scott will 'get to work' on it, hell, he probably is heavily invested in virtual schools by now.

Miami Today and The Miami Herald and Casinos in Miami ... by gimletye

There are a few aromatic pieces of the McClatchy deal to sell Miami Herald property to Malaysian Chinese billionaires that Michael Lewis missed. First and foremost, how the debt load that threatens to sink McClatchy was tied to ad revenues from the housing boom that were presumed by the top executives of both Knight Ridder and McClatchy to go on forever. The mainstream press chased the housing boom down the Alice-in-Wonderland rabbit hole, and the abrogation of common sense extended straight through the publishers' offices to the editorial and news side of the paper, where the public was denied a fair and honest accounting of the bubble's impacts as they occurred. In the meantime, millions in compensation accrued to the top dogs at McClatchy and the Herald. Yes it is ironic that Alvah Chapman, who despised gambling, could do nothing to prevent the newspaper he loved from being an agent of change that would speed gambling forward. Did Chapman ever level his gaze and condemn the speculative building and construction of Miami suburbs that threatened the Everglades and ultimately overwhelmed the national economy? Of course not. He was a sober businessman who believed these concerns to be trivial pursuits. I wonder if Michael Lewis, at Miami Today, doesn't believe the same. At any rate, it is a dismal picture to paint: how the decline of print journalism is tied to the collapse of the housing markets. And along this line, it is interesting to observe that a former Miami New Times reporter Jake Bernstein was recently awarded a Pulitzer-- the first ever for an series that appeared online instead of in print-- for his share of reporting out on Magnetar; a massive bet against the housing bubble by the same investment banks that fomented the bubble through mortgage pools. It is all history, now. For Michael Lewis' recent editorial, click read more.

Who lobbied for Genting Berhad, owner of Miami Herald property? It's no mystery ... by gimleteye

The sale of The Miami Herald property to a Malaysian gambling magnate, for three times the next comparable sale on Biscayne Bay, points to Florida's future: full scale casinos. Tempting as it is to draw a wan observation about the games of fortune taking over mainstream media, the $239 million deal speaks for itself. The convent for casinos both tears the Christian conservative base of Florida's GOP and is a hymn to the party's impenetrable majority in the state legislature. The path to casinos is also highlighted by a wealthy governor who bought his way to the executive office in a campaign that denied access to newspaper editorial boards. In other words, if no one is listening and everyone is looking the other way, what you say to appease the God-fearing Christians and Tea Party acolytes in your base is just words. Do what you want and get what you can, now. That is the ethos the Malaysian Chinese are betting will prevail in Miami. Based on recent history, it is a very good bet.

In an interview with FloridaEnvironments.com, Associated Industries of Florida CEO Barney Bishop admitted to this mindset. Florida's GOP, goaded by the Chamber of Commerce and Bishop, aimed and succeeded in eliminating the state land use planning agency based on statements that regulations inhibiting development in Florida were wrecking the economy. They glided over facts that from 2007 to 2010 -- in the midst of the worst economic recession since the Great Depression-- "the state agency had approved 1.5 billion square feet of commercial development in addition to nearly 600,000 new housing units and nearly 1 million acres of land use changes." Bishop affirmed the party line and gospel to the GOP faithful. According to the St. Pete Times, "DCA was that bogeyman for us... so we essentially got rid of that." And so it will be with barriers to full-scale gaming in Florida.

The Republican base that deployed right-wing, "Christian" values to marginalize opposition and secure a lock on the state legislature is now prepared to vault a long history of legislative bars to full casino operations in the state, even if cracking the code means elevating the mysterious economic benefits of gambling over the mysterious benefits of faith.

The pro-casino forces tested the waters for change in this session of the Florida legislature. Genting Berhad, the Malaysian corporation that bought the Miami Herald property, is one the entities registered to lobby at the legislature. So who are the lobbyists and what are their connections? If you wanted to build an effective team to launch tall ladders against the church walls, you would need a senior strategist first who had the full confidence of the dominant players in the GOP.

Candidate for Mayor Carlos Gimenez talks about the Urban Development Boundary. By Geniusofdespair

Carlos Gimenez talks about the Urban Development Boundary making a two minute economic argument for NOT moving the line.