Disappearing Democracy (and guess what, it has nothing to do with Obamacare) ... by gimleteye

Maybe even Republicans will get the point (like Senator John McCain does): the Citizens United decision by the Roberts Supreme Court requires a massive overhaul of campaign finance law by Congress because corporations are not people.

Casino mogul Sheldon Adelson who gave $20 million to that idiot Newt Gingrich, keeping alive the primary run of a candidate who never would have passed first base otherwise, is giving $10 million to the 2012 election efforts of the Koch brothers, the Washington Post reports.

The Koch brothers plan to spend about $400 million on the election, but I am guessing that the Republican super PAC money will be closer to $1 billion. I am also guessing the Democrats will raise, for super PAC's, less than $100 million. Maybe much less.

According to the Huffington Post, Adelson has also committeed at least $10 million to the Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies, a pro-Republican group advised by Karl Rove, and $5 million each to two groups backing GOP House candidates.

How does that make me feel when candidates come calling, for $100 or $200 or $2500 contributions? Or $20,000 contributions to have a photo taken with the president? Do you think my voice carries as far as Sheldon Adelson or the Koch brothers or any of the other billionaires who are turning the United States into an American version of an oligarchy?

One appropriate response is for voters to refuse to listen to any television advertisements at all and trash all the mailers before opening them. Turn off your TV, become informed on candidate positions through responsible journalism, and do vote!

Miami Marlins: Back to empty seats? By Geniusofdespair

These pictures were taken June 29th at the Phillies vs. Marlins Game. The Philadelphia Phillies' Carlos Ruiz is the number 1 batter in the league so this isn't a "B" game. Now that all the hoopla is over, are we back to empty seats at the Miami Marlin's Stadium?

What idiots we were to pay for this...and we will be paying it off for quite some time.

I Just Donated to the Obama Campaign. By Geniusofdespair

Get your money out of your pocket and give to your favorite candidate.   My choice today was to help the President get reelected. 

Check out the Obama store, they have some nice T Shirts. Apparently Democrats have a sense of humor, you can buy a cup with Obama's picture on the front and his birth certificate on the back. How cool is that?

Looks like Obamacare is now a good thing...

You can also get an Obama IPhone case for $40...

Look to Florida Bay: when forests are destroyed, what happens under conditions of global warming? by gimleteye

Forest managers say, get ready for more epic fires in the American west. We know what people will do when the fire is gone: if they can afford to, they will rebuild. As to the forest, it is a legitimate question: what happens next?

In 2012, that question really is two. What happens under normal climate conditions? And what happens under conditions of climate change?

Scientists are clear: forests have been severely stressed for decades as a consequence of global warming. A major cause of forest decay has been the pine bark beetle, and the reason the beetle has spread is because the West no longer experiences long, super frigid cold spells that kept the insect at bay.

Under normal climate conditions, the forests destroyed by wildfire would gradually regenerate over a period of decades. Under conditions of climate change, what will happen next?

For an answer, look no further to look than to Biscayne and Florida Bays.

These major ecosystems have suffered massive declines in the past thirty years. Not from climate change so much as earlier man-made intervention; the massive reworking of water management and flood control to protect cities and the privileges of billionaire sugar barons who control Congress and the Florida legislature.

What is relevant to the forests is that these ecosystems -- think of them as sea grass meadows comprising hundreds of square miles -- have not recovered. Florida Bay is now a barren landscape, dominated by scavenger species.

Scientists believe that under conditions of global warming and increasing epic wildfires, the conifer forest of the western United States could disappear within a relatively short span of time. What could come back will be grassland or meadows or even high desert. Scavenger species will dominate until biodiversity adapts.

Candidate Alice Pena: Snake Oil Anyone? Or How About Lying Under Oath? An EOM Investigative Report. By Geniusofdespair

Did Alice Pena, running for County Commission District 9, file an inaccurate Financial Disclosure form even though a notarized Oath of accuracy was required?

Am I calling Alice Pena a LIAR?

Found this on YouTube notice Pena says she is President of Adge Pharmaceuticals. She also makes these claims on her campaign website.  I added the photo of what she really looks like as two male readers were calling the 72 year old Pena a 'hottie' (BTW, I am the 'dislike' on her YouTube video.)

From YouTube Video.

Alice Pena is the President of Adge Pharmaceuticals. The Adge website says it is home of the Nutrifort family of products.  Nutrifort? Is it the Snake Oil of the 21st Century? It is some sort of nutritional supplement. Seems to have originated in Vietnam. Appears to be a mixture of B Vitamins and Iron. Adge gives absolutely no information about anything on its website.  Adge is not really what you would think of when you picture a Pharmaceutical Company, i.e. it is not about real drugs.

Only products on Adge Website.

Pena lists her home address for the Corporation. Alice uses the company as an example of putting Floridians back to work. You would think, in that case, it was making plenty of money, with scads of staff, however, the company is not even listed on her financial disclosure form.

Note this is notarized with an OATH. Wouldn't that be major lying? In Part E I would argue the selling of these supplements is a franchise as Alice Pena doesn't manufacture them but I might be wrong on E.  The company is in Viet Nam according to their website.

I looked up the corporate papers to see if Alice was the President of Adge Pharmaceuticals for a while.  The company was reinstated in 2005 so I looked up that year and Alice was President.

Alice Pena was the President in 2005.

I thought maybe because she didn't claim the company on the disclosure form, under oath, that she is not still the President, even though she claimed to be the President on YouTube and her website.  I looked up her most current records with the Department of State and she is indeed still President of this vitamin-type supplement company that she calls "Pharmaceutical".

She was President of Adge in records on Sunbiz as early as 1998.

Even if this company is not making much money, it should have been listed on the Financial Disclosure form as she has an interest in the Corporation and she did list $2,000 from Mutual of Omaha as a PRIMARY source of income on her form. However, if it IS NOT MAKING ANY MONEY, after all these years, why keep it in business, what does it say about her business  sense? And how could she, with a straight face, use this company as an example of her business acumen in her video and on her website? Alice Pena is lying either way: 1) Making it sound like it is a big profitable company, putting people to work, when it is not, or 2) It is a profitable company and she is not reporting income from it (this one would be under oath).

This isn't the first time Pena has been caught lying. I hear her lie routinely at meetings, distorting the truth, it makes me want to barf. Ask any environmentalist about her lack of accurate statements and her untruthfulness at meetings.  She wouldn't recognize a fact if she fell over one because she is so busy bending the truth to fit her mindset. A conservation chair of one group said about her: "She is anti-environment, anti-national parks, anti-Everglades restoration, anti-Army Corps of Engineers, and anti-South Florida Water Management District." I guess we can add DERM to that list now (Feb. 21st County Commission Meeting). But I digress.

Pena says she will: "eliminate mismanagement and demand accountability and transparency from our county's government." How about demanding some accountability and transparency first from herself? Lying on a financial disclosure form under oath is a MAJOR problem for me. If she is not lying on her form because this Pharmaceutical company make no money, then she is lying to voters on her website and YouTube video, with her claim about the company.  And, since she says she is earning only about $20,000 a year I don't think her claims of having the "Knowledge" and the "Tools" necessary to deal with our County's $6 billion dollar budget are accurate.  You don't get those "tools" and "knowledge" from an egg farm making $16,000 a year and a vitamin supplement company making who knows what.

Vote for Dennis Moss in District 9. He is the clear choice.  For Pena supporters like Norman Braman: this is serious business backing candidates who don't pass the first test of plausibility: their own campaign qualifying documents.   

(Hit Read more for a screen shot of her website in case they take it down)

I have a new investigative report tomorrow on Alice Pena. By Geniusofdespair

Come back and read it...

All the world in a grain of sand: how the Growth Machine ate the Florida Department of Community Affairs. By Gimleteye

All the world in a grain of sand: How the Growth Machine Ate The Florida Department of Community Affairs
... the following appeared yesterday, on the website Counterpunch. It is a long essay: take your time.


John DeGrove was the father of land use planning in Florida and the principal architect of the state land use agency, the Florida Department of Community Affairs. The agency was established in 1985 to oversee compliance with the Growth Management Act. Most Floridians are unlikely to know either what the Department of Community Affairs did or what its disappearance means. Fewer still understand the challenges to design and implement a regulatory framework for rationale growth and development in one of the nation’s fastest growing states, or, how DCA and DeGrove’s mission was a target of anti-government, pro-property rights zealots from the first.

Why this matters is simple. Presupposing the failure of government regulatory authority virtually guarantees it will happen. The notion that government cannot do anything that private industry can do better, cheaper, and faster including protecting public safety, health and welfare has spread its toxic roots far and wide. Florida provides more than its share of examples of government-designed-to-fail.

These didn’t happen overnight. DCA was caught up in a thirty year war against governmental regulation of land use and the environment. Initially, the agency’s work enjoyed broad bipartisan support. By the time the agency was frog-marched to the platform and guillotined by the Florida legislature and an indifferent governor, it had already mostly surrendered to “regulatory capture” by special interests. When the final blow was delivered, no one was quite so surprised as the insiders to watch decades of history simply wash away.

Running for Moss's Seat - Alice Pena Gets a Lynda Bell Makeover. By Geniusofdespair

Alice Pena gets a Lynda Bell make-over to run for County Commission District 9.

Alice Pena as she looked in February 2012

Lynda Bell's dutch-boy hairdo and glasses translated to Alice Pena

Drone Seen in South Beach: Not Government Issue. By Geniusofdespair

Miami New Times has the scoop on that drone over South Beach -- spotted in the Ample Ass video I posted yesterday -- It is not a police drone. Miami Dade County does have a drone according to New Times but this wasn't it:

In the meantime, MDPD is still training to use its T-Hawk drone and waiting for the right situation -- namely, a gunman holed up in a building somewhere.

I enjoyed the video just the same but thanks Tim Elfrink for getting to the truth.

Hollywood's Downtown Is Dead. By Geniusofdespair

Conca D'Oro closed June 2nd after 36 years in business.  A sign of the times or a portent of Hollywood's downtown demise? The last time I ate at Conca D'Oro, about 2 years ago, it was packed.

Sunday, June 24th about 4 pm I took a walk around Downtown Hollywood Florida.  Harrison Street was all but deserted with dozens of empty stores and for rent signs.  Most of the restaurants on Hollywood Blvd. and Harrison street seemed dark - I had to press my nose against the glass to see in.  None seemed very inviting so we ended up driving to a restaurant out of the area. It made me sad to see all the little shops gone. What was left? Apparently a slew of women's clothing shops with sparkly, low cut dresses and ultra high heeled shoes. Most of the merchandise was pretty cheap...looking. Also left were bars. As I passed bar after bar on Hollywood Blvd. the smell of stale beer wafted out, turning me off.

It was only about 4 or 5 years ago when downtown Hollywood was a popular choice for a dinner destination. There was plenty of live music and artsy shops to visit. It was Hollywood's attempt to repackage South Beach or Delray Beach.

I blame the exodus of all the good business from Hollywood to the bad redesign of Young's Circle. Whatever happened here in downtown Hollywood, it is profoundly sad.

EOM Memo to China: stay away from Lennar? by gimleteye

Lennar, really? China, read our blog ...

WALL STREET JOURNAL
Chinese Target U.S. Homes
State Bank in Talks to Provide Lennar $1.7 Billion for Two Long-Stalled Projects
By DINNY MCMAHON and ROBBIE WHELAN

(June 25, 2012) Lennar Corp., LEN +0.80% one of the U.S.'s largest home builders, is in talks with the China Development Bank for approximately $1.7 billion in capital to jump-start two long-delayed San Francisco projects that would transform two former naval bases into large-scale housing developments, according to people familiar with the discussions.

The negotiations aren't final and the financing arrangement could still fall through. But if completed, the deal would reflect a changing dynamic between the U.S. and Chinese economies, as an American company turns to China for help funding a long-delayed and partially publicly funded project that otherwise wouldn't get done.

FROM The Republic Report/ The Human Cost Of Corruption In The U.S. Senate: Cutting Food Stamps While Giving The Sugar Lobby Billions

It's a new start-up, online investigative website, "The Republic Report, investigating how money corrupts Democracy". Right down our alley, at Eyeonmiami and it is great to see the new venue reporting on what we found completely disgusting last week: Congress let the sugar billionaires retain their corporate welfare in the Farm Bill. Sugar poisons people, poisons the Everglades, and poisons Democracy.

POSTED AT 10:00 AM BY ZAID JILANI
The everyday corruption of our government by Big Money has real consequences for Americans, many of whom are struggling to feed their families.

Take the farm bill that Congress spent time working on this week. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) introduced an amendment to restore $4.5 billion in funding for the food stamp program, which assists some of the poorest Americans, by cutting “guaranteed profit for crop insurance companies from 14 to 12 percent and by lowering payments for crop insurers from $1.3 billion to $825 million.”

Her amendment, which would help poor Americans at the expense of crop insurers, was defeated along a 33-66 vote. The cuts to the food stamp will be going ahead in the name of deficit reduction.

But there was a separate effort in the Senate this week to save money that would’ve spared the poorest Americans and taken on corporate welfare instead.

Senators Jean Shaheen (D-NH), Pat Toomey (R-PA), and Richard Lugar (R-IN) introduced an amendment that would save up to $3.5 billion every single year by repealing and reforming various subsidies, tariffs, and other price supports that prop up the price of sugar on behalf of the Sugar Lobby.

The amendment was rejected along a 46-53 vote, with bipartisan coalitions on either side.

It’s not a coincidence that the poor — who do not have well-heeled lobbyists at their disposal — lost while the powerful Sugar Lobby maintained its government favors. As The Washington Examiner’s Tim Carney explained last week, Big Sugar has all sorts of deep connections to Washington:

But the lobby for the sugar program is strong. Most famously, the Fanjul family in Florida, owner of Florida Crystals, are deeply embedded in Washington politics. Over the last three elections, the Fanjuls have given more than $1.8 million to federal candidates and political action committees, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics.

Alfie Fanjul is a longtime Democratic fundraiser (Bill Clinton once interrupted a liaison with Monica Lewinsky to take a call from Alfie). His brother Pepe is a Republican booster. In January, Pepe and his wife hosted a $2,500-a-head Palm Beach fundraiser for Mitt Romney.

“The U.S. sugar program is essentially a transfer of wealth from consumers, including the poorest Americans, to a handful of wealthy sugar producers,” said Toomey regretfully in a statement after his amendment was rejected. Unfortunately, this is the reality in America where Big Money runs the legislative process.

Republic Report is a new investigative blog looking at money in politics and how to hold politicians accountable for siding with moneyed interests against the American people. If you’d like to get a daily digest of our top stories, subscribe to our e-mail list here.

The Rich Get Richer? Maybe Not. By Geniusofdespair

In 2005 Pablo bought a house on Casa Madeira in Coral Gables for $950,000. Sergio Pino bought it from the Bank of New York for $450,000 in 2008.  In 2012 Sergio sold it for $750,000. Granted he probably remodeled it, but he had to make some bucks even if he pumped money in. Pino also sold another property he bought in 2008 for $515,000. This one is in Doral and he got it from his own company ??. He sold it to Private Lending Group, LLC. for $275.00 June 1st.  Strange deal.

Pino is also up to something with his University Campus Lodge holdings worth about $5 million (He paid $5,200,600 in 2005 and 2006) near Fontaninebleau Blvd. He filed an affidavit about his holdings here May 15th. The purpose? Don't know.  He has a few affidavits filed and 1 lis pendens from May.  I can't begin to figure out some of the deals I see in public records.  Somehow I am sure developers are making money with all their creative deals.

Public Service Commission Hearings Scheduled for Tomorrow are Canceled. by Geniusofdespair

Public Service Commission Customer Service Hearings on the FPL rate increase (that were scheduled for tomorrow) are  canceled in Miami, Miami Gardens, Plantation, and Ft. Lauderdale.  They say they are canceled due to impacts from Tropical Storm Debby. They will reschedule them. Expect to see them resurface in August when everyone is away.

I am done reading the Miami Herald's Marc Caputo. By Geniusofdespair

In his article today, it is quite clear that Marc Caputo is biased for Republican candidates.  I took him to task last week for his love-fest with Marco Rubio. The entire column is certainly anti-Nelson to a fault. Here are two examples out of many -- not to mention the over-all tone of the article. Commenting on Mack, running against Bill Nelson, Caputo said: "Mack is a leader in missed votes in the House this year as he VIGOROUSLY campaigned for himself and the Republican presidential candidate." (i.e. Caputo defended Mack's motives in the only negative thing he said about him). I take issue with the word 'vigorously' (my caps) if you are going to write a news column and not an opinion column. Is this an editorial?

Caputo also curiously says, "What's noteworthy here is how some Democrats might be planning to use the not-so-popular Obama as a foil --"

The "not so popular Obama"?  Is Caputo nuts? No, I would say the Miami Herald is. Hey Jay Ducassi, I am one of those left who pays for your paper.

Is Marco Rubio ready to talk about climate change? ... by gimleteye

Happy Monday morning! Good news. We are not getting beach erosion like the Panhandle from Tropical Storm Debbie. We don't have drinking water contamination like Cedar Key.

The Gainesville Sun reported on June 19th,"Salt water intrusion plagues Cedar Key tap water". Officials asked citizens "until further notice" not to drink the city's tap water or use it for any other purpose designed for human consumption. The city's water well turned up salt.

Think that's a blow to the local economy? Think I'm mad that elected officials have avoided, skirted, and dodged responsibility for protecting our drinking water? Not on Monday morning.

This morning I'm feeling very good I don't live in the Panhandle. In Texas.

In Harper's Magazine this month, there is a crushing report on the disappearance of vast swaths of the western plains, because the Ogallala aquifer has been used up. Used up, as in finished.

In 2004, during the presidential election, I was asked to write for a national publication on the key environmental issues. I wrote that the Ogallala aquifer would finally come to the forefront. How wrong I was.

In Cedar Key, last week, "Residents lined up in golf carts and vehicles and presented their paperwork — a water bill, a room receipt or a storm re-entry pass — to receive two gallons of bottle water. That's the daily allowance the district is providing for drinking and cooking." Wonder how that would work for Miami Beach hotel occupancy, when that happens here?

Officials blame drought for the salt water intrusion, but drought is only half the story. The other half is the pitched battle by development interests to tap into the Suwannee River. Depleting the Suwannee has major ramifications downstream. We in South Florida know how that works. Don't we? How wrong I am.

It is not the Suwannee in South Florida, it is the Biscayne aquifer that is being exhausted by water withdrawals and the Everglades, Big Sugar's cesspit. (Who is counting what Turkey Point will need, to cool its existing and planned nuclear reactors, when our wells turn salt. It is going to be some kind of mess in Homestead when that happens.)

The New York Times reported on Florida's vanishing springs this weekend. “We are either in or headed for a water crisis,” said Estus Whitfield, a former principal environmental adviser to five Florida governors. Note to Estus: all that time, why didn't you help put a cap on water withdrawals for development and agriculture around the state?

Florida has been in a water crisis for decades: the problem is that no Governor or state legislative majority has had the guts to do anything substantial about it, except to postpone the day of reckoning for another day. But it's Monday, and I'm going to think something really special to start my week.

Maybe Marco Rubio will talk with climate change scientists today, instead of trying to cut EPA out of enforcement for water pollution destroying Florida's springs and rivers and bays.

I have some photos of what one famous Florida spring looked like in the 1950's. And a photo of what it looked like in 2006. Ask Gov. Rick Scott if he knows the difference. Or ask Senator Rubio.

Ample Asses and Police-State Drones in South Beach. By Geniusofdespair

This is disturbing footage and it is not the big breasts and bodacious butts I am talking about (actually they were just fine). The Miami Beach police actually made use of drones during Memorial Day weekend in South Beach.

The videographer was after shots of the hot ladies but in the footage he caught the police drones used in South Beach (0:59, 3:30(BEST) and 4:13 on the counter -- but looks like the same footage in all). Am I the only one alarmed by this?  Am I also the last to know? I haven't read about their use. Anyway, here it is for you to see if you haven't already. I remember first seeing drones in the Tom Cruise film Minority Report and it frightened me then.  Now here are drones caught in a few frames of this booty documentary.

The Big Brother Orwellian nightmare is truly upon us.


Watch it on YouTube. And, a smart phone does not do this video justice. Watch it in high definition on a computer.

LatinoVoteMap.org ... by gimleteye

Very cool interactive tool, to show simulations of the presidential election results based on Latino portion of the US electorate and percent voting GOP.

Lennar's New Development's "Prime Location". By Geniusofdespair

Black Point Landfill, dubbed by locals as Mount Trashmore, seen at top, is near the development The Isles of Bayshore. I am sure the community will be landscaped to block any view of the Landfill.

I was reading this Lennar ad in the newspaper Sunday and I was saying to myself, this area sounds too good to be true. They call Isles at Bayshore a "Lifestyle Rich Community" from the low $200's. They call it a "prime location." The pristine lake views -- I suspect some are drainage canals. They say the community is in the desirable Old Cutler Neighborhood near the Black Point Marina. True, but we all know what else is near the Black Point Marina. The Black Point landfill and the wastewater treatment plant.

The Development at top, the landfill and the wastewater treatment plant land is indicated on the map.

The view above is  a snapshot from where the little yellow man is standing -- not from the Isle of Bayshore Property -- but it is nearby. The Property is in in purple.

I would think if there was an odor or bird problems the people living there would be up in arms like Fisher Island was, on the next Island from the Virginia Key Wastewater Treatment Plant or the Biscayne Landing folks living near a North Miami Beach Plant. Complaints of smell were light on line for Black Point area (do they not have drying beds): "The landfill is new since I lived in Cutler Ridge, but when we would go down in that area after we moved and they built the landfill, I think the smell was worse in the southern parts of Cutler Ridge than the northern areas. It also varies depending upon the wind and season."

It is always good to know where your property is located as "Location, location, location" is the most important rule of real estate. And, for the reader that states it is not sprawl, look at this, the whole area was green a few years ago: