Natacha’s Two Favorite Lobbyists Must Have Duked It Out on Bid Gone Bad. By Geniusofdespair

Here is what happened according to the The SunPost:

“Despite the efforts of a county commissioner, a mathematical mistake and shoddy paperwork cost a construction firm a $134 million water and sewer contract.

“This is just a line we had to draw,” said County Manager George Burgess.

Skanka USA and the Poole & Kent Company both bid on an upgrade job at the South Dade Wastewater Treatment Plant that called for the installation of a deep bed filter system to further treat wastewater that is pumped underground. But the bid of Skanka USA, a company with branches all over the country, was deemed “unresponsive” and thrown out.

Skanka USA’s bid was $18 million less than Poole & Kent Company’s, Commissioner Carlos Gimenez said. However, Skanka’s arithmetic wasn’t right, Burgess said.

Sergio Pereira is the lobbyists for Poole and Kent Company and Miguel DeGrandy is working for Shanka(sic) USA (I believe the correct name is Skanska USA Building).

For you newbies, Sergio and Miguel are the Vile Natacha Seijas' two favorite lobbyist boys. Finding them on opposite sides...how often does that happen? I guess they get paid no matter what, so does it really matter to them who gets the bid? Here is more from the article:

“Someone put a decimal point in the wrong place,” Burgess said. The company’s revised paperwork, which was turned in at deadline, also didn’t correct the mistake, County Attorney R.A. Cuevas said.

“Just to reiterate it, I’m not a BAFO [best and final offer] crazy guy,” Gimenez said. “But there is $6 million left on the table.”

Gimenez was the lone no vote, saying he did not want to pay $6,000,000 more. Poole & Kent got the nod from the rest of the Commissioners present. I guess lobbyist Pereira did a better job. Here is an interesting footnote: Chairman of the Fish and Wildlife Commission, and developer, Rodney Barreto was once the Poole & Kent lobbyist.

Don't blame the price of gasoline ... by gimleteye

I've lived long enough to watch this happen before: in the 1970's when OPEC choked the supply of oil and drove the US economy into a frenzy over the cost of energy. At the time, President Carter clearly understood the threat.

This time is different. The fast rise of economies in India and China and other nations are soaking up oil inventory while production is flat-lining. Mideast nations and other oil producers are hoarding profits before the long winter to come.

Americans who imagine that it is within the power of the United States to change that equation, or as the Bush White House continues to believe, that we can drill our way out of the problem, are smoking pot.



We can't drill ourselves out of the oil problem and even if we could, we would put civilization at even greater risk from global warming.

The way forward won't happen until the Democrats have a veto-proof Congress and have taken the White House in the presidential election. That much was clear from this week's failed effort to pass new legislation to create a cap and trade market for carbon emissions. Even then, we will need far better qualities of leadership to explain to the American people the assumption of costs that the right-wing spin machine are pillorying.

Barack Obama can't find the way forward by blaming oil and the price of gasoline: and he had better start pulling his Democratic troops in line, on the subject. In Miami-Dade County, the unions have been sending out blast emails vilifying the price of gasoline that sound tired and dated before they even hit the in-box. The problem is: Democrats can't solve the cost of gasoline. In fact, the price of gasoline should fully reflect the cost of war in Iraq if we were honest.

The Republicans are already whining about the cost of adapting to climate change as being too expensive: yes it is going to be expensive. A lot more expensive, if we continue to fight for dwindling oil in the Mideast. A lot more expensive that it would have been, if our politics had responded to the need to reform energy policies; a need our trading partners and allies have integrated in their domestic policies for more than a decade.

It was sad to watch Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson appealing to oil despots in Abu Dhabi this week on behalf of the US dollar as the reserve currency-- in other words, the currency in which transactions for oil are conducted. The United States is not the only game in town, anymore, and that is largely the fault of the drunken sailors in charge of the Republican Party.

Americans who have to balance their checkbooks-- unlike the government-- are fully aware that government statistics under-report the pain in the economy caused by looting US treasure. Housing, unemployment, inflation, the cost of energy: the convergence of these threats will sweep out Republicans like a tidal wave in the Fall.

The Bush White House will be harshly judged by future generations for misreading the threats to the United States at the very moment in time when adaptation was most necessary and most critical. That is what you get with an incurious president, one whose faith is married to predetermined outcomes.

Under these circumstances, Obama is at the cross-roads of history. It is up to the American people to protect his candidacy from the reactionaries, the right-wing spin machine, and the haters. And still, Barack Obama has some explaining to do.

Don't blame the price of gasoline without explaining the deeper forces at work that have put Americans at such peril.

Investigative journalism and the blogsphere, more: by gimleteye

A main reason we started writing this blog, eyeonmiami, is because the mainstream press has studiously avoided a rationale discussion of the political origins of the housing boom and bust--now sowing disaster in world-wide credit markets--that started right here in Florida with formulas perfected by builders, developers and lobbyists to marry the profit motives of Wall Street financiers with the inevitable destruction of wetlands and natural resources, as well as neighborhoods and communities, through the proliferation of platted subdivisions far from places of work accessible only by car on over-congested roadways.

The threat to our national economic security could not have happened unless our politics was oriented toward evading the intent of laws meant to protect the public interest: this happened more clearly in Miami, Florida than anywhere else in order to pump up an asset bubble in housing and construction.

Today, there is a universe of blogs on cratering real estate markets and good economic analyses that still have not found its way into the mainstream media, but there is still very little written about the political origins of the housing market crash.

This phenomenon remains a big part of our blog, because we have experienced the history and influences first-hand here, in Miami. For mainstream media, like The Miami Herald, this subject is cordoned off as though a repository of spent radioactive fuel rods.

The ceaseless tide of boosterism, joining the mainstream media at the hip with the Chamber of Commerce and builder lobbyists (in Miami, evinced through the campaign contributions of and domination of Spanish language AM radio by funders allied with the Latin Builders Association), fed the flames of a boom in housing that was unsustainable, without any kind of breaks in the form of modifying regulations, and hubris that Greek audiences for classical tragedy two thousand years ago would have laughed or gasped at, in terror. (We build $500 million dollar performing arts centers instead of critical content.)

The Miami Herald writes above the fold today, "Loan defaults surge". The statistics belie a point I wrote about a year ago: that the credit woes then attributed to the subprime segment of buyers could not help but bleed up into the ranks of the middle class and higher-- however well-intentioned, people who spent far more on housing that they could reasonably afford.

And still, there is NO accounting in the mainstream press of the politics we see expressed every day in Miami that fostered the boom and bust, and indeed, triggered the world-wide credit crisis right here, in Florida. The principals are land speculators who own property outside the Urban Development Boundary, who have been agitating for movement of the Urban Development Boundary, and who mightily profited from economic and political considerations that have put the entire state economy deep, deep in the red.

These are the special interests who dominate the county commissions here and in the formerly fast growing parts of the state. They have been insulated from criticism in the mainstream press because the force of advertising dollars has muted any critical analysis of their roles. It is precisely the existence of an urban development boundary that flushes them, like white winged dove from their coveys.

It is all well and good to publish "Loan defaults surge". I am waiting for investigative journalists and the editorial board of The Miami Herald to write, why. I do not believe that there can be any turning of the US economy until there is a fair reckoning of the forces that plowed platted subdivisions into Florida wetlands. For now, investigative journalists and the curious will have to read our archive feature, "housing crash" to get a sense of what happened, and, why.

Warning: Don’t take investment advice from me. By Geniusofdespair

I am tired of writing political/investigative blogs so I decided to tell you a story. It was 1990 and I was looking for a gift. I happened upon a collectable sale and knowing my friend was a Star Trek fan I looked over the collection of Star Trek material. The salesman must have seen me coming. He showed me what he described as a rare “Speckled Data." You might remember that Data was the android on the TV show "Star Trek: The Next Generation." Here is the story behind the infamous action figure and how it got its tag:

This was one of the many versions Galoob Toys released in 1988 trying to simulate the "golden" skin tone of Lieutenant Commander Data. This version features DATA with a mocha skin tone with darker brown "speckles".

I was intrigued. A malfunction of the coloring process, like a rare stamp. The salesman said there were only a few produced like this one. I thought to myself, at the time, "far out!" So I bought this $3 toy action figure for $35.00, imagining that in years to come it would sky-rocket to hundreds of dollars. Well, 18 years have passed. Today I checked the price of the "Speckled Data" (in the original unopened card) on E BAY. The mint "Speckled Data" is going for $35.00.

I guess I should be happy, at least it didn’t lose its value. It taught me an important lesson about investing in collectables. I am taking comfort that I am not alone; all those Beenie Baby collectors have fared even worse.

Do you have a bad investment you want to share with us? What about collectables that made you money?

The Democrats, the economy and the presidential election, by gimleteye

The Miami-Dade Democratic Party is organizing a McCain protest with a slogan, "Feeling pain at the pump? Working people need solutions to the Gas Crisis--Not McCain Lip Service!"

The problem with gasoline is that it costs far too little, not too much. A fair price for a gallon of gasoline would include the cost of the war in Iraq and the costs of burning fossil fuels to the climate. If we were honest, the cost of gasoline would be twice as expensive. The good news is that we can solve the energy crisis.

The worse news in the economy is housing. The New York Times yesterday published a sobering--very sobering--story on the biggest growth industry in south Florida: evictions and foreclosures.

If you follow the money in the gasoline crisis, you get to Middle Eastern and Russian despots. If you follow the money in the housing crisis, you get to an even bigger problem: solvency for the nation's biggest financial institutions like Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, Citigroup, Merrill Lynch, WAMU, Wachovia, and hedge funds; some of whom are running to oil-producers to prop up their balance sheets.

Instead of focusing on gasoline prices, Democrats should focus on shadow financial system based on debt that has been allowed by the federal government to operate beyond supervision and regulation. The volume of credit at risk dwarfs the combined value of the world's stock markets.

If the Democrats want a winning issue for November: don't focus on gasoline prices that are too low, or even home foreclosures that can't be avoided or solved by government intervention because the depth of the problems are like a black hole.

Focus on the shadow financial system for debt that is wrecking our financial system and that most Americans don't even know exists.


New York Times
June 4, 2008
In South Florida, Eviction Spares Few

By DAMIEN CAVE
MIAMI — In a decade handling evictions for the Miami-Dade County Police Department, Albert Fernandez has run across a middle-class father bankrupted by his daughter’s cancer treatment; an old woman scammed by a gambling husband; and countless families perpetually on the edge of poverty.

But he has never turned out as many people as he does now.

It used to take a day or two for officers to get to an address after tenants received a notice to leave. Now, with evictions up by roughly a third over last year, Miami-Dade’s backlog is around two weeks, sometimes longer.

“It is what it is,” Officer Fernandez said, looking at a list of addresses about to be emptied. “People of all walks of life are getting evicted.”

If South Florida is a barometer for the housing crisis and the economy, the forecast does not look good. Like other areas nationwide, evictions are rising throughout the state, clogging county courts and spawning a boom in companies that specialize in “eviction services” like moving furniture to the curb.

In the first three months of this year, Broward County tallied 3,043 eviction requests — more than it has received in the same period since at least 1999, and an increase of 54 percent over last year. In Miami-Dade, landlords filed for 4,726 evictions from January through April, up 1,157 from the first four months of last year.

Much of the rise comes from foreclosures, which in Miami-Dade County jumped to 311 in January 2008 from 38 in January 2007, but more renters and business owners are also finding themselves unable to pay the bills.

In many cases, one failure leads to another. Owners, banks, renters and developers have become like prisoners attached by ankle chains: when one falls, the others slip too.

Visits to nearly a dozen properties with Officer Fernandez and his partner, Officer Charles Veiga, included several stops in which both renters and owners seemed to be struggling.

Around noon, the officers pulled into a comfortable development in Doral, where a young woman in a red shirt could be seen carrying large garbage bags out of a second-story apartment.

The woman, who identified herself only as Maria, said that she was an accountant, a mother of three, and that she was being evicted because of a double whammy: she had fallen behind in paying the $1,450 a month in rent and her landlord could no longer afford the mortgage and condominium fees, pushing the property toward foreclosure.

The problems, she said, began about a year ago when the estranged father of her children lost his job at a mortgage company and stopped paying regular child support.

“The situation is bad for everyone — me, the landlord, the father of my kids too,” said Maria, 36, who would only give her first name because she feared her new landlord would discover her financial troubles. She added that after nearly a decade in Miami, she had started asking relatives in Guatemala for help.

“It’s ridiculous to have to move money from my country to here,” she said. “This is not how it’s supposed to be.”

At another apartment building in an older, poorer area, the owner, Concepcion Rosado, 71, arrived and confronted a couple that had stopped paying the rent several months ago after four years in the apartment.

Tears streamed down the cheeks of Alisa Soriano, 48, as she begged for mercy in a dark, sparsely furnished living room. The rent was $640 a month. She said she would find work soon and so would her boyfriend, a carpenter who stood beside her, silent, with paint splotched on his jeans.

“I won’t fail you,” Ms. Soriano told her landlord in Spanish, between wails. “I won’t fail you. I won’t fail you.”

Mrs. Rosado nodded. In her hand, she held the tenants’ final effort: $300 in cash and a check for $700. “It’s just that I have to pay taxes,” she said. “I have to pay insurance. It’s very complicated.”

Ms. Soriano cried. “Ay, Dios mío,” Mrs. Rosado said.

The couple had bounced checks in the past and $1,000 was not enough to cover their back rent. But Mrs. Rosado and her daughter, Vivian, a real estate lawyer, decided to let them stay, at least for another month. “We know these are hard times,” Vivian Rosado said.

Back in the patrol car, Officer Fernandez agreed. “Sometimes we go to the same apartment building three, four times a week,” he said.

The neighborhoods have varied, from the upper-middle class to the down and out. In recent years, he has done evictions on properties owned or inhabited by drug dealers, former N.F.L. stars and renters who try to hide by removing the numbers of their address.

“The hardest ones are the old ladies,” Officer Fernandez said. Many have been victimized by relatives who took out a home equity loan, often with a forged signature, and then never paid the money back.

“It’s tough,” he said. “You think of them as your grandmother or grandfather.”

These days, however, most houses are empty when the police arrive.

Many evictions go something like what occurred when Officer Fernandez pulled into the parking lot at the Villas at Midway, where a bank had foreclosed two weeks earlier on a two-story condominium.

Christopher J. Fedor was waiting with a drill in hand. “We do evictions, trash outs, rehabs,” he said.

Mr. Fedor had been hired by HSBC, the bank that now owned the property. His job was to change the lock, check the property for damage and clean it out.

In this case, the apartment was nearly spotless. Often, items have been left behind. At one apartment Officer Fernandez visited last week, there was a single white tube sock on the floor of an upstairs bedroom; at another, a teddy bear with blue feet smiled from the top of a dirty stove.

“We had one the other day with a three-foot-long snake under a bed where a baby had been sleeping,” Mr. Fedor said, his voice echoing off the blank walls and tile floors. “Miami-Dade fire and rescue had to take it away.”

Mr. Fedor seemed busy, determined, even a bit frantic with the energy of an entrepreneur in the midst of a boom. He said his company, Florida Field Services, started doing evictions a year ago. Since then, he said, business has doubled.

“We work seven days a week,” he said.

Owners of other eviction companies, like Proeviction.com, which offers help with an eviction in any Florida County for around $400, also said customers seemed to be lining up. When they were asked if they saw any sign of a turnaround, of the market’s bottom, their answers were clear.

“We see it getting worse,” Mr. Fedor said. “And worse. And worse.”


Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company
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Objectors to Miami-Dade's movement of Urban Development Boundary hold Tallahassee press conference... by gimleteye

Progress Florida and Environment Florida delivered 2100 petitions signed by Floridians to Governor Charlie Crist today, asking the Governor and Florida Department of Community Affairs Secretary Tom Pelham to reject two applications approved by a supermajority of the Miami-Dade County Commission, overriding vetoes by Mayor Carlos Alvarez. Several television news organizations and state-wide radio recorded the transmittal of citizen objections.

Hialeah and Miami Dade County: what's with June 10th? By Geniusofdespair

I'm wondering if the powers that be have fixed on June 10th for some historic reason: maybe our readers can inform us.

On the Budget and Finance Agenda for June 10th, County Commissioner Pepe Diaz want to change the time of termination of the “cone of silence”, so that the prohibition against discussion of county contracts ends when the bids are opened, instead of the time clock that begins when the County Manager makes his written recommendation to the County Commission. What this does is give more reason for lobbyists to lobby around the County Manager's back, before he issues a written report. Expect lavish lunches of persuasive talk at best and brow beating at worst.

Great! Not!

Then, on June 10th, the Hialeah city commission is going to discuss eliminating term limits. Despite the complaints of citizen activists, Mayor Robaina and city commissioners appear determined to be able to indefinitely serve the public-- just like Natacha Seijas and her unreformable majority on the county commission.

It's interesting, isn't it: the economy is in the worst shape in a century, and zoning applications are down-- there's not much for the elected officials to do except tinker with things so that they have more power. I'm ready to fire them all, what about you?

Hit on image to enlarge it.

Investigative journalism and the blogsphere, by gimleteye

The nation’s investigative reporters are in Miami for a conference, in time for The Miami Herald editorial by Michael Putney, “Local watchdogs struggle to survive.” In the editorial, Putney makes the case our democracy cannot survive without a strong and independent free press and print journalism, in particular, in the form of newspapers. From the blogsphere, we have made the same case.

Putney makes several other points I agree with: that the concentration of media within large corporations is a threat to the survival of journalism, that declining advertising has forced reductions in staff and the capacity of newspapers to deliver the news for which the free blogsphere cannot substitute. Except.

Except that newspapers like The Miami Herald have failed to acknowledge to their readers how they have contributed themselves to loss of readership by swerving and dodging some of the toughest issues affecting our daily lives—like the origin of the housing crash, for instance. If you were to read The Miami Herald only, and not observe the goings-on as we are able to freely do on the blogsphere, you would think that the housing crash sprang from thin air, like spontaneous creation.

Even today, The Herald has been careful to the point of invisibility on the matter of explaining the origin of the housing market chaos that is wrecking and impacting so many people.

The bubble and crash that wraps up the political and economic elite of Miami was never reported in The Miami Herald because top managers of the paper were either too close to business leaders in the community, or, too concerned for the effect of negative coverage of the housing boom on its advertising base. This is not a point of nuance but central to the problem of the mainstream media: how often have presidential candidates, for instance, been asked by journalists to explain their views on the housing crash, what circumstances and politics lead to it, and what is reasonably to be done?

This issue-- the current state of our economy-- is going to define the election in November, and yet mainstream newspapers who had been asleep at the switch during the housing boom and AWOL on the issue, even today.

Maybe an even better example of where newspapers have failed their readership: reporting out the vapid politics of Detroit and gasoline; a core US industry that put the entire economy at risk when it chased down SUV's. Newspapers have been notoriously silent about criticizing the automotive industry, another key part of their revenue stream.

Putney is right on the mark, when he says that what should concern readers most is the loss of a newspaper’s capacity to publish investigative journalism related to that “sweetheart deal on a government contract, thanks to generous contributions to the mayor’s last reelection campaign.”

Many Miami Herald readers believe that the newspaper shies away from bad news stories, or negative portrayals of power, and that it is not the watchdog that it could be.

For instance, at eyeonmiami, we have focused on the issue of the relationship of the Urban Development Boundary to the nasty politics of the housing boom and crash in far greater detail than any mainstream publication. True, The Miami Herald has taken strong stands on the overarching UDB issues, but it has avoided an in-depth and consistent review of pressures of overdevelopment, advancing the fiscal irresponsibility that has turned our region as some would say, into "the Rust Belt of Florida".

We have identified, for instance, the patterns of land ownership adjacent to the dreams of big developers to plow more platted subdivisions in open space, farmland, and Everglades buffer areas and their relationship to the power structure in Miami Dade. These facts disclose the underlying power structure in a way that The Miami Herald will not do. So it is off-base for Putney to claim that stories of importance “can be ferreted out only by an experienced local reporter who’s got the talent, time and resources to nail it down.” It is not exactly the case.

We have been much tougher on rock miners, for instance, than The Miami Herald ever has. And we have specifically criticized the close, long-term relationship between the paper and Big Sugar, whose paid media professionals include former Herald executives like Joanna Wragg.

So, writing from the blogsphere; I feel torn. Torn exactly the way Leonard Pitts, the Herald’s outstanding columnist feels today, in the editorial next to Putney’s. Pitts is writing about his anger that former White House press spokesman Scott McCellan has now come clean in a tell-all book savaged Richard Clarke, former White House counterterrorism expert at the time, “a man who did have the integrity to speak truth to power in the moment when it mattered”. McClellan, today, is only now admitting to the truth we have all known for years; that this White House is the most dishonest, disheartening expression of failed national leadership we have known in our lifetimes.

Pitts writes, “You may think that’s harsh. I think there are few things less satisfying than being validated in what you already knew, too late to make a difference.”

This is what I feel, on some days, about The Miami Herald. Not all days, because when strong investigative journalism does make the front page, like the House of Lies series on corruption in local public housing, my subscription to The Herald is validated. But there is way too much of importance that is buried in the B section or letters to the editor or Neighbors, a section tailored to specific zip codes.

In too many instances of importance, like the housing crash affecting so many South Floridians, the news should have been delivered with forcefulness even if it crossed the interests of production homebuilders, furniture sales, and so forth. Exhibit A: the way Homestead and Florida City--the last rural community in South Florida--with open space, farmland, and buffer lands to the Everglades was wrecked by political insiders/ developers. Or, when has the newspaper ever criticized Florida Power and Light for its efforts to permit new nuclear power at Turkey Point absent any critical analysis of how the units will be cooled and where the water will come from, at a time of chronic water shortage and drought.

I appreciate Putney’s observations, the same way I appreciate Ed Wasserman’s contribution to the public dialogue about the future of print journalism, but I’m not entirely convinced. And my skepticism is joined by so many others.

The case must be made, as many are making, that the life of newspapers and the survival of democracy depends on a financial formula that does not fall back to the short-term needs of Wall Street investors and financial engineers.

Again, as I have written before, the best model for journalism’s survival is ownership by non-profit foundations: that is the reason the St. Pete Times consistently outperforms its rivals.

The blogsphere is not a replacement for print journalism, but what the blogsphere can provide is a balance that newspaper executives are too timid to acknowledge for fear of tipping the scales under perilous economic conditions. Is eyeonmiami doing a better job in the blogsphere of representing that balance? I think so. Yes. And it is doesn’t make me feel any better, for saying so.

FP&L is Asking for a Rate Hike and is the Democratic Torture Test Finally Over? Geniusofdespair

FP&L wants a 16% rate hike by August. Sprawl people are getting hit hard, they already are saddled with huge gas price increases for travel to and from work and now they have to absorb higher utility bills for those big houses in the burbs. What is your utility bill going to be, share the news.

Glory to God: I think the Democratic presidential candidate race is finally over. Please don’t pick Hillary for a running mate Obama. I just couldn’t stand another minute of the two of you. And, here is some more advice: Don't take on Clinton Spokesperson Terry McAuliffe, even as a volunteer. He is very annoying. Democrats have annoyed the American public enough.

Hialeah, where the roosters come home to, by gimleteye

We've had some interesting feedback on our earlier post detailing what is publicly available on plans to build on 93 acres of wetlands by 114 Acres Hialeah LLC and Prestige Builders Partners.

My guess is that the chaos of the South Florida real estate market has left the principals and banking alliances of PBP in shambles, as it is so many others. Being curious, we would like to know more about the permitting and zoning decisions involving local government in Hialeah: the role of the mayor, for instance, and the former mayor now Congressional candidate. Who are the investors and the bankers? Who is collateralizing the mortgages arising out of $1 billion in transactions?

We're very pleased to take comments off-line at: geniusofdespair@yahoo.com

More, on the Performing Arsht Center by gimleteye

One of the values of the archive section of eyeonmiami is both to educate readers who may find subjects of interest and want to look through the trail of blog posts on a particular subject, and another value is to show how our views meet up with reality. I'm perfectly willing to be proven wrong. Now, the Herald reports, "Top concert group asks Arsht Center for help".

"Struggling to pay more than $2 million in debts and stop a dwindling subscriber base, leaders of the Concert Association of Florida--the major local presenter of classical music and dance--have proposed that the performing arts center take over the group's administrative operations.

So: to the budget for a performing arts center we could not afford and that fewer people want, now add the funding request for operating expenses of performing arts organizations whose budgets were unrealistic and not properly vetted by an audit before the county commission committed $500 million to the project. (We're STILL waiting for the Herald story on that. How hard could it be, to dig up the original projections for performance demand on which the decision to invest was based? If there are any PAC insiders who would like to mail us a copy, we would be very pleased to post a condensed version and narrative on our blog.)

If voters who support the unreformable majority of the county commission don't find enough objectionable in this story, in a separate article in the paper today on the county budget crisis--due to crashing housing markets and tax base that the county commissioners' campaign contributors helped unleash here and everywhere--county officials suggest that widespread cuts will be made, including to the numerous small charitable organizations supported by the county.

If there is an answer and way to correct the dwindling subscriber base to the major local presenter of classical music and dance, it is by cultivating local audiences: that has to happen by funding the arts programs of the public schools-- right?-- and supporting local performance groups that have been chronically short of funding for decades. (Just imagine how far $500 million would have gone, to developing new and young audiences for the arts, where they live.)

If I read the Herald correctly, local performing organizations will now be competing for scarce county dollars with an unsustainable platform for performances and the Performing Arsht Center.

To the dunderheads who created and support this fiasco: YOU pay for it. YOU pay for the new Museums and Baseball Stadium. Enough said.

Do you think Pat Buchanan is Sean Hannity’s Pal? By Geniusofdespair

Here they are on the Holocaust and Xenophobia:

I got Sean Hannity’s book from the $1 store: “Deliver us from Evil.” He is pretty much obsessed with evil and devotes a lot of his book to Hitler, Nazism, and the Holocaust. He retells the stories of Holocaust survivors, and believes them. The hypothesis of the book is that there is a lot of evil out there in the world from which Republicans can save us (with the help of belief in God) and Democrats minimize that evil and have no clue about how to deal with it.

But, the Hannity book got me thinking: "Have I painted ultra-conservatives with too broad a brush?"

Pat Buchanan belief in the Holocaust is marginal at best. In his March 17, 1990 column in the New York Post, he cites 1,600 medical papers that call testimony about the concentration camps “Holocaust Survivor Syndrome.” He parrots the information he found in these 1,600 medical papers, that the recollections of survivors are not actually lies but are “Group fantasies of martyrdom and heroics.”

According to the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies:

“The association of a former Buchanan aide with Holocaust-deniers is particularly noteworthy in view of Buchanan’s own troubling positions concerning Hitler and the Holocaust. He has written that 850,000 Jews could not have been gassed in Treblinka because “diesel engines do not emit enough carbon dioxide to kill anybody”; he spoke out on behalf of accused Nazi war criminals Karl Linnas and Arthur Rudolph; he wrote columns defending Nazi death camp guard John Demjanjuk; he described Hitler as “an individual of great courage”; and he mocked Holocaust survivors’ memories as “group fantasies of martyrdom and heroics.” (The New Republic, Oct. 15 and Oct. 22, 1990) In his 1999 book, A Republic, Not an Empire, Buchanan argued that the U.S. should not have gone to war against Nazi Germany.”

So on the one hand ultra-conservative Sean Hannity believes and another ultra-conservative, Pat Buchanan, does not. Interesting. I thought "I had better get some more brushes." Wait! Maybe I don’t need brushes because here is the good news: It appears they have put aside their Holocaust differences and have come together on Xenophobia on Hannity’s show on November 27, 2007 (and by the way, in this book release interview, Hannity says about Buchanan: "we’re friends" which answers my "Pal" question posed in the title):

HANNITY: Look, I've said this to you many times. We're friends. Pat Buchanan is often ahead of his time. You were way ahead of your time on immigration in the debate in this country. Here's what you say in the book, and it scares me because a lot of — having read the book now, I'm afraid this may be true.

"America is coming apart. Decomposing. And the likelihood of her survival as one nation is improbable and impossible if America continues on its current course."
Pat Buchanan, that's a scary scenario for all of us who love this country.

BUCHANAN: It is. But take a look at the unity we had, say in the 1950s and early 1960s. What have we gone through? You had a cultural war that's divided us completely on matters of morality. You've got a wholesale invasion, the greatest invasion in human history, coming across your southern border, changing the composition and character of your country. You've got the melting pot that once welded us all together, which has broken down.

All of these things are happening, Sean, and frankly we've got have the kind of solid, firm, national leadership you need to deal with this crisis.

HANNITY: You say we're on a path of national suicide. I want to ask this question directly because you say it's a day of reckoning. Do you really believe that America, the country we all love as we know it, is in jeopardy of existing?

BUCHANAN: Here's what I think. I think America may exist, but I tell you this. I do believe we're going to lose the American Southwest. I think it is almost inevitable. If we do not put a fence on that border.

HANNITY: I agree with you.

BUCHANAN: You're going to have 100 million Hispanics in the country, most of them new immigrants from Mexico which believes that belongs to them. What's going to happen to us, Sean, in my judgment, is what is happening right now. We are Balkanizing. We are dividing and separating from one another politically, morally — on issues like abortion, or Terry Schiavo — racially and ethnically when you get Jena and then you get Don Imus, and all of the things ripping us apart. All these things that used to pull us together and hold us together, no longer do.

HANNITY: You say that the greatest invasion in history of the Third World, etc., etc., talking about the invasion on our borders, and I agree with you. That to me is the number one security issue we have.

-snip- I have had enough even if you haven’t.

Do you know where your gas money is going? by gimleteye

Maybe you've seen these photos. Maybe you haven't. Maybe you're worried about the price of your house, the cost of living, the war in Iraq. Maybe you're not. But America is poorer-- we are turning into an economic basket case of the first order--, and the nations who supply our oil and buy US Treasuries and other debt to support our standard of living are getting richer. A lot richer.

1990, Dubai
2003, Dubai
2007, Dubai
Today, Dubai

I worry whether our democracy is durable enough to withstand the slow bleeding that is going on. You see it right here in Miami: we can't even get our mass transit figured out, and our elected officials are still permitting more development in wetlands edging the Everglades. We are having a crisis in Florida Bay and the Everglades, with a massive decline of wildlife, and the political appointee who is chair of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is a land speculator trying to jam new development and rock mines outside the Urban Development Boundary.

James Speth wrote in a recent editorial, "George Bernard Shaw famously remarked that all progress depends on being unreasonable. It's time for a large amount of civic unreasonableness." What do we get, for being quiet?

Do you imagine for a single second, that the suppliers of oil to the United States believe they "owe" us anything, when opportunities for better return on their investment appear elsewhere, in emerging economies that are growing far more rapidly than ours?

The accumulated treasure of the United States is bleeding out; I hope you can see it in the photos of Dubai.


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South Florida Regional Planning Council Says No to Changes in Miami River Marine Protection. By Geniusofdespair

According to Horacio Stuart Aguirre: The South Florida Regional Planning Council voted to accept the recommendations of it's staff and reject the Amendments of the City of Miami with respect to the Miami River. (Me: The City was trying to remove language that encouraged water dependent uses along the river.) The recommendations of the South Florida Planning Council will be sent to the Dept. of Community Affairs in Tallahassee.

On The Council from Miami Dade: Michael Blynn, League of Cities appointment; Dennis Moss, Pepe Diaz and Sally Heyman as appointments of County Commission Chair Bruno Barreiro; Jose Riesco, Mayor's appointment; and Marta Perez, School Board Appointment. There might be one or two others, the rest of the Council is from Broward and Monroe.

Speaking on behalf of the City was Frank Casteneda, from the office of Commissioner Angel Gonzalez.

Foreclosures from September 19, 2007: What has happened to them?

I saved a list of foreclosures to check on periodically. It has been almost 9 months (enough time to have a baby, and you would think sell a house). Out of the 12, 3 are recent sales, one of which appears in foreclosure again. Most of them: The lenders continue to hold on.

Here are the results of a search of Property Appraiser's records on a dozen September foreclosures from all over Miami Dade County:

1. 4230 SW 134 AVENUE MIAMI – Still owned By Avelo Martgage, LLC.
2. 4612 SW 143RD COURT, MIAMI – Sold 8/2007 for $280,000. The new buyer already has a Lis Pendens of foreclosure from Citimortage, Inc., filed March 27, 2008.
3. 14340 SOUTHWEST 23RD LANE, MIAMI – Same ownership, even though there was a final judgment of foreclosure for $324,612.06 on 8/07. There is no indication that the loan was satisfied.
4. 435 SW 133 AVENUE, MIAMI – Still owned by Novastar Mortgage (half million dollar property).
5. 2510 NW 152 ST MIAMI GARDENS, FL 33054 – Showing same owner. A bankruptcy was filed by the owner 9/27 against Avelo Mortgage even though there was a foreclosure final judgement dated 7/18, recorded in September.
6. 2151 SW 16 STREET, MIAMI – Still owned by Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp.
7. 30121 SW 151ST AVE, HOMESTEAD – Sold 2/2008 for $107,500. The last owner paid $290,000 9/2006. That is a heavy loss.
8. 20229 SW 124TH AVENUE, MIAMI – This home of almost 2,000 sf, Sold 3/2008 for $221,500. The previous owner paid $266,000 6/2005.
9. 9711 SW 30TH ST., MIAMI – Still owned by Fremont Investment & Loan. Sad, the owner that was foreclosed on had a senior exemption.
10. 367 NW 4TH ST., FLORIDA CITY - Still owned by U.S. Bank National Association.
11. 16658 SW 79TH TERR, MIAMI – Still owned by Residential Funding Company, LLC.
12. 15850-52 NW 38TH PLACE, MIAMI – Owned by C & N Trust.

We have had 16,246 mortgage foreclosures in the first 4 months of this year. If things go at this same pace we might be facing 48,000 foreclosures by the end of this year. Can lenders afford to keep holding them?

Rudy Herbello: Drops out of District 11 race for County Commssioner. By Geniusofdespair

According to Whilly Bermundez, Rudy Herbello withdrew from the District 11 race. So Joe Martinez has only one challenger - Whilly - with 2 weeks to go for qualifying. The other County Commission Candidate with a challenger is Audrey Edmonson in District 3.

The qualifying dates, according to Miami Dade County, for the Mayor and County Commissioners are June 3rd through noon on June 17th, 2008. However the Florida State website gives the dates as from Noon June 16 through Noon, June 20th. If there are no challengers, the incumbents are automatically reelected. If you are going to run shoot for qualifying on June 16th in the afternoon, both websites agree on that date. You could wait till the morning of the 17th but you will be screwed if you are missing something.

The primary election for County Commission is August 26th. It is misleading to call it a primary...it is actually the election if there are only two candidates. If you are going to be away, fill out an absentee voter form. It will come to you earlier.

Crist misses his chance, by gimleteye

Does Governor Charlie Crist know that Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Chairman Rodney Barreto is a land speculator and now prospective rock miner on property outside the Urban Development Boundary? Now he does.

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Miami Population is Desensitized to Corruption. By Geniusofdespair

Ana Menendez writes in the Miami Herald that "Corruption outrage fades with familiarity". Boy, if that ain’t the truth! She says:

“Repeat something long enough and even the unacceptable will become commonplace. It's a technique perfected by cult leaders, brain-washers and our local caste of powerful crooks. They've been lying and stealing for so long that it's hard to summon outrage.” And:

“Faced with politicians increasingly viewed as compromised, the savvy are learning to go straight to the courts..."

Also, quote of the day goes to Carl Hiaasen writing that Governer Crist should drop out of Vice President race:

"As vice president, he'd be basically useless to the residents of Florida. For one thing, he'd lose all clout over the knuckleheads in our sorry excuse for a Legislature."

Finally, don't forget Jim Morin's Cartoon which is a two barrel attack: Making fun of our County Commission's transportation non-funding while taking a swipe at them collectively. (you can check out the whole week of editorial cartoons on this link).