The Miami Dade County Commission, lead by Pepe Diaz and Joe Martinez and Natacha Seijas, has rolled over for FPL every step of the way to construction of two new nuclear reactors at sea level in South Dade. Between a hundred year hurricane and sea level rise, it is a certainty that Turkey Point will-- one way or another-- be cut off from electric supplies required to operate back ups. Your elected officials see no problem with this, so I suggest sending the Miami Dade County Commission and let them put on the suits and gear to go in and get some on the ground experience by visiting the failing reactors in Japan. Let them get a taste of their own medicine. As for the seriousness of this video that just appeared on the net, I watched on CNN last night a shill for the nuclear industry explain how what was happening in Japan is not so bad. That the main problem is not radioactive emissions into the atmosphere, he said, but "fear". Since "fear" is something we can easily overcome, I say let's pay for the plane tickets for the Miami Dade County Commissioners to go to Japan right away.
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Nukes: In Japan and Turkey Point. By Geniusofdespair
The exclusion zone for people around one of Japan's nuclear power plants is now 13 miles. I put a graphic of a 10 mile circle from Turkey Point to show you what that would look like in Miami. The 13 miles would almost get us to Tamiani Airport. They also reported this morning there was an explosion at another plant. The disaster may be far from over.
Do you all really want 2 more reactors at Turkey Point?
(hit on image to enlarge it)
Friday, March 11, 2011
Some Gulf Stream Casino Surfing. By Geniusofdespair
Adrenalina Flowrider at Gulfstream Park Hollywood, Florida. Excuse for a little music.
Golf Courses in State Parks, or, more from the Florida Republic of Idiots: The Wade Hopping Effect ... by gimleteye
The GOP led state legislature in Florida is set to fire off a pipe bomb against regulations that, over forty years, were established to protect the state's waters and and important natural resources from the impacts of rampant sprawl. Florida's legislators are drunk with their own power, having witnessed the decline of the media and the ability of elected officials to literally get away with anything during campaigns. Whatever Rick Scott achieves in his four year term, his single most lasting influence will be to have been elected without granting one interview to a newspaper editorial board. A candidate for office can get away with anything, in Florida politics, is the message to public officials whose idea of history is what can fit on Glenn Beck's Fox News blackboard.
Still, tradition in the legislature counts. And one of the long-time traditions in Tallahassee-- established by the late lobbyist for Big Sugar and land speculators, Wade Hopping-- is now on display. It goes along the following lines: when you have a lot of really nasty stuff to pass, the best way to get it through is by setting a fire in a place to draw away attention; a diversion in other words where you never intend to really fight. You put up a bill that is so crazy, so off-the-wall, that it gets all the do-good'ers in a froth, whips up all the old ladies who want to protect owls or manatees. Then while the do-good'ers are all off on their dithering tangents, writing newspaper letters to the editor and organizing telephone trees and marches, you (legislators) do the real dirty work: using fine pens, strike thru amendments, and vague language to re-jigger laws so that it doesn't look like anything too bad is happening, when any lawyer worth his or her salt knows, the Devil really does go to Bible Study Class on Sunday.
This year, state senator John Thrasher-- a lead tenor in the Jeb! Bush School of Hogwarts-- has the privilege of igniting popular outrage for a bill that isn't going anywhere, but will soak up lots of civic energy while truly awful stuff goes on behind the scenes. The Thrasher / Wade Hopping effort is a new bill that would allow Jack Nicklaus designed golf courses to be built inside state parks.
You can already hear tens of thousands of Floridians rising in anger. "Florida state legislators are sniffing glue, snorting Oxy, they are high on the life of the Tea Party. Why not just put Off Road Vehicle Parks on the golf courses, on top of the state parks too? Yes. And medicinal marijuana dispensaries, they should go at every fourth hole. That will give the legislature something to do next year: move them to every third hole. And the year after, every second hole. Here's another idea for state parks and golf courses. If you beat your handicap by three strokes, you get a free condo or townhouse by Lennar or Century, funded by the taxpayer. That way, next year the legislature can lower the limit to two, and one, and so forth. I can't wait to hear the debate on lifting the limit for free homes based on golfing handicaps in state parks. And pretty soon, we'll have casinos where you can exchange your mortgage for gambling chips. It all makes perfect sense to the Republicans. Does Jack Nicklaus also design asylums?"
Well, it felt good to write that but I don't believe anything will come of the Thrasher golf course idiocy. I think it is a Wade Hopping moment, to send the chatterers down another rabbit hole while a world of hurt is inflicted on the state. Here's what the lead editorial of the Orlando Sentinel had to say: "Golf courses in state parks? Worst. Idea. Ever. Golf courses have a place in Florida but not in state parks. Allow us to label the absurd notion of turning state parks into golf courses as the Worst. Idea. Ever. At least, so far this session. Who knows what else this state Legislature is capable of, seeing as how this notion isn't getting laughed out of the Capitol? But this is no joke."
What is truly no joke is what is happening to the Republican game plan to re-write the laws and agency missions governing environmental protection and growth management in Florida. That's the place where the Devil is dancing, around a crowd of GOP house and state senators who go to church on Sundays. They are aiming at nothing less than giving Florida's heritage away to the same land speculators, agricultural interests, and lobbyists who lubricated the economic disaster of rampant overdevelopment. Golf courses in state parks is a trivial pursuit compared to what the legislature is doing to the Everglades, our rivers and bays and streams and wetlands. Growth management in Florida is about to go the way of the dinosaur. Any brakes that may have inhibited the land speculators are about to be removed. The Florida Department of Community Affairs will be no more. I know plenty-- and I am amongst them-- who believe that DCA did a terrible job of protecting the public commons. But the answer is not to eliminate: it is to make government do the work that the law intends. So long to all that. The state is being sold to the lowest bidders. Thanks to the November 2010 election results and the US Supreme Court's decision to give corporations the ability to write unlimited campaign checks, Florida is will be the new Alabama. But call Senator Thrasher anyway. Let him know what he supports is truly awful. But put it in these words: that Satan is making noises from his office and that what he and the GOP are doing to Florida is something that turns Christian values upside down. (click 'read more', for the rest of the Orlando Sentinel editorial)
Orlando Sentinel:
"Sen. John Thrasher of St. Augustine (who is quickly making us regret endorsing him last year) and Rep. Pat Rooney of West Palm
Beach have dropped bombshells that would let private developers build five golf courses on state parks throughout Florida. Plus hotels. Because what says natural Florida like 18 holes and room service?
And that's just for starters. The Thrasher-Rooney bills - each pitched as the Jack Nicklaus Golf Trail - have planet-size loopholes that would let Florida's Division of Recreation and Parks approve even more courses once the first five are up and running. Imagine, if you can, an 18-hole course within a 9-iron of the Wekiva River. Or Wakulla Springs as a water hazard. Or a hotel on Crystal River.
Under these bills, golf courses might get built on state parks like Silver River, Rock Springs Run, Paynes Prairie or Anclote Key. Altogether, some 40 state parks could get clubbed. Mr. Rooney's bill wastes no time. It mandates that one of the courses will
be built at Jonathan Dickinson State Park in Martin County, home to the wildlife-rich Loxahatchee River, and soon, if Mr. Rooney gets his way, duffers riding golf carts.
And those are just parks that meet the 3,000-acre threshold. The House and Senate bills cleverly stipulate that golf courses should be on parks of that size if possible. Dozens of smaller state parks could be at risk, including Blue Spring, Ichetucknee Springs, Little Manatee River and Tomoka. This is what passes for environmental protection these days in Tallahassee?
Refusing to fund state land purchases and then handing over what we have to the highest bidder? Replacing natural habitat with sod that needs water and pesticides?
Never mind that Florida already is choking on golf courses (more than any other state). Or that some of those courses, including some in Central Florida, are in financial trouble. Or that the sport's popularity has been on the decline. These bills would exert even more financial pressure on Florida's existing golf courses by letting the government pick development winners and letting
them build on some of the choicest locations in the state. Speaking of picking winners, the House and Senate bills specifically mandate that all of the courses be designed by golfing legend Jack Nicklaus. What a sweet deal for Mr. Nicklaus, a South Florida resident who met in January with Gov. Rick Scott. Mr. Scott said he wanted Mr. Nicklaus to "give me his ideas on economic development in the state."
We now have a better picture of what those ideas included, like handing the Golden Bear a no-bid, exclusive opportunity for his company to design golf courses on public property. To ensure that state biologists don't make trouble, the bills call for a
regulatory process "free from unnecessarily burdensome requirements." And local governments are told to butt out, too.
These bills perfectly illustrate Florida's steady march away from an environmental movement that is responsible for saving beaches, forests, rivers, and what's left of the Everglades. Florida's legislators, those with even a shred of respect left for their
state's natural places, must stop this madness.
If you think golf courses don't belong in Florida's state parks, contact: House sponsor Pat Rooney at 850-488-0322 pat.rooney@myfloridahouse.gov Senate sponsor John Thrasher at 850-487-5030 or
thrasher.john.web@flsenate.gov"
Still, tradition in the legislature counts. And one of the long-time traditions in Tallahassee-- established by the late lobbyist for Big Sugar and land speculators, Wade Hopping-- is now on display. It goes along the following lines: when you have a lot of really nasty stuff to pass, the best way to get it through is by setting a fire in a place to draw away attention; a diversion in other words where you never intend to really fight. You put up a bill that is so crazy, so off-the-wall, that it gets all the do-good'ers in a froth, whips up all the old ladies who want to protect owls or manatees. Then while the do-good'ers are all off on their dithering tangents, writing newspaper letters to the editor and organizing telephone trees and marches, you (legislators) do the real dirty work: using fine pens, strike thru amendments, and vague language to re-jigger laws so that it doesn't look like anything too bad is happening, when any lawyer worth his or her salt knows, the Devil really does go to Bible Study Class on Sunday.
This year, state senator John Thrasher-- a lead tenor in the Jeb! Bush School of Hogwarts-- has the privilege of igniting popular outrage for a bill that isn't going anywhere, but will soak up lots of civic energy while truly awful stuff goes on behind the scenes. The Thrasher / Wade Hopping effort is a new bill that would allow Jack Nicklaus designed golf courses to be built inside state parks.
You can already hear tens of thousands of Floridians rising in anger. "Florida state legislators are sniffing glue, snorting Oxy, they are high on the life of the Tea Party. Why not just put Off Road Vehicle Parks on the golf courses, on top of the state parks too? Yes. And medicinal marijuana dispensaries, they should go at every fourth hole. That will give the legislature something to do next year: move them to every third hole. And the year after, every second hole. Here's another idea for state parks and golf courses. If you beat your handicap by three strokes, you get a free condo or townhouse by Lennar or Century, funded by the taxpayer. That way, next year the legislature can lower the limit to two, and one, and so forth. I can't wait to hear the debate on lifting the limit for free homes based on golfing handicaps in state parks. And pretty soon, we'll have casinos where you can exchange your mortgage for gambling chips. It all makes perfect sense to the Republicans. Does Jack Nicklaus also design asylums?"
Well, it felt good to write that but I don't believe anything will come of the Thrasher golf course idiocy. I think it is a Wade Hopping moment, to send the chatterers down another rabbit hole while a world of hurt is inflicted on the state. Here's what the lead editorial of the Orlando Sentinel had to say: "Golf courses in state parks? Worst. Idea. Ever. Golf courses have a place in Florida but not in state parks. Allow us to label the absurd notion of turning state parks into golf courses as the Worst. Idea. Ever. At least, so far this session. Who knows what else this state Legislature is capable of, seeing as how this notion isn't getting laughed out of the Capitol? But this is no joke."
What is truly no joke is what is happening to the Republican game plan to re-write the laws and agency missions governing environmental protection and growth management in Florida. That's the place where the Devil is dancing, around a crowd of GOP house and state senators who go to church on Sundays. They are aiming at nothing less than giving Florida's heritage away to the same land speculators, agricultural interests, and lobbyists who lubricated the economic disaster of rampant overdevelopment. Golf courses in state parks is a trivial pursuit compared to what the legislature is doing to the Everglades, our rivers and bays and streams and wetlands. Growth management in Florida is about to go the way of the dinosaur. Any brakes that may have inhibited the land speculators are about to be removed. The Florida Department of Community Affairs will be no more. I know plenty-- and I am amongst them-- who believe that DCA did a terrible job of protecting the public commons. But the answer is not to eliminate: it is to make government do the work that the law intends. So long to all that. The state is being sold to the lowest bidders. Thanks to the November 2010 election results and the US Supreme Court's decision to give corporations the ability to write unlimited campaign checks, Florida is will be the new Alabama. But call Senator Thrasher anyway. Let him know what he supports is truly awful. But put it in these words: that Satan is making noises from his office and that what he and the GOP are doing to Florida is something that turns Christian values upside down. (click 'read more', for the rest of the Orlando Sentinel editorial)
Orlando Sentinel:
"Sen. John Thrasher of St. Augustine (who is quickly making us regret endorsing him last year) and Rep. Pat Rooney of West Palm
Beach have dropped bombshells that would let private developers build five golf courses on state parks throughout Florida. Plus hotels. Because what says natural Florida like 18 holes and room service?
And that's just for starters. The Thrasher-Rooney bills - each pitched as the Jack Nicklaus Golf Trail - have planet-size loopholes that would let Florida's Division of Recreation and Parks approve even more courses once the first five are up and running. Imagine, if you can, an 18-hole course within a 9-iron of the Wekiva River. Or Wakulla Springs as a water hazard. Or a hotel on Crystal River.
Under these bills, golf courses might get built on state parks like Silver River, Rock Springs Run, Paynes Prairie or Anclote Key. Altogether, some 40 state parks could get clubbed. Mr. Rooney's bill wastes no time. It mandates that one of the courses will
be built at Jonathan Dickinson State Park in Martin County, home to the wildlife-rich Loxahatchee River, and soon, if Mr. Rooney gets his way, duffers riding golf carts.
And those are just parks that meet the 3,000-acre threshold. The House and Senate bills cleverly stipulate that golf courses should be on parks of that size if possible. Dozens of smaller state parks could be at risk, including Blue Spring, Ichetucknee Springs, Little Manatee River and Tomoka. This is what passes for environmental protection these days in Tallahassee?
Refusing to fund state land purchases and then handing over what we have to the highest bidder? Replacing natural habitat with sod that needs water and pesticides?
Never mind that Florida already is choking on golf courses (more than any other state). Or that some of those courses, including some in Central Florida, are in financial trouble. Or that the sport's popularity has been on the decline. These bills would exert even more financial pressure on Florida's existing golf courses by letting the government pick development winners and letting
them build on some of the choicest locations in the state. Speaking of picking winners, the House and Senate bills specifically mandate that all of the courses be designed by golfing legend Jack Nicklaus. What a sweet deal for Mr. Nicklaus, a South Florida resident who met in January with Gov. Rick Scott. Mr. Scott said he wanted Mr. Nicklaus to "give me his ideas on economic development in the state."
We now have a better picture of what those ideas included, like handing the Golden Bear a no-bid, exclusive opportunity for his company to design golf courses on public property. To ensure that state biologists don't make trouble, the bills call for a
regulatory process "free from unnecessarily burdensome requirements." And local governments are told to butt out, too.
These bills perfectly illustrate Florida's steady march away from an environmental movement that is responsible for saving beaches, forests, rivers, and what's left of the Everglades. Florida's legislators, those with even a shred of respect left for their
state's natural places, must stop this madness.
If you think golf courses don't belong in Florida's state parks, contact: House sponsor Pat Rooney at 850-488-0322 pat.rooney@myfloridahouse.gov Senate sponsor John Thrasher at 850-487-5030 or
thrasher.john.web@flsenate.gov"
Thursday, March 10, 2011
On a County Committee Agenda: Who gets to be Mayor. by Geniusofdespair
Pretty self explanatory. Natacha sponsored it and little Joe Martinez gets his wish, to be Mayor for awhile. The Infrastructure & Land Use Committee (ILUC) meeting was canceled so I guess this will raise its ugly head once again, along with Pepe Diaz's green-washed phony resolution "ANALYZING THE CREATION OF A CONTIGUOUS GREENBELT IN WESTERN MIAMI-DADE COUNTY." County government is at a standstill until the recall election.
Miami Dade County vs. Broward County? Which wins. By Geniusofdespair
These two cases sound the same. Are they?
Miami Dade County: When Lynda Bell ran for Mayor, a PAC called Citizens for Reform for Miami Dade was formed to raise money to run commercials to help now mayor of Homestead Bateman and Councilwoman Waldman and smear opponent Lynda Bell.
Broward County: Developers contributed $21,000 to a PAC to help Tamarac Mayor Beth Flansbaum-Talabisco and smear her opponent.
Miami Dade County: Charles Munz's Corporation gave at least $25,000 to this PAC favoring Bateman and Waldman.
Broward County: Developers contributed $21,000 to a PAC helping Flansbaum-Talbisco.
Miami Dade County: Munz's Company got a favorable vote from the Homestead Commission that saved him millions.
Broward County: Mayor also gave PAC donors a favorable vote that enriched them. NOW HERE IS THE KICKER:
Miami Dade County: Nothing happened.
Broward County: Prosecutors indicted the Mayor of Tamarac.
What is wrong with Miami Dade County? See details of the Munz vote:
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Homestead Sucks With Bad Deals Aplenty. By Geniusofdespair
The city of Homestead had to spent $5.5 million as a result of the inept digging (30 feet too deep which caused salt water intrusion) done at a city owned lake by the Redland Co., but the agreement made yesterday means the company only has to repay $1 million, losing the cash strapped city millions. The bulk of the money the city spent was to replace the excess fill the company removed. These rock pits are a danger to our water supply.
The Miami Herald reported:
Homestead taxpayers will lose more than $4 million under a lawsuit settlement approved by the City Council on Friday with a local businessman who donated thousands of dollars to several council members' campaigns. AND:
Redland owner Charles ``Pinky'' Munz, his relatives and his companies donated about $2,500 to Mayor Steve Bateman's 2009 campaign kitty. They also gave more than $2,000 each to Vice Mayor Judy Waldman and Councilmen Elvis Maldonado, Jimmie Williams and Stephen Shelley, plus another $25,000 to Citizens for Reform for Miami-Dade County, a political action committee supporting the same candidates.
This is why we look at campaign contributions folks. The two candidates who didn't get the contributions voted against this bad deal. This is an example of a boondoggle Homestead and it gets my "sucks" rating.
Miami Dade County: When Lynda Bell ran for Mayor, a PAC called Citizens for Reform for Miami Dade was formed to raise money to run commercials to help now mayor of Homestead Bateman and Councilwoman Waldman and smear opponent Lynda Bell.
Broward County: Developers contributed $21,000 to a PAC to help Tamarac Mayor Beth Flansbaum-Talabisco and smear her opponent.
Miami Dade County: Charles Munz's Corporation gave at least $25,000 to this PAC favoring Bateman and Waldman.
Broward County: Developers contributed $21,000 to a PAC helping Flansbaum-Talbisco.
Miami Dade County: Munz's Company got a favorable vote from the Homestead Commission that saved him millions.
Broward County: Mayor also gave PAC donors a favorable vote that enriched them. NOW HERE IS THE KICKER:
Miami Dade County: Nothing happened.
Broward County: Prosecutors indicted the Mayor of Tamarac.
What is wrong with Miami Dade County? See details of the Munz vote:
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Homestead Sucks With Bad Deals Aplenty. By Geniusofdespair
The city of Homestead had to spent $5.5 million as a result of the inept digging (30 feet too deep which caused salt water intrusion) done at a city owned lake by the Redland Co., but the agreement made yesterday means the company only has to repay $1 million, losing the cash strapped city millions. The bulk of the money the city spent was to replace the excess fill the company removed. These rock pits are a danger to our water supply.
The Miami Herald reported:
Homestead taxpayers will lose more than $4 million under a lawsuit settlement approved by the City Council on Friday with a local businessman who donated thousands of dollars to several council members' campaigns. AND:
Redland owner Charles ``Pinky'' Munz, his relatives and his companies donated about $2,500 to Mayor Steve Bateman's 2009 campaign kitty. They also gave more than $2,000 each to Vice Mayor Judy Waldman and Councilmen Elvis Maldonado, Jimmie Williams and Stephen Shelley, plus another $25,000 to Citizens for Reform for Miami-Dade County, a political action committee supporting the same candidates.
This is why we look at campaign contributions folks. The two candidates who didn't get the contributions voted against this bad deal. This is an example of a boondoggle Homestead and it gets my "sucks" rating.
This year in the Florida Legislature with Gov. Rick Scott: yes it will be that bad ... by gimleteye
The New York Times reports that Florida Republicans are "at odds with their leader", Gov. Rick Scott who applied $73 million of his own fortune to win the Governor's Mansion in last November's election. But it is misleading to take away from the headline that what will emerge from this year's legislature is "less bad" than if Gov. Scott had supreme power to make laws. Fact: this Republican legislature is the most conservative in 100 years. There is not an empathetic bone in Tallahassee, nor apparently a Democratic voice to articulate why there should be one.
The arguments of economists like Paul Krugman-- that at a time of major instability in the US economy, deficit spending could prevent another collapse-- have no support with Republicans or even amongst Democrats shell-shocked in the November elections. Meanwhile, the Legislature has taken an axe to the regulatory programs that protected, or at least intended to protect, Florida's quality of life and environment. It's a "Fire Sale: Everything Must Go."
It is not a stretch to understand that the same crew, thanks to Grover Norquist, that aimed to shrink the size of government so it could be drowned in a bathtub is also inclined to throw out whatever babies are in the dirty bathtub water. Its supporters are pro-life, too, but against environmental rules that would protect life and God's creation. They are standing up with Fox News to elect public officials who support killing regulations in order to create jobs, but unwilling to learn for themselves how the entire apparatus is vapid, weak and misleading on purpose.
Here's from today's news:
• Lower-wage industries -- things like retail and food preparation -- accounted for 23 percent of the jobs lost during the recession, but 49 percent of the jobs gained over the last year, a recent study (pdf) by the National Employment Law Program found. Higher-wage industries, by contrast, accounted for 40 percent of the jobs lost, but just 14 percent of the jobs gained. In other words, low paying jobs are increasing as a percentage of total jobs, while high-paying jobs are on the decline.
• Meanwhile, the percentage of those working who have part-time jobs and want full-time ones surged in mid-February to 19.6 percent -- almost as high as it was a year ago before the recovery began, according to Gallup numbers. That suggests, of course, that a large number of the new jobs created over the last year are part-time.
• And a recent Wall Street Journal analysis found that even though productivity rose 5.2 percent from mid 2009 to the end of 2010, wages increased by just 0.3 percent. That means only 6 percent of productivity gains were shared with workers. In past recoveries, that figure has averaged 58 percent. This time around, far more of the gains went to shareholders, in the form of profits, which are at record levels.
Floridians might be lulled into believing that the Legislature is not as mean-spirited as Gov. Scott, who has approached governing with the zeal of entrepreneur who believes a firm business-like approach can cut through government inefficiency like a surgical knife. But Gov. Scott is not out to fix government policies designed to fail taxpayers and the public. How could he be? His own fortune was made by exploiting inefficiencies in medical procedure reimbursements by government. In other words, it is NOT that government can't work. Government that doesn't work is just too profitable to be given up for government that does.
Floridians might be lulled into believing that the Legislature will pull back from the most radical aspects of legislative proposals that are likely to emerge from committees. That is wishful thinking. This legislature is dominated by special interests who have seized the economic crisis as the greatest opportunity in generations, to eliminate regulations. In the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reporter Zac Anderson reports on the large surge of cash that flowed into Tallahassee in the weeks and months leading into today’s first day of the 2011 Legislative Session. Anderson writes that $8.8 million flooded into the two political parties during the last two months of 2010, with the overwhelming amount ($7.7 million) going to the Republican Party of Florida. (This imbalance, by the way, is also reflected in contributions to independent expenditure committees at the national level.)
The main goal of the GOP radical extremists, supported by the Tea Party, is to take land use regulations and throw them into the crapper. The blood lust to do away with protections like the Urban Development Boundary in Miami-Dade is just too powerful. And why not? The speculators in land outside the UDB are at risk of losing everything to banks under pressure, five years later, to book debts at realistic, current values. All the speculators, if land use regulations are done away with, can re-rig local zoning in order to make their debts, marketable. Environmental protections and water management? Give them to the level of government most likely to loot the storehouse. Florida's Republican leaders don't really believe that "regulations killed jobs". They just know that to say so, plays well with the red-meat mob. As to a hint of a remorse that their own actions lubricated the velocity of the worst economic crash since the Depression? That would be their audacity of nope. The bottom line: the baseline for what constitutes fair and reasonable government has pushed so far off off the map as to be unrecognizable. That is the State of Florida today.
The arguments of economists like Paul Krugman-- that at a time of major instability in the US economy, deficit spending could prevent another collapse-- have no support with Republicans or even amongst Democrats shell-shocked in the November elections. Meanwhile, the Legislature has taken an axe to the regulatory programs that protected, or at least intended to protect, Florida's quality of life and environment. It's a "Fire Sale: Everything Must Go."
It is not a stretch to understand that the same crew, thanks to Grover Norquist, that aimed to shrink the size of government so it could be drowned in a bathtub is also inclined to throw out whatever babies are in the dirty bathtub water. Its supporters are pro-life, too, but against environmental rules that would protect life and God's creation. They are standing up with Fox News to elect public officials who support killing regulations in order to create jobs, but unwilling to learn for themselves how the entire apparatus is vapid, weak and misleading on purpose.
Here's from today's news:
• Lower-wage industries -- things like retail and food preparation -- accounted for 23 percent of the jobs lost during the recession, but 49 percent of the jobs gained over the last year, a recent study (pdf) by the National Employment Law Program found. Higher-wage industries, by contrast, accounted for 40 percent of the jobs lost, but just 14 percent of the jobs gained. In other words, low paying jobs are increasing as a percentage of total jobs, while high-paying jobs are on the decline.
• Meanwhile, the percentage of those working who have part-time jobs and want full-time ones surged in mid-February to 19.6 percent -- almost as high as it was a year ago before the recovery began, according to Gallup numbers. That suggests, of course, that a large number of the new jobs created over the last year are part-time.
• And a recent Wall Street Journal analysis found that even though productivity rose 5.2 percent from mid 2009 to the end of 2010, wages increased by just 0.3 percent. That means only 6 percent of productivity gains were shared with workers. In past recoveries, that figure has averaged 58 percent. This time around, far more of the gains went to shareholders, in the form of profits, which are at record levels.
Floridians might be lulled into believing that the Legislature is not as mean-spirited as Gov. Scott, who has approached governing with the zeal of entrepreneur who believes a firm business-like approach can cut through government inefficiency like a surgical knife. But Gov. Scott is not out to fix government policies designed to fail taxpayers and the public. How could he be? His own fortune was made by exploiting inefficiencies in medical procedure reimbursements by government. In other words, it is NOT that government can't work. Government that doesn't work is just too profitable to be given up for government that does.
Floridians might be lulled into believing that the Legislature will pull back from the most radical aspects of legislative proposals that are likely to emerge from committees. That is wishful thinking. This legislature is dominated by special interests who have seized the economic crisis as the greatest opportunity in generations, to eliminate regulations. In the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reporter Zac Anderson reports on the large surge of cash that flowed into Tallahassee in the weeks and months leading into today’s first day of the 2011 Legislative Session. Anderson writes that $8.8 million flooded into the two political parties during the last two months of 2010, with the overwhelming amount ($7.7 million) going to the Republican Party of Florida. (This imbalance, by the way, is also reflected in contributions to independent expenditure committees at the national level.)
The main goal of the GOP radical extremists, supported by the Tea Party, is to take land use regulations and throw them into the crapper. The blood lust to do away with protections like the Urban Development Boundary in Miami-Dade is just too powerful. And why not? The speculators in land outside the UDB are at risk of losing everything to banks under pressure, five years later, to book debts at realistic, current values. All the speculators, if land use regulations are done away with, can re-rig local zoning in order to make their debts, marketable. Environmental protections and water management? Give them to the level of government most likely to loot the storehouse. Florida's Republican leaders don't really believe that "regulations killed jobs". They just know that to say so, plays well with the red-meat mob. As to a hint of a remorse that their own actions lubricated the velocity of the worst economic crash since the Depression? That would be their audacity of nope. The bottom line: the baseline for what constitutes fair and reasonable government has pushed so far off off the map as to be unrecognizable. That is the State of Florida today.
Keeping Track of Florida's Downfall. By Geniusofdespair
Might as well call this Black Thursday, hard to keep up with the bad news.
Rick Scott, after already rejecting Bullet Train funds, is now rejecting $1 million dollars for a database to fight pill mills.
Rick Scott wants to gut the Department of Community Affairs (growth management) reducing staff from 358 employees to 40 and slashing the budget from $779 to $110 million. The DCA is our last line of defense from bad developments.
Land bought for Everglades Restoration, 18,000 acres, may be used by farmers because of budget crunch.
U.S. Rep. Thomas Rooney is trying to gut EPA clean water rules in the name of, he says, 60 national companies like the Chamber of Commerce. Clean water is a job killer he says. What about us? Don't we deserve clean water to swim in and to drink? Don't the fish and manatees deserve clean water to live in?
This post rates my Ick designation.
Wednesday, March 09, 2011
Natacha Seijas Does a Last Ditch of Her Office Budget. By Geniusofdespair
I originally said $490,000 dollars from Natacha Seijas's offfice budget is on the Agenda for the County Commission Meeting on March 15th (see graphic))...the same day as the recall election. the Herald tell me it it is really only $245,000 -- the amounts to be given are repeated twice, so take their word for it. Does that bankrupt District 13 for the Commissioner taking over? Are we going to have to come up with more tax dollars for this bloated office budget for District 13? I think these disbursements are unwise under the circumstances. I hope that no other Commissioner will approve them. It would be a slap in the face to the public.
Being cynical, is Seijas using the promise of the funds to entice people to vote for her? There are a lot of voters in all these programs she is dishing out money to. I think it is a last show of force, wielding her power to the bitter end.
Thank you reader for telling me about this agenda item.
Natacha Seijas, US Century Bank: top supporters, going down with the ship ... by gimleteye
County commissioner Natacha Seijas, facing a recall election next week in Hialeah, represents the land speculators and developers whose greed and determination to turn every last square acre of the county into suburban sprawl symbolizes the poverty of imagination that is a hallmark of South Florida. The political forces in Miami Dade who championed sprawl-- leading by force of campaign contributions that shut out all opposition-- center around the Latin Builders Association and its directors.
Seijas, in a recent public opinion poll, likely to face defeat by an angry electorate next week. What is not clear, and has never been clear to the electorate, is the extent to which Seijas stands for the influence peddling and horrendous politics that came to full expression through suburban sprawl. Seijas' approval ratings are at rock bottom, but so are her supporters and their business lines that depended on massive infusion of capital to service debt loads built on land speculation. Take her top supporters for example; Century Homes and US Century Bank.
Sergio Pino, Ramon Rasco, Jose Cancela, Augustin Herran: the founders and directors of US Century Bank had a simple purpose: to extend the empire of suburban sprawl to the Everglades in Miami-Dade, using up every buildable acre. They are among the biggest land speculators, as individual investors, outside the Urban Development Boundary (projects like Parkland) where they are still at work, hand in glove with Lennar and other publicly held companies, to push sprawl into farmland. They are omnipresent at County Hall where their political influence deformed the entire purpose of local government during the run up to the biggest housing boom and then crash in Florida history-- miming the economic fortunes of the nation--, turning the county zoning department into an embattled and stressed hothouse where planners either grew skin thick as a rino's or found another place to work.
Seijas and staff including Terry Murphy played the central role in shaping the accommodation of power, money and authority in government to the needs and preferences of the builders and bankers. In the case of the Homestead Air Force Base fiasco, tens of millions of dollars and nearly a decade deformed the focus of local government to serve their plans. Wasted. The subsidiary effect of so much lobbying was to degrade every other effort to protect Miami Dade's quality of life and environment. For example, there was nothing coincidental about the M-D Police Department looting the environmental fund, millions of dollars cobbled together from fines collected by polluters. Snatch and grab has been the entire culture of county government, with its corner markers set down in clear scents on the playing field by the big dogs. Yes, Ramon Rasco and the HABDI investors were about aviation and how to maximize private profit, but the real play in Homestead was for suburban sprawl: to make billions by putting tens of thousands of newcomers into crappy subdivisions in South Dade, the Redland and West Dade.
US Century Bank was at the forefront: a homegrown bank to serve the mortgage needs of sprawl. Like Seijas, the bank is rated zero today. The latest report by Bauer Financial has some astounding statistics: in the quarter ended Sept 30, 2010, loans to insiders as a percentage of total networth was 62%, or eighty percent higher than its peer group. Partly, as a result, Bauer rated US Century with a single star, representing a "troubled bank" rating. In the latest quarter, as of Dec 31, 2010, that ratio -- of insider loans to total net worth, soared to 76%, or ninety three percent higher than its peers. The bank has four times the amount of nonperforming assets compared to its peer group and ten times the value of repossessed assets-- essentially sprawl waiting for the next crop of gullible buyers-- to its net worth. Although the Bauer report notes that the bank is "adequately capitalized", US Century is one of the financial system's walking dead: alive thanks to the generosity of the Federal Reserve, propping up speculators who continue to influence local, state and national politics.In the end, the piggy bank serving Natacha Seijas will be absorbed by another investor-- a bank too big to fail perhaps, or a financial engineer who wipes out shareholders for pennies on the dollar in order to start afresh on the game of sprawl with a clean slate. Like BankUnited, US Century will have great memories of hosting basketball stadiums, fundraisers for Republican candidates and Chamber of Commerce luncheons, where everyone nodded in unison what a swell thing it is to take wetlands and turn them into something profitable, what wonders the "free market" is compared to Havana or Managua or Caracas. US Century will go the way of the dodo, the bird that couldn't fly. Its assets will be scavenged while the politicians who supported all those shifted costs to taxpayers and voters will retire to Ocala, cashing in their undeclared gambling chips or foreign corporate ownership of condos in the Bahamas or Panama. They will sink from sight to be recovered at a fraction of their original worth, like the 73 foot Donzi that sunk this week in Gables Estates and salvaged. It is called, "Century Star", and if its walls could speak who knows what else we would learn about these years when our options shrank to the size of a inflatable dinghy.
Type the rest of the post here
Tuesday, March 08, 2011
David Southwell in his own words. By Geniusofdespair
See Yesterday's Post on this guy then read this, his email to our blog (Like his choosing the same name - Miami Voice - has nothing to do with this):
I cannot believe that you would so blatantly misrepresent what I said to you.
I did not say whether I was a Seijas supporter or not. For you to so twist what I said is dishonest and despicable. What I said was: “You also claim that I, David Southwell, am a supporter of Ms. Seijas. You have no information on which to base that statement. I have spoken with her in the past, as my Commissioner, and found her to be helpful, wise, and concerned for the best interest of her constituents, but I have never had a conversation with anyone, except my wife, regarding my opinion of Ms. Seijas. No one, not even Dr. Bennett has asked me about my position on Ms. Seijas or the recall effort of her or Mr. Alvarez. We are focused on other matters. What Dr. Bennett and I are doing, along with a very large group of other people, does not involve Ms. Seijas.”
Regarding the Miami Voice Inc. campaign reports, (NOTE I NEVER REFERRED TO MIAMI VOICE INC.'S CAMPAIGN REPORT BECAUSE NON-PROFIT CORPORATIONS DON'T FILE CAMPAIGN REPORTS) what I wrote to you is the following: “For example - you say that you have seen the campaign reports for Miami Voice, Inc. Not so, Miami Voice is not yet active and has not filed any campaign reports with anyone. So, you lied!” For you to claim that having seen something filed by Miami Voice PAC is having seen a report from Miami Voice, Inc. (NOT TRUE SOUTHWELL, AGAIN NON-PROFIT CORPORATIONS DON'T FILE CAMPAIGN REPORTS AND YOUR CORPORATION HAS BEEN ACTIVE SINCE 2/18/11 I WROTE MY BLOG IN MARCH) is as disingenuous as everything else you have written since you know full well that it is wrong.
I sincerely hope that you will have the moral fortitude to correct the blatant misrepresentation of my statements that you made on your blog site.
Okay Southwell you have had your say, now get off my blog and go raise money for your non profit...this is your last word here: Believe it or not! It is my understanding that Miami Voice has common law use of the name and your intentional choice of the name for your corporation does not trump their use and could be seen as an attempt to try to confuse the voters.
I cannot believe that you would so blatantly misrepresent what I said to you.
I did not say whether I was a Seijas supporter or not. For you to so twist what I said is dishonest and despicable. What I said was: “You also claim that I, David Southwell, am a supporter of Ms. Seijas. You have no information on which to base that statement. I have spoken with her in the past, as my Commissioner, and found her to be helpful, wise, and concerned for the best interest of her constituents, but I have never had a conversation with anyone, except my wife, regarding my opinion of Ms. Seijas. No one, not even Dr. Bennett has asked me about my position on Ms. Seijas or the recall effort of her or Mr. Alvarez. We are focused on other matters. What Dr. Bennett and I are doing, along with a very large group of other people, does not involve Ms. Seijas.”
Regarding the Miami Voice Inc. campaign reports, (NOTE I NEVER REFERRED TO MIAMI VOICE INC.'S CAMPAIGN REPORT BECAUSE NON-PROFIT CORPORATIONS DON'T FILE CAMPAIGN REPORTS) what I wrote to you is the following: “For example - you say that you have seen the campaign reports for Miami Voice, Inc. Not so, Miami Voice is not yet active and has not filed any campaign reports with anyone. So, you lied!” For you to claim that having seen something filed by Miami Voice PAC is having seen a report from Miami Voice, Inc. (NOT TRUE SOUTHWELL, AGAIN NON-PROFIT CORPORATIONS DON'T FILE CAMPAIGN REPORTS AND YOUR CORPORATION HAS BEEN ACTIVE SINCE 2/18/11 I WROTE MY BLOG IN MARCH) is as disingenuous as everything else you have written since you know full well that it is wrong.
I sincerely hope that you will have the moral fortitude to correct the blatant misrepresentation of my statements that you made on your blog site.
Okay Southwell you have had your say, now get off my blog and go raise money for your non profit...this is your last word here: Believe it or not! It is my understanding that Miami Voice has common law use of the name and your intentional choice of the name for your corporation does not trump their use and could be seen as an attempt to try to confuse the voters.
More on the Miami Herald Poll: Honesty Rocks! By Geniusofdespair
According to the Bendixen poll paid for by the Miami Herald/El Nuevo Herald and TV Channel 4, Hialeah Mayor Julio Robaina is the top choice for Mayor garnering 28% (three times more than any other candidate). These are the same people polled who think that honest and ethical government, by 64%, is the most important quality they are seeking in a mayor. Don't the people know that 'Hialeah Mayor' and 'honest and ethical' are oxymorons?
Hialeah Julio is being investigated by the IRS, and he lost his real estate license for a time because he was found guilty of "...dishonest dealing by trick, scheme or device, culpable negligence or breach of trust in any business transaction."
No one in their right mind should be supporting Joshua Larose, shame on those who chose him in the poll. Voters have to start reading the newspaper and they have to stop judging candidates by who is "Cuban Enough" or we will never get good government. Speaking of newspapers check out "Mayor Alvarez's 12 Apostles."
Monday, March 07, 2011
What is it, with the media obsession with gas prices? by gimleteye
Civil War in Libya. Oil speculators crowding into the market. For nearly a week running, network TV news has led with the story of rising gas prices and the "threat to the economy". Really? The Federal Reserve core inflation excludes food and energy, on the basis that rapid increases may moderate and in any event (barring revolutionaries gaining foothold in Saudi Arabia) it takes time for price spikes-- especially those triggered by speculation-- to noticeably impact long-term commodity prices. The price of gas goes from $3.14 to $3.55, and suddenly we are atwitter about tapping the national oil reserve?
In the week before TV news began to focus on gas prices, the Administration announced the jobless rate fell to 8.9 percent. The emerging story line is that rising fuel prices are threatening the economic "recovery". That's not why the seams are coming apart.
A 2008 report by the US DOE notes that petroleum accounts for only 37 percent of total energy consumption. Libya accounts for about 2 percent of global oil supply. The narrative that strikes me as more resonant is that US industrial, financial and housing policies, virtually without criticism by the fourth estate, created a perfect storm from the mid 1990's to mid 2000's, allowing speculative bubbles in the stock market and real estate development to inflate an appearance of economic prosperity while Wall Street and the entire Growth Machine looted the banks until the whole scheme came crashing down like the Hindenberg.
There has been no accountability, and maybe that is what is unsettling TV viewers. To watch poor Arabs taking up arms against rich dictators armed to the teeth fuels some agitation on our part that is yet unrecognized. Americans' obsessive "right to bear arms" looks like thin gruel in news clips of machine guns in the hands of disorganized Libyan rebels firing into the blue sky. After this exercise, maybe the National Rifle Association needs to lobby for citizens' right to bear surface-to-air-missiles, not just guns. While gas prices lead the news, what goes unreported is how the snake oil salesmen are flourishing in the United States.
In the 19th century, as the Robber Barons were consolidating political and economic power around the railroads, the salesmen held forth medicines to cure intestinal worms in bottles filled with alcohol clear as rain. Their prescriptions are in the same vein as our own, newer ones; "the ownership society" or Tea Party'ers attacking "job killing environmental regulations" like the witches of Eastwick. No one has gone to jail, not Angelo Mozilo of Countrywide, the giant mortgage company that made the highest virtue of signing to a home mortgage anyone who could fog a mirror. In Florida, in Miami-Dade county and the state capitol, Tallahassee, the Angelo Mozilo School of Thievery and Disguise is well attended. The GOP elites are busy in legislative Hogwarts assembling the most radical policies to consolidate power since the 1880's.
The polluters are on the warpath to eliminate already miserable protections of public health and the environment. But we don't get that news: how they thump their Bibles, wear their American Flag pins on their lapels and sculpt their hair to look like marble busts in the rotunda. On 60 Minutes last Sunday, the lead story was the massive increase in public school students who are homeless. In one Florida county, the number of homeless students appearing in public schools is increasing from 15 to 30 students per day! Our response? Cut their funding. They don't have any? Cut it more!
60 Minutes noted that many Americans are opening their homes to shelter these victims of the "free" market. But for the most part, the mainstream media is staying far, far away from reporting the new callous America. It gravitates instead toward gas prices. The unrest in Libya pushed the unrest in Wisconsin and in the states, where local government officials are proving incapable of coping with municipal debt loads, off the front page and the news cycle, but for how long? How long before our own evangelicals answer the questions, where does the Bible make a fetish of small, limited government or tax cuts favoring the money changers?
In the week before TV news began to focus on gas prices, the Administration announced the jobless rate fell to 8.9 percent. The emerging story line is that rising fuel prices are threatening the economic "recovery". That's not why the seams are coming apart.
A 2008 report by the US DOE notes that petroleum accounts for only 37 percent of total energy consumption. Libya accounts for about 2 percent of global oil supply. The narrative that strikes me as more resonant is that US industrial, financial and housing policies, virtually without criticism by the fourth estate, created a perfect storm from the mid 1990's to mid 2000's, allowing speculative bubbles in the stock market and real estate development to inflate an appearance of economic prosperity while Wall Street and the entire Growth Machine looted the banks until the whole scheme came crashing down like the Hindenberg.
There has been no accountability, and maybe that is what is unsettling TV viewers. To watch poor Arabs taking up arms against rich dictators armed to the teeth fuels some agitation on our part that is yet unrecognized. Americans' obsessive "right to bear arms" looks like thin gruel in news clips of machine guns in the hands of disorganized Libyan rebels firing into the blue sky. After this exercise, maybe the National Rifle Association needs to lobby for citizens' right to bear surface-to-air-missiles, not just guns. While gas prices lead the news, what goes unreported is how the snake oil salesmen are flourishing in the United States.
In the 19th century, as the Robber Barons were consolidating political and economic power around the railroads, the salesmen held forth medicines to cure intestinal worms in bottles filled with alcohol clear as rain. Their prescriptions are in the same vein as our own, newer ones; "the ownership society" or Tea Party'ers attacking "job killing environmental regulations" like the witches of Eastwick. No one has gone to jail, not Angelo Mozilo of Countrywide, the giant mortgage company that made the highest virtue of signing to a home mortgage anyone who could fog a mirror. In Florida, in Miami-Dade county and the state capitol, Tallahassee, the Angelo Mozilo School of Thievery and Disguise is well attended. The GOP elites are busy in legislative Hogwarts assembling the most radical policies to consolidate power since the 1880's.
The polluters are on the warpath to eliminate already miserable protections of public health and the environment. But we don't get that news: how they thump their Bibles, wear their American Flag pins on their lapels and sculpt their hair to look like marble busts in the rotunda. On 60 Minutes last Sunday, the lead story was the massive increase in public school students who are homeless. In one Florida county, the number of homeless students appearing in public schools is increasing from 15 to 30 students per day! Our response? Cut their funding. They don't have any? Cut it more!
60 Minutes noted that many Americans are opening their homes to shelter these victims of the "free" market. But for the most part, the mainstream media is staying far, far away from reporting the new callous America. It gravitates instead toward gas prices. The unrest in Libya pushed the unrest in Wisconsin and in the states, where local government officials are proving incapable of coping with municipal debt loads, off the front page and the news cycle, but for how long? How long before our own evangelicals answer the questions, where does the Bible make a fetish of small, limited government or tax cuts favoring the money changers?
Underhanded move by (SUPPORTERS/(NOT/MAYBE NOT) Natacha Seijas supporters, David Southwell and David Bennett? By Geniusofdespair
(I am not able to ascertain support so I am going with all three). Miami Lakes CPA David Southwell, organizer of Christian Financial Fellowship Intl, just opened a Corporation with David Bennett called, of all things, Miami Voice. they must be doing it to steal the thunder from the PAC Miami Voice because Lord knows, there is absolutely no funding benefit. I've seen their campaign reports.
CPA Southwell says the corporation he registered "will promote betterment of Miami Lakes and work with other not for profits to gain grants and other funds to improve the community." Good luck with the funds from non-profits. Has anyone reading this blog post ever tried to get a nickel out of a non-profit?
Asked about this move by Southwell and Bennett, Vanessa Brito, Miami Voice PAC Chairman said:
"I'm not sure what their plans are, but I presume they will misuse the name of the PAC I represent."
Below: Photo of David Bennett talking to Stephen Cody, Natacha Seijas' attorney, on February 7th.
Vote NO on SB606: phone calls needed to Senate Ag Committee NOW ... by gimleteye
If you want to understand just how polluted Florida politics are today, understand this: at the same time the jackasses are lobbying to kill of the federal government's ability to control water pollution in Florida (Marco Rubio), the Florida legislature is moving a bill through whose effect will be to kill off local rules and regulations. What the big polluters-- like Big Sugar-- want, is simple: to determine the point of maximum leverage in government to evade pollution rules. In this case, it is the state legislature but in others, like growth management, it will be where the worst damage is done: local county commissions. Here's how friendly the legislature has been to polluters: when in 2002 Big Sugar decided it had the power to re-write the federal settlement agreement governing its pollution of the Everglades, it hired more lobbyists than Florida senators to paper its trail. Of course, a federal judge rebuked the state, in one of the harshest rulings in US jurisprudence history, but not before the politicians had gotten off scott-free. A decade has passed, and the injury has still not been fixed. Today anything that can be tagged a "job killer" is being used to destroy environmental protection rules. It is a horror show in Tallahassee including the most radical extremist governor in state history.
The group United Waterfowlers is not so blatant. After all, a bunch of hunters and fishermen probably voted for the jackasses. So they take a more benign tone: "For the Angler and Hunter, each trip out to a favorite river or wetland is a lesson in ecology..." This is a fact, and it is why I became involved in environmental issues in Florida almost 40 years ago. Read the entire text of its message, explaining why you should pick up the phone and call this morning: if you care about your water, read the following and make your calls!
The Florida Senate Ag Committee meets TODAY on SB606
Please Contact by noon Monday, March 7, 2011
The Senate Ag committee needs to hear from Sportsmen... It's a simple message... Vote NO on SB606
SB606 would eliminate local government's ability to create ordinaces to address local impaired water issues regarding use of lawn fertilizer. This is NOT an Agricultural issue Local rule is a founding principal Vote NO on SB606
Senate Agriculture Committee phones, emails:
Chair: Senator Gary Sipin (D), 850-487-5190 siplin.gary.web@flsenate.gov,
Vice Chair: Senator Larcenia Bullard (D)850-487-5127 bullard.larcenia.web@flsenate.gov,
Senator J.D. Alexander, 850-487-5044 alexander.jd.web@flsenate.gov,
Senator Rene Garcia (R), 850-487-5106, garcia.rene.web@flsenate.gov,
Senator Alan Hays (R), 850-487-5014 hays.alan.web@flsenate.gov,
Senator Bill Montford (D), 850-487-5004 montford.bill.web@flsenate.gov:
Nutrient pollution threatens our surface waters and our groundwater. Wetlands filter nutrients from stormwater. But our remaining wetlands are being taxed with removing more nutrients than they can handle and many of these wetlands are in sad shape.
The FDACS TURF FERTILIZER RULE is too WEAK and FDEP BMPS fall short where impaired waters are present.
TURF FERTILIZER IS NOT AN AG ISSUE. Lobbyists want to make it an agriculture issue...ask yourself why?
25% of fertilizer sold in Florida is non-ag. Most of that is Turf ferilizer. Turf fertilizer is still a HUGE issue.
And because stormwater run-off in many areas flows directly into rivers and lakes, the fertilizer we use on our lawns ends up in our lakes, streams and marshes.
Delicate and vital Submerged Aquatic Vegetation (SAV), among the natural food sources for waterfowl, is disappearing due to turbid, nutrient laden water, lack of dissolved oxygen, and the lack of light for photosynthesis. Excess nutrients spur invasive plant and algal growth in surface water. These invasive plants and algae become dominant in our marshes, choking out native vegetation and often times result in reduced dissolved oxygen levels in the water. Rotting of excess vegetation and algae use up oxygen in the water and create "dead zones". The algae cloud the water and also create biomass (muck) which coats sandy lakebeds and marsh bottoms that game fish need to spawn. Additionally, important food sources in the food web which ducks and other birds and fish rely on are disappearing along with the SAV. Macroinvertibrates and other small organisms, fresh water shrimp, other small crustaceans, mollusks and bait fish need the natural SAV for survival. SAV provides food and a relatively safe habitat for these small creatures to flourish and grow. When SAV is lost to invasive growth, many of these small organisms are lost as well. Waterfowl need carbohydrates and protein for their migration. Lack of food plants and these organisms in their diet stresses the birds, and adversely affects migration. Ducks spend more time searching for food and less time courting and pairing. Similar stresses occur in snipe and non-game birds. Diversity in fish communities, bait fish and game fish are lost as these food sources disappear.
The presence of excess nutrients from runoff constitutes one of the most significant wetland habitat issues we have specific to water quality in Florida.
Local rule is one of the founding principles of our nation. It was meant to address these very things where local insight is needed, or where the state or the Federal government lack insight or refuse to address problems like this, the issue can be (and should be) addressed locally.
The FDACS TURF FERTILIZER RULE is too WEAK and FDEP BMPS fall short where impaired waters are present.
This is where local governments MUST step in and write ordinances to address local issues with their impaired waters.
So on the one hand you have entities of the state wanting to tell local governments what they can and can't do while sueing the EPA for sticking their nose into state business.
SB606/HB457 gives the appearance that some lawmakers (and IFAS) would rather protect the interests of the lawn turf fertilizer industry at the expense of the tourism industry in Florida and at the expense of clean water
Many of the jobs being protected by this bill are out of state jobs
The Fishing/Hunting/Outdoor tourism industry in Florida is 100% pure Florida jobs
You voted NO last year...why change?
Vote NO on SB606/HB457 for Florida Clean Water and Jobs
The relative Scale:
Leaching Sources of Nitrogen and Nitrates
Inputs of nitrogen to the Wekiva Basin and nitrate loadings to the River - WSA phase II study (MACTEC phase II WSA final report, March 2010)
This chart shows the relative results of the WSA phase II study. Leaching of nutrients from residential fertilizers (15%) vs. Septic tanks (26%). Septic tank loading (OSTDS) equaled loading from Agriculture fertilizer (26%) in an area with significant agricultural land use.
There are other studies that indicate leachate of nutrients from septic tanks and run-off of stormwater along the Indian River Lagoon and Mosquito Lagoon are entering those water bodies as well, altering algal communities and killing native submerged grasses important to fish and migrating ducks.
BTW, this was "Phase II" because the up-roar over the "Phase I" numbers was significant. Both SJRWMD and IFAS had input to the Phase II study.
Seen at Early Voting in Hialeah Sunday. By Geniusofdespair
Natacha Seijas's Chief of Staff Terry Murphy (the short one) and her number one consultant, Jose Luis Castillo, confer at the Hialeah JFK Library during early voting. What do you think they are saying? Jose: "I think she is going to lose Bro." Terry: "Yeah, and if the bitch goes down, I lose my job."
This Jose guy is always lurking in the background whenever anything concerns Natacha. I guess he will just switch over to his new number one gal Lynda Bell.
And then, in stark contrast, Miami Voice volunteers were seen celebrating with voters a few cars down from the somber duo.
Sunday, March 06, 2011
Poll says Seijas and Alvarez will go down in flames. By Geniusofdespair
The Miami Herald's top story is the Bendixen Poll which finds 66% of those polled thinks Norman Braman is a principled activist and 67% said they would vote yes to recall Mayor Alvarez and 60% said they would recall Vile Natacha Seijas. I thought it funny that 21% thought her combative and rude. Curiously Whites prefer her over Hispanics. For Alvarez, he had more support among Whites and Blacks than with Hispanics. Blacks were the most undecided among the three racial groups. The poll said 31% were undecided at this late date. But, that is only 1/3 of 23% of 400 people polled and there is a 4.9% margin of error.
There are 24 pages of poll data on Natacha and 31 pages on Alvarez in the Miami Herald PDF, you get much more information online than in the paper Herald.
On Democrats supporting Seijas in larger numbers...lets look at the poll. 400 people were polled in District 13. of that about 100 were Democrats. The poll said about 47% support recall, 28% are against and 25% are undecided among Democrats. That is about 28 people polled that support her. I would suppose many of these people are in unions. Among Republicans her support is at 21%. Blacks were 7% of the poll in Natacha's district, or about 28 people polled so they were pretty much left out of the data analysis for Natacha.
Kendrick Meek: DC lobbyist, but for whom? by gimleteye
Long before last November's election, a rumor circulated that Kendrick Meek's decision to remain in a doomed US Senate race was not based on a promise by Democrats to support a Clinton supporter so much as consideration of future employment as a lobbyist in DC. Lately, a rumor along that line emerged, although a search of database registrations for Meek does not turn up on the excellent website, Opensecrets or Congress databases. The Carrie Meek Group does turn up interestingly as formerly a lobbyist for another lobbyist, Alcade and Faye (one of the three Miami-Dade lobbyists in DC). Similarly Meek is rumored to be lobbying for another lobbyist; leaving us to question who employs Meek and who are his clients, and whether either tie back to an election that delivered Marco Rubio with ease to the national stage. The former congressman voted for lobbying reform and disclosure of bundled donations in 2007.
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