Saturday, May 26, 2012

Javier Souto: county commissioner turns over a rock in West Dade, finds Muslims with beards blacker than Castro's ... by gimleteye

Fred Grimm tee'd off on Javier Souto the other day in the Miami Herald. Grimm had been alerted to a hateful diatribe by the longtime county commissioner from the dais, caused by a Muslim businessman's erection of an enormous house out of scale with the character of neighborhoods in Souto's district. The gargantuan home built by the Muslim businessman is scarcely a mile from the commissioner's home and near FIU.

Later, in an "unusual" press notification -- (For Shame, Eyeonmiami was not on the distribution list!) -- Souto was apparently wounded by Grimm's editorial focusing on the commissioner's jingoistic, anti-Muslim rhetoric.

Community activists who opposed Souto's votes with the unreformable majority of the county commission to move the Urban Development Boundary are often on the end of his barbs, muttered or voiced in breathtaking rambles of discombobulation from the dais. Javier Souto, who can find a Communist in every opponent to growth-at-any-cost, now finds Muslims in growth he does not like. There's a hierarchy, for you.

We speak from years listening to Souto "inform" his colleagues how being a community activist against moving the urban growth boundary in West Dade (to the benefit of big campaign contributors from the building, construction, and rock mining industries) makes us allies of Castro. "(Souto) also noted the house’s proximity to Florida International University, later telling a Miami Herald reporter that he was worried that someone would set up shop at the home “to work on the boys and girls of FIU.” At least, the opponents of moving the UDB have never been accused of that! We're "the wine and cheese crowd" in Souto's scrambled universe. (Note for the record: my preferred cheese is French.)

“This is serious business,” the commissioner said at the meeting. “You know what I’m talking about. Two and two is four.” Souto took a remorseful tone in his statement. “I am an elected official and should measure my words when speaking because anything you say seems worse when you later read it in print,” Souto conceded. “However, I am human and I am anything but a politician.” Say, what?

As one of the community activists who opposes moving the Urban Development Boundary to appease the Great Destroyers, I am offended that Javier Souto apologizes to Muslims but never apologized to us.

Now the shoe is on the other foot. Now that Souto opposes a development he does not like but that is within regulations and codes -- he finds evil worse than even Castro: he suspects Muslims with dark, bearded motives in the suburbs of West Kendall using inappropriate buildings to pervert FIU students... those malleable, impressionable future activists in his district! (Note to Fred Grimm: that's how you tee off on Javier Souto ...)

"Dennis Moss, Souto's fellow county commissioner, suggested along the same line in Grimm's editorial: "“Sometimes you don’t want to have regulations, but other times you do ... We need to take a look at the code, if you want to make sure this kind of structure can’t be built again.” But he warned that the moment commissioners tighten up the definition of “harmonize,” property-rights advocates will come howling."

Yes, like those crazy windbags from South Dade and the 8.5 Square Mile Area. But with Castro agents and Muslim terrorists hiding under bus benches carrying political advertisements, who has time to keep track of them all?

It is Daniel Plotkin Mitt. By Geniusofdespair

Mitt's friends who bullied John Lauber remember the incident well. Thomas Buford, Mathew Friedemann, Philip Maxwell and David Seed remember witnessing Mitt Romney cut Lauber's hair as if it were yesterday. Maxwell called it "Vicious." Seed said he was sorry he didn't do more to stop it. According to Seed who ran into Lauber thirty years later, Lauber said "It was horrible." "It's something I have thought about a lot since then."

The only one who didn't remember that particular incident was Mitt Romney.

Mitt: Mine was Daniel Plotkin. He took too long to drink his milk during snack time and the teacher scolded him. We always had to wait for Daniel to finish his milk and it annoyed the rest of the class. Plotkin wore glasses and had his pants above his waistline. I remember him in plaid shirts. I can still see him struggling to drink his milk quickly with his eyes downcast trying not to look at any of us. The rest of the class made fun of Plotkin and treated him like an outcast. No one in the class ever cut his hair or touched Daniel but I will never forget being mean to him, bullying him, making fun of his name. You never forget, and I was only 8 not 18.

(And, looking back today I am wondering what was wrong with my teacher forcing that poor kid to drink milk and making it known to the rest of us that it was his fault we had to wait? Adult bully.)

Friday, May 25, 2012

Politicians: Here is What Happens When You Just Show Up. By Geniusofdespair

I often warn politicians that showing up at the Christian Family Coalition meetings legitimizes them and that they should simply boycott this hate group, letting it wither away. After all, it is mainly the voice of one person, not an actual group.

Here is what they said about Mayor Carlos Gimenez, County Commissioner Joe Martinez and Katherine Fernandez Rundle attending their breakfast on May 19th:

"The presence of these top elected officials from Miami-Dade County, State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle, Miami-Dade mayor Carlos Gimenez and Miami-Dade Chairman Joe Martinez, is indicative of the increasing support for the work of the Christian Family Coalition (CFC) among fair-minded elected officials" stated Anthony Verdugo, Founder and Executive Director.


Really? I hope it was worth it politicians.

Homestead Air Force Base memo: where there's smoke, there's fire ... by gimleteye

The jockeying and noise around the Homestead Air Force Base is never good news especially when connected to the fact that the county commission learns nothing from past mistakes.

The HABDI disaster, involving a "99 year no-bid lease" to insiders, was unprecedented in modern Miami-Dade history, and yet the details of the miscues and costs to taxpayers -- of the county defending the construction of the deal, the plan, and then the litigation -- was never disclosed. An accounting to the public was due but never happened.

Many of the principals have rotated from government to industry or been shuffled within the upper reaches of county bureaucracy, including the county legal department. New county commissioners, like Lynda Bell, appear blithely and willfully ignorant under the disguise of "let bygones, be bygones". They apparently want the new disasters to be their own.

What is generally missed in the mess surrounding the Air Force base re-use -- which is still an Air Force base -- is that the screw-ups were brought to a slow, slow halt, not by federal court but by the Department of Defense itself.

The idea that Miami-Dade insiders can re-open the record of decision a decade ago at excruciating cost to public confidence in government institutions is badly flawed. The jostling and jockeying, though, remind that very little is safe from the meddling by the unreformable majority.

Whatever happens at Homestead AFB needs to be in full public view. That is the LEAST that is owed to the public for the awful, horrendous process that led to the no-bid HABDI deal, now gone. As for the leadership of the air base itself: go back and do your homework. Learn who you are dealing with.

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Miami Dade: Here is what the race to the bottom looks like ... by gimleteye

Here is what the race to the bottom looks like: read the nonsense, below.

I don't know whoever wrote this open letter distributed at a public meeting recently. Jose Fernandez comes from the Alice Pena School of Communication. Pena has represented the 8 1/2 Square Mile residents who hate government and agencies charged with protecting the Everglades. For more than 20 years she has obstructed, vilified, and impugned the integrity of public officials, conservationists, and by extension tax payers who are carrying the costs of protecting an area that should never have been built out, because it is so close to wetlands and prone to flooding.

Now, Pena is at the head of a county "committee" to rewrite environmental regulations. Put there by County Commissioner Lynda Bell who has also elevated speculators and large land owners who can't wait to turn their green fields into strip malls and crappy subdivisions. Pena is their mouthpiece. Bell is her protector. The unreformable majority of the county commission and Mayor Carlos Gimenez -- who sat by idly while common sense was ground to dust -- are to blame.

The Fernandez jeremiad is filled with hatred and vitriol against government. It is complete paranoid nonsense but it is nonsense that has gained traction because elected officials refuse to call it out, for what it is.

Pena and supporters like James Humble have been stoking irrational fears against government for decades in far West Dade (Humble made millions in profit from the federal government by speculating on The Frog Pond adjacent to the Everglades with fellow big farmer investors), where nothing is a "compromise" with government so long as there is one more government bureaucrat alive to skin.

This idea of a "land grab" by DERM -- an environmental agency of the county that has been hacked to pieces the way the Hutu set upon the Tutsi in the Congo -- is ludicrous. And yet. And yet. And yet these views have been advanced by the silence of the unreformable majority of the county commission.

The destruction of public respect for government has happened right under the noses of county commissioners who not only refuse to condemn this nonsense: they actually endorse it. Alice Pena was granted the right to personally address the county commission -- outside the scheduled agenda and going around the due process to ensure that government would be fair and equitable to all points of view and perspectives -- when Joe Martinez and Pepe Diaz called her to the dais to verbally knife what remains of environmental authority and regulation in the county. It was pathetic. It was highly damaging to already damaged morale in county government. (Click the link to read the three-part essay we published on the Pena debacle.)

No one, and I mean no one stood up to condemn the Alice Pena vitriol. If you pull that thread all the way to the end, you get the kind of anti-government zealots and Tea Party crazies and elected officials -- even the highest -- who have implicitly fostered public hysteria, ignorance, and the race to the bottom.

SEE PHOTOS taken outside Derm's Office...

The 8 1/2 Square mile people demonstrate at County Office Yesterday. By Geniusofdespair

Besides distributing the flyer seen in the post above, the 8 1/2 square mile people came to a county wetlands task force meeting in two trucks with wacky stuff plastered all over them. Thanks Lynda Bell for giving Alice Pena credibility, and inciting these people once again...We did this already with them on the State and the Federal level. Now they are attacking the County because the County foolishly opened the door to it through Pena.

8 1/2 Square mile had a demonstration at DERM Offices giving out flyers and driving these two trucks.
Read some of the stuff they wrote on this sign about Mayor Carlos Gimenez. Communist?
They are calling our government (Harvey Ruvin?) Communists, comparing them to Castro.

The leader of this group, that is who Norman Braman is considering to finance against Dennis Moss.

Mayor Shirley Gibson Announces Her Candidacy for Miami Dade County Commissioner. By Geniusofdespair



Link to video.

Watch out Barbara Jordan, you have a formidable candidate running against you! Look for Shirley on Facebook.

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Jury Duty in Miami Dade ... by gimleteye


At the start of the day the judge addressed the hundreds summoned and said, next to serving in the military, jury duty is the highest service to our nation. I read my book and wondered.

Norman Braman: If you Back Pena, you're an idiot. By Geniusofdespair

Just a little love-note based on the Miami Herald story that he would back Bell's new BFF, 8 1/2 square mile, Alice Pena against Dennis Moss. Do due diligence on your wacky pick Norman.

If you are a Hispanic and live in the district please pay the $360 and run. That way you will split the Hispanic vote and we can keep the best commissioner on land-use that the County has: Dennis Moss.

(My previous post on Alice Pena.) and, Here is a better post I did on her...

Channel 4 News Puts Eye On Miami in Their Report on Gibson Run.. By Geniusofdespair

This is not a video, just a CBS NEWS screenshot, use link below.


By the way everyone, I suggested in March that Shirley Gibson should run for Barbara Jordan's seat:
"I have been trying to think of someone who could win against Commissioner Barbara Jordan and today Mayor Shirley Gibson came to mind for County Commission District 1. Well, I was actually reading a Miami Herald article about her when it came to mind. She is term-limited for Mayor -- she leaves in August. The County Commission race is in August! This coincidence is 'God working' folks."

County Commissioner Dennis Moss on The Bait and Switch. By Geniusofdespair



Link to video.
Read my in-depth report on the issue.

Commissioner Moss commented on the precedent setting of the Brown Application. Brown's Lobbyists got the development approved under one set of circumstances -- agreeing to a covenant of no residential for 30 years -- and 3 years later changing the playing field, asking for the covenant to be lifted for residential. Commissioner Moss was the only one to object: "This application has a profound effect upon a lot of different areas throughout the County" Moss said.

Commissioner Moss acknowledged it is a bait and switch, and he wonders how this will effect future developments. He calls it the camel's nose under the tent. Watch the video. He makes a good argument.

The strangest part of it all: County Planning would not have given a positive recommendation for residential if it were outside the UDB line. But because it was inserted inside the line based on NO RESIDENTIAL 3 years ago, they now have to consider it as part of the pool of land available for residential, and they ended up giving residential zoning their blessing -- Covenant be damned. WHAT??? This gives the Commissioners cover to approve it. All, except for Commissioner Moss (and those absent), gleefully used the cover.

You remember that Sly and the Family Stone song lyrics, "War. What is it good for? Absolutely Nothing!" Well, a covenant in Miami Dade County, "What is it good for? Absolutely Nothing!" And to borrow from another song lyric by the Who, all my friends and readers be warned: "Don't get fooled again" on the worth of a 30 year covenant.

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Breaking News: Mayor Shirley Gibson will run for County Commissioner. By Geniusofdespair

Shirley Gibson announced in front of Barbara Jordan that she was running against her in District 1. Nothing personal.

Mayor Carlos Gimenez writes good luck wishes to outgoing Mayor Gibson.
Mayor Gibson on the way to the Gala Event.


One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest: Why is Takeshi Miyakawa still at Rikers Island? ... by gimleteye

The 24/7 news cycle is a tornado for those in its path. Most are picked up and dropped a few hours away, but here is one that has been blasted around the world: Takeshi Miyakawa, a Brooklyn based designer and visual artist, was apprehended by NY police early Sunday. Miyakawa, 50, has lived in the United States nearly half his life. Within the furniture-by-hand community and architectural renderings, he is well known. Now he is famous.

Miyakawa spent last week helping to set up and organize for Design Week in Manhattan. The only time to make his own work was last weekend when he began hanging "I Heart NY bags" in random locations; as installation art. On early Sunday morning, he was in the midst of hanging a bag from a New York City street lamp with a battery and LED's to light the bag from within. The police responded, called in the bomb squad, and hauled him to jail for "reckless endangerment".

New York Magazine reports, "A look at Miyakawa’s website reveals an ingenious, playful modernist who has made his mark pushing the envelope with recycled materials and fanciful geometric shapes. His work includes “candalier,” a chandelier made of wax that melts into nonexistence, stackable takeout containers that look like giant legos, and a fractal plywood cabinet."

At his arraignment on Sunday, the prosecutor did not press for incarceration. But Judge Martin Murphy decided that the artist had to be crazy. Such are the times we live in. The judge ordered a 30 day psychiatric evaluation for the mild-mannered artist. And so the world media, antennae alert, lifted the story to the cycle: "Takeshi Miyakawa arrested for allegedly planting fake bombs in "I Heart NY" bags in Brooklyn."

Miyakawa's colleagues and friends mounted a determined effort to get the story out; an artist rewarded for loving New York, sent down the black hole of New York City's criminal system. They attest to Miyakawa's calm, serene nature. These are serious thought workers who wear bike helmets and come to a full rest at stop signs. But that is not what the police saw -- at least at first -- and certainly not what the judge concluded.

Here was someone who happened to touch the fear of terror that spurred the biggest consolidation of police power and authority in US history. Unwittingly, Miyakawa hoisted the "I Heart NY" plastic bag on the street pole and struck the third rail of terror and paranoia that replaced "o beautiful for spacious skies" with visceral anxiety.

Street art has a hallowed place in New York City history, but the arrest of Miyakawa says that on balance, the threats are too great to accede to common sense. Anyone making art on the street with batteries and LED lights and plastic bags: be forewarned. You too could be charged with "planting false bombs."

There was nothing snarky or ill-mannered in Miyakawa's midnight effort; he wanted to promote a positive image of New York. Now the world knows that New York City can't differentiate those who love New York from those who might love New York for what it stands for and still want to strike it down. In this moment of attention that may yet last a while, New York City's loss is Miyakawa's gain as he sits in Rikers Island where Franz Kafka would be at home.

Salaries for The County Commission Chair Staff. By Geniusofdespair

The County Commissions Chairman's office has a separate budget. Joe Martinez pays 5 employees $271,198. This is in addition to the $288,645 salaries he pays his District Staff.

I am very concerned by the 3 FIU Law Student he has working under his purview.  They are assisting in revising our County Code.  If he is supervising this effort we are all in big trouble.

County Commissioner Audrey Edmonson Draws Another Challenger. By Geniusofdespair.

Michael Jackson Joseph, who worked for the Department of Homeland Security is running against Audrey Edmonson. She now has 4 challengers: Alison Austin, Keon Hardemon, Michael Jackson Joseph and Eddie Lewis. Michael, like Alison, ran unsuccessfully against Richard Dunn for Michelle Spence-Jones's seat.

Monday, May 21, 2012

It's never Lupus. By Geniusofdespair


Goodbye House. I am going to miss that show.

In Trayvon Martin case, what is not on trial: suburban sprawl ... by gimleteye


It is called "The Retreat at Twin Lakes": the platted subdivision where Trayvon Martin was shot to death by George Zimmerman. The story has captured the nation's attention, but what about the place itself?

"The building of the Retreat at Twin Lakes is a classic Florida story," begins the St. Pete Times. "Developers saw potential in the sandy acres east of Orlando and determined to turn them into an oasis. They planned a gated subdivision just 10 minutes from downtown — a cloistered community near the interstate, close to good schools, outlet malls and the magic of Disney World."

What kind of an oasis is a gated community, really? Subdivisions are places where getting lost is crystallized. "The idea, as always, was that people could live peacefully in a paradise where nobody could park a car on the street or paint the house an odd color."

George Zimmerman was virtually a self-appointed, law enforcer in a soulless place dragged down by the real estate crash. He had the law on his side in a place that wasn't much of a place at all the night Trayvon Martin died. "In 2004, Engle Homes began construction on 263 two-story townhouses, with upstairs porches and covered back patios and plenty of green space. Inside, the townhomes boasted granite countertops, hardwood floors, master suites and walk-in closets. Outside, there was a pond, a clubhouse and a community pool. Everything was walled in, to keep out the unknown."

The Wikipedia entry on the shooting of Trayvon Martin: As the only person to volunteer when the homeowners association wanted to organize a community watch, Zimmerman was appointed coordinator by his neighbors, according to Wendy Dorival, Neighborhood Watch organizer for the Sanford Police Department."

Yes there was a "community pool" at The Retreat, but it was probably like 1,000,000 half-hearted attempts at builder-created civic life in gated subdivisions in Florida. The chief point of interest: a soda machine.

Police had been called to The Retreat at Twin Lakes 402 times from January 1, 2011, to February 26, 2012, according to Wikipedia. The St. Pete Times notes that the initial average price of the Retreat homes had dropped from $250,000 to less than $100,000 today. "The developers had envisioned a stable neighborhood with home­owners planting long-term roots, but now townhouses were turning over all the time. Insiders moved out. Outsiders moved in."

The place where Trayvon Martin lost his life is not on trial. Places don't shoot people, but the Retreat at Twin Lakes never had twin lakes and it wasn't a real place and is scarcely alone in that summation. In a real estate market driven off the rails by oversupply, mortgage fraud, and greed, why would builders be held to account? They only build what the market wants, right? Their legal rights to build sprawl are as solid as George Zimmerman's right to carry a weapon and to stand his ground. Right?

Sanford Police volunteer program coordinator Wendy Dorival, told the Miami Herald that she met Zimmerman in September, 2011 at a community neighborhood watch presentation. “I said, ‘If it’s someone you don’t recognize, call us. We’ll figure it out."

In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.

Fred Grimm on the REAL Absentee Ballot Fraud. By Geniusofdespair


Miami Herald Columnist Fred Grimm wonders why the State Legislature didn't go after the real source of voter fraud, early voting, in their 2011 election reform bill that was more about voter suppression:

Florida seems to be spending a lot of time and effort and money trying to stomp out theoretical corruption instead of going after actual, real-life voter fraud. In 2011 the Legislature passed a 128-page election “reform” bill that cut back on early voting, put new restrictions on third-party registration groups (like that famously subversive League of Women Voters), and eliminated the long-honored practice in Florida of allowing voters who have moved since the last election to register the change of address at the polls on election day.

None of this gets at the actual source of voter fraud — an art that Miami knows well.

And:
“If preventing voter fraud were the true intent of [Florida’s 2011 election reform legislation] then there likely would have been attention placed on cracking down on what appears to be the not-so-uncommon practice of fraudulent absentee ballots in Florida,” said Daniel Smith, professor of political science at the University of Florida, testifying before a U.S. Senate inquiry in January.

Smith noted that Florida’s new election law, “rather than addressing absentee ballot fraud,” actually made absentee ballot fraud more difficult to prosecute. Before, state law required county elections supervisors “to send absentee ballots to voters’ registered addresses unless said voters were absent from the county, hospitalized, or temporarily unable to occupy residences.” Under the new law, absentee ballots must be mailed “to any other address the elector specifies in the request.”

Smith wondered whether the Republican-dominated Legislature’s reluctance to go after our most pervasive form of electoral fraud might have something to do with the results of the 2008 general election, when Florida’s registered Republicans casting absentee ballots led Democrat absentee voters by 10.8 percent.

Sunday, May 20, 2012

Miguel Diaz de la Portilla: Picture of the Day. By Geniusofdespair

State Senator Miguel Diaz de la Portilla
What is this lobbyist reaching for? He already has his phone in his other hand. Miguel called South Miami Mayor Phillip Stoddard about FPL. Only trouble is, besides being an FPL lobbyist, he is the State Rep for South Miami. I was told he only lobbied in Broward for FPL. Hmmm.  I made a mistake and called him a State Rep. A reader corrected me. If all 3 Diaz de la Portilla's win, we will have Alex and Miguel as Senator and dumpy brother Renier as a State Rep. That would be political torture to Miami Dade County.

Greenberg Traurig ... scandal, again ... by gimleteye

The big downtown Miami law firm Greenberg Traurig was caught up in another scandal (Jack Abramoff, Marvin Rosen, HABDI), as reported by The Miami Herald, including a rare appearance by managing partner Cesar Alvarez to apologize to a federal court for "failing to turn over key financial records on its clients to investors fleeced by Ponzi schemer Scott Rothstein".

Failing to disclose records as required by law also infects government. It has become routine for public records requests made to government agencies and offices, to routinely "edit" and "excise" records that could be damaging to its case/s in legal proceedings. Alvarez, of Greenberg Traurig, was formerly chairman of the board of the Knight Foundation whose website states, "We believe that democracy thrives when people and communities are informed and engaged."

Informed and engaged, so long as the result isn't marred by information and engagement, up to and including the selective admission of records as required by law.

Volvo Around the World Ocean Race. By Geniusofdespair

Warm up for 8.2-mile in-port Miami race yesterday. Groupama came in second.

The American team of Puma warming up. They came in third.

Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing won the race yesterday.  We didn't last long out there with our small boat. The seas kicked up and the sky was threatening.

The only stop in the U.S. was Miami for these boats. They leave today at 1pm. Departure ceremony is at 10 am at Bicentennial Park.  Lisbon is their next stop.