Tuesday, February 25, 2014

What to write about? By Geniusofdespair

3 Candidates for the open District 8 seat in 2010, Pam, Albert and Eugene. Eugene Flinn went on to win the primary and Lynda Bell came in second. She won the election on absentee ballots. She won by a little over 300 votes out of a little over 43,000 votes cast.
You might say: "Genius, why do you write about certain things?"

One of my favorite things to write about is Miami Dade County. That has always been my focus since we started the blog in 2006. When we started there were a few blogs already writing about the dysfunctional City of Miami. So the dysfunctional County was a good second and no one was writing about that. Most people who live in cities have no idea who their County Commissioner is. Ask your friends. They have no idea there are 2 layers of government in the County, they think it is only their city. We have 658 posts about the County Commission. Eye on Miami (mostly from me) has 363 posts on Natacha Seijas and 137 on Lynda Bell but I and Gimleteye have only written 79 on Pepe Diaz and 62 on Bruno Barreiro. Why?

I would say back to you that I consider the ones I write about bullies on the Commission. I consider them the ones that can do the most damage because of their power. Lynda Bell was a one term Mayor of Homestead because she was a bully there. Also, they give me a lot to write about because of what they do.

It is no secret that I was a big fan of Katy Sorenson. I helped Eugene Flinn during his campaign as much as I could. Lynda Bell's win was a big disappointment to me and a second win would be as well. I am now a fan of candidate Daniella Levine Cava for that seat. I knew her before she ran and I was always impressed with her. She is articulate, smart, funny, and has heart. She cares about the little people, all people. She is a breath of fresh air. If she wins she will be a voice of the people. I am not in District 8 but all commissioners govern all of us.

Gimleteye wrote 189 posts on big sugar, 203 about Jeb Bush and 209 about global warming. We both have our favorite subjects. Right now mine is the election in County Commission District 8. Why only District 8 when there are 6 Commissioners up for reelection? So far there are no viable candidates against any of the others.

We have 472 posts about elections so you know we care about elections. I have written 4,140 posts since this blog began so in the scheme of things, I write about just about anything and everything. Have you read about my colonoscopy?

We accept guest blogs (we have 210), if you have an idea send us an email and tell us about what you want to write about.

There is a good article on Mayor Gimenez in the Miami Herald today, don't miss it (we have 72 posts on him). From the Herald:

It’s not just commissioners who have struggled to be heard. One of Gimenez’s main challenges is to listen to the different political groups that made up the broad coalition that got him elected, said Annette Taddeo-Goldstein, chairwoman of the Miami-Dade Democratic Party. Many Democrats backed Gimenez, but the party has been an increasingly louder voice of dissent at County Hall.

The mayor did a better job this month of bringing groups into a debate over new voting precincts, Taddeo-Goldstein said. But that was after initially not reaching out to them at all — a pattern that has given Gimenez’s administration a reputation of being somewhat isolated.

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think you should write about me. I am totally a bully. Ask my wife.

David said...

Good luck with District 8 that is going to be a slug fest.

Anonymous said...

Genius: Thank You for bringing the truth be told to us.

Anonymous said...

Carlos Gimenez failed to honor many of his campaign promises. Not only did he NOT even try to honor several of his promises he did a 180.
He completely caved in to his lobbyist buddies.

Anonymous said...

Here's one for any new red light camera. Agency must provide information on "amber" light duration before camera - cannot be shorter after installation. Must upgrade all pedestrian crossing light to give countdown time before light changes to amber. Not too expensive if safety is your issue.

On a stale green, I use the count down pedestrian light to determine if I am going to attempt to cross the intersection.

Anonymous said...

winning by fraudulent absentee ballots is a way of life here in Miami-Dade. surely, Lynda Bell won that way as did others such as Lopez-Cantera lost every single prescient and early voting but won from absentee ballots. the Republicans have a good control on that nastiness

Anonymous said...

you obviously have a personal vendetta against Lynda Bell. Diaz, Barreiro and others are far more vile and have many more years of fleecing taxpayers.

Geniusofdespair said...

Do you understand the word BULLY. I don't go by your standards I go by mine. They all fleece taxpayers.

Paramedic for Cava said...

I too am excited about the Cava versus Bell race. I live in District-8 and will be helping as much as I can with the Cava campaign.

"Paramedic for Cava"

Anonymous said...

You have to have known someone to have a Personal vendetta. I doubt that the two have met and had a relationship or Natacha.

Anonymous said...

Go Paramedic! law enforcement personnel are with you. its a matter of good vs evil. we cant wait to rid our district 8 of Bell one and for all. look at it this way- the free time she'll have can go to cleaning up her junk yard looking backyard so the police dogs have a sanitary place to live.

Anonymous said...

Now that Patricia Mazzei has enlightened us with her Miami Herald article titled Budget Battle Scars, where she emphasizes how Mayor Carlos Gimenez "remains popular with voters", we sincerely hope she will follow up the story with one titled Battle Scars Sustained by County Employees and Citizens. In that fictional story, Mazzei could write about Carlos Gimenez's association to Campaign Manager Al Lorenzo and the absentee ballot scheme they perpetrated at the office of State Rep. Rene Garcia in 2012. She could also mention the unethical relationships between Gimenez and Consultants Jorge Luis Lopez and Garcia-Toledo as well as Gimenez's relationship with the Munilla family and other prominent wealthy socialites. Moving to the topic of County government, she could enlighten us further by listing the rationale for the five deputy mayors and duplicitous department directors ( a la Juan Kurila) as well as the lack of a transparent job interview selection system which prohibit professional employees to aspire to higher offices unless they fully support Gimenez's deranged policies. We could go on and on about how Gimenez's departmental reorganization has affected county infrastructure but citizens are not willing to hear that at this time though they will feel the effects of such adverse actions in years to come. Yes, that would be an excellent article for Miss Mazzei to write; however, I would not sit and wait for it anytime soon, Gimenez was elected to push the Dolphin stadium agenda and The Herald is not ready to turn his back on Gimenez just yet.

Anonymous said...

To the well written Anon's comment about Ms. Mazzei's reporting, please also submit those words in the comment section after the herald article. Great points. She fails to mention the impact had his plans gone forward.

The tone of the piece is STILL complimentary, trying to make him seem like a noble hero who is just trying to do the right thing even though he makes mistakes.

She characterized the budget mess last year - saying that Gimenez tried to propose the tax hike and the public negative response was overwhelming; no mention of the impact or anything else.

Anonymous said...

Gimenez seems like a basic bully. He does kiss the butts of people he thinks are socially prominent or powerful. Don't forget the midget vertical shopping mall developer, Jeff Berkowitz. Too bad good ideas get no respect from Carlos Gimenez.

Juan said...

Gimenez , Bell and Edmonson have also become a pawn of those lobbyists and vendor wanta bes who have lined their pockets with Genting gold.. And those waiting in anticipation of gambling gold. Excellent piece in palm beach post .. Destination gambling will probably be approved due in large part to the fact gambling interests have unlimited resources and we have the best government money can buy. The legislative representatives from south Florida are once agin being out-flanked and out smarted by their colleagues.

We get the casinos and all the problems .. They get the campaign contributions and benefit the the tax revenue ..but hey maybe our officials can take selfies with the casino owners ..

A Palmetto Bay activist said...

J.C. Planas was hired by the Gene Flinn campaign to inspect the absentee ballots, looking for irregularities. He gathered supporters and spent days at Elections Department headquarters inspecting each individual absentee ballot and voter signature on envelopes. What was the result of his investigation? Flinn decided not to file an election challenge within the 10 day period allowed by law. Lynda took office. You might suspect there were problems with the absentee ballots, but nothing was ever proven. And Planas is a pretty good election lawyer. You'd do better to focus on the election ahead of you than to dwell on the one behind. Bell's got problems in District 8. Like Rick Scott, polling shows that her negatives are much higher than her positives, a hard thing for a politician to overcome. She'll find little comfort in Homestead and, even with John DuBois' money and support, Palmetto Bay holds her in disregard. Lobbyists feel that Lynda is damaged and have been withholding showering her with campaign cash. So, yeah, the 2014 District 8 race is going to be exciting. But does anybody in my little town truly missing Gene Flinn? There's no DRAFT GENE movement afoot. He'll keep practicing law for a firm that attempts to deny disability payments to injured workers and Mrs. Flinn will keep writing her teen fiction and life will go on.

Anonymous said...

Draft Flinn? He is sorely missed in Palmetto Bay. Many residents I speak to yearn for the days when there was true leadership on the council and things got done. Now there are only blood feuds, ethic complaints filed by the current mayor against her own council, lawsuits and finger pointing to decide who can be the nastier member of the council. Nothing of substance has happened under Mayor Stancyzk, who is just another politician currently held in general disregard not only in Palmetto Bay but with her own alleged peers on the Miami-Dade League of Cities.

Anonymous said...

Wow, what an ugly anonymous post. I wonder what kind of activist the poster truly is. Flinn fought hard for protecting the environment. Palmetto Bay under Flinn and Cutler Bay under Vrooman both worked well with Pinecrest and South Miami in taking on important regional issues. Palmetto Bay's current mayor couldn't care less. District 8 is devoid of any leadership now that Pinecrest has been written out of the new D8 boundaries.