Local Miami Blog "The Strawbuyer" has been hacked. By Geniusofdespair

Read the whole story, here is a bit:

After years of singling out criminals, dirty politicians and dirty law enforcement officers, yesterday our website was hacked, not just the blog though, but my email account as well. Whoever dedicated the time and resources to hacking into my email and subsequently the blog controls, I have to hand it to you, you did a great job. They even went so far as to remove the blog and were in the process of deleting blog posts, luckily I caught it in time and since I have everything backed up, I was able to undo whatever damage they thought they had done.

Al Crespo Peddles Some Inspiration. By Geniusofdespair

If I read the articles about me, 

and I didn't know me,  I would think I was Satan.

Lobbyist Jack Abramoff

Some days I get up and sit at my computer to write a blog post and I say to myself, after 7 years, what is the point. Carl Hiaasen's column made me think about the Marlins Dolphins Stadium yet again - I have been trying to put it out of my mind because the welfare for a multi billionaire team owner makes me so angry. After listening to a majority of County Commissioners parrot lobbyist talking points last week, I see the public funding train of a private stadium unstoppable in the County -- unless Norman Braman can throw some major bucks against it.

Miami Dade County residents disappoint, acting like lemmings, never learning from history.  Some folks blindly follow a radio talk show host's manipulation. Those same hosts sometimes are paid to use lobbyists talking points or paid to support certain candidates. Voters often put a "good looking" guy or gal in office ONLY because they are good looking. Others return the very same people to office that voted in favor of the toxic Marlins deal,  the deal voters claim to hate.  Residents vote against their own interest and put bad and nasty people in office all the time like, Mayor Susan Gottlieb, Mayor Steven Bateman, Vice Mayor John DuBois, County Commissioner Lynda Bell, Commissioner Pepe Diaz, Commissioner Barbara Jordan, Commissioner Bruno Barreiro and State Rep. Erik Fresen just to name a few.  Gets old after a while. I look at lobbyists who do volunteer work against abuse and then they abuse with no qualms, not recognizing their own behavior is abusive to the public's good. Makes you want to puke after a few years.

Because I am so disgusted today I will print a comment left on one of our posts by fellow blogger Al Crespo of the Crespogram Report. Maybe it will inspire me.

Al Crespo left this comment in response to one of our reader's who asked why we write about lobbyists. The reader said they like it when we criticize them, it only makes them more successful, because businesses will see what we write as a lobbyist's strength and success not as a negative (my words, for full comment: see read more):

"Knowledge, like water is a powerful thing. Do not underestimate the value of the daily reporting on the big and small assaults on the public's trust that bloggers can produce. Like drops on a rock, one day that rock might break into pieces because of the repeated drops.

The efforts of Eye On Miami, The Straw Buyer myself and others, does have an affect. We're not going to change human nature, but in many ways, each of us had managed to make an impact on how the politicians in this county operate.

Some results have been good, and some not so good, but I signed on for the long haul, and I feel that every year I do this my voice grows stronger, as my knowledge and resources grow stronger.

The lobbyists are important but not as important as revealing just how the elected and appointed officials, who make the decisions that impact everyone's lives, do what they do.

If you think things are bad now, think back and ask yourselves how much worse would it be if all of us who spend our time and effort trying to educate, expose, and generally raise the level of awareness of what the politicians are trying to do had decided not to do anything.

In the land of the blind the one-eyed man is king, and I believe that each of us in our own way is trying to help more and more people see out of that one eye.

It's not easy, and we might not succeed in ways that will prove to be earth shattering, but I am personally encouraged by the almost daily messages I get from readers who appreciate my efforts, and most importantly, put their trust in me by providing me with documents, tips, and inside information on what is going on inside the City of Miami.

They feel they have no voice, and in my flawed way I try to be their voice because the Miami Herald, the TV stations, and much of what passes for the establishment watchdogs won't."

Verbatim comment from a reader that Al Crespo was responding to:

Random Pixels has two Great Posts Targeting the Miami Herald. By Geniusofdespair

The blog takes on the "Cuban - Miami" factor in the Miami Herald related to Ryan Lochte swim win.

Also, he has advice for the Miami Herald in anticipation of their charging for internet access:

"You can start by assigning real reporters to cover the news. I'm not about to pay to read semi-literate crap..."

One of My Favorite Blogs. By Geniusofdespair

One of my favorite blogs is Discourse.net.

It is written by University of Miami's Laurie Silvers & Mitchell Rubenstein Distinguished Professor of Law - Michael Froomkin. As a Professor he writes a lot about Privacy & Cryptography, Internet Governance & Governance Generally and E-Commerce among other things.

On his blog he writes about local politics and what ever else comes to his mind. Froomkin blogged live while he attended President Obama's speech yesterday. I do enjoy his writing and I have also learned a few things of interest to me as an anonymous writer getting anonymous comments: He wrote a book chapter "Anonymity and the Law in the United States."

One thing I don't like, he has the cell phone version of his blog, I don't like these shortened blogs for cell phones.

Transit Miami Blog Talks About the UDB. By Geniusofdespair

Transit Miami has a very good post on the Urban Development Boundary vote at the County Commission last week.

They even used my map....

Blogger Banned From City of Miami MRC Building. By Geniusofdespair

Yep, not only was blogger Al Crespo banned from the King Mango Strut earlier this year, today he was denied entry to the City of Miami Riverside Center. He is contemplating suing over what he calls the "Crespo Policy." He has been a constant critic of the City of Miami and its Commissioners, and its Mayor, and its Police Chief, and....you get the idea. According to NBC News:

Proof of the Crespo rule might have come Monday when the blogger tried to enter the building and was stopped and told he had to have an appointment, even as dozens of other citizens freely walked by security without being questioned.

“This is a sad state of affairs,” said Crespo, whose Crespo-Gram Report was recently blocked from city computers. “The city is $61 million in the hole, the mayor is under criminal investigation and the police chief is about to be fired in two weeks and they waste the entire morning on this.”

Crespo’s limited access to the building is the product of a new measure to ensure employee security, said Assistant City Manager Luis Cabrera.

They have a good video on the NBC site.

Running of the Baby Bulls in Miami. By Geniusofdespair

In the 80's a City of Miami official floated the idea of having a running of the bulls on Calle Ocho like Pamplona except she wanted to use baby bulls so no one would get hurt. Random Pixels has the news article on it. When it comes to Miami, anything is possible, no idea is too stupid (remember the race car course through downtown)...except this one.

Julio Robaina's Financial Disclosure Questions. By Geniusofdespair

Go to the Straw Buyer to see a good report on Julio Robaina's property. The blogger asks why Robaina's real estate is worth so little, for example, a shopping center worth $75,325 when Robaina got a bank loan for 1.3 million. Good report, the guy smells a rat...

Coral Gables Gets a Push Poll. By Geniusofdespair

My spouse says I am a hater...I guess I am. I add to my hate list: Push Polls. For those of you who don't know what one is, according to the Mystery Pollster:

"The important thing to remember is that a "push poll" is not a poll at all. It's a fraud, an attempt to disseminate information under the guise of a legitimate survey. The proof is in the intent of the person doing it."

Someone in the Coral Gables District 4 Commission Race just put out a push poll, apparently after Gonzalo Sanabria (who can blame them) and Brad Rosenblatt. Take a look at an in depth description of this Coral Gables push poll over at the Discourse Blog. Nasty stuff going on in Coral Gables. I thought rich people behaved better (LOL).

Reid Report: 7 Reason Rick Scott is Bad For Florida. By Geniusofdespair

Read the Reid Report's 7 Reasons Rick Scott is Bad for Florida. She calls her column on him: "Menace to Society."

My favorite from her report:

"1. He doesn’t understand the difference between campaigning and governing.

Scott unveiled his budget plan at a tea party gathering. And while that might make Florida’s tea party activists feel important, the election is over. Scott is going to have to come to terms with the fact that while he didn’t win a majority of Floridians’ support, he is stuck governing everybody, including people who are not part of the tea party movement. By unveiling his plans at a highly partisan gathering that represents perhaps a third of Floridians at best, Scott revealed that he’s more interested in positioning himself ideologically than in behaving as a statesman."

Check out 2 other blogs today. By Geniusofdespair

Mustang Bobby over at Bark Bark - Woof Woof has a good analysis of the Governor's budgetary skills.

The South Florida Daily Blog has a video clip from Norway, very funny!

How to Write A Blog a.k.a. The Blogging Knife. By Geniusofdespair

Don't see video? Try this link.

This video is accurate of some of my days blogging. The blogging knife: Been there... thanks to Sarah Palin.

Speaking of Campaign Contributions....by Geniusofdespair

Stephen Murray did a bang-up job analyzing City of Miami Commissioner Marc Sarnoff's campaign report. I couldn't have done it any better! He saved you guys a lot of time, with this labor intensive analysis.

Eye On Miami: The Big Change. By Geniusofdespair

You might have noticed, there is one full-time blogger on Eyeonmiami now: Geniusofdespair. I am on the lookout for a replacement second and third blogger to join this successful daily blog. We built up quite a following so you could join in on a good thing...without getting paid of course (some good thing that is, but I guarantee you will have plenty of people to read your rants).

I will go it alone but this is so much work for one person, for that reason, I will not be posting as much as in the past. Since it is summer, I will take advantage and take some time off from posting here and there. Expect the same excellent posts, just less of them.

Thanks for your cooperation and readership.

Trickin and Trackin, South Florida Daily Blog gets Miami New Times nod... congrats... by gimleteye

Good on you, Rick and South Florida Daily Blog for New Times Best of Miami's local blog in 2010. It's hard work keeping up with all the trickery in the Magic City, and we appreciate the Daily Blog keeping track!

Bloggers' Meet-up Saturday. By Geniusofdespair

Bloggers' meet-up, I was there, see the video.... Very nice group of people.

The Burger Beast, recently in the Miami Herald, was getting into shape for a 4 pound hamburger he was scheduled to eat later so he did not partake in the tasty food provided.

The new slanted news in Florida: who funds online Sayfie Media? by gimleteye

The economic collapse and decline of print media has created a void slowly filling by pretender, quasi-news sources that pretend to be fair and balanced journalism. These look and "feel" and advertise themselves to be, from all appearances independent journalism. But they are not. These are not blogs, like ours. Nor are they websites that clearly state for readers their political preferences, like DailyKos. One of the emerging efforts to slant news content by imposing a filter at the state level is in Florida through online media published by Sayfie Media LLC.

According to his corporate website, "Justin Sayfie is a founding shareholder of Blosser & Sayfie. As an attorney and government relations consultant, he represents clients in a variety of industries, including land development, health care, education and transportation. Prior to co-founding Blosser & Sayfie in August 2001, Justin worked as a senior policy advisor, spokesman and chief speechwriter for Governor Jeb Bush. In these different roles, Justin assisted Governor Bush with development of public policy initiatives and legislative strategy, management of Florida’s thirteen executive state agencies and press relations. Prior to joining Governor Bush's Administration, from 1995 to 1998, Justin practiced environmental and land use law at the Miami office of Greenberg Traurig. There he represented property owners seeking development and environmental approvals from state and local regulatory authorities."

Sayfie was the first GOP insider to aggregate online news in Florida. His sites follow along the fiction of offering "Your morning cup of politics unleavened by backroom agendas." That's the Sayfie News.

The Sayfie Review is a also news aggregator, re-publishing articles by newspapers and calls itself, "What Florida's Most Influential People Read Daily". But look in the archive through the search field on the compelling ballot issue in 2010: Florida Hometown Democracy. The citizens movement will appear on the November 2010 ballot and would require popular vote to change local comprehensive growth plans. The measure is freaking out the Growth Machine. It is strongly opposed by the "environmental and land use law" community such as represented by Greenberg Traurig et al.; the Sayfie Way. Enter "climate change" in the search field, and nothing comes up. Under 'global warming' for 2009, only a handful of stories. On the other hand, dozens of stories for 2009 come up under "FPL", for the state's largest utility-- Florida Power and Light.

Marco Rubio-- the insurgent, "conservative" candidate in the GOP primary for the US Senate-- is all over the Sayfie filter. Rubio is the stand-in for Jeb Bush as the new hope of the GOP. In calmer days, Gov. Crist -- who is increasingly threatened by the Rubio insurgency-- gave the Sayfie Review a heady thumbs-up, buried by his own praise: "The Sayfie Review has the highest "power quotient" of any publication in the state and is the only publication that Florida's political and opinion leaders read daily. Florida Governor Charlie Crist says, "I read the Review daily, and find it an indispensable way to get the latest news from around the State."

The boilerplate says, "Over the past six years, we have developed a bipartisan readership that includes the Florida governor's office staff, White House staff, members of Congress, Florida legislators, Florida government officials, lobbyists, members of the capitol press corps, TV reporters around the state, editorial board writers, Florida newspaper columnists, bloggers, business executives, political consultants, and party activists. SayfieReview.com is truly what Florida's Most Influential People Read Daily." Although the website feeds into traditional "balanced" and "fair" media, (it's Hotline Sites button leads to sites that feature advertisement by the Pew Charitable Trust and the National Journal, Sayfie's interest in mobilizing information feeds as "balanced" is better understood through the consulting and political strategy/lobbying effort he coalesced under NetPower Strategy: "Phil Musser, Justin Sayfie and Max Everett have joined forces to combine their experience in managing winning campaigns and successfully executing new media practices to form NetPower Strategy - a new media consulting firm at the forefront of the intersection between politics and technology. NetPower Strategy will provide turn-key new media solutions for political, corporate and issue advocacy campaigns." Everett was the Chief Technology Officer for the 2008 GOP national convention and the White House.

It is impossible to know from its websites how the Safie Media interests are funded, but a recent advertisement in Tallahassee to add staff indicates it is a growing business. The Sayfie effort is bipartisan as Fox News: only, the Florida version.

The South Florida Daily Blog Awards Me Post of the Week! By Geniusofdespair

I am humbled...Rick reads a lot of blogs! Glad he recognized my post The Saga of the Phone Scam.