Glenn Beck and Fox News: a former clean up hitter comes clean … by gimleteye

How much damage was done to the United States through spiteful and dangerous nonsense spouted by Glenn Beck among other right wing ideologues who cram the airwaves and public opinion with demagoguery? Incalculable, really.

What was the purpose? To riddle the middle class with fear and uncertainty and provide cover for the largest wealth transfer to the top .5 percent in the history of the United States.

For the New York Times, OPED writer Charles Blow takes on the Beck record. If not for this, I would not have known that Beck actually said, "… I think I played a role unfortunately in helping tear the country apart."

Think so?

Like  snake oil salesmen through the ages of time, Beck exudes the appearance of wisdom. He is not responsible for the inability of American audiences to discern the truth for themselves. Americans did that all themselves. "I didn't realize how really fragile the people were" Beck says, lying. 

The entire Fox News superstructure, built by Roger Ailes and Rupert Murdoch, articulate a business model exploiting fragility. History will not be kind to any of these actors, no matter how much wealth they garnered in the tearing apart of America.


The Penance of Glenn Beck
JAN. 24, 2014
NY Times by Charles Blow

This week Glenn Beck said something I agree with. (Now, there’s a line I never thought I’d write.) During an interview on Tuesday with Megyn Kelly of Fox News, Beck reflected on his time at Fox this way:

“I remember it as an awful lot of fun, and that I made an awful lot of mistakes, and I wish I could go back ...

The worst bill to emerge in the Florida legislature: House Bill 703 / Patronis … by gimleteye

House Bill 703 was filed in Tallahassee last week by Rep Jimmy Patronis of Panama City.

Patronis is the newest iteration of legislators who will do anything that Big Ag / Big Sugar wants. He follows in the path well worn by earlier generations of compliant state legislators: Ken Pruit, Marco Rubio, Gaston Cantens come to mind. From the state legislature to serving billionaires is a frictionless move.

HB 703 is aimed at crippling local governments so they can’t pass or enforce environmental restrictions. It also kills the right of local government to have a super-majority vote on comprehensive plan amendments that are really important to the community. Urban Development Boundary changes in Miami-Dade come to mind. It’s retroactive and bad. Really bad.

It is hard to know if this Patronis effort is just another one of those decoys that the incumbent radical right deploys, knowing it will send civic activists scurrying, each legislative session in Tallahassee. No different from a diversionary, military tactic in the field. Meanwhile, the alarms raised by citizens on a desperate field trip against the radical right provides a kind of smoke screen for organizers like Patronis to pass milder measures, hidden in other bills.

What happens at the end of the day is that civic activists and environmentalists are left to say, "well it could have been worse" or "we don't like what happened here, but we stopped worse from happening there." It is a ceaseless, relentless chipping away that occurs in Tallahassee and stands for "gu'vment".

There is only one way to block the bad guys and their billionaire sponsors: Florida voters. Send your thoughts about HB 703 to:

aad@miamidade.gov; Rick.Scott@eog.myflorida.com; Gaetz.Don.web@flsenate.gov; Will.Weatherford@myfloridahouse.gov; negron.joe.web@flsenate.gov; gharrell@gayleharrell.com; marylynn.magar@myfloridahouse.gov; larry.lee@myfloridahouse.gov

The Stop Rush Project ... by gimleteye

"The Stop Rush (Limbaugh) Project" has a simple purpose: "to bring pressure on the advertisers responsible for keeping him on public airwaves."

This is a very sensible idea. The website lists dozens of petitions and grass roots efforts to educate the public about toxic Rush.

The point, in a Daily Kos report is: "

"... carrying Rush Limbaugh is a liability to any station owner that isn't Clear Channel. Station owners don't like liabilities. They want no controversy at all. They just want to make money, and the smart ones are already figuring out that Rush doesn't make much money for them, at least not the way he used to."

Top 10 Things I Hated in 2011. By Geniusofdespair

Actually this list is hard to compile as I hate quite a lot of what I do so there was narrowing down involved. Most of my pet peeves involve anything that wastes my time.

10. Loading the dishwasher with spouse reloading the dishwasher in front of me. Nothing says 'incompetent' more clearly.

9. Washing clothes. This is a colossal waste of time. I haven't figured out how to get around this chore yet besides buying dozens of socks and underwear.

8. Cooking. I have gotten around this pretty good by just refusing to do it.

7. Watching Miami Dade County Commission meetings on TV. This is like chalk on a blackboard especially if Pepe le pew Diaz is talking or Barbara Jordan. Their phony earnestness for the cameras makes me sick. Especially Pepe who tends to read verbatim Lobbyists' scripts.

6. Going to Miami Dade County Commission meetings. Seeing all the lobbyists at the meetings (you don't see this on TV) makes me very sad...for all of us. Nothing says you can't win as much as a lot of money spent on lobbyists.

5. Making small talk. This is an art form. I am at the point now where I can't remember what I ask, so I think I am repeating the same subjects every time I see the same person. I fear I am in a small talk loop.

4. Trying to make long dramatic points in phone texts when, if the other person would pick up the friggin' phone (Vanessa Brito), life would be so much easier and there wouldn't be a written trail.

3. Follow up. I am so scattered on reporting, I can't keep up with my public records requests, and some of your leads. One culprit is contending with so many junk emails.

2. Nasty people, who think they are clever, making comments on the blog.

1. Rampant Absentee Ballot Fraud by Absentee Ballot Brokers.

We also have an EOM heading called 'Demagogue of the Year':
On the local front, County Commissioners Joe Martinez and Lynda Bell share this title as my pick. Both are sneaky with ulterior motives.
On the State front: Erik Fresen.
On the National front: Congressman David Rivera.

That Stupid. The truth about the Marlins' deal and the County: no one cares ... by gimleteye

1899 cartoon from Puck: "All politics revolve around the boss"
"Tammany Hall depended for its power on government contracts, jobs, patronage, corruption, and ultimately the ability of its leaders to swing the popular vote."

No one is surprised that the Marlins, a professional sports team, conned public officials into standing behind a $700 million stadium, lying about the team's finances. If you are a paid consultant to the Marlins and read this blog and are surprised, raise your hand. The voters of Miami Dade are that stupid. Do voters care that Pepe Diaz or Dorrin Rolle allowed rock mining in West Dade to threaten public health and drinking water? Of course not. Worried about cancer rates or cancer clusters? Hell no: that's someone else's problem. Care that the environmental fund collecting millions in fines from polluters and law breakers was looted by the police department? No one cares about the environment. Care to understand the difference between state senator Julio Robaina and Miguel Diaz de la Portilla? No. Mayor Alvarez won't even answer press questions on police looting the environmental fund. Care that Jeffrey Loria, the Marlin's owner, took down $49 million in the year he and his staff were crying poverty and couldn't afford to keep professional baseball in Miami unless taxpayers stood behind their deal? Nope. Miami Dade voters are brain dead. In the District 8 runoff for county commission, voters could choose a former mayor of the city that is the blighted, blasted capital of Florida's fraud and mortgage scams and bankers gone wild: Homestead. Do voters even know what that is? Nope. The worst housing market bubble and crash since the Great Depression has had no impact whatsoever on Florida's brain dead voters. Reward ignorance. Condemn honesty. Bury facts. Celebrate buildings. Play ball!

Dick Morris and the League of American Voters ... by gimleteye

The Florida Independent notes that an entity started by former Clinton, now Fox News spinner Dick Morris is supporting Bill McCullom's primary race for governor through a Florida-based independent committee. Morris' operation is the "League of American Voters", a spin of the League of Conservation Voters but what the heck: Dick Morris is one funny man. He made a pair with President Clinton, until he was spurned after a DC sex scandal. The Florida Independent notes League of American Voters shares an address with Grover Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform. Norquist, with Karl Rove, are generals for the Wrecking Crew that helped spin the US economy into the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. They are all still hovering about, offering their expertise, whatever it may be-- and serving funders from the right, whoever they might be.

Haley Barbour takes one for the party: tells media to stop scaring tourists on Gulf Oil catastrophe ... by gimleteye

Wow. You go, Haley Barbour-- Guv'nah of Mississippi and former national GOP chairman during the Bush years. Yesterday, Haley complained that the media is creating the impression of devastation in the Gulf on account of the Gulf Oil Catastrophe. Now is Barbour taking his talking points from Mike Thomas, Orlando Sentinel columnist, or is it the other way around. Here's Thomas on May 6, 2010: "Naturally, as far as the media are concerned, this is the BIGGEST DARNED DISASTER IN THE HISTORY OF DISASTERS! The oil is going to destroy the Gulf of Mexico, wipe out 40 percent of the nation's fisheries and cripple Florida's tourism industry. Then it will head south and take out the Keys before heading north to Cocoa Beach." Here's Barbour, according to Huffington Post: "In an appearance on Fox News Sunday, the Mississippi Republican veered as close as any elected politician could to insisting that the biggest oil spill in the history of this country had been overblown -- at least when it comes to his state."

Barbour was trying out his talking point on Fox News, so maybe I was right the other day when I suggested that Thomas is auditioning for a spot on Fox. Here's Barbour: "The biggest negative impact for us has been the news coverage," Barbour added. "There has been no distinction between Grand Isle and Venice and all the places in Louisiana that we feel so terrible for that have had oil washing up on them. But to the average viewer [of] this show thinks that the whole coast from Florida to Texas is ankle-deep in oil. And of course, it's very, very bad for our tourist season. That is the real economic damage. ... The Mississippi gulf coast is beautiful. As I tell people, the coast is clear. Come on down!" Here is what Thomas wrote on April 23, 2009: "... The only shameful ploy I see in this drilling debate is opponents using outdated scare stories about oil-coated shorelines destroying our “pristine” beaches. The last offshore blowout of an American well happened 40 years ago off the Santa Barbara coast in California. Ever since, the industry has vastly improved its technology and safety record."

That editorial was written in 2009. One year later, nearly to the day, the BP Deepwater Horizon exploded in a fireball, taking 11 lives and triggering the worst environmental catastrophe in US history. Barbour and Thomas are on the same page: it is the media's fault. To late to turn back now, except for those brutal photos. If we could only close the cameras down.

Memo to Right Wing Message Machine: on the Gulf Coast Oil Catastrophe, the failure is all yours ... by gimleteye

Environmentalists chased offshore oil drilling into deeper waters. Media Matters, a watchdog covering the oil spin machine rinse cycle, cites Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, and William Kristol. Here's Limbaugh: "What the environmentalist wackos are making us do is drill down 35,000 feet, 6.6 miles, when there's oil practically begging to be taken out of the ground in areas that are now off-limits because of U.S. regime regulations." Palin, warbling with the Big Bloviator, ..."took to Facebook to attack "radical environmentalists" who she blamed for "making drilling more dangerous." Kristol should know better, but then he is responsible for the Palin disaster: what else could he say? The truth that Big Oil drills in deepwater because that is where big oil is?

Brazil: "Considered to be the most prolific basin in Brazil, the Campos Basin is responsible for more than 85% of Brazil’s total reserves and 77% of its current production. The Campos Basin lies primarily offshore and most of its reserves are located in deepwaters." Libya: "EXXONMOBIL Corporation said recently that it had commenced drilling of the first of three deepwater exploration wells off the coast of Libya, ramping up activities in the oil-rich nation by the world's largest publicly traded oil company... The deepwater exploration marks the beginning of a new era for the North African nation."

An independent driller in 2003: "I have been a fan of deep water for a long time and I think the future in the oil business is deep water. About 1996, we started looking for an area in the world that was deep water where you could use FPSOs (Floating, Production, Storage and Offloading vessels). ... West Africa was not as nearly as far along as Mexico or Brazil and the companies hadn't really started drilling in deep water. There had been a couple of deep-water wells drilled in Angola and maybe one or two in Nigeria, but other than that, deep water in Africa was very virginal. ... We're going to find big oil. We probably have under our acreage, alone, over 10 billion barrels, recoverable. The United States has 22 billion barrels."

Memo to Right Wing Spin Machine: take ownership for the mess you made with regulatory capture and failure. It's all yours, baby.

Gingrich comes clean: it is all a "vaudeville act" ... by gimleteye

I whispered the description to myself having watched the husband and wife political tag team, James Carville and Mary Maitlin, run the predictable lines and go after their opposite teams as a family feud at a Miami performance in 2004. It is all a vaudeville act.

In the New York Times recently, Newt Gingrich used the same phrase in a noteworthy moment of unscripted candor. Gingrich "... said he was respectful of the Tea Party movement, which he said would “force change,” and that he shared many of its beliefs — in transparency, limited government and distrust of both parties (Mr. Gingrich did periodically criticize the Bush administration). But Mr. Gingrich also said he had seen this movie before — both in Ross Perot’s independent campaigns for president in 1992 and 1996, and his own so-called revolution. “We did a Boston Tea Party event in ’94,” he said. “Some of these things come back full cycle. I feel some days like we’re back at the same vaudeville act.”

In other words, yes dear it was a vaudeville act. The Contract With America. The mid-term elections in 1994. Oh my.

The competition between Gingrich and Jeb Bush, who is patiently waiting out the statute of limitations to declare the Bush vision a new brand, is the underlying contest of the GOP effort to win back Congress in the fall elections. According to the Times, Gingrich "... sits atop an empire of interlocking policy groups, political networks and media enterprises with a total of about 60 employees. His chief vehicle is a policy center called American Solutions for a Winning Future." Bush, using Florida as his base, has summoned the full resources of a solid state GOP majority and a party apparatus that has just completed a major purge.

Their vaudeville act is spinning off interesting side-shows: the insurgency of Marco Rubio against Gov. Charlie Crist for US Senate is key affair. Out of the vaudeville group, there always has to be a character from central casting to lead the troupe. In this case, the GOP -- at Bush's direction-- picked out the telegenic Miami Cuban American as the real, true conservative who blasted Charlie Crist for the temerity of embracing a fiscal stimulus plan by Obama that ostensibly has kept the US economy from plunging into a full scale depression.

Instead, we have a time release depression with municipal and state budgets taking years to reflect the scope of the economic catastrophe unleashed by Bush policies, Wall Street greed, and a Federal Reserve asleep at the switch. The vaudeville act goes on.

Florida to Blue Dog Democrats: go where you are needed most. Sarah Palin needs a retriever ... by gimleteye

On health care reform, Florida Congressman Allen Boyd is doing no favors to citizens. ""What's the sense of getting a health care reform that, when we go down the road six or eight or 10 years, you've got a worse problem than we've got now?" the Monticello Democrat said Wednesday. "If we're going to do this, we need to get it right." (Florida Today, July 28, 2009)

But the Blue Dog Democrats are making no sense, as Paul Krugman points out in the New York Times. ("An Incoherent Truth", July 26, 2009) "Maybe they’re just being complete hypocrites. It’s worth remembering the history of one of the Blue Dog Coalition’s founders: former Representative Billy Tauzin of Louisiana. Mr. Tauzin switched to the Republicans soon after the group’s creation; eight years later he pushed through the 2003 Medicare Modernization Act, a deeply irresponsible bill that included huge giveaways to drug and insurance companies. And then he left Congress to become, yes, the lavishly paid president of PhRMA, the pharmaceutical industry lobby. One interpretation, then, is that the Blue Dogs are basically following in Mr. Tauzin’s footsteps: if their position is incoherent, it’s because they’re nothing but corporate tools, defending special interests. And as the Center for Responsive Politics pointed out in a recent report, drug and insurance companies have lately been pouring money into Blue Dog coffers."

For the 2010 election cycle, Congressman Boyd already has $1,589,000 on hand, compared to challenger state senator Al Lawson, with $38,000. You have to give credit to the other side: they know an opportunity when they see it. The eight members of the Blue Dog Coalition are playing right into the hands of the so-called "fiscal conservatives" who crashed the economy onto the rocks of the worst crisis since the Depression. Here is a way to send a message to Congressman Boyd: call his Tallahassee office: (850) 561-3979 the Blue Dogs are needed most in Alaska, where Sarah Palin is looking for retrievers.

Gonzalo Sanabria, not for Coral Gables City Commission... by gimleteye

A challenger has emerged to run in an April election for Coral Gables City Commission against popular incumbent Maria Anderson: Gonzolo Sanabria. Eyeonmiami has written about Gonzalo Sanabria before. News of his intention to run for public office gives us reason to write again.

"I will shortly be challenging Maria Anderson to any and all debates. I look forward to analyzing her record in front of the public.'' Bring it on, she said. ''I love the democratic process,'' Anderson said. "Campaigns are a great way to have a great dialogue about the issues of the city. I love debates. So I would say, let's go for it."

Gonzalo Sanabria's career has been tied up in one real estate deal after another, and in his public service has represented Miami's addiction to growth-at-any-cost that helped foment the housing market bubble and now the worst decline in property values in history. Sanabria served on the County Planning Advisory Board as chief barker for serial horrendous development applications; from the Homestead Air Force Base (HABDI) to other developments outside Miami Dade's Urban Development Boundary. Sometimes Gonzalo seemed to be reading from the same script. Gonzalo Sanabria relished his role as the black hat and could always be counted on to deliver the viewpoint of special interests.

Sanabria's viewpoint on growth is like a saw blade cutting through the public interest in two directions: first, the complaint that environmental and planning regulations are excessively burdensome and, second, that regulations adequately protect the environment from development impacts.

While Gonzalo Sanabria was pushing his arguments back and forth on the Planning Advisory Board, his team-mates in the lobbying business were all about neutering, dismantling, or otherwise wrecking those regulations and intimidating those regulators at every opportunity.

We can't wait to hear his defense of the indefensible.

Krome Gold investor list... by gimleteye

The following is a list of investors in Krome Gold Ranches, from the application on the Miami-Dade County Planning and Zoning website. (Go to page 23 to see list and percentage ownership.)
I'm certain of very few things, but of this I am convinced: if the names listed were barred from either making or soliciting campaign contributions while they or their corporations have any zoning or permitting matters pending before the county commission-- and were required to certify according to law--, your tax dollars and quality of life in Miami Dade would be vastly safer.

Why? Because many-- if not all of these investors/land speculators-- have influenced the county commission, at least the unreformable majority, and helped deform representative democracy by committing to a model of development, based on expanding suburbs, that ties into the Wall Street and mortgage finance disaster that is pulling down the entire economy. It all begins with manipulating local zoning and permitting councils.

To understand who wants the unreformable majority of the county commission to be re-elected-- or who would be motivated both to mobilize core supporters and also to underwrite midnight mailers against challengers filled with lies and appealing to fear-- consider who benefits from changing the underlying zoning of property outside the Urban Development Boundary.

The Miami Herald, today, published an editorial ("Save UDB court cost", August 26, 2008) expressing the hope that Natacha Seijas, the de facto chair of the county commission (or, VNS as we describe her on Eyeonmiami), will allow the full commission to vote on whether or not to stop spending taxpayer money in litigation against the State of Florida on the recent rejection by the State of two earlier applications to move the UDB.

Chalk one up for the Herald and also for its endorsement of Seijas' challenger, Lourdes Aguirre.

Natacha Seijas has committed, in the past, untold millions in fruitless litigation just to please campaign contributors like Krome Gold investor Ramon Rasco. HABDI, anyone? Her refusal to stop litigation against the two UDB applications that the commission approved, and the State rejected, would be in line with voting to allow both Krome Gold's application to move the Urban Development Boundary and its next door neighbor, Lennar's Parkland.

Perhaps some of our readers would like to amplify their concerns.

John McClure
Tomas F. Gamba
Angel Berisuartu
Daniel E. Thomas
Robert E. Chisholm
Robert M. Chisholm
Alberto A. Latqur or Alberto A. Latour
Antio Prado
Otis Wragg
Ramon F. Casas
Francisco R. Angones
Concepcion Perdomo
Daniel F. Valdes
Leticia R. Valdes
David L. Valdes
James Dorsy
Augustin Herran
Miguel Poyastro
Ezra Katz
Jose and Maria Herran
Jose A. and Lourdes Herran
Ana Mary Herran and Alexandra Ynastrilla
Daniel Herran and Nancy San Emetena Herran
Alexandra Ynastrilla
Ana Mary Herran
Jose Luis Machado, III
Vivian M. Isem
Jose Luis Machado, Jr.
Manuel A. Herran
Antonio E. Placenas or Placeras and Yolanda J. Placenas or Placeras
Angel Diaz Norman and Jose F. Diaz
Jose and Ileana Garcia
Jose A. Garcia
Ileana Garcia
Garcia Family Gillian Garcia
Alejandro Garcia
Jim Puente or James Puente
Michael E. Stein
Jirasak Prasertium
Ileana Ramirez
Ricardo Rodriguez
Seth Benes
Allen Benes
Michael Wittels
Howard Wittels
Joel Benes
Adrianne J. Guerra
Corrine M. Guerra
Eric A. Guerra
Antonio R. Gonzalez
Joaquin A. Gonzalez
Orlando Delgado
Maria Delgado
Armando J. and Maria C. Guerra
Carlos M. Garcia
Ana Diaz Cordero
L. Frank Cordero
Alejandro Diaz
Ana Diaz Cordero
Rodney Barreto
Steven M. Henriques
Katherine V. Henriques
Rebecca A. Henriques
Bernardo Goonaga
Ezequiel Herran
Nancy Herran
Sergio Pino
Sasha Andrade and Natasha Andrade
Daniel R. Valdes
Jorge Guerra
Antolin G. Herran
Henry Quiniana
Mercedes Quiniana
Mana C. Guerra
Armando J. Guerra
Maria C. Guerra
Kari Garcia
Carlos F. Arazoza
Manuel Chacon
Maria Chacon
Juan C. Ledesma
Suzett Ledesma
Alberto Guerra
Vivian Guerra
Daniel Siberio and Ana Siberio
Frank Siberio and Patricia Siberio
Nicholas Siberio
Howard Todd Mckinnis
Deborah Sue Mckinnis
Emiliano Herran
Emiliano E. Herran
Claudia Puig
Richard Amundsen
Jorge E. Alvarino
Alberto Guerra
Armando J. Guerra
Maria C. Guerra
Eric Arman Guerra
Corrine Guerra
Adrianne Guerra
Leticia R. Valdes
Donald Fritch
Marta Fritch
Belinda Money
Lawrence Money, III
Laurie A. Money ITF Brittani Alexandra Small
Carlos M. Garcia
Daniel F. Valdes
David L. Valdes
Emma M. Guerra
Ramon E. Rasco
Ana Lauda Rasco
Gabriel M. Bustamante
Maria C. Bustamante
Cristina L. Rasco
Richard A. Rasco
Ramon A. Rasco
Cale Investments LLC
Brialan Corp
Siberio Investments
Ten Talents Investments
ENS Consulting
Veneciana Investments
Tres Hermanos LLP
Seventeen Holdings
Summit Group Properties, Inc.
G.M.G. Holdings, LLC
Phi Alpha Holdings, LLC
Brosis Gift Limited Liability Company
Krome Gold Ranches Management
My Refuge LLP
ALA II LLC
DLD Investments, Inc
First Southeast Equities Inc.
General Real Estate Corp
Fortune Gold Ranches, LLC
Heys Investment, Inc.
US Investments LLC
Machado Krome Investments, LLC
Pedrena Development Corp
Prime Site Investments LLC
GARSH Investments LLLP
Fuente Land Holding, LLC
J.I.R. Investments, LLC

Cuba is all about Miami, by gimleteye

Ana Menendez gets it right in The Miami Herald, "CANF leader at odds with former self". But I want to elaborate on the point that begins her editorial, from which she moves away too quickly: "... the latest report finds that more than 80 percent of the money earmarked for Cuban democracy stays here."

People who live far from Miami often ask, what drives Miami Cubans who have stubbornly refused to engage the Cuban dictatorship over long decades, turning foreign policy failure into a point of abject disappointment. There are two parts to the answer, that an honest reckoning by CANF leadership would agree with-- if such candid admissions ever reached newsprint.

First of all, there is the real anger, hatred, and desire for revenge by ordinary people harmed by a murderous regime. But let's leave this aside. US policy to Cuba, the effort to economically starve a nation whose people are proud irrespective of the conduct of its leaders, cannot have been meant to change Cuba. From China to Libya to the Soviet Union, US foreign policy often veers to the pragmatic.

What then accounts for the immoveable policy against Cuba? The CANF report more or less says it, in noting that 80 percent of the funds stay here: it has always been about Miami, first capturing then maintaining power here.

Anti-Castro fervor serves political orthodoxy for candidates who would do the bidding in office of the power elite: the Javier Souto's and Natacha Seijas and Raul Martinez and Diaz Balarts among others.

The center of power sought by the money behind the vitriol of Spanish language radio was never in Havana: it was in road contracts, airport contracts, and water pipes and pumps in Miami. The counterpoint to the screeching against Castro was the incessant drum of zoning applications to build sprawl in Miami Dade farmland.

Perhaps Menendez is right, that the least bad thing one can say, is that the CANF is pointing the way out of the immoveable US policy to Cuba that has changed nothing for decades.

But the cold, hard truth is the Miami landscape has been picked clean by development interests and the entire region is in the midst of the worst housing crash since the Great Depression-- formed from an enormous glut of housing inventory and an asset bubble Florida developers helped to inflate with policies and politics that dominate Tallahassee and Washington.

In the meantime, companies from Canada, Spain, Italy, France and Germany-- to name a few-- are securing advantage in Havana. In the past decade they have slowly moved to exploit the pent-up demand for economic development that is likely to burst in a flood of profits for saavy investors in the not-too-distant future.

These are the realities that are moving the Cuban American power elite today.

The Hialeah beachhead for Cuban American politics, funded mostly by developers who live in gated communities in South Miami and Coral Gables, doesn't matter quite so much, now that moving the UDB and other zoning changes in Miami-Dade are mostly points of pride for large corporations whose US profits matter less and less compared to what they can earn in emerging economies like Cuba's.

You won't read this point of view in The Miami Herald, but is no less apparent than the smoke filtering in from fires in the Everglades this morning.




Posted on Sun, May. 18, 2008
CANF leader at odds with former self

By ANA MENENDEZ
If all of these aid-to-Cuba groups were a charity, no sane person would give them a dime. Even the biggest donor -- the United States -- has questioned the spending.
Now the latest report finds that more than 80 percent of the money earmarked for Cuban democracy stays here. But the most surprising thing about the study is its sponsors: The Cuban American National Foundation.

Someone who left Miami in the 1990s and returned today would be flabbergasted. But CANF has been slowly adapting since the death of its founder, Jorge Mas Canosa in 1997. Friday, the group of former Republican party loyalists hosts a lunch for Barack Obama.

Many factors have contributed to the once-hardline organization's evolution. But no single person more embodies its philosophical shift than its president, Francisco ''Pepe'' Hernandez.

''Before, we thought we could go to Cuba and invade and establish democracy by force and the U.S. would help us,'' Hernandez told me. ``Those times are over. A man like me who has struggled and dreamt has to reach the conclusion that the future does not belong to my generation. Change in Cuba has to come from inside.''

BRAVE ADMISSION

It's a brave and stunning admission for a man who sat with U.S. presidents, cultivated confrontation, and lobbied for the unsparing laws that helped shape this country's failed Cuba policies.

The political divide among Cuban Americans in Miami is often seen as a generational one. But at 71, Hernandez proves that members of what is often called the ''historic exile'' are often at odds with their contemporaries, many of whom spent the better part of last week bashing CANF.

In Hernandez's case, his new willingness to engage Cuba puts him at odds with an even more intimate figure: his former self.

''I'm speaking as someone who had a lot to do with the policies, or at least someone whom people want to blame for them,'' he said, a smile in his voice. ``But Cuba has bought some $900 million from the U.S., including the paper used to print Granma. That's something people don't understand. Embargo? What embargo?''

Almost 50 years into his fight, Hernandez -- the Bay of Pigs veteran who was implicated in a plot to kill Castro, a CANF heavy who publicly berated journalists -- has become the voice of calm reason.

CONCESSION TO REALITY

His goals have not changed (''Nothing about how I view Cuba's rulers has changed'') but his methods have -- a concession, he says, to reality.

His shift also reflects a more general souring on empty American promises. For decades, administration after administration courted the Cuban-American vote on the cheap: flattering with hope while changing nothing.

Today, Hernandez refers to the 2004 restrictions on exile travel to Cuba as the ``Bush absurdity.''

''Who's ever heard of an exile group begging the U.S. government to stop them from visiting their homeland?'' he asks. 'What other group says to the U.S., `Please don't let me help my family.' It's absurd.''

Hernandez played one of the most important roles in creating the conditions for the absurdity that became exile politics. Now, near the end of his struggle, he's pointing the way out of the politics of self-destruction.

''The worst thing for me,'' he said about the travel ban, ``is that there are people in my generation who asked for this.''

It's too late to recover the millions squandered over the years. But we may yet recover our sanity. Few could have predicted that CANF would lead the way.

© 2008 Miami Herald Media Company. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.miamiherald.com

For Demagogue of the Year: Ed Swift of Key West by gimleteye

It’s too early to vote for demagogue of the year. But we can collect candidates.

Last year was a banner year for demagogues in Miami and Miami-Dade county: any county commissioner qualifies who professed heartfelt concern for water supply, incorporated in the 20 year consumptive use permit from the state that took more than four years to negotiate because the county had so seriously lagged in its obligations under the law, yet voted to move the Urban Development Boundary, or, city commissioner who voted build more condos on the bay—like the Related Group’s at Mercy Hospital.

Take note, Miami Mayor Diaz—Vice President of and 2008 host of the US Conference of Mayors annual meeting in Miami. The authoritative source on “greenwashing” (a sub-heading, of demagoguery) is Harry Emilio Gottlieb, who on Earth Day 2007 wrote on the blog, transitmiami:



Mayor Diaz has almost single-handedly been the driving force for the over building and glut of unnecessary homes, condos and offices in our community. This has resulted in the total disregard for our zoning codes, destruction of neighborhoods, disrespect for citizens, increased traffic, increased demand on potable water, electricity, sewage and flood control systems.

Today, Diaz will host an invitation-only environmental event -- the PODER New America Alliance Green Forum. The forum was initially planned for Miami City Hall but was relocated to the Miami Museum of Science Planetarium because the list of attendees kept growing. Those attendees include Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, Wal-Mart Vice President Andrew Ruben, and the Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker himself -- former Vice President Al Gore.”
I wonder how many VIP’s will be fighting over the front row seats at this “Hot Ticket” event. With all of those many folks responsible for spot-zoning, up-zoning, variances and special permits, which include developers, lobbyists, attorneys, City of Miami and Miami-Dade County elected officials, it cold get petty nasty fighting over those precious front row seats.
The reason for all of this "Going Green" is because that is the color of money.

Who remembers that Gore never showed up, because of the controversy over Uribe’s appearance? But memory is important. Otherwise these fine details disappear in the crush of events, a fine segue to today’s candidate for demagogue of the year, Key West businessman, Chamber of Commerce mouth piece, and Growth Machine representative, Ed Swift III.

On Feb 15, The Miami Herald letters page featured Mr. Swift’s, “Apply wastewater rules equally”.

Mr. Swift raps Miami Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties for shipping its pollution to the Keys waters. Here is an excerpt: “How does it make any sense that our nearest neighbors continue with seeming impunity to dump their waste into the same waters that our national marine sanctuary purports to protect and that we in the Keys are required to protect by meeting strict waste-disposal criteria?” (the full text of the Swift letter is re-printed, below)

Mr. Swift is as correct about our abuses of water quality as Mayor Diaz is right in the elements he supports for greening Miami. But actions belie words.

In his business career, Mr. Swift and his pro-growth nonsense single-handedly turned a charming city into a mess of a cruise port, with all the attendant infrastructure woes that have piled up on taxpayers and the environment in Key West. This is not hyperbole. (For the curious, the record is well documented.)

His business is the Conch Tour Train. In managing to secure a monopoly (subject of a massive lawsuit for which the City is liable) carrying tourists from cruise ships, Mr. Swift built a business empire that deformed Key West.

Florida's most historic, small town --famous for its quirks and beauty--was transformed by Mr. Swift’s domination of business councils and the city commission, into another low-end cruise ship destination, filled with money-laundering T-shirt operators.

But there is more: Mr. Swift has been one of the key anti-environmental voices in Monroe County. In the 1980’s, Swift enforced through proxies in political office his conviction that protecting the environment was not only bad for business—his—but inimical to taxpayers and all freedom-loving Americans. It was the kind of bullshit that took root in Florida in the 1980's and has been harder to root out than Brazilian pepper.

Anything to do with the environment he perceived as a threat to his business, including the national marine sanctuary and the designation of the Keys as a state area of critical state concern. So, to see Mr. Swift's opinion featured in The Miami Herald, deserves note.

For Mr. Swift’s mean-spiritedness, exercised against the public interest in defense of private profit like a cat toying with a mouse, and his apparent senior conversion to concern for the environment, Mr. Swift is hereby nominated to our new category, “Demagogue of the Year”. Congratulations, Mr. Swift: we’re following you all the way.

Here is the text of Mr. Swift's LTE:

I have written two previous letters concerning the 300 million plus gallons of lightly treated sewage pumped into the ocean each day by Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties. The Keys' ecosystems are being bombarded by other people's waste -- from this toxic effluent that returns to near-shore waters and makes its way to the Florida Keys to the nutrient-rich fresh water runoff from the Everglades that pours into Florida Bay.
Meanwhile, Keys residents are being mandated to remove their septic tanks, replacing them with central-sewer systems and advanced wastewater treatment to ensure the continued health of our near shore waters and reefs. If we do not reach these standards by a 2010 deadline, our limited building permits will be further reduced, and other sanctions such as moratoriums on construction will most certainly be imposed.
Miami-Dade announced a $2.9 billion plan to build a new Marlins stadium, a port tunnel and other projects. Miami-Dade, Palm Beach and Broward continue to build thousands of residential and commercial units, ensuring that more millions of gallons of toxic wastewater will be pumped into the ocean.
How does it make any sense that our nearest neighbors continue with seeming impunity to dump their waste into the same waters that our national marine sanctuary purports to protect and that we in the Keys are required to protect by meeting strict waste-disposal criteria?
Would it be too much to request that our state Department of Environmental Protection, NOAA -- the federal agency responsible for our sanctuary programs -- as well as the governor, Cabinet and our South Florida Regional Planning Council require Miami-Dade, Palm Beach and Broward to meet the same water-quality thresholds that we must?
Isn't it reasonable that, like us, they would meet a timetable to clean up their mess and that sanctions for their failure to do so reflect the same reaction from the state and the federal governments? Why shouldn't they be required to enact moratoriums on growth and building until they come into compliance? In fact, why shouldn't Miami-Dade be put under the state's ''critical concern'' legislation?
The cost to clean up Miami-Dade's sewage outfall is $1 billion, one-third the cost of the proposed mega deal to build the ball park-tunnel-museum project. What are our state agencies' priorities? Does their concern for the environment stop at the Monroe County line?
EDWARD SWIFT III, Key West