Still waiting for South Florida news media to mention that Frederica Wilson was only FL Rep. to vote YES to increase debt limit?

Heritage Foundation video: The Debt Limit: Made Simple
http://youtu.be/7yJRci2pARk

Still waiting for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, the BrowardPalmBeach NewTimes or any local Miami TV newscast to actually mention that FL-17 Congresswoman Frederica Wilson was THE only U.S. Rep. in Florida to vote YES for increasing the national debt Tuesday? (Wilson was on the losing side of a 319-97 vote.)

Don't hold your breath!

Fox News Channel: U.S. Budget Comm. Chair Paul Ryan on the House of Representatives rejecting a debt ceiling increase
http://youtu.be/y3FYXnYswnQ

Since February 1st, over four months ago, Wilson's name has been mentioned in the Sun-Sentinel exactly TWICE, and neither time in relation to anything that's an important every day issue to South Broward residents like me who have the great misfortune to be mis-represented by her in Congress.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/search/dispatcher.front?Query=frederica&target=article&sortby=display_time+descending

As for the BrowardPalmBeach NewTimes -whose Daily Pulp blog people are positively deserting in droves ever since Bob Norman left for Channel 10, WPLG-TV, leaving only the name of his blog, not the spirit of it- they've mentioned Wilson exactly... ONCE.

http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/search/index?keywords=%22Frederica+Wilson%22

And THAT was about something that was originally reported in the Sun-Sentinel!

Compare and contrast that paucity of useful information with the NewTimes' very creepy stalker-like behavior and observation of Rep. Allen West's every move and word, examined and then re-examined at the NewTimes -can you really even call them reporters?- as if they were amateur Kremlinologists trying to keep all their competing theories for what's 'really' happening, straight in their own heads.

Well, I mean besides thinking of how many times they can use the phrase 'tea party' as a pejorative. You'd think that at a certain point they'd realize that no longer rankles adn just comes across as annoying... but no.

From my perspective, I've always found it such a huge turn-off to see people with resources and opportunities to inform completely squander their time and resources, and even worse, compound that fwrite in so self-evident a biased fashion, and that's true whether you're talking about the Herald, the Sun-Sentinel or NewTimes, all of whom are GUILTY of this everyday to varying degrees -from perfectly awful-to-perfectly dreadful.

Seriously, those three are our print media choices in South Florida the year 2011?

Sadly, yes.

And when are the top management at the Broward NewTimes going to FINALLY post their public email addresses on their website, like the much-maligned and ridiculed Miami Herald and Sun-Sentinel, which I originally mentioned here on January 11th, with the headline,
A longstanding question about the BrowardPalmBeach NewTimes that nobody else ever asks publicly at http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/longstanding-question-about.html .

It's almost halfway thru the year 2011 and the NewTimes STILL doesn't list theirs so that readers can directly contact people with complaints about mistakes, errors and examples of apparent bias, and cc or bcc others with their comments.

Pretty backwards if you ask me, and not exactly the sort of thing that imbues people with confidence about sharing confidential information.

It's already June, when exactly are Wilson's Town Hall meetings with residents in SE Broward this summer, including Hallandale Beach?

Perhaps you should call her office and ask her staff, since it's clear the local news media aren't the least bit curious, even while thinking nothing of printing Allen West's, attending his meetings and then publicizing professional misfits who want to draw attention to themselves at his meetings, not attention to issues.

Heritage Foundation's YouTube Channel:

http://www.youtube.com/user/HeritageFoundation

Bob Norman's new blog at Channel 10, WPLG-TV, Miami:

http://www.local10.com/bobnorman/index.html

Just added my two cents to the debate and website... New Times: "Hallandale Beach's North Beach Facility Might Finally Open, After Four Years"

Looking west from the Atlantic Ocean and the beach towards the Hallandale Beach Water Tower, Fire/Rescue station, North Beach Community Center.
October 26, 2010 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

Below is the email that I sent out this morning to my well-informed grapevine after finally deciding to comment on this BrowardPalmBeach NewTimes article of yesterday. It'll be interesting to see if any other reporters FINALLY show-up on Tuesday to grill Mayor Cooper or City Manager Antonio about this longstanding scandal.

In any case, on Monday I plan to invite the State Attorney's Office to attend.

----

BrowardPalmBeach NewTimes

Hallandale Beach's North Beach Facility Might Finally Open, After Four Years

By Stefan Kamph, Fri., Jan. 21 2011 @ 6:36AM

Mike Butler is facing an uphill battle. He's the blogger and gadfly of record in Hallandale Beach (the 40,000-citizen heel of the Broward boot), and he's the one who calls out the city for spending through its reserve funds, paying its city manager nearly half a million bucks a year, and leaving the beach in suboptimal conditions.

Read the rest of the post at:
http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/juice/2011/01/hallandale_beach_north_beach_opening.php

------

Here's what I posted above:

To paraphrase a sports maxim, Hallandale Beach City Hall can't stop Change Hallandale and Hallandale Beach Blog, they can only hope to contain them.
And they will FAIL at that.

The biggest problem that the status quo Cooper Crew have is that while my friend Michael and I and many other concerned HB residents are entirely forthright, transparent and public about the sort of city we'd like HB to be, and equally clear about the sort of accountable public policy that we believe ought to prevail here -which, at at a minimum, is a dollar's worth of service/product for a dollar's worth of taxpayer's funds, plus some innovation with common sense instead of the longstanding secrecy and duplicity- history has shown us that the Cooper Crew is deathly afraid to share PUBLIC information in a timely fashion and debate the issues based on facts in public forums -without their completely controlling the forum or the microphone.

Plus, they have shown over-and-over again that they can't ever admit being wrong about something, and are equally unwilling to admit that other people actually have good ideas, too.

Friday afternoon at 4 p.m, about 45 hours AFTER HB City Manager Mark Antonio said at Comm. London's 'Resident Forum' that the (taxpayer-funded faux newspaper) South Florida Sun-Times was City Hall's main avenue for informing residents -despite the fact that nobody actually reads it because it's nothing but PR and propaganda- I swung by the North Beach Community Center with a copy of that laughable rag.

I walked around the area as I have so many countless dozens of times and took notes -and photos and video.

Here's what I found: One smallish banner hanging on the side of the Fire Station facing NOT the passing traffic on State Road A1A, but rather facing south towards The Beach Club and residents leaving that condo complex.

There were ZERO signs on the doors of the Community Center bldg. itself, ZERO sandwich boards advertising it on the beach or on the A1A sidewalks.

There were ZERO of the city's electronic message boards that are ALWAYS seen on U.S.-1 and Hallandale Beach Blvd. two weeks before the city's overly-aggressive PAL has something THEY want to promote.
(Why exactly does PAL have special rules that allow them to do whatever they want? Nobody ever wants to say why they get special privileges in this city.)
.

Looking east from State Road A1A/South Ocean Drive & Hallandale Beach Blvd, Hallandale Beach, FL. July 3, 2009 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

As for the faux newspaper that Mark Antonio said would have word about Tuesday afternoon's public unveiling, almost 42 months after it was given to the city for FREE on August 3rd, 2007, the event that only two of the concerned residents at London's meeting had even heard about prior to Antonio mentioning it there, well, they had ZERO words about it in the last issue before the event.

Not wanting to be hasty, I gave a copy of it to a friend to read and asked him to carefully double-check and see if he saw a single word about Tuesday's event at the North Beach bldg. NOPE!
There was NOTHING there.

Typical!

That's the anomie-centric HB City Hall Crew in a nutshell: unable to even mange to get a word in edgewise about their little spectacle in the fake newspaper that THEY themselves keep alive thru HB taxpayer-subsidies.
How absurd!

Video of City Manager Antonio's remarks at Comm. London's Wednesday night meeting, along with photos and video from Friday of the North Beach Community Center will be on my blog on Sunday, where I already have dozens of photos of its neglect over the past three-and-a-half years, along with numerous blog posts about its longstanding mismanagement.
http://www.hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/

Many of them ask the basic question that NEVER is answered: Why have mayor Joy Cooper and past and current city managers adamantly refused to hold a city-wide forum where citizen taxpayers of this city could weigh-in on what THEY want that building to be for?
That discussion should've taken place YEARS AGO!

Nobody has a problem with the city to make revenue from renting the place out on weekends, as I've mentioned at numerous budget meetings, but what taxpayers DON'T want is for it to continue to be off-limits to them Monday thru Friday, and used exclusively, as it has been, as a warehouse for the city's office chairs, and a beach-side clubhouse for PAL and other City Hall cronies, as my past photos on the blog have shown.
That public facility doesn't belong to them, it belongs to all of us.

By the way, Hallandale Beach City Hall DID finally 'fix' the large water fountain located in front of the North Beach bldg. and the Fire Station last month.
It only took the city 16 months to get water into the fountain.
Congrats!

A longstanding question about the BrowardPalmBeach NewTimes that nobody else ever asks publicly

For a publication that in its articles and columns makes a big deal about accountability and transparency, why doesn't the the BrowardPalmBeach NewTimes management team ACTUALLY run their work email addresses on their website, so that readers can contact them directly about either complaints, compliments or suggestions, instead of hiding behind one of those preposterous walls of anonymity as they currently do?
It's the year 2011 for God's sake.

http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/about/staff/ http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/feedback/EmailAnEmployee?to=614131

Despite all their myriad longstanding problems, which I've chronicled on my blog at great length, the Miami Herald and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel ACTUALLY run their management's email addresses on their websites and in the newspaper, since as you all know from what I've written and posted here over the past few years, I heard more than a few times from former Herald Senior VP and Executive Editor Anders Gyllenhaal, so why won't the NewTimes?

You already know the maxim about the goose and the gander, there's no need for me to repeat it here. But it IS very noticeable that the NewTimes doesn't practice what they preach.

And just out of curiosity, how much money do you think the NewTimes make a year from their escort/sex ads?

And why do the Herald and Sun-Sentinel never take anyone there to task when they make self-evident factual mistakes, or seem to conspicuously leave out pertinent facts from a so-called article, even though it so often reads like a personal or political screed, which had pretty much been the situation at The Juice blog since Thomas Francis left? http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/juice/

Though I have been listed on their blog roll for a few years, I haven't read it since Thomas left, since it seems to be nothing but shallow screeds preaching to the choir, of which their current offering is par for the course.
http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/juice/2011/01/tucson_shooting_gabrielle_giffords_olbermann.php

And if you guessed that they used Allen West's name in the headline -again!- go to the head of the class.

In that sense, they're like the oddball guy who keeps showing up at the beach or park with a snake on his shoulder, so desperate to get attention that he'll do anything.
It's sorta funny, but mostly, it's just sad, and a waste of space.

Personally, I'd much rather pay a dollar or two every week and have more well-written stories and less schlocky articles and ads.
But that's just me.

I guess there's gold in them thar escort ads.

Contrary to what Broward NewTimes says, Allen West's win will cause "Unsettling Two Years" for lazy, know-it-all South Florida reporters, NOT voters

Above, September 9, 2010 photo by South Beach Hoosier of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel & Miami Herald newspaper vending machines in Hallandale Beach, FL. Neither newspaper's Editorial Board endorsed FL-22 GOP candidate Allen West and he won anyway, with momentum on his side at the end. Yes, media 'payback' is going to be a bitch.
And also fun to watch!





Above, September 10, 2010 photos by South Beach Hoosier of just some of the Ron Klein congressional campaign signs on Hallandale Beach Blvd., west of U.S.-1/Federal Highway, Hallandale Beach, FL. Unfortunately for Klein and his supporters, the areas where these signs were placed by his supporters are not only NOT in the FL-22 CD he was running for re-election from, but are actually quite far from it. Yet they were there for weeks.

Contrary to what Lisa Rab of the the BrowardPalmBeach NewTimes wrote on Wednesday -below- Congressman-elect Allen West's win over incumbent Ron Klein will cause "Unsettling Two Years" for lazy, know-it-all South Florida reporters, NOT voters.

And West and his staff will REALLY, REALLY enjoy getting the news media's goat now, and even baiting them occasionally.

This is really great news for South Florida residents and news junkies alike, since the one thing that all civic activists and elected officials I know in South Florida are in complete agreement on, whether they are conservative, liberal or libertarian, is the overwhelming sense of mental and physical laziness of the majority of the South Florida news media, print and electronic.

And in many cases, their almost complete lack of curiosity, causing you to wonder why they are in that profession. Some are like ciphers. It's one thing to have a detached sense of professionalism, another to act like you just don't care or are above it all.

As I've stated here previously, there are a lot of print and TV reporters in South Florida who I believe ought to be in smaller media markets but are here for reasons NOT having to do with either quality or talent.

Oh, and did I mention how many want everything on a silver platter, when THEY want it?

So many show-up for events not really having a good understanding of what previously happened -or didn't- that necessitates another public meeting to take place.
Is it really too much to expect that they do some research and homework before showing-up?

Not that this sounds at all surprising to anyone who comes to this blog regularly, since I'm forever decrying how much worse the South Florida's news media's curiosity and work ethic is now compared to when I was growing-up down here, despite the advent of technology that makes their jobs easier than ever.
The thing is, nobody I ever meet at public policy events ever disagrees with that sentiment.
It's the dispiriting consensus opinion.

Showing-up really matters, as is showing-up on time, and the current crop of reporters, by-and-large, prefer to do their reporting by telephone -or by calling me or other people after-the-fact to find out what happened.

That is simply NOT a satisfactory way to cover news in such a dynamic-if-corrupt part of the United States.
Not by any stretch of the imagination.

If you don't think Allen West and his staff know exactly which members of the South Florida news media were crass, patronizing, punky, condescending and less-than-professional in their months-long coverage of his race against Ron Klein, and some of the nuttier elements of the liberal South Florida establishment, and were phoning-it in from the get-go, guess again.

http://www.allenwestforcongress.com/
http://www.youtube.com/user/AllenWestForCongress

You don't have to be a friend of Allen West or even someone who voted for him to know that he is one person who is NOT at all interested in being South Florida's or the national MSM's "pet," like Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, who has STILL never run in a competitive congressional race.

Thanks to Amendment 5 & 6 passing on Tuesday, we just might see such a thing in a few years, and that would be good for everyone concerned.
Plus, competitive races generally (but not always) prevent the sort of endemic lapdog journalism DWS has enjoyed in South Florida for years.

We need more watchdog reporting and less lapdog!

The latest news on Allen West is here: http://www.google.com/search?q=Allen+West

Meanwhile, a year ago...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VP2p91dvm6M


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Lthfkdb0Gs



Minority GOP Candidates Make History
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2j2RBqiNlho


Below, an example of what I'm talking about: opinions masquerading as journalism.

-----

Allen West Wins Congressional Seat, Voters to Deal With Unsettling Two Years
By Lisa Rab
Wed., Nov. 3 2010 @ 6:18AM

Well, it's only two years. But with Allen West serving as the congressman for the coastal congressional District 22 that spans Broward and Palm Beach counties, those years could be rather unsettling.

Read the rest of the screed at
http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/juice/2010/11/allen_west_wins_congressional_seat.php

The Chicken and the Egg Conundrum 2.0: Ugly Politicians & Ugly Meter iPhone Apps

Red Eye with Greg Gutfeld -Fox News Channel



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ui01ZaXRVzE

Now one of my favorite TV shows, Red Eye airs on the Fox New Channel at 3 a.m. Mon. -Fri.

Meanwhile, in FL-22, which includes part of Hallandale Beach...

BrowardPalmBeach NewTimes
Halloween Contest Shows Ugly Side of Politics
By Bob Norman,
Wed., Oct. 20 2010 @ 8:35AM

Talk about scary politics.

Republicans are throwing a Halloween party in Pembroke Pines next Friday night.

As part of the festivities, they will be holding a U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz look-alike contest that the invitation says "could scare the devil himself." The winner gets $100.

Read the rest of the post at:
http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/pulp/2010/10/halloween_contest.php


Meanwhile, this summer, the beautiful and beguiling Courtney Friel of Fox News Channel frequently appeared on Red Eye to gamely read aloud Glenn Beck's novel, The Overton Window.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaqkMr-FuyY

See also:
http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/pulp/broward_politics/

www.dailygut.com

http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/red-eye/index.html

http://www.youtube.com/user/RedEyeRecap

http://jedediahbila.com/

Charlotte Greenbarg sounds the alarm about Broward back-scratching in action: Bob Norman: Lieberman in China; Looks, walks & quacks like a duck? Duck!

Thought you'd find this of interest, though some of you may've already received Broward Coalition president Charlotte Geenbarg's email.

At the bottom, I've added Charlotte's spot-on email to the Broward County Commission yesterday, plus the copy of the amendment Comm. Lieberman wants to have heard on the 14th, after her trip to China, which I sent many of you on Monday.

I've seen ducks up close before -this ethics amendment of her's looks like a duck to me.

Perhaps we should all get a t-shirt printed-up reading: "One of my commissioners went to China but all I got was much-weaker ethics laws."

By the way, for those of you who don't know your Texas geography, Tarrant County includes Fort Worth, and it's county pop. is 1.7 million, says the guy whose family first moved to the Hill Country of Texas in 1855.


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Charlotte Greenbarg
Date: Tue, Aug 31, 2010 at 12:59 PM
Subject: Bob Norman: Lieberman in China
To: Charlotte Greenbarg

This probably isn't the best time to visit China;
all travel should be on hold until the County gets it act together, ethically and fiscally.

Personal note: When we were in business late 70s, 80s and until 1993 when we sold and retired, the Chinese government offered to provide at no cost to us for 2 years all the labor we needed to manufacture our orthopedic soft goods and the famous black belt w/suspenders that my late husband perfected. We said no thanks. First, we'd have to lay off the factory full of people who supported families, many single moms, and second, we knew that once they made our goods, they'd go back to China and undercut us, probably with inferior products.

Charlotte

-------

BrowardPalmBeach NewTimes

Daily Pulp blog
Lieberman In China
By Bob Norman, Tue., Aug. 31 2010 @ 10:43AM

While the Chaitgate corruption investigation rages on, Broward County Commissioner Ilene Lieberman won't be at today's commission meeting. She's gone to China.

Lieberman's office confirmed she left for Beijing yesterday as part of a delegation representing the National Association of Counties. She will be there for ten days to "promote econcomic development."

​The commissioner, who has come under intense scrutiny in the State Attorney's Office investigation of the dealings of dirty developers Bruce and Shawn Chait, is currently the president of the Florida Association of Counties, which is affiliated with the national group.

Read the rest of the column at:
http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/pulp/2010/08/lieberman_in_china.php

Reader comments at:
http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/pulp/2010/08/lieberman_in_china.php#comments

------
Charlotte's email to the Broward County Commission last night at 7:50 p.m.:

Ladies & Gentlemen:

You've just had (5 p.m. today) an item added to tomorrow's agenda, dealing with the selection of an insurance provider. Staff tied on the selection (Commissioners are no longer on selection committees now that the Ethics ordinance has passed) between Coventry and Aetna.

Problem is that the Florida Assoc. of Counties (FAC), President of which is Comm. Ilene Lieberman, contacted each Commissioner re: this selection. Turns out that the FAC would get $2/month for each enrolled employee if Aetna gets the contract. This is a statewide "arrangment" that FAC has with Aetna.There's nothing wrong per se with the company Aetna; but the "arrangment" waddles and quacks.

Furthermore, FAC Pres. Lieberman is presently in China representing FAC.

So how is this connected to Item 51? Well, we need an open record of who gets and gives what to whom. We wanted
full public disclosure when we demanded an Ethics ordinance. When FAC has an event (and the National Assoc. of Counties and others likewise), there are sponsors for the open bars, for example, and those sponsors are often law firms and lobbyists that do business with counties or have clients who do. But we don't know that, do we? It's not easily available information. And there's the rub.

You need to let the Ethics Ordinance continue to take effect before you begin to make any changes, and Item 51 is a very large change.

I am copying my members on this communication, and know from many, many meetings, emails and conversations that they totally agree with this position.

Sincerely,

Charlotte Greenbarg

President

The Broward Coalition, Inc.

-------

Wendy Murray's cc of her email to the Broward County Commission

Thank you, Wendy!

Charlotte

----- Original Message -----

Sent: Tuesday, August 31, 2010 8:03 AM

Subject: Re: Poster Child for why Item 51 should not be passed

Dear Commissioners,

I agree with both Charlotte and Don.

Please inject ethics and integrity into the Broward County Commission by acting openly and with the avoidance of perceived mischief.

Being an elected official is an honor bestowed upon you by the votes of the residents you serve. Public service should be discerning and in the best interest of the residents. It should not be self-seeking nor give the appearance of such.

Truly, I thank you for your service and hopefully, I observe your actions to avoid all perceived mischief while embracing the arms of integrity and character.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Wendy Murray

P.S. Please forgive any typos as sending from phone. Thank you.

Wendy Murray, FEMV, CMCA, LCAM
Director of Business Development
Association Services of Florida
10112 USA Today Way
Miramar, FL 33025
www.associaflorida.com
954-922-3514

----------

Per my email yesterday

http://www.broward.org/commission/Pages/Meetings.aspx

Meeting Agendas

AI-6294		Item #: 51.
Broward County Commission Regular Meeting
Date: 08/31/2010 Director's Name: Jeffrey Newton Department: County Attorney
Information
Requested Action
MOTION TO ADOPT Resolution directing the County Administrator to publish Notice of Public Hearing to be held on Tuesday, September 14, 2010, at 2:00 p.m., in Room 422 of the Governmental Center to consider enactment of a proposed Ordinance, the title of which is as follows: AN ORDINANCE OF THE BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS OF BROWARD COUNTY, FLORIDA, RELATING TO THE CODE OF ETHICS; AMENDING SUBSECTION 1-19(b)(1) OF THE BROWARD COUNTY CODE OF ORDINANCES, TO ALLOW COUNTY COMMISSIONERS TO ACCEPT ACCOMMODATIONS PROVIDED FOR OR ARRANGED BY PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS SUCH AS NACo AND FAC TO ATTEND OR PARTICIPATE IN OFFICIAL FUNCTIONS OR EVENTS; PROVIDING FOR SEVERABILITY; PROVIDING FOR INCLUSION IN THE CODE; AND PROVIDING FOR AN EFFECTIVE DATE. (Sponsored by Commissioner Ilene Lieberman)
Why Action is Necessary
The proposed Ordinance was prepared by the Office of the County Attorney at the direction of the Board of County Commissioners at its Commission meeting of August 17, 2010.
What Action Accomplishes
The proposed Ordinance amends the Code of Ethics to provide an exception to the gifts restriction and prohibition, allowing County Commissioners to accept accommodations to attend official events and functions that are provided for, or arranged by, state, regional, national, and international organizations, including the National Association of Counties (NACo) and the Florida Association of Counties (FAC), which promote the exchange of information or the professional development of elected public officials, thereby saving Broward County the cost or potential cost of such attendance.
Is this Action Goal Related
Previous Action Taken
Summary Explanation/ Background
The proposed ordinance amends the Code of Ethics to provide an exception to the gifts restriction and prohibition, allowing County Commissioners to accept accommodations to attend official events and functions that are provided for, or arranged by, state, regional, national, and international organizations, including the National Association of Counties (NACo) and the Florida Association of Counties (FAC), which promote the exchange of information or the professional development of elected public officials, thereby saving Broward County the cost or potential cost of such attendance.
Fiscal Impact
Fiscal Impact/Cost Summary:
Fiscal Impact Statement by Office of Management and Budget attached as Exhibit 3.

------
See also: http://205.166.161.204/adv_search_results.cfm?fp=ADVSRCH
for the Motion to Direct and Motion to Adopt requested by Comm. Lieberman and County Attorney Jeffrey Newton.

------

In case the link to Bob Norman's column of last Monday above -which mentioned Hallandale Beach mayor Joy Cooper- doesn't work for you:

Our Politicians at the Trough
By Bob Norman, Mon., Aug. 23 2010 @ 3:23PM

http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/pulp/2010/08/florida_league_of_cities_dinner.php

------

Speaking of ducks, if only South Florida news reporters would start paying closer attention and boning-up on the context and backstory of these sorts of stories, maybe even showing-up en masse to the County Commission meetings just to humor citizens like myself, and started channeling Le Canard enchaîné.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Canard_encha%C3%AEn%C3%A9

Of course, the Chained Duck intentionally has very limited info on le Internet, which they explain away thusly at http://www.lecanardenchaine.fr/:

"Mais notre métier, c'est d'informer et de distraire nos lecteurs, avec du papier journal et de l'encre. C'est un beau métier qui suffit à occuper notre équipe."
But our job is to inform and entertain our readers, with newsprint and ink. It is a wonderful profession that's sufficient to occupy our team.

If only the Sun-Sentinel and Herald were both like-minded and high-minded, and focused their energies on the very large task before them in Broward County, a target-rich environment for corruption with a Capital "C" rather than waste their resources. But no.

Miami TV news reporters have no such excuses.
Instead, the latter do "news stories" on eyelash operations, or get sucked into doing stories on bus shelter advertising signs bought by Hollywood film studios to promote an upcoming film with the word "virgin" in it, which got on the air last night on Channel 4 at 11:11 p.m.
http://cbs4.com/watercooler/Still.A.Virgin.2.1887590.html

Which only makes me ask: If a dog chases its own tail, is that news?
As we all know from personal viewing experience, in South Florida TV circles, dogs that chase their own tails are golden!

[$#*! My Mayor Says and Does- Joy Cooper of Hallandale Beach, Florida

[$#*! My Mayor Says and Does - Joy Cooper of Hallandale Beach, Florida

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=at8Efl451k8



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUKenR9k238



The video on the top of Hallandale Beach mayor Joy Cooper is by BrowardPalmBeach NewTimes "2010 Activist Of The Year" Chaz Stevens of Deerfield Beach, who keeps attention focused like a laser beam on the antics and skullduggery of South Florida's elected officials, government toadies and their back-slapping lackeys, esp. in his hometown, at his two very popular sites:
http://www.myactsofsedition.com/ and
http://www.youtube.com/user/actsofsedition

http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/

Weeks later, Miami Herald, Sun-Sentinel & Miami TV newscasts STILL consciously ignoring Bob Norman's spot-on story re School Board's Jennifer Gottlieb

Weeks after Bob Norman perhaps fatally exposed Broward School Board Chair Jennifer Gottlieb's very poor judgment in devastating detail in his must-read Daily Pulp blog at the BrowardPalmBeach NewTimes, the reporters, columnists and editors of the Miami Herald, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, as well as the various so-called "Business Journals" and TV news operations in Miami are STILL consciously ignoring that unflattering story about a powerful person because... well, they can.

BrowardPalmBeach NewTimes
Daily Pulp blog
Emails Reveal School Board Chairwoman Romanced Schools' Banker
By Bob Norman, Fri., Jul. 2 2010 @ 8:48AM -

She was a second-year elected school board member at a political conference in Tampa, getting quite literally wined and dined by high-rolling bankers at Citigroup, enjoying the "luxury" of a night out in a town that didn't know who she was.

He was one of those bankers, working the deals behind what has become $2 billion in Broward School Board debt. Both were married with young children.

And after meeting and flirting at an all-you-can-eat lobster and steak dinner put on by Citigroup for elected officials at The Palm restaurant in Tampa, romance blossomed between current Broward County School Board Chairwoman Jennifer Gottlieb and Citigroup finance manager Rick Patterson.

Read the rest of the post at: http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/pulp/2010/07/school_board_chairwoman_jennifer_gottlieb.php

That post from July 2nd currently has 499 comments as of 4 p.m. today, which shows that despite the local MSM's attempt to bury this story, people who actually pay attention to what's going on in the community, regardless of their opinion, are talking about it, anyway.

This foolish attempt to bury the story only makes the old traditional media in South Florida seem more irrelevant and ridiculous than ever, and it's not like they are that relevant anymore to begin with, since there are clearly many reporters on local Miami TV who ought to be in smaller TV markets, but are here, warts and all.
(That will be a topic of future posts.)

And seriously, when was the last time you read a lengthy and well-written story in the Herald about the goings-on at local Miami TV news operations the way that once was fairly common in the 1970's and '80's?

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar and things are exactly what they seem, and in this case, there clearly seems to be a conspiracy of silence among the South Florida news media and chattering class about the personal and professional behavior of Jennifer Gottlieb.

But then as we are constantly at pains to remind ourselves, this is South Florida, an outlier more often than not in the best of times when journalism is either hard-hitting or popular, and this is hardly the first time since my family moved here in 1968 that a perfectly valid and compelling news story was ignored by the then-extant MSM on account of... well, whatever the popular excuse offered up at the time at One Herald Plaza or over at the old Channel 4 studio in downtown Miami was.

Usually, when pressed, the answer was always "lack of column inches" in the newspaper or available time on a newscast.

Try to imagine a current local TV anchor publicly going after a local pol like Demetrio Perez Jr. the way that anchor/news director Ralph Renick does here in 1982?
It's inconceivable in the current era of sycophancy, and our great loss.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyuJGHrjbRY

1982 Ralph Renick editorial on WTVJ on political efforts in Miami to prevent Scarface from being filmed in Miami due to concerns of negative portrayal of Miami and its Cuban-American population.



The local TV and print reporters whom we've grown accustomed to seeing report regularly on the latest education funding/scandal/crisis/antics involving School Board Superintendents Alberto Carvalho in Miami-Dade and James Notter in Broward, overwhelmingly female reporters, are quite simply, NOT doing their job by ignoring this story.

They've collectively taken a pass on mentioning something embarrassing about an elected official in Broward County that should be of great concern to every Broward County taxpayer, especially those with children in the public school system.
Why?

And is part of the reason that there is such great reluctance among South Florida's news media to face this issue head-on precisely because the person involved is female? As I've stated previously in writing about other neglected education issues, I personally think the answer is YES.

There is a palpable dis-connect and obvious sense of hypocrisy among South Florida's news media in how they report on the foibles and legal problems of male and female elected officials, so it should hardly be surprising that once again, they just swallow their hypocrisy whole because this case involves a female.

If this had involved a male School Board chair, though, we all know that this same story would've made the front page of the Miami Herald, albeit, with lots of quotes from supportive friends
and work colleagues.

My own experience in corporate life from working with large nationally-known law firms on big cases, as well as from being involved at a high level in presidential political campaigns, plus my own personal relationships with people in South Florida, Chicago and Washington, D.C., is that people who have particularly bad habits tend to have those traits throughout the day, regardless of whether they are at home or not.
There's no OFF switch they hit.

People who are consistently NOT punctual, NOT properly prepared and who are generally untrustworthy, who can't keep a confidential secret about a client from others, tend NOT to be able to do the exact opposite when they are away from the office.

I've personally gotten lots of very smart and talented people re-assigned or fired from firms or political campaigns because of the above issues, and I had no qualms in doing so because I've found that personal recklessness almost always reveals itself at the worst possible time.

Just like a film director, I need to know that people around me on a project or campaign are on top of things and focused on the matter at hand, not worrying about extraneous matters, esp. involving romance.

If you see people consistently making poor decisions and exhibit carelessness in their job, are you really supposed to believe that their judgment is any sounder and grounded when you don't see them?

That said, this personal issue Bob Norman writes about so thoroughly doesn't make Jennifer Gottlieb a bad person, just human.

But it does indicate to me that she should be somewhere else, and NOT making important decisions.

http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/search/index?keywords=Jennifer+Gottlieb&x=0&y=0

Because Jennifer Gottlieb is running for re-election as an At-Large Broward School Board candidate, every registered voter in Broward County can and should vote against her and give her the time she clearly needs to get her personal life together, however that shakes out.

Having said that, on Saturday afternoon at the Hallandale Beach Parks Master Plan meeting, while I was setting up my camera tripod in the back of the A1A Community Center, I saw her husband Ken, the former State Rep. who's running for Circuit Court Judge.

I felt both sorry for him but also very uncomfortable, since he doesn't know whether or not people he runs into have read the story Norman wrote, which in my opinion was extremely fair.

Two years ago, I voted for Tim Ryan for State Senate to succeed Steve Geller when Ryan, Gottlieb and Eleanor Sobel ran for the seat that Sobel eventually won after a VERY NASTY primary race that left a very bad taste in Southeast Broward voters mouths, due to the influence of secretive groups affiliated with Sobel that ran untruthful TV attack ads and mail that savaged both Gottlieb and Ryan.

(Ryan later took Sobel to court about the groups' efforts, but after an initial flurry of stories about the trial, the press coverage completely disappeared. Shocker!
That's the current state of South Florida journalism in a nutshell: here one minute, gone another! Just like the summer rain!)

Unlike some people I know in the Broward political/citizen activist community who swear by the guy, I'm lukewarm to Ken Gottlieb, but I will acknowledge that he does seem like a genuinely earnest and hard-working guy who puts everything into his efforts, which makes him somewhat unusual in these parts, where coasting on the job and letting staff do all the work is the norm.

Personally, though, I'm just not crazy about the idea of enthusiastic activist pols becoming judges because I don't think people can fight that part of their nature.

I believe that the personal qualities that people clearly liked and admired about him in one job, State Rep., are not the same ones required to be a fair-minded judge that all parties can have full confidence in.

Frankly, if his wife Jennifer wasn't already on the Broward School Board, though I haven't put too much time into thinking this through to its logical conclusion, I'd much prefer him or Tim Ryan as Broward State's Attorney in two years against incumbent Michael Satz, who seems energy-deficient in the extreme.

Natural enthusiasm in a D.A. is much better than in a judge, especially in such a target-rich environment like corrupt Broward County.

My upcoming post on Hallandale Beach's self-appointed Political Commissar Andrew Markoff may have words that hurt his feelings -if any. Oh, dear!

To those of you who have written or called me over the past few weeks and inquired whether or not I'd noticed the frequent personal attacks on me, especially over at the Broward Palm Beach New Times, by Hallandale Beach's self-appointed Political Commissar Andrew Markoff, yes, I have, which is why a blog post on this strange individual will be forthcoming in the not-too-distant future. Probably before the Fourth of July, but it's hardly a priority of mine, given some other local issues I'm currently busy working on, and as nearly everyone has said to some degree or another in their various communications to me, "consider the source."
Oh, yes, "Consider the source."
Sometimes, the classic nostrums really do their job, and this is such a case.

Oh, dear!
Soon I'll have to spend some time and energy that could obviously be better spent illuminating a genuine problem hereabouts, constructing a measured and observant character study on this strange character in our midst, someone who seems so eager to be listened to, even while saying so very little of merit and irritating people in the process.
Think of it as a valuable learning experience.
When I do so, I shall paint a picture of him with words that, necessarily, wound his feelings, if any.
So be it.

Soon I'll have to describe just some of the reasons why the majority of local residents who have actually dealt with him or who have, like me, foolishly tried to help him, have so quickly tired of his childish naivete, churlish sensibility and grand sense of importance, where everything is always about him, even when it's clearly not.
A person who seems to view all disappointment as a personal attack on him.
There's just no winning with him -and then he turns on you.

Even more puzzling to many is Markoff's perplexing need to attack some of the very few people in the community who are actually trying to bring about some genuine and long-overdue reform, accountability and transparency to this city, to make it a better place to live in the future.
People like Michael Butler and Comm. Keith London among others.

Yes, a place where real ideas can be discussed openly and intelligently based on commonly-held information, where people are attracted to be part of it in some way, and share something of themselves, not repelled from participating in its civic life.

Above, the Hallandale Beach City Hall monument sign off U.S.-1/South Federal Highway, Hallandale Beach, FL.
June 10, 2010 photo by South Beach Hoosier

In that future post, I'll try my best to keep to a minimum my descriptions of the dozens of hours I spent with him over the course of about two years trying to explain and explore some of the longstanding self-evident problems within this city, describing the historical context for why certain things were the way they were, since logic and reason seldom were apparent.
In almost every case, he knew nothing of it prior to my pointing them out to him -in person- even though he's lived here longer than me.

When he was (illegally) detained by the Hallandale Beach Police Dept. last year, in yet another one of their typical screw-ups to intimidate the people who pay their salaries and pensions, he actually asked me what I thought he should do in response.

I told him that what had happened to him was not new behavior, based on many police-civilian incidents I'd been told about by honest first-hand observers, and I told him that he ought to file a formal complaint.

Later, when mendacious Hallandale Beach Police Chief Thomas Magill and his unethical cronies called him to basically try to talk him out of filing a formal complaint, in part because they have to keep public records of it, Markoff reminded me of their having previously broken state law in a previous incident years before when he'd been a witness to elder abuse, and yet his identity was later revealed to the guilty parties by the HBPD.
All the more reason to file the complaint said I.

But somehow, after my not exchanging more than ten words with him since he asked my opinion, due largely to his complete invisibility at any of the meetings or events that have completely absorbed the community the past year, me, the person who has helped him, I'm now somehow the jerk?
The object of his barbs?
Huh?

Well, my friends and I in this community who have actually done considerably more than simply talking or writing pedantic attack screeds in the New Times, are only too happy to be considered enemies of self-styled HB Political Commissar Andrew Markoff and his creepy behavior.

We wear his scorn and enmity like a golden crown of laurels, since anyone paying attention knows who's really doing something positive in this community, and who's ALL TALK.

Above, the entrance off U.S.-1/South Federal Highway to the Hallandale Beach City Hall and next-door Hallandale Beach Police Dept., Hallandale Beach, FL.
June 10, 2010 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

Exactly one day after HB City Manager Mike Good was formally fired, there was STILL NOT a single directional road sign in the entire 4.2 square-mile ocean-side city indicating where City Hall or the Police Dept. HQ is located. That's the kind of city it is and has been all these years under Mike Good and mayor Joy Cooper.