I'm very psyched -and greatly relieved!- by the selection of Paul Ryan as Mitt Romney's Vice Presidential nominee; Integrity, optimism and a tenacious work-ethic are Ryan's hallmarks

Prosperity Project video: The Crisis. Congressman Paul Ryan, Chairman of the House Budget Committee, outlines the debt crisis we face. Uploaded April 5, 2011.

http://youtu.be/O-QEENKN_9Y

His future plans made clearer, Marco Rubio and his family and friends can now finally breathe again and have a little more personal space, a more normal life, though this necessarily means that many of the most ardently pro-amnesty immigrant groups, and their allies in the news media, will now have to get off their summer diet of anti-Rubio remarks and anecdotes for new agitprop pieces attacking Rubio for being, well, part of the norm, and not one of their puppets.

This will also mean the Miami Herald and Tampa Bay Times can finally wake-up from their long summer slumber and sleepwalking, 86 their Marco Rubio Veep infatuation, smell the Cuban coffee, get out of their air conditioned offices, and get moving on transforming their heretofore lame and going-thru-the-motions 2012 presidential and Florida election coverage, so much of which has been just plain pitiful the past year in the view of not just myself but friends of mine who work at national news organizations, who are rightly puzzled and chagrined at what passes for news coverage in the two largest markets of the fourth-largest state in the country.

Romney's choice of optimistic, hard-working and media-genic Jack Kemp acolyte Paul Ryan also means that we can count on Debbie Wasserman Schultz going into full ZEALOT mode in the coming week, as she once again abandons her constituents in Broward to play the role of attack dog as she criss-crosses the country, only venturing into safe Dem districts.

Yes, we can count on seeing a steady stream of photographs of her predictable nonsensical threats before older voters and rich Democratic donors, her odd facial expressions and hairstyles will produce photographs which will, in some cases, will, no doubt, prove priceless.
His Midwestern friendliness and amiability will continue to stand out in sharp contrast to her shrill, know-it-all, govt. as savior nostrums, and her patronizing glares.

As you newcomers to the blog can see, below, I've already been a strong supporter of Paul Ryan and his economic prescription... and have been waiting patiently to see when and if I should share some of the knowledge here about Ryan, a man whom a week ago, 99% of South Florida's reporters couldn't have told you anything about other than that he was from Wisconsin. 

Here's one of the sources for information that THEY and you can trust: the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, http://www.jsonline.com/

See my previous blog post, with video, on Congressman Paul Ryan and his budget prowess of April 8, 2011 titled, Michael Barone on Paul Ryan's AEI speech taking on his budget critics: "Ryan Steals March on Obama as Fiscal Crisis Looms"
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/04/michael-barone-on-paul-ryans-aei-speech.html

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: House Budget Press <HBCPress@mail.house.gov>
Date: Fri, Aug 10, 2012 at 10:19 AM
Subject: Ryan and Sessions: ‘Unprecedented 1,200 Days’ Since Senate Democrats Passed A Budget
To:

PRESS RELEASES
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEAugust 10, 2012 PERMALINK	CONTACT: William Allison (Ryan) 202-226-6100 Stephen Miller, Andrew Logan (Sessions) 202-228-0575
Ryan and Sessions: ‘Unprecedented 1,200 Days’ Since Senate Democrats Passed A Budget
WASHINGTON – House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and Senate Budget Committee Ranking Member Jeff Sessions of Alabama issued the following joint statement marking the 1,200th day since Senate Democrats have last adopted a budget: “Tomorrow marks another disappointing record for the United States Senate: Senate Majority Leader Reid and his Democrat conference will have gone an unprecedented 1,200 days without adopting a budget plan as required by law. Not only have they failed to adopt a budget, but with America under threat of financial calamity, they have refused to even present a plan for public scrutiny. Last year, Majority Leader Reid said it would be ‘foolish’ to do a budget and the legally required Budget Committee mark-up was cancelled. No plan from his conference has seen the light of day. He refuses to disclose who he plans to tax and how he plans to spend taxpayers’ money. “This year, Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad committed to bringing forth a budget plan and conducting a mark-up, and was shut down by the Majority Leader. Once again, the conference put forward no proposal and offered nothing on the Senate floor. The Senate Majority did not offer up a single plan or even cast a vote in support of a single plan. By contrast, House Republicans laid out and adopted a credible, responsible plan that avoids this looming debt crisis with spending cuts and pro-growth tax reform while preserving the safety net. "Never before has our nation needed a budget and a long-term financial plan as badly as it needs one now. The Congressional Budget Office stated this week that the federal government is on track to run another trillion-dollar deficit this year and our debt will continue to explode with this continued lack of leadership. In addition to huge deficits, we face a $4 trillion tax increase at the end of this year and a sequester that Defense Secretary Panetta said will ‘do catastrophic damage to the military.’ Responsible and moral leadership requires the Senate to meet its legal obligation to pass a budget and to begin to address the fiscal crisis that is fast approaching our nation.”
###

-----

Bad news for HB's profligate tax-and-spend (and borrow) pols: Rasmussen Poll: 60% Favor Considering Spending Cuts in Every Government Program

Above, Hallandale Beach City Hall Municipal Complex. October 3, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier

Though the Rasmussen Reports poll results below are from a national poll, the voter sentiment I detect in my travels around Broward County and South Florida indicate it's even worse around here, esp. as it applies to myopic spending policies that we feel in our collective wallets and purses.

Especially in Hallandale Beach.

That's bad news for Joy Cooper's Rubber Stamp Crew in Hallandale Beach that never paid attention before the recent audit that showed conclusively, with damning proof, how financially irresponsible and negligent they have been for YEARS, completely failing their oversight responsibility to taxpayers and residents, while at the same time, quite literally, giving City Managers Mike Good and Mark A. Antonio carte blanche with respect to spending decisions, even while having no actual plans in place for what they were doing.

Not just nothing available online on the city's website, nothing on paper anywhere in the entire Hallandale Beach City Hall complex for you to read and make sense of.

The MARCUM LLP audit, Draft:

Hallandale AUP DRAFT 8-24-2011.pdf 328K View Download

Audit report shows missing records and disarray in Hallandale Beach’s redevelopment agency

http://www.browardbulldog.org/2011/09/audit-report-shows-missing-records-and-disarray-in-hallandale-beach%E2%80%99s-redevelopment-agency/

My September 23rd, 2011 response here on the blog to the draft of the audit findings of the city was titled, re Draft copy of Marcum Rachlin's audit of the City of Hallandale Beach; the entrenched anti-Sunshine, anti-taxpayer culture at HB City Hall

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2011/09/re-draft-copy-of-marcum-rachlins-audit.html

Over-and-over for years they have done the same thing, so where are the tangible, positive results they can point to, millions of dollars later?

At this point, as my friend Mike Butler of Change Hallandale fame has been saying for quite awhile, we ought to be able to see some visible signs of where those millions of tax dollars went, right?

So where are they?

http://www.changehallandale.com/

http://www.youtube.com/user/Butler1Mike

As of today, we still have large parts of the largest park in the city, Peter Bluesten Park, that is unsafe for adults and children at night because of the city's sheer neglect and lack of proper maintenance, something those of you who care will soon be able to see on my blog, complete with photos and video, that show it's been like this for well over TWO YEARS.

And HB City Hall has known all about it.

This park is only located two blocks from HB City Hall, and yet it seems like in the mind of City Manager Mark Antonio, it's out of sight, out of mind.

He's wrong -yet again.

It's not.

(And yes, in case you forgot me mentioning it here on the blog in the past, that's the very same HB city park that for well over a year DIDN'T properly deploy the recycling bins the city taxpayers have already paid tens of thousands of dollars for, and for this same time period, the city intentionally placed regular-sized garbage/recycling bins outside of the emergency exit for the main park building located there, a fact that you could see as soon as you walked thru the north gate.

Sure, because that's the kind of common sense you want to see from people working with and supervising small children.

People who will argue with you and say that they know best when they clearly don't.)

Yet this same Cooper Crew -Cooper, Dotty Ross, Anthony A. Sanders and Alexander Lewy-that has repeatedly shown that it CAN'T properly maintain what they already have, wants to spend -borrow from the reserve fund- millions more for a park on U.S.-1 where the current Main Post Office is located?

Most of you know how much I've spoken in the past at the myriad public meetings and on my blog about the needs to dramatically improve the city parks and beach, and to introduce more sports/social programs for the very HB adults that are already paying for them, as well as how I've taken Antonio and Cooper at City Commission meetings to task for all manner of things with respect to the dreadful physical & aesthetic conditions of the public parks & beach they are responsible for.

That said, is this really the time to let these same demonstrably irresponsible people make such an important decision, and continue their edifice complex fixation?

Hallandale Beach Government Pays Millions to U.S. Post Office in Yet Another Land Deal

http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/pulp/2011/11/hallandale_beach_government_pa.php

Hallandale Beach ready to buy more land, this time a post office site for about $9 million

http://www.browardbulldog.org/2011/10/hallandale-beach-ready-to-buy-more-land-this-time-a-post-office-site-at-a-cost-of-about-9-million/

Personally, I'd rather wait until after newly-elected people with genuine dedication to notions of financial accountability are transparency are firmly in place at HB City Hall after the election 51 weeks from Tuesday.

People who understand that sound public policy that is meaningful is about making hard choices sometimes, NOT simply continuing a terrible policy of paying for things from a fund that's rapidly being depleted by folks with no common sense or vision.

I mean who buys properties before you have a sound plan in place for what you're going to do with them?

The same people who overpay for properties and then lets their cronies use them for one dollar.

One dollar?

Let me quote myself from that September 23rd post:

That the City of Hallandale Beach has purchased SO much land is troubling enough, esp. since they have so often overpaid for it. But the fact that they have done so WITHOUT an actual City Commission-approved written strategy or plan that makes sense or shows some awareness of the logical consequences of what they are doing -a plan that taxpayers could read- is very, very troubling indeed, since it makes you wonder why some people's land is bought and others is not, even when the latter's might make more sense to some positive public policy.

To cite but one obvious example of this strange process, consider the land that was purchased by the city for more than it was apparently worth that was owned by present-day Hallandale Beach Commissioner Anthony A. Sanders and his wife.

That purchase literally seemed to fly thru the city's bureaucracy, because it was, apparently, so key to some grand plan of the city.

Well, what exactly was THAT plan?

Why all the urgency?

Why the need to over-pay for the property?

And now, three years later, the reality for HB taxpayers is that the city rents the property they claimed at the time was so important, to someone for one dollar a month.

One dollar.

Why?

Where is the logic and common sense in any of this, and why WON'T/CAN'T the City Manager, the Mayor or the City Commission logically explain this episode three years after the fact?

What's the plan?

Me, I don't think there is an actual plan.

Hallandale Beach takes a bath on land deals; properties for redevelopment sit idle for years

http://www.browardbulldog.org/2011/10/hallandale-beach-takes-a-bath-on-land-purchases-properties-for-redevelopment-sit-idle-for-years/

If you didn't already know, the person commenting above on some of the websites as "AMWakeUpCall" is HB's self-appointed political commissar, Andrew Markoff.

Almost everyone receiving this email knows what he's all about, but on the chance that this SW HB resident appointed to the Charter Review Comm. by Mayor Cooper is unknown to you, please see my June 13, 2010 post titled, quite accurately,

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

http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/my-upcoming-post-on-hallandale-beachs.html

In the end, I decided not to follow-up on this post since I realized that talking about all the dozens of hours I spent talking to him about this city and area a few years ago, taking him around to see things for himself that he'd never noticed while living here, even going up to Hollywood City Comm. meetings so he could see how they did things, in short, to connect-the-dots, would seem self-serving and petty.

It was enough that I sounded the alarm and let people who are interested in learning from my own mistake know that when it comes to Andrew Markoff, no good deed of theirs goes unpunished.

See also:

www.KeithLondon.com

-----

From: Rasmussen Reports Date: Sun, Nov 13, 2011 at 10:37 AM Subject: 60% Favor Considering Spending Cuts in Every Government Program

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Most Americans continue to believe everything should be on the table when it comes to federal spending cuts.

Read the rest of the post at:

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/business/federal_budget/november_2011/60_favor_considering_spending_cuts_in_every_government_program

Lisa Sylvester on campaign contributors to the new Super Committee debt panel, discusses their agendas with Bill Allison of Sunlight Foundation

CNN video: Reporter Lisa Sylvester examines the identity and interests of some of the largest campaign contributors to the 12 members of the new Super Committee debt panel, and discusses their agendas with The Sunlight Foundation's Bill Allison. August 16, 2011.

http://youtu.be/ljaJg2k-Z04

Sunlight Foundation video: The Debt Ceiling Deal and You, August 15, 2011

http://youtu.be/lv-1zUV742Y

The informative videos above about the Super Committee Debt group were in my YouTube Channel inbox today, and yesterday afternoon I received this latest email from Nicole Aro of The Sunlight Foundation, and I reprint it here for your edification:

Dear Sunlighter,

Congressional leaders have appointed members to the “Super Committee” -- 12 lawmakers assigned the power and responsibility of cutting $1.5 trillion from the national deficit -- by the end of the year. As you might expect, lobbyists and powerful special interests have already started to circle.

This “Super Congress” or “Super Committee” certainly has “Super Powers” -- but if they don’t pledge to be Super Transparent, we won’t know if they’re working for us or for the powerful, wealthy lobbyists and special interests in Washington. This work could stay in the shadows until the recommendations of the committee are released in December!

We made a quick video I want to share with you about the “Super Congress” - will you watch it and join our campaign?

The creation of this committee -- totally outside normal congressional rules and accountability -- is a pretty clear signal that something is broken in our democracy. While the committee members are certainly entitled to some private deliberation, this process needs be open and transparent. Sunlight's come up with five demands to increase transparency in this committee, but we need your help to make sure others join our campaign.

Demand an Open Super Congress and ask your friends to join you today.

Thanks for all that you do,

Nicole, Tiina, John and the rest of the Sunlight team

P.S. -- Got a clever idea for a campaign tactic that will show Congress we’re serious about our democracy? Please let us know here -- or let us know if you think someone else has a really great idea.

------

http://sunlightfoundation.com/

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

also see Pelosi Names Clyburn, Van Hollen, Becerra to Debt Panel

http://youtu.be/6NFiAYx740w

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

Sen. Marco Rubio on NBC's Meet the Press re federal budget, debt ceiling, Medicare, et al; FL U.S. Senate 2012 possibilities

NBC-TV's Meet the Press video -Host David Gregory speaks to Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida about the 2012 federal budget, the federal debt ceiling, saving Medicare, the (Paul) 'Ryan Plan,' and U.S. foreign policy, to wit, Libya.
http://youtu.be/GdtR7s-nqcE

If you are someone who considers themselves pretty well-informed and are watching the video of this morning's Meet the Press program from outside of the U.S., and get the distinct impression that Sen. Rubio, who has been in office less than four months, is being asked to explain -and or defend- public policies in more detail than many longstanding members of the U.S. Congress you can name, who get nothing but softball questions... take a bow.
You are correct.

Sen. Rubio's YouTube Channel is at:
http://www.youtube.com/user/SenatorMarcoRubio

U.S. House Budget Comm. YouTube Channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/HouseBudgetCommittee

American Roadmap YouTube Channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/AmericanRoadmap

The other U.S. Senator from Florida is Democratic two-termer Bill Nelson, who is up for re-election in 2012. He's a nice enough guy, but NOT nearly as dynamic, savvy or articulate as what this complex and crazy-quilt of a state demands, Florida being the country's fourth-largest.

Sen. Nelson's YouTube Channel is at http://www.youtube.com/user/SenBillNelson

I won't be voting for Nelson next year and currently have no GOP preference, but I am AGAINST a few GOP candidates for the office, the most prominent being the myopic, ethically-troubled Florida State Senate President, Mike Haridopolos; he's bad news personified!

I'd much prefer Florida State Senator Paula Dockery or Orange County (Orlando) mayor Teresa Jacobs, both of whom are very smart and articulate people full of ideas who are NOT at all afraid to speak (and vote) against the state political orthodoxy and the establishment of Tallahassee in particular, and Florida in general.
Nor are they afraid to speak against their own party and supporters when they think they're wrong.

For an excellent example of that attitude, read these two Mike Thomas columns from the Orlando Sentinel, since they're positive pieces of a sort that very, very few Florida pols could earn.

-----

Orlando Sentinel
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/columnists/os-mike-thomas-performing-arts-center20101222,0,3790804.column

Teresa Jacobs has to challenge performing-arts center bailout
By Mike Thomas COMMENTARY
8:50 p.m. EST, December 22, 2010

Orlando is $61 million short in getting the performing-arts center off the ground. So the city and arts supporters are hitting up Teresa Jacobs, Orange County's mayor-elect, for an advance on almost half of it.

She might as well get used to people groveling for money.

I have long supported an arts center. But this is like old Uncle Al, flat broke with holes in his shoes, hitting you up for $500 because he's got a sure thing at the track.

Give it to him and you know he's coming back for more.

None of this is a surprise for those of us who have followed the saga of the three downtown venues — the arts center, the arena and the Citrus Bowl.

The county budget-crunchers knew this day was coming back in 2007 when they negotiated the $1.1 billion venues deal with Orlando. They thought Mayor Buddy Dyer and Co. were out of their fiscal minds for taking on this much risk.

So the county built a firewall.

It would give the city enough resort-tax money to build a new Magic arena for billionaire Rich DeVos.

But the performing-arts center and Citrus Bowl would have to get in line behind a long list of priorities already funded by the resort tax.

If Buddy's gamble failed, the county was protected.

On paper, at least. That doesn't take into account the intangible of political pressure that would accompany the request for a bailout. If you don't give us the money, the project will not get built, and it will be your fault.

Now that we are there, what will Jacobs do?

She is, by nature, a cautious fiscal conservative. In fact, it was Jacobs who put a caveat in the venues deal, requiring that the arts center be fully funded before any debt was issued to waste money on a Citrus Bowl renovation.

During the mayoral campaign, Jacobs was criticized for being too focused on details when the job required a big-picture consensus builder. Being branded as the person who killed the arts center wouldn't help that perception.

But there are so many pitfalls here, she could hardly be blamed for doing so. Here are a few of them:

•The city is broke, which raises the question of where it plans to come up with its half of the shortfall. The county also doesn't have a spare $30 million stuffed in a mattress, meaning it could be forced to raid a reserve fund set aside for the convention center. That would be ill-advised.

•This deal would allow construction of phase one of the arts center — an amplified arena for events such as Broadway shows and a small 300-seat theater. Will the city come back for another cash advance when it comes time to build phase two — a 1,700 seat acoustical hall?

•The county could be the money pile of last resort to cover operating deficits. Some of this tab was going to be paid by leasing property next to the center for a hotel and office building. But the economy put the kibosh on that.

There also are disturbing rumors about donors backing out of their pledges, which could create an even deeper fiscal hole for the county to fill down the road.

The problem in dealing with Orlando is that the city is tapped out. So the minute a bulldozer rolls onto the site, the county could find itself sucked into a black hole, from which there is no politically feasible escape.

At a minimum, Jacobs should insist that the city raise its $31 million share of the shortfall first. She then should demand to see an updated list of all donor pledges and the contracts they signed with the arts center.

The county needs some guarantee it won't bankroll operating expenses.

The city must agree not to spend any more money renovating the Citrus Bowl until the arts center is finished and its operating costs are known and accounted for.

Every dime the city spends on that empty stadium is another dime the county probably will have to make up for at the arts center.

Finally, Jacobs should insist the city contact Magic owner Rich DeVos about providing a loan, which would be repaid as resort-tax funds become available. He could take his interest out of the $10 million he has pledged to the arts center.

Jacobs has a lot of options. The worst one is writing out a check for $30 million with no questions and no demands.

-----

Orlando Sentinel
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-mike-thomas-jacobs-arts-021311-20110212,0,351626.column

Orange Mayor Jacobs gives Orlando a dose of reality on arts center

Mike Thomas COMMENTARY
5:59 p.m. EST, February 12, 2011

Business as usual in this town officially ended at noon on Feb. 10.

That's when Orange Mayor Teresa Jacobs hit the send button and delivered a scathing review of the planned performing-arts center to inboxes across Orange County.

Her staff uncovered millions in waste, slipshod construction contracts, double-billings and overall gross mismanagement. Given that Orlando is ultimately in charge of building the center, she left City Hall in pretty much the same shape that the Air Force left Baghdad in 2003.

Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer emerged from the rubble hours later to answer questions like: "Are you embarrassed?"

You better believe it. He also was livid. This was a major breach of protocol. Proper etiquette requires that mayoral combat be conducted by backstabbing in private.

This all began in December when the city made the big mistake of asking the county for $30 million to help cover a funding shortfall for the arts center.

Normally, the county would have put up token resistance before succumbing to political pressure and writing a check.

The days of normalcy are over.

Jacobs said no. And then she unleashed her advisers and staff on an arts-center cost-cutting mission. Needless to say, mission accomplished.

Normally this would have been handled behind the scenes.

But Jacobs and her people grew suspicious of the city's good intentions as the process dragged on.

She also believes that full public disclosure is in the best interest of the public. Judging by her landslide election victory last November, the public agrees.

And so Jacobs gave the public what it voted for. She publicly nuked Buddy.

Somewhere, former Orange Mayor Rich Crotty is either smiling or wincing. Jacobs used to nuke him all the time when she served on the commission.

But just to be clear, Jacobs does not launch unless the target presents itself.

There are bigger problems with this arts center than mismanagement of planning and construction.

The city's reserve fund to cover its bond debt is underfunded. The endowment fund that will be used to help cover center operations expenses is grossly underfunded.

The city's downtown taxing district is tapped out.

Construction of the acoustical hall — the venue most cherished by local arts groups — has been put off indefinitely. And each year of delay will add an estimated $16 million to the price tag.

And then there are the things not in the report.

Last year, Fitch Ratings downgraded the city's Magic arena bonds to junk status.

Orlando has borrowed $90 million, with the loan based on the value of Centroplex property that's not worth half that much. Dyer has thrown $10 million at sprucing up the FloridaCitrus Bowl and now is aiming money at the "Creative Village.

The city's tab for pension benefits exceeds $50 million a year.

And this was on our front page last April: "For the second year in a row, the city of Orlando faces a staggering deficit of tens of millions of dollars and will look to erase the red ink by paring city staff and cutting services."

Yet in December, Dyer said he could cough up an additional $31 million for the arts center.

Jacobs is rightly concerned that she is doing business with Greece.

And when Dyer can't pull any more money out of his magic hat, the county will be the deep pocket of last resort once construction of the arts center begins. Even more disturbing is that the city and arts supporters are in a mad dash to get construction going. Their theory is that everything will work itself out once the bulldozers arrive.

It's a faith-based initiative, whereas the county administration building is filled with fiscal atheists who don't believe in miracles.

So what happens next?

The prevailing theory is that Dyer and the board running the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts will tell Jacobs to butt out and try to get the project started without any more help from the county. That certainly should scare the bejabbers out of big-money donors and city taxpayers.

A better idea is for Dyer to go to Jacobs, get her terms of surrender for more financial backing, let her more-experienced staff help salvage this mess and worry about revenge some other day.

Michael Barone on Paul Ryan's AEI speech taking on his budget critics: "Ryan Steals March on Obama as Fiscal Crisis Looms"

AEI video: U.S. House Budget Comm. Chair Paul Ryan answers questions at the AEI HQ in Washington, D.C. and directly challenges critics of his reform plan.
April 6, 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYCb-UyHc90
"This is the most predictable economic crisis we've ever had in this country..."


Rasmussen Reports
Ryan Steals March on Obama as Fiscal Crisis Looms A Commentary By Michael Barone Thursday, April 07, 2011

"My worst experience was the financial crisis of September 2008," responded House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan yesterday to a reporter's question about Democrats' attacks on the budget he unveiled earlier in the day.

"What if the president and your representative saw it coming and could have prevented it from happening?" Ryan said. "What would you think of them if they didn't?" A hush came over the audience at the American Enterprise Institute, where I am a resident fellow.

Read the rest of the post at:
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/political_commentary/commentary_by_michael_barone/ryan_steals_march_on_obama_as_fiscal_crisis_looms

See also:
http://budget.house.gov/

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

http://prosperityproject.org/

House Budget Comm. Chair Paul Ryan on 'Path to Prosperity'; the drivers of debt and the overdue reforms needed in FY 2012 budget -charts aplenty!

U.S. House Budget Committee video: The Path to Prosperity: America's two futures, visualized, presented by Budget Comm. Chair Paul Ryan of Wisconsin.
http://youtu.be/Xwv5EbxXSmE

Rasmussen Reports
Paul Ryan's Growth Budget
A Commentary By Lawrence Kudlow April 7, 2011

Of all the discussion about Paul Ryan's big-bang budget plan, the element I like best was caught in this Wall Street Journal op-ed title: "The GOP Path to Prosperity." In other words, it's a growth budget. It has plenty of spending cuts, but it also has significant pro-growth tax reform.

Read the rest of the post at:
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/political_commentary/commentary_by_lawrence_kudlow/paul_ryan_s_growth_budget



U.S. House Budget Committee video: Budget Comm. Chair Paul Ryan on Fox News Channel's Mike Huckabee Show details drivers of debt; Calls for honest leadership and real reform
http://youtu.be/SiZj1Uncl9Y



U.S. House Budget Committee video: Behind the Scenes: Budget Listening Session with Budget Comm. Chair Paul Ryan.
http://youtu.be/otlOCQyE8oY
Related article at: http://www.cnn.com/2011/POLITICS/03/17/gop.budget.plan/index.html

See also:
http://budget.house.gov/
http://www.youtube.com/user/HouseBudgetCommittee
http://prosperityproject.org/

Marco Rubio and Paul Ryan discuss the federal budget and why they're against 'business as usual' votes in Washington that preserve the status quo

Fox News Channel video: Sen. Marco Rubio on 'Fox News Sunday' with host Chris Wallace - April 3, 2011.

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

Speaking of being articulate and specific about what your own personal policy positions are regarding the looming federal budget battle and the national debt, so that there's no confusion or misunderstanding, as we were the other day with Marco Rubio, the opposite take on that approach causes me to ask aloud whether Sen. Bill Nelson is still among us.

The South Florida news media seems not to be too keen to actually ask Nelson where he stands on any of these things and what he wants to do or cut or anything.

No, they almost seem to be going out of their way to ignore Nelson, which causes me to ask whether that's for his lack of a cogent plan, strategy or framework, or whether it's just that they know in advance that, after eleven years in the Senate, he'll say absolutely nothing noteworthy in his usual earnest, plodding style, and they don't want to waste their time doing that, knowing that it's an hour they'll never ever have again.

Which is one of the reasons that while today is April 3rd, you CAN'T find a single story in the Miami Herald this year where Bill Nelson actually talks about the federal budget and the debt ceiling, and what he thinks should be done or how he will vote.
Go ahead, I dare you.
It simply can't be found -there isn't one.

Yes, with every passing day, collectively, the Miami Herald and the rest of the South Florida news media just continue walking deeper-and-deeper into the black hole of utter irrelevancy...




Fox News Channel video: Rep. Paul Ryan, Chairman of U.S. House Budget Comm.: on Fox News Channel's 'Sean Hannity Show' - March 1, 2011 - "House GOP Will Lead Where the President Has Failed"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-bgVl7EhNI

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Orlando Sentinel

www.orlandosentinel.com/news/opinion/views/os-mike-thomas-medicare-040311-20110402,0,2086543.column

Rubio is right to push for cuts to senior programs

Mike Thomas

COMMENTARY

9:49 PM EDT, April 2, 2011

Marco Rubio says he isn't interested in running for vice president in 2012. And to confirm that, he then said we have to scale back senior entitlement programs.

That got him lots of national attention, and a resounding round of silence from his Republican colleagues in Washington.

They didn't win the U.S. House this year, with an eye on the White House next year, only to risk it all by alienating the people who comprise the biggest voting bloc.

You will not see a Republican pointing to the retirees at a Tea Party gathering and saying, "You're the biggest part of the problem.''

Does anyone remember "A Roadmap for America's Future'' put out by Paul Ryan, the whiz-kid, budget-slashing congressman from Wisconsin who wanted to overhaul Medicare?

Or how about that report by the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform that recommended entitlement cuts?

Associate the word entitlement with the words cut or reform and off you go to the Bermuda Triangle.

I hope Marco fares better.

He says he would keep existing entitlements intact for those older than 55, an attempt to appease what former Sen. Alan Simpson calls the "greediest generation.''

This might work for Social Security, where there is time to fix it.

But Medicare is dragging us off the cliff now. It is so daunting and so complex that Washington is paralyzed.

Tackling Medicare not only means taking on the seniors, but the entire medical industrial complex that depends on Medicare's billions. Sending old folks for body scans is a huge part of the economy.

Taking money away is very hard for a political system designed to give it away.

Making matters worse, many seniors believe that since they have paid into Medicare their entire lives, they have earned their benefits. Reducing benefits equates to theft.

But the cost of medical care has risen so sharply that, on average, seniors now pay for less than half the benefits they receive.

This is what differentiates Medicare from Social Security, where workers indeed have paid for most of their benefits.

With Social Security, they get a single check each month for the same amount. That makes planning relatively easy.

But Medicare is an open checkbook that pays for an unlimited amount of services.

The medical industry has adapted by creating a system based on quantity. More specialists. More tests. More procedures. More medications.

Outcomes and cost-effectiveness do not matter.

This has driven up costs while at the same time we have an exploding population of seniors. Medicare is, by far, the biggest driver of our long-term national debt.

Medicaid, which provides care to the poor, would be right there with it but states share this burden. And a growing percent of the Medicaid budget is directed at nursing-home care.

Sure, we can cut fraud and waste, as the refrain goes. But any savings will be dwarfed by the sheer number of baby boomers entering the system.

During the next 20 years, we will add eight beneficiaries to the Medicare rolls for every new worker. And these seniors will be more obese and laden with more self-inflicted chronic conditions like type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

Help, we need more immigrants!

I am 56. And as much as I'd like Marco Rubio to include me in the existing system, I don't want to make my kids my indentured servants by having to pay for it.

A worker making $20,000 a year should not have to subsidize health care for snow birds sitting in their Palm Beach condos. We need to adjust premiums, deductibles and co-pays according to income.

People are too disconnected from the cost of their health care. And that encourages abuse of the system.

We need more gatekeepers. We need fewer specialists, and they need to make less money. We need more general practitioners and they need to make more money. We need nurses to diagnose the flu instead of doctors.

We need longer wait times for non-emergency procedures.

We need more docs in Walmart and more Solantic clinics in strip malls.

We need more end-of-life planning to avoid the onslaught of machines that only delay the inevitable.

We need more plans and cheaper options.

We need what we can afford.

We have no choice. The Chinese are going to stop buying our debt.

The longer we put this off, the worse it will be.

It is why Marco Rubio is one of the most important people in Washington right now.

Reader comments at: http://discussions.orlandosentinel.com/20/orlnews/os-mike-thomas-medicare-040311-20110402/10

The Mike Thomas blog: http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_columnist_mikethomas/

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http://www.spacehelpwanted.com/blog/

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

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

http://prosperityproject.org/

What you know implicitly, Rasmussen Reports confirms: "57% Okay with Government Shutdown If It Leads to Deeper Budget Cuts"; Marco Rubio on CRs

Sen. Marco Rubio video: In His Own Words: Week In Review -April 1, 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Y-NXWsbsWw




Fox News Channel video: Sen. Marco Rubio on 2011 federal budget and why he'd vote against raising the federal debt limit on Fox News Channel's "Fox & Friends" -April 1, 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WzzhgH_wzA

In my email inbox today comes confirmation of what I've known since November's election, which is that despite all the predictable paint-by-number "Rally in Tally" stories locally, and the Tweets, blog postings and warnings of doom from liberal interest groups and the predictable pleadings of the government employee class and their friends in the MSM, that the Tea Party, such as it is, will overplay their hand, the reality is that voters want smaller government budgets and more cuts.

Rasmussen Reports
57% Okay With Government Shutdown If It Leads to Deeper Budget Cuts
Friday, April 01, 2011

A majority of voters are fine with a partial shutdown of the federal government if that’s what it takes to get deeper cuts in federal government spending.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 57% of Likely U.S. Voters think making deeper spending cuts in the federal budget for 2011 is more important than avoiding a partial government shutdown...

Read the rest of the polling data at:
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/general_politics/march_2011/57_okay_with_government_shutdown_if_it_leads_to_deeper_budget_cuts




Fox News Channel video: Rep. Jeb Hensarling on 2011 budget battle and prospect of government shutdown on Fox News Channel's "America's Newsroom"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nk0Hla0VAH0

See also:
Congressional Quarterly
GOP weighs budget compromise
http://www.congress.org/news/2011/04/01/gop_weighs_budget_compromise#src=db

National Journal
Tea Party Divide: Protesters Call for Shutdown; Lawmakers, Not So Much Republican lawmakers insist they want to keep the government open.
By Lindsey Boerma
Thursday, March 31, 2011 | 4:15 p.m.
http://www.nationaljournal.com/politics/tea-party-divide-protesters-call-for-shutdown-lawmakers-not-so-much-20110331

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

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

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