Showing posts with label FL-24. Show all posts
Showing posts with label FL-24. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Cowardly cipher and U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson (new FL-24) is a deliberate no-show at Channel 10's 'This Week in South Florida with Michael Putney.' Did her hats refuse to let her go and throw themselves in front of her door because they knew no-bargain-himself Rudy Moise WOULD show-up? Another South Florida mystery that will have an unhappy ending!

My screenshot of U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson, new FL-24, on the July 31, 2011 episode of WPLG-TV/Channel 10 Miami's This Week in South Florida, with host Michael Putney. She was a no-show this past Sunday morning when she was supposed to meet at the Pembroke Park TV studio with her Democratic Party primary opponent. Surprise! Photo by South Beach Hoosier.

Cowardly cipher and U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson (new FL-24) is a deliberate no-show at Channel 10's 'This Week in South Florida with Michael Putney.' Did her hats refuse to let her go and throw themselves in front of her door because they knew no-bargain-himself Rudy Moise WOULD show-up? Another South Florida mystery that will have an unhappy ending! 
The poverty of Wilson's ideas and her ideals shows themselves once again -absent!
Curious observers, South Florida bloggers and regular voters were left to wonder if perhaps her large collection of hats banded together and refused to let her go, and literally threw themselves in front of her door at home to keep her there once they heard that no-bargain-himself Rudy Moise WOULD show-up?

Rudy Moise?
Seriously?
This isn't "Who's afraid of Virgina Woolf?"

No, the real question is whoever is afraid of debating Rudy Moise, whom I rightly bashed four years ago in this space during the 2008 Democratic Party primary that was full of jokers and no aces -or whatever you'd call what actually happens on Sunday morning public policy TV shows- is seriously lacking in both smarts and moxie.

And yet, Wilson was a no-show, echoing recent public remarks of hers that she wasn't being treated fairly by the South Florida news media.

Fairly? 
OMG!

That's rich considering the extent to which the South Florida news media, esp. female reporters, indulge her and treat Wilson, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen like Easter Eggs made of 24-carat gold -with kid gloves.
Yet even that sort of deferential treatment is NOT up to the standards that Wilson thinks she's entitled to -what a delusional woman!

And just as delusional are her Democratic Party allies and acolytes scattered around South Florida who for reasons that are hard to figure, have swallowed the Kool-Aid and never seem to tire of making excuses for her odd words and actions, and her even more frequent absences from the job she was elected to, where Wilson has one of THE highest absentee rates in the entire current Congress, almost four times higher than average.



(For the record, I've never lived in an area of the United States before where the female reporters were so consistently deferential to elected officials, esp. to women officials. Sometimes, if you didn't know better, it's almost like they're auditioning to be press secretary. Jonetta Rose Barras, whom I read and listened to on WAMU-FM's "D.C. Politics Hour" for all 15 years I was in D.C. 1988-2003, would positively lacerate the current crop of pols, male and female, and eat the current wimpy female reporters down here for breakfast -or a late morning snack. Especially at the Herald! Sadly, there's nobody even remotely like her down here, cause boy could we ever use about two dozen of her clones scattered around the area to change the current sleepwalking news ethos down here.)


In the 19 months that she has been in office, Wilson's said nothing and done nothing of substance, and if she had health problems again, her staff would function just as well and hardly anyone would be the wiser.

To me, having grown-up down here and having been intimately involved with the Democratic Party in Dade County starting in 1976, and having lived and worked in the Washington, D.C,. area for 15 years and having come to know many congressman and their staffs very well, practically knowing the House and Senate buildings like the palm of my hand, Wilson, sadly, is, in part, the logical result of years of declining news standards and so many experiences reporters leaving.

People with institutional knowledge of people, places and things who wouldn't put up with BS from anyone, much less, elected officials like her who think they can skate.
In short, the old-fashioned reporters who would do many stories in a day, even if you only saw one actually air on the local evening newscast.

Compared to many other large cities where TV reporters and their investigative mind-set literally infuse a station's DNA despite the normal staff turnover that occurs, because, for better or worse, this has been a launching pad for careers, we have a very small number of reporters who don't need to be asked to set people straight on the facts and the history of the area when someone starts dissembling.

(It's the news version of the unfortunate phenomenon we've seen in sports coverage and sports radio in the Miami area the past twenty years, where there are simply far too many people from New York and New Jersey running things and getting air-time who came down here after Hurricane Andrew, and whose knowledge of South Florida sports history comes almost entirely second-hand thru ESPN or Sunday or Monday Night NFL telecasts. Not that this wasn't always a second-tier sports town, though, because it was, but the Herald's sports section decline for the past 15 years sure hasn't helped things, and is just one of the more tangible signs of the decline. So much technology to make things better for readers, yet so much backwardness and lack of feel for the area. And the four English language local TV sports coverage for a typical week, collectively, is worse than what the old WTVJ-TV Channel 4 of sports director Bernie Rosen would produce on a single 6 p.m. Friday night telecast before a big Dolphins game, when the tension and excitement around town was palpable. Now, well, no thanks! It's worse than awful!)

If this no-show by Wilson were actually surprising news, I'd have posted this Sunday afternoon after the show aired and her craven refusal to show-up and be subjected to some scrutiny would get the good once-over it deserves.
But it was no surprise that she was a no-show, since she's one of the biggest no-shows in Congress when it comes to votes, as I've mentioned here previously, as well as in the Herald.

It's really a damn shame that the City of Aventura in Northeast Miami-County isn't part of her new FL-24/old FL-17 Congressional District like it ought to be, and is instead, like before the recent redistricting, part of Debbie Wasserman-Schultz's.

Then we could see what happens when some of the many, many people in Aventura who have the smarts, political savvy and financial means to put their money where their mouth is -and then some!- could blitz the area with deadly precise commercials detailing Wilson's many failures and deconstruct the fact that in Washington, she is a nobody with no influence and no knowledge that anybody else in Congress respects or admires.

She's a walking, talking cliche and seemingly afraid of having smart people ask hard questions where she can't weasel her way out with preposterous statements.
Very sad.



IF she had shown-up, and I never thought she would once I heard Michael Putney say on Saturday night's telecast -or was it Friday's?- that he'd have Wilson and Moise in studio for his Sunday show, I'd have posted screen grabs and given you the link to watch the show yourself, wherever you are in the world.

Citizens in the new FL-24 with low social mobility and with bleak economic prospects deserve better than Wilson in Congress, and at least deserved an opponent who could bring home the fact how unsuccessful and unpersuasive Frederica Wilson is in Washington, D.C. 
Chronicle her career arc in Washington this far as Congresswoman as circus clown...
If only...

Now, after her win Tuesday night, they are stuck with one of the least-effective members of Congress for another two years.
My condolences,

I used to be you, but now that I'm in the new FL-23, I can vote against DWS for the first time in 83 days, and vote against her I will.
With enthusiasm.
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Some recent -but not all- past posts about Rep. Frederica Wilson are here:


TUESDAY, AUGUST 2, 2011
NOT Breaking News: Rep. Frederica Wilson still holds common sense, FL-17 constituents & taxpayers 'hostage': Spend, spend, spend and MORE TAXES!




FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2011



Thursday, December 8, 2011

The true costs of 'pet' legislation & the misplaced priorities of Joy Cooper, Hallandale Beach City Comm.; Ted Deutch's bill to overturn SCOTUS ruling


RT America video: The Big Picture host Thom Hartmann mentions FL-19's Ted Deutch's proposal to overturn the Supreme Court's First Amendment ruling thru -yes- a Constitutional Amendment. November 22, 2011.

This email of mine below was sent this morning to the Hallandale Beach City Clerk's Office.
It concerns a preposterous agenda item that was deemed so important by the powers-that-be in this city about the future of the city, that it was deemed a priority and discussed Wednesday night at the Hallandale Beach City Commission -a proposal to overturn a 2010 Supreme Court ruling.
What, nothing new was available to discuss and debate regarding Syria, global warming or the situation in the Mid-East, or, you know, something about what's actually going on IN this city right now?

On the chance that you mis-read my intent here, let me state it clearly: the City of Hallandale Beach City Hall can NOT chew its food and walk at the same time.
Yet it imagines itself a Think Tank, dispensing wisdom and insight to all who will listen.

It's the epitome of inefficient and incompetent and yet under Joy Cooper, HB City Commission meetings that should take two hours at most, instead, consistently take 5-6 hours, as they range far-afield from the actual duties of the commission, while completely ignoring the dreadful self-evident state of the city under the current (and previous) highly-paid City Manager and their high-paid staff.
This repels citizen interest and activity at these meetings, which is precisely Cooper's intent.
It's no accident.

Cooper's Rubber Stamp Crew is oblivious to almost everything going on here -and almost always the last to know anything important that's common knowledge to others in the community- and consistently ignores its proper oversight role of the City Manager and his staff, spelled out in the charter of , resulting in ZERO scrutiny.

This lack of seriousness and diligence by the mayor and the City Commission was proven by the recent audit that was much-discussed here on the blog, where evidence shows that problems were allowed to grow larger and worse for years-and-years while Cooper was mayor, as the city failed to perform basic aspects of sound governance while the city's budget nearly doubled.

Read the information about the city's resolution and Ted Deutch's H.J. RES 90 at the links below and make up your own mind about what sort of priority this ought to be in the city in December of 2011.

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December 8th, 2011

To Whom It May Concern:

Regarding last night's Hallandale Beach City Commission meeting and agenda item, 12-E, a resolution to overturn a decision of the U.S. Supreme Court, to wit, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission,
A Resolution of the City of Hallandale Beach, Florida, Supporting Congressman Ted Deutch's Proposed Amendment to the Constitution of the United States to Exclude For-Profit Corporations from the Rights Given to Natural Person by the Constitution, Prohibiting Corporate Spending in all Elections, and Affirming the Authority of Congress to Regulate and Set Limits on all Election Contributions and Expenditures. (Mayor Joy F. Cooper) (See Backup) CAD#008/12
http://www.hallandalebeachfl.gov/files/00439/Exported%20OV%20Docs/Staff%20Reports/00008596.htm
http://www.hallandalebeachfl.gov/files/00439/Exported%20OV%20Docs/Item%2012E/index.html

please provide me with the following information within the next ten business days.

a.) The names of City employees and elected officials involved in the drafting and construction of this resolution, from beginning until its presentation on Wednesday night.
b.) The total amount of work-time billed to the City of Hallandale Beach on this matter by each germane employee, contractor or consultant, from beginning-to-end, and,
c.) The total cost to the City of Hallandale Beach for this activity, from beginning-to-end, by way of salaries, supplies and fees to contractors or consultants.

Additionally, I request
d.) All resolution-related correspondence and documents sent to and from the City of Hallandale Beach and its elected officials and administrators.
e.) The total amount of time devoted to this specific agenda item on Wednesday night, December 7, 2011 according to the HB City Clerk's office.

My intent is clear: I want to find out how much time, effort and resources have been wasted on this non-germane matter at a HB City Commission meeting, and the costs associated with that effort.
This, even while the longstanding, self-evident graffiti all throughout the city, including along U.S.-1 and directly in front of HB City Hall itself, continues to be COMPLETELY IGNORED by HB City Hall, the HB Police Dept. and the HB Chamber of Commerce.

Meanwhile, routine safety maintenance of city-owned parks and facilities that effectively renders some of them -or large parts of them- completely unsafe to the public at night because of the city's longstanding pattern of benign neglect, year-after-year.
This includes the city's largest park, Bluesten Park, located only two blocks from HB City Hall and the HB Police Dept.

I'll soon be submitting a Public Records Request to the city about the latter matter to find out why it is that the safety of the HB community seems to consistently have a MUCH-LOWER priority right now at HB City Hall, than 'pet' legislation that has NOTHING to do with the proper governance or maintenance of this city according to the city's own charter.

Sincerely,
DBS


“If the First Amendment has any force, it prohibits Congress from fining or jailing citizens, or associations of citizens, for simply engaging in political speech.”
-Justice Anthony Kennedy writing for the majority in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission
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Press release from FL-19 Rep. Ted Deutch's office re his proposed Constitutional Amendment overturning the Supreme Court's First Amendment ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission:

Rep. Deutch Unveils OCCUPIED Constitutional Amendment


Bill Summary and Status of H.J. RES 90, according to Library of Congress' THOMAS website:

As you can see for yourself above, as of today, despite how much you may occasionally hear on TV or read about this effort in newspapers, blogs or websites, esp. in South Florida, this liberal pipe-dream of Ted Deutch that clearly will never come to fruition, has the support of exactly 4 very liberal members of the 435-member House of Representatives:
Deutch, Alcee Hastings of next-door FL-23, Peter DeFazio of Oregon and Jim McDermott of Washington.
Hmm-m... not exactly what you'd call a rolling bandwagon, eh?

It's been referred to the House Subcommittee on the Constitution, currently chaired by Arizona's Trent Franks.

The other members of the subcommittee from Florida, besides Deutch, are Republicans Sandy Adams of FL-24, representing Orlando to the ocean, and Dennis Ross of FL-12, representing the area east of Tampa reaching towards the central part of the state, where my mother lives.
(The outline of FL-12 sort of looks like the State of Virginia.)

FL-12 was formerly represented for ten years by Adam Putnam, current FL Sec. of Agriculture, where he was Chairman of the House Republican Conference.
Putnam was considerably more important in the larger scheme of things in the House than you would have ever realized judging by how infrequently he was mentioned in the Miami Herald, Sun-Sentinel or on local Miami-based TV newscasts. Surprise!

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NB: About the subject header - I realize that it's actually a resolution not a bill, but "resolution" at ten spaces wouldn't fit into the space, while "bill" at four would.