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Showing posts with label Michael Putney. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Michael Putney. Show all posts

Thursday, May 1, 2014

Media Narrative & Optics as the most important thing in public policy, to the detriment of real facts. Equally true in South Florida now with proposed David Beckham/MLS PortMiami soccer stadium as well as for mendacious Benghazi response in 2012 by stonewalling Obama White House, as Sharyl Attkisson can attest to


























Media Narrative & Optics as the most important thing in public policy, to the detriment of real facts. Equally true in South Florida now with proposed David Beckham/MLS Port of Miami soccer stadium as well as for Benghazi response in 2012 by stonewalling Obama White House, as Sharyl Attkisson can attest to
The attempt to successfully frame a media narrative with favorable optics, mentioned at the top in Chris Stirewalt's tweet and which is today's FOX News First newsletter 
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/05/01/white-house-correspondence-indeed/
is press management of the sort that we see everywhere and everyday, from here in South Florida to Stockholm, sometimes, in quite humorous or ham-handed ways if observant people are paying close attention.

And yet all too often, the news media fall for it hook-line-and-sinker and don't bring the sort of critical thinking to bear on the issue that they ought to, caught up as they are by the sight of the cute bear riding the bicycle in a circle in front of them, to ask questions that need to be asked.

In Miami, recently, questions like that included why should real soccer fans like me care about the prospective views from a proposed stadium at the Port of Miami more than they care about the actual comfort level and aesthetics they feel once inside of the stadium, and how easy it is to get to for the largest number of prospective fans to get to and from the stadium, with any hope, near public transit facilities that make that trip easy, which is good for everyone involved.

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Local10 video: Public hearing held on MLS stadium in PortMiami 
April 23, 2014 07:42:06 PM EDT   
Updated April 23, 2014 07:49:36 PM EDT
The mayor of Miami Beach called a public hearing Wednesday because he feels that a stadium in PortMiami will affect the already congested commute for residents.
But early on, though not true in the Local10 news video above, the cute bear on the bicycle on that issue, David Beckham, was all that the early news stories in South Florida largely focused on, which is precisely what his ownership group wanted, even as a few highly-observant and popular South Florida bloggers and tweeters of distinction and serious news personalities like Bill Cooke at Random Pixels blog, film/TV director Billy Corben and Local10's Senior Political Reporter Michael Putney were asking and writing about with a real purpose.




See conversations in the tweets!

David Beckham Meets With Florida Gov. Rick Scott Lobbying for New Stadium for Miami MLS Project 
Ed Molina, staff@latinopost.com
March 28, 2014 02:49 PM EDT 
http://www.latinopost.com/articles/5212/20140328/david-beckham-meets-with-florida-gov-rick-scott-lobbying-for-new-stadium-for-miami-mls-project.htm

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This Week in South Florida
Local10 video: "Local 10's Michael Putney talks with local leading members of the Beckham team and a Miami commissioner about why location they've set their sights on for the new major league soccer stadium and if it's a good one."
March 30, 2014 01:31:19 PM EDT
Updated March 30 2014 04:14:19 PM EDT
http://www.local10.com/news/this-week-in-south-florida-march-30/25236456
Local10 video: War of Words over David Beckham's plans for soccer stadium. Port Miami is second largest economic generator in Miami-Dade County  Published On: April 30, 2014 06:34:23 PM EDT 
Updated April 30 2014 06:42:45 PM EDT

 But as I've lamented so many times over the years on this blog over the past seven years, spouting common sense and asking pointed questions makes them (me) a distinct minority in this area of the country, unfortunately.

The anger we now see among some in the U.S. press corps is, for some of us at least, a little too late and convenient, to say nothing of being too over-the-top, especially given how easily, via CW group think, they abandoned their natural (accurate) initial suspicions and replaced that by eagerly swallowing the Obama Administration's feeble excuses about a YouTube video that hardly anyone had ever seen or heard of prior to them offering it up as a reason for protests in Cairo.

The Beltway Media is mad at themselves, obviously, but since they can hardly blame themselves, they are now wildly pointing fingers at others.
After the horse is long gone out of the barn.

If you missed Sharyl Attkisson's very revealing interview with Glenn Beck on Wednesday morning regarding the very curious circumstances she's been in for the past 18 months, from her being "watched" and having her work computer hacked -by ???- plus the problems she had at CBS News with getting reports on Benghazi on-air, and her recent departure from there, see the context and video here:

The Blaze
Sharyl Attkisson on the One Thing People Should Be ‘Standing Up on Buildings and Screaming’ About 
April 30, 2014 1:50pm  
Erica Ritz

That we are only now learning via a Judicial Watch FOIA request that the author of the Obama White House talking points about the September 11, 2012 terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya that resulted in the death of four Americans, Ben Rhodes, would turn out to be the brother of the President of CBS News, is, of course, obviously a delicious wild card.
A wild card that none of us who were always suspicious of the White House narrative and Susan Rice's self-serving comments regarding a YouTube video, could've ever guessed at months and months ago.

By the way, for what it's worth, the Fox News First newsletter I received this morning that mentions some of these issues and which prompted me to do this blog post, has consistently proven over the past eight months to be much-more accurate and fair -even prescient- than I'd have initially guessed when I first subscribed last year.
You might want to sign up, too.
Just saying...
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Saturday, September 1, 2012

OMG! Really, another interview with predictable Debbie Wasserman-Schultz on Channel 10's TWISF tomorrow? Why? Will there be any mention of the Sun-Sentinel STILL ignoring the Glenn Thrush book's depiction of DWS's unpopularity at Obama HQ in Chicago?; Sun-Sentinel has completely morphed into the Snooze-Sentinel! It's now more of an idea of a newspaper, and a bad one at that, rather than a newspaper you actually look forward to reading


POLITICO video: Debbie Wasserman Schultz disputes POLITICO e-book
http://bcove.me/iysunfmy
Related article at: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0812/80465.html

OMG! Really, another interview with Debbie Wasserman-Schultz on Channel 10's This Week In South Florida (TWISF) program tomorrow morning at 11:30 a.m.? Why?

There are only 66 days until Election Day and they're consciously choosing to put HER on?
What a colossal disappointment!

 Not to mention, another missed opportunity to bring viewers up-to-date with someone new or interesting or amusing -three things that DWS no longer is.

 I guess this only proves all over again that not every TWISF program with Putney there is going to be a hit, which is what I always think whenever I see certain people on the show as guests that I find bores and quickly flip-over to Fox Soccer Channel to see what the score is in the Premier League game I was watching earlier.
Looks like I will be watching MUCH more of the Manchester United at Southampton match LIVE than I originally thought I would -after the Liverpool at Arsenal at 8:25 a.m..

It's not just that I disagree with DWS, or that she has never had to run from a competitive CD, though I do and she never has, it's also that she's just completely predictable, like Alan Simpson and Richard Lugar and Charlie Crist and Dan Gelber.
Or, even more deadly dull, like watching the Dolphins and Hurricanes offense the past few years -SNOOZE...............

 I know when that check-down pass to the running back coming out of the backfield is coming even BEFORE the ball is snapped, even BEFORE the linebacker covering him does, so I'm groaning even BEFORE seeing it painfully come to life -over-and-over again!
And rarely if ever getting the First Down!

 There's no need to watch this program tomorrow, no need to tape it, you already know what DWS is going to say before she says it, based on Michael Putney's questions.
Use that time to walk along the beach with your kids or finally change your oil or air filter under the hood, because there will be no news there at all, and besides, next weekend is wall-to-wall NCAA and NFL football again.

Yes, unlike watching a favorite Seinfeld episode for the 100th time -and isn't that about how many times DWS has been on TWISF since I came back here from D.C., 100 times?- watching and listening to DWS say the same exact thing about Romney or Ryan with that unpleasant voice is NOT as enjoyable the 100th time.
It's a bore.
Will there be any mention about the Miami Herald and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel -almost uniquely among all American newspapers with circulations above a college newspaper- STILL completely ignoring the negative revelations in POLITICO's Glenn Thrush's e-book, and its negative depiction of her and the level of her unpopularity at Obama HQ in Chicago, and the local papers refusing to make any mention of it in-print?

 Yes, the very subject I wrote about over a week ago, the only person in South Florida publicly noting its complete absence from the scene?
Yes, this part of my August 22nd post
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/08/paul-ryan-why-he-matters-and-needs-to.html

Here it is again, and nothing has changed since then -still nothing new about the book or its author in the Snooze-Sentinel.


Speaking of DWS, here's another piece you won't be reading in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel if any of her many trained poodles over there have anything to do with it, though logically you should, right?
Supposedly, DWS is on the hot seat! 
Or is it on thin ice? 
She's on one of the other, which ever you find personally worse in the summer.

 The Weekly Standard
Book: Wasserman Schultz Most Unpopular Obama Campaign Surrogate
By Daniel Halper
8:33 AM, August 20, 2012
According to a new ebook released today by Politico writer Glenn Thrush, Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a member of Congress from Florida, is the most unpopular of all surrogates for President Obama's reelection campaign. That finding is the product of polling done by the Obama campaign, according to Thrush.
Read the rest of the post at:
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/book-wasserman-schultz-most-unpopular-obama-campaign-surrogate_650276.html

 The Washington Post
Report: Obama campaign has doubts about DNC chair
Posted by Rachel Weiner on August 20, 2012 at 7:36 am
President Obama’s Chicago team is not thrilled with Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, according to a new ebook from Politico’s Glenn Thrush.
Read the rest of the post at:  
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/election-2012/wp/2012/08/20/report-obama-campaign-has-doubts-about-dnc-chair/

Don't believe me?
Okay, check the Sun-Sentinel for yourself: nothing about it as of right now.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/search/dispatcher.front?Query=Debbie+Wasserman-Schultz&target=adv_article&date=07%2F23%2F2012-08%2F22%2F2012&range=pre&facet=

As for the author of the book, the last time the Sun-Sentinel ran a piece by Glenn Thrush was April 28, 2012, so it's clear that they have not touched the story, even though it's right there in front of them.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/search/dispatcher.front?Query=%22Glenn+Thrush%22&target=adv_article
Hmm-m...

Yes, her crew over at the newspaper is definitely looking out for her, as per usual. 
Just saying... the facts are the facts.
If this sort of thing had been said about Rep. Allen West at GOP HQ based on some sort of polling, the paper would've had it on the front page ASAP, so what's the Sun-Sentinel's explanation for the complete absence of information in print on this re DWS?

------

 Douglas Lyons is the Sun-Sentinel's... well, it depends upon whom you talk to.
Some would say that he's the guy whose job consists largely of cranking out a column once in a while and going around Broward making excuses for the poor and scatter-shot local news coverage they crank out for fewer and fewer readers, but his official title is senior editorial writer. 

Here's a thought -Why don't you ask him why his newspaper refuses to mention a negative story about the most prominent elected official in its coverage area, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz.

 His contact infromation is here:
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/columnists/sfla-opinion-lyons,0,1403324,bio.columnist

Personally, my days of writing him a serious and fact-filled letter and expecting a reasonable response are over, so if he's on your own email list, you might want to seriously ask yourself why -and then purge him.

 Lots of people I know, some of whose names you'd even recognize, have done this the past year or so, something they wouldn't do if this were a more normal American community and they had to engage in some sort of pretense to take him seriously and care what he thought or wrote.
Nope, they've tossed him and others there overboard with no negative effect whatsoever. 
They actually like the idea that they and other people who really know what's going on DON'T communicate with him, and he's less aware of what's going on than ever.
But that just makes him like 99% of the people working there.

 They're NOT at all like the competitive reporters I've known and interacted with in Chicago and Washington, and the results are readily apparent to readers when you see the newspaper in print.
It seems more like an idea for a newspaper, NOT an actual newspaper you'd read at the beach or take on a plane ride.
And the less said about their website the better.
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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.
----------

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



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Friday, July 20, 2012

Why swing state Florida is NOT Obama's for the taking and what Mitt Romney must do to win it; why Obama's TV attack ads against Romney aren't working -it's the economy, stupid!; Local10's Michael Putney to interview President Obama Friday for 6 o'clock newscast in Miami; #LaurenGores, @LaurenABC17



WallStreetJournalDigitalNetwork video: Why Florida May Be a Reach for Obama. Correspondent Arian Campo-Flores reports from Miami and explains why the fickle Sunshine State may not be President Obama's for the taking in November, and what Mitt Romney and the GOP will have to do to win this important swing state. July 19, 2012. http://youtu.be/t8y18Kh6JWA




sandyfrazier9 video: RealClear Politics Executive Editor Tom Bevan spoke with guest host Tucker Carlson on Fox News Channel's Sean Hannity Show about how Obama and the Democrats finally decided how they'd attempt to portray Mitt Romney in Tv ads to Independent and Moderates, without whom Obama can't be re-elected, and what issues or factors will most affect whom Romney selects to be his running-mate . 
Surprise! Someone who will "do no harm" and allow the focus of the campaign to remain firmly on Obama and make it a referendum on his failed stewardship of the economy. Posted July 2, 2012. http://youtu.be/plgk8sPzgwc -


Better than Truthy with Stephen Colbert, it's Newsy Politics, with IU grad Lauren Gores in Missouri: multiple-sourced -the way news used to be!





NewsyPolitics video: Economic woes wounding Obama, says new NYT/CBS News poll. July 19, 2012. http://youtu.be/ntoPzskr43k


Homepage for NY Times/CBS News Polling:
http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/opinion/polls/main500160.shtml


Newsy Politics YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/NewsyPolitics 


Lauren Gores' Twitter page: http://twitter.com/LaurenABC17


MBA's Best Newscast winner is a Hoosier grad!
http://twitter.com/JustinABC17/statuses/209264287833800704
http://twitpic.com/5cxrfz


Morning anchor Gores wakes up Missouri
http://journalism.indiana.edu/news-for-alumni/morning-anchor-gores-wakes-up-missouri/


Hoosier Lauren's sister is Rochelle Gores Fredston, former owner and muse behind LA's ARCADE Boutique on Melrose, which closed back in May. 
A few of my more fashion-oriented female friends in SoCal had even mentioned to me in the past that it was one of the most consistent boutiques around, whatever that means. 
She's now working for her father's very successful private equity firm
http://www.thedailytruffle.com/2010/12/a-little-family-background-on-rochelle-gores-and-arcade-boutique/
http://la.racked.com/tags/rochelle-gores


*FYI: Local 10's Michael Putney, a University of Missouri grad, will interview President Obama Friday for Channel 10's 6 o'clock newscast in Miami.
Have a good question that ought to be asked of the president?
Send it to Michael at share@local10.com
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Saturday, July 7, 2012

Tomas Lopez, the Fired Lifeguard at the Center of the Storm in Hallandale Beach, will be a guest on Sunday's "This Week in South Florida with Michael Putney" at 11:30 a.m. on Channel 10, after ABC News "This Week"; #hallandalebeach

Tomas Lopez, the Fired Lifeguard at the Center of the Storm in Hallandale Beach, will be a guest on Sunday's "This Week in South Florida with Michael Putney" at 11:30 a.m. on WPLG-TV/Channel 10, after ABC News "This Week."


Fired lifeguard to receive key to city 
Published On: Jul 06 2012 05:44:01 PM EDT
http://www.local10.com/news/Fired-lifeguard-to-receive-key-to-city/-/1717324/15431192/-/136v7nsz/-/index.html

The South Beach lifeguard stand, Hallandale Beach, FL. May 30, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier. © 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved


This was WPLG-TV/Channel 10- Miami's first report on the unfolding story Wednesday with reporter Jacey Birch.

This was their follow-up on Thursday with reporter Todd Tongen.


CNN's John Zarrella on the Hallandale Beach story that caused an uproar around the world. http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/05/us/florida-lifeguard-fired/index.html


ABC News Matt Gutman's report from Thursday that aired on Good Morning America
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ABC News video: Correspondent Matt Gutman on Fla. Contractor That Fired Lifeguard For Saving Man Outside Zone Reconsidering. July 5, 2012.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/fired-fla-lifeguard-reinstated/story?id=16716225
Video at http://abcnews.go.com/US/fired-fla-lifeguard-reinstated/story?id=16716225


My first post on this stort from Wednesday
Lifeguard Tomas Lopez helps save the day at the city's public beach but get's fired for his trouble. Meanwhile, Hallandale Beach City Hall continues to act neglectful and NOT do what it's legally supposed to do around the beach areas, and nothing happens. Nobody is fired. Just more mindless bureaucratic apathy and incompetency from the same old crew!
http://www.hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/07/lifeguard-tomas-lopez-helps-save-day-at.html

My follow-up post
Tomas Lopez story results in predictably anemic response by Hallandale Beach City Hall as growing public outrage re harsh treatment of lifeguard Lopez by his company, Jeff Ellis & Associates -an unpersuasive form letter- shows City Hall's longstanding myopia remains. Story has touched a nerve all over the world about moral imperatives and importance of doing the right thing despite strong possible negative consequences. We desperately need to change the culture and personnel at City Hall ASAP!
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/07/lifeguard-tomas-lopez-helps-save-day-at.html
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Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Wednesday morning mtg. on Miami Beach with Jessica Hoppe of Resorts World re Genting's Casino project in Miami; she'll be in Davie on Friday


To see what the recently-reformed Miami Beach Taxpayer’s Association wants from the developer, regarding their huge project on the site of the Miami Herald's current HQ and the adjoining area properties, featuring a destination-style casino, see
Interesting!

On Friday, Resorts World VP and General Counsel Jessica Hoppe will also be in Davie at this ULI event at the Signature Grand:

I just found out about this event late Tuesday night, so I won't be attending....

See these two Channel 10 videos to see more on the project:

WPLG-TV, Miami video: Is Casino Giant "Buying" Florida?
Blog by Bob Norman
POSTED: Monday, October 3, 2011
UPDATED: 10:07 am EDT October 3, 2011

WPLG-TV, Miami video: Competition Heats Up For Destination Casino
Las Vegas Sands Corp. Joins Miami Casino Race
by Michael Putney
POSTED: Tuesday, October 4, 2011
UPDATED: 8:07 pm EDT October 4, 2011

"A" below on Google Map is present location of Miami Herald.
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Sunday, September 18, 2011

Dear oblivious Jane Doe, Chip & Andy, defenders of Hollywood union deals that'd cripple city's financial future: You lost, common sense actually won

Above and below, looking east at the City of Hollywood Fire Rescue station #105 on U.S.-1/Federal Highway, one block north of Pembroke Road, one of the ten busiest fire stations in the entire U.S. and which responds to some calls in Hallandale Beach, too. August 30, 2011 photos by South Beach Hoosier

August 30, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier

August 30, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier

Dear oblivious Jane Doe, Chip & Andy, et al, defenders of Hollywood union deals that'd cripple city's financial future: You lost, common sense actually won.

Rather than see the two comments I received today run at the bottom of my Saturday post, where only people who never saw it in the first place would see them, I've chosen instead to put them right out front today where everyone can see them for the nonsense they are.
Let's look at the self-serving comments, shall we?

Which, as was true during the abbreviated referendum 'campaign,' as usual, didn't and don't answer the simple reasonable questions that the residents of Hollywood were entitled to know before they actually voted.
Not the failure of the City of Hollywood to anticipate and deliver straightforward answers to, but rather the side that the 'Jane Does', DWS and labor acolytes of the Hollywood area supported.
The side that lost and which is still bitterly complaining.

Those questions can be boiled down to one: IF X, with X being maintaining current labor deals, then Y, with Y being job cuts and program and service interruptions if not outright elimination,
what will Y be like if the status quo with the city employees was maintained and no changes were made?

The unions could NEVER answer that simple question to enough Hollywood residents' satisfaction.
The very beleaguered people who already knew that their taxes were going to be going up substantially even if the city's position won out this past Tuesday.
How did the unions and their employees ever think they could win if they couldn't answer that simple question?
Exactly.

As stated previously, I'd have been perfectly fine with firing a lot more City of Hollywood employees than even the numbers contemplated by the city if the referendum had lost.
A lot more!

My own personal experience over the past seven years being all over Hollywood is that there are, indeed, far too many city employees who DON'T pull their weight and don't deliver a dollar's worth of service or labor for a dollar's pay.

Just as is even MORE TRUE in the City of Hallandale Beach, starting with the City Manager's Office and DPW.

City of Hallandale Beach City Hall and Police Dept. HQ, September 9, 2011 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

(Did you know that despite being about 350% smaller in physical size and population than Hollywood, as recently as two years ago, the City of HB's City Manger's Office was actually spending MORE taxpayers money on its personnel costs than Hollywood was?

Well, if you read this blog or read my friend Michael Butler's Change Hallandale you would, but other than Comm. Keith London, none of the other other four HB commissioners seemed the least bit troubled by this absurd and troubling fact.
Cooper, Ross, Julian & Sanders were their usual Rubber Stamp selves and allowed it to go on and on, with predictable results, and yet they were the very ones who were unwilling to bite the bullet and actually take Mike Good to court last year when he wasn't even coming to City Hall to do his job.
How do you get any more insubordinate than that?

And Julian, typically, as if on cue, foolishly saying and doing the wrong thing at the wrong time, made a motion to end the city manger search even before it could get going in earnest and the public could participate and give their input.
Just another one of the 1,001 reasons that William "Bill" Julian deserves to be kept off the commission dais PERMANENTLY.)

Now, back to the matter at hand.

Even prior to receiving this anonymous comment, I've been shocked at the relative ease with which the Hollywood Police union (Jeff Marano) and the Fire union (Daniel Martinez) were able to skate with South Florida's local media without answering questions in depth about what the logical results would be if their side had won the referendum.

The only time that this was NOT true was when Mayor Peter Bober and Jeff Marano both appeared on Channel 10's This Week in South Florida (TWISF) with host Michael Putney.

Jane Doe has left a new comment on your post "Shining a light on a sanctimoni​ous -and anonymous...":

I do not feel your comment on the Hollywood Whistle Blower all that accurate. The person may have used someone else's picture but alot of what was written is accurate.

First off, it's not "someone else's picture" but mine.
Second, someone who purports to be a serious person with something to say doesn't do something as stupid and lazy as pilfer other people's photos on a blog as if they were a catalog to take what they like. Period.

There has been alot of mismanagement in the City of Hollywood and that needs to be brought to people's attention. It is not fair to blame the employees for the problems the city is in. The mayor and commissioners have agreed to union contracts and when the city was in trouble the unions agreed to pay cuts for employees.

No one disputes that there has, indeed, been financial under-performance and very poor choices.
But no matter how many times it is mentioned no matter how many times the numbers come up in a graph or pie chart, you and your cohorts seem to be oblivious to the fact that since Public Safety personnel/pension costs are by far the largest portion of the city's budget, they are the first on the chopping block.

Look at the current budget proposed by the City of Hollywood, below.

$113,461,70 of the $ 166,274,13 General Fund in the budget is for Public Safety.

Jeff Marano and Daniel Martinez did a piss-poor job of telling Hollywood residents what programs and services would have to reduced, largely be eliminated or zeroed-out in order to continue the fiction that they and you want to believe.
Because they didn't.

The voters made their choice.

The city chose to go way over budget building Arts Park, to agree on a vendor who could not provide a fully functioning WiFi system, gave millions through the CRA to developers who did not build a thing and walked away with the money and now one is suing. They have a downtown CRA that has not accomplished anything yet they keep getting taxpayers dollars while the west end of the city is going down hill. They could have shut down the downtown CRA and saved money but they won't. There has been advice given to the city but the mayor and commissioners have their own agenda. They chose to play bully and tell taxpayers if you do not vote yes for pension reform we will raise your taxes even higher. Now they are cutting pensions while relying on developers to save the city and will continue to give them money the city does not have. Is that the direction you want to see the city go?

I knew about these myriad problems before you did, attended the often-ponderous Hollywood City Commission meetings and knew more about what had and hadn't been discussed than you did.
I am all-too aware of the shortcomings of the City of Hollywood and their employees and elected officials.
I've actually written about them here, remember?

When nobody else was, I complained about what I saw that didn't seem logical or reasonable or make sense and still was done anyway because that's what the city or its condescending employees wanted, even if was wrong.

The City Commission passed the Margaritaville project on Johnson Street and the Broadwalk unanimously, and while I didn't like all aspects of it, I MUCH preferred the Hard Rock proposal because you'd get more buzz and reach a much more diverse demographic who'd spend money.

Margaritaville? I will never go there -it's not at all appealing to me.
And neither will anyone I know who'd come to visit.
I also don't think it will be appealing to out-of-town/foreign visitors who are African-American or Latino.
It's a one-trick pony.
A very tiresome one-trick pony in my opinion.

If the Super Bowl came back to Joe Robbie Stadium, do you think most fans with a choice would prefer staying at The Hard Rock located on the beach, or Margaritaville, where they can never escape that music?
Well, many of the fans of the latter are fishing on Sunday afternoons on their boats, right?
Asked and answered.

But when you finally found out about the decision-making problems in Hollywood, what did you do about them?
Exactly.
Nothing.

The unions were content to let bad decisions be made in Hollywood so long as it didn't affect their Golden Goose.
Conveniently, the so-called "Whistle Blower' blog didn't show-up until last month, and yet still does not disclose who is behind it, just like your comment to me, Jane, Chip & Andy.
That lack of transparency and honesty makes you and them not worth believing, especially when your arguments are so lacking in facts and context.

for whatever reasons, you and your pals continue to NOT understand the purpose and function of a CRA as they operate in Florida.
By now, I think it's because you'd rather not know and would just prefer to have the issue to complain about it.
That's your choice, but as I remarked previously, simply repeating something doesn't make it true, and is unconvincing among people who know the facts.

So very many unpersuasive arguments.
That's why I was not at all surprised the unions lost.

Chip and Andy has left a new comment on your post "Shining a light on a sanctimoni​ous -and anonymous...":

"...There's one over-riding fact: a majority of the Hollywood residents actually voting chose to support the City of Hollywood's P.O.V."

I disagree.

With only 14% voter turnout and the 'winning side' winning by a 55/45 split, majority is hardly the way to describe the results.

I know that by the very definition of the word the majority is the winning side of the vote, but with over 80% of the voters deciding to sit this one out, the 'majority' made their voice heard by not saying anything at all.
Honestly, criticizing the results of the vote based on the number of people who voted is the worst of sour grapes since it proves that the Police union and Jeff Marano and the Fire union and Daniel Martinez, were utterly unable to persuade even a small number of people to vote who hadn't planned on voting, even though everyone knew going in that a small percentage would actually turn out.

Personally, I hate apathetic people, which is part of what makes living in South Florida so frustrating to me, even when I was a kid.

Hearing a pathetic excuse like the one above that someone or some group of people "made their voice heard by not saying anything at all" is honey for elected officials, lobbyists and the status quo, all of whom already have too much influence in Broward County and south Florida than they do in most other parts of the country with a higher civic-participation level and different attitude.

That said, here's what I know for a fact: There was a public election held this past Tuesday in the City of Hollywood, and among those legal residents who actually voted, one side got more than the other.
Apparently, it was not your side.

While I usually prefer to have as many legitimate people vote as possible, there's absolutely no evidence that if 25%, 50% or even 100% of the city's residents had participated, the results would have been any different.

If anything, I personally suspect the percentage of voters supporting the city's position on the referendum would have been even larger, since conversations I've had the past few days among people who are registered voters but who blew-off the vote because they were so sure it would pass, 90% of them were for it.
They opted out because their intuition was that it would pass and their vote wouldn't change much; they were right.

The universe of people who think it's more important for City of Hollywood employees to retire with a pension when they are near age 50 or 55, than to have a fairly-normal city offering various programs and services (of varying quality) to city taxpayers is much less than you think.

The unions reached their universe of supporters.
It's just that they are a minority of actual legal voters in the City of Hollywood.

No sale.
That's the end of the issue.

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