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Showing posts with label identity politics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label identity politics. Show all posts

Monday, October 17, 2016

Why is Washington Post so reluctant to ask hard questions about Hillary Clinton that could well have been raised about her H.S. govt. aspirations -by even her friends- that are still dogging her now? Elizabeth Wurtzel's 1998 analysis of Hillary remains my go-to bible!

Why is Washington Post so reluctant to ask hard questions about Hillary Clinton that could well have been raised about her H.S. govt. aspirations -by even her friends- that are still dogging her now? Elizabeth Wurtzel's 1998 analysis of Hillary remains my go-to bible!


The Washington Post
Always running, always prepared: Hillary Clinton as a high school politician 
By Dan Zak 
October 17 at 11:54 AM 

PARK RIDGE, Ill. — Hillary Rodham was 16 when she first ran for president.

It was February 1964, her junior year of high school in this town of steeples and lawns on the rail line to Chicago. She was vice president of her class, and one of five students running to lead the student council for the next academic year. Student rock bands played in support of candidates in the hallways and cafeteria of Maine East High School.

“Stop mudslinging before it starts,” the school newspaper opined. “Keep this election clean!”

No girl had ever held the job before. “The boys would run for president, and the most popular girl would run for secretary,” says classmate Tim Sheldon, who was one of Hillary’s rivals and is now a retired judge in Elgin, Ill. Years later, in her memoir, Hillary recalled a boy telling her she was “really stupid” if she thought a girl could win.

But it was 1964, and she wasn’t even the only girl in the race.

Read the rest of the article at:













https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/hillary-clinton-high-school-years-always-running-always-prepared/2016/10/17/35dd9e4a-8c08-11e6-bf8a-3d26847eeed4_story.html

The logical counter-point to this kind of gauzy and whimsical reporting-by-yearbook or scrapbook that the washington post has specialized in its Style section the last few decades is how real and modern -and menacing!- the Tracey Flick character portrayed by Reese Witherspoon was in the film adaption of "Election." 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracy_Flick
That character didn't just plot and scheme, she practically leaped out of the screen, oozing sanctimonious personal ambition and a sense of entitlement!

Even after all this time and all the self-evident examples both good and bad of who Hillary Clinton really is and what she believes in, the Washington Post, rather curiously in these types of breezy profile pieces that regular Post readers like me have come to expect at predictable times in an election news cycle, still seems reluctant to ask a hard-but-fair question about her and the premise of her current candidacy: 
Why are the logical questions that could have well been fairly raised about Hillary's candidacy in High School, by even her friends and supporters -her lack of charisma, authenticity and a consistent inability to make even people who plan to vote for her feel comfortable with her, and around her- still dogging her now?

Especially since it's been clear for so long that she intended to run?

Why, given her unique and unchallenged access to the sorts of resources and people that nobody else in the country can match, has she NOT done enough to actually change that dynamic, even a little bit, except for occasionally changing her political consultants? 
It's a mystery.

In the opinion of not only myself but many other people I know and respect who have a much-closer observation point, she actually seems to have regressed, and is doing retail politics even more poorly now than when she ran for re-election to the U.S. Senate in 2006, in what was her second personal campaign.

That answer is surely not contained in any of her own books, nor in this article.
It might be time for me to again re-read the amazing 1998 book by Elizabeth Wurtzel,
Bitch: In Praise of Difficult Women, a book, below, which I believe has the single best analysis and dissection of Hillary Clinton and her persona that I've ever read.


 Certainly light years ahead of the conveyor-belt of sycophantic utterings about Hillary from media pals and protectors that have circulated in the news stream for the past twenty years, leaving younger voters grasping for something that's real and meaningful.

I actually attended Elizabeth Wurtzel's book reading/discussion of Bitch on June 27, 1998 at the then-extant Olsson's Books at Metro Center, in Washington, D.C.

I arrived at the event early because I was very motivated and knew in advance: 
a.) It would be fascinating because Wurtzel was so damn interesting herself, and articulate and intelligent that very few Beltway media types ever actually area once you get to know them. (I speak from experience on that.) Wurtzel always seemed to be speaking in full and convincing phrases in interviews in ways that seemed intoxicating to me, almost like she was reading well-rehearsed lines filled with bite, but which comes natural to some people who are very sure of themselves and the facts.
b.) Even by DC's usual literary standards, I knew it was sure to be packed because of the large amount of buzz and controversy about her and the book that had preceded her, and no doubt as well by her publisher for choosing to use a fetching photo of her -the cover?- to promote the event in the DC CityPaper.

Trust me, I was not alone in thinking even before she ever walked into the room that Elizabeth Wurtzel had ample intelligence, good looks and breezy, knowing attitude to spare and to slay any dragons that dared appear at the bookstore. I was not wrong.

 I can assure you, once she was introduced and began filling the air with clever and inventive analysis and some occasional zingers, she positively sizzled in every way.
There were many more men in that bookstore personally energized and turned-on by her and what she was saying than you can possibly imagine now in reading my words here.

For myself, I kept thinking that Wurtzel, someone who clearly was using to people projecting onto them all sorts of their own imagery (or baggage) was more like a contemporary version of a combination of Lauren Bacall in her first film, 1944's To Have and Have Not, below, plus Katharine Hepburn in the 1942 film, Woman of the Year. 
Pretty good company!


Karen Lehrman's April 19, 1998 review of Bitch in the New York Times:
I Am Woman, Hear Me Whine 
Elizabeth Wurtzel celebrates women who are a pain in the neck.
http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/04/19/reviews/980419.19lehrmat.html


I'll re-read Elizabeth Wurtzel's chapter on Hillary Clinton and report back here soon!

 But to give you a taste, watch Elizabeth Wurtzel discuss her book on C-SPAN on June 27, 1998 https://www.c-span.org/video/?105509-1/bitch-praise-difficult-women

A gentle reminder for you newcomers to the blog or any by-now-angry Hillary acolytes: I was a vocal supporter of Bill Clinton for President in 1991, long BEFORE he ever announced for the presidency. As my friends and family can tell you, I even planned on running as Clinton delegate to the 1992 DNC before the Virginia Democratic Party HQ down in Richmond even knew what it was doing, so could only tell me to "hold tight" until I heard back from them when I asked what the procedures were.

I was also a member of the DLC when I was living and working in Washington, even to the point of often hauling soda and various snacks around Capitol Hill for our occasional meetings from Oklahoma Congressman Dave McCurdy's office when he was in charge.

And did I mention that my best friend is from Hope, Arkansas, birthplace as well of... well, you know who.
Just saying...

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Sunday, March 31, 2013

Crass self-serving political hypocrisy in Hallandale Beach and California is right in front of your nose -open your eyes: Cooper, Sanders & Lewy in HB, Villaraigosa & Yaroslavsky in Calif.; Must-read LA Times article on angry Calif. pols upset with voters for not wanting to increase their own taxes -per failed Measure J transit tax- so pols want to change rules to make it easier to raise taxes in the future; @MayorCooper, @SandersHB, @AlexLewy


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Crass self-serving political hypocrisy in Hallandale Beach and California is right in front of your nose -open your eyes: Cooper, Sanders & Lewy in HB, Villaraigosa & Yaroslavsky in Calif.; Must-read LA Times article on angry Calif. pols upset with voters for not wanting to increase their own taxes -per failed Measure J transit tax- so pols want to change rules to make it easier to raise taxes in the future; @MayorCooper, @SandersHB, @AlexLewy
I know, I know.
When you read a news article that mentions that condescending lawmakers are bitching and belly-aching out loud, and are publicly admitting that they're so angry at voters who didn't do what they wanted them to do that they're willing to change the rules or push for a reduction of the threshold needed for passage of a proposition or state Amendment, when it's actually THEIR very own past behavior, actions or inaction that have resulted in the standard being what it is, it sounds exactly like someone trying to change the rules at halftime, doesn't it?

In fact, it sounds exactly like the sort of angry and vindictive idea that would come out of the small minds of Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper and Commissioners Anthony A. Sanders and Alexander Lewy in order to get their way, doesn't it?
And it does for a reason.

They actually DID try to change the rules last summer a few months before last November's City Commission election, in order to try to get the results they wanted by eliminating the prospective pool of candidates for that Special Election.

In their particular case, Cooper, Sanders and Lewy tried to change the rules for Hallandale Beach voters last summer to try to prevent Comm. Keith S. London from being able to legally run for the Special Election on January 14th that the Broward Supervisor of Elections had scheduled, in case he lost the mayoral election in November that he had to resign to run for, which he did and which he lost to Mayor Cooper.

They wanted to force candidates for that January 14th Special Election to publicly file before the November election, not in December, using the facile claim that it was necessary to move it up in order to give the prospective candidates enough time to meet with HB voters.

Yes, this was pathetic rationale this group of geniuses came up with despite the fact that Comm. Sanders has for years refused to meet with neighborhood groups after he was first elected. Has refused to even return emails or phone calls from residents of this city who DON'T live in Northwest HB, where he lives.

The very same Anthony A. Sanders who refused to participate in anything even remotely resembling an old-fashioned public candidate debate or forum where he had to defend himself from questions proffered by either the public, the news media or his opponents.
The irony of Sanders doing this was not lost on anyone who pays attention to what happens in this city.

Yes, revealing the true shallow depth of his own hypocrisy, this issue is the very same one that caused Comm. Lewy to verbally browbeat Hallandale Beach residents and malign people's character when they spoke publicly in opposition to what the Cooper Rubber Stamp Crew was trying to do in so naked a fashion.

The very same Lewy the Liar who said that "it's not all about Keith London," even though everyone present knew that THAT was exactly what it was about.

What made it truly pathetic and even more contemptuous, to say nothing of politically self-serving, is that it is the very same thing that has repeatedly happened in lots of other South Florida cities over the past ten years when pols have run for another higher office, including with Pembroke Pines City Commissioner Angelo Castillo and in Ft. Lauderdale with Charlotte Rodstrom, as I wrote here on the blog at the time.

The Herald and Sun-Sentinel's sleepwalking beat reporters for HB were too clueless and ignorant to pick up on that fact and never publicly asked Lewy about that, though they clearly should have.

Those two reporters, Carli Teproff and Tonya Alanez, as well as the four local English-language TV stations, i.e the people who are supposed to ask these sorts of questions, completely failed to ask Lewy the very question that would've exposed his own personal animus towards Keith London and the pro-reform, pro-transparency Clean Government . element in this city that Lewy has continually opposed for many years, since even before his 2010 election:
Why are you NOW proposing this legislation when the city commissions in both Pembroke Pines and in Ft. Lauderdale, cities many times larger and more important in the general scheme of things than Hallandale Beach, have never felt the need to meddle in -and actually try to limit- the choice of prospective candidates for a city election? Why now?

Comm. Angelo Castillo was re-elected in early 2010, resigned to run for the District 8 Broward County Commission seat, and then after losing in the August Democratic primary to eventual winner Barbara Sharief, ran for the special election for his old City Commission seat and was elected.

Comm. Charlotte Rodstrom resigned to run for County Commission in last August's primary and was defeated by Tim Ryan in the Democratic primary in the race to succeed her husband John on the County Commission. This month, she lost the Special Election  to Dean Trantalis for the seat she resigned from last year that she was just re-elected to early last year.

 (I mentioned both of these obvious examples to people in the audience at the City Commission meeting where this came up, and other examples were cited to me that I was unaware of.)

But as usual, Lewy never said anything about this political reality that is all around us in Broward County and South Florida and that is common knowledge. 
He had to pretend that he was doing something positive for HB residents when the reality is that he was merely trying to get his way.
That's what it's always about with Alexander Lewy.

Not actually providing genuine oversight and financial scrutiny over questionable policies and loans involving tax and CRA dollars, to make sure that they are not wasted and squandered, and not resolving longstanding problems within the city's chaotic and undisciplined workforce, but in Lewy getting his way.

Similarly, the quotes you see in the Los Angeles Times article below from this morning are exactly why despite all the glowing Beltway hype about the mayor of Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigosa, he is not really a viable national candidate in the future.
He, too, is much more interested in getting his own way, despite what the voters think, than accepting that a political defeat might just mean that he is actually wrong about something, as per this:.

 Los Angeles Times
LA NOW blog
Measure J, L.A. County transportation tax extension, fails
November 7, 2012 |  8:00 am
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/11/measure-j-la-county-transit-tax-extension-fails.html

The take away, to quote Times reader Tom Allen: "It's high time that transportation spending proposals are proposed as very short term and with specific projects in mind instead of blank checks..."
Exactly.

Villaraigosa is not just the Left Coast face of corporate spin with a Hispanic surname, but someone that disappointed a sizable portion of his very own past supporters and actually accomplished little of note while in office, often because he squandered opportunities to the right thing almost always as a result of his own over-weaning ambition and ego. 
(Yes, very Lewy-like.)

It's also Villaraigosa's great misfortune in California right now to also be the face of a certain kind of patronizing, know-it-all Democratic politician who always wants to tell other Americans how to live their life.
And if HE finds it necessary to get his way, to tax them over-and-over in the process. 

His glibness and desire to be liked can't hide those central facts because that's his actual record.
His own comments about taxes in today's article just serve to remind us of that reality he can't escape

Antonio Villaraigosa is, in fact, one of the main reasons that SO many well-educated voters in LA County said NO on Measure J, the ostensible subject of the LA Times article I spotted early this morning a few minutes after it it was first posted online.

It certainly wasn't any accident that J failed to get the numbers he wanted it to get in affluent areas of LA County, as that was something that I expected on Election Day, since I already knew it here, thousands of miles away, based simply on the number of friends living in those affluent areas who told me that NO was the prevailing sentiment among their own pro-transit family members: that it was a bad plan.
Just because it was a transit plan, didn't mean it was a good transit plan.
Why lengthen by ANOTHER thirty years a thirty-year half-cent tax that was barely approved four years ago in 2008? Especially when you have no idea how well the money already committed will actually be spent?
Really, approving that tax until 2069 and essentially making it permanent is your plan? 

But you couldn't really expect the LA Times to say that in print, then or now, now could you?
Especially since they endorsed it and have a lot riding on Villaraigosa's political future. 

The newspaper desperately needs for California to have a viable candidate for national office in the near-future, and if it isn't Villaraigosa, they're really left with no winning cards to play, esp. as far as the Hispanic Voter gaining clout angle that they have aggressively been pushing and the identity politics they've been propagating for years.

Without him they'd have to admit that California is now currently so Democratic Blue, the reality is that it will likely play no role in the foreseeable presidential campaigns, except for fundraising purposes, and that is NOT something they want.

Though it may be hard for most well-informed people in South Florida to believe, at this point, the LA Times has even more riding on Villaraigosa than the Miami Herald has riding on their up-and-down love/hate relationship with Senator Marco Rubio.

-----
Los Angeles Times
Minority of L.A. County voters quashed transit tax extension
Measure J fell just 0.6% shy of the required two-thirds approval as support fell in upscale enclaves. Some politicians are pushing to cut the requirement.
By Ari Bloomekatz and Ben Poston, Los Angeles Times
March 31, 2013, 5:00 a.m.

A minority of voters living in a daisy chain of small, suburban and relatively upscale enclaves around the county's outer rim were largely responsible for last fall's razor thin defeat of a $90-billion transit tax that received lopsided ballot box support, a Times analysis shows.
The review comes as several of Los Angeles' senior politicians have joined state lawmakers to push for a reduction of the threshold for passage of such measures, arguing that the current two-thirds requirement is undemocratic and hinders the region's growth.

Read the rest of the article at:
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Saturday, January 5, 2013

Florida's regionalism, identity politics and political and social cleavages were displayed rather accurately, curiously enough, in a map re NFL game telecasts I saw at Deadspin.com

The things you find when you're not looking: a near picture perfect example of the identity politics/political cleavages that exist in Florida displayed -curiously enough- in a map re NFL game telecasts that I saw at Deadspin.com.

The map below is from www.deadspin.com and The 506's Week 17 preview of NFL game broadcasts a week ago, and specifically, revealed what fans in the U.S. were getting most screwed-over by the TV networks by getting a lousy ballgame when they ought to be getting  something better.

Look below at the state of Florida, such as it is.
There was nothing but a series of meaningless 1 o'clock kickoffs on Fox-TV Sunday, that rare day when both CBS and Fox had double-headers throughout most of the country because the Cowboys at Redskins game was 'flexed' and moved to NBC's nationally-televised game, where it set all sorts of viewing records.

One of those 1 p.m. kickoffs was the Tampa Bay Bucs at Atlanta Falcons game.

But the map clearly shows that even when all the games are unimportant and in many cases, probably almost un-watchable, in the view of local CBS station general managers, SE Florida STILL has more in common identity-wise with the Northeastern U.S. than it does with another part of Florida just a few hours away, in this case, Tampa Bay, as Fox TV stations voted with their wallets in mind, not state unity: Philadelphia Eagles at New York Giants. 

NFL on FOX: Week 17 Early Game - December 30, 2012

(Unless the Bucs are very good and might go to the Super Bowl! 
Then, of course, everyone's on the bandwagon!) 

That is, unless that sort of de facto regionalism and identity-politics doesn't lead to money or more money:

So let me lay the groundwork for bringing up the map. 

Based on my own experiences and those of friends, and especially my 15 years living and working in the Washington, D.C. area, I can tell you that it's often the case for well-informed and politically-aware Floridians that when you're outside of the state, regardless of where you are or even whether it's a formal occasion, that upon finding out where you're from -and that you really are on top of things- that people will start making a beeline towards you, even if somewhat slowly at first.

Eventually, someone will start randomly asking you to try to explain something they heard or read about that happened in Florida that they can't make sense of, or ask you how and why Florida is the confusing, peculiar and exasperating way that it is.

If you're anything like me, your response probably starts out with the most obvious -geography.

In such a large state, one that actually includes two different time zones, and cursed with a state capital that is not only NOT located in a large city, but located in a city that is NOT in any way shape and form centrally-located to the majority of the state's population, a lack of a common frame of reference for residents and voters is often the biggest problem when it comes to identity and knowledge of individual issues and personalities.

All of this is made worse by the generally poor coverage of local and state politics at most TV stations compared to even twenty years ago.
Institutional knowledge, what's that?

Yes, the people who actually knew the personalities involved, their pet projects and longstanding grudge and the general ins-and-outs for how things work, to say nothing of where the bodies were buried have come and gone.
They've been replaced by younger reporters who, in many cases, couldn't legally vote in the 1980's and who actually know very little.
Very, very little -and you know it.

And who had no connection to Florida before being hired.

The reality of Florida having so many different TV markets is that many well-qualified candidates running for statewide office, people who could plausibly be elected in many other states, simply can't compete here because of the prohibitive media costs involved, even if most voters agree with them on the issues.

Lofty and abstract ideas of democratic participation and outreach quickly fall by the wayside when your reality is that that unless you raise X millions of dollars, just for TV commercials, you are dead in the water.

Despite the Digital Revolution and the growing importance and influence of blogs, websites and Social Media to political campaigns, the sort of "free media" that exists in many other states that allows high-minded and well-informed candidates to remain a part of the larger conversation simply DOESN'T exist in Florida.
I wish it did but it doesn't.

This is made worse by the fact that despite the influx of new residents from other states, many from states with such a tradition, Florida DOESN'T have a tradition of voting "Independent," despite how many people in this state claim to be "independent."

So, those are just a few of the more obvious barriers to getting the sort of high-caliber candidates that other states often have and which keeps Florida a Confederacy of Dunces.

Once you've mentioned this to your interlocutor, you usually mention the influence of Latin America, blah, blah...
Then you mention the five/six nations of Florida, which is itself, a metaphorical subdivision of Joel Garreau's “The Nine Nations of North America.”

When I was a kid growing-up in South Florida during the 1970's, what was frequently remarked upon by almost everyone, especially during the holidays, was the low number of actual Florida-born natives we knew, since when I was in Jr. High and High School in North Miami Beach, despite being someone who knew almost everyone, I knew only a handful of people who were actually born in Florida, which made them outliers.
The kids who'd never seen snow!

Most of them were either Hispanic or African-American, and for whatever reason, almost always boys.
For some reason, girls were almost always from somewhere else, somewhere where they wore nice sweaters purchased at upscale Northeastern or Midwestern stores.

Which is why when I was growing-up in NMB, January and February existed at Jr. High as fashion season for girls, the one time they could wear something that was identical to what every other girl was wearing.

Boys wore boring windbreakers of 4-5 primary colors, unless, like me, they were sporting a teal-colored Dolphins windbreaker, back when they were, to use a word, relevant.
Those were the days!
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Sunday, November 18, 2012

James Poulos adroitly connects-the-dots at Forbes.com re 2012 GOP's campaign's strategic/marketing mistakes, and suggests that while much of what Romney criticized (lamented) about Obama playing Identity Politics and patronizing Santa Claus to many niche voters is 100% true, GOP can't win by singing Blues re Obamanomics or chorus of "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Needy, Young & Dumb Single Women Voters?"; @jamespoulos


VOAvideo YouTube Channel: VOA's Jeffrey Young examines so-called "Identity Politics" in this segment of "How America Elects." Uploaded June 20, 2012.
http://youtu.be/a0Hui4sEBfI

James Poulos adroitly connects-the-dots at Forbes.com re 2012 GOP's campaign's strategic/marketing mistakes, and suggests that while much of what Romney criticized (lamented) about Obama playing Identity Politics and patronizing Santa Claus to many niche voters is 100% true, GOP can't win by singing Blues re Obamanomics or chorus of "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Needy, Young & Dumb Single Women Voters?"
This afternoon I read a Forbes.com column, below, that for all practical purposes is the book-end to that earlier Mark Hendrickson piece at Forbes.com that I mentioned this morning, regarding what I perceived to be the self-serving motives of Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal and many other GOP pols and consultants' jabs at Mitt Romney, and in particular, Jindal's unfortunate moth-like affinity for TV news cameras, as if lack of exposure was his real problem.

 Bobby Jindal's Jab At Mitt Romney Underscores Republicans' Dilemma


Bobby Jindal's looming Mainstream Media "Mirror Mirror" problems are closer at hand than I thought; Mark Hendrickson at Forbes.com on -what I see as Jindal's needless- "Jab At Mitt Romney Underscores Republicans' Dilemma"; Jindal is proving Rush Limbaugh's point about GOP self-regard



Forbes.com
Romney's 'Gifts' Gaffe Highlights GOP Confusion On Obamanomics
WASHINGTON  
11/15/2012 @ 11:43AM
By James Poulos
Having not particularly relished telling donors what they wanted to hear during the campaign, Romney has now taken his lumps in the thankless task of telling them what they want to hear afterward.
Read the rest of the column at:
His honesty in this think piece about the Obama campaign's use of identity politics stands in stark contrast to many reporters, columnists and pundits who are twisting themselves into uncomfortable pretzels to deny that it was used, even though it was both obvious and successful.
I encourage you to start following him because unlike many better-known pundits, like those seen on MSNBC, Poulos doesn't ask you to deny what you know about human behavior or to deny what your own eyes can see -Obama & Co. used identity politics and it worked.

 But will that formula actually work for non-African-American, non-presidential Democratic candidates for office?
In my opinion, no.
I believe it was unique to Obama and has no transferability, which is why much of the crowing I've seen and heard from many national Dems I usually respect, and in some cases actually know, who are drawing all sorts of conclusions and over-reaching on some of the implications of Election Day, reminds me of young kids patiently building sand castles at the beach with their plastic buckets and shovels.

Kids, there's a wave out there in the ocean that you can't even see now, and guess what?
It's got very big plans for your castle and all your carefully-laid plans.

------
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Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Their lack of Journalism ethics is hiding in plain sight: In their head-scratching endorsement of do-nothing Hallandale Beach Comm. Anthony A. Sanders over civic activist Csaba Kulin, the Tribune Co's Sun-Sentinel said he has "experience." Yes, but it's of the completely ineffective and unethical variety we don't want more of!; Vote Kulin!; @SandersHB


Jefferson Starship - "Jane" 
One of the defining songs of not only my Freshman year at IU in 1979, but that era in rock. http://youtu.be/0PwG69620WA

 Like a cat and a mouse (cat and a mouse) 
From door to door and house to house 
Don't you pretend you don't know what I'm talkin' about
Their lack of Journalism ethics is hiding in plain sight: In their head-scratching endorsement of do-nothing Hallandale Beach Comm. Anthony A. Sanders over civic activist Csaba Kulin, the Tribune Co's Sun-Sentinel said he has "experience." Yes, but it's of the completely ineffective and unethical variety we don't want more of!; Vote Kulin!; @SandersHB
That's why Sanders is, so far, the Broward Inspector General's poster boy!
Sanders is all the things you aren't supposed to be if you're a public official.

 The Tribune Company's South Florida Sun-Sentinel has a big problem -it's own internal liberal bias and world view of how the world ought to be if they could only re-write it, as opposed to the way the world and the people in it actually are and really behave.

 The newspaper, literally, can't help itself, like a well-to-do and very good-looking teenage girl I knew in North Miami Beach in the 1970's, the younger sister of a friend at North Miami Beach High School, always claimed
Yes, Little Sister was a habitual shoplifter.

 Thought she came from a nice family and certainly knew the difference between right-and-wrong, like the same self-serving nonsense the Sun-Sentinel spouts about it trying its best to practice journalistic principles, when push came to shove, despite the fact that she could well afford to buy the stuff, Little Sister habitually shoplifted for kicks and cheap thrills to kill both the ennui and what she said was pressure to conform and live-up to her older sister, my friend, who was very smart, friendly and good-looking, but sans the ethically-convenient angst.

 Similarly, like her, the Sun-Sentinel acts like they could put a stop to their political bias and very curious and increasingly-obvious editing choices whenever it wanted to.
But the Sun-Sentinel, like Little Sister, doesn't really want to.
It's fun to act like the rules don't apply to you.
It's sort of like the Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper and her Rubber Stamp Crew on the city commission the past nine years, no?

 It's part of how it sees itself in the world at large.
Almost as if not letting bias slip in when it's convenient would be to deny its basic nature, almost a self-betrayal, so it keeps doing what it's been doing and acting like nobody like me notices.
So the Sun-Sentinel, like my friend's Little Sister, keeps kidding itself that it really doesn't have a problem.

 But the truth is that regardless of the times that you live in, ethical hedging all the time, whether by an individual or a family or company, eventually takes it toll, and it has certainly taken its toll on the Sun-Sentinel's readers as the paper continues to become ever more irrelevant to any discussion of what's going on in the larger community with every passing month.
That's especially the case for the discerning news reader who, whatever their politics, wants their facts straight-up, without any shaking or misdirection, so they can draw their own conclusions.

 Today, after sitting on some facts for a few days, I'm ready to reveal my own version of what radio broadcaster  Paul Harvey famously called "the rest of the story" on his hugely popular radio newscasts for decades that were full of Middle America folksiness and manners.
And, I'll show you how that directly affects Hallandale Beach.

 And here, "the rest of the story" are the facts and context that you do not routinely get from the Sun-Sentinel if their management team and Editorial Board have anything to do with it.
And more recently, in the Sun-Sentinel's perplexing endorsement of do-nothing, know-nothing incumbent Anthony A. Sanders
Stand by for news!


CBS News Charles Osgood's 2009 appreciation for radio broadcaster Paul Harvey, following his death at age 90. http://youtu.be/S5_OIoMBjSk

A week before the Sun-Sentinel's vetting meeting at their HQ in downtown Ft. Lauderdale to decide its endorsement selections in this city, I told my friend and Hallandale Beach City Commission candidate Csaba Kulin to be sure to bring a small tape-recorder with him.

 I specifically told him not to call them in advance of the meeting and ask if he could, just bring to it and put it on the conference table when he sat down with the other five Commission candidates and the three reps from the Sun-Sentinel.
After all, the latter had recording equipment available to them.

Now for Csaba's purposes, it certainly wasn't to use for purposes of a campaign commercial, since that would be impractical for him because of the costs, but rather for the more practical purpose of him having a contemporaneous recording of all the ridiculous and flat-out lies that would likely be coming from incumbent Anthony A. Sanders and former Comm. William "Bill" Julian as they sought to rationalize and defend their indefensible voting records and unethical behavior to the Sun-Sentinel three reps, who did NOT even know some basic facts
they should've known days before.

I had told Csaba in advance that I was about 100% certain that regardless of what Comm. Sanders said or did in their meeting room, the Sun-Sentinel, which like the Miami Herald, endorsed Sanders in 2008 despite his lack of qualifications and inability to speak intelligently or in detail on important facts of public policy in Hallandale Beach compared to other candidates, would again get the paper's recommendation.
Even if Sanders didn't show-up, since he is not the most reliable of people.

When Csaba asked why I thought that, and wouldn't they, you know, make their decisions based on what they already knew about the candidates and heard from them in that room, I told him that there was a LOT MORE here than meets the eye in the matter of endorsements. 
That is, it was an opportunity for the Sun-Sentinel to once again show its Editorial Board's liberal political philosophy, including its most pernicious one of treating people not as individuals, but rather as chess pieces on a chess board, to be moved and manipulated.

That's why they call it "identity politics."

In short, I told him that there were political statements to be made and that one of them would likely be that we'd eventually see the handiwork of Sun-Sentinel Editorial writer and Board member Doug Lyons, a fervent believer in diversity on government bodies, regardless of whether the individual is unqualified or unethical, which is one of the things you don't consider when you're treating people like chess pieces.

(It's the same reason that Lyons never makes any reference to Florida state Rep. Joe Gibbons representing Broward County in the legislature even though he is NOT a full-time resident here, preferring to live in Jacksonville with his wife and kids. 
But isn't that unethical and illegal?
Yes, but that doesn't matter as long as it's Gibbons, because Gibbons supports the Sun-Sentinel's world-view, so he gets a pass from everyone.)

Yes, unqualified or unethical people will get the nod from Lyons and the Editorial Board even if that amounts to keeping a town like ours in turmoil even longer than is necessary.
And in the Editorial Board's selection of Sanders, have they not accomplished all three? 

He's still unqualified after four years in office, he's STILL an unethical Pastor, and he promises to keep this town in turmoil as long as he and his wife work their handiwork with the city's budget, continuing to act like they are above having to answer questions from the public, which is why he has refused to debate this year.
Sanders is afraid of what people will say because he knows that he has NOT been at all what he claimed to be and he knows they will call him out. So he hides.

Before the vetting meeting officially started, Csaba asked if he could record what was said so that he's have a true account of it.
The Sun-Sentinel said NO, and when Csaba asked if the candidates were being recorded, videotaped or having their comments streamed online, they replied NO.

But the truth of the matter is that a very reliable person has confided to me that back in August, the newspaper's Editorial Board actually streamed some candidates comments LIVE, and among those listening in elsewhere were some representatives of their opponents and other interested parties.
Someone, I can't say who just now, happened to listen in and actually wrote down what was asked and said and commented on what was being said in that Ft. Lauderdale building from many miles away, even before the candidates left the building.
How do you suppose that happened?

After the meeting, while everyone was getting up from their seats and heading for the door, the folks from the Sun-Sentinel told them that they had been recorded.
But if I got the story right, they didn't mention anything about having streamed it.
But wouldn't that be illegal?
Again, consider where it happened. 
THAT seems to be how the Sun-Sentinel rolls these days.

Nowhere in their endorsement of last Tuesday do they mention that Comm. Sanders and former Comm. Julian were strong supporters of the very egregiously anti-democratic move that columnist Michael Mayo -who was present that day as one of the three S-S reps, but who says that he is not part of the Editorial Board- decried in his column and blog soon after the interviews.
That is, that Hallandale Beach is having an election in one week that will elect three people to the City Commission, but that the city's voters can only vote for two.


Mayo on the Side blog

More Hallandale weirdness: 2 votes for 3 seats

By Michael Mayo
October 16, 2012 11:05 AM

Excerpt from Sun-Sentinel editorial of October 23:
Anthony Sanders and Michele Lazarow for Hallandale Beach City Commission 
The race to fill two at-large two seats on Hallandale Beach City Commission is a little bit deceptive as it's the top three vote getters who will actually serve on the next commission thanks to the need to replace Commissioner Keith London who resigned to run for mayor. 
Still, voters "technically" have only two seats to fill, and the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board recommends voters re-elect Anthony A. Sanders and elect Michele Lazarow. The two bring a mix of energy and experience and both are in the best position to help the city's western neighborhoods. 
Sanders, a 52-year-old pastor, is the commission's lone black member. A four-year veteran on the dais, He's has been a staunch advocate for the city's predominantly black west side neighborhoods, and although his tenure has been marred by questionable business dealings with the city, Sanders' experience and knowledge of the city's needs give him the edge. 
Lazarow, 45, has her own history that qualifies her for the commission. She is a longtime resident of the city and a former owner of a popular women's boutique. Her business experience and past dealings with the city should help her as a new commissioner incorporate more city business-friendly procedures, especially small businesses struggling in the city's west side. 
The other candidates are Gerald E. Dean, 58, a small business owner; Ann Pearl Henigson, 66, a former secretary; William "Bill" Julian, 59, a licensed thoroughbred racing steward and former city commissioner; and Csaba G. Kulin, 73, a retired director of technology with the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland. 
Also completely missing in the endorsement or the Mayo blog post is any reference at all that they would have continued in their ignorance had not Csaba brought it up during the meeting. Somehow, they were completely in the dark about one of the most vexing issues in the city that they supposedly were making educated comments about.
Guess they weren't quite so educated after all, huh?

And all this happened despite the fact that I had personally sent Mayo and Lyons several bcc's about this when it actually happened weeks ago and how it came about due to the desire of Comm. Alexander Lewy to change the complexion of the election halfway thru in order to thwart Keith London.

So instead of endorsing Csaba Kulin, the person most-responsible for bringing forth factual information -the city's own documents- that makes public how three former Hallandale Beach City Managers have pulled the wool over the City Commission and taxpayers for years to the tune of MILLIONS of dollars that they will receive in pension payments over the coming years, and did NOT earn all of it, the Sun-Sentinel, the news outlet that DIDN'T even know what was going on here, has endorsed Anthony A. Sanders.

Sure, the man with "experience" who is also the HB city commissioner who is the least-prepared member to discuss anything that is going on in the city, and the one who for well over three years has, literally, been in fear of being alone in a room with smart and well-informed HB taxpayers and answer their sharp questions about his behavior and votes.

No, like the Cooper Rubber Stamp that he is, the poorly-informed puppet that he is, in order for Sanders to appear in public, there must always be city employees close at hand to run interference and even feed him answers.

As far as Hallandale Beach's voters are concerned, the truth and the transparency -and mea culpas- that they regularly preach to others in their editorials and columns are STILL missing in action at The Tribune Co.'s South Florida Sun-Sentinel. 

Don't hold your breath that they will ever come... the Sun-Sentinel doesn't think they have a problem.
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