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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

With 99 days 'til Election Day, POLITICO reports that cynical Obama Nation is sending flacks to FL to help bumbling Alex Sink make hay out of BP spill

Surprise! With 99 days 'til Election Day, The POLITICO is reporting Sunday that the cynical and craven Obama White House is sending flacks and hacks to FL to help bumbling, stumbling Alex Sink and her gubernatorial campaign make political hay out of BP oil spill.

Great, I'm sure that's exactly who respected and well-read Florida reporters and columnists like Steve Bousquet, Adam Smith, William March, Aaron Deslatte, Craig Pittman, Bill Cotterell, Jeremy Wallace and Dara Kam want to hear from about the Florida political campaigns: people who don't live here and who only know what's going on based on what they see and hear on TV, newspapers and blogs.

The POLITICO
W.H. sends 2012 rescue team to Fla.
By: Carol E. Lee
July 25, 2010 07:02 AM EDT

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – The White House has quietly launched an effort to confront the political backlash along the Gulf Coast over its handling of the BP oil spill – giving special attention to Florida, the only state in the region President Barack Obama won in 2008 and one he will need again when he runs for re-election in 2012.

The White House dispatched political and communications aides to the Gulf Coast states on July 12, with Alabama and Mississippi each receiving one, sources familiar with the effort said. Some aides went to Louisiana. Florida received four. Read the rest of the article at: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0710/40184.html This article also has this delicious pot-meets-kettle quote:

“It was just so off-target and out of touch with the reality of what’s going on over there,” Sink said in an interview at the Florida Democratic Party headquarters in Tallahassee.

Actually, being off-target and out-of-touch is the common talking point among Florida voters, Democratic and Republican, in describing Alex Sink's dismal gubernatorial campaign to date.

Savvy but honest and well-informed Republicans I've talked to from around the state are almost as confounded -but more delighted!- by her repeated failure to launch as the Democratic activist community, who, rather foolishly, have deluded themselves into imagining that that Sink would be a strong, poised and polished can-do candidate like Meg Whitman, the former eBay CEO who is running to be governor of California, and whom most of my friends in Cali are currently supporting. http://www.megwhitman.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VekQ1F9J-C8



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShZEPayRDA8


And that's Meg Whitman, by the way, NOT Mae Whitman, as some news articles with bad editing have written that Mae would be a great candidate! LOL!
Mae is the very talented twenty-two year old American actress who has, literally, grown-up before our eyes in one good film or TV show after another, as the daughter of, among others, Sandra Bullock, George Clooney and Bill Pullman.
She's currently appearing in NBC's Parenthood, which as I've written here previously, is a TV show that started-off far too slowly for me, due to the need to establish all the character's story arcs -and there were SO many characters!

But after the first 6-8 slow-moving episodes, the show's finally picked-up some momentum and has gotten dramatically better, with some compelling story lines that seem realistic to me. Especially the tension between high school cousins, Mae's 'wild child' character Amber and 'good girl' Haddie, played by Sarah Ramos, who was so tremendous as the youngest daughter in another fave of mine that got cancelled far too soon, American Dreams.I would watch either one of them in anything because there's never a false note when they're on the screen.

That seething hurtful anger on the surface that Haddie had towards Amber at the end of the first season was SO realistic, that when they finally had to reconcile, because they were always going to be connected, it was almost awkward to watch.It deeply resonated with me from my experience of being in the middle of watching female friends get into it with other female relatives about old slights, both real and imagined.

Result: Me driving us back home to D.C. area on the Sunday after Thanksgiving at her family's home, and hours-and-hours of quiet punctuated by bouts of crying over in the passenger seat. Talk about a no-win situation.
It also helps greatly that the show also stars another longtime personal favorite, Lauren Graham, as Mae's mother. Mama Mia!
http://www.nbc.com/parenthood/bios/lauren-graham/index.shtml
Here's a short NBC video that features Lauren and Mae:
http://www.nbc.com/parenthood/bios/mae-whitman/index.shtml

See also http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0926165/ and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tow-ovrl2_U



Experience and the realities of the campaign have clearly proven that Sink is anything but a Meg Whitman.

If anything, she's more like a Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, but without either the royal Kennedy magic and name recognition.

Whatever else the many faults and weaknesses of GOP candidates Rick Scott and State Attorney General Bill McCollum may be, and there are plenty of self-evident ones to choose from, Alex Sink has proven that she is Not Ready for Prime Time.

Sorry, when you are governor of the fourth-largest state in the country, you have to have gravitas, and even though Charlie Crist has proven to be such a colossal disappointment and waste of a vote, doesn't mean we have to accept such a low threshold.

(Gravitas, yet another reason why I will vote enthusiastically for Marco Rubio in November, despite disagreements on some policy issues.
I know with certainty he's loyal to the Framer's intentions, smart-as-a-whip, hard-working and really sweats the details, some traits that CAN'T honestly be said for the other three candidates hoping to go to D.C. this Fall.)

And when you think about it, how could it be otherwise for Sink, when even now, with less than four months to go until November 2nd, both the St. Petersburg Times and Miami Herald are STILL mentioning in the first few paragraphs of their news coverage of her campaign the fact that a large portion of Florida voters not only don't know who she is, but, even more tellingly about her failure to make herself known and give a logical rationale for her candidacy, DON'T even know that she is a SHE.
Let me repeat that: DON'T even know that she is a SHE.
Yes, that's a real identity problem that even wheelbarrows of money and TV campaign ads can't undo the damage of.
Frankly, if Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Jeff Greene was smart, he'd have actually run for governor, as he'd have carved-up Alex Sink even more methodically and brutally than Scott or McCollum plan to do, and would have a better chance of actually improving the state for the better, especially since the Dems in Tallahassee now may be among the dumbest and least-accomplished in generations.
And not that you asked, but since I last mentioned it, I have received more emails from folks throughout the state saying that they agree with the well-founded rumor that State Rep. Joe Gibbons, who is supposed to represent me and other HB residents, as well as those from here westward in Broward County towards Miramar, actually lives in Jacksonville with his family when he is not at work in Tallahassee, NOT South Florida.

Sort of like a less geographically-challenging version of the problem Steve Geller confronts now living apart from his family in Cooper City, and hanging his lawyer/lobbyist hat in Hollywood Beach at night in order to meet the legal residency requirements of his battle against incumbent District 6 Broward County Commissioner Sue Gunzburger.

Final Hallandale Beach Parks & Rec. Master Plan meeting with consultants at HB's A1A Community Center on Saturday at 1 p.m.

Above, September 2008 photo of Hallandale Beach Water Tower by South Beach Hoosier.

Above, July 12, 2010 photo of Hallandale Beach Water Tower and A1A Community Center by South Beach Hoosier.

The final Hallandale Beach Parks & Recreation Dept. Master Plan public meeting with the city's consultants, Bermello Ajamil Partners, Inc., is scheduled for Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. at the A1A Community Center under the iconic Hallandale Beach Water Tower on State Road A1A and East Hallandale Beach Boulevard. When your view looks like this one below the Water Tower, you're in the right place.That's The Beach Club condo towers on the left. July 11, 2008 photo by South Beach Hoosier.

As of now, it's my intention to record the meeting if there's any sort of formal presentation, though there may not be.
I've intentionally waited until this very last meeting with the consultants so that I would not have to go to it already disappointed or resigned to notions of mediocrity.

I spoke to the two principal consultants at the HB Parks & Rec. Advisory Board meeting in early June for just a bit under ten minutes out in the HB Cultural Center hallway, out of earshot of the Advisory Board that was still discussing something inside the room after the consultant's Q&A.

They seemed genuinely open to suggestions and comments and at one point, after they told me about some past clients and a general idea of what they'd done for them, I told them that I'd been looking forward to their outreach for quite some time.

But I also told them that their firm had a lot more work ahead of them than they might've thought, since there are so many people in this city besides myself who have come to the inescapable conclusion that it's in the best interests of the city's taxpayers for the responsibility for the city's public beaches to be wrested away from HB DPW, and given to either Parks & Rec., or have it contracted out completely, so that the public beach can begin to approach the level of fun and aesthetics the community deserves and expects.

The sort of beach some in the community want will be sort of like a South Florida version of...Above, Nikki DeLoach, Brooke Burns and Amanda Righetti from FOX-TV's fantastic and preposterous 2004-'05 program, North Shore.

But for other reasonable residents of this city, a clean, well-maintained beach that shows a little civic pride would be a good first start.

That's especially the case with people who have bought property nearby to really enjoy the beach, yet, paradoxically, are perpetually dumbstruck by how poorly maintained it is, coupled with the general neglect and apathy of the city's leaders to make better use of it as a resource, to say nothing of the Hallandale Beach Police avoiding patrolling the area, something that the local criminal class knows well and exploits.
Above, May 12, 2008 photo of obstructed genus sign at Hallandale Beach's South Beach by South Beach Hoosier. It's even worse now if you can believe it. This sort of apathetic approach to maintenance is a longstanding problem at the beach.Where's the HB version of the proactive steps that Hollywood Mayor Peter Bober is making regarding erosion on Hollywood Beach?

Have you seen how old and graffiti-scarred the South Beach life guard tower is? They've been waiting for a replacement since...

How about a beach that's thoroughly cleaned with the actual sand sifted like it was in Haulover Beach thirty years ago, when my friends and I were going there regularly on weekends and during the summer, and not simply leveled with a rusty pipe with claws that seems straight out of 1930's Russia?

It's a piece of low-tech equipment that is left right on the beach during the day instead of being stored somewhere nearby like would be normal anywhere else.

Here, though, it's all about doing what is easiest for the city employees, which is the situation with recycling bins on the beach also.
Which aren't on the actual beach!


Since the vast majority of the people seeing this post weren't at the last -ONLY!- meeting held at the "Community Center," the A1A Quadrant meeting, you really owe it to yourself to come by and check it out from the inside.

Without giving away too many secrets about my super-powers, I think I can accurately predict what will happen if you do.
You will get angry all over again that it's only the second time the two-story building has been open to HB citizens in 35 months, though VIP friends of City Hall have used it many times before, of course, esp. PAL and the Kessel Crew.

And 35 months later, the second floor STILL isn't fixed and the elevator STILL doesn't work.

And most galling of all, as I've written here several times in the past, there's still nothing on the building saying what it is, when it's open or when a public forum will be held in the city where citizen taxpayers can tell the city's elected officials exactly what they want it to be.
What it shouldn't be is strictly a rental space, as seemed to be the preferred option of former HB City manager Mike Good, yet another reason for me and so many other concerned citizens of this community to be glad he's gone. It should be a positive and dynamic resource, not a storage closet on the beach! 

Now, though, as you can see in my photos below, it's just an airy storage room for stacked-up chairs, albeit in a room that just happens to be steps from the shore of the Atlantic Ocean.Pathetic!Above, July 12, 2010 photo by South Beach Hoosier looking east from front door of HB A1A Community Center. The Palm trees you see thru the window are on the beach.

Above, July 12, 2010 photo by South Beach Hoosier looking north from window of HB A1A Community Center, opposite The Beach Club condo towers.

Above, July 12, 2010 photo by South Beach Hoosier looking west from window of HB A1A Community Center, reflecting the Palm trees behind me and the Atlantic Ocean less than 80 yards behind me. The color teal you see is the bottom of the Water Tower outside the front door.

Now that you have seen a small snapshot of this facility opposite the beach, you can better appreciate why this issue has been driving so many other concerned citizens of HB crazy for years, including me.

A two-story facility with an observation area on the roof that is but a stone's throw from the Atlantic Ocean, one that other towns and cities in South Florida would positively kill to have, which was given to Hallandale Beach for free, and yet under Mayor Joy Cooper and former City Manager Mike Good, for 35 long months, it's been strictly off-limits to its rightful owners, the citizen taxpayers of Hallandale Beach.

A week from Tuesday, August 3rd, will mark exactly THREE YEARS that it has belonged to us. And yet we are on the outside looking in.

If this was happening in Miami Beach or Fort Lauderdale, the South Florida news media would be crawling all over this story, because it is so easy to understand, but because it is here in Hallandale Beach, it is completely ignored, despite my best efforts to get reporters interested.
----
From COHB's website:http://www.hallandalebeachfl.gov/CurrentEvents.aspx?EID=2793

Title:	Citywide Parks Master Plan Community Meeting - A1A/Beach Corridor
Date:	July 24, 2010
Start Time:	1:00 PM
End Time:	2:00 PM
Description:	The project consists of the development of a Citywide Park Master Plan, including a redesign to the City Parks sites, needs assessment and analysis, capital improvement plan and funding options, with a forward-thinking strategy to support the residents and Community’s needs and programs. The Consultant for this project is Bermello Ajamil Partners, Inc. This will be the first of several meetings facilitated by Bermello Ajamil Partners, Inc. as part of the Parks Master Plan creation process. The Community is encouraged to participate and share their thoughts and ideas. The Community’s input is essential. If you cannot attend one of the listed meetings please visit the City’s website where you can provide your feedback, suggestions and input at www.cohb.org under the Parks Department/Parks Evaluation.
Address:	North Beach Municipal Building 2801 E. Hallandale Beach Boulevard Hallandale Beach, FL 33009
Contact:	(954) 457-1452
Link:	Citywide Parks Master Plan Community Meetings

In this part of Broward County, being sandbagged is a good thing! Tropical Storm Bonnie; my Leighton Meester: Bonnie Bedelia analogy is proved!

CBS-4 Miami's Carey Codd was in Hallandale Beach Thursday to examine how the city was preparing for Tropical Storm Bonnie, given the disastrous flooding problems in NE Hallandale Beach and our northern neighbor, Hollywood, the week before Christmas on Thursday December 17th. http://cbs4.com/local/hallandale.beach.rain.2.1819725.html

In Hallandale Beach, the worst areas then and now are those north of East Hallandale Beach Blvd. (HBB) and east of U.S.-1/Federal Highway towards the RK Plaza retail center on N.E. 14th Avenue.

There is still visible damage from the two-foot flooding in December along East HBB which HB City Hall has completely ignored all this time, despite how obvious it is.

First, two retail stores on the north side of the street that suffered damage and which were featured in TV news stories on the flooding at the time have since closed.

(More empty storefronts!
Not that the HB Chamber of Commerce is paying any attention to that sort of thing, since they've got executive board lunches at Gulfstream Park to worry about.)

Second, the bricks on the FDOT-built medians on HBB from roughly NE 8th Avenue to NE 12th Avenue popped-up everywhere so that it's not only unsightly, but unsafe.

Though originally built by FDOT contractors, the city is legally responsible for maintaining the medians in a safe manner, yet the only thing they have done with regard to them since the first day of flooding -besides throwing sand on them, which dissipates with the next rain!- is leaving a single safety barricade there where the median bricks have caved-in, which I've been taking photos of every week since December 18th as I walk by.

There's even a Mini-Stonehenge on the median near N.E. 12th Avenue that I also snap a shot of once in a while, as people show their displeasure with the city's apathy to their responsibility by adding one brick to a pile that was already there.

It's another self-evident example of Mayor Joy Cooper and HB DPW head John Chidsey's obliviousness to problems that need concrete solutions that HB residents see left to fester, day- after-day, month-after-month, year-after-year during their completely unsatisfactory reign of ruin.

Early last month, one of the sort of slow-moving thunderstorms we often get here in the summer created a mini-version of the December debacle, even being featured in news stories across the country.

The general sense of outrage and frustration as well as the city's very unfavorable press as one resident after another complained to TV reporters about the city's laggard and incompetent response, led to the city convening a public meeting recently at HB City Hall that was packed with angry residents, mostly from the NE. area.

I was not there the entire time, but from what I heard as well as from what attendees who were there from the beginning told me afterwards and thru anecdote-filled emails later, the rather uncomfortable sense from residents that the city is continually playing catch-up to events like the Keystone Kops, even though there's ample warning about any troublesome upcoming weather from the National Weather Service, NWS., is really starting to get to people in a way that other previous issues didn't.

Local residents may think we're in Hallandale Beach, but to the NWS, we are affectionately known as Latitude 25.98°North, Longitude 80.13°West
http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?CityName=Hallandale&state=FL&site=MFL&lat=25.9856&lon=-80.1417


What REALLY infuriated residents in December and June according to every person I spoke to who was personally affected was the city allowing non-emergency vehicles from outside the area to drive thru the flooded residential streets and create a wake that forced even more water into neighborhood homes and businesses, causing more serious damage.

How did I find out about the meeting at City Hall? Thru a flyer taped to a glass window near an ATM on the north side of the Bank of America branch on N.E. 8th Avenue.
Really. You think I could make that up?

According to Codd, "the City of Hallandale Beach is handing out free sand bags to residents" at the HB Public Works Dept, at 630 NW 2nd Street.

For those of you far from Hallandale Beach and Hollywood, much of which seems to almost be below sea level, this particular area I'm speaking of is less than 1.5 miles from the Atlantic Ocean.

Speaking of Bonnie, Hallandale Beach Blog, who's your favorite Bonnie?
I'm glad you asked me that: Bonnie Bedelia, whom as I've mentioned before, absolutely wowed a much younger me a few years after seeing her in the 1969 NBC-TV drama with Michael Parks, Then Came Bronson, first came out.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063955/

I sometimes think in retrospect that the whole time I was at IU, I was looking for a Bonnie twin. 
And thanks to my friends who were in them, I knew just the sororities which had strong competitors for that crown, esp. Delta Gamma, Kappa Kappa Gamma and Kappa Alpha Theta.
Those were always the girls I connected with the most: smart, great personalities, sporty but who loved wearing sports apparel as much as classic clothing and looked great in either.

The talented and oh-so lovely Leighton Meester reminded me of a young Bonnie from the first time I ever saw her in NBC's cute sci-fi show "Surface" five years ago.
Now, every time I see BB I think of LM and vice-versa.

Blake Lively and Leighton Meester of Gossip Girl,

Rolling Stone 1075, March 2009.

As I put it at the time I first ran this photo of the issue I bought last year: You scream, I scream, we all scream for... Gossip Girl. Photo by Terry Richardson.

http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/8818/52599

Check these videos out and tell me what you think about my analogy, and before you ask, BB was twenty-one years old when she made this film:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xe920YgWts





Then Came Bronson (Intro) S1 (1969)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYsztoaU9Ls

"Then Came Bronson" NBC Fall Preview for 1969, narrated by Hugh Downs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BW79P5jLoU4&t=9s


Michael Parks as 'Jim Bronson,' a former San Francisco newspaper reporter turned motorcycle-driving vagabond, seeking to make sense of his own life and connect-the-dots in an ever-changing world around him. Shown above in still of video, the delightful Bonnie Bedelia.

http://www.georgeduning.com/soundtracks/Then_Came_Bronson/Then_Came_Bronson.html

http://www.jimbronson.com/

I was originally going to run a couple of pertinent photos to illustrate some of my points, since I've been taking them for reasons such as this, but due to time constraints and a lack of sleep, I'm going to have to come back here later and drop them in to connect-the-dots a bit better, so please come back and check them out when you can.

You won't be disappointed, since as is always the case in Hallandale Beach, seeing is believing.
And sometimes even that is not enough!

Right to Build initiative, rural U.K. variation of FL's upcoming Amendment 4, is proof that David Cameron's "The Big Society" works - direct democracy

I listened to this lively discussion on 5 live Friday morning of a rural variation in the U.K. of Florida's upcoming Amendment 4, Florida Hometown Democracy, that gives a measure of direct democracy to residents and take it from the government and creates a scenario for more affordable housing if that's the will of the people.

The Right to Build initiative is a direct result of David Cameron's Big Society campaign promise to deal with some longstanding problems in rural villages and hamlets, including high-priced housing as a result of second-home owners and brain drain.

Taking power from the elites and parish council bureaucrats means that some people can finally move back to their hometowns and have the quality of life they want once their children have grown-up and moved away.

Under the Cameron government's initiative, townspeople will be able to actually vote on whether or not something gets built without the thumbs-up of planning bureaucrats, which means that both NIMBYISM and heavy-handed bureaucrats don't strangle rural areas and force people to have to work far away because elites like having a quaint little village with nothing to do but be inundated by tourists on weekends.

BBC live 5 host Shelagh Fogarty talks to listeners across the U.K. -Shropshire, Watford, et al- about the pros and cons of the innovative idea that clearly shows that Prime Minister David Cameron has every intention of doing exactly what he said about eliminating the stranglehold of government over people's lives and dreams, which is one of the reasons he won. Elections have consequences.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/5live/connect/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-10735506

http://floridahometowndemocracyamendment.blogspot.com/


See also:

The Telegraph
People in rural villages to be allowed to build on green belt without planning permission
People living in rural communities will be able to give themselves the right to build on local green belt land without planning permission, under plans to be unveiled today.

By Christopher Hope, Whitehall Editor
Published: 7:00AM BST 23 Jul 2010

Grant Shapps, the Housing Minister, wants to breath life into remote villages by making it easier to win permission to build more homes and shops.

The Community Right to Build programme will allow people to build any type of property on Green Belt land, if enough locals are in favour.

Currently, planning permission to build on green belt is only granted in exceptional circumstances for affordable homes.

Local people will be able to grant themselves planning permission, avoid the need to ask the council for the green light, if a large majority vote in favour in a special local referendum.

Read the rest of the article at
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/7905033/People-in-rural-villages-to-be-allowed-to-build-on-green-belt-without-planning-permission.html

Predicate article:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/conservative/5114542/Rural-communities-to-be-given-new-powers-to-approve-local-housing-developments-under-Conservative-plans.html


As you can see here, I wasn't the only person listening to Grant Shapps, since some defenders of the old status quo, like The British Urban Regeneration Association, are already throwing spitballs and saying it favors "the rich."
Right, because human nature and experience tells us that the "rich" and "affordable housing" usually go into the same sentence, and, somehow, suddenly, small British villages will want to do whatever helps the well-heeled. LOL!
Oh, dear, I think this public policy wonk needs a dose of reality!

Is Grant Shapps' "Right to Build" a step too far for localism?
By Jackie Sadek on July 23, 2010 9:17 AM
http://www.estatesgazette.com/blogs/jackie-sadek/2010/07/is-grant-shapps-right-to-build-a-step-too-far-for-localism.html

As you can see on BURA's website, the word "people" and "residents" and "citizens" never appears on the main page: http://www.bura.org.uk/
Hmm-m-m...


See my previous post on David Cameron:
David is STILL a great name for a British Prime Minister. Make it a reality today.
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/05/david-is-still-great-name-for-british.html

David Cameron: The Big Society

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2uVYgAuO_c

David Cameron backs parents to set up new schools

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




The Conservative Manifesto 2010:
http://media.conservatives.s3.amazonaws.com/manifesto/cpmanifesto2010_lowres.pdf

Say hello to Lacey Myers, one of "The World's Richest Teenagers" as seen on Channel 4 (U.K.) and MTV's Lacey Land. C'est la vie.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwWulWyLLXE
Mark Dolan embarks on a quest to find the world's richest teenagers.
Is the silver-spoon life such a wonderful thing after all?

Above, Dolan with the then-17-year old Lacey Myers, of Ashland, Ohio, who as you'll see from the clip's I've assembled here, is living EXTRA LARGE, as a result of how much Americans spend annually on their pets via Pet Brands, Inc., an American company with excellent products, great client services and a very good reputation. Lacey's father, Martin "Marty" Myers, is the company CEO.

Just further proof, as if needed, that if you give people a quality product they need at a price they can afford, you can make some money, too.
There's nothing mysterious about it and certainly no need to apologize for that success.

And really, is Lacey's ability to genuinely enjoy herself, as a result of her father's hard work, really all that different than depictions of how the rich lived in turn-of-the-century New York in real life, or as depicted in well-known novels by novelist Edith Wharton, with extravagant yachts, summers in old castles in Europe with royalty... and no personal income tax?
There just wasn't any incriminating video, 24/7 Internet or TMZ back then, is all.

C'est la vie.

The World's Richest Teenager | Who's to Blame? More with Lacey.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyYrzurRisY

Catch up on 4oD: http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-worlds-and-me/4od

For more information on this TV show, see:
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-worlds-and-me and
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-worlds-and-me/pictures/richest-teenager/6a986ac8-d7c6-42d2-8666-837c527f4962


Here's an earlier story on Lacey from a few years ago getting the MTV My Super Sweet 16 treatment. Her only regret was that "she couldn't keep the party going."
http://www.times-gazette.com/news/article/3204672

She was only 16 then, and to my mind, at least, sounds like about a million or so teenage girls in cities all across the country, ESPECIALLY here in South Florida, so what are you going to do, put her on trial for enjoying herself, rather than being frugal or a bookworm?

Or am I the only person still alive who remembers the many over-the-top stories on local Miami TV stations in the 1970's and '80's, with giddy TV reporters going on-and-on about well-to-do South Florida parents renting out the Orange Bowl for their son's bar mitzvah?

Frankly, it was actually starting to become a fairly regular thing, and while I remember thinking at the time as as a kid growing-up down here that it seemed a bit over-the-top, and not something anyone I knew might do, I suppose if I'd been a friend of the birthday boy and been invited, I'd have have been pretty psyched, so who's to judge these things, anyhow?

Besides, it wasn't my money, after all, so why should I begrudge someone else doing what they want to do, or what their parents want to do, and enjoy vicariously?

If any part of the country should understand Lacey Myers, it's here in South Florida.
Older versions of fun-loving Lacey keep its hotels and night clubs busy and turning a profit in very uncertain economic times.

Welcome to the full episode of the Lacey Land fantasy bash from January 28, 2008.
http://www.mtv.com/videos/my-super-sweet-16-season-6-ep-8-lacey-lacey-land-party/1580256/playlist.jhtml

My Super Sweet 16 - MTV Shows

When I last watched it, this video featured the recent Cotton Fabric of Our Lives TV ads I recently posted about featuring singers Leona Lewis and Colbie Caillat, but it may change by the time you watch it.

See other Fabric of Our Lives commercials from the series at:
http://www.youtube.com/user/CottonFabricOfMyLife

The World's Richest Teenager - High Flyer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neZ65AKMrZE


http://www.channel4.com/news/

Last I heard, Lacey had left for Syracuse University, alma mater of one of my former housemates in Arlington, Peter Gaudioso, who was then an intern for Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist, and a future Seton Hall Law School grad.

Peter, a devout fan of the Orange, was one of my housemates in Arlington when my IU Hoosiers beat Syracuse on a last-second Keith Smart shot in the 1991 NCAA Basketball title game, and is now a practicing attorney in New Jersey, and can no doubt still weave a Thomas Jefferson quote or anecdote into a conversation better than anyone north of Charlottesville and UVA.

From a distance, I suppose it would be too much to hope that Lacey turns out to be a Syracuse Lacrosse fan, and will actually be showing-up for their games that will be televised by ESPNU in the spring.
Still, it would be nice to see her up in the stands showing her support during a telecast.

Unless that happens, though, I suspect that we've all seen the last of Lacey for a while, as she'll probably be living a more below-the-radar existence, living the college life she's probably looked forward to enjoying for years while growing-up in Ohio, just like I and all my friends did as well here in South Florida once upon a time, eager to leave the Sunshine State in the rear view mirror and get on with our lives.
In my case, the beautiful rolling hills of Bloomington, Indiana.