FOLLOW me on my popular Twitter feed. Just click this photo! @hbbtruth - David - Common sense on #Politics #PublicPolicy #Sports #PopCulture in USA, Great Britain, Sweden and France, via my life in #Texas #Memphis #Miami #IU #Chicago #DC #FL ๐Ÿ›ซ๐ŸŒ๐Ÿ“บ๐Ÿ“ฝ️๐Ÿˆ. Photo is of Elvis and Joan Blackman in 'Blue Hawaii'

Beautiful Stockholm at night, looking west towards Gamla Stan

Tuesday, August 1, 2017

My critical analysis of awful #YoungCircle Roadway Feasibility Study that'll make #HollywoodFL #traffic worse, NOT better ๐Ÿ˜ฎ = coming soon. This week!

My critical analysis of awful #YoungCircle Roadway Feasibility Study that'll make #HollywoodFL #traffic worse, NOT better ๐Ÿ˜ฎ = coming soon. This week!


Looking east/northeast from the west side of Young Circle/ArtsPark, with Hollywood Circle being built in the distance, opposite the northeast corner, Hollywood, FL.
To me, the only thing in Hollywood as sublime as Hollywood Beach near the Johnson Street bandshell on a sunny November weekend after the tens of thousands of Canadians have made their annual invasion of the area during "the season" is this statue.
Erected to City of Hollywood founder and its first mayor, Joseph Young, it bears the single greatest line you could ever want to see on a statue honoring any politician, at any time, especially in ethically-challenged Florida: "His vision and courage created this city."
No matter how many times I've walked past this statue, I can never pass near it without stopping for a moment and reading it yet again, knowing how many people in this area are indebted to this man that so few people living here now ever think of.
May 31, 2017 photo by me, South Beach Hoosier. © 2017 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved.




























South Florida Sun Sentinel
Running rings around future of Young Circle - Proposal for a two-way traffic pattern in Hollywood gets mixed reviews
Susannah Bryan, Sun Sentinel
July 16, 2017
HOLLYWOOD - A grand redesign may be in the cards for downtown Hollywood's Young Circle, the roadway that confounds drivers with its one-way traffic and seven stoplights.
The ambitious plan calls for the removal of all the traffic lights and would give Hollywood a rare two-way traffic circle. Drivers in the inner lane would travel clockwise; those in the outer lane would travel counterclockwise, as they do today. Four roundabouts with landscaping would replace the lights at Federal Highway and Hollywood Boulevard.
Also under discussion: Persuading the state to build an underground tunnel at Federal Highway and Young Circle to give drivers the option of bypassing the traffic circle. But the idea is so new that Hollywood officials have no plans drawn up yet.
See the rest of the article at:

I didn't bother to mention Sunday on Twitter, above, how little the Hollywood CRA's transportation and planning consultant, Ian Lockwood, seemed to know about the future consumer/traffic realities of the Young Circle/ArtsPark area.

 Specifically, about Hollywood developer Chip Abele's soon-to-open Hollywood Circle project on the NE corner across from Young Circle, i.e. Block 55. That project will not only include the new and much-larger Publix, but also an upscale restaurant, hotel and condominium. 
There's also Abele's already-approved large condominium and 103-room Hilton-branded hotel project that'll be going up across the street from the SW corner of Young Circle at Harrison Street.

This project, now known as Block 40, but formerly called Young Circle Commons, is the one that I told many of you readers about last September 21st, via email and Twitter, just minutes after it was approved by the Hollywood City Commission.
Hollywood developer Chip Abele at the September 21, 2016 Hollywood City Commission meeting. Photo by me, South Beach Hoosier.


Here's a link to one of my blog posts from 2009 about Mr. Abele's efforts to get something built at that same NE corner location, Block 55. 
He never gave up.

 That little historical interlude makes me wonder something, and I might as well say what I'm thinking: Would it really have been too much to expect the consultant hired by the Hollywood CRA to at least know as much about the general area under discussion, both pro and con, as... well, me?

Above, looking north towards the construction at Hollywood Circle from the east side of Young Circle/ArtsPark, where despite the city's big sel-serving talk of the past decade-plus that it was a transit-oriented city, there is not one actual bus shelter at that location for transit riders to stay out of the rain or hot sun, at what is THE busiest bus stop in southeast Broward County. 
When it rains, transit passengers have to hide under Publix's canopy waiting for their bus then run thru the busy parking lot -and moving cars!- to get to the sidewalk and bus. 
Really. 
In the year 2017. It's #pathetic 
May 31, 2017 photo by me, South Beach Hoosier.

I saw Mr. Abele at the second Young Circle Roadway Feasibility Study meeting, but did not have a chance to speak to him, though he was seated in the front of the room at the Fred Lippman Multi-Purpose Center on Polk Street, where all the meetings were held.
In fact, he was seated right near former Hollywood and Broward County Commissioner Sue Gunzburger, one of my favorite people, and someone whose (continuing) dedication to this city and its residents' best interests nobody can deny or top in my estimation.

I mention this because it was NOT at all clear from Mr. Lockwood's remarks that he fully understands just what that sort of intense development in that area will mean for the future in the way of additional bodies and traffic there, after it has gotten used to being the way it's been for so many years, which to my eyes, is not nearly as busy and "crowded" as many people imagine when there are no events going on there.

Ask yourself this simple question: If you were already a struggling business located on Young Circle, where parking is always at a premium in the minds of most people, how would tearing-up the existing US-1 to create this plan with its four roundabouts that will slow traffic down to a crawl -and thereby reduce your present and future potential customer base- help your business in the short-term and the long-term? 

 Especially once you realize that the plan aims for nothing less than to reduce the number of vehicles that actually go past your business on US-1, WHY would you stay there? 
Why indeed.
This point was driven home when Comm. Gunzburger asked Mr. Lockwood several simple-but-pointed questions that he should have regarded as softballs if he was properly informed and prepared, but which he could not answer, despite being given plenty of time to respond.
In fact, from where I was sitting, towards the back of the room, right in front of Comm. Debra Case, he actually seemed to try to make light of his failure to know something important, which is certainly an interesting approach.

 Mr. Lockwood's inability to answer her simple question about when the traffic survey he was relying on was conducted matters a great deal, because in this area of South Florida, tens of thousands more people live here and in next-door Hallandale Beach from October thru April.
A high percentage of the Canadians from Quebec and Ontario who are staying at local hotels and motels that cater to them not only use US-1 daily, but use Young Circle in particular. 
And everyone in the room knew that. 
Everyone but Mr. Lockwood.
Just saying...
The plan, as presented so far -and I've seen it three separate times- largely ignores the fact that thousands of people in Aventura, Hallandale Beach, Golden Beach, Hollywood and North Miami Beach depend upon that road everyday to get to work in Fort Lauderdale, or to go to the airport, as well as for others to go to work or home in the opposite direction, going thru Hollywood.
None of that was mentioned the three times I heard Lockwood go thru his paces, full of the same familiar faces, nor the fact that the people who live in those places, as well as their respective City Commissions, will be weighing-in on the proposed change, too, since they are stakeholders as well.
But if you attended those Hollywood CRA-arranged meetings, you almost might think that only people at Hollywood City Hall and FDOT would be deciding everything.

Here's what I can tell you for a fact, the sort of thing I'll expand upon in my forthcoming blog post later this week. On the afternoon of the last public meeting regarding this CRA-sponsored plan, I went over to The Greek Joint in downtown Hollywood with the intention of speaking with its popular, high-profile owner, Jimmy Sklavenitis.

I wanted to find out who, if anyone, had talked to him about the plan already, whether from the Hollywood CRA, the city or the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce.
In short, to find out his current opinion about the plan as of that date and whether he saw the fatal flaws right away, or, wanted to hear more before perhaps realizing what a diaster this plan would be and the havoc it would create in the area if it became a reality.

I wanted to speak to him because I had already spoken to owners and managers of several restaurants and businesses on Hollywood Blvd., Harrison and Tyler since the first meeting had taken place.
None of the people I spoke to, all of whom either owned or managed popular places that draw LOTS of paying bodies into downtown Hollywood, knew a thing about it.
That is to say, none of them knew anything concrete about a plan or the meetings despite the fact that there had already been several meetings on the plan before I spoke to them.

 They certainly were not aware of what the consultant wanted to do in the way of dramatically changing a major South Florida road into a boutique road, like something quaint that you might see in a small tourist-dependent town in the Horse Country of Northern Virginia on a Sunday morning/afternoon drive from Arlington County or DC on the day the Redskins draw the NFL bye week. (As I know from experience.)

In short, turn an iconic road that's very important to the everyday functioning of the local economy into something that's a little too precious and affected. 
And NOT at all useful.

In any case, when I arrived at The Greek Joint, Mr. Sklavenitis was not there, but in talking to several employees and customers for a few minutes while I was there,not one of them said that they had heard anything about the plan.
After I shared some pertinent facts with them, they told me they didn't understand why if it was such a great plan, the Hollywood CRA seemed to be doing as little as possible to communicate with the residents and business owners in the area so they could weigh-in with their opinions, whatever that happened to be.

So, what does that tell you about the intensity of the public engagement efforts of the Hollywood CRA in the preceding weeks?

Another salient fact worth mentioning here that's been largely ignored in the public discussion so far is that nobody I know of in Hollywood is in favor of the current retail building on the east side of Young Circle staying in their current configuration once Publix leaves for its new home across the street in a few months. 
I mention that because some of the backers of the Lockwood plan seem to imagine that people opposed to the plan want it to stay in place, when nothing could be further from the truth.

 In fact, a few years ago when dynamic architect Bernard Zyscovich was hired by the city as a consultant to create a new master plan for the city, having frequent meetings in Hollywood to talk about ideas for transforming the face and image of Hollywood into a more dynamic, attractive and well-functioning community, especially the downtown area, meetings that I always attended and blogged about at the time, he specifically spoke about the necessity of opening up the east side of Young Circle.
In short, to make it just like what Hollywood Mayor Josh Levy says in the Sun Sentinel article about allowing the beach to meet Young Circle via Hollywood Blvd. without having to look at the unattractive backside of an older retail complex.

 "When you approach the circle from the east you see the back of the Publix and the loading docks," Levy said. "It would be great to connect Hollywood Boulevard to the circle. Imagine standing in the ArtsPark and looking east all the way to the Hollywood Beach Hotel. It would be amazing."

 Now I'm going to change the tenor of this blog post a bit, since there was someone else mentioned in that article that I've had personal dealings with before, someone that deserves some of your attention, but not because of anything positive...

Most -though not all- of you also know from several of my past emails and blog posts over the years why I hold thin-skinned and egotistical Greg Stuart, Exec. Director of the Broward Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO), cited in the Sun Sentinel article above, in such very low regard. 
Stuart's name and initials can be found on so many awful, failed or tortured transportation plans, policies and projects in Broward that he was always quick to praise, despite the self-evident facts-on-the-ground or his disregard for the known behavior and habits of Broward residents.

This petty, petty man's own words, actions and behavior have consistently shown him to be a person who simply can't take ANY constructive criticism, esp. in public from people who have a great familiarity with both the facts and his own actions and words.

That is never more the case then when he is clearly and consistently on the wrong side of public opinion, and consistently championing the sorts of nonsensical Big Government plans that, objectively, in the end, seem only to benefit planning and traffic consultants and bureaucrats, like his employees and his friends.
And elected officials who push these plans who then receive campaign contributions from those very same consultants and their firms- but not actual residents, taxpayers, drivers or mass transit riders.
You know, stakeholders?

His clown-like performance at Hallandale Beach City Hall, a few years ago, where he publicly denied so many things that were objectively true was a real beauty, and one of the worst public performances I've ever seen in South Florida.
That's even more damning when you know that I was on Capitol Hill frequently during my 15 years in Washington, D.C., AND was present at many of the Miami-Dade Commission meetings concerning the proposed government-funded Marlins ballpark, and saw things there that I was truly astonished by.

Equally contemptible was Stuart's truly smarmy and self-serving response to my having to bring up
just a few of the "Inconvenient facts" that HB Mayor Cooper and the City Commission seemed either woefully ignorant of -always a good bet there as experience shows!- or were afraid to mention publicly because they necessarily showed the Broward MPO and Stuart himself in such a negative light if genuine facts were to be discussed and evaluated.

Stuart also used the fact that once I spoke on the agenda item, that I could not get back to the microphone to rebut his future lies and exaggerations of his track record that same night, while he could just stand there and say sweet nothings into the microphone and Mayor Cooper just let him vamp.

His attempt to belittle me and my points largely failed, because as everyone who knows me can tell you, and as most of the well-informed people in the Commission Chambers already knew as well, I'm not going to say things into a microphone that I haven't already checked -and double-checked.

Stuart just happened to have the good fortune at that moment to be at the one City Hall in Broward where facts, logic and reason are almost always ignored, per Mayor Cooper's custom.
So he got away with saying things that were simply not tethered to reality.

So, that said, it should hardly be surprising that Stuart's crazy about this plan that Broward MPO's elected head, Hollywood Comm. Richard Blattner, is largely in favor of.
In fact, Stuart says he think it's "phenomenal."
But then that's what good sycophants like Stuart say and do, isn't it?

Don't be surprised if there's a blog post here in the coming months that asks -and answers- the question, "Is a big part of the problem with Broward County's dysfunctional planning and traffic the fact that it contains too much of Greg Stuart's fingerprints?"

 More facts about this project coming later this week.


This was my response -as I balanced a laptop at a Hollywood City Commission meeting- to some one who agreed with some emails I circulated a few weeks ago.

 ---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, Jun 21, 2017 at 7:20 PM
Subject: re Young Circle Roadway Feasibility Study


I just got your email while at the Hollywood City Comm. meeting.
I'm still there at 7:20 PM.

I attended last night's meeting as well as the previous meeting and last night, Mr. Lockwood, if possible, actually manged to be even more condescending and patronizing of the public -and skeptics like me- than at that the last meeting, which is really saying something.

This, on top of his inability to answer basic reasonable questions, whether from Sue Gunzburger re the integrity of the park and the County's investment in it, to when during the year his traffic numbers were done, to other questions from the public, including about how
valid it is to allow one car trying to park by backing up to park, to stop all traffic in one direction, since under the plan, it'll now be one lane.
So what's his plan for emergency vehicles on one lane roads?

I had planned on speaking this afternoon under Public Comments after Lockwood made his presentation to the City Comm., focusing on the CRA's abysmal civic engagement, with no visible advertising via fliers and sandwich boards along Young Circle, or at the ArtsPark
itself.
Nothing at Radius or Starbucks or... anywhere...

So, the hundreds and thousands of people who attend Monday night Food Truck gatherings and the Friday night family gatherings ever week, well, apparently, the Hollywood CRA didn't think any of them would be interested or have something to contribute that was better than what was presented.

What would explain such a colossal failure to do the most obvious thing? What's the CRA's explanation?

What's their explanation for ignoring the business people who own and operate popular restaurants and stores who are completely in the dark about something that DIRECTLY affects them, their business and their personal and economic futures?

Trust me, I've been taking notes, taking photos and asking people who have invested in the area what they knew about it, and when did they first hear about it. Nothing.
ZERO.

So imagine how happy they are to hear about it from me, after-the-fact?

In the end, I decided not to rebut Camejo and Lockwood publicly today, and instead write my longstanding concerns via a fact-filled, photo-filled email to the City Comm. next week pointing out the flaws as well as reminding them of the city's longstanding failure to do basic safety checkups in the years since the ArtsPark was formally opened, and then post it to
my popular blog, Hallandale Beach Blog.

Trust me, I can describe the whole circle by heart and what's missing and what's wrong.
So why isn't the city starting with solving those safety and aesthetic problems first?
It could not be more obvious.

In my email, I'm going to offer to give them a quick tour pointing these things out, which, once you see them, you can't believe they haven't been fixed the past 8-10 years.

Today's "findings" by Lockwood are based on... 152 self-selecting people.
The "Usual Suspects." 
I know because I am one of them.
But where's the diversity of opinions?

I saw far too many people drinking the consultant's Kool-Aid last night and today, rather than ask even, well, even softball questions, the whole City Commission completely rolled over.
It was a sad sight. :-(

Contact me if you might be open to meeting at Panera's or someplace similar because I share many of your concerns about this make-work opportunity for Mr. Lockwood and his company, who want the gravy train to continue.

By the way, his company will have to bid against other companies to actually do any of the things he discussed and proposed.
That is a fact that was never mentioned at either meeting but which came up today.

Not that the City of Hollywood has any money to do any of the things Lockwood proposes.

Dave

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Friday, July 28, 2017

Guess who finally decided to stop playing #RipVanWinkle re #DebbieWassermanSchultz on #ImranAwan scandal and start reporting the news, instead of finessing it? The South Florida press corps. But how long will that last? Experience suggests not long at all!





The South Florida's news media has finally decided to stop playing slumbering #RipVanWinkle re #DebbieWassermanSchultz and the continuing scandal involving her now-fired staffer #Imran Awan that touches on national security and DWS's longstanding sense of entitlement, and actually start reporting the news, instead of finessing it.
But how long will that last, especially in the heat and humidity of the South Florida summer? Based on first-hand personal experience, I'd say not very long at all!

 What follows below are just a few of the many, many examples of the South Florida news media -newspaper, TV and radio- and their long history of censoring negative news about the thin-skinned FL-23 Congresswoman based in Broward County, impolite and impolitic Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

 For you newcomers to the blog, especially people living too far from South Florida to know or appreciate this basic point of how the powerful always protect themselves, despite the fact that FL-23's DWS and feckless and incompetent FL-24's Frederica Wilson represent adjoining Congressional Districts in Broward, and decry the ills of gerrymandering whenever asked, they represent two very different worlds of South Florida, politics and the Democratic Party.

 Because of gerrymandering, DWS has a CD that reaches down into very affluent Aventura, a never-ending source of tremendous amounts of loot for the DNC and the national Democratic Party Establishment, despite it being in Miami-Dade County.
Wilson on the other hand gets a CD that stretches from Liberty City and Overtown in Miami to parts of western Hallandale Beach, a city located on the ocean and in another county.

So much for the "compactness" we were promised when drawing up political districts in Florida. So why is this?

It's simple. This arrangement ensures that nearly every single African-American voter immediately north of Downtown Miami and in southeast Broward County is in FL-24 and that nearly every single Jewish voter in northeast Miami-Dade County and southeast Broward County is in FL-23.

For Miami's Black political Establishment, the crew that has done such an abysmal job of bringing tangible resources and power to bear upon that position under Carrie Meek and her son, Kendrick, this enclave arrangement also ensures that no one from wealthy Aventura ever runs against Wilson or Miami's Black political Establishment.
They have it for keeps, to do with whatever they want.

We all know that summer is when South Florida's news media, even its Junior Varsity team's members, take a LONG snoozy siesta and says maรฑana whenever you inform them about something that's of public concern.
Maรฑana, Dave, maรฑana!

 No, during the summer, the typical South Florida news reporter, esp. TV reporters, will only snap into place and act old school jurnalism when there's a strong chance that a hurricane will hit South Florida, or some place nearby.
Otherwise, they don't want to be bothered with pesky things like salient facts, incriminating photos and video or examples of hypocrisy and entitlement among the political classes until after Labor Day.
They need their summer slumber!

 Personally, one of the more frustrating things that I've had to grudgingly accept as my reality here in South Florida during the past 13-plus years -since I returned to the area after living and working in the Washington, D.C. area for 15 years, including constantly being on Capitol Hill and knowing well its history, personalities and good and bad sides- has been the confounding and counter-intuitive way that the South Florida news media, both print and electronic, has covered influential but controversial Broward County-centric Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

 Most of the South Florida press corps is so cowed by here that they are practically DWS "pets," genuflecting on cue and prostrating themselves to show her that they know she's the dominant animal. They will do whatever she wants.

 This is, presumably, since the local press won't admit this publicly, in order for them to maintain access to this thin-skinned, temperamental and vindictive womanwith the big mouth, as well as with her staff, who are known for turning the screws on people, including pushing back hard on the news media whenever they get too close to the inconvenient truth.

 In most areas of the country, and certainly in the 1940's, '50's and '60's films that today's reporters often watched as kids, possibly for career inspiration as they got older, that sort of treatment by an influential power broker only strengthens the resolve of the press to dig harder and to not be afarid of pushing back, regardless of the power weld by the bully.
In South Florida, though, meek reporters routinely roll over and play dead when DWS asks them to.
Newspaper Editorial Boards, too.

 And it's been this way for many, many years.

 It's no understatement on my part when I say that that I've written so many pointed things over the years about #DWS and her frequently frustrating, self-righteous and often self-sabotaging behavior towards her constituents here in Southeast Broward County and in next-door Aventura, that I even forget that I've written about some aspects of her dark side.

 I've written about her antics with facts and precision and shone a light on her real track record and motivations in office, not swallowed whole the rose-colored view of her offered up by South Florida's news media, especially among young, female reporters who are so easily fooled into thinking that they are all on the same team.
(Like the litany of cancer stories that came up at a very convenient time for her.)

 It's crazy I know, but the treament DWS receives from most female reporters in South Florida is beyond a publicist's wildest dream.
There's very, very little journalism actually taking place.

So whether in fact-filled comments with multiple independent links on blogs like The Miami Broward News Times, back when they used to be a source of genuine conversation and heated discussion among Broward County's public policy and political crowd, including me, because of the hard work and snooping done by investigative reporter Bob Norman, now of Local10 News; here on my blog at Hallandale Beach Blog; and more than anywhere else, in countless personal conversations I've had with so many people I know, trust and respect, irregardless of politics or issues, so many of whom were Broward insiders, but people whom would confide to you, sotto voce, that even though they were liberal Democrats in South Florida, they hated DWS personally, and resented the fact that she always seemed so eager to make enemies instead of allies.
She literally can't help herself.

 There are dozens of examples from which to choose from, so I will only mention a few older ones here to set up the current story involving her and her former staffer that paints her as the worst sort of DC insider -the insider with a sense of entitlement and who likes to bully others simply because she can, and she knows that the press will not call her on it.
Trust me, DWS is THE Mean Girl.

 Like this in 2013:
Or 2014:
Or 2015:















Here I was specifically referencing the South Florida Sun-Sentinel completely ignoring the waves of very negative comments abt DWS from the Chicago office of Obama's HQ, that were in Glenn Thrush's book.


In 2016...





























What's old becomes new again with DWS: DENY, DENY, DENY, DENY...

 To Debbie Wasserman Schultz, there's no such thing as non-partisan, as I write here below, in 2009, in blue, regarding her voting against her own bill regarding swimming pool safety for children becaue she didn't want a Senate Republican who was the Senate sponsor of her bill, George Allen of Virgina, to be able to have any credit for it when he was running for re-election.
So a good bill that helped kids died because to her, the politics mattered more.

 But her press secretary at the time hated for people to know that, so he furiously wrote all sorts of BS warnings to the media to try to cover her trail.
Even tried to bait me a few times publicly.
But he wasnt prepared for me to refute his crazy notions by simply linking to reporters who made my points in much-larger forums.

 But the facts are there for anyone to see, all you have to do is open your eyes.

 For those of you who want some much-needed critical perspective on South Florida media darling DWS, please see "Pennsylvania Avenue: Profiles in Backroom Power: Making Washington Work Again" by John Harwood, chief Washington correspondent for CNBC; reporter, The New York Times, and Jerry Seib, Washington bureau chief, The Wall Street Journal. See Chapter 6 titled The Fundraising-Phenom Debbie Wasserman-Schultz.
You can also do a Look Inside at www.amazon.com/ and find lots of interesting items. It's telling that in the year 2009, a real nobody from a non-competitive CD, someone with little positive impact on important national public policy issues, can be so important in Congress and SO popular on cable TV, esp. MSNBC. All because her real power comes almost entirely from her ability to generate campaign funds from well-heeled Jewish donors in South Florida and around the country, where she's flown around as part of Dem 'dog and pony' fundraisers to get Jewish donors in those CDs to give to their local Dem incumbent or nominee.
I've got lots of moderate DLC friends all around the country who were Capitol Hill staffers who've received those fundraiser invites starring her from their local Dem party, and they grimace, because they know that giving money to an event she's at only encourages her and the money folks at the DNC to be more abrasive, which doesn't help smart and hardworking Dems from competitive districts, who will get but a pittance. This book has an entire chapter on DWS and her ethics and overwhelming ambition and fundraising prowess, and is a book that garnered good to very good reviews, had a national media tour, and was written by two well-respected veteran reporters from The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.
It was even on the front page of The New York Times Book Review! Despite all that, though, the book itself and the stories it tells about DWS have NEVER been mentioned in The Miami Herald or the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Or mentioned in a TV newscast or on a TV public affairs program.
Not in print, not online, not even a blog post entry!
What are the odds of that? To me, given how the local media has always bent over backwards to be pals with her even before her recent cancer revelation, this lack of context is even more troubling, and quite telling about the true low state of journalism in South Florida. Not a single South Florida reporter, editor, columnist, producer or anchor has EVER mentioned it. And I've checked!
I've even asked well-placed people I know at the newspapers and the local TV shows. Nope! I particularly call your attention to page 80 re a proposed pool-safety bill she co-authored. Well, despite having bipartisan support and President Bush's interest in signing it to make it the law, in order to politically attack Sen. George Allen of Vrginia, one of the Senate co-sponsors and a Republican running for re-election, she let the bill die, rather than let something become a law that EVERYONE supported. That's DWS -she puts politics above public safety!
And still South Florida media ignores the issue and the book. Harwood and Seib discussed the book and called attention to her (creepy) efforts on the Diane Rehm Show on NPR from May 15, 2008, which generated some calls disgusted with the ethical antics of DWS. It's at www.wamu.org/programs/dr/08/05/15.php and is available in both Real Audio and Windows Media.
After you listen to it, you'll really wonder how DWS generated so much disgust with well-informed national listeners while South Florida media completely ignored what she did, or made excuses for her. Sadly, most South Florida reporters don't really want to be adversaries or thorns to elected officials and govt. employees, they want to be their pals, which explains why they are usually so easily co-opted.
And it explains why so much of what's printed and broadcast is an insult to reasonable, well-informed citizens.

 Quick: Try doing an archival search for the Harwood & Seib book on the Miami Herald or South Florida Sun-Sentinel's website, using whatever parameters you want: title, authors, etc. Knock yourself out!
It won't have any results because it's NEVER been mentioned.
Q.E.D.
I have access to their archives and trust me, it's not there.

Page 80 
But her role as a "team player" in Democratic election strategy can also impede her legislative work.  Among the principal initiatives of her first term was a pool-safety bill designed to set more stringent rules for barriers around pools, and the kinds of drains manuafacturersare permitted to install. Battling uphill in a Republican Congress, she
obtained support from the swimming-pool industry and a prominent Republican co-sponsor -Senator George Allen of Virginia.

In the run-up to the 2006 election, Senate democrats wanted to hold up progress on the bill for a singularly partisan reason. Allen was in a dead-heat race against challenger Jim Webb; with partisan control of the chamber potentially hanging in the balance, Democrats didn't want to provide ammunition favorable to Allen, which he could use with Virginia voters against Webb.

Senate Democratic leaders "didn't want to give Allen a victory before the election," Wasserman Schultz says matter-of-factly. And she was in no position to object. "I was co-chair of the 'red-to-blue' campaign. It was hard for me to say, Give one of your most targeted
members a big victory." The result: a bill that had majority support in both chambers of Congress didn't become law.
Wasserman Schultz insisted she'd win passage of the bill later in any case.

And the funny thing is, this book doesn't even say anything about DWS making an ass out of herself for saying something that was not true at a June 2005 House Judiciary Comm. hearing on The Patriot Act that was nationally televised on C-SPAN, that I just happened to watch LIVE at home, not their numerous encores so beloved by liberal bloggers.

 Yep, she almost had brought formal ethics charges against her by the Chair of the committee, Jim Sensenbrenner.
In fact, you should read what it says about this matter in the Congressional Record of the time.

 Now, for the latests scandal...













































Dave 
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