re South Florida's elected officials and law enforcement continually acting ignorant of First Amendment rights -feigned ignorance or real stupidity?

Below is a copy of an email that went out to a few dozen pretty well-informed people around the State of Florida late Monday afternoon as a bcc.

The email also went out as a CC to the following individuals: Katie Fisher of the First Amendement Foundation in Tallahassee, http://www.floridafaf.org/; Dominic Calabro of Florida Taxwatch, http://www.floridataxwatch.org/, someone who has proven himself to be a person who won't put up with alibis or nonsense from govt. bureaucrats abusing their authority or failing to give proper accountability; Doug Lyons of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, and Anders Gyllenhaal and Edward Schumacher-Matos of the Miami Herald.

In the near future, there will be much more context and details to the story below about legal, ethical and bureaucratic excess in -surprise- Tamarac, the city that along with Deerfield Beach and Pompano Beach continually fights Hallandale Beach for the title of most venal and corrupt.

Those helpful details and context will include some particulars on the continuing pathetic performance of Broward County Sheriff Al Lamberti, someone who needs one of his many apologists or minions throughout the county to tell him to wake the hell up and stop sleepwalking his way thru his job, and in particular, STOP disrespecting the very citizen taxpayers who pay his salary.
We are not amused!

This isn't Sparta, Mississippi, comprende, and he doesn't get to pick and choose which laws he want to follow.
What doesn't he understand about that?

Message to the South Florida news media: Al Lamberti's 'hall pass' has expired, so please stop treating him like he's some frigging old-line royal, okay?
It's very uncomfortable to read and watch and only makes you reporters who walk on eggshells in your stories about him seem even more like sycophants than you are.

And now to the email:

In case you missed it the first time, last month, please consider the following material below as predicates for today's email from Broward community activist Bett Willett to myself, and ask yourself, where-oh-where is Michael Satz and the Broward State Attorney's Office or Judge Victor Tobin's free-floating anti-corruption crew to make examples of all the miscreant pols and LEOs in South Florida?
MISSING IN ACTION!

And are things really so bad in South Florida's media community in the year 2010 that the news media willingly ignores example after example of South Florida city attorneys pretending they DON'T know what's permitted at public meetings under the State and Federal Constitution?
Really?

Once upon a time in South Florida media, Hallandale Beach's reflexively anti-democratic city attorney David Jove's continual winking at self-evident violations of the state's Sunshine Laws by the City Manager, Mayor and City Commission would've gotten a reporter's attention and resulted in an utterly devastating front page story, along with a handy chronology graph
of all the curious things that had transpired while he was present but looking away, all while drawing a taxpayer-funded paycheck.

Alternately, I would've come home tired from practice after school and would've seen a devastating Ike Seamans or Susan Candiotti story -with very long legs!- that would've literally caused his family to cry after it aired, and it would've been thoroughly sourced and 100% accurate.

Which would make it powerful as hell and a warning to others like him to shape-up and fly right -or else!

A story that would've been updated often as more and more people told what they knew and had seen, with video showing Jove's nonchalant attitude towards the law being bent, broken and ignored with him just sitting there.
And we'd have literally gulped at his sheer stupidity.
But now?

Outside of a handful of reporters, these stories just sit there, limp, waiting for a better-late-than-
never arrest to suddenly give some news editor or TV news director's the idea to give the story some well-needed oxygen.

If public corruption is a 24/7 effort by public officials in South Florida, and it is, is it too much to ask that in the year 2010, a local Miami TV station or newspaper actually have a few reporters whose only job is reporting on and investigating municipal, county and state chicanery, who promptly return emails and phone calls.

While I lived in the Washington, D.C. area for 15 years, I was fortunate enough to come to know more than a fair amount of people who'd won Pulitzer Prizes, and even more people who should've but didn't, if you believed what they told me at Oriole ballgames at Camden Yards.

The one characteristic they all shared is a genuine willingness to reach out to people who actually know something of value and to try their best to be approachable, since they never knew when or how a compelling story would make itself known to them.
You know, our old friend serendipity?

In South Florida, it's not exactly Breaking News that there are far too many reporters and editors who are NEITHER.

They practically have to receive invitations to be convinced to show-up for some government meeting or public policy matter.
(Question: When did that become the job of the citizen, to convince the reporter to actually show-up and do THEIR job?)

And everyone knows who they are, regardless of what city or county you live in, because they are the same names that always come up in private conversations.

That's fine, after all, I'm not a publisher or a TV station general manager, but then they shouldn't expect me to care when they are the next one thrown overboard because of either the economy or a station management shake-up or "creative differences."

And trust me, that's the opinion of the majority of people I know down here who follow local government and politics VERY CLOSELY.

They're the same discerning folks who agree with me that South Florida NOT currently having a dynamic Cable TV station with a local hard-news focus is a deep embarrassment that belies the area's claims to sophistication.

------------------------

1.) From: Bett's G-Mail
Date: Fri, Apr 16, 2010 at 2:22 PM
Subject: Tamarac

I went to the Tamarac Commission meeting after being asked by the Colony West folks to speak to the commission about Amendment 4 and golf course conversions, read below from my blog about what happened:

Friday, April 16, 2010 -
Civil Rights Trampled in Tamarac
http://blogbybett.blogspot.com

Sayfie Review's Power Play of May 14, 2010: Will there be a special session on oil drilling? Will Charlie Crist's lead in U.S. Senate race last?

Sayfie Review's Power Play of May 14, 2010 with Alia Faraj-Johnson.
Guests: Orlando Sentinel's Aaron Deslatte and Gannett's Political Editor Paul Flemming.
Will there be a special session on oil drilling? Will Crist's lead in U.S. Senate race last?

Flemming notes that for Crist to lead the three-way race for U.S. Senate with Marco Rubio and Kendrick Meek, Crist must hold 40% of all Democrats currently supporting him, something that's unlikely in the Fall once Meek starts advertising and Obama starts coming down regularly for campaign and fundraising events.

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



See also: http://www.sayfiereview.com/

Monday night's meeting in Hollywood on Amendment 4 and Florida Hometown Democracy

The Hollywood Council of Civic Associations will be hosting a meeting Monday night in Hollywood on what's new in Florida Hometown Democracy's efforts to get Amendment 4 passed this November, and finally put the larger community's interests on an even playing field
with well-heeled developers and their lawyer/lobbyists' contributions to elected officials who vote on their proposals.

The guest speaker will be Bett Willett, the South Florida Coordinator for Florida Hometown Democracy, and a woman who has been extremely helpful recently to Hallandale Beach and Hollywood residents in defeating the Westin Diplomat's incompatible proposal to build multiple 25-30 story condo towers near the Diplomat Country Club, in a town like Hallandale Beach that has more condos on the books than seems either logical or desirable.

And to this geographically-limited and poorly-run city they wanted to add over 800 more condos and cars on secondary roads that already lead to gridlocked roads that residents daily curse.

Not surprisingly, throughout the entire process, the Hallandale Beach Chamber of Commerce, the tinny echo chamber of HB City Hall -which gave them $50,000 this year as they have for years- strongly supported this effort, as their head honcho Patricia Genetti spoke in favor of the Diplomat's efforts at least five times at public meetings that I've personally witnessed.

At none of those public meetings did Genetti ever make any public disclosure about how much of that $50,000 of taxpayer funds went towards HER salary.

It won't surprise you to learn that the HBCoC currently opposes Amendement 4, just like their puppet-masters next door at Hallandale Beach City Hall.
Oh, and in case you didn't know, last year, HB City Hall gave them a free office in their taxpayer-funded complex.

Monday May 17th
7:00 p.m.
Fred Lippman Multi-Purpose Center, Main Auditorium,
2030 Polk Street, Hollywood, Florida 33021

Meanwhile...

Broward Bulldog.org
Ex-Supreme Court chief justice approves ballot petition, gets hired by firm allied with its sponsor
28 April 2010, 5:15 am
By Dan Christensen, BrowardBulldog.org

Weeks after casting the deciding vote to approve a controversial ballot petition in December 2008, former Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Charles T. Wells joined a law firm aligned with the petition’s sponsor.

The high court’s 4-3 ruling gave life to a push by developers and statewide business interests – led by the Florida Chamber of Commerce – to blunt a possible change in the state constitution to greatly expand citizen powers over local development.
Read the rest of the post at:
http://www.browardbulldog.org/?p=1181 and http://www.browardbulldog.org/?p=1199

For more information:
http://www.browardbulldog.org/
http://www.hccacentral.com/
http://www.floridahometowndemocracy.com/
http://floridahometowndemocracyamendment.blogspot.com/

Bett Willett's personal blog is called Blog by Bett
http://blogbybett.blogspot.com/-
--------

View Larger Map

Charlie Crist's sister, Margaret Wood, will run his independent U.S. Senate campaign

Hmm-m-m... Margaret Wood? Can't honestly say that I've ever heard of her but... I was anything but in news junkie mode yesterday, since I was busy all day due to my nephew Mario graduating from the University of Miami down in Coral Gables, with the afternoon ceremony at the on-campus Bank United Center, which is where the basketball Hurricanes play.

Fortunately for all involved, the building's A/C was blasting on a day that was nice and sunny for photographs afterwards, but also very hot and humid, especially for those of us wearing suits in cars packed with relatives and breaking in some new dress shoes.

Because of the terrific party my sister threw for Mario at her new home in Pembroke Pines for family and friends, I didn't see a single TV news broadcast all day, the first time that's happened in many years when I wasn't traveling. (It was actually disorienting to be honest.)

So when I read this afternoon at the Washington Post's 44 blog, subtitled, Politics and Policy in Obama's Washington, http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/ that Florida governor Charlie Crist is entrusting his political future to his sister, Margaret Wood, I must admit, I was a bit dumbstruck.
But then I wondered if I was simply the last person to hear about this.

I used to have the widget for the 44 blog on my blog but it often had technical problems, so I had to toss it overboard, just as I did the Ben Smith blog widget from POLITICO for similar reasons.

But when I read in the post that the news came out of an interview Crist did with the St. Pete Times Editorial Board, I knew that ace political reporter Adam Smith -no relation- would likely be all over the story, and, of course, he was, in their great politics blog, The Buzz, which I've long been a regular reader of.


44 blog of the Washington Post
Crist says his sister will manage his Senate campaign
by Felicia Sonmez

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2010/05/crist-says-his-sister-will-man.html


The Buzz politics blog of the St. Petersburg Times

Charlie Crist hires a campaign manager
Posted by Adam Smith at 05:06:37 PM on May 13, 2010 http://blogs.tampabay.com/buzz/2010/05/charlie-crist-hires-a-campaign-manager.html

Timotiej appearing on TV4's Nyhetsmorgon performing a mellower version of "Kom"

Timotiej appeared on TV4's Nyhetsmorgon back on April 30th,
performing two songs and doing a four-and-a-half minute sit-down
interview about what's new with the girls and their new album.

The two singing performances included a mellower version of Kom,
performed sans drums and with three of the girls without their trusty
instruments, which seems very strange at first, but without the drums,
you can really hear Bodil Bergström on the accordion in a way that
you really couldn't in their great Melodifestivalen performance of
a few months ago.
The harmonies are just perfect, of course, especially towards the end.

In the Kom video, performed as the show was ending, are, from
left to right, Johanna Pettersson, Bodil Bergström (on accordion),
Cecilia Kallin and Elina Thorsell.

Hjärtat rusar, pulsen slår...

http://www.tv4play.se/aktualitet/nyhetsmorgon?videoId=1.1619851




Here's the sit-down chat about the new album, Längtan.
Tjejerna i Timotej släpper skiva

http://www.tv4play.se/aktualitet/nyhetsmorgon?videoId=1.1619538



The girls also performed Längtan till landet (Vintern rasat)
which I haven't heard in a while.
http://www.tv4play.se/aktualitet/nyhetsmorgon?videoId=1.1619474



This is the new TV ad for their new album:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfowcDq27A0




For more on Timoteij, see their Facebook page at
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Timoteij/286938310265

Their wry and very amusing personal videos can be found at:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Timoteij/286938310265#!/pages/Timoteij/286938310265?v=app_2392950137

PJTV.com video re Babalú Blog: Miami Libre: Cuban Bloggers Document Castro's Daily Atrocities; South Florida as media backwater

In my email in-box today came the daily email I get from PJTV.com and today it's of particular interest to South Florida, a video titled: "Miami Libre: Cuban Bloggers Document Castro's Daily Atrocities."

It consists of a 17-minute video with Dr. Helen Smith, of www.drhelen.blogspot.com interviewing the team behind Babalú Blog, http://babalublog.com/ at Cuban Crafters, discussing their intent and motivations behind the Miami-based blog, as well as the efforts of other Cuban-Americans and Cubans like Yoani Sánchez of the Generation Y blog, to lift the veil on what's going on with Fidel & Company's island prison. http://www.desdecuba.com/generationy/

See the video at http://www.pjtv.com/v/3531
Registration is required but it's quick and free.

After you see it, you'll probably think the same thing that I did.
The same sort of thing I so often think after watching a compelling segment on CBS News Sunday Morning, or reading about something on the Internet or in a magazine: Isn't this precisely the sort of thing that should've already been run on a local Miami-area TV station?

Something that should've been run on their weekend public policy programming?
Despite all the current media blather that exists about media organizations getting hyper-local or using technology to keep readers, and to tell compelling stories in a more interesting and interactive way, compared to efforts elsewhere in the country, local South Florida newspapers and TV stations do what can only be described as a piss-poor job of incorporating technology in illuminating local news issues, or in giving South Florida a fresh perspective on someone or something locally that creates ripple effects elsewhere, whether positive or negative.

Here in South Florida, that grandiose talk about getting hyper-local is, indeed, nothing but media hyperbole, as the curious lack of news media present at public policy events I regularly attend, week-after-week, month-after-month, only confirms this belief and our very sad reality of living in a journalism backwater.
Why such a consistent serious lack of effort?

This interesting PJTV.com video on Babalú Blog is but the latest example that reminds those discerning news consumers and public policy types among us of South Florida's media backwardness, but there are plenty of other examples that I've observed in the past and plan on bringing to your attention. (And examples that many of you have shared with me, too.)
Examples that I've written about in my notebooks but have never actually posted, usually out of frustration.
Trust me, there's a lot of gold in that "Draft" vault, though I suppose you all will be the ultimate judge of that.

Jake Brewer on The Sunlight Foundation's support for the Public Online Information Act

The communication center at Hallandale Beach Blog received this very positive bit of news about government transparency and accountability this afternoon via an email from Jake Brewer and our hard-working friends in D.C. at the at The Sunlight Foundation about some far-reaching efforts by Sen. John Tester of Montana and Rep. Steve Israel of New York (Long Island).

www.sunlightfoundation.com
http://sunlightfoundation.com/people/jbrewer/
http://www.youtube.com/user/SunlightFoundation

I forwarded it to like-minded friends from coast-to-coast and am happy to share the news with you all today.

-----------------
From: Jake Brewer
Date: Mon, May 10, 2010 at 12:21 PM Subject: An easy fix

We're really moving.

Seriously.

We spend a lot of time talking about what government should do to become more open and transparent, and in this past week there's real movement in Congress on one of the things that we need to happen.

It's an easy fix to our current system which would simply make government work better.

Specifically, Senator Jon Tester has introduced the Senate version of the Public Online Information Act, which would revolutionize how the public can gain access to government information. And though we're going to have to build much more clout to actually pass the bill in the House and Senate, the introduction of this bill is a big step.

Keep the momentum strong by signing the Public=Online pledge and sharing it.

http://PublicEqualsOnline.com/Pledge

Numbers are one of the things that Congress listens to most, and we need to be as loud as possible. Thus, our goal is to get 25,000 pledge signatures in the next 6 weeks.

At the end of June, we'll take the Public=Online pledge to Capitol Hill and present it to the co-sponsors of the bill. This will show them that we not only support the Public Online Information Act, but that there are citizens everywhere demanding Congressional action on it.

They're waiting to hear from us, but we need to let them know what we want. By signing the Public=Online pledge, we're doing that.

We're just about to reach 4,000 signers. When we get to 5,000 we'll start making phone calls as well.

Much more to come in the months ahead. Thanks for all your support!

The Sunlight Team

PS If you want to see a short explanation of why the Public Online Information Act matters, check out this short video and other helpful resources from Sunlight's policy team which explain what the legislation does http://thePOIA.org

------

See also: Tester behind measure for open records

By Ledyard King, Tribune Washington Bureau, May 7, 2010

http://www.greatfallstribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=20105070301

Washington Times
Editorial: Obama fails the transparency test
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/may/07/obama-fails-the-transparency-test/

On the campaign trail, Barack Obama made the bold promise that his administration would be more transparent than his predecessor's. More than a year into his presidency, however, not much has changed. The list of complaints about openness is topped by the well-known failure to negotiate Obamacare in public. The president's new deficit-reduction commission has followed the same lead and is conducting most of its deliberations behind closed doors.

Written documents also are closely guarded. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. refuses to release information about which of the Justice Department's attorneys did private legal work for Guantanamo Bay detainees and which have (or have not) been recused from such issues because of conflicts of interest. The administration also is holding back the names of released Guantanamo detainees who have returned to terrorist activities. Rep. Frank Wolf, Virginia Republican, meanwhile, is among those complaining that the department still has not adequately answered his questions about why it dropped or reduced serious voter-intimidation charges against affiliates of the New Black Panther Party. Freedom of Information requests from The Washington Times on the same topic also have been shunted aside.

Sen. Jon Tester, Montana Democrat, and Rep. Steve Israel, New York Democrat, want to force the executive branch to open up. On Thursday, they introduced the Public Online Information Act (POIA), which would require government-held public information to be posted online. Classified information and private deliberations still would be protected, but the bill would give citizens access to documents without the red tape imposed by the current process.

The nonpartisan Sunlight Foundation applauded the bill because it would make a number of important reports available online for the first time. These include lobbying disclosure reports filed by government contractors and grantees, the already-required financial disclosures of high-ranking political appointees and disclosures of third-party payments for the travel of executive-branch officials.

The more Americans know about the workings of their government, the better equipped they will be to make the right choices on Election Day. Until President Obama takes his promises seriously and opens up his administration, placing existing printed material online is a step in the right direction.

When it's this hot and miserable, I need to think cool thoughts and hear about snow falling in mountains -somewhere!

When it's this hot and miserable, I need to think cool thoughts and hear about snow falling in mountains -somewhere!

And here's the weather forecast with TV4 meteorologist Ulrika Andersson...


http://www.tv4play.se/nyheter/vaderkanalen?videoId=1.1630430

And here's the Ten O'Clock News... TV4Nyheterna 10:00...

Did you notice that Thursday night, CBS4 didn't mention the British General Elections at all in their 11 p.m. newscast?
I did!




Väderkanalen - Sveriges bästa väder/Sweden's best weather
http://www.vaderkanalen.se/
http://www.vaderkanalen.se/#/sverige

Thursday night's Ben Gamla Charter info meeting with Peter Deutsch was even more absurd than you'd imagine it could be

Thursday night was a bad case of Apathetic African-American Syndrome in Hallandale Beach.
While concerned neighbors in a Northeast Hallandale Beach neighborhood fought for better and more-inclusive schools that reflected the genuine diversity of HB on Thursday night, away from their single-family neighborhood, HB's African-Americans stayed home in droves and watched TV or were otherwise engaged.

After HB Commissioner Anthony Sanders left the Hallandale Jewish Center at 6:48 p.m., wearing his Hallandale High Chargers t-shirt, there was not another African-American face in the large room for the rest of the evening, another 85 minutes or so.
Zero participation at a meeting about schools in Hallandale Beach!

I'lm planning on having some photos and video of Thursday night's one-sided Ben Gamla Hebrew Charter School information meeting up on my blog and YouTube page on Sunday.

Here are the dates re Ben Gamla that we need to be concerned with.

First, the HB Planning & Zoning Advisory Board on Wednesday May 26th at 1:30 p.m. in the Commission Chambers.

Personally, I think we'd all be better off having it in the HB Cultural Center since I don't think there will be enough seats for everyone in the Chambers once Peter Deutsch and his rather obnoxious acolytes from throughout Broward County descend on HB.

I then expect that the application will go before the HB City Commission the following Wednesday on June 2nd and then two weeks later on June 16th.

In his public comments that came towards the end of the meeting, after nearly 65%.of the crowd had already left, rather than at the very beginning as it should have, Assistant HB City Manager Mark Antonio -the man who makes almost $200k a year in salary and benefits- stated that the City Commission would hear the application in "June or July."

Sure, well, except for the fact that the City Commission DOESN'T meet in July, which he already knows, hence my educated guess on June.

On Monday I'll be making the first in a series of formal requests for pertinent documents to and from HB City Hall and Ben Gamla and Peter Deutsch, with my first request for docs that explain why the city allowed this required public meeting to be held in a religious facility, one that was positively sweltering on Thursday night, and which lacked any electrical fans.

People attending were cranky even before the meeting started because of how truly miserable the conditions were inside.

When Deutsch said that there were rules for the meeting that the city had agreed to that I've never seen before -rules that DIDN'T exist with other required developer meetings in the past, including the Diplomat's at the air-conditioned HB Cultural Center in October, with Debbie Orshefsky and Suzanne Friedman- a real murmur went up from the crowd.

Instead of being able to ask questions from your seat, with someone walking around with a microphone, you not only had to sign-in, but walk up to the front of the room.
Because Deutsch brought an electronic three-minute timer with him, he alone controlled the time and flow of the meeting, not someone from the city.

That rather predictably resulted in him letting many pro-Ben Gamla people speak for quite some time after the time limit, while being quick to yank the microphone back if you spoke against his multi-million dollar creation.

Oh, and since he controlled everything, Peter Deutsch got to rebut any time he wanted to, which was constantly, with no time limit.

Naturally, he also consistently mis-characterized what many HB residents actually said.

And I guess I hardly need mention that because so many of the pro-Ben Gamla people at the meeting don't live anywhere near Hallandale Beach -or even necessarily in Broward- most didn't necessarily volunteer where they lived when they spoke, though some did.

Those that did mention that they lived elsewhere often made no bones about NOT caring in the least what locals thought, saying that HB would just "have to live" with the influx of the 600-plus cars of parents coming into this single-family neighborhood, twice-a-day.

While you and I may think that it's important for a public school, whether Charter or not, to have a tangible connection to not only the neighborhood it's located in but to the actual students who live in the city, which here, is well-over 90% African-American, Peter Deutsch and his fan club don't.

They don't even pretend to care about the legitimate concerns of the local neighborhood, the city or the kids who live here, who, in my opinion, are currently poorly served by the Broward County School Board and our local member, Ann Murray, who was NOT present.

Not that Ann Murray being invisible in Hallandale Beach is exactly Breaking News, as regular readers here know well.

The Ben Gamla Mutual Admiration Society in attendance Thursday night really don't view those concerns as either important or legitimate, since they don't plan on having many -if any- of these Hallandale students as BGHCS students anyway.

And as was evidenced throughout the night, whenever this was brought up, boy, are the Ben Gamla Moms ever ultra-sensitive about that self-evident fact!

They were spoiling for a fight from the get-go, and frequently heckled HB residents who made clear this school is not a good fit in THAT location.

Deutsch and Co. are smart and they've clearly done their research for their particular product.
They make no excuses for being about the bottom line.

They are much more interested in what Jewish parents living within a 20-mile radius of N.E. 8th Avenue think of sending their kids to this location, than they are with what the neighborhood thinks of them being located there, or even whether or not their insistence that their plan to actually have their students eat lunch outside, is the appropriate one, since many people find it hard to believe.
For them, it's all about efficiency.
Period.

Sorry, however good their students may do in school or on standardized tests -and nobody from the neighborhood challenged the central premise that the kids do well at the Hollywood location- for the Hallandale Beach location, their concern is solely about marketing, as I and many others have stated repeatedly since last year.

Because HB City Hall really caved-in big time on this meeting, and there was no presentation of basic facts or even a display of building renderings before it started, for people to look at, the meeting was as predictably and demonstrably bad as I expected when I showed-up, something echoed in comments to me by others who attended.

After it was all over, Hallandale Beach residents quite literally couldn't believe the gall of the whole effort.
First, the one to minimize the legitimate interests and concerns of the city, neighborhood and local HB students, and second, the extent to which the whole night seemed an effort by Peter Deutsch to keep existing Ben Gamla parents happy, so they'd have a high school to send their kids to, since many kids are 'aging out' of their facilities in Hollywood and Plantation.

Deutsch is under-the-gun to find a place for theses older kids to go, since it's clear from their own remarks that the Ben Gamla parents do not want to send their kids to Broward public schools, which they constantly disparaged throughout the meeting, with Hallandale's schools coming under a ton of withering put-downs.

One particularly indignant and voluble Ben Gamla father caused a stir amongst the crowd when he publicly stated that he'd much rather send his son to a Madrassa in Pakistan than to send him to a school in Hallandale Beach. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madrassas_in_Pakistan
Really.

I wonder if Comm. Anthony Sanders heard that particular remark.
I know for sure that Mayor Joy Cooper did.
In case you didn't already know, that's what they think of you and your city, folks.

Frankly, there's no logical reason to think that HB City Hall isn't already trying to "fix" things here as they clearly did for the Diplomat LAC proposal.

To think otherwise would be to deny everything we already know and have learned about the people involved in policy-making at HB City Hall, based on their own track record.

The people there have no qualms about lying to HB's citizen taxpayers or trying to prevent us from accessing public information we are already legally entitled to, and will do so again if they need to.
On that you can depend!

----------
My Wednesday email and blog post about Ben Gamla also linked to this Carli Teproff story in its first incarnation

Miami Herald
April 28, 2010

POSTPONED: Charter school meeting moved to May 7

http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/04/28/1602750/postponed-charter-school-meeting.html

Carli is a very diligent reporter and was completely on top of the ethical nonsense at North Miami Beach City Hall last year.

I lived in the then-brand new apt. complex just south of NMB City Hall and the next door Victory Park Pool and Tennis Courts in third and fourth grade from 1969-'71, when going to Fulford Elementary.

Back when the Maryland Fried Chicken, Dobbs House and Kenin's Coin Shop were popular haunts of mine and my friends along N.E. 19th Avenue, and directly west of City Hall was a great family restaurant/diner that my family always seemed to be at whenever new episodes of The Brady Bunch or The Partridge Family TV shows came on Friday night.
Great Philly Cheese Steak sandwiches!

Miami Herald
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/05/07/1618532/charter-school-proposed-at-gables.html

Charter school proposed at Coral Gables church meets resistance from city

By Carli Teproff

May 7, 2010

Academica, the company hoping to open a charter school at University Baptist Church, pictured here, went before the Coral Gables Development Review Committee on Friday. (Miami Herald file photo)

For Academica to open a charter school with more than 600 students at University Baptist Church, it will have to address parking, traffic and zoning concerns, Coral Gables' Development Review Committee said Friday.

Members of the city's police, fire, building and zoning, architecture, public works and parking departments queried Academica on a wide of range of issues pertaining to the proposed school at the church, 624 Anastasia Ave.

Company officials have said the pre-K through eighth grade school would open in August, although the city maintains the school needs to secure city approval before opening.

Friday's meeting was the first gathering before a city board. The company has maintained it can open the school at the church without city approval because of a state charter school law. In July, the Miami-Dade School Board approved Academica's application to open a school, dubbed Somerset Academy, although no location was specified.

City Attorney Elizabeth Hernandez has said in order to open up a school with more than 110 students -- which is what the property is zoned for -- the city would have to approve zoning and land use changes.

A group of residents who live nearby have formed a neighborhood association to prevent the charter school from opening with more than 110 students.

Attorney Tucker Gibbs, who is representing the group, said the main concern is the added traffic on the residential streets.

``The DRC brought to light a lot of issues that surround the proposal,'' Gibbs said after the meeting. ``The land use does not allow a school there.''

Academia officials have said they're aware of the neighbors' concerns and will try to work with them.

``The school certainly wants to be a good neighbor,'' said Rolando Llanes, the project's architect.

On Friday the city's Development Review Committee -- which is made up of representatives from each department -- went through the committee's concerns before a standing-room only crowd.

Among the concerns raised Friday:

• The number of students. The charter calls for 675 students; the company has said the proposed school can accommodate 735 students.

The committee said the company needs to clarify the exact number of students who will attend the school.

• Coral Gables Police Sgt. Jesse Medina cited added traffic at dismissal time.

Llanes said the plan was to have three dismissal times, 30 minutes apart, to help ease traffic. He noted a maximum of 31 cars could be in the pick-up and drop-off lanes.

``The responsibility will be on the parents,'' Llanes said.

• Parking. Currently, there are 93 spaces used by the church and its preschool, whose enrollment is capped at 110 students and 18 staff members, as per a 1977 commission mandate.

``One of my main concerns is parking,'' said Sebrina Brown, the city's currency administrator.

The architectural firm working with Academia -- Civica Architects -- said there was ample parking. In a packet submitted to the city, the firm said 58 spaces would be required for a 735-student school. It based that calculation on a state school code requiring one space per staff and one visitor space for every 100 students. That is the minimum parking requirement.

Using that methodology, the firm said it needed 58 spaces, 35 more than UBC now has with its 93 parking spaces.

``We have surplus of parking,'' Llanes said.

Jeanne Ann Rigl, who lives close to the church, came to Friday's meeting to speak to the committee.

While the committee meeting was open to the public, community members could not speak because it was not an open forum.

``We were disappointed no one could speak,'' Rigl said.

The company said it will work with the DRC.

Meanwhile, more than 900 parents have written letters of interest to the school, school officials said, and a parent board has been formed. The company operates several other charter schools in South Florida under the name of Somerset Academy.

Gina Delarosa, who lives in the Gables and has two sons, said she came to the meeting to hear more about the school. She said the city would benefit from a charter school.

``I feel like it's going to be a long process,'' she said.

Coral Gables City Hall, 405 Biltmore Way, 33134

David is STILL a great name for a British Prime Minister. Make it a reality today.

Forty-six million eligible to vote today from 7 a.m. -10 p.m. with first results expected around Midnight.
Until the polls close, British radio is only allowed to speak about the election in terms of turnout and what the weather is like in any particular constituency.
No silly media voter polls outside the real polls, perhaps the single worst predictor of anything, as John Kerry supporters foolishly assumed they'd won in 2004 because they led in those polls.

Surprise, George W. Bush voters had no compelling interest in talking to pollsters on their way out of the building so those results were skewed while the real ones were not.

As I write this, I'm listening to BBC Radio 1's The Chris Moyles Show and they're talking about what they're allowed to say and do on-air today and what they'll do after they leave the studio, with one of the crew saying that he's going to go home, wake up at 11 p.m., turn on the TV and eat a pizza that he ordered yesterday.

They seem genuinely surprised that you can pre-order a pizza and a fabulous reference was made to that great scene in Back to the Future where Marty McFly gets a FedEx delivery out in the middle of nowhere sent by Doc Brown years before.

C-SPAN's election "coverage will include a simulcast of the BBC Election Results starting at 4:55pm ET on C‑SPAN3, comprehensive analysis of the returns from key constituencies, and interviews with leading politicians."
See more at: http://www.c-span.org/Series/Prime-Minister-Questions.aspx

Earlier, you at 7 p.m. you can watch the one-hour BBC World News America newscast on BBC America.
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A country is at its best when the bonds between people are strong and when the sense of national purpose is clear. Today the challenges facing Britain are immense. Our economy is overwhelmed by debt, our social fabric is frayed and our political system has betrayed the people. But these problems can be overcome if we pull together and work together.

If we remember that we are all in this together. Some politicians say: ‘give us your vote and we will sort out all your problems’. We say: real change comes not from government alone. Real change comes when the people are inspired and mobilised, when millions of us are fired up to play a part in the nation’s future.

Yes this is ambitious. Yes it is optimistic. But in the end all the Acts of Parliament, all the new measures, all the new policy initiatives, are just politicians’ words without you and your involvement.

How will we deal with the debt crisis unless we understand that we are all in this together? How will we raise responsible children unless every adult plays their part? How will we revitalise communities unless people stop asking ‘who will fix this?’ and start asking ‘what can I do?’ Britain will change for the better when we all elect to take part, to take responsibility – if we all come together. Collective strength will overpower our problems.

Only together can we can get rid of this government and, eventually, its debt. Only together can we get the economy moving. Only together can we protect the NHS. Improve our schools. Mend our broken society. Together we can even make politics and politicians work better. And if we can do that, we can do anything.

Yes, together we can do anything. So my invitation today is this: join us, to form a new kind of government for Britain.

David Cameron: The Big Society

Community Relations

Getting Britain working; strengthening families; reforming schools; controlling immigration; tackling racism and challenging extremism all will play a part in uniting our divided society.

A Conservative Government will end the politics of us and them and put integration at the heart of our policies.

Sayeeda Warsi, Shadow Minister for Community Cohesion and Social Action

http://blog.conservatives.com/index.php/2010/05/05/one-day-to-change-our-country/

http://www.conservatives.com/


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4rS26Bbz2o


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

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

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Times of London

May 1, 2010

Vote of Confidence

The Conservatives offer an optimistic vision for the renewal of Britain. The electorate has made a call for change and they deserve the chance to answer it

The Times has not endorsed the Conservative Party at a general election for 18 years. For far too much of that time, the Conservative Party turned inward and vacated the ground on which British electoral victory is won — a commitment to the prosperity and liberty fostered in a free-market economy and a sense of justice in an open and tolerant society. Tony Blair’s Labour Party took up the promise of modernity, through its commitment to enterprise and the courage to stand tall in the world. Sadly, over the past 13 years that promise has faded. We all know that Britain can do better: it is surely time to regain our optimism.

This election offers a fundamental choice about the future of this country. It offers a moment to put old-fashioned tribal loyalties, class prejudices and social habits aside. We must choose. Either we are to be a country that has lost confidence in the ingenuity and potential of its people, and concludes that the State must continue to grow to protect us from ourselves. Or we can be a country that cares for the needy but reins in the ever-growing appetite of government and frees up people to grow their businesses, nurture their families and pursue their own hopes and happiness.

At an acutely difficult moment in our history, The Times puts its faith in the people rather than the government. It chooses a strong society, more enterprise and a smaller State. It chooses real, radical change. It chooses renewal.

Perhaps the best advertisement of the Labour years can be glimpsed in a scene outside Belfast City Hall on a clear day in December 2005. There, to the backdrop of cheers and pleasure rather than the sound of guns, in a city whose industrial decline had been replaced by the prosperity that has come with modern technology, the first civil partnership was signed. Not everything that was promised and hoped in the roseate glow of 1997 came to pass but one would have to be hard of heart to say that Belfast — like Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle, Leeds — is not a better place today than it was 13 years ago. Under Tony Blair, Britain also had a formidable presence on the world stage under a Prime Minister who backed the EU’s embrace of countries from the former Soviet bloc while also recognising the importance of the transatlantic alliance. In Kosovo, in Sierra Leone and in Afghanistan, Britain’s military capacity was mobilised in defence of a noble principle. The same applies to the Government’s decision to go to war in Iraq in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. And the Government also merits praise for its handling of the banking crisis, which, for an alarming moment in 2007, looked like it might threaten capitalism itself. Those who supported Labour — including this newspaper — can look back with some satisfaction.

But the costs have been too high. A Chancellor who had proclaimed an end to boom and bust embarked on a spending spree of remarkable improvidence. Public sector staff now earn £2,000 a year more on average than their private sector counterparts. Spending rose, over the Labour years, by an extraordinary 54 per cent. Productivity lagged behind. Gordon Brown savaged the private pensions industry and sold off the bulk of Britain’s gold reserves much too cheaply. In short, Labour squandered the boom. Even excluding the cost of the bank bailout, which was necessitated by the global credit crunch, Britain is now borrowing £163 billion a year. Mr Brown’s pitch at this election is that voters should not risk the recovery by backing the Conservatives. He does not seem to realise that the greatest threat is more of the same. Yes, the economy is in peril. Mr Brown is the danger.

Britain has also paid a high price in terms of trust in politics. What began as a professional spin operation in Downing Street became a machinery of deceit. Anonymous briefings by figures such as Damian McBride and Tom Watson, part of the cabal around Gordon Brown, dripped poison about opponents both inside the Labour Party and outside. The public stopped believing in official statistics as the Budget became plagued with double-counting, and the real cost of new schools and hospitals was kept off balance sheet. The 10p starting rate of tax was abolished purely to score a political point. The nadir of this style of politics was Mr Brown’s refusal to fund the mission in Afghanistan properly and his repeated denials that he had done so, culminating in a false claim before the Chilcot inquiry that defence spending had risen every year. After ten years in which he was found wanting in the top job, for the past three he has just been found wanting.

This campaign has been electrified by the rise of Nick Clegg. He seized the first television debate and became the overnight sensation of British politics. It was always likely that the electorate’s anger over greedy MPs and their sense of expenses entitlement would affect this election. But what a gloriously British revolution it turned out to be. Anger and dismay go on the march, and the Liberal Democrats do a bit better.

But the Liberal Democrat prospectus for power still reads like that of a party that has no expectation of victory. There is still something soft-headed about its pitch. Mr Clegg’s approach to the euro has in the past been misguided, but these days it is just muddled: he was for entering; now he is against entry; and he wants to leave open the possibility of entry in the future. He is prone to bouts of rank anti-business populism. Was it really necessary to weigh into the Kraft-Cadbury bid — to play the Whole Nut card — in the TV debate on the economy? Surely he cannot think all bankers are greedy? Worse, Mr Clegg’s approach to the biggest economic problem of the day, the deficit, is to duck it: he wants to hold a meeting. Abandoning the Trident nuclear missile system would be a mistake, parading fanciful figures for the cost savings is an error. Breaking up the banks would be counter-productive: the investment banks would become far more dangerous. If Mr Clegg understands this he is not admitting it. Mr Clegg has built a platform that might allow him to go back to his constituency and prepare to be the Opposition. He has yet, however, to build a serious platform to prepare for government.

That is something that David Cameron has been able to do. Today’s Conservative Party is a very different party to that which went to the country in 2005. Mr Cameron has led that change. It is now clear that the modern Conservative Party believes in the importance of reducing the burden on enterprise and entrepreneurship. Its priorities on education, social policy and the environment are those of a modern, innovative force in politics. Its young leadership has the energy, intelligence and integrity to govern.

More modernisation still would be welcome. The party’s desire to maintain the aid budget is a victory for political branding over good sense. Its policies on the National Health Service put a tactical desire to neutralise Labour attacks before the need for radical reform. The Conservatives also retain a worrying streak of pessimism about foreign policy. Mr Cameron’s decision to remove Conservative MEPs from an alliance with mainstream centre-right parties in the EU may have seemed principled to him, but it was also short-sighted. Britain must not shelter behind foreign policy realism to retreat to a Little Englander role in the world.

In 2005 the Conservatives put an illiberal approach to immigration at the centre of their campaign. In 2010 the voters have demanded that immigration be central and the Conservative response has been measured and intelligent. Mr Cameron has made his party think again about the condition of the nation. His bold vision of a “Big Society” — that there is such a thing as society, but it is not necessarily the State — is powerful. The idea that competition will raise standards in public services, using the State as a catalyst, is the right idea for the 21st century. It is the point where new Labour left off. Mr Cameron’s social liberalism has brought a more diverse set of candidates into his party. He has acted ruthlessly against racism and against MPs who abused their expenses.

None of this has been easy. It has been bought at the cost of some unpopularity with his backbenchers. All the more reason that Mr Cameron, and his chief lieutenants George Osborne, William Hague and Michael Gove, should be commended for their decisiveness and determination. These are qualities that this country now needs.

The central question of this general election is the economic future of the nation. The Conservative Party has shown the most consistent willingness to deal with the atrocious State of the public finances that this Government will bequeath. Under fire from Mr Brown, they have held to this unpopular line. Amid the sound and fury, a fundamental philosophical difference has emerged: the Conservatives want to reduce excessive public expenditure, the Labour Party wants to keep on ratcheting up benefits, tax credits and other forms of state spending. One party recognises the benefits of individual independence. The other keeps fostering a state of benefit dependency. In the race for growth with India, China and other rising countries, the Conservatives know that Britain’s entrepreneurial spirit needs to be unleashed.

The economy is broken and so is politics. It is time for a change, in both the philosophy and the style of government. It is time for us to believe in the power of the individual, the strength of society and the unique promise of this country. Labour is tired, defensive and ruinously reliant on higher government spending. David Cameron has shown the fortitude, judgment and character to lead this country back to a healthier, stronger future. It is time, once again, to vote Conservative.

Times 2010 election homepage: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/

Also, see this great story on CitizensUK:

The Citizens and the Candidates http://sites.google.com/site/mkdeanery/area-dean-2/area-dean-1/thecitizensandthecandidates

Guess who's South Florida's newest public policy genius? Emilio Estefan.

Appearing on John King's USA show on CNN early Wednesday evening, newly minted roving ambassador Emilio Estefan, calling for a boycott of Arizona.

Didn't the Jackson Browne "No Nukes" debacle in the '80's prove the absolute folly of trusting musicians on politics?
Yes.

Below, some screenshots I took while I waited to see how long it would take host John King to ask Estefan if he told Obama what he thought about immigration policy when he and Gloria hosted him recently here in Miami.






http://johnkingusa.blogs.cnn.com/2010/05/05/emilio-estefan-calls-for-boycott-of-arizona/

Excerpts below from http://www.epolitix.com/latestnews/article-detail/newsarticle/parties-defend-immigration-policies/ express what is common sense to most Americans but forever Breaking News to the MSM:

Shadow immigration minister Damian Green said immigration had been "out of control" under Labour, and a Conservative government would bring net immigration down from hundreds of thousands a year to "tens of thousands"
. ...Green said where operated in other countries amnesties simply led to greater levels of illegal immigration.
Exactly!
That's why those poll numbers are the way they are.

Gloria Estefan - Reach (1996 Atlanta Olympics Closing Ceremony)

When Gloria Estefan sang "Reach" fourteen years ago,
she gave me and all my friends gathered in my living room
in Arlington County chills.
There's just no denying her great talent.