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 🛫🌍📺📽️🏈. Photo is of Elvis and Joan Blackman in 'Blue Hawaii'

Beautiful Stockholm at night, looking west towards Gamla Stan

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Alonso Duralde at TheWrap: 'Lincoln' is Steven "Spielberg’s finest work in decades"; Daniel Day-Lewis radiates integrity; Opens nationwide in U.S. on November 16th, opens in U.K. in January



LincolnMovie video: Lincoln Trailer. Uploaded September 13, 2012. http://youtu.be/qiSAbAuLhqs

TheWrap
'Lincoln' Review: Riveting Tale Separates the Man from the Monument
By Alonso Duralde
November 7, 2012
There are few dramaturgical tasks as difficult or as thankless as telling the life story of a Great Man (or Woman), particularly when that historical figure has become the sort of legendary icon featured in national monuments and on currency.
Reads the rest of the review at:

International trailer

Reminder: Film is 150 minutes long, so don't drink a lot before or at the theater.

Trivia: Both of Abraham Lincoln's parents, Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks, had
a father named Abraham!
Hmm-m...

The Daily Mail
Still a silver fox: Daniel Day-Lewis keeps his Lincoln look post-filming... as he shows off his grey hair on lunch date
By Kimberly Dadds
PUBLISHED: 05:43 EST, 7 November 2012 
UPDATED: 06:52 EST, 7 November 2012

And for you regular readers of the blog, what have I had written at the top of this blog since Day One?
"Trust me when I tell you, this part of Florida is NOT the Land of Lincoln."

-----




My mood after a miserable Election Night that saw conscientious friends in Hallandale Beach lose elections, is made tolerable after listening to Veronica Maggio croon a bit, instead of my watching depressing election coverage on TV; My Heart is Bleeding; Måndagsbarn; Snälla Bli Min


Veronica Maggio - Måndagsbarn. Uploaded by UniversalMusicSweden on March 3, 2008. http://youtu.be/NtJxy0zc7nU

Veronica Maggio - Mitt Hjärta Blöder. Uploaded by UniversalMusicSweden on February 15, 2012. http://youtu.be/kJafqgvwKMs



allnicktaken video: Snälla Bli Min. (LIVE på Moraeus med mera, 2011 )
Uploaded on September 18, 2011. http://youtu.be/sWOHGCKPRfU

If Veronica is performing in Sweden in January while I'm there on a combination business and personal trip, I will do everything I can to see her. 

And then some!

-----
http://www.veronicamaggio.se/
https://www.facebook.com/veronicamaggioofficial

https://www.facebook.com/UniversalMusicSweden
https://twitter.com/UniversalSE

http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/veronica-maggio

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

It's time for Hallandale Beach to move forward and for the Joy Cooper era to end; Vote for logic, common sense and transparency: London, Kulin and Lazarow; Vote YES on Question #5 in Hallandale Beach, NO to Questions 1-4 & 6


Sign of the times: The no-man's land for political campaigning outside the Hallandale Beach Cultural Center where early Voting took place for a week until this past Saturday. October 30, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier.© 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved.

When you vote today, you don't have to "settle" for candidates with damaged ethical reputations who represent the failed policies of the past.

You can actually turn the page on those bad times in this city and do yourself, your family and your city a big favor -you can vote to empower candidates who'll be everything those Rubber Stamps weren't and never were going to be: hard-working, well-informed and not only fully aware of how accountable they are to you -not the mayor or the city's employees- but who will provide REAL oversight and ask hard questions when they are necessary.

On Tuesday you'll get your last chance to take Hallandale Beach City Hall back from the ruinous policies, practices and ethics of Joy Cooper, Bill Julian and Anthony A. Sanders, and their consistently anti-democratic, anti-taxpayer attitudes and words with your tax dollars.
Policies that have done real and lasting damage to this community.

Let me remind you of the power of a succinct argument in favor of letting common sense take up residence at City Hall.
It lies not in anything I or any of the three pro-reform candidates can say or write, it lies in your own eyes and your own memories of the very odd things that we all have all witnessed first-hand for years that you knew in your head and your heart were NOT right, were NOT fair, and were certainly NOT  well thought-out.
But they were almost always done anyway, weren't they?

Not by happenstance but by conscious choice of 3-4 people who didn't care what your common sense told you about what they were planning for this city.
Let's face it, common sense and logic have had years of losing streaks at Hallandale Beach City Hall under Mayor Cooper and her Rubber Stamps.

Most of us know that leadership does not emerge intact out of a vacuum, it needs positive encouragement. 
The positive winds of reform are at hand, but they won't take root unless you and your friends who believe in it, and who understand why it represent this area's best hopes for changing the page on this city's current toxic mix of unethical behavior, incompetent governance and reckless financial spending, vote for people who are genuinely committed to it. 

Are you willing to take a stand and be the agent for change you always thought you were, and take advantage of your chance to make a positive difference, or, are you going to play it safe yet again and vote for more of the same old status quo crew that has left our city reeling?

Don't waste the chance to finally undo the YEARS of serious financial and civic damage those three did to this city's residents and small-business owners. 
It's time to take a stand and vote for meaningful reform.

Vote for logic, common sense and transparency: London, Kulin and Lazarow.
Vote YES for Question #5 on HB Charter and NO for the others.

Satz does NOT rhyme with success: Vote NO on Miami Herald's sorry 2012 local and state election coverage: Proof? Their editorial board endorsed carpetbagger Joe Gibbons of Jacksonville and over-the-hill mediocrity Mike Satz BEFORE paper ever printed a single article about their races. Slipshod Herald editors then run thread-bare story about them AFTER the August Primary Early Voting period had started. As usual, too little too late at One Herald Plaza!

Above, my screenshot of grim-faced, low-tech Broward State Attorney Michael "Mike" Satz as he appeared on the August 12, 2012 version of WPLG-TV's "This Week in South Florida" with Michael Putney. Satz, in this office since his 1976 election, was simultaneously imperious and condescending in his treatment of energetic and well-informed Democratic primary opponent Chris Mancini, who hammered Satz over how truly backwards the SAO office is, and their third-rate website has proven this for years, as I know well. Overall, Satz's appearance was like a giant finger-in-the-eye to anyone in Broward who has been paying close attention to how consistently unsuccessful his office has been in rousting public corruption out from City Halls across this county, the most-corrupt in Florida. The FBI has been doing the real heavy-lifting on that, not Satz and his office. Maybe the FBI should come to Hallandale Beach because Satz's office is either ignoring what's right in front of him or hibernating.


Vote NO on Miami Herald's sorry 2012 local and state election coverage. Here's more proof of why you should vote thumbs down...
Question: What do Broward State's Attorney Michael "Mike" Satz and Florida state Rep. Joseph "Joe" Gibbons have in common, besides both being Democrats who (claim) to live full-time in Broward County?

The anti-Gibbons mailer I received in August from his opponent.

Satz does, Gibbons does not, preferring the Jacksonville area where his wife works and his kids live, but it's Satz's job to prosecute Gibbons for breaking the law, isn't it?
Yep!
Guess what? Satz doesn't want to, so residents of SE Broward like me get to be repped by a guy whose head is really in NE Florida, where his family is, not Broward, and occasional drop-in appearances like his this past Saturday among people waiting in line to vote, can't hide that central fact.

It'll be yet another grim reminder of where we live and what passes for journalism in South Florida in the year 2012.

Answer: What they have in common is that the Miami Herald's editorial board endorsed both  carpetbagger Joe Gibbons of Jacksonville and over-the-hill mediocrity Mike Satz BEFORE the newspaper ever printed a single article about their respective races. 

Then, slipshod Herald editors thought they'd pull a fast one on us and ran a thread-bare story.
Yes, but days AFTER the August Primary Early Voting period had already started! 
As usual, too little too late at One Herald Plaza


For the entire time that Putney, Satz and Mancini were on the same set, Satz never once looked at Mancini when he was speaking, even when at great length, which this shows. He channeled Al Gore in the 2000 debates. Did he honestly have no idea how badly he came across to the public. I've watched this entire segment 3-4 times and each time, Satz comes off worse than the previous time. Since Mancini lost in the primary, I'll be voting for Jim Lewis for State's Attorney, as 36 years of Satz is enough.
If Hallandale Beach voters get the reform they want on Tuesday, Broward IG John W. Scott and Broward State's Attorney Mike Satz better get busy, because a letter to Gov. Rick Scott and some key FL legislators about Satz' & Company's INEFFECTIVENESS in cleaning-up corruption here will hammer them but good.

And maybe even lead to an invitation to Gov. Scott and others to come here for a tour of the place where laws are treated like suggestions, and where Joe Gibbons pretends he doesn't know anything at all about what's been going on here.
(But Gibbons doesn't want to admit that it's because the Jacksonville paper he reads at breakfast doesn't run Hallandale Beach news!)

Perhaps the state legislature and pro-ethics Senator Paula Dockery needs to hold a field hearing in Hallandale Beach on the subject of government ethics to hold some Broward elected officials' feet to the fire.
Hmm-m...
I know whom I'd like to see her invite!

Monday, November 5, 2012

Unethical Bill Julian -Looking for another reason NOT to vote for mendacious Hallandale Beach City Commission candidate Julian? Well, he's a devout plagiarist and revisionist historian. Julian continues misrepresenting not only his own record while in office for 9 years, but our city's current reality. The night before Election Day, Julian continues illegally using photos he stole from this blog to promote his candidacy -for an office that he's shown he's clearly unfit for

Above, screenshot of Bill Julian's myth-filled campaign website, featuring three photos of mine that he stole directly from this blog, circled in orange, as it appeared when I first discovered the theft on June 19th. Fourteen weeks later, less than 3 days before Election Day, they're still there, hiding in plain sight. http://billjulian.org/ Julian is not just a repeat offender, but lousy at engaging in a cover-up of his own dishonest behavior.
Less than three full days before Election Day, mendacious Hallandale Beach candidate Bill Julian continues misrepresenting both reality and himself. Dishonest Julian continues illegally using photos from this blog to promote his candidacy for an office that he's repeatedly shown he's NOT "fit" for
FYI: I started this blog post on Saturday but decided to postpone it until tonight to wait for a response to an email I sent on Saturday. As you might guess, it involves Bill Julian's lack of ethical behavior, something you'd know about if you've ever dealt with Bill Julian and his posse. 

When Julian uses the word "Honest" in his campaign materials, he means honest in a way that's very different from the way that most people have come to generally understand the word.

Julian means that he honestly believes what he's saying, regardless of whether or not anyone else does.

Honestly, how many different times can somebody show you, themselves, that they are NOT a person of integrity? 
Not a person to be taken seriously?

On his website, Julian actually has the nerve to try to copyright material that is NOT his to copyright, since appearing on that site is the following: "© Copyright 2012 BillJulian.org All Rights" Reserved Worldwide."

As if that were not enough for this busy plagiarist, Julian is also illegally using my photo of the Hallandale Beach Water Tower on promotional fliers that he has been placing inside small businesses around Hallandale Beach, where the owners know nothing of his true record and penchant for lying, exaggerating or violating the law.

For an example of this, swing by the restaurant known as Zona, on the northeast corner of northbound First Avenue and NE. 3rd Street. It's right on the window.
Yes, the place that used to sell tacos and where everyone always catches the red light near the FEC Railroad tracks.

Below are some of the first emails in a series that have been exchanged the past few days following my phone call on Saturday alerting the owner of the company that hosts Julian's website to Julian using photos of mine for months that he is not legally authorized to use and has not paid for.

Despite the fact that I clearly state near the top of the blog that among other places, my photos are NOT to be used for campaign purposes.
Julian didn't care and stole them anyway.
That's who he is.

The weird part in this whole situation is that the owner of this company, Mike, is defending Julian even while acknowledging that he will NOT ask Julian how he came to have these particular photos, which most of you will recognize on sight since they've been here for so many years. I have a strong feeling that Mike may come to regret that approach of his.

I will have more on this in the coming days, but here are the first few chapters, and all of this aggravation because Bill Julian can't and won't follow the law.

The first email here is from late this afternoon today, going backwards towards Saturday, with me being the referenced DBS. I've eliminated the email addresses here for obvious reasons
------------

Dear Mike:

Despite the fact that someone who has been a public official as long as Bill Julian
should know better, once again, when given the chance, Julian operates NOT within
the scope of the law but on the other side of it.
Did you even ask him how he claims to have the right to use them?
I'm guessing that you did not.

If you ask him, he will NOT be able to answer even the simplest question
about my photos on his campaign website without acknowledging that, in fact,
he stole them without permission and without paying for them.

The Internet is not a Chinese restaurant menu for people the likes of Julian to illegally
pick and choose things they want without permission and without paying.

I sent you a detailed email which specifically had the links to the first time those 
photos -my photos- ever appeared on the Internet, and Google Images also 
proves it since they have the photos there and whose blog is shown as being
the ones that are associated with the photos back in 2008 and 2009, long before
you had ever heard of Bill Julian.

How would that be possible if they were Julian's copyright and his name never 
appears on Google Images associated with them?
They wouldn't. Period

If the photos are still up on Friday morning, and NOT deleted from anything and 
everything that you as the owner and Bill Julian as the client are in control of, I'll 
only be too happy to contact the appropriate legal authorities for redress, and
that includes the Florida Commission on Ethics, which under law, is empowered
to fine candidates in violation, regardless of whether or not they win.

I'm trying my best to save you from being embarrassed by your association with
perpetual scofflaw Julian, but if you keep making excuses for him, and don't use
logic or reason to do what is right, I'm afraid that you,. too, will have a problem that
you can't possibly win on.
Bill Julian, like so many things he did while he was a public official, persists in
acting like he has a justified sense of entitlement, and can do whatever he wants.
No, he can't.

DBS


On Mon, Nov 5, 2012 at 3:40 PM, Mike wrote:

David,
I talked Bill and to my attorney today and will gladly comply with your request once you provide to me proof of your copyright ownership for the graphics in question i.e. .. copyright registration, transfer of copyright ownership documentation or documentation from the US Copyright Office.

Regards,
Mike
Mike-Owner


-------Original Message-------
From: DBS
Date: 11/3/2012 3:04:41 PM
To: mike
Cc: DBS

Subject: re Bill Julian's serial use of my copyrighted photos on his campaign website without my permission, using your resources

Dear Michael:

Per our phone conversation earlier this afternoon about Bill Julian's serial use of my copyrighted photographs on his campaign website without my permission.
Something that I'm sure that he never mentioned to you when setting up his website with you
Obviously, I want those photos of mine removed from his website ASAP.

The first time that I wrote about it was on June 20th, the day after I first discovered he was
illegally using them.

This particular post has the three photos of mine he uses and the specific dates that I first shot
them and how I used them on my blog for years: July 3, 2009: March 3, 2009; and May 8, 2008.

Stop thief, stop! So guess whose campaign website contains 3 of my original blog photos -all taken without permission or paying for them? Bill Julian. Yes, just like Hallandale Beach City Manager Mark Antonio's serial copyright theft of many of my original photos. Antonio will soon learn that stealing just doesn't pay!

Here's some interesting information that I've shared over the past two years that has nothing
to do  with Julian's illegal use of my photos on his website(s), but which I'm sure Julian probably
never  mentioned to you -info that lots more Hallandale Beach residents and TV/print reporters
and columnists know about than he knows:








I'd appreciate your quick attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

DBS, Hallandale Beach, FL

-----
Late Monday addition to the blog post.
Almost forgot to mention it earlier but...

The city's rules regarding campiagn signage are very clear and given to each candidate by the City Clerk.
During Early Voting, campaign signs around the city's Cultural Center may NOT be left overnight.
They must be picked up following voting each and every night.

Early Voting was over Saturday night and yet as of late Monday afternoon there is one Hallandale Beach candidate who has chosen NOT to follow the rules -Bill Julian.
There's no other city candidate in violation of this rule around the City Hall Municipal Complex, just Bill Julian. (No, not even Mayor Cooper and Comm. Sanders.)

His very large campaign sign has been in place on city property near the cannons around the circle between City Hall and the Cultural Center and was still there as of Monday at 3:30 p.m., 45 hours after Early Voting concluded.
Please explain to me why he has been allowed to violate the city's own rules and the sign was not confiscated by Code Compliance and moved by the city? Hmm-m...

Sunday, November 4, 2012

More fact checking of the Miami Herald for signs of commitment to real journalism reveals self-evident bias: It's almost as if Miami's Downtown Business Establishment ordered Herald to print swooning love letter to Miami-Dade Schools Supt. Alberto Carvalho on front page, 2 days before public votes on bond issue Carvalho and Herald champion -Herald enthusiastically salutes idea and only shows readers more proof of why it can't be trusted to objectively report local news in South Florida


July 3, 2011 photo of Miami Herald vending machine in Hallandale Beach, FL by South Beach Hoosier. The Herald continues to show that there are lots of news stories in South Florida that it can not be relied upon to report accurately or honestly © 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved.

More fact checking of the Miami Herald for signs of commitment to real journalism reveals self-evident bias: It's almost as if Miami's Downtown Business Establishment ordered Herald to print swooning love letter to Miami-Dade Schools Supt. Alberto Carvalho on front page, 2 days before public votes on bond issue Carvalho and Herald champion -Herald enthusiastically salutes idea and only shows readers more proof of why it can't be trusted to objectively report local news in South Florida 

Like 99% of all the stories the Miami Herald has run about Miami-Dade Schools Supt. Alberto Carvalho the past few years, today the Miami Herald's reporters and editors have once again refused to put away their pom pons and bias while pretending to be real ink-stained wretches -and perform some real acts of random journalism- by refusing to make a serious effort to perform basic journalism tasks like finding anyone critical of this poorly thought-out bond effort and why it should be any better managed than the last one.

And who's doing the polling for these smug characters who think nothing of using tax dollars to lobby for a yes vote?
Hmm-m...yes, it's such an obvious question given that all of the stories on this issue inevitably involve quoting one of the handful of Miami pollsters who work for everyone in town, but the Herald's guileless reporter seems to have never considered the possibility that one pollster might sandbag another in an article like this and is laughing their ass off at the fact that they got away with it.

Taxpayers with a yen to save money rather than get their news straight might well feel "Who needs PR spin doctors at the School Board when the Herald will it do for free?"

I last wrote about education policy, the M-D School Board and this reporter in particular on September 10, 2012 in a blog post titled, Fact checking the Miami Herald's dubious claims on Education: Over the weekend, I unexpectedly found myself forced to 'school' the Herald's Executive Editor after she bragged about the Herald's coverage of Education. I had to bring up some inconvenient facts rebutting that claim

Miami Herald
Miami-Dade Superintendent Carvalho not on ballot, but stands to win big  
Miami-Dade superintendent Alberto Carvalho staked his prestige on voters approving a $1.2 billion bond issue to fix schools. The bet looks like it’s about to pay off.
By Laura Isensee
November 4, 2012
One of Miami-Dade’s smoothest politicians just might persuade tax-weary voters to OK a $1.2 billion bond issue to finance school and technology upgrades, repaid with property taxes.
And he’s not even elected.
(If you can believe it, the article actually gets MUCH worse from here on in. The only thing that isn't done in this sycophantic story is a long description of the sort of suits Carvalho wears, and maybe something faux insider about how he keeps his physique, with more details on both than anyone could possibly care about.)

Read the rest of the article, if you can call it that, at:

For more on what's going on these sorts of issues at the School Board, go to the Miami-based Audacious Lady blog, by Natasha Alvarez, at http://www.audaciouslady.com/


See a list of projects that the bond will address

Most news articles that appear in the Miami Herald disappear within 10-14 days of their first appearance on the website and proceed to their Paid Archives where most will never be seen again.
It's a sign of how much the Herald and its top management support this particular bond issue that they seem to have changed their own extant corporate procedures by keeping ALL of the links to stories on this subject LIVE. 
What does that tell you?
Correct, the newspaper is NOT an objective source of news on this subject.

Campaign for school bonds starting in Miami-Dade
One pollster believes the bond referendum has a good chance of passing. Voters will be asked if they want to borrow $1.2 billion to upgrade school buildings and technology
By Laura Isensee
August 31, 2012
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/08/31/2978752/campaign-for-school-bonds-starting.html


PAC names leaders to support Miami-Dade school bond vote  
On the roster: former elected officials, business leaders, a community activist and an ex-Miami Heat player.
By Laura Isensee
September 14, 2012

Video: Triumph the Insult Comic Dog hits the U.S. presidential debate in Boca Raton and immediately heads for the media spin room in search of political nuance and intelligent discussion among the assembled media hordes and the party's surrogates...for Triumph to poop on!; Robert Smigel's comic genius returns to the small screen again!



TEAMCOCO video: Conan O'Brien Show on WTBS: Triumph the Insult Comic Dog hits the last of the three U.S. presidential debates held at Lynn University in Boca Raton, and immediately heads for the media spin room in search of political nuance and intelligent discussion among the assembled media hordes and the party's surrogates...for Triumph to poop on! Uploaded October 26, 2012. 
http://youtu.be/I46iwLIF1Fo

http://teamcoco.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triumph,_the_Insult_Comic_Dog

http://www.vice.com/read/robert-smigel-556-v17n10



Tvrecycled video: Robert Smigel & Louis C.K. doing a comedic bit from a 1993 appearance on the Conan O' Brien Show where they were writers. Uploaded March 15, 2010. http://youtu.be/2FFyNyfOqQQ

Saturday, November 3, 2012

Déjà vu opinions from a new perch: National Journal's Beth Reinhard may've left the Miami Herald behind, but she STILL makes the same tired and unpersuasive arguments as before. You'll never guess who she writes will be the key to 2012 vote. Surprise -Hispanics! She's wrong -it's actually Catholics in the Midwest and PA


Déjà vu opinions from a new perch: National Journal's Beth Reinhard may've left the Miami Herald behind, but she STILL makes the same tired and unpersuasive arguments as before. You'll never guess who she writes will be the key to 2012 vote. Surprise -Hispanics! 
She's wrong -it's actually Catholics in the Midwest and PA



If you think that former Miami Herald political reporter and columnist Beth Reinhard can go even three sentences in this story WITHOUT mentioning the I-4 Puerto Rican voters that we've all been reading about for at least 18 months, you LOSE.

Lose, just like Herald readers did for so many years when they opened the paper and thought that if only out of randomness, perhaps that would be one of the few times in the year when they might see something original under her byline, and yet inevitably, what would follow was almost always the same banal and predictable words and "observations" about subjects that we'd all already seen.
Already seen and better-described and analyzed by other reporters and columnists MANY MONTHS before.

Yes, she even comes up with some of the predictable italicized names (for Hispanic food) to show that she's in touch.
Que Dios!

The National Journal
The Story of the Hispanic Vote Is the Story of the 2012 Campaign
Cuban-Americans aren’t the only Latinos candidates need to woo in Florida. Puerto Ricans also command attention.
By Beth Reinhard
Updated: November 1, 2012 | 9:39 p.m. 
November 1, 2012 | 2:00 p.m.

My favorite part?
Where after NOT explaining why Spanish-surnamed voters in the near-future will politically be more like Puerto Ricans than Cubans or Mexicans or Central Americans, and thereby curtail Cubans' relative power and favored role in Florida and the U.S., at the beginning of the fifth pargraph. 
Just saying it doesn't make it so.

There, she lays this gem on the table:
"Regardless of the outcome, the Hispanic vote will be one of the most important markers of the parties’ futures...'"
Sounds like backsliding and equivocating to me.
  
It's not for nothing that I once justifiably titled a blog post here -on September 3rd, 2010-
Addition by subtraction: Beth Reinhard leaving Miami Herald, heading to D.C. and The National Journal. Herald readers finally win one!, http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2010/09/addition-by-subtraction-beth-reinhard.html

What time zone is she in? And year?
More past posts that mentioned Reinhard are here:
http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/search?q=reinhard

The only saving grace -and I do mean ONLY- is that Reinhard doesn't make the obligatory butt-kissing reference to some Univision TV personality flacking a book like Jorge Ramos, did in 2004, complete with grandiose and self-serving reference to the power of people with tildes in their last name, something that Reinhard surely would have seen fit to do if she were still at the Herald.

What's that?
You say that you don't you recall the name of the Ramos book from 2004?
It was "The Latino Wave: How Hispanics Will Choose the Next President"
Hmm... not so much.

But because he's one of their favorites, America's Mainstream Media just pretends that boast and the book behind it never existed, and it's like Ramos never got an at-bat and struck-out.

At One Herald Plaza, right on Biscayne Bay, there still seem to be far too many people, even in the year 2012, who haven't caught on to the fact that their constant sycophantic need to make Hispanic media or Hispanic-oriented advertising executives -especially the ones in Miami whom the Herald wants to sell advertising space to or partner with, with all its attendant log-rolling- the ones quoted so extensively and so over-the-top in articles about Spanish-language media the past few years, sound like young Jones Salks, instead of car salesmen or Hi-Fi salesmen of the mid-1970's that they are, reeks of desperation.
Would you like that new stereo with "Quad" sound, sir?

The people they've quoted so promiscuously were nothing more than salesmen trying to sell something -a product or service.
That's fine, but there's nothing lofty or high-minded about selling toilet paper and air freshener and cookie and beer, so stop acting like there is.
It's sales!
That's all it is.

Friday, November 2, 2012

Let the critics chew over that! The best -EVER! October 2012 is THE best month ever at Hallandale Beach Blog with 35,346 individual pageviews - a daily average of 1,140 views; @MayorCooper, @SandersHB, @AlexLewy


October 3, 2012 photo by South Beach Hoosier. © 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved.

My most-read blog post for the month is one from October 15th that really hit the spot for lots of very frustrated residents and small business-owners -news media members- in Hallandale Beach and environs, titled, "Ethics? Not for us! Follow-up to my post re Hallandale Beach's unethical "business as usual" attitude, with "special rules for special people" if they are named Joy Cooper, Bill Julian and Anthony A. Sanders; What ethics? What rules? @MayorCooper, @SandersHB"
That post is now one of the sixth most-read posts in the history of this blog and now stands at 
2024 individual pageviews... and counting.

It looked at not only the record of very bad judgment of Joy Cooper, Bill Julian and Anthony A. Sanders when it comes to ethics and how they've comported themselves in office and out, but their current campaigns, where they have kept the city's Code Compliance Dept. busy removing their illegally erected signs, including all the ones they and their supporters have put on city property/facilities far from the city's one-and-only Early Voting site.

The record is clear that regardless of the particular circumstances, over-and-over again, these three will say and do whatever they want, not what the state, county and city's own rules and laws prevent, and frankly, they don't much care what the Broward Inspector General or the Broward State's Attorney and their staffs think.
Yes, the former is calling the latter's bluff -and the latter is snoozing.

(To say nothing of their lack of positive achievements the WHOLE CITY can actually take pride in. A city budget that's nearly doubled in size in 6-8 years? No thanks!!!)

If you care about such things, the four most-popular browsers coming to the blog for October and their percentage: Chrome (32%), Internet Explorer (29%), Firefox (23%), Opera (7%)

I started keeping track of monthly statistics in summer of 2008, so I have no reliable numbers for the first year of the blog.
As much as I can recite sports stats or team rosters or political results or songs from 30 and 40 years ago, it never occurred to me at the time to keep track of the blog's stats that first year, though, in retrospect, I wish I had.

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Contradictions! If Hallandale Beach's budget can nearly double in 6-8 years under Joy Cooper, with little tangible to show for it for taxpayers, why can't taxpayers at least have city employees who earn their salaries thru diligence, performance and attention to detail -instead of none of those? Like having a safe, well-lit area for Early Voters outside the city's Cultural Center for the first day of an event that's been known for SEVERAL MONTHS?; @MayorCooper



Butler1Mike YouTube Channel video: Hallandale Beach Mayor Cooper contradicts herself, saying that she didn't vote for the city's overly-generous pension plan in 2001 that lasted for many years, but then defends the pension plan that the city had that has (or will) make multi-millionaires out of several employees, including three former City Managers, as entirely appropriate for a city so small. Yes, here as she has so many times over the nine years that she has been mayor, Joy Cooper shows herself to be one enormous ball of contradictions, which is why there is never an intersection of logic and reason and genuine taxpayer accountability in her city. Just her doing whatever she wanted, saying whatever she wanted, and flying by the seat of your pants! Uploaded October 31, 2012. http://youtu.be/xhlnEezjZGU

http://www.youtube.com/user/Butler1Mike


No Broward city let's you down more consistently and more predictably when it comes to attention to detail than...

For those of you who were there last Saturday morning at 6:45 a.m. like me, how awesome was it to see all the hustle-and-bustle and nervous energy of so many voters, candidates and their friends milling around the Hallandale Beach Cultural Center, the only site in the city for Early Voting, and just as about any of us could've predicted, about half of the city's parking lot lights and safety lights around the Center were NOT working.
When it was near pitch-black.

Just like last week, last month and last year.
Just like 2008's Early Voting!
Like it always is!


All October 27, 2012 photos below by South Beach Hoosier. © 2012 Hallandale Beach Blog, All Rights Reserved.


The light above in the foreground is from my camera's flash, otherwise none of the signs would be legible to you.




Again, without my flash, you'd see no shadowy figure crossing at the designated place. You know, without lights that actually work, those security cameras aren't nearly as effective.
Looks like the lights on the access route from S.E. 3rd Street were out, of course!
Not that the police or the police chief who drive on it constantly ever notice and do something about it. 
Nope!

Yes, you'd never know by the appearance of so very much neglected maintenance that the city's Police Dept. HQ was just steps away, given how very lax the city has been for so many years about basic safety and common sense and liability issues.
"Liability," what's that?

If you're like me, how funny was it to see the myriad candidates and their devoted friends and family members handing-out their campaign palm cards to voters lined-up on a median strip in the parking lot, south of the Cultural Center -and outside of the "no campaigning zone"- waiting patiently for a Broward Supervisor of Elections official to come out and have the first few people come inside to exercise their right to vote, and yet the folks at the end of the line could NOT even read the palm cards they were handed because they were so far from a working light and it was so very dark?
Yes, good times, indeed!

What could be better than lots of senior citizens parking and walking around in poorly-lit parking lots early in the morning? What could possibly go wrong? 

So, do you see all the dozens of Early Voters lined-up at 6:57 a.m.?

Who needs city Dept. heads and employees who actually show a little foresight once in a while, and who earn their salary thru hard work and attention to detail, when you can, instead, have SO MANY of the sort that we seem to have been blessed with here in Hallandale Beach?

Government employees who have a larger sense of entitlement -and a seeming chip-on-their-shoulders- than would seem normal based on the constant sub-par look of the city, both aesthetically and maintenance-wise.
City employees who, for whatever reason, perhaps tradition, think that their performance is NOT Job One, but rather an abstract idea that they never have to actually reach, just pretend to aspire to at Dept. meetings.

After all, if we've learned anything in nine years of living here, it's that there are absolutely no consequences to employees' continued poor performance or chronic bad attitude or perpetual surliness to taxpayers, the real bosses, of course.

(I sometimes wonder what it's like in the cities where all those City of HB employees live, since so few Dept. heads and regular employees actually live here, otherwise perhaps they'd take more pride in their job. Clearly, not, though.)

Yes, the fact that it's been known for several months now that this location would be the City of Hallandale Beach's ONLY site for Early Voting made it entirely predictable that on the first day, many voters would think they'd beat the rush by showing-up to vote first thing at 7 a.m.
And for those of you reading this far from these shores, yes, even here in sunny South Florida, at this time of the year, it's very dark at 6:45 in the morning.

Of course, most of these voters, unlike most of us who regularly attend civic meetings or City Commission meetings at or around Hallandale Beach City Hall, and thus, who already know how bad things are safety-wise around City Hall and Bluesten Park two blocks away when the sun is NOT out, could't have planned for how very poorly prepared the city was.

I guess it was a good thing, after all, that there were no surprise guests from the Romney-Ryan team showing-up as some had been saying via the grapevine and some emails I received the night before, since even with the TV camera lights, with so many city lights out, it would've been hard to do anything that would've looked good on TV, either LIVE or recorded for airing later in the day.

Yes, I'd gone there early that morning after getting no sleep overnight to lend some encouragement to some friends who are running for office as pro-reform candidates -Keith London for mayor, and Csaba Kulin, Michele Lazarow and Gerald Dean for City Commission- observe a bit and and snap some photos and video of the activities.

But instead, even while doing those things, I walked into what was yet another discouraging reminder of how poorly-run this city has been under Mayor Cooper the past nine years, and how consistently poor performance has no consequences for employees, no matter who they are or how much money they make.

Changing that pernicious culture of entitlement, bad attitudes and sleepwalking performance at HB City Hall, of making sure that Hallandale Beach taxpayers REALLY DO receive a dollar's worth of work and services for a dollar's worth of taxes, and, finally having real consequences for city employees who are NOT performing up to the public's expectations, no matter who they are, is why I'm voting the way I am on Tuesday.

If you live here and really care about what sort of future this city will have, of what kind of quality of life you and your family can enjoy, I strongly suggest you do the same.
Vote London, Kulin, Lazarow & Dean, YES for City Charter Question #5, and NO to all the other HB Charter questions.

It's now five days and counting 'till the day you can finally reclaim your city back from the very people who have taken you and your neighbors for granted, have constantly tried to squelch your rights whenever they could, and who have made an art of wasting your tax dollars in ways that would be laughable if they weren't so painful and expensive.

There are four candidates in this city who have stood-up when it counted -including right now.
You already know their names - I just said them

Not perfect people, of course, but people much like yourself who genuinely care about this city's future, and who fervently believe that this city's residents deserve -at a minimum- to be properly respected once again by a Mayor and City Commission that doesn't continually embarrass them thru their repeated poor judgment and ethical lapses.
Imagine that?

Actually represented by a Mayor and City Commission with some genuine integrity, and represented by people who are properly-prepared for public meetings, and who aren't afraid of the hard work and heavy-lifting that will surely be required to get this city out of its current slide into irrelevancy.

You've said for years that you wanted honest and hard-working people in charge at City Hall who would fight for real reform and financial accountability, and finally clean-up this city's poor image.
Well, now it's up to you to actually show-up and vote for it and the candidates who will make it a reality.

What sort of city do you want to wake-up to next Wednesday morning?

THAT'S the question you as a voter have to answer positively when you get the chance.

http://kulin2012.com/