User profile: bsdetector
Joined: Aug. 27, 2006
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Posted on November 26 at 3:02 a.m.
We don't have to make a deal with Cuba or any other country. There is an abundance of sugar available on the open market -- at about one third the price we pay thanks to protective legislation bought and paid for by the sugar industry.
This scam on Florida taxpayers, as presently revised, involves paying about $7500 an acre for the land. That the sugar industry gets to lease it back for $50 an acre proves the true value is way below that.
And of course, if Congress ended the protectionism and got serious about protecting the environment -- the land could be purchased for a fraction of what the governor has agreed to pay as this ill-suited industry would simply cease to exist.
Posted on November 23 at 1:17 p.m.
Florida state law allows counties to design their own management systems -- via a charter. Most of the state's non-rural counties operate under charters written in accordance with their chosen manner of governing. But not Collier -- the most populated non-charter county in the state.
Our commissioners have steadfastly refused to even consider a charter -- allowing misperceptions to rule the day. Instead of a charter, Collier operates on a default system laughingly called Home Rule. Of course, "homus-rulus" is a Latin term for "Operating under the thumb of the state legislature."
Among other things, Home Rule (or Bubba Government) means the state gets to put 5 stoolies in place -- charitably called "Constitutional Officers" -- to make sure counties that lack the resources or ambition to design their own plan don't get too far out of line.
One of those Constitutional Officers is the Clerk of Courts. The others are the Tax Collector, the Property Appraiser, the Supervisor of Elections, and of course, the one who gets to keep everyone else in line, the Sheriff. None of whom work for the county -- which is only required to pay their expenses, not tell them what to do.
This Clerk is simply doing the job his employer, the entity that gets to write his job description, is asking him to do. If the person holding this state mandated office didn't have the power to audit, what good would the position be?
The county commission can at any time appoint a panel to study the concept of independence -- and to write a draft charter that would then be put to a vote. There is lots of "wiggle room" in what a charter can contain, including incorporating the jobs done now by the dreaded state officers into county positions -- supervised by, ta-daa! ...the county commissioners!
The CO's will fight this tooth and nail, of course, because above all they are bureaucrats imbued with power -- and these are gifts not easily surrendered. But it's been done before.
The taxpayers have the final say, and if they want real home rule, with authority over the sheriff, the tax collector, and even the clerk of courts, it will happen. But it probably will never come to pass here. It's just too much fun for the BCC to argue with Dwight Brock.
But best of all he gets to invent -- and we are regaled -- with witty retorts such as "Thanks, but no thanks."
Posted on November 23 at 12:34 p.m.
Caught by surprise? Off guard? Really?
Isn't this the same ill-suited, environmentally disastrous, and unneeded industry that has kept itself afloat with legalized bribes all these many decades? Import quotas, price 'supports,' subsidies, and look-the-other-way pollution enforcement have cost American consumers untold millions of dollars over the years -- and driven much of the confection industry to Canada.
That the sugar barons continue to scheme and deceive, even as they bask in the offer of over a billion dollars of taxpayer money for land they have rendered nearly worthless given the cleanup costs, should surprise no one.
A few months ago, if we are to believe the account of how the governor's offer was sprung on the representatives of Big Sugar, their "jaws dropped" at the idea of selling land and getting out of the business. Now, in another stretch of credulity, there is suddenly a company willing to outbid the state's ridiculous offer? Predictably, it's a company that employs an even more offensive process -- not only do they grow cane and make sugar, but they then convert it to a carbon-based fuel. Talk about creating a Hobsonian choice!
Guess the state will have to get into a bidding war -- with the magic number a simple return to the original price of $10,000 an acre.
This kind of hubris can only come from people who wrote the book on buying political influence -- and their handmaidens, the bureaucrats who continue to carry water for the sugar lobbyists.
It's going to be a great contest for the title of Most Arrogant Industry -- between the dinosaur car business, run by executives who are oblivious to arriving at the beggars table in corporate jets, and Big Sugar, which has existed on political handouts for so long it still dares to play games with a buyout offer that is so excessive as to defy all bounds of common sense.
The only possible surprise in all this will be if the feds and the state were to enforce the pollution laws, cancel all the protectionist legislation, and allow this business to seek its own survival on a level playing field.
Posted on November 19 at 8:22 a.m.
The county claims that "water access for all the people" is a top priority but keeps letting marinas and waterfront property slip through its fingers.
For a lot less than half the cost of a landlocked water amusement park that is closed half the year, citizens could have owned the Wiggins Pass Marina and enjoyed its capacity to store several thousand of the boats that currently litter driveways and empty lots across the county.
But the BCC got fooled by a slick pitch that included a "donation" of a couple of million dollars in return for a permit to build more unneeded condos. Now the project is bankrupt, the county doesn't have the money, and all we have to show for it is one more example of having squandered convenient water access for the masses.
You gotta wonder how they will manage to mess this one up, too.
On Collier commissioners put off Port of the Islands marina purchase
Posted on November 13 at 7:23 a.m.
There is hidden sleaze in the claim, that "the companies are not going to set the toll rate." The toll rate will be dictated by state law, which is written and enacted by a pliable and easily influenced legislature. Can you spell L-O-B-B-Y-I-S-T?
Remember, folks, tolls will be determined by the same system that gave us insurance reform, property tax relief, and the buyout (at peak-of-the-market pricing) of the sugar industry. The state administration has proven time and again that it is easily maneuvered by cigar-chomping, back-slapping shills for the moneyed interests. That has not and will not change.
Big Sugar provides the perfect model: here is an industry that was never suitable for this country, neither for the climate, our ecological sensitivities, nor our labor market. Sugar has needed protective legislation from the start -- but high-pressure politics have kept it on artificial life support for decades, the public good cast aside again.
So now we are expected to believe the state will finally bend to the wishes and needs of the people rather than big money? HA!
State law will quietly be amended so that tolls will rise -- not by a COL index as currently written -- but according to the 'needs' of the investors from Spain, or China, or wherever.
This "the state will control the tolls" is just so much malarkey from state officials attempting to steal future toll revenue to squander now to cover up more fiscal irresponsibility.
Think about how much money insurance reform and property tax relief has put in your pocket. Than evaluate this latest scam in that context. Remember, it's the very same bureaucracy talking down to you!
On Residents speak out about Alligator Alley toll increase, proposed lease
Posted on November 7 at 3:59 a.m.
Bonuses or not, there are lawsuits being prepared for filing. Unless they are summarily dismissed (unlikely, given the issues being raised) the matter will be tied up for years and the bidders will simply go elsewhere.
Charlie turned himself from a potential VP candidate to a political liability over this. Even lawmakers who voted for the enabling legislation now see this as a millstone around their necks -- giving the Aronberg bill a good chance of passage.
If it does, this dumb proposal to sell off a public asset for a relatively small amount of cash will become little more than an historical curiosity.
Posted on November 3 at 5:23 a.m.
This is Crist's idea from the beginning. He's getting a well-deserved pummeling over the fundamental irresponsibility of the plan and the sleazy way it's been handled by FDOT.
The scheme to sell Alligator Alley and other state assets has been a major political boondoggle for Charlie, who in a typical politician's response has simply run for cover, hoping the storm eventually passes.
The gov thought he'd found the perfect political scheme: steal revenue from 50 years worth of toll collections and use it to cover up current financial incompetence and mismanagement. The notion of leaving a huge shortfall in future revenues for subsequent administrations to figure out hasn't set well with the public, which has given the proposal a near 90% disapproval rating.
In the process of trying to pull a fast one on the public, Charile squandered his prior reputation as a "popular governor" and quite likely blew any chance he had to be John McCain's running mate.
I suspect Charlie would rather see this whole mess go away, and I am suggesting he may in fact be quietly promoting the passage of Senator Aronberg's bill.
Posted on October 29 at 4:32 a.m.
A letter writer suggests that "President Bush should immediately resign the office of the presidency, thereby turning over the reins to the president-elect."
Sorry, there is no "thereby." The conclusion that a president-elect would ascent to the top office under any circumstances is dead wrong. The Presidential Succession Act of 1947 prevails. A president-elect has no status and is not a factor.
If Bush resigned, Dick Cheney would assume the presidency. Were he to leave office, the job would go to the Speaker of the House. From there, subsequent resignations would result in the presidency being assumed by, respectively, the President pro tempore of the Senate, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of Defense, and so on according to the order the offices were first created.
Posted on October 16 at 8:29 a.m.
Yes, the campaigns are trivial, negative, childish, and devoid of any meaningful or substantive matter. A fairly good match to the defining characteristics of the average swing voter.
Unfortunately, most people are too busy or apathetic to be involved in day-to-day politics. Relatively few citizens can name the people who represent them at any level, and fewer still are familiar with any part of our system of government.
For better or worse, campaigns are directed at the lowest common denominator -- the fundamentally ignorant voter who is likely to respond only to base-level notions such as "my opponent is a crook," "I will take money from the rich and give it to you," or "you deserve free health care and I'm going to give that to you as well."
Class warfare and a free lunch are powerful tools in getting elected, followed closely by smear tactics against the other guy that essentially declare "he's an even bigger jerk than I am."
So we wind up with ill-suited candidates. On one side in the current presidential election, we have an academic elitist -- well spoken and a talented presenter -- but a greenhorn in leadership matters; a man who should be running for office in one of the European nanny states, preaching cradle-to-grave theories to those who don't know or care that economic models discouraging incentive -- coupled with an aging population -- are doomed to abject failure.
On the other, a well-intentioned but doddering career politician who has been passed over by time -- if there ever was a time for someone with such confused and unfocused political views to emerge as a brilliant visionary and leader for a country of over 300 million people.
Here we are, days from the election and neither candidate has made the sale -- even in the detritus left behind by 8 years of the most incompetent administration in the history of the country. Polls -- those that matter -- are all within the margin of error and/or the over-polling that some issues and candidates occasion.
It was the brilliant New York City builder Sullivan who popularized the aphorism "Form follows function." Nothing more aptly proves the point than the degenerate process in play electing a leader for the United States with the votes of people who have noting to contribute, an implacable attachment to simplicity, and a third-grade level of reasoning that ties it all together.
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Posted on December 2 at 5:30 a.m.
This scam is so transparent it's laughable.
The governor gets to steal a big pile of money that belongs to future administrations and has it to squander on his own pet projects -- such as handing it to sugar barons who should be put out of business, not rewarded with warehouses full of cash stolen from future taxpayers.
Oh sure, the line is that the money from the sale of the Alley will be spent locally, on transportation needs, to build roads, etc. But any idiot knows that money is the most fungible of all commodities and funds that would have been dedicated to those needs then becomes available to waste on legacy-building and vote-buying schemes. This is Ponzi writ large.
One can only hope that the people talking tough about blocking this shameful heist through legislation and lawsuits will find success. The state has intentionally been dragging this out in the hope that the opposition will tire and fade away.
Wouldn't it be condign justice if the successful "bidder" from Dubai, China, or wherever were to spend millions keeping the deal alive while all this gets sifted out in the courts -- only to finally tire of the whole process and do a fade away of its own?
This can only work if the governor and the legislature are right about the public being gullible, ignorant, and apathetic. And why shouldn't they try to pull this one off, too? We've been suckers in the past, easily falling for the promises of campaign finance reform, insurance rate rollbacks, and property tax reductions -- with little or nothing to show for any of it in the end.
This time, just say NO to these crooks!
On Alligator Alley meeting Tuesday night in Naples