Changes and Remaining the Same

(Pictures Gesu Catholic Church c. 1922 and Trinity Episcopal Cathedral c. 1896. Coconut Grove Playhouse c. 1926, Happy Easter!)
1. Possible Error warning. Vouching for people's integrity is a serious thing for me. I figure that individuals that despise me are near legion. As much as I don't give a flying leap about other people's dislike, wrong headed ideas or assumptions, I would take a moment to pimp smack the shit out of anyone who said I don't assist those in need much less take advantage of them. And I've also never treated an employee badly in my entire life. Those things go to character.

Five people shared their very dim view of yesterday's Miamista shout-out recipient. I knew one. Reasons? Maltreatment of employees and a lack of genuine concern for the needy. I spoke from limited knowledge and these people may be doing the same. Everything with a grain of salt. Notwithstanding I should have reserved that support for people I could vouch for regardless of such feedback. I have to be very honest here and say that I heard mixed reports about the SFICWJ so I thought I would go with him as your contact person. I hear that Fr. Frank Corbishley at the University of Miami is a good hearted soldier. Either way it's about the workers. We need to continue to support the unionization effort. 11 days into the hunger strike now!

2. Miami city manager Joe Arriola is going out wit' a bang! Undereducated, unqualified, ill tempered, corrupt and clownish? Yes. Boring? No! At a chamber of commerce forum this week he called columnist Jim DeFede Jabba the Hut, (complete with mocking hand movements and sound); another male reporter a make up wearing drunk, (with an obvious gay insinuation) and called a bunch of other folks all sorts of worthless, crybaby losers. Following this performance he promptly made his way to a Heat game where security had to be called because of his unruly behavior. (Recall he was thrown out of a game earlier this year for walking on the court, cursing screaming at officials.) The games were televised and I'm sure Arriola's latest outburst will make its way to a wire service sinc e it was videtaped... In recent weeks he reeled off expletive ridden tirades at/to reporters saying that he would go when he damn well wanted. After the news broke that he was being pushed into retirement he stated he "was just fucking with (reporters)".

His legacy will live on. Beyond his firing or demoting of 21 of 22 department heads and threatening new and old to do what he wants, no questions asked if they didn't want to be fired themselves; he also gave favored developers variances like gumdrops; hired unqualified cronies to plumb positions at unheard of salaries; threatened to withold hurricaine relief if residents did not vote for candidates he supported; illegally intervened into the process of firing a department head at the behest of a commisioner; handed out consultancy jobs to cronies; oversaw the waste and fraudulent misuse of millions of dollars for low income housing, forcing HUD to cut funding to the city; pushed through a backdoor pay raise for his boss; pushed through the illegal fire fee deal to pull the city of debt while enriching cronies and cheating citizens...

Even in academia his feats are recognized. This excerpt from the Herald: "CONFLICTS `AMAZING', Judy Nadler, a senior fellow in government ethics at Santa Clara University -- and a former Santa Clara mayor -- said Miami leaders' actions present so many potential conflicts it is ``amazing.''''I think I'm going to end up writing this as a case study,'' Nadler said, citing issues such as transparency and mayor-city manager relationships."

*Manny Dickhead reiterated his total support of Mr. Arriola throughout. Now he wants to be seen as finally seeing the light, by dealing rather sternly in not letting Arriola announce his "retirement". Arriola can't like that. More sparks?

*Note: An upcoming post will deal with what Manny could do to redeem himself and his political viability. Send your ideas.

3. Shortest story, quickest to be taken down from the Miami Herald site? Originally written in haiku, the story was expanded just enough to downplay the charges (notably differing from the original police report in tone.) Prosecutors nixed the felony charges and declined the abuse and resisting arrest charges against Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine "Prostitution of Prosecution" Fernandez Rundle's son. Both of her sons, who live at her residence, have criminal histories.

4. Miami-Dade teachers will get away with fraud and incompetence. It's not the fraud that bothers me as much as it is the imcompetence. I am aware of MDPS teachers that couldn't string together three grammatically correct sentences. MD teachers have resisted testing requirements for licensure. Add this in the "con" box for unionization.

5. Another reason to support the Unnicco strikers. I know many of you are feeling the crunch. (Tangentially related question: Do Mexican wrestlers come to the US to take the smackdowns that American wrestlers don't want to take?)

6. Senator Tancredo, the caring public servant that wants all Latinos born elsewhere to go home (he opposes any path to legalization of undocumented immigrants and repeal of the Cuban Adjustment Act); he has one sane idea in his immigration reform package. As it stands, vicious criminals from “bad countries” such as Cuba, Cambodia, etc. who cannot be deported have a get out of jail free card.

7. Miamista doesn’t trust the Coconut Grove Playhouse board for a second. Board members have links to developers that want the property. As you will remember, the certain board members resisted landmark designation. Later the board asked the city to make part of the building free from both zoning and landmark designation so that it could sell to that development group. Now they are going out business. The city donated the property, various government and private entities gave millions of dollars to upgrade the structure. Now the same board that has used the Playhouse for their own racket wants to cash in on millions of dollars of public giveaways by shutting down and selling. The evil schemers are using this last ditch effort because the Playhouse is in line to receive millions of more public dollars that will help it operate; thus no reason for sale to developers. Obviously the board needs to go. Enough of Miami “real estate development” through manipulation of government zoning laws, funding and public theft!

And for the record, no Cuban American with sense believes that Lucie Arnaz is talented or a star except Fabiola at the Herald. All the Jewish, Cuban, right-wing pandering plays in the world won't change that.

8. FIU takes a cue from the Coconut Grove Playhouse and makes a play of its own. Even Jeb Bush was turned off. Just when I was trying to be supportive of Mitch Maidique, the FIU president…

9. The tone, content and the set up of Miamista could be changing a bit. (Or could be set out to pasture. Blogging without a purpose is eccentric. Read on.) Miamista will be requesting topics of interest. I will try unfettered comments, giving you an address to send you private correspondence. Just have to experiment with a work around on Blogger to offer "recent comments". (After I see how things are going I may well abandon Blogger.) The original idea, which was to cover tourism, real estate, entertainment, style and a few other topics will be dusted off. Expect some postings along the lines of an about-town-diarist, though not necessarily by me. Tie-ins with potential advertisers won't be entirely shameless. Enough on this for now. Get at me before I frame somethings in my next posts. Private note: GJ, AA, CW, JR I hope your happy with me now! I know, I know, mail it back to last year when you were around and would have given a shit!