We all know how well it worked out when MoveOn.org took out an ad in the New York Times in 2007 calling General Petraeus “General Betray Us.” (President Bush called the ad “disgusting,” polls indicated a majority of America found it distasteful, and the Senate even passed a resolution to…
I’m speaking of the Deferred Retirement Option Program that made such a lucrative payout to Hallandale Beach City Manager Mike Good. He’s not the only public official getting rich from this excessively generous policy. In editorials yesterday and last Sunday, the Orlando Sentinel lists officials who stand to be paid…
(Spoiler Alert: If you haven’t seen the movie The Prestige, stop reading this post now, because I’m going to give away a crucial plot twist.)Remember that seemingly impossible trick in The Prestige by Christian Bale’s character? On one side of the stage, he closes a door behind himself while in…
Last year, Hallandale Beach City Manager Mike Good officially, and briefly, retired — a move that allowed him to cash in some 25 years of accumulated sick and vacation time. This, according to Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper, is how in 2008 Good’s gross income reached the astonishingly high figure…
We’re living in a bizarro world where Republican state legislators are willing to defy loyal lobbyists and increase taxes on alcohol and tobacco, plus give serious consideration to a compact that would let the Seminoles gamble Vegas-style. And now there are increasing signs that another favorite policy of state conservatives…
After eight years of watching Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert and Michael Moore crack wise over the dunderheadedness of a Republican president, the arrival of a Democrat in the Oval Office means the Republican humorists get their turn.But this campaign got off to a rocky, racist start. There was the Rush…
Of all the thorny, polarizing, and controversial subjects that a state legislator must handle, Sen. Nan Rich probably didn’t think she’d have to explain the logic behind a bill that makes bestiality illegal. And to be fair, she doesn’t have to explain it to anyone — everybody else, it seems,…
The bill that would have overhauled tattoo regulation in Florida is dead. The two factions of state tattooists, who had earlier this month waged an epic, expletive-laden battle in the comments thread of this Juice post, are now on the same team, or soon to be. And together, they will…
With Charlie Crist looking more and more like the 2010 Republican nominee for U.S. Senate, there’s been an uptick in intensity between the pair who might be the finalists in a race to replace him.The Florida Democrats think they’ve gotten some traction by tweaking Republicans for waste. Some of their…
Don’t combine that care with public corruption…
Compromise is what distinguishes the effective, conscientious governments from the dysfunctional ones, and the lack of it has been a drag on the Florida Legislature for some time. One would think that this year’s gaping, $6 billion budget hole would make compromisers out of the stubbornest souls. Instead, legislators are…
Well, it sure looks like a sweetheart deal. In 2008, Mike Good, city manager of Hallandale Beach, collected a gross income of $422,000 and change.I say “looks” only because thus far, neither Good nor Hallandale Beach Mayor Joy Cooper, who signs Good’s contracts, has returned phone messages. Maybe there’s a…
West Broward Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz appeared this evening on Hardball, the Chris Matthews show on MSNBC. She was a Matthews favorite even before she revealed this weekend that she’d been diagnosed with breast cancer more than a year ago and underwent a double mastectomy as well as an operation…
Here’s one I haven’t heard before: Palm Beach County Commissioner Jess Santamaria told the Palm Beach Post that he’s so frustrated by apathy among residents that he’s thinking of walking away from public service at the end of his four-year term.”The only thing that would make me run again is…
Amanda Terkel is the winner in the Blogger-Baiting-O’Reilly Sweepstakes, and she didn’t even seem to try. The Think Progress blogger wrote this post after it was announced that Fox News idiot charmer Bill O’Reilly would be the guest speaker at a fundraiser in Manalapan for the It Happened to Alexa…
Besides gnashing one’s teeth or making fun of Timothy Geithner’s dweebiness, there is little frustrated taxpayers can do about the spiraling-out-of-control federal deficit. To channel their rage, fed-up conservatives have been organizing “tea parties” around the country, mimicking the Boston Tea Party cry of “no taxation without representation.” Event organizers…
Around this time one year ago, I was researching an in-depth article on Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the fast-rising Democratic congresswoman who represents the West Broward suburbs and still manages to be a minivan-driving soccer mom for her Weston family. I had no idea until this weekend that at the same…
During Deerfield Beach’s recent mayoral campaign, Don Cleveland lugged a big piece of baggage: a foreclosure action in which he lost his Sunny Isles home.A troublesome issue, if only because Cleveland was fairly new in town (moved there in 2001) and had never run for office in Deerfield Beach. The…
With Americans stressing about the economy, politicians at every level are either skimping on the usual luxuries that come with elected office, or pillorying their rivals for failing to do so. But mostly, they’re trying to do both.The Obama administration, which staged a bargain basement inauguration, has come dangerously close…
Today in Washington, D.C., members of Congress are taking turns pummeling AIG Fat Cat Edward M. Liddy. His woefully mismanaged company needed billions of tax dollars to save it from failure, and yet AIG still handed out millions in bonuses to its management. It is fashionable — and appropriate –…
Not officially, she doesn’t. But reporter Scott Wyman just noticed that the Broward mayor’s picture appears on the Klenet & Associates website just as much as Klenet’s. The two are married, of course. So it wouldn’t be a scandal if, say, Klenet posted a single picture of himself with Ritter…
Lake Worth Commissioner Cara Jennings apparently has some strong feelings about Israeli aggression in Palestine, because on Sunday, she headed down to the Israeli Consulate in downtown Miami, painted her face, climbed up on some stilts, and stood by the entrance, chanting and waving a sign until police hauled her…
