Ron Paul Miami becomes Open Government Miami

It's no secret that my activism began from my support of the presidential campaigns for the retired Congressman Ron Paul. I wrote a piece for the DailyPaul.com, a leading Ron Paul supporter site, describing in better detail what I want to accomplish with Open Government Miami:

The vacancy left behind with the Ron Paul Campaigns will be filled with a journey for activists to establish responsible, public policy initiatives. We are the pressure that makes the change. 

This is a labor of love: Six years ago I began a journey of discovery into the bowels of Miami's Banana Republican Politics. Today, I find myself a lot more introspective and have found out that most of the problems in today's politics begins with mistrust. Mistrust and government tend to go hand and hand, no? But this mistrust comes because of The People's general ignorance and miseducation which leads them to mistrust everyone's motivations. Rather unite, we fracture and crumble. 

This dangerous ignorance starts from a lack of understanding of an individual's role in society. They see themselves as a unit rather than a member of the whole, individually expressed. We are a product of our society after all. 

There is a willful and very deep ignorance that people have toward government. Too many people have abandoned trying to learn about government because our political system is "broken" (a straw man argument). But they give up on the institution without realizing that there is none other that ties us all together as strongly. So I tell people, "It's the only way we can stay involved in each other's lives. And the only way we can figure out how to do business together, too." 

Remember, government has an enormous role on every decision we make from the moment we wake up to the moment we lay down to sleep. Government cannot be ignored, it won't let you. 

Open Government Miami is designed to relate educational opportunities where you can learn how to become a civic and political activist (they are NOT the same thing!) and hopefully make great friends and have great experiences. Plus, I will let you in on juicy bits of knowledge of how elections and the public policy are used regularly to enrich a few key industries here while leaving the rest of us lagging behind (i.e. urban blight, a weak business climate, water pollution and many other such issues).

Read more: http://www.dailypaul.com/289455/ron-paul-miami-becomes-open-government-miami

Something funny happened in North Miami @ Votersopinion.com

I wrote an interesting piece about potential voter fraud in the recent City of North Miami Election. It is a story of ups and downs, colorful personalities and impossible vote totals. You have to read it to believe it.

Thanks to Stephanie Kienzle at Votersopinion.com for publishing my post. She is holding a magnifying glass on North Miami and North Miami Beach politics and is a partner in revealing how to make government "OPEN".

Here is an excerpt from the article:

Yes, this has to do with mayoral contest in North Miami. No, it is not another post about “Coco Douce” or about the devil hexing candidates for mayor. 

This other story has to do with the victory of Lucie Tondreau, the recently sworn in mayor of North Miami, over the former mayor Kevin Burns. The North Miami election was very busy with the mayor and 2 city council seats having to go to a run-off election. Ms. Tondreau was swept into office with 833 votes (about an 11% margin). This margin for victory has never been seen before in North Miami politics. 

Maybe Lucie Tondreau is that popular. Maybe North Miami voters really wanted something different than Kevin Burns. Maybe this was just great timing. But something was troubling me about the results and it was mainly this: 

Burns had a near 400 vote (over 5%) advantage to Tondreau after the regular election. How did Tondreau manage to pull off a swing of more than 1,200 votes in her favor to defeat a popular, former mayor?

Read more at: http://www.votersopinion.com/?p=9893