This is a must read for every U.S. citizen:
Hidden Hand of Pentagon
Helps Steer Military Analysts
By DAVID BARSTOW
The Pentagon has cultivated “military analysts” in a campaign to generate favorable news coverage of the Bush administration’s wartime performance.
Weeks ago The Miami Herald reported that money collected since the 2002 passage of the increased half-cent sales tax for the improvement of Miami-Dade transportation has been misspent, diverted and generally used in myriad of ways except for what it was meant.
Six years later I had hoped to see more buses running at shorter intervals of time between stops. Part of the promise was to extend MetroRail beyond the current north-south line that goes nowhere — to and from the airport, to Miami Beach and other far to reach places in sprawling Miami-Dade County. Last we heard, although part of the original plan, parts of northwest Miami (in much need of efficient public transportation) would be left out of the MetroRail equation.
What we do know is that the millions already collected from the ½ cent sales tax have been illegally used to pay for old debts accumulated by the county’s transportation department. Money now lost for its original intent.
Gas prices are nearing $4 a gallon. Gridlock is a fact of life in Miami-Dade County — at almost any hour of the day and night. And travel from one end of the county to the other by car may take you one to two hours, depending on the time of day. In other words, public transportation is a real necessity for those of us who live in South Florida. It is the reason we agreed to tax ourselves to achieve this goal.
But the money has been stolen. That’s how I see it. And our county politicians yell, scream and posture for the cameras… but do nothing about it.
Where’s the outrage…
Alvaro F. Fernandez