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Disgraced Republican former St. Johns County Commission Chairman JAMES EDWARD BRYANT is caught on a stunning FBI surveillance tape (see St. Augustine Record articles, below).
The FBI considers Florida to be most corrupt state in the Union.
Florida's corrupt Republican career politicians are not as colorful as the crooks in other states Louisiana (like convicted Democratic bribe-taker EDWIN EDWARDS (whose campaign slogan against Klansman David Duke vote for the crook – it matters”). But Florida’s corrupt politicians make up for their dullness with their brazen, supercilious sense of entitlement and effrontery.
Such corrupt politicians actually believe that the idea that they’re “entitled” to free stuff simply by being elected. That’s what sent THOMAS G. MANUEL to federal prison for taking $60,000 in bribes.
Ex-Commissioner JAMES EDWARD BRYANT got below-market rates to rent an airplane from the PARC Group and ROGER O’STEEN, frontman for the rich people who brought us the massive, controversial Nocatee development, the Davis family (owners of Winn-Dixie, who are developing their D-DOT RANCH into a mega-development over 30 years).
The July 14, 2010 tape was made for the FBI by controversial developer lobbyist PAUL McCORMICK. McCORMICK is the long time lobbying partner of Republican Congressman JOHN LUIGI MICA’s daughter (D’ANNE MICA).
The FBI tape begins when McCORMICK arrives at the offices of the PARC GROUP and Davis family retainer ROGER O’STEEN.
The FBI tape was made in the wake of the FBI’s bribery arrest of Republican County Commission Chairman THOMAS G. MANUEL (who now resides in federal prison in North Carolina).
You’ve got to hear the FBI tape for yourself. It should be played for high school civics students, along with the MANUEL tapes.
These are narcissistic “masters of the universe” – people who decide which businesses will thrive and which wetlands, forests and wildlife will die.
One-party Republican misrule of St. Johns County is a creepy thing – you listen to these lugubrious goobers and you realize who was running our County before reformer Ben Rich was elected in 2004.
The ancient regime consists of feckless thugs and tinpot Napoleons – bossy political bosses who allowed developers to kill trees, destroy wetlands and ruin our beautiful environment. Ben Rich rightly called them ”worse than any carpetbagger.”
The three (BRYANT, McCORMICK and O'STEEN whine, gnash their teeth, and complain bitterly about scrutiny, including public exposure by the St. Augustine Record and Folio Weekly of their “Issues Group,” in which Republican ex-Sheriff NEAL PERRY’s spouse, Sid Perry, picked future leaders by giving them mountains of developer cash.
They complain about how St. Augustine Record Editor Jim Sutton targeted STERN and MAGUIRE, but BRYANT says that he and a “third party” have taken care of the St. Augustine Record for the 2008 election, stating that Record Editorial Page Editor Margo Pope and Record Editor Peter Ellis had agreed not to be tough on receipt of developer money, and have written little about the $60,000 in developer money received by Cindy Stevenson (small compared to the hundreds of thousands of dollars taken by both KAREN STERN and BRUCE MAGUIRE in 2006).
Hearing the tape, I reckon that Margo Pope and Peter Ellis realize that wicked developers have been using them and the Record. It is hoped that they will be stronger journalists, having heard themselves described as being in the tank on an FBI tape. Journalists need to realize that powerful people cozy up to them not because they are their “friends,” but because they want to have influence. As former New York Times Washington Editor Tom Wicker told his staff: “be neither in nor out.”
Personal note: on the FBI tape, FBI target JAMES EDWARD BRYANT talks about little ‘ole me.
Aw shucks.
Who knew that JAMES EDWARD BRYANT cared! (As I dig a heel eel in the dirt and look humble and smile wanly).
The three (BRYANT, McCORMICK and FBI inforemant McCORMICK) are talking about how they’re going to elect pro-developer candidates like MARK MINER and RANDY BRUNSON in 2008 (MINER beat Ben Rich, but Ken Bryan beat BRUNSON).
The three (BRYANT, McCORMICK and FBI inforemant McCORMICK) are talking about how they’re going to elect pro-developer candidates like MARK MINER and RANDY BRUNSON in 2008 (MINER beat Ben Rich, but Ken Bryan beat BRUNSON).
On the FBI tape, JAMES EDWARD BRYANT says that RANDY BRUNSON won’t won’t take enough money from developers, saying BRUNSON is “paranoid” about being seen as pro-developer.
On the July 14, 2008 FBI tape, JAMES EDWARD BRYANT is complaining about little ‘ole me as the cause of this woe. Wonder why? Because earlier in 2008, I filed Florida Ethics Commission charges against ex-Commissioners BRUCE MAGUIRE and KAREN STERN involving alleged violations in taking money from developers.
On the FBI tape, Commissioner JAMES EDWARD BRYANT says the purpose of my complaint was to keep STERN “busy.” (I also filed an Ethics Commission complaint against BRUNSON). BRYANT and his confreres lament the fact that STERN won’t be named to take THOMAS G. MANUEL’s seat because she was defeated at the polls in 2006 (and had an Ethics charge against her).
At that point, on the July 14, 2008 FBI tape, ROGER O’STEEN and PAUL McCORMICK ask JAMES BRYANT (in two-part harmony),“who is Ed Slavin?”
On the FBI tape, FBI target JAMES EDWARD BRYANT answers that Ed Slavin is a “greasy-headed, long-haired liberal,” and a “disbarred lawyer” who has “been on the City of St. Augustine’s case,” who thinks he’s “really something.”
To FBI target JAMES EDWARD BRYANT: I wash my hair every day. I can look in the mirror. Yes, I am a proud liberal. Liberal is from the same root as “liberty” and if it were up to fascist mossbacks like JAMES EDWARD BRYANT, African-Americans, women and Gays and Lesbians would all ride at the back of the bus, there would be no workplace safety or environmental laws, and there would still be slavery (or segregation) as a scourge upon this Nation.
As an undergraduate at Georgetown, I worked for three liberal Democratic Senators (Kennedy, Hart and Sasser) and saw the best of democracy – honest public officials representing their constituents.
I wear illiberal JAMES EDWARD BRYANT’s scorn as a badge of honor. He is a true caricature of a racist, sexist, homophobic Southern Republican, as lugubrious a goober as ever made a chair squeak.
I hereby challenge JAMES EDWARD BRYANT to a public debate on ethics and public policy – anytime, anywhere.
I sincerely hope JAMES EDWARD BRYANT is indicted for any and all of his federal crimes, and goes to prison for a long time. JAMES EDWARD BRYANT is a truly dangerous man. He is one of those “men of zeal” of whom Justice Louis Brandeis warned -- “The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachments by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.”
BRYANT isn’t even well-meaning – he’s just mean. “Greasy-headed” indeed.
Socrates said, “the life that is unexamined is not worth living.” Let’s hope that JAMES EDWARD BRYANT’s life, finances, work and pomps are thoroughly examined by the FBI and a Federal Grand Jury.
Let justice be done.
As for Bryant's angst-ridden anger at me, as Senior Special Agent Robert E. Tyndall (Retired) wrote about me in the St. Augustine Record in 2006:
Letter: Slavin's work "saved" life of U.S. special agent
Publication Date: 12/10/06
Editor: I applaud your newspaper for defending Ed Slavin and the First Amendment. I could have told you that Ed is "brilliant." I am a retired former FBI Special Agent, and former senior Special Agent for both the HUD and EPA Inspectors General. One Sherman Antitrust case I supervised had 36 "defense" attorneys as my adversaries so I've known a lot of attorneys.
Late in my career, I would not and could not sign my name to a report that resulted in a cover-up of major criminal wrongdoing by highly placed EPA officials. I was left with no choice but to file an environmental whistleblower case. Other than Ed Slavin, I was encouraged to persist only by my wife, Lynda, Congressman John Dingell's office (whose investigator referred me to Ed Slavin), and then-journalist Tony Snow. Ed completely documented EPA's attempted cover-up of $100 million in acid rain research fraud, conflicts of interest, waste and abuse.
Ed represented me in my U.S. DOL environmental whistleblower case against EPA and its inspector general, winning a precedent-setting case that protected future environmental investigators' rights, reversing two DOL judges.
Ed has always been a fighter, especially against an unresponsive judiciary who cares little about ruined careers.
The unrelenting stress the EPA subjected me to nearly took my life. Thus, Ed's work was truly a life-saver. As a result of Ed's so-called "overzealous" work, the EPA IG abruptly resigned in December 1996, following a history of harassing whistleblowers.
Public officials, who retaliate against citizens for questioning their actions demand to be investigated. Public jobs belong to the "people" -- the occupant of such office is a trustee; a custodian -- always. We have forfeited our "rights" when we refer to the government as "them." No, never. It is "We" the people. Trust me, Ed Slavin is not for sale. The First Amendment is not dead, yet.
Robert E. Tyndall
Senior Special Agent (Retired)
FBI, HUD & EPA
Williamsburg, Va.
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