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AX THE TAX LEADER BLASTS FDOT FOR LACK OF ROAD FUNDING

Posted on 02 December 2011 by admin

NEWS RELEASE

For Immediate Release

For Further Information:

Contact Doug Guetzloe

Chairman, Ax the Tax

(407) 312-1781

AX THE TAX LEADER BLASTS FDOT FOR LACK OF ROAD FUNDING

(Orlando, FL) – The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) announcement that it is pulling the plug on over $300,000,000 in anticipated road projects slated for Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties has brought a quick retort from Ax the Tax Chairman Doug Guetzloe.

“This is really an outrage and an affront to the taxpayers of Orange, Osceola and Seminole Counties,” stated Doug Guetzloe, Chairman of the citizen grassroots anti-tax group, Ax the Tax. The state has spent much needed road repair money on the worthless commuter rail boondoggle and now we’ll have even more congestion as FDOT and Governor Scott move transportation funds from needed repairs and expansions to the incredibly worthless rail project,” Guetzloe stated.

The local projects that are now on hold include much needed repairs to State Road 50 in Orange County, US Highway 192 in Osceola County and the double lane expansion of a stretch of Highway 17/92 in Seminole County.

Ax the Tax and Guetzloe have led the opposition to the embattled SunRail project and commuter rail in general for over fifteen years. Ax the Tax has led six successful anti-tax battles where taxpayers have voted down rail proposals going back to the first attempt to pass a tax for rail in 1986. That vote, a tri-county vote including Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties, named the “Metropolitan Transportation Authority” was voted down by a vote of 81 – 19%.

The most recent attempt to pass a tax for rail was the ill-fated Crotty “Mobility 2020” Transportation plan, chaired by former Orange County Mayor Rich Crotty and Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer. Guetzloe and Ax the Tax led the opposition to that proposal and the voters voted it down 55-45% in 2003.

In 2010, Ax the Tax was the catalyst behind the vote against rail that occurred in Hillsborough County, leading the opposition to a landslide 58% vote against rail.

Just last month FDOT and the beleaguered Orlando-Orange County Expressway Authority reached a tentative deal to split the cost of the proposed $1.8 billion Wekiva Parkway project.

The expressway authority has been a target of a recent grand jury report that found Crotty and the expressway board and some staff members involved in a “culture of corruption” that provided a seemingly never-ending source of campaign money for Crotty and his political endeavors.

The grand jury specifically named the Crotty/Dyer “Mobility 2020” political committee as a recipient of the special interest largesse generated by consultants and engineers hired by the expressway board.

Even though FDOT has not come up with the plan or the resources to fund their commitment of $500 million for the controversial toll-road extension, the expressway is moving ahead with an additional toll increase ostensibly to fund the remaining $1.3 billion deficit in the funding for the 25 mile extension through the scenic Wekiva park area.

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How will we pay for SunRail?

Posted on 25 July 2011 by admin

To the editor:

As you all have heard by now, Gov. Rick Scott approved the SunRail project.

As a taxpayer, I have many questions on how Osceola County is going to pay for this train that will never pay for itself. I would have preferred a rail system that would take me as far north as Tallahassee and as far south as Miami. I would think that type of rail system would have been used a lot more than the proposed SunRail.

Sun Rail is going to cost hundreds of millions of dollars, actually, the latest count is in the billions. The state of Florida has made perfectly clear that it will have a seven-year obligation. After the seven years, the counties involved will have to support this rail system.

My question is, why, as the chairman of the County Commission, hasn’t Brandon Arrington addressed the sole-source funding item? Mr. Arrington’s lack of leadership shows us all his lack of ability to manage our tax funds.

Mr. Arrington said to local news media that “the long term operational costs for SunRail will most likely be from an increase of taxes, such as a gas tax, a county charter surcharge and maybe even a rental car surcharge. Right now, with gasoline costing us in excess of $3.50 per gallon and climbing, we don’t need more taxes added to the price per gallon. And let’s make sure that we tax our tourists even more so that they can think twice before coming here on vacation.

With food costs skyrocketing, unemployment still at double digits, food stamp use soaring, utility bills on a constant increase, 80 percent of our students on free lunches and foreclosures at a record high, Mr. Arrington is willing to burden Osceola County with more taxes. What kind of world is he living in? It certainly isn’t ours. All he knows is to tax and spend. It seems that his only knowledge of economics is coming straight out of the Whitehouse.

As a sitting commissioner and a chairman, where is the leadership he should be bringing to this county? Where are the job creations which he should be focusing on? Where is there any kind of relief for our citizens who struggle just to keep food on their table? Instead of assisting and actually helping those of us who need relief, he would raise our taxes for more wasteful spending. What’s next, more green projects to bring more cost to us?

Mr. Arrington has had more than two years on the County Commission and has proven to our residents that he’s simply a tax-and-spend commissioner.

Land deal after land deal, which should have never even been considered, passed under his alleged leadership as chairman. Yet, with economic times like these, he actually complains that the county needs money.

Why are we even buying useless land projects that are costing the taxpayer millions of dollars? Why does Mr. Arrington continue to allow, and even support, spending our tax dollars so foolishly?

He might be able to pull the wool over some of the residents’ eyes with his town hall meetings, but rest assured, the truth will prevail.

Tony Ferentinos

Osceola County Commission

Candidate District 3, Kissimmee

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Borrowing a campaign tactic from a Democrat, GOP Senate candidate pledges to do workdays.

Posted on 25 July 2011 by admin

Former Ruth’s Chris Steak House CEO Chris Miller launched his bid for the U.S. Senate today. (Photo by Michael Freeman).

ORLANDO – The problem with politicians today, Craig Miller believes, is they’re out of touch with what regular workers and small business owners are going through in these challenging economic times.

“I built a successful restaurant career by talking to people in the back door of my restaurant,” said Miller, a resident of Winter Park, who has worked for restaurant chains like Red Lobster, Uno and Ruth’s Chris Steak House. He led that last company through four years of record growth and profits as its president and chief executive officer, and later served as Florida’s tourism commissioner in 2007 under Gov. Jeb Bush.

This morning, Miller announced he was running for the U.S. Senate next year, seeking the Republican nomination so he can challenge two-term Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson in 2012. Miller said his campaign would be based on bringing common sense back to Washington, improving the economy by lifting burdensome regulations and taxes off the shoulders of struggling businesses, and, most importantly, connecting with average workers by learning exactly what they do for a living.

And to do that, he announced a plan called “Miller on Main Street” – his effort to learn first hand what average workers do every day to pay their bills.

“I’m here today to announce a new initiative,” Miller said during a press conference at the Courtyard by Marriott in downtown Orlando. “It’s designed to keep me engaged with the people, to find out what goes on in the real world. If you’re going to represent the people of Florida, you have to be connected to the people of Florida.”

Miller said he would work a normal shift twice a month starting this month, and he would continue to do this through the end of his first six-year term in the Senate. Along the way, he said, he would listen to the concerns of hard-working Floridians and learn from them, on what are expected to be 178 trips down “Main Street.”

“Staying in tune with those concerns is paramount,” he said, adding that all too often, politicians head to Washington and forgot about what their constituents really care about. There’s no better example of that, he said, than the ongoing fight in Congress over whether to raise the ceiling on the debt limit to pay the nation’s bills.

“We’ve created a false crisis that has jeopardized our economic vitality,” Miller said. “We’re dealing with a false crisis, a debt ceiling crisis.”

Instead, he proposed a “short term fix” that included an across the board $2 drop in federal spending, balanced out by a $1 increase in the debt ceiling.

If Miller’s Main Street plan sounds familiar, it is. Former governor and U.S. Sen. Bob Graham, a Democrat, did the same thing in his first statewide campaign in 1978, when he called it “Workdays.” Miller said that while he and Graham represent different parties, he always liked the idea and felt Graham demonstrated that he understood the concerns of common people.

“You need to get out on Main Street and spend a little time working with regular people,” he said. “Good ideas come from all walks of life. I thought even back then, ‘What a great idea.’ “

Miller said one of his top priorities would be to spur stronger job growth by making it easier for businesses to invest in new workers.

“We’re in a cycle now that’s very challenging for job creations,” he said. “Where I would start would be to do everything we can to lower regulation and taxes, and taxes on consumers.”

Raising taxes now, he said, would be “taking money off Main Street.”

He also encouraged small business owners to hire him for a day, by logging on to www.Miller2012.com.
“If you’re a small business out there and are interested in having me work for you for a day, go to my web site,” he said. “What I’d really like to see is the small business community come forward and take an interest in what I’m doing. If you want something out of life, you have to work for it.”

Miller won’t have a clear shot at the GOP nomination, which has already attracted a crowded field that includes former U.S. Sen. George LeMieux, ex-Florida House Majority Leader Adam Hasner, 2010 gubernatorial candidate Mike McCalister, businessman Ron Rushing, and state Senate President Mike Haridopolos.

Political consultant Doug Guetzloe, host of The Guetzloe Report radio show on the Phoenix Network, predicted that Miller could emerge as the strongest GOP nominee, and said he has a good shot at ending up as the candidate who takes on Nelson.

“With Miller, you have a proven track record of business accomplishment and of actually creating jobs,” said Guetzloe, a veteran of hundreds of statewide and local campaigns in Florida. “None of the other GOP candidates can make that claim.”

Nelson won his first term in the U.S. Senate in 2000 with 51 percent of the vote, defeating Congressman Bill McCollum. He was reelected with 61 percent in 2006 against former Secretary of State Katherine Harris.

This race has been ranked as a potentially competitive one, but not among the tightest races in the nation next year. The Cook Political Report ranks this race as “Leans Democrat,” meaning the Democratic incumbent is vulnerable but still has a slight advantage.

Another leading political analyst site, Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball, also ranks the race as “Leans Democrat.”

Contact us at FreelineOrlando@Gmail.com.

Written by: Freeline Media for Freeline Media on July 21, 2011.

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SunRail and the Soviets

Posted on 11 July 2011 by admin

By Beth Dillaha

www.VETOSunRail.org

Remember the first U.S. loss in Olympic basketball? It happened in 1972, during the Cold War. The U.S. led the Soviets 50-49 with three seconds left after Doug Collins sank two free throws.

Then, with a full court facing them, the Soviets inexplicably were given three in-bounds plays. They scored on the third try — and won. The U.S. protested, and rightly so. But three of the five-member appeals panel were from Communist bloc countries, which voted together to deny the U.S. appeal and instead certify a “victory” that any objective observer would categorically refuse to affirm.

The appeal decision was wrong, it was politically motivated, and the Communist bloc interests smugly celebrated.

Fast-forward to July 2011. We just change the game — yet produce a similar mind-boggling result.

SunRail comes to its first vote in the Florida Legislature. It is defeated. The citizens — who would be stuck with a huge, unknown bill for decades to come — win. CSX and Florida Hospital lose.

CSX does not get $641 million for 61 miles of dilapidated track and risk-free use of it. Florida Hospital does not get the station required for its massive expansion.

A second vote is called. SunRail is defeated again. The citizens win again. CSX and Florida Hospital lose again.

Finally, a third vote is called in a special session. Legislative minds suddenly change. SunRail passes. This time, the citizens lose and CSX and Florida Hospital win.

Now, when SunRail faces operating shortfalls, the needed money will come from our roads budget.

Get ready to pay for realignments and worse for your cars. The times, they are a-changing, and the potholes, they are a-coming. And so are higher taxes, which some cleverly call “dedicated funding sources.” Make no mistake. Your wallet will be tapped, even if you never ride SunRail.

But wait. The citizens have an appeal. It’s Gov. Rick Scott. Alas, he listens to the special interest bloc, and SunRail goes forward. The citizens lose.

We can’t boycott the new taxes we’ll see and we can’t boycott the new potholes we’ll drive through.

But U.S. Rep. John Mica and State Rep. Dean Cannon have their pet project, their special interest campaign contributors have their prizes, and Gov. Scott has shown those who supported him and his supposed fiscal conservatism that he’s just a political hack like the rest of them.

Florida. I’ve lived here a long time. Some things never change.

Beth Dillaha is a former Winter Park commissioner.

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SunRail Liability Fully Protects At-Risk CSX

Posted on 06 July 2011 by admin

July 6, 2011

By George F. McClure

The liability insurance limit that SunRail must carry to protect CSX is $200 million. The premium is estimated at 1%, or $2 million per year. CSX won’t have to pay a penny in any accident on SunRail tracks unless WILLFUL (intentional) misdeeds by it or its employees can be proven.

Initially, SunRail will be insuring twice as much track as it will be using (for Phase I); only freight trains will be running on the other 30 miles.

In Virginia, where Virginia Railway Express leases rail access to operate commuter trains, one assumes that CSX has responsibility for the tracks it still owns. But Amtrak leases access, too, and pays off on major accidents (see below).

In 1991, at Lugoff, SC (the Orlon Crossing, near a DuPont plant), 35-year old Miami Sgt. Paul Palank traveling to a family reunion in Washington, DC, to be with his wife and children, was killed along with seven others, and 77 were injured in a passenger rail accident. A pin (not the designed hardware) that held a switch in position on CSX tracks came out and the switch moved causing the Silver Star (Train 82) to slam into cars on a siding. Not intentional. The switch was improperly installed (backwards) ten years earlier. Not intentional, but no inspections done.

CSX saved $2.4 billion between 1981 and 1993 on track maintenance by using too few employees, according to data dug up and reported in the book, Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and Stick You with the Bill), by David Cay Johnston 2007. See Chapter 3, “Trust and Consequences”.

Punitive damages awarded to the widow, Angelica Palank, after ten years of studying law and fighting CSX amounted to $50 million – 1% of CSX net worth. With physical damages the total was $56 million. This amounted to 4 cents on each dollar saved by CSX on maintenance. The other seven families settled for much less. CSX appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which would not hear the case.

There were 8 derailments on CSX in 7 weeks at the end of 2006 into 2007. The Federal Railroad Administration sent out inspectors. They found 3,500 violations of safety procedures in 23 states – 199 of them serious violations of the law. On the $56 million; CSX simply sent the bill to government-owned Amtrak which paid it — meaning the taxpayers took the hit.

CSX paid nothing. Johnston makes the case in Free Lunch that, as long as the railroad pays out less than it saves in maintenance cuts and repairs not made, this will continue.

Government inspectors are over-burdened. They tell Union Pacific not to call in with minor accident reports that will increase their workload. Only four out of 3,000 accidents at rail crossings are fully investigated.

Trains are 52 times more deadly than trucks, based on miles traveled.

In America, deaths at railroad crossings amount to about one per DAY. In Britain they amount to 18 per YEAR.

Does that give you a warm fuzzy feeling about SunRail?

There was a report that Paula Dockery had given out this book to the Legislature when they were discussing liability insurance for CSX. Pity that few apparently read it.

Another account of this accident is found at http://csx-corruption.com/orlon-switch/ , where the total cost is given as $88 million, which includes interest on Mrs. Palank’s award and costs for the other victims who settled for lesser amounts. Also at this site, www.csx-corruption.com , there is a compilation of other railroad accidents. Of 753 railroads reporting 2010 on-duty deaths to the Federal Railroad Administration, CSX led them all – 50% higher than any of the next four highest reporting railroads..

The New York Times ran an investigative series of articles about poor railroad safety. http://www.nytimes.com/ref/national/deathonthetracks_index.html

In 2002, 21 of 40 cars on an Amtrak AutoTrain were derailed near Crescent City, Florida, killing four and seriously injuring 36 with minor injuries to 106 passengers. Improper roadbed maintenance by CSX was found by the National Traffic Safety Board. to be the cause. Cost associated with the accident was about $8.3 million. http://www.pulitzer.org/archives/6931 ,

George McClure is a Winter Park taxpayer and a longtime opponent of the SunRail boondoggle.

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The Administration Concedes Defeat

Posted on 11 May 2011 by admin

Posted By Randal O’Toole On May 10, 2011 @ 1:10 pm In Energy and Environment

To sell his high-speed rail program, President Obama desperately needed a success story—a high-speed train operating during his administration that would awe the public and lead to a national demand for more such lines. That success story was going to be Florida’s Orlando-to-Tampa line, the only true high-speed route (as opposed to speeding up existing trains by 3 to 5 mph) that could have been completed during Obama’s term in office (assuming he is re-elected).

Anticipating that success, the administration drafted a proposal to use federal gasoline taxes and a “new energy tax” to fund $53 billion for more high-speed rail lines over the next six years. (The proposal also included $250 billion for highways, $120 billion for urban transit, $27 billion for “livability,” and $25 billion for an infrastructure bank.)

The chances of that happening died when Florida Governor Rick Scott decided to turn back the $2.4 billion in federal dollars dedicated to the Orlando-Tampa line. To maintain momentum behind high-speed rail, the administration could have given all of that money to California, the only other state proposing to build true high-speed rail.

, the Department of Transportation gave nearly $1 billion of the $2.4 billion to Amtrak and states in the Northeast Corridor to replace worn out infrastructure and slightly speed up trains in that corridor, as well as connecting routes such as New Haven to Hartford and New York to Albany. Most of the rest of the money went to Midwestern states—Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Michigan, and Missouri—to buy new trains, improve stations, and do engineering studies of a few corridors such as the vital Minneapolis-to-Duluth corridor. Trains going an average of 57 mph instead of 52 mph are not going to inspire the public to spend $53 billion more on high-speed rail.

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‘VETO SunRail’ COALITION FORMS TO OPPOSE CENTRAL FLORIDA SUNRAIL COMMUTER RAIL SYSTEM

Posted on 06 May 2011 by admin

(Orlando) Former Winter Park City Commissioner Beth Dillaha has announced the formation of a coalition of past and current elected representatives, groups, anti-tax organizations and individuals opposing the proposed SunRail Commuter Rail project with a mission to alert Florida Governor Rick Scott to the vast opposition to the proposed “SunRail” commuter rail system in Central Florida. The coalition is called VETO SunRail (Voters Expressing Their Opposition to SunRail) and is urging Governor Scott to reject the SunRail project.

The coalition consists of current and former elected officials including Osceola County Commission and former Chairman, the Honorable Fred Hawkins, Jr. Osceola is one of the four counties in the proposed SunRail commuter system. The largest taxpayer organizations in Florida: Ax the Tax, with a 28-year history of successfully fighting tax increases and over 20,000 supporters, the Florida Taxpayers Union with over 140,000 supporters and the Campaign for Liberty with over 40,000 supporters have joined this diverse coalition that includes dozens of tea party and 912 organizations as well as individuals from all major political parties in Florida.

Dillaha was an outspoken critic of the proposed rail system during her term on the Winter Park City Commission. Winter Park has been designated as one of the proposed stops along the 61.5-mile freight train track running through four Central Florida counties.

SunRail is a heavy diesel commuter rail project proposed to run along a 61.5 mile CSX freight rail corridor from Volusia to Osceola counties and serve only 3700 commuters daily, The Federal Transit Authority evaluated the project in 2007 and stated the project was “not cost effective” and “will not serve the I-4 corridor.” There is no funding source established to operate and maintain the system for 99 years of operation and the voters of the Central Florida region have been denied the right to vote the project, and it’s funding, up or down. Mayor Buddy Dyer, chairman of the Commuter Rail Commission, has stated repeatedly that an increase in taxes will be required.

With a $1.2 Billion start-up cost and about $600 Million going to CSX, SunRail represents the most expensive rail deal in the history of the United States. Additionally, the Florida legislature agreed, in December 2009, to shift liability for accidents, injuries and / or deaths caused by CSX on the 61.5 mile corridor to Florida taxpayers.

The Coalition is urging Central Florida, as well as statewide Florida taxpayers, to contact the Governor immediately and ask for his rejection of the SunRail project.

www.VETOSUNRAIL.org

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Group forms to urge Gov. Scott to kill SunRail

Posted on 04 May 2011 by admin

Former Winter Park City Commissioner Beth Dillaha has announced the formation of a coalition of past and current elected representatives, groups, anti-tax organizations and individuals opposing the proposed SunRail Commuter Rail project. In a news release, the group stated its mission is “to alert Florida Governor Rick Scott to the vast opposition” to the project. They call themselves VETO SunRail — Voters Expressing Their Opposition to SunRail. Scott has had SunRail contracts on hold since early this year. He has said he wants to be sure central Florida communities fully understand their financial obligation to the project before it goes forward

According to the group’s release: ”With a $1.2 Billion start-up cost and about $600 Million going to CSX, SunRail represents the most expensive rail deal in the history of the United States. Additionally, the Florida legislature agreed, in December 2009, to shift liability for accidents, injuries and / or deaths caused by CSX on the 61.5 mile corridor to Florida taxpayers.”

See the group’s website here: www.VETOSUNRAIL.org.

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The Freeline Media Hour looks back at a decade that proved to be a turning point in American history.

Posted on 25 April 2011 by admin

April 21st, 2011

Freeline Media

Entire books have been devoted to this single year, 1968, which many observers think changed the world.

ORLANDO — Why the 1960s?
And why look back at that decade today?
Dexter Miller remembers the decade well. He graduated in the class of 1964 from his high school in Maryland, and immediately joined the Navy.
“I enlisted,” said Miller, who runs Revenue Management Systems Inc. in downtown Orlando.
“I did not worry about the draft, would not have worried about the draft,” he added. “I was not ready for college, so I went in the Navy.”
That was in August of 1964. Within a year, he was in South Vietnam, an early part of a war that eventually tore this nation apart — and in many ways permanently changed the way Americans look at their government, their cultural values, and their society.
“I got to Vietnam in October of 1965,” Miller said. “We were way early of the deployment over there. We were one of the first groupings.”
Miller, the co-host of The Freeline Media Hour on the Phoenix Network, will have a lot to say about how the 1960s proved to be one of the most pivotal and influential — in both positive and negative ways — decades in our nation’s history. On Thursday, May 5, The Freeline Media Hour with Miller, host Mike Freeman and special co-host Sean Heaney will look back at the 1960s, and why that decade still resonates today — politically, culturally, and in a host of other ways.
“It was the evolution of the revolution,” said Doug Guetzloe, president of the Phoenix Network and host of The Guetzloe Hour. “The 1960s was a catalyst decade. Young people for the first time got involved in the political process. But they also got involved in drugs as well.”
The 1960s actually started out as a decade when people felt optimistic about their future. The nation had elected the youthful senator from Massachusetts, John F. Kennedy, to be America’s first Catholic president, shattering an old religious barrier, and people still believed in the government as a tool to improve their daily lives.
“The thing about the 60s,” Miller said, “is it started with us listening to American rock ‘n roll, and then came the British invasion with the Beatles,” he said. “Things started to change, it seems to me, with the assassination of President Kennedy.”
But even after Kennedy’s tragic death in November 1963, the nation still seemed to believe in its government. Kennedy’s successor, Lyndon Johnson, ran for re-election in 1964 promising Americans a “Great Society,” with an expanded social safety net that attacked poverty in America. Johnson won a landslide election over Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater, a conserative who called for reducing government spending and turning more powers over to the states — the precursor of many in today’s Tea Party movement.
“We went from the assassination of Kennedy to the Great Society, which is bankrupting this county even today,” Guetzloe said.
Miller said another turning point was when President Johnson urged Congress to authorize military action in Vietnam following the Gulf of Tonkin incident between North Vietnam and the United States in the waters of the Gulf of Tonkin. That happened on Aug. 2, 1964, when the destroyer USS Maddox was engaged by three North Nietnamese Navy torpedo boats, resulting in a sea battle. One U.S. aircraft was damaged, prompting President Johnson to call on Congress to authorize the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution giving his administration authority to assist any Southeast Asian country whose government was considered to be threatened by “communist aggression.”
It was the start of the decade-long Vietnam war.
What was truly different about this war, Miller said, was television. In-between wholesome television programs like “Gunsmoke” and “Bewitched” were news reports from Vietnam — bringing the violence and choas of that war home in stark reality.
“Television brought our involvement in the Vietnam War right into our homes on a daily basis,” he said. It also led to a growing skepticism that what was happening in Vietnam was as rosy and optimistic as the Johnson administration claimed.
“The class of ’64 in my high school, it just seems to me 1964 changed everything,” Miller said. “Even people who graduated in 1965 had a different outlook.”
The optimism of 1964 led to a growing sense of pessimism in the next few years. Miller came home to Maryland in November of 1967. Today, he still recalls 1968 as one of the most tumulous, unsettling and traumatic years in American history.
The Tet Offensive, launched on Jan. 31, 1968, may have become the moment when Americans started to lose faith in what their political leaders were telling them about how the war was progressing. Johnson was challenged in the Democratic primaries by Minnesota Sen. Eugene McCarthy — and ended up dropping out of the race altogether. Martin Luther King Jr. and New York Sen. Robert Kennedy were both assassinated. The Democratic Party convention in Chicago that nominated Vice President Hubert Humphrey as its presidential candidate was the scene of violent rioting between anti-war student protestors and Chicago police.
“It was a wild year,” said Guetzloe, who was 13 at the time and started off 1968 as a McCarthy supporter. He eventually would gravitate to the man who won the election that November, former Vice President Richard Nixon.
“There were more young people supporting Richard Nixon than Eugene McCarthy,” Guetzloe said.
“I think the world changed in the late 1960s,” Miller said. “All the people who were hippies then are running the country today. They’re all the people who are adults in charge of everything. Look at how it’s changed America since then. Our hearts and minds are different today than they were in the late 1960s.”
“It’s a fascinating decade to look at,” Guetzloe said. “It was just a shocking, dramatic, vibrant decade, and there’s never been another decade like it.”
Tune in on Thursday, May 3 at 3 p.m. on www.PhoenixNetwork.US to hear a frank discussion on how the 1960s brought us to where we are today, in the spring of 2011.

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FREELINE MEDIA HOUR MOVES TO NEW TIME SLOT ON THE PHOENIX NETWORK

Posted on 25 April 2011 by admin

ORLANDO – The Freeline Media Hour, a locally produced news and information show heard exclusively on The Phoenix Network (www.PhoenixNetwork.US) since January, will be making significant changes in the next few weeks.

The hour-long talk show is currently heard on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 10 a.m., in the Phoenix Network studio located in historic Hovey Court overlooking Lake Lucerne — just a stones throw from downtown Orlando.

On Tuesday, May 3, the program will shift to a new drive time slot from 3:00 – 4:00 p.m.

The Freeline Media Hour is hosted by Mike Freeman, the editor and publisher of the Freeline Media online news magazine. Freeman, a journalist with over twenty years of award-winning reporting, will continue to be joined daily by his co-host, Dexter Miller, and on Wednesdays by their special guest host, prominent Orlando businessman Sean Heaney.

Under the new format, Freeman and Miller will devote the Tuesday afternoon shows to local events, with guests from throughout Central Florida joining them in the studio to discuss a wide variety of topics — business, politics, theater, entertainment, sports, real estate, tourism and more. The Freeline Media Hour has your community covered.

The Wednesday afternoon show will focus on national issues, and Thursdays will be a “open mike.”

“The Freeline Media Hour has grown dramatically in listenership since January, and we’re looking to reach a wider national audience through this scheduling change,” Freeman said. “Part of the reason Dexter, Sean and I are so excited about this change is because of the phenomenal growth that both theFreeline Media Hour and Phoenix Network have experienced in four short months.”

The Phoenix Network is host to a growing roster of programs, including The Guetzloe Report and The Lady Liberty Hour, both of which insure that the fledgling network builds up nationwide recognition. In a state that remains one of the strongest in the nation for tourism, is a pivotal swing state politically, and has an amazing international flavor, it’s clear that the Orlando Metropolitan area is at the center of it all, and is an ideal location for Phoenix.

“A fast-growing number of people are listening in to find out not only what’s happening locally in our tourism industry, our real estate market and our business world,” Freeman said, “but also to find out who Sean, Dexter and I have lined up to share their thoughts on global issues.”

Until May 3rd, the Freeline Media Hour will continue to be broadcast from 10 – 11:00 a.m., and will be replayed at 3 p.m. The final segment in this time slot will be Thursday, April 28, the date of the Phoenix Network Open House. The studio is at 545 Delaney Avenue in the Phoenix Building at Hovey Court.

That event kicks off at 5:30 p.m., and affords an opportunity for area businesses and residents to check out the studio, enjoy food and drink, and get to meet the players behind the radio programs and the talent working behind the scenes for both the Freeline Media online magazine and Phoenix Network news site. Those websites can be accessed by logging on towww.FreelineMediaOrlando.com and www.PhoenixNetwork.US.

The Freeline Media Hour will also have a special broadcast on Tuesday, April 26 program to review the history of Freeline Media and the growth of the Phoenix network, in anticipation of the Open House.

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