DETROIT PLANTATION POLITICS

MONICA CONYERS
Monica Conyers has gotten a sentence delay until September 10th. See Top Stories link below header. She pleaded guilty June 26, 2009, to accepting cash bribes and was sentenced to 37 months in prison. The wife of the Chairman of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, John Conyers, Monica Conyers was a colorful figure in Detroit. (See various postings.)

KWAME KILPATRICK under indictment -- again
Kwame is another familiar name in Detroit. He the 40-year-old former mayor of Detroit. The son of Rep. Carolyn Cheeks-Kilpatrick, Kwame is currently serving a 14-month to five-year prison sentence for probation violation in connection with two 2008 criminal cases stemming from lies Kilpatrick told under oath during a 2007 whistleblowers' lawsuit trial.

Today he was federally indicted with 10 counts of mail fraud, three counts of wire fraud, five counts of filing a false tax return, and one count of tax evasion. The indictment allegs Kwame used the Kilpatrick Civic Fund, a tax-exempt fund that was supposed to pay for voter education and other purposes to fund two campaigns and for personal expenses.
Indictment here (13 pages PDF)

Detroit Free Press: Kwame Kilpatrick indicted on 19 charges

The grand jury is still meeting. Ten people have already pleaded guilty to felony charges in connection with the Detroit corruption probe. Not indicted yet is Kwame's father, Bernard Kilpatrick. In 2006 alone, the Fund reported over $500,000 in contributions to the fund started in 1999.

Tax returns for 2006, 2007 and 2008 at the Detroit Free Press site show contributions for 2007 of $600,421. And an astounding $860,839 reported contributions on the 2008 return.

DETROIT SCHOOL BOARD PRESIDENT MASTURBATES AND RESIGNS
See blog post this week, "Detroit - Incapable of self governance?" The Detroit School Board President resigned after the school Superintendent reported he had fondled himself and masturbated while in a meeting with her. The newspapers seem to think it is a question of whether or not the illiterate Mathis should resign or not. (See blog entry for more on the story.)

Detroit Free Press columnist Rochelle Riley wonders the same thing about Detroit.

Every single one of them Democrats.

R.I.P. Detroit

Dispassionate reporting from Michigan newspapers in reviewing the BBC special, "Requiem for Detroit"

- "the folks in the United Kingdom have a strange obsession with the decline of Detroit"
- "As a side note, today's Guardian also rubs a little more salt in Detroit's wounds"

The video clips are worth watching. Much better to read is the Guardian review.

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For still images see Yves Marchand's collection "The Ruins of Detroit".

The splendid buildings, abandoned by a citizenry that has no knowledge of how to care for or maintain or a desire to do so, has the feel of the 1960's classic "Logan's Run" or "Blade Runner, sci fi movies that followed the collapse of civilization.

Buildings, derelict and as deserted as the East German factories the photographer showcases in "Eastern Industries," there is a parallel in the abandoned East German industrial base buildings and deserted Detroit. Both followed a similar path of economic collapse from socialism. Detroit is the uber Liberal city, run into oblivion by Liberals for 50 years, citizens desperate to escape. And they did. In droves. Detroit lost a 1 million people who fled the corruption and endless political battles. Abandoned by people, industry, money, and hope, it's a workers' paradise. Unless, of course, they actually want to work. -- People couldn't wait to get away.

There's an object lesson there. Other posts on Detroit. here and here

UPDATE March 17 - Detroit will, like Kanasas City, be closing a significant number of schools. Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb announced a plan to close 44 out of 172 schools. Bobb expects that over the next four to five years, s the Detroit School District will see an enrollment drop of 30,000 students.

NOTE: The 2010 Census is expected to show the population down from the current 900,000 - barring ACORN workers faking a lot of families who aren't there.

Bumped

WIFE OF HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN SENTENCED

Before sentencing she screamed,

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"If they have their tapes, I have my tapes too. I taped Rayford, I taped Riddle. You'll be fair to me or I want to withdraw my plea."

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Monica Conyers, 45, wife of John Conyers, 80, (D-MI), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, was sentenced to 37 months in prison after pleading guilty to bribery last July, prompting her to erupt in screams in the courtroom.

Monica Conyers, former President of the Detroit City Council, peaded guilty last summer to one count of conspiracy to commit bribery stemming from her November 2007 tie-breaking vote in favor of the controversial Synagro Technologies sludge contract. The judge said her sentence is greater than other defendants because her conduct was “more egregious.”

She went into court this morning blowing kisses but it didn't last long.

Before the sentencing was announced Wednesday, a strange series of events transpired, highlighted by Conyers' request to withdraw her guilty plea. She was screaming that she had her own tapes that would exonerate her before the sentence was announced. She also yelled, “What about my children? They did nothing to cause this!” before the sentence was announced.

The Detroit Free Press continued, "She told Judge Avern Cohn that he should read the report from a doctor, where she was sent by the court, and how susceptible she was to badgering. She repeated that this was a doctor whom she saw at the direction of the court."

DOCUMENTS
Her criminal charging document PDF
Her guilty plea PDF

Sentencing Memo PDF
Wikipedia entry on her professional conduct.
Pleas and indictments in Detroit corruption case From Detroit Free Press
TheBlogProf entry. He's been following the case from the first.

REP. JOHN CONYERS
Rep. Conyers, who is not accused of any involvement, oversees the Justice Department in his role as Judiciary chairman. (Roll Call) The panel's jurisdiction, as the WSJ blog notes, includes the nation’s prison system. One blogger (MarathonPundit) quipped that he wondered if that would make Rep. Conyers her landlord.

WXYZ blogged live from the courtroom that they say, "Ironically, U.S. Congressman John Conyers--the husband of Monica Conyers--has an office in the very same building where his wife will be sentenced today." (A day later, the newspaper confirmed he was hiding in his office in the building when she was sentenced.)

Another irony: John Conyers introduced The United States National Health Care Act.

DETROIT, DA PITS
Detroit's unemployment rate is 30%. (And may be as high as 50%.) The Detroit school district is full of fraud and mismanagement, so much so that the governor appointed an auditor who immediately hired a former FBI leader as inspector general. (Actually, the auditor's main claim to fame is his term as president of the Washington, D.C. Board of Education, arguably the single most corrupt school district in the country. And asking "Who the hell does he think he is?" about FoxNews Shepard Smith's statement that he'd try to burn the place down if his child attended Detroit schools. One newspaper was indignant. "Detroiters are especially sensitive to statements about burning anything in the city because of its history.")

Conyers Chief of staff, Sam Riddle, (ususally identified as a political consultant, has a controversial new lawyer for his upcoming trial.

And then there is former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick - son of Congresswoman Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick (D-MI . Kwame Kilpatrick served several months in prison and is out on bail and fighting a return to jail for a parole violation. His controversies and ethics problems run pages long at Wikipedia. Then there is the current mayor, Dave Bing, who wants to "downsize" Detroit, closing off potions of the desolated city by shutting off services and relocating them elsewhere.

You wanna listen to these guys. Yeah.

This is a flagrant abuse of power by two Democrats leading health care reform legislation in the House.

House Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.), chairman of the panel's subcommittee on oversight and investigations, wrote letters Monday to more than 50 of the nation's largest insurers informing them that the committee "is examining executive compensation and other business practices in the health insurance industry."

They requested detailed information on the compensation packages of the companies' highest-paid employees, as well as information on the companies' boards, conferences and events they sponsored, the profitability of the individual health-care products they sell and revenues earned through government programs like Medicare and Medicaid.

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What makes this ironic is that Waxman and Stupak come from the two states that are in worst shape of any of the 50 states.

CALIFORNIA
BIZ JOURNAL: (August 19, 2009) Study: California is 48th worst state in labor performance
And not, the study says, because of the national recession. It started before. A poor climate for business and outbound migration are only two of their problems.

Unemployment in Los Angeles is 20%.

REUTERS: California to see record unemployment rise further

California's economy, the world's eighth largest, could see a jobless rate near a stunning 13 percent next year -- a level associated more with Rust Belt states, not the home of Hollywood and Silicon Valley.

MICHIGAN
DETROIT FREE PRESS: (August 19, 2009)

Michigan’s hard-hit labor markets caught a small break during July as the state’s unemployment rate dropped two-tenths of a percentage point to 15%, marking the first monthly rate decline since June 2008.

Michigan's unemployment rate is the highest in the nation. Unemployment in Detroit is 28%. The mayor of Detroit declared that Detroit is broke.and could be forced into the municipal equivalent of bankruptcy in October. Their current deficit is $275 million to $300 million.

GLOBE & MAIL (Major Canadian newspaper) paints a bleak portrait of Detroit.

The financial woes of the city are reflected on its streets. Much of downtown Detroit is a wasteland of vacant buildings and empty sidewalks, surrounded by blocks of boarded-up homes. Many of the people you encounter are homeless, raggedly in search of a handout, or at least a cigarette.

The post office estimates 20% of the addresses in Detroit were vacant. Detroit has the worst crime rate in the nation.

We wanna listen to these guys. Yeah.

"Requiem for Detroit"

The Detroit News is soliciting suggestions from readers on what to do with the parts of Detroit that are abandonded. The screenshot above (click on to enlarge) shows vast swatches of land that are vacant. Their interactive map can be found HERE

At the site, click on the button to the right to see how many of those vacant properties are owned by State, county and the city. (Presumably these are abandoned properties the city now owns because of tax defaults.) A button at the top shows public schools in the completely dead zones.

The BBC 2 is airing a documentary Saturday night called "Requiem for Detroit" that focuses on the financial meltdown of the city. The Daily Telegraph (UK) article is "Detroit family homes sell for just $10"

Five years ago the average home price in Detroit was hovering around the $100,000 (£61,000) now that has fallen to $11,500 (£7,000).

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Why isn't the U.S. media telling us this? Or of the epidemic corruption in Detroit? Or in Kansas City?

See "Deconstruction: The Fate of America? - The Changing Landscape of America" by Robert J. Cristiano at NewGeography.com

There are 33,500 empty homes and 91,000 vacant residential lots. More than 300,000 buildings are vacant or in shambles. It is estimated that 40 square miles of Detroit lies abandoned.

Read the whole thing. The article is eighth ninth in a series on The Changing Landscape of America written exclusively for New Geography. All of them excellent.

Race baiting, a Detroit sport

From a Detroit Free Press Editorial.

• Detroit holds an estimated 78,000 vacant homes -- and that number is expected to reach nearly 100,000 within a year.
• Detroit's sprawling population could fall to near 600,000 by 2020.
• The recent foreclosure crisis is just the latest in a series of cataclysms, including shuttered factories and middle-class flight,

In the exact same paper on the same day is the reason why the middle class left Detroit.

Rev. Jim Holley is pastor of Little Rock Baptist Church in Detroit in "Health care and bile" accuses those who oppose government health care as sick, derides Michael Steele for not speaking out against -- imagined - racism. Thinks those "right-wing reactions are not only revolting but potentially dangerous."

Perhaps Steele will soon learn, as will certain other members of his party, that if you choose to share your bed with a disease, then there’s a good chance you’ll contract that same disease before morning arrives.

AND YOU WONDER WHY PEOPLE ARE FLEEING DETROIT? When a newspaper gives space to a race baiting, poverty pimp with ugly polticis like this, what hope is there for any peace, any progress any future? Run, don't walk, to the exits, folks. The middle class life and middle class values you want aren't in Detroit. It's just more of the same.

Detroit - Incapable of self governance?

Detroit school board President Otis Mathis admitted Friday to engaging in "inappropriate actions" but tried to take back his resignation after he was accused of fondling himself during a meeting with the district superintendent.

Superintendent Teresa Gueyser that during a meeting, Mathis touched himself for 20 minutes, then unzipped his pants.

Mathis was defended by another board member.

Reverend David Murray said Mathis took responsibility for his bad behavior toward Gueyser.

"He's a young man; maybe he didn't know it was offensive to her," Murray said of the 55-year-old Mathis. "It's not something I would do. He's a young man. That's just the way it is."

Murray was investigated in 2008 and "lost custody of his four children after allegations of abuse, neglect and domestic violence surfaced."

There were complaints that Murray’s attorney was a hired vendor for the school district. As for Murray. He is the pastor of First Holy Temple Church of God in Christ and is a licensed social worker. The congregation consists of 10 people. He legally changed his name from David to "Reverend" some years ago.
Read all about Murray. It's enlightening.

2009 election results
Mathis' "communication issues"

You won't be amazed that the Detroit Free Press ("ON GUARD FOR 179 YEARS") has taken no editorial stand on this. And neither does The Detroit News. And now you know why Detroit is a political sewer.

The Detroit Free Press is owned by Gannett -- parent company of USA Today. MediaNews Group owns The Detroit News. (They also own the Denver Post, poster child for Liberal politics.)

MORE FROM THE DETROIT SEWERS

March 11 - Yesterday, former Detroit City Council president Monica Conyers was sentenced to more than three years in jail after pleading guilty to bribery last summer. (She is the wife of Rep. John Conyers, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.

Today, U.S. Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick got a subpoena to testify before the Detroit grand jury. Her office manager was also summoned.

It's likely that it is in connection with the parole violation of her son, Kwame Kilpatrick, former mayor of Detroit who was convicted of felonies while serving in office. He has failed to make restitution since his release and a judge is considering whether to return him to prison. (See previous blog post.)

UPDATE #1(March 16) The Wall Street Journal thinks the investigation is widening. " roughly a dozen metro Detroiters, most with ties to politics, are entangled in federal investigations of some kind."

Rep. Kilpatrick was investigated by the House ethics committee. They exonerated her last month following an investigation into a series of trips she took to Caribbean conferences. They determined she and her staff did not know the trips were paid in part by corporate backers.

UPDATE #2 (March 16) - To add insult to injury, taxpayers are paying for Monica Conyers' court-appointed appellate lawyer who will handle her appeal.

UPDATE #3 (March 17) - Sentencing has been delayed for Kandia Milton who worked as deputy mayor and chief of staff to Kwame Kilpatrick. Milton pleaded guilty in December to a bribery conspiracy charge. No reason given for the delay.

(Milton has a colorful history and like most Detroit politicos has unchecked hubris.) The sentencing delay may be due to possible felony Federal racketeering charges being considered against Kilpatrick and his father.
Bumped

TODAY

NEWS FROM BLOGS
From Patterico, a Los Angeles deputy District who blogs at Patterico's Pontifications, "L.A. Times Story on Alleged Serial Murder Fails to Report that L.A. Times Could Have Stopped Alleged Serial Murderer." (At a minimum, they could have stopped a child pornographer.)
UPDATE: Alcala found guilty.
UPDATE (March 1): It gets worse fo the Los Angeles Times. Alcala was a convicted child rapist showing child porn to fellow employees. via Patterico

TaxProf Blog follows tax laws so you don't have to. So he was quick to notice those pesky details from Frank and Jamie McCourt's divorce. The owners of the L.A. Dodgers made $180 million from 2004 to 2009. Astonishingly, they paid no taxes. No state, no federal taxes. None. Nada. Zilch.
One commenter remarked, "It looks legal to me. It's not like Geithner or Rangel prepared their tax returns."

OTHER NEWS
FORCED RELOCATIONS IN DETROIT?
Unless I am reading it wrong, Detroit Mayor Dave Bing is saying that he plans to cut off services to parts of the city, relocate people to parts of the city where he will provide service and, thereby, "shrink the city." The city has a $300 million debt.

In all of this, Bing is being aided by top aide and ex-felon Charlie Beckham who served two years in federal prison after he was found guilty in 1984 of illegally taking $16,000 from a sludge-hauling company.

U.S. News & World Report's Peter Roth on the failure of liberalism epitomized by Detroit.

Those who think the government actually can run the healthcare system better than the private sector would do well to study the example of Detroit, which the mayor argues must now ration government services on the basis of local geography and demographics--and at the expense of the liberty of the people who still live there.

Bing's relocation initiative is a remarkable admission of failure, not just of his administration but of decades of Democratic rule in the city once known proudly as "Motown," a failure of central planning and state-based renewal efforts that deserves national attention.

In the meantime,the arrest warrant for the former mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick, has been put on hold while he is given another opportunity to make restitution. The probation violation hearing will continue.

HACKERS IN LATVIA EXPOSE GOVERNMENT HYPOCRISY.
To the horror of Latvia’s political establishment, hackers downloaded more than 7.5 million documents, including VAT receipts and income tax returns, from the State Revenue Service (SRS). They posted the salaries of Latvian police chiefs and bank executives from banks that were bailed out to a website. Look for more of that in other countries.

WHY INDEED. Why Canadian premier seeks health care in U.S. by Sally C. Pipes, a former Canadian, is president and CEO of the Pacific Research Institute.

GREECE IS IN A MELTDOWN and they were helped to hide the fact by American investment banks. "Mr Bernanke also said that the Fed was investigating the role played by Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street companies in Greece’s debt dilemma. American banks entered into currency swaps with Greece almost ten years ago that allowed the country to postpone recognising its debt."
Der Spiegel on the role of Goldman Sachs.

ARGUING WITH A SIXTH GRADER And the Sixth Grader Won

Unbelievable video from Detroit News showing the Monica Conyers Detroit knows. (And it isn't pretty.)
Via the Weekly Standard

Other Detroit posts.

La La Land

How to solve Detroit's problems: Lure immigrants
- Laura Berman, Detroit News



For the sake of truth in advertising, Laura, tell them about the crime statistics in Detroit. And the former mayor just out of jail. And his mother - the state Rep.- and the Feds. And Dad and the Feds. And that hinky non-profit Civic Fund the SEIU likes just before elections. And the kindness of those benefactors after the mayor went to jail. And the generosity of the non-profit Civic Fund in giving $100,000 to the mayor's Chief of Staff a day after she resigned. (Right after she pleaded guilty to two felony charges of lying under oath - about their affair.)

You should tell them about all those abandoned homes, including the one abandoned by Councilman Kwame Kenyatta.

And those immigrants might be interested in former Councilwoman Monica Conyers -wife of the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee - being sentenced to prison.

If they're from former East Germany, they'll know what to expect. But anyone else might be in for a shock, Laura. Don't you think?

Rascally Politicians

(Pictured Left: Monica Conyers' booking photo.)

Even before the bribery charges, she was controversial.

Few newspapers dwell on Monica Conyer's difficulties. The wife of U.S. Rep. John Conyers, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, is due to be sentenced in March 2009 for conspiracy to commit bribery.

Monica Conyers' Chief of Staff, "Political consultant" Sam Riddle, 63, was arrested in December 2008 on gun and assault charges for pulling a shotgun on his girlfriend, former State Representative Mary Waters when she found him with another woman.

Two guns were found at the house, including the shotgun.

(Pictured at right: Riddle and Takesha Washington. Riddle reportedly was found in a "compromised position" with the 30-year-old woman. He was arrested on felony assault charges. She was arrested on minor narcotics charge in the incident.

Pictured below: Former Michigan Representative Mary Waters.)

Riddle and Waters shared a townhouse. The two are awaiting trial on accusations of bribing a Southfield councilman.

Riddle, a former aide to Monica Conyers, was charged last year with hand delivering a bribe to then-Detroit City Council member Monica Conyers to ensure her vote on a $1.2 billion sludge contract. The wife of U.S. Rep. John Conyers pleaded guilty and will be sentenced March 10, 2010.

Riddle's trial on the charge is scheduled for next month.

In a separate investigation, Riddle and Waters are codefendants in a separate federal case, accused of bribery to gain approval of a pawnshop in Southfield. They were indicted in July 2009.

Waters, (1/1/2005 to 12/31/2006: Democrat State Representative, District 4) resigned as director of Legislative Affairs at the Wayne County prosecutor’s office in April 2009 when her name was linked to the investigation. Waters lost to incumbent Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick in last August's Democratic 13th Congressional District primary.

The Detroit Free Press has complete coverage of the Detroit City Council.

FAILING LIBERALISM

What do Kansas City, Cleveland and Detroit have in common? Aside from being controlled by Democrats for 50 years?

They all have declining populations, widespread government corruption, horrifying crime rates, and lots of abandoned homes. In 2007, there are more than 10,000 vacant and abandoned properties in Cleveland. A 2008 NPR reported that since 2000, Cuyahoga County, which encompasses Cleveland, has recorded 80,000 foreclosures — the most per capita in the country.

By 2008, the figure had risen to 14,000 vacant foreclosed properties in one year - roughly 4 percent of its 395,000 houses. By 2010, the New York Times was reporting the number of empty houses is so staggeringly high that no one has an accurate count.

The Cleveland City Council Majority Leader Phyllis Cleveland's house is subject of a foreclosure lawsuit.

Kevin Bauman's 100 Abandoned Homes. Haunting images.

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The other thing they have in common? High crime rates. These are the top 16 cities in the 2009 Crime Rankings. With the exception of three, they all have black majority populations.

1 Camden, NJ - 53.4 percent black
2 St Louis, MO - 50.4 percent black
3 Oakland, CA - 29.8 percent black (MINORITY)
4 Detroit, MI - 81.6 percent black
5 Flint, MI - 53.27 percent black
6 New Orleans, LA - 67.25 percent black
7 Birmingham, AL - 73.46 percent black
8 Cleveland, OH - 53.25 percent black
9 Jackson, MS - 70.6 percent black
10 Memphis, TN - 62.4 percent black
11 Gary, IN - 84.03 percent black
12 Compton, CA - 40.0 percent black (MINORITY)
13 Baltimore, MD - 63.8 percent black
14 Richmond, CA - 36.06 percent black, the majority
15 Kansas City, MO - 30.6 percent black (MINORITY)
16 Washington, DC - 55.6 percent black

These are the inhabitants of the Liberal Plantation, abandoned by the Democrat party, herded into ghettos for their votes, a self-empowerment that includes bad schools, corrupt politicians, incivility and lack of hope of anything changing in their lifetime or their grandchildren. Or great grandchildren.

Drugs and gangs are the dividend of one-party rule where race-baiting politics becomes the tool to cling to power. Caught in the middle, where else can they go? When they do have an alternative, like Kansas City, Detroit, and Cleveland they run for the exits. It isn't white flight anymore. It's human's scrambling for the exits in the same way East Europeans ran like hell from bleak oppression.

This country is in good hands....

Monica Conyers, you know, wife of Rep. John Conyers (D-Mi) Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee -- the committee charged with overseeing the administration of justice within the federal courts, administrative agencies and Federal law enforcement entities -- is pleading poverty to get the court to pay for her appeal.

She was convicted and was sentenced to three years in prison. She asked for and got a federal judge to declare her indigent and appoint an attorney to handle her appeal on bribery charges. She lives in a $334,000 house near the Detroit Golf Club. The Detroit News, however, found that she has a rental house in her name at 3351 Charlevoix that is in a foreclosure auction. The Wayne County Treasurer filed on the home on March 26, claiming she owes $241.58 from her 2008 taxes and owes another $642.49 from 2009.

You can see the house on Google maps. It is, conspicuously, the only house on the block with a black SUV in front of it and junk on the front porch. John, however, is busy making law for the rest of us.
March 27 post

UPDATE (April 8) - Federal prosecutors said that Conyers waived her appeal rights in a plea agreement she signed last June. So far, She has filed a notice of appeal but not an appeal brief.

UPDATE (April 8) - Taking a book out of Conyers' page, Mary Waters, accused along with Sam Riddle, Conyers former Chief of Staff, says she's broke and wants the court to pay her attorney costs. iddle and Waters are accused of bribing a  Southfield City Councilman. . Riddle also claims to be broke as the Detroit News gives him fawning star treatment.

THE TOYOTO PERSECUTION

SYMPATHY FOR TOYOTO
From Tom Blumer, Pajamas Media, "An Orchestrated Campaign Against Toyota in Overdrive?" Dems deliberately misinterpreting the memo and then this: [Bolding mine.]

Finally, it’s more than a little interesting that Department of Transportation spokesperson Olivia Alair was available on Sunday night to tell the press that the Toyota presentation in question was a “very telling” indicator that the company might be placing its bottom line ahead of safety. What’s really “telling” about the kind of people Toyota faces is that as Barack Obama’s Ohio campaign director in 2008, Alair registered to vote in the Buckeye State even though she doesn’t live there, and was apparently ready to cast an election ballot until a county prosecutor threatened to drop felony charges on her and 12 other Obama campaign workers.

From the Washington Examiner, an editorial, "The taint in the Toyota probe" includes these startling facts. [Bolding mine.]

Nineteen of 36 Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee cashed sizable UAW campaign contribution checks to their 2010 re-election campaigns, including the present and immediate past chairmen, Henry Waxman and John Dingell. Similarly, 12 of 25 Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee got such checks. Are Democrats who have long claimed that money corrupts politics now so brazen as to claim they are exempt from such special interests influences

Some of the witnesses have murky motives as well.

I still trust Toyoto before Congress, the UAW that bankrupted GM and Chrysler, or Democrats who seek to eliminate any competition so you have to buy Government Motor cars.

FBI RAIDS ON TOYOTO SUPPLIERS damn well ought to be justified. But Detroit News isn't convinced.

The U.S. Justice Department said the raids were related to an international investigation into possible anti-competitive practices by electronic components suppliers.
But the timing of the raids, coming as they did in the midst of congressional hearings into Toyota's safety and quality issues, led some industry experts to question the government's motives.

Reportedly, the raids are for violations of anti-trust laws. And if you believe that, you might want to invest in property in Detroit.

You'd think this was behind the Iron Curtain

It was big news in the Detroit newspapers. FINALLY, they were going to do something about the estimated 33,000 abandoned homes. In a first movement toward actually doing something, the city was to tear down 3,000 homes before the end of the year using $20 million in federal grants. That was the hope.

The reality was that one home was barely razed when a state asbestos inspector from the the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality stopped demolition because the city forgot to file for the certification showing inspectors had checked for asbestos and removed it.

In January, the Feds kicked in an additional $41 million to raze or rehab even more houses.

A good question would be whether Detroit is capable of self-rule. We should be asking whether tax dollars from people who work five months of the year just to pay their tax bill ought to fund such incompetents.

What happened to....?

Scott Ridder, the former U.N. Weapons Chief who had that abrupt about face? He's been arrested in a sex sting masturbating on his web cam for what he thought was a 15-year-old girl.

This isn't the first time. Ritter was charged in June 2001 Internet sex sting in New York, but that case was dismissed. (Because he claimed it was politically motivated.)

After resigning as a weapons inspector, Ritter promoted a conciliatory approach toward Iraq in the 2000 documentary In Shifting Sands: The Truth About UNSCOM and the Disarming of Iraq, which he wrote and directed. A film partially financed to the tune of $400,000 by Iraqi American businessman Shakir al Khafaji. Detroit-based businessman Al-Khafaji pled guilty to multiple felony charges in 2004 for his relationship with U.N. Oil-for-Food scandal. Wikipedia entry. The Wall Street Journal examined his ties to Detroit Democrats and other vocal Democrat opponents of our Middle Eastern policy in this 2004 article.

UPDATE (Apr 3) - Jury selection is scheduled for May 4 in Ritter's trial.

STUDENT LOANS AS PAYOFFS KICKBACKS FOR VOTE

NO ON FEDERAL CONTROL OF STUDENT LOANS
An amendment to the massive healthcare bill will allow the government to take over student loans instead of just guaranteeing them. A Detroit News editorial is against it.

But 35 members of the House who voted for the college loan overhaul also voted against the House health reform package -- and House leaders are trolling for their votes. This is the wrong way to deal with either the health or college loan proposals.

The Detroit News knows a thing or two about corruption.

PHILADELPHIA'S CRISISOr why we don't need government-paid health care if it's anything like theirs

[T]he average cost for state and local government health care coverage is currently $9,082 per capita while for private sector in the mid-Atlantic region it is $4,292. - Pew Charitable Trusts

In Philadelphia the cost is $13,030 - Pew Charitable Trusts

Today, CBS3 reports that Philadelphia has taken out a $275 million loan from JP Morgan Chase. At a 3% interest rate if it is fully repaid by November 30. The city expects to take out another loan with the private sector after that. The Inquirer explains that the loan that would enable it to repay millions of dollars owed to thousands of contractors who have not been paid since July. If the city doesn't repay the loan in November, the interest rate raises to 8%.

The city wants the state to bail them out with a sales tax increase, but the state is getting tough. According to CBS3, state officials are "forcing the mayor" to submit a new pension plan to the public agency that oversees the city's pensions. The State Senate agreed to delay about $150 million of pension payments owed by the city this year - "but only if the city cuts the costs of its pensions."

That means freezing pension benefits for current workers and reducing pension costs for new workers by 20 percent. Currently, "pensions eat up a large share of the city's budget – this year it's expected to be some 12 percent, or $450 million out of a $3.7 billion budget."

Bottom line: No reform, no sales tax money.
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THAT'S ONLY HALF OF THE STORY
Health care for city employees takes up 10 percent of their budget. In January 2008, The Pew Charitable Trusts issued a report declaring that Philadelphia’s pension and health care costs for public employees was growing at unsupportable rates.

According to the study, Philadelphia’s pension obligations are only 52 percent funded, one of the lowest levels in the country. Their health care costs are extraordinary.

The city’s health insurance expenses are also significant. Total costs rose 80 percent from fiscal year 2002 to fiscal year 2007, and another increase this fiscal year brings this expense to $374 million or nearly 10 percent of the city’s total budget.

Philadelphia pays more per capita than nearly any other city in the nation, and that amount has increased by 33 percent in the past two years alone—to an average of $13,030 per person this year.

By comparison, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the average cost for state and local government health care coverage is currently $9,082 per capita while for private sector in the mid-Atlantic region it is $4,292. Philadelphia’s health care benefits are costing the city approximately $113 million more than if the expenses were in line with state/local government averages.

LOOK at that again.

. . . the average cost for state and local government health care coverage is currently $9,082 per capita while for private sector in the mid-Atlantic region it is $4,292.

Average state/local health care costs = $9,082
Private Sector costs mid-Atlantic region = $4,292
Philadelphia's health care costs = $13,030

The study found that members of three of the four unions do not make any monthly contributions. (The one exception is District Council 47, which represents white-collar city workers. They pay about $40 per family per month.) Health care benefit costs per capita are higher than every other city studied, with the exception of Detroit.

WHAT REALLY COSTS IS THIS HIGHLY UNUSUAL ARRANGEMENT -

The city pays a negotiated (or currently, arbitrated) per capita amount for health care directly to each individual labor union. Researchers could find no other city or state that has such little control over its workers’ health care costs. Any cost savings achieved by the unions remain under their control.

IN OTHER WORDS, the city of Philadelphia pays $113 million more for insurance than do other state and local governments, asking no contribution from three of the four unions, and lets the unions keep any money they save on negotiating health insurance for their members.

A sweet arrangement.

Subsidizing yet another union with Stimulus money

Bumped
UPDATE (Apr 10) - See bottom of article. Fires are thought to be  for "perverted political purpose."

First Obama bailed out the UAW but not to preserve jobs.  If the idea was to preserve jobs, why would their first act be to close 3,000 dealerships?   The outlet for their products.  They bought out GM and Chrysler  primarily to avoid bankruptcy that could be used to invalidate all those generous pension benefits. Now,  they are bailing out the firefighter's union in Flint, Michigan.

Original Post APRIL 8 - Flint, Mi, is being given a $6.8 million federal stimulus grant so that the struggling city can recall recently laid-off firefighters.  The grant, administered by Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, was made available by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

There's a small catch:

To keep the grant, paid for with federal stimulus dollars, the city must maintain its current staffing level of 66 firefighters above and beyond the 39 firefighters paid for by the grant.

CHRONIC PROBLEMS
The city has lost half of its tax base over the past decade, most notably in the past five years. The city is struggling with a projected $8-million deficit. The projected deficit for next year is $10 million. The mayor is asking police and fire unions for double digit concessions and the unions are refusing to cooperate. Currently, police and firefighters make up 60% of the City budget.

The city may ask the state to allow them to borrow $13 million to help relieve the city’s past and current deficits. It would be in the form of a stabilization bond. (The legislature voted in February to raise Detroit's cap limit for issuing stabilization bonds from $125 million to $250 million.)

Flint has been chronically mismanaged. In 2002 Flint had accrued a $35 million debt. Unable to pay this and balance its budget, the state of Michigan placed the city into receivership late that year, with a financial manager effectively replacing the acting mayor. It took two years before local control was resumed.

In 2002, over 12 percent of Flint homes were vacant, the highest vacancy rate in Michigan. The city’s unemployment rate was 14.3 percent. Things have gotten worse since.

UNEMPLOYMENT
By May 2009, the unemployment rate was an astounding 27.3 percent for the city. (And THAT was up three percentage points from the month before.) In February 2010, it was 26.4 percent.