Posted with comments by Jack
“Washington Post columnist George Will took on proponents of federal assistance for Detroit, which declared bankruptcy earlier this month. They’re asking for about $2.5 billion dollars for what could be a very temporary bailout.” From “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” on ABC.
According to Will, the city isn’t undergoing a fiscal crisis, but is facing a much more serious cultural one, which is the source of its woes.
“We can’t solve the problems because the problems are cultural. You have a city, 139 square miles. You can graze cattle in vast portions of it. Dangerous herds of feral dogs roam in there. You have 3 percent of fourth graders reading at the national standards. Forty-seven percent of Detroit residents are functionally illiterate. Seventy-nine percent of Detroit children are born to unmarried mothers. They don’t have a fiscal problem, Steve. They have a cultural collapse.” Detroit’s crime rate is the highest it’s been in 20 years. Detroit’s total of 411 homicides in 2012, up from 377 the previous year, includes 386 criminal homicides and 25 “justifiable homicides” that included three shootings by police, according to numbers released by the city. Detroit’s Mayor Bing ( shown left) said, “We’ve lost respect for life.”
Detroit’s Police Chief Logan seemed to support gun ownership when he said, “These aren’t the average citizens we are talking about,” Logan said. “Many of these people are involved in nefarious walks of life, and there’s a difference between a law-abiding citizen who shoots a gun and a criminal or a thug who’s out there using one.”
The Nation magazine editor, far left Katrina vanden Heuvel, objected to Will’s analysis, arguing Detroit was more a victim of deindustrialization. ( Detroit’s citizens were having serious trouble even during the good years of the auto industry. There was too much corruption and too little personal responsibility by the voters. )
“I find that really insulting to the people of Detroit. I think there’s a serious discussion about the future of cities in a time of deindustrialization. But in many ways, Detroit has been a victim of market forces, and I think what Steve [Ratner] said is so critical. Retirees and workers should not bear this. And it should not be about greedy public unions and fiscal responsibility.” 
(It’s not Ms vanden Heuvel and it never has been- it’s all about democrat politics and a dangerous society that chased away the good people and broke everything they touched.)
Will referenced an op-ed in the July 20 New York Times by Steve Rattner, President Barack Obama’s former so-called auto bailout czar. In it, Rattner insists on aiding the Motor City, however, he did cite self-governance as one of the areas where Detroit residents are responsible.
“What Steve said in his op-ed was ‘the people of Detroit are no more to blame than the victims of Hurricane Sandy, because apart from voting,’ you said,” Will added. “Well, what did they vote for? For 60 years, they voted for incompetents, malcontents and in some cases, criminals.” (How is pouring billions of taxpayer dollars into Detroit’s empty coffers going to fix that? The voters are responsible. You vote stupid – you get what you deserve. And for decades the voters of Detroit supported incompetent and corrupt politicians because they wanted something for nothing. America would be better served if Detroit was left as an example of what happens when liberals give away other people’s wealth. )
Bail out Detroit? Didn’t the emergency financial manager just approve a new $400 million hockey stadium? They don’t need a bailout. And the cities of California will not be far behind. Somehow we convinced ourselves that people who work in public service deserve hundreds of thousands of dollars. The city manager of Chico makes almost as much as the governor. Now, we were told that we need to pay big bucks to get good people, but the last manager made almost the same pay. The chancellors and administrators at the universities make more than the governor of California. And on the same day that the city announced layoffs, they were advertising for a planner job that topped out at $10,000 a month. Are you kidding me? We are paying big bucks for bad people, why not pay little bucks for bad people instead?
Three things killed Detroit. First was democrat/liberal “leadership”. Second was unions. Third was the EPA.
Detroit is dead and no amount of money is going to bring it back.
Oh but, the lying liberal media is saying it’s the republican’s fault, even though no republican has served on the city council since 1961.
MSNBC’s Ed Schultz, “Detroit, Michigan, used to be really a symbol of industrial strength and manufacturing in this country. But, thanks to a lot of Republican policies, the city is now filing for bankruptcy,” Schultz said over the weekend.
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/07/22/ed-schultz-on-why-detroit-went-bankrupt-the-city-became-a-conservative-utopia/
Did Schultz list the policies that supposedly led to this problem? Because it seems to me that the reason cities and towns are going broke is they pay people way too much money. People working in public service should make less than the private sector, not three times more.
Princess, I’ve read several documents that analyze why Detroit failed and it goes back to an race based element of their society that spreads hate, fear, violence and corruption like a cancer. It’s caused race riots, destruction of property, labor strikes and scared businesses and prosperous citizens right out of the city. The final straw was the Great Recession that exposed the underlying problems that had been festering unchecked for decades. Locals, both black and white, that could afford to leave Detroit did…and what’s left is what we see today.
Poor Obama not only didn’t receive a warm welcome from residents in Chattanooga they pulled up the welcome mat. Finally, some in the media are beginning to write the truth and informing their readers.
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Take your jobs plan and shove it, Mr. President: Your policies have harmed Chattanooga enough:
President Obama,
“Welcome to Chattanooga, one of hundreds of cities throughout this great nation struggling to succeed in spite of your foolish policies that limit job creation, stifle economic growth and suffocate the entrepreneurial spirit.
Forgive us if you are not greeted with the same level of Southern hospitality that our area usually bestows on its distinguished guests. You see, we understand you are in town to share your umpteenth different job creation plan during your time in office. If it works as well as your other job creation programs, then thanks, but no thanks. We’d prefer you keep it to yourself.
That’s because your jobs creation plans so far have included a ridiculous government spending spree and punitive tax increase on job creators that were passed, as well as a minimum wage increase that, thankfully, was not. Economists — and regular folks with a basic understanding of math — understand that these are three of the most damaging policies imaginable when a country is mired in unemployment and starving for job growth.
Even though 64 percent of Chattanooga respondents said they would rather you hadn’t chosen to visit our fair city, according to a survey on the Times Free Press website, it’s probably good that you’re here. It will give you an opportunity to see the failure of your most comprehensive jobs plan to date, the disastrous stimulus scheme, up close and personal.”
Continued.
http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2013/jul/30/take-your-jobs-plan-and-shove-it-mr-president-your/?opinionfreepress
I’m surprised it was only 64%. Obama is on a fast track to become the worst president in American history. But, liberals need not to worry. History is largely written by academics for the leftist universities. So they will be sure to re-write the truth for future generations and it’s a given that Obama will emerge as the savior of the nation.
Obama speaking at Amazon is a perfect picture of what is wrong in America with our jobs. Amazon is a TERRIBLE employer. The president shows up at a warehouse that is far out of town to celebrate a company that lives off of temp workers. Amazon hires temps in their warehouses, to develop their software, everywhere. I’m not going to clap that Amazon just hired thousands of low-wage workers who will be treated terribly at their jobs. The job is to run as fast as possible all over the ware house to fill orders and there is the constant threat that you will be fired. Some warehouses aren’t air conditioned so paramedics stand by to treat heat exhaustion. I swear it sounds more and more like China. And there is the president of the US standing up and applauding these “awesome” jobs for our middle class workers.
What an embarrassment. I thought Bush was a terrible president, but Obama has taken everything Bush did that I objected to, made it worse, then piled on his own awful things.
Welcome to the party Princess.
Yep! once more that Obama fellr’ let his alligator mouth get ahead of his do nothing hummingbird ass.
The editor of the Chattanooga newspaper just found out that alligator has big teeth. He just got fired for writing the editorial.
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Tennessee Newspaper Opinion Editor Says He’s Been Fired for Writing Editorial Ripping Obama’s Jobs Plan:
“The opinion page editor at the Chattanooga Times Free Press says he has been fired for writing an editorial that was highly critical of President Barack Obama’s new “jobs plan.”
“Take your jobs plan and shove it, Mr. President: Your policies have harmed Chattanooga enough,” the headline reads.
Drew Johnson, the now apparently former opinion page editor at the Free Press, announced his firing on Twitter Thursday.
“I just became the first person in the history of newspapers to be fired for writing a paper’s most-read article,” Johnson wrote.”
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/08/01/tennessee-newspaper-opinion-editor-says-hes-been-fired-for-writing-editorial-ripping-obamas-jobs-plan/