a:1:{s:15:"field_blog_body";a:1:{i:0;a:2:{s:5:"value";s:3541:"<a href="http://www.freep.com/article/20130926/NEWS01/309260199/white-house-bankruptcy-aid-for-detroit-blight-removal">Detroit gets free money</a>! Time to celebrate!<blockquote>
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WASHINGTON &mdash; Nearly $300 million in aid for Detroit &mdash; from federal and state coffers, private businesses and charitable foundations &mdash; will be announced Friday as Obama administration officials visit the city to discuss what can be done to help eradicate blight, improve transportation, encourage new business and make residents safer.</div>
</blockquote>I think a better way of stating this is that $300 million will be taken from future taxpayers and given to Democrats currently in power. Though I am a fan of blight eradication (destroying Detroit one decrepit house at a time), I think a better way - and a much cheaper option - would be to get the community involved. After all, many Detroiters have a fondness for burning things, and Devil's Night is coming up, so the solution is obvious. Then, the 150 firefighters the article claims will be funded by this $300 million can get some on the job training. I am seeing a win-win here.<br />
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<div>In recent weeks and months, local leaders &mdash; from former Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer to UAW President Bob King &mdash; had visited the White House to talk about what could be done for Detroit, with a federal bailout out of the question.</div>
</blockquote>They would know what to do with the money - throw it at unions to eventually be returned to Obama and his friends. It's called money laundering and Detroit leadership has to be very excited at the prospects of hundreds of millions of dollars that can be siphoned away from the people of the city and into the suburb-living bosses. Perhaps their theory is to give everyone Obamaphones and call it good. Real change for the better is way too hard, and you might not reelected if you do it.<br />
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To help out my Democrat friends in Detroit, it would probably be most efficient just to stuff the cash and hand it over instead of going through the long, drawn out process of pretending to shuttle it between government agencies and then get it to them. Just trying to help.<br />
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<div>In the months to come, for instance, the White House&rsquo;s chief technology officer is expected to lead a team of experts to Detroit to make recommendations on how to improve city systems, Sperling said.<br />
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&ldquo;Detroit historically had some major problems deploying grants and other resources, and so there could be a fair amount sort of stuck in the pipeline,&rdquo; said [Rick] Snyder, who was in Washington on Thursday. &ldquo;Financial systems, accounting systems for the city of Detroit? They are a disaster.&rdquo;</div>
</blockquote>Of course they are, but so is the leadership. How many city councilmembers have been convicted of various felonies? And let's not forget that the root cause of Detroit's problem is not money, thus money will not solve them. A collapsed family and social structure is why Detroit is in such bad conditions. A lot of jobs (and with it, tax dollars) have come to Detroit over the past years, but the vast majority of those people don't live in Detroit because&hellip; well, duh. It's Detroit.<br />
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And not to nitpick, but &quot;Detroit&quot; and &quot;disaster&quot;&nbsp;are synonyms. No need to use them together.<br />
So let's take this news for what's it's worth - nothing. Like most of Obama's promises.<br />";s:6:"format";s:1:"2";}}}