The Queen of Pork - Nobody doles out taxpayer money like HRC- Rolling Stone

[Windy]

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/20306341/the_queen_of_pork


One Sunday about three months ago — on the day before Martin Luther King Jr. Day, in fact — I got out of bed very late and lazily switched on CNN. On the TV screen, Sen. Hillary Clinton was smiling broadly and wearing a black jacket over some strange Oriental get-up. She was standing next to influential black pastor Calvin Butts, in front of the latter's famous Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem. Camera bulbs were flashing. An important announcement was about to be made.
Butts, it turns out, was endorsing Hillary over Barack Obama in the upcoming New York primary. I raised an eyebrow. It's not that I expected Butts — perhaps the most prominent black minister in New York — to automatically endorse Obama simply because he is black. But I certainly didn't expect to see Butts go on national television and make swipe after thinly veiled swipe at Obama, sounding like he was reading a script prepared for him by Hillary's campaign team.

"This is no time for waiting or hoping for solutions," quipped Butts, making an obvious reference to The Audacity of Hope author Obama and echoing the hope-ain't-shit theme that had been pounded on the campaign trail by the Clinton camp over and over again.

The predominantly black crowd barely had time to scratch its collective head and ask what the hell was going on before the endorsement party abruptly ended, leaving the stunned audience to break out in scattered boos and dueling chants of "Harlem for Obama!" and "Hillary! Hillary!" The strange scene left some in the audience wondering what exactly they'd just seen. "What's frustrating about ministers endorsing candidates," an Obama supporter named Rafael Mason wondered to a reporter, "is it makes you question if their decision is representative of the church or if there's a backroom discussion going on."

Months later, while researching pork-barrel spending by the presidential candidates, I came across three federal budgetary awards requested by Hillary Clinton in this fiscal year:
•$446,500 Abyssinian Development Corporation, New York, to support and expand youth and young-adult after-school and summer programs (Discretionary Grants — Juvenile Justice Programs) COM 08 D Rangel Schumer Clinton
•$893,000 Abyssinian Development Corporation programs for at-risk youth, New York (Discretionary Grants — Juvenile Justice Programs) COM 08 D Rangel Clinton Schumer
•$146,000 Abyssinian Development Corporation, to support and expand youth- and family-displacement prevention programs (Social Services — Department of Health and Human Services) LABHHS 08 D Clinton Schumer

<more at link above>

[dkf]

1. Everyone knows she is buyable...through money or endorsements.

She lives in a quid pro quo world.

[ORDem]

2. K

:kick:

[DrFunkenstein]

3. I'm An Obama Fan, But These Programs Seem Legitimate

Helping out at-risk youth hardly seems like pork-barrel spending. I don't doubt there are other examples to be found, but these seem totally worthwhile.

[chascarrillo]

8. Hear, hear.

Unless there's some sort of unsavory quid pro quo with Clinton here, I think this is entirely legitimate.

[Tinksrival]

4. If these programs are what they say they are then theres nothing

here. Rangel and Clinton are just doing their job for their constituents. :shrug:

[Aloha Spirit]

5. Don't know where to begin drawing out the absurdities in HRC's earmarks.

Let's start with $1.6 mill in the Defense Budget for The New School's "defense mapping program."

Those funds should be used to protect our soldiers.
On the scale of national defense, the defense mapping program is a joke.

"New School, which received $1.6 million in this year's defense budget and $6 million previously, is particularly well-connected. Its president, former Sen. Bob Kerrey (D-Neb.), is campaigning for Clinton in Iowa. Three school trustees are among Clinton's most prominent backers, having each raised at least $100,000 for her campaign. A former trustee is Norman Hsu, who was indicted on fraud charges last week. After Hsu's criminal past was revealed last summer, Clinton returned $850,000 he raised for her."

[Aloha Spirit]

6. Earmarks for malls? Really, Senator Clinton? Malls will not save our economy. Keyword DestinyUSA. nt

[1776Forever]

7. I am all for inner city youth getting help to keep them off the streets but does anyone check this?

I am not saying this church is doing any wrong doing but does anyone go back to see if the money is well spent on ANY of these pork-barrel spending appropriations?

I watched the David Wilson documentary the other day and it is evident that the inner city youth need more computer, library and basketball/sports outlets. Does anyone know if this church used the proceeds to do any of that?

:shrug:

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

9. um I'm an Obama supporter, but that "pork" looks like "staples" to me

This is very flimsy criticism indeed, that Clinton supported these programs
that clearly benefit children immediately.

[starroute]

10. Abyssinian Development has had its share of controversies

http://www.columbiaspectator.com/node/29811

Church Development Group Riles Up Local Residents
By Scott Levi
PUBLISHED MARCH 6, 2008

Yet while the organization trumpets its mission in the designated area, specifically between West 137th and 139th streets from Adam Clayton Powell to Malcolm X boulevards, tenants say that the residences it manages are neglected.

“While they focus on new developments, they should be as mindful to properties that they aren’t taking care of,” said Lisa Jones, co-president of United Tenants 179-181 135th Street. Jones cited certain problems that she said the ADC, most noticeably the chair of its Board of Directors Reverend Calvin Butts, III, has long ignored.

Jones, who with other united tenants on 135th and 137th streets has battled the ADC in court since 2006, complained of lead violations, flooding from skylights, and issues with rodents. “They make promises that we have yet to see, ... but they haven’t built a relationship with tenants,” she said. . . .

As a religious leader with strong ties to politicians such as Senator Hillary Clinton, Butts is a “person that people look up to,” Bland said. Some find it difficult, though, to grapple with that perception in light of the way he has treated tenants.

[OzarkDem]

11. Outrageous!

How dare she bring money back to her state to support programs for juveniles and families?