I sincerely appreciate the magnitude of your information and insight as it continues to be another institutional pillar of child welfare fraud being unearthed by bloggers such as ourselves, but I must stand to a voice of dissent when it comes to the Emergency Manager.

The mechanics of Public Act 4 of 2011 are currently being examined by the U.S. Attorney General to see if it stands a constitutional and statutory challenge.

I have previously demonstrated that Detroit is worse off than the public knows.

Detroit does not need an Emergency Manager because there is no reporting mechanism for fraud. What the City needs is an Inspector General to partner with the U.S. Department of Justice Public Corruption Task Force and prosecute these people who profit off the destruction of Our Most Precious Treasures.

That was my response to this powerful post on the bowels of the City of Detroit. 

Vulnerable Children Lose Heroic Champions

Well, as budget cuts go, this one hurts not only the most vulnerable citizens immediately, it hurts us as a nation long-term.  The Feds have cut virtually all funding from the CDC Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program.  Years of progress made by hundreds of brilliant, dedicated professionals resulted in more testing and lower levels of lead in children throughout the U.S.  The CDC administered over $20M in grants annually to local health departments for education, prevention, and treatment.  Detroit and other industrial cities which have a large inventory of homes built before 1978 are especially sensitive to this problem.  Children poisoned by lead experience a reduction in IQ, increases in violent behavior, and in the worst cases, hospitalization or death.

By removing this funding, the Feds have essentially said that poor children are expendable.  The costs of doing nothing are far greater, sadly.  We have just capped, no – we have doomed the most vulnerable citizens of our society to lives beneath their potential.  They will not achieve the levels of prosperity, health, and civic responsibility that they are entitled to by birth.  Depending on their level of poisoning, they may live “normal” lives, however, in every case, they will be lives which are less than they deserve.

Detroit and the entire nation owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to CDC Chief of Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention, Mary Jean Brown, and Program Manager, Connie Brooks-Thomas, for their tireless work and advocacy on behalf of our most vulnerable, precious citizens. Thousands of children are able to strive toward their God-given potential because of their many years of dedication to this cause.

As for Detroit, perhaps the Feds feel that poor children aren’t worth saving. Thanks to the efforts of disgraced Detroit bureacrats, Yvonne Anthony,  Bill Ridella, Audrey Smith, Janie Warren, and Mary Morrow, perhaps the Feds believe that the money was being wasted and could be better spent elsewhere.   The mismanagement of HUD funds by Detroit’s Planning & Development Department can’t have encouraged them to think otherwise – Detroit will no longer be able to piss away $2M per year from the CDC.  The state of Detroit’s public schools also has doubtlessly emboldened some callous lawmakers to pull funding from a program which preserves the IQ of children who they feel aren’t being adequately prepared academically anyway.

These lawmakers must be corrected.  Join me in expressing your outrage to our Congress and President.  We deserve to know the names of legislators who slipped this into budget cuts and which ones voted to approve this shameful assault on children and jobs.  We can’t add a few pennies tax to the wealthiest billionaires, but we’ll let kids with limited resources eat & inhale poison, and we’ll accept the increased medical costs, correctional consequences, and loss of productivity to society?  This is tragic.

Bing Begs Snyder for Money

Nice work Mayor Bing.  Way to go, Kirk Lewis.  Screwing Detroit wasn’t enough for you- you had to screw the entire country, too.  Instead of making Detroit a model of success that justified funding when you had the chance, you let Prosecutor Mary Morrow and P&DD Director Janie Warren nag and bully you into making a mockery of our city and fools of yourselves.  Your administration is a complete embarrassment and you should resign immediately. If you’re not going to accomplish anything meaningful, at the very least you should have the decency to cause no further harm. Now, the mayor is asking for a handout from the Governor- $100M+ to get the city through this election cycle.  Bing should be ashamed of himself, and the Governor should appoint an emergency manager today.