COLUMNIST Patricia Kilday Hart came out Wednesday against democratic, small-d, control of public money. Elected Texas authorities have decided to channel some federal taxpayer dollars to Texas community colleges rather than to an Alinskyite . . .
. . . Houston community organization. This comes in the wake of financial troubles at a sister community organization in San Antonio.
Sound like proper political oversight to me and, I suspect, to thee and the fellow behind the tree. But in reality, says Ms. Kilday Hart, it's bad old politics -- yea, verily a partisan, political turf battle -- that interferes with the natural order of things, with the good, the true, and the beautiful.
The headline and jump head tell you all you really need to know about the writer's contempt for elected government officials who withhold money from one of her newspaper's allies in local progressive circles:
Politics casts shadow over future of a Capital IDEA
Political turf battle threatens job program
(Patricia Kilday Hart, Houston Chronicle, December 7, 2011. As I write, the column has not been posted at chron.com. It will probably appear there in a day or two.)
The column is a press release for the Metropolitan Organization (TMO), the local outpost of Saul Alinsky's Chicago-based Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF), and for the TMO's job-training program, Capital IDEA.
The column also perfectly illustrates the perverse feedback loop among radical organizers, well-meaning church groups, the cult of victimhood, progressive think tanks, leftist politicians, and usefully idiotic journalists. Each one protects and advances the other.
Radical organizers
First TMO.
The organization's statement of its reasons for existence contains the usual benign mush -- "voice to people," "real community," "participate fully in public life." Chew that oatmeal long enough, however, and and you will some crunchy bits.
. . . power and leadership . . . transform the city . . . relational power . . . shape public policy for the common good . . . part of a larger network of organizations known as the [IAF] . . . a nationwide organizing institute with a fifty year [read fifty-year] history . . .
How knew Houston needs transforming? Where have we heard that kind of talk before?
Sharper bits of glass appear in the staff bios, which read like parodies of the leftist organizer community.
. . . Swarthmore . . . organizer for the Service Employees International Union . . . successful campaign to unionize 6,000 Pima County employees under the SEIU . . . began organizing in inner city [read inner-city] congregations around needed increases in public infrastructure investments, after school [read after-school] programs, comprehensive immigration reform and the launch of Capital IDEA Houston . . . Trinity University . . . studied abroad . . . took courses on the Sociology of Spain . . . organized for Working America [Unca D: a political arm of the AFL-CIO] . . . Citizens Organizing for Public Service, an affiliate of the IAF in San Antonio . . . certain types of businesses are located in San Antonio . . . to target vulnurable [read vulnerable] populations such as minorities [Unca D: newspeak for the majority in San Antonio], the poor, and the undocumented . . . city wide [read citywide] education and organizing campaign for Immigration Reform . . . workforce organizing for TMO's new job training [read job-training] project Capital IDEA-Houston . . . Franklin & Marshall College . . . Bachelor's Degree in Sociology . . . taught high school Government, World Geography, and Chicano Studies . . . began educating and organizing students around the DREAM Act -- a piece of legislation that . . . would grant undocumented students a path to citizenship . . . master's in Sociology . . . coordinator of Houston United, a grassroots activist coalition which [read that] has organized Houston's massive immigrant's [read immigrants'] rights mobilizations from 2006 to the present . . . inspired by the victorious strike of 5,000 commercial office building janitors . . . joined the staff of SEIU Local 1 -- Houston Justice for Janitors Campaign . . . Political Director and Lead Organizer . . . win a union . . . worker-centered healthcare clinic . . . successful renegotiation of the janitor's [read janitors'] collective bargaining [read collective-bargaining] agreement . . . Texas State Director of Mi Familia Vota . . . city-wide GOTV program that targeted over [read more than] 30,000 low propensity [read low-propensity, then imagine what kind of brain invents such a term] Latino voters residing in 124 precincts in Harris County during the 2010 election cycle . . . attending a national training [program?] with the Industrial Areas Foundation . . . .
Okay, TMO is an out-and-out political organization. Who knew? God bless'em. Let a hundred flowers blossom, as the radicals' hero Mao Zedong might have said (and did).
But where did the organization get a claim on my tax money?
Well-meaning church groups
A paragon of political correctness herself, Ms. Kilday Hart daintily refers to TMO as "a coalition of 25 local faith groups." You and I might know them as churches (24) and synagogues (1).
Most in the coalition are followers of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and I honor their good intentions. No doubt they also follow Jesus' admonition to help "the least of these" with their own money. Bless them for that.
But they have made an alliance -- unholy, I would say -- with Alinskyite community organizers who use TMO for radical political purposes. The "faith groups" provide moral cover for the funs and games.
The cult of victimhood
Ms. Kilday Hart might reply that, regardless of all this other icky stuff -- which has nothing to do with nothing -- Capital IDEA-Houston does a good job training poor folks and helping them find better jobs. The column is built around the traditional human-interest stuff about 113 students said to be "on track for graduation."
A few weeks ago, I visited with participants enrolled in Houston Community College, who all used phrases like "a blessing" and "a gift from God" to describe the opportunity. Most had been caught in dead-end, poverty-level jobs when they learned of Capital IDEA through their churches.
Time was too short for her to check the claim of 113 students, determine how many are really "on track for graduation," match the numbers against the money, calculate how much per head this program costs, or find out how much TMO rakes off in salaries and overhead. Or to consider what benefits will be received by other students at HCC and elsewhere, many needy, enjoy the benefits of the money diverted from Capital IDEA.
Progressive think tanks
Well, whatever.
Ms. . Kilday Hart defends the program by quoting a think-tanker from Austin who says Capital IDEA is a grand idea that really, really works.
"It's a textbook example of an effective program," says Daniel G. Schroeder, of the Ray Marshall Center [for the Study of Human Resources] at the University of Texas LBJ School of Public Affairs. Traditional government programs usually focus on getting unemployed people into any job; programs like Capital IDEA's "develop a person's human potential" with education that pays huge dividends over time.
Which illustrates the role of liberal think tanks in keeping the flywheel spinning. Mr. Schroeder, an expert, certifies that the program works just fine, thank you very much, and that's good enough. Pish on those pesky elected politicans with their pesky doubts about the wisdom of giving public money to a bunch of radicals.
The Marshall Center, by the way, is named after President Carter's secretary of labor, Ray Marshall. Here, without irony, is a snip from his official bio:
Under his leadership, the Department of Labor played a major role in the president's economic stimulus program by expanding public service employment and job training [read job-training] programs.
President Carter's economic stimulus program? Expanding public service employment? These are accomplishments?
The advisory board at the Marshall Center is a mosh pit of lefties (Bernard Rapoport, who historically paid most of the bills for the Texas Observer and a lot of other progressive outfits and projects), trade unionists (Ann Avendano, AFL-CIO director of immigration and community action), think tankers (including, incestuously, the National Center on Education and the Economy, another Ray Marshall outfit), and nonprofit do-gooders (some use their money, others use yours) --with a smattering of business interests to give cover, just as Houston churches give cover to the Alinskyite TMO.
Now comes the good part, an insight into how the radicals and think-tankers work together to keep the money flowing.
Smackdab in the middle of the advisory board is one Ernesto Cortes. He is southwest regional director of the Texas Industrial Areas Foundation, the local franchise of Alinsky's national outfit. Mr. Cortes founded TMO IN 1978. By whatever coincidence -- or not -- TMO is run today by one Jacob Cortes, a hereditary princeling of the radical left who identifies his father as . . . Ernesto Cortes.
In other words, the Marshall Center's Mr. Human Potential, Daniel G. Schroeder -- the expert who so thrilled Ms. Kilday Hart that she made him her lede -- was singing the praises of a program operated by an outfit founded by an insider at his own think tank and run by that insider's son.
Back Scratching 101.
Leftist politicians
Ms. Kilday Hart then spun her Rolodex and pulled a card, no doubt at random, and came up with a Democrat who supports Capital IDEA.
To Sen. Juan Hinojosa, D-McAllen, [the decision to defund Capital IDEA] is contrary to the will of the Texas Legislature, which clearly expressed a preference for continuing to support the nonprofits organizations [now running the program].
New flash to Ms. KH: "The will of the Texas Legislature" is expressed in something called "legislation." What law, exactly, is being ignored or violated here? She didn't have time to check, apparently, so she repeated as truth an unrebutted claim of illegality or ethical wrongdoing. But that's okay, you see, because she knows the good guys and comfortably takes their word about such things.
Sen. Juan Hinojosa, D-McAllen, and other progressives have a sporting interest in keeping the money flowing to TMO and other community organizations. These groups provide many foot soldiers in elections.
Usefully idiotic journalists
For Ms. Kilday Hart, this is just another shift at the office, where one day the Houston Chronicle climbs in bed with the Occupy movement, today she plumps for public money for a radical political organization, and tomorrow -- who knows?
The real purpose for her PR work for TMO appears in the last paragraphs of the column. Whatever happens to the state money, Ms. Kilday Hart still wants the Houston city government to do the right thing by giving taxpayer money to TMO.
Next week, the Houston City Council will decide whether to give $285,000 in grant money it has received from the federal government to help Capital IDEA [read TMO] participants reach their goals. Hopefully, the state's partisan, political turf battles won't affect the decision.
Au contraire. Partisan, political turf battles are precisely how taxpayers in a representative democracy -- mere bystanders, unmentioned in Ms. Kilday Hart's little moral drama -- are protected from the Alinskyites and dopey journalists in our midst. Let's hope -- and hopefully hope -- that city council stands as firm as our state elected officials.
Comments