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Applaud Yourselves, Detroit!
My take on the Council:
Charles Pugh - Visionary with communication skills to keep the Council focussed and together. Not a nuts and bolts detail guy.
Gary Brown - Salt of the earth type who you don't want to screw around with. Cares about the people.
Saunteel Jenkins - Bright and well spoken. She knows what she is doing and operates below the radar.
Ken Cockrel - Might be most intelligent council member. May have big future if he loses the nerdiness.
Brenda Jones - Won't hurt and won't help. Keeps her mouth shut most of the time and not particularly bright.
Andre Spivey - Young, bright and has his heart in the right place. Could carry more political weight with time.
James Tate - intriguing personality. If he really cares about serving the people, he has a tremendous upside.
Kwame Kenyatta - see Brenda Jones, class under pressure.
Joann Watson - Can we get a recount? Took Lisa Howes spot.
Overall, this group is an 'A' or an 'A+.'
More Mildred Gaddis Racism
More Mildred racism was on display yesterday. Rhonda called in to complain about the fact that so many incumbent council members were reelected. She talked about the fact that she was an expert on black history and studies and this is a result of the plantation mentality. She went on to say that whites were in control and that they had their house N_______s, and then she mentioned Mayor Bing, and then she said the rest are just slaves.
I don't get it. How can everything be reduced to lynchings and slavery. Seemingly on Mildred's show, they do it every day.
The suburbs and Dave Bing are the last people who want to see the incumbents return to council. They were corrupt and racist. Sister Mildred just let her spew this drivel and went to the next caller.
Several waves of immigrants have passed blacks and become part of America without affirmative action handouts. Next, the hard working Hispanics will pass them in both population and wealth.
Now Do You Trust Mildred Gaddis? The Sheep Will.
Nolan Finley's column in the Detroit News says this," two congressional district Democratic committees, the Black Slate, the Fannie Lou Hamer Political Action Committee and others, want payment when granting an endorsement. " They have even printed a price list.
Radio host Mildred Gaddis sells her air time to Coucil hopefuls at $1,000 an interview. You don't pay, you don't play. Now I understand why she hates honest politicians like Ken Cockrel and Dave Bing. They won't pay her. She likes fellow crooks like Sam Riddle. And her clones wait by the phone listening to how Mildred wants them to think, then they call in and give her back her opinions.
Its 1200 AM in the mornings. Turn it on during your commute. It's a hoot. You'll hear from all the people who Rochelle Riley cited from a state government survey, as having less than a sixth grade comprehension of the written word, constituting 50% of Detroiters.
Listen while Mildred tends to her sheep.
MORE FROM NOLAN FINLEY'S COLUMN AT DETNEWS.COM:
"Earlier this summer, WADL-TV and host Mildred Gaddis were dinged for charging candidates $1,000 to be interviewed on air.
Others are also getting in on the shakedown. The candidates say it is now common for block clubs and civic groups to charge candidates a fee for appearing at public forums. It costs between $25 and $100 to get on the stage.
"It's a starter kit for corruption," says Matthew Naimi, also a candidate for council."
NOLAN FINLEY GOES ON TO SAY:
" Making endorsements a commodity destroys their credibility and any value they might have as a voters aid."
Is Mildred Gaddis looking out for Detroiters or like Monica Conyers, looking for cash to pay her mortgage in Oakland County?
How can she accuse Detroit Renaissance and the Chamber of Commerce of having ulterior motives in their endorsements when she sells her endorsements to the highest bidders?
Who will you listen to in the future? Dirty Mildred?
Expect Detroiters To Go South, And Soon
Given the lack of education of Detroiters, ( 50% of adults read at less than a sixth grade level ) and given that there are so many in a small area, where are these people going to work. I don't ever see the auto industry and its unskilled jobs coming back here.
The best chance these people have is to locate in areas near where new automakers are building plants. If they cannot catch on with the automaker, they may be able to get slightly lower paying jobs at their suppliers nearby. Honda has built a plant in southern Indiana and Volkswagen is building a plant in Chattanooga, TN.
Michigan's union suppliers have left the state, followed by smaller non union companies that couldn't survive the downturn. Unemployment is high here, and very few suppliers will locate here, if any.
Japanese suppliers have been locating in the Carolinas, Georgia, Tennessee, Indiana and now Mississippi and Alabama for decades. You can sit here and rot, or go where the next wave of jobs will come. First come, first served. Recovery has started.
08/02/2009 12:41:30 p.m. EDT
The Legacy Of Coleman Young Lives On In Detroit Voters
Council woman Cockrel said that the city has spent over $10 Million over the past six years to monitor their police department so that Detroit citizens could get good service and Detroit could get control of crime. It's clear that the money achieved nothing, and the lawyer who is running it was schtooping the Mayor.
Once again the citizens of Detroit are given the short end of the stick by the corrupt politicians who have convinced Detroiters that they are protecting Detroiters from the real enemy: the suburbs.
That's right - the suburbs. It's hilarious if you think about it. The Mayor is fooling around with everything that walks, and what he isn't stealing with pay to play is being used to pay off policeman to keep them from testifying, or to pay East Coast lawyers who were contracted to improve the police department for doing nothing.
Monica, Martha, Joann and Barbara Rose are singing," We Will Overcome," while the suburbs try their darndest to give them taxes to fix Cobo Hall. Meanwhile no one is asking why they are spending millions over several years and the police service is not improving.
Fighting with the suburbs is the biggest problem Detroit has. Not only does the actions of their politicians drive away suburban spending and suburban investment, but it becomes an election ruse that allows corrupt politicians an easy path to power. You don't actually have to prove that you will improve the city to get elected, you just have to tell Detroiters that you will protect them from the suburbs and you skate through the election.
The strangest part is that there is no reason for it. Is any other city paranoid about its suburbs? What have the suburbs done to deserve to be feared?
Detroit was proud of itself for sending Governor Engler back to Lansing when he offered to fix broken school districts. They boasted about how they had fought off the enemy. Here was living proof that the outsiders did in fact want to take over, like Coleman Young had said so many times, and they protected their borders. Even though it was ten years ago, I heard a woman bragging about it during the Kwame controversy on TV.
So now another ten years of Detroit school children are stolen from, have no money for textbooks, or even toilet paper if you can believe it. And the state sends in a black man to do what they had tried to do ten years ago, and its okay because the man is black. Maybe they would have sent a black man ten years ago, and hundreds of thousands of kids may have had a chance at a better education.
Detroiters even fool themselves about the condition of their city. It has been called by filmmaker Michael Moore, " a landscape from another planet." During the Final Four tournament, an out of town writer called it," embarassing filth." When asked what Iraq was like, a TV newsperson said it was," actually nicer than Detroit."
When the corruption gets out of hand (more than normal), Detroiters will respond by voting for a Dennis Archer or Dave Bing. But almost immediately you hear comments like "Uncle Tom" and "acting white." It seems Detroiters aren't happy unless their politicians are fighting with the suburbs. Ever since blacks became the majority, they were weaned on fighting with the suburbs for decades by Coleman Young. They can't live without it.
To Detroiters, the world can be going to heck in a handbasket but it won't matter if they have someone in power standing up to someone in the suburbs. L. Brooks Patterson, or any Republican for that matter, are their favorite targets.
Maybe someday Detroiters will realize there is nothing to fear in the suburbs, and in fact there are many people who live there that would like to see the city improve. Maybe someday they will realize that the real enemy is their politicians who use the suburb fights to get elected, then steal them blind. Maybe, but I doubt it. It's too much fun hating on a group that actually supports you.
Detroiters and the UAW Follow Similar Destructive Path
Ziptop, I feel sorry for you and your fellow Detroiters. You sit down there in what one visiting journalist called your 'embarrassing filth,' and spew nonsense about a world you know nothing about.
You sound like so many of the listeners on the Mildred Gaddis radio show I listen to on the commute. Half educated but without skills and ranting the same slanted view of the world that the underclass has been handcuffed by forever.
Your so-called "Uncle Tom's" may be your race's worst trait. Anyone who wants to succeed in your race is pulled back down by losers like you who call them 'Uncle Tom's." It is actually the 'Uncle Tom's' as you call them who are strong, and it is you haters who can't stand seeing others succeed while you cannot muster the strength to help yourself, who are weak.
It is not easy to make it in the world, no matter what your color. People who try to fit into the business world have to be persistent, and keep getting up when they are knocked down. Business is dog eat dog in many ways and weaklings like you would get eaten.
A good example is your Mayor, who you call an Uncle Tom. You see outstanding examples of your race like Mayor Bing and Dennis Archer as "uppity." That is just plain jealousy, or player hating as you would probably call it. Bing and Archer fought hard to get where they are. Just because they look relaxed and successful doesn't mean it was easy. They busted their behinds for decades to get where they are.
Your race has to conform just like other Americans, or Asians, or Indians, or Koreans or any of the other races I deal with. You can't sit on your porch in your 'do rag' and expect opportunity to come knocking.
And you have to work. You have to educate yourself to a much greater degree than you clearly have thus far. Being half educated makes you a half wit. Either you step it up or you become roadkill. Tough world, huh?
Oakland County Woman Uses Radio Show to Fleece Detroiters
http://multimedia.detnews.com/pix/5d/00/d6/13/f0/f4/20090314170408_2009-0314-sp-cobo227.jpg
Copy and paste above to see a picture of chubby little Mildred Gaddis snuggled up in the arms of Sam "The Bag Man" Riddle at Mildred's Cobo Rally. In the front row was Sam's partner in crime, Monica Conyers. Now Mildred is trying to tiptoe around the turds, pretending it is other people who are corrupt, not her.
This woman is a poverty pimp, constantly denigrating the legitimate business interests that can bring investment to the city while counselling her listeners to demand government handouts (Cobo) that can pass through the grimy fingers of her corrupt political friends.
Because of her corrupt practises, Detroit almost lost the anchor of its downtown. Without a downtown, there is no Detroit.
Will Detroiters Ever Admit Fault About Anything?
I purposely wrote two completely different responses below, based on the type of responses I received. WWtech was conciliatory so I responded in kind. Ziptop was insulting and accusatory and so was I. The point is that Detroit can deal with any type of suburbs they want. It depends on their behavior.
We are not going to hand you tax dollars for Cobo so you can spit in our faces. We are not going to listen to insults from your city council or watch Mayors get elected by telling voters that we are trying to steal from Detroit. If that continues, we will pull our investment and spending out of the city. It is happening already.
But if you want to deal reasonably and foster communication that focuses on common desires to build a city that works, we can do that too. It really depends on you.
Will Detroiters Ever Admit Fault About Anything?
Wow, ziptop, I read your long Cobo treatise trying to find a salient point I could debate. Unfortunately there aren't any. Interspersed between your constant claims of racism are several references to how the state Republicans are forcing Detroit to decide.
Who cares if they are forcing you to decide on Cobo? Then, tell them "NO!" It's that simple. It is either a deal you can support or it isn't. This constant whining is what we expect from children. Say "NO" and move on.
The problem is that a good deal isn't enough for Detroit. Six hundred million in future suburban tax dollars to fix a building that cannot be moved from Detroit should be celebrated. The problem is that Detroit blacks are so used to handouts that they want Cobo delivered on a silver platter too.
"Let our politicians hand out all the money to black owned businesses so they can pass envelopes under the table to our politicians, then have huge cost overruns on the project because of incompetence and theft on the construction site. After it is built (when suburban companies moved in and fixed it) then Detroit politicians can ask for more money under the table for maintenance contracts." The last Cobo Director was fired for just such behavior.
Why would the suburbs want to hand their tax dollars over to your politicians given your recent overwhelming history of corruption?
They don't and they won't. Cobo is worthless or you could say to the suburbs," Get lost, I am going to sell it instead." You can't sell it. It will not provide a revenue stream to justify the investment to buy it and refurbish it.
Your racist rhetoric claiming that the suburbs are trying to steal your jewel is a joke. It's like your constant references to slavery. It is just imflammatory language meant to achieve the only thing you are really good at - begging for handouts.
You have two choices in your dealings with the suburbs. Either you grow up and deal straight up like adults, or we will continue to withdraw and take investment and spending dollars with us. The suburbs is beginning to see through your games, and they won't work anymore.
Let your buildings fall apart and spit in our collective faces when we offer you money, and GM and the Auto Show's departure will just be the beginning of the end for your city.
We can build a downtown in the suburbs and we will. After the downtown is relocated, we won't have to watch, read and listen to the garbage that comes from your politicians anymore. Then we can focus on replacing the suburban politicians who came up with the idea of giving suburban tax money to Detroit in the first place.
Will Detroiters Ever Admit Fault About Anything?
To WWtech, as you said, you don't like how I communicate it but I would like to see the city improve, both downtown and for it's residents, and I know most suburbanites feel the same way. That's why I have been trying to bring front and center the fact that voting in the city has to change. It is essential that the city and the suburbs work together for Detroit to succeed but it can't happen when Detroit politicians are elected based on a willingness to fight with the suburbs.
To make it work, we have to focus on what we have in common, not what divides us. The suburbanites want first and foremost, a thriving downtown where they can visit and shop and spend their money and work. For city residents, a thriving downtown means a much stronger tax base for services and more jobs in the city.
Jobs, commercial activity and more taxes create growth which means more jobs, commercial activity and taxes creating a positive synergy for everyone. Money is not a zero sum game where either you get it or I do. The focus should be on growth so that there is more opportunity for everyone.
Having Detroit residents and suburbanites coming downtown to work in an safe area would allow more interaction between the races Ironically the best example of good race relations comes from the south for me, on recent visits to Atlanta.
Neither the city or the suburbs in Detroit likes their reputation as the most racist and divided city in the country in most cases. Nor is there any opportunity to build trust unless there is a shared area like downtown where blacks and whites can interact.
It looks like the city is headed in the right direction. With Mayor Bing, you have leadership that understands that Detroiters cannot thrive in a vacuum. And recent polls indicate that the loud mouths and senile old ladies on city council will soon be gone.
For all his faults, Kilpatrick did work well with the suburbs and has attracted investment and that investment is still evident in the city. There is something to build on. Obviously Detroit has to continue to vote out corrupt public servants or their institutions cannot function.
In the end, it gets down to votes. Detroit has to find their best and their brightest, like Mayor Bing or Kym Worthy, people who stand for something, and ask them to lead the city so that it can fully realize it's potential. We all want that.
Will Detroiters Ever Admit Fault About Anything?
Generally I'm embarrassed listening to Mildred Gaddis periodically on 1200 AM. Her call-in audience is the same group of elderly Detroit women who, locked in their homes, get on the phone and rant and rail about their politicians and them (you and me).
Mildred gained prominence outside her loyal spinsters club during the Kilpatrick mess, and with her Cobo Rally that has sent Detroiters on yet another path of destruction. I had to listen to Mildred to see if my opinion of Cobo events made sense after I heard the arguments of the dissenters.
Speaking of dissent, you will never hear any dissent on Mildred's show. It is strictly preaching to the converted, no matter what the topic, and guest are chosen for the similarity of their views to Mildred's opinions.
The future of downtown Detroit is tentative. Tip it one way or the other and it could topple or flourish. Cobo is that tipping point. If the suburbs build more alternatives to downtown, and the auto show bolts, you could see GM and other corporations leaving the city, followed by hotels, restaurants, casinos, bars, and any other source of revenue and taxes the city needs to avoid receivership.
Yet Mildred, city council and Mildred's listeners are merrily pursuing this path of destruction, admittedly for Mildred based on principle, not practicality. Of course, for city council, it is about getting elected but it is amazing to me how many Detroiters are willing to follow Mildred's folly down the path of destruction, strictly on misguided principle.
One wonders if the suburbs might be better off giving up on a downtown that will always be controlled by an easily swayed populace and leaders with sinister, stupid and/or selfish motives.
If Cobo was not a charity case, Detroit would be able to sell it to private enterprise who could turn a profit after paying large sums for it, and refurbishing it. But no one wants it and it has become a charity case. However the ever wary Detroit leadership was not warned so they screamed," they are stealing our jewels."
What a joke. We contribute to a charity case at a time when we can't afford it, and the uneducated natives scream about how we are picking their pockets. Surely we have better leadership in the suburbs and Lansing that they won't go begging to give away our tax money to a bunch of ingrates with an astonishing history of lining political pockets under the tables, and generally acting like a third world country within the greatest country in the world.
The Lord helps those who help themselves. The people of Detroit do not help themselves. They carry on loudly, imply racism at every turn, refuse to improve their skill sets and act entitled to the hard earned money the government collects from the rest of the state. Nice gig if you can get it.
Detroit Does Not Deserve The Auto Show
Detroit, the fact that the Auto Show is looking at options now instead of immediately choosing Cobo as it's location is the result of voter gullibility. Detroit's voters have continually voted for it's most racist politicians, seeking out people who will fight with the suburbs because the suburbs are largely white. Detroiters don't understand that spending and investing in Detroit comes from white suburbia. They don't care ; they just want to strike out at someone or something and blame them for their troubles.
Unfortunately rabble rousing has become a lucrative cottage industry in Detroit. Radio personality Mildred Gaddis rants about how the suburbs benefit too from the auto show so the suburbs should pay. Every event in every metro community can have positive spillover effects. Travellers who come to Detroit to see Greenfield Village and Henry Ford Museum may either stay and/or eat in downtown Detroit. That doesn't mean that Detroit owes Dearborn tax money.
Mildred thinks the suburbs should pay Detroit because they are nice enough to host the auto show. That is backward and convoluted thinking. It is a priviledge for Detroit to host the auto show, ensuring that they enjoy the greatest possible benefits from it. If it is located in the suburbs now, Detroit will be denied the priviledge of hosting the show, and will benefit to a much, much lesser degree.
Why did this happen? Freeman Hendrix, Mildred's close ally wrote a letter to Conyers, Reeves, Watson and Collins on the eve of the mayoral election hoping that he could portray himself as the protector of the city from the white devil in the suburbs and get elected by killing this legislation. Since then, many on the city council see it as an issue where they can prove their defiance against the suburbs and get reelected in November.
All this political posturing is strictly selfish ; an attempt to feather their own nests at the expense of the city. They are being offered our tax money to fix an asset that cannot ever be removed from the city. But they decided to look a gift horse in the mouth, and make more racists accusations to a suburban citizenry who, after forty years of it, are tiring of this game.
It is discouraging to continually watch your tax money go to a city that has little ability of raising it's own tax money, then be insulted and become the subject of racist accusations because it is not enough. Meanwhile the city's politicians line their own pockets to a degree rarely if ever seen in America.
If you don't believe me, type Detroit Public Schools into Wikipedia and prepare to be shocked and sickened with an unending cataloguing of adults stealing from their children, and ensuring their children will have no textbooks, no toilet paper, no future.
Will Detroit voters ever realize that the people stealing from them is not white suburbia, but the very people who appeal to them at election time as protectors against the suburbs? With only 23% of Detroiters graduating high school, it is unlikely. They will continue to circle the wagons and build walls and elect thieves.
Detroit does not deserve the auto show, and it looks like it will not have it, victims of their own stupidity. That's okay, they can get back at the suburbs by reelecting Monica Conyers. In fact, why not make her Mayor. We will give her whatever she wants, we promise. We will spend and invest in Detroit and your city will come back from the dead, while we listen to Monica insult and accuse us of racism. Yeah, right
Poverty Pimps
I was standing in a crowded hotel lobby in the suburbs, everyone stopped and watching the TV monitor as the O.J.Simpson verdict was read. I was struck by the reaction. Not a peep.
Imagine a group of blacks in the opposite situation.
White backlash is silent, but deadly. Many noted later that affirmative action programs were shot down all over the country after the trial. One of the biggest reasons is that the black community showed support for Simpson's innocence, preferring race over color blind justice.
White backlash in Detroit is equally silent, but deadly. Blacks don't understand because they are looking for a fight, a war of words. Whites respond with their pocketbooks.
Detroit politicians watched Coleman Young and saw how Detroiters loved politicians who insult the suburbs. Detroit politicians saw how the conspiracy theory sells so well at election time, and time after time black politicians tell their voters that the white suburbs are trying to steal from them, so if you vote for me I will protect you.
Detroit's suburbs see all this. Believe me, they hear the insults, loud and clear. They see the race baiting at election time, and they see how well it works in Detroit. Generally, the reaction is silent, but deadly. It is," Fine, let them rot."
You cannot have two groups working together for a common goal when the prevalent rhetoric from one of the groups is accusatory and insulting entitlement.
Detroit has always thought it could pull itself up through it's will and audacity, all by themselves. Their audacity as evidenced by their anti-suburban rhetoric gets worse as the best of the city moves to the suburbs, and the remaining ghetto inhabitants circle the wagons around their power hungry and self obsessed politicians, or poverty pimps as some call them because they are selling the victimization mindset.
The lessons emanating from urban areas around the country clearly indicate that no city can do it by itself. You can't constantly insult and upbraid the people who are your market, and your investors. When you vote for politicians who rely on this practise, you are shooting yourselfs in the head. Notice also how many who lower themselves to these election tricks turn out to be corrupt.
There is only one way out of this mess. Vote for honest reliable people who can work with suburbs to entice investment. When you hear a politician trying to make the suburbs your enemy, think long and hard about their motivations. Only you can rid yourself of the poverty pimps.
Here is a group of Detroit's poverty pimps (people who make a living telling Detroiters the very people who could help them are out to get them, and that they are helpless victims of the man): Mildred Gaddis, the four fat old toads on council ( Reeves, Collins, Conyers and Watson), a large number of ministers around the city, Sam Riddle, Freeman Hendrix, Adolph Mongo, Carolyn Kilpatrick, on and on....
Detroit Described As Embarrassing Filth
This article is a big part of why the suburbs are always trying to help Detroit.
http://music.msn.com/music/article.aspx?news=402528>1=28102
This article is featured on the cover page of most computers in this country - www.msn.com. We knew that showcasing the area would bring a little reality with it. Detroit is described as embarrassing filth. That is exactly how we feel in the suburbs too.
When we travel we look down at our shoes when people ask where we are from. We hate that.
So, what's the problem. Why isn't Detroit fixed? Detroit isn't fixed because every time there is an election, someone corrupt plays the race card to get votes and lines his/her pockets while in office.
Like former Detroiter Terry Foster said on the radio last month, Kwame went to the churches right before the election and told the people that whitey is attacking and wants to steal from them, but he will ensure that doesn't happen.
Freeman Hendrix tried the same trick writing a letter to city council two days before the mayoral election saying the suburbs are trying to steal Cobo. His media stooge Mildred Gaddis continues to stir that pot, as does city council who see it as an election aid for next November.
Coleman Young did the same thing for two decades. He hurled insults at Whitey and dealt in kruggerands.
And for decades Whitey and his money generally stayed away from the insults while Detroit rotted. The only people who won were Detroit city politicians, school board members and their relatives.
Martha Reeves just told us we cannot even use the name Detroit to describe where we live. Martha needs the money because she is a quarter million behind in her taxes, and has her city paid driver take her to the casinos several nights a week. Her council checks are garnisheed so she really has to insult Whitey because it is keeping her out of jail.
The sad part of this whole charade is that there is nothing left to steal in Detroit, but the residents are sure we want it anyway, even when we show up with money. They concoct a plot about how we are trying to steal their jewels and tell us where to stick our money.
Our previous Governor tried to bring money and take over the schools to fix them almost ten years ago, but he was told by the corrupt school board and city politicians to get lost. The citizens loved it.
Now it is finally getting fixed by the state because the state couldn't throw any more money at it. Luckily they hired someone who is palatable to the citizens, and most don't even realize what is happening.
Half the citizens have moved out of Detroit. It is nothing but a bunch of boarded up homes with sad, uneducated residents hiding inside waiting for someone who looks like them to tell them what to do. The lower the average IQ of the city gets, the more they respond to politicians playing the race card.
How do you help these people? How do we avoid being described as embarrassing filth? You can't help people who refuse your help. While the nation is watching, tell us what to do.
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