04/05/2008
Back in Texas when someone had over-developed sense of entitlement, we used to say, "He’s got a handful of Gimme and and mouthful of Much Obliged."
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has that attitude built in to his DNA. He thinks it is his right to spit in the eye of America when he wants to showboat his generosity in spending other people’s money on social services for foreigners: San Francisco Advertises Sanctuary to Attract More Illegals.
But if Washington is handing out cash, Newsom’s snout is deep into the trough. He pursued drug-fighting money from the feds with apparently no intention of using the grant for the purpose intended — and what was the DOJ doing giving millions of dollars to a sanctuary city to prosecute crimes often committed by illegal aliens?
The U.S. Department of Justice wants San Francisco to repay $5.4 million in grant money earmarked to help fight the war on drugs in states bordering Mexico because federal auditors found the city was not eligible for the funding.San Francisco had sought the grant under the Southwest Border Prosecution Initiative, which compensates law enforcement agencies in California and other border states for the costs of handling prosecutions in lieu of federal authorities.
As of March of last year, the city claimed it had handled more than 2,241 such cases, but a federal audit released this week found that none of the cases had been referred by federal officials to District Attorney Kamala Harris' office as required under the program. [Feds want $5.4 million back from S.F., San Francisco Chronicle, April 4, 2008]
Earlier this week, Newsom claimed a massive undercount of the city that cost it a lot in federal money: Newsom says U.S. census missed 100,000.
Mayor Gavin Newsom said the U.S. census has somehow overlooked 100,000 San Francisco residents and the city is failing to collect millions of dollars in federal funding as a result.
To compound the wackiness, the city paid an unspecified amount for the study by the Social Compact, a Washington-based non-profit that promotes inner-city investment. Who are these "uncounted" — illegal aliens, homeless living in Golden Gate Park and the like? Newsom believes that such people represent "incredible purchasing power" but the notion that persons living on the fringes have lots of disposable income doesn’t pass the most rudimentary credibility test.
Washington is not about to fork over millions of dollars to San Francisco on the basis of a bogus study, but Newsom keeps pitching anyway for more handouts. He wants all the benefits of being the mayor of an American city with none of the responsibility.
This is a content archive of VDARE.com, which Letitia James forced off of the Internet using lawfare.