'Petty vindicativeness' is one phrase that aptly describes the Bush Administration's actions towards the public since they came to office. Of course it isn't only George Bush himself, but the people that he puts in power at administrative levels. You know, people like Orlando J. Cabrera and Kim Kendrick. They were ticked off that Philadelphia Housing Authority Director Carl R. Greene didn't help out one of a buddy of HUD Director Alphonso Jackson, so they 'punished' him by stripping his agency of federal funding to the tune of $50 million dollars.
From The Washington Post:
After Philadelphia's housing director refused a demand by President Bush's housing secretary to transfer a piece of city property to a business friend, two top political appointees at the department exchanged e-mails discussing the pain they could cause the Philadelphia director.
"Would you like me to make his life less happy? If so, how?" Orlando J. Cabrera, then-assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, wrote about Philadelphia housing director Carl R. Greene.
"Take away all of his Federal dollars?" responded Kim Kendrick, an assistant secretary who oversaw accessible housing. She typed symbols for a smiley-face, ":-D," at the end of her January 2007 note.
Cabrera wrote back a few minutes later: "Let me look into that possibility."
The e-mails, obtained by The Washington Post, came to light as a result of a lawsuit provoked by HUD's decision last September to strip the Philadelphia Housing Authority of as much as $50 million in federal funds. In December, it declared the agency in violation of rules that underpin its ability to decide precisely how it will spend federal housing funds. Kendrick was the official who formally notified the authority that she had found it in violation.
Yes, it is sickening...almost as sickening to know that this is standard operating procedure within the agencies controlled by the Executive branch of the government. And all of that is almost as sickening as the fact that the Judiciary branch will not care because so many of the judges have been appointed by the same Administration. This is what we let them get away with. This is government at its worst, and if we do not hold people like this accountable, then they will just keep on raping our government that we'd like to think of as serving the people.
|