About the Author
The Author
Andrew Heyman lives and works in Seattle Washington USA. His true vocation is political writing and agitating for the radical idea that a society that is governed by, and serves the needs of the people is best.
Andrew is also the member of a wonderful family with his loving wife, Pam, and the proud father of 2 wonderful children, Josie and Adam. They all keep him from becoming immersed in blogging to an unhealthy degree, and remind him of why he cares about what is going on in this world in the first place.
You can email him at kiacyclic-AT-gmail.com.
Golf as the Snakeoil for Social Ills
Well, the Bush administration is taking on the problem of gang violence in America head on, and they aren't afraid to play hardball:
A senior Justice Department official says a $500,000 federal grant to the World Golf Foundation is an appropriate use of money designed to deal with juvenile crime in America.
"We need something really attractive to engage the gangs and the street kids, golf is the hook," said J. Robert Flores, the administrator of the Justice Department's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
The Justice Department, in a decision by Flores, gave the money to the World Golf Foundation's First Tee program, even though Justice Department staffers had rated the program 47th on a list of 104 applicants. The allegations were first reported earlier this year by the trade journal Youth Today.
"I don't know why people insist on denigrating it, it's a sound program," Flores told ABC News.
Well other than it is completely absurd, I don't know why either.
Okay so guess who is the honorary president of the First Tee program. W's dad, the elder George Bush.
Unfortunately this isn't just laughable corruption, programs that might actually do some good aren't getting what they need:
A program to help troubled teens in San Diego, Vista, was ranked number two by the staff out of 202 applicants in its category of prevention and intervention but was turned down for a grant to help deal with inner city teen violence in San Diego.
Another program, designed to train adult guards to deal with teens in custody, also was denied federal money even though it was ranked by the staff number 2 out of 104 in its category.
"What Flores did in this situation is he just stomped on the heads of kids who are very much at risk and in trouble in this country," said Earl Dunlap, who runs the guard training program for the National Partnership for Juvenile Services.
"He determined what the rules were gonna be and who was gonna play and who was gonna be welcome in his club. And everybody else could take a hike," said Dunlap of Flores.
So once again the GOP sees the government as their private trough for the enrichment of their friends and family.
This is Bush nepotism at it's finest!