- Apr 1, 2011
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The Obama Administration is once again revealing its Stalinist cloven hoof. It's trying to shut up an elected county official from speaking his mind about one of the programs the Obama administration is trying to ram down the throats of the people living there. Make sure you read the text in bold. You'll laugh your ass off.
We have written about how “regionalism” and its handmaiden “Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing” (AFFH) are, in effect, an attempt by the left to dictate the way Americans will live. Now, we see that they also entail an attempt to tell elected officials what they must say. This has become apparent from efforts to muzzle Westchester Country Executive Rob Astorino.
Westchester County, New York is ground zero in the left’s push for its vision of regionalism. Under Democratic leadership, the County entered into a settlement with the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The County agreed to build 750 “affordable housing units,” 650 of which would be in municipalities with less than 3 percent American-American population and less than 7 percent Hispanic population.
It also agreed to advertise its affordable housing units to people living outside the County. The non-residents were to be lured into the County to try to ensure that the new housing units would be filled by the desired number of members of the HUD-preferred racial and ethic groups.
Under Astorino, a Republican, the County is working to build the 750 units. However, Astorino has also been a strong critic of regionalism/AFFH. In fact, after viewing a 12 minute video of Astorino describing Westchester’s battles with HUD, Goffstown, New Hampshire decided to stop applying for HUD money, which is the hook the Obama administration uses to bend local governments to its will on housing matters.
In addition, as we noted here, Astorino seeks to bring Hillary Clinton, one of his constituents, into the discussion. He has asked the Democratic frontrunner whether she thinks her hometown, Chappaqua, is discriminatory and whether she agrees with the Obama administration’s efforts to force it to build a low-income housing development it doesn’t want.
Astorino even held a press conference outside of Clinton’s home to press her on the issue. The Countess of Chappaqua has remained silent on these questions.
Astorino thus poses a double-barrel threat to the left. First, he threatens to undermine AFFH by persuading localities not to submit to the program by taking federal money. Second, he embarrasses the candidate who will carry the left’s banner this Fall and who, as president, would work to implement the left’s vision of how we should live.
Astorino will no longer pose these threats if he can be silenced. This is what James Johnson, the “Federal Monitor” of the settlement agreement, is trying to do.
As Stanley Kurtz explains, the Federal Monitor’s attempt to silence Astorino comes in the form of a report filed on March 17 in federal court. The report claims that Astorino has spread false information about Westchester County’s housing settlement and about the efforts and intentions of HUD and the Federal Monitor himself.
As a remedy, the Federal Monitor seeks “the removal of press releases inconsistent with the declaration and findings” written by the Federal Monitor. He also calls for the hiring of “a public communications consultant that will craft a message and implement a strategy sufficiently robust to provide information broadly to the public that describes the benefits” of what HUD says it is trying to accomplish.
Westchester County, New York is ground zero in the left’s push for its vision of regionalism. Under Democratic leadership, the County entered into a settlement with the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The County agreed to build 750 “affordable housing units,” 650 of which would be in municipalities with less than 3 percent American-American population and less than 7 percent Hispanic population.
It also agreed to advertise its affordable housing units to people living outside the County. The non-residents were to be lured into the County to try to ensure that the new housing units would be filled by the desired number of members of the HUD-preferred racial and ethic groups.
Under Astorino, a Republican, the County is working to build the 750 units. However, Astorino has also been a strong critic of regionalism/AFFH. In fact, after viewing a 12 minute video of Astorino describing Westchester’s battles with HUD, Goffstown, New Hampshire decided to stop applying for HUD money, which is the hook the Obama administration uses to bend local governments to its will on housing matters.
In addition, as we noted here, Astorino seeks to bring Hillary Clinton, one of his constituents, into the discussion. He has asked the Democratic frontrunner whether she thinks her hometown, Chappaqua, is discriminatory and whether she agrees with the Obama administration’s efforts to force it to build a low-income housing development it doesn’t want.
Astorino even held a press conference outside of Clinton’s home to press her on the issue. The Countess of Chappaqua has remained silent on these questions.
Astorino thus poses a double-barrel threat to the left. First, he threatens to undermine AFFH by persuading localities not to submit to the program by taking federal money. Second, he embarrasses the candidate who will carry the left’s banner this Fall and who, as president, would work to implement the left’s vision of how we should live.
Astorino will no longer pose these threats if he can be silenced. This is what James Johnson, the “Federal Monitor” of the settlement agreement, is trying to do.
As Stanley Kurtz explains, the Federal Monitor’s attempt to silence Astorino comes in the form of a report filed on March 17 in federal court. The report claims that Astorino has spread false information about Westchester County’s housing settlement and about the efforts and intentions of HUD and the Federal Monitor himself.
As a remedy, the Federal Monitor seeks “the removal of press releases inconsistent with the declaration and findings” written by the Federal Monitor. He also calls for the hiring of “a public communications consultant that will craft a message and implement a strategy sufficiently robust to provide information broadly to the public that describes the benefits” of what HUD says it is trying to accomplish.
