From the June 2009 Idaho Observer:


Nation’s mayors resolve to demand stimulus cash; pander to Obama agenda

By Anne Wilder Chamberlain

At the 77th annual meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Providence, RI (June 12-16, 2009), the nearly 1,000 mayors in attendance resolved to help Obama spend as much "money" as possible to advance the "president’s" socialist agenda. The nation’s mayors also passed a resolution "supporting the freedom to marry."

Many lobbyists attended the event, according to opensecrets.org, who posted the list of attendees last year. A representative from the Corporate Accountability Project (stopcorporateabuse.org), also attended to encourage mayors to phase out spending on bottled water, something they agreed to last year, but did not follow through as promised.

After designating over $2 billion of local funds last year for their pet projects, this year’s mayoral crop predominantly resolved to demand stimulus funds from the federal government.

The mayors across the country, under the leadership of newly elected president, Seattle Mayor Greg Nichols, instead of working locally with their constituents, agreed among themselves to adopt 304 pages of resolutions.

The mayors resolved to:

• Urge Congress to make a $20 billion investment into reauthorization of the "Child Nutrition Act," which is connected to "the nation’s agricultural production," while commending USDA agriculture secretary Tom Vilsack for his "fight against childhood obesity." At least they supported providing fruits and vegetables from local sources.

• Urge the U.S. Bureau of Census to revamp its American Community Survey to provide an improved measure of poverty across the nation and calling for a "cabinet level position" to direct "poverty reduction programs" through the National Action Agenda on Poverty, with special emphasis on K-12 education and universal health care.

• Urge the federal government to fund Community Service Block Grant programs to help those in poverty

• Support H1N1 influenza response systems

• Establish an annual mayors "kids day" with community support provided free by local businesses

• Invest in public-private partnerships

• Urge the federal government to invest in metropolitan transportation systems

• Expand programs in tourism, the arts, parks, entertainment and sports

• Urge Congress to support HR 710 to inject additional capital into the national banking system and promote coordinated federal investment in cities

• Support the creation of a White House task force on middle-class families and encourage volunteerism

• Endorse the president’s education plan and increase support for "high quality public charter schools"

• Support "green jobs training"

• Support the Youth Promise Act, with its stated objective of "youth prison reduction through opportunities, mentoring, intervention, support and education"

• Call on Congress to pass "meaningful climate protection legislation"

• Support the "Dream Act," which provides college education for illegal immigrants at reduced cost

• Support "equality and civil rights for Gay and Lesbian Americans"

• Encourage Barack Obama and Congress to make a permanent ban on the sale of "assault weapons"

The only program on this list that appears to be to the benefit of the American public as a whole is the mayors’ stated support for expanding access and availability of homegrown local food.

The IO recommends that its readers contact their local mayors and find out whether they attended this conference; let them know your position on these issues, and discover his/her position; then write a letter to your local paper exposing this complicity with the national unconstitutional agenda.