Off With His HUD!!!

Oh, the HUD debacle. To offset the onslaught of insane crime that began 2010 for Youngstown, we had to have a bit of comic relief to remind us that not all news is so bloody and yucky. For the uninitiated, let me recap:

* City CDA director Bill D'Avignon was in charge of completing a HUD grant application so that Youngstown could share in some of that sweet, sweet stimulus money (which is only dreaded "pork barrel spending" when someone else has it, apparently).
* Instead of filling out the application himself, which our tax money pays him to do, he passed the application off to the 22-year-old daughter of his girlfriend (the girlfriend formerly worked at the Vindicator and now works for the city). The daughter had no grant writing experience, had just graduated from YSU, was a former Jambar editor and currently worked for the Tribune.
* The application sucked ass. We got a ZERO out of 10 on most of the requirements.
* We didn't get any money.

Before we found out why we were denied the sweet, sweet stimulus bucks, an angry mob took up their Internet pitchforks and went straight after the man who was clearly responsible for this despite having nothing to do with the CDA or the application filling out or reviewing process - TIM RYAN. Yes, it was his fault we didn't get any money, and you were all very vocal about it:

* "The Democrat Party believes you deserve to be rejected for believing in socialism and re-electing socialists. They know you die hard Dems are what the first dictator of the USSR called you, useful idiots."
* "Sounds like the valley liberal DemoPORKERS are on their way for a Washington, DC vacation at taxpayer expense. Tim Ryan does not deserve re-election. He has yet to do anything for the valley. Taxpayers can no longer afford to support the spending of deficit creating dollars for these kinds of projects. The liberal DemoPORKERS in the valley just don't get it."
* "Hey Timmy "Pelosi Lap Dog" Ryan. I'll bet you're proud of this one. If you would have spent more time on our local issues rather than the Health Care fiasco or going to Copenhagen maybe you wouldn't have dropped the ball. Believe me if Our area would have gotten the HUD grant You would have been the first one to take credit. Now your just a whiner trying to save face. Sometimes a cheat is just a cheat."

The entire town wanted Tim Ryan's head on a stick for this. Goes to show how much they know about the political process.

SO, despite having nothing to do with the application being an epic fail, Tim Ryan takes a meeting in Washington that was supposed to be about Youngstown 2010 (another mess, to be discussed later), and uses it to try and find out what happened, and how Youngstown could still try and get some money for HUD. Imagine his surprise when he goes on the back of the entire town clamoring for his blood, representing poor Youngstown who needs this money so bad and wants to know why, WHY we were ignored, only to find out it was because something, unlike money and jobs, Youngstown unfortunately has plenty of - GROSS INCOMPETENCE.

So, Tim Ryan was vindicated. The Vindicator, always the source for such daring headlines as "HUD to Mahoning Valley: Drop Dead," had to eat crow like it was going out of style. The Tribune, despite employing the girl at the center of this scandal, had no clue what was happening until the story broke, and appeared to be protecting their employee at the cost of good journalism. Everybody lost in this debacle.

I'm not a Tim Ryan fanatic, nor am I trying to make him look like a saint. This is merely to point out how quickly the Valley is to cast blame upon a political figurehead before they even know what's happening, only to look as bad as that grant application after the truth comes out.

But you know who coulda stopped all this? JIMBO. <- sarcasm.