{"id":255,"date":"2011-07-14T16:47:42","date_gmt":"2011-07-14T20:47:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/live-immigrationreform.pantheonsite.io\/?p=255"},"modified":"2016-02-23T13:49:58","modified_gmt":"2016-02-23T18:49:58","slug":"when-casa-calls-maryland%e2%80%99s-sycophantic-politicians-pay-heed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2011\/07\/14\/when-casa-calls-maryland%e2%80%99s-sycophantic-politicians-pay-heed\/","title":{"rendered":"When Casa Calls, Maryland\u2019s Sycophantic Politicians Pay Heed"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u201c[W]hen Gustavo Torres calls, I generally get in my car and go over and ask him what he wants,\u201d <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/lifestyle\/style\/a-man-with-a-plan\/2011\/06\/14\/gIQAY1qHEI_story.html\" target=\"_blank\">says Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot<\/a>. It is rather startling that an elected official would admit to that level of obsequiousness to an organization dedicated to serving a particular ethnic group. And not just any ethnic advocacy group, but one that in addition to generous support from the State of Maryland has received <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/news\/2008\/aug\/05\/citgo-gives-15-million-to-casa\/\" target=\"_blank\">funding from Venezuelan strongman, Hugo Chavez<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Franchot\u2019s comment further highlights the betrayal of Maryland\u2019s citizens by Maryland Governor Martin O\u2019Malley and his allies in the state legislature when they rammed through Maryland\u2019s own DREAM Act, putting the agenda of Casa de Maryland ahead of Maryland voters.<\/p>\n<p>Fawning devotion to their political agenda is not all Casa receives from the Maryland government. As the Washington Post reports, \u201chalf of Casa\u2019s $6 million budget comes from local, state and federal appropriations, and that Casa uses a significant portion of that money to help illegal immigrants.\u201d Franchot made these remarks at a fete at Casa\u2019s Maryland\u2019s headquarters, a colonial mansion that the organization bought for $1 and spent $13.8 million renovating, \u201calso partly funded with public money.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>So, how does the Post deal with the fact Casa\u2019s great legislative victory will likely be short-lived as Maryland voters, i.e., citizens, appear ready to overturn the law by referendum in 2012? By labeling it a \u201cpopulist backlash.\u201d Torres shouldn\u2019t worry too much, though; O\u2019Malley and Franchot have keys in hand and are only a short car ride away next time they are summoned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201c[W]hen Gustavo Torres calls, I generally get in my car and go over and ask him what he wants,\u201d says Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot. It is rather startling that an elected official would admit to that level of obsequiousness to an organization dedicated to serving a particular ethnic group. And not just any ethnic advocacy<\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/2011\/07\/14\/when-casa-calls-maryland%e2%80%99s-sycophantic-politicians-pay-heed\/\" title=\"Read More\">Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[4,7,14],"tags":[405,157,66],"yst_prominent_words":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9916,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255\/revisions\/9916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.immigrationreform.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}