tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-313815882024-03-14T11:49:49.988-07:00Fifth and OhViews on local and world events and daily life from a "hot spot" in the Shaw district of Washington, DC.
"All politics is local." -- Tip O'Neill "But some politics is really, really local." --DaddyFiveOhDaddyFiveOhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11427294784395507775noreply@blogger.comBlogger170125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31381588.post-53427288326635606232009-01-09T08:25:00.000-08:002009-01-09T08:28:23.961-08:00The ANC Curse Continues<span style="font-family:verdana;">I wasn’t feeling well, so I missed the ANC meeting Wednesday night, naively thinking that a new era of civility and cooperation had begun. So it was with great dismay that the next morning I found the Shaw list serve full of angry posts about the re-election (by deadlock) of Doris Brooks as ANC chair. Since I wasn’t there, I’m basically relying on <a href="http://lifein.mvsna.org/index.cfm/2009/1/7/ANC-2C-Recap-1709">Si’s account of the meeting</a>; I’ve always found her to be a fair and accurate reporter.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">I have to add my voice to those who think reinstating Doris was a bad idea. I <a href="http://lifein.mvsna.org/index.cfm/2009/1/7/ANC-2C-a-call-to-action">agree with Si</a> that Doris has shown herself to be incompetent and that she has no idea how to run a meeting or an organization. After all, that was the ostensible justification for Leroy Thorpe being her “parliamentarian” and “executive assistant”. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">I don’t know why Theresa did what she did. (I spoke to her briefly last night, but didn’t have a chance to question her about this.) Perhaps Alex assumed he had an entitlement to becoming the Chair, having suffered through years of abuse during the Thorpe regime, and maybe she took umbrage at what appeared to be a display of arrogance. It doesn’t make sense to me, but she undoubtedly had her reasons.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">Leroy must be having a good laugh right now, and who could blame him?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">Still, I think everyone needs to calm down and take a deep breath. I’m glad a couple of people like Jeff Wellbaum have taken a conciliatory approach. This isn’t the end of the world, and the worst thing that could happen is if the new ANC dissolves into another two years of toxic antagonism. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Here’s my suggestion: Why not have the chairmanship rotate among the four commissioners?</span> Let each one preside for, say, three months, and then pass the gavel to the next person. The European Union operates this way, why can’t ANC2C? Obviously, everyone isn’t going to have the same strengths, but no one has to be the Top Dog and no one needs to feel slighted. If one person doesn’t do such a great job…well, it’s only for a short time and then someone else has a chance.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">Presumably this would require some change in the ANC by-laws, but that could be easily accomplished if the four commissioners set aside their bruised feelings and put their heads together.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">I think it’s less important who is the titular chair than what the ANC decides to do. I would like to see the sort of communication innovations (like a website, maybe!) that we all have discussed. We could have some committees of concerned residents who want to work on certain issues (e.g., development, public safety, vacant properties, etc.) and maybe do some of the preliminary work on issues that come before the ANC so that everything doesn’t fall on the four commissioners. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">There’s still a chance to make this work. Let’s not blow it!</span>DaddyFiveOhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11427294784395507775noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31381588.post-22016973101763659682008-11-06T15:41:00.000-08:002008-11-06T16:44:11.796-08:00Questions About DC Voting Rolls<span style="font-family:verdana;">I was just reading about the growing controversy about voting irregularities in Alaska, stemming from the extraordinarily low number of counted votes in Tuesday's election. See <a href="http://shannynmoore.wordpress.com/2008/11/06/stolen-election-in-alaska/#comments">here </a>and <a href="http://mudflats.wordpress.com/2008/11/06/crunching-the-numbers-in-alaska/">here</a>.<br /><br />This made me curious about the numbers here in DC and I started looking at the figures. They're pretty interesting.<br /><br />According to the <a href="http://www.dcboee.org/pdf_files/Statistics_Report_November_2008.pdf">DCBOEE</a>, there were 426,761 registered voters in DC for the 2008 election. That seemed like a lot, given the population of the District, so I looked it up and in 2006 (the latest official estimate I found), there were 474,895 residents in DC aged 18 or over. That means that <span style="font-weight: bold;">89.9 percent</span> of all residents old enough to vote were registered, which struck me as a very high number. (It also means that only 52% of registered voters actually cast ballots in this election, which I find surprisingly low.)<br /><br />But those 474K residents also include a large number of foreigners who can't (legally) vote, as well as a big population of people who come to live and work in DC but keep their voter registration in their home states, plus people who have other impediments to voting. I don't know how many people that would be, but I'm guessing that if they were subtracted from the 18+ population, it would make voter registration close to or maybe even over 100%.<br /><br />So just for comparison, I looked at the analogous statistics for Maryland, and it turns out that for the state of Maryland, only 73.6 percent of residents 18 and over were registered to vote this year. That's a pretty big difference.<br /><br />There has been plenty of anecdotal evidence that DC voting rolls continue to list lots of people who are no longer resident here or who are dead, and the system (if you can call it that) for purging such people from the rolls are inadequate, to be polite. I think these</span><span style="font-family:verdana;"> aggregate</span><span style="font-family:verdana;"> numbers tend to support this.<br /><br />It has become very clear that there are serious problems with the voting systems throughout the country. We saw that at work here during the September primaries, and it's not evident that there has been any serious effort to resolve these questions. If you can't trust the elections, it strikes at the very basis of democracy.<br /><br />We tend not to think about such things between elections, but maybe this is something we should press our elected officials on before the next one.<br /><br />Just sayin'....<br /></span>DaddyFiveOhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11427294784395507775noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31381588.post-54570501096702534952008-11-04T22:12:00.000-08:002008-11-04T22:32:36.806-08:00A Great Night!<span style="font-family:verdana;">I've had an Obama sticker on my car for 2 years because I was convinced the first time that I heard him speak that he was someone truly extraordinary. The campaign he waged to win office was honorable and even-tempered despite the nastiness and outright lies thrown his way by his opponents. I believe and fervently hope that he will be able to fulfill his promise as president and that, as Colin Powell put it, he will be a transformational figure in American history. So yes, I'm excited and grateful that he will have that chance.<br /><br />Regarding our ANC, I see new hope for that as well. What I believe are the final tallies are posted <a href="http://lifein.mvsna.org/index.cfm/2008/11/4/ANC-Results-Partial">here</a> and <a href="http://www.offseventh.org/blog/2008/11/there-will-be-no-gloating.html">here</a>. So it looks like it will be Padro, Chapple, Sule, and Brooks. Congratulations to all the winners.<br /><br />This should break the logjam that has prevented ANC2C from becoming something much more than it is today. Theresa Sule brings a new approach and energy, and I'm delighted that she will now bring her talents to the ANC. I hope that Ms. Brooks will become a constructive player in the new commission. There's a lot that can be done there.<br /></span>DaddyFiveOhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11427294784395507775noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31381588.post-77270551587151311072008-11-04T07:38:00.000-08:002008-11-04T07:44:30.757-08:00Voting Day<span style="font-family: verdana;">Got to our precinct voting location (Shiloh) a bit before opening, and lines were already around the block onto Q Street. It took a little over an hour to cast the ballot--not bad, considering the crowd. Looks like most people were opting for paper ballots (good idea!), but even so those seemed to be moving faster than the electronic voting machines. So far, it looks like the election officials are doing a good job.<br /><br />Went back by there a little after 10:00 a.m., and there was <span style="font-weight: bold;">no</span> line outside the building. So if you haven't voted yet, looks like mid-day would be a good time to do it. There will probably be another rush after working hours later.<br /><br />Now to find something constructive to do with my anxiety over the pending results.<br /><br /><br /></span>DaddyFiveOhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11427294784395507775noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31381588.post-16383095743242002492008-11-03T12:15:00.000-08:002008-11-03T12:40:11.721-08:00Another Local Election to Think About<span style="font-family:verdana;">I've already spouted off about the ANC2C races, but there's another local election that deserves some attention too--maybe more.<br /><br />That's the one for DC council member at large. You get to vote for two candidates for this race. Kwame Brown is probably a lock. But the other one isn't. There are six candidates on the ballot, but basically, it's between Michael Brown, Patrick Mara (the Republican who upset Carol Schwartz in the primary), and Carol Schwartz (running as a write-in).<br /><br /><a href="http://www.inshaw.com/blog/2008/10/michael-brown-g-ddamned-ahole.html">Mari of In Shaw</a> has already weighed in about Michael Brown and why she can't stand him, and she makes a good case. Then there was a very <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/31/AR2008103103089.html">interesting article by Colbert King in the WaPo</a> a couple of days ago, that really lays out what's at stake here.<br /><br />I think the biggest thing is that Michael Brown will likely try to sabotage Michelle Rhee's program to reform the DC public schools. I don't know if Rhee will succeed, but finally there's someone with the vision and drive to make real changes, and if this chance is lost then it's probably beyond fixing.<br /><br />Then there's the fact that M. Brown is endorsed by Marion Barry, which alone is enough to vote against him in my book.<br /><br />So now I'm trying to overcome my gag response and vote for a Republican--just having a hard time deciding between Mara (endorsed by the Post) and Carol.<br /><br />Okay, one more time on the ANC:<br /><br />Please vote for Alexander Padro (ANC2C01), Kevin Chapple (ANC2C02), Jessica Lanza (ANC2C03), or Theresa Sule (ANC2C04). If you want to know why I think this way, look <a href="http://fifthandoh.blogspot.com/2008/10/change-we-need-in-shaw.html">here</a>.<br /><br /><br /></span>DaddyFiveOhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11427294784395507775noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31381588.post-49385175057145827782008-11-03T11:45:00.000-08:002008-11-03T12:12:11.761-08:00Canvassing for Obama in the Burbs<span style="font-family: verdana;">Yesterday evening I volunteered to canvas voters for the Democratic party out in Virginia--a new experience for me.<br /><br />First, I gotta say that the Obama people definitely have their act together. The organization was nothing short of phenomenal; if Obama wins and they can run the country the way this campaign is being run, we'll be in good shape! <br /><br />When I got to the DNC parking lot on S. Capitol, they had direction sheets ready to send volunteers to local offices in the outer ring of the VA burbs, normally Republican territory. I got Ashburn in Loudoun County--out beyond Dulles Airport. This is the land of McMansions (the kind with brick facades on the front and vinyl siding on the rest of the house) and long commutes. <br /><br />The local Democratic office in a very anonymous-looking office park had the packets ready with the names and addresses of the households we were to visit. The detailed info on the sheets was amazing. The addresses had already been visited twice, and we were only going to the ones where there had been no one at home, or where there was support for Obama--the idea being to make sure those people get to the polls. They even had flashlights for the canvassers (it was already dark at 6 p.m.)!<br /><br />I was paired with a very sharp young woman who works in Sen. Patty Murray's office, and we headed off to a subdivision about 4 miles away--one of those with curving streets and lots of cul-de-sacs. I gotta say walking around suburbia at night seems pretty creepy.<br /><br />Happily, no one pulled a gun on us, and most people were surprisingly cordial. Someone came to every door we knocked on. At the first house we hit, they actually wanted to engage in conversation about the election, so we hung around for a good ten minutes. A number of the households were divided about the election, but there seemed to be pretty good support for Obama--including a number of yard signs at houses we didn't visit. We were also supposed to say stuff about Mark Warner and Judy Feder, but people really seemed focused only on the presidential race. Only one guy (at a house with a big American flag on the porch and a "no tresspassing" sign in the window) told us to beat it--wonder who he's voting for.<br /><br />So I don't know if this helped the cause, but I'm glad I did it, because it feels good to have done something besides give money.<br /><br />I think they're still taking volunteers, so if you're interested, you can call at 202-579-2584.<br /></span>DaddyFiveOhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11427294784395507775noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31381588.post-68318535594614677552008-10-19T06:57:00.000-07:002008-10-19T11:50:42.732-07:00Palin on SNL<span style="font-family:verdana;">Just in case you have a life and weren't home to see Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live, I can report that she didn't do much of anything to rehabilitate her image. In fact, she didn't </span><span style="font-family:verdana;">say </span><span style="font-family:verdana;">or do much of anything period except to yell out the "Live from New York..." tag line. <br /><br />I thought that SNL might decide to make nice with her, and pull the punches, but the odd thing was that Palin showed up to lend her presence on a show that continued to parody and ridicule her public persona. </span><span style="font-family:verdana;">The show opened with another devastating mock press conference with Tina Fey, who I thought for a split second was the real Palin. Then during the Weekend Update segment, she had to sit silently while</span><span style="font-family:verdana;"> awkwardly pretending to be groovin' during a funny rap skit by Amy Poehler and the cast that satirized her--pretty roughly, I thought.</span> <span style="font-family:verdana;">I wonder if she knew what was happening.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:verdana;"><a href="http://blogs4mccain.com/2008/10/19/sarah-palin-on-saturday-night-live/">Here's the video</a>--oddly on a pro-McCain site. Second segment is <a href="http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/clips/update-palin-rap/773781/?dst=nbc%7Cwidget%7CNBC%20Video&__source=nbc%7Cwidget%7CNBC%20Video">here</a>.<br /><br />Now I guess she'll go back to inciting hatred among Real Americans, who apparently look like <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPg0VCg4AEQ&eurl=http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/">this</a>.<br /></span>DaddyFiveOhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11427294784395507775noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31381588.post-39933235587524569362008-10-18T06:48:00.000-07:002008-10-18T07:07:28.763-07:00Catania Bakery Robbed. Again.<span style="font-family:verdana;">Part of my Saturday routine is to go by the Catania Bakery to get their fantastic fresh croissants and bread. This morning when I arrived, there were police outside and the bakery was closed. The officer outside told me that there had been a robbery. (<a href="http://www.inshaw.com/blog/2008/10/something-bad-happened-at-catania.html">In Shaw</a> has a post on this as well.)<br /><br />Unfortunately, this isn't the first time. They were hit a year or so ago, and a family member was assaulted, and there have been previous robberies. The Tramontes have shown amazing toughness and resilience, and I'm sure they'll bounce back, but they shouldn't have to suffer these depredations again and again. My condolences and support to Nicole and her family.<br /><br />When they reopen, as I'm confident they will, I hope the neighborhood will support them by buying their pastries and bread. They're normally open for retail on Saturday morning and offer coffee for folks who just want to hang out and schmooze. The bakery is at 1404 N. Capitol Street, between O and P.<br /><br /><br /></span>DaddyFiveOhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11427294784395507775noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31381588.post-79222103529704331192008-10-17T15:01:00.000-07:002008-10-18T08:30:39.266-07:00When Does This Become a Hate Crime?<span style="font-family:verdana;"> Seriously, folks, this is the</span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/10/quote-for-th-13.html"> robocall</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> that the Republican National Committee has authorized and is being used in Virginia right now. I don't know if this sort of crap works, but the mere fact that McCain's party and campaign authorizes this kind of vicious lie is outrageous. Didn't you just love McCain's smarmy pitch in the last debate and on Letterman last night that </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:verdana;" >he</span><span style="font-family:verdana;"> was really the victim of negative campaigning?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">Meanwhile, Palin is referring to the "</span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/10/17/to_avoid_being_depressed_palin.html">pro-America</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">" parts of the country (guess which ones they are). So I guess the rest of us are...what...Iranians? Russians? Or, gasp, F</span><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span><span style="font-family:verdana;">rench? You can get the t-shirt </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://skreened.com/republican/pro-usa-pro-mccain">here</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">A bit of levity: </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5wHnzQx81g&eurl=http://www.wonkette.com/">This video</a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> is hilarious.<br /><br />Addendum:<br /><br />I just saw <a href="http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2008/10/on-road-western-pennsylvania.html">this post</a> from which this excerpt is taken:<br /><br /></span><span id="fullpost"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-style: italic;">Over in Indiana, PA and Northern Cambria, PA, volunteers fielded complaints of a massive wave of ugly robocalls both paid for by John McCain's campaign and those paid for by third parties. The third party call was interactive, and purported to be from Barack Obama himself. The call starts out reasonably, and then "Obama" asks what the listener thinks is the most important issue. Whatever the response, "Obama" then launches into a profane and crazed tirade using "n***er" and other shock language</span>.<br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">I guess it's now official: McCain has no honor left.</span></span><span style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span>DaddyFiveOhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11427294784395507775noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31381588.post-9330621318012983952008-10-16T10:24:00.000-07:002008-10-16T10:39:41.472-07:00Azi's Offers Catering<span style="font-family: verdana;">I stopped by Azi's Cafe (1336 9th St at "O") for lunch today, and learned that she is now offering catering for parties, receptions, and other events. <br /><br />Azi has a new catering menu of choices that include breakfast (@ $12/person), boxed lunches ($13.50-15.00/person), and a variety of her sandwiches along with salad and cookies </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">($15.00-17.99/person). <br /><br />If you've tried her sandwiches, pastries, and coffee, you know how good they are, so keep this in mind for any upcoming events. (Election night parties maybe?) Her phone number is 202-232-0001.<br /><br />And don't forget that Azi's is one of the nicest places around for a quick lunch, coffee break, or just to schmooze with friends. Like many establishments in our neighborhood, I hear that she's been struggling a bit in the current economy, so let's give her some business and keep this real asset to the neighborhood going.<br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span>DaddyFiveOhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11427294784395507775noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31381588.post-43267909396898137002008-10-15T15:56:00.000-07:002008-10-15T16:11:03.123-07:00Change We Need--In Shaw<span style="font-family: verdana;">If you live in DC, your presidential vote may not really matter all that much, because we all know who's going to get DC's 3 electoral votes. (BTW, I'm totally in the tank for Obama, in case no one noticed.)</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">But if you live in Shaw or Penn Quarter, there is one election where your vote can make a huge difference, and that's for ANC commissioner. A couple of my fellow bloggers have already spoken out on this (<a href="http://www.offseventh.org/blog/2008/10/moving-forward-indeed.html">here</a> and <a href="http://remakingleslumhistorique.blogspot.com/2008/10/my-picks-for-anc2c.html">here</a>). In 2006, I never used this blog to express election preferences, but this time around I'm definitely going to add my 2 cents worth as well. (Sorry, this is probably going to be a long post.)</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Let's speak plainly: The main--almost the only--issue here is Leroy Thorpe. For those who weren't around before 2006, or who may have forgotten, a brief review:</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Thorpe used to run the ANC as his personal fiefdom, using his two puppets, Doris Brooks and Barbara Curtis, to give him a guaranteed majority for whatever he wanted. Long-suffering Alex Padro was the odd man out, silenced and ridiculed by Thorpe--like anyone else who dared disagree or challenge him on anything. The ANC operated as a semi-secret society; agendas weren't distributed in advance, minutes were never published, and God forbid that meetings should be recorded because that would reveal what outrageous travesties of parliamentary procedure they were. Some courageous residents defied the video recording bans, so there's plenty of video evidence out there of how it was.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Then in November 2006, Thorpe lost--very narrowly--to challenger Kevin Chapple for ANC2C02. This would leave the ANC evenly divided between Thorpe's surrogates on one side and Padro and Chapple on the other. Rather than concede gracefully, at the final ANC meeting </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">Thorpe </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">chaired in December, he resigned the chair in favor of Brooks, and then got himself elected as "Parliamentarian" and "executive assistant" to Brooks. This effectively meant that he would continue to run the ANC because Brooks and Curtis never made a move without being told what to do in stage whispers from Thorpe. (Further details <a href="http://fifthandoh.blogspot.com/2008/09/seventh-streeter-blasts-everybody.html">here </a> and <a href="http://fifthandoh.blogspot.com/2006/12/spite-politics-or-how-to-win-by-losing.html">here</a>.)</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">So the ANC was split 2-2, but might still have been able to function, except that Brooks (clearly acting on Thorpe's instructions) continued to run the meetings in a spiteful manner, refusing to make even small concessions on minor procedural questions that might have improved the atmosphere. In 2007, she actually canceled meetings to prevent their being videorecorded, but eventually lost that battle. During the current year, there has been a slight atmospheric improvement, but this has not translated into much improved functioning of the ANC. The fact that the meetings are now mostly just sort of boring rather than the grotesque laughingstocks they used to be can be attributed largely to the replacement of Leroy Thorpe by Kevin Chapple.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">In my opinion, Kevin has done everything he could possibly do to walk the walk--particularly given the situation he came into. His <a href="http://www.anc2c02.com/forum/index.html">website</a>, newsletter, and single member district meetings have vastly improved communications with constituents about issues affecting the neighborhood, and he has been open and respectful of other points of view. He emphatically deserves to be re-elected. <br /><br />I see this choice as a kind of miniature version of the presidential election: Do you want to support a candidate with new ideas who is positive, forward-looking, and inclusive, or one who looks to the past and has been negative, mean-spirited, and divisive. I think that's the choice we have.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">But what about the other ANC races? (See district map <a href="http://www.anc2c02.com/img/ANC2Cmap.pdf">here</a>.)</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Thorpe's cat's paw, Doris Brooks (ANC2C03), has been a fixture on the ANC for decades, but still doesn't know how to run a meeting on her own. She has a strong base of support from her church, but as even Jack Evans has acknowledged--has shown little interest in the other constituents in her single member district (which stretches through Gallery Place and Penn Quarter all the way to the Capitol). The area south of Mass Avenue is full of residents--many of them new--who have never heard of her because she seems not to have heard of them. She is being challenged by Jessica Lanza, who wants to bring representation on the ANC to the forgotten constituents. For more information about her, see her website <a href="http://www.lanzaanc.com/">here</a>. It's time to replace Brooks, so vote for Jessica Lanza.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Theresa Sule is running for the seat held by Barbara Curtis (ANC2C04). Curtis is a nice lady, but she has been non-entity on the ANC except to vote as directed by Leroy Thorpe. Theresa Sule, who is president of the tenants association at 1330 7th Street, has greatly impressed me with her energy, sharp intellect, and no-nonsense approach to issues. She would make a great addition to the ANC, so please vote for her!</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Long-time incumbent Alex Padro (ANC2C01) should be re-elected. I don't always agree with him on everything, but he has been a rational voice for progress in Shaw and a tireless activist in promoting much-needed commercial and retail development in the area. He also is probably more knowledgeable than any of the other candidates about zoning and developmental regulation. As much as I like his perennial opponent, Mary Sutherland, on a personal level, I have yet to hear a good reason to support her over Alex, and she has been a Thorpe ally in the past. Sarah Livingston, who publishes her own Seventh Streeter newsletter, has also entered the race, but has declined opportunities to present her ideas for the ANC. Alex deserves another term.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">We now have a chance to replace our pathetic dysfunctional ANC with one that could actually do some good for the community. If you wonder what a really functional ANC might look like, you need look no further than our neighbor to the west in the Logan area: ANC2F. Just take a look at their <a href="http://www.anc2f.org/">website</a> to get an idea of the extent of their activities. Then look at ours. Oh, that's right--you can't, because we don't have one.</span>DaddyFiveOhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11427294784395507775noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31381588.post-80786110137924322008-10-12T06:26:00.000-07:002008-10-12T06:35:17.606-07:00Philly Phans Don't ♥ Palin<span style="font-family: verdana;">Sarah Palin's PR stunt to exploit her status as self-proclaimed Number One Hockey Mom seems to have backfired when <a href="http://wonkette.com/403451/philadelphia-hockey-fans-wildly-boo-sarah-palin">fans greeted her with a chorus of boos</a> in Philadelphia </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">at a Flyers-Rangers game</span><span style="font-family: verdana;">. Even dragging along one of her spawn with her to drop the puck didn't protect her.<br /><br />Philadelphia fans are notorious boors, but this is one instance when I'm grateful.<br /></span>DaddyFiveOhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11427294784395507775noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31381588.post-68549995127555652832008-10-07T08:16:00.000-07:002008-10-07T09:27:45.048-07:00Hit ChickFrom the Dana Milbank column in today's WaPo: <span style="font-style: italic;">"Now it turns out, one of his earliest supporters is a man named Bill Ayers," Palin said. "Boooo!" said the crowd. "And, according to the New York Times, he was a domestic terrorist and part of a group that, quote, 'launched a campaign of bombings that would target the Pentagon and our U.S. Capitol,'" she continued. "Boooo!" the crowd repeated. </span><p></p> <p style="font-style: italic;"> "Kill him!" proposed one man in the audience.<br /></p><p style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">It doesn't take a </span>genius to read the message here. This has been an undercurrent throughout the campaign--the Obama-is-a-Muslim lie, the emphasis on his middle name, McCain's ominously suggestive refrain of "who's the real Obama?", the not-so-subtle appeal to residual racism especially among working class Democrats. This is the end-game of the Atwater/Rove strategy of appealing to the primitive reptilian brain in the American voter.</p><p style="font-family: verdana;">But it took Sarah Palin to make the "Obama=terrorist" charge explicit. Look at the syntax in the quote: Who is the antecedent of "he"? Even allowing for Palin's minimal command of English, the ambiguity can't be inadvertent--not that the grammar really matters to the casual listener. This goes way beyond Willie Horton and is utterly despicable. <br /></p><p style="font-family: verdana;">I hesitate even to articulate this thought, but my greatest fear is not that many voters will fall for the distraction (so far, the polls suggest that they aren't buying it). Rather, I fear that some racist nut job will hear this as coded approval to physically attack Obama, now that he's been officially branded by the Republican candidates as an Enemy of America. McCain and Palin are literally playing with fire here.<br /></p><p style="font-family: verdana;">If this seems paranoid, just take a look at this <a href="http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/10/crossing-the-li.html">photograph</a> taken at a Palin rally. If that doesn't scare you,....</p>DaddyFiveOhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11427294784395507775noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31381588.post-14982819771965119652008-10-06T18:18:00.000-07:002008-10-06T18:32:02.649-07:00El Loco: La historia verdadera<span style="font-family: verdana;">This <span style="font-style: italic;">Rolling Stone</span> article, <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/23316912/makebelieve_maverick/print">"The Make-Believe Maverick"</a>, is long, but definitely worth the time to read. It has a lot of detail that I was unaware of and makes it very evident both that McCain's "straight-talking maverick" image is largely a fictional creation worthy of a Hollywood studio and that the erratic behavior he has shown lately is nothing new.<br /><br />This is important stuff. Please urge everyone you know to read it.<br /></span>DaddyFiveOhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11427294784395507775noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31381588.post-47860086272393049782008-10-05T11:08:00.000-07:002008-10-05T11:20:50.950-07:00Where are They Keeping El Loco?<span style="font-family:verdana;">Is the presidential race now really between Obama and Palin? Am I wrong, or has McCain just sort of disappeared over the last week? And what happened to all the McCain TV attack ads in the DC market? Have they given up on Virginia like they did on Michigan?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">I had a chance this morning to read all the newspapers placed before me (WaPo and NYT--I can name them), and was struck by the amount of chatter about Divine Sarah and the absence of much of anything about El Loco. The past week has shown conclusively that the Consumate Maverick can't exercise leadership over his own party any more than the unspeakable Dubya can. Even with both of their support and truckloads of lard, they still couldn't get even a bare majority of Republicans in the House to support the bailout bill. What does that say?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">Meanwhile, Palin is all over the place. The weird inversion is that the McCain campaign has gone over big time for the very thing that they blasted Obama for: i.e., using celebrity to sell their candidate. Never mind that much of the publicity is in the form of well-deserved ridicule. Never mind that what Palin says is a bizarre mixture of lies and buzzword-laden gibberish. (Just read the transcript and see if you can find an actual thought there.) Never mind that she has not yet shown that she knows anything about anything. She gets the eyeballs on TV and that's all that matters at this point. Even supposedly veteran pundits like David Broder are talking about how "Palin did just fine" and terming the VP debate "uplifting". Huh???? Ironically, it seems that nearly everyone except TV satirists has abandoned all critical faculties in favor of an <span style="font-style: italic;">American Idol</span> value system.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">Palin acts as if she believes she is indeed running for president--which she may well be. Here she is running for commander-in-chief with a resume that consists basically of a six-year term as mayor of a town the size of La Plata, Maryland and being a rookie governor of a state with the population of Baltimore city (in its now-shrunken state). But more important, even in a format that allowed her to regurgitate prepared spoon-fed gobbets of text, she has been unable to articulate a single policy on anything. (Yeah, we know she just <span style="font-style: italic;">loves </span>Israel.) But, as Paris Hilton would say, she's HOT.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">I'm not sure if the American public is really buying it, however. With the polls showing solidifying support for Obama, the El Loco's only option is to go for Big Lies and character assassination. The Palin/McCain campaign has already shown that it has no problem with that, so get ready for things to get really ugly for the next month.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">Oh, BTW, the Maverick family wants its name back. See </span><a style="font-family: verdana;" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/05/weekinreview/05schwartz.html?_r=1&oref=slogin">here</a><span style="font-family:verdana;">. </span>DaddyFiveOhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11427294784395507775noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31381588.post-16352407209605648952008-10-04T19:56:00.000-07:002008-10-04T20:07:18.902-07:00Palin Fading in...Alaska???!!!<span style="font-family: verdana;">Where's the love? We keep hearing that Sarah Palin is the queen of the hop in Alaska, but I'm starting to wonder. Take a look at these terrific blogs on local Alaskan politics: <a href="http://mudflats.wordpress.com/">Mudflats</a> and <a href="http://shannynmoore.wordpress.com/">Girl from Homer</a>. Sounds like the Palin rallies in Anchorage, by far the state's largest city, are falling flat and that there's growing resentment at the McCain campaign's meddling in local affairs and trying to stifle the Troopergate investigation.<br /><br />Maybe it's too much to dream that AK could go blue (except maybe from the cold), but it gives a ray of hope that not everyone is dazzled by the winks and you-betchas.<br /></span>DaddyFiveOhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11427294784395507775noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31381588.post-58925723464918423012008-10-03T09:39:00.000-07:002008-10-03T09:53:35.884-07:00With a Wink and a Lie<span style="font-family:verdana;">For a horrible moment there, I thought she was going to breastfeed the baby--you know, to really connect with the Hockey Moms out there and maybe give Joe Sixpack a little peek. Sarah Palin's beauty pageant training really came through last night. The wave, the winning smiles, the cutesy winks, the "gosh-darns" and "by-gollys" and "you betchas", the shout-out to the 3rd grade class or whatever it was, and--most of all--the non-stop fact-free verbiage. She really is made for TV--one of those daytime shows with female hosts whose sole purpose is to fill up time with meaningless chatter that no one will remember 30 minutes later. Kathie Lee, Kelly Ripa, Sarah Palin...the career path is wide open if the politics thing doesn't work out.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">Of course, she never bothered to answer any of those pesky questions posed by the irrelevant Gwen Ifill, who apparently was so cowed by the GOP's preemptive attack-the-moderator campaign that she couldn't muster the courage to steer Palin (and, to be fair, a few times Biden as well) back to the subject. So there was nothing to prevent Palin from delivering her memorized setpieces of bumpersticker slogans. Or to shamelessly repeat the GOP attack ad falsehoods designed to convince the heartland that Obama is really a crypto-Muslim terrorist who wants to starve Our Troops In Eye-Rack and tax Struggling Families into poverty. Never mind that Biden refuted the charges, goshdarnit, Sarah came right back to repeat her lies in that adorable squeaky cheerleader voice without batting an eye. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">And OMG, enough with the "maverick" thing! One of the problems with mavericks (BTW, I'm from Texas, where the term originated) is that you never know what the hell they're going to do, which is why they make good copy but poor leaders. McCain's erratic behavior lately--apparently trying to re-establish his fading maverick cred--demonstrates this pretty well. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">But (to use Palin's mantra) let's get back to energy... I'm still waiting to hear about Palin's vaunted energy expertise. From what I can tell it consists of getting herself elected governor of a state that produces oil that is delivered through a pipeline built decades earlier and which subsidizes the state government through a deal established before she was elected. Remember, folks, Dubya was not only governor of Texas (a bigger oil and gas producer), but he actually had his own oil company (which never made any money), so he had even better claims to being an "expert". You can see how well that's worked out for the country. Most of us here in the Lower 48, as they say, have no notion about what goes on in Alaskan politics, so the tendency is to accept the authorized GOP version, but for an alternative view, just check out these sites <a href="http://mudflats.wordpress.com/">here </a>and <a href="http://shannynmoore.wordpress.com/">here</a>.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">I was relieved to see that polls among uncommitted voters show most didn't buy Palin's act. Move over, Bonnie Hunt!</span>DaddyFiveOhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11427294784395507775noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31381588.post-68599280316381417072008-10-01T10:21:00.000-07:002008-10-01T11:38:31.044-07:00Holding Your Nose<span style="font-family:verdana;">Michael Sendar appeared last night at the CCCA meeting to make his pitch for a zoning variance for his notorious derelict property (see posts below). He claimed that he has wanted to develop the property but was stymied by its R4 zoning status. Interestingly, he did confirm that a couple of years ago he did have an offer to buy from respected residential developer Jim Abdo, but said that Abdo's offer was about $200K below the amount reported (that would probably put the offer above $600K, which would likely have netted Sendar a profit of at least $400K). He admits that he's not interested in developing the property now and just wants to sell it; currently his asking price is about $950K (if I recall correctly).<br /><br />He asked for input about the idea of having a small food store there which could also sell alcoholic beverages. The reaction of residents present was uniformly negative, noting that there were already plenty of such businesses in the area and that they tended to be magnets for other problems. He claims to be willing, however, to accept a restriction on the zoning variance that would exclude off-premises sale of alcohol.<br /><br />Here's the issue, as I see it:<br /><br />Morally, Sendar doesn't have a leg to stand on. He knew the property was R4 when he bought it. He could have sold it at substantial gain to someone willing to develop it as a residential property. He has allowed the property to deteriorate to the point that it is currently uninhabitable. He has gamed the system to avoid paying the vacant property taxes that he probably should have, if the DC government wasn't so shiftless and negligent about enforcing its tax laws.<br />Still, he will profit if he gets the variance, because that makes the property more valuable to a potential buyer. Sendar isn't the devil, but he has taken advantage of a complaisant and corrupt system, and he has shown no concern whatever for the consequences of his actions or inactions for the neighborhood.<br /><br />BUT, if he doesn't get the variance and hangs on to the property, it will continue to be a festering drag on the neighborhood, because it's clear nothing will happen there.<br /><br />So, even though it makes me gag, I think the variance should probably be supported with requisite prohibitions against off-premises alcohol sales.<br /><br />Sometimes you just have to accept unpalatable choices to get some improvement on a bad situation. That applies to the financial bailout Congress is considering, and I think it applies here as well.<br /><br />Sendar is supposed to appear at tonight's ANC meeting. I don't know what the other two commissioners think about it, but it seems that Alex Padro and Kevin Chapple have reached the same conclusion to hold their nose and support the variance.<br /><br />I wouldn't mind seeing Sendar have to squirm a little, though.<br /></span>DaddyFiveOhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11427294784395507775noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31381588.post-80362597380710834712008-09-29T13:25:00.000-07:002008-09-29T13:33:02.449-07:00Sendar to Appear at CCCA Meeting on Tuesday<span style="font-family: verdana;">Among the agenda items on the Convention Center Community Association (CCCA) meeting tomorrow, is derelict property owner Michael Sendar, who will report on his plans to develop his "Slum Historique" property at Rhode Island, 9th, and Q. He is, of course, seeking approval for a zoning variance to upgrade the property from residential to commercial. Should be interesting to hear.<br /><br />Nominations will also be made for CCCA officers for the coming year (with the election to take place in October).<br /><br />The meeting takes place at 7:00 p.m., Tuesday, Sept. 30 at the Kennedy Rec Center. Let's make it a good crowd.<br /></span>DaddyFiveOhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11427294784395507775noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31381588.post-8983760184154245392008-09-29T12:56:00.000-07:002008-09-29T13:22:18.587-07:00Burning Down the House<span style="font-family: verdana;">Oooowhee! Totally mesmerized by the failure of the bailout and watching the stock market drop like a rock. Haven't seen anything like this since the crash during Dubya's first term--scared even to look at what's happened to my retirement investments.<br /><br />Let's see: Apparently, the American People are Mad as Hell and Not Going to Take it Any More, so they hate the bailout, even though pretty much everyone who actually knows anything about economics and financial markets says that failure to approve it will mean further foreclosures, bank failures, no credit availability, job loss--in short, a bad recession. But Average Joe either doesn't care or--more likely--doesn't even know what the consequences will be. He's just plain pissed.<br /><br />Therefore, nearly everyone in Congress regards the bailout as poison Kool-Aid, with the Democrats saying we'll take ours if you'll take yours. So most of the Democrats dutifully down their dose, but 2/3 of the Republicans say "Ha-ha, fooled you, suckers," and pour theirs down the drain. Then they blame Nancy Pelosi for hurting their feelings, insisting they really would have voted for the bill if she hadn't been so mean.<br /><br />Meanwhile, Bush is revealed as a dead, not lame, duck, and El Loco McCain, who claimed to have rescued the bill from defeat (which, of course, was total nonsense) just looks foolish. As of this posting, he has had nothing to say about the House vote. From my standpoint, that's the only silver lining in this very dark cloud.<br /><br />I think it was Mencken who said, "no one ever went broke by underestimating the intelligence of the American people," but I think Mencken may be proved wrong in a way, when we all go broke.<br /></span>DaddyFiveOhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11427294784395507775noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31381588.post-52459268332571975792008-09-28T17:56:00.001-07:002008-09-28T18:03:50.998-07:00Fun Pix<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3FlILr-MNuhekkCn4kiNSlxKhkqsytX0PUDJIkFX5iDGUgjxOLTp-zWgxLRXhl7BKl4CvLsIfyJQfNqi2jovBH8YTZNpiCJzpq711oQJy8FBLGqS1d3MexvO3bNVt8a5OLw/s1600-h/w_and_putin.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3FlILr-MNuhekkCn4kiNSlxKhkqsytX0PUDJIkFX5iDGUgjxOLTp-zWgxLRXhl7BKl4CvLsIfyJQfNqi2jovBH8YTZNpiCJzpq711oQJy8FBLGqS1d3MexvO3bNVt8a5OLw/s400/w_and_putin.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5251242270490791058" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Fratboy cut-ups Dubya and Vladimir getting ready to give that Asian guy a wedgie.</span> <br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5dcgv23mktE3VwqYa7r4bTW9SqBmzJraq5-t5d2c8TKeMJimz_YkXwLKtVWlhk8LSguouff6osPhTSg7YdJ2yUbjM3pdP50C9PCMXyUmrh1XwrI8hWyAsH2PhNLfineN1BA/s1600-h/putinrearshishead.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5dcgv23mktE3VwqYa7r4bTW9SqBmzJraq5-t5d2c8TKeMJimz_YkXwLKtVWlhk8LSguouff6osPhTSg7YdJ2yUbjM3pdP50C9PCMXyUmrh1XwrI8hWyAsH2PhNLfineN1BA/s400/putinrearshishead.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5251241054997467858" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">"As Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where do they go? It's Alaska!" Sarah Palin in interview with Katie Couric.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></span>DaddyFiveOhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11427294784395507775noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31381588.post-68056995987725666932008-09-27T10:57:00.000-07:002008-09-27T11:11:57.673-07:00"Seventh Streeter" Blasts Everybody<span style="font-family:verdana;">Sarah Livingston, who writes and distributes her own neighborhood publication <span style="font-style: italic;">The Seventh Streeter</span>, has just published a new issue in which she denounces all of the current ANC commissioners and announces her own candidacy for the ANC2C01 seat currently held by Alex Padro. I won't attempt to repeat all of her rather complicated argument (<a href="http://www.box.net/shared/24rj7zgeo7">here's the link</a> if you want to read it for yourself), but I think it's worth addressing some of the allegations and points she raises.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">Her article centers around the recent Board of Zoning Adjustment (BZA) hearing regarding the property at Rhode Island, 9th, and Q for which the owner, Michael Sendar, is petitioning for a zoning variance to allow commercial use. (It is currently zoned R4 residential.) Links to other discussion of the issue can be found in my post "Rewarding Bad Behavior" earlier this month. She chastizes Padro for supporting the petition as a single member of the ANC rather than bringing it to the whole ANC, but further alleges that he is furthering his own private interests rather than those of the public.<br /> </span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:verdana;" >Comment: Personally, I think supporting the Sendar petition is wrong, particularly given his total neglect of the property and utter disregard for the neighborhood. Sendar has also somehow managed to avoid paying the vacant property tax even though the property has been empty and rotting away since 2001. Granting him the variance would be essentially rewarding him for bad behavior, because it enhances the value of the property if he tries to sell it, which he claims to be doing. I believe Alex's argument is that it would be better to have a functioning business in the property than for it to remain empty, which would be reasonable except for the fact that variances are normally granted for specific purposes, while Sendar is apparently seeking a non-specific variance. As I understand it, the immediate neighbors--particularly Ray Milefsky--are not unalterably opposed to any business use, but rather want guarantees that whatever goes in there will be something that contributes to improvement of the neighborhood rather than some obnoxious nuisance enterprise. As for the dark hints of personal gain (I guess that's what she means), I'd like to see something to back them up.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">She then goes on to allege that there is a "tiny cabal" of people who "are seeking to make all the decisions about the neighborhood's future and their modus operandi is to take advantage of the ANC's dysfunction to further their aims." As evidence, she claims that Padro and fellow commissioner Kevin Chapple have deliberately failed to overcome the ANC's dysfunction in order to promote their own communications with constituents via Chapple's website and SMD publication and criticizes them for acting independently of the ANC as a whole.<br /> </span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:verdana;" >Comment: This stikes me as bizarre. And, who exactly is the "tiny cabal?" No argument here as to the ANC's notorious dysfunction, but to criticize Kevin and Alex for seeking to circumvent Leroy Thorpe's continued throttlehold on the ANC is ludicrous and most unfair. If anyone has taken advantage of the ANC's dysfunction, it's Thorpe, who is its primary cause. When Thorpe was the actual ANC chair (as opposed to its unelected defacto boss, operating through his two puppets, which he is now), the ANC had no communications whatever. It had (and still has) no website, minutes were never published, and the agenda wasn't distributed in advance, anyone who questioned Thorpe's edicts was silenced. Thorpe and his allies have continued to oppose openness--going so far as to shut down meetings rather than allow them to be recorded. The "leadership" of Chair Doris Brooks, who does nothing without Thorpe whispering--literally--in her ear, has been spiteful and obstructionist, rejecting any attempt to bridge the gap. I and, I think, most people regard Kevin's newletter and <a href="http://www.anc2c02.com/forum/index.html">website</a> as a great resource, and if he needs to sell ads to help pay the costs of the newsletter (remember he is not paid to be on the ANC and the newsletter doesn't get published for free), so what? His website has welcomed opposing--even hostile--viewpoints, and it posts information about all manner of issues and events of interest to the neighborhood residents. Kevin's SMD meetings have been a model of what ANC meetings should be, and the reason he holds them is because the actual ANC meetings--if they're even held--have created a toxic atmosphere that tends to stifle exchange of views and information.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">Livingston then claims that "members of the cabal provoked matters in Shaw's traditional civic association as a springboard for splitting from that body and setting up a separate association which Martin Moulton is now the president of and which recently hosted a candidate's forum in Shaw for candidates from all SMDs in the ANC2C area."</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:verdana;" >Comment: For those who don't know or may have forgotten, the "traditional civic association" is the East Central Civic Association (ECCA). Following his defeat in the 2006 ANC election, Leroy Thorpe seized control of the ECCA in December 2006 in an unscheduled and illegitimate "election" over which he personally presided, ousting then-president Betty Newell, who was clearly stunned and humiliated by his surprise move. He then proceeded to run the ECCA, just as he had run the ANC, as his personal fiefdom rather than the public neighborhood group it had purported to be. He ejected Martin Moulton and another neighborhood resident who had supported Kevin Chapple on the ANC election (and who live on the same block where the ECCA meetings are held) simply for attending and attempting to record the proceedings of a supposedly public meeting. He went so far as to obtain a police ban on their presence in the church where the meetings take place.<br /> </span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:verdana;" >In light of these actions and Thorpe's continued obstructionism in the ANC as its "Parliamentarian" and "Executive Assistant" to the titular chair, a number of neighborhood residents--myself included--decided to form a new association--the Convention Center Community Association (CCCA)--which is still in the organizational stage. I believe anyone who has attended the CCCA meetings will attest to the fact that--in contrast to the ECCA--it is a open and democratic organization which is not designed to further the personal ambitions of any individual.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:verdana;" >The CCCA did, in fact, host a well-attended candidates forum on September 18, to which all ANC2C candidates--including Sarah Livingston--and Ward 2 council candidates were invited. I'm at a loss to understand why Ms. Livingston thinks this was a bad thing. Jack Evans and his Republican opponent Christina Culver participated, as did ANC incumbents Chapple and Padro and challengers Jessica Lanza and Theresa Sule. Neither Ms. Livingston nor any of the other ANC candidates showed up. If she had wanted to present her ideas about what's wrong with the ANC and what she proposed to do about it, this would have been a perfect opportunity.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:verdana;" >As much as I admire Sarah Livingston's civic activism and commitment to improving the neighborhood, I think her current publication does a disservice to several people who are at least equally committed to making Shaw a better place.</span>DaddyFiveOhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11427294784395507775noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31381588.post-29295977867580731692008-09-26T08:51:00.000-07:002008-09-26T08:55:55.123-07:00El Loco Rides into Town, Guns Blazing<span style="font-family: verdana;">I admit it: I'm totally transfixed by the utter lunacy that has seized our country's political and financial spheres. So, where are we now...?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">John McCain seems to have come unhinged. Here's a man who based his entire campaign on his claim to superior experience and judgment. So what does he do? He picks Britney's Mom as his vice-presidential running mate, then realizes that she seems like an absolute dingbat whenever she opens her mouth, so puts her in a bag to shut her up, but she still sticks her head out once in a while to utter something incoherent and preposterous. Then comes the financial melt down, about which he has no clue. First he says things are really fine, but when it becomes obvious they're not, he says the situation is so bad that he must suspend his campaign to go Save the Country. So he doesn't really suspend his campaign, but threatens no-show at the presidential debate and then ditches Letterman because he has to fly to Washington immediately to Save the Country. But he doesn't actually fly to Washington, but rather goes across Manhattan to do an interview with Katie Couric, who has just taped an interview with Britney's Mom revealing her once again to be more suitable for a "Jaywalking" segment on Leno than national office.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">The next morning, Obama proposes that they both issue a joint statement of principles for solving the financial crisis to try to calm things down, but Crazy John won't take the call. Instead he issues his own sky-is-falling announcement and says he will fly to Washington to Take Charge of the congressional negotiations on the bail-out and Save the Country. Meanwhile, the congressional negotiations had been going pretty well because people who actually knew shit were dealing with the issues, and they had reshaped the Paulson give-me-all-your-money-or-you-die plan into something close to a plan that might actually work. But then Dubya (remember him?), in a last ditch effort to seem like a real president, summons everyone to the White House. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">They all show up, but then everything goes to hell, because the white trash wing of the Republican party decides to rebel against their own administration and the president-whose-name-cannot-be-spoken by coming up with their own apeshit proposal because, by God, they ain't going to give no money to them arugula-munching Wall Street types who got us into this mess. Folks, this is more or less the equivalent of a ghetto riot where people decide to get even with the people who have been screwing them by burning down their own neighborhood.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">And where is Crazy John on all this? We don't know. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Just in case you're wondering about the new Republican proposal, here are a couple of its key points that really caught my eye: </span><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">--Insure all mortgage-backed securities with a Treasury-designed system charging the holders of these (largely junk) assets premiums to finance the system, rather than using tax dollars.</span><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">--"Draw private capital into the market by removing regulatory and tax barriers...currently blocking private capital formation."</span><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">(The whole thing was in today's NYT.)</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Huh? Let's see if I got this straight... The financial institutions that are foundering because they're holding billions in junk mortgage securities would save themselves by pouring money into an yet non-existent self-financing insurance company?? But these companies don't have enough capital to stay afloat as it is (which is the basic problem), so where would the premium money come from? But the second idea about "removing regulatory and tax barriers" is what really got me. Isn't that really what caused this crisis in the first place? Jesus wept.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;">Can't wait to see if El Loco shows up for the debate tonight.</span>DaddyFiveOhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11427294784395507775noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31381588.post-37757225473318895712008-09-25T17:14:00.000-07:002008-09-25T17:31:20.581-07:00Palin Watch, 9/25/08<span style="font-family:verdana;">In case you thought those first cringe-inducing encounters with actual journalists were just flukes,...oh, what the hell. Just go to <a href="http://www.wonkette.com/">Wonkette</a> for the Divine Sarah's latest utterances of random words in all their excruciating awfulness.</span><span style="font-family:verdana;"> (Keep scrolling down, because there are several posts--all totally worthwhile.)</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">OMG, is it possible she's really this stupid? Check out Couric's face while Palin is babbling. She can't friggin' believe it!<br /></span>DaddyFiveOhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11427294784395507775noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31381588.post-48305883777682621572008-09-24T15:51:00.000-07:002008-09-24T16:00:33.706-07:00Palin Watch, 9/24/08<span style="font-family:verdana;">Whoa, check out the Divine Sarah's response to a really, really hard question from Katie Couric <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2008/09/24/couricandco/entry4474691.shtml">here</a>. She wasn't runner up Miss Alaska for nothing!<br /><br /><a href="http://marcambinder.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/09/couric_v_palin_on_mccains_reco.php">Here's</a> the transcript of another snippet.<br /><br />Well, maybe Katie was being a mean girl.<br /></span>DaddyFiveOhhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11427294784395507775noreply@blogger.com3