This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: DC Government

Watch Out, Murtha! You Got Some Competition

We all know about the crooked, defense-contract shenanigans of Rep. Murtha from Pennsylvania and his deserted, tax-payer funded airport. But how about this Rep. Neil Abercrombie fellow who recently won the coveted porker of the month from Citizens Against Government Waste (I’m sure you already figured out his party affiliation). Apparently, the congressman is legislating that the construction for the new Marine base(s) in Guam be paid at exorbitant wages to friendly unions/companies that paid for his previous campaigns. The CBO estimates it will add another $10B to the cost, but hey what’s another billion here and there in a crippling recession. The congressman isn’t just robbing the taxpayers to pay for his 2010 governor’s race in Hawaii, he’s bragging about it. From Breitbart:

His critics say Abercrombie is trying to win the 2010 race for governor at Guam’s expense. They’re worried that ramped-up wages—tripling pay for bricklayers, for example—would lead to a roller-coaster economy with high inflation and a plummet once construction ends in 2014. They also worry the relocation might be scuttled altogether if he gets his way.

“He is obviously playing to the major portion of his constituency, labor union members, in order to win that election,” said John Robertson, a director with the Guam Contractors Association.

Abercrombie’s response? “Duh.”

“Of course I’m playing to working people. The building trades and working people have been the foundation of my political career for 36 years,” he said. “If I didn’t do this, people would say, ‘What’s wrong with him?’”

I was once marooned in Guam for the better part of a month since some equipment in the engine room on our boat was busted. Very nice folks on the island, but, man, it is really small. It took us about half-an-hour to drive from one side to the other in the Ford Escort we rented, and that’s after we were delayed by a water buffalo standing in the road. It may be important that the Marines relocate from Okinawa in Japan to Guam, but why does a congressman from thousands of miles of way feel like he can turn the place into his own pig pen. Anyone else tired of defense contracts being dictated by political priorities in Washington as opposed to national security priorities?

September 5, 2009
Some animals are more equal than others

The mayor of Washington, DC, Adrian Fenty, took offense at reporters asking questions about how the mayor’s children got access to one of the better schools according to the Washington Examiner;

Fenty, a resident of the Crestwood neighborhood, on Monday enrolled his 9-year-old sons, Matthew and Andrew, in the fourth grade at Lafayette Elementary School in Chevy Chase. The 615-student school is one of the most difficult to gain entry to for out-of-boundary parents, like the Fentys, most of whom must enter their children in a lottery and hope for one of the few available openings in each grade.

But Fenty has steadfastly refused to say whether he went through the lottery process, or enrolled his boys through some other means. Chancellor Michelle Rhee, for example, has the authority to enroll a child in whatever school she pleases.

“Please respect that my kids’ private lives have to be respected,” Fenty told reporters…

Um, what does political maneuvering have to do with his kids’ “private lives”? DC pays about $13,000/year/child and churns out morons. Although this mayor has taken steps to reform education in the district, that still doesn’t make it right that he can pick and choose where his children get educated while thousands of others are mired in an unproductive and corrupt education system.

Lafayette last school year made Adequate Yearly Progress, a standard under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, in reading, math and attendance. Fenty’s neighborhood school is West Elementary, a school formally “in need of improvement” that did not meet AYP in reading.

I commend him for being one of the few politicians who subject his children to the public school system in DC, but this is a bit of elitism. The mayor’s reaction to questions doesn’t help him much;

Twice Fenty told the media to “stop,” at one point telling reporters, “I’d like for you to excuse me to leave.”

“Please just stop asking me these questions,” he said.

The rest of us who want to put our kids in different schools have to move.

August 28, 2009
Times notes DC gun owners not committing crimes

This morning, Jennifer Maas at the Washington Times notices that one year after the Supreme Court ruling that overturned the decades-long ban on hand guns in the District, no legal owners of handguns have been accused of any gun-related crimes. Compared to the illegal gun owners who have commited about 180 murders over the last year and nearly 2000 illegal guns have been seized by police, according to the DC Metro Police.

During the year residents have been allowed to register guns, preliminary police statistics say violent crime and property crime have gone down citywide — a modest decline that even the most ardent gun rights advocate would have difficulty attributing to legal gun ownership. Police also say they have seized more than 2,000 illegal guns from D.C. streets in the last year.

Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of the National Rifle Association, said the fears of gun-control advocates — that having more guns would lead to increased gun violence — were unfounded.

“All the handgun bill people’s predictions have proved to be wrong,” Mr. LaPierre said.

I’d point out that, not only were the gun grabbing crowd wrong about legal gun owners, they were also wrong about illegal gun owners. The Times claims that 500 guns were registered in the District, but police seized four times as many from criminals. Crimes are committed by people who won’t register their weapons. Funny how I have to make such an obvious statement.

The District still has a way to go as far their restrictions go;

Peter Hamm, spokesman for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, said the District’s new gun regulations are “sensible.”

“We think the District has adopted sensible gun laws. If every jurisdiction in the U.S. had reasonable laws and common sense laws … we would be fine with that sort of system,” he said.

Litigation is pending over the gun restrictions the District implemented in the wake of the Supreme Court decision.

Yeah, if the Brady Bunch thinks DC’s laws are sensible, there’s room for improvement.

July 17, 2009
Marion Barry keeps getting set up

73-year-old Marion Barry spent this weekend trying to recapture his youth – specifically as a fifteen-year-old smitten, green-eyed horndog teenager. As I read the account at the Washington Post, I had to keep reminding myself that they were writing about a man a year younger than my mother.

In Annapolis, Watts-Brighthaupt said, she and Barry “couldn’t agree on something” so she “decided to turn back around.”

“He begged me not to turn around,” she said. Barry’s friends said the argument occurred after Watts-Brighthaupt received a call from her ex-husband.

In the ride back to Washington, she said, she told Barry that he couldn’t come into her house because Brighthaupt was there. “He said my ex-husband better not be in the house. I said he better not make a scene. He said he wouldn’t,” Watts-Brighthaupt said.

But Watts-Brighthaupt said Barry refused to leave, sitting outside in his car or on her porch. About an hour later, Watts-Brighthaupt and Brighthaupt went to Anacostia Park to watch the fireworks.

On their drive to the park, she said, they noticed Barry following them in his car.

So she had the old coot arrested. Of course, just like every other time he’s been arrested, it’s not Barry’s fault;

Barry has had two previous run-ins with Park Police. In 2002, Park Police said they found traces of marijuana and crack cocaine in his car. Barry said the drugs were planted. No charges were filed. In 2006, Park Police pulled Barry over for driving too slowly and cited him for driving on a suspended license; he accused the agency of unfairly targeting him.

Keep in mind that during all of these arrests, Barry hasn’t paid taxes in the last nine years, despite the fact that he’s been ordered by a judge to do so. Every time the IRS takes him to court, he claims they’re picking on him and the judge doesn’t toss his narrow, wrinkled ass in the hoosegow. This is the most recognizable, and most beloved politician in DC.

Here’s his lawyer yesterday;
(more…)

July 7, 2009
Marion Barry arrested again

Councilman and former mayor of DC Marion Barry was arrested again last night. The Washington Post is a bit skimpy on the details of the arrest;

D.C. Council member Marion Barry was taken into custody last night by the U.S. Park Police, a police official said.

“It’s my understanding that he was taken into custody,” Park Police Chief Sal Lauro said in a brief interview. Lauro said he believed that Barry (D-Ward 8 ) was picked up in the Anacostia Park area.

Lauro said he did not have details of the incident and could not say whether Barry had been arrested.

Yes, when a city councilman is arrested, the police chief knows nothing about it. Welcome to DC.

The Associated Press says the 73-year-old was arrested for stalking a woman;

The United States Park Police said Barry, a current D.C. Council member, was arrested Saturday in Washington after a woman flagged down an officer and complained that Barry was stalking her.

The bitch set him up.

Of course, Barry was released right after his arrest.

July 5, 2009
Vouchers in DC

You’ve probably heard that one of the first things Democrats did to the District of Columbia was end vouchers for students to escape the corruption-, crime-, and drug-ridden inner city schools and actually get a shot at a decent education. Two months ago, the Washington Times wrote about the decision;

Democrats such as Sen. Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, as well as teachers’ unions, voiced concern that the vouchers take federal funds from the public schools.

Mr. Durbin said in response to Mr. Ensign on Tuesday that the General Accountability Office looked at the voucher schools and found some “world class” schools as well as some below average schools, explaining his reasoning for examining the program further before reauthorization.

But this last week, President Obama gave an option to inner city parents complete with government funding (again the Washington Times);

President Obama called for overturning a decade-old ban on publicly funded abortions in the District as part of his budget proposal Thursday, but did not overturn the national ban on federal funding, thus angering advocacy groups on both sides of the volatile issue.

Under his proposal, the District for the first time in more than a decade would be allowed to pay for abortions with the money it raises from its own taxpayers.

So, if DC’s prospective parents are worried about the education their unborn children will get in the District, they can always end their unborn children’s lives with tax payer funds. It all kind of evens out doesn’t it?

Funny how there’s always money for the irresponsible to continue making bad choices, but there’s never money for those who want better choices.

May 10, 2009
Marion Barry still not in jail

I wrote back in May of 2007 how prosecutors have been unable to force Marion Barry, former DC mayor, crack smoker, whore monger, currently DC councilman, to pay his taxes. Still free, Barry still owes on his taxes and still doesn’t file his tax returns on time according to the Washington Post;

In all, prosecutors say, Barry has failed to file his returns on time in eight of the past nine years.

Yesterday, they urged a federal judge to revoke Barry’s probation for tax offenses just weeks before it expires.

Barry, 72, in the past has called such legal efforts “frivolous” and has said his tax problems are a “personal matter.”

Yeah, that’s pretty insane to say that not paying taxes for nearly a decade is a “personal matter”. I’ll mention that Barry was robbed in October 2007 and had $14,000 in jewelry stolen but is still unable to meet his tax obligations – the same tax obligations the rest of us are coerced into meeting by government nearly every day.

Oh, and here’s a picture I took of him getting into his chauffeur-driven car a few months back;

Anything else we can do for you, Marion?

February 10, 2009
Muslim attacks Jewish counter protester in DC (UPDATED) [Jonn]

ANSWER and the Muslim American Society were at it again today in DC, this time in front of the Israeli Embassy. Of, course, you know I couldn’t resist going. Yep Brian Becker, the ANSWER national coordinator was there again calling for the arrest of George Bush and the rest of the criminals so they can answer for their “crimes”. Lord knows what they’ll do after January. It looks like they had a few hundred;

But it had the feel of a social event more than a protest;

They even had a token self-hating Jew. Just one.

See the yellow flag? It’s the Hezbollah flag – sweet crowd, huh?

There were two counter protesters. The little guy on your right was a Lithuanian Jew who had immigrated here in 1985.

When I went up the street to start filming the protest as it moved to the Egyptian Embassy, I kept an eye on that corner where the two counterprotesters were and I saw this guy in the white shirt hit the Lithuanian Jew;

So I scurried back down and it’s all in this video;

I got there just in time to see a cop pinning the guy in the white shirt to the pavement.
So this guy and I are the only two who volunteered to be witnesses for him;

That’s Alex Knepper a blogger from Race42012 in the picture above describing the incident to the local Fox Affliate newsbabe. But I’m not hoping for much. The officer who interviewed us said that “these things never go to court”. Yeah, not in DC they don’t. It was assault, they took his statement, he has two witnesses, but that’s not enough to go to trial in DC. Wonder why? Me, too.

We’ll see if it makes the news tonight.

There are more photos of the protest at my Flickr page.

Thanks to Atlas Shrugs, Gateway Pundit, Solomonia, Race 4 2012, Wake Up America, Thunder Pig, Winds of Jihad, Doug@Ross, Marooned in Marin, Chickenhawk Express and Memeorandum for the links. Willkommen zu unseren neuen deutschen Freunden an Politically Incorrect.

UPDATE: I just watched the Fox 5 newscast and they didn’t use either interview, but they did mention the incident in relation to the police officer that was injured tackling the aggressor (in my video you can see the officer struggling to stand up).

January 2, 2009