Tag: politics

Ray o Sunshine on Gray

Longtime resident and grumpy old guy Ray comes up with some interesting observations and statements that are pure gold and must be shared:
I had several long evening walks this week east and north from me on
Ninth
and it would appear that on on some blocks, particularly where homes are
less renovated, Gray signs prevail. There are very few, if any, Fenty
signs. I suspect Gray will be our next mayor due to apathy from the
self-absorbed, unregistered, new busy young moderns who’ve moved here
but think DC politics are immaterial to or just too beneath them.

Gray will usher back in the good old days of Barry Third World politics
where constituent services will be tightly controlled and allocated by
having to petition the big man at neighborhood meetings to have your
trash
cleaned up, the police patrol your block, have a water leak or a pothole
repaired, and an error in your tax bill remedied. Don’t expect any
services
unless you can prove your bona fides — at least third generation Black
DC
resident. Expect the return of long, long lines in the DMV with surly
inspectors and clerks. Construction will stop as developers will again
flee
when the pols demand kickbacks and jobs for the indolent and insolent.
Expect real “gentrification” taxs for more worthless “programs” for PG
county bourgeiois friends of the mayor that make “Peaceaholics” look
like an
effective crime-fighting operation. Expect the police to spend more
time writing tickets (church people exempted) instead of catching
criminals. Neighborhood rule by preacher will return. Teachers will no
longer be compelled to teach and students freed from having to learn.
Go
Gray and bring back the good old days of DC politics.

I guess I endorse Fenty

It’s still early, but if the reports from the MVSA meeting reports are anything to go by people are more supportive of Fenty than Gray, or more accurately, people are less enthused by Gray. Apparently Vincent Gray failed to make an appearance at the meeting, which folks were fine with, but the staff member sent was a disaster. The staffer was unfamiliar with MVSq/Shaw and was from Tenlytown. There is no shame in being from Tenlytown. However, know your hoods. Congress Heights is not Anacostia. Brookland is not Brightwood. And Mt. Vernon Square is not some other random part of NW.

Anyway, the staffer was more familiar with Wards 3 and 7. Not so great for a meeting with residents in Ward 2. And it seems there was a fair amount of Fenty bashing from the staffer which was a turn off. One commenter mentioned that the candidate was only as good as the people he has working under him. Considering Rhee comes with Fenty, I guess I endorse Fenty.

Seriously, it doesn’t matter what I think because I’m not a registered Democrat, so I can’t vote for him the in the election that matters. Add to it that I’m even less enthused about the mayoral candidates. It’s like a contest between shyte and crap. For all the things I dislike from the Fenty camp, with the J.F. Cook school for one, I do appreciate the turn around with the school system and the making government a little bit more open and web friendly. But this is not a ringing endorsement or love-fest, Fenty is no longer a bald hot cup of cocoa. He’s just bald. And really campaigning on the fact that one is not Fenty isn’t that great. I’m not Fenty and that wouldn’t qualify me as a candidate. If you can’t stand either write in Jack Evans, just to torture the poor man. Heck write in his name for both mayor and council chair, because if the mayoral contest is bad the one for chair is a choice between unripe fruit and something too rotten to compost. 

A snowball’s chance in Hell

Okay I’m back from vacation and I gather I and several other bloggers must have gotten email from the campaign of some guy named Richard Urban who is running for the at large seat on the council. Okay he’s a socially conservative white guy running as an independent. In this town. Snowball’s. Chance. In. Hell.

Last thought, never announce you’re going on vacation on blogs or social media sites. That’s almost asking for it. Even though I had an unemployed unpaid intern house sitting while I was gone, I figured it was best not to say anything.

Marion Barry

Marion has mojo, a particular political mojo that allows him to get away with anything. If you could bottle his mojo it would be as valuable as that unobtainium stuff in the movie Avatar. It would make any politician invincible, so they can sleep with anyone, not bother with federal taxes, be sloppy with city funds and be a shoo in around election time. If you could bottle his power, you can rule the world, or Ward 8.

Safeway at RI and 4th NE

Really I should stay of this. But the store that was closed for a short period due to a rat infestation. It is a store at the top of the hill and about 1/4 of a mile from the Giant near the Rhode Island metro station. I’ve been in the Giant a few times. I know people hate it. I’ve been okay with it, but haven’t been in enough times to say if it’s any worse than the O Street Giant. I’ve been in that Safeway once and haven’t felt any deep need to return.
So on the listservs there is this clamoring to keep the Safeway from closing. Harry Thomas has gotten involved. There is some sort of petition for a Harris Teeter.
Okay, someone enlighten me. Someone ‘splain to me how the politicos are supposed to convince a private business to land on top the same old unprofitable rat’s nest? As Safeway said they aren’t making enough money in that spot, how is a Teet supposed to make it work?
Anyway good luck with that, but since a Harris Teeter is slated to open near the NY Ave metro, I don’t see one popping up anytime soon 1 mile away.

No stopping Leroy

Today on ANC 2C02 Kevin Chapple’s blog is a letter announcing that Mr. Leroy Thorpe, who was deposed, dethroned, by Kevin in 2006, is requesting a recount for the 2008 election. I’m not that concerned this year, as the difference is 29 votes, as opposed to 5 votes in 2006.
This is just one thing, but Leroy surprised us back in 2006 with his take over of the ECCA and the invented position of puppet master, I mean Parliamentarian for ANC2C chair Doris Brooks. So any guesses of what else he’ll do besides this? Will he start up a ANC2C centric ‘non-profit’, or his own publication. What will he do next because I don’t think he’ll go quietly.

Locally….

Part of me is screaming and cursing.
Reason 1- Michael Brown has the majority of the non-Democratic vote for city council. I’m so unhappy about that.
Reason 2- I regret that Jessica Lanza was not able to secure the seat for ANC2C03 with only 40% of the vote, according to the unofficial results.

The results between Chapple vs Thorpe and Sule vs Curtis look good, close, but it appears that the puppet show may come to and end, Praise be to G-d. And of course Padro wins by a landslide.

Over in Ward 5, Anita Bonds wins over the tree killer Jerry Mack. Sadly Ted Mcginn is behind Sylvia Pinkney. And Mark Jones, who had no spelling errors on his signs, got the DC School Board seat for Ward 5.

Make the world go away

I’m going to take a cue from one of my co-workers and stay home tomorrow. His plan is to vote and curl up with some good science/fantasy fiction. Something taking place in a kindgom far, far away. I plan the same thing, vote, and finish off a fictional parable about economics.
I’ve grown weary of the all election all the the time media so once I’ve done my part I’m shutting down. I plan to disconnect from the Internet, no TV, no radio and put the phones on silent. I’ll read my books, maybe do laundry, maybe take a hot steamy bath (haven’t done that for months) and watch those netflix dvds that have been piling up. I’ll wake up Wednesday when the radio alarm goes off and find out, unless there is something going on in the streets that clues me in.
I chatted with my Aunt and she also plans to stay home and have a quiet night. Her church, Shiloh Baptist, is having some sort of election party, gathering, whatever when the polls at their Hertigage Hall closes. Anyway she expressed concern about how residents would react to an unfavorable or favorable outcome and so she’s staying well away from the city. Even after several decades have passed and Shaw has bounced back from its past, the suburban distrust of the city is still there. Oh well.
I’m hoping for a quiet evening.

Michael A. Brown, G-ddamned A*hole

Guess what I came home to today? I think it was the fifth fuking phone call I got from his piece of shyte campaign. I now hate Michael A. Brown’s guts with a passion. But before I came home I was introduced to a colleague whom, I was told, also lived in the District. The first words out of my mouth was, “Don’t vote for Michael Brown.” He had no idea who Michael Brown was, so if I see this person before Election Day I will give him several reasons of why he should not vote for Micheal A. Brown (the A. stands for Ass).
So far from his campaign it appears the Micheal Ass Brown is pro-litter, anti-neighborhood, and anti-human. Let’s explore his pro-litter stance. Earlier in his campaign Mr. Brown sought to plaster his pudgy bald head on cars indiscriminately. DC cars, MD cars, VA cars, don’t matter. I’ve also spotted several of these glossy strips of campaign paper in the gutter, a gutter that would then take these slips to the Potomac and so I guess he’s also against the environment as well. Then the litter spread to my yard, and my neighbors’ yards and so forth. So if you’re willing to vote for Rap Snacks, or a used condom wrapper you may be the kind of voter Michael Brown is looking for. Since litter, in addition to crime is a neighborhood issue, Michael A. Brown hurts neighborhoods with litter, and that brings to question, does he help neighborhoods in anyway?
Brown strikes me as a big picture guy so your corner drug problem, the trash in your alley, the trash his campaign helped add to, probably would be too small to concern himself with. I found my last robo-call preposterous. In it Micheal A. Brown plays the friendly character that appeared in the neighborhood. Can anyone tell me what neighborhood functions he’s appeared at? I saw Carol Schwartz and the Cult of Kwame at the BACA meeting. Of course, there is usually someone at BACA willing to tout Kwame. Kwame got people at the grassroots level. So I wonder if Michael A. Brown would even hear you at that level. Has anyone in Ward 4 seen him since he tried running as council man for your ward back in 2006? Did he go back to playing with the big boys on the national level? On his website he claims to be a community activist. Community doesn’t necessarily mean neighborhood, or local level. Bankers are a community, there’s the lobbying community, and so forth.
Anti-human. Okay I have a stronger argument that he’s pro-litter. To say Michael A. Brown hates people is untrue. To say he hates people who have answering machines and don’t want to be called five friggen times, is possibly true. Well it’s true at my house. And he’s pro-robot, hence the robo-calls. He’s denying some actual human the ability o annoy the hell out of me with a live call. Since he likes funding his campaign every few years why couldn’t he have funded a little job training program that has people, not robots? Or was he litter program the jobs producer?
Yes, I know I said I’d post a profanity filled post but I tend not to curse, and it isn’t really my voice. However I welcome your words so I’ll lift the profanity rule for for this post (and this post only) so you can tell how you really feel about Michael Brown.