Heard President Obama's speech on Afghanistan and why he has made the decision to send 30000 additional troops to that region to fight both the Taliban and Al Qaeda. WOW! Imagine what 300000 troops could do for our border. Imagine what 300000 troops could do for many of our urban streets to encourage our own nation building. Maybe protect our children so that they can go to school, play on the playground or make it to and from the corner store alive and with their purchase. See the oil in these areas impact the US Economy and we have a financial stake in Afghanistan. We have to keep Pakistan safe/secure since they do hold nuclear weapons, but the reality is our hood nation is dying while we are over in the Middle East "nation building".
I know it wasn't an easy decision for President Obama. It really is not aligned with the promises he made and I pushed during his campaign. I know what he reads and sees in front of him is a lot different than what I get as a citizen. Therefore I have to pause and understand that if I trusted him to be our president, than I have to trust that he is making the best decision with the information he has in front of him. He is passionate about the US and wants us to be safe, so I will stand and support him even though I don't understand why Afghanistan's nation building is more important than building our own nation here in the United States of America. I guess the hood can wait, but I doubt if the hood will be silence. How many more will we loose in Chicago? How many more will we lose in East Cleveland? How many more will we lose in East LA? How many more will we lose in St. Louis? How many more will we lose in Detroit? How many more will we lose in Miami? How many more will we lose in DC? How many more will we lose in NYC? How many more will we lose in Baltimore? How many more will we lose in New Orleans? How many more will we lose in Oakcliff? How many more will we lose in Brownsville? How many more will we lose?
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Monday, November 16, 2009
Oprah's Palin Interview - Post Feedback
Just heard what I needed to hear 18 minutes into the Oprah interview. So, Palin admits that the economy was "tanking" during the time of the presidential election campaign. Palin admits that under the Republican administration the nation's economy was in the toilet and that Americans wanted a change from Bush and the republican party.
For the most part it was a good interview and shows just how professional Oprah is. One would never know that she was supporting the other candidate (Obama). I think that Oprah was very fair and balanced during the entire interview.
I don't believe some of the things Palin said, with regard to Katie Couric, but it is her opinion and I haven't read the full transcript of the interview with Couric. I would like to read them so that I can have the full interview. However, I am not convinced that she is as well read as she tried to make herself out to be.
She was a bit stronger in her responses than when she was on the campaign trail to me. The success is that more folk listened to her than they would have normally listened and also, the interview peaked a curiosity about Palin. As a result, her book should do even better when it hits bookstore shelves tomorrow. Going Rogue on sale November 17th.
www.oprah.com for more details on the interview
For the most part it was a good interview and shows just how professional Oprah is. One would never know that she was supporting the other candidate (Obama). I think that Oprah was very fair and balanced during the entire interview.
I don't believe some of the things Palin said, with regard to Katie Couric, but it is her opinion and I haven't read the full transcript of the interview with Couric. I would like to read them so that I can have the full interview. However, I am not convinced that she is as well read as she tried to make herself out to be.
She was a bit stronger in her responses than when she was on the campaign trail to me. The success is that more folk listened to her than they would have normally listened and also, the interview peaked a curiosity about Palin. As a result, her book should do even better when it hits bookstore shelves tomorrow. Going Rogue on sale November 17th.
www.oprah.com for more details on the interview
Oprah Goes Rogue: A Sarah Palin Interview
I have been feverishly working today to have everything completed by 4pm so that I won't miss a single moment of Oprah today. For anyone who has been under a rock this week, Sarah Palin will be her guest today and she will answer all questions on deck on her show. I will be interesting to get a chance to hear Palin speak while not under the "McCain box" that she found herself in during the presidential run. Who knows, I may end up seeing eye-to-eye with her. I am hoping that we can meet on some of the issues that are brought up on the show today. I plan to take a lot of notes. Palin's book Going Rogue goes on sale tomorrow and is already a best-seller. Who knew, but they say that there is a book in all of us, just not a ghostwriter for all of us!
What are some questions you want Oprah to ask Palin? Do you think that Palin said those mean and hurtful things about her youngest son? Are you willing to watch the interview with an open mind?
I would like Oprah to ask Palin what her plans are for 2012? Why she left her position as Governor in Alaska and what message does that send to about her ability staying committed to an elected post? What are her short-term goals for 2010? I have told myself that there is no way that she could say or call her baby son those mean and demeaning names. I will watch today with an open mind and I hope that this interview goes way way way way better than the Katie Couric interview. At the end of the day, I am hoping that she doesn't feel slighted by Oprah's questions and that we all get a better glimpse of "who is Sarah Palin".
Don't miss Oprah today at 4pm @OPRAH
Barbara Walters will also have an interview with Sarah on ABC. Check your local listing for date and time.
Sarah Palin's book "Going Rogue" can be purchased at Wal-Mart for $9 along with other hardcover book titles. Buy it at Amazon.com for the same price too: http://www.amazon.com/Going-Rogue-American-Sarah-Palin/dp/0061939897/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1258404043&sr=1-1
Going Rogue contributors include: Amy Alexander, Max Blumenthal, Joe Conason, Eve Ensler, Michelle Goldberg, Jane Hamsher, Christopher Hayes, Jim Hightower, Linda Hirshman, Naomi Klein, Dahlia Lithwick, Amanda Marcotte, Shannyn Moore, John Nichols, Tom Perrotta, Katha Pollitt, Frank Rich, Hanna Rosin, Matt Taibbi, Michael Tomasky, Rebecca Traister, Katrina vanden Heuvel, Jessica Valenti, Patricia Williams, JoAnn Wypijewski and Gary Younge.
What are some questions you want Oprah to ask Palin? Do you think that Palin said those mean and hurtful things about her youngest son? Are you willing to watch the interview with an open mind?
I would like Oprah to ask Palin what her plans are for 2012? Why she left her position as Governor in Alaska and what message does that send to about her ability staying committed to an elected post? What are her short-term goals for 2010? I have told myself that there is no way that she could say or call her baby son those mean and demeaning names. I will watch today with an open mind and I hope that this interview goes way way way way better than the Katie Couric interview. At the end of the day, I am hoping that she doesn't feel slighted by Oprah's questions and that we all get a better glimpse of "who is Sarah Palin".
Don't miss Oprah today at 4pm @OPRAH
Barbara Walters will also have an interview with Sarah on ABC. Check your local listing for date and time.
Sarah Palin's book "Going Rogue" can be purchased at Wal-Mart for $9 along with other hardcover book titles. Buy it at Amazon.com for the same price too: http://www.amazon.com/Going-Rogue-American-Sarah-Palin/dp/0061939897/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1258404043&sr=1-1
Going Rogue contributors include: Amy Alexander, Max Blumenthal, Joe Conason, Eve Ensler, Michelle Goldberg, Jane Hamsher, Christopher Hayes, Jim Hightower, Linda Hirshman, Naomi Klein, Dahlia Lithwick, Amanda Marcotte, Shannyn Moore, John Nichols, Tom Perrotta, Katha Pollitt, Frank Rich, Hanna Rosin, Matt Taibbi, Michael Tomasky, Rebecca Traister, Katrina vanden Heuvel, Jessica Valenti, Patricia Williams, JoAnn Wypijewski and Gary Younge.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
President Obama's first 10 months in office
I have heard soooo many people complaining about President Obama. I have heard how they do not feel like he is doing anything in office as The President of United States of America. I have heard that they can't tangibly feel any of his policies. I have argued countless times that it takes more that 10 months to really make an impact. Our economy was bad prior to Obama coming in office, we were already at war Iraq and Afghanistan before Obama was in office and that the country was more divided too prior to Obama coming in office. I will continue to be a stand for the man that I worked to elect the president. Here is a list of some of President Obama's accomplishments over the past 10 months he has been in office (not a year yet).
In just ten short months, President Obama has:
Requested $15 billion in increased funding for the Veterans Administration over 30 years -- the largest increase in history
Signed into law the "VA Health Care Budget Reform and Transparency Act" which will provide the VA with advance funding-the #1 legislative priority of almost every Veterans Service Organization
Provided $1.4 billion in additional funding to the VA under the "American Recovery and Reinvestment Act" that is going directly to improving VA hospitals and clinics around the nation
Expanded VA-healthcare enrollment opportunities for more than 250,000 previously excluded Veterans, and continue to raise this number towards a goal of 500,000.
Launched a major Veterans Employment Initiative that is designed to make the federal government into the model employer of America's veterans.
I am humbled to be one of millions of courageous Americans who have dedicated their lives to serving and protecting our democracy. While there is much left to be done, under President Obama's leadership we have made historic progress towards fulfilling our commitment these patriotic men and women.
Happy Veteran's Day to our troops, men & women who have served in the past and their families. I hope you will take a moment today stand with those who served our nation by getting involved with one of the following organizations: USO, Fisher House, and the Bob Woodruff Foundation.
In just ten short months, President Obama has:
Requested $15 billion in increased funding for the Veterans Administration over 30 years -- the largest increase in history
Signed into law the "VA Health Care Budget Reform and Transparency Act" which will provide the VA with advance funding-the #1 legislative priority of almost every Veterans Service Organization
Provided $1.4 billion in additional funding to the VA under the "American Recovery and Reinvestment Act" that is going directly to improving VA hospitals and clinics around the nation
Expanded VA-healthcare enrollment opportunities for more than 250,000 previously excluded Veterans, and continue to raise this number towards a goal of 500,000.
Launched a major Veterans Employment Initiative that is designed to make the federal government into the model employer of America's veterans.
I am humbled to be one of millions of courageous Americans who have dedicated their lives to serving and protecting our democracy. While there is much left to be done, under President Obama's leadership we have made historic progress towards fulfilling our commitment these patriotic men and women.
Happy Veteran's Day to our troops, men & women who have served in the past and their families. I hope you will take a moment today stand with those who served our nation by getting involved with one of the following organizations: USO, Fisher House, and the Bob Woodruff Foundation.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
VA Teen Charged With Attacking 5 Women - WTH?
I was just reading the Washington Post and read about a teen that has been terrorizing the Virginia area. Where are his parents? Who is his guardian? They need to see what he has been doing and also possibly do some of his time for his crime(s). That do you think? Here is the article below. Love to know your thoughts!
The Associated Press
Thursday, November 5, 2009; 12:22 PM
Prince William County police have arrested and charged a 15-year-old boy for attacking five women.
Police say they arrested the Manassas boy on Tuesday and charged him with three counts of abduction, five counts of malicious wounding, one count of sexual battery and one count of attempted rape. They did not identify the teen.
The attacks occurred between August and November in the Coverstone Drive area of Manassas. The victims range in age from 25 to 36-years-old.
The teen was arrested after the latest incident when police say he attacked a woman from behind and began punching and biting her.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/05/AR2009110502679.html?wprss=rss_metro
The Associated Press
Thursday, November 5, 2009; 12:22 PM
Prince William County police have arrested and charged a 15-year-old boy for attacking five women.
Police say they arrested the Manassas boy on Tuesday and charged him with three counts of abduction, five counts of malicious wounding, one count of sexual battery and one count of attempted rape. They did not identify the teen.
The attacks occurred between August and November in the Coverstone Drive area of Manassas. The victims range in age from 25 to 36-years-old.
The teen was arrested after the latest incident when police say he attacked a woman from behind and began punching and biting her.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/05/AR2009110502679.html?wprss=rss_metro
Metro Communications Knocked Out
Metro Communications Knocked Out
Failure blamed on power distribution unit
Updated: Wednesday, 04 Nov 2009, 6:51 PM EST
Published : Wednesday, 04 Nov 2009, 7:55 AM EST
WASHINGTON - Much of Metro's communications system was disrupted Wednesday by the failure of an "internal power distribution unit" that led to a "data center computer," the transit agency said.
Managers at Metro's Operations Control Center (OCC) were unable to make public address announcements to passengers at rail stations. Phone service at Metro headquarters in downtown D.C. worked intermittently for much of the morning.
From approximately 2:45 a.m. to about 10:00 a.m., Metro's bus communications system did not work. Some fareboxes on buses could not read SmarTrip cards. Drivers let those passengers ride for free.
For much of the morning, disabled passengers were unable to call and book rides on Metro Access vehicles. They could not book rides from the website either. The display boards in the Metro Access vans did not work.
Farecard machines at Metro stations would not accept debit cards, and would accept credit purchases only up to $20.
Ironically, e-Alerts, which are used to tell passengers about difficulties in the system, were also not working.
Most rail and bus service, however, continued as normal. The radio communications system on the rail side, which is operated separately, remained working.
As of late in the afternoon, most of the disabled communications systems had been restored.
Spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein says the part that failed was "old", and while managers intended to replace it soon, they hadn't yet.
The following systems are now functioning:
• Metrobus fareboxes are functioning, although some bus operators had difficulty logging onto them earlier this morning. If that was the case, customers were allowed to ride without paying.
• The Bus Operations Control Center had early difficulty communicating with buses on the streets, however bus radios came back into service at about 10 a.m.
• All reservation and dispatch systems for MetroAccess returned to use at about 10 a.m.
• The MetroAccess call center and online reservation system returned to service at about 10 a.m.
• The public address system came back online at 10:30 a.m.
The following systems are not functioning:
As of mid-afternoon, customers were still unable to purchase fare with their debit cards.
Customers have been limited to charge a maximum of $20 at a fare vending machine using a credit card at fare machines.
The NextBus system is not operational.
SmartBenefits are not functioning.
The e-alert system is not functioning.
The outage occurred at Metro Headquarters, 600 5th Street, NW.
On the Net:
http://www.wmata.com/
Failure blamed on power distribution unit
Updated: Wednesday, 04 Nov 2009, 6:51 PM EST
Published : Wednesday, 04 Nov 2009, 7:55 AM EST
WASHINGTON - Much of Metro's communications system was disrupted Wednesday by the failure of an "internal power distribution unit" that led to a "data center computer," the transit agency said.
Managers at Metro's Operations Control Center (OCC) were unable to make public address announcements to passengers at rail stations. Phone service at Metro headquarters in downtown D.C. worked intermittently for much of the morning.
From approximately 2:45 a.m. to about 10:00 a.m., Metro's bus communications system did not work. Some fareboxes on buses could not read SmarTrip cards. Drivers let those passengers ride for free.
For much of the morning, disabled passengers were unable to call and book rides on Metro Access vehicles. They could not book rides from the website either. The display boards in the Metro Access vans did not work.
Farecard machines at Metro stations would not accept debit cards, and would accept credit purchases only up to $20.
Ironically, e-Alerts, which are used to tell passengers about difficulties in the system, were also not working.
Most rail and bus service, however, continued as normal. The radio communications system on the rail side, which is operated separately, remained working.
As of late in the afternoon, most of the disabled communications systems had been restored.
Spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein says the part that failed was "old", and while managers intended to replace it soon, they hadn't yet.
The following systems are now functioning:
• Metrobus fareboxes are functioning, although some bus operators had difficulty logging onto them earlier this morning. If that was the case, customers were allowed to ride without paying.
• The Bus Operations Control Center had early difficulty communicating with buses on the streets, however bus radios came back into service at about 10 a.m.
• All reservation and dispatch systems for MetroAccess returned to use at about 10 a.m.
• The MetroAccess call center and online reservation system returned to service at about 10 a.m.
• The public address system came back online at 10:30 a.m.
The following systems are not functioning:
As of mid-afternoon, customers were still unable to purchase fare with their debit cards.
Customers have been limited to charge a maximum of $20 at a fare vending machine using a credit card at fare machines.
The NextBus system is not operational.
SmartBenefits are not functioning.
The e-alert system is not functioning.
The outage occurred at Metro Headquarters, 600 5th Street, NW.
On the Net:
http://www.wmata.com/
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Fenty's Parks Contracting Scheme is His First True Scandal. By Mike DeBonis
I was reading the City Paper for DC and came across an interesting article about the Mayor that involves Parks and Recreation. Reminds me of the saying "Be careful on your way up to be kind to those you meet along the way, so that when and if you find yourself descending they will remember how kind you were." Hope the Mayor has been kind because all kind of stuff have come out of the woodworks lately. The Tennis club that he was allegedly responsible for having closed, hiring his fraternity brothers for key projects and now this:
Fenty's parks contracting scheme is his first true scandal.
By Mike DeBonis
Posted: November 4, 2009
Bid Adieu: Parks contracting scheme eschewed standard procurement rules.
(Darrow Montgomery)
Recent Loose Lips
The New Cronies
The story of Adrian Fenty, some frat brothers, and tens of millions of dollars in parks construction.
Posted: October 28, 2009
Out With the Old
The Fenty administration's war with power broker David Wilmot and his nonprofit group home outfit.
Posted: October 21, 2009
Parks and Wreck
How Ximena Hartsock became the first cabinet-level appointee in memory to be turned down.
Posted: October 14, 2009
Send a Letter to the Editor
When Mayor Adrian M. Fenty invokes the term “as fast as humanly possible,” he’s usually not talking about his swim-bike-run times. That’s what he says when asked about the delivery of city services and facilities. Channeling the longstanding frustrations of D.C. residents, Fenty has put his agencies, his minions, on a municipal triathlon timeline: Finish pronto or get left behind.
It’s all good, right? Get those bureaucrats off their asses and serve the people.
Thanks to the Fenty scandal du jour, however, LL and the rest of the city are learning about the dark side of the “humanly possible.”
When Fenty handed at least $120 million in city money to the D.C. Housing Authority, which, in turn, handed it to politically connected contractors with only the faintest whiff of oversight, he was no doubt trying to deliver on his mantra. By doing an end-around on city procurement processes, he’s aiming to cut ribbons on at least 11 neighborhood projects by the summer of 2011, with ground broken on each by this upcoming spring (in the midst, incidentally, of his re-election campaign).
Yet the mayor as endurance athlete—focused, disciplined, driven by hard data rather than parochial politicking—turns out to be the mayor willing to sacrifice any principle of good government in order to get his projects done.
At a contentious D.C. Council hearing on the contracts last Friday, City Administrator Neil O. Albert provided a simple explanation for the contracting scheme: It’s faster, better, and cheaper. The hearing illuminated the ramifications:
• Tens of millions in city dollars were moved around the city budget without independent review.
• Money was handed to DCHA, a ‘quasi-independent’ public concern, which in turn gave the money to a nonprofit subsidiary that engaged in a contracting process that saw little, if any, legal review. For its trouble, DCHA was paid $700,000.
• Management functions were then outsourced to a private company, Banneker Ventures, that was paid more than $4.2 million to do a job—capital project management—that the Department of Parks and Recreation already employs a staff of 11 to do. Banneker is owned by a close Fenty ally, Omar Karim.
• Banneker Ventures, in turn, was allowed to run a subcontracting process with only the faintest adherence to accepted procurement practices, with near complete power to distribute millions of dollars in public money to the contractors of their choice (including, fellow frat pal Sinclair Skinner’s Liberty Engineering & Design). This was done with the input of mayoral officials.
• A contract described the scope of the work to be done for several projects—in some cases costing taxpayers more than $10 million—in a single paragraph of about 100 words. (A top official in the Office of the Inspector General noted that the language was “problematic” and “needs to be redone.”)
• And the whole scheme was created and calibrated in such a way as to elude oversight by elected officials. It took the D.C. Council more than three months to figure out that this was going on under their noses.
The most surprising testimony of the day came from a family-owned local contractor, HRGM Corp. That outfit wanted to compete to build what turned out to be a playing field at the Park View Recreation Center. To get a piece of the pie, it had to comply with the subcontracting process that ensued after Banneker was handed the project management contract. HRGM owner Ramesh Butani and his daughter Rachna testified that the process was essentially a farce—that they were given limited information on what they were supposed to build, that the judging process was opaque, and that there was no attempt afterward to explain why they had lost the bid.
Said Rachna Butani, “It has been unclear to me what value Banneker Ventures adds.…They’re not responsive.…They can’t answer questions.”
She added: “I don’t believe they are professional or capable to handle these contracts.”
Who knows whether HRGM had what it takes to get that field completed on the Fenty clock? What we do know, however, is that the Fenty people hijacked the process, hid everything from public view—and frat brothers ended up with a load of cash.
For the Vincent Grays and Mary Chehs and other Fenty detractors, here’s a felony misstep by the Fenty regime to pile on top of the getting-hard-to-count misdemeanors of the past couple of years. Yet there are a few strands that tie this huge contract scandal with the “mini-messes” that preceded it.
The rec contracting scandal shares an insistence on secrecy with the Dubai trip and the enrollment of the Fenty sons in Lafayette Elementary School. It shares a loathing of the council with the hoarding of baseball tickets and his petulance on oversight issues. And it shares its provincial, proprietary views of what’s legal and illegal with the episode in which Fenty’s buddy played chauffeur in a city-owned vehicle, among other issues.
Each of these easily avoidable screw-ups contradicts the image that Fenty shaped during his 2006 campaign—that Adrian Fenty was the transparent, accountable, pragmatic, get-it-done populist. Rather, he’s acted like an arrogant, power-hungry, win-at-all-costs guy who doesn’t know how to pick his battles, make allies, and otherwise be the “big city mayor” he wants everyone to know he is.
And each time he operates in the shadows, arrogates power to himself, dismisses oversight, and plays fast and loose with the law, he adds beef to the narrative that someone is going to lay down before packed community rooms starting next spring.
Primary Day is Sept. 14, 2010.
Fenty Adopts Bush Tactic
LL and other local observers have gotten plenty of mileage out of comparing Fenty’s executive-power-aggregating habits to those of President George W. Bush.
Both, for instance, have foiled legislative attempts to conduct oversight of their administrations, have been stingy when responding to Freedom of Information Act requests, and have generally tried to consolidate control over their governments.
Let the comparisons continue!
Early in October, the D.C. Council passed the fiscal 2010 city budget, after months of wrangling over how best to deal with a late-breaking drop in city revenue. The process had not exactly been a model of cooperation, with the council jawing about Fenty’s methods of closing the $660 million budget gap and Hizzoner threatening a veto over school-governance matters.
But even with the final vote, the bickering hasn’t ceased. On Oct. 15, Attorney General Peter J. Nickles dispatched a 13-page memo to Fenty, who in turn sent it to Gray. The document lays out no fewer than 16 provisions included in the budget legislation that Nickles and his lawyers found to be objectionable—including six measures, he announced, that the executive branch should ignore completely due to “problems, including separation-of-powers and other Home Rule Act violations, that prevent lawful implementation.”
The practice mirrors Bush’s embrace of “signing statements”—messages sent to lawmakers accompanying the presidential signature. The practice, certainly, did not begin with Bush—presidents as far back as James Monroe have made them, but it saw a halcyon era under Bush 43. According to one professor’s analysis, Bush by the end of his tenure ended up challenging some 1,200 provisions in federal law—doubling the figures for all those before him combined.
Where Bush’s memos addressed matters such as affirmative action programs and the treatment of military detainees, Fenty’s budget memo deals with matters like taxi rates (the council has no power to set them), budget directives for the deputy mayor’s office (an “unlawful management of Executive Branch affairs”), and grant reporting requirements for the Children and Youth Investment Trust Corp. (the home rule charter says the council only gets to review contracts, not grants).
But just as Bush’s use of the maneuver sent Congress over the edge, Nickles’ memos are driving council types crazy.
At-Large Councilmember David A. Catania of all people, increasingly peeved by Fenty overreaching, calls them “an exercise in creative writing without the force of law.”
As on the federal level, mayors have issued legislative memos before, but usually to accompany vetoed legislation, says Brian Flowers, the council’s chief lawyer. And since Fenty has taken office, he says, the memos have been flying faster than ever before, with increasingly broad legal claims.
As for the claims in Nickles’ budget memos, “Some of them are quite laughable,” Flowers says. He is drafting a response.
Nickles has a fine retort to the Bush comparisons: “Why don’t they criticize President Obama, who’s engaged in the same practice?”
Indeed, Barack Obama said during the 2008 campaign that he and his lawyers “aren’t going to use signing statements as a way to do an end run around Congress.” Since taking office, however, Obama has issued dozens of his own, and Nickles says he’s read them: “He ensured that Congress knows the president’s view…that he’s not going to interpret legislation to interfere with the Constitution.”
Nickles explains his legislative memos this way: “I think the executive has the duty to stand for the executive’s prerogatives. Otherwise, in our tripartite system of government, one part will run over the other part.”
Political Potpourri
• Is someone taking a whack at scandal-softened Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham?
Bryan Weaver, the longtime Adams Morgan activist and advisory neighborhood commissioner, filed exploratory papers with the Office of Campaign Finance on Tuesday.
To explore a run against the sure-to-be-well-financed three-term incumbent, Weaver has thus far raised $2,500.
Exploratory bids have been rare since campaign finance laws changed some years back, but Weaver, 39, says his campaign is indeed merely speculative at the moment. “I have my opinions on what’s important to me and to the ward,” he says. “Maybe it’s a minority opinion, I don’t know.” Hence the de rigueur “listening tour.”
Why ponder a run? Weaver cites “a difference in ideas and what’s important to the ward,” pointing in particular to “an utter lack of transparency in government and a feeling that there’s a certain group of people who have a seat at the table because of contributions that they give.”
And even if Graham’s longtime chief of staff, Ted Loza, hadn’t been arrested on Sept. 24 as part of a federal bribery sting, Weaver says he’d still be looking at the race. “If you take a foreign trip for 30 days organized by someone with business before the council”—a not-so-veiled reference to alleged briber Abdulaziz Kamus and a 2006 trip to Ethiopia—“no congressman could get away with that,” he says. “I want to hold my city councilmember to the same standards.”
Graham’s campaign apparatus, meanwhile, is grinding to life. He filed his re-election papers in September, and political consultant Chuck Thies has signed on to deliver zinger quotes on his behalf.
“I wish him well. Running as a first-time candidate always presents a number of unforeseen challenges,” he says, playing up Graham’s strong backing in “every part” of Ward 1. “That base of support will surely need to be considered by Bryan as he explores a possible candidacy.”
• Is the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board about to get more health-conscious?
Last month, board chair Peter Feather announced he’d be stepping down in order to take a job out of town. To replace him, Fenty has nominated board member Chuck Brodsky, founder of the Nation’s Triathlon and one of Fenty’s famous “running buddies.”
Also nominated to the board recently is Aisha Wade, a Ward 8 resident who describes herself as a “[v]ersatile, experienced fitness professional.” She’s currently employed by the tony West End gym Sports Club/LA as an assistant fitness manager.
LL ran the potential new additions past Adams Morgan bar owner Bill Duggan, as staunch a defender of good old-fashioned legal vice as you’ll find in this town.
His take: “Watch—they’ll change the ABC Board to the SmartWater Board!”
The Madam’s Organ owner also has more substantive concerns. “It’s the only board that never has anyone from the industry at all,” he says. “You’d never have the medical board without a doctor…and here they bring in any Tom, Dick, or Harry that’s a friend of someone.”
Let me know your thoughts too here and feel free to post at @blsuccess or @livebigg
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/display.php?id=38061
Get Loose Lips Daily every weekday morning in your inbox—sign up at washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/citydesk. Got a tip for LL? Send suggestions to lips@washingtoncitypaper.com. Or call (202) 332-2100, x 244, 24 hours a day.
Fenty's parks contracting scheme is his first true scandal.
By Mike DeBonis
Posted: November 4, 2009
Bid Adieu: Parks contracting scheme eschewed standard procurement rules.
(Darrow Montgomery)
Recent Loose Lips
The New Cronies
The story of Adrian Fenty, some frat brothers, and tens of millions of dollars in parks construction.
Posted: October 28, 2009
Out With the Old
The Fenty administration's war with power broker David Wilmot and his nonprofit group home outfit.
Posted: October 21, 2009
Parks and Wreck
How Ximena Hartsock became the first cabinet-level appointee in memory to be turned down.
Posted: October 14, 2009
Send a Letter to the Editor
When Mayor Adrian M. Fenty invokes the term “as fast as humanly possible,” he’s usually not talking about his swim-bike-run times. That’s what he says when asked about the delivery of city services and facilities. Channeling the longstanding frustrations of D.C. residents, Fenty has put his agencies, his minions, on a municipal triathlon timeline: Finish pronto or get left behind.
It’s all good, right? Get those bureaucrats off their asses and serve the people.
Thanks to the Fenty scandal du jour, however, LL and the rest of the city are learning about the dark side of the “humanly possible.”
When Fenty handed at least $120 million in city money to the D.C. Housing Authority, which, in turn, handed it to politically connected contractors with only the faintest whiff of oversight, he was no doubt trying to deliver on his mantra. By doing an end-around on city procurement processes, he’s aiming to cut ribbons on at least 11 neighborhood projects by the summer of 2011, with ground broken on each by this upcoming spring (in the midst, incidentally, of his re-election campaign).
Yet the mayor as endurance athlete—focused, disciplined, driven by hard data rather than parochial politicking—turns out to be the mayor willing to sacrifice any principle of good government in order to get his projects done.
At a contentious D.C. Council hearing on the contracts last Friday, City Administrator Neil O. Albert provided a simple explanation for the contracting scheme: It’s faster, better, and cheaper. The hearing illuminated the ramifications:
• Tens of millions in city dollars were moved around the city budget without independent review.
• Money was handed to DCHA, a ‘quasi-independent’ public concern, which in turn gave the money to a nonprofit subsidiary that engaged in a contracting process that saw little, if any, legal review. For its trouble, DCHA was paid $700,000.
• Management functions were then outsourced to a private company, Banneker Ventures, that was paid more than $4.2 million to do a job—capital project management—that the Department of Parks and Recreation already employs a staff of 11 to do. Banneker is owned by a close Fenty ally, Omar Karim.
• Banneker Ventures, in turn, was allowed to run a subcontracting process with only the faintest adherence to accepted procurement practices, with near complete power to distribute millions of dollars in public money to the contractors of their choice (including, fellow frat pal Sinclair Skinner’s Liberty Engineering & Design). This was done with the input of mayoral officials.
• A contract described the scope of the work to be done for several projects—in some cases costing taxpayers more than $10 million—in a single paragraph of about 100 words. (A top official in the Office of the Inspector General noted that the language was “problematic” and “needs to be redone.”)
• And the whole scheme was created and calibrated in such a way as to elude oversight by elected officials. It took the D.C. Council more than three months to figure out that this was going on under their noses.
The most surprising testimony of the day came from a family-owned local contractor, HRGM Corp. That outfit wanted to compete to build what turned out to be a playing field at the Park View Recreation Center. To get a piece of the pie, it had to comply with the subcontracting process that ensued after Banneker was handed the project management contract. HRGM owner Ramesh Butani and his daughter Rachna testified that the process was essentially a farce—that they were given limited information on what they were supposed to build, that the judging process was opaque, and that there was no attempt afterward to explain why they had lost the bid.
Said Rachna Butani, “It has been unclear to me what value Banneker Ventures adds.…They’re not responsive.…They can’t answer questions.”
She added: “I don’t believe they are professional or capable to handle these contracts.”
Who knows whether HRGM had what it takes to get that field completed on the Fenty clock? What we do know, however, is that the Fenty people hijacked the process, hid everything from public view—and frat brothers ended up with a load of cash.
For the Vincent Grays and Mary Chehs and other Fenty detractors, here’s a felony misstep by the Fenty regime to pile on top of the getting-hard-to-count misdemeanors of the past couple of years. Yet there are a few strands that tie this huge contract scandal with the “mini-messes” that preceded it.
The rec contracting scandal shares an insistence on secrecy with the Dubai trip and the enrollment of the Fenty sons in Lafayette Elementary School. It shares a loathing of the council with the hoarding of baseball tickets and his petulance on oversight issues. And it shares its provincial, proprietary views of what’s legal and illegal with the episode in which Fenty’s buddy played chauffeur in a city-owned vehicle, among other issues.
Each of these easily avoidable screw-ups contradicts the image that Fenty shaped during his 2006 campaign—that Adrian Fenty was the transparent, accountable, pragmatic, get-it-done populist. Rather, he’s acted like an arrogant, power-hungry, win-at-all-costs guy who doesn’t know how to pick his battles, make allies, and otherwise be the “big city mayor” he wants everyone to know he is.
And each time he operates in the shadows, arrogates power to himself, dismisses oversight, and plays fast and loose with the law, he adds beef to the narrative that someone is going to lay down before packed community rooms starting next spring.
Primary Day is Sept. 14, 2010.
Fenty Adopts Bush Tactic
LL and other local observers have gotten plenty of mileage out of comparing Fenty’s executive-power-aggregating habits to those of President George W. Bush.
Both, for instance, have foiled legislative attempts to conduct oversight of their administrations, have been stingy when responding to Freedom of Information Act requests, and have generally tried to consolidate control over their governments.
Let the comparisons continue!
Early in October, the D.C. Council passed the fiscal 2010 city budget, after months of wrangling over how best to deal with a late-breaking drop in city revenue. The process had not exactly been a model of cooperation, with the council jawing about Fenty’s methods of closing the $660 million budget gap and Hizzoner threatening a veto over school-governance matters.
But even with the final vote, the bickering hasn’t ceased. On Oct. 15, Attorney General Peter J. Nickles dispatched a 13-page memo to Fenty, who in turn sent it to Gray. The document lays out no fewer than 16 provisions included in the budget legislation that Nickles and his lawyers found to be objectionable—including six measures, he announced, that the executive branch should ignore completely due to “problems, including separation-of-powers and other Home Rule Act violations, that prevent lawful implementation.”
The practice mirrors Bush’s embrace of “signing statements”—messages sent to lawmakers accompanying the presidential signature. The practice, certainly, did not begin with Bush—presidents as far back as James Monroe have made them, but it saw a halcyon era under Bush 43. According to one professor’s analysis, Bush by the end of his tenure ended up challenging some 1,200 provisions in federal law—doubling the figures for all those before him combined.
Where Bush’s memos addressed matters such as affirmative action programs and the treatment of military detainees, Fenty’s budget memo deals with matters like taxi rates (the council has no power to set them), budget directives for the deputy mayor’s office (an “unlawful management of Executive Branch affairs”), and grant reporting requirements for the Children and Youth Investment Trust Corp. (the home rule charter says the council only gets to review contracts, not grants).
But just as Bush’s use of the maneuver sent Congress over the edge, Nickles’ memos are driving council types crazy.
At-Large Councilmember David A. Catania of all people, increasingly peeved by Fenty overreaching, calls them “an exercise in creative writing without the force of law.”
As on the federal level, mayors have issued legislative memos before, but usually to accompany vetoed legislation, says Brian Flowers, the council’s chief lawyer. And since Fenty has taken office, he says, the memos have been flying faster than ever before, with increasingly broad legal claims.
As for the claims in Nickles’ budget memos, “Some of them are quite laughable,” Flowers says. He is drafting a response.
Nickles has a fine retort to the Bush comparisons: “Why don’t they criticize President Obama, who’s engaged in the same practice?”
Indeed, Barack Obama said during the 2008 campaign that he and his lawyers “aren’t going to use signing statements as a way to do an end run around Congress.” Since taking office, however, Obama has issued dozens of his own, and Nickles says he’s read them: “He ensured that Congress knows the president’s view…that he’s not going to interpret legislation to interfere with the Constitution.”
Nickles explains his legislative memos this way: “I think the executive has the duty to stand for the executive’s prerogatives. Otherwise, in our tripartite system of government, one part will run over the other part.”
Political Potpourri
• Is someone taking a whack at scandal-softened Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham?
Bryan Weaver, the longtime Adams Morgan activist and advisory neighborhood commissioner, filed exploratory papers with the Office of Campaign Finance on Tuesday.
To explore a run against the sure-to-be-well-financed three-term incumbent, Weaver has thus far raised $2,500.
Exploratory bids have been rare since campaign finance laws changed some years back, but Weaver, 39, says his campaign is indeed merely speculative at the moment. “I have my opinions on what’s important to me and to the ward,” he says. “Maybe it’s a minority opinion, I don’t know.” Hence the de rigueur “listening tour.”
Why ponder a run? Weaver cites “a difference in ideas and what’s important to the ward,” pointing in particular to “an utter lack of transparency in government and a feeling that there’s a certain group of people who have a seat at the table because of contributions that they give.”
And even if Graham’s longtime chief of staff, Ted Loza, hadn’t been arrested on Sept. 24 as part of a federal bribery sting, Weaver says he’d still be looking at the race. “If you take a foreign trip for 30 days organized by someone with business before the council”—a not-so-veiled reference to alleged briber Abdulaziz Kamus and a 2006 trip to Ethiopia—“no congressman could get away with that,” he says. “I want to hold my city councilmember to the same standards.”
Graham’s campaign apparatus, meanwhile, is grinding to life. He filed his re-election papers in September, and political consultant Chuck Thies has signed on to deliver zinger quotes on his behalf.
“I wish him well. Running as a first-time candidate always presents a number of unforeseen challenges,” he says, playing up Graham’s strong backing in “every part” of Ward 1. “That base of support will surely need to be considered by Bryan as he explores a possible candidacy.”
• Is the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board about to get more health-conscious?
Last month, board chair Peter Feather announced he’d be stepping down in order to take a job out of town. To replace him, Fenty has nominated board member Chuck Brodsky, founder of the Nation’s Triathlon and one of Fenty’s famous “running buddies.”
Also nominated to the board recently is Aisha Wade, a Ward 8 resident who describes herself as a “[v]ersatile, experienced fitness professional.” She’s currently employed by the tony West End gym Sports Club/LA as an assistant fitness manager.
LL ran the potential new additions past Adams Morgan bar owner Bill Duggan, as staunch a defender of good old-fashioned legal vice as you’ll find in this town.
His take: “Watch—they’ll change the ABC Board to the SmartWater Board!”
The Madam’s Organ owner also has more substantive concerns. “It’s the only board that never has anyone from the industry at all,” he says. “You’d never have the medical board without a doctor…and here they bring in any Tom, Dick, or Harry that’s a friend of someone.”
Let me know your thoughts too here and feel free to post at @blsuccess or @livebigg
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