The Night Owl Strikes Again

Honestly, I don't even know how to process the latest verbal gifts from my council member. In his celebratory speech Tuesday night/Wednesday morning, he managed to 1) slam an entire race and stir up racial unrest, 2) put up another mile of linguistic fencing that is keeping new business away from Ward 8, and 3) paint himself as something he most certainly is not.

First Point

We've got to do something about these Asians coming in, opening up businesses, those dirty shops. They ought to go, I’ll just say that right now, you know.

Barry ... brothaman ... these are business owners in your Ward. Yes, they are not "African-American businesspeople", but they are employers in your Ward. They may not be running the businesses you necessarily want, but they are the only businesses you have. It's bad politics to piss them off. You should be embracing them, including them as part of the community, and working with them to make our Ward a better place. Instead of hating anything and anyone who isn't black. Diversity is the lifeblood of a city.

I ... ugh ... I just cannot fathom what could be going through your mind that would make you spit out this divisive, racist crap.

Second Point

But we need African-American businesspeople to be able to take their places, too.

Mr. Council Member, you have basically told businesses, "Unless you are black, stay the hell out of Ward 8. I don't want you here." Tell me. Exactly how is that supposed to help put the people of Ward 8 back to work? How do you expect us, our Ward, to enjoy the growth and success that the other Wards have witnessed?

I know, I know. You're very concerned about "the G word" and you're afraid that, with growth, the downtrodden people you "so proudly fight for" will be pushed out. Well, you know what? Part of your job as our council member is to work with businesses, with developers, with new residents to find a way to include everyone in growth and success. Instead, you want to use inflammatory rhetoric designed to keep all but your vision of the ideal people out of Ward 8. The only thing that will accomplish is keeping everyone out and dooming Ward 8 to perpetual poverty and despair.

Which is, apparently, just the way you like it.

Third Point

And I defied the odds last night, didn’t I? I defied all the odds.

You "defied all the odds"? What odds? It most certainly wasn't the odds that you wouldn't get re-elected. Because, and let's be honest here, for as long as you want to run as council member of Ward 8, you will be council member of Ward 8. My fine neighbors are eternally blinded by what you have done for them in the past ... so much so that they cannot see that you no longer do anything for them now. You continually bring up your political history because history is all you have.

Show me one significant development or event or business that has happened in Ward 8 since you've been council member that you personally have made happen. Show me one tax credit, infrastructure allowance, or other such giveaway that you personally have extended to anyone to come in and make life in Ward 8 better for its residents.

Good things are happening here in spite of you not because of you.

Conclusion
I'm not surprised by your win. I long ago resigned to the simple truths that Ward 8 will not move forward and enjoy the good fortunes that the other Wards are enjoying as long as you are our council member and that you will be our council member for as long as you can draw breath. It makes me sad because I know what our Ward is capable of. I know what strengths we have and that we could be the place where everyone wants to live. I know that we have so much upside. But no one ... NO ONE ... in their right mind will come here and invest in us as long as you are around. You are divisive and lazy and a roadblock to progress. You want to keep your constituents down because as long as they're down they have to turn to you for help.

It's truly a shame that they can't see this about you. It's truly a shame that they can't realize that the best days of Marion Barry were left in his first term as mayor. It's truly a shame that we, the residents of Ward8, have to suffer through another term with you.

Crab Mentality And The Potential Implosion Of The Republican Party

I was reminded of how easy it is to cook crabs after reading this news article at CNN.com this morning.

It seems that the Republican Party is still embroiled in a "civil war" between the Republican Status Quo (RSO) and the Tea Party even though the Primary Election is over. In some cases, such as Delaware and Alaska, the RSO candidate lost. It's usually at this point that the party rallies 'round the Primary winner to help them secure whatever post it is to which they are aspiring. But not so this year.

Now, it's one thing to actively work to defeat someone if you are a member of the opposition, but it is quite another to actively work to defeat someone if you are a member of the same party after the Primary Election results are in. You idiot RSOs had nine months to do all of your sniping, mud-slinging, and character assassinations against these upstarts. And your candidate lost. Now is the time to rally behind the Primary winner. Now is the time to do all you can to ensure that you capture the majority seats in Congress. Now is the time to make your party relevant.

But no. RSOs can't seem to get past the insult of being rejected by the voting members of their own party and feel the upstarts still have a price to pay for their impertinence.

Sharpen those crabby claws, baby. It's almost supper time.

(Cross-posted on 100 Million Castaways.)

How Much Does A Few Minutes Cost?

Quite possibly an election.

There's been talk, mostly from the pro-Fenty base, that none of this really matters. Dr. Angelou and Mrs. Height weren't residents of our fair city so what does it matter what they had to talk to the mayor about, they say. The mayor is too busy doing the business of the people, they say. The days of kow-towing to special interests are over, they say.

Except these two women weren't special interests. They are pillars of the black community. They are cultural icons. It would have taken the mayor an hour of his time at most to speak with them. The political reward would have been great. The support he would have received from the District's black population would have been enormous. But most importantly, the boost it would have given his image ... the smoothing of those rough edges, the "humanification" of that aloof personality ... would have been priceless. And the mayor probably wouldn't find himself in the fight for his political life.

That missed meeting may well have been the beginning of the end for Mayor Fenty. Black district residents, especially those of the fairer sex, began to look at the mayor through different eyes and they started to see a man who didn't care about them.

Whether that perception is true or not is moot. In politics, perception is everything.

And This Is Bad How?

There are those leaders who seek consensus and take forever because of endless meetings, in the effort to appear to be doing something when nothing is getting done. Then there are those leaders who seek consensus and get it in a timely manner because the voice of the people is important in governing.

Mr. Gray has been one of the most effective City Council chairmen. He has accomplished this by getting all voices heard and moving toward a resolution that benefits the whole, not just a few. I see no reason why he wouldn't govern as mayor in the same manner. Being deliberative and thoughtful are not bad attributes to have, and Mr. Gray has them in spades ... yet he has also shown that he is not crippled by them. I expect that, if elected mayor, Mr. Gray will bring "order and civility and decorum" to the entire of D.C. government. And wouldn't that be a nice change?

Fenty Brings The Big Guns

The Washington City Paper is reporting today that Mayor Fenty is getting some major campaigning help tomorrow in his bid for re-election. The problem is ... nobody in D.C. really cares about the person coming to town.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is coming to D.C. tomorrow to help support Mayor Adrian Fenty’s re-election bid, according to a Fenty campaign source.

C'mon now. I mean really. What kind of sway is NYC Mayor Bloomberg going to have here in Our Nation's Capital? He has no ties here. He has no say, direct or indirect, about how our city runs. His only very loose connection is that Mayor Fenty idolizes him.

This reeks of desperation. It's the equivalent of a faltering television show relying on a special guest star appearance to help bolster ratings.

Mr. Mayor, you will have to do much better than this.

Mr. Fenty Insists On Hearing Bad News Immediately

I learned from Tiffany Bridge of We Love DC that City Council Chairman Vince Gray came home Thursday night to a “threatening display of magazines". Tiffany calls the stunt "cartoonish" and I have to agree. I mean, if you're going to send a message to someone, send a real message!

Am I right? Hello?

More Mayoral Election Coverage! (Sort Of.) (UPDATED)

TBD.com, the link to which you can find in my Additional Reading section, hosted a live streamed debate between the two front-running Democratic candidates for District mayor, so the odds are that you won't find video on it (I couldn't). It was also liveblogged, which is kind of like being promised a steak but getting a plate rubbed with steak sauce. Anyway, check out the liveblogging.

While we're all here, I seriously have some serious gripes against my city and the way major elections are handled. First, in case you weren't aware, there are more than two Democratic candidates running for mayor. Every election year it seems to be the same thing: incumbent mayor versus City Council chairperson. It's like no one else has a chance, so why even bother?

Second, there are more political parties than the Democratic Party in the District of Columbia and some of them have candidates for mayor as well. I'm not certain if District residents are even aware of this fact since, as it has been since Home Rule was enacted, whoever wins the Democratic Primary wins the General Election. Why should anyone who isn't a registered Democrat be rustled to vote at all?

Finally, what with all the local media we have in this city, you would think that you'd know my first two points already. But the odds are that you don't. And that is a major failing of our local media. All candidates should have equal coverage. (Okay, maybe not all candidates should get equal coverage. How about all serious candidates?) We have Independent, Statehood, and, in past elections, Republican candidates that the general public know nothing about. How difficult would it be to run stories on these candidates? We could have Democratic Mondays, Republican Tuesdays, Independent Wednesdays, Statehood Thursdays, and Everyone Else Fridays. Seriously, see how easy that was? And I'm not even a newsroom editor!

As I've griped before, I believe our city would be much better run, much better represented, much better ... better ... if more parties were part of our city government. I think the monopoly that the Democratic Party has isn't a good thing for our city. The Democrats have erected a wall that is almost impossible for any other party to scale. And that is a disservice to us, the people of Washington, D.C. It's up to us to right this wrong and make our government more inclusive, more diverse, and more functional.

Washington D.C., tear down this wall!

UPDATE: 08/11/2010 12:26: DCist steals my thunder. Bastards.

UPDATE: 08/11/2010 18:05: Check out the comment section for a comment from Many Jenkins with a link to the video of the debate. Thanks, Mandy!

Is This Bizarro World?

I don't even know what to think about this bit of news.

Former Mayor Anthony A. Williams joined Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and Council member Jim Graham Tuesday morning in Columbia Heights for the unveiling of a commemorative plaque in honor of all three of them and the nonprofit that helped make DCUSA possible.

But the event in the lobby of the building anchored by Target resembled a campaign endorsement of Fenty (D) and Graham (D-Ward 1).

I admit that Mayor Fenty has done some fine work during his tenure as mayor. He also has some worrisome errors in judgment and ethical missteps that paint a troubling portrait for the future should he be reelected. The only thing Gray detractors say against him is that we don't know enough about him to know how he will actually lead the city should he be elected ... that we still have too many questions about him that need answering.

And, yes, we don't really know how Mr. Gray will behave, should he be elected. Will the improvements started during the Williams Administration continue to move along smoothly, or will they be weighted down by consensus-building? Will the city government go back to the days of corruption and ineptness? Will the District become the Crime Capital of the nation once again? Will the public school system fall back to its pre-Williams days? Will the city become the model for public transportation or will needed improvements like bike lanes and streetcars be scuttled?

Mr. Gray needs to continue engaging "new media" folk and continue making himself available to the public in order to make himself more real to the voters. Because, as a friend put it to me recently, the city will "vote for the known evil".

Shoes On Other Feet

A common Liberal talking point is to paint conservatives as racist. Yes, some within the Republican party have made bigoted comments. But it seems often all that it takes to get one painted as a racist is to show any push-back to Obama, his agenda, or his policies. It's a good thing that the Democrats run such a tight ship, keeping their party members in line with the Liberal vision of a new America.

Huh? What's that?

It's interesting that Obama's flagging numbers on the economy have been driven not by white Republicans or white Independents but rather by white Democrats.

Since April, white Democratic approval of Obama's handling of the economy is down 20 points, from 80 percent to 60 percent. And, nearly as many white Democrats now strongly disapprove of how he's dealing with the issue as those who strongly approve (25 strongly disapprove; 28 strongly approve).

Hmm. I wonder how this narrative is going to fit into the Liberal propaganda machine?

My One Glaring Gripe With Washington, D.C.

You won't learn my political affiliation here. I'm not sure that more than three people in my life actually know how I'm registered. What I will tell you about my political philosophy is this: strength and progress comes from having many voices in the room. Differing points of views, dissenting opinions, and constructive arguments is how we get what is best for the community as a whole. Nothing good comes from echo chambers.

This has been the District's major flaw since Home Rule and will continue to be so long as District residents cling to a party that has consistently failed them, with very few exceptions.

The Democratic Party has gripped the city's government in a stranglehold that would make most of the world's governing regimes blush. The city has seen five mayors since self-governance ... all of them Democrat (though one of them governed like he was a Republican). All seven Council Chairmen have been Democrat. Over half of the At-Large Councilmembers have been Democrat. All individual Ward Councilmembers have been Democrat. Out of the thirteen current City Councilmembers, two are Independent (with very left-leaning tendencies to the point that they might as well be Democrats).

Where is the diversity of ideas? Where is the public discourse that only comes from multi-party governance? Where is the exchange of ideas necessary for the internal checks and balances of representative government?

What has been so great about this Democratic rule that we, the city, allow them to keep control?

Please, somebody tell me. Because all I've seen in my short life has been backroom dealings, cronyism, and other such "entitled" behaviors from those who are supposed to be working for us, not lording over us.

Look, I know that not all Democrats are bad public servants. I also know that primates have the ability to write masterpieces and that non-Timex watches can tell time ... sometimes we get lucky and put good people into office.

But it would be nice if we, the residents of the District of Columbia, try something different. Look at all of the candidates running for office, not just the Democratic ones. Judge them by what they say they will do for us. Hold them to those promises. And stop electing people based on their party affiliation or what they did decades ago or the fact that they're the longest serving member on the Council currently.

Let's get some real diversity in our city government. Let's get a real exchange of ideas and solutions. Let's make our local media cover all of the candidates so that we, as the voting public, can make truly informed decisions on who we want in our government.

Let's make our government work for us, with our best interests in mind. Let's have a government as diverse as our city is becoming. Let's be the model and the envy of the world.

If Only The Debates Were Like This

A Third Bush Term? Perhaps, But Not From Who You Think!

Democratic Party Presidential candidate Barack Obama has made it a centerpiece of his campaign to define a John McCain presidency as a "third Bush term". It's a point that tends to stick, well, because McCain would continue some of Bush's policies, such as the war on terrorism. No one, it seems, has looked into Obama's proposed policies and compared them to Bush's current policies.

No one until now.

This, my faithful readers, is why you should be an informed voter. This is why you should make voting decisions based on more than one policy position. This is why, in this election, there is no lesser of two evils.

Because ... trust ... your man isn't any better than the other party's man.

This Year's Election

I have lost my faith in the ability of the American people to make sound decisions. If they had the capability, we would not be left with John McCain, Barack Obama, Bob Barr, and Ralph Nader as our choices for Presidential candidates. While Barr and Nader weren't voted into their positions (they more or less anointed themselves due to a lack of interest from anyone else in their respective parties), McCain and Obama were. And shame on you Republicans and Democrats. You had far better choices in your primaries than these two posers. But you were all too swept away by "change" and "experience" to notice the other better choices.

Aw well. We're in the shitter now, so it really doesn't matter who we elect. They won't have the power to right the Good Ship America in the span of four years anyway. Even if they had the gumption (and they don't), they have a strongly liberal Congress with whom to contend. Don't get too excited there, Democrats; remember that Bill Clinton didn't do too well when you all had both houses of Congress and the Presidency. Hell, even George W. Bush knows that one-party rule doesn't equate policy success. So it's looking like either we'll become a bankrupt capitalist nation or we'll become a financially solvent socialist nation. Either way, I fear that America as we know her is gone.

Our government has no business owning anything in the private sector. It shouldn't be in insurance. It shouldn't be in mortgage lending. It shouldn't be in health care. It shouldn't be in real estate. And it shouldn't be in banking.

But that's where it is and that's where it's going. Less freedom and choice for you, more power and control for Big Government.

I fear for the direction in which our country could head, regardless of who you people elect President.

...

Oh, all that and my Ward is going to re-elect Marion Barry.

Stupid Americans.

Political Debates

I ran several blogs before starting The District Diaries. Each of them was very political in nature and covered my opinions about, well, everything political. I shut each of them down and erased all traces of their existence for the same reason every time ... I hate debating politics. It is a frustrating exercise in futility. It stresses me out. It exhausts the hell out of me. And I won't do it anymore.

See, politics to people is on that same personal plane as religion. People hold on to what they want to believe and who they want to embody what they want to believe very strongly. And trying to sway someone's mind on a politician or on a political position, for the most part, is akin to trying to sway their hearts on religious matters. You'd do better to punch a bull in the nuts.

I will continue to post my opinions about politics and politicians. But I will not have a debate over any of it. You are free to post your own thoughts on your own blog. And, as always, the Comments is available to you to voice your opinion, so long as those opinions do not directly attack me or any of my readers.

But if you try to drag me into a fight my only responses will be " ... " or "okay".

That is all.

Yet Another Reason Why I Do Not Support Barack Obama

I understand that Charles Krauthammer is a right-wing pundit. This post in no way supports him or his positions, in general, because I generally don't. But, in my opinion, he is spot on in his Op-Ed column today about Senator Obama.

I have yet to know for what Senator Obama stands and for what he will fight ... other than his own hubris and his own rise to the highest office in the land.

The Election Season In Under Five Minutes

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Political Public Service Announcement

I'm sure a good number of you out there are still awaiting a winner in the Clinton-Obama slugfest. I frankly don't care because, well, Democrats are idiots.

Oh, was that too un-PC? Tough. If you morons would just choose the best candidate for your party instead of slicing yourselves up into little focus-group pieces, maybe you'd win more than one important election in a row. But no. You women keep voting Hillary because she's a woman. And you blacks keep voting Barak because he's black. And you homos keep voting for whomever you think is the most fag-friendly. And you white males ... keep sitting on the couch.

Not that Republicans are any better. You had the chance to nominate a killer candidate. But instead you picked McCain. Thanks.

Anyway, lest you feel that your choices are Iraq and A Hard Place, you're wrong. The beauty of our democratic process is that there are more than two parties. And you have more than two choices.

Former Republican Rep. Bob Barr launched a Libertarian Party presidential bid Monday, saying voters are hungry for an alternative to the status quo who would dramatically cut the federal government.

I'm not saying he's a great choice either ... I have no idea what his policy positions are yet. What I am saying is that you have options. Study each candidate running very closely. Understand what they think and what direction they would like to steer our country. Make sure, come November when you pull that lever, that you are making an informed decision.

Like, Total Randomness, Y'know?

1. I am treated far too kindly by people who barely know me.
2. I love my ex and am saddened that we find ourselves where we are today.
3. There is too much unsettlement in my life at the moment.
4. Waiting for other things to happen so I can proceed sucks (and not in a good way).
5. Mario Spinetti rocks my socks. (Hey, Mario, where's the full-length album already?)
6. I still hate exercising. Cardio sucks. (But waiting still sucks more.)
7. Jim Zorn? Okay, if you say so. We'll see how that works out. At least I have something to be excited about right now.
8. I'm already hoping that Obama wins the White House so that, after his first veto, I can start using my newly coined term ... Barak-ade©! (As in, the latest bill passed by Congress was Barak-aded© by the White House.)

The Potomac Primary

Hopefully all of you Republicans and Democrats are out there pulling levers, pushing buttons, and marking exes in blood on your ballots. Those of us who are not affiliated to either party are, unfortunately, left to watch the election process at this point.

(No, I will not register for any party that does not share the bulk of my ideals just so I can whittle a number of candidates down to one. I'll wait until the general election, thank you very much.)

I only ask one favor of you who do get to vote ... please don't screw this up for the rest of us.

Happy voting!

Happy Election Year

With the Primary season having begun last week, I am serving a friendly reminder for all District residents to vote this year. It is true that D.C. votes count about as much as legal advice for Britney Spears, but it is your civic duty and there are a great many people in this world who do not have such luxuries.