Christmas Eve
Dear Kids from One to Ninety-Two (and above):
As Mel Torme and Robert Wells wrote:
Chestnuts roasting on an open fire
Jack Frost nipping at your nose
Yuletide carols being sung by a choir
And folks dressed up like Eskimos
Everybody knows a turkey and some mistletoe
Help to make the season bright
Tiny tots with their eyes all aglow
Will find it hard to sleep tonight
They know that Santa’s on his way
He’s bringing lots of toys and goodies on his sleigh
And every mother’s child is gonna spy
To see if reindeer really know how to fly
And so I’m offering this simple phrase
To kids from one to ninety-two
Although it’s been said many times, many ways
Merry Christmas to you
Don’t believe the version that reads, "Everybody knows some
tofu and some mistletoe . . ."
From Dana Bryson, now in the private sector, via Jonetta Rose Barras,
comes the announcement that Isaac Bobb, Jr., the father of former City
Administrator and future Board of Education President Robert Bobb, has
died. Condolences can be sent to Otis Mortuary, 501 Willow Street,
Franklin, LA 70538 or directly to Mrs. Corita Ambroise Bobb, 1058 La.
Hwy. 318, Jeanerette, LA 70544.
Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com
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I’ve made a list and checked it twice; in DC, I’ve found out who’s
been naughty and nice. Naughty: 1) the offshore promoters of a slots
casino in DC. After they failed to get their casino initiative on the
ballot in 2004 because of election law violations, they refiled it in
2006, and again they hired non-DC residents to circulate petitions. This
time around, I was mysteriously stalked by a group of men the week
before the promoters were scheduled to turn in their petitions and the
promoters sued me for defamation in Guam for speaking out against a
slots casino initiative they filed there. 2) The city council, for their
abusive labeling of legislation as emergency. The emergency legislation
process is supposed to be used only when there really is a time
restraint that makes it impossible for the council to go through its
regular notice and public hearing process that allows for public input.
Just this month, this council has used or attempted to use the emergency
legislation process to give the mayor and themselves pay raises; to
dispose of the Martin Luther King, Jr., Central Library; to promote the
New Town development to replace the Florida Avenue Market; and to grant
$3.5 million to the NAACP to relocate to Washington. 3) Mayor Williams
and his administration, for awarding $341,000 in performance bonuses in
October to some of the District government’s worst performing
administrators: Patrick Canavan, DCRA, $8,551; Kimberly Flowers, Parks
and Recreation, $5,360; E.. Michael Latessa, Unified Communications,
$7,943; Gregory Irish, Employment Services, $11,055; and Lisa Marin,
Personnel, $11,053. 4) The promoters of the New Town Project, who want
the District government to use its eminent domain power to assemble the
land for their benefit. 5) The editors of the Washington Post,
who continue to reduce the space allocated to DC news in the Metro
section, even as they face increased competition from online news and
now a third daily newspaper. 6) Mayor Williams again, for excessive and
unnecessary out-of-town travel, and for continuing reluctance to release
detailed budget, funding, sponsorship, and delegation information about
the trips. 7) Adrian Fenty, who has copied both Tony Williams’s litany
about an “open and transparent” government and Williams’s refusal
to provide information that the press requests. 8) The Library Board of
Trustees, who failed to proceed with plans to renovate or rebuild four
closed branch libraries (Anacostia, Benning, Tenleytown, and Watha
Daniels) for more than two years, yet nevertheless went on to promote a
plan to close the MLK Central Library in favor of an unbuilt and
undesigned new library. 9) The city council, again, for approving
substantial — 25 percent — pay increases for themselves right after
the November general election. 10) Adrian Fenty, one more time, for
appointing Linda Singer as the District’s Attorney General, even
though she has lived in DC for more than thirteen years without joining
the DC Bar, while more than 60,000 attorneys are members of the Bar.
Singer’s husband, Joe Sternlieb, raised substantial funds for the
Fenty campaign.
Nice: 1) Art Spitzer and the American Civil Liberties Union of the
National Capital Region. This is personal for me — when the slots
promoters sued me in Guam, Art and the ACLU agreed to represent me pro
bono, when hiring a lawyer in DC and a lawyer in Guam to represent
me may well have bankrupted me. 2) Colbert King, who in his weekly
columns and his unsigned editorials in the Washington Post
brought historical and human insight to the Post’s coverage of
DC. Though he will continue to write his column, his retirement from the
editorial board leaves a huge void. 3) The Ballou Senior High School
football team, which lived out one of those against-the-odds sports
stories that normally occur only in movies to win the citywide
championship. 4) The DC Arts Commission, which organized an eclectic and
interesting collection of art by DC artists at the Wilson Building. 5)
The Smithsonian Institution, whose renovation of the Museum of American
Art and National Portrait Gallery brought new life to those museums. 6)
The Peaceaholics, who brokered a peace between two rival Southeast
street gangs, the Lynch Mob and Choppa City. 7) The Restaurant
Association of Metropolitan Washington, whose sponsorship of restaurant
weeks in January and August brought new business to normally dead
periods of restaurant activity, and introduced thousands of diners to
new restaurants. 8) The DC Library Renaissance Project, which organized
and rallied the community to focus attention on the condition of DC’s
libraries and defend the endangered MLK Library.
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Years ago, when I worked at the State Department, there was a general
unease and concern during the waning days of an administration — or
during Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s, or the Superbowl. During
these times, senior officials and policymakers at the highest levels of
government were away, and the government bureaucracy was run by a
skeletal crew. When these times were over, there was always relief if no
crisis occurred and if our enemies didn’t strike.
As the Williams administration comes to an end, and prior to the
start of the Fenty administration, we have to ask if anyone from the
Williams team is left to turn out the lights, or to respond to a crisis
if one should arise. Tony Williams himself left town at the beginning of
last week, and won’t return until just prior to the January 2
inauguration and swearing-in of Fenty. All of his department and agency
heads and senior administrators were required to submit their
resignations in November, and with few exceptions (Devon Brown, Director
of the Department of Corrections; Deborah Gist, State Education Officer;
William Howland, Director of the Department of Public Works; and Vincent
Schiraldi, Director of the Department of Youth and Rehabilitation
Services) Fenty has failed to inform other senior managers whether they
would be retained. Fenty had promised Williams that he would let them
know by December 15.
As a result, the District government’s office buildings, especially
the Wilson Building and One Judiciary Square, are ghost towns. Most of
the District’s senior officials are using their accrued vacation and
leave time, taking extended holiday breaks, or are simply absent without
leave.
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Right Hand, Meet the Left Hand
Ed T Barron, edtb1@macdotcom
The move to replace police Chief Ramsey is clearly a very good move
based on the information in the article “Don’t Shoot” in the
January issue of Washingtonian magazine. Ramsey established very
punitive rules for police about using force in making arrests. The
result is that there are currently more internal police investigations
about police arrests than there are investigations about homicides.
Internal investigations are triggered off any time someone being
arrested claims that excessive force was used in the arrest procedure.
Drug dealers and thugs being arrested know this, and file complaint
after complaint about any cop successfully inhibiting drug traffic in
the city. Each complaint results in an internal investigation. The
result is that good policemen are becoming very timid about making
arrests. Lots of turnover of experienced good police each month is
another symptom of the poor internal police policies established by
Ramsey. I strongly recommend reading the Washingtonian article.
In another typical DC bureaucratic mix-up, the refurbished bus
terminal in Friendship Heights is too low to handle the new buses that
run with natural gas tanks on the roof. In DC, the right hand does not
know what the left hand is doing. And both of these hands are in the
same department. That’s the problem with bureaucracies, as opposed to
team-based organizations. With teams working to address problems or
processes, all those who should be involved in making things happen are
working on the same team. Everyone is involved in the decision making
and solving problems. Let’s hope that the new mayor will evolve his
government from a traditional bureaucracy into functional teams.
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Artee Milligan for Ward 4 DC City Council
Jonathan R. Rees, jrrees2006@verizon.net
Democrat Artee J. Milligan, Jr., Executive Director of the
Metropolitan/Delta Adult Literacy Council and a former DC mayoral
candidate, has announced that he will seek the Ward 4 council seat to be
vacated by Mayor-elect Adrian Fenty. He explained his platform in the
following statement, which I have posted on http://milligan-ward4.blogspot.com:
“I am a longtime Shepherd Park resident and community activist, and I
promise to continue and improve upon the constituency services we’ve
all come to expect. After more than 25 years in corporate America, I
left the business world to run a grassroots nonprofit. Today, I run a
citywide program that helps students who did not obtain a high school
diploma prior to leaving the DC Public School system to obtain their GED
so they can continue on with their lives.
“Education is the great equalizer and fixing our public school
system is of primary importance. As Ward 4’s next councilmember, I
will work closely with the mayor and school board to improve the level
and standards of education in our public schools. I will support
increased funding for vocational training, early childhood development,
programs for children with special needs, and after school programs.
Further, I will work to bring economic prosperity to Ward 4. I will
encourage Mayor Fenty and the council to fund an adult preparation
center to provide the educational programs needed for people who have
not completed high school or college, so they can get job training and
placement. The increase in skilled workers will provide an incentive for
businesses to invest in Ward 4, and will also factor into a plan to
address the District’s high unemployment rate.
“Finally, I will work with my fellow residents and Fourth District
police officials to develop a workable plan to address public safety and
crime issues, so everyone can feel safe anywhere in Ward 4.”
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Now that a new mayor and council are being sworn in, could we ask
that they overturn the absolutely silly rule that DC police cars always
have their flashers on? It’s alarming to find a flashing police car
behind you and it’s never quite clear what’s going on. Could we have
our peace back?
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Police Parking Privileges
Bob Levine, rilevine@cpcug.org
At 11:40 a.m. on December 23, I was traveling down Wisconsin Avenue
toward M Street and took a right onto N Street, when I saw a police
cruiser #9240, license plate #2367, illegally parked on N Street. I
thought, “How nice, police business in progress.” A young, black,
female officer in uniform without any visible markings of rank, with her
arms full of packages, crossed in front of my car and unlocked the
police cruiser unloaded the packages from her arms and got inside. I
proceeded on my way happy in the knowledge that our police are
protecting us with last minute Christmas shopping, glad in the knowledge
that the taxpayers can pay for her gas and time on the job. Illegally
parking and doing last minute Christmas shopping in full uniform,
another way the DC Metropolitan Police are protecting you. I feel safer,
how about you?
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Re "DC’s Citizen Photojournalists" [themail, December 20]
Another great photographic resource of our city is Flickr. DC has
thousands of residents and tourists who post their photos to this site.
Probably the largest local Flickr group is “Washington DC/Metro
Area” (http://flickr.com/groups/dcmetro/),
with 1,745 members and over 21,000 photos. You should also visit http://flickr.com/photos/tags/dcist/
and http://flickr.com/groups/dc_neighborhoods/pool/.
There are specialized groups for everything imaginable, from the
Smithsonian (http://flickr.com/groups/smithsonian/pool/)
to the Potomac River (http://flickr.com/groups/potomacriver/).
And the geo-tagging feature gives you a cool way to find photos, like
the map for the Washington biking group: http://www.flickr.com/groups/washcycle/pool/map.
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Right Turns Around Busses
Harold Goldstein, mdbiker@goldraay.com
[See themail, December 17 and December 20] Actually having the bus
stops after the intersection (called far-side stops) would be a good
solution for situations where right turns are a problem. The three
options are discussed at http://www.pacebus.com/sub/guidelines/development_guidelines/location.htm.
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CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS
DC Public Library Events, December 27, January
8
India Young, india.young@dc.gov
Wednesday, December 27, 1:00 p.m., Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial
Library, 901 G Street, NW. Career search for teens. Teens discover their
ideal career in this session. For more information, call 727-5535.
Monday, January 8, 2:00 p.m., Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial
Library, 901 G Street, NW, Room A-9. Char McCargo Bah will host a
genealogy lecture for tracing slave and free ancestors. For more
information, call 727-2079.
Monday, January 8, 6:30 p.m., Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial
Library, 901 G Street, NW, Great Hall. Juan Williams, senior
correspondent, Morning Edition, National Public Radio, will discuss Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr.’s, views on the Vietnam War and whether he
would have spoken out on the conflict in Iraq. For more information,
call 727-1261.
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