Crossed Signals
Dear Signallers:
Jeff Norman writes below about the cable signal dropouts that many
people have experienced and that have become more frequent and serious
on Comcast since the digital transition of broadcast signals. As we’ve
discussed in themail in the past couple weeks, there is no technical
reason why the digital transition should have caused these dropouts. On
Friday, I E-mailed Marcella Hicks, a Consumer Services Officer at the
Office of Cable Television, about the problem. Over the past few years,
I’ve dealt with Ms. Hicks a few times. I’ve always found her to be
extraordinarily responsive and capable, and she has been able to get
Comcast to respond even when, as usual, its initial reaction is that a
problem can’t be solved.
Marcella told me that Comcast had been doing fly-overs to identify
signal leaks, and had been doing “signal leakage adjustments” that
may have caused occasional dropouts and pixillation in some areas, but
she asked how recently I’d been getting reports of problems. When I
told her that the problems were still occurring, and that as far as I
could tell it was happening in several neighborhoods, she responded that
any temporary problems that had been caused by the signal leakage
adjustments should be over, and she filed a complaint with Comcast. Jeff
Norman’s suggestion that we collect the names of people who are still
experiencing these problems is a good one. If you or your neighbors are
having problems with Comcast transmissions — dropouts, pixillation,
sound losses, screen freezes, and so on — send an E-mail to themail
specifying your neighborhood and describing the problems. I’ll collect
them and send them on to the Office of Cable Television, and Ms. Hicks
will follow up with Comcast. If you don’t want your message published
in themail, be sure to label it as not for publication, because
otherwise I assume that anything sent to themail@dcwatch.com
is intended for publication.
Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com
###############
DC Parents Outraged Over Friendship Takeover
of Anacostia High
Candi Peterson, saveourcounselors@gmail.com
A teacher known as Sad Anacostia Teacher forwarded me a copy of an
E-mail that an Anacostia senior high parent sent to Chancellor Michelle
A. Rhee. Anacostia Senior High is being reconstituted this year with the
assistance of Friendship Edison charter schools. I featured concerns
from an Anacostia teacher on The Washington Teacher blog on June 25 that
which revealed that half of their teachers have been excessed. I have
received other E-mails that allege that there have been discriminatory
practices in excessing 50 percent of Anacostia’s teachers. This
outraged parent’s E-mail to Chancellor Rhee suggests that, like DC
teachers, Anacostia parents feel disenfranchised by the Rhee
administration, complain of the lack of transparency, and have concerns
about the way this school takeover is being conducted. Here’s a copy
of the E-mail:
“Dear Chancellor Rhee: Today is a sad day in the lives of students
and parents of Anacostia High School, when you, Mrs. Rhee, want to turn
over our school to people like Mr. Donald Hense of Friendship Edison.
When the founder of Friendship Edison says that the reason the students
of Anacostia can’t learn is because their mothers are on crack
cocaine, this is a sad day. He made this statement at the Anacostia
construction meeting. Again, as a parent, why would someone say this
about our children’s parents this way? Is this the way you Mr. Lew,
the mayor, The Gates Foundation, and members of your staff think about
our students at Anacostia? I attended a meeting today at Anacostia. I
thought that we were going to talk about the construction of Anacostia,
but it was not the case. For the first half or more it was about
Friendship’s programs and their history, and not about Anacostia’s
building. I talked to the staff of Mr. Lew’s shop before the meeting
and Mr. Robinson told me they would have a few words in the beginning,
and that did not happen. Friendship took over the meeting. Again — the
lies that people tell us to get us in a room so that they can say they
had a meeting with parents of Anacostia, so that they can get paid by
the Gates Foundation. Friendship told the Gates Foundation that they had
met their obligation as it relates to the DC Education Compact and the
community, parents, and students, when in fact they never met with the
parent body. They, along with Mr. Justin Cohen, a member of your staff,
gave out false information. I have heard back from Andrea at the Gates
Foundation and she has let me know that she has spoken both with
Friendship Charter Schools folks and with Justin at DCPS regarding our
concerns. At this point she feels that the project is on target as
described in the plans, as they have documented opportunities for parent
and community engagement – among the other benchmarks they are
responsible for. The parents of Anacostia did not know any of this, and
the cover-up grows.
“When people say things about our children I have problems with it.
Here is a statement made by a member of your staff:, Mr. Justin C.
Cohen: ‘The Chancellor asked me to respond to your last E-mail. The DC
Education Compact serves as the fiscal intermediary for grant funding to
DCPS from the Bill and Belinda Gates Foundation. Acting in this capacity
sometimes requires them to disburse funding to organizations that
support our work, and such is the case with the Friendship Schools. DCPS
does not pay the DCEC any funds; rather they disperse grant funding on
our behalf. To your other point, the No Child Left Behind act
establishes targets for standardized test scores and attendance at
individual schools. While it is one indicator of school performance, it
is an imperfect and incomplete measure. Friendship’s high school —
the Collegiate Academy — has consistently outperformed every DCPS high
school, except for our selective admission magnet schools. In addition,
the Chancellor does not have control over the charter schools in DC, as
those are overseen by the DC Public Charter School Board, a completely
separate independent entity. We appreciate your concerns and I encourage
you to come to us with questions about these arrangements, as we want to
make sure you have the appropriate facts.’
“A member of Mr. Lew’s staff told us Mr. Lew did not care about
this meeting, so writing him gets us nothing. He is not going to look at
it any way. (He will just delete it.) Mrs. Rhee, the parents at
Anacostia did not know about this meeting, but the parent and staff of
Friendship knew, and they came to a school that they do not teach at and
their children did not go to. This tells me that this is about money not
about making the city schools better. Mr. Cohen said it best in his
E-mail, that the test is an imperfect and incomplete measure, so why do
we take the test and why did you change Anacostia school staff if it
does not mean anything? Our children are in trouble at Anacostia when
Mr. Beck of Friendship follows the young ladies of Anacostia to the rest
rooms with a video camera and films them going in and coming out. He
told the young men of the building he was taking their pictures so when
he took over he would put them out. What happened to the investigation
of him — because Mr. John Davis of your staff knew about it, and did
not turn it over to your security force unit. All these things have been
going on since you made the move at Anacostia. It is time to remove
Friendship Edison from Anacostia. If you don’t, you are looking at a
war on your hands. I hope you can take care of this matter before it
gets bad.”
###############
Sosua Scandal: The Latest Chapter
Dorothy Brizill, dorothy@dcwatch.com
On Thursday, Councilmember Phil Mendelson and Mary Cheh held a “public
deposition” of Ronald Moten, Chief Operating Officer of Peaceoholics,
regarding his role in the effort to transfer a surplus District of
Columbia fire truck and ambulance to the city of Sosua in the Dominican
Republic. Video of the deposition is online at http://octt.dc.gov/services/on_demand_video/channel13/june2009/06_25_09_GOVOPS_JUDICI.asx.
A deposition, which is “witness testimony given under oath,” is
usually closed to the general public. However, Moten insisted that his
deposition be public so that he could invite an audience of
approximately forty of his friends, family, and members of Peaceoholics.
Moten’s Peaceoholics group will receive three million dollars in
District government contracts this year to counsel young people and to
work to stem youth violence.
The tape of Moten’s deposition is riveting as well as revealing. In
his testimony, Moten is belligerent, contentious, and contemptuous of
the council and its investigation. In his testimony, Moten claims that
the inquiry is politically motivated and an attempt to “get Fenty”
and to embarrass Peaceoholics and himself. In his responses to
questions, he is evasive and provides few details, and on numerous
occasions he refuses to answer questions by claiming that they are not
relevant or are repetitive, or by claiming that he has a poor memory; he
instructs the councilmembers to cut off their questioning, saying that,
“I don’t have time for this.” At various times, he takes on a
self-righteous, martyred attitude, portraying himself as a savior of
young people in the District and proclaiming that his work in the
community saves lives. In the end, however, Moten substantially recanted
his original story of his involvement in the fire truck giveaway and
detailed the roles and involvement of Fenty’s close friend Sinclair
Skinner and of DC government employees David Jannerone, Director of
Development in the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and
Development, and Andrew “Chip” Richardson, interim General Counsel
to the Mayor in the executive office of the mayor.
In the next round of depositions, the council intends to subpoena
Jannerone; Skinner; Richardson; Thorn Pozen, ethics counselor in the
Office of the Attorney General; and Wilbur Giles, former chief of staff
to the Director of the Office of Contracts and Procurement. In an
interview that appeared in Friday’s issue of The Washington
Examiner, however, Attorney General Peter Nickles indicted that he
will attempt to obstruct and delay any further investigation into the
matter. Nickles “said there would be no more questioning of DC
employees until issues of [legal] representation, access to transcripts,
and executive privilege were resolved” (http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/49130897.html).
###############
DPW Services for Independence Day
Nancee Lyons, nancee.lyons@dc.gov
The DC Department of Public Works will follow its normal trash and
recycling collections schedule on Friday, July 3. Residents whose trash
and recycling are collected on Friday should have their trash and
recycling containers out for collection no later than 6:30 a.m., Friday,
July 3, and return the containers to their private property by 8:30 p.m.
Friday.
Other DPW Services will be affected during the holiday weekend:
parking enforcement will be in effect Friday through Sunday, July 3
through 5, in the Nationals Park neighborhood. Parking enforcement for
meters, rush hour ticketing and towing, residential parking, abandoned
vehicles towing, and booting will be suspended. Other violations —
blocking a fire hydrant, crosswalk, bus stop, or driveway — will be
enforced. Household hazardous waste, e-cycling and personal document
shredding at the Benning Road (3200 Benning Road, NE) and Ft. Totten
(4900 Bates Road, NE) Trash Transfer Stations will be suspended
Saturday, July 4. Mechanical residential street sweeping (Sweepercam)
will be suspended Friday, July 3. Graffiti removal will be suspended
Friday, July 3.
To view DPW’s trash and recycling holiday schedule for the
remainder of the year, visit http://www.dpw.dc.gov and click on Holiday
Schedule under the “Information” header or call the mayor’s
citywide call center at 311.
###############
An Ugly Empty Lot
Ed T. Barron, edtb1@macdotcom
An ugly empty lot is what we have left after that solid old
Tenleytown Library was torn down. That old building had good bones and
was tough to tear down. As for the replacement, don’t hold your
breath. The vocal minority of NIMBYs who got developers’ proposals to
build a new library with accompanying housing above the library
sidelined have successfully killed all plans for a new library for the
foreseeable future. In these difficult financial times it’s unlikely
that any developer will venture forth with new proposals and face the
gauntlet of the opponents to anything but another library on that site.
As for the city, fuggedaboutit. The city is facing a three hundred
million dollar deficit for 2010 and won’t be spending any money in
Ward 3. My only suggestion to those who rejected the “bird in the hand”
is to take two bushes each and plant them around the perimeter of that
ugly lot at the corner of Albemarle and Wisconsin so that, in ten years,
the lot will be much less obtrusive.
###############
Ed T. Barron [”What Are We Doing Wrong,” themail, June 24] asks
what “we are doing wrong,” and suggests we study “ procedures,
hardware, and personnel” to determine what went wrong with Metro to
cause such a poor safety record. What Ed fails to mention is precisely
the root of the problem — money. Lack of proper funding is why Metro
is not getting proper maintenance and hardware, etc., and has resulted
in the poor safety record, not to mention a significant number of tragic
deaths.
Safety of the system is directly related to the lack of funding for
proper maintenance of tracks and timely upgrades of equipment. But we
have been starving Metro with under funding since its inception. Some
seek to compare our WMATA subway system with New York City’s subways,
citing New York’s better safety record. But such a comparison usually
fails to consider that New York City subways have always operated with a
designated revenue source of funding. Washington, unlike most other
jurisdictions that operate a subway system, does not have a regional
transit or transportation tax as a source of revenue specifically for
operation and maintenance of the Metro system. Metro officials, each
budget cycle, have had to go hat-in-hand begging for their funds, and
usually get shortchanged by the respective legislatures. For the entire
thirty-three years of its operation, Metro has been consistently starved
to death by the state and federal government entities that are
responsible for its operation.
For primarily political reasons, the Virginia, Maryland, District of
Columbia, and federal legislatures have been, all these years, unable
and unwilling to act together to create a designated source of funding
for Metro. Many continue to believe that bus and train fares should fund
the entire operation, which of course is impossible. The fares could
never be high enough to cover the total costs of running an efficient
system. The poor safety record is directly caused by this lack of
funding, and the WMATA Board and the various legislatures are directly
to blame for not providing sufficient funding for maintenance and
improvements that would improve this poor record. Money is the reason
maintenance is behind schedule, always. Money underlies the cause of
hardware that doesn’t work, and tracks that are misaligned and cars
that are out of date. A penny a gallon regional tax on gasoline
designated for public transit would go a long way to resolve this lack
of funding. It would get more cars off the road and make traffic flow
more efficient, saving automobile drivers time and money in the long
run. After creating the regional metro system thirty-three years ago, we
are still waiting for a rational plan for funding it. When will our
legislators get off their collective ****s and legislate a regional
transportation solution?
###############
Of course, the “DC Metrorail” system Ed T. Barron references [themail,
June 24] should properly be referred to as the Washington Area
Metropolitan Transit Authority. The operative word in the title is “Area,”
which reflects the fact that Metro serves and is run by jurisdictions in
Virginia and Maryland as well as the District of Columbia. In fact, if
one looks at the subsidies provided by ridership by jurisdiction,
Washingtonians (i.e., residents of DC) disproportionately subsidize the
Metro system. The fact that Virginia and Maryland can’t be bothered to
pay their fair share of the system’s subsidies may have more to do
with the system’s inability to pay for systemic upgrades and
maintenance than we care to acknowledge. So before we go off too much on
the “DC Metrorail” system, let’s please be sure to acknowledge
that the blame for this horrible tragedy will lie at least as much with
Maryland and Virginia as it does with DC, and let’s not be too quick
to attribute all the failure to DC.
By the way, the NYC subways are not computer controlled.
###############
Just like Robert Evans (“DTV Transitioning” in themail, June 24),
I have also been experiencing frequent interruptions in my Comcast
Expanded Basic cable TV service. The screen will freeze and the sound
will disappear for about five to fifteen seconds. I just found out today
that two of my neighbors, Anne Allen and Eileen Sroka in Chevy Chase,
DC, are having the same problems. Would someone like to collect all the
names of those having frequent interruptions and present the whole list
to Comcast and ask for an explanation?
###############
Citizens Won’t Be
Buffaloed by Same-Sex Marriage Agenda
K. West, kap8082@aol.com
Clearly citizens of the District of Columbia have a divine right to
live any lifestyle they choose; however, they do not have a right to
demand that their vision of life be accepted by the public by forcing
legislation on residents of the nation’s capital without public input
in the name of progress. To expect citizens to sit back and not say
anything or challenge the city leadership on its vote is to be very
naive. Citizens are now contemplating organizing for a citizen’s
initiative no matter what the court rules on the pending referendum to
reject the Jury and Marriage Amendment Act of 2009. The Ward 5 and Ward
7 Dems have resisted the push for same-sex marriage in the nation’s
capital while residents of some wards are complaining that they never
knew the issue was on the agenda or they would have voted against it.
What happened in those wards? What was the outreach, and to whom, or did
somebody appear from nowhere with a resolution and ask them to vote on
it to be politically correct?
Many citizens now welcome and demand an opportunity to vote for or
against same sex marriage like the residents of California, Florida, and
other states that voted to ban same sex marriage. After all, DC
residents want to be like the big boys and girls and call themselves a
state. So let the state vote on the issue, or stop giving lip service to
voting equality. For the record, however, when discussing changing the
definition of marriage, then polygamy would not be a welcome change
either as many states continue to declare that marriage is between one
man and one woman. Not seeing relief from their own political leaders,
many jurisdictions are welcoming resources and support from outside
sources. In fact, both sides of the argument get support from outside of
their local political territory; however, they bemoan the fact when the
other side benefits from the same strategy. Many see this as a national
issue and not a state issue, as former Vice President Dick Cheney
believes. Too bad the Defense of Marriage of Act didn’t set one
definition of marriage for all states. It doesn’t make sense for
states to redefine marriage at will, especially when there are so many
activist judges and politicians that don’t necessary serve the public
with the advice and consent of the electorate.
The “Jury and Marriage Act” was renamed from the “Disclosure to
the United States District Court Amendment Act of 2009.” What? This
doesn’t say, “same sex marriage”; otherwise, residents would have
been out in droves to address the matter for or against. Was somebody
trying to be slick and pull one over on the residents of DC? This is the
legislation that was approved by the majority of the council and the
mayor, and it recognizes same sex marriages from other jurisdictions.
Not to rehash, but few knew about this same-sex marriage effort until a
coalition of ministers brought it to the attention of the public. But
how could citizens know about it when it was advertised as something
else and couched in an amendment? There was no hearing and no need for
one because the same-sex marriage law is the byproduct of an amendment
to some other legislation. It is now becoming clear that the council did
not have to have a hearing on an amendment so the legislative process
was actually followed, though the public may feel it has been duped.
Wasn’t this just too important an issue to bury in an amendment like
Congress does? When Congress puts riders on important legislation, our
Congresswoman, mayor, and council scream and protest, and yet DC
politicos did the same type of thing. Would the council be quick to
change the definition of marriage if someone wanted to change the
definition of marriage to incorporate polygamous, incestuous, or
man-child marriage relationships? Would they grant wives the right to
have more than one husband or vice versa? Would they be quick to add
these groups as a protected class of citizens under the DC Human Rights
Act? (By the way, why is it that the council never mentioned same sex
marriage in the Human Rights Act, but instead focused on employment,
housing, and the like? Were they depending on its extremely liberal and
generous Domestic Partnership law to take care of any other potential
acts they perceive as possible discrimination, or were they concerned
that someone would use the act to justify changes to marriage to
accommodate various combinations of marriage with challenges to the
law?) Do people really think that same-sex marriage is the equivalent of
the union of one man and one woman? Will the gay community threaten to
withdraw its contributions to the Democratic Party in DC, as they have
with President Obama, for not moving fast enough on their agenda?
The referendum to reject the Jury and Marriage Amendment was
disapproved by the Board of Elections and Ethics and lobbied against by
the DC council and the Attorney General. Yet the citizens still demand a
say on the issue. Whether for or against same sex marriage, the citizens
deserve a vote on the matter and will not let politicos hide behind the
Human Rights Act or claims of civil rights or equal protection. They don’t
care if they are not perceived as progressive or politically correct.
And citizens don’t want anyone to think that this is just an issue
espoused by and protested against by the faith community. There is rage
against how the whole matter was handled and rage and distrust is
building against DC’s politicos. This one issue may not run any
politician out of town or out of office, but it is causing residents to
look closer at candidates and what they stand for. Many residents have
friends, neighbors, and so forth that are gay, yet they still do not
favor same-sex marriage. Some states where the politicos voted to
support same-sex marriage or where the vote was lost on a technicality,
residents are beginning to join with national efforts to ban same-sex
marriage. Many accept gay rights, but not same-sex marriage.
The Ward 7 Democrats refused to be buffaloed into a vote now on same
sex marriage. Instead of a straw poll, they held an educational forum so
that residents could be updated on what has transpired so far and what
the issues are. There was a fairly objective presentation, though some
of the facts may have been questionable. But then, the meeting
participants were allowed to ask questions and make comments. It was a
very open forum. But still, grumblings in the audience made it clear
that Ward 7, like Ward 5, was having no parts of same-sex marriage in
the nation’s capital. They refused to vote on any resolution on any
aspect of same-sex marriage. They only wanted to hear information. When
the council goes for a law expressly permitting same-sex marriage to be
performed in the nation’s capital (going beyond the legal recognition
of marriages from other jurisdictions, which is a backdoor approach to
same-sex marriage), then there may be a vote at the meeting level just
to make a point. Judging from the Saturday, June 27, Ward 7 Dems’
meeting, such a proposed law would be dead on arrival if they have any
say in the matter.
Community leaders need not wait on the courts to rule on the
referendum. They need to push for a citizens’ initiative that asks
whether same-sex marriage should be allowed in the District of Columbia
and whether those types of marriages should be legally recognized from
other jurisdictions. Politicos need to stand back and let the public be
heard. The public and officials need to push for approval of the subject
matter on a citizens’ initiative. A referendum rejects or overrides
legislation while an initiative creates legislation. Public officials
owe it to the electorate to back away and support an initiative — at
least anybody trying to stay in office should and who wants to maintain
the respect and administration of the voters. In the meantime, let’s
get a caucus of Democrats (maybe this should be DC’s version of Blue
Dogs or a new brand of Turks, as some of the previous councilmembers
were called) to discuss more moderate views that the DC Democratic State
Committee may not welcome or support. There may not need to be a litmus
test, but somebody has to speak out for moderate and socially
conservative Democrats. Right now, though being a Democrat is the way to
go, DC residents may not be served the way they envision. And just maybe
some of the politicos that are ramming the same-sex marriage agenda down
the throats of residents and then challenging them on their views may
need to go. This is not a black or white issue, but somehow it is made
to appear that only a few unknowledgeable African Americans don’t
recognize and appreciate the plight of the Civil Rights movement and
need to be pushed to the right side. But truth be told, there are quite
a few whites and other groups that don’t support same-sex marriage
either, and the barrier is not just the Black community though Wards 1,
2, 3, and 6 have supported same-sex marriage at their Ward Democratic
Committee meetings. How many in those wards would encourage their
children to marry someone of the same sex and raise their children to
hope and dream for same-sex marriage/weddings, rather than marry someone
of the opposite sex? How many want young people to be taught in school
that same-sex marriage is the equivalent of marriage between a man and a
woman? How many still see some separate roles in husband and wife and
understand the difference in a husband and while? Everybody is not that
liberal and will only admit their views in the privacy of a ballot box.
What say you on the need for a citizens’ initiative in the primary or
general election of 2010? By then, there should be enough time to get
the language right, the Human Rights Act challenged or amended, and the
measure on the ballot: marriage equals one man, one woman, yeah or nay,
for or against? Maybe several legal minds and groups should take up the
mantel and file for a citizens’ initiative. Go to http://www.dcboee.org
to find out more about referendums and initiatives. And maybe the
Stand4Marriage coalition may be able to offer some advice as they are
currently in the struggle to get a referendum through the counts, away
from the politics of the city.
###############
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