The Corrupt Ones of Washington, DC

Barack Obama says a John McCain victory would amount to a amount to a third term of the Bush presidency.

2008-09-29T03:33:00.000-07:00

Barack Obama says a John McCain victory would amount to a third term of the Bush presidency. What he doesn’t say: an Obama victory would, too.

While both nominees love to talk about their big agendas for change, whoever wins will take office with their obligations defined and options constrained by what Bush dumps on their lap.

The focus right now – and probably for many months to come – is the bailout binge aimed at saving our financial system. All told, the government will likely put more than $1 trillion on the line (with hope the money will be recouped down the road).

Then there are the two wars, in Iraq and Afghanistan. The combined cost is fast approaching $1 trillion, too – and both will eat up the time and budgets of the next president.

Then there is also the prescription drug benefit Bush added to Medicare. It carries a projected price tag of nearly $700 billion over ten years and serves as a powerful reminder of how big – untenably big, many experts say – our entitlement programs have grown.

None of that spending was cooked into the federal budget when Bush took office eight years ago, leaving a budgetary hole almost too deep to comprehend. It will tie the hands of President McCain or President Obama in ways neither candidate has reckoned with yet on the campaign trail.

“It’s really a federal fiscal catastrophe in coming years,” says Chris Edwards of the Cato Institute, a libertarian-oriented think tank. “With all this stuff coming up now, it’s massive, big decisions the next president is going to have to make.”

HUD Sending Help to D.C. Area for Foreclosed Properties

2008-09-28T02:50:00.000-07:00

The federal government approved millions of dollars in funding to help Washington-area communities buy and redevelop foreclosure properties, the Washington Post reported

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development officials announced Friday how they will divide $4 billion in community block grants across the country. Of that, almost $3 million will go to the District of Columbia, more than $46 million to Maryland and more than $45 million to Virginia, officials said.

In the D.C. area, Prince George's County, Md., is eligible for the largest amount, with almsot $11 million, HUD said. Prince William County, Va., will have access to $4 million, and Fairfax County, Va., will have $2.8 million. The money may be used to buy foreclosed-on houses at a discount, demolish and renovate them, or help buyers with down payments and closing costs, among other things.

Communities must draft a plan to get the funds, which have to be committed within 18 months.

Deal reached on financial markets bailout

2008-09-28T02:32:00.000-07:00

Congressional leaders and the Bush administration reached a tentative deal early Sunday on a landmark bailout of imperiled financial markets whose collapse could plunge the nation into a deep recession.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced the $700 billion accord just after midnight but said it still has to be put on paper.

"We've still got more to do to finalize it, but I think we're there," said Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, who also participated in the negotiations in the Capitol.

We worked out everything," said Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., the chief Senate Republican in the talks.

Congressional leaders hope to have the House vote on the measure Monday. A Senate vote would come later.

Buying bad debt from banksThe plan calls for the Treasury Department to buy deeply distressed mortgage-backed securities and other bad debts held by banks and other investors. The money should help troubled lenders make new loans and keep credit lines open. The government would later try to sell the discounted loan packages at the best possible price.

At the insistence of House Republicans, some of the program's $700 billion would be devoted to a program that would encourage holders of distressed mortgage-backed securities to keep them and buy government insurance to cover defaults.

The legislation would place "reasonable" limits on severance packages for executives of companies that benefit from the rescue plan, said a senior administration official who was authorized to speak only on background. It would affect fired executives of financial firms, and executives of firms that go bankrupt. Some of the provisions would be retroactive and some prospective, the official said.

The proposed legislation also calls for the financial sector to help make up the difference if the government does not recoup its investment in five years, the official said, but details were unclear.

Also, the government would receive stock warrants in return for the bailout relief, giving taxpayers a chance to share in financial companies' future profits.
Help for homeownersTo help struggling homeowners, the plan would require the government to try renegotiating the bad mortgages it acquires with the aim of lowering borrowers' monthly payments so they can keep their homes.

The measure's main elements were proposed a week ago by the Bush administration, with Paulson heading efforts to push it through the Democratic-controlled Congress. Democrats insisted on greater congressional oversight, more taxpayer protections, help for homeowners facing possible foreclosure, and restrictions on executives' compensation.

To some degree, all those items were added.

At the insistence of House Republicans, who threatened to sidetrack negotiations at midweek, the insurance provision was added as an alternative to having the government buy distressed securities. House Republicans say it will require less taxpayer spending for the bailout.

But the Treasury Department has said the insurance provision would not pump enough money into the financial sector to make credit sufficiently available. The department would decide how to structure the insurance provisions, said Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., one of the negotiators.

Money for the rescue plan would be phased in, he said. The first $350 billion would be available as soon as the president requested it. Congress could try to block later amounts if it believed the program was not working. The president could veto such a move, however, requiring extra large margins in the House and Senate to override.

Despite the changes made during an intense week of negotiations, the heart of the program remains Bush's original idea: To have the government spend billions of dollars to buy mortgage-backed securities whose value has plummeted as hundreds of thousands of Americans have defaulted on their home loans.

'May not have another day'Senate Majority leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Saturday that the goal was to come up with a final agreement before the Asian markets open Sunday night. "Everybody is waiting for this thing to tip a little bit too far," he said, so "we may not have another day."

Franklin Shelter Closes Despite Protests, Emergency Legislation

2008-09-27T05:22:00.000-07:00

Despite some calls to keep it open, the District government closed a downtown homeless shelter Friday.

The Franklin School shelter at 13th and K streets has caused controversy for several years. After D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty said it would close by Oct. 1, the D.C. Council passed emergency legislation to keep it open, but the shelter closed before the emergency legislation could take effect.

Crews began removing hundreds of beds from the building Friday.

Fenty promised the city will provide other sites and services, but protesters said the city is being heartless. Closing Franklin will be better for the men who lived there, Fenty said.

Related :Watch The Report

Dozens of homeless men remaining at the shelter will be placed into more permanent housing, according to the Fenty administration.

Lewis Cannao, who has lived at the shelter for two years, said now he'll live out of his car parked nearby.

About 40 homeless advocates tried to go to Fenty's office Friday but were turned away. They're creating a soup line outside Franklin Friday night.

The city plans to use the Franklin site for development purposes.

DEBATE 1

2008-09-27T04:57:00.000-07:00

While there is now a mad scramble to spin who won or who lost, folks ought to step back and realize we saw one of the better "first" presidential debates in this modern era in quite some time.

Neither candidate was "off," neither candidate was nervous. Both were on message (sometimes painfully so for those of us who have now witnessed our 38th presidential debate of the cycle). In fact, the primary debate practice clearly had them both prepared tonight.

All in all, the questions I have are viewer/voter related:

1) Did a majority of folks see two presidential level candidates on stage? This is an esepcially important question for Obama. I suspect that only the most partisan McCain supporters wouldn't say Obama looked as presidential as McCain. In fact, McCain may have helped the audience come to that conclusion when he attempted to make the case directly that Obama wasn't ready.

2) Did McCain look like someone ready to buck the status quo? It's hard to argue that he wasn't showing himself as someone wanting to shake things up. For every time Obama attempted to link McCain to Bush, the Arizona senator had no qualms going after his own party. In fact, Obama's "John is right" mantras were usually connected to one of McCain's anti-Republican establishment points.

3) Did the viewers get turned off by McCain's sometimes dismissive treatment of Obama or will they start asking themselves the same questions? While this was a very heavy and substantive debate, I do wonder if on style, McCain lost a point or two, and that may explain why he's not staying even in some of these insta-polls.

4) Who will the voters-viewers punish for what seemed like a completely tone deaf conversation between the two candidates on the economy. Neither candidate emphasized jobs and instead allowed themselves to get bogged down on taxes and spending, two issues that don't rank nearly as high with voters as other economic issues. Bottom line on the economy: they both need work.

Still, count me impressed by both candidates. I know it may sound a bit pollyannish, but I thought one would not bring their "A" game or that one would get complacent and that didn't happen. There are some who believe a "draw" is better for the candidate perceived to be ahead. If that's the case, then the polls will continue their Obama drift. But I wouldn't be surprised if the polls don't move much in either direction because neither candidate gave a reason why voters ought to stop listening and make their decision now. There are two more debates and this one was good enough that they may see audiences build on this one.

Up next: the very intriguing and potentially entertaining VP debate.

BEFORE THERE WAS INDIE, THERE WAS REAL MUSIC

2008-09-25T04:31:00.000-07:00

METRO SEEKS MO $$$$$$

2008-09-25T03:39:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON - Metro General Manager John Catoe is giving some sobering news about the health of the transit system.

At a news conference Monday, Catoe said Metro needs more than $11 billion between 2010 and 2020 to maintain and expand the transit system -- as well as keep it safe and reliable.

"If we do not address these needs, service will suffer," Catoe said.

Crumbling platforms, malfunctioning rail cars and worn-out tracks are just part of the problem.

Metro officials say some of the top priorities are new buses and trains to keep pace with growing ridership and infrastructure repairs in order to maintain a safe and reliable system.

Here's the really bad part: Metro has no idea how they will get the funding.

Catoe is hoping the federal government will be willing to kick in more for the transit system.

"Federal employees make up about 40 percent of the rush hour riders on the Metrorail system. While we receive some federal funding, we need more assistance from the federal government," Catoe said.

Metro currently receives about $279 million a year in federal funds. Catoe said he wants that figure to double -- at least.

"There are many if's with this [plan,] but from a funding standpoint, you have to plan forward to the future," Catoe said.

D.C., Maryland and Virginia have all pledged $50 million a year over the next 10 years toward Metro. In Virginia, securing that funding will prove a difficult task, as lawmakers in Richmond have already stalled on a transportation funding package.

A federal bill that would match the $1.5 billion over 10 years from local jurisdictions is also being held up on Capitol Hill.

Metro riders say the 32 year-old transit system is starting to show its age.

"Every week I say to myself, can it be one week in which Metro runs smoothly and without complication?," said one rider recently while standing on the Shady Grove rail station platform -- a platform, which coincidentally, is being held up by 2x4 wooden beams.

Catoe admitted Monday that riders are already seeing the effects of under-funding with the transit system.

"If you board our trains during the peak periods, they are very crowded. Imagine a 6 percent increase in riders on an annual basis every year. We will have to pack them in even tighter," Catoe said. "Other transit agencies have the same situation that we do, and they have responded by taking seats out of their cars. I don't want us to get to that point where there are no seats in Metro cars."

With ridership surging, one of the questions riders often ask is how Metro can be hurting for cash. Fares only pay for the operating cost of Metro; they do not pay for the capital projects like power generators, concrete to replace platforms, and track fasteners to hold rail lines in place.

DC COUCILWOMANS MARY M CHEH’S THEME SONG

2008-09-24T04:55:00.000-07:00

BEFORE THERE WAS INDIE, THERE WAS REAL MUSIC

2008-09-24T04:22:00.000-07:00

BEFORE THERE WAS INDIE, THERE WAS REAL MUSIC

2008-09-24T03:08:00.000-07:00

A NIGHT OUT WITH MAYOR FENTY

2008-09-24T02:58:00.000-07:00

Smithsonian board elects new chairwoman

2008-09-24T02:34:00.000-07:00

The Smithsonian Institution Board of Regents elected former Microsoft executive Patty Stonesifer on Monday as the next chairwoman of the board overseeing the world's largest museum and research complex.

Stonesifer recently stepped down as chief executive of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the world's largest charitable foundation, and has served on the Smithsonian board since 2001. She will replace Washington businessman Roger Sant in January to lead the 17-member board.

Stonesifer said the Smithsonian's work to promote "unrivaled access, knowledge and culture" ties in with the education initiatives she led at the Gates Foundation.

"It is this idea of taking what I see to be the treasures of the institution and the treasures of the people's knowledge and passion and getting it out to the rest of the country," she said. "There's just so much here, but you shouldn't have to get on a JetBlue flight to come and experience it."

Stonesifer, who has homes in Washington and Seattle, told The Associated Press in 2006 that she couldn't imagine a better opportunity than leading the Gates Foundation, which puts most of its money into global health, development and U.S. education. In the past decade, the foundation has given away more than $16 billion.

She has said her accomplishments in the business world couldn't compare to the way she feels about saving people's lives.

"I hope to die with my employee badge in my purse," she said in 2006. She stepped down as CEO of the Gates Foundation earlier this month but will stay on as senior adviser. Stonesifer also serves on the boards of Amazon.com, the Seattle Foundation and DATA/ONE, which focuses on reducing global poverty.

Palin continues to dodge media horde

2008-09-24T02:20:00.000-07:00

NEW YORK — For better or for worse, each of the four candidates comprising the Democratic and Republican tickets made headlines Tuesday. But one of them, Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, did so without uttering a word to the voters or the press.

While presidential nominees John McCain and Barack Obama each held press conferences where they addressed the Treasury Department’s $700 billion rescue plan for the financial markets, and Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Biden continued to make news with his awkward remarks, Palin continued to sidestep the media to an almost unprecedented degree for a national campaign.

Perhaps as a result, Palin’s meetings with foreign leaders Tuesday were nearly marred by stories chronicling her campaign’s brief standoff with reporters over access to her pre-meeting photo ops.

Palin, who has not held a single press conference since McCain announced her as the Republican vice presidential candidate, in the past week has held only one rally on her own, and has ditched her print press contingent to make an ice cream run with her family andto pose for staged photos with foreign leaders.

The shielding-Sarah-Palin strategy — which otherwise allows for lots of photographs and information about her attractive, young family, combined with occasional rallies — has worked well so far for the Alaska governor. She continues to energize the Republican base and draw considerable press attention despite never actually taking reporters'nettlesome questions. But there are increasing signs that the effectiveness of the unusual gambit may be waning.

After dominating the political headlines each week since McCain added her to the GOP ticket, Palin fell behind http://www.journalism.org/node/12900 both McCain and Obama in the percentage of campaign news stories between September 15 and 21 in which she was a significant or the dominant factor, according to the Project for Excellence in Journalism.

The economic meltdown likely had something to do with that. But the policy of keeping Palin under wraps may have also played a role. If nothing else, it has fed an unflattering, emerging positing that her unwillingness to face tough questions is because she is not quite ready for prime-time.

In the latest example of the extreme efforts to keep the press at bay, the campaign Tuesday sought to bar a Wall Street Journal reporter and a CNN producer from the small “pool” of journalists allowed to cover the grip-and-grin photo ops before Palin went into closed-door meetings with foreign dignitaries and international policy experts and advocates.

The reporter and producer were to have represented all the print reporters and television producers, respectively, that followed Palin’s campaign. Their written summaries of the so-called “pool sprays” – events where journalists can snap photos and film footage and possibly shout a question or two — would be fed to other journalists following Palin.

The campaign’s original reasoning in barring the journalists had been that Palin wasn’t going to take questions or make any statements at the sprays, so the sprays were only appropriate for photographers and cameramen.

The campaign eventually reversed its decision to limit the pool, but only after CNN threatened to withhold its camera crew from filming the pool sprays.

Later, the campaign only slightly offset negative coverage of the imbroglio by sending reporters an email promising “a little color for background use from today.” The details – that Palin’s husband Todd took their three youngest children to snap pictures of the Statue of Liberty, to Ground Zero and to F.A.O. Schwartz, where their 7-year old daughter Piper “enjoyed trying on some princess dresses” – were featured far less prominently in most news reports story than the standoff with reporters and descriptions of her thin foreign policy credentials.

The McCain campaign believes Palin has been treated unfairly by the press, but it denies it’s shielding her. Aides assert that her popularity on the campaign trail makes that a better forum for her.

Rick Davis, a top campaign aide, in a Monday conference call, pointed to a Sunday afternoon Palin rally in central Florida that drew the largest crowd showall of any single Republican event this cycle. Crowd size was estimated from 23,000 to a harder-to-believe 60,000.

“If anybody ever asks us to make a choice between seeing 60,000 people at a rally on the I-4 corridor in Florida or spending an hour with a reporter,” Davis said, “I don’t imagine we’d have many questions about what we’d rather do.”

After the Florida event, Palin left behind the print reporter “pooler” designated to follow her – but not the pool camera crew – as she, Todd and their three youngest children sped off in their motorcade to a Cold Stone Creamery ice cream parlor.

Footage captured the Palins being greeted by cheering supporters and mingling with customers without the uncomfortable presence of reporters shouting questions at Palin. The campaign later sent them an email detailing the flavors of ice cream each ordered.

“Piper had Oreo Overload. Willow (14) had Birthday Cake Mix (sic). Todd had chocolate with peanut butter. Gov. Palin also had Birthday Cake Mix (sic).”

The flavors did not appear in many accounts of the Palins trip to Florida.

BEFORE THERE WAS INDIE, THERE WAS REAL MUSIC

2008-09-23T04:26:00.000-07:00

DUMB

2008-09-23T00:38:00.000-07:00

THE NUT BRA

2008-09-21T12:30:00.000-07:00

MELTDOWN

2008-09-21T03:46:00.000-07:00

Race may cost Obama

2008-09-20T10:31:00.000-07:00

In a report sure to spark a national conversation on race, an AP-Yahoo News study reported Saturday morning that white prejudice could be a significant enough factor to sunder Barack Obama’s bid to be the first black president of the United States.

The AP-Yahoo study concluded that about two and one-half percent of white Democrats “may turn away from Obama because of his race,” roughly the margin of George W. Bush’s victory over John F. Kerry in 2004.

The AP-Yahoo study found that one-third of white Democrats cited a negative adjective when describing blacks and, of those, just 58 percent said they planned to back Obama. For example, AP reported that more than a quarter of white Democrats agreed that “if blacks would only try harder, they could be just as well off as whites.” Four in ten white independents agreed, while a quarter described blacks as "violent."

Notably, Hillary Clinton’s white Democratic supporters were almost twice as likely as Obama’s primary supporters to cite a negative adjective in describing blacks—a finding consistent with trends in earlier polling.

The report may now begin a conversation on race, one notably absent considering the historic nature of Obama’s bid—and his own call for such a conversation in a speech delivered after racially charged remarks from his longtime pastor Jermiah Wright emerged during the primary season. Just last month Obama accepted the Democratic nomination on the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech.

Throughout the 2008 presidential race, pollsters have been struggling to accurately ping the degree of prejudice among whites and how that may affect the final outcome of this election. Democratic primary exit polls suggested that racism was a factor in the vote of as many as a fifth of white party members.

Analysts have long presumed that racism was underreported, as some who factor race into their vote would not be willing to admit that prejudice to pollsters.

AP’s study, which tries to find these closet racists, as it were, by comparing more loosely associated racial attitudes to...

But any possible latent racial prejudice in white Democrats has been of particular interest to analysts since it could potentially undo Obama’s presidential bid. The AP study found racism pervades political identity but that Republicans are already predisposed to support John McCain, no matter their views on race.

To suss out unreported racial biases, the study, among other metrics, sat those interviewed in front of monitors, using black and white faces to “measure implicit racial attitudes, or prejudices that are so deeply rooted that people may not realize they have them.” The survey then used statistical modeling to estimate the how indicative those interviewed were indicative of the electorate overall.

Among other findings, the report found that only 59 percent of Clinton’s white Democratic supporters wanted Obama to be president.

The survey though is likely to be controversial in its conclusions. AP reported that its team of pollsters “set out to determine why Obama is locked in a close race with McCain even as the political landscape seems to favor Democrats.”

The study, and report, both ignore other weaknesses widely considered by seasoned analysts to also undercut Obama’s bid, among them his inexperience, generally liberal record and the fact that no northern Democrat has been elected president since 1960.

Still, analysts have also long agreed that race was a crucial unknown factor in this presidential race. The study also notes that race has helped Obama win near uniform support among blacks—who have long tilted overwhelmingly Democratic—though it does not consider whether some whites are also supporting Obama because they may presume his victory could symbolize a large step forward in race relations.

Will Bush become the new Hoover?

2008-09-19T19:53:00.000-07:00

President Bush has long assumed the outcome of the Iraq war would define his legacy. But the catastrophic collapse of the housing bubble on his watch provides a new, perhaps more ominous, threat to how his stewardship will be ranked in history.

In a matter of weeks, an investment banking industry that survived the Civil War and the Great Depression virtually vanished from the scene, weighed down by faulty mortgages and other debts.

The Federal Reserve Board’s role in the economy has been transformed in ways even economists say they can’t yet fully appreciate, save for one: The government now has a dramatically bigger presence in the private market.

And the U.S. taxpayers are now likely to be put on the hook for hundreds of billions of dollars of faulty mortgages and already have become part-owners of a giant insurance house scheduled to be carved up and sold by the next administration.

“Bush runs a real danger of going down as a Herbert Hoover in this scenario,” said Beverly Gage, a presidential historian at Yale University. “He could be seen as the man held responsible for what is happening who stood by and didn’t forge a clear direction at a moment when a clear direction is what was needed.”

Certainly, no president can control the course of history while in office. Hoover was elected in a boom economy in 1928 that went bust a year later.

But it’s those very moments of calamity and uncertainty that offer presidents an opportunity to show their true mettle.

Thus far, Bush has not received high marks for his management of the housing crisis, particularly since it appears that his Treasury secretary has been running the show for the last three weeks.

It’s a sharp contrast to 2001, when Bush’s gravitas rose with his vigorous leadership after the Sept. 11 attacks in New York and Washington.

Among the most striking successes of his administration then was enabling the New York Stock Exchange to reopen in less than a week and send a signal that capitalism hadn’t been beaten.
Bush used that fresh influx of political capital to launch the Iraq war even as U.S. troops were still hunting Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan. But mismanagement, mistakes and the misinformation about the need to go to war sapped the administration of credibility.

That has left the White House to argue that historians must wait for the long-term look at post-war Iraq to truly assess the wisdom of his foreign policy and presidency.

Now, Bush’s domestic policy will go under a microscope as well. And, unlike in the foreign policy sphere, he was fully in control of his economic policies.

The sum of both is likely to be linked, says Gregory Hess, an economic expert at Claremont McKenna College.

Treasury’s choice in recent days of which institutions to save and which to usher into bankruptcy showed a pattern: Those organizations with the widest international impact were saved.

Why? Because the U.S. must rely on those foreign entities “to continue to finance the U.S. deficit,” which was run up to record levels in large measure because of the costs of the war in Iraq, said Hess.
Bob Bruner, business school dean at the University of Virginia, said the war deficits may also have reduced the number of options the government had to respond to the crisis.

“Perhaps under other circumstances, government would have been more inclined toward a tough love attitude” rather than a series of bailouts, said Bruner. “But, they couldn’t chance it.’

In perhaps a cruel twist of fate, the Dow Jones on Monday experienced its biggest decline since the day the New York Stock Exchange reopened after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

There are other ties between White House economic policy and the financial crisis.
One of the Bush administration’s signature goals has been promoting an “ownership society.” To achieve that end, the administration promoted a series of programs designed to encourage consumers to buy homes, stocks and other goods that would convert them into free market advocates. The one-time plan to privatize Social Security benefits fit into that portfolio.

With the Fed holding down interest rates after the terrorist attacks, the housing market took off and investors became increasingly creative — and reckless — in finding ways to cash in on the boom.
In 2005, subprime mortgages represented about 4 percentof the mortgage market. A year later, they accounted for 26 percent of the market, said Robert Shapiro, a former Clinton economic adviser.

“They knew the implications of this, the Fed and the Treasury,” said Shapiro. “They saw what was happening to these securities.”

Bush officials dispute that, arguing that the fast-moving transactions on Wall Street were difficult to assess since they were obtuse.

But the failure of the Bush administration to recognize the potential systemic risks in the rising home values and frantic selling seasons carries some ironies.

Bush took office from President Bill Clinton as the technology bubble was collapsing. Now, he will depart amid the wreckage of the housing bubble.

This calamity is more politically damaging than the tech bust was to Clinton because “this one hits much closer to the bone because it affects peoples’ use of net wealth,” said Hess.

“We had a lot of new homeownership. Now we have a lot of un-homeownership. It makes it that much more personal and that much more biting than the Clinton challenge,” he added.

The frantic effort by Treasury in recent weeks and months to contain the damage and stabilize the markets, has led to, as Bush said, “extraordinary” acts by the government.

It will take some time to sort out all of the ramifications of those acts, but it is clear that the next president will take over an economy transformed and changed in fundamental ways by Bush and his advisers.
The mortgage industry is likely to see new laws telling it how it can and cannot conduct business, a move that will insert government into the heart of the private market.

Financial institutions are certain to face a much tougher regulatory environment, which will mean higher business costs and bigger government — a striking result from an administration that came to power preaching the virtues of the free market and bent on diminishing the muscle of government regulators.
The distinctions between commercial and investment banks will end. That’s clear already as Merrill Lynch is absorbed by Bank of America and Morgan Stanley continues talks with Wachovia.

Barring congressional action, the Treasury secretary has gained enormous new powers, including the ability to essentially take over a private firm with only the slightest notice to the White House and Congress.

Economists will pour over those and other changes to assess the impact of the Bush presidency on the free market. Historians will look at the practical implications of the crisis, too, but they will also examine the leadership exhibited by president.

In the head-spinning succession of frightening headlines, the administration’s most public figures became Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.

On Thursday, Bush made an unusual public appearance to offer brief remarks on the situation. The American people “are concerned” about the situation, he said. “And I share their concerns.”
But his comments seemed more notable for the assurance he chose not to give: that everything was going to be OK.

Bush made a second foray before the television lights on Friday, offering a more definitive and hopeful response.

He urged Congress to pass laws necessary for his administration to execute an enormous bailout of the financial industry.

It is one that will put the taxpayers on the hook for billions of dollars in home loans and other debt. It will also rid the New York financial houses of the rot and risk that their own investors seemed eager to accept not so long ago.

In the end, the taxpayer may come out ahead, as mortgages are reworked, home prices improve, and banks reopen their lending operations.

But, like the final outcome of the Iraq war, that won’t be evident by the time Bush leaves office and not, perhaps, for years to come.

In that sense, says historian Gage, Bush’s management of the war and the economic may ultimately be linked “in spirit, with each showing a certain recklessness, a lack of caution, and a rejection of the cautionary voices both within the administration and outside of it.”

5 reasons why McCain has pulled ahead

2008-09-16T04:04:00.000-07:00

John McCain’s surge in the polls comes even as Barack Obama has inherited the most favorable Democratic environment since the Watergate era — an unpopular Republican president, an unpopular war and a flagging economy.

Suddenly, though, Democrats have found themselves in a world turned upside down, where Republicans have the momentum from running on change — and the latest wunderkind of presidential politics.

Below are five trends showing up in polling that help explain the change.

1. McCain as a 'change agent'

Eight in 10 Americans say they believe the country is on the wrong track. Obama has built his campaign on the perception that he is both the personification of change and the man to enact it.

Even though McCain has spent decades in Washington and a member of his party is in the White House, recent polling shows that he has managed to successfully portray himself as a change agent and erode Obama’s brand in the process.

The Democratic firm Democracy Corps found that the public prefers Obama to bring “the right kind of change” as president by a 50 to 44 percent — down from his 16-point edge in mid-August.

This week’s ABC News/Washington Post poll asked “who can bring about needed change to Washington.” The public favored Obama by 12 points — down from 32 points in June.

CBS News polling this week found that 46 percent of voters believe McCain can change Washington — up from 28 percent in July.

The Obama campaign has taken notice. His stump speech now rips McCain as a phony reformer, and yesterday he launched a TV ad campaign and website highlighting McCain’s ties to lobbyists.

2. The center shifts: Independents move to McCain

Independent voters, and particularly white independent men, have leaned Republican in presidential races since 1980. But before the Republican convention, Gallup polling showed just 40 percent of independent Post-convention, that rose to 52 percent — and the increase in support was slightly greater among men than among women, which appears to undercut the idea that Sarah Palin has benefited the ticket by drawing women to it.

Before the Democratic convention, white women favored McCain by 7 points. After it, they favored him by 6. Following the Republican convention, McCain was winning white women by 11 points — a 4-point gain.s favoring McCain.

Before the Democratic convention, white men favored McCain by 20 points. After it, that margin shrunk to 13 points. Following Denver, white men favored McCain by 25 points — a 5-point gain.

A recent CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll found that 62 percent of men have a favorable view of Palin, while just 53 percent of women view her favorably.

Though no Democrat has won a majority of white voters since Lyndon Johnson in 1964, Obama cannot win unless he pulls back some of these white independent voters.

3. The economic gap narrows

James Carville, who coined the catchphrase “the economy, stupid” in 1992 while working as a strategist for Bill Clinton, frets that Obama is losing his ownership of the issue that has become voters’ foremost concern in recent months.

“I noticed the tightening on the economy,” Carville said. “And if it stays that way, I would be damn worried.”

When Democracy Corps asked voters last week which candidate would “do a better job” with the economy,” Obama had a 50 to 44 percent advantage—down from a 16-point edge in mid August.

Gallup this week shows a 3-point edge for Obama on the question of which candidate “can better handle the economy”—down from 16 points in August.

A recent internal Republican poll found that 30 percent of likely voters shop at Wal-Mart at least once a week. Obama retained a slim 45-42 edge with Wal-Mart women—but 64 percent of men in the group favored McCain against just 29 percent who preferred Obama.

4. Palin narrows the enthusiasm gap

The Republican base, once disenchanted, has returned with a vengeance since McCain’s surprise pick of the first-term Alaska governor as his running mate.

This week’s CBS News poll found that 53 percent of Obama voters said they were “enthusiastic” about Obama, up 5 points since before his party’s convention, and still better than the 42 percent of McCain supports who feel the same way. McCain’s support, though, is up 18 points since selecting Palin.

The NBC-Wall Street Journal poll found that only 12 percent of McCain’s supporters were “excited to be voting” for him in early August. This week 34 percent said they were excited — nearly a threefold increase.

Palin has played no small part in this GOP awakening. CBS found that fully 85 percent of McCain backers were “pleased” with the selection of Palin, compared to 65 percent of Obama supporters who said the same about his running mate, Delaware Sen. Joe Biden.

And among independents, 46 percent have a favorable view of Palin while only 31 percent say the same of Biden.

While Democrats have continued to hit at Palin’s inexperience, only 36 percent of likely voters believe Palin lacks the proper experience while 47 percent said the same of Obama.

5. Democrats voter ID edge dulls

Democrats have been relying on their newfound advantage in party identification all year. Party ID remains the best single indicator of voter support.

Republicans began losing voters prior to the 2006 midterm elections that gave Democrats a functional majority in the Senate. But those voters straying from the fold were mostly becoming independents, not Democrats.

Democratic voter enrollment began to grow in 2007, even as the drop in Republican enrollment leveled off. Now, though, the dynamic appears to have shifted.

The week before the Republican convention, just 39 percent of voters said they leaned toward or identified themselves as Republicans. Following the convention, that number rose dramatically to 47 percent. Meanwhile the percentage of voters leaning toward or identifying themselves as Democrats dropped from 53 to 47 percent. Gallup notes that party ID shifts are not unusual after a convention.

Gallup also reports that the double-digit Democratic lead among voters who are asked which party they’d generically prefer to control Congress has disappeared and that the two parties are now effectively tied.

DC Council to Vote on Easing Firearms Limits

2008-09-15T22:02:00.000-07:00

The D.C. City Council is expected to vote Tuesday on legislation that would further ease the city's firearms restrictions.

The change come as officials try to comply with the Supreme Court, which struck down Washington's 32-year-old handgun ban in June.

The D.C. CityCouncil passed emergency legislation in July to address the court's ruling, but critics accuse the city of not going far enough.

Under an amendment that will be introduced Tuesday, the city would eliminate a provision that bans most semiautomatic firearms. But the amendment would also prohibit any magazine capable of firing more than 10 rounds of ammunition.

The city also would end a requirement that weapons be stored unloaded and either disassembled or secured with trigger locks. Instead, residents would face prosecution if a child got hold of a loaded weapon.

The D.C. Council is still working on permanent gun legislation and two hearings are planned for the coming weeks.

SUEDEHEAD

2008-09-13T12:51:00.000-07:00

OBAMA PLANS TO MAKE GOVERNMENT SERVICE COOL AGAIN

2008-09-12T03:04:00.001-07:00

Barack Obama addressed the wide distaste for government -- and the fact that he and John McCain.

McCain are running against Washington -- at the forum on national service at Columbia University.

"Our campaign from the beginning has been about changing government," he said, recalling some great accomplishments of American government: Civil rights legislation, the interstate highway system, and the National Park system.

Obama would, he said, "transform Washington" and "make government cool again."

Obama also had some praise for small-town mayors -- like, two years ago, Sarah Palin -- who, he said have "some of the toughest jobs in the country. We yak [in the Senate] but they...fill potholes and trim trees and make sure the garbage" is picked up.

9-1-1 REMMEMBERED

2008-09-11T12:38:00.000-07:00

A MESSAGE FOR MAYOR ADRIAN FENTY FROM SEVERAL OF HIS GAY LOVERS

2008-09-10T12:05:00.000-07:00

According to some of Mayor Fenty's gay lovers he does not perform too well in bed and they have one complaint and that is what the song below is trying to convey.

GETTING HAMMERED ON THE SUBWAY

2008-09-10T11:24:00.000-07:00

Police have arrested a man suspected of brutally attacking a dozing subway passenger with a hammer while other riders did nothing to stop the assault, the city's police commissioner said Wednesday.

The suspect, taken into custody in a mental institution late Tuesday, has a lengthy record of rape and other convictions, Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey said on NBC's "Today."

The victim was treated and released from a hospital.

Ramsey criticized other riders for standing by when the assailant entered the train with his 5-year-old son, directed the boy to a seat, calmly pulled a hammer from a backpack and attacked a man dozing in a nearby seat.

At least 10 other riders were in the car when the attack occurred last week, yet no one interfered as the man repeatedly struck the victim in the train car and later out on a platform, Ramsey said on "Today."

"They better pray they're never a victim, because if someone was attacking them that way they would certainly hope someone would step forward and help, and it starts with stepping forward and doing something yourself," Ramsey said.

'Long history'

Police had asked the public to help identify the attacker and released surveillance video showing the early Sept. 4 attack that was played repeatedly on Philadelphia television stations.

Police said the man was apprehended after family members called police. Ramsey did not identify the man or say whether he had been charged yet, but said he had a lengthy record.

"He has a long criminal history including rape, robbery, assault, narcotics violations," Ramsey said.

The suspect apparently had tried to hurt himself with the hammer following the attack on the subway. Family members said they were not initially aware of the attack, but had the suspect committed to the mental institution where he was taken into custody.

The victim, 20-year-old Dewayne Taylor, made his own way to a hospital and was treated for head and neck injuries. Taylor, who has been released from the hospital, said Tuesday he has no idea who the attacker is or why he was targeted.

CAN OBAMA WIN WITHOUT CLINTON ON THE TICKET

2008-09-10T02:16:00.000-07:00

Republican Rep. Candice S. Miller says Barack Obama had only one shot at Palin-proofing the Democratic ticket — and he missed it when he passed over Hillary Rodham Clinton as his running mate.

“Every woman in America knows what Barack Obama did to Hillary Clinton: He looked at her and thought, ‘There’s no way I’m doing that,’” said Miller. “If Hillary was on the ticket, he’d be in a much better position to win women voters.”

Sarah Palin’s presence — coupled with Clinton’s absence — may be altering one of the great verities of American politics: that women voters overwhelmingly favor Democrats.

A Washington Post-ABC News poll released this week showed white women swinging hard against the Democratic ticket. Obama left Denver with an 8-point lead among white women; by the time John McCain pulled out of St. Paul, Minn., with Palin at his side, he had taken a 12-point lead.

Former Clinton strategist and pollster Mark Penn on Tuesday said that it’s too soon to know where women will wind up in November, and he declined to engage in any “woulda, coulda, shoulda” speculation about how things might be different if Clinton were on the Democratic ticket.

SCHWARTZ DEFEATED BY MARA

2008-09-09T21:32:00.000-07:00

Incumbent Carol Schwartz has been defeated by newcomer Patrick Mara.

It was about time for Schwartz to go with her crooked ass self.

HOW FAR WE'VE COME

2008-09-09T17:41:00.000-07:00

MCAIN TAKES THE LEAD IN RECENT POLLS

2008-09-09T09:52:00.000-07:00

POOR RESULTS

2008-09-09T09:41:00.000-07:00

It is estimated that the turn out rate for the 2008 DC primary may be as low as 20%.

Stay tuned for primary results.

ELECTING THE STATUS QUO

2008-09-08T13:13:00.000-07:00

No matter who you vote for tomorrow in DC, nothing is going to change and you'll just be maintaing status quo.

The foregoing is a sad state of affairs but reality.

2008 PRIMARY ELECTION

2008-09-08T12:52:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is primary day for us to chose who we want to represet us on the party basis in November.

Don't forget to get out and vote.

A USE OF VIOLENCE

2008-09-08T00:57:00.000-07:00

While we disagree with people who live a homosexual life style we also disagree with people who disagree with such and use violence to show their disagreement as reported of recently in the Washington Blade Newspaper.

ENCORE PRESENTATION OF THE MAYOR ADRIAN MCGREEVY FENTY THEME SONG

2008-09-07T10:36:00.000-07:00

In honor of our hateful gay mayor and his lover Ron Alston over at the DC Office of Clean City Initiative.

THIS SHOULD HAPPEN TO MAYOR ADRIAN MCGREEVY FENTY

2008-09-07T10:07:00.000-07:00

After DC Mayor Adrian McGreevy Fenty agreed to the termination of empolyment of a blind woman Jeanette Gerrard, after 30 plus years on the job, he showed all of us how much of a cold hearted faggot he is and the video below despicts what we would like to see happen to him.

SEXUAL DC

2008-09-07T04:55:00.000-07:00

Somewhere in the Chevy Chase DC area there is the group of nudists who meet often for sex parties, wife swapping and more.

You can often see ads on Craig's List for this group. This is not the only group in DC area that meets for sexual counters of varying degrees.

KOBE BRYANT AT THE OLYMPICS

2008-09-06T20:47:00.000-07:00

One of the NBA's top players Kobe Bryant helped the USA obtain the Gold Medal at that 2008 Olympics. We at the Corrupt Ones have an exclusive picture of Bryant entering China and going through customs compliments of his body guard who is related to our blogger Jonathan Rees.

AND THE BEAT GOES ON

2008-09-06T13:05:00.000-07:00

We are down to two months before election day and all candidates are hitting the stump. Is this really the most important election since the 1980's as many think or just hype?

THE LOONEY LEFT WINGERS OF DC

2008-09-06T03:45:00.000-07:00

DC is filled with too many Looney left wingers who are so brain washed, can’t think for themselves and if told that eating a plate of dog shit is politically correct, they would do it!

Michael Moore is symbolic of the brainwashed Looney left as people buy his words and do not question its truthfulness or accuracy.

Whatever happened to thinking for yourself?

OBAMA vs. PALIN

2008-09-06T03:26:00.000-07:00

It seems that Barack Obama has lost out to Sarah Palin in the news but rightfully so as Obama is being seen for what he really is; namely all mouth and no substance and his ideas have been tired before and failed.

Palin is a fresh face with fresh ideas.

WHIMPY WHITE PEOPLE OF DC

2008-09-06T03:04:00.000-07:00

Why is it that most White people in DC come across as whimps like NBC TV 4's Tom Sherwood, DC Councilman Tommy Wells or Mike DeBonis of the Washington City Paper.

The worst of the bunch are White men who are afraid of their women.

Why so many spineless people?

GOD WARNED US ABOUT HOMOSEXUALS LIKE MAYOR ADRIAN MCGREEVY FENTY

2008-09-05T18:05:00.000-07:00

So God let them go ahead and do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other's bodies. Instead of believing what they knew was the truth about God; they deliberately chose to believe lies. So they worshiped the things God made but not the Creator himself, who is to be praised forever. Amen. That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other. And the men, instead of having normal sexual relationships with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men and, as a result, suffered within themselves the penalty they so richly deserved. When they refused to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their evil minds and let them do things that should never be done. Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, fighting, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They are forever inventing new ways of sinning and are disobedient to their parents. They refuse to understand, break their promises, and are heartless and unforgiving. They are fully aware of God's death penalty for those who do these things, yet they go right ahead and do them anyway. And, worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too. (Romans 1:24-32)

DC'S FAGGOT MAYOR FIRES A BLIND WOMAN

2008-09-05T16:52:00.000-07:00

Recently DC Mayor Adrian McGreevy Fenty fired from her job a blind woman, Jeanette Gerrard who worked with the DC Dept. of Health and had 35 years of tenure without just cause.

This is how the evil homosexuals are and treat others!

ANOTHER FLAMMING FAGGOT

2008-09-05T13:56:00.000-07:00

There is no disputing the fact that DC City Council Chairman Vincent Gray is another flaming faggot as there will be proof to this coming soon.

JOE BIDEN - A RED NECK

2008-09-05T04:02:00.000-07:00

VP candidate Joe Biden is seen in Delaware as a red neck as he is often caught telling ethnic jokes that are very insulting to minorities.

Is this the kind of man we want as our Vice President

BEFORE THERE WAS INDIE, THERE WAS REAL MUSIC

2008-09-04T22:28:00.000-07:00

MCCAIN VOWS TO GET BACK TO BASIC

2008-09-04T21:31:00.000-07:00

John McCain vows to get back to basics in government and away from the goverment trying to run our lives.

His message is about the same as that of Obama's; change in Washington.

COMING TO A THEATRE NEAR YOU - THE ADRIAN FENTY STORY

2008-09-04T12:06:00.002-07:00

DEAR CHIEF LANIER

2008-09-04T10:23:00.000-07:00

Dear Chief Lanier,

If John Q. Public parked his car where these MPD vehicles are, he would get a $100. 00 ticket.

So why can your "Officers" break the law or is it that you are going to look the other way like you did when Mayor Fenty 3 times beat the shit out of his wife.

Sincerely,
Mayor Fenty's Gay Lover

DC MAYOR - A SCREAMING FAGGOT

2008-09-04T06:28:00.000-07:00

There can be no greater proof that Mayor Adrian McGreevy Fenty is a flaming faggot than the fact that he likes to hang around others like him or cruise the gay clubs under darkness of night where he picks up men who will agree to fuck him in the ass to get a job with DC government like he gave Ron Alston. Alston likes to give people his private cell number 202-340-8551 because he claims to have a big dick, has had sex with Fenty and can help set up a date with Fenty.

Hopefully Congress will take note of this when Fenty and his legion of homos ask for a vote in Congress.

NBC 4 TV’s TOM SHERWOOD IS A RACIST & CROOKED NEWS REPORTER

2008-09-04T03:40:00.000-07:00

NBC 4 TV’s Tom Sherwood is an uneducated southern racist who got his start on TV by his attacking Marion Barry with a highly dishonest book called Dream City which is nothing but a pack of lies and refects Sherwood's racist attitude. (Sherwood did not write the book but Harry Jaffee did as an uneducated Sherwood only has a high school diploma)

Sherwood is hated in the African American community of DC, is a lair, dishonest and he a was paid off or intimidated not to do a story about Mayor Adrian Fenty for beating on his wife after several arrets when he was council member according to 4 DC police officers who arrested Fenty when Sherwood investigated the matter and stated he was going to do a story about it based upon what the officers told us.

Besides being racist, easily bought off, Sherwood is a lazy bastard, would not know a good story if it’s slapped him in the face and all of his TV reports are scripted for him but what can you expect from an uneducated southern redneck.

VIEW OF AMERICA

2008-09-04T02:41:00.000-07:00

VP candidate Sarah Palin gave a superb speech last night at the Republican National Convention and took time to point out her traditional family and the joys of such, while setting up the ground work to preserve the integrity of the traditional family from the threat of those who want to pervert such; E.g. Homosexuals and Feminists.

OBAMA ANOTHER LIAR LIKE ADRIAN FENTY

2008-09-03T18:01:00.000-07:00

GAYWATCH

2008-09-03T17:09:00.000-07:00

JUST SAY NO TO THE HOMOS

2008-09-03T15:52:00.000-07:00

We at the Corrupt Ones blog believe that the only candidate for president who will do his best to stop the immoral and unnatural attacks upon America and its family values from the homosexuals is John McCain and that is why we support him, and support no vote in Congress for the homosexual government of DC.

We also believe that McCain will do a better job of protecting us from our enemies.

DC COUNCIL CHAIRMAN VINCENT GRAY ANOTHER SENATOR JOHN EDWARDS PART 2

2008-09-03T06:06:00.000-07:00

In the early 1990's when Vincent Gray was the director of the DC Department of Human Services, his wife Loretta Goodson Gray suspected that he was cheating on her so she hired a private investigator out of Maryland to find out why he was staying in his office until 2 am in the morning at the DCHS where that investigator paid off the janitorial service to gain access to the building late at night where evidence was uncovered that VG was hooking up with with gay men and the proof was given to Mrs. Gray at a coffee shop on Capitol Hill known as Roasters on the Hill.

Several years passed by and Mrs. Gray sought the help of this same investigator to establish again that her husband VG was bi-sexual and cheating on her. The results were the same.

In 1997, Mrs. Gray retained a different investigator to establish that her husband VG was having extra-marital sex with men and the results were a more extensive finding of pictures and more while she was battling lung cancer.

One of our bloggers was on the team of three investigators who went after Vincent Gray in 1997 and he has retained the pictures and agency report which will be released publicly if Vincent Gray tries to run for Mayor of the District of Columbia and this is payback for his disrespecting his wife and for all the broken promises of District jobs he made to people who have helped him in his political career.

Vincent Gray has not once denied the allegations and we challenge him to sue us so we can present the facts and evidence before a court of law that can affirm the truthfulness in what we say!

MAYOR ADRIAN MCGREEVY FENTY LOVES TO READ

2008-09-02T23:59:00.000-07:00

Mayor Adrian McGreevy Fenty is an ardent reader and we would bet that the book that gives him greatest inspiration in all that he does and lives for is seen herein.

Fenty is just one more drug addicted, mentally disturbed vicious homosexual Satan has unleashed upon the earth and let the way he has treated others on record speak for itself and make our case as he is no different than Jeffrey Dahmer or John Wayne Gacy except in his choice of how he wants to hurt others.

THE CULTURE WARS

2008-09-02T22:57:00.000-07:00

The culture wars are making a sudden and unexpected encore in American politics, turning more ferocious virtually by the hour as activists on both sides of the ideological divide react to the addition of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to the Republican ticket. The campaign of Democrat Barack Obama put up an ad in at least seven key states Tuesday lambasting GOP nominee-to-be John McCain as an enemy of abortion rights.

Most people who support abortion rights also support rights for homosexuals which deeply shows their level of immorality and perverted value system.

Over 2,000,000 women each year abort their unborn in the USA as an alternative form of birth control and not because carrying the baby to full term would endanger the mother and child. Thus opponents of abortion have a valid argument to stem the grounds under which an abortion should be allowed just like the pro choice people have a right to ask if you knew that your child would be born deformed shouldn't you have a right to stop a potential suffering. Under this logic, Mayor Fenty's mother should have aborted him because of his serious mental defect.

TOM SHERWOOD….MR. CHICKEN SHIT

2008-09-02T10:44:00.000-07:00

Whether you are talking to an ANC commissioner, community activist or viewer, NBC 4 NEWS political reporter Tom Sherwood as earned justifiably the name Mr. Chicken Shit because of his cowardliness to report the truth, can easily be bought off not to report things and fear of taking on the political establishment but what can you expect from an uneducated southern red neck

Why anybody would waste their time listening to Sherwood when you can never be sure if he is telling the truth or if he has been paid off to sugar coat his reports is incomprehensible!

ARMCHAIR QUARTERBACKS OF POLITICS

2008-09-02T07:43:00.000-07:00

The District of Columbia has a lot of armchair quarterbacks in politics.

These are the worthless people who say they are concerned about good government, family and more, but never do more than talk and who you cannot rely on to stand up for what is right and normally vote for the same people again and again they have complained about.

HAPPY LABOR DAY

2008-09-01T15:17:00.000-07:00

Happy Labor Day except for some DC government workers who have been the victim of the most anti-labor mayor and administration in the history of DC.

This is best explained by Gary Imhoff who is the editor and publisher of DC Watch and in Gary's own words:

Dear Laborers:

It’s a tough Labor Day in DC, with not much for union people, especially those who work for the DC government, to celebrate. Last week at the Democratic National Convention, the Metropolitan Washington Council of the AFL-CIO distributed a flyer listing some of the anti-worker and anti union actions taken by Mayor Fenty.

On August 28, Councilmember Phil Mendelson pointed out another, quite serious anti union action by the mayor. The mayor has unilaterally defunded the Office of Labor Management Partnership, even though it is fully funded for next year in the FY2009 budget passed by the city council and signed by the mayor. Mendelson explained to Mayor Fenty why this is important: “It is hard to believe that you would allow — or encourage — the demise of the labor-management partnership process. Established in 1997-98 with the encouragement of the Control Board and the US Department of Labor, the LMPC concept has always been considered cutting edge best practice. under Mayor William’s the District had one of the best, if not the best, LMPC programs in the country. The LMPC program improves labor-management relations outside the collective bargaining process, and it improves service delivery within the agencies. The annual awards ceremony was proof of this success. This government cannot succeed if its leaders are at war with its workers. I am sure that you agree that the working men and women in District government are vital partners as we strive to be a world-class city. Disbanding the OLMPC, and the labor management partnership councils, is in congruent with this goal. Quite simply, alienating those workers on whom we rely is a serious mistake.”

The mayor’s war against unions and government workers, especially his actions to strip teachers of their job protections, have their defenders.This week Steven Pearlstein, normally an insightful columnist, wrote “A Watershed Labor Negotiation,” in which he cheered on Fenty’s efforts to cripple DC government worker unions: “It would trigger a national debate on why public employees continue to enjoy what amounts to ironclad job security without accountability while the taxpayers who fund their salaries have long since been forced to accept the realities of a performance-based global economy.” Pearlstein ignores the history of the good government reform movement, which ended the political spoils system that subjected governmental workers to the ills of political favoritism. In fact, he longs for the return of that system: “Sure, there will be times when teachers will be treated in an arbitrary and capricious way if they give up their tenure rights. Guess what: it happens all the time in the private sector, where hiring, promotion and pay decisions are sometimes made with incomplete information, favoritism, or undue emphasis on one factor or another. But despite this imperfection, despite the numerous instances of unfairness and poor judgment, somehow the vast majority of Americans manage to find a job, move up the ladder and enjoy their work, and companies manage to operate successfully and turn a profit.” This attitude is unworthy of Pearlstein, who understands the strengths and weaknesses of capitalism much better that this. The fact is that the most successful companies treat their workers fairly and evenhandedly, and consider them partners. Workers who feel they have reasonable job security and the support of the companies they work for simply work better. Government workers who are subjected to the arbitrary and capricious decisions of a parade of political appointees are unlikely to be devoted to their jobs. Instead of hoping that government employees share the fate of those private sector workers who are employed by companies with the worst labor practices, Pearlstein would do better to hope that more workers in the private sector gain more protections from the kind of stupid management decisions illustrated daily in Dilbert.

George Santayana said, “He who does not remember the past is condemned to repeat it.” Does anyone remember Santayana anymore for anything other than that quotation? Does anyone read him? I suspect not and, if so, it’s a shame; he was a graceful writer at a time when philosophers still wrote readable books, intended as literature for the general public. In any case, those who forget why the spoils system of government employment was replaced by the merit system, those who forget why unions gained power to balance the excesses of corporate mismanagement, are not just condemned to repeat history, they will be condemned by history.

Gary Imhoff

WE STAND CORRECTED

2008-09-01T14:09:00.000-07:00

If you were as ugly as Barrett Brick you would have no choice in life but to be a Fag.

President Barrett L. Brick is the Gay, Lesbian Activist Alliance’s immediate past Secretary. He previously served as GLAA’s Treasurer from 1996 through 1999. He has also been a member of the Board of the Capital Area Log Cabin Club (1995-1998), as well as of the Washington DC Jewish Study Center (1994-1998). Barrett leads services at and is also a former President of Washington's Congregation Bet Mishpachah (1984-1985), after having served on the congregation’s Board from 1980 to 1984, and also is the former Executive Director of the World Congress of Gay and Lesbian Jewish Organizations (1987-1993). He is a recipient of GLAA’s Distinguished Service Award (2000), Bet Mishpachah’s Harvey Milk Cheesed Award (2002), and has been honored as a Community Pioneer by the Rainbow History Project (2007).

Brick is also one of the most hateful, crying, little bitches you have ever met and he stalks his perceived enemies.

IT IS HARD TO BE A REAL MAN IN DC GOVERNMENT

2008-09-01T10:40:00.001-07:00

DC City Councilman Kwame Brown (at large) may be one of the few real men in recent times to sit on the DC City Council and during his tenure, he has made a good name for himself although we don't always agree with all that he does.

We believe Kwame Brown is mayoral material.

IN SEARCH OF THE NEW LIEUTENANT ROY BLICK

2008-08-31T21:33:00.000-07:00

Lieutenant Roy Blick, the head of the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police Department’s vice squad, in the 1950. oversaw the arrest of hundreds of gay men and lesbians.

In March 1950 he told a congressional committee that Washington was home to five thousand homosexuals and estimated that three-quarters of them worked for the federal government and unless they were removed and chased out of DC, they would bring untold immorality, corruption and more to the Nation’s Capitol. Lieutenant Roy Blick was absolutely correct as time would tell.

In 2008, Washington is the home to 150 thousand overt and convert homosexuals with most of them now running the local Government of the District of Columbia together with a legion of drug addicts and ex-convicts where they have turned the District of Columbia into the new Homosexual Capital of the United States, imposing their immoral ways upon the other 500 thousand residents by attacking members of the clergy, intimidating those who oppose them, threatening to expose the sexual orientation of local leaders unless they get what they want and thus embarrassing the United States before the eyes of the world.

The Nation's Capitol needs a new Lieutenant Roy Blick to remove this scourge and restore moral decency.

A REQUIREMENT OF ALL DC SCHOOL CHILDREN

2008-08-31T13:50:00.000-07:00

Here is a film that all students in the DC Public Schools should be shown so that they do not wind up like DC Mayor Adrian McGreevy Fenty!

DC COUNCIL CHAIRMAN VINCENT GRAY ANOTHER SENATOR JOHN EDWARDS

2008-08-31T06:04:00.000-07:00

As all of America knows, Senator John Edwards cheated on his wife while she was battling cancer and so did DC City Council Chairman Vincent Gray.

Back in 1997, the now DC City Council Chairman Vincent Gray who was married to Loretta Goodson Gray was believed to be having an extra-martial affair by his wife while battling lung cancer and ultimately died from it.

Loretta Goodson Gray hired a few investigators after meeting them at the Bread & Chocolate restaurant on Capitol Hill including one of our bloggers who was asked to help her expose Vincent Gray by following him especially in the evening hours to see who he was hooking up with, to take pictures of who he was meeting with and they did along with submitting a report confirming an extra-marital affair.

Those pictures are coming in Part 2 of this report along with the investigator's report.

COUNCILWOMAN MARY. M. CHEH, ANOTHER CLOSETED LESBIAN

2008-08-31T02:37:00.000-07:00

It is said that you are often judge by the company you keep and a picture tells a thousand words.

D.C. City Councilwoman Mary M. Cheh is the most masculine looking woman the DC City Council has ever had and that is intentional as she is not a real woman (hint, hint) and although she is married, if you had ever met her husband, he is the most whipped man alive and probably can't wait for Mary to bring out the strap-on.

Let the picture above of DC Councilwoman Mary M. Cheh (Right side) speak for itself!

A FIGHT FOR TRADITIONAL VALUES

2008-08-31T02:14:00.000-07:00

The upcoming presidential election is shaping up to be one which seeks to change the way things are done in Washington, DC and secondary, an election that centers around family values and this may be why John McCain chose a running mate who is a mother of five, a wife with traditional family values, opposes abortion and opposes gay rights in a way to portray the Democrats as the party of wrong as far as it concerns the family with its pro choice stance and coddling feminists and homosexuals while turning its back in white males and blue collar Americans.

Traditional family values will probably be the theme taken up by the candidates shortly and may be the theme that decides our next president.

GAY RIGHTS - A PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION ISSUE

2008-08-30T02:17:00.000-07:00

Both Barack Obama and John McCain agree that gay rights may soon be an issue again in this presidential election year.

The weekend of the 2008 Capitol Pride celebration in Washington, DC awards were being given out to some members of the LGBT community.

This award; Capital Pride Heroes 2008 has been given to a handful including Bob Summersgill which was major mistake.

Summersgill’s claim to fame has been fighting over the years the anti sodomy laws which were used as a justification to arrest gay men for being gay.

Summersgill was at one time the President of the Gay, Lesbian Activist Alliance.

The problem with Summersgill is, Summersgill in the past was posting naked pictures of himself on the internet at online clubs for under-aged boys [Googled Snap Shot For Evidence] which prompted several groups and us to call Summersgill a Pedophile and Summersgill moving quickly to remove those naked pictures from these online gay message boards.

Summersgill out of anger for being exposed for what he did began attacking all including us .

Despite what others may think of Summersgill, it does not diminish what he did and the fact that he is a bad choice for any award that the LGBT community wishes to bestow on people for their contributions and it destroys all trust for people of the LBGT community.

Pedophilia has seen about 400,000 gay men placed on the US Department of Justice's sexual offenders list

Gay rights need to be made again an issue between McCain and Obama and it probably will be as this learned and chosen behavior should not be legitimized or people who chose such a life be granted any further protections.

DC CONGRESSWOMAN HOLMES-NORTON MOUTH PIECE OF THE GAY LOBBY

2008-08-30T00:34:00.000-07:00

There is no denying that DC Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton is bisexual and has had sexual relations with notable Donna Brazile.

Donna Brazile served as Chief of Staff and Press Secretary to Congressional Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton of the District of Columbia, where she helped guide the District's budget and local legislation on Capitol Hill.

People who have worked in DC Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton’s office have said that the relationship between Norton and Brazile was more than one of a professional nature.

When Norton and Brazile attended the 1996 Democratic Convention at the United Center in Chicago they slept in the same hotel room although Brazile already had a room arranged and paid for, and these two humiliated and angered teenage girls attending the convention by asking them to wear a highly masculine attire which these young ladies refused to do.

As we have said many times, DC Vote which is pushing for voting rights for the District of Columbia in Congress is a homosexual organization with one goal to achieve and that is, the right for homosexuals to marry and DC Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton is the number one mouth piece on Capitol Hill.

Read ► Holmes-Norton & The Homosexual Agenda

MCCAIN STEALS SPOTLIGHT FROM OBAMA

2008-08-30T00:03:00.000-07:00

With the picking of Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate, Sen. John McCain has stolen the national media spotlight from Sen. Barack Obama and it may be hard for him to get it back.

The public reaction to the pick of Palin is mixed but most agree it will help McCain with Independents and unhappy Democrats especially women since Obama spit in the face of Hillary Clinton as a running mate.

A MESSAGE TO MAYOR ADRIAN MCGREEVY FENTY

2008-08-29T15:30:00.000-07:00

As more and more people in DC are turning on Mayor Adrian McGreevy Fenty, we would like to see him and all the other Homos on the DC City Council go as they have ruined DC with their corrupt, greedy, and immoral ways as it is time to restore respect for the laws of God, the natural order and more and send Fenty and all of his homo friends packing.

THE TICKET FOR AMERICA

2008-08-29T14:43:00.000-07:00

Senator John McCain's pick of Gov. Sarah Palin may prove to have been a very smart move getting one up on Senator Barack Obama by painting Obama as a male chauvinist, a candidate who snubbed women and it will be very appealing to all women no matter what side of the isle they are on.

WILL JOHN MCCAIN MAKE HISTORY

2008-08-29T07:13:00.001-07:00

Senator John McCain has picked Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska as his running mate

Picking Palin would be designed to appeal to women especially those who are still angry over Hillary Clinton not getting it and it would shake up this race in a big way.

This is a smart move by McCain!

BEFORE THERE WAS INDIE, THERE WAS REAL MUSIC

2008-08-29T04:41:00.000-07:00

ALIENS FROM THE TWILIGHT ZONE

2008-08-29T04:28:00.000-07:00

BEFORE THERE WAS INDIE, THERE WAS REAL MUSIC

2008-08-29T04:20:00.000-07:00

FENTY MISSES ROLL CALL AT THE DNC CONVENTION

2008-08-29T03:41:00.000-07:00

It has been reported D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty missed the roll call at the Democratic National Convention.

Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton stepped in and subbed for the mayor, giving a few impromptu remarks.

Fenty showed up at least 10 minutes after D.C. cast its 33 votes for Barack Obama and six votes for Hillary Clinton.

Fenty, when he did arrive, told Norton she did a great job.

D.C. Democratic Party Chair Anita Bonds says roll call went faster than expected, which could explain Fenty's lateness.

What explains Fenty's lateness is his drug abuse and the need to snort a load in his hotel room before hitting the convention floor.

BARACK OBAMA’ ACCEPANCE SPEECH

2008-08-29T02:30:00.000-07:00

Of all the speeches we have heard Barack Obama make, his acceptance speech of the Democratic Party’s nomination of him to be their candidate was extremely corny and the worse case of not being original.

JOHN MCCAIN CONGRATULATES BARACK OBAMA

2008-08-28T18:10:00.000-07:00

APPLICATION FOR CHIEF OF THE DC POLICE DEPARTMENT

2008-08-28T16:05:00.000-07:00

►Must be high school drop-out
►Must be willing to send mixed signals about your sexual interests
►Must obtain GED even if your "husband" does not want you to
►Must be willing to provide oral presentations in lieu of skill sets
►Must have gotten pregnant before 16 years of age
►Must have consumed Marijuana as a teenager
►Must be Single White Female previously on Welfare
►Must be willing to sleep with your subordinates
►Must be willing to overlook law violators
►Must be willing to "HUG" everyone
►Must be willing to have stolen services from CSX as a teenager
►Must be willing to have consumed alcohol underage
►Must be offended when men say your "butt looks like a black woman"
►Must have been anorexic as a teenager
►Must be willing to OD on PhenPhen after it is made illegal in USA
►Must be willing to prostitute yourself for the cause
►MUST HAVE NO PERSONAL BOUNDARIES
►Must be from Trailer Park USA and DAMNED Proud of it...
►Must be willing to hire publicists to promote your deficits
►MUST FALSIFY your application and FULLY expect to get away with it
►Must be willing to ignore the law when it pertains to your boss
►Must be willing to rehire criminals...

HOW TO GET A JOB FROM MAYOR FENTY

2008-08-27T19:27:00.000-07:00

Although he had little or no education like Veronica Washington, he had something Mayor Adrian McGreevy Fenty wanted and that was according to others; a big Schlong and all Ronald Austin had to do was to agree to make Fenty's day complete by packing it in his back seat and he would get a job with DC government at the Clean City Initiative office in exchange.

Ronald Austin has admitted to others that he was one of many of Fenty's gay lovers.

How may people who agreed to have sex with Fenty got a job with DC government?

PASSING THE TORCH

2008-08-27T18:54:00.000-07:00

While the Democratic Party has officially made Barack Obama their presidential candidate, John McCain has choose his running mate but won't say who it is until Friday.

We suspect it will be former Gov. Mitt Romey.

AFL-CIO WAGES WAR ON MAYOR ADRIAN MCGREEVY FENTY

2008-08-27T12:10:00.000-07:00

The AFL-CIO in order to embarrass DC Mayor Adrian McGreevy Fenty has been distributing anti-Fenty literature at the Democratic National Convention.

We believe based upon pictures and face to face confrontations with Fenty that he has some kind of Sexually Transmitted Disease stemming from his covert homosexual life style which has effected his rational thought processes and has turned him into a political Jack The Ripper, but the pictures below show how much his STD has progressed as he looks like Tom Hanks' character in the movie Philadelphia.

ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON MAKES A JACKASS OF HERSELF

2008-08-27T03:55:00.000-07:00

Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton at the Democratic National Convention gave a speech to a 2/3rds empty Pepsi Stadium in Denver on the need for District voting rights in Congress.

This poor turn out was because nobody outside of DC thinks DC should get a vote in Congress, know the push for voting rights is being promoted by the homosexual community to get Congress off its back so it can pass a same sex marriage law and nobody wants to turn the nation’s capitol into a world wide embarrassment by allowing it to become a safe haven for the ungodly.

Read ► Just Say No To A Vote In Congress For DC

HILLARY CLINTON ON BARACK OBAMA

2008-08-26T20:28:00.000-07:00

By the looks of the speech Hillary Clinton made to shore up her supporters for Barack Obama, many felt it came up short and may have little or no impact upon whom Clinton's supporters will vote for in November.

Sadly, many observers did not feel Clinton was convincing enough or sincere in her demeanor.

ENTER MITT ROMNEY

2008-08-26T16:47:00.000-07:00

Most political spin doctors agree that Gov. Mitt Romney will be John McCain's VP running mate and who can go toe to toe with Joe Biden.

Romney is smart, an eloquent speaker and knows his stuff and that troubles Democrats.

DOES JOHN MCCAIN HAVE AN ANGER MANAGEMENT PROBLEM

2008-08-26T16:17:00.000-07:00

There are some who will argue that John McCain has an anger management problem and this might make him unfit to be the President of the United States.

The Democrats intend to make this an issue during the campaign for the White House.

HERE'S JOHNNY

2008-08-26T10:07:00.000-07:00

Senator John McCain and his friends don't miss a beat in this presidental contests as they are quick to jump on Barack Obama even when he farts as his TV ads are on the money, swift and certain.

Soon America will learn who McCain will pick as his running mate but one thing is for sure and that is, the Rupublican Party is not splintered this time round as the Democratic Party is and that may benefit McCain come November.

WILL THE CLINTONS BRING UNITY TO THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY

2008-08-26T09:55:00.000-07:00

Many are wondering if Bill and Hillary Clinton will help bring unity to the fractured Democratic Party in their speeches at the 2008 Democratic Party Convention.

Some spin doctors feel they will and others feel it will be superficial.

Yet most spin doctors agree that about 27% - 35% of the Clinton supporters will still protest Obama at the polls by either voting for McCain, writing in a candidate or staying home.

More than likely, if Obama loses in November, it will be the doing of the Clinton supporters.

WHEN IS AMERICA GOING TO SAY --- ENOUGH

2008-08-26T06:18:00.000-07:00

When America is confronted with elected leaders like Gov. James McGreevy of New Jersey who was having an extra martial affair with a man; Gov. Elliot Spitzer of New York who was having an extra martial affair with a prostitute; Sen. John Edwards who was having an extra marital affair while his wife was battling cancer and DC Mayor Adrian Fenty who is having an extra marital affair with a long list of men and then we add that to all the other elected officials doing the same --- when is America going to say enough?
We at the corrupt ones have good cause to attack these elected leaders and those who stand up for their bad behavior and so should the rest of America!

THE DREAM LIVES ON FOR EVERYONE EXCEPT MARY JO KOPOECHE

2008-08-26T01:35:00.000-07:00

Ted Kennedy gave an eloquent speech last night at the Democratic National Convention speaking of passing the torch to the next generation of Americans and he ended his speech with the words “The Dream Lives On” but not the dreams of Mary Jo Kopechne who Ted Kennedy killed in a car accident while under the influence of alcohol.

The Kennedys have brought into the lives of Americans a lot of joy and a lot of tragedy.

Let’s stop elevating onto a pedestal people like Ted Kennedy who is nothing like his brothers and accept the fact he killed a woman and got away with it and now expects us to respect him!

WHY DID OBAMA LAUNCH HIS CAMPAIGN IN THE HOME OF A CONVICTED TERRORIST

2008-08-26T00:27:00.000-07:00

The information in the following video is 100% true, Barack Obama is trying to get the US Department of Justice to block the airing of this ad against him on TV but Obama has a bad habit of not choosing his friends wisely!

WE NEED A CHANGE FROM THESE JOKERS TO BELIEVE IN

2008-08-25T23:38:00.000-07:00

Mayor Adrian Fenty, Michelle Rhee and others from DC are now at the Democratic National Convention and they are joining in on the chorus for the need for change.

On the opening day of the Democratic National Convention, we heard speeches from Caroline Kennedy, Ted Kennedy, Michelle Obama and while it all sounded nice, these people speak of change just like our local leaders are doing, but aren’t these the same people who have been in government for years on the federal, state and local levels and did not bring change but more of the status-quo, who are millionaires, who live in a house you nor I could ever afford, have their kids in the best schools, never have to worry about paying bills, who commit crimes and use their clout to have it all swept under the rug? Yes these are the same con artists who created the problems they now want to change!

Fenty and Rhee want to change you for somebody else with all their union busting activities, interpose their will on all without feedback from voters and treat you like little children in a Father Knows Best setting.

Let's not be fooled by all the sweet talk as we are listening to the HAVES, we are still the HAVE NOTS and can’t tell who the worse oppressors are; the far left or the far right!

WHO IS BUTT SLAMMING DC MAYOR FENTY TONIGHT IN DENVER

2008-08-25T17:48:00.000-07:00

Today, DC Mayor Adrian McGreevy Fenty is attending the Democratic National Convention in Denver without his wife of convenience but he won’t be without affections as he has flown in to Denver, Vivek Kundra Chief Technology Officer, District of Columbia Government who is considered his favorite butt slammer.

Mayor Fenty has only appointed gay or bisexual men to head up his various agencies and specifically men who he has slept with as that is the way of DC.

ELECT PHIL PANNELL TO THE US SENATE

2008-08-25T17:15:00.000-07:00

With DC having a gay mayor, 10 of its 13 city council members being either gay, lesbian or bisexual, why not add the frosting to this fruit cake by electing Phil Pannell as our shadow U.S. Senator?

ATTACKS ON BARACK OBAMA INCREASES

2008-08-25T06:22:00.000-07:00

While Hillary Clinton has officially thrown her support behind Barack Obama, many spin doctors do not believe it and that of Clinton supporters plan on disrupting the Democratic Party Convention and on November 4 vote for McCain, write in Clinton or stay home

Will Clinton’s supporters break the Democratic Party in half to sabotage Obama?

HAVE YOU EVER HAD THIS THOUGHT

2008-08-25T02:35:00.000-07:00

How often do you find yourself driving down the road to go somewhere and in front of you are a bunch of bicyclists taking up the whole lane making it impossible for you to get anywhere?

Have you ever dreamt of doing what you see in the picture above?

Ah, you know you have!

THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY IS SPLINTERED BIG TIME

2008-08-25T01:36:00.000-07:00

The tensions between the Obama and Clinton camps and their supporters has never gone ways and only made worse by the way Obama has treated the Clintons which threatens to divide the Democratic Party come November.

Many political spins doctors on both sides of the Isle feel that Obama has severely hurt his chances of winning in November and it is his own doing.