City Paper City Desk Blog posts a few reader submitted photos of D.C. Summer Youth Employment Program interns taking what the submitter says is a weed smoke break.

Source: Washington City Paper City Desk

Source: Washington City Paper City Desk

The submitter explains:

‘Took some photos yesterday of 6 kids from the Mayor’s Conservation Corps rolling [a] joint and smoking pot….I did call the police but they didn’t show up before the kids finished up. You can see a lighter and smoke in the photos. You can tell what he’s smoking from how he’s holding it. I could smell it…(don’t ask me how I know what it smells like).’

Real?  Who knows.  The reader could smell it, but we can’t so that is out as proof.  As for how they are holding it, they’re kids.  I wouldn’t expect them to have a perfected cigarette hold such as I do.

It wouldn’t surprise me if this was real.  Afterall, there is a track record of stranger things happening with these program kids.

In my feed reader this morning:

Maybe it’s time to drop this whole “edition” thing, guys.  I am just as guilty as you are because even I have gone to that well a time or two.  It’s clever and all, but nobody ever got hurt trying to be a little more original.

Don’t Hold Your Breath

WTOP reports that Tim Kaine will talk to President Obama about D.C. voting rights…sort of…maybe.

“I would be very willing to talk to the president about the issue of District voting rights, which I support and I think the president does, too,” Kaine said on WTOP’s Ask the Governor Program.

Kaine says he has not brought the subject up with Obama since the election.

“I have not talked to him directly about it, but I’ve heard his statements about this issue.”

“I don’t get infinite time with the president, so I’ve got to pick my moments and pick my issues. I would rather talk to him about the status of voting rights in the District than the license plate. That is more important than the license plate and I’m glad to talk to him about that.”

Kaine was asked if he would ask the president to change the license plate as a symbolic gesture of support.

“I haven’t and I probably won’t,” Kaine said.

So let’s see,  Kaine is “willing” to talk to Obama about it, but then offers the excuse he doesn’t “get infinite time with the president”

By God, I think that might be the perfect political answer non-answer I have seen in a long time.

Like I said, don’t hold your breath.

Say Gee Whiz

Michael Neibauer of the Examiner reports that D.C. gas stations are one step closer to a requirement to have video cameras monitoring the pumps.

The council on Tuesday gave preliminary unanimous approval to a bill requiring that retail service station operators install video surveillance within six months to monitor all pumps.

The measure also mandates the posting of signs at each pump reminding customers that the premises are under surveillance, and warning them to remove their keys from the vehicle and to lock their doors. And it requires the Metropolitan Police Department to produce a public service announcement “warning consumers of the potential dangers at retail service stations,” to be run on Channel 16.

Alexander, of Ward 7, first introduced the legislation in October 2007, about three months after her purse was stolen from her Range Rover while it was parked at a Southeast gas station. At the time, she described gas station crime as a “great threat” to public safety.

You know if I am ever the victim of a serious crime (again!), I sure hope someone has a camera or two nearby to protect me.  I mean come on, everybody knows stores with security cameras are never robbed or shot up.

Here’s a thought, Yvette: JUST BECAUSE YOU ARE A DUMBASS DOESN’T MEAN THE REST OF US ARE!

I’m thinking of walking down K Street with my laptop and just leaving it on the sidewalk while I grab some coffee and a muffin for about 45 minutes and IT BETTER STILL BE THERE WHEN I GET BACK !  Jesus.

Oh Really?

Headline from ABC 7 Reads: Confidence Restored for Metro Riders One Week After Crash

When you actually read the story, these 2 sentences about sum it up:

With the sensors that have been tested working and most of the old Metro cars moved off the ends of the trains, some are still questioning if that is enough.

In the middle of Tuesday night’s rush hour on the red line, at least one person who was directly involved in last week’s crash says he’s confident in the system.

“Some” are still questioning the safety, but we found one dude who is cool with it so the headline is: Confidence Restored for Metro Riders One Week After Crash.

How about: Confidence Restored for One Metro Rider After Crash

You Know What We Need? More Tourists

The Washington Business Journal tells of the council approving even more money for 1,167 room Marriott Marquis across from the Walter E. Washington Convention Center.

The council voted unanimously to commit $272 million in public money to the project, an increase of $85 million over a subsidy package the city previously passed.

That’s quite a bit of coin.  Why do we need to put up so much money for this again?

Tourism officials say the long-stalled $537 million hotel is critical to the city’s ability to attract major conventions.

Well, you have a point there.  I mean who the hell wants to have their convention in the EFFING NATION’S CAPITAL!

But that’s not all. Neibauer from the Examiner points out in his take:

Mayor Adrian Fenty briefly floated the idea of full public financing, citing the bad economy and the developers’ inability to attract private money. But the sides ultimately found investors willing to back the project.

So when nobody else wants to pony up the money for the deal, our veiny-headed mayor wants to go balls deep in it with taxpayer cash.

Nice.  Very nice.

According to The Washington Post more than 500 people gathered yesterday to mourn the loss of Maj. Gen. David F. Wherley Jr. and his wife Ann in last Monday’s Metro crash.  The room was packed with politicians as well according to City Paper’s Loose Lips Daily including Eleanor Holmes Norton, Phil Mendelson, Tommy Wells, Harry Thomas Jr., Mary Cheh, and Bill Hall.

But where pray tell was Mayor Fenty?

In every single news report on the memorial service there isn’t a single quote or mention of the mayor in attendence.

I get the feeling our beloved mayor is more than happy to take front row center when the national media is watching, but decidely less than excited when it comes to low key events.

P.S. The mayor has no public events scheduled for today.  Road trip?

“In politics, strangely enough, the best way to play your cards is to lay them face upwards on the table.”

H.G. Wells

I’m not a big fan of conspiracy theories.  Most of them are total crap. But when a politician is dragged reluctantly into preserving records for future scrutiny by concerned citizens, the press, and of course political enemies then you have to at least be concerned.

Case in point: Fenty administration routinely destroyed government e-mails

In late 2007, Mayor Adrian Fenty tried to give himself the authority to destroy electronic records every eight weeks. After hearing months of outrage from government watchdog groups and facing emergency legislation that would have forbidden the practice, Fenty announced that he was withdrawing the proposal early last year.

But the administration was destroying the records every two months until at least May 2008, Office of the Chief Technology Officer program officer Robert Mancini said in a recent affidavit obtained by The Examiner.

“Because there is no retention schedule for e-mails for the District of Columbia government and because of cost and storage considerations, it was the general practice of OCTO to retain backup tapes [of e-mails] for [a] period of 8 weeks, after which the tapes were recycled and copied over,” Mancini wrote in the June 15 affidavit.

Did you catch that political B.S.?  “because of cost and storage considerations” we got rid of the stuff after 8 weeks.

Are we really to believe that the city government actually took into consideration cost?  This from the same government who has routinely screwed program budget after program budget by spending without concern for costs.

The Examiner continues:

After The Examiner began asking questions about his affidavit, Mancini issued a statement, which he said he hoped would clear up the “confusion [that] has ensued relative to the e-mail data backup practices” of his agency. The practice of routinely erasing e-mail tapes, he said, ended in May 2008.

That’s good timing: The following month, the D.C. Council passed a law forbidding the government to destroy e-mails until Fenty came up with some kind of preservation policy. The law gave Fenty 60 days to draw up the rules. He still hasn’t submitted the rules.

So the council gave the mayor 60 days to come up with a policy and now a full year later the policy hasn’t been submitted.

It’s pretty simple, Mr. Mayor.  If you have nothing to hide then let the people know how those documents are being preserved.  Otherwise the people have no choice than to believe you don’t want them seeing what you are really up to.

Perception is reality–especially in politics.

On this morning’s “Connecting with the Mayor”, the question arose about the incorrect body count Fenty stated at a Tuesday presser.

You can almost hear the skin smacking from whoever is responsible for advising the mayor how to act in a crisis situation as they facepalm themselves over and over.

Here’s a little tip, Adrian:  Now is NOT the time to be an arrogant asshole who can’t admit mistakes.  You’re trying to play a role (that clearly is foreign to you) of the decision making leader.  What that brain in that veiny bald head of yours fails to grasp is that the best leaders have a great sense of humility.

A classy, humble, and true leader would have said something more like this:

“There was a miscommunication between myself and those conducting the investigation.  We are all striving to provide the press and the public with the most timely and accurate information possible.  However, from time to time in a complex situation such as this, communication lines can get crossed and inaccurate information was relayed to the public and for that I apologize.”

Case closed.  You never have to answer the question again and you come out of it not really admitting fault for anything as well as appearing classy and humble.

Much to learn you still have, my young padawan.

“We do have an independent train system … [but] let’s not try and disperse the blame. Let’s put it on the decision makers and the leaders,”

Fenty said that while replacing or retrofitting the cars “to make them more crash resistant” would have been expensive, “lives are more important than finances.”

Mayor Fenty on “Good Morning America”

Congratulations Mr. Mayor! You said the right thing.  Now do something about it.

“Taken together, experts say these facts point to several possible scenarios: The operator activated the brakes too late; the computers that are supposed to stop a train from getting too close to another train faltered; the train’s brakes failed; or some combination of those. Some passengers on the striking train have said that they never felt the train slow down.”

WaPo reporters Lena H. Sun and Lyndsey Layton

Translation:  Nobody knows what the eff happened yet.  Thanks for nothing, ladies.  Call me back when you have something factual to report.

“I truly believe Metro is a safe system”

Metro General Manager John B. Catoe Jr

Try telling that to the 9 people who are dead because of the politcal rangling and general incompetence of Metro, Mr. Catoe.  Or better yet, tell that to their families.

“[Metro is] aggressively seeking to replace the 1000-series rail cars.”

Metro Board Chairman Jim Graham on Tuesday

Too little too late, Jimbo.  Perhaps our definition of “aggressive” is different. If by “aggressive” you mean sitting on your ass in no particular hurry, I think I see the problem.

“To keep our customers informed we issued seven press releases [Monday] and one [Tuesday], which went out to more than 2,400 subscribers. The releases were also posted to the Web site, which was viewed yesterday more than 1 million times.”

Metro spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein

Try to follow my drift here, Lisa.  It’s not the amount of notices that were the problem.  It’s the wording of those notices.  You and/or your office screwed the pooch.  Own it, Candy Pants.  No amount of linguistic foreplay is going to change that.

“…the NTSB can only recommend changes. It can’t force Metro to phase out cars. It’s really up to other folks to implement our recommendations”

NTSB member Debbie Hersman

That pretty much says it all.

I am just now rolling into town as the new kid on the block, but I have a lot to say.

First up will be the Bravo Sierra being thrown about by these D.C. council members and assorted other bureaucrats on the Metro crash.  I’m looking at you, Jim Graham.

I’m ready and they better be.  Stay tuned…