Alright, let’s do this.

I’ve been holding off on covering the most recent embarassment to Washington D.C. government by the Honorable-my-ass former mayor, current Ward 8 council member Marion “Bitch set me up” Barry until everything was on the table.

Barry’s mouthpiece attorney just finished his presser moments ago so it looks like the time is here.

Before we start delving into this pile of monkey turds, let me give a major hat tip to Mike Debonis at The City Paper who worked his ass off all weekend to pull information out about this story.  It’s rare I compliment anybody, but he did some kick ass work.

To be quite honest, I don’t have the stamina to chronicle this trash-TV epic relationship gone wrong.  So let me just hit the highlights:

• Barry and the woman, Donna Watts-Brighthaupt, have dated for roughly 6 months
• Trouble started last Tuesday when several councilmembers hosted a Wilson Building screening of CNN’s Black in America documentary. She attended with her ex-husband, Delonta Brighthaupt, and their children. But Barry, when he learned less than an hour beforehand that Brighthaupt would be in attendance, drafted a memo asking that he be banned from the building. He was kicked out of the event. According to Watts-Brighthaupt, “It was embarrassing.”
• Saturday Barry and Watts-Brighthaupt were headed to Rehoboth Beach, Del. to attend a party when Watts-Brighthaupt decided she didn’t want to go with Barry because a reconciliation wasn’t going to happen
• U.S. Park Service Police said they arrested Barry  about 8:45 p.m. in Anacostia Park after a woman flagged down an officer to report that a man in a nearby vehicle was “bothering her,” police said. After interviewing Barry and Watts-Brighthaupt, Barry was charged with one count of “misdemeanor stalking,” said Sgt. David Schlosser, a Park Police spokesman.
• Watts-Brighthaupt denies flagging down the officer and accusing Barry of stalking her

Whew!  As I said, this nothing more than a steaming pile of monkey turds.

The one thing that still stands out in all of this to me is yet another opportunity for Marion Barry to play the victim.

He got set up smoking crack by the FBI. He got set up by the United States Park Police in 2002 after they “planted” weed and coke in his car.  He got set up again by them because he was driving suspiciously slow in 2006.  He has been “targeted and set up” by the IRS for not filing taxes and the list goes on and on.

The only constant with Barry is that nothing is EVER his fault.  He never has to say, “I’m sorry.  I made a mistake.  I will do better.”  He is ALWAYS the victim.

And yet, the citizens of Ward 8 still elect him.  He still gets his 2 cents in on every issue pertaining to the future of D.C.

Sometimes there just aren’t the words to describe how effed up a situation can be.  This is one of those.

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.

If you have been following along here, you know that I have been railing (no pun intended) about WMATA insisting on keeping the 1000 series cars in service even after the NTSB told them of the crash dangers.

Today, I finally got the answer that Jim Graham and others don’t want to address.

Tax Shelters Slowed D.C. Metro Upgrade

Washington transit authorities failed to upgrade aging rail cars in part because of tax-shelter deals, triggering charges days after a fatal train crash that financial concerns were outweighing passenger safety.

The National Transportation Safety Board recommended in 2006 that the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority either accelerate retirement of some of its oldest rail cars or rehabilitate them. The authority responded in 2007 that it was “constrained by tax advantage leases, which require that WMATA keep the 1000 Series cars in service at least until the end of 2014.”

If the agency had wanted to break the leases, said Chief Financial Officer Carol Kissal, it would likely have had to pay penalties and fees on top of the cost of buying newer rail cars.

Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa in a letter to Maryland congressman Steny Hoyer nailed this entire situation on the head:

“It would seem … that WMATA disregarded risks to passenger safety in order to fulfill a contract entered into as an accommodation party to a tax shelter,” Mr. Grassley wrote. “By entering into tax-shelter contracts, the WMATA appears to have allowed banks — rather than experts on passenger safety — to dictate what kind of trains Metro riders use.”

Amen, senator.

This is why Jim Graham has vehemently defended the use of the 1000 series cars and this is the reason those cars have been put in the middle of the trains rather than thrown on the scrap heep.

The financial bottom line is to be protected at all costs.  Protecting the Metro rider’s life is a much smaller percentage of the equation.

Money is indeed the root of all evil.

Hat-tip: Washington City Paper City Desk Blog