October 24, 2006
Morning Roundup: Don't Fear for the Deer Edition
We're all breathing a huge sigh of relief this morning to find that the two white-tailed deer that were rescued from the Tidal Basin yesterday are doing just fine after having been tranquilized, lassoed, and pulled along the side of a boat to safety. And of course we assume that it wasn't actually the name of U.S. Park Police spokesman Scott Fear that scared the two into jumping into the water. More likely it was the onslaught of down-to-the-wire political advertising and reporting we're all currently faced with as the general election draws ever closer. If it wasn't going to be so cold and windy today, we'd be right there with you, little deer, as an act of protest.
Fenty Fires Strategist Before Election: The Post has the story that Democratic mayoral nominee Adrian Fenty has fired spokesman and strategist Alec Evans just weeks before the general election. Evans, 27, was part of a key group of young advisers who are credited with giving Fenty's campaign that trademark youthful, energetic appearance, and could often be spotted out with the candidate meeting voters. Word has it that Fenty had been displeased that Evans had tried to have more of a social life after the primary was over. Let us be the first to extend an invitation to Evans to be his new drinking partners now that he's finally got um, a lot more free time. Though it sounds like we should let the outgoing Williams staff buy the drinks.
More Singles Than Families: The Examiner is reporting that the recent development boom in D.C. has attracted a lot more single folks than families. In other breaking news, it turns out that younger, single people like to "party" more than older people with families, and that paying $300,000 for a 1 bedroom condo seems "stupid" to couples who have children. Look out for more on this issue from us later in the day.
Briefly Noted: Two children hit by car in Silver Spring, one dead ... Toddler was inside carjacked SUV ... Charter school employee altered memo.
This Day in DCist: We scolded American University for offering embattled outgoing president Ladner a hefty severance and took a closer look at DC United's Freddy Adu.
Photo by aurelgrooves.
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Personally, I find the political ad barrage hilarious! I can't wait for the '08 anti-Hillary ads, I can just see it now: Hillary Clinton, she'll tax your penis!!!
I'm still waiting for my fantasy ad, wherein Michael Steele is mauled to bloody pieces by a passel o' puppies...
Fenty fires Alec Evans for coming into the office hung over once in a while, yet he keeps that cute little hatemonger Sinclair Skinner on as his field coordinator?
Skinner!!
Dumping Alec Evans is proof of Fenty's poor judgement.
DC will survive gov't without Evans, but will it survive with Fenty?
Fenty listens to a cabal of idiotic advisors, each with his own hidden agenda, including racism.
Anyone who has spent more then ten minutes with Fenty realizes that he's dumber than a bag of hammers.
Buyer's remorse. YOU BET!
How can you have buyer's remorse for something you didn't buy, you tool?
What's also not surprising about that Examiner article is its focus on "investment" in the schools. Focusing just on the amount of money spent on schools overlooks several things. Firstly, the District has invested a ton of money on schools, without a lot to show for it. Secondly, parents choose suburban schools as much because of the student body as the school budget. Parents don't want their childrens' education to suffer because the classroom is full of disruptive or remedial students, which whether accurate or not is the perceived state of DCPS classrooms.
How defined are the school districts within DC? Maybe the answer to getting more families to move into DC is to create and market specific school districts as "elite". I think the fear on the part of families considering DC is that even if there are a handful of decent public schools, there's no gaurantee that their children will get into them, or that disruptive students will be kept out. These aren't pretty considerations, but in the tooth and nail fight for families with the suburbs, I think DC needs to start thinking about appealing to the families' self-interests. Even Arlington has created a two-tiered system, which essentially creates an elite high school within an otherwise good high school. It gets awkward because the distinction is often between anglo and hispanic, but nonetheless it has stanched the flow of students leaving for private schools.
Many of you silly Fenty lovers are going to have voter's remorse soon enough. Since most of you probably haven't been around here too long, the next four years will be a nice history lesson for you, on what the Barry administration was like. At least you'll be able to shoot off an e-mail and quickly get the potholes filled on your street.
Dumber than a bag of hammers. Awesome.
you can still buy a 1 bedroom condo for only $300,000 in DC?
Fenty is incompetent, worse than corrupt. It's amazing that he got elected, and worse, his impact on the city's going to be terrible.
There are lots of condos under 300k now, actually. Some are even habitable. The boom's over. . .
Uh oh, someone must've mentioned Fenty's name, the anti-Fenty squad is yapping away again.....
Uh oh, someone must've mentioned Fenty's name, the anti-Fenty squad is yapping away again.....
Indeed, but as usual, they offer no alternatives or ideas of their own.
Yes let's bash Fenty and offer nothing ourselves. It's like being back in kindergarten, and already the whiny kids are trying to ruin class time. Time to put them in the corner and ignore them until they go away, or better, move.
300k for a condo is far more than quite a few of us single people can afford, thank you very much. Not all of us are lawyers, lobbyists, and "campaign advisers" you know.
Walking from the Franconia-Springfield metro to the office this morning, I saw 4 small deer running in traffic where they shouldn't be. I think they got themselves back to the cover of the woods, but I was worried they were going to try to cross the F-S parkway.
DC a Singles Town. Where have y'all been for the past few years. DC got voted in the top 10 list of singles towns by Kiplingers Finance Magazine. Not like that means anything? A lot of singles you meet round here are straight up CORNY. The scene has really lost a lot of it's steez. Not as many good shows come through (Everyone's up in B-more now), 18th Street and DuPont have become ravaged by suburban rats; and even the tight local joints, like Wonderland and the Raven have fallen victim to the hype. WTF.
Here's an alternative: Don't vote for Adrian Fendi. Oops, too late.
Can I buy a steez, or do I have to make it at home? I've got plenty of flour and enriched uranium, if that'll help. . .