August 13, 2007
Morning Roundup: So Long, Turd Blossom Edition
Good morning, Washington. After such a long, hot week, that was some beautiful weekend, wasn't it? And apparently, the beauty of the weekend is spilling out on to Monday morning: Karl Rove, President Bush's controversial deputy chief of staff and senior political adviser, will resign at the end of August. After he packs up his Palisades home and heads back to the Texas Hill Country, Rove will reportedly leave politics and plans to write a book about the Bush years -- do you still get to claim executive privilege when your job involves working in your slippers?
Fenty Finds Funds for Ballpark Art: Mayor Adrian Fenty plans to shift $770,000 from the city’s equipment leasing fund into the budget of the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities, in order to purchase artwork for the new Nationals stadium. Despite concerns recently about art purchases causing the Council to spend outside the stadium's $611 million construction cap, city leaders appear now to agree that because the Commission on Arts and Humanities will own the art and it will eventually be moved to another location, the funds need not be counted as part of the cap.
Mixed Water Messages: The D.C. Water and Sewer Authority is warning customers about unsolicited water testing kits that have been showing up on customers' doorsteps in Northeast, which they say are a scare tactic by a company trying to get people to buy water filtration systems. Meanwhile, that lovely algae smell and taste in the city's drinking water persists.
Briefly Noted: Southeast man dies after being shot, falling from building ... Ramp from I-66 to the Whitehurst Freeway closed today through Aug. 24 ... Small piece of commuter jet heading to Dulles falls in Maryland.
Photo by chippy314
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Good riddance.
Yes, I agree with Guest Number One, that ramp from I-66 to the Whitehurst Freeway has had it coming for a long time. I hope you rot in hell ramp from I-66 to the Whitehurst Freeway! Good riddance!
What ramp from I-66 to the Whitehurst? Do they mean the ramp from the Potomac River Freeway to the Whitehurst? I think I saw some construction sign there the other day, and looking at the video, that seems to be the ramp in question. Goddamn it now how am I supposed to get to Kotobuki?
BostonRay says: My crystal ball sees Carl Rove running the soon to be official Fred Thompson Campaign. He will be a most welcome addition. The only reason he resigned was that all staffers still on the White House payroll on Labor Day are required to remain until the end of the term. Can't help Fred Thompson with that restriction. He won't be wearing slippers, that's for sure. There is too much work to do.
That algae is what makes our tap water so much more delicious and nutritious then bottled water!
My bet is that he left so that he wouldn't be terminated under the Hatch Act.
Thank goodness we have Mayor Fenty to redirect $770,000 for artwork in the new stadium. I'm sure the DC school children will be just fine this year without books, A/C, teacher supplies and workable plumbing.
$770,000 of DC funds for artwork for the stadium. I can hear the Lerners laughing at us right now. They get a free stadium, don't pay what they promised for upgrades, and get the city to provide the artwork as well! Have they contributed anything to this city since they took over the team?
Within 5 years the Lerners will come back to the city for major upgrades to the stadium. You can bank on it. You can also bank on the fact that faced with the prospect of the Nationals moving to Nashville or Las Vegas, the city will pay, and pay, and pay, and pay....
@8
Nationals have a 30year contract with DC to remain in DC.
BostonRay says: Actually I can't really see Rove on Fred Thompson's team (opposite to my #4 post) after his boner-de-tutti-boner of the Shamnesty debacle. There will be none of that crap during the Thompson terms. The borders will be closed and the illegals will be made so uncomfortable, unemployed and un-entitled that their home countries will look great to them. UHAULo to real casa! Maybe Guiliani will pick him up.
ART WORK: Last year didn't Arlington take back the big bucks scheduled to be paid for "art" to mask the sewage treatment plant? I think I remember that.
Wizzyliz, lack of necessary funds has little to do with the DCPS failures you cite. You can flood a system with money, but if the system has an accounting process as feabile as that of DCPS, it won't matter. The knee-jerk reaction that thinks increased funding is always the answer is as much a cause of the failures as anything else. Establishing a 21st century accounting system is the sine qua non to any improvements to the DCPS.
Reid, I see your point and stand corrected. If money solved all our problems ... well, we'd be broke.
RJ,
That contract isn't worth the paper its printed on. If a better deal comes along, the Nats are gone and the new city will happily pay to settle the suit DC will bring.
Of course, it won't get this far because DC is so in love with the idea of having a baseball team that it will put up whatever money the Lerners demand in five years when they declare the new stadium to be inadequate.