Justice Department Urges Judge to Hold District in Contempt for Incompetence

Some times the incompetence of the District government is frustrating, other times its almost comical, and then there are times where the incompetence is disgusting. Today's story in The Washington Post, detailing the District's "inexcusable lapses in care" for disabled ward's of the city, falls under the category of disgusting incompetence.

Sadly, this over-funded, bloated bureaucracy is totally incapable of protecting the most vulnerable trapped in its care:

Newly filed court papers give vivid and startling details about the extent of abuse -- from severe scaldings to fatal starvation -- that mentally and physically disabled residents have endured in some of the District's group homes.

Emily, 60, who liked movies, shopping and piling mountains of stuffed animals on her bed, weighed only 50 pounds when she died in 2004, the Justice Department wrote in a court filing last week, warning that hers was not an isolated case.

Caregivers effused about Mike's love of eating out, watching sports and going for walks. The same caregivers stood by as his weight dropped precipitously, according to court papers, and he suffered anemia, gangrene of the stomach and organ failure. He slipped into a coma, then died last year at age 41.

At his group home, Jake, 52, had periodic problems with diarrhea for 10 months before his death last year, and none of his caregivers increased his fluids or changed his diet, the Justice Department said.

Matthew died at age 43. He loved eating out, going on trips and watching sports. Like the others, he was chronically underweight and, like the others, was not given proper attention, the Justice Department said. He died a month and a half after his housemate, Emily, dropped to her fatal 50 pounds.

Each of these people was a mentally disabled ward of the District who died in the past two years after inexcusable lapses in care, the Justice Department said, urging a judge to hold the District in contempt of court for not meeting repeated promises of reform. Other mentally and physically disabled residents of group homes were beaten, berated, sexually accosted, neglected or targeted for theft, Justice lawyers said.

Read that last sentence again, and remember your tax dollar is paying for this - "Other mentally and physically disabled residents of group homes were beaten, berated, sexually accosted, neglected or targeted for theft, Justice lawyers said."

Plaintiffs in the suit against the District are are asking for a court-ordered takeover of the District agency in charge of caring for the 2,000 mentally and physically disabled residents in its care.

More:

"How many more deaths do we have to have?" asked Sandy Bernstein, legal director for University Legal Services. "These are not complicated problems: weight loss, bowel issues, hydration. These are issues any caretaker should be able to address."

Not surprisingly District politicians pledged to fix the problem YEARS ago:

Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) pledged six years ago to fix the homes after a Washington Post series disclosed 350 documented cases of abuse and neglect in group homes. Vincent Morris, a spokesman for the mayor, said Williams is trying to improve care and denounced the D.C. Council's recent cut in the agency's budget, saying it would make a court takeover more likely.

Seriously, what will it take for residents of this District to say no more to this city's incompetent government?

Your Tax Dollars At Work - $200 K for Metro to Study Lighting

Let me get this straight. The problem is that Metro stations are dark - partially due to the 'soft lighting' Metro uses and partially due to Metro's inability to replace burned out bulbs. The response? Why naturally a $200K study of what the heck to do. (Photo of current 'soft lighting' intended to emphasize the 'architectural beauty' of Metro, compliments of the Washington Post)

According to The Post:

Longer term, Tangherlini said, Metro needs to ask the bigger questions: "What kind of lighting do we want in the station, and how can we improve lighting while maintaining the architectural integrity and beauty?"

In July, the transit agency plans to begin a six-month study of those questions. The $200,000 study will seek input from the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts and Metro's recently formed Riders' Advisory Council.

Come on folks. A $200,000 "study" to figure out how bright you want your lights to be? How in the name of all that is holy, do you need a $200K study to figure out you need brighter bulbs and more frequent replacement of burned out bulbs.

I got an idea for folks to try at home. Next time your wife, husband, girlfriend, partner, significant other, mom, dad, or dog asks you to change the burned out bulb in the living room, respond with a request for $20 to "study" the problem. Let me know how that works out for you.

We wonder why Metro can figure out how to turn a profit? Heck they can't even figure out how to change a lightbulb without blowing $200 grand.

Want to Make April 15th Just Another Beautiful Spring Day?

Tell the Congress and the President to support the Fair Tax.

Tuesday is the new Monday

Or at least this week it is. Back from my long weekend in NC. Nothing really re-charges my batteries like heading home for a couple of days.

There are few reasons for anyone who isn't from there to venture to my home town of Goldsboro, NC. It ain't pretty to look at and there is little to do (though it is home to the best BBQ in the country - Wilbers BBQ on HWY 70!). But it is home for me, and I do love going back (though every time I head back I am reminded why I live in DC).

The Mayoral Pander-Fest: The Video

I wrote earlier about the Democratic Mayoral forum before the Washington Interfaith Network - well here's the video from the Post.

WARNING: This video contains graphic displays of truly pathetic, mindless pandering. Viewer discretion is advised.

UPDATE (10:37 am) - Apparently this moment was too disturbing even for The Post to show:

There's one last admonition for the candidates from the Rev. Christine Wiley, a fiery speaker from Covenant Baptist Church: "Don't try to figure out if there's money left over to do the things we want you to do. Take the money from the top."

The candidates see the crowd rise as one, chanting, "Take the money from the top! Take the money from the top!" And then congregants and candidates alike are swaying to a hymn that almost everyone seems to know, "We Have Come This Far by Faith."

The District Has Run Out of Trash Cans

According to The Post the District's Department of Public Works has run out of trash cans! Yes, you read it right - our always competent District government is at it again. Here is the response to a request from residents in the booming Penn Quarter/Chinatown neighborhood for additional trash cans:

"Please note that DPW have no public space litter cans in stock," Department of Public Works employee Kevin Bryant wrote in an e-mail. "A responsive Bidder have not been awarded the contract at this time. We do not expect to receive the first shipment of litter cans until Oct. 06. We are not taking additional requests at this time due to the increasing back log, however we will assess the area for other measures to reduce any litter issues."

I don't even know where to start. Maybe it's best I don't say anything else. The absurdity of that response from the District's Department of Public Works speaks for itself.

Wow... Sure am Sorry I Missed this Event

So the same week folks in Atlanta were rallying to cut taxes, some folks here in the District were rallying in favor of repressive, abusive regimes!

I have to admit I am perplexed at a rally where, "The marchers demanded an end to the U.S. government’s campaign of lies, threats, and sanctions against Venezuela and Cuba."

Yes, these bozos parading around Malcolm X Park were rallying in favor of a Cuban regime, where, according to the liberal Amnesty International's 2006 report:

Freedom of expression and association continued to be under attack. All legal media outlets were under government control and independent media remained banned. Independent journalists faced intimidation, harassment and imprisonment for publishing articles outside Cuba. Human rights defenders also faced intimidation and politically motivated and arbitrary arrests.

Not only did these pinheads rally in favor of a repressive Cuban regime, lets not forget they were also there to show solidarity with the regime in Venezuela, where, according to the same Amnesty International report:

There were reports of unlawful killings of criminal suspects by police. Most cases were not investigated and the perpetrators remained unpunished. The lack of independence of the judiciary remained a concern. Persistent social and economic inequalities continued to limit access to the economic and social rights of Afro-descendants and indigenous peoples.

Charming. I am sure the irony that these folks are rallying in favor of countries where such displays of free expression are repressed is lost on these dopes.

Back from the Fair Tax Rally in Atlanta

I spent Wednesday night in Atlanta attending the Fair Tax Rally. If you haven't read Neal Boortz and Congressman John Linder's book, "The Fair Tax Book," you should. It's an idea whose time has not only come, its way overdue. The Fair Tax Rally was amazing. 4,500 people (capacity crowd) in the Gwinnett Convention Center, with thousands more turned away at the door. The rally was headlined by Boortz, Congressman Linder, Sean Hannity, Herman Cain, and John Stossel.

Can you imagine thousands and thousands of folks in DC turning out to rally for lower taxes? Yeah, I can't either. Sadly, I think it's because voters in DC have gotten use to high taxes, bloated government, inefficiency and waste. Apathetic DC voters think, "well hell, at least the Mayor's not smoking crack." Worse, they think even if they wanted to change things, they couldn't.

The reality is that we can change things, but it will take a grassroots groundswell of pissed off DC voters to do it.

More on the Fair Tax and how I think it could serve as a blueprint for DC later...

DC Mayoral Race: Promises and Price Tags But No Way Pay For It

The five Democrats running for Mayor in DC are unified in their quest to spend more and more of District taxpayer dollars on a slew of new initiatives. There is just one catch, none of them have a clue how the will pay for it. That's the word coming from a candidate forum at the Asbury United Methodist Church in downtown DC.

According to the Post:

The leading candidates for D.C. mayor pledged last night to make social justice for children and the poor their top priority in office, vowing to spend about $1 billion on neighborhood redevelopment, youth services and 14,000 units of affordable housing.

The five Democrats didn't bat an eye before committing themselves to funding the expensive demands of the Washington Interfaith Network, a coalition of churches, unions and community groups that held a forum last night.

Ah, how refreshing. Politicians in the District who can't say no to any demand to spend more money. It's worked so well for the District for so many years, right???

I love this visual:

Each candidate was asked to respond to three questions: Would they dedicate an additional $500 million to neighborhoods, $350 million to youth services and at least $117 million a year for affordable housing? Their answers -- an unbroken string of yeses -- were recorded in foot-high letters on a big, white board.

Of course when asked how they were going to pay for any of this, the candidates were largely at a loss:

"I commit to you that I'm going to raise the bar," Fenty said, explaining that the city's housing production trust fund and its new school modernization fund are both being bankrolled with existing tax revenue. "We'll take that $7.4 billion budget we have and make sure the money goes to the priorities that you and the rest of my constituents want it to go to."

The other candidates were only marginally more specific about where they would find the money.

If you want to know how far off the deep end the District's Democratic Party has gone, one need only read this gem:

Lobbyist Michael A. Brown offered no specific proposals to raise money. He did, however, criticize city leaders for encouraging the wealthy to move to the nation's capital, saying that a thriving middle class is more critical to keeping the District fiscally strong.

Is this really the best the District has to offer? How about a candidate that doesn't just pledge not to raise taxes, but actually pledges to CUT taxes? How about a candidate that doesn't pledge to increase spending, but actually pledges to CUT spending? How about a candidate that restores a little sanity to this place?

Welcome

Welcome to the blog for Cut DC Taxes. Over the next weeks, months, and years, I hope to have plenty to say about the need for cutting taxes, reducing spending, and restoring some sanity to our nation's Capital - the District of Columbia.

More to come... stay tuned!