After what have been a couple of sad and unpleasant days, I got at least a glimmer of grim glee from two news stories last night:
Chickens coming home to roost: After shoveling hundreds of millions of dollars into the government trough for the feeding of multi-millionaire Major League Baseball owners and hangers-on, the District's government is professing shock -- shock, you see -- that beloved hometown baseball team the Washington Nationals will celebrate its first season in a publicly-financed D.C. stadium by throwing a big party in Maryland. Then the Nats will host its big "FanFest" celebration in...Bethesda.
A couple of fun things, first from Councilmember Jim Graham (D-Ward 1):
"That's like taking a stick and poking your eye. What a level of ingratitude. The timing is worse than ever. We're opening the $611 million stadium and . . . to have the annual banquet in Prince George's County, that's staggering," he said. "I would hope that we could work this out."
Given the history of rich nitwits who happen to own Congressionally-protected monopoly franchises, the city should have seen that stick coming years ago. I hope the city is ready for some vigorous and repeated poking over the coming year.
And how did some of D.C.'s council members find out about this predictable yet lamentable move by the Nationals?
A few council members learned of the plans over hors d'oeuvres at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center on Monday, where city officials were celebrating the renaming of the building in honor of the city's first mayor under Home Rule.
Words fail. As will the grand plans for stadium-related economic development, I'd bet. Personally, I'm eagerly awaiting the story that's sure to come 10 or 15 years in the future, when new owners decide the Nationals should move to a pork palace stadium in another city or state.
Home state follies: I've written a little in the past about Kentucky's Republican slimeball Gov. Ernie Fletcher, or at least about one of his cronies that I happened to remember from college. After having been indicted for illegally packing the state's bureaucracy with Republican apparatchiks, Fletcher went on to campaign for reelection, with such campaign highlights as accusing his Democratic opponent, Steve Beshear, of violating the state's constitutional ban on gay marriage by accepting a donation from two men who gave as a couple. Just before the election, Kentucky voters received robo-calls from right-wing evangelical puppet Pat Boone, telling them that Beshears would "like Kentucky to be like another San Francisco."
That Fletcher lost by almost 20 percentage points warms my too-cold heart for my home state.
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