The story was a blockbuster; folks in the DC tax office effectively skimmed $48 million from public coffers over twenty years, with Harriette Walters leading the way. Ms. Walters' spending habits as outlined in this article are noteworthy; of particular interest to me were her Barbie Doll collection and her personal shopper at Neiman Marcus.
That it could have gone on for so long is amazing to me. There is a fantastic movie to be made here, one that reinforces just how greedy people can be.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
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And they say money can't buy beauty (see article's photo--Medusa incarnate). What I find so darned entertaining is the surprise the Washington metro media exhibit at how this could have happened. Are you serious? What have you been covering in DC politics? Is this not the same city whose citizens repeatedly elect Marion Barry (MY favorite DC criminal), who hold him up as a model for their children? Who vehemently insist that all their ills are the result of federal government's failures to care for them? Who are raised to believe they are entitled, and who, when the government fails to right their perceived wrongs, either choose criminal resolutions or elect criminals to do their bidding for them. It's why I laugh at DC license plates with "Taxation without Representation" embossed on them. Maybe if the great numbers of (by the way, non-tax paying) citizens of our nation's capitol were to exhibit their ability to use a vote responsibly, more people might become sympathetic to their proclaimed plight. The other irony here is that the very same people who lament the fact that so little money comes to their "ward" are the same ones who also keep the criminals in office who raid the very city/ward resources that might help improve their infrastructure then hold them up as heroes who socked it to the man (hey, DC voter! YOU are the "man" here). There is good news on the we-really-do-know-how-to-use-our-vote front in DC though. There are apparently enough thinking voters to have shifted the balance in DC such that they've elected one of the best mayors I've seen in DC since I started paying attention to such things. He has a lot, a WHOLE LOT, to clean up inside the city infrastructure, but he's already done a lot of cleaning. Hopefully, even those who keep the likes of Barry and Walters in office will soon see that there is a better way to manage a city and they have the good fortune to have recently stumbled upon a guy who is unprecendented in his ability and energy to lead them to that better way.
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