Author Archives: MJ

About MJ

A rabble-rousing bureaucrat living in Sussex County

Schwartzkopf To Announce Re-Election Campaign

My state rep, House Majority Leader (and soon to be Speaker) Pete Schwartzkopf, sent out this news release late last week:

House Majority Leader Rep. Pete Schwartzkopf will formally kickoff his campaign for the 14th District House seat on Wednesday, August 1.

Schwartzkopf, a Democrat, has served the 14th District since 2002, representing Rehoboth Beach, Henlopen Acres, Cape Helopen State Park, Angola and the surrounding areas. The newly redistricted 14th District will also bring Dewey Beach back into the district after 10 years. A retired Delaware State Police captain and former Troop 7 commander, Schwartzkopf has been involved in the community and with various charitable groups for years.

The announcement will take place at 5 p.m. on the Rehoboth boardwalk, with Governor Jack Markell on hand to introduce him.

Come on down, enjoy a nice day at the beach, and be part of Pete’s reelection effort. He is currently being opposed by some teabagger Libertarian, as the GOP doesn’t have its shit together on this side of the county.

Campaign Make-believe

Sometimes endorsements can help a candidate. But a candidate should make sure their endorsement list is accurate.

Apparently, Karen Weldin Stewart doesn’t believe in that. On her website, which just went live recently, she lists Sen. Bruce Ennis, Sen. Bethany Hall-Long (whose name is misspelled), Rep. Dennis E. Williams, and Wilmington City Councilman Charles Potter. The problem is, none of these people have endorsed her. At least not this time around. Stewart also lists the sister of her Republican campaign manager as endorsing her. Yeah, that means a whole hell of a lot.

The website also shows Governor Markell in a slideshow next to the endorsements on the home page. I seriously doubt that Jack is backing her or gave her permission to use his picture. The one accurate endorsement and photo is one with Harris McDowell. In fact, I think I see McDowell’s hands pulling on the puppet strings.

Karen, you’re lying about your endorsements and you’re sure as hell lying about”fighting for consumers for the past 23 years.”

Grab-bag of Asshattery

We did away with the asshat of the day posts a while ago (too much to keep up with). So today I offer a grab bag of asshattery.

First, we have New Hampshire Republican legislator Bob Kingsbury who claims that kindergarten leads to higher crime.

Last week Rep. Bob Kingsbury (R-Laconia) told fellow Belknap County lawmakers that research he has conducted since 1996 shows a connection between the state’s kindergarten program and higher crime rates, attributing it to children being taken “away from their mothers too soon.”

My guess is that he also believes women should be barefoot & pregnant and stay in kitchen.

Next up we have everyone’s favorite sheriff (no not Jeff “Constitutionalist” Christopher) Joe Arpaio. The man who Orly Taitz has wet dreams about is claiming to have “explosive new evidence” that President Obama was not born. In America that is.

Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s “Cold Case Posse” is claiming to have explosive new proof that President Barack Obama is ineligible to serve as president. According to a recent report with WorldNetDaily, the Maricopa County sheriff’s associate said they would release the birther evidence at a press conference on July 17.

“I can’t disclose to you what we’ve discovered, but it’s going to be a shocking revelation at our press conference,” Mike Zullo, head of the “Cold Case Posse,” told a Tea Party radio program in an interview, according to WorldNetDaily.

You have to wonder what happened to this schmuck along the way for him to be this batshit crazy.

But wait, there’s more. Ginny Thomas, wife of potted plant Clarence Thomas, apparently is still making money lobbying against the ACA.

Now, just days after healthcare law was upheld (with Clarence Thomas dissenting), new financial forms show that Thomas’s wife, Ginni, continued to rake in a profit from opposing healthcare reforms in 2011—even after she previously came under fire for doing so.

According to Thomas’s 2011 financial disclosure report form, filed on May 15 and obtained Friday by Whispers, Ginni Thomas made up to $15,000 working for political lobbying firm Liberty Consulting. The firm lobbied actively against the healthcare law, according to liberal news magazine Mother Jones.

Why is it again that Justice Kagan had to recuse herself from the challenge to Arizona’s immigration law, and very loud, very public demands were made for her to recuse herself again, but Thomas gets a pass?

There is a clear conflict of interest with the Thomases whose ethics are beyond questionable at this point. But you know the other old saying, “It’s OK If You’re A Republican.”

Finally, we have Ann Rmoney Romney who claims that President Obama’s strategy is to “kill” her husband’s name and reputation.

“They’re going to do everything they can to destroy Mitt,” Ann Romney told Jan Crawford, when asked about Democratic efforts to paint the GOP candidate as out of touch. The couple were interviewed from their vacation home in Wolfeboro, N.H.

“Early on we heard what their strategy was, It was ‘Kill Romney,’ Romney said, referencing a 2011 story in which a Democratic strategist told Politico that Obama “will have to kill Romney” to win.

“I feel like all he’s doing is saying, ‘Let’s kill this guy,’” she added, and promised to protect her husband: “Not when I’m next to him, you better not.”

Say, Ann, isn’t that what Mittens did to his opponents during the rethuglican primaries? Turnabout is fair play in my book.

Crossing the Line

Last Tuesday, Governor Markell signed HB 325 into law. Sponsored by Rep. Pete Schwartzkopf after the chickenshit Sussex GOP delegation struck their own bill, HB 325 clearly spells out that Delaware sheriffs do not have police powers.

But if you thought that the Sheriff of Nuttingham (as El Som likes to call him) would back down, you are either extremely naive or smoking Delusional David’s crack pipe.

It seems as though Barbi and Jeff Christopher are now supporting the murder of AG Beau Biden and other elected officials who supported HB 325. Just so you don’t think I’m making this stuff up, here’s a screenshot of Christopher’s “independent” Facebook page:

The article Barbi posted was written by a Mark S. McGrew, who appears to be one crazy RWNJ (sorry, I won’t link to his website and drive up his traffic). Commenter Aoine posted links to this “story” a few days ago. Interesting that a RWNJ would post commentary on the English-language website of the former news organ of the USSR. I guess politics does make for strange bedfellows.

The article that Barbi and Jeff are promoting verges on sedition.

New Castle County Sheriff Trinidad Navarro is a liar, a coward and a traitor.

Kent County Sheriff Norman Wood is a liar, a coward and a traitor.

Georgetown Delaware Chief of Police William Topping is a liar, a coward and a traitor.

Any other government employees that say a sheriff has no arrest powers or wants to eliminate those powers is a liar, a coward and a traitor.

They are playing a treasonous game to try to eliminate the arrest powers of a sheriff because, right now, today or tomorrow morning, any Delaware Sheriff has grounds to arrest the Attorney General and some of the legislators of Delaware for Fraud, Sedition and Treason, because of Biden’s and your legislators attempt to circumvent the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Delaware and lying about it. That is deadly business and they know it. That is why they must get rid of the sheriffs.

Sheriffs are employed by the voters, citizens of their county, charged with the duty to support and defend the Constitutions of America and the State of Delaware. They can and should arrest anyone, government employee or otherwise, who attempts to violate those constitutions.

Your sheriff can arrest an FBI agent, DEA agent, IRS agent, any State Trooper, the Georgetown Chief of Police or any government employee if he is breaking the law in your county. Go to google.com and type in …sheriffs resist the federal government. All over the country, sheriffs are telling federal agents to pack sand.

Well, I believe that anyone breaking the law can and should be arrested, however, opposing Quickdraw McDraw is not violating any known laws on the books.

McGrew goes even further:

The Sheriff of Sussex County and the other two Sheriffs have the legal and constitutional Right to convene a Common Law Grand Jury, composed of Sussex county citizens at 9am, totally apart from the State’s oversight. It is NONE of the State’s business.

Once the Grand Jury begins to hear the evidence, the Sheriff can go outside and deputize 200 citizens. They can drive to Wilmington and when they arrive, make a call to the Grand Jury and ask if an indictment has been given against Biden. If the answer is “Yes”, the Sheriff can then proceed to the location of Biden and arrest him and transport him to the Sussex County jail and incarcerate him until trial. Anybody, including State Police who interfere, will do so at their own risk.

Then the Sheriff can convene a Common Law trial with a citizen jury, without a judge or prosecutor allowed. If that trial finds Biden guilty of Sedition or Treason, the Sheriff can apply whatever penalty that jury determines, up to, hanging by the neck until dead, one Beau Biden.

McGrew is advocating the assassination of the AG and Barbi & Jeff are promoting this whackjob’s position. Barbi even calls McGrew a “real journalist.”

G-D forbid one of their followers did something and harmed Biden or any other elected official (and I’m including the entire Sussex County Council) – the blood will be on their hands.

Enough is enough. We’ve put up with this clown show long enough. It’s time for the General Assembly to step in and remove this guy from office. He has no intention of following the rule of law and is actively promoting the assassination of elected officials. Are we going to have to wait until someone puts a bullet into Jack, Beau, Pete or someone else claiming that they are defending the Constitution by doing so. It’s time to cut off the head of this snake.

Contemptible Congress

When I was a wee lad, I had the utmost respect for Congress. I was in awe of my then Congressman, Byron Rodgers (D-Denver) who was the essence of a public servant. I was good friends with Congresswoman Pat Schroeder and Congressman & Senator Tim Wirth (who was a neighbor). That all changed after I moved to DC and began working for the government. I discovered that many of the 539 Members of Congress (including the delegates from DC, Puerto Rico, Guam and the Virgin Islands) didn’t really give a damn about their constituents. It was all about getting face time on TV to make it seem as though they were doing something.

This afternoon, Rep. Darrell Issa, chair of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, pushed through a resolution holding Attorney General Eric Holder in “Contempt of Congress.” Better add my name to that resolution, Issa, because I hold you and the Teabag 112th Congress in the utmost contempt. Obstruction is the motto of this Congress. Sure, Boner Boehner, Cantor, et al claim that it’s not their fault the President cannot enact his agenda. They say he had 2 years of total control. What they don’t bother mentioning is that Senate rethuglicans filibustered almost everything, requiring 60 votes to enact legislation.

But let’s get back to Issa. After being named as chair of his committee, he said that he “want[ed] seven hearings a week, times 40 weeks.”

He also wants to organize aggressive oversight beyond his committee and plans to refer inquiries to other House panels, drawing even more incoming GOP chairmen to the cause of investigating the executive branch.

He wasn’t then or isn’t now interested in making government efficient. He is on a mission to harangue the Obama Administration. He’s trying to make AG Holder his prize trophy to hang on his wall. He’s trying to show everyone he has big balls. But he doesn’t.

So who is the real Darrell Issa? It appears that he might have a criminal past. Well, he is in Congress.

Rep. Darrell Issa’s past includes arrests for weapons charges and auto theft, suspicions of arson, and accusations of intimidation with a gun, but you’d hardly know it from the media’s recent coverage of the new chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. While Issa was substantially mentioned in 15 articles in the nation’s largest newspapers since the last election — including several major profiles — only one of those articles mentioned any of these allegations. Likewise, interviewers did not ask Issa about his alleged criminal past in any of the cable or network interviews he sat for during that period.

Arson! Auto Theft! Assault with a Deadly Weapon! Insurance Fraud!

Issa is a despicable human being and an even worse congressman. He should be the one who’s facing a contempt citation.

Taking the Klown Kar Show on the Road

It seems as though Delaware isn’t a big enough stage for the egotistical would be lawman, Sussex County Sheriff Jeff Christopher. Now his show is going on the road. Granted it isn’t very far, only over to Carroll County, MD, but it seems as though Jeff needs to take his grifter antics to empty the pockets of would be “patriots.”

The host of this shindig is one George Otto III, who has claimed in his numerous appearances before County Council, that he is a constitutional expert. Or at least he’s read the Constitution, which in his mind and that of the sheriff’s other supporters (St. Bodie Girl, Ayotte, Wolfgang von Bombast), makes him an expert. I wonder what he is after reading the back of his box of Cocoa Puffs.

Here are some of Otto’s delusions:

The sheriff is the chief executive of the county,…

Um, no he isn’t!

Understanding the threat to our Republican form of government, Sheriff Christopher has chosen to assert his office in the face of such an incredible tyranny. Sheriffs Associations and individual Sheriffs around the country are supporting his efforts.

The only threat to our government and way of life is from nut jobs like Otto and Christopher. And the only “sheriff’s association” that is supporting Christopher is the much discredited CSPOA. We’ve written about this group a number of times.

Otto is also connected with the Save a Patriot Fellowship. Save a Patriot is a tax fraud scheme that has been under a permanent injunction since 2006. This is the same type of tax protest scheme that landed Wesley Snipes in prison for 3 years. Otto even claims on his Facebook page to have “learned a great deal from John Kotmair,” the fraudster behind SAPF. If you really want a good laugh, read the stuff at the caveat emptor link.

It looks, though, that this sideshow might be coming to an end very soon. HB 325 is scheduled to be heard in the Senate this coming Wednesday. We can only hope that the Senate will pass this bill quickly and send it on its way to the Governor for signature. Then when Quickdraw McDraw violates it, we can start the proceedings to remove him from office.

See What Crazy Eileen Started – UPDATED

UPDATE: It looks as though the State of Hawai’s has learned how to play political chess with the birthers. TPM filed a public records request for emails and letters between AZ Secretary of State Ken Bennett and the state. The best ones are the those from the Deputy AG asking Bennett to provide a legal basis under AZ law for his request.

Here’s a sample:

From: Jill T. Nagamine
Sent: Tuesday, May 01, 2012 5:11 PM
To: Drake, Jim; Bennett, Ken
Subject: Re: Request from the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office

Dear Mr. Bennett and Mr. Drake—

My apologies for not responding immediately. I have recently been away from my office a great deal, including today. My client, the Department of Health, has forwarded your request for verification of President Obama’s birth record to me. We need more information to substantiate that you are eligible to receive verification. Hawaii Revised Statutes, section 338-18(g), provides:

(g) The department shall not issue a verification in lieu of a certified copy of any such record, or any part thereof, unless it is satisfied that the applicant requesting a verification is:

(1) A person who has a direct and tangible interest in the record but requests a verification in lieu of a certified copy;
(2) A governmental agency or organization who for a legitimate government purpose maintains and needs to update official lists of persons in the ordinary course of the agency’s or organization’s activities;
(3) A governmental, private, social, or educational agency or organization who seeks confirmation of a certified copy of any such record submitted in support of or information provided about a vital event relating to any such record and contained in an official application made in the ordinary course of the agency’s or organization’s activities by an individual seeking employment with, entrance to, or the services or products of the agency or organization;
(4) A private or government attorney who seeks to confirm information about a vital event relating to any such record which was acquired during the course of or for purposes of legal proceedings; or
(5) An individual employed, endorsed, or sponsored by a governmental, private, social, or educational agency or organization who seeks to confirm information about a vital event relating to any such record in preparation of reports or publications by the agency or organization for research or educational purposes.

As the Secretary and I initially discussed, it appears that you might be eligible for verification of the record based on subparagraph (2), but we need to see what your authority is “to update official lists of persons in the ordinary course of your activities.” Will you send me a copy of your law that allows this, and will you send me information that shows:

(1) What list are you updating?
(2) Is it your normal procedure to update all entries on your list by requiring birth data verification?
(3) Are you requiring birth data verification of all entries on your list, rather than just targeting one name on your list? (please provide evidence that you are doing so) (emphasis added).

You may address your response directly to me, and I will relay it to my client.

Thank you,
Jill T. Nagamine
Deputy Attorney General
State of Hawaii

Read the others for some great laughs.

*******************************************************************************

We all remember Crazy Eileen, one of the first birthers to go public. Well, Arizona, not satisfied with being the batshit crazy place it’s become, has just added a new ingredient to the mix – birtherism. Their Secretary of State has indicated he may not allow President Obama’s name to appear on the ballot because he’s not convinced he was born in the US.

The man in charge of running Arizona’s elections has gone to the birthers. Secretary of State Ken Bennett now says he’s not convinced Barack Obama was really born in the United States and so he is threatening to keep the president off the ballot in November.

Bennett’s comments came in an interview late Thursday with conservative radio talk show host Mike Broomhead on Phoenix station KFYI.

Bennett said he was following the lead of the state’s eccentric Sheriff Joe Arpaio, a fellow Republican who ordered an investigation into the president’s birth certificate last year and concluded the document released by the White House is a forgery. Bennett said he is now trying to get verification from state officials in Hawaii that the certificate is authentic.

Yeah, I’d base any decision I made on what Joe Arpaio says.

Sad thing about Bennett is that he’s the #2 person in Arizona state government, which means if anything happened to Gov. Terence Stamp Jan Brewer, he would become governor. Bennett claims not to be a birther but says he has a “responsibility as secretary of state is to make sure the ballots in Arizona are correct and that those people whose names are on the ballot have met the qualifications for the office they are seeking.” Sounds like a birther to me.

And he’s running for governor in 2014. Think he’s going to use this as a fundraising tool? Oh, I shouldn’t be so cynical.

Here’s the good part:

Broomhead, the radio host, pressed Bennett on what he would do if he didn’t get the right response back from Hawaii.

“If they won’t comply, if they refuse to comply with this, will you remove the president from the ballot?” Broomhead asked. “Will you exclude him from the ballot?”

“That’s possible,” Bennett said. “Or the other option would be I would ask all of candidates, including the president, maybe to submit a certified copy of their birth certificate. But I don’t want to do that.”

Now I wonder if Rmoney will be questioned about his eligibility to be on the ballot seeing that his father was born in Mexico and came into the US illegally.

Tipping His Canoe into the Race

It seems as though Jack Markell might have a primary opponent. Magnolia resident Doug Beatty, whose only claim to fame is being the son of actor Ned Beatty, has announced that he is going to challenge Markell in the Democratic primary. That is if he can raise the filing fee.

In what has to be the biggest understatement of the year, Beatty said that he is “an extreme long shot” but thinks he can win if he can get on the ballot. I think he’s watched The Candidate too many times. His run is more like the wet dream Bobby had in Deliverance.

Beatty believes he’s qualified for the office and lists his qualifications as

… never served even in a municipal office and does not hold a bachelor’s degree. But Beatty said he is not uneducated. In the Navy, he was trained in avionics to work on electronic systems for aircrafts, satellites and spacecraft.

Beatty also said he holds an honors certificate from Computer Learning Center in Alexandria, Va. He has studied dealing black jack and roulette, and he worked in Washington, D.C., as a special police officer.

He also once was able to draw the horse that he found on the inside of a matchbook cover.

It seems his main concern in running is that a neighbor was killed in 2006 and he believes the police didn’t investigate the crime fully because of the victim’s and perpetrator’s race.

Beatty said it was a 2006 incident that finally pushed him to try to make a change. Beatty said his next-door neighbor’s house was broken into, and his neighbor, also a friend, was gunned down.

Beatty said because his friend and the killer were both African-American, police did not investigate the shooting. “I deliberately saw evidence not picked up,” Beatty said. “There was a bullet left in my house.”

Beatty said cigarette butts the killer left on the floor of his neighbor’s home were not collected by police. “I’m a stickler for civil rights,” Beatty said. If a person is killed, it should be investigated, regardless of who the person is, he said.

If Beatty does make the ballot, it means that Jack can raise twice limit allowed by law – $1200 for both the primary and general election. This might not be a bad thing – Jack would be able to use his campaign funds to help down ballot races.

Alluding to a possible campaign theme, Beatty is a law abiding citizen.

Beatty said he does not consider himself very partisan, but he knows how to uphold the law. “I’m a damn good security guard if nothing else,” he said.

Beatty said citizens from Occupy Wall Street protesters to Tea Party members and 9-12 Patriots have shown support in his decision to run. “I’ve got a lot of support from friends,” he said. Most of them don’t even seem to mind his preference for wearing kilts, he said.

Can’t wait to see his version of Braveheart.

Showdown at the Leg Hall Corral

This coming Wednesday appears to be the day that Sussex County Sheriff Jeff Christopher will be handed his head. House Majority Leader Pete Schwartzkopf has introduced HB 325, which will make “Delaware law clear that the county sheriffs and their deputies do not have arrest authority. Historically the sheriffs and deputies have not exercised arrest authority and the Attorney General’s office has given an opinion that the sheriff’s “power to arrest is no greater than that shared by any citizen.” Pete has decided to move ahead when Danny Short (Eunuch-Seaford) and the rest of the Sussex GOP tucked tail and pulled HB 290. Additional sponsors of HB 325 are Sen. Sokola and Reps. Barbieri, Bolden, Brady, Carson, Gilligan, Heffernan, Hudson, Jaques, J. Johnson, Q. Johnson, Keeley, Lavelle, Lee, Longhurst, Miro, Mitchell, Mulrooney, Ramone, Schooley, Walker, M. Smith, Scott, B. Short, Viola, and D.E. Williams.

Majority Leader Pete Schwartzkopf says he wants to press ahead with changes to state law that would make absolutely clear that county sheriffs do not have the authority to make arrests — contrary to what Sussex County Sheriff Jeff Christopher has been claiming since last year.

“This isn’t a political thing, this is all about public safety,” said Schwartzkopf, D-Rehoboth.

We’ve had numerous posts about this self-appointed sovereign of Sussex, most recently on April 27. The man is simply delusional. His small band of vocal supporters (St. Bodie Girl, Ayotte, Wolfgang von Bombast, the Fatman) have used threats of primaries against any Sussex Republican officeholder who sides against the sheriff. They all claim to be constitutional scholars, but my guess is that they either used Constitution of Dummies or the back of a box of Sugar Pops to get their “understanding” of the Constitution.

Christopher claims that the Delaware Constitution gives him and his deputies arrest powers because they are cited as “conservators of the peace.” They have even gone as far as saying that the slang term “cop” is an abbreviation for conservator of the peace. It’s not.

Sussex Sheriff Jeff Christopher says his interpretation of that term is that he and his deputies have arrest powers, the same as other law enforcements officers who are also conservators of the peace. He says his power is established by the state constitution and not state law or county policy. He has repeatedly asked county council to provide more funds for deputy training, and he wants his deputies to attend the state police academy.

While Christopher has asked for more money for training, he has never told County Council what type of training he wants for his deputies. In fact, he allowed their constable certification to expire last year.

On April 25, a report was released by the State House of Representatives which was the most damning evidence of the wrongdoing by Wyatt Earp Jeff Christopher. When the Chief Magistrate orders his judges not to accept anyone the sheriff or his deputies arrests as a prisoner, then you know that someone is overstepping their bounds.

Christopher appears to be gearing up for a legal fight. He’s raising funds through The Legacy Foundation, a shadowy Iowa-based non-profit, run by the former speaker pro-tem of the Iowa House. According to their mission statement “The mission of the Legacy Foundation is to advance individual liberty, free enterprise and limited, accountable government. Our efforts center around public policy research and alternative policy initiatives in, but not limited to, these core areas: state fiscal and tax policy, the creation of an entrepreneurial environment, education, labor-management relations, citizenship, civil rights and government transparency issues.” Nothing in there about constitutional sheriffs, however, they are raising money for something called the Border Sheriffs Project, an Arizona-based group. And we all know how bat-shit crazy these sheriffs in Arizona are.

The Legacy Foundation also got involved in the Ohio referendum election last fall, being accused of sending out misleading mailers.

What we don’t get is why a group out of Iowa cares what Ohio does in state referendum and Constitutional Amendment issues?

The Legacy Foundation, formed in 2008 by former Speaker of the Iowa House and gubernatorial candidate Christopher Rants, is sending out misleading, though innocuous looking mailers that appear to be simple reminders to vote tomorrow. The text clearly favors Yes votes on both Issues 2 & 3:

Yeah, they just want to educate people on the “facts.” Wonder if they’re getting involved in our school board elections.

All this time that Christopher has wasted on claiming to be a law enforcement officer (he’s not), has resulted in a 5 month backlog in sheriff’s sales down here. And that not only costs the county money, it also costs the banks or whoever holds the mortgages on those properties money. His office used to return money to the county each year under former sheriff Eric Swanson; not so under this small government Republican.

The sheriff down here is delusional. He has claimed he’s sovereign over every other elected official in the county. His supporters have even declared him to be the chief executive of the county. He is a far-right nut job with a gun, associating with white supremacists and militia men. He’s dangerous. And come Wednesday, he’s going to get a civics lesson and his comeuppance. It’s about damn time.

Time to Pay the Piper

Scene: you have a disabled family member whose care you’ve given to the DC government. The DC government places your loved one in a group home and forgets about him. The group home operator ignores serious medical issues and your loved one dies. You sue the DC government and the group home operator and win. So what does the DC government do? They place a lien on the estate of your loved one to collect for the care they didn’t provide.

In today’s Post, I wrote about a recent jury verdict awarding $2.9 million to the family of a mentally disabled man who died in the District’s care from a spinal condition that could have be easily treated.

A federal judge found that the city’s oversight of Curtis Suggs’s case was negligent, failing to ensure that he received the medical care he needed.

The District is fighting the verdict, and there is a troubling postscript. Despite the finding of negligence in its oversight, the District seeking to recover some of the cost of the care it provided Suggs by filing a nearly $600,000 lien against his estate.

The city did so after the Suggs family settled a suit against the operator of the group home where Suggs lived for $900,000, according to Harvey S. Williams, the family’s lawyer.

In other words, the District is seeking payment for care that a judge has said it showed “deliberate indifference” in monitoring.

I lived in DC and know firsthand how disfunctional the city’s government is. In the days when Marion Barry was mayor, he awarded friends contracts worth millions of dollars to run fleabag homeless shelters, charging DC taxpayers more than what a suite at the Hay-Adams would cost per day. Streets went unpaved, the mentally ill were warehoused and forgotten, children in the foster care system were ignored. And in the 14 years since Barry was finally thrown out as mayor, it seems that nothing has changed except the face that occupies the mayor’s office.

Any government that is charged with caring for those who cannot care for themselves and loses a lawsuit based on that lack of care should not be suing the family to recoup its loss. It’s just common sense, something that the DC government has never had.