News Bullets, twenty-five percent Tuesday;

Whee, it's Tuesday which means we're yet another step closer to 'the holidays.' By the holidays, I obviously mean my birthday, which is a mere 2 weeks away. Also, of note, yesterday the number of supposed Tiger Woods mistresses equaled the number of days we were into the month. Somewhere I saw a quote that went something lines of, "I want a Tiger Woods Advent calendar, where you open each door and a new mistress pops out each day." If I stole that from you, let me know!

Pictured: Mayor Fenty's solution to homelessness: Xtreme Global Warming.

Even with global warming it is unlikely this winter will be 25% warmer. As was reported a while back, the District's homeless services budget has been slashed 25%. We've got a brief Q and A about the cuts running over at District Daily, and DCist had a round-up yesterday. It's true, the city faced a serious budget gap. There's another budget bomb waiting for next year as well. However, when cutting dollars from shelter services, you are making life and death decisions. I know 25.2 million people will tell me "but that's just how budgets work, you can't move money around like it's the 2006 subprime boom." Well then let's figure out a better way to make budgets. As it stands now, Fenty, and by extension the DC Council, has become a death panel.

Man sends letter to Congress. Yeah, that's the headline. Here's some breaking news for y'all, Bob King has sent a letter to every single member of Congress. Yup, he's against gay marriage in the District and wants Congress to intervene. Here's some logic that makes perfect sense: King wants residents to vote on the measure, so he's appealing to a Congress in which residents have no representation. What's more, he wants that very same Congress to overturn a measure passed by people who were actually elected to represent the District. What does all this mean? Bob King is a jackass is what it means. Stand down, Stand4Marriage, you've lost. Can you please focus your attention on Tiger Woods now? Thanks.

I was wrong. The City Paper's Darrow Montgomery has some excellent photos from a wreath laying ceremony at the U.S. Naval Memorial yesterday. The event, of course commemorated the 68th anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Yesterday also marked the roughly 8.51 year anniversary of the release of the movie Pearl Harbor.

Greetings DC Council staffers. Councilmember Tommy Wells' (D-Ward 6) chief of staff name-dropped why.i.hate.dc to DCist's Kriston Capps yesterday while discussing the H Street Shuttle. Wells was able to get the funds to revive the H Street Shuttle, previously referenced on this blog as the Yuppie People Mover. Somehow, in the midst of a terrible budget crisis, the city was able to find $250,000 sitting around to finance this. I'll say it again, if DDOT wants to pursue this, do so with an expansion of the Circulator. To Tommy Wells: Graham got the Circulator to go up to Woodley Park, how about you lobby for one to go to Minnesota Avenue Metro or the Arboretum, via H Street? $1.00 fare, limited stops, and frequent service. It's managed by DDOT, so you can avoid working with WMATA. Drop a line to Gabe Klein! Do it! As it stands now, we have tiny buses that run once an hour (at best). Don't tell me that the X2 is so unreliable that you'd never be able to catch one within that hour. I've taken the H Street Shuttle before, there is no way to know if the bus is coming, and it doesn't always run on schedule. It's not on Nextbus, and I'd rather wait on the X2 or try to find a cab (which can be scarce) than stand waiting for a bus that i have no idea if it will come or not. But that's just me. Seems like a big waste of that $250,000.

Vincent Gray leads polls, ethics investigations. Both DCRA and the Office of Campaign Finance are investigating Council Chair Vincent Gray (D). Gray has not officially announced a run for mayor, but recent polling data shows him leading Fenty. Is this really the best we can do? These investigations are about things such as unlicensed home improvements done by large scale developers, and also Gray's solicitation of funds using Council stationary. Sure, these things are all "minor" in the grand scheme of things, and "pobody's nerfect," but still.