Silent George

A few days ago, I walked out of Love Cafe, after consuming entirely too many cupcake calories, to be kind of startled by giant mural of George with his mouth bound. According to the DCist, the building is owned by the founder of DC Vote, an organization which advocates for full democratic voting rights in DC. According to their website, DC Vote is "dedicated to securing full voting representation in Congress and full democracy for the residents of the District of Columbia."

Voting is a bit of a touchy subject in DC, which is why the motto on our car tags reads "Taxation Without Representation." The Constitution only guarantees Congressional privileges to the states, but DC isn't a state. Therefore, we have no senator or representative. Eleanor Holmes Norton is DC's "Delegate to Congress." She can vote on procedural matters and committee votes, but not on the actual House floor votes. And, despite the fact that we pay taxes to the city--the highest per capita tax bracket in the United States--our city budget is completely at the mercy of Congress. Remember the looming federal shutdown a few months ago? We weren't even going to have garbage pickup. And you thought your hometown was buried in bureaucracy.