I doubt he’ll have any better luck than Bush did

Obama urges Congress to delay Ft. Hood investigation. A Congressional investigation, see, is a circus for midgets, with every politician seeing what secrets he can spill to gain face time on the Sunday news programs and look really, really smart to the five folks back home who watch CSpan. Now that he’s president, Obama has other motives, like, and I’ll give him credit this once, national security. That’s no match for a Congressional ego.

Remember when Bush asked Daschel to limit his investigation into 9/11? Ha.

Bidding wars resume in New York – but see why

Sunday’s NY Times real estate section has an encouraging (for sellers) article on multiple bids resuming for city apartments . Before you raise your price and call in the movers, though, read the fine print:

Brokers say that bidding wars are almost always set up by listings that are “priced well,” and by that they mean 20 to 30 percent below the high-water marks of early 2008.

Jonathan J. Miller, the president of the appraisal firm Miller Samuel, estimated that two-thirds of the roughly 4,000 apartments for sale in Manhattan are priced too high for the current market.

“So,” Mr. Miller said, “you have this weird situation right now where you have above-average inventory, but people are fighting over the ones that are priced correctly.”

I’ve preached pricing for probably eight years now, but it’s even more important in this market than during the boom. Read the entire article (use Google News, search “New York bidding wars”” if you aren’t a registered Times user and want to skip the hassle of becoming one) and then perhaps sit down with your agent and plot a new pricing strategy for next year.

You can thank our First Selectman for this

Two former town employees, Garo Garabedian and Ennio De Vita, have filed age discrimination complaints against the town. I’m not familiar with Mr. Da Vita but Garabedian was a top notch fellow who always exuded a calm confidence and excellent grasp of the facts when I heard him speak at various public meetings and zoning hearings over the years. I was astonished that Tesei fired him but even more appalled at they way he did it, ordering the man escorted out of Town Hall under guard as though he were some criminal to be feared.

Perhaps Garabedian would have complained anyway – he’s 64 and surely felt wronged, but if Tesei had done the honorable thing, given him a public farewell and perhaps a ceremony to thank him for his decades of service to the town, the ill-will could have been mitigated. As it is, the man is pissed and coming back at us. Even as a taxpayer who will end up footing the bill for any award he’s granted, I say good for him.