Monthly Archives: August 2010

The Daily Feed
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Blue Bus is now Circulator

Georgetown Blue Bus / Circulator Notice

Hey Rosslyn, Georgetown, Dupont: notice anything different transit-wise? As of today, the Georgetown Metro Connection (AKA the “Blue Bus”) has switched over to the DC Circulator (AKA the “Red Bus”). The route and stops are the same, but the buses are different, and now you can use Smartrip. And the really good news is that most of the old Blue Bus drivers have also been moved over to driving Circulators, so they haven’t lost their jobs in the switchover.

One major change to watch out for, however: the Rosslyn stop has moved across 19th St to the Georgetown University shuttle pickup point. That sucks a bit since you now have to cross a street if you’re coming from Rosslyn Metro

More from TBD Neighborhoods.

The Daily Feed
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All I Know is that I Know Nothing about the Size of the Rally

Photo courtesy of
‘On the hill’
courtesy of ‘theqspeaks’

Glenn Beck says that 500,000 plus attended his rally.  NBC says 300,000 people were there.  Michelle Bachman swears she saw no fewer than 1 million.  CBS estimates 87,000.  My appraisal: neither  I, nor anyone else has a clue.  It seems that we go through some form of this debate every time a sharply political rally rolls through town.  Supporters always estimate astronomical numbers while detractors offer significantly more modest figures.  The issue came to a head in 1995 when the National Park Service, who up until that point used an imprecise but fairly logical aerial imagery method for estimating crowd density (basically taking square areas of space, counting the number of individuals in that area and then extrapolating that out to include the entire square footage of the event space), was threatened with suit by Louis Farrakhan for estimating that his “Million Man March” was more like a “500,000 Man March.”   Since that time, the Park Service has refrained from calculating crowd sizes, thereby leaving the job to people who may have ulterior motives affecting their conclusions. The trouble, of course, is that the average human so rarely sees crowds in excess of a few hundred that it’s really impossible for anyone to estimate the sizes of huge crowds.  So, let’s just be honest with ourselves: there were a lot of people at the Restoring Honor rally. No one knows how many and it doesn’t really matter.

Sports Fix
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Sports Fix

Photo courtesy of
‘Zim be nimble, Zim be quick’
courtesy of ‘philliefan99’

Nationals
Record: 56-75 (Last in the NL East)
Last Two Weeks: 5-8

The impossible-to-miss, off-field story involves none other than his Royal Strasburg. Late last week, the team announced that a tear in Strasburg’s pitching elbow will require reconstructive surgery of the Tommy John type. The Nats enter the last month of the season looking towards next year, but it is also safe to say that many already think even next season could be a lost cause. Still, in the “looking forward” department, there is still at least one bright spot: Bryce Harper was on the scene at Nationals Park, putting on a Nats jersey and launching bombs during batting practice.

On the field, things have been up and down. Last week, the Nationals got swept at home by the lowly Cubs, but managed to take three out of four from a Cardinals squad that is very much in contention in the Central to conclude the homestand. For a team that’s been fairly lifeless in the past month, maybe the Strasburg news is a reminder that no one man makes a club. In the next two weeks, the Nats will play the majority of their games against NL East rivals, save one trip to Pittsburgh next weekend.

Continue reading →

News, The Daily Feed
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Fenty, 17 points back, hoping for early voting turnout

Photo courtesy of
‘Mayor Fenty 502’
courtesy of ‘yospyn’

The bombshell dropped late Saturday night, when Mike Debonis tweeted the results of the Post’s poll regarding September’s mayoral primary: “#postpoll mayoral top line among LVs: Gray 53, Fenty 36, Alexander 2, S. Brown 2, Undecided 6.” That means, among likely voters, Fenty’s trailing by 17 points. As far as anyone can tell, it’s all about attitude at this point, and everyone is preferring the idea of a slow and methodical Vincent Gray to the quick, shocking change of Adrian Fenty.

This morning opened the polls for the mayoral primary, with early voting running from today through election day at five polling sites throughout the city. Beginning today, you can vote at DCBOEE Headquarters at One Judiciary Square, and beginning Saturday, you can also vote at Chevy Chase Community Center (Ward 3), Hine Junior High School (Ward 6), Southeast Tennis and Learning Center (Ward 8) and Turkey Thicket Rec Center (Ward 5). It’s all electronic voting, everywhere except for DCBOEE. If you long for the touch of a pencil and paper when it comes to ballots, head to the DCBOEE HQ.

If you’re set in your convictions and don’t see changing your mind, even if either of them are caught with a live boy or a dead girl, you can head out and vote starting today, and DCBOEE will be updating the wait time on their site every 15 minutes or so.

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Free DC Shorts Screening at Whole Foods

Photo courtesy of
‘2008 in film’
courtesy of ‘erin m’

The DC Shorts Film Festival is coming soon (September 9 to the 16 to be exact). In the meantime,  niche food and environmental films will be shown at a special pre-festival screening at select Whole Foods in the District.

The Whole Foods stores on P Street (1140 1440 P Street, N.W.) and in Georgetown (2323 Wisconsin Ave, N.W.) will both be providing snack specials and festival catalogs while presenting 7:30 screenings of films.

Both screenings are free, so go kill two birds with one stone – get your grocery shopping done and see a few films from some of the best independent film makers out there.

Tickets for the 2010 DC Shorts Film Festival are still available.

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Nats Beat St. Louis in John Lannan’s Best Game of 2010


Photo by Anthony Amobi / Nationals News Network

Tony La Russa’s St. Louis Cardinals are a very good baseball team. Albert Pujols is an undisputed All-Star whose slugging abilities rank him among the best of the best when it comes to Major League hitters. Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainright are Cy Young contenders. Yadier Molina is the third catcher in baseball history to play in two World Series before the age of 25. And that’s just to name of a few of the notables.

But – somehow – thanks to a little perseverance and gritty desire, the Washington Nationals won the four-game weekend series 3-1 showing that they’ve still got a bit of feistiness stirring up in their bellies.

“We played good clean baseball. When we don’t make errors, because we’ve got a pretty good offensive ballclub and our pitchers pitch to contact, we don’t strike out a lot of people, so when we play good defense like we did in this series we’re tough to beat. We’re competitive with everybody. You think pitching and you think hitting but defense is huge and when we play good defense like that it just gives us a chance to win that many more ball games,” Riggleman said. Continue reading →

All Politics is Local, Life in the Capital, The Daily Feed, The District
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Michelle Rhee On “This Week”

Photo courtesy of
‘Michelle Rhee’
courtesy of ‘angela n.’

Yesterday morning, DC’s chancellor of Public Schools, appeared on ABC’s “This Week” to weigh in on the current state of America’s public education system. During the round table discussion with Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, President of the American Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten, and host Christiane Amanpour, Rhee (who joined via satellite from Sacramento) spoke to the revamping of the DC teacher evaluation model, implementing a merit-based compensation system  and reforming the way government resources flow into the school districts.

See the first segment of the discussion, after the jump.

Continue reading →

The Daily Feed
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Roger Clemens Will Be Arraigned in D.C. This Afternoon For Lying to Congress

Photo courtesy of
‘Roger Clemens’
courtesy of ‘Keith Allison’

After the fall out from the MLB steroid era of the 90s, there were three different types of villains. There were the Barry Bonds types of the world, the silent, near unapologetic – but at least they didn’t fan any flames beyond stoicism. There were those who just wanted it to go away, like Rafael Palmeiro and Mark McGwire. And then there were those who were so adamant about their innocence that it almost seemed like there was too much, so arrogant in their own defense that something was amiss.

The banner case for that last group may be Roger Clemens. During Congressional steroid investigations late last decade, Clemens was brought in for a deposition, but then personally decided that he wasn’t making his case clearly enough and chose on his own power to go before a Congressional hearing to defend himself and his purity. Two and a half years after testifying on Capitol Hill, Clemens has been called back to D.C. – to be arraigned on charges that he perjured himself during that testimony. The Rocket will be arraigned for six counts related to that February 2008 appearance later today, and the trial would pick up again next spring.

The Daily Feed
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Nats Bats Explode to Pound St. Louis 14-5


Photo by Anthony Amobi / Nationals News Network

Remember the first half of the week when the Nationals couldn’t hit for squat? And what about the time Manager Jim Riggleman watched his men strand 14 base runners claiming “it’s better to have men on than not at all” on Friday?

Well, if the Cubs series was the rule, then Saturday night’s game against the St. Louis Cardinals is the exception. The Chicago Cubs outscored Washington  18-5 in three games, but Washington went on to outscore St. Louis 25-19 in three games with one game left today at 1:35.

Riggleman went into the Saturday night game with a different lineup than usual. The plan was to get some people a little different feel when they went up to the plate by changing their spot at the dish. “I feel like we’ve tried to stay with basically the same lineup the whole time [this year] and it’s been hot and cold so we just shook it up a bit,” Riggleman said.

And Riggleman said, “Let there be hits.” And – there were. Continue reading →

The Daily Feed
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Sloppy Defense and Stranded Runners Lose it for The Nats

Photo courtesy of
‘4TH’
courtesy of ‘MissChatter’

Defense lost Friday night’s game for the Washington Nationals. Left-handed starter Scott Olsen was by no means of Cy Young caliber on the mound, but he pitched a decent game. His problems weren’t his control or pitch count; it was his team’s errors in the field and inability to provide run support.

In the span of five batters, the Nats committed three errors in the third – one of which was rescored later in the game by officials – against the St. Louis Cardinals.

“The first couple innings we didn’t play tight defense. We weren’t sharp defensively, we made [Olsen] throw way too many pitches,” Riggleman said. Continue reading →

Sports Fix, The Features
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These Are The Times That Try Fans’ Souls

Photo courtesy of
‘good work, kid’
courtesy of ‘philliefan99’

There’s not a lot to say today, after Nats’ GM Mike Rizzo said the words, “UCL Tear.”

It’s the sort of injury that defines a pitching prospect, as the UCL is a critical part the infrastructure of the pitcher’s elbow, and allows Strasburg to throw with such brutal velocity and artful motion. To see Strasburg go down with a UCL tear just part of the way into his first season, and a season that the Nationals have taken such care with, it’s definitely disheartening for a fan to see.

I’ve seen a lot of garment rending and self-flaggelation on Twitter this morning over the injury. I’ve seen a lot of mentions of curses and whatnot. It’s natural to display such frustration in the face of setbacks. We need to, as a fanbase, work through our frustrations in a positive way, and remember that Strasburg was just one starting pitcher. There are 24 other guys on the primary roster, and 15 more on the 40-man roster that become eligible for use on September 1st.

In December 23, 1776, when the Revolution was in its early days, Thomas Paine started the “In Crisis” pamphlets. They began with a phrase we know so well, “These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.”

Let the fair weather fan go by, Nationals fans. Let them go. This is our franchise to watch, with or without Strasburg, with or without any one player.

Mourn the loss of Stephen until 2012, but do not let it keep you from the ballpark. Do not let it keep you from your Red. Do not let it drive from you your love of this game in this city. These are the times that try fans’ souls, that tempers them in the fires of losses, injuries, and baubles; that forges in them the loyalty that comes from sticking by the team in the darkest hour.

Gather close your friends in red this week. Go see an extra game against the Cards, especially if they’re all like last night: close fought battles with a division-leader against their ace that go into extras. There are still many reasons to love, and struggle with, Nationals baseball. But they’re what we’ve got, and you don’t walk away from a franchise because of the injury of one player.

These are the times when character is forged, when allegiance is built. If you’ll forgive the mangling of Paine’s closing words, “This is our situation, and who will may know it. By perseverance and fortitude we have the prospect of a glorious issue; by cowardice and submission, the sad choice of a variety of evils…” What choice have we, but to remain true to our team? Would we become Phillies fans? Mets fans? Braves fans? Surely, we all have more class than to turn tail and run to safety amid the danger.

Do not tarry long in distress, Nats fan. Your team still needs your voice, your heart, and your faith.

The Daily Feed
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Talking about trash to our tea party visitors

DC resident and first amendment attorney/guru to WLDC Kevin Goldberg put together this guest piece for us and we are behind its sentiment 100%

Photo courtesy of
‘trashed’
courtesy of ‘philliefan99’

An open letter to invading masses,

I love DC. I’ll even say flat out that I love DC more than you. I grew up the DC area (Rockville represent!!!), have lived in the DC area (or within 2 hours from DC) for pretty my entire 39 years (and 2 days) and, finally moved into the city itself in 2004.

Before I get to my request, let me make one thing clear, in the interest of full disclosure. I’m not one of you. I don’t agree with your politics. I’m not going to attend the “Restoring Honor” rally this Saturday at the Lincoln Memorial. But, since my politics are pretty much “First Amendment and then everything else,” I 100 percent, wholeheartedly, embrace your right to converge on my city and speak your minds.

What I don’t embrace is the way you treat my city whenever you come here. I’m not going to snark DC-wise on things like standing to the left on the Metro escalators or jamming up restaurants I wouldn’t want to eat at anyway while ignoring the hidden gems that make this city’s food scene one of the most underrated in your country. That’s too easy and it’s been done. Instead, I’m talking trash. Every time there has been a Tea Party affiliated, based or ideologically connected event on or near the Mall, the landscape takes on a post-apocalyptic feel afterward. Trash everywhere. Discarded signs litter the pavement and sidewalks, strewn amidst empty water bottles, food containers and soda cups. Maybe tomorrow will be different, but I’m not counting on it and I’m obviously already affected by it.

So, if I have but one simple request for you this weekend, it’s this: pick up after yourselves.

Continue reading →

All Politics is Local, The District, The Features
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Campaign Notebook: August 27, 2010

Photo courtesy of
‘DC Flag’
courtesy of ‘kevnkovl’

OK folks, we’re now less than three weeks out from primary day. Eighteen days. What in the world will us journobloggers do once this is all over? These things are getting a bit longer as we get closer to the election, so let’s get started.

The Big Race

We’re getting down to the wire, and things are getting ugly. The Gray campaign unveiled it’s first television spot, which hits hard on the “cronyism” topic. Gray has also sent out a barrage of mailers with the same theme. Going negative with the first television spot is a bold move, going against most conventional wisdom. However, like others, we have to wonder how much conventional wisdom applies to this race. In fact, it seems at this point the cronyism theme likely tests in favor of Gray among undecideds.

Fenty loses bid to allow independents to change parties. The mayor made a last minute appeal to the Board of Elections and Ethics to allow non-party affiliated voters to change affiliation in order to vote on September 14. As of July 31, there were nearly 80,000 registered voters with no party affiliation, and they will not be able to vote in the primary. The deadline to change parties has passed, so any remaining no-affiliation voters are out of luck. Freeman Klopott at the Examiner thinks this smells of desperation in the Fenty camp. I’d agree. Fenty likely thinks these unaffiliated voters would break for him, which may be the case since the largest numbers of no-party voters are in Wards 1-3. I think Gray campaign manager Adam Rubinson went a bit too far with the Hugo Chavez comparison, but this does seem to fall into a “kitchen sink” approach to getting more votes. It is a valid point to discuss–that nearly 16% of the electorate cannot vote in the de-facto election—but this should happen between elections, not during.

What’s next–dogs and cats living together? Mass Hysteria? Fenty sits down with the City Paper. Vince Gray loves Sex and the City.

Continue reading →

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Calling all Juiceheads!

Photo courtesy of
‘The Snooki Sandwich’
courtesy of ‘b0jangles’
Well I guess we know what the folks at BGR are doing every Thursday night. A little fist pumping, a little GTL and plenty of brainstorming after a Solo cup of Ron-Ron juice. After the rousing success of the Strasburger (a cheeseburger topped with a hot dog and 14 pickles), BGR has cooked up…wait for it…the Snooki Burger.

Coming next month, the burger will be an all beef patty topped with jalapenos, cream cheese, and a fried pickle for every time Snooki gets arrested in September. So the next time you’re down the Shore, find Snooki and do some provoking. Mama wants some more pickles on her burger.

The Daily Feed
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Breaking: Stephen Strasburg Will Probably Have Tommy John Surgery

IMG_7554 Strasburg by Cheryl Nichols / Nationals News Network


Photo by Cheryl Nichols / Nationals News Network

The Washington Nationals announced this morning that rookie pitcher Stephen Strasburg will be out for the rest of the season and will likely have Tommy John Surgery.

The news came to Strasburg Thursday after the result of his arthogram showed a “significant” tear of the Ulner Collateral Ligament in his pitching elbow. Strasburg and the Nationals refrained from announcing the arthogram results until this morning out of respect for Bryce Harper’s introductory press conference at Nationals Park that afternoon.

Strasburg will get a second opinion from Dr. Lewis Yocum in California in the coming days, but he remains optimistic, determined, and ready to take on this new thing in his life, Rizzo said.

The Nationals believe that Strasburg’s rehabilitation after surgery, if it takes place, should be a typical Tommy John rehabilitation and will take anywhere between 12-18 months.

Update, 11:30 a.m.: Tommy John surgery is a procedure where a ligament from the medial elbow is replaced with a tendon from elsewhere in the body. Possible options are tendons from the forearm, hamstring, knee, or foot. There are also Knee Replacement Alternatives in Hardy Oak – QC Kietix for those who prefer non-invasive treatments. Tommy John surgery is common among collegiate and professional athletes in several sports, mostly baseball, and several pitchers who have undergone the procedure have made a healthy recovery. These pitchers include: Chris Carpenter, Tim Hudson, Josh Johnson, Billy Wagner, Erik Bedard, and Joakim Soria.

The Daily Feed
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Metro Crash Civil Trial Delayed Until 2012

Photo courtesy of
‘unusual destination’
courtesy of ‘philliefan99’

The AP is reporting that the civil suit brought by survivors of those killed in the June 2009 metro accident, originally slated to start September 2011, is being pushed back to January 2012. Following a motion brought by two newer defendants in the claim, ARINC (a provider of communications system on public transport systems) and Michigan-based electrical supplier, ADCO Circuits, a judge upheld the request to delay the start of the tiral.

In addition, the judge will allow a hearing this November for Metro to ask some charges to be dismissed, specifically those which would impede on “sovereign immunity” that WMATA retains as a transportation authority.

Adventures, Business and Money, Entertainment, Life in the Capital, Special Events, The Daily Feed
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A Flip Camera Liaison

Photo courtesy of
‘Flip-Mo’
courtesy of ‘agent_shir’

The Liasion, an Affinia Hotel located on Capitol Hill, currently has a very intriguing and knowing DC hotels, potentially scandalous, end of summer offer.  Book a minimum two night stay for $229/night and they’ll gift you a Flip Video Camcorder. Hmmm…I wonder what possible uses, aside from capturing our beautiful city, this video recorder could have at a hotel called The Liaison. Marion Barry better watch out.