DSC_1855, courtesy of Me

President Obama is speaking out on the campus of George Mason University in a few minutes and where there’s POTUS there’s protest.

The signs were pretty one-sided against health care, though one determined fellow was walking around with a huge “Public Option Now” banner that looked more suited to a renaissance faire in style than a protest.

Among the reasons for the imbalance was the limits on attendees. The invitations said “cameras are allowed, however no signs or banners are permitted,” so any opposition inside is going to have to pretty much seethe in silence. The folks outside were making up for that with their energy, doing a lot of shouting across a 6 foot tape-enforced DMZ at the folks waiting to go in. Once most had entered the approximately 150 or so folks on the other side of the tape pretty much settled down to chatting amongst themselves.

The ban on signs didn’t go over well with some – the woman below was yelling “there is no free speech in that building.”

DSC_1875, courtesy of Me

More shots after the jump.

DSC_1854, courtesy of Me

The folks waiting to get in, demonstrating that when all signs are outlawed only opposition will have signs.

DSC_1869, courtesy of Me

I couldn’t entirely follow what this fellow was worked up over; when I walked up there was an extended argument going on between him and a pro-Obama fellow on the other side of the tape about exactly who the building security standing in the DMZ worked for; it was going on when I walked up and was still happening when I walked away a few minutes later. Whether he was a state employee or not seemed to matter a great deal to the guy on the protest side though I never figured out why; perhaps he was bothered that the man on duty seemed to like the other side better or it was the crux of some larger philosophical point.

DSC_1865, courtesy of Me

Some folks were there less in opposition to something than support of a candidate. I’m guessing Fimian is against health care reform.

DSC_1862, courtesy of Me

That was about the entirety of the opposition crowd, though about half a dozen stragglers were conversing off to the right now that all the attendees had entered.

DSC_1853, courtesy of Me

There’s the protesters from the other side earlier, when they were more motivated and yelling to those waiting to go into the building.

DSC_1859, courtesy of Me

I’m not sure if that’s in quotes because he doesn’t think Wright is a legitimate religious leader or because it’s mis-spelled.

DSC_1857, courtesy of Me

I don’t know what this means but I presume it’s an issue with some compensation or retirement formula.

DSC_1866, courtesy of Me

DSC_1864, courtesy of Me

DSC_1867, courtesy of Me

DSC_1868, courtesy of Me

DSC_1870, courtesy of Me

DSC_1871, courtesy of Me

DSC_1876, courtesy of Me

DSC_1877, courtesy of Me

DSC_1878, courtesy of Me

DSC_1879, courtesy of Me

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Today’s DC Register tolling turns up this interesting but, in my mind, somewhat questionable effort: the Nando’s Peri-Peri on 18th street is looking to add a dozen cafe seats on the sidewalk. I’m excited by the impending outdoor cafe action myself, but that’s a pretty busy and loud road there; I don’t think it’s a coincidence you don’t see much street seating along that stretch. No matter how beautiful a day, I don’t know that I want to dine while being serenaded by cabbie horn.

If you’re not intimidated, well, the hearing is set for early May so perhaps they’ll be clear by Memorial day.

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Tiffany’s sign was pretty popular, courtesy of MrMoonPie

Above is MrMoonPie – occasional commenter around these parts – and his wife. In addition to being an all-around good guy he’s a licensed wedding officiant in the District… and he has made himself available to same-sex couples who applied for licenses last week and are starting their ceremonies today. Last he told us over on MetaFilter he was up to 14 total ceremonies but his comment on the post over at Washington City Paper indicates he’s up to 18 now… 8 of them today!

Personally I never get tired of this picture and it still makes me mist up a little every time I see it. So I’m happy to post it, but the real reason I’m running this piece is that I am tickled pink by the symmetry in this recent statement from MrMoonPie:

An interesting detail is that I’ll be performing a marriage in the Trinidad neighborhood, one block away from where the Loving family lived after they got kicked out of Virginia for marrying across racial lines. They were, of course, the inspiration for the sign that got all this started.

I’m less delighted by the additional symmetry that this is happening the week after some more modern douche-y behavior out of Virginia, but it’s nice to know that the District continues to be a place welcoming those driven out of Virginia.

The WMATA news today is that the cost of the June red line crash is about 25 million dollars. That’s pure hardware and labor costs – any lawsuits will raise the total. Insurance may cover that… after the 5 million dollar deductible.

The Examiner’s story says “The memo says four rail cars were destroyed at a cost of $12 million,” so a little basic math tells us that when you plop yourself into a bright orange seat you’ve sitting in a $3M vehicle. That’s 14 Ferrari Testarossas, or $4 a day since the birth of Jesus.

I don’t know what Jesus has to do with anything but dollars-since-salvation seemed to be a popular metric in the last year and I felt a little left out.

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, courtesy of erin m

There’s a lot of folks out there on day 1 of marriage equality in the District, but only two of them are my friends Chris and Hampton. How many people can say that they saw pictures of their friends getting their marriage license on the internet before being shown pictures by the friends themselves?

Well, today maybe a lot. But while there may be many couples like them, this one is mine. Congrats, guys.

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I’ll admit it – if I loved you as much as I should I would have written about this before snatching up the one currently available pictured item. But when I saw twitter user WStephenAnfield mention owning one of these and found it on Etsy I couldn’t resist.

On the upside, Etsy seller GingerCardCo has obviously made these before and presumably will again. You can send them a note and say you want one – it’s been my experience that Etsy sellers often have more stock they haven’t listed yet. XOHandworks also has a number of map pendants, several of which have DC on them. I prefer the marginally more “macho” dog tag, but perhaps the pendant is up your alley.

Disappointingly both of these vendors are non-local. Any of you readers local artists creating DC-centric items? The t-shirts WLDC has adopted as our unofficial uniform are made by Lara of 237inc who’s a local, by the way, and they’re still available and awesome.

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It only garnered a few paragraphs in the WaPo’s Local Digest but The Daily Beast has a longer writeup about a sit-in held at the local Islamic Center on the 20th. At the core of the debate is the mandate by some mosques that women pray in a separate area, sometimes behind an opaque screen or curtain. When a group of women who disagree with this policy came in and attempted to pray alongside the men, the mosque officials called D.C. police to have the women removed or charged with trespassing.

It’s an interesting situation, and the gender divide isn’t following the usual progression of less permissive to more permissive; the article cites a CAIR survey stating that 50% of mosques enforced separate prayer areas 15 years ago. 10 years ago 66% did.

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DC Public Schools has announced the updated calendar for the remainder of the school year and several teacher professional development days – what were called teacher workdays where I went to school – have turned into regular attendance days. Great news if you were trying to figure out what to do with the kiddies on March 19th and May 17th, less awesome if you’re a teacher now forced to do your mundane tasks in your off time.

Kids will be even less thrilled to have their half day on June 18th turn into a full-length day… which will be followed by two added days, the 21st and 22nd.

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After news of Meg’s firing started to make the round yesterday I dropped an email to Kevin Goldberg of Fletcher, Heald & Hildreth of Arlington. FH&H is a local law firm specializing in communications law – things like FCC filings or regulations, fines, copyright issues and so on. They’ve also got a blog about communications issues that several of their attorneys write for, including Goldberg. Sometimes it’s a little rarefied, but you can find items there about things like licensing fees on podcasts too.

Goldberg’s role there is more in line with some of Meg’s problems – he’s focused on freedom of speech issues, including in online publishing. I came to know him as a student in his Media Law class at George Mason University, which I’d highly recommend if you’re concerned about your vulnerability as a writer. He was nice enough to take a few minutes to talk with me on the phone about some of the issues raised by this situation and some of the local laws in play.

We started by discussing employment issues and free speech in general, where the news is pretty good… if you’re an employer.

When it comes to your bosses, Goldberg says, “There are varying degrees of control they can exert over you. If you say things that are disparaging to the firm – even if it’s done on your own time – that could be a punishable or fire-able offense.” We chatted a bit about a recent NPR story that discussed the fact that, for most of us, we have and keep our jobs at the whim of our employer. If they don’t like the way you slurp your coffee they’re pretty much free to can you.

Goldberg’s more relaxed about this than a lot of us, which you could write off as optimism about people or perhaps as a result of his professional consultations with employers looking to write policies. “It takes a lot of – let’s just say it nicely – chutzpah to” fire people for saying things you dislike, Goldberg says, and “put yourself … in the position of really painting yourself not only as a bad boss, but a censor.”

We spent a lot more time on the defamation issue, and what he had to say was a lot more reassuring to anyone concerned about getting sued by someone who doesn’t like the things written about them… mostly.

‘Texture’
courtesy of ‘Yndra’

Talking about Meg’s example, Goldberg described a pretty high bar to be hurdled by an angry person looking to sue. “There’s eight elements her bosses would have to show in suing her successfully for defamation. For one, they’d have to show the article clearly identifies them. She does say that they were never identified by name,” which jibes with my memory of her writings. “That means the post in question has to paint the picture that allows them to say “Oh, I know exactly who she’s talking about.” And I don’t know that that ever happened.”

But is avoiding explicitly identifying someone enough? I may avoid mentioning my employer overtly, but if someone reads everything I ever wrote and can connect the dots pretty confidently, what then? Can that one person be enough to allow a defamation suit to go forward?

‘all by himself’
courtesy of ‘erin m’

“That’s pretty much enough. That’s all defamation law requires. That ONE person hears a defamatory statement and understands it to be about the plaintiff.” Scary stuff… till you get back to the fact that the lawsuit requires more than hurt feelings. “Defamation is a lawsuit that’s designed to put the parties back into the place they were if this has never happened. In other words, it’s a civil action designed to make things right again. Well, because that’s the case, if one person hears this and understands it, the bosses could bring one person forward and have them say “oh yeah, it took me a while, but I KNEW that’s who they were talking about,” well, great – you’ve got one person who understood that. Where’s the damage?”

If Meg’s got a get-out-of-legal-hell card, this is it. “You have to show that you were harmed. You have to show damages. It could be very difficult for anyone to look at this blog and find things that she said things about her boss that led to real damages. They would have to show they lose work, that they lose value in their business, that they lose value in their own reputation that translates into something verifiable.”

This is a heartwarming thought… till you get to what Brandon pointed out in the comments yesterday, and what I described to Goldberg as my biggest worry about being sued: I am less concerned about being shown to be right than I am being bankrupted by the process. Winning can be expensive, particularly if you face accusers who are already lawyers or someone dealing with a lawyer working on contingency. You can tell from this answer that Professor Goldberg had to put up with my snark in a classroom for a semester.

‘The Spirit of Justice’
courtesy of ‘kimberlyfaye’

“I see what you’re doing here – this is the part where you want me to defend the legal system and lawyers and everything else say that everything is right and just with the world. Well, it ain’t always fair. It’s not always right. We put our faith in it because, frankly, our legal system is still – especially in defamation – a heck of a lot better than almost every other country in the world. Because of a little thing called the First Amendment.” Confidence in the quality of our legal system aside, Goldberg also has faith in people’s dedicated self interest.

“If these people are lawyers, they could presumably file a suit without paying lawyers. But it does mean they have to take time away from their own business.” I pushed on this a little bit, having known some people whose sense of anger and vengeance outstripped good financial sense. Not to mention that we’ve seen people pursue extended court battles over a pair of pants. Isn’t there some better protection than assuming litigants have good sense?

“There are a couple of controls against this, against the filing of frivolous lawsuits,” Goldberg says, “One is, they could be sanctioned if it’s clearly frivolous. That’s really difficult to show, so let’s just assume that’s not going to be the case.” The one thing we D.C. and Virginia-based bloggers are missing – but what Maryland does have – is an anti-SLAPP statute.

‘We read…………’
courtesy of ‘LaTur’

“SLAPP stands for Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation. An anti-SLAPP is a statute that exists in a number of states – not all – and as I said, not DC, which is intended to make things easier for a defendant who’s being sued simply for the purpose of shutting that person up.” If you can’t tell, Goldberg’s in favor of these protections. “If DC had an anti-SLAPP she could take advantage of that. One, they completely accelerate the process of defending the suit. It streamlines everthing, makes it cheaper, makes it quicker, and takes a lot of the sting out of having to make that eventual defense. In some cases as a defendant, if you end up victorious, you can actually get damages for your time.”

“So my pitch is, someone, if they’re really worried about this, should be talking to the DC government and saying “you know, this is a real problem, we’d like to see you take the lead of other states.”"

Future law additions and litigation expenses aside, what people writing should console themselves with, Goldberg says, is that when people say that truth is a defense against libel claims, they’re under-selling the actual protections. “Truth is not a defense. Falsity must be proven. Material and substantial falsity must be proven. That’s one of the things the first amendment does is it makes the plaintiff show this.” In the case of Meg, Goldberg says that the metric isn’t whether she can prove it’s true, but that “it can’t be proven false.”

‘yes, we should’
courtesy of ‘philliefan99′

Context matters too, he says, as well as the fact that bloggers are the Rodney Dangerfield of the online world. “I hate to say it, but the lower perception of blogs and perhaps the more hyperbolic that certain blogs are, the more they help themselves in instances where they’re sued.” Meg’s conversational and funny style make it less likely she’s going to be perceived as presenting facts. 2Birds1Blog writes funny stuff with a lot of hyperbole and obvious opinion. “It’s excellent writing. I just don’t think she’ll tell you for a second that it’s 100% true as you’d want to read it in the New York times, Washington Post or We Love DC.”

Yeah, he’s totally angling for free drink tickets at the next WLDC event.

With all that done, I asked Goldberg the last thing I wondered – when it all goes to hell and one of us finds we need legal representation against a defamation lawsuit… how do we find ourselves a lawyer to help us deal with the situation? “If you’re a in a defamation situation, I’d say the first thing is that you need to be comfortable with your lawyer. This is someone you’re going to be telling some innermost secrets to. What you did, why you did it, when you did it, how you did it, what you were thinking… it’s as important that they’re good for you as that they’re good.”

“There are a couple of really good free resources out there. They may not be able to represent you themselves, but they are referral services which can find you, perhaps, pro bono representation. There’s something called the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press which is right here in Arlington. They have a lawyer referral program for situations like this. There is a somewhat newly formed project called the Citizen Media Law Project which provides resources for you to think through this stuff before you even see a lawyer.”

All that aside, Goldberg adds, there’s nothing like a personal recommendation. “Ask friends. Even if you don’t know the first thing about defamation lawyers and the only friend you know who is a lawyer is a criminal defense lawyer, ask that person. They’ve got to know someone from school, they have to know somebody they’ve encountered. And even if they were on the other side… even if it’s a plaintiff’s lawyer that has brought a defamation case against somebody… they would probably tell you the real deal as to who you can trust and who you’d want to hire.”

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The Office of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Affairs has put out a release about the imminent availability of marriage licenses for same-sex couples. The date they’ll be available continues to be projected as March 3, subject to congress’ being in session. Most of it is delightfully unsurprising: want to get married? Show up with proper identification and pay the $35. Just. Like. Everyone. Else.

*sniff* I’m misting up a little here.

The items that are different and noteworthy is that you don’t have to pay that $35 if you’re already a registered domestic partnership in the District. You’ll still have to pay the $10 for a certified copy of the certificate if you want one, but the application fee is waved. You should also look into any requirements if you’d registered a partnership in another state – the Office of GLBT says “the other state’s law may require you to dissolve it prior to marrying in the District of Columbia.” Odd and curious – anyone know specific examples of this kind of issue?

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If, like me, you have fond memories of the kind of insanity Cherry Red used to bring to local stages, you’re in luck: you’ve got 12 opportunities this weekend to reminisce. What was called Thumbsucker on stage has become SNUFF.MOV on screen and will be screened at the Warehouse Theater this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

Just in case the word “snuff” didn’t tip you off – this isn’t light fare for everyone. Aside from the obvious sex and violence, writer/director Ian Allen never used to seem interested in putting something on stage unless it was going to challenge almost everyone. Clearly celluloid hasn’t change that fact – check out the trailer at the film’s website if you need proof.

Personally I’ll risk being nauseated by a small film over being bored by Dances with Smurfs’ lame storytelling anytime, but it also doesn’t hurt that there’s no showings of Avatar right next door to super-bar The Passenger. I’ll be at the 10:30 premiere on Saturday, so if you come out, say hi. I’d suggest you reserve your seat rather than take your chances at the door – the Warehouse isn’t exactly the multiplex.

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Another year, another bunch of badly written stories and even worse headlines about Virginia legislators monkeying with the concealed weapons law. There’s some valid issues here to discuss but you’d never know it from the reporting that happens every time this is revisited.

Case in point:  Washington Post’s Virginia Politics blog headlines a story “Va. Senate votes to allow guns in restaurants” and opens with “The Democratically-controlled Virginia Senate has voted to allow concealed weapons permit holders to carry guns in restaurants that serve alcohol, as long as the person carrying the weapon does not drink.”

Problem is, guns are already allowed in restaurants and concealed weapons permit holders can already carry them in… openly.

We’ll just ignore the fact that the above WaPo story thinks that the VA Senate being democratically controlled is so pertinent that it needs to be in the opening paragraph.

The major problem with the article is the same one made by all the news outlets every year when the Virginia legislature tries to alter the law: Virginia has open-carry and citizens are free to strap their sidearm to their belt and walk wherever they like with it… including into Red Lobster or any other alcohol-serving establishment. Provided the business doesn’t prohibit it.

WaPo ought to know this; they have written about it. If they feel like they can’t just report facts without supporting evidence (other than their own past stories) I imagine know that a nanosecond of googling will turn up supporting information as well as the names of people willing to discuss the matter.

Despite this allowance for open carry, however, the law specifically regarding concealed weapons carves out an exclusion for some permit holders. Specifically, the average joe can’t walk in the door of anywhere that serves alcohol – whether it be a club, Outback, or even your local kabob counter that has beer – unless they switch that weapon to outside their clothing.

It’s not a full ban – someone who owns that shop doesn’t even need a concealed weapons permit to hide their pistol on their own property or in their own business – it’s stated right up at the top of the code governing concealed weapons prohibitions and permitting. Law enforcement officers can also be strapped under their clothing. As can “any owner or event sponsor or his employees.”

So, the law as it stands allows for every single employee of that Red Lobster to be packin’ heat, including the bartender, as well as any on duty, off duty, and retired law enforcement officer. Go to Outback on Police Officer Appreciation Night and the only person in there who isn’t armed might be the person with the concealed weapons permit.

You might get the impression that I’m a big supporter of this law change from the above text, but the reality is that I don’t have a strong opinion on the issue. I think there’s a case to be made for keeping firearms out of places that serve alcohol (though I have a hard time getting worked up over restaurants that just happen to serve booze) but there’s not currently any such ban. The only thing the current law accomplishes is keeping some concealed weapons out of a restaurant without the establishment needing to put up a sign prohibiting weapons… which they’re perfectly free to do, before and after this law change.

The same concealed weapons permit that bans carrying into these establishments includes a clause making it a misdemeanor for a permit holder to be carrying while intoxicated, as well as providing for an automatic revocation of the permit and banning them from re-applying for five years. So there’s already a ban against permit holders imbibing when they’re carrying, whether they do that drinking at home or at Red Lobster.

So keep that in mind as you read what’s sure to be an endless series of stories full of half-truths and scaremongering from folks both for and against this change in the code. They’ll no doubt continue till the law passes, which it’s almost certain to do. This passed both houses last year and only failed to become law when Governor Kaine vetoed it. McDonnell has indicated his support, so if it makes it to his desk it’ll become law.

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image from the wikimedia commons

One of our twitter followers, @DrNorthwest, asked about where one might find Pączki for this Fat Tuesday. While it’s not on our must-eat list (we’re more beignet lovers here) we do thankfully have a little information on the matter, thanks in no small part to Ask Metafilter. This time last year someone else asked looking for a source and the upshot was this:

• Giant stores was advertising in their circulars they would have them last year. No sign of them in the 2/12 circular for my area, however.
• Woodmoor Pastry Shop in Silver Spring was listed as a source.
• So was the Kielbasa Factory in Rockville.

Spotted any anywhere else? Sing out in the comments.

Update @ 10:30 – thanks Sean & Nanther who both report spottings in Giant (Van Ness and West Falls Church). Sounds like you’ve got a good chance of getting them at your local Giant if all else fails.

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Well, sorta. The Crystal City BID started a farmer’s market last year and handled management themselves. Washington Business Journal reports that when it returns in May it’ll be managed by FreshFarm, the non-profit organization that handles 9 other local markets, including the Dupont and the White House location.

It’s good news for those of us who reside in what I like to call The Area Formerly Known as Part of D.C. The contract is for three years, so presuming it continues to be successful that should provide some nice consistency.

I’m happy to see them get the contract just based on their sense of whimsy. FreshFarm’s website says of this weekend’s Silver Spring and Dupont Circle markets “Farmers and producers will attend based on their ability to dig out of the snow and get to market.”

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I haven’t seen anything from our local media yet but WSLS 10 in Roanoke has a nice 2 minute clip talking about the snow, melt, flooding risk, and what the water to snow ratio was for them in this storm.

The upshot is this: for the moment we’re not facing the kind of unpleasant flooding we saw after December’s massive snowfall, primarily because we’re in a colder pattern at the moment and we’re not following it up with rain that will accelerate the melt. While we’d all love to see this melt off we’d probably not enjoy seeing it happen too quickly.

That doesn’t mean we don’t need clear drains however – the curb outside my home is seeing a pretty steady flow of water as the sun-warmed blacktop and above-freezing temperature turns snow into slush and water. Take a moment to look around your home and make sure the downspouts are clear and any grates are free of leaf debris and other crap. We want this stuff to run off into the drain as expediently as possible so it doesn’t end up flooding our basements or frozen into black ice on the streets.

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Well, we’ve whipped up a tool to help you find ones close to you, buried or not. Put in a few extra minutes after shoveling your walk and un-burying your car – the house you save might be your own.

The map is powered by Google Maps and uses up-to-date GIS data from the District Water and Sewer website. Just scroll it around to find the 40 nearest hydrants or key in an address or zip code to re-center the map. Only District hydrants are mapped.

Click the image below to go to the finder.

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Click here to view the embedded video.

That’s Daimion Suomi performing “Burn the Pain.” There’s another video from last night on the linked Suomi tumblr,, but it includes some footage of what Suomi had to go through to get to last night’s performance. And we’re not talking about that for a few minutes, are we now?

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If you’re an Arlington resident and have some books that are due to go back this week – keep em. Anything that was due on the 5th on through the 15th is now auto-magically not due back till the 16th. If you’ve got something you checked out in 1993 and were finally going to bring it back today, don’t sweat that either – no late fees will be incremented for the days the library is closed.

So if it was good, crack it back open and give it another pass-through. You’re not going anywhere.

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On Thursday, February 11th, Food & Friends needs 20 volunteers to deliver meals, especially those with 4-wheel-drive vehicles.  Those without cars would be very much appreciated in the kitchen, and it would be great if they could come between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m.  Volunteers may sign up to chenderson@foodandfriends.org.  This information is also available on our website at www.foodandfriends.org/winterstorm2010.  Without Food & Friends, our clients likely will not eat, so the help of the community is vital.  Meals may be picked up from Food & Friends (219 Riggs Road, NE/Washington, DC) between 10 a.m. and 12 a.m., we will provide detailed delivery directions, and routes should take no more than 3 hours.  For more information, prospective volunteers may call 202.841.5347.

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Make your own decision about what proportion of  awesome : stupid this is, but I enjoyed the hell out of watching it.

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