Category Archives: The Daily Feed

All Politics is Local, The Daily Feed, The District, WTF?!
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More Gun Choices

DC Guns

DC Guns by Mike Licht

HR 6691. Learn the number. It’s going to be a Thing™. It’s the NRA-backed bill in the House designed to torpedo the District’s new version of the law that ended up overturned by the Supreme Court. It’s got a Lengthy list of co-sponsors from both Republicans and Democrats. The NRA is threatening to withhold sponsorship from anyone who dares not sign onto their effort to strip the Registration requirement and the bar on semi-automatic pistols in the District.

Oy. Look, we know the City Council blew it with their new version of the law, which seems to be in direct countervention to the Supreme Court’s direction in Heller, but did you need to get all micro-manage-y on us? Of course, in response, Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton has proposed her own compromise and it might make it to the floor before HR 6691.

The message to take home here is: “Hey Congress, you don’t live here, get the hell out of our politics.”

The Daily Feed
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Two “Suspicious Package” Alerts

Two news alerts today of “suspicious packages” at Gallaudet University and Judiciary Square Metro Station this morning.

Ballard North Hall at Gallaudet was evacuated while a bomb squad was called in, and Judiciary Square Station was closed, with trains continuing to travel through it but no stops.

Update: Judiciary Square Station is back open again after the package was deemed safe. Meanwhile at Gallaudet, the word from WJLA News is “suspicious substance” plant fertilizer.

All Politics is Local, Downtown, People, The Daily Feed, The District
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Goodbye Councilwoman Schwartz

DC Ballot Box
DC Ballot Box by cainsable

Last night’s primary results are in and they spell defeat for Republican At-large Councilwoman Carol Schwartz at the hands of Upstart Patrick Mara, backed by big-business interests in DC. Mara has won the right to represent the Republican party for the two at-large seats on the Council this fall. He’ll face Kwame Brown, Michael Brown, Dee Hunter and David Schwartzman, with the top two vote-getters picking up seats on the council.

Of course, last night’s election wasn’t entirely drama-free, as the DCBOEE published erroneous results on their site more than once last night. The culprit ended up being an optical scan ballot-reader in one precinct which was showing a large number of write-in votes that were being counted incorrectly.

All of the other councilpersons defended their challenges successfully, including Mayor-for-Life Barry (Ward 8). While their elections are just for the party slot on the November ballot, in largely Democratic DC, they’re virtually guaranteed re-election.

The Daily Feed, The Great Outdoors
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A gassy deal

Photo courtesy of christaki

No, this is NOT about a sale at Ben’s.

Propane Taxi, a service that I have in the past used and recommended, is running a pretty plum deal right now: a $10 tank exchange. Best I’ve ever seen at a hardware store or gas station is $18, and this beats that by $8 and you don’ t have to leave the house.

I presume this is a loss-leader they’re running to try to convince more folks to give them a try, and even aside from the deal I think you should. With gas prices what they are I think you can make a compelling case that the $3 more than Home Depot is close to a wash even before you figure the value of your time. At $10.60? Well worth it.

summer nites summer lites, courtesy of christaki

The Daily Feed
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You still get stuck in traffic, but at least you have something to look at.


Memorial Bridge Statues
Originally uploaded by rgb48

Despite the fact that I am a grownup and tell myself that I am too mature for such things, my inner 12 year old always giggles at the subtext of naked men on horseback and their naked female companions when I drive over the Memorial Bridge.

As I was perusing the intarwebz today, looking for more information about these figures, I learned a curious fact about the bridge itself from Wikipedia:

Although the bridge was part of the 1901 McMillan Commission’s plan for restoring Pierre L’Enfant’s original plan for the capital, two decades passed before construction was initiated. President Warren G. Harding was caught in a three-hour traffic jam while on his way to dedicate the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery, because the previous wooden bridge could not handle the traffic. The ensuing turmoil led to appropriation for the bridge construction.

Clearly, traffic jams are not a recent development for DC. It seems President Harding had not learned the joy of getting law enforcement officers to shove the citizens out of his way.

The Daily Feed
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It’s Election Day!


bobble vote
Originally uploaded by philliefan99

We’re coming up on lunchtime here, and it’s Election Day in DC. Technically, it’s the primaries for city council and our shadow representative and shadow senator. So, if you haven’t voted early, make sure to vote often today (okay, okay, Just ONCE!) as the City Council definitely depends on it. And, of course, in heavily Democratic DC, the primary is the deciding election, while the November General election is just a coronation party for the city’s Democrats.

Find your Polling Place with the handy form from the DC Government!

If you’re looking for a primer, there are several, including the Washington Post, the DC Examiner and the City Paper.

Media, The Daily Feed
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WAMU is No Longer Welcome in my Twitterverse

I was an early skeptic of Twitter, but I’ve become a convert to the 140 character way of life. I follow several different crowds of friends on Twitter, and have even started to follow some Twitter identities that aren’t human beings. These vary from the Mars Phoenix to CNN Breaking News and tend to deliver news up-to-the-minute and in small chunks, the way I like to consume it. Some assume an anthropomorphic identity, but others just write concise, less-than-140 character posts that give me an idea of what’s going on in the world.

When I saw that WAMU 88.5, DC’s public radio station, had a Twitter account, I signed on right away. I was hopeful they’d engage with other users, and provide great local tidbits. Instead, every now and then they post a bunch of unintelligible links with truncated first sentences from the same stuff they put on their website. There’s virtually no readable content, no idea what the link is to, and 5-10 of these useless posts all in a row.

This isn’t the way Twitter works. At the very least, they need to write 140 character summaries with a short link to the article. Ideally, they’d let their reporters post from their cell phones throughout the day as they report on DC, MD, and VA. They’d allow followers to reply and engage with them. Twitter is not just a place to republish an RSS feed (poorly). It’s an ecosystem that encourages conversations and interaction, and until WAMU learns how to do that, they’re no longer welcome on my follow list.

All Politics is Local, Media, The Daily Feed, The District, WTF?!
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That Time of Year Again Already?

So according to this WaPo video, Hizzoner the righteous Marion Barry, Lord and Master of Ward 8, had a “how to” instructional on approaching voters at the District’s primary polls tomorrow. As in, block and annoy the crap out of people who just want to vote.

I’m never in favor of candidate supporters clogging the entrance to polls. I want to vote in peace and quiet, not listen to last-minute pitches and bullcrapola. (Hence my recent run of absentee balloting.) Heck, I’m all for a half-mile “exclusion zone” centered around each polling place.

I’ll give Marion this; he’s persistent. Probably why he’s re-elected…

The Daily Feed
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Bitter, Table for One


Royal Oak – Superb bitter from England
Originally uploaded by roland

Check out this incredibly bitter editiorial in Today’s Post concerning the American electorate:

We’re stupid: “But by every measure social scientists have devised, voters are spectacularly uninformed. They don’t follow politics, and they don’t know how their government works.”

Neither Liberals nor Conservatives are all that smart: “But a 2007 Pew survey found that the knowledge level of viewers of the right-wing, blustery “The O’Reilly Factor” and the left-wing, snarky “The Daily Show” is comparable, with about 54 percent of the shows’ politicized viewers scoring in the “high knowledge” category.”

We’re Gullible: “Many social scientists have long tried to downplay the ignorance of voters, arguing that the mental “short cuts” voters use to make up for their lack of information work pretty well. But the evidence from the past few years proves that a majority can easily be bamboozled.”

So, really, it doesn’t look to good for us, this November, does it? Or is Dr. Shenkman just trying to present the worse case scenario so we’ll buy his new book on how stupid we are?

The Daily Feed
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Give

If you’re getting a little stir crazy hunkered down in your house waiting for the ugly weather to pass, take a second to think about how it could be worse. WaPo reports today that the Red Cross has gone into the red debt gathering up the money to help Gustav victims and is worried about raising the money it’s already spent.

I know a lot of us have some issues with the Red Cross given some of their issues over the years, but I still think they do good work and have put my money where my keyboard is. If you just can’t stomach supporting them then go donate to some of the other operations like The Salvation Army or Save the Children or Catholic Charities USA, all of whom have extended themselves beyond their current means to help people in need.

While we may not be done yet, I feel confident that we won’t have 700,000 homes without power when this is over. So go help out.

Arlington, The Daily Feed
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My Neighbor, Li’l Abner – an Update

My Neighbor Across The Street IMGP1950

Honestly – it looks like Dogpatch across the street. The dumpster disappeared quite a while ago but in preparation for our big-ass storm we are getting even as type this, my neighbor erected a couple half-ass erosion prevention screens and ran his drainage hoses from the basement outside. And he left a bunch of extra hose there for good measure.

The erosion screens laid down when the rain started and are now allowing a steady stream of brown water to run across them. D for effort, F for trying to fix it.

Twenty bucks to a bucket of muddy runoff says it will look like this long after the storm passes.

What’s your neighborhood look like?

The Daily Feed
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Bombs and Crazies


Irony (b/w)
Originally uploaded by philliefan99

I haven’t checked the calendar, so I’m not sure if it’s a full moon or what, but I had the middle of my day wrecked a bit by the crazy with the bomb and gun who decided to park over by the Library of Congress.

The whole area was shutdown, with Independence blocked off by police, and I was part of a whole afternoon traffic jam as we tried to re-route around the whole thing.

Here’s what I wonder. I think that pretty much every jackass post-Tractorman has been such a legendary disappointment in their desire to do something radical and stupid in the Capital. I mean, if you’re going to get all crazy and try to “Do Something” maybe you should be a little more entertaining about it, if you have no intention of actually engaging in violence. So, what I’m wondering is: can anything like this frighten us? At all? Instead of just annoy us?

The Daily Feed
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So – There’s a Big-Ass Storm a-Coming


Tropical Storm Hanna & Hurricane Ike Map 09.04.2008 5:00 PM EDT

Not sure if you heard or not. I went to the supermarket on my lunch hour to stock up on some non-perishable items ad there was plenty of water and no elbowing or pushing, so I know people are not quite in emergency mode yet.

Disaster management experts recommend that you have at least three days of water and food per person socked away at home, in case you have to shelter in place for a while. Figure on two gallons of water per person per day for all things – drinking, cleaning and hygiene products from wastefreeproducts.com.

I know it’s still early in the day but it’s Friday, which means the boss is probably gone to hit the links before the storm ruins his golfing weekend. Take this opportunity to visit the supermarket before the elbowing and pushing start.

You likely won’t need all that you buy, but it’s better to be prepared. Having been through a hurricane in the past, I can tell you that a bit of preparedness really does pay off.

The Daily Feed
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A Nerdcore documentary

Photo courtesy of bayat

This is where I was going to say a little about Nerdcore for those who don’t know what it is, but really, if Tiff feels comfortable using XKCD comic clips here what are the odds you haven’t heard of it before?

If you’d like to learn more, however, there’s a “micro-documentary” – Nerdcore Rising – about the genre showing at UMD’s Hoff theater today and tomorrow.  Sounds interesting and given the projected weather, a few hours under cover sound like a good plan…

Nerd, courtesy of bayat

All Politics is Local, Life in the Capital, The Daily Feed
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Things Are Pretty Okay

Cropped from The End is Not for a While, xkcd.com
Cropped from The End is Not for a While, xkcd.com

Randall Monroe of xkcd has given me a fantastic idea. Click through above to read the whole panel, and then come back and help me figure out what should go on my contentment protest signs. I’m going to keep them in the trunk of my car, because you never know when you’ll run into a random protest here in DC.

The Daily Feed
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Losing a Friend

My Lovely Wife and I took the tough step of having our kitty put to sleep this morning. She had been sick for quite some time and it was clear that the road ahead was going to be even tougher than it had been up to now. Enough suffering, we decided.

Many thanks to those of you who knew her for being her friend, even for a brief time. Especially to Dr. Monika Jankowski of South Paws, whose care and extreme compassion deeply moved me. She was incredible and showed herself to be more than a caretaker by profession but also by nature.

Remembering Connie, our wonderfully eccentric, lovable cat, I thought I would share this video of her, cleaning the window screen. She loved tasting the world and was a lovely, playful, adorable critter and we miss her deeply.

Technology, The Daily Feed, The District
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AT&T Fails DC

More Bars in More Places is what AT&T advertises its customers, but today it didn’t matter how many bars showed up on your cellphone, chances are, it had no access to the data network that let mobile applications function. The result looked a lot like what happens when RIM’s network went down.

I know my phone was ringing off the hook with frustrated clients with iPhones who couldn’t see the internet. Rough day for DC, and the outages continue tonight variably. We aren’t alone, though, New York & most of the eastern seaboard is lumped together as part of the same outage.

The Daily Feed
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No, I’m NOT done with that, okay?


2008-04-20-dscn3540
Originally uploaded by martin_kalfatovic

In her “occasional column” for the Post today, former restaurant critic Phyllis Richman rants about the practice of pouncing on diner’s dishes the moment a member of the restaurant staff suspects they might not be in use.

I chuckled at it because I always thought the absolutely most egregious offender was our very own Four Courts in Arlington. Every week, a group of us would gather for pub quiz, and every week, you practically had to throw your body on top of your dinner plate any time a busboy (bus-man? bus-person?) came anywhere near the table.

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