Baltimore Police Surveillance Cameras

Originally uploaded by johm.

The first four Orwellian Camera Units are being deployed in the District today, part of a set of 48 cameras to be deployed citywide as part of the DC Crime Emergency. So far, the most amusing of the comments about these new eyes in the sky comes from the Post:

Had the cameras been up, investigators could have checked whether the killing was recorded. Cameras will roll 24 hours a day but will not be monitored live.

Great. So, they’re designed to catch the guy later, but not prevent active crime from happening. Cold comfort for those whose loved ones are killed or maimed. Thanks Linda Cropp, I’m so glad you actually care about crime prevention. So, criminals, if you’d like to avoid these new cameras, they’re going to be placed at 14th & Girard, NW, the 400 block of O St. NW, the 1500-1700 Blocks of Benning Road NE, and the 1200 block of Valley Avenue, SE. Try to keep your drug deals and murders away from these places.

Five more camera units go live next Monday. When we have those locations, we’ll map them for you so you know where to avoid committing crimes.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

The Metro system is going to increase their own security in response to the arrests in London as well, acting not on a tip from intelligence, but on general speculation. Look for more officers on trains and in stations today, and they’re saying the new bomb-proof trash cans will get emptied a bit more often, and don’t bother asking to use the restroom, they’re closed for the time being.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

If you travel internationally, expect some static in DC today, as a major terrorist plot was disrupted that planned multiple bomb attacks on US-UK flights. WTOP reports that the security lines at Dulles are incredibly long today as a result of the elevation of the security level at airports in response to this threat.

The TSA has also issued a Threat Level Change that prohibits liquids or gels of any kind in carryon luggage. Forget taking your soda on the plane with you. Forget packing your own shampoo. Forget carrying hand lotion. Hell, forget even toothpaste because it might target you for an extra special cavity search.

Yes, thanks to terrorists, flying is going to suck for quite a bit longer now. Thanks, assholes.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

When attempting to sell your house in a rapidly softening market one of the best ways to unsure it contributes to the trend of homes staying on the market longer and longer is to stop mowing the lawn. I drive past this house most days on my way home and the number of FOR SALE signs continues to rise…. as does their lawn. Nobody wants to come look at a house that seems run-down from the curb, folks.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

When attempting to promote your brand of vehicle by parking one for a few months at the outdoor mall, it might behoove you to not send the impression that it can’t be trusted not to leak oil all over the pavement. Which, in case you’re unclear, is what you do when you plant an oil pan permanently under the engine.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Wayan brought the current blood shortage situation to our attention earlier and in following the links I observed that maybe the situation could be partly explained by the Red Cross’ failue to update their blood drive information past mid-July. Inova Blood Donor Services doesn’t seem to have that problem, however – their locations are up-to-date and listed here and their fixed locations and hours are here.

If you’re among the large number of us who work in the Reston/Herndon area you’re sure to find hours you can make. Although blood donation apparently is required by federal law to have whack-o hours the Inova folk have slots as early as 6am some days and as late as 8pm on other.

One other observation – aren’t there any donation locations in Arlington? Neither Inova or the Red Cross list any.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Oh the Majewski drama.

Let’s catch everyone up slowly. The Nats had this relieve with an awesome proto-mullet named Gary Majewski. He had some decent stuff out of the bullpen, but generally, he was prone to mental errors and in those situations, he’d often give up a three run bomb late in the game to cement the Nationals’ place in the cellar of the AL East. Yeah, he blew sometimes, so we traded him with a few other guys for Austin Kearns, Felipe Lopez and another player who didn’t suck.

Apparently, no one bothered to fill in the Reds general manager that Majewski wasn’t exactly an arm upon which you could base your win/loss record. Chris Needham says, “Um, Duuuuuhh!” and Federal Baseball says “No Really, DUUUUUUHHH!” in regards to the claims of Wayne Krivsky that the Nats knew that Majewski wasn’t in the best of health. As a result, we have Jim Bowden and Wayne Krivsky locked in a public war of words that I’d personally like to see turn into a war of fists and knives as part of a pay per view event. Winner gets to die quickly, loser gets to bleed out.

Either way, we’re due to see this get uglier in the public sphere in the not too distant future. As this will be the only thing resembling news from the Nationals’ tailspin into oblivion this season, I fully expect to see this whole thing drag out until next Spring.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Check out these two events going on in our fair city, as listed by Upcoming.org. Clearly the Friedlander people know how to advertise an event better than the Cafe Saint-Ex folk, or at least they pick more interesting tags…

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

The International Career Employment Weekly is a great source of international NGO job dreams, most of them right here in Washington DC. If you subscribe, you’ll also get their irregular email alerts for high-need jobs.

Usually, its for jobs or places I have no care about, but the title of this one hit a chord:

Peace Corps: Country Directors

Now I could day dream about being a Peace Corps director for an entire slow August day. Think about it. Tropical little island in the Pacific, somewhere loved by phlebotomists, and populated with exotic supermodels.

Yes, I know, there would be wave after wave to do-gooding young whippier-snappers, but that’s what outlying atolls are for. Me, I’d be surfing every morning, sipping margaritas every evening.

What would be your slow day in August dream job? If, like me, it’s a Peace Corps Country Director, then Michael Mikolaitis, Overseas Executive Selection and Support down at Peace Corps HQ at L and 20th Street, NW is your man.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

A suspicious package at the Brentwood Metro Rail Yard has interrupted the Redline between Judiciary Square and Rhode Island Ave in Northeast DC. Chances are, this is fucking things up but good on the Red Line through downtown with significant delays.

It’s funny how one little box of napkins or powdered sugar gets left by a train yard and the world just ends in DC. You can re-route today either by using the Green Line to take the long way round, or by taking a bus between the two stations. Either way, it’s going to take you a lot longer to get anywhere in Northeast DC today via mass transit.

[Update] The grey plastic box that was on the tracks has been deemed to be no longer suspicious and rail traffic is again flowing into Union Station and the Rhode Island Ave and Brookland Metro stations again. Is anyone surprised?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Adrian Fenty and Marie Johns are planning to line up in opposing quadrants of the city this weekend and shout at each other. Apparently, there’s a scheduled debate between them this Saturday, but Fenty will be in Southeast, while Johns is in Northwest. More disturbing, though, is the quote from the Johns camp that insinuates that Southeast is “unreachable by the media.”

Why is that, Liz Rose? Why did you say: “Since he agreed to debate us, and he selected the time and the date as 9 a.m. on a Saturday, we would like to do this debate at a place where the media can get there.”

Did you mean to insinuate that Southeast isn’t a place that people can go freely? Or without danger to their very lives? Because that’s exactly what you just said in the subtext. Are the Johns campaign afraid of the 7th and 8th Wards?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

I was out last night at that most DC-ish of all social events… the networking happy hour.

It was a Capital Cabal event, which was sponsored by my employer and held at Gua Rapo in Courthouse. (The Cabal is run by some very nice people, and you should check it out sometime, btw.)

I have sort of a love-hate relationship with these things. On one hand, I am a passionate believer in the value of building strong, genuine relationships before you need something, being free and generous with your expertise and assistance in that network, and then having it already available if you find that you need something- even if it’s just a recommendation for a good dentist. On the other hand, most people really suck at that, and think of networking as a competition to see who can collect the most business cards, and who think networking is only something done at an event organized for that purpose. These people are tiresome to deal with.

Also, there’s just the whole event itself. I’m five feet tall, so I’m trying to make my way through a packed room full of people who are looking right over the top of my head. You tall people don’t understand how claustrophobic it is to walk around in a crowded room when you’re chest-level to everyone else. People hold their drinks in the hands they’re supposed to be shaking with. When the food served is greasy, it’s a law of the universe that there are insufficient napkins provided. And for some reason, the music is often turned up loud enough that you have to shout in order to be heard. What the hell? Is not the point of this thing that people get to know each other?

But even if I weren’t such a relationship evangelist, it’s still an expectation of my job that I attend several of these events per month. So come out to some- eventually you’ll run into me, most likely.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Hear that sigh of relief? That’s Capitol police feeling a little less physically threatened. CNN’s reporting that crackpot egomanaic my favorite politician Cynthia McKinney has lost her primary challenge. I wonder if this is her communication director’s fault too. Hope you can find that pin now, Cyn – they’ll probably want it back.

The same story mentions that Joe Lieberman also failed to win his Democratic primary and says he’s going to run as an Independent, demonstrating his continued devotion to insuring his seat doesn’t end up with a Democrat in it.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

This is the question I wonder this afternoon as I read the Richmond Times-Dispatch article about Benjamin Fawley. He is charged with murder in the death of Taylor Behl, last October’s missing college co-ed of the month.

I ask this as scarfing is what Ms. Behl died of. See, she and Mr. Fawley were into scarfing, or erotic asphyxiation, consentual scarfing that is. To quote the Times-Dispatch:

He told police Behl died accidentally Sept. 6 during a consensual sexual encounter when he restricted her breathing.

Tomorrow we’ll learn if the plea agreement for Mr. Fawley to plead guilty to second-degree murder will be about scarfing, their consensual sex act, or his post-choke cover-up.

If scarfing, which I expect, Virginia will be on its usual pseudo-religious crusade to ban anything but straight vanilla sex. Kinky people, time to flee. Gays already have.

If the post-choke cover-up, which included burying her body in duct tape and plastic, then there might just be some sanity left in the Commonwealth after all. He should’ve called 911 when she stopped responding, not dumped her body in the woods.

More Times-Dispatch coverage of the Taylor Marie Behl case

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

“When the Going Gets Weird, The Weird Turn Pro” — Hunter S. Thompson

As Wonkette noted today, something is amok in the house of Wemple, and it seems to involve the flinging of poo. This story is so beyond the normal DC weird that it almost needs its own very weird category of weird.

Apparently, the wife of City Paper Editor Erik Wemple threw dog poo at the owners of a Doggie Day Spa near her home. That’s right, she threw poo as part of her mediation with the Doggie Day Spa. Kids, there’s some lessons you learn early: only monkeys throw poo. Anyhow, Circumlocutor soon have the police report which will detail both sides of the story.

Me, I’m just waiting for the mugshots. Because those have to epic, right? right?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

And no, I’m not talking the removal of phlegm or a lobotomy, which many say I need or had. I’m talking about phlebotomy, the act of drawing blood, and the phlebotomist down at the American Red Cross of the National Capitol Area are looking for donors.

Local hospitals are low on blood, some down to a half-day supply. Both the MPD and Eleanor Holmes Norton have joined the Red Cross in the plea, she specifically to ask African Americans to give blood.

I only wish I could. After years of distant travel, like say Timbuktu, I can’t pass the pre-screen test. Malaria areas? England during Mad Cow? Yep, my blood be unfit. Might yours be worthy? The cause sure is.

Thanks WashPost

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Hot

Originally uploaded by andertho.

That was the mantra I always heard when I moved here. Traffic is diminished, no one’s on the Hill, everyone’s at the beach. That was what I was told, anyhow. I never quite believed it, not working in politics. I had to be downtown, same as always, in the midst of the damp heat, through thunderstorms and sweat, how was this easy?

Is August really easy for anyone in this town? It’s not like most of the Hill staffers are paid well enough to take the month off and head to the beach with their erstwhile public servant bosses. Perhaps those who work on K St. can snag a bit of a respite in all this, what with all the lobbyists disappearing, but I suspect somehow it’s not nearly that simple, either.

What’s the real truth about August in DC? Is it all beach parties and short days? Or is just more insulting to be left working while all the upper level folks head to the beach?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

So, with the War in Iraq raging, potential deployments in Lebanon and other nations looming, the Army has decided to…build an amusement park? They’re looking at expanding a new Museum complex to include a hotel and amusement center including “4D Rides” and, well, 22,000 new commuters for that section of Fairfax County, which has the County Officials a little upset at the idea. Not to mention the possibility of 3 million extra visitors each year clogging the roads of Fairfax.

Well, I guess now that we’ve caught Osama, we can just build a little tourist center. Wait, what do you mean he’s still out there?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

From the wording on the back page of the little newsletter my VA congresscritter sent me last week, you might get the impression he’s just letting you know what else is going on, regardless of his position on it. After all, the previous pages make a big deal about what he’s co-sponsored – surely this stuff is just incidental, right?

Hmmmm, no. When you look at the bill tracking for SB 526, the referendum in question, you find that Herring and every single other Senator voted for it. No “nays,” no abstentions. Further, the weasley language in the blurb doesn’t convey the real extent of the bill. Here’s what the following paragraph spells out much more clearly:

The proposed amendment provides that “only a union between one man and one woman may be a marriage valid in or recognized by this Commonwealth and its political subdivisions.” The proposed amendment also prohibits the Commonwealth and its political subdivisions from creating or recognizing “a legal status for relationships of unmarried individuals that intends to approximate the design, qualities, significance, or effects of marriage.” Further, the proposed amendment prohibits the Commonwealth or its political subdivisions from creating or recognizing “another union, partnership, or other legal status to which is assigned the rights, benefits, obligations, qualities, or effects of marriage.”

But newsletter readers only get “The entire proposed amendment will appear on the ballot.” Stand up for what you believe in, Senator Herring. If you really think that civil rights are something that should go to a popular vote – and I wonder how the Loudoun chapter of the NAACP, of which you are a member, feels about that concept – then have the courage of your convictions to put the real language on your newsletter. Acknowledge that you voted for it. Acknowledge that it’s not just “an amendment to define marriage” – it’s also a limiting on any other laws that might “approximate” the qualities of marriage. Hell, you could simply include the fact that it’s SB 526 so that people could look it up on the Virginia Legislative Information System.

The fact that I don’t agree with government meddling in these kind of things should be obvious, but I find it even more odious when people hide their real positions. Show some guts.

If you’re interested in the actual legislation and would like some information on how it’s going to be costing us money in tax revenue from fleeing DINKs and the inevitable court challenges there’s a good WaPo article on it today.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs