Giant Rat

Originally uploaded by tbridge.

Wednesday night, as Tiff and I were driving to a birthday dinner at Liberty Tavern, we heard this piece on NPR about our favorite group of homeless people employed as protestors. My favorite section of the article was this one:

Most people who pass the picket line don’t look closely at the protesters. Diego Castaneda, a doctoral student from California, snaps a picture of a marcher and gives her a thumbs up.

“I just like seeing people demonstrating and standing up for their rights,” Castaneda said.

But when I tell him the protesters are actually homeless people, his face falls.

“Are you serious?” he says in disbelief. “It’s pretty disingenuous of the union to hire people who aren’t carpenters.”

Yep, folks, it’s pretty shady to hire folks for $8 an hour to protest when your union members won’t actually protest themselves. Not listed in the story page on NPR’s site was the original postscript when the reporter, Frank Langfitt, asked the workers about their wages, and they wanted more money.

He suggested they formed a union.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

The always awesome SCOTUSBlog has a post up talking about the cases the Supremes will likely decide whether or not to hear on the 30th. We’ve talked about the DC gun ban potentially coming before them, but there’s another local case with potentially nationwide implication: a Baltimore incident that will dictate how far into your ass crack the cops can dig around without a warrant.

Docket: 07-284
Case name: Maryland v. Paulino
Issue: Whether the Fourth Amendment permits police to search for drugs hidden between a suspect’s buttocks cheeks during an arrest.

The text of the Maryland Court of Appeals decision – which as it stands says that a man (or woman’s) buttcrack is their castle – is interesting reading if you have a tolerance for lawtalk. From a citizen’s standpoint it’s interesting that apparently the law is pretty well established about whether the cops can snake their hand in your underthings: they can. The dissent authored by Judge Lynne Battaglia talk about a “reach-in” search and the plethora of cases saying that’s okay, so long as some modicum of your privacy is maintained.

The second dissent by Judge Dale Cathell is interesting simply because it reveals what a jerk he is.

I join Judge Battaglia’s dissent an d would further hold that when a person wears their
pants below the level of their buttocks, he or she is intentionally offering that area for
observation by the public and obviously has no expectation of privacy sufficient to prohibit
a police officer from also looking.

If a person wants to have an expectation of privacy in that area of his or her body, he or she should keep their pants up when in public.

It is my sincere hope that someday Judge Cathell has his sweatpants dip down a little too low and gets an anal probing from Officer Rubberglove. The suggestion that someone should reasonably expect to have their crack pried open just because they make poor fashion choices is just obnoxious.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Wayan’s DC Photos

This is what happens when you mix geeks in love with the XO laptop and bloggers envious of the clock-stopping technology: a laptop wrestle at the bar.

Luckily, the OLPC computer is designed to survive rough abuse just like this and it meshed right through the mash up.

Despite the fistacuffs, my OLPC News meetup and the DC Blogger meetup was a success. Geeks computed and collaborated on the main goal of the evening: invigorating discussion and eventual inebreation.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

In a very funny followup to the whole silly Barry-Page kerfuffle, local Mike Licht has gotten told to buzz off and quit emailing… Barry’s communications director Andre Johnson of ProImage Communications.

My favorite part of the exchange is when Johnson tells Licht “I have never heard of you and truly don’t understand why I am getting emails from you.” I guess being someone’s employed communications director and receiving an email asking a question about Barry – complete with signature line clearly identifying himself as being from NotionsCapital.com – was a little confusing for him.

I think Gene Weingarten has made the best statement on the matter in his chat yesterday where he said

The controlling fact, for me, would have been this: The only reason this became public is that Marion Barry chose to make it public. And he chose to make it public in a quite hilarious way: Marion Barry, suspected and convicted scuzzball, tax evader, former crack user, erstwhile obtainer of oral sex in a crowded prison reception room, calls the elegant, sophisticated Tim Page, and I quote, a “lowlife.”

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

SCOTUSBlog reported earlier that the Supremes made no mention of the various outstanding appeals.

The Orders List contained no mention of either the District of Columbia’s appeal (07-290) or a cross-petition by challengers to the city’s flat ban on private possession of handguns (07-335). The next date for possible action on these cases is likely to come after the Court’s pre-Thanksgiving Conference — either on the day of the Conference, Nov. 20, or the following Monday, Nov. 26.The Court, of course, does not explain inaction. But among the possible reasons for delaying the case are these: one or more Justices simply asked for more time to consider the two cases; the Court may be rewriting the question or questions it will be willing to review — especially in view of the disagreement between the two sides on what should be at issue; the Court may have voted initially to deny review of one or both cases and one or more Justices are writing a dissent from the denial.

So in other words – a whole lot of nothing and no clue what it means. They added “At no point is there likely to be an answer as to what happened to bring about the delay. Both cases are expected to be re-listed for the Nov. 20 Conference.” So you’ve got another 7 days to grind your axe.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

One’s a drug-addled politician clinging to public office, the other is a classical music critic for the Washington Post. But it seems that when they get together, there’s sparks! Apparently, Barry’s staff sent Page (who I will remind you is a music critic) a press release about the councilman’s support/non-support of the hospital property in Southeast. Page, upset over the (possibly frequent) email from Barry’s staff sent back this response:

“Must we hear about it every time this Crack Addict attempts to rehabilitate himself with some new=and typically half witted–political grandstanding?

I’d be grateful if you would take me off your mailing list. I Cannot think of anything the useless Marion Barry could do that would interest me in the slightest, up to and including overdose. Sincerely, Tim Page.”

Yikes. Page’s reviews are usually this sharp-tongued when performers don’t meet his approval, so I don’t exactly think that Barry’s office (which freaked out and got Page suspended from his writing gig at the Post) should be as surprised as they acted over his comments. Given that nothing Page said about Hizzoner, the Mayor for Life, was factually false, I’m surprised that the Post caved in to the righteous indignation of Barry and his staff.

For Shame, Post. For Shame.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Virginia Governor Kaine has decided to stop throwing good money after bad dumb and has cut a $275,000 expenditure that matched Federal funding for some abstinence-only sex education programs. The Post article on the matter is a cavalcade of baseless blanket statements, irrelevant observations, and poor reasoning. There’s a side order of political incompetence & sloth tossed in at the end, like a ironic cherry.

Sen. Ken Cuccinelli II, recent recipient of a 92 vote mandate, is quoted as saying “The longer you delay the commencement of sexual activity, you have healthier and happier kids and more successful kids,” a point with which I completely agree. Since a study earlier this year showed that abstinence-only programs didn’t discourage kids from starting to have sex one iota we can comfortably cut the funding for them without worrying that we’ll walk away from that goal.

Delegate Robert G. Marshall of Prince William expressed annoyance that Planned Parenthood, who lauded the decision, didn’t make the statement before the November elections. While Kaine’s office published this information in documents over a month ago [pdf], he apparently relies upon opposition groups to read government publications on his behalf and distill the information into sound bites he can more easily lodge objections to.

Victoria Cobb of the Family Foundation offered her objections to the change and pointed out a Virginia DOH study that “found a majority of teenagers agree with abstinence-only sex education.” Apparently students’ affection is a compelling reason to support something, so Cobb and the Family Foundation will soon also make announcements supporting downloading music for free off the Internet, wearing your baseball hat backwards, and the repeal of prohibitions against staying up too late, listening to “that” music “too loud” and hanging out in the mall even when you’re not buying anything.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

OLPC Children’s Machine XO

Are you excited about a “$100 laptop” for children? Have you heard about One Laptop Per Child? Might you even be a Give One Get One participant?

Then you’ll be excited to learn that Wednesday night you’ll have the chance to play with a XO-1 laptop at the much-anticipated:

OLPC News Washington DC Meetup
at RFD in Chinatown (map)
Wednesday, November 14, 2007 @ 6pm

Jonathan Blocksom and I are organizing a geek-out with BTest-1 and BTest-4 OLPC XO laptops.

If you have your own OLPC XO, Classmate PC, Asus Eee PC, or other low-cost computing option, bring it out. We can have a full on laptop shoot-out.

But don’t think One Laptop Per Child’s clock-stopping hot technology will be upstaged. As the many G1G1 XO laptop buyers will confirm, when it comes to educational computing for children, there is no equal to OLPC.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

H&K .40 compact

Originally uploaded by seanbonner.

…let’s talk about the DC gun ban, shall we? Pictured here is Metroblogging-founder Sean Bonner’s H&K .40 compact. He would be legally prohibited from keeping this firearm, even in its unloaded state, if he lived in DC, instead of on the mean streets of Silver Lake. The Post today explores the success/failure of the gun ban’s 31 years on the books. While it makes no conclusion, it does bring out the salient arguments from both sides:

• Gun bans won’t stop criminals from carrying (an obvious statement coming from criminal/mayor/councilman Marion Barry)
• A Gun ban in the District won’t affect Maryland and Virginia, where guns are largely freely available
• Gun bans may only prevent home accidents
• The ban didn’t stop rampant gun violence inside the District in the 80s and 90s when DC was the murder capital of the US

So, with word coming today from the Supreme Court as to whether or not they’ll rule on the current challenge, what do you make of a gun ban in the District? Good policy? Bad policy? Constitutional or not?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Speaking of mass transit woes and fools, tonight starts the rounds of public hearings where you can weight in on WMATA issues. Dr Gridlock lists here the places and times, but for quick reference:

Bechtel Conference Center in Reston, tonight Nov 13th
Metro headquarters in the District, Nov 14th
Montgomery County Council Building in Maryland, Nov 14th
St. Luke’s Center in the District, Nov 15th
Arlington County Board Office in Arlington, Nov 15th
Prince George’s Sports and Learning Complex in Landover, Nov 15th

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

This morning I decided I’d try a different route to the office and, rather than walk/jog/rollerblade/segway the distance to the metro station I’d instead catch the bus a few blocks in the other direction. What the hell – it’ll keep me from having to change lines by going straight to Rosslyn.

Well, it was a reminder why I prefer rail over the bus. I could build you an enterprise-class time & attendance system (well, I did once) but bus scheduled confuse the crap out of me. The line in question, 23[pdf], is designated as eastbound and westbound. But from my perspective it’s pretty much just going north and south.

Maybe most locations are less confusing (or just as likely, most people are more competent than me) but where I was directed to go has a stop for this same bus route on both sides of the road. So I pondered it a bit, looked at where the next few stops were and picked the side that seemed most likely to be going the direction I wanted. When it showed up at the designated time with no sign of a bus from the other direction I thought “oh good, I figured it out right.”

And enjoyed that confident feeling for the entire mile or so till the end of the line.

Oh well, at least that left me at a metro stop, albeit one farther down the yellow line than where I’d have started from if I’d walked.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

The last time I really had much to do with the Catholic Church that I was raised in, I was brand-new to DC, and living in Alexandria. I went to St. Anthony of Padua in Bailey’s Crossroads, and I sang in the choir. At least, I did, until the day the priest got up and said, in his Sunday homily, that women couldn’t understand the suffering of Jesus. That was my resignation from the Catholic Church.

However, I might be tempted to go back to Mass when Pope Benedict brings his funny little car to the streets of DC in April. He will say Mass at the new DC Stadium, a choice I found odd because there’s no parking there, and frankly, there’s parking AND a higher capacity at RFK. Regardless, if the Pope’s your guy, he’s coming next April. Mark down April 17th on your calendar for Mass at the new DC Stadium.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

While many news outlets are expressing dismay over the DMV’s desire to eliminate in-person appeals for parking tickets. Now, despite the hyperbole of all the people shouting about their rights, the DMV will still be allowing for Mail-in Appeals and E-mail Appeals for parking tickets, so it’s not like you can’t contest your latest parking infraction.

Also in the DMV Plan for FY08 [Warning, PDF] are a few other hidden gems that include:

1. INITIATIVE 1.4: Begin implementation of SmarTrip in DC drivers’ licenses and identification cards.
   Automobiles are only one of the methods for traveling in DC. The primary mode of transportation for many residents is Metrobus and Metrorail. SmarTrip is the most efficient way of paying for transit service. Installing SmarTrip chips in drivers’ licenses and ID cards will allow all District residents access to SmarTrip cards and encourage transit usage.
2. INITIATIVE 2.1: Develop and implement a customer satisfaction survey.
   One of the best ways to gauge whether the workforce is adequately delivering quality customer service is to obtain feedback directly from customers soon after their interaction with DMV. To achieve this objective, DMV will develop a customer satisfaction survey that can be delivered to customers immediately after their visit to DMV.
3. INITIATIVE 1.1: Reduce wait times on Saturdays.
   Currently, DMV has only one service center open on Saturdays. This results in longer wait times due to peak demand on Saturdays. By March 2008, DMV will change the operating days of one additional location from Monday through Friday to Tuesday through Saturday. Doing so will relieve crowding at the 95 M Street, SW location on Saturdays.

Removing the Appeals may sound like a big deal, but when a letter or email would work just fine? Do we really need to go down there?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Well, I guess when you have the chance to see Lyle Lovett in a venue as small as the Birchmere it is in your interest to get there more than ten minutes before the box office opens. Thankfully I ran into fellow author David whose line number of ten was a wee better than my sixty-three…

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

No Really. $20,000,000. That’s 2 million movie tickets. 200,000 dinners for two at Ray’s the Steaks. Twenty houses in North Arlington or the Palisades. A minor baseball franchise.

That’s what four DC Tax and Revenue Employees stole from the city. And that’s just what they’ve found so far. The way they did it? Real (fake) tax rebate checks from the DC Treasury given to friends and family cashed.

Yowza. Wouldn’t it be nice to get away with that while no one was paying attention…

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

IMG_7116.jpg

Originally uploaded by MissChatter.

Many thanks to local blogger Miss Chatter who sent these photos of yesterday’s train derailment on the rail bridge near Penn Ave in Southeast DC yesterday. There are several other amazing shots from the scene, and of the local emergency response units who came to investigate and begin to solve the problem. No word yet on a cause, who was driving, or the health of the bridge.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

An 89-car CSX Coal train derailed today on the bridge across the Anacostia in Southeast DC. While no one was injured in the crash, 10 cars full of coal ended up in the river, leaking hazardous chemicals from the hydraulic system into the already-polluted Anacostia. The Fire Department is worked on a three-pronged effort to handle the crisis.

The rail bridge is feared to be damaged by the incident, and may be in pretty rough shape. NBC 4 is running promos tonight that suggest it’s possible the engine was unmanned, but I can’t find anything to back up that assertion. I’m sure more will be coming out in the next few days.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs