Fred Kaplan asks a question that really does need more attention: “Are there any Republican grown-ups out there, and, if there are, will they ever start coming to the aid of their party?”
[...]edited by: Vivian Paige,
Virginia Editor
Fred Kaplan asks a question that really does need more attention: “Are there any Republican grown-ups out there, and, if there are, will they ever start coming to the aid of their party?”
[...]Inspired by a couple of commenters in a previous post:
Click here to view the embedded video.
[...]I always thought that the teleprompter thing was a little silly – politics is often performance, and prompts are always part of performance. But, like so much else from the right, I ignored it. Now? Seriously, I don’t ever want to hear another joke about Obama needing a teleprompter.
[...]Unholy Rouleur Jim’s feeling darkly – go check it out, and try not to feel guilty about enjoying the fruits. And in case you need some prompting, here’s some of what he’s digging up:
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[...]Because if things like this are any indication, the answer appears to be yes:
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[...]Rahsaan Bahati, who parted ways with Rock Racing last year, has started his own development team with a mission. Check it out:
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[...]TNC goes from the systemic challenges an individual trying to drop weight faces to the society-wide choices of institutional racism:
I don’t write this out so that I can establish blame/guilt. To the contrary, the point is that the system was so far-reaching, that it took a conscious, deliberate and often [...]
in American electoral politics. Just different spending priorities:
Last week, McDonnell signed a letter asking for $350 million from the federal government to support charter schools.
[...]While this was made last October, I just saw it for the first time at Wednesday’s World’s Fair Use Day confab. An excellent illustration of the power of using popular culture as a political critique. Check it out:
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[...]Makeovers galore to come. In the meantime, something we can feel:
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[...]Tragedies often focus attention. I’ve been paying attention to Haiti ever since I met a friend from Haiti on a flight back to the US in 1988. And some things, I think are common knowledge:
After a dramatic slave uprising that shook the western world, and 12 years of war, [...]
It’s World’s Fair Use Day! Err, what’s that?
World’s Fair Use Day (WFUD) is a free, all-day celebration of the doctrine of fair use: the legal right that allows innovators and creators to make particular uses of copyrighted materials. WFUD will take place at the Newseum in Washington D.C. on [...]
I can’t even count the number of times I’ve landed at DCA, yet I’ve (sadly) never seen it like this:
Click here to view the embedded video.
[...]
Shamelessly ripped off from BoingBoing:
(What happened to the Gulf Stream. Holy @#(.)
[...]I sometimes wonder about the brains and talent that are wasted simply because they were born into a population of idiots:
HUNTSVILLE, AL -Â “I believe the Bible is true,” Republican gubernatorial candidate Bradley Byrne said here Wednesday. “Every word of it.”
Byrne’s testimony came as he tried to clarify an [...]
Matt Tabbai’s occasionally overwrought channeling of Hunter S. Thompson can sometimes obscure the quality of his reporting, but mostly, he’s just dead on:
For what we’ve learned in the last few years as one scandal after another spilled onto the front pages is that the bubble economies of the last [...]
Iran bans its citizens from having contact with foreign news orgs (among others).
[...]Calling Obama on his promise push Congress to be transparent:
The C-SPAN television network is calling on congressional leaders to open health care talks to cameras — something President Barack Obama promised as a candidate.
Instead the most critical negotiations on Obama’s health plan have taken place behind closed doors, as [...]
From Saturday’s NYT Editorial:
Bush administration officials came up with all kinds of ridiculously offensive rationalizations for torturing prisoners. It’s not torture if you don’t mean it to be. It’s not torture if you don’t nearly kill the victim. It’s not torture if the president says it’s not torture.
It was [...]
From DC emergency alerts:
Temps today in D.C. will be bitter cold, with high not exceeding 25°. A Wind Advisory will remain in effect until at least 6PM. Winds today will be westerly at 25-30 MPH sustained, with gusts to 50 MPH. Wind chill values will not likely exceed 10°. Gale [...]
I saw this under construction, but it wasn’t from *this* perspective:
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Amazing.
[...]Back in DC. Didn’t get the hoped for time to dissect the past decade, so I’ll leave it at this: the negative was far far outweighed by the travel, the professional growth, the new friendships. Thanks, all.
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[...]Iggy Pop did it first:
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(That’s a fanvid.)
Siouxsie & the Banshees waited a decade, and did it well:
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And then some DJ brought Peggy Lee in to make it perfect by nearly changing it completely:
As someone who has repeatedly warned against putting all your eggs in Google basket, I’m always interested in hearing about ways to diversify beyond the GWorld.    James Fallows gives it a whirl.
Bonus material, inspired by his article:
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That’s Passion Pit’s Sleepyhead. Most [...]
Mexico City lawmakers on Monday made the city the first in Latin America to legalize same-sex marriage, a change that will give homosexual couples more rights, including allowing them to adopt children.
I’ve not spent much time in Mexico City, but this strikes me as kinda big. Sort [...]
Don’t ask questions, just hit play:
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This guy needs his own show, doesn’t he? But seriously, the reason it doesn’t track is grounded in a completely legit technical issue (concerning contrast), which HP says it’s addressing. You kinda wonder about a QA process that [...]
The video from Reason:
Click here to view the embedded video.
A cop who pulls a gun for no reason, tries to provoke someone into assaulting him, and then shoves that person when he doesn’t take the cop’s bait? Shocking, I tell you. A particularly nice touch was parking in the [...]
A bit of a mess over there, it seems.
[...]Frank Luntz has an obvious talent, but it’s so often been used to such appalling ends (“death tax”, “government run healthcare”, etc.) that I don’t often look twice when I see his name.  However, he’s a gun-for-hire at heart, and he has occasionally crossed into unfamiliar territory to produce something [...]
This piece over at dKos just highlighted a recent NATO request that I’d not heard about. And what was that? They asked Russia for helicopters to use in Afghanistan. Because, you know, that worked out so well last time:
Do you think the person who thought [...]
I’ve often said that Washington-area radio is an abysmal affair, and that Atlanta – Atlanta! – has a far more vibrant and interesting broadcasting scene.  While that’s quite true, American University’s WAMU is the one bright spot. I credit WAMU with bringing me into the bluegrass fold, keeping [...]
Massive snowball fight at 14th and U, much fun being had. So what’s the reasonable way to react to your Hummer taking a hit from a snowball? Well, if you’re a veteran DC detective, you get out and start waving your gun around:
According to an eyewitness, a D.C. Police [...]
Perhaps the treasure rooms are running a little low? Looks like the Vatican has decided, as Cory Doctorow summarized it:
The [Vatican's] statement cited a “great increase of affection and esteem for the person of the Holy Father” in recent years as contributing to a desire to' [...]
WashCycle picks up something I somehow missed in October:
ASSAULTS
LYNN ST. N., 2100 block, 5 p.m. Oct. 13. Two bicyclists collided on the street. One man allegedly assaulted the other and damaged the man’s bicycle.
That’s the miserable intersection of Key Bridge, cross-over to the MVT from the Custis, etc. I’d expect [...]
Received this from an Open Government list I’m on, and think that it’s well worth sharing. Try it here, after you read the original accompanying email:
In preparation for Redistricting 2011, the company I work for, Avencia, started building a web-based redistricting tool for collaborative/ community-based redistricting projects: http://www.redistrictingthenation.com/search.aspx [...]
Turns out that that Washington Post screwup wasn’t what it initially seemed.
[...]Irving Berlin’s Let’s Face the Music and Dance? Has yielded much. How could it not?
There may be trouble ahead
But while there’s moonlight and music
And love and romance
Let’s face the music and dance
Before the fiddlers have fled
Before they ask us to pay the bill
And while we [...]
So I’ve been joking (sorta) about Northern Virginia seceding from the rest of Virginia since, oh, about a year after I moved to Arlington (this makes it many many years). In my original formulation, I was all about reconstituting the original DC – it was going to be Arlington & [...]
Another interesting post over at GreaterGreaterWashington – an explanation of Arlington’s street naming methodology.
[...]
