"Fireworks 2008" by Flicker user afagen

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“Drop the last year into the silent limbo of the past.

Let it go, for it was imperfect, and thank God that it can go.” -Brooks Atkinson

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As we turn the page on the year 2008, we reflect on the past as much as we look forward to the future. That got me thinking about the turbulent year we’ve had here at the DC Metblog, all captured in this edition of the Year in Review.

January 1, 2008: Wayan wishes DC a happy New Year, winning sports teams, and voting rights. Oh well, maybe next year.

January 7, 2008: Tom Bridge supports Governor Tim Kahne’s push to ban smoking in Virginia bars and restaraunts. This would later be killed by the House of Delegates.

January 10, 2008: Alex Ovechkin signs with the Capitals for 13 years and $124MM, the wealthiest contract in DC sports history. Outraged commuters ride the Metro without pants to protest an increase in fares. One had a suspicious package. Hah.

January 28, 2008: Barack Obama draws 12,000 for a rally in DC. Little did he know that he was less than a year away from his Inauguration.

February 11, 2008: Anonymous brings its war against Scientology to the streets of DC. In the meantime The George Washington University finalizes its massive development plan for Square 54.

February 12, 2008: The Potomac Primary. Obama and McCain sweep races in VA, MD, and DC.

March 10, 2008: NY Governor Elliot Spitzer is disgraced by his infamous prostitution scandal. Tom Bridge views it as a good ad for the Mayflower Hotel; it could corner the “places to bring your $5,500/hour prostitute” market?

March 16, 2008: Metblogger Carl Weaver is accosted by a Secret Service officer when he attempts to photograph a free Tibet rally at the Chinese Embassy.

March 24, 2008: Tom Bridge predicts that the Nationals will finish over .500. For more information fast-forward to September 25th.

March 31, 2008: The Washington Nationals open their new stadium.

April 7, 2008: The Washington Post wins 6 Pulitzer Prizes, the best performance by any paper since The New York Times in 2002.

April 16, 2008: DC gets Popemania and hosts more than a million tourists. Some get anti-Popemania.

April 22, 2008: The Capitals are eliminated from the NHL playoffs by the Flyers.

May 6, 2008: Explosion in Falls Church, VA, scares the shit out of everyone in the DC area and rocks the internets. Turns out it was an earthquake centered in Annandale.

May 15, 2008: DC Council pisses off smokers everywhere by entering a tie for highest national cigarette tax, increasing it to $2/pack to make up for their horribly mismanaged budget.

May 31, 2008: LaSalle Partners, who run Union Station, attempt to stop photographers and implement several odd security policies. Eleanor Holmes Norton opens a can of whoop-ass.

June 26, 2008: The Supreme Court kills the DC law banning handguns.

July 4, 2008: Aside from lots of fireworks and patriotism, the entire DC Metblogs team announces out of nowhere that they are leaving to start their own blog. Tom Bridge, Don Whiteside, Tiffany Bridge, Ben H. Rome, and Wayan Vota post goodbye messages almost simultaneously, catching everyone at Metblogs HQ off guard.

September 11, 2008: 9/11 memorials held throughout DC, including speeches by Rumsfeld and Bush at The Pentagon.

Bomb Squad Investigating Abandoned Greenpeace Stuffed Bear At Columbia Heights

September 18, 2008: Greenpeace places life size polar bears throughout DC to raise awareness for global warming. Several bomb scares and shutdowns ensue.

September 25, 2008: Nationals lose the race to 100 losses. .500 would have been nice.

October 1, 2008: Live grenade found and removed in Rock Creek Park. DC collectively sighs in relief.

October 15, 2008: Patrick Pho runs a hugely successful live blog of the final Presidential debate.

October 19, 2008: Chancellor of Schools Michelle Rhee announces a program to pay middle-schoolers for good grades.

October 27, 2008: Metro police begin controversial random bag search program in stations.

November 2, 2008: Shadow Senator Paul Strauss nailed with a DUI two days before the election. Strauss would go on to take over 80% of the vote in DC.

November 15, 2008: Metbloggers go live with Inauguration Central. Emergency G20 Summit shuts down parts of DC.

December 15, 2008: The George Washington University enters the Inaugural Parade for the first time since 1949. They are the only university in the country with a float in the parade.

December 31, 2008: So as we turn the page on 2008, I just want to wish everyone the best. In the words of Oprah Winfrey, “Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right.” Thanks for being loyal readers through thick and thin, and all of us here at Metblogs look forward to giving you a great 2009!

On this Christmas Eve let me I got an e-mail from my local senator, Jim Webb. It wasn’t a holiday greetings or a solicitation for money but a response to my earlier request for Inauguration tickets:

Thank you for contacting Senator Webb’s office regarding Inauguration tickets.  As you may know, the Senator’s office has received more than 35,000 total ticket requests and has been allotted only a few hundred tickets.   Unfortunately, at this time, we are unable to accommodate your request for tickets to the Inaugural Swearing-In Ceremony on the West Lawn of the United States Capitol. However, please note that the remaining sections of the National Mall will be open to members of the public who were unable to obtain the limited tickets available.  These areas will have large screens to ensure that the general public can easily view the ceremony and festivities.

We wanted to give you this status update well in advance of Inauguration Day so that you can plan accordingly. Please also be aware that in addition to the public viewing area on the National Mall, there are a number of events during the week, including the Inaugural Parade, that do not require tickets.

Due to the extraordinarily high interest in the Swearing-In Ceremony, Senator Webb has sent a letter to Senator Dianne Feinstein, Chairman of the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, requesting additional tickets to account for Virginia’s proximity to Washington D.C.   Should Senator Webb receive additional tickets from the Inaugural Committee or any other source and be able to accommodate your request, we will be sure to let you know.

The Swearing-In Ceremony is the only Inaugural event to which our office has received tickets.   Please see the links below for updated information on other Inaugural events that may interest you:

www.inaugural.senate.gov

www.pic2009.org

Thank you again for your interest.

Sincerely,

Kathryn Wilmoth

Administrative Director

Office of Senator Jim Webb

I’m not surprised that I didn’t get any tickets, but it’s a bit of a bummer to get on Christmas Eve. If his office sent it on Boxing Day- then it’s another story. I wonder if thousands of others got the same e-mail on Christmas Eve.

"Jim Webb Speaks 2" courtesy of Flickr user kalexnova

There are some tidbits to glean from the letter. We know that the tickets will be impossible to get and that Virginia, Maryland, and DC are already trying to a bigger slice of the ticket pie. We also know that even without tickets we can expect people to flock to The Mall so they can say, “Hey I was there!”

However there has only been speculation about possible accommodations for the general public and now this is the first “official” word on having screens on The Mall. Of course no further details on how many and where.

Well I hope everybody has a happy holidays- I’ll be checking my inbox to see if any of the other members of congress I requested tickets from come through. It would be a Merry Christmas indeed if I was one of the lucky ones.

636 people swearing all at once!

The Honorable Eleanor Holmes Norton, Gordon Peterson from WJLA, the Daughters of the American Revolution, the League of Women Voters, the US Citizenship and Immigration Service, WAMU, and about a thousand other people were on hand today to witness the swearing in of 636 new U.S. citizens in the District of Columbia.

This ceremony normally takes place in a courtroom and is a small affair with perhaps 80 or 100 people.  But then ICE doubled the fee to apply in July 2007, resulting in a bulge in the system and a huge backlog for DC.  In an effort to catch up, a megaceremony — the largest ever, according to the presiding Chief Judge Royce C. Lamberth — was held today in Room 146 at the Washington Convention Center.

It was gleefully disorganized, though the federal marshals did an outstanding job keeping order in the crowd of people, kids, a zillion cameras and half a zillion little American flags provided by the DAR.  Hearing the clerks practice their pronunciation skills on 636 names from 104 different countries was also quite a treat.

There was a bit of controversy, too, when Ms. Norton observed that new citizens in Maryland and Virginia are sworn in by a member of the state administration as soon as they pass their exam.  DC, on the other hand, “likes to have a judge preside”, and has traditionally only scheduled the swearings in on the first Tuesday of the month (according to a clerk I talked with in September).  What this means is that at least 636 people applied in June 2007 and passed their exams a year later — yet could not vote in the November 2008 elections.  Ms. Norton promised to look into the issue.

I know that 636 votes in DC couldn’t swing an election, but I know every one of those people would have cast a ballot.  Including my newly-minted, and very dear, husband.

Mike Huckabee has begun a countrywide bus tour to promote his new book, Do The Right Thing: Inside The Movement That’s Bringing Common Sense Back To America. The tour will stop at the Costco in Pentagon City on Wednesday from 12pm-1pm. According to Huckabee’s website:

Do The Right Thing is his amazing story, in his own words-from making commercials with Chuck Norris to meeting a Michigan woman who insisted on donating her wedding ring. But this is more than just a campaign memoir. It’s a vision for a smarter, fairer type of politics–”vertical politics”–that focuses on common-sense solutions for education, health care, the economy, and many other issues. It’s not about right versus left; it’s about taking America up rather than down.

Huckabee also shows how the Republican Party can heal its divisions-between social and fiscal conservatives, the wealthy and the middle class, the religious and the secular-and become a true majority party again.

There are also additional stops in Virginia, which you can find on the tour information page. Let me know if you plan on stopping down. You might just see me there too.

Well today is Election Day, and we all know that the 2008 Election will be a historic one. I am personally excited to vote today (and will be prepared for the long lines!) I wanted to share with you some information about voting today so that everyone in DC and beyond will be prepared and be able to express your voice without any hassle!

The biggest tip I want to share with everyone is that no matter how long the line is- as long as you are in line by the time polls close you still have your right to vote! Lines in Arlington County this past weekend for absentee voting were over an hour long- expect lines when you go out to vote, especially during peak times (when polls open in the morning, during the lunch hour, and during after work rush hour.)

Newsweek has a good article on some last minute tips including provisional ballots and brining ID to the polling place.

You should definately make sure you know where to you are supposed to vote before you leave to do it! Here are some links to check to see where your polling place is:

• Washington DC: Board of Elections & Ethics
• Virginia: State Board of Elections
• Maryland: State Board of Elections

You can also check out Google Maps where you can find your polling place and get cool directions to it as well.

The Washington Post has local information on area elections as well as voting instructions and sample ballots for your electronic voting machines- a must for anyone that’s nervous about electronic voting.

Of course after you vote you’ll want to celebrate like the rest of the city! The Going Out Gurus and The Washingtonian has lists of all the hot parties in the city tonight.

Happy Voting everyone!

The Old Little George

…on the list of “Most Expensive Colleges” for 2008-2009, that is.  According to CampusGrotto.com, GWU is second on their list of schools with the “Highest Total Cost”, which combines tuition, room, & board.  They’ve got a separate list for “Highest Tuition”, where GW has dropped all the way to #6.

Don’t despair, DC:  you’ve still got two schools in the top ten, total cost-wise:  GW and Georgetown are both up there (#2 and #4, respectively).   There’s not as much overlap among the two lists as I would have expected; for instance Georgetown doesn’t make the top 25 for highest tuition, but is #4 in total cost?!  The poisonous food can’t be that expensive, can it?

Myself, I graduated from a public university in Virginia (where we watch a different set of rankings) *mumble-cough* years ago.   We gamed the system, my parents and I — they were divorced so I was able to benefit from out-of-state admission, then in-state tuition.  Whoo!  Even so, my parents practically killed themselves paying for it (recession was in the air then, too) so that I wouldn’t start my working life saddled with debt.  I look around at friends still paying theirs off and give thanks on a regular basis.

I can’t imagine what today’s students and parents must think, looking at figures like this. Not too many years ago, these sorts of debt burdens were for med school or law school, not undergrad.   Today’s credit situation can’t be helping, either.

Of course, there’s always hope for those GW alumni who might have very young children now:  Back when I was in high school, the then-most expensive (Bard College) is now down at #25 on the list!

Sarah Palin and Barack Obama will each be making appearances in Virginia this week intent on winning the battleground state for their respective tickets. My prediction is that Obama takes it, but feel free to disagree.

• Sarah Palin will be at Salem Football Stadium today. Tickets can be had by following the procedure here. The stadium seats 20,000.
• Barack Obama will be at two rallies tomorrow. One will be held at Harbor Park in Norfolk, VA (ticket info), and the other will be held at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, VA (open to public, details here).

In other words, get your rally on.

Well I had some fun with a live blog during last week’s live blog of the Presidential Debates- so let’s try it again!

I will be blogging live on DC Metblogs during the final Presidential Debate at Hofstra University. I hope anyone interested will stop by during the debates- leave a comment or question while I continue to throw out my random commentary and running tally on buzzwords.

8:41 PM: Hello internet, I’m back for constantly update you with random thoughts about the final debate! It’s a little more than 15 minutes to go and here are my initial thoughts I have on top of my head coming into this debate:

• Towards the end of the workday I heard my state of Virginia is now apprently leaning towards Obama according to CNN. To me this is the latest in current pulling ahead of Obama in the polls. It’s clear that here in the DC area, as well as across the country, that Obama could not only win this election- but may even win big. I am still a little sketpical of how realistic a landslide could be- and others are as well. For me this debate is McCain’s last effort to stop the growing wave of Obama. I am waiting to see how McCain is going to play this last card in his deck.
• Bob Schieffer will be moderating the action tonight- will we see the candidates play by the rules? Or will this be another sit down message point delivery session?
• Will I pick better buzzwords this time around? I have 10 minutes now to pick some.

8:59 PM: Ok after looking at the C-SPAN Debate Hub (thanks Steve) some of the keywords that have been mentioned so far include President, Taxes, Spending, and Billion. Obvious words that would be said- but I’m looking for the buzzwords that wouldn’t normally be said. On that note I will look for these phrases: “voted with bush 90% of the time”; “just doesn’t understand”; “ready to lead”; “I got the scars to prove it”; and “maverick.”

Read the rest under the more tag…

Read more

Photo by ktylerconk, used under Creative Commons license

I’ve got a couple of weeks off of work - despite House Republicans’ best efforts, Congress has adjourned for the traditional August recess and things at the office are slow - so I hit the W&OD bike trail yesterday afternoon.

I got into riding thanks to an old roommate who was an avid outdoorsman and competitive cyclist. One of his safety tips for the W&OD trail is that you should never ride with an iPod on. Naturally, I ignored that bit of advice yesterday. I was only out for a relatively short trip - 20 miles, from my house to Reston and back - but I much prefer working out with a soundtrack.

Any of you who also read DCist will have seen some of their extensive comment threads on cycling in and around the city. This is one point, though, that I haven’t really seen addressed extensively. Is it kosher to ride/run/rollerblade with the music on while out on a bike trail?

Just about every jogger I saw yesterday had headphones on, though none of them seemed to have any problem hearing me when I passed. I’m not about to go out on the trail with tunes on a sunny Saturday afternoon when every yuppie with tight shorts in Northern Virginia will be out for a stroll, but aside from that, I say go for it. Just use your head - and, obviously, keep the volume at a reasonable level for those “on your left” calls. I can’t imagine that it’d be a good idea on the Capital Crescent trail in Bethesda, either, but maybe you Murrahlanders disagree.

And for goodness’ sake, please, stop at the stop signs!

It’s hard to believe so much time has gone by; it’s been a little shy of three years since I wrote my first post here and kicked off what would be a lot of posts and pictures about funny Virginia license plates. At the time I was a little reluctant to sign up and participate, not actually being a blogger on my own. Writing about myself seemed to self-indulgent, and who would care? Writing for Metblogs, however, provided a structure and a reason for writing and I’ve loved it. It’s been a way to meet new people and a motivation to try new things and, perhaps most importantly, an impetus to really examine my involvement and my feelings about the things I do and see.

I credit Metblogs for helping me love this city even more,  in a dozen ways. New people, new friends, new places, new experiences, new opportunities. Like the best jobs, this one kept me on my toes and pushed me to develop new skills… sometimes under fire, sometimes by putting me next to people who knew things I didn’t, sometimes by forcing me to teach and thereby learn my subject matter even better.

That said, surely you know a eulogy when you hear it. Well, a resignation letter anyway - I’m not dying unless someone aims badly with a bottle rocket tonight. Maybe this is more an overly wordy break-up speech. It’s not you, Metblogs, it’s me.

It’s come to be time for me to move on to a different place - electronically anyway - and a different sort of writing. I’m still interested in life here in DC and I’ll be writing about it over at We Love DC, where some things will be new but others will surely stay the same. Anyone interested in a betting pool on how long before I post a picture of some interesting license plates… well, I wouldn’t go too far into double-digits if I were you.

Thanks for reading, I home you come visit me over at the new digs. Have a happy Fourth of July.

photo courtesy of Zaid Al Balushi