Three years ago, I found Metblogs and it was a great home for me. I had so much to say, so much sass to get out, and this haphazard family gave me the opportunity to express myself in 1,187 posts and too many comments to count.

In that verbosity, I honed my blogging craft. I learned how to illuminate, motivate, and when needed, aggravate readers to effect change. Sometimes that change was small, Innocent Children followers may now know a bit more about Uganda, and other times I was humbled by the power of online rabble rousing; Free Our Streets is a case in point.

Now, I’ve gown in my blogging to be the publisher of OLPC News, a recognized leader in commentary on the One Laptop Per Child program. For me, OLPC News eclipsed Metblogs right about when Leslie Stall interviewed me on 60 Minutes. From then on, Metblogs was a low priority in my life.

And with this post, I’ll be exiting Metblogs. First, I’m joining the crew of We Love DC, in their new endeavor. Join us for the joy and conversation. Next, I have a radical change in my own life, one that will definitely rock my world:

Street traffic is cordoned off and pedestrians are being kept away. The World Bank and surrounding facilities have instituted a “shelter in place” policy. It seems to be centered around the Edward R. Murrow Park across from the World Bank. Traffic is diverted down 19th and 17th, no cross traffic down I or Pennsylvania or up 18th is moving. Please avoid the area.

When my parents were here in March we happened to head a little farther west than we normally do, and ended up having a late lunch in Manassas. When we parked there it was hard not to notice the particularly large sign across the street and wonder what its story was. It was notable enough that I took a picture.

So when I saw this story on the front page of the WashingtonPost.com I was curious to read the story behind it. It’s an interesting one - based on the message above I’d wondered if this wasn’t a religious organization, with their message of love and empathy. “The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.” The sign has changed notably since March 9th - the WaPo story has a small shot of the presumably current sign, though it’s small and they provide no transcription.

Unfortunately WaPo writer Nick Miroff decided to do a little editorializing in the WaPo story, which summarizes the sign’s content thusly:

The sign’s text has changed a few times, but its message has essentially remained the same: Latino immigrants have been exploited by ungrateful, racist white residents who took advantage of their labor and now want them to leave.

Anyone see any assertions of racism or ingratitude in the sign above?  This is why you should report facts and not interpret them, Mr Miroff.

Transcriptions of old and new sign after the jump. Read more

Remember my analysis and prediction, yesterday? Which made me feel kinda dumb, since I said I figured we’d see some licensing movement in two months, but then Fenty made statements about 21 days. I wasn’t quite as wrong as I thought - the 21 days aren’t necessarily when they’ll start, but is when the police will release the requirements and processes. When they’ll then start accepting applications is not so concrete.

My disappointment, though, is that I was so silly as to think that the D.C. government, faced with the obvious and inevitable, would decide to just do what they have to do. No, instead Mayor Fenty et all have decided they haven’t pissed away enough of the city’s money on this battle, and rather than focus on writing gun licensing regulations that might make all of us safer and survive the inevitable legal challenges, they’re going to attempt to enforce other gun laws on the books that obviously are out of line with yesterday’s decision.

[interim D.C. Attorney General Peter] Nickles said the District will continue to enforce a separate decades-old D.C. ban on the possession of most clip-loaded semiautomatic handguns, which are popular with gun enthusiasts.

That regulation, which outlaws machine guns and was not part of the Supreme Court case, defines a machine gun in broad terms, encompassing semiautomatic weapons that can shoot, or be converted to shoot, more than 12 rounds without reloading, officials said. Nickles said that law remains on the books and will be enforced.

I can only hope that (a) the Washington Post will prod article writers Paul Duggan and David Nakamurato be a little more precise with their language in the future, since a ban on “semiautomatic weapons that can shoot, or be converted to shoot, more than 12 rounds without reloading” isn’t a limit on machine guns, it’s a limit on almost any self-loading type of pistol and (b) Nickles will read the opinion issued by the court and notice how often Scalia talks about “common” weapons. Self-loading handguns outsell revolvers 3 to 1, which pretty well fits into the definition of common.

So like it or not, enforcing this other law is just an expensive guaranteed return trip to the court in order to lose. It’s unlikely it will get far; this is so obvious on its face that the lower courts are going to rule against the city and appeals likely won’t get far. However that doesn’t mean it’s not a waste of resources we can’t afford. Let’s accept reality and work within it, and be ready for the inevitable other lawsuits that are going to come up over license restrictions. The universe - and the NRA - give away trouble for free. There’s no need to go looking for it.

UPDATE: Just noticed that Ben Winograd over on SCOTUSBlog addresses this idiocy, provides a salient example, and suggests that DC should fix this statute before the courts or the congress fixes it for them. Starts on paragraph 6.

April fool, courtesy of Djuliet

First off, if you’re a Nats fan headed to the game with the Orioles on Sunday, good luck. You’re hosed.

Heads up to everyone travelling across the District this weekend: every single Metro line is seeing major track work and rail testing from Friday night through early Monday morning.

Blue Line
Sad to say, this one’s been hit the worst. First, customers traveling between the Franconia-Springfield and Van Dorn Street Metrorail stations should add up to 30 minutes of travel time for their trips because of track maintenance. Inbound and outbound trains between these locations will share one track from 10 p.m. to closing (3 a.m.), Friday, June 27, 7 a.m. to 10 a.m., Saturday, June 28, 10 p.m. to closing (3 a.m.), Saturday, June 28, and 7 a.m. to 10 a.m., Sunday, June 29.

Additionally, if you’re traveling between the Pentagon City and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport Metrorail stations, you should add 15 minutes of travel time for your trips because of track maintenance. Inbound and outbound trains will share one track between these locations from 10 p.m. to closing (midnight), Sunday, June 29.

Yellow Line
You get to piggy-back on the Blue Line’s woes. See above for sharing issues between Pentagon City and Reagan National.

Orange Line
Riders traveling between the Stadium-Armory and Cheverly Metrorail stations should add up to 20 minutes of travel time for their trips because of bridge repairs. Inbound and outbound trains between these locations will share one track from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday, June 28.

Green Line
If you’re traveling between the Greenbelt and College Park Metrorail stations, add 15 minutes of travel time for your trips because of rail car testing. Inbound and outbound trains will share one track between these locations from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., Saturday, June 28.

Red Line
And finally, riders traveling between the Friendship Heights and Medical Center Metrorail stations should add 15 minutes of travel time for their trips because of track maintenance. Inbound and outbound trains will share one track between these locations from 9 p.m. to closing (midnight), Sunday, June 29.

Another Monday has come and gone without a Supreme Court ruling on DC v Heller, the case that is going to determine when if you can have a gun in the District. Mike O’Shea over at Concurring Opinions, a law-focused blog, has a good writeup here talking about what the potential upshot will be when the ruling hits the street. He also speculates on when we’ll see the ruling show up, and accurately predicted that it wouldn’t be today.

If you’re not a regular reader of law blogs some of it might be a little obscure but most if it is pretty readable. Check it out.

“Big Guns” Susan, courtesy of ttstam

I never really paid attention to the writing on this sign before, located on St. Elmo Street in Bethesda. I imagine it’s in front of a hair designer, but I didn’t see one, not that I was looking. Mostly what I noticed, other than the drawing of a woman about to get naked, was that she encourages us to examine what is behind her.

What’s behind her? Surprise! More sidewalk and, as you can see, a car partly blocking the sidewalk. I wonder if this sign really does anything to promote Valentino’s or if people just assume it’s an ad for a strip club, as I did for about a year before stopping to read it.

Photo: Do they sell boobs? Originally uploaded by carlweaver

…is the Farmer’s Markets this weekend. With salmonella warnings out there for pretty much every kind of store-bought tomatoes, why not head out the farmers market so you can get some disease-free tomatoes, and meet the people involved in growing them? The Post has a great listing of DC area Farmers’ Markets, and also an interactive Google Maps Mashup with markets separated out by days of the week.

I’ll be at the Courthouse market in the morning tomorrow getting tomatoes for Insalata Caprese with fresh basil. Sounds good, doesn’t it?

A Pepco substation serving a good portion of DC’s downtown business district failed at 7:30 this morning, leaving 10,000 businesses in the downtown area without power, and Metrorail stations McPherson Square (Orange/Blue), Farragut West (Orange/Blue), Farragut North (Red) and Dupont Circle (Red) without power. In addition to the outages, there’s been a fire reported by WMATA at Metro Center, and another reported by WAMU, WTOP and multiple twitters at Dupont Circle Station this morning as well.

DC Dept. of Transportation says that more than 30 traffic signals in the downtown core are also out, and has requested that people please treat them as four ways stops. I know there were more than a few people on my drive up 15th street who failed to treat them as such. Of course, when traffic’s flowing, it’s hard to treat them that way, I get it, but still.

Be aware, commuting today probably sucked ass, so please be nicer to your coworkers who looked like they slogged through a marsh of fire in order to come to work.

[Update, 9:56] Dupont Circle Metro is now closed due to the power outage. Apparently a lot of people were having trouble exiting the station on the long escalator climb to the surface.

I was walking to the supermarket near my office when I encountered this obstacle. Of course, instead of safely crossing the street, everyone, including me, was walking single-file on the curb on Old Georgetown Road. yeah, it’s not exactly smart, but at least it adds a little drama to my otherwise dull day in a windowless office.

What’s curious is that the sidewalk was closed for no apparent reason. Construction is done in this building, so there were no obvious dangers.

Thanks, all you mysterious people who get paid to block sidewalks. Often you do a good job but this time I fail to see why it’s closed. The bricks have already been walked on, so please fear that no more.

Photo: Closed for what? Originally uploaded by carlweaver