progressive cyberdadaism from our nation’s capital
Last night I went to WABA’s holiday party in their funky Dupont Circle digs. I’ve walked by their offices bizillions of times without knowing: they’re just upstairs from the International Magazine shop on Connecticut and Florida, within spitting distance of the Hinckley Hilton.
Bicyclists are a very interesting group in that they are often so passionate about cycling. I mean, I’m pretty passionate about cycling, but I don’t think I could dedicate my life to it, as many that were there last night have. The word “passionate” has a multiplicity of meanings here, so I should pause to be more clear. One kind of cyclist is “passionate” about the everyday act of getting on a bicycle and going somewhere. It’s the euphoria that comes from getting up speed largely as a result of applying mind to muscle to gear-ratio. Though, gravity helps, too. For example, I was comparing notes with someone last night on what I consider to be a circuitous route to avoid Connecticut Avenue between Van Ness and Dupont Circle. Her take was that she was grateful for the extra miles so she could be on her bike that much longer.
Other people are passionate about biking in the sense of fighting the powers that be. The “powers that be” meaning those who would prefer that DC be turned into LA. You may know someone like the powers that be. They tend to believe that the world was created for cars, or least for their car. The type who would never bike or walk if they can possibly drive there. It takes someone with enormous passion to fight this particular form of conventional wisdom. My helmet is off to activists of this stripe.
The reward is having trails like the bike path between Bethesda and Georgetown. Nice pics here, if you like pics.
Folks at the WABA party last night were very helpful in answering a question that I’ve had: some of the paths in DC are pretty beat up. They would be good for in-line skating or skateboarding, but as they are, they’re just too worn and cracked. The one that’s a real shame for how poor it is, is near the Lincoln Memorial. So, what gives? As I gather, the Park Service is very reluctant to do any maintenance. So, barring a miracle, it’s not likely anything is going to happen. I didn’t exactly get what was the resistance, or if it was more a question of priority. I guess I need to do some digging.
[powered by WordPress.]
hip·po·pot·a·mus n. A notion, perhaps distinct from conventional wisdom, that needs to be verified by reality-based scrutiny.
95. Cogito cogito ergo cogito sum (I think that I think, therefore I think that I am.)
— Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary
We're asking you to put some of the money you plan to give Obama "in escrow" until he demonstrates progressive leadership on the issues we care about, like warrantless wiretapping. [Link]
The report notes that the administration has gone to “unprecedented lengths to control and suppress information about the human cost” of the wars. [Link]
"We see a tipping point occurring right before our eyes," Hansen said during his appearance at the National Press Club. "The Arctic is the first tipping point and it's occurring exactly the way we said it would." [Link]
It appeared to confirm for the first time in an official examination many of the allegations from critics who charged that the Justice Department had become overly politicized during the Bush administration. [Link]
"After years of disclosures by government investigations, media accounts, and reports from human rights organizations, there is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes. The only question that remains to be ans [Link]
It gives me a terrible mental image of the whole country linking arms and goose-stepping in unison, with the politicians out in front doing a straight-armed salute. [Link]
BOULTON: There are those who would say look, lets take Guantanamo Bay, and Abu Ghraib, and rendition and all those things and to them that is the complete opposite of freedom. BUSH: Of course, if you want to slander America. [Link]
In a subsequent e-mail to the employee, Cargol described himself as “a rub-your-belly, grab-your-balls, give-you-a-hug, slap-your-back, pull-your-dick, squeeze-your-hand, cheek-your-face, and pat-your-thigh kind of guy.” [Link]
Democracy Now! Radio and TV News [Link]
Let's take a look at how the Los Angeles Times covered the new Senate Intelligence Committee report on the claims made as part of selling the Iraq war, and compare it to how the editorial page of the Washington Post, by which I mean Fred Hiatt, sees the e [Link]
Former White House press secretary Scott McClellan writes in a new memoir that the Iraq war was sold to the American people with a sophisticated "political propaganda campaign" led by President Bush and aimed at "manipulating sources of public opinion" an [Link]
Hertzberg's analysis is noteworthy because he appears to be able to allow several ideas to coexist in his head simultaneously, which quite an achievement these days. [Link]
That night, George Stephanopoulos, who was then a top aide to Mr. Clinton, declared that it was “mathematically impossible for Brown to get the nomination” — the start of a campaign to declare Mr. Clinton the presumed nominee, even as several other [Link]
If Obama is the nominee, Tonay said, McCain will be just fine with her. "In the end, I won't vote for Obama because I don't know who he is, and I don't trust him," she said. [Link]
Robert Reich, who went to Yale Law School with Hillary Rodham and Bill Clinton and later served in the Clinton administration, called Hillary Clinton's attack on Obama "absurd,&q~ adding: "That carries guilt by association to a new level of absurdity. [Link]
Some speculate the Senator Clinton would want the spirit-killing Vice Presidency because she would be willing to wait for two terms so as to be the likely nominee in 2012. I believe that she could well contemplate this scenario. [Link]
A subsequent study by the National Bureau of Economic Research showed that gas prices fell by 3 percent, meaning that only three fifths of the savings from reduced taxes was passed on to consumers. [Link]
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is filing a complaint with the IRS today challenging the conservative group Freedom's Watch status as a non-profit. [Link]
For Barbara, Hillary has become the screech on the blackboard. From First Lady to Lady Macbeth. [Link]
So what's changed? I asked Reich. "I saw the ads" — the negative man-on-street commercials that the Clinton campaign put up in Pennsylvania in the wake of Obama's bitter/cling comments a week ago — "and I was appalled, frankly. [Link]
27 queries. 0.560 seconds