Nyet to Comrade Martin

It’s pitchforks and torches outside the genteel U.S. Commission of Fine Arts; Revolution is in the air. That will teach federal agencies to attempt art history lessons for the masses.

The Washington, DC Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial project has entered a new phase of its troubled history. The Commission oversees art and architecture in much of the District of Columbia, and is the guardian of the Tidal Basil site reserved for the King statue. Michael E. Ruane’s front-page article in today’s Washington Post alerted the proletariat that the Commission’s April 17th meeting reviewed the latest statue design and found its “Socialist Realist” style and “colossal scale” to be “unfortunate and inappropriate,” but on-line comments about the Post article indicate that many readers are unaware of the Stalinist and totalitarian origins and associations of the style.

West Virginia White Folks, Say Howdy to Hillary

The West Virginia Democratic Primary is Tuesday, so we can expect Senator Clinton to seek out the worst local working-class stereotypes to mimic. The state is 95 percent white, poor, and few residents went to Wellesley and Yale with the Senator, since only 17 percent of West Virginians have college degrees.

Crime Cameras are a Bust

Detective Chief Inspector Mick Neville of New Scotland Yard runs the world’s largest police network of closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras. The British have spent billions assembling a vast digital image database and developing custom software. Not only can’t this system assist with real-time crime prevention, it isn’t much help in solving crimes retroactively and convicting criminals.

Idlers

The Climate Change Steering Committee of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (MCOG) recommends fines for vehicles that keep their engines running without moving for more than five minutes, according to the Examiner. The panel recommends exceptions for fire, police, ambulances, and vehicles stuck in traffic jams.

The MCOG panel recommends enforcement of such regulations, which is admirable, since the District of Columbia already has such regulations but doesn’t seem to enforce them.

Jenna and Henry — ANWR Honeymoon?

A new rumor is circulating:  Jenna Bush and Henry Hager won’t enjoy an exotic tropical honeymoon after all, but will enjoy the fleeting beauty of ANWR, the Alaska National Wildlife Preserve. How has this totally unfounded rumor spread? You’re reading it, aren’t you?

Sweeping Changes for Parking Tickets

They’re here: camera-equipped street sweepers will be cleaning up for the District of Columbia Government.  The digital images will be processed by license-plate-reading software, a concept first applied in Chicago.

Tickets ($30) will be automatically printed and mailed to offenders who ignore the street-cleaning hours posted on “no parking” signs.

Prom Night with Lynn and Dick

Sweethearts Lynn Vincent and Dick Cheney at the Natrona County High School Senior Prom in Casper, Wyoming, 1959. He even had that grin back then.

From Washingtonian.

 

Wild Waco Weekend

The Jenna Bush - Henry Hager wedding has paralyzed tiny Crawford Texas and stunned nearby Waco, which already has a full calendar of events this weekend. While everyone is moved that President Bush built a limestone altar for the nuptials (it will barbeque three whole briskets too), some Texans who are not selling souvenirs are annoyed with the additional traffic, fuss and bother.

This is a royal wedding, American-style. It is not every day that the daughter of a sitting president weds a former aide of Grand Vizier Karl Rove. Henry Hager is also son of a former Virginia Lieutenant Governor who heads the Republican Party in Virginia, and is rich.

Pantsless Pearson Rides Again

Former District of Columbia Administrative Judge Roy L. Pearson Jr. has filed suit in Federal Court to get his D.C. job back. Mr. Pearson enjoyed worldwide ridicule for suing his dry cleaners for $54 million for allegedly losing a pair of his pants. He lost the lawsuit and his job as well.

Mr. Pearson’s new suit legal filing claims he was a whistleblower, wrongfully dismissed from his position with the DC Office of Administrative Hearings for exposing internal corruption. He asks for reinstatement in his job, back pay, and $1 million in damages for “humiliation” and “physical illness” he suffered as a result of his “retaliatory” demotion and eventual dismissal. The city claims his term had expired last May and he was not reappointed due to lack of judicial temperament.

Noise, Neighborhood, Newbies

“An individual, thinking himself injured, makes more noise than state”
Thomas Jefferson

Noise: Any unwanted sound. Noise can be loud or soft.
Syllabus, Tooling University

It’s back. The District of Columbia Council reconsiders the “Dave Billl” today. The bill amends the District of Columbia Noise Control Amendment Act of 1977, (D.C. Law 2-53; 20 DCMR § 2799.1) so daytime noncommercial public speaking will be considered a “noise disturbance” if it exceeds ”70 decibels when measured at a distance of 50 feet from the source of the noise.”

The bill is the result of exhaustive lobbying by a guy named Dave who bought a house in Northeast Washington, near the commercial intersection of 8th and H Streets, NE, where several bus lines intersect. The intersection has been an important shopping location for African American working people since the 1920s, even after the riots of 1968. This”agora” has attracted street preachers of various political and religious philosophies, poets and musicians. If Dave is familiar with this tradition, he is not sympathetic to it.