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VISIT DC

Here’s a question that was raised in an article in the Dallas Morning News: why do we Americans rush off to see the “grand capitals of Europe”, but ignore our own Capital in Washington, DC? Good question, right. Here are some thoughts on why you should include DC in your travel plans, now and in the future: I came to Washington, DC., first as a teenager, insistent at the age of 15 that I would see it and understand on my own if my family would not otherwise take me. It was less than a four hour car ride away from where we were living then, but visiting was not on my father’s agenda. I made my own plans. First, you should understand that just being in the capital is awe inspiring, if you love your country and have a deep appreciation for her story. The white gleam of the massive Capitol Building itself, perched on a hill, with the majestic, tall Washington Monument at the end of the Mall, are enough to take your breath. Then, of course, standing and looking at the White House, where so many presidents have lived, is a little surreal. Yes, it is an actual place. Yes, the president might well be in there at the moment (if it is a weekend, don't bet on it, but you can often see the drama of the presidential helicopters coming and going). Having lived inside DC for 17 years before departing for the far burbs of Maryland, I would strongly suggest this to potential visitors who want to get the most from a trip here: read up a bit. Look at maps. Look at Google earth. Try to get oriented to the physical space but, also, brush up a little on what the government is and how it works. (You know, three branches, balance of power, etc.) It will help you to understand what you are seeing. Remember this, too: DC is not one giant museum or tourist attraction. It is not an historical Disneyland. It is a living, working city. All of the buildings you pass or visit are places of work, except for the grand monuments and museums. If you see people in business suits rushing to get pass you in the corridors of the Capitol Building, for example, it is because they are there to work and need to get through the crowds as quickly as possible. They are not being rude, they are trying to do their jobs. If you can afford to, stay in the city, not in the suburbs. The center core is what you have come to see, don't spend a hour each way getting to and from. If, on the other hand, you can find a good hotel a short ride away on the Metro, take it. Just remember that coming in during rush hour could be unpleasant, so maybe you want to get up a little later, have a late breakfast and hit the subway at ten or so. Stay where you can ride directly in without changing trains. You can get a real good take on what the Washington bureaucrat looks like on the subways in the evenings. He, or she, looks tired, hassled and kind of worn down. The tie is loose around the neck, the belly often extends over the belt line and the eyes are sometimes glazed over. People are still heading home from work around here at 8, 9 and even 10 in the evening. The "rush hour" often isn't over at 8:30. The freeways are jammed by 5:30 in the morning, too. Law firms are often busy at midnight and most weekends. There is no such thing as ending the work day uniformly at five in the afternoon. Do come to the District of Columbia, that strange non-state that was created by the Founders because the governor of Pennsylvania refused to call out the state militia to protect them during the Constitutional convention in Philadelphia. (They wanted a place they could control, instead of having to ask a governor for help.) This center of American democratic action, remember, has the same status in the U.S. Congress as the Pacific island of Guam: one representative, no vote. (If you are struck by the supreme irony of that fact that we fight to take democracy around the world, but don’t allow it in our own capital, well, so are the people who live here.) I would recommend at least three days. Don't do the one day in and out routine, unless you can come back often. There is much to see, much to enjoy and learn. We ain't no one horse town any more with third class dinning. Spend an evening in Georgetown, Adams Morgan, China town or the Penn Quarter. There are real neighborhoods just blocks away from the official scene. Washington, DC, is one of the first "purpose built" capitals in modern world history. It was built on a grand scale, intended to impress or even intimidate the leaders of Europe who might come here and look down their noses at America. It is noisier, more crowded and, right now, hotter than ever, but it has much to offer. It is a grand place. Almost everyone who comes here to work and live comes because, really, they want to help add to our nation's story, to assist in some way in continuing and expanding our potential. If you allow yourself to put aside cynicism for awhile, you can see and feel those efforts in the city around you. If nothing else, you will come to understand the greatness of the vision of those who founded the    U.S. and those who have peopled the government down through generations. There is unending sadness at places like the Vietnam Memorial, and awestruck glory in the monuments to Lincoln and Jefferson. In the quiet of an evening, even in the busy summertime, you can have parts of these places to yourself. If you want a really special treat, get up at before dawn and go to the Lincoln memorial and watch the sun rise. Then, walk over to the Vietnam wall. In the space of half an hour, you will cover the markers for two of our most difficult national struggles and remember those who lived, and died, in those times.  You will see that, whatever we have, it did not come easily. The WW II Memorial is walking distance close to the Wall, toward the Washington Monument. Like the man said, you've got to see it for yourself, touch it and remember it. If you come, you will learn things that only you will know that can't be taught and probably can't be shared with others through mere words. But, you will know. I have at least two friends whose names are on the Vietnam wall. Both were high school chums, one the younger brother of a good friend, the other a loner classmate probably few remember at this remove. The point is that everyone has something in the nation's capital, some point at which you or your family ties touch on the long story of America. It is worth seeing. I can't imagine, if the opportunity exists in time and cost, how one could be a full American citizen and not come to visit. The Senators and Congressmen, presidents and Cabinet officers come and go. This is your city, your story, your country. The great democratic experiment that is the United States has resulted in a capital worthy of the name. People from around the world come here to see it, but only you, who are citizens and know its struggles and history, can feel its true power and meaning. What are you waiting for? Doug Terry, 7.4.10

LOSING RIGHTS?

The Tea Party people and the far right say we are losing our rights as citizens. Everything is Obama’s fault and he wants to destroy whatever rights we have left. They had no complaints when Bush was water boarding people at Gitmo, getting legal cover for traveling wiretaps and setting up wider domestic spying. What rights are they talking about? Here is a comment that was published in the Wash Post. I think the writer was Joel Auerbach (some time has elapsed).
				One of the recurring themes in recent political discourse (I want to use the word tropes here, but it does not flow naturally from my pen) is that government is depriving us of our freedoms. Apparently, we basically are living in the Soviet Union. You can't walk down the street without feeling oppressed by the federal government. Like the parkway near my house where they're using stimulus money to fix up the streetlights: Whenever I drive down that road I feel like I'm living through Darkness At Noon.  And what about taxes! Obama wants to raise taxes. Not on me, mind you, and not on most people I know. But the fact that he wants to raise the marginal rate to, like, 39.6 percent on income over $250,000 brings  to mind Mao and the Cultural Revolution. Why not just send us all to re-education camps???
		Someone in Montgomery County, Maryland set fire to a speed trap camera. Breaks my heart.
					The early investigation shows the fire was deliberately set and disabled the camera, Graham said. So no chance the suspect was caught on tape before the flameout? "No ma'am." said Graham. "Based on the mechanics of how the camera operates, unless the suspect was running past at 35 miles an hour with a burning match, the camera wouldn't have gotten it."

SPRINT TRIES TO CHARGE FOR PHONE CALLS USED TO TRACK DOWN THIEF

There is an interesting story in the WashPost, filed 10.27.10 for the morning edition, about a couple in the Washington area who were able to track down a burglar who stole their property. They used the GPS feature on their Sprint cell phone. This sort of thing does not take a genius to figure out, but it sort of qualifies as a man bites dog story when burglars are seldom caught because the lack of clues and, face it, the police have more important things to do than recover your laptop in a rich area where houses are filled with computers and flat screen TeeVees, etc. Here’s the bounce back to the story, however: they wanted their phone left on so they could track the thief. Spint them told them sorry, Charlie, that means you have to pay for the charges the crook ran up. I don’t really like to suggest that is is the sort of brain dead “customer service” we face in America every day, but, sadly, it is. Get every last penny out of everyone you can are the marching orders. Since they’ve got you on a contract, you’re screwed if they won’t take off the charges. The best rule: never sign up for a contract with a cell company, ever. If you’d like to read the whole Post story, click on the following link:  http://tinyurl.com/27hdjfs. The part about the cell charges follows.
				The Fishers would have been happy to - until they learned that they would have to pick up the thief's portion of their cellphone bill. Sprint executives told them that by not suspending the phone, the Fishers had essentially granted the thief permission to use it. "We would consider any authorized usage as valid and billable," Brandon-Ross Howard of the company's executive and regulatory services office told the Fishers in an e-mail. 1,000 calls over 11 days    The thief made about 1,000 calls over 11 days that were mostly covered by the Fishers' plan. But Kari Fisher, who is a tax attorney for the IRS, argued that Sprint should eat the $35 tab out of principle.  After a reporter inquired about the charge, Sprint agreed to waive it.

JOE BARTON TAKEDOWN

THE WORDS OF CONGRESSMAN BARTON: "I do not want to live in a country where anytime a citizen or a corporation does something that is legitimately wrong is subject to some sort of political pressure that is, again, in my words, amounts to a shakedown.” Wow, that was fast, wasn’t it? In about four hours flat, Congressman Joe Barton went from saying he was ashamed of the “shakedown” that BP faced at the White House to saying he was sorry he had said he was sorry to the CEO of BP. Seldom has any official in Washington, DC, been taken to the woodshed so fast and so completely. Barton, a Republican who represents a growing suburban enclave between Dallas and Ft. Worth, first said he wanted to apologize to the BP CEO. He said making a “private corporation” pledge to put up 20 billion for oil spill relief was nothing but a shakedown. The web immediately lit up with condemning rants, the Democrats smelled blood (instead of oil) in the water, Joe Biden showed up at the White House press briefing to condemn Barton but the coup de grace was delivered by Barton’s own Republican party. He was summoned to a meeting at the office of Minority Leader John Boehner with Congressmen Eric Cantor (Virginia) and Mike Pence (Indiana) in attendance. Barton was given a simple option: issue a statement saying he was wrong in what he first said or lose his position on the House Energy committee. You could say he immediately saw the wisdom of what was being said and he caved. Boehner’s office took some of the work out of it by issuing statement of Barton’s apology for his earlier apology. Case closed? The Republicans have been riding high in recent months, the taste and smell of possible victories in the off year elections this November dancing in their heads. With friends like Barton, they don’t need enemies. Needless to say, the people of the Gulf Coast don’t consider the potential 20 billion payout by BP a shakedown. They consider it justice, maybe rough justice, but still important and fair. They are watching their way of life, and their earnings, disappear with every big wave of oil hitting the beaches and they want to be compensated, pronto. Because of the prevailing currents in the Gulf of Mexico, the coast of Texas has escaped damage from the massive oil spill that is now close to 60 days old and running. It seems likely that most of the oil will stay, and move, eastward from Louisiana. Thus, Texans get to be all principled, if you can call it that, about this mess. They get to keep talking about the importance of free enterprise while their neighbors to the east choke on sludge like oil and their wildlife, including that harvested by commercial fishing, goes south by the minute. The old saying is that where people stand in politics depends on whose ox is being gored. If it doesn’t directly affect me, well then I am going to talk about what’s more important than your job. If I lose my job, well, different story. Then, forget ideology and fight it anyway you can. Barton seems, by all indications, to represent the views in Texas which hold the modern world itself at fault for every problem. Inside their state, a good many Texas Republicans sell the idea that just about everything the government does is bad and virtually nothing big business does is harmful, especially the oil companies. Barton and his like minded Republicans want their constituents to believe that every spec of prosperity and every job is somehow a blessing granted by capitalism while everything bad comes from Washington. All will be fine if we just leave business alone. Barton got caught in a whipsaw because he, like many other Texas Republicans and others from around the south, is out of touch with the rest of the country. In his district in Texas, that’s considered an advantage. He and many other right and far right Republicans live in an echo chamber where their views are broadcast back to them, quite literally, by friendly, even fawning media at home and Fox News nationally. They are seldom even questioned in their views, much less put on the spot. Could it be that Barton, like generations from oil states before him, is also blinded by his campaign contributions from big oil? Barton got a hard, fast object lesson Thursday, 6.16.10., about what happens when someone so out of touch with reality is, even for a brief moment, seen as a spokesperson for the Republican party. Ouch. Even if he were right on this issue, that BP should not have been “forced” to promise 20 billion, the Republican leadership would not want to be broadcasting their opposition to helping people. As such, they look not just like the party of no, but like the party that opposes anything and everything that might help the little guy or, more correctly, the small people. BP made its pledge of 20 billion, by the way, because they believe it is in their interest to do so and because they can afford it. Perhaps not easily, but they can afford it. They were preparing to payout 10 billion in dividends to their stock holders this year. Do you want another Wall Street blow up on your hands, where the rich get richer while the poor get tramped on? Probably not. BP made the decision, in part, to get some good PR, to look a little better in the public eye for at least a day and let the rest of the chips fall where they may. What other choice did they have, with or without White House pressure? They had already pledged to pay “legitimate claims”. By promising a fund of 20 billion, they put a figure on the start of the process and, perhaps most importantly, they agreed that they, as the cause of the problem, will not be involved moment by moment in saying who gets what. Had they insisted on staying as the arbiter of payments, every action would be judged as representing their self interest over the dire need for assistance. For people who live on the Gulf Coast, that is probably the single most important part of the process now being created. Doug Terry