The Republic of T.

Well, I can now add “earthquake” to my list of things I’ve never experience, and add it to my list of things I hope never to experience again.

U.S. Geological Survey has confirmed an earthquake struck central Virginia at 1:53 p.m 4 miles south southeast of Louisa, Virginia near Mineral Va. It has been felt throughout the D.C. metro region. Initial indications are that it measured 5.9 on the Richter scale.

Minutes after the quake, the director of the U.S. Geological Survey, Marcia McNutt — who watched objects falling from the shelves in her office — cautioned that the shaking might not be over.

“What the concern is, of course, is that this is a foreshock. If it’s a foreshock, then the worse is yet to come.”

She said the energy from earthquakes on the East Coast does not attenuate as quickly as it does on the West Coast, and thus even a relatively modest tremor can shake a very broad.

“When something like this happen, everyone has to remember, more than half of the states in the U.S. are considered earthquake country. When something like this happens, remember what to do in the case of a seismic event. Duck, get under something sturdy like a desk or a doorway, get away from falling glass. Make sure that you are not in the way of falling objects like pictures, bookshelves, books, anything that’s not firmly connected the wall.”

It’s not the first we’ve had in the area.

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If there were any justice in the world, this would have been an April Fool’s joke. If I’d seen a woman attacking a painting in the National Gallery of Art on April 1st, that’s what I’d have thought.

A painting at the Gauguin exhibit at the National Gallery was attacked last week by a gallery visitor, provoking considerable commotion, according to other museum visitors and gallery officials.

Screaming “This is evil,” a woman tried to pull Gauguin’s “Two Tahitian Women” from a gallery wall Friday and banged on the picture’s clear plastic covering, said Pamela Degotardi of New York, who was there.

“She was really pounding it with her fists,” Degotardi said. “It was like this weird surreal scene that one doesn’t expect at the National Gallery.”

Gallery spokeswoman Deborah Ziska said no damage to the 1899 painting was immediately apparent after the 4:45 p.m. incident. But she said a more thorough examination will be conducted Monday.

In the painting, both breasts of one woman are exposed, as is one of the second woman’s breasts.

Wait. It gets better.

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“Honey, we’re on page two of the Washington Post.”

That’s what my husband said to me Saturday morning, when he and Dylan returned from their swimming class, as he left on the counter a page that had been ripped from the day’s newspaper, before turning around and taking Dylan outside to play with our neighbor’s two boys.

“Huh,” I said. It took a minute for it to register. Why on earth would we be in the Post? Then I picked up the paper and read the headline: “Slim majority back gay marriage, Post-ABC poll says.”

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You’ve probably seen the news reports about what happened to the metro-DC area this week. But here’s a reminder.

Yes. we were out in the middle of that.

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Or is it, “People kill people with guns”? Either way, there’s been a bit too much of it going on too close to home for my comfort. Now, people are being shot over speed bumps.

No, seriously. A guy was shot over a speed bump.

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OK. I don’t know what to make of this, but the hubby just called and told me, and the news confirmed that a gunman has barricaded himself at the Discovery Building in Silver Spring.

A barricade situation involving a gunman who may have taken at least one person hostage has been reported at the Discovery Communications Building in Silver Spring, Md.

Police have shut down several roads, including Georgia Avenue, around the building at One Discovery Place.

All employees at One Discovery Place have been alerted to the incident and are seeking shelter or have been evacuated from the building.

Hazmat teams, bomb squads and SWAT teams have been called to the building.

The Discovery building? Why the Discovery building? My guess is either a disgruntled former employee or a domestic issue or stalker situation between the gunman and the hostage.

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I’d started thinking that I was too hard on our power company last week, when I agreed with Gov. O’Malley that their service was less reliable than power in some Third World countries. I was starting to think maybe that was a bit hyperbolic.

That is until I read the Post this morning. Apparently, Pepco is proud of its pitiful performance. (more…)

Well, this has been quite a morning. I haven’t been able to keep up with the news, because we got hit with another storm this morning. The latest in a series.

Of course, we lost power again.

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I’m assuming the blonde woman in the Prius, with a kid in the back seat, who stopped to ask me for directions Monday morning was safe. But, until they catch this guy I’m not telling anyone else where to go.

A Michigan prosecutor said Tuesday that stabbing attacks in his state that killed five people are linked to similar attacks in Virginia and Ohio.

So far, authorities have reported a total of 20 such attacks in the three states. Genesee County, Michigan, prosecutor David Leyton said on CNN’s "American Morning" that the victims’ description of the attacker and his car are similar.

"We think we have the same perpetrator," he said.

Leyton said police believe the man is responsible for three recent attacks in Leesburg, Virginia, the stabbing deaths of five people and injuries to 11 others in the Flint, Michigan, area and a stabbing Saturday that injured one man in Toledo, Ohio.

Fourteen of the 16 victims in Michigan were African-American, he said, but Flint is also a majority African-American community. In majority white Leesburg, Virginia, two victims were black and one was Hispanic.

Great. On top of the usual day to day stuff, I gotta look out for a serial killer who may be in the metro-D.C. area, and whose favorite victims are apparently people who look like me.

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In the metro-D.C. area, if it isn’t electricity it’s the water. The wind shifts direction or a simple summer storm is all it takes to knock out one or the other — and, many times, both. But we don’t just have a problem with power. Our biggest challenge is the politics of powerlessness, and the problems it leads us to steadfastly refuse to solve.

Dean Baker, as is often the case, is right.

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Living and working in Washington, it’s not unusual to run in to famous people. No, not “movie star famous.” At least not most of the time. But people who hold important positions or people whose work and actions have made history, and made a difference in the lives of countless others.

Dr. Dorothy Height was one of those people  who fit all of the above criteria.

Legendary civil rights leader Dorothy Height died Tuesday morning, at age 98. She dedicated her life to empowering women and blacks, and led the National Council of Negro Women for four decades.

Height was born in Richmond, Va., and grew up near Pittsburgh. As a teenager, she won a scholarship to Barnard College in New York, only to find that the school had already admitted its quota of two blacks.

In 1963, as Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his “I Have A Dream” speech at the March on Washington, only one woman stood on the platform behind him: Dorothy Height. A lifelong champion of civil rights, Height organized a meeting the next day in which women in the movement could address racism and sexism.

Height had the ear of U.S. presidents from Eisenhower to Obama. President Obama paid homage to Height in a statement Tuesday, calling her a hero and “the godmother of the civil rights movement.”

I never formally met Dr. Height, but in my one experience with her she impressed me with the depth of her understanding, and I came away knowing a bit more about how she could work so tirelessly for so long.

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Update: The transcript is up.

The hubby and I are participating in a Washington Post online chat about marriage in D.C., a1 t 1 p.m. today.  Come join in!

open source video, online video platform, video streaming, video solutions

With the issuing of the first marriage licenses to same-sex couples Tuesday, the District follows five states — from Iowa to Massachusetts — in allowing gay couples to marry. Same-sex couples were first able to apply for licenses in the District last Wednesday but, like all couples, had to follow the city’s three-day waiting period before getting hitched.

Rick Imirowicz and Terrance Heath, who were married Tuesday, will be online Wednesday, March 10, at 1 p.m. ET to discuss the new law in the District and what it means to them and others in the GLBT community and the nation.

OK. Technically, I’m getting married in the evening. But I couldn’t resist.

The next time you see a blog post from me, I should be a legally married man.

Apparently all you need to do to be arrested for prostitution in D.C. is carry three or more condoms. Seriously.

Think you might get lucky tonight? Well, if you’re in D.C., don’t bring more than two condoms in your purse, or you could be arrested as a prostitute.

In D.C., police can declare “Prostitution Free Zones” where officers can pick up (I mean, arrest) anyone suspected of sex work. And they’ve been accused of using carrying three or more condoms as proof of intent to sell sex — rather than intent to spend the weekend getting jiggy with a guy.

This is the stupidest thing I’ve heard so far this year.

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I just have one thing to say about this.

Forget WWJD. The new question is apparently What Would MLK Do? A coalition of politically and theologically conservative Christian leaders, including nine Roman Catholic bishops, who have just signed a declaration saying they will not comply with laws that could require them to recognize same-sex unions or allow their institutions to support abortions are arguing that the move is of a piece with King’s call for civil disobedience during the civil rights movement.

The declaration reads, in part: “We will not comply with any edict that purports to compel our institutions to participate in abortions, embryo-destructive research, assisted suicide and euthanasia, or any other antilife act; nor will we bend to any rule purporting to force us to bless immoral sexual partnerships, treat them as marriages or the equivalent.”

Instead of debating whether these causes belong in the same category as providing equal rights and treatment to racial minorities, the better question may be: Why now?After all, most people agree with the first part of the statement and believe religious institutions and individuals should be protected by conscience provisions that protect them from being compelled to participate in acts like abortion that they believe are murder. And, in fact, they are.

Fine. But if you’re gonna talk that talk, you gotta walk that walk.
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I thought perhaps I was gong crazy when I noticed that my iPhone still displayed several “bars” by the time I took my seat on the Metro yesterday evening. But the mobile browser was working even as the train pulled away from the station — now I know why.
 
Mobile service has expanded on Metro, to include my phone and several of the stops on my usual route.

Expanded cell phone service is now available in 20 of Metro’s busiest underground stations. As of 5:30 a.m. today, October 16, Metrorail riders are able to use three major cell phone providers in addition to the existing Verizon Wireless service to make calls from 20 station platforms. Eventually, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile services will be available from anywhere inside the stations.

“It’s important for Metro customers to realize that, initially, expanded cell phone service is only from the platforms of 20 of our busiest underground stations,” said Metro General Manager John Catoe. “Customers should expect to see continual improvement in their cell phone coverage and call quality as additional enhancements to the wireless network are made.”

“This will really help people communicate. I am glad we are at this point,” said Metro Board Chairman Jim Graham.

AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless have installed hardware at no cost to Metro that will allow Metrorail customers to make calls, send text messages or surf the Web from inside the following 20 stations: Ballston, Bethesda, Columbia Heights, Crystal City, Dupont Circle, Farragut North, Farragut West, Federal Triangle, Foggy Bottom-GWU, Friendship Heights, Gallery Pl-Chinatown, Judiciary Square, L’Enfant Plaza, McPherson Square, Metro Center, Pentagon, Pentagon City, Rosslyn, Smithsonian and Union Station.

During the next few weeks, the team of cell phone providers will continue to enhance the wireless network at these stations to provide callers with continuous coverage from the street into each station. Customers also will have broadband data network access.

Not that I make very many calls while on Metro, but it would be nice to be able to call home and say I’m going to be late, or to get a call from the hubby.

I don’t have time to write this up in the kind of detail I would like, and I’m sure somebody somewhere has probably covered all the bases. (For what it’s worth, I did my bit here. The Washington Blade has local coverage about the opposition, and new D.C. “resident” Henry Jackson’s dishonest attempt to claim D.C. residency in order to stop the law from taking effect, and ) But this item from the Washington City Paper is good news.

If you’re a same-sex couple married legally in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Iowa, California (in the months it was permitted), or in other countries, congratulations: The District of Columbia now considers you to be married, too.

At this minute, a 30-day congressional review period has expired, and you’re now free to enjoy all the rights and responsibilities of civil marriage in the District. (That includes divorce, incidentally.)

…Now look for the real fight to begin—over performing same-sex marriages in the District. At-Large Councilmember David Catania is all but certain to introduce a bill permitting that in the fall; opponents are likely to pursue a ballot initiative, which will end up being adjudicated by the D.C. Court of Appeals.

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I take the DC Metro almost every day — once in the morning and once in the evening. But not yesterday.

Investigators are trying to determine why a Washington commuter train rear-ended another train stopped on the tracks Monday, sending one train on top of the other, killing seven people and injuring at least 70.

On Tuesday, District of Columbia officials lowered the number of fatalities in Monday’s fatal accident from nine to seven. D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty said during a Tuesday morning press conference that officials are “going to let the investigation run its course” and added that hopefully the number will not exceed seven by the end of the day.

Fenty has called the crash the deadliest accident in the history of the Washington transit system, which connects the city with its suburbs in Maryland and Virginia.

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The denial has already started on the right that this guy wasn’t one of theirs. My favorite is from the RedState comments.

I swear these guys are plants…I have never met a Republican who was a white supremecist….

Aaron Gardner Wednesday, June 10th at 2:34PM EDT (link)

not saying they don’t exist, but I have never seen one myself. Kinda like the Chupacabra.

Never met a Republican who was a white supremacist?

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This is what’s happening in my city right now.

I didn’t know about it until my husband called to tell me about it (and to make sure I’m wasn’t anywhere near the Holocaust Museum).

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