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Hello all, just wanted to do a brief “plug” for this because it’s going to be a great night to benefit a great cause. I’ve been working at Buzzlife Productions as a PR & Marketing Intern this semester and one of my main projects has been working to put together our Pink Party to benefit Breast Cancer research. If you’re going to be in the DC area on Friday April 11 you should definitely come check it out. 
Look how pathetic you’ve become. The Constitution has been trashed for eight years and John McCain is still gathering plenty of support. America deserves another Republican in the White House because apparently it just hasn’t learned it’s lesson yet. What happened this morning in DC was not America, it was a totalitarian state.
3:50pm UPDATE: Now the police at the protest happening in San Francisco are threatening to arrest the media!! THE MEDIA!!!!!! Uhmmm, first amendment violations much?
4:36pm UPDATE: More than 51 were arrested this morning in DC. Apparently the group that organized this has about 600 other events going on around the country. Also, MoveOn.org has candle light vigils planned across the country including dozens planned across the Commonwealth. Click here to find the closest one to you.
The U.S. Supreme Court will begin to hear arguments in arguably one of the most important cases the U.S. has seen in awhile because of it’s potential to set precedent for the entire country when it comes to hand gun laws. The current hand gun ban in DC has been in effect for 32 years but is being challenged after a special police officer failed in an effort to register a handgun back in 2002.
“Regardless of who wins and loses, the crucial thing is really going to be what [the justices] are going to say about the Second Amendment,” said Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Combat Gun Violence. “It will set the ground rules for analyzing almost every gun law in the country for years to come.”
Alan Gura, an attorney for Mr. Heller who will argue before the Supreme Court, said a ruling in his favor could put gun prohibition “off the table.”
“Basically, gun laws that make sense, gun laws that are designed to help police solve crime … are not going to be affected,” said Mr. Gura, who will argue against the District’s lead counsel in the case, former acting U.S. Solicitor General Walter E. Dellinger III.
The Supreme Court is set to begin hearing arguments on Tuesday morning and it will be the first time in 70 years that the court has examined the Second Amendment which states the following:
“A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.”
So what is your opinion? Most people seem to think that opinions on this issue, like many others, are split along party lines with Democrats being pro-gun control and Republicans being against it. However, that has not always been the case with many people I know or have spoken to about this issue. I know many otherwise very progressive Democrats who favor moderate gun control laws and some who oppose them all together, and on the flip side some Republicans who favor stricter gun control laws than most states currently have. So, what is your political affiliation and where do you stand on this issue?
[For more information on responsible hand gun control check out The Brady Campaign’s website]
Hillary Clinton is expected to make a campaign stop in Northern Virginia tomorrow (location still to be announced) ahead of next Tuesday’s primary elections here.
Because of high concentrations of African American and well-educated voters, many political strategists say Obama (D-Ill.) could have an early advantage in all three states, but Clinton strategists say the New York Democrat will campaign hard across the region. Clinton strategists are especially optimistic about their chances in Virginia, where her campaign dispatched several operatives experienced in state elections.
“We believe we can do very well” in Virginia, Clinton spokesman Mo Elleithee said.
Clinton is planning to hold a rally tomorrow in Northern Virginia, though a location has not been determined. Yesterday, the Clinton campaign unveiled a list of 100 Democratic advocates from across Virginia who will serve on her state campaign steering committee.
Obama was endorsed by nearly half the Democrats in the Virginia Senate, including one who had previously backed Clinton and several who had supported former senator John Edwards (D-N.C.), who ended his campaign last week.
There are 238 delegates to be won between Virginia, Maryland and Washington, DC.
Senator Ted Kennedy officially endorsed Barack Obama at a rally this morning at American University here in Washington, DC (videos below). Lowell has some great pictures from the rally posted over at Raising Kaine as well.
Caroline Kennedy endorses Barack Obama:
Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy endorses Barack Obama:
And finally, Obama accepts the nomination:
Well this certainly is news I’m having a hard time forming an opinion on. Being a resident of Arlington county, I, along with virtually everyone else familiar with the project favor the underground option as opposed to the above ground rail. However, the fact that the FTA is threatening to reject it because they are “reluctant to promote large scale transit projects” kind of makes me sick.
Officials on Capitol Hill, in Richmond and at the airports authority’s headquarters have speculated in recent days about what the problem might be. Some say the FTA has long been skeptical of expensive rail projects; in recent years, it has more often championed bus rapid transit projects.
Others point to a long-standing desire in the Transportation Department to move away from public investments in infrastructure. Peters, the transportation secretary, for example, refused to endorse a report published Tuesday by a bipartisan national commission on the future of the nation’s transportation system. She instead issued a dissent decrying wasteful spending and the federal government’s large share of the investment. She said she favored private investment and more tolling to control congestion.
I would hardly call a “bus” rapid transit, first of all. Second of all, isn’t it great how we’re spending trillions in Iraq to “build” (destroy) their infrastructure but projects like this within our own country remain in limbo decades after they are needed.
Two weeks from today I’ll be moving into my new apartment in Arlington (Rosslyn, to be exact) about a five minute walk to both the Rosslyn, and Courthouse metro stations. I’ve lived in Richmond my entire life, with the exception of one year when I lived in Nags Head, and to be honest I hate it here, and I won’t be sad to leave it behind. For the past two years I’ve spent almost as much time in the imperial District as I have in Richmond, and I feel like I know the DC metro area a lot better than I do Richmond.
I also got a job at Human Rights Campaign in downtown DC, and will be in school full time (hopefully to be finished with both of my degrees in about a year to a year and a half)!!
Hey look! Another crack cocaine story involving Marion Barry!!
Via WaPo online:
The woman charged with driving through a crowded Southeast Washington festival this weekend — injuring dozens — had been “smoking crack all day long,” Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier said yesterday, citing witnesses and the woman’s statement to police.
The driver, whom police identified as 30-year-old Tonya Bell of Oxon Hill, is charged with aggravated assault while armed. She has felony and misdemeanor arrests dating to at least 1995 and has served time in prison for charges involving cocaine. Bell suffered a sprained ankle Saturday night in an episode Mayor Adrian M. Fenty described as “one of the worst serious traffic accidents” in D.C. history.
At least 40 people, including seven children, were hurt when Bell drove her station wagon through the crowd. In the midst of the mayhem, parents pushed their children aside and tossed empty strollers in her path, hoping to block her. Police on bicycles and motorbikes didn’t dare use their weapons with so many people at risk. Instead, they threw two motorized scooters beneath Bell’s vehicle, bringing it to a stop.
The article goes on to say:
D.C. Council member Marion Barry said his chief of staff is trying to determine whether Bell works as a temporary employee for Barry’s council office. Barry…said someone named Tonya Bell has worked in the office for several weeks. “Whether it is the same person or not, I am trying to check it out,” Barry said last night.
Faux News has confirmed that she is indeed, an employee at Marion Barry’s office. I’ll have a link as soon as I can find one.
UPDATE: This is hilarious, except for the fact that she hurt 40 people:
“I dragged the young lady out of the car. When I dragged her out of the car people were trying to hurt her. They were beating her, they were stomping her in the head, but she didn’t feel a thing. She reached to get her pipe, a crack pipe and lit it,” the witness told News4.
UPDATE #2: Linkage, finally!
The woman who plowed through a crowd of people with her car Saturday night will no longer be working as a receptionist in the office of Washington, D.C., Councilman Marion Barry.
Barry, the former mayor, terminated a contract with the company who provided Tonya Bell as a temporary employee for his office.
“Needless to say we are greatly saddened by the incident not only because of the tremendous pain and suffering of the victims, but also because our office relied on the integrity of your screening procedures in agreeing to the placement,” Barry wrote in a letter sent to NAI Personnel, the employment agency.
“The behavior of your employee, although outside of work, indicates that you may not have properly investigated her background prior to placing her in our office,” the letter reads.
We all know that the “highlight of the day” for any good citizen of the imperial District is when he or she gets the honor of knocking anyone standing on the right left side of the Metro escalator out of the way, but now, Metro also wants you to enjoy some live entertainment!
Metro officials will be making some musical moves later Thursday. The transit agency is launching a pilot program providing live entertainment at some Metrorail station entrances over the summer and during the winter holiday season.
Auditions are set for Thursday evening and Saturday at Metro’s downtown headquarters.
MetroPerforms is a joint effort by Metro and the D.C. Arts Commission to find acts to perform at subway stations in the District. Similar auditions are planned to find acts to feature in Prince George’s and Montgomery counties.
Right, let’s turn the whole damn thing into a circus, like people on the metro need any more reason to smell like vomit and garbage.