Friday, July 11, 2003

Proud to be a Virginian

There are some who live on the other side of the Potomac (Maryland and DC) who take issue with we who live on the better side of the Potomac (Virginia).

I first became conscious of my Virginia problem years ago when, for the umpteenth time, I drove over the river to take my kid to a birthday party and suddenly found myself on Spout Run or some stretch of Lee Highway, where I didn’t want to be. I concluded then that Virginia’s road network was part of a larger strategy to keep the rest of us on our side of the river.

Yeah, you know, we Virginians feel the same way about DC and Maryland when we get lost on your side of the river, too.

You can pick up evidence of Northern Virginia’s standoffishness in census data that show a pretty healthy flow of people moving between the District and Maryland but much less so between the District and Virginia. Or the fact that people in Montgomery County will say they are from Washington while those from Fairfax and Loudoun will invariably self-describe as Virginians.

I think it’s more a case of being proud of where I’m from. Plus, in my case, the further I moved from DC the less tied to it I feel. I’m about 40 miles outside Washington, how far out does he expect me to live and still say I’m from Washington?

When I’m talking to someone who doesn’t know the area, I will say I live in the DC suburbs. And I think a lot of Virginians do that.

And Washington and Maryland lawyers complain that the federal court in Alexandria is one of the few in the country that won’t let out-of staters argue cases unless they agree to move their full-time office to the state.

I don’t have a rebuttal to this, I just found it interesting that he mentioned the court specifically.

Hey, guys, did you forget? George Washington was born in Virginia.

Right, and your point on that one is?

[via dave]

Posted by at 02:23 PM
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Jenny, Jenny…

...who can I turn to?

One of my favorite deputies just walked by my desk singing that at the top of his lungs.

Heh.

I haven’t had anyone sing that to me since my teens, when that song first came out. And I’ve never been called Jenny, so I never really had that sung to me very often.

Posted by at 01:48 PM
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Jersey Info

mtpolitics has posted a series of links with information about the new home state of The Cooties. So I thought I’d mention it here to help them out.

Posted by at 01:36 PM
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Smash’s Take on the Niger Thing

LT Smash makes a point on the whole “President Bush mislead the American people” intelligence snafu that I think the media and critics of the President are missing:

OK, I thought, so what’s the big deal? As a person who reads intelligence reports on an almost daily basis, I didn’t find this the least bit surprising. “Intelligence” is just a fancy word for “making an educated guess,” and sometimes even that definition is a bit generous. It’s often amusing to compare intelligence summaries from one week to the next—something that appears solid one day will later be revealed to be completely fictional, while the wildest sounding reports sometimes turn out to be understatements of the true situation. (A excellent example of this phenomenon in the media is this story about a missing 727—it changes almost daily). I’ve seen many an officer be embarrassed by passing on “hot” intel reports to the troops as gospel, only later to be proved wrong. It’s even happened to me.

That is really true, especially when you’re talking about human intelligence - the word of a source, hearsay, etc. You can double and triple check your facts, but things aren’t always verifiable until much later.

He goes on:

Today was the first time I’ve heard of this debate, which apparently has been going on for a while now. When Bush made those remarks in the State of the Union Address, that bit of intel didn’t even register with me. In fact, I didn’t even watch the speech.

You see, I wasn’t home that night. I was here in the Sandbox, busy getting ready for war. A war, I might add, for which I had been actively preparing for two months. A conflict which had been debated—and authorized—in the United States Congress last October.

You can read the Congressional Resolution here. Not once does it mention the words “uranium” or “Africa.” It does talk quite a bit about Saddam’s failure to live up to his responsibilities after the First Gulf War, his well-documented support for terrorists, and his brutal treatment of the Iraqi people, however.

But why confuse the issue with facts, when there are political points to be made?

Exactly.

UPDATE: James at OTB links to an article by Clifford D. May at National Review.

The president’s critics are lying. Mr. Bush never claimed that Saddam Hussein had purchased uranium from Niger. It is not true — as USA Today reported on page one Friday morning — that “tainted evidence made it into the President’s State of the Union address.” For the record, here’s what President Bush actually said in his SOTU: “The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.”

[...]

Maybe there was no reliable evidence to support the particular intelligence report saying that Saddam had acquired yellowcake (lightly processed uranium ore) from Niger. But the British claim was only that Saddam had sought yellowcake — not that he succeeded in getting a five-pound box Fedexed to his palace on the Tigris.

And is there even one member of the U.S. Congress who would say that it was on the basis of this claim alone that he voted to authorize the president to use military force against Saddam? Is there one such individual anywhere in America?

Posted by at 12:56 PM
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A Quiz For You

This is a driving question.

When traffic lights are out completely or blinking red, you are supposed to:

a.  just keep driving no matter what
b.  slow down, but keep driving
c.  stop out of courtesy (at your own discretion) if there’s someone at the crossroads
d.  stop as if it is an all way stop intersection

The answer is “d.” That’s the law, and I heard it reiterated by the traffic guy on the radio as I was driving in this morning. Why? Because there are a lot of areas where power is still out because of the storms from last night.

And I encountered a few on my drive in. So I stopped at the first light that was out completely and got soundly honked at by the cars behind me. And out of stubbornness, I sat there until someone in the other lane got the hint and stopped as well, because there was a long line of cars to the left that wanted to turn left onto our road and no one was stopping as they’re supposed to.

There were two other interections out, and we stopped at those as well. It’s the law, not just courtesy. And you’re supposed to stop whether or not there are cars on the crossroads.

So that’s your driving lesson for this morning.

Posted by at 11:33 AM
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Thunderstorms & Terrorism

How on earth do thunderstorms bring to mind terrorism? I have to say that last night I wondered if the thunder exploding over my building wasn’t actually bombs.

I was rudely awakened a little before midnight to the flash and crash of the most intense lightning and thunder I’ve ever seen. I love thunderstorms normally, I’ve never really been afraid of them. But last night I moved from my bedroom (which has two outer walls that are mostly windows) to the living room to wait it out. I went back to bed a little before 1am, it was still storming but not as intensely. Annie was completely freaked out and stayed right next to me the whole time.

There were huge bolts of lightning crashing all around and the immediate rumbles and crashes of thunder. It sounded like bombs exploding, it wasn’t like normal thunder. And before I got out of bed to investigate, I had a brief thought that it might be what a terrorist bombing might sound like. It was a little scary.

Posted by at 11:24 AM
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Thursday, July 10, 2003

Come On, Now!

Tornado warnings are ruining my show!

Yes, I realize they’re serious. Yes, I know people need to be warned. BUT…

The weather guy (Topper Shutt - it’s got to be a made up name) is not saying anything that couldn’t be said in a crawl on the screen while MY SHOW IS STILL RUNNING UNINTERRUPTED!!!

He could at least talk a little faster…

LATER: OK, I’m still a little irate, but all of the local affiliates have preempted regular programming so this is really serious. Although Topper’s talking about nothing really, while he plays with his SuperDoppler™ computer toys.

I tried calling the station to see if they plan to rerun TAR4 later. The line is busy, so I’m sure they’re being bombarded with calls from other irate viewers. I sent them an email requesting that they rerun the show. We’ll see…

LATERER: I just caught a scroll at the bottom of the screen, “The Amazing Race will air tonight at 1:37am.” What the??? 1:37? Where’d they get that time? Well, I’m happy now - and my VCR will be set, of course.

FRI AM: I’ll talk about the thunderstorms of last night in a new post. But I will say that I was worried that my power would go out and keep me from getting TAR taped, but I was very happy to wake up this morning to see that it had. And I watched it before coming to work. (Yes, I get up early enough to do that.)

Good episode...and I’m a happy gal.

Posted by at 10:03 PM
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Wow, I Won!

The ladies over at Right We Are! have a weekly caption contest. I usually don’t submit captions because I can’t think of anything clever. However, last week I managed to think up something I wasn’t embarrassed to submit and it ended up the winning caption.

Click here to see the photo and my winning caption.

Now, as a perk of being the winner, I get to choose the next photo for the caption contest this week. I immediately thought of a funny picture from a newsletter of my former employer, but I can’t find the one I’m thinking about, which is a shame, because it’s pretty funny (I think).

Then, when I was fixing the time on my VCR in the living room, my yearbooks caught my eye and I thought, “I’m a product of the 80s, surely there’s something in there that could have potential.” And I’ve narrowed it down to three pictures.

So head on over to RWA tomorrow morning to see which one made the cut - and add your own caption.

Posted by at 09:50 PM
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And Things Went Black…

I was getting ready to post something when things went black and silent. At first I thought I was experiencing the random reboot I experienced the other day, then I realized that the TV was off and the lights too.

Power outage. For no explicable reason.

And for a moment I panicked at the thought that I wouldn’t be able to watch TAR4 at 8pm. I was thisclose to calling my Dad on my cell phone to see if I could invade his house (Mom is in Atlanta for the weekend) to watch it.

But as you can see by this post, the power is back. Weird.

Posted by at 09:43 PM
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Country Bumpkins

I didn’t think there were still people out there that don’t at least understand the concept of voicemail even if they haven’t used it.

A mother? grandmother? redneck from the sticks? called to inquire about her boy-child’s status. Why hasn’t he been moved when everyone else has been and gone? We get this question a lot. There are a number of factors on why your criminal loved one may be rotting away in a local jail when you and he know very well that he’s supposed to be in a cushy federal lockup:

1. This is the federal government - we do everything slowly.
2. Paperwork gets lost.

OK, so there are only two. It’s enough…

Anyway, back to the point of my post. I explained that the criminal clerk was gone for the day and that she could leave a voicemail and the clerk would call her back tomorrow (not really, she never calls family members back, but it sounds good).

HER: I can’t talk to someone today?

ME: No, I’m sorry, the criminal clerk handles it.

HER: There’s no one there that can answer my question?

**There is nothing like having to repeat myself to make me really happy.**

ME: No, ma’am, she’s the one that handles it. I can transfer you to her extension and you can leave her a voicemail.

HER: What’s that?

I explain the concept of voicemail.

HER: Can’t I just leave a message with you?

ME: It’s really better if you leave her a message directly in her voicemail.

HER: How do I get there?

This after I just explained the technology to her. I explain it again.

HER: (huffy sigh) Well, I suppose that’s what I’ll have to do.

Yep...our criminal clerk has the patience of a saint sometimes. Sometimes...others she’s as snarky as I.

Posted by at 06:30 PM
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The Irate Litigant

So my Dad came by the courthouse today since he was in the area for a meeting. He may be working down here in the very near future. Anyway, he got the $.50 tour with The Marshal then took me to lunch.

When I walked back into the office, there was a rather malodorous gentleman sitting in the anteroom.

ME: Have you been helped?

HIM: Are you Miss [my last name, which sort of scares me that he knows my full name, but there’s nothing I can do about it now]?

ME: Yes…

HIM: I’m [his full name, which sets alarm bells ringing because I know exactly who he is.

This time he was armed with his tidy yellow copy of his served civil process, demanding to know if I can decipher the signature of the deputy who served the papers and giving me a full-blown recap of his case and the dismissal of his case by one of our judges. Yay!

I explained that I couldn’t read the signature and that it was not one of our deputies because the papers were served in DC, which means one of the DC deputies served the process. I gave him their number - so hopefully he’s off to pester them next.

Funny follow-up: MD came in the door and said, “Who was in that room?” She pointed at the ante-room. I explained and she said, “He stank! It smells of B.O. in there.” Heh. And that reminds me that I meant to spritz that little area with air freshener. Let me go do that…

Posted by at 03:15 PM
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Aggravation Revisited

Remember this? And this?

I’m having to book flights and hotels again. This time things are pretty much set, so I won’t be cancelling anything. However, I got a great phone call yesterday from the Administrative Officer of the PD’s office.

We’re wondering if you could put them up at the [names a specific hotel] rather than the [names another hotel, where the other people happen to be staying already] because hotel #1 has a pool.

Uh huh. Here’s the deal:

1. I’m not your travel agent.

2. These people are not coming here for their vacation. They are witnesses to testify in a trial.

3. The government is not upgrading your hotel so your witnesses can have access to a pool. I don’t care how hot it is.

4. Your witnesses will be booked at the first and cheapest hotel I can find. I seriously doubt hotel #1 will be the place.

So this morning I had a voice mail from her.

I called [hotel #1] and they don’t have any rooms available, so it looks like it’ll be [hotel #2].

Uh huh, if they have any rooms available. It’s summertime and we’re in the town that butts right up to DC. Please see #4 above.

Sheesh.

Posted by at 11:04 AM
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Wednesday, July 09, 2003

Catching Up with BigWig

I’ve been remiss in heading over to see the WWII history and photos from BigWig’s file cabinet. The link takes you to the category page where all posts reside. I encourage you to head on over yourself to see the never-before-seen photos and read the history. He’s taking a lot of time to research the background of the photos and what they depict. It’s a good history lesson and reminder for us all.

UPDATE: I have to add a quote from one of the essays BigWig wrote to go along with the photos he posted on July 4:

The new flavor of Holocaust denial is not to deny that it happened, but to deny it significance, to reduce 6 million dead Jews to
a mere blip on the bloody radar of human history. “Bad things have happened to people all through history” goes the logic. “Besides, everyone does it.” It’s an argument that demands the perfection of human character before allowing action against evil while simultaneously denying that such perfection can possibly exist.

It’s a neat rhetorical trick, an excuse for inaction in the face of evil. Given the numerous discoveries of mass graves and documented atrocities visited upon the people of Iraq by the recently deposed Ba’athist regime, the timing of its emergence is suspicious, and saddening.

The argument’s aim is clear, though not all who ascribe to its logic recognize what that goal is. It seeks to make all of the human tragedy and suffering equally important, which sounds noble enough. But, if all deaths are equally important, then they are also equally unimportant, which leads to

“Bad things have happened to people all through history,”

So there’s no rush to when it comes to freeing Iraqis from their dictator, to defend Liberians from theirs, and suicide bombers and those who hunt them are morally equivalent.

and “Besides, everyone does it.”

Not the Germans. Not anymore. I wonder why that is?

Now head on over to read and see the rest, please.

Posted by at 06:07 PM
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My Punishment

...is in the form of stale Oreos™.

I just went upstairs on a mail run and stopped in to the Big Toe™ to get some ice for my Diet Vanilla Coke. The siren call of the Oreos was too much to resist.

The first bite was so disappointing...but it’s not stopping me from consuming the entire package. I’m that determined to have a little sugar this afternoon.

Yes, Dave, you said you like your steak rare?

Posted by at 05:46 PM
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People Can Be So Petty

Over at Right Wing News I found this post about Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney’s rescue of a family at Lake Winnipesaukee, NH. (News story here).

As John Hawkins points out, it doesn’t take long for “the opposition,” in this case the Democrats, to complain about the act of a Republican Good Samaritan.

...“There are lots of people drowning in the commonwealth right now who would certainly welcome a rescue,’’ said Rep. Jay R. Kaufman (D-Lexington).

...But Rep. Paul Kujawski (D-Webster) said other governors would have been “condemned for leaving the state,’’ while Romney “seems to have privileges other governors haven’t.’’

“Mitt Romney only chooses to run for office from Massachusetts - he doesn’t vacation here,’’ said Democratic Party spokeswoman Jane Lane.”

All of those snide comments were prompted by, “Romney and two of his sons (leaping) onto Jet Skis and pluck(ing) members of a New Jersey family and their dog out of dangerous waters Saturday night.”

Honestly, who do those Democrats think they’re impressing by taking shots like that at Romney given the circumstances? It makes them look small, petty, partisan, & undignified and I can’t imagine that those types of attacks would appeal to anyone except the most rabid partisans.

Not to brush all Dems with the same brush, there are some who aren’t petty idiots.

“When somebody’s drowning, we’re not Democrats or Republicans,’’ Rep. Eric T. Turkington (D-Falmouth) said. “I’m impressed that we have a governor who can do that kind of thing.’’

And let me take a quick poll, who vacations all the time in their home state (those of you from Texas are exempt from this poll because you’re state is so big and you’re all wacko about your state for some unknown reason. )? Posted by at 04:47 PM
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