Showing posts with label Washington DC. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Washington DC. Show all posts

Monday, May 29, 2023

DC: The Week That Was



So, I spent the past week in Washington. The Other Washington, as we like to call it in our corner of the Lower 48. The DC version of Washington.

 We were there because the Lovely Bride was part of a group talking to the various offices of Senators and Representatives. The LB is an Enrolled Agent, a professional tax preparer who is certified and approved to deal with taxes and the IRS. She has been in the past a big wheel in local tax preparer organizations (former president for a couple), and she still is putting together conferences and teaching people about tax law. The National Association of Enrolled Agents were looking for people to come to Washington and talk to government leaders (well, their staffs) about professional tax preparers and why they are good things to have around.

Me? I tagged along as arm candy.

We flew out on Monday and got to the the conference motel, the Madison just off M Street, late in the evening. Tuesday the LB had a training session, and Wednesday they met with the government representatives. The LB's team was a mix of out-type-of-Washingtonians and South Carolingian. So they met with the offices of Patty Murphy, Kim Schrier, Ric Larsen, and Lindsey Graham. Only Ric Larsen was available to say hello, and then briefly. Lindsey's meeting was in a hallway.

What I can show you.

While the LB was hobnobbing with people who actually can see the levers of power (if not touch them), I used my Tuesday to take a trip up to Maryland to visit the offices of Zenimax Online Services, who are the makers of Elder Scrolls Online and my bosses. I took a tour of the facilities with my immediate superior, Bill Slavicsek, and had lunch with the other writers in the new cafe. It was a really nice cafe, and it was the first time all the writers were in the same room. After the tour, Bill and I watched Quantumania (which was pretty much a family adventure film), and went out with the talented Michelle Carter to dinner a local place (Tarks) which had excellent food (I had the duck). Long drive back to DC.

Teaching moment.
Wednesday the Lovely B visited lawmakers and I went to the National Galley of Art. The American rooms were closed for renovation and the Vermeers were in the Netherlands for a big Vermeer retrospective, but I had a good time taking in the museum at my leisure. Favorites were a hall filled with Rodins, a collection of Renoirs and Monets, and rooms full of Calders and Rothkos in the newer, weirder modern art annex. Joined the LB at a tax preparers' reception at the District Wharf, which is a new upscale office and restaurant district on the Potomac. As I said, I was the arm candy, fetching drinks and making small talk. Nice work if you can get it.

Thursday through Saturday the LB and I walked around Washington. Well, took a taxi down to the mall and walked about. Our hotel was a few blocks away from the metro, so we our aged legs relied on cabs and the occasional Lyft. And for once I had excellent luck with taxis - about 9 out of 10 times I found one easily. 

View from the
Botanical Gardens 
Anyway our agenda over the next three days included the Lincoln, Korea, WWI, and MLB memorials, with an attempt to visit the new African-American Arts and Culture museum, only to find it swarmed by school groups and individual tickets booked out to the next Wednesday. Instead we took in the Freer Museum with its Asian Art and Whistler's Peacock Room. That was the first day. The second day we slowed down a little, sleeping in and hitting smaller museums.  We did the Spy museum on Friday, a private museum that was recommended by at least five people, and was very good - we spent about four hours there. Saturday was the Botanical Gardens in the shadow of the Capitol Building, with a trip out to the  Kennelworth Aquatic Gardens, a marsh and former aquatic plant garden run by the National Park Service. Lots of photos of lilies. Sunday we were up way too early to return to our Washington.  

We feasted on hotel breakfasts in the morning, then one large meal in the early evening. Mandu on K Street was a intro for the LB for Korean cooking like mandu (dumplings) and  bulgogi. Nama was a sushi place nearby. Del Mar was a sumptuous and expensive restaurant at the District Wharf. and finally, 
Jaleo by Andre Jose, which had some excellent tapas. And sangia. Kool-Aide pitchers of sangria. The weather was great and we dined alfresco whenever we could manage it. Despite all the walking, I gained a couple pounds this trip. Go figure. 

So that was Washington. There was a great trip, and I would go back if the Lovely Bride chooses to go. We missed a bunch of stuff, but avoided getting that Thousand-Yard-Museum-State that hits when you try to do everything. Memorial Day was proved to be quiet (The former house-mates, Anne and Sig, looked after the cats while we were gone and did some serious yardwork), and I still feel a little exhausted, but ready to go back to work.

More later, 


Sunday, July 31, 2016

Political Desk: The Jeff Recommends - Primary

Woof.

Well, it has been a long trudge for the tens of people who follow this blog for its semi-lucid political posts. I started this years ago and just don't know how to stop.

However, over the course of the writing of these entries, I found myself re-engaging with politics in general and with the two major party conventions in particular. After the crapulence of the GOP convention (exceeding even the worst of the Democratic Party's telethons in the 70s), and the full-court press positivity, professionalism and challenge of the Democrats' version, I am reminded that there is a difference between the big parties, and a reason for pressing forward. And for some reason I am not as grumpy as I once was.

And so we press forward - the nominations, please.

US Senator, State of Washington: Patty Murray
US Representative, 9th District: Adam Smith

Governor: Jay Inslee
Lt. Governor: Cyrus Habib
Secretary of State: Kim Wyman
State Treasurer: John Paul Comerford
State Auditor: Pat (Patrice) McCarthy
Attorney General: Bob Ferguson
Commissioner of Public Lands: Mary Verner
Superintendent of Public Instruction: Erin Jones
Insurance Commissioner: Mike Kriedler

State Senate, 11th District: Bob Hasegawa
State Representative, 11th District, Position 1, Zack Hudgins
State Representative, 11th District, Position 2: Steve Berquist

State Supreme Court, Position 5: Barbara Madsen
State Superior Court, Position 44: Eric Newman

Here are some other endorsing bodies:

The Seattle Times which did a pretty solid job this year and concentrated on K-12 Education

The Stranger Election Board which was giving "Death-Hugs" all over the place, reminding people why they should be mad at the people they recommend.

Voting for Judges which seems to be waiting for the general election before putting all the pieces in place.

The Municipal League of King County which is a good resource if you have more than two people running for office in your district.

I've done my bit - now its time for you to do yours.

Don't boo. Vote.

More later,



Sunday, December 27, 2015

My Year In Books: Mechanicsville

[This year, I was curious about what I was reading, so when I finished a book I put it on an ever-growing pile by my desk. This is one of two histories dealing with periods that don't get a lot of breathing room.]

Snow-Storm in August by Jefferson Morley, Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, 2012
Provenance: Half-Price Books.

Growing up in the 60s, a race riot was understood to be a riot by a minority group and usually confined to poorer neighborhoods like Watts and Harlem. However, there were earlier incarnations where a race riot involved mobs of the majority population rampaging against minority groups, resulting in destruction of property and deaths. The particular riot of this book took place in the heart of our nation's capital, and involved a slave with an axe, the writer of the Star Spangled Banner, President Andrew Jackson, and Washington's first restaurateur, a freed black man names Beverly Snow.


American History is relatively quiet in this era, after the War of 1812 and in the long run-up to the Civil War. This was an era when Washington City (then a component of the larger District of Columbia - they are now one and the same) was becoming a center of power, and with it an infusion of new ideas into city with Southern attitudes, attitudes which included catering to and protecting slavery. Into this city came Beverly Snow, a former slave who established the Epicurian Eating House, which was the city's first true restaurant. Blocks from the Capitol, the Epicurian became a hub for meeting and dining, and Snow established himself both for his cooking and for his talent for self-promotion, posting adverts when he got something particularly interesting on his menu.

Also in Washington was Arthur Bowen, slave to Anna Thornton, herself the widow of the designer of the U S Capitol. Drunk one evening, Bowen entered the house with an axe under his arm and bellowed at the inhabitants. The news of the encounter spread and quickly blew up into a full fledged race riot, where white mobs of "mechanics" (laborers, often poor and unemployed, often Irish or German), fearing this as the first sign of a general insurrection by the black population, proceeded to attack black men and pillage the businesses of free blacks. Snow was one such target, on the weak excuse that he might have disparaged a white woman. Snow's business was destroyed, and he eluded the mob and got out of town, while Bowen himself was locked up for trial.

And prosecuting that trial was Washington District Attorney Francis Scott Key, of Star Spangled Banner fame, who sought the death penalty for Bowen, But his prosecution was thwarted in part by Mrs. Thornton, who pleaded for the life of her slave first within the the system, and then with Andrew Jackson himself. Jackson, while sympathetic with the mechanics and was pro-slavery, would not abide mobs in the streets of Washington threatening the rule of law and dictating terms to his officials.

Moreley spins out the tale, trying to frame the place and the era. This was a Washington that was trying to emerge as the capital, when the power of the Federal government was still under debate. This was also a Washington infused with pro-slavery attitudes, such that abolitionist newspapermen was rousted out of town with the blessing of the government, and freed black men and women lived there at the forbearance of a white population that could at any time come after them. Snow and Bowen never cross paths, so far as can be reported, but both were swept up in the storm that rolled through Washington City that August, and provides one more set of tales in our history.

More later,

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Fifty Years Ago

Lincoln Memorial, August 28, 1963  - Getty Images
More later,

Thursday, October 14, 2010

1107

I am mildly irritated about sin taxes. Not because I feel bad about charging people more for engaging in activities of which I do not approve (that doesn't bother me). And not because I worry that part of the taxable flock is being culled out for a specific shearing (I'm good with that as well).

No, the source of my unease stems from the idea that when the state begins to tax something, they become part of the problem as opposed to part of solution. If this stuff is sinful and bad, then should they really be pulling a chair up to table and dealing themselves in? Eventually the government relies upon it as a dependable income source, so that if everyone gave up cigs tomorrow, the state would be in deep trouble (a note to anti-tax folk - stop smoking and starve the beast).

But despite this mild concern I'm really ambivalent about I-1107, which will overturn taxes recently placed on sodas and candy. And that is odd since it is MY particular ox that is being gored, as over the past few years I have been drinking sodas in amounts that lab rats would turn down. So shouldn't I be lining up to support this initiative, which (as so many others on the ballots this year) supposedly keeps government at bay?

Well, to be frank, I'm pretty good with the taxes as they stand. In fact, if it encourages me to stop poaching the M&Ms in the break area, it would probably be a good thing for my general health. And if this tax reduces or transforms the amount of soda and candy in the break room, that's a cross I shall bear (though as a note to the management, should they be reading this: Ree wants us to bring back the Wheat Thins. They wouldn't be taxed under this plan. Just saying).

In addition to rolling back a tax installed to help with the current shortfall, the measure re-opens a loophole that had just been closed. Remember loopholes? Back when Olympia was fussing about the budget, there was popular sentiment to close loopholes to taxes. This was one, for processed products (like chili). For this measure, this closed loophole is a fig-leaf behind which rest of the initiative can cower behind, and it's a big part of the "They're taxing food!" scare you're getting from that nice actor who looks like a grocer from forty years back.

And that commercial is part of a 16 million dollar campaign that is heavily supported by Big Beverage - the cola companies that are petrified that expense may move some of the docile consumers away.

You heard that right. 16 million dollar. Someone figured out that would be three Diet Cokes for every man, woman, and child in the state.

And I suppose that's the big reason I'm going No on this one. All the push here is coming from the American Beverage Association, and it is such overkill that it threatens to drown out anything that sounds like a reasonable discussion. And obviously they're doing well enough that they can drop 16 huge on a race like this.

But it also gets me to thinking ...

I think I want to run an initiative myself that all moneys spent on a state initiative campaign must be spent in Washington State. None of this "ad shot in Chicago" or "uses the leftover pamphlets from a similar measure in California". Heck, we can turn it into profit center - launching initiatives that threaten powerful out-of-state interests, then sit back and watch the cash flow in to defeat them.

That's just a thought. In the meantime, vote No on this foolishness.

More later,

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

1100 and 1105

Back to the slog. You guys SO have to buy me a beer after this, because these two initiatives make me want to start drinking.

If I-1053 is the Mad Hatter and I-1082 is the March Hare, I's 1105 and 1107 are the Tweedledee and Tweedledum of this particular tea party. Similar initiatives with the same stated goals slugging it out in public.

The goal of both initiatives is to put the state liquor stores out of business. In Washington state, hard liquor (but not beer or wine) are only available at state-run venues. Obviously, this is yet another case of the government getting all up in your grill and telling you what you can and cannot do, and saddles you with horrible, horrible bureaucracy.

Is it that bad? No, not really. In fact, the liquor control board does pretty well, and the limited amount of booze dispensers has not turned us into a dreary prison camp suitable only for mocking by Banksy at the start of The Simpsons. I am originally from Pennsylvania, and if you want badly-run state liquor, that's your utopia. The only question when I visit Pittsburgh is whether the latest scandal revolves around the State Stores or the Allegheny County Coroner's Office. But I digress.

No, the state of Washington's crime is apparently that they are standing in the way of OTHER people making money off booze, and that's why we have this terrible twosome on the ballot, depending on who wants to be standing beneath the downspout when the money storm starts.

I-1100 gets the state out of direct sales and distribution by allowing anyone, for a fee, to become a liquor distributor, including would-be liquor retailers. That means a large operation that can operate on economies of scale count make a deal with wholesalers, then sell it themselves or distribute to smaller operations. This one has strong support from large operations like Costco.

I-1105 gets the state out of direct sales and distribution but keeps the distributors and retailers as separate provinces and allows the state to set price controls. This one if favored by the smaller distributors who would be hurt by the landrush that I-1000 would create.

Both are pretty foolish initiatives, consisting of powerful interests who are looking for a big payday at the expense of everybody else. The state will lose money on the deal at a time when cash is tight - the only question is how much. Worse yet, if both pass, we have no procedure for resolving two competing initiatives that affect the same issue. AND, if we pass the I-1053, any rejiggering of the state system could be seen as a new tax and require the massive mega-majority.

I don't think these two are doing to do well. In the first place, their differences are so nuanced (and I had to do some digging to figure out which did what) that most voters will shoot them both down. Second, Washington has always had a problem with voter-approved sin (the first Initiative back in 1914 was a Prohibition initiative (which passed)). Third, it is easier to mobilize a push against BOTH amendments than either individual one. And lastly, that push, for all of its wrapping in protecting communities and maintaining state services, has its own sugar daddies - the beer and wine distributors, who will see their market share get seriously impacted if they have to share shelf space with hard liquor.

Now, if you want to read a really poorly-written, poorly-researched article in FAVOR of this mess, head over this Stranger article, and read the comments as its few facts are disassembled. After all the yelling, it all boils down to a desire to be able to buy liquor at 7 PM on a Sunday. And as writers and other professional alcoholics will tell you, if you run out booze before you run out of weekend, that's just poor planning on your part.

I-1105 is better than I-1100, but in the end, both are bad ideas. No to the pair of them.

More later,

Thursday, October 07, 2010

1053

So we're going in numerical order here, and the first out of the chute is our regular Eyeman Initiative.

Tim Eyeman often inspires eye-rolling and teeth-gnashing, but you have to admit that he has figured out how to turn a profit on the initiative system (one more reason to fix the damned thing). Every election cycle, he lofts a new initiative or three onto the ballot, usually backed by one or more donors with deep pockets. Said initiatives are usually intended to a) cripple state government and b)give everyone a pony. Oh, and c) served as a profit center for Tim Eyeman.

Here's the initiative in a nutshell: All state tax increases require a two-thirds majority to pass, as opposed to 51% for ordinary legislation.

The logic behind this proposal is attractive but flawed - if state government uses its money poorly, we should make it harder for them to get money to play with. Sounds good on the surface, but the past couple years they have had a LOT less money to play with, and as a result they have ... cut essential services.

Hmmm. That didn't work out the way we planned.

One of the reasons that the state has been woefully unprepared? A big part of it is our regressive tax system (but that argument is for another post), but another part has been I-960, a previous initiative which put similar constraints on the legislature. When the pro forces argue to "reinstate" earlier law, they are talking about this piece of steaming legislation (which was passed, you know, with 51% of the vote - democracy is apparently for chumps).

The end result of all this is akin to tying a couple anvils to Apolo Ohno and then complaining about his time trials (which can only be solved by -- More Anvils!).

Now, here's the twist - usually the annual Eyeman Initiative is funded by a couple of rich guys who fell for a power point presentation. This time, however, we're looking at major backing from the likes of BP, Tesaro, other oil companies, and banks. Yeah, BP, which you already know from the bang-up job they did in the gulf, and Tesaro, who ran that refinery up in Anacortes which blew up back around Easter, and who have been accused of criminal negligence.

So why are the oil companies wading in on this one? It's actually a bit of a trick shot for them. There has been popular movement in the legislature to up Big Oil's responsibility for cleanup for their messes, and that would be an increase in "tax" for them. So if they require any increase of tax to require a two-thirds majority, they have to buy fewer legislators. Profit! Sorry about sticking the rest of you with the bill.

Actually, it gets even better from a corporate standpoint. Close a loophole that's been bleeding the state dry? Sorry, that's a tax increase! You need a supermajority! Profit!

It's a great scam, and I only regret that I can't get in on it. Needless to say, since I can't get in on it (and neither can you), I'll strongly recommend you vote No.

More later,

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

DC: Museums

As tough as the memorials were, the museums were tougher. When I was young, I wanted to "finish" any museum I was in - after all, everyone put so much effort into the work, who was I not to read every plaque, study every exhibit, and search for every hidden gem? In truth, the feet gave out sooner than anticipated and the eyes got that "museum glare" that you see parents get as their kids pinball from display to display. Probably, there has been a study about how much information a museum can contain before the patron's head explodes, but I feel I am below that national average.

The National Air and Space museum was a great example, jam-packed with original equipment and reproductions, packed into a series of huge hangers. Paul Allen's spaceplane it up among the rafters, right next to the Spirit of St. Louis. Mercury, Gemini and Apollo capsules. The Wright Flyer. The helicopter Ross Perot took non-stop around the world (no, I didn't know he had done that). The original model of the Enterprise (tucked in the toy section of the gift shop - the Lovely Bride had to ask to find it). Interesting, interesting stuff, but by the time I had hit the exhibit on modern aerospace design, I was lagging, and we missed the carrier operations hall entirely. Literally too much stuff, but a harbinger of the future.

It is up in the air which is more depressing, the US Memorial Holocaust Museum or the Museum of the American Indian. The Holocaust museum is still as real and as tangible and as stark as the Vietnam War memorial, and you can see it on the faces of those going through its austre, stark, dramatic halls. A special exhibit on the Munich 1936 Olympics echoes modern situations (I did not know that the Olympic Torch was started for those games, a trek from Greece through territories that would soon be occupied by the Third Reich). The LB and I got into a discussion about whether Olympic boycotts work as far as reducing the evil of hosting countries, or if the Jesse Owens solution (go and beat them) was preferable.

The National Museum of the American Indian is one of the most beautiful buildings on the Mall, but brings with it a different sense of sadness, of the great and diverse cultures that have been lost over the past few centuries. Direct, honest, and up to date (the section on treaties includes the recent Makah whale hunt) it is overwhelming in its force of presenting both an ancient and a modern people.

A small gem was the US Botanical Garden, a small conservatory to one side of the Capitol. They were preparing for a larger show on the ground, but the conservatory itself was a nice stopping point, but I spent way too much time on the benches, resting my aching feet.

Finally, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, which shares a building with the National Portrait Gallery. The LB and I, now knowing our limits, chose to eschew the portraits, and even then we were dragging by the time we hit the contemporary phase. A beautiful overview of the American art experience, punctuated by brilliant special shows (Harlem Jazz Era artist Aaron Douglas and a display of movie posters as portraits in particular).

And the frustrating thing in all this is that we had barely scratched the surface, avoiding the Natural History museum and dealing with the American History museum being closed. I suppose there is a next time, but even since one museum may be too much for a day, the host of mall museums may be too much for a typical tourist.

More later,

Sunday, May 11, 2008

DC: Mall, Monuments and Memorials

So the last time I was in Washington DC, it was the Johnson Administration (Lyndon, not Andrew, so keep the smart-alec remarks to yourselves). And the city has changed since then, in that all the buildings are now shorter than they were when I was eight. The Lovely Bride got us a hotel in the Embassy District among the upper letters of the alphabet, and we took the Metro to the mall and walked. A lot.

We did the ever-popular Lincoln and orbitted the queues lines up for the Washington. The Viet Nam memorial, the "Wall" was beautiful and wistful now that all the trees have come in, the depressed pathway cutting off all the street noise. It was also the most packed, a living memorial of school groups and vets and people searching for names. The last is becoming a smaller group over time - the LB and I are 50 and we missed the closing moments of that war.

The Korean War memorial across the way, picks up some of the reflective motifs of the earlier-built Viet Nam, with the reflective wall, this one not filled with names, but with faces. It overlooks a field of ponchoed troops on patrol, silver ghosts moving through the far-off battlefield. It was much less populated, and as a result, more reflective.

The WWII memorial, situated at the feet of the Washington, was grand and expressive, concentrating on the contribution of the states to the larger effort. Open, dramatic, and solid, it was a more triumphant commemoration than either of the walls. It was here that we saw our only protest on the Mall - a group of Filipino WWII Vets seeking their government benefits and pensions.

We also found the Grant memorial, mostly forgotten though it is situated between the Capitol building and the mall itself. At least it is hidden in plain sight, as opposed to the Garfield Memorial (The president, not the cat), which dominates one of the traffic triangles to one side.

We took the long walk around the (overflowing) tidal pool to the Jefferson, a beautiful memorial in my mind in that it is a low dome from a distance, but once you arive it is filled with sweeping, vertical space for the Statue and the man's words. We continued around to find a true gem in the FDR memorial, a series of stone enclaves tracking FDR's terms. The use of stone, water, and bronzes we amazingly effective to make FDR the most humanized of the men honored. His initial bronze was life-sized and shows him in his chair, and at the end has the Yalta-shawled president, larger-than-life, with Fala at his feet worn shiny from the hands. I was impressed deeply by how moving the monument was.

The other thing that dominated the mall was people playing games. We have old pictures of sheep grazing in front of Grant's White House. Now the mall is filled with kickball and fastpitch softball teams from every department and company. That may be the best memorial to modern America, a living one that is always moving, always active.

More later,

Saturday, May 10, 2008