Category: The District

Stuff about Washington, DC

America’s India strategy

This article in the Hindustan Times sheds some more light on the US strategy to balance China from its backside.

In early 1999, George W. Bush met with eight foreign policy advisors, collectively known as the Vulcans, in his ranch at Crawford, Texas. He was preparing for his White House bid. They were there to tell him about the world.

Well into the briefing, Bush interrupted: “Wait a minute. Why aren’t we talking about India?” The Vulcans — who included Condoleezza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz — looked at each other. India didn’t matter, they explained.

Bush’s response: “You’re wrong.”

It’s a friendship that should have been made a long time ago… and shows that Bush deserves personal credit for at least some part of his international strategy. Who knows—this could be one of the best foreign policy legacies to come out of the Bush administration. Assuming there isn’t a nuclear war, of course…

Also check out The Economist‘s take.

From the NO KIDDING File: Washington Traffic is REALLY BAD

This report on how retardedly bad Washington traffic is reminds me of how hard it is to believe that Washington Post writers actually work or live in Washington:

Highway congestion has grown so severe that virtually all of the Washington region’s main commuter routes are chronically clogged and unable to move motorists efficiently, according to a regional study released yesterday.

Drivers on some highways designed for mile-a-minute travel are lucky to make five miles in an hour. Freeways that were manageable three years ago, such as the Dulles Toll Road, are now bumper-to-bumper at peak times. Congestion on some highways has doubled in three years, when the last study was released.

At the worst hour, between 4:30 and 5:30 p.m. weekdays, a quarter of all freeway lanes in the Washington region are completely congested.

…

“It’s even worse than what we would have expected,” said John Townsend, spokesman for AAA Mid-Atlantic. “This is a template to know where the problems are. For political leaders to have this report and do nothing is akin to doing nothing while Rome burns.”

That picture isn’t even as bad as it gets!

Admittedly, I haven’t been reading the Post every day for about 6 months, but considering the power the WaPo can have over some issues, with traffic this bad in the area they should be running exposes every day. It shouldn’t take an official report to get them to talk about this more often (though one editorial remains dear to my heart).

Let me give you an example: I-66 going into the city from Virginia (where I live) is only two lanes for most of the way. The new governor of Virginia supports expanding it, but as it is now the road is constantly facing volume slowdowns. I get backed up coming home at 10pm on a Wednesday. Even the Beltway, which is 4 lanes most of the way, is more or less constantly backed up. Mrs. Adamu can back me up on this.

Maybe they just never leave the office or take cabs with tinted windows from press conference to press conference, wondering why it takes so long to drive 4 blocks to the White House.

More Kabuki

Meaningless charade

The moribund hearings have been as predictable as a Kabuki drama. Barring a major miscue, Alito’s inscrutability will carry him to the Supreme Court

As predictably as a Kabuki drama, the media is using the metaphor of a kabuki drama to describe boring politics.

It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that the Daniels/Eichwenwald Kabuki dance reflected a conscious effort to avoid invoking the homosexual angle in the story.

Newsbusters refuses to watch gay kabuki.

Peace at last: Adamu is no longer homeless


I am finally on a lease, paying rent on a real live apartment. There is still much unpacking to do, but at least my desk and bed are set up.

After Paco screwed me royally back in October, there was a bit of an ordeal when I tried to get my deposit back:

1) I threatened to call the police if he didn’t send me my $500.
2) He threatened to “stab [me] in the face” if I continued “threating” him.
3) Many people thought it was a hilarious threat, but my family found out, causing them needless worry.
4) Paco backed down from the threat and sent me my money.

But the drama, hopefully, is finally over. Many thanks to Mateo and Saru for helping me move, and special thanks to Cousin for letting me crash at her place.

My new building is swank: sauna, outdoor pool, fitness center (that I need to hit pretty badly), tennis courts. The rent’s not bad either. I can finally live in peace after spending a month and a half homeless thanks to Paco the face-stabber.

Anyway, the reason I’m blogging this is because while we were moving my stuff in, Saru and I saw the most curious sight: a balding man in his 30’s wearing a karate uniform with a rifle (complete with scope) strapped to his back! Unfortunately, neither of us was in a position to get a picture of him, but I’ll be sure to if I run into him again (hopefully not in a dark alley).

Is there some form of martial arts that combines karate and rifleshooting? Some sort of karate biathlon maybe? If anyone knows about this, please do explain!

Two Reasons to Love Washington


(Please forgive the rambling, Schumin-esque post. This is about as exciting as my life gets these days.)

Reason 1: I stop by American University, my alma mater, last weekend to catch up on some research.

Feeling hungry, I decide to stop by the university dining hall to see if it has changed at all. Now, at AU most customers of the dining hall pay using their student IDs, which are connected to their overpriced meal plans. As I stand in line, I remember how annoying it was to be stuck with 30 leftover meals at the end of every semester because I didn’t feel like eating from the same limited menu for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

When my turn comes at the register, I tell the lady I have to pay with a credit card. She is confused — from the looks of things, this may not have happened yet in her career as a dining hall cashier.

But thankfully the “middle class African American college boy” behind me is ready: “I got it,” he says, letting me know “it’s cool” with a cocksure nod of the head.

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

“Wow, thanks,” I say as the register lady swipes his ID.

Free lunch for Adamu!
Continue reading Two Reasons to Love Washington

My moving nightmare — a quiz for my readers in law school

If only this guy would rent to me...
My plans were to be blogging from my new place in Rockville by now, but as you will see below that was not in the cards. The following is a 100% true story of what happened to me yesterday. Names have been changed.
Continue reading My moving nightmare — a quiz for my readers in law school

Washington Post Lets You Know What it’s Like Living Here


Preach it, brother:

In the nation’s capital and environs, the infrastructure had deteriorated to what sometimes seems like Third World standards. In some cases, make that below Third World standards. In most of the developing countries I’ve visited, for example, they manage to keep the power on during a garden-variety thunderstorm. But here, in the most powerful city in the world — a city of humid summers, where thunderstorms are to be expected all season long — all it takes is a few flashes of lightning, and inevitably at least a few thousand households are left in the dark.

The highways around here are so clogged that there’s no longer a predictable rush hour, just random times when the Beltway is at a standstill and other random times when the traffic is merely oppressive. You could take the subway, but whatever station you use, the escalator will probably be broken. Our engineers can design a cruise missile that will turn a 90-degree corner, knock on the target’s door and say “Candygram!” to bluff its way inside, but we can’t quite master the intricacies of the escalator.

You could just walk, but be advised that occasionally something beneath a heavily trafficked sidewalk will short out and explode, turning innocent manhole covers into Frisbees of Death.

That manhole thing is either made up or blown way out of proportion. But he has a point about the other stuff. But hey at least Washington has some cool statues (See above and below):