Those same Chavistas add that the U.S. has scant right to criticize Venezuela’s policy on its national capital when residents of Washington, D.C., still aren’t allowed representation in Congress.
This sounds similar to what a senior official in Hong Kong said a few years ago to Representative Tom Davis: “Give your nation’s capital the right to vote and then come talk to us about democracy in Hong Kong.”
Comments Off || || Posted One Year Ago: Boston Common Quilt #2
|| 4/1/2009 || 11:10 am ||
Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton & Senator Joe Lieberman introduce a D.C. Statehood Bill
UPDATE: In case you didn’t figure it out, this entry was my April Fool’s Day joke. While the event at the U.S. Capitol was real, the introduction of the D.C. Statehood Bill was a farce.
Upon hearing that the Justice Department has found the District of Columbia House Voting Rights Act of 2009 to be unconstitutional, this morning Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) and Senator Joe Lieberman (I-CT) introduced a D.C. Statehood bill to Congress.
This bill will make the nearly 600,000 citizens of America’s capital city equal to those in every other state in America. The legislation will allow District residents to elect two senators & at least one member of the House of Representatives. It will also grant the residents complete budget autonomy, control over the penal system, and allow residents to vote for their own district attorney. The bill also shrinks what is considered the “Seat of Government” to the area around the United States Capitol and National Mall to allow Congress to retain some control over the District of Columbia.
“I’m tired of being treated like a second-class congresswoman,” said Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton this morning at the press conference, “and D.C. Statehood is the only route to full equality.” She went on to say that she was pressured by the high-profile advocacy group DC Vote to push for partial representation because they wanted to make sure D.C. only has one vote in Congress. She concluded, “they didn’t want to have to change their name to DC Votes.”
Former vice-presidential candidate Senator Lieberman introduced the Senate’s version of the bill that contains a unique compromise. Unlike previous D.C. Statehood legislation, it contains a provision that prevents D.C. residents from electing two senators from the same political party.
“As an independent, I understand the importance of partisanship and the current view of Washington, DC is that the residents only vote for candidates in the Democratic Party.” By including this controversial provision, Lieberman hopes to win over Republican leadership who fear that the senators will always come from the Democratic party. The DC Home Rule Charter already contains a similar provision for a portion of the At-Large City Councilmembers to be from minor political parties and this practice will be continued in the DC Statehood bill.
In order to help District residents understand the importance of what D.C. statehood will provide, this evening ACLU and many other human rights groups are hosting a teach-in & free concert on the steps of the U.S. Capitol. Their goal is to educate District residents on the benefits of D.C. statehood.
Below are two different flyers for tonight’s event at the U.S. Capitol:
Render A Comment || || Posted One Year Ago: Astrophotography by Anthony Ayiomamitis - Analemma with the Parthenon
|| 3/3/2009 || 7:14 pm ||
What! A Bicycle Rifle? Yes?
Click to view a larger version of the advertisement
So with Congress possibly changing DC gun laws to give DC colonists a token vote in the House of Representatives, I found this advertisement for a bicycle rifle to be somewhat humorous. With this rifle, I can lock & load & cycle and I make sure no one knocks me off my bicycle! I could discharge the rifle at a car’s wheels in case I feel that the car is getting too close to me. Imagine how I’ll be able to proactively protect my life and save myself from getting into accidents with larger vehicles with this handy rifle. I’ll have the most formidable bicycle ever!! The constitution might say we have a right to bear arms, but it doesn’t say anything about the right to have bicycles with arms. I predict the bicycle rifle will become the new Cycle Chic accessory item of Washington, DC cyclists. Just remember, you read it here first.
When I wrote about my neighborhood last year, I mentioned that the League of American Wheelmen competed on May 20th, 1884 on the land that would eventually become my current residence over a hundred years later. The advertisement above is from the program of the competition on the Library of Congress website.
Related Colonist Entries: (more…)
Render A Comment || || Posted One Year Ago: Thats the Kurti...
|| 2/28/2009 || 1:30 pm ||
Thomas Jefferson’s Map of Washington from March 31st, 1791
Throughout the week I watched the Senate debate on the District of Columbia House Voting Rights Act of 2009. This bill (which I’ve written about before in its different forms) will give DC residents a token vote in the House of Representatives, while denying us representation in the Senate. (Taxation Without 2/3’s Representation!!) Thursday afternoon the Senate passed the Act after they also voted to add a bogus amendment written by the National Rifle Association to weaken/remove the District of Columbia’s gun laws. The vote showed clearly that the District of Columbia is still Congress’ little colony and even with the Act’s passage, DC residents are no better off than before, except of course, we’ll be governed by 536 unelected officials, instead of 535. Hurrah for continued tyranny masked as progress!
There were two words I heard over and over again during the Senate debate: Founding Fathers. Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, is revered as one of America’s founding fathers and after looking at his map that he drew in 1791 (and attempting to read his nearly illegible text), I’ve come to the conclusion that the Seat of Government that the Constitution gives Congress exclusive jurisdiction over (Article I, Section 8, Clause 17), is also nearly the same geography that was defined as the National Capital Service Area [link to Google Map] when DC statehood was proposed. This area is basically all the federal government buildings around the National Mall and is what I feel Congress should have exclusive control over. So why was the Seat of Government expanded to include the entire District of Columbia when Jefferson clearly drew a smaller vision 218 years ago? I don’t know, but fixing one of the Founding Father’s faux-pas should involve giving DC residents full equality that citizens of the rest of America receive, which means representation in both the House and the Senate.
Related Colonist Entries: (more…)
Render A Comment || || Posted One Year Ago: In today's Washington Jewish Weekly newspaper
|| 2/19/2009 || 7:12 pm ||
Text of H.R. 259 - An act to retrocede the county of Alexandria, in the District of Columbia, to the State of Virginia
From 1840 to 1846, residents of Alexandria petitioned Congress and the Virginia legislature to approve retrocession. On February 3, 1846 the Virginia General Assembly agreed to accept the retrocession of Alexandria if Congress approved. Following additional lobbying by Alexandrians, Congress passed legislation on July 9, 1846 to return all the District’s territory south of the Potomac River back to the Commonwealth of Virginia, pursuant to a referendum and President Polk signed the legislation the next day.
A referendum on retrocession was held on September 1–2, 1846 and the residents of the City of Alexandria voted in favor of the retrocession, 734 to 116, however, the residents of Alexandria County voted against retrocession 106 to 29. Despite the objections of those living in Alexandria County, President Polk certified the referendum and issued a proclamation of transfer on September 7, 1846. However, the Virginia legislature did not immediately accept the retrocession offer. Virginia legislators were concerned that the people of Alexandria County had not been properly included in the retrocession proceedings. After months of debate, the Virginia General Assembly voted to formally accept the retrocession legislation on March 13, 1847.
In Abraham Lincoln’s first State of the Union, delivered on December 3, 1861, he suggested restoring the District of Columbia to George Washington’s original boundaries:
The present insurrection shows, I think, that the extension of this District across the Potomac at the time of establishing the capital here was eminently wise, and consequently that the relinquishment of that portion of it which lies within the state of Virginia was unwise and dangerous. I submit for your consideration the expediency of regarding that part of the District and the restoration of the original boundaries thereof through negotiations with the State of Virginia.
I also question the legitimacy of the retrocession because in the bill below you can see that it states that both the county AND the town of Alexandria were to pass the referendum. The county of Alexandria never voted in favor of retrocession, only the town voted for it. Imagine if the land was returned back to the District of Columbia?
Continue: (more…)
Render A Comment || || Posted One Year Ago: Upcoming exhibit: PEACE NOW!
|| 2/18/2009 || 11:38 pm ||
YouTube video of DC Colonists demonstrating at the first Nationals game at RFK Stadium
On April 3rd, 2005, a group of DC residents staged a demonstration at the Nationals first exhibition game at RFK stadium. The group bought up a block of seats in the outfield and held up signs spelling out two messages: “Strike 4 DC Statehood” when players would strike out and “Bush Play Ball With DC” when the players would walk.
This video is not new per se, in fact I wrote about it when I first added to the video to my website, however at the time I was avoiding YouTube. Yesterday I decided to fire up the old external hard drive, found this clip in it’s original DV format, and I decided to compress & upload the video to my YouTube account….. and yes, I was the one dressed in “colonial attire” :-)
Render A Comment || || Posted One Year Ago: 87 & 280 Quilt #3
|| 2/16/2009 || 11:10 pm ||
“Let Us Now End American Colonialism” - A speech by Ernest Gruening delivered to the Delegates of the Alaska Constitutional Convention on November 9, 1955
As someone who has advocated for statehood for the District of Columbia since I first learned about this civil rights issue, I cannot help but look to past examples of how others struggled for the same equality. The other day I began reading about how Alaska became the 49th state in America and realized how many of their struggles are similar to the ones faced today by the people of the District of Columbia.
Below is a speech by Ernest Gruening, the former Territorial Governor of Alaska (who eventually became the first Alaskan senator 1958-1968), which was delivered to the Delegates of the Alaska Constitutional Convention on November 9, 1955. I find the speech quite interesting because there are so many parallels to the plight of the District residents. It should be noted, somewhat sadly, that the 1960 census showed there were less than 300,000 people in both Alaska and Nevada, compared to 762,000 residents living in the District of Columbia at the time.
Photo from the University of Alaska
We meet to validate the most basic of American principles, the principle of “government by consent of the governed.”
We take this historic step because the people of Alaska who elected you, have come to see that their long standing and unceasing protests against the restrictions, discriminations and exclusions to which we are subject have been unheeded by the colonialism that has ruled Alaska for 88 years. The people of Alaska have never ceased to object to these impositions even though they may not have realized that such were part and parcel of their colonial status. Indeed the full realization that Alaska is a colony may not yet have come to many Alaskans, nor may it be even faintly appreciated by those in power who perpetuate our colonial servitude.
Half a century ago, a governor of Alaska, John Green-Brady, contemplating the vain efforts of Alaskans for nearly forty years to secure even a modicum of workable self-government, declared:
“We are graduates of the school of patience.”
Continue reading: (more…)
Render A Comment || || Posted One Year Ago: A Weekly Digest (at times)
|| 2/11/2009 || 2:43 pm ||
The D.C. Colonist receives a warm welcome from Senator Joe Lieberman at today’s Business Meeting of the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
Roll Call’s photo of the week from April, 2007
Today I attended the Business Meeting of the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs dressed in my colonial attire. I wear this costume for every congressional hearing related to representation for the residents of Washington, DC. I arrived early enough to snag a decent seat and sat down next to my friend Shadow Senator Michael D. Brown. As the other Senators arrived for the meeting he & I chatted about ideas related to what we can do next to get statehood for the District of Columbia.
A few minutes later when Senator Joe Lieberman walked in, Shadow Senator Michael D. Brown stood up, greeted him, and shook his hand. Senator Lieberman then looks at me and said something along the lines of “I’m glad to see that we have a colonist here. Do you go by the name of Paul Revere?” I said, “No, I’m just a DC colonist.” He followed, “So you don’t have a name? Just ‘DC Colonist’?” and I responded, “I’m just a DC Colonist that suffers taxation without representation.” He smiled, walked over to the end of the table, and sat down at his seat. A few minutes later the hearing began and he decided to greet me publicly…..
Click here to listen to the audio
or
Click here to watch the video
[to watch the video, you first need to hit play, then scroll the slider over to about 21:10 to watch the introduction]
Senator Lieberman said:
I do want to note and welcome Mayor Fenty of the District of Columbia we are honored that you are here and a somewhat older resident of the District from colonial times [laughter] also present. I gather you are making the general point about taxation without representation [off camera I nod in the affirmative]. Okay I don’t need to make my case any stronger than that [laughter]. Thank you for being here.
Also worthy of mention is that later on in the hearing (at around 43:15 into the video), Senator George Voinovich mentions the time when the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe were in Washington, DC and we lobbied them on the Potomac River (right photo). Hearing him mention that day made me laugh. It was one of my favorite demonstrations I’ve ever taken part in! I remember watching the parliamentarians applaud our efforts from the ship and the following day they passed a resolution calling on the United States government to give DC residents congressional representation.
In the end, only Senator John McCain voted against the bill, S.R. 160, the senate version of the District of Columbia House Voting Rights Act of 2009, and it passed the committee with a vote of 11-1. Unfortunately, I agree with McCain’s opinion, only states should receive representation in Congress.
I feel that DC Vote and Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton wasted a huge opportunity to give DC residents equal representation in Congress by reintroducing this three-year-old, constitutionally questionable legislation that was written for a Republican controlled congress. Times have changed, however, the bill and its constitutional underpinnings have not. I’m not sure what will happen next to the bill, like when will it be voted on, but I am sure it will be challenged on it’s constitutionality. In the meantime, I’m going to continue to work with my Shadow Delegation on lobbying for statehood for the District of Columbia.
UPDATE: February 12th, 2009 - Comedian Stephan Colbert interviewed Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton the following night:
Its too bad the editors missed the chance with the Colonist…
Related Colonist Entries: (more…)
Render A Comment || || Posted One Year Ago: Poor Map Design: 5 Guys Famous Burgers & Fries
|| 2/9/2009 || 6:26 pm ||
Hey Google & YouTube, those are not my Senators! I have no Senators!
In continuance of yesterday’s posting, recently Congress changed their rules to allow Senators and Representatives to utilize YouTube to share information with their constituents. Today I noticed a secondary tragic flaw in their layout. Since the residents of Washington, DC are denied representation in the Senate, the coders at YouTube are using the state of the District of Columbia to show videos from different congressional committees. Instead of incorrectly listing DC as a state, they should include a link to “Committees.” Moreover, as you can see above & below, Google maps remove the words District of Columbia at different scales. This further shows how little YouTube/Google cares about the half a million disenfranchised residents of the District of Columbia. (more…)
Comments Off || || Posted One Year Ago: Spinvision.TV
|| 2/8/2009 || 6:21 pm ||
Hey Google & YouTube, that is not my Representative or Delegate!
Recently Congress changed their rules to allow Senators and Representatives to utilize YouTube to share information with their constituents. Today I noticed a tragic flaw in their layout. Since the residents of Washington, DC are denied representation in Congress, the coders at YouTube are using the state of the District of Columbia to show videos from different congressional committees, not from my elected “Shadow” Representative Mike Panetta or Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton. Moreover, as you can see below, the Google maps remove the words District of Columbia at different scales. This further shows how little YouTube/Google cares about the people of the District of Columbia: (more…)
Comments Off || || Posted One Year Ago: ordered today: Superdome Quilt #2 & Charlotte Spheres
|| 2/6/2009 || 11:55 pm ||
Washington Post Video of last night’s Statehood Forum
Last night attended the DC Statehood Green Party’s forum called “DC Statehood, Now Is Our Time.” The event featured the entire elected shadow delegation as well as two city councilmembers and other leaders of this civil rights struggle. I also recorded much of the event, but I haven’t put a video together yet.
Hamil Harris from the Washington Post who made the video above, also wrote a brief write-up of the event if you are interested.
My favorite snippet:
Charles Cassell, who chaired of the DC Statehood Constitutional Convention during the early years of Home Rule, said the late activist Julius Hobson would be upset had he lived to see this day.
Comments Off || || Posted One Year Ago: Before there was Google Earth, there was Keyhole
|| 1/28/2009 || 5:03 pm ||
Indirectly mentioned in today’s Washington Post
Hoyer Says He Will Soon Bring Bill to House Floor
By Mary Beth Sheridan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 28, 2009; Page B03House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer vowed yesterday to hold a vote “in the very near future” on legislation that would give the District a full voting seat in Congress.
“As majority leader, I tell you I intend to bring that bill to the floor,” Hoyer (D-Md.) told the House Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. He criticized Washington’s status, saying the city is “the only capital in the free world whose citizens do not have a voting member of their parliament.”
The hearing marked the first step in the bill’s path through Congress. It drew an overflow crowd to the wood-paneled room, including the measure’s sponsor, Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) and numerous activists — one in a purple colonial-style coat and a tricorn hat.
These photos were taken in 2006 in the same room where representatives were discussing the same unconstitutional bill.
Its sad that while times have changed, my colonial status has not…
Related Colonist Entries: (more…)
Comments Off || || Posted One Year Ago: Submitted today: American Stereography #3 [errr, #4 really]
|| 1/27/2009 || 10:55 pm ||
YouTube Video featuring the 6pm News Coverage Mashup of the 2009 DC House Voting Rights Act
Today was the first hearing for the District of Columbia House Voting Rights Act of 2009. Although I feel this bill is flagrantly unconstitutional, I attended the hearing……
This video features three clips I recorded and the 6pm coverage of three Washington, DC news organizations. The video starts out with my friend Chris on the microphone outside of the Rayburn building, then cuts to the ABC7 coverage, then cuts to the line waiting to get into the hearing, then cuts to the DC Fox5 coverage, then cuts to my footage inside of the hearing room, which features DC Mayor Adrian Fenty, and finally concludes with NBC4’s coverage.
In each of the clips you can spot me in the footage wearing my colonist outfit, which was worn to highlight the fact that DC residents are actually colonists who are forced to live under the tyranny of 535 unelected members of congress and suffer taxation without representation.
Related Colonist Entries: (more…)
Comments Off || || Posted One Year Ago: Submitted today: Interactive Inequality #3
|| 1/19/2009 || 4:24 pm ||
Interviewed on MSNBC this morning
not me in the background…
This morning after I woke up and turned on the TV, I noticed that someone in the background was holding up one of the “Yes We Can - DC Statehood Now!” posters (above). I decided remove my poster from the window and head down to the Mall to see if I could join the person. After I arrived it turned out that the person had already left, but fortunately the crowd was pretty thin around filming area and I was able to go right up to the fence and hold up my sign. Around 10am David Shuster went outside and interviewed different people around the fence and eventually came up to me. He let me speak about DC statehood for about 15 seconds on live TV! It was quite rewarding to say the least! I ended up staying around the fence holding up the sign for the next 3 hours and left when I started to get hungry. I hope to get the footage shortly and when I do, I’ll post it here.
Comments Off || || Posted One Year Ago: syndicated in Taiwan, San Francisco, Saint Louis, Austin, Little Rock, and Lincoln, Nebraska
|| 1/17/2009 || 3:07 pm ||
Welcome to DC, we have no vote, we have no voice.
I spotted these prints by “Hear Our Voice” outside of the Convention Center today. They all mention something about DC’s lack of representation in Congress. My favorite one features Michelle Obama and says “Michelle Obama rocks the mic. DC has no mic.” Read more about these posters here.
Comments Off || || Posted One Year Ago: The first glimpse of Mercury's horizon
|| 1/15/2009 || 11:50 pm ||
YouTube Video of Newschannel 8’s coverage of the “YES WE CAN - DC STATEHOOD NOW” poster
I was able to snag this video from the Newschannel 8 website and upload to YouTube. I know its not quite legal, but neither is being denied representation in Congress.
Below is the text of the article:
(more…)
Comments Off || || Posted One Year Ago: Staring at the Sun in Stellarium, Federal Triangle Quilt #2, 2008 Green Party Debate [tonight on KPFA]
|| 1/13/2009 || 6:45 pm ||
Plagiarizing the official Inaugural Map to include a political message
I decided to not update my 2005 Inaugural Map for this month’s inaugural activities, but since I’ve been receiving so many visitors looking for one, I decided to plagiarize the official map to include a message about DC Statehood.
Comments Off || || Posted One Year Ago: The Grand Design Lenz Quilt, [Sunday Selections] Nickodemus DJ set from Power to the Peaceful Festival {9.8.07}
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