Take Back the Capitol: Mudless Thursday

by David Safier

The weather went from wet and nasty to clear and cold overnight. Cold and dry is a hell of a lot warmer than wet and not as cold.

It's going to take awhile to post about the various parts of today, so here's a quick rundown.

One of the women here from Phoenix testified at a committee hearing chaired by Senator Tom Harkin on joblessness-related legislation. I attended the first part of the hearing, where she and other people spoke. She has a story about her current unemployment and shaky financial situation which is all too typical these days. Details later.

I left the building and walked toward the Capitol from one direction as the Take Back the Capitol people were approaching from another. The group was led by 99 jobless Americans who, I understand, were going to Boehner's office as representatives of the 99%. The rest gathered in the park, with speakers, chanting, singing, etc. Photos and, I hope, some reasonably good video from the protest later.

While I was in the park, I got a call from Raul Grijalva's office, where I had requested time for an interview. Granted, in half an hour. I walked across the Capitol to Grijalva's office, talked awhile with his young, smart, amiable staff. Grijalva welcomed me into his office, I set up my phone between us with the audio on and recorded (unless I screwed up) about a half hour of him answering my questions. It's going to be tough going cutting it down, because he's a terrific speaker with an incisive mind, and I hate to edit him. I'll see what I can do. Portions of the interview later.

From there, I walked to the Media Matters office to meet with Chris Brown. I have an email relationship with Chris through my connection with the gun violence blogging groups. He could only give me a few minutes, because he and others were glued to the Fast and Furious hearings on C-Span, but I had a chance to learn something about how the operation works.

As luck will have it, the Media Matters office is around the corner from D.C.'s Chinatown. I walked into the first Thai restaurant I saw, ten minutes before the end of lunch service. Duck in a coconut milk curry sauce. Spicy, a bit sweet, duck-rich. Very, very good. Now I'm in the Corner Bakery down the block, which, I was told by someone in the restaurant, serves great Whoopie Pies. I believed them but went in another dessert direction.

It was a good day. Full day. Lots of stuff to download and put together.