National Memorial Day Concert 2009 (rehearsal)

On Saturday, 23 May 2009, @jill636 and I (@jedci) attended the dress rehearsal for the National Memorial Day Concert on the west lawn of the US Capitol.

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We moved to the area last year just in time to attend last year's dress rehearsal and had such a fun time that we wanted to go again. We carpooled with some neighbors, brought our picnic, and enjoyed the evening. Below are pictures and some comments from our Twitter updates (hence the shorthand, trying to get it to fit in 140-characters). We also took a few videos, and we'll try to get those posted soon.

@jedci 5:39 PM
getting ready to head to #DC for the Nat'l Memorial Day Concert dress rehearsal

@jedci 6:38 PM
En route to Capitol for concert

@jedci 6:46 PM
Looking for parking - wish us luck #DC WTOP.com had an interesting article re parking / tickets in the District

@jedci 6:58 PM
Almost there ...excited for Natl Memorial Day Concert *rehearsal*

@jedci 7:04 PM
Entered to fanfare =)

@jedci 7:11 PM
Not as good of seats as last year. Asked tents and umbrellas to be taken down. Some ppl w/seats, some on ground

@jedci 7:40 PM
Looking behind us - the view from the Capitol #DC as the rehearsal begins

@jedci 8:18 PM
Lang Lang and Katherine McPhie perform "America, the Beautiful" (Natl Memorial Day Concert rehearsal)

@jedci 8:36 PM
Intermission at Natl Memorial Day Concert rehearsal? Technical difficulty?

@jedci 8:56 PM
10,000 parents caring full-time for their injured veteran children nationwide (Nat'l Memorial Day Day concert rehearsal)

@jedci 8:58 PM
Brian Stokes Mitchell "I can go the distance" #NMDC rehearsal

@jedci 9:11 PM
Colm Wilkinson, "Bring Him Home" #NMDC (Jean Valjean, Les Mis) Amazing!

@jill636 9:18 PM
Enjoying the national memorial day conference dress rehearsal. Very moved by those who sacrifice so much

@jedci 9:19 PM
Armed Forces Salute: USCG USAF USN USMC USA great turnout of servicemembers here 2night 4 the rehearsal (est. Army had most ppl)

@jedci 9:20 PM
Trace Atkins #NMDC rehearsal "Say a Prayer for Peace"


@jedci 9:22 PM
Its been a great night here at #NMDC 2009 rehearsal

@jedci 9:24 PM
Marine choir joins Trace Atkins #NMDC 2009 rehearsal


@byualumni 10:35 PM
A memorial day family tradition... http://www.pbs.org/memorial... #byualumni - Connected for Good

@jedci 10:51 PM
@byualumni went to the MemDayConcert rehearsal tonight on the Capitol lawn - it'll be a great show tomorrow

@byualumni ~8:30 AM (25 May 2009)
Fantasic show - worth rewatching http://www.pbs.org/memorialdayconcert/concert/ Check out photos by BYU Alumnus @jedci. #byualumni

@jedci ~10:55 PM (25 May 2009)
RT @byualumni Fantasic show-worth rewatching MemorialDayConcert -Check out photos by BYUAlumnus @jedci |Thx! Pics here http://bit.ly/JRqnj

And more photos!


Wishing you all a happy Memorial Day, and extending our deepest gratitude for the men and women of our armed forces who serve now -- and the veterans who served us in times past -- to keep us, and others, free.

[NOTE: I was thinking about two days that I spent on a tour with several of our veterans, meeting other veterans. Their stories were incredible, and it had a deep impact on me. I should try to write it down - so check back for updates!]

Weekend Reads: 05/23/2009

An Assortment of Quick Political Updates

President Obama

• When Spanglish goes wrong. The President wishes you a "Happy Fifth of the Fourth."
• President Obama and Vice President Biden Ray's Hell. Or, Where "normal" people go to lunch. Or, how to skip the WH Mess, go from NW DC to Arlington in 5 minutes flat, and get a burger while you're at it.
• A quick demonstration of the budget cuts proposed by the President.
  
• Three out-of-state Obama campaign workers plead guilty to voter fraud in Ohio.
• The President wants to release not release torture photos.
  (When will the media make more of a deal of his "flip flops" on torture, Gitmo, etc.? Granted, I'm all for not releasing the photos [but I think he should have taken a stronger stand on their non-release] so good job for changing stands. But what about when other politicians make changes based upon additional information they gain? Although, the headlines did use some fun words like--delay, opposes, switches, u-turn, moves to stop, shifts, reverses position, reverses--when talking about the switch.)
• From The Heritage Foundation: "Although President Obama has vowed that citizens will be able to track “every dime” of the $787 billion stimulus bill, the government website dedicated to the spending won't have details on contracts and grants until October and may not be complete until next spring - halfway through the program."

The Obama Administration

• White House won't release NYC Air Force One photos. They stage a photo shoot, and then don't release the photos. Instead, we're stuck with the "creatively edited" photos that several blogs featured in their discussion of this administration road bump. The funny(?) thing, I thought, was that--at the time--the Administration was calling for the release of the "torture" photos, but wanted to withhold the AF1 photos. Now, they're withholding both...
• According to the Wall Street Journal, the Obama administration is weighing plans to detain some terror suspects on U.S. soil -- indefinitely and without trial -- as part of a plan to retool military commission trials that were conducted for prisoners held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. (WSJ, 5/14/2009)
• More free money? From The Heritage Foundation: An administration official confirmed that the Obama administration’s $4 billion “loan” and $3.2 billion in “bankruptcy financing” to Chrysler won't be paid back to taxpayers.

The GOP

• While POTUS was Ray's'ing Hell, Governor Romney, Governor Bush, and others got some pizza at Pie-tanza and held a "listening tour" meeting.

Other Stuff

• Washington can't meet the Cheerios standard. Michelle Malkin compares the FDA standard in advertising (and its recent reversal on some claims featured [for years!] on boxes of Cheerios) with the (non)standard for advertising the so-called stimulus.
• Larry Echohawk to head Bureau of Indian Affairs. The BYU professor and BYU-Idaho forum presenter (I ate lunch with him, President Clark, and some others before the speeech) has been confirmed by the US Senate.

Andrews Air Force Base: 3 Day Air Extravaganza 2009

[UPDATE: 16 May 2009 @ 1925: The official website is back up - finally. For more information, go to www.jsoh.org/ . Also, you can see the Twitter traffic HERE (#JSOH) and HERE (Andrews AFB).]

I saw an advertisement for the air show on the side of one of the Metro buses, and my wife and I decided that we'd like to try to go. We each tried to search for information on the show on several occasions, and everything we found told us to visit www.jsoh.org for more information (or www.jsoh.org/show.html or www.jsoh.org/schedule.html).

But, frustratingly, the site has been down.

Finally, I came across this article on the Washington Post website that outlined the schedule of events, as reported on 15 May 2009. I'm recreating Saturday's schedule here, in a hope that someone else might be interested (and frustrated) and find this guide.

Schedule for 16 May 2009
(Saturday)(24/hr time format)

0945 to 1000

• Sean Tucker and the Collaborators

1000 to 1100

• Opening ceremony commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Army's elite parachute team, the Golden Knights, and the 65th anniversary of the D-Day invasion. Attended by special guests, veterans who participated in the invasion
• Liberty Jump Team
• Team McCowan Jump
• Army's 82nd Airborne jump

1100 to 1200

• Fagen Inc.'s Greg Poe
• Army's Golden Knights
• Air Force Thunderbirds engine run

1200 to 1600

• GEICO Skytypers demo
• Navy F/A-18F tactical demo
• Oracle's Sean Tucker
• Fagen Inc.'s Greg Poe
• Air Force A-10 demo

1400 to 1500

• Air Force F-22 demo
• Air Force Heritage Flight
• Red Bull Air Force helicopter, MiG, and Sky Jumpers
• Army's Golden Knights 2nd show

1500 to 1630

• Air Force Thunderbirds

Political Perks?

Hey DC drivers: Ever wondered how to get from 17th and F Street NW to 1713 Wilson Boulevard, Arlington, Virginia in 5 minutes? At lunch time?

Google Maps says the trip takes about 8 minutes. Personal experience has put it at 10 to 15 minutes - in no traffic. But at lunch time? Locals will tell you to plan for 20 minutes if you want to run across the river for lunch.

Guess who did it in 5 minutes flat?

That's right, the President and Vice President when they decided they'd go on over to Ray's Hell Burgers (and escape the White House mess) for lunch. According to the President's daily log:

• 12:26 p.m. - The President leaves the White House.


• 12:31 p.m. - The President is standing in line, waiting to order a medium-well burger with dijon mustard

The WTOP article continues:

Five minutes. Seriously. Five minutes to get down 17th Street, go across the Roosevelt Bridge, and make it past all the traffic lights along Wilson Boulevard. Man, it's worth it becoming the President just for that simple perk alone.

So, why are you running for President?

If you like the dining around Arlington and Alexandria, but work in the District, Presidential motorcades might just make your Top 10 List.

Or Top 11, if you think "10-item lists are for cowards".

Blog Highlights

One of the "Some Political Blogs" I highlight on the blog here is the Fred Malek Blog. There are two recent posts that I wanted to direct your attention to. Below are some quick snips from them, click through for the full posts.

Arlen's Easy Way Out

However, in leaving the Republican Party, Arlen has abandoned people who have been his allies for another team. He has thrown in with people who have a fundamentally different vision for America, and one that I profoundly disagree with.

Why did he do this? It seems as if Arlen took the path of least resistance. He knew that his primary fight would be difficult. Arlen has never stepped down from a fight, but he did this time. Undoubtedly his Democratic primary campaign will be safe. Ed Rendell, Arlen’s former boss at the Philadelphia District Attorney’s office, will get his former Deputy Mayor out of the race now. So after a career of fighting for what he believed in, Arlen took the easy way out to keep his job.

Obama 100 Days Scorecard

There has been a lot of talk about President Obama’s first 100 days in office. Both online and off, there’s also been much analysis about the so-called Obama “FAIL” movement. I don’t hope for President Obama’s failure. I’d like for him to succeed in making our country safer, stronger and much more prosperous. I hope and pray that he does so both for America’s success as well as capitalism’s future. However, his policies are unlikely to achieve desired results.

Given that we the taxpayers are now significant shareholders in a heck of a lot of companies due to the bailout, it is important to remember, that whether you are running just a company or our entire country, in order to achieve success you need to measure success qualitatively and quantitatively along the way.

Weekend Reads: 05/02/2009

The Obama administration is pushing for a deal that will make the United Auto Workers union the majority owners of Chrysler LLC.

Lobbyists skirting ban to work for the Obama White House.

Boston Globe fails to "credit" WH for NYC plane scare. The White House approved the Air Force One Photo Op over New York City, cost $328,835.

A guy I work with discovered a plutino.

Electric cars not as green as you think.

Scientists have repeatedly proven that we are products of our environment. So when you want your employees to do something new, why send out memos, rewrite policies and issue directives — often to no avail? Instead, look at the environment your people are working in and ask yourself — and them — what's holding them back from changing. Remove cubical walls if you want them to talk to each other more. Install Skype and video cameras on all computers if you want people in different locations to connect more often. Make your online expense system more intuitive if you want employees to submit their expenses on time. Simple changes in the environment can have a big impact on people's behavior.

President Obama acknowledged that harsh interrogation techniques might have yielded useful information.

The Question that Didn't get Asked: "While pressing Obama on a variety of national security questions, the White House press corps failed to ask: 'Mr. President, if your administration is already claiming credit for jobs created in this economy, when can the American people start holding you accountable for all the jobs lost?'"

The Foundry: Fact Checking Obama