Return to Boulevard de Atlas

I.E. Flexing those Gastronomical Mussels…..

Haven’t been back to the Rock & Roll Hotel for a while, not since seeing The The’s. Went to see The RedWalls, Johnathan Rice, and The Whigs, of whom might have been nice to recruit into the newly formed WHIG Party, but alas they are not very eloquent. Just a small crowd of us went on the first day of snow of the year with A Rotten Rabi, Stef, and Club D, who has a nice and succinct review of the music of the night and the Sauce Boss (whom I see every year) from the previous Saturday night.

I vaguely remember hearing Jonathan Rice from somewhere before, and Behold – he is on my Walk the Line CD & Plays Roy Orbison in the movie. No wonder his sound was a little Country-ish – I though George Throughgood – but I’m no expert.

Of note for the night were the two new spots on H Street – First is the much touted Dr. Granville Moore’s. This place is attempting to rival Bistro du Coin in Dupont for their Mussels (which I think are the best in the city - price & taste factored in).

Well as the list of places for mussels (French style of course) increases in the city, I woefully fall behind on my list to try them: Montmartre, Brasserie Beck – I have been to them, but still remaining are: Hanks Oyster Bar, Bistro Italiano, Marvins, Les Halles and Belga Café I’ve been for drinks but not food.

SO I took up my quest again recently, when my best friend (& former roomy) from Miami, Mario came into town, and started at the beginning with the Bistro. OUTSTANDING!! as usual. In comparison Granvilles mussels tasted like mussels cooked in sauce, & Bistro’s mussels tasted like they were infused with the sauce YUM!! Plus they are always giving you more bread to sop up that sauce.

As for Montmartre, I cant remember them that well, so that doesn’t bode well (although I do remember their risotto with Calamari in Ink plate – 5 stars for that!), and Beck’s were very tasty indeed, as good as Bistro, but way pricier.

SO rating them:

Bistro du Coin *****
(better if you are in the mood for Wine)

Doc Granville Moores Brickyard ****
(better if you are in the mood for Belgian Beer)

Brasserie Beck ****
(better if you are in the mood for Fancy Restuarant)

Montmartre **
(better if you are in the mood for Other types of seafood)

The Hidden Gem of the evening is SOVA, which for full disclosure is owned by the Husband of a friend of mine (Frank – Kavitha’s hubby). He runs a cool Café/ Wine bar two doors down from the R&R Hotel. Well ok technically the wine bar portion isn’t open yet, but that’s just awaiting the liquor license. He has the same neat dispenser system that the pretentious Sonoma Wine bar has – without the pretentiousness or prices.

His Latte rivals mine (he uses good beans but no match for well roasted Dominican). The décor is R&R Hotel done nice – without the gaudiness – i.e big clunky but comfy couches, warmly painted walls in sage green or warm red colors. The backroom has a big ol' big screen tv and the upstairs has a HUGE Table where you could set up a game of World in Flames with room to spare if you wish.

I can definitely be seeing Granville’s & SOVA as part of my regular routine for visits to the venerable Hotel.

A Nation of Purple

Ive been catching up on some of my politics as distasteful as it may be - but necessary to not be one of the sheeple. And distasteful it is when you hear some questions these candidates pander to and agree with. The one that prompted this latest posting was from one participant in a town hall who spoke of the "anger the average European Christian, native-born American feels when they see their country turning into a multicultural chaos Tower of Babel."
WOW! People believe that this is their nation? A European Christian nation? What about the Native Americans who were here before us? All the African Americans that were FORCIBLY brought here by all those "European Christians"? The Asians (and Irish) upon whose this nations railroads were built by? All the Hispanics we annexed (& bought) from Spain via Texas, California, New Mexico & Arizona? All the Creole people who make Louisiana such a unique State? The Inuit? etc. et. al......

We are lucky that sometimes the candidates sometimes have common sense and this particular questioner was quickly silenced by Mr. McCain with as sound "(he was) grateful to live in a nation that has been enriched by people coming to our nation from around the world." Can we get a great big Howard Dean "YEEEEHAAAAAH!" for standing up to that idiot and not pander! We are a not a nation made up of red states, blue states - but a combination of much more - both together and so much more - A nation of purple with a hue of every color in there!

So thus I continue to go about the ardours duty of going through each of the candidates stances on the issues, or lack thereof - as many just have blurbs with no real policy or details behind them. And yes, this is for both parties as unfortunately no one else has signed onto the WHIG party.
My ranking of the candidates on the issues is below - with one candidate on each side getting a slight boost due to some aspect that makes him stand out (personality and other intangibles)

Reps: 1- Huckabee; 2- McCain; 3- Guliani; 4- Hunter; 5- Romney; 6- Paul; 7- Thompson; 8- Tancredo
Dems- 1- Richardson; 2- Obama; 3- Gravel; 4- Biden; 5- Kucinich; 6- Edwards; 7- Clinton

My rankings on both sides actually came as a surprise, mind you I don't agree with all the issues of my top picks, and it was semi unscientific using this: http://www.ontheissues.org/default.htm and of course the candidates sites themselves.

OK now onto the scary part: In one of the latest Defense bills passed I discovered this passage in the Defense Appropriation Act for Fiscal Year 2007 ; H.R. 5122 [109th Congress]:

Subtitle E - Defense Against Terrorism and Related Security Matters Section 1042 -
"Revises federal provisions allowing the President to utilize the Armed Forces in connection with interference with federal and state law to allow the President to employ the Armed Forces and National Guard in federal service to restore public order in cases of natural disaster, epidemic or other public health emergency, terrorist attack or incident, or domestic violence. "

WAIT!!!!!!!! This - if I understand it correctly (and I do) effectively makes the Posse Comitatus Act invalid!!! I'm fed up at this point at the growing powers of the Executive Branch - where is the backbone of Congress? Our voice - our freedoms don't mean a thing if we elect people who are just going to go with the flow and be walked all over. OK I'm not trying to sound all Conspiracy theory and all, but still its too much of a trend, the politics of fear are some of the worst ever..... (minor update: This is even better explained under the Insurrection Act of 1807 entry)


All I can think of is a quote by one of our founding fathers :


They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. — Benjamin Franklin

The Massing of the Sheeples... or not.

New Term for the following year: Sheeples.

Origin: mash up of Sheep and people

Definition: The masses of people who just follow because they are too engrossed in thier own lives and have no time to care (about our liberties, our country, etc.)

Ok so were all tired of listening about the presidential canidates, and we all have our favorites .... or not at all.

My Opinion - The system is broke - we have to major power brokers putting up 2 sets of opinions and nothing else. The sheep see two paths, and fail to see the other option - blazing a new path. I mean even when herding sheep there are certain some that decide to go astray.

So the powers that control the two ideologies - much like the sheperds or cowboys, go off and round up these unique thinkers and pen them up, thus ensuring we dont develop new ideas. And this happens in both parties.

I'm sick of it - sick of it all. Really I do believe the Brits are on to something - elections are called and you have 60 days to campaign... simple. We need to stop sending our canidates out looking for money - or just have every canidate run for Both parties primaries, like ... Stephen Colbert!

Yes as many of you know he announced his (mock) Canidacy. Thats awesome - now if he were really electable that would be even better! but how brilliant is the idea of no parties and just general primaries. Even better is the idea of no fundraising, canidates all get the same amount of money. Running a campaign is no longer a business (as it is now), everyone has an even platform to present thier views. Yeah it will never work out...

But who knows. As Ray says - we need to reform the Whig Party. So far there are 2 of us, who else is in??