Word: capitol
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Environmental groups, led by Greenpeace and the Rainforest Action Network, had enlisted eco-celebrities such as Robert Kennedy Jr. and Bill McKibben and registered more than 2,000 youth protesters from around the country for a march on the coal-fired Capitol Power Plant, which supplies steam and cooled water to Congress. They planned to shut down the plant by peacefully blocking the entrances, a textbook act of civil disobedience for which many expected - perhaps eagerly - to be arrested. The message was simple: the burning of coal, which accounts for some 40% of U.S. carbon emissions, "is destroying the planet...
...then came the snow. As 2,000-plus young activists - according to the organizers - gathered in the Spirit of Justice Park near the Capitol, bystanders were greeted with the surreal sight of a global-warming protest occurring in the middle of a freak March snowstorm. They chanted slogans like "Who is hot in here / There's too much carbon in the air" while huddling against the windchill. The greatest risk to the protesters wasn't aggressive cops - the D.C. police, just as chilled as the activists, had little interest in confrontation - but frostbite from the hours of marching and standing...
...joke was not lost on the media: FoxNews.com noted that it was "snowing irony in Washington." Nor did the protest end quite as expected. After the high-spirited and very well organized marchers left the park and encircled the nearby Capitol plant, groups locked arms in front of the three entrances to the facility, fully expecting to be arrested by the dozens of police monitoring the event. But the arrests never came: the police simply waited and watched as speakers and musicians climbed a mobile soundstage and addressed the increasingly frigid crowd. After nearly three hours, with activists beginning...
...unacceptable that our legislative process has been defiled by such pursuit of partisan equilibrium. Issues ought to be decided on their merits, not their political repercussions. Sure, a degree of politicization has always been present on Capitol Hill, but this brand of congressional balance-of-power politics was conspicuously absent from the postbellum annexation of Western states, including Hawaii and Alaska. What does it say of the state of our nation that the issue of D.C. voting rights has exposed a political schism reminiscent of antebellum America...
...video, the string-heavy group proves Yo-Yo Ma ’76 wrong by showing that a cello can in fact be played outside in the cold. Maybe they should be hired for the next Inauguration. While it is unlikely that Ra Ra Riot will be playing on Capitol Hill in 2012, if they keep making songs as good as this they should certainly graduate to mainstream acceptance. The whole getting into the house thing could very easily be a metaphor for their attempt to break through into the public consciousness. “Have I been too discrete...