Two Plus Two Newer Archives - THE Tuff Fish DC trip report

I stayed home today rather than spread my germs around.

DC Trip Report

Twas a fun trip (except for the CNN fire reports part) til I caught a monster of a cold toward the end.

Conclusion: If 800,000 poker players really want legally sanctioned on line poker, they can get it, and get it in a reasonably short time. But, it is nigh impossible to get 800,000 poker players to agree that the sky is blue on a clear day.

Saturday/Sunday

We left San Diego on the Jet Blue cheap red eye flight at the inglorious hour of 10:50 pm and arrived at Dulles at 6:30 am Sunday morning. Love that Jet Blue with the TV screens. At the Hertz counter (bad decision, shouldn’t have rented a car, there was no need) I glanced at the TV and there was the first report of the Malibu fire. No problem, I am thinking, Malibu is a long ways away and it burns on a fairly regular basis anyway.

Conclusion number two. Washington DC is NOT a place to drive around in. Streets end abruptly, or suddenly turn into one way going the wrong way. And nothing is straight or parallel.

While we were lost, we saw some nice buildings.
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After encountering Dupont Circle twice from 2 different directions, we finally made it to the Omni Shoreham Hotel. There was no available parking, the hotel lot was full. But the valet service was available, go figure. There were no rooms available either since it was still early. After entrusting our bags to the bell captain, we walked around a bit.

Early fall colors on some of the trees.
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Mrs. Fish and I were really beat, so we lay down on the grass in the park and took a nap homeless style. I would not make a good “outdoorsman” as bums are referred to in the PC manner.

We finally got a nice room, took a nap, and then went to do a bit of tourism.

The Korean War memorial.
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Yep, we look like tourist.
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Abraham Lincoln believes we should be able to play poker online if we want to.
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The weather was postcard perfect the first couple of days.
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That evening we had dinner at a burger restaurant nearby. D$D came up and we had a nice visit.

Monday

We were getting ready to do more tourist stuff when Daughterfish calls. “Where are the important papers”?! Fire is getting near and she is bailing. Mrs. Fish spends an hour guiding her to different spots in the house. Mrs. Fish is ready to get on a plane and go home, but I tell her that a) she probably wouldn’t be able to land in San Diego, b) nobody could come and get her, c) they couldn’t get back to the house if anyone did manage to pick her up.

So, we went off to do more tourist stuff.

Started getting acquainted with the DC Metro system. First thing we encountered was a really really long deep escalator down to the station.
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We visited the Smithsonian. I never realized that all the buildings of the museum were located along the mall. I had always thought they were scattered about town.
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We visited the Air and Space Museum. Here is Spaceship 1, the first civilian craft to reach outer space.
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If you ever visit and look closely at the rocket nozzle coming out the back, you will see some signatures. My name is on there somewhere. My company built the motor that propelled the first civilian into space.
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If you are really balla, you will buy yourself one of these.
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And if you hit a downswing…..
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Mrs. Fish spent a lot of time keeping in touch back home.
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The fishes come to Washington DC.
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And encounter strange folks with some novel ideas as to how the world should be run.
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The Capitol is much different up close and personal.
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We had a reception at the hotel that evening. I got to put a face to some of the names. D$D is second from left. The middle guy is one of the lobbyists for PPA. Second from right is Patrick O’Malley who is helping with the grassroots organizing. I was fairly impressed with the quality of the people John Pappas has brought together to help with this effort. http://www.fstln.com/dctrip07/Slide20.JPG

Tuesday:

We met for breakfast and an orientation in preparation for our meetings on Capitol Hill. My first meeting wasn’t until 1pm so I stayed behind and didn’t catch the bus with the others. When it was time, I took the metro. I either got the wrong directions or misunderstood where I was to get off. I had to hoof it a LONG way to get to the Cannon Building and my first meeting with Congressman Adam Schiff. It was hot and very humid, I was dressed in a dark suit, and the hike past the Rayburn Building and the Longworth Building gave new meaning to the words Capitol HILL.

The meeting actually took place with a legislative assistant. I thought we were supposed to meet with the congressman himself, and when our lobbyist guide started talking to this young fellow about 27 or so, I was really taken aback. I whispered over, “is this the congressman?” No.

This meeting didn’t take long, the congressman is on board with Barney Frank’s bill, and so we left the meeting after asking that the congressman please consider cosponsoring the Wexler bill too.

My next meeting was with my congressman Duncan Hunter. Since I had seen him live in San Diego on CNN a couple of hours earlier, I knew I would be talking to an assistant. Hunter’s office is in the Rayburn Building. Our escort took us through the tunnel connecting the buildings. While we were waiting for the elevator, Congressman Wexler happened by. He knew Chad Brown who was in our group, so he stopped to chat a bit. I introduced myself and thanked him for his efforts.

I had a bit of time to kill, so I found the cafeteria. I saw Congressman Barney Frank standing there, but before I could subtly try to get into position to introduce myself, he left. Imagine finding a congressman in the congressional cafeteria. During my various trips to the cafeteria, I saw Charlie Rangle, Henry Waxman, and a couple who I knew from sight but couldn’t remember the names.

When I got to Duncan Hunter’s office, they acted quite surprised to see me. Neither of the other two persons who were supposed to show up was there. In due course I was ushered into the congressman’s plush office and had a seat in a very comfortable chair. I got to speak to another young, very young, legislative assistant. The young man listened dutifully, and obviously didn’t have a clue about either bill I was referring to. I made my points very well if I do say so myself. In a few minutes, my lobbyist escort finally showed up looking like a drowned rat. I think he had been running up Capitol Hill. He was expecting to meet with a senior staffer and mistook the legislative assistant for another poker player. It was awkward for a minute but we got it all sorted out. I will have to write a follow up letter to the good congressman and remake my points.

That evening we had the reception for congress members and staff in one of the rooms in the Rayburn Building. There was quite a turnout and free beer. [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]
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Meet “The Engineer” (the one on the left in case you were wondering)
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D$D and daughter Laura
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This is Dixie, our PPA representative from Alaska.
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Some fellow taking note of Annie Duke
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There were a number of luminaries turning out
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Some of our congressional supporters turned up too. John Conyers, chairman of the judiciary committee joined us. Sorry, no picture.

Shelly Barkley, congresswoman from Nevada
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Sheila Jackson Lee from Texas
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This is another congressional supporter. Unfortunately, I didn’t get his name.
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I turned around to find Mrs. Fish in a conversation with the representative from Texas.
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John Pappas, on the right, was keeping busy.
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I am told that it is unusual to get this many congressional representatives out for one of these functions. Again, if the larger body of online poker players wants to have fully legal, easily accessible online poker, they need to get off their backsides and get involved in making it happen. It certainly looks like the PPA has made a decent start toward laying the groundwork. Now you must all join and, more importantly, participate. If you don’t, and the forces from the darkside prevail, when you start whining, all that can be said to you then is STFU.

Wednesday:

I had a single appointment this afternoon. We were to meet with congressman Howard Berman in his office at two o’clock. Annie Duke was in our group. She is a resident of his district. This time we did meet the congressman in person. There were five people in our group, but the congressman really noticed only one, Annie Duke. My, that girl can talk. If Fox News wants to do another piece, get Annie to go on. No inarticulate mumbling from her. She presented our case very well, which was a good thing because none of us got a word in edgewise. The congressman is clearly on our side and as I left I asked the legislative assistant to remind him to please cosponsor the Wexler bill.

After that, Mrs. Fish and I did a bit more sight seeing. The weather was clouding up but it was still quite warm.

Nice view of the Capitol.
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Thursday:

Did the Capitol Building tour and some more Smithsonian.
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Friday:

Headed out to the Iwo Jima monument. The heavens decided to end the DC dry spell in those 15 minutes we were there. It was pouring buckets.
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A couple of fish not out of water.
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We visited here
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Afterward, it only seemed fitting we visit the WWII memorial. A memorial to those who put an end the ghastly happenings we had just seen.
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The Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on a rainy day
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Saturday:

By now my cold was in high gear. I wanted to stop by the Vietnam Memorial but there was some kind of charity race being held in the area and there was no parking. Anyway, I felt like the South end of a North bound mule so we headed out to Dulles and to smokey San Diego.

Naturally, it was a real nice day when we left.
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If you haven’t guessed, I came away impressed with the PPA effort here. If everyone of the online poker players here on 2+2 put in the kind of work and dedication exhibited on this trip, we would have online poker to our liking in a short while. Of course, if many of us choose to sit back and let the other fellow do it……. well, the opposition is not going to be sitting back.