Nat Hentoff, 50-year veteran of the motherfucking Village Voice, has joined D.C.'s–nay, the world's–very own Cato Institute as a senior fellow (H/t to Tom at Fr33 Agents). This news is over a week old, and I'm simply flabbergasted that I haven't heard about it until now. After all, it's not every day that a well-known liberal gadfly decides to hang his hat on a libertarian rack–perhaps that's why no one made a big to-do? Here's Hentoff on the big move:

"Becoming a senior fellow of the Cato Institute – from whose publications I've often quoted – enables me to continue following the advice of my earliest mentor, Duke Ellington, who told me never to be caught up in a musical or any other categories," said Hentoff. "Duke said that it's always the individual's expression that defines his identity. All these years later, if I had to describe myself, it would be as an uncategorizable libertarian – and that's why I'm delighted to be at the Cato Institute, where freedom rings."

For more on Hentoff's Duke Ellington reference, check out Alan Bock at the OC Register.

Arthur Delaney reports in his cover story for this week (aptly named "Watchmen," in homage to Alan Moore) on the effectiveness of crime cameras. This snippet illustrates just one of the cameras system's many flaws:

In February 2007, two men were shot in broad daylight on the 1600 block of Euclid Street NW, well within the purview of a camera. The camera had panned away from the incident. Third District Commander Larry McCoy told the Washington Times that the footage showed “nothing that’s going to close the case out.”

Retired Lt. Michael Smith was repeatedly frustrated by the cameras’ attention span. “You always have those cases,” he says. “You get a glimpse of people running away, you get the suspect running away. Sometimes you’ll see people hanging in the area and it panned away and then it will turn back and it’s complete pandemonium because somebody fired off rounds. The camera is constantly panning.”

There's something of a kerfuffle going on in the beltway blogosphere (but only there, because these sorts of disagreements aren't real/based in reality) over libertarian economist Arnold Kling, who compared the passing of the stimulus bill to having his home ransacked by thugs. The American Prospect's Adam Sewer and Vanity Fair's James Wolcott saw race-baiting, and suggested Kling only used the thug metaphor because Barack Obama is black. Sewer and Wolcott are kind of like the liberals who knew, just absolutely knew, that the conservatives would try to invoke fears of miscegenation during the election (when in fact, the only people to stir up those fears were, well, "non-racist" liberals). The Atlantic's Megan McArdle responds here, and Reason's Nick Gillespie responds here.

Good morning, City Desk readers. It's Friday, Jan. 9, which means we'll have a new president in 11 days. Psyched? You totally should be–your City Paper is hard at work on a mind-blowing inauguration issue. Another reason to be psyched is that I've been mainlining coffee since 5 a.m., which means this roundup is gonna be a mutha-f'ing doozie. And now some news:

• According to the Washington Post, Big Brother the Department of Homeland Security is moving to Anacostia: "After years of battling historic preservationists, the federal government won approval yesterday to build a massive headquarters for the Department of Homeland Security on a 176-acre hilltop site east of the Anacostia River." (I'm going to take this as an opportunity to plug Snitch Jacket, 9/11-Truther Len Bracken's anarchist/dystopian District novel!)
• On the flip side, And Now, Anacostia has some positive planning news about the restoration of the house at 1312 U Street SE.
• Fr33 Agents (a new political website based in Arlington) reports that Liberty Tavern, a favorite watering hole of NoVa libertarians, "has voluntarily gone smoke-free." It then went on to hosted a press conference at which Va. Gov. Tim Kaine pledged to make all of Virginia's bars smoke-free. Word on the (libertarian) street is that Liberty Tavern just lost a few patrons.
• Michael Perkins (whose tiff with WMATA we blogged about yesterday) posted a great roundup of proposed transportation legislation in Va. The appallingly-statist standouts are HB 1659, which "would prohibit all non-emergency use of wireless devices while driving (even a bike), even while using hands-free devices"; HB 1698, which "requires people who are selling scrap copper and other nonferrous metals like catalytic converters (which contain platinum) to provide documentation that they actually own the scrap metal being sold"; and HB 1661, which "converts Virginia's "cents per gallon" tax on gasoline and diesel fuel into a percentage tax."
• While we're on the topic of transportation, WMATA is threatening to sue Flex Your Rights (we wrote about Flex Your Rights' event at the Dupont Circle Metro back in October) over a servicemark violation–FYR used Metro's "M" symbol on its fliers advising passengers to boycott the bag searches. FYR's response? Bring it on.

That's it for me. Look for an afternoon roundup of weekend events, and I'll see y'all next Friday.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user Wrote.