• District cost of vehicle safety checks: $400,000
• Average cost of new vehicle: $30,000
• Watching new vehicle get flattened by a clunker with busted brakes: priceless.

The saga of Rep. Joe “You Lie!” Wilson wrapped up yesterday when the House officially disapproved of his conduct by a party-divided vote of 240-179. Perhaps New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd wasn’t the only one who heard "boy" tacked on at the end?

Unemployment is up and so, apparently, is the appeal of jumping in front of a Metro car—the transit agency has reported eight suicide attempts in 2009 alone, an increase from previous years.

MPD reports a fatal police shooting in the 1700 block of Trenton Place SE on Monday when officers confronted a knife-armed man who claimed, falsely, it turned out, to have murdered and gutted his sister.

The D.C. fire department has been paying friendly visits to those people who eat their daily morning Wheaties and then call – and call and call and call – 911. Last year, there were 30 people who telephoned the Fire and Emergency Medical Services a total of more than 2,000 time, and emergency officials think it'd, well, be better if they didn't.

And finally, Kanye West cried on TV, claiming he felt bad for stealing teeny bopper Taylor Swift's microphone at the MTV Video Music Awards. Clearly, this is his cover for being super ecstatic that Jay Leno is on prime time.

Now, at along last, he can get some peace. But us: What about us? We need someone else's illness to exploit!

In other news, Rep. Joe Wilson (R-Ude) has a big day ahead, as House Democrats prepare to reprimand him for yelling at the president of the United States the other day something that wasn't at all rooted in racism. You probably haven't heard about it, because there hasn't been that much press, but Wilson yelled "You lie!" to Barack Obama during his recent address to a joint session of Congress. The decision to hold a vote on a formal sanction, the Washington Post earnestly notes, "risks escalating the partisan warfare that has erupted since Wilson's outburst." Ya think? For the record, Democrats are so bad at passively exploiting things. They always, always ruin it.

In still other news, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has written to Virginia Gov. Timothy Kaine about renting a prison building near Troutville, which is being closed because of budget cuts, to turn it into America's first chicken empathy museum. I have no idea what this means, but Bobby Jindal, the governor of Louisiana, apparently already turned down a similar offer, and if it's not good enough for Bobby Jindal, it's certainly not good enough for Virginia.

Author Barbara Ehrenreich and Dedrick Muhammad of the Institute for Policy Studies, in a Saturday Times article on the recession's racial divide: "What do you get when you combine the worst economic downturn since the Depression with the first black president? A surge of white racial resentment, loosely disguised as a populist revolt. An article on the Fox News Web site has put forth the theory that health reform is a stealth version of reparations for slavery: whites will foot the bill and, by some undisclosed mechanism, blacks will get all the care."

A sign spotted at the weekend "Tea Party" event, where protesters – carrying pictures of Obama defaced to look like Hitler or the devil – insist there are no racial undertones to their vitriol: "IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT THIS SIGN SAYS YOU'LL CALL IT RACISM ANYWAY!"

Washington Post readers, responding to columnist Michael Wilbon, who said yesterday's Serena Williams foot fault call was a really bad one (even if her reaction was too): "Youtube clearly shows Serena stepping on the baseline. Is that a foot fault? Or are rules determined by race. Is Serena allowed to break the rules of tennis because she is African American, a woman, a champion and American or whatever?"

And: "Wilbon, you lie or don't know the rules. Don't play the race card! Find another job!"

Keli Goff, weighing in on the same subject at the Huffington Post, saying one "can't simply blame race." Throw class in there too.

With the Williams sisters it has always been less about what color they are and more about who they are: from Compton, not from Connecticut; wearing wildly colored fashion combos, instead of pristine tennis whites; talking loud and proud of their roots, instead of quietly trying to blend in; rocking braids and cornrows in the early days, instead of joining the ranks of Beyonce and (some of the rest of us) by getting a more socially acceptable, "lady-like" weave....

Yes Serena was wrong.

But so was the lineswoman.

And so is every tennis fan who isn't willing to honestly admit that Saturday's call never would have happened, nor been deemed acceptable for any other player under those circumstances.

But other players are not named Williams.

Who wants to go there on Kanye West and Taylor Swift?

Image via brinux on Twitpic

It was also, some hold, racist – at least on a subconscious level. An online commentary by the Project on Race in Political Communication, called "The Racial Context for Joe Wilson's Outburst," which has been twittering around a good bit, makes the case.

We do not assert that Joe Wilson is a bigot; his personal racial attitudes are, perhaps ironically, beyond the scope of this incident. Rather, the consistent branding of President Obama as "other" by his opponents has created a context within which it is perceived that Obama need not be treated as other presidents have been treated. The creation of that "otherness," while possibly motivated by racial animosity, is certainly rendered more effective as a result of the deeply held negative predispositions about African Americans.

This will be dismissed outright by many – and by that I mean many white people – on the grounds that race is too often and too readily invoked as an "excuse," including in many a case where it has no place.

It is absolutely true that just because someone opposes Obama, criticizes Obama, disagrees with Obama – even shouts out "You lie!" to Obama – that doesn't necessarily mean he is a bigot with a Confederate flag in his living room who hates that this country has a black president. And the authors of the article – Stephen Maynard Caliendo, associate professor of political science at North Central College in Illinois, and Charlton McIlwain, associate professor of media, culture, and communication at New York University – rightly point that out, even while themselves embracing certain stereotypes about "white privilege" and the "myth of the black character."

But it is also true that dismissing race outright – not just in this case, but as part of the whole birthers "controversy," the education speech "controversy," and other "controversies" yet to come – would be entirely naive. We are not a "post-racial" nation, period. And if Obama's election was supposed to prove that we are, in many ways it has shown just the opposite. Google "Joe Wilson and racist." Or "Obama and racist." When nothing comes up, we'll be there.

If Caliendo and McIlwain are right, there is a problem. If they are wrong, there is a problem, because a lot of people feel they are right. So I suppose we will have to have a lot more Beer Summits either way. And even if Joe Wilson was just being rude, maybe he should attend, along with all the people who consider him racist.

Someone just called me, from Germany (!) to say that there are 22 ghost bikes in Dupont Circle today to honor Alice Swanson. Great!

AFTER THE JUMP: Trees, eagles, bells, weird traffic circles, Giants fans, Beatles, Big Star


Yesterday at the circle on the western end of Memorial Bridge, which I have written about before, police were ticketing motorists for an offense I can't quite figure out. (A Park Police spokesperson is looking into it for me.) My totally uninformed take, then: That circle is a magnet for crazy, sure, but it's also the worst-marked and least intuitive traffic hazard in the region. Instead of penalizing people for not knowing what the hell to do there, how about re-engineering the whole shebozzle?

Mosquito farms appearing around trees on Champlain Street NW. I don't have a call out on this one. Anyone know the score?

BIKE COMMUTING TIP: The weather is glorious, and people who had been in hiding from the heat are once again taking their jogging clothes out for walks. This is a concern if your ride, like mine, takes you on bike trails. You simply must have a bell. Local bike stores have fine bells, but Annapolis' Velo Orange offers classy Japanese bells that you can mount to your handlebars or, if you're even a little handy, to your stem. Your bike will look great, and you will receive shrugs rather than glares when you pass people walking in Lycra.

POWERPOP UPDATE: It is a good week to be a sad geezer. While I save up for the mono Beatles reissues, I've been listening to the Big Star box set, which Marc Hirsh did a great job of reviewing/destroying in this week's paper. (Hirsh wrote this marvelous piece for the Boston Globe, and I'm really glad to see him in our paper.) Like Hirsh, I am not convinced of the necessity of this box set, which I should add I got for free so take that for what it's worth. But it has made me re-listen to the Big Star albums I already had, as well as Chris Bell's I Am the Cosmos, which still sounds sooo good.

GIANTS FANS: This is a big week for you. (1) (2) Embrace it. Also: Wemple is one of you. Dumbasses.

EAGLES TERRIFY SUBURBAN RODENTS: Morning Roundup's previously unnewsworthy neighborhood of Del Ray was the site of an eagle attack yesterday, reports Mrs. Morning Roundup, who watched one of the grand birds fall out of a tree and bounce off our sandbox with a baby squirrel in its beak. The eagle gathered itself and flew off with its lunch, leaving behind a bereft mama squirrel, who ran around our yard making weird noises. Circle of life!

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