Mornin', City Desk readers! Welcome to the second edition of what used to be but is no longer Freedom Friday. Remember: Freedom is dead. Don't worry, you'll get used to it.

One word: Oprah! The "queen of daytime television" will announce today she's ending her show in 2011. This is huge! Now, in case you're a little slow, let me connect the dots and tell you what's really going on here. Just this week, Sarah Palin goes on Oprah to plug her book Going Rogue even while insisting that 2012 is "not on my radar screen right now," which is what all candidates for president have to say in 2009. Oprah is all charming, as usual, and gets her biggest audience in two years! Then, just a few days later, Oprah announces that she will be leaving her show after 25 years to "start her own cable channel." Coincidence? This could really only mean one thing: Palin-Winfrey 2012! You heard it here first.

Read More "Our Morning Roundup: The “Palin-Winfrey 2012″ Edition" »

*Checked out NBC Washington's new "Moods"/Washington Is... section? I hadn't! (Sorry, vacay.) Definitely interactive. Also, leads to hilarious/tacky catchphrases at the top of the homepage (see above). My problem with this is the same problem I have with "viewers' choice awards" on reality TV shows. (Full disclosure: don't watch many reality TV shows.) The whole "America has spoken" thing smacks of a.) Regis Philbin and b.) hypergeneralization. Still, Washington has spoken...and NBC's new site, moodswings and all? Pretty baller! Or maybe not.

*WUSA-9 reports that four teenagers are being charged by Prince William County police for white supremacist-style vandalism:

Read More "Our Morning Roundup: “NBC Moodswing” Edition" »

As he was heading off the air, I'm pretty sure I heard Dave Feldman at Fox-5 report last night that the Wizards are going to work out Stephon Marbury today.

Did anybody tell Abe Pollin?

***

Lebron's come and gone. But we only have to wait a week for the next celeb sports doc extravaganza: Luis Tiant will be at the E Street Cinema downtown on June 22 for red-carpet screening of "The Lost Son of Havana," a film about the ex-Indian- Twin-Red Sock-Yankee-Pirate-Angel's trip back to the Cuban capital, which is his Akron.

After the screening the movie's producers will throw a bash across the street from the theater at the ESPN Zone. But don't expect much. In the invitation the party's organizers just sent out, they're promising that: "Light refreshments will be served in accordance with House Ethics rules."

House ethics used to lead to the wildest parties in town. Jack Abramoff mussed up everything.

***

Sign of the times or the Times? Despite a big write-up in Sunday's Washington Times, the Hoop Dreams Scholarship fund had to cancel its next big fundraising event for lack of interest.

Read More "Cheap Seats Daily: Marbury a Wizard? Can You Party AND Maintain House Ethics? Wake Up Call for Hoop Dreams? Letterman Loses Pride, Battle With Palinites?" »

I don’t want to see my father’s picture near any picture of a guy I am attracted to, especially if we haven’t even had dinner yet.

From Meghan McCain's Daily Beast confessional, "Looking for Mr. Far Right."

(Second place goes to the same piece:

Any guy that has a fetish for older women in pantsuits and large pearls obviously only finds my last name attractive about me. )

There's not a lot about Northern Virginia now that reminds me of the way it was when I was growing up there in the '70s. It's wealthier and more refined and liberal. Democrats win every big race.

JVs is a link to the old Old Dominion, however.

Judging from the scene inside JV's, a wondrous Falls Church honky tonk that's only a few blocks from my boyhood home, you'd think the state was still redder than Six Flags' financials. Another American flag or MIA placard hangs every few feet overhead. It's no accident that bikers use the place as their Ground Zero during Rolling Thunder weekend.

If there's a bar inside the Beltway with a more overtly conservative clientele, I haven't been there.

I went to JV's in 2003 to watch George W. Bush's speech to the nation the night he started bombing Iraq. I figured it would give me insight into how the rest of the country felt, since everybody I knew downtown was against the invasion.

The bar was packed that night, and I remember seeing a guy from the neighborhood who'd I'd known for years raising his beer and yelling "Let's kick some fucking ass!" when Bush finished talking. Everybody cheered.

Read More "Wonder How the Other Half Is Partying? They’re Not" »

Friends, as we observe the inauguration of a new president, there are still two Americas: Those that are happy to see Barack Obama take office, and those that aren't.

Yesterday, during a visit to Gambrills, Md., our car was vandalized by a member of the latter demographic.

Somebody with a lot of free time, duct tape and leftover paraphrenalia from the 2008 presidential campaign taped a "NOBAMA 'O8" placard over the rear license plate of our car, which was parked in front of my in-laws' house.

The offending paperwork also advertised for www.malagent.com, a blowhardy but currently inactive blog written by an apparent far right-winger. (There have been no posts on that site since Nov. 6.)

The car had no bumper or window stickers betraying any political affiliation. Just an American flag decal that was stuck on the back windshield before we bought it. We figured we were tagged because of our DC tags.

But then the vandals came back later and taped more of the same on the door of my brother-in-law's house, while a number of folks stood feet away on the other side of that door.

My brother in law is a loyal Republican. He's peeved.

But, as low-brow and time-consuming as the act was, it doesn't appear to be a prank: Other houses in the neighborhood were also struck yesterday.

I'm generally pro-civil disobedience, but what bugs me most about these actions is: Did the genius have to use duct tape on all four sides?

Bill Mallison, a friend, cast his vote for John McCain in the contested state of North Carolina (CNN initial polling projected the state at 50% Obama, 49% McCain, though Obama has now broken away). Mallison may be an out-of-state voter, but he is, at the moment, physically in the District (photo evidence above).

Mallison says he supports McCain despite the messy election cycle he's emerged from. "If you ignore all the election pandering, which you have to do in order to shore up all wings of the party, he hasn't changed," says Mallison. "He's the same politician he was in mid-2007. As bad as the Republican party's been, after Tom Delay and Rove, it's important to support the moderate wing of the party. And the moderate wing's about gone because Delay and Rove killed most of the moderate Republican members of Congress. And McCain is basically all the things that a Republican wants in Republican, subtract all the insane token positions like stem cell research and gay marriage amendments and no prescription drug importation and torture. That being said, it's not the party's time to win. It's the Democrats' time."

I, too, once voted for John McCain, for Senator of Arizona (totally won). Perhaps it was even my very vote that encouraged McCain to quench his unspeakable thirst for unparalleled international power. My bad.

In which we chat with the Ward I councilmember about huge lines at the polls, the benefits of Adrian Fenty's "early and strong support of the Obama candidacy," and whether or not Carol Schwartz qualifies as a maverick.

Trouble viewing? Try the YouTube version.

In which we speak with a man named Willie Mays (!) about credible change and Michael Brown's lackluster performance at air hockey.

Among other things.

Trouble viewing? Try the YouTube version.

CP's Ted Scheinman, who's been running around trying to document this entire historic election on videotape, also has a great Slate piece out today instructing John McCain how to lose gracefully. Read Scheinman's tips for McCain's (knock on wood, salt over shoulder, Obama jersey unwashed for two years) concession speech---informed by the examples of such great losers as Bob Dole, Adlai Stevenson, and Michael Dukakis. And forward them on to John, please.

In which we speak with Mary and Pam, two McCain volunteers who predict an upset victory for the Republican ticket. Mary doesn't trust polls, while Pam thinks Virginia and Florida are going to break decisively for McCain.

An Obama victory, Pam adds, might signify that God requires "penance" from the U.S. For something.

Plus: will Prop 8 turn California red?!?!

Um...probably not.

Trouble viewing? Try the YouTube version.

*We're not really counting that "this is your brain on democracy" thing.

This is your brain.

This is your brain on democracy:

Trouble viewing? Try the YouTube version.

In which we speak with ANC 1C-03 Commissioner Bryan Weaver about Michael Brown's basketball skills, David Schwartzman's uncanny resemblance to Walt Whitman, and the Sarah Palin Disney Movie.

Trouble viewing? Try the YouTube version.

Throughout the day, Jason Cherkis and I will bring you moving pictures from political hotspots in D.C. and Virginia. Look out for candidate interviews, voter testimonials, and copious b-roll of long, snaking lines at the polls.

Our first vid comes from Iglesia Festival (polling station for precinct 35), where we spoke with Alice Bell.

Trouble viewing? Try the YouTube version.

...The Corner's John Derbyshire:

Now here's a subversive little thought about that Khalidi tape that the Los Angeles Times is guarding like a cargo of plutonium.

Read More "“Paranoid Conservative of the Day” Award goes to…" »