Suggestion: Come to DC for Inauguration Week

Actually I take that headline back. Come to DC for Inauguration Week if you can find a place to stay. See, that's because every single hotel is jam packed with people wanting to come see the historic day that Barrack Obama officially becomes President. So jampacked that even the friggin' marching bands that are slated to perform in the Inauguration parade are going to some drastic measures.

Band directors, trying to make contingency arrangements, are facing the same struggle as other would-be visitors, with demand high to get near what could be the biggest inaugural celebration in the country's history. It's one thing to find a hotel room for your family or a couch to crash on. It's another to find a block of rooms for a group that may number 200 or more. Plus the drums, tubas and the like.

"The furthest we've ever put a group is Rockville," said Justin Shuler, owner of Group Travel Network, which arranges trips for marching bands and student groups. "Now we're looking at southern Virginia and Pennsylvania. . . . It's impossible to find rooms. It has never been this difficult."

So since people might be down in the dumps because they have nowhere to stay, the DC City Council came up with a novel idea. Let them spend money and drink through the night. Yes, that's right. The DC government has made my life a whole lot better by allowing bars and nightclubs to extend their drinking hours until 5 a.m. every day of Inauguration week. Read this little brief about it and you'll realize just how ridiculous the DC government can be:

The D.C. Council approved emergency legislation this evening that will allow District bars, nightclubs and restaurants to serve alcohol until 5 a.m. — three hours later than usual — and remain open for food around the clock from Jan. 17 until the morning after Obama’s swearing-in Jan. 20.

I love how letting people drink more is deemed "emergency legislation." Now before you jump the gun and declare DC as being some ultra-awesome party town, I just want to make it known there were dissentors, like this fellow from the bar heavy area of Adams Morgan:

“I see the potential for why you’d want to do it, in terms of this being a historic election, but to just throw this down on neighborhoods?” said Bryan Weaver, head of the Adams Morgan advisory neighborhood commissions. “To have 3 1/2 days of 24-hour service without any input from the community — there’s going to be hell to pay from a lot of neighborhood associations.”

Oh and if you wanted to know, DC's most faithful and snortastic public servant, former mayor and coke fiend Marion Barry, voted for this proposal. I would love to have a drink with that guy on Inauguration week. I hope it happens around 4 or 5 in the morning so I can buy him a round to say thanks.


This is actual surveillance video (kind of blurry unfortunately) of former DC mayor Marion Barry doing coke. This was published in the Washington Post. Still, after having to resign because of this, Barry was then elected mayor again and now is an influential member of the City Council. Oh yeah, he was also one of the people opposed to bringing the Nats to DC. Maybe it makes sense to you, but I have no idea how he does it, you know, staying relevant with his wicked coke habits and all.