Am I the only one who thinks this year's White House Christmas tree is a little ... gaudy? These sweet little trees, part of the annual Pageant (or Pathway) of Peace, though perhaps less regal, seem more personal and softly colorful. Flickr user philliefan_99 took this shot of some families strolling by last week, down the path that shows off 56 trees -- one for each state, territory, and of course, D.C. I'm sure......

Though perhaps the inclination when it starts to dip past the point of freezing is to stay inside with a blanket and a cup of something steaming, there are so many things to do and see outside -- whether it's the White House or Capitol Christmas trees or one of the many holiday fairs -- that it's almost a shame to spend all of December on your couch. Flickr user sintixerr caught this scene......

The First Family has put out another one of their cringe-worthy "BarneyCam" holiday videos, featuring stilted conversations between them and their dogs, Barney and Miss Beazley. This year's video features the two dogs sitting around with blank stares while the Bushes tell them that they want to be Junior Park Rangers. It doesn't make any more sense when you watch it. The White House has also posted a handy transcript of the video, in......

The White House Christmas Tree lighting ceremony is scheduled for tomorrow, Thursday Nov. Dec. 6, at 5 p.m., which means without a doubt, if you can avoid driving your car in the city, you really should. The annual ceremony always screws up downtown traffic in an extreme way. Add the leftover snow and ice on the ground into the mix, and we can promise you a traffic clusterf*** of epic proportions tomorrow evening. If you'd......

Well, maybe this year it won't be snowing? D.C. residents' holiday rituals can include everything from frenetic Black Friday shopping to a trip to the White House Christmas tree. But for some of us with a high tolerance for cold, the traditions include standing in line for hours to get free tickets to the Kennedy Center's Messiah Sing-Along. As we told you last year, much like those folks who lined up the night before to......

Good morning, Washington. We hope you had a pleasant and restful evening despite the howling wind and bitter cold. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee had a bit of a rough night last night herself, as she was greeted by throngs of angry Ward 5 parents at the first community meeting that allowed her to present the school closures plan to the public. Ward 5 D.C. Council member Harry Thomas Jr. had set up the separate meeting......

December 1 is World AIDS Day, and several vigils and protests are planned in D.C. today and through the weekend to mark the occasion. In the wake of the recent report by the D.C. HIV/AIDS Administration calling the HIV infection rate in the city "a modern epidemic," over 40 protesters are planning to drape themselves in red tape and stage a sit-in on the White House sidewalk by Lafayette Square at 2:30 p.m. this afternoon.......

>> Both the White House Christmas Tree and the Capitol Christmas Tree arrived in Washington today. >> D.C. fire officials are warning people not to overload electrical circuits in their homes this holiday season in the wake of a fatal garage fire over the weekend. [WTOP] >> Vice President Dick Cheney experienced an irregular heartbeat Monday and will be heading to George Washington University Hospital to have it checked out -- in case you......

MONDAY: Peter J. Gomes, pastor of Harvard’s Memorial Church, will be at Politics and Prose to read from his book The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus. Gomes believes Christians should be heeding the messages of Jesus, not objectifying the man. 7 p.m. TUESDAY: Washington Post literary critic Michael Dirda wants you to know it's OK to love Fowler's Modern English Usage. How else would you learn that the "n" in damning, when it means "fatally conclusive,"......

Regarding Thanksgiving customs, going around the table saying what we’re thankful for is about as basic as it gets. If it seems too basic, this year you can consider adding a new dimension to the tradition by reading for the table what our Presidents have been thankful for. Thanks to the Pilgrim Hall Museum in Massachusetts, all the Thanksgiving Proclamations are available online. That means we have access to Proclamations dating from the Continental Congress......

Maybe we're cheeseballs, but we love the Annual Turkey Ceremony, the moment when the president "pardons" a lucky turkey (plus an alternate) who then becomes the official National Thanksgiving Turkey and gets to spend the rest of its days on some farm at Disneyworld or something like that. Sure, it's capricious and cutesy, but who cares! Turkeys are funny looking, and presidents posing with turkeys are even funnier. This year will mark the 60th anniversary......

Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times reporter and local resident Tim Weiner won the National Book Award's nonfiction category for Legacy of Ashes: The History of the C.I.A., a sweeping 600-page critical history of the agency with a particular emphasis on the intelligence failures that have occurred during the agency's relatively short period of existence. "Legacy of Ashes," writes Weiner, “is the record of the first sixty years of the Central Intelligence Agency. It describes how......

>> Maryland police apprehended the prisoner who stole an officer's gun and escaped from custody from a Laurel hospital. [WTOP] >> Shortly after abandoning his run for the White House, Stephen Colbert ended up in a three-way tie for a seat on the Colonial Soil and Water Conservation District Board in Williamsburg. Sadly, he won't be able to serve if selected by a hat draw (seriously), because he's not a registered voter in the......

Good morning, Washington. In case you didn't believe us when we first told you that this tax office corruption scandal was going to get bigger and badder as the week went on, just check out the trio of stories on offer from the Post this morning on the widening scandal. First and foremost, it turns out Harriette Walters and Diane Gustus allegedly worked together to steal $4 million more than originally thought, bringing the grand......

The Red Sox has permeated nearly every facet of Bostonist's lives. When they're not live-blogging the games, waxing poetic about the games, thanking Curt Schilling for his splendid work, or telling Dane Cook to watch his hair, they're watching certain presidential candidates hop on the Red Sox bandwagon (sorry, Gothamist). The Sox are so branded on the local brain that people are using the Series to spice up their sex lives. Speaking of spice, Bostonist......

Reuters has a video up of a performance outside the White House yesterday by a Dutch magician called Ramana, in which he appears to levitate. Ramana apparently trained at something called the Academy of Magical Sciences in India, but sources tell us he had to drop out during his senior year to go on a long, circuitous trip with his two best friends in search of an evil nemesis. Now that David Copperfield has......

Written by DCist Contributor Sarah Stonesifer The Diamondback – University of Maryland: >> Hartwick Towers, an off-campus apartment building, was the scene of a fire on Friday, Oct. 12. The fire has come under scrutiny by both students and city officials, as the building is not equipped with sprinklers and fire alarms did not function during the fire. Students were left on their own to find alternative housing until they were let back into their......

As it gets closer to Halloween for LAist, a contributer recollects her tale of staring down the serial killer, Richard Ramirez, otherwise known as the Night Stalker. Must think happy thoughts -- okay, free organic chocolate chip cookies for Los Angeles -- now that's a happy thought. Other happy Los Angeles thoughts include an interview with Jack Kehler of The Big Lebowski (he was the Dude's landlord), a beautiful and magical photographic moment in Venice......

If there are two things most people know about WTOP Political Analyst Mark Plotkin, it's that one, he's not very tech-savvy, and two, he's passionate aboout District voting rights. So passionate, it seems, that he even got himself kicked out of the White House yesterday. According to fellow WTOP reporter Mark Segraves' account of the incident, Plotkin, along with the rest of the D.C. press corps and various local elected officials, attended an event at......

Good morning, Washington. What a difference a day makes, right? Just yesterday we were complaining bitterly about the heat and about when administrative law Judge Roy Pearson would finally be brought before the panel that will decide his fate for a hearing. But both problems have been resolved, as if by magic, while we slumbered. The current temperature outside is 57 degrees in our nation's capital, with an expected high of 66. And Judge......

Today the Post's Mary Beth Sheridan writes that the effort to grant District residents even a modicum of voting representation isn't waiting for better talking points -- it's waiting for better politicians. According to the article, the fight for District voting rights may get its biggest boost in 2009 if a Democrat is elected president and if the Democratic Party can increase its numbers in the U.S. Senate.Despite the Senate setback, the latest effort is......

>> Via Mid-Atlantic Art News, nearly every one on the Washington Post arts staff has been slammed over last Thursday's article on art in the White House Green Room. The Seattle Post-Intellgencer blog calls Post writer Jacqueline Trescott's race labeling of Jacob Lawrence as "the greatest African-American artist of the 20th century" a "disgrace," the staff photographer inept, and most hilariously, Blake Gopnik, who gets skewered though he wasn't even involved with the article,......

>> Akron/Family's folk-influenced jams will pour out of the Rock and Roll Hotel tonight, with Greg Davies, Raleigh's Megafaun, and Stamen and Pistils. $12, 8 p.m. doors. >> The awards have already been announced, so it's a good time to check out the end of the D.C. Shorts Film Festival now that they're offering one of several "Best-Of" collections screening at 10 p.m. tonight -- odds are good you won't have to sit through......

FRIDAY: >> The city's free concert series follows MC Hammer with a rare appearance by salsa legend Willie Colon, 7-9 p.m. at Woodrow Wilson Center. >> President Nixon’s White House counsel John Dean will be at Politics and Prose to discuss his book, Broken Government, which examines "the institutional damage he believes the Republican Party has inflicted on the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government during the Bush administration." 7 p.m. He'll also be......

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced yesterday that he intends to bring the D.C. Voting Rights bill (S. 1257) to the Senate floor during the week of September 17. The bill passed the House this spring and has already cleared two Senate committees, though Reid was unwilling to bring the bill to the floor before the August recess, expressing concern at the time that it had not quite secured the 60 votes it would need......

TUESDAY: The experts at Baseball Prospectus are back at Politics and Prose to talk about America's favorite pastime. Specifically, Clay Davenport and Jay Jaffe will be discussing It Ain't Over 'Til It's Over, a collection of stories on baseball's most exciting pennant races. 7 p.m. WEDNESDAY: A recent New Yorker article commented on the controversy behind Stephen M. Walt and John J. Mearsheimer's argument in their latest book The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy.......

Happy first weekend of September - and happy Labor Day weekend, too, for our American cities! Let's take a look at what's been happening around the Ist-a-verse. The deaths of two firefighters shook Bostonist this week. Boston's firefighters bent over backwards all week long - first, they fought flames pouring from the Boston Tea Party museum, and then a restaurant fire killed two and injured many more. Their efforts make everything else - like Tom......

Famed jazz flute player Tony Snow will step down as White House Press Secretary on Sept. 14, adding one more bleeding gash to the already hemorrhaging patient known as the Bush Administration. CNN is reporting that Snow, who makes $168,000 as the White House spokesman, says he is leaving for financial reasons, reiterating that he took a significant pay cut to take the position over a year ago in April 2006. It's an awfully weird......

The six protesters at American University who were recently charged with crossing a police line and disorderly conduct for blocking the path of Karl Rove's car (seen above) will pay $100 fines to settle the charges. As we mentioned earlier, arrest warrants were issued by the Secret Service for the protesters only last week, many months after the original April 3 incident and long after the students involved had served the 40 hours of......

>> Someone wrapped Karl Rove's car in plastic outside the White House. [NBC4FOX] >> Rep. Bob Filner (D-Calif.) finally released a statement today about his Aug. 19 arrest at Dulles following a physical altercation he allegedly had with a United Airlines employee, saying that he regrets the episode and hopes to move beyond it. [The Sleuth] >> Icelandic girl band Amiina have canceled their US tour and will not be playing their Sept. 4th......