Is that a gavel in your pants?

Thoughts at the end of the Summer of Violence

noreply@blogger.com (jterry) — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 20:33:00 +0000

I was asked to provide commentary on anti-LGBTQ hate violence in DC following the September 29 performance of STOP KISS, produced by No Rules Theatre Company. I was joined on a panel by Hassan Naveed of GLOV, and we made a few remarks and took questions from the audience and cast. Below are the notes I developed to shape my comments.

I was sitting in one of my countless activist meetings one night, when my good friend, a long-time trans community leader, started weeping beside me. “I’m so tired of picking up bodies!” she wailed, and buried her face in her hands. We were in the midst of two brutal months, filled with shootings, beatings, muggings, and, yes, killings. Nerves were -- and are -- frighteningly thin. Our days have been spent planning vigils, visiting victims in hospitals, and identifying the dead. Our nights are interrupted by calls we don’t want to answer, uniformly featuring some grim news from some police official whose number we wish we didn’t have to save. In the thick of all that, the murders go unsolved, we sit in meetings with a coldly insensitive police chief that get us nowhere, and we get a morbid media following that is both essential and that we wish we never had.

Welcome to DC’s latest Summer of Violence. Studies show that transgender women of color bear the brunt of anti-LGBT hate violence. Recent events in DC seem to be going out of their way to reinforce that fact.

It started with shots fired on Dix Street NE in the early morning hours of Wednesday, July 20. Lashai McLean, all of 23 years old, was dead. The friend she was with ran to safety -- outside DC -- and took days to find. Less than two weeks later, less than a block away, two young men approached another trans woman, asked her for money, then opened fire. She was able to flee unharmed. The two attacks are nearly identical in terms of location, time of day, and description of perpetrators. Police now say they’re unrelated.

Then it continued. Early on August 26, Kenneth Furr, a drunk, off-duty police officer, climbed on top of a car at First and Pierce Streets NW, and fired five shots at the three trans women and two men in the vehicle. Three people were hospitalized. Furr was pissed off that one of the women had failed to live up to stereotype by refusing his proposition for sex an hour earlier. In Officer Furr’s world, if a trans woman refuses to give a blowjob for a little cash, she deserves to die. Police say it’s not a hate crime.

Throughout all this, there were multiple robberies at gun point, some with shots fired. HIPS, an outreach organization for sex workers and others on the streets, reports a 300% increase in “bad date” reports from 2010 to 2011. That pattern of violence is nothing new, but the volume most certainly is.

Still, it continued. On September 10, a body was found on 11th Street NW, between Fairmont and Euclid. Police told us the deceased was an unidentified Latina trans woman. We spent the morning, and again that night, working the phones, taking inventory of literally every Latina trans woman in town. If we knew of someone who lived nearby who didn’t answer her phone, we went and knocked on her door. We sat at the crime scene for hours, talking to neighbors, trying to figure out what happened, and to whom. We laid flowers on the tree beside where the body was found.

Two days later, another woman was shot in the neck by someone she knew. She was able to get herself to a police station for help. That afternoon, the police held a press conference, where they released an autopsy photo of the person found dead on 11th Street. You could hear the sinister disgust in the assistant police chief’s voice as he described the victim as “a man in women’s clothes.” Activists standing right beside him raised eyebrows. I muttered a string of expletives under my breath. Within a day, the victim was identified as GiGi Gopalan, originally from Nepal, who had come out as trans to friends in a letter just 12 days before her death. About 200 people showed up at a candlelight vigil this past Sunday. Police still don’t know what happened, and I doubt they ever will.

After weeks and weeks of this, suddenly it was my turn to weep. On Friday, September 16, some people burned the memorial to Lashai McLean that had been put up in the days after her death. There was a giant teddy bear, flowers, and a picture, all placed against a tree. All that was left were two charred paws. The thought of not just taking a life, but taking a memorial too, was just too much.

In tonight’s show, we saw just how much hate violence can tear lives apart in an instant. Violence doesn’t just hurt victims -- it rips through whole communities. Though Stop Kiss is a work of fiction, I want you to remember that it reflects an all too common reality. In the first phase of the DC Trans Coalition’s needs assessment study, we found a pervasive concern about safety and risk that was expressed by every single participant. When they are victimized, trans people are often reluctant to call the police, because they know all too well that there is more than one Officer Furr out there.

It’s time to be blunt about why this violence keeps happening. Our society has a long history of criminalizing queer and trans people, and DC is no different. When it’s easy to be profiled, picked up, and arrested for some sort of perceived deviance, it makes it that much harder for someone to secure a job in the formal economy. When our schools are unsafe and people are forced to drop out, it makes earning a living that much more difficult. With healthcare costs perpetually soaring upwards, people have to do whatever they can to meet their medical needs. These circumstances often force people to work the streets, which both jeopardizes their personal safety and perpetuates the cycle of criminalization and poverty.

DC is particularly aggressive in its enforcement of anti-sex work laws, and frequently declares spaces as “Prostitution Free Zones.” These profiling zones, where trans women can effectively be arrested for “walking while transgender,” force those who do work the streets -- and the many folks who hang out with them there to provide support and build community -- into less safe areas. Many of this summer’s crime scenes are on the peripheries of these Prostitution Free Zones. Thus the campaign to curtail a nonviolent crime that merely irritates this city’s gentrifying classes directly leads to the violent, bloody loss of trans lives.

This Summer of Violence, then, is nothing new. Systemic discrimination in this country has always led to the deaths of those deemed to be disposable. We will continue to resist this violent degradation, and we will continue demanding justice. We will force the police to take crimes against us seriously, and we will insist upon solutions to break these cycles.

The marriage vacuum and the future of the LGBT movement

noreply@blogger.com (jterry) — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 12:09:00 +0000

I've been doing some thinking about the Uniting Against Hate conversation I was involved with last night. It's led me to some reflections -- not altogether uplifting -- about the state of the LGB[sometimes]T rights movement, and where we might go from here.

At some point in the conversation, I noted that lesbian, gay and bi people have been known to be especially transphobic, and haven't really been the advocates for trans rights that they could be. An audience member questioned me about that observation, and expressed an alternative view. In my response, I noted that there were, indeed, abundant examples of the LGB leaving behind the T, the 2007 debacle over the Employment Non-Discrimination Act chief among them. My critique was (and is, and has been for some time) that the focus on marriage rights above all else has done a huge disservice to other, frankly more important fights. Marriage is a policy goal of the relatively well-to-do who can afford such things. Sadly, too many in the LGBT community (such as it exists), have other, far more pressing issues to deal with. I constantly harp on the four issues that the Sylvia Rivera Law Project so poignantly mapped out: healthcare, education, employment, and housing.

In this all-marriage-all-the-time environment, too many people have been left out: rural folks, inner city folks, trans folks everywhere, youth everywhere, immigrants. The professional LGBT movement has become a movement for the affluent, by the affluent. And if you're white, then even better.

I'm not trans, but there are many inspiring trans people in my life. I grew up in a small town in an abusive working class home that eventually became a single-parent home where we struggled to make ends meet. Someone from a small town nearby where I was raised came up to me last night. He congratulated me on being able to leave.

As I noted last night (and have written before), I was outed in high school in 1998, the same week Matthew Shepard was beaten. In the intervening weekend, Matthew Shepard died. The guidance counselor at my school did a rough estimate of 200 or so threats made against me in a week. I assure you, marriage was the furthest thing from my mind. My first consideration was survival.

I've managed that survival bit quite well. I was a first generation college student and graduate student. I live in the self-appointed center of the universe. I have a good job with good benefits. I could adopt a cocktail party strategy of activism, aimed only at my own betterment. Easily.

But I don't. I can't. Primarily because I still remember being afraid.

In the entire history of humanity, cocktail parties have never successfully been deployed to make a single step towards justice. Not one step.

As I reflect upon the histories of the early LGBT movement I've read, and recall the radicalism infused in the early movement, I note that some of the few remaining radical survivors of the late 60s and early 70s have expressed astonishment that a movement that started out eschewing traditional relationship structures and denouncing imperialist violence as a continuation of domestic oppression ended up putting most of its energies into getting married like straight people and being allowed to fight wars. Somewhere along the way, that movement must have lost its moral compass.

A group of people that survived the height of the HIV/AIDS crisis and the intentionally lethal neglect of the Reagan and first Bush administrations should have never, ever, ever stopped prioritizing the healthcare needs of our community. Now a new generation is growing up, without the first memory of those years, and they're making the same sexual choices that fueled the earlier crisis. The National Transgender Discrimination Survey found HIV infection rates in trans communities at hundreds and even thousands of times higher than the national average. Yet when was the last time you got an email from a mainstream LGB organization asking you to stand up for healthcare?

Last fall, six young people committed suicide. Sadly, they were six in a too long string of LGBT people of all ages who have been making the same choice for centuries. Why did it take those six deaths for us to realize that maybe we should finally get serious about making our schools safe? Is our movement complicit in their deaths by our years of negligence on that issue? Have we even asked the question?

We've seen national and, like recently in Maryland and Tennessee, state and local uproar over whether or not employment discrimination should be outlawed on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression -- or some combination thereof, lest we be too forward. LGB groups have said "we'll go ahead and get our rights now, and come back for you. Promise." With friends like that...

Here in DC, our moronic Office of Human Rights just proposed rulemaking that would allow for housing discrimination on the basis of sex absolutely everywhere. Who or what defines sex they leave a mystery. While living in North Carolina, Elijah and I sat approximately miles apart in a rental office when trying to get an apartment, knowing we could be denied a lease for being gay. Why is it even a question that people need safe housing?

Oh, right, these questions exist because we've spent the last 15-odd years battling for the right to be just like our oppressors, and then go shoot some folks overseas.

I can't help but think of all the squandered energy. All the wasted opportunities. And all the positively harsh consequences of so much inaction on such vitally important issues as the most basic human rights and human needs. Instead, the movement picked absolutely the most contentious issues they could possibly find, that would simultaneously benefit the smallest number of people imaginable, and went full throttle. Somewhere along the line, the needs of the many were tossed aside in the name of the privileged few. Those six youths may just be the first salvo of the innumerable repercussions of that choice.

Fighting for survival isn't sexy. It isn't glamorous. There's no open bar, and there's a good chance nobody "important" will show up to pay lip service to the effort.

But isn't it time we did it anyway?

Thoughts on hate crimes and their impacts on trans communities

noreply@blogger.com (jterry) — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 23:08:00 +0000

I was asked to speak at a panel earlier today called Uniting Against Hate, following a showing of Robert O'Hara's new play BOOTYCANDY at Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company. Below is the essay I wrote to frame my remarks for the event. Thanks for reading.

I’ve been asked to speak briefly about the impact of bias crimes on DC’s trans community, and how first-responders and members of the broader population (especially lesbian, gay and bi folks) can be more aware of the realities we face.

Locally, anti-trans bias crimes make up about 14% (between 5-10) of all hate crimes each year. I should point out though, that the Metropolitan Police Department has admitted that its data collection on all bias crimes has been rather poor, and that they only started to correct that problem about a year ago. Some have argued, then, that bias crimes are dramatically on the rise in 2011. The fact is, though, that based on the data we have, we just don’t have any way to know that for sure. I think the increase we’re seeing is more a result of better data collection than a suddenly more dangerous city.

What we do know, though, is that hate crimes against trans people tend to be especially brutal. Worse still, arrests in such cases are relatively rare, prosecutions rarer still, and convictions almost non-existent.

Too often, our society sees trans people as disposable -- as lives with no value and no meaning. Unfortunately, our friends in the lesbian, gay and bi communities often openly share such views.

The DC Trans Coalition is currently running a needs assessment study for DC’s trans population. We just wrapped up the first phase of that project, and the most glaring finding is that DC’s trans people -- regardless of race, class, language, education level, or any other variable -- are primarily concerned about their personal safety as they go about their lives in our city.

Trans people face discrimination almost everywhere they go. Trans people of color almost always have it worse.

Interactions with police are no different. The recent National Transgender Discrimination Survey found that nearly half of the almost 7,000 respondents were reluctant to seek out police assistance, even when they had been a victim of a crime. A fifth had been subject to bias-related harassment from police.

In short, simply calling the police -- even after being the victim of an attack -- can make many trans people think twice. A police officer using the wrong name or an inappropriate pronoun -- or doing something far worse -- can add to the trauma of a violent experience.

In DC, we succeeded in getting MPD to adopt a policy on proper interactions with trans folks in 2007. Last year, we joined with other community organizations to launch a comprehensive, community-based training program for police officers on a wide range of LGBT issues, and so far over 100 officers have been trained. This program has had real results: some trans community members have reported increased sensitivity from police officers.

The fact is, police around the country usually assume that all trans people they see -- especially trans women of color -- are sex workers. We’ve had to work hard to convince officers that trans people can be the victim of a crime, and that an attack on someone who is a sex worker is still a crime.

Training programs, hate crimes laws, and other policy fixes are great steps in helping the criminal justice system take action once a crime has occurred, but they’re not enough. Transphobia is rampant in our society, and it comes from parents, teachers, preachers, students, police, medical providers, and a whole range of others. Some of the most transphobic behavior I’ve seen has come from our LGB “friends.”

To truly prevent hate crimes against trans folks, we have to attack the roots of the injustices trans people face. That means ending employment discrimination, ensuring that people get healthcare, making our schools safer, and insisting that everyone have a home. And we need to make sure that everyone knows how to respect the rights and dignity of all their fellow human beings, regardless of differences. Trans communities are in a state of conflict with broader society, and we need to resolve that conflict.

When we turn to things like police and the courts, we need to remember that those bodies are part of a racist and classist (and, indeed homophobic and transphobic) criminal justice system designed to keep the poor poor and the rich happy. Even so, prosecution of criminal acts that cause real harm to our communities is important, as it signals that the state and society have refused to accept such violence. But we also need to pay attention to the needs of victims and their communities. We should consider the potential of restorative justice programs as part of this.

I’ll stop there for now. Thanks again for being here and for listening.

Celebrate 8 years of your favorite activist couple!

noreply@blogger.com (jterry) — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 20:17:00 +0000

Elijah and I are celebrating our 8th anniversary in November 2010, and we decided to celebrate in a big way. There shall be a party (comment/email if you want details), and you can ~~bring us presents~~ help us support a noble cause! We're working with a bunch of awesome people to support the first transgender/gender non-conforming needs assessment study in DC in over a decade. It's a major undertaking, and such things aren't cheap! So as we celebrate our many, many, many years together, we hope you'll join us in supporting a cause that's near and dear to our little world-changing hearts. Please donate as little or as much as you can using the handy tool below!

P.S. We're handing over the cash to Latin@s en Accion, the fiscal sponsor for the study. They're one of those 501(c)3 things, and so we can get you a receipt for a tax-deductible donation if you really want it.

P.P.S If you're mean and don't like queer people, you can give us money to buy a KitchenAid. We'll take one in either Pear, Ice or Green Apple.

Sunday news: red edition

noreply@blogger.com (jterry) — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 17:02:00 +0000

It's Sunday again! There's a nice fall breeze in the air, and you know what that means: a surge of evil left wingers are plotting the disastrous overthrow of life, liberty, and capitalism. At least that's how the story goes. Join us as we explore the downfall of humanity, subtly disguised as being nice to poor people.

In Britain, the out-of-power Labour Party has a new leader, Red Ed Miliband, aka Miliband the Not-As-Cute. He says that if in government, his party wouldn't dramatically slash the national budget deficit in one fell swoop, as the ORLY coalition is doing now, and thus would attempt to avoid wide-scale economic upheaval. Clearly Ed is a commie, and should be vilified by the Daily Mail immediately. Oh, wait.
Yesterday in Washington, a rally endorsed by over 400 organizations called for more jobs, real justice, and genuine improvements in education. Your humble blogger was in the midst of the fray, and can confirm that no marginalized groups were demonized even once during the festivities. Obscenely wealthy corporate overlords didn't fair so well though. Clearly these people are commies, and should be vilified by Glenn Beck immediately. Oh, wait.
Also here in Washington, our recent primary election has led to the likely downfall of our very own Tyrant Education Queen, Michelle Rhee. This reality has made affluent, largely white, "concerned citizens" who in many cases don't actually have kids in DC schools piss their pants with fear. This reality may also diminish the chance that the largely poor parents of children in DC schools will be talked to as though they were the peers of their children. Clearly these parents are commies, and should be vilified by the Washington Post editorial board immediately. Oh, wait.
This Supreme Court opens its new term this week, and it's full of girls. They'll probably want to rule on things. They may even want their faces in a museum. Clearly these lady justices are commies, and the ever-oppressed man should vilify them immediately. Oh, wait.

So there you have it. Go out and be a-feared, or something. Oh, wait...

Decision time for the DC primary: my picks and armchair analysis

noreply@blogger.com (jterry) — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 04:59:00 +0000

For those few lucky DC residents just returning from a summer's long hibernation at Rehoboth Beach, you may not have noticed that we're engaged in a heated election battle for truth, justice, and stuff. I've been following along closely, going to candidates forums, listening to radio debates, following tweets, reading interviews, dissecting candidate questionnaires, tracking endorsements, soaking up blog posts, and, of course, perusing candidates' websites.

There have been times when I've truly enjoyed this campaign season. There were some real high points, good quotes, and fine attempts at outreach. The conversation has, of course, been dominated by the mayoral campaign, which certainly isn't lacking in heat or energy. However, it's also been trying. After awhile it's just the same old crap recycled over and over and over and over and over and over again. I'd really rather hear genuine debates between adults than the persistent "neener, neener, neener" we've been getting since August sometime.

But let's get to why you're really here: the choices! (As though anyone in the universe gives a live-long day about my political opinions!) And if, at any point you get bored in reading this, just get up and go vote already.

For Delegate to the U.S. House of Representatives: Eleanor Holmes Norton. While her opponent had a few decent points in what I was able to gather, he didn't quite go so far as to convince me, and some of his ideas, while idealistic, didn't seem to be based in political reality. I do think it's fair to say that more should have been accomplished on the voting rights front by now, but I also think we have to realize that a Democratic Congress and Democratic president haven't really gone to bat for DC like they should have, and in the face of increased opposition in Congress, I want somebody who can make stuff work.

For Mayor of the District of Columbia: Vincent C. Gray. I probably wouldn't have had much of a dog in this fight if it weren't for some Fenty-fuckery back in 2008, wherein the Commission on Human Rights, at the behest of the Attorney General, who in turn was acting at the behest of the Department of Corrections, issued proposed rulemaking to exempt DC custodial agencies from complying with the Human Rights Act -- one of the most progressive laws of its kind in the nation. In my mind, human rights are precious and they're not to be toyed with -- even when we're talking about a small percentage of the prison population. We've heard mention of denial of FOIA requests too, and I've seen that first hand. Documents received recently by colleagues of mine included pages and pages of redacted material that, incidentally, is publicly available on a website. If you're so nebulous that you think you need to redact something someone can download, then I'm freaked out. But at the end of the day, politics is about leadership, and you can't lead if you don't treat every last person on earth as an equal. And you especially can't lead if you try to sell the city to the highest bidder while ignoring the needs of those most in need. Gray isn't my ideal candidate by a long shot, and I certainly do fear that he'll be beholden to too many kingmakers, but I also think he has the judgment to rise above and make tough decisions. It may not always be pretty to watch, and it may take longer than 27 seconds, but it will happen, and I hope it will be for the greater good.

For Chairman of the Council: Vincent Orange (???). Honestly, this is a race between candidates lack- and -luster. Shiny red balloons at street festivals are more inspiring than these guys. One of them can't manage his own finances all that well, and the other speaks about himself in the third person. I may well change my mind when I arrive at the Vote-o-matic 9000 machine tomorrow. I mean, after all, I've based my decision entirely on a response Orange gave to GLAA saying he'd be open to a discussion on the legalization and regulation of sex work. When there's nothing else differentiating two people except that, then I don't have much confidence in our selection.

For At-Large Member of the Council: Phil Mendelson. Let me just start by saying that late in the ballgame I've really started to like Clark Ray, and I hope he runs again. I was cleaning some files recently, and saw his name on a sign-in sheet for an obscure event some friends and I put on during pride a few years ago. Really, it was obscure. Nonetheless, in reviewing his positions, I really like what he has to say. Unfortunately, there are two mitigating factors in this race: 1) there's a sadly real chance that the whackadoo Michael D. Brown may actually get elected, which freaks me the hell out, and 2) Phil Mendelson is a damn fine legislator. I've been to several Council hearings he's chaired, and they're both grueling and effective. He reads every piece of testimony he receives, and he shreds Administration witnesses like Dick Cheney shreds evidence. I don't agree with him on some important issues -- like, for instance, his overly aggressive stance on things like prostitution free zones (which are of dubious constitutionality) -- but I also think he'll give consideration when necessary. So I'm voting for Phil, and I'm hoping Clark runs again real soon.

For Ward 1 Member of the Council: Bryan Weaver. This race has caused me physical agony. The incumbent, Jim Graham, has been quite supportive on some of the issues I've dabbled in. I appreciate that. At the same time, he increasingly seems a bit skeezy. Added on top of that, an anecdote: a month or so ago I was walking home along 14th Street NW, from near U Street up to around Columbia Heights. I noticed that it seemed as though at least two new condo buildings had opened up since I'd last walked that way, and I thought to myself, "how many more affluent gay men can we possibly find to fill these places?" Yes, there's been some massive development in the ward in the past several years, but I don't think it's benefited long-time residents all that much (and I've only lived here 5 years, and while gay, I won't be able to afford fancy digs for several years to come). Graham talks about job creation, but they're low-wage, low-skill jobs. That left a tough choice between Weaver and Jeff Smith. I've chatted with both of them at forums and on the street. They're both wicked smart. They're both super wonky. I think they'd both make good legislators. However, two issues popped up that gave me pause on Smith: 1) He wants to continue spending down the District's reserve fund, which is already quite low, in order to balance budgets. While I see the short-term benefit in preserving programs and services, particularly for those most in need, I see a huge long-term risk in rapidly spending down our rainy day fund when we're not exactly sure when the rainy day will end. On top of that, the totality of the fund probably can't sustain much. We're talking 300 odd million on a 9.5 billion budget. 2) Weaver demonstrates a better grasp of LGBT issues, which are vital for me, and go way beyond questions regarding marriage. While both candidates mentioned things like police training and transgender rights, Weaver goes into more depth, and he also answered GLAA's (somewhat flawed/skewed) questionnaire. Sometimes these questions boil down to little details.

For U.S. [Shadow] Representative: Mike Panetta. This one was easy. Nate Bennett-Fleming has no record, and I've heard tell of a few shady campaign practices. Yeah, he's accomplished a lot at 25 -- certainly more than little me -- but Mike's gotten stuff done, and he's funny, and he'll give his opinion about local Safeways on FourSquare.

As always, thank you for your forbearance in reading my mind dribble. Go vote!

Diving into deep waters in re: millenials and IR

noreply@blogger.com (jterry) — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 13:07:00 +0000

Yesterday Daniel Drezner raised the question of how millenials (meaning folks in their 20s like me) think about international relations. There are some really thoughtful responses in the comments, mentioning things like the interconnectedness of our current world, the massive sea of information in which we swim, how a huge growth economy that precipitously tanked on us impacts our lives, and how we see a role for the United States to play in the world without necessarily resorting to hyper nationalist imperialist misadventures.

I want to respond to the piece, but I want to do so by altering the premise a bit. Like one, if not more, of the commenters, I was a student of both history and political science. But then, influenced by a Quaker educational setting and my own personal struggles for social justice, chose to pursue graduate work in international conflict resolution, rather than straight up international relations. Because jobs in conflict resolution are just a wee bit scarce, I've ended up working in international education, while continuing to do very local level activism at the same time. And in these past few years, an insight that sparked as an undergrad has become a core belief: we cannot separate the local from the global. Or, in other terms, the distinction between domestic policy and foreign policy is purely academic. As I see it, such a division doesn't actually exist.

This insight first came to me, somewhat unexpectedly, while writing my senior project for my history major oh so long ago. Through a someone circuitous path, I ended up writing on the domestic political constraints that impacted U.S. decision-making in the Korean War -- a war that could have ended two years sooner had Truman not been afraid of appearing soft on communism at home. Today, we see that a faulty immigration system impacts our relations with our immediate neighbors. Our unwillingness to provide healthcare to our citizens evokes scorn from some of our allies. Because we have a massive array of ill-conceived farm subsidies, we dump unneeded foodstuffs in foreign markets and crush local farmers' livelihoods, all the while calling it aid. We can't actually cut the bloated military budget because people need the jobs. The United States lectures the world on human rights, and yet contains fully a quarter of the world's prison population -- jails filled predominantly with young black men serving time for petty crimes in an attempt to keep our longstanding racist history going full steam, but with less overt fanfare.

As I see it, the lesson for my peers is that we must recognize that our domestic politics have impacts on our foreign relations -- beyond the obvious choices in fighting wars, managing economic crises, or cleaning up oil spills. It is arrogant and hypocritical to claim to be a shining city on a hill so long as children are going hungry, the elderly can't afford their medicine, and it is legal in about 30 states to deny employment and housing to people just for being gay or transgender. We have enduring cycles of poverty and repression in this country, based on racism, classism, sexism, heterosexism, cissexism and all manner of xenophobia's other children that we consistently fail to address. My family came to this country 400 years ago, and yet I was the first of the line to get a college degree. It wasn't until my grandfather's generation that my someone in family was even able to earn a steady paycheck, and yet my father has been unemployed for at least two years. It's still far too likely that if you're born poor in this country, you'll die poor. In our society, you either have privilege or you don't. And if you don't, getting it takes work. And that's an understatement.

In my mind, politics should be about the pursuit of justice. We have a moral obligation to pursue it domestically and abroad, concurrently. I don't just mean justice in a legalistic sense. I mean justice in its fullest context -- social, cultural, economic, political, legal, and everything else. But that isn't happening in our national politics. Turn on cable television any night of the week and you'll find blabbering dunderheads of both the left and the right nannering on in a language that isn't the least bit powered by a brain. Rather than focusing on issues that actually matter, politicians and commentators have spent fully two weeks debating where exactly one single mosque ought to go. Stephen Walt points out that this kind of blubbering reminds him of the political discourse of the Weimar Republic -- not exactly high praise given what happened next. If this is the kind of leadership my forbears want to demonstrate to people of my generation, then I'm afraid I must protest.

Thus it is my sincere hope that my generation embraces a politics -- domestic and international -- rooted in justice that honors our fundamental humanity. It is incumbent upon us to act where our predecessors have failed, namely to address some of the huge systemic problems we face. I don't have any grand illusions about what can or might be achieved before my eventual demise, but I do know that we have to do better. That we have to march on. That we have to realize that justice is peace and that peace is justice. And finally, I know this: we damn sure better get to work.

Sunday news: let's embrace our trashy side edition

noreply@blogger.com (jterry) — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 16:40:00 +0000

Are you looking for something more? Are you looking for something less? Are you looking for anything at all? Join me in today's somewhat-weekly exploration of things that make the world tick.

Six reasons to have casual sex. No additional comment is really necessary.
U.S. to WikiLeaks dude: We gon' find you. Even if we have to make stuff up.
It's a well known fact that visitors to U.S. National Parks have an average IQ of -12. With a cell phone, this goes down to -57.
More in the e-readers are cooler than books saga.
Tired of motorcades? Blame Theodore Roosevelt.
So Obama is the next Reagan? Yee haw. Let me just start packing my bags now.
Coverage of Australia's PM has a sexist bent. Are we supposed to be surprised?
Speaking of Australia and it's super weird electoral system, they're in electoral limbo for an indefinite period.
Continuing on the sexist line, were you aware that women are fully capable of managing tough things like nuclear weapons policy? O. M. G.
DC Mayor Adrian Fenty has determined that being a dick to the entire human race may not be the best strategy, so he's gonna do better next time 'round. I don't buy it.

Well now, that's that. Don't you feel enlightened? Ladies, don't go nuke anything.

My question for the final DC mayoral debate

noreply@blogger.com (jterry) — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 15:27:00 +0000

The Washington Post, WAMU and NBC 4 are hosting the final debate for the DC mayor's race at high noon on Wednesday, September 1. Because I'm a nerd, I managed to get a ticket to the event before they were all gone. Even better is that members of the public can submit questions in advance by email.

As you know, I do some grassroots organizing work with members of DC's trans community. As an activist, I've always been into fighting for rights and justice, and I'm usually drawn to struggles that don't always get the attention they should. I've written several times before that the fights over gay marriage or Don't Ask Don't Tell have never animated me, for a variety of reasons. There are much more basic rights that are denied every day to LGBT people who are poor, rural, trans, youth, people of color, to name a few. Those categories don't necessarily apply to me, but that doesn't mean I shouldn't join the fight against such discrimination, and I frankly believe that you should too.

I know I've got a snowball's chance of getting this answered in what's sure to be a madhouse event with a packed agenda, but nonetheless, my question:

Mayor Fenty: In 2008, your administration tried to exempt District custodial agencies from complying with the gender identity and expression provisions of the Human Rights Act. Your administration failed to report hate crimes against transgender people and failed to include the same population in your recent LGBT health report. Your Office of Human Rights persistently refuses to enforce laws allowing transgender people to safely access public accommodations. Overly aggressive enforcement of prostitution free zones has led to rampant and blatant profiling of transgender people as sex workers. And in 2009, a year in which a transgender woman was brutally murdered in broad daylight, your LGBT affairs director refused to attend the annual Transgender Day of Remembrance because he had hockey tickets. Is there a particular reason your administration is targeting an already extremely disenfranchised part of the population for additional abuse? For both Mayor Fenty and Chairman Gray, how do you intend to rectify these problems, including addressing persistent unemployment in the transgender community and the growth of hate violence against transgender people of color?

I'm sure you'll be hearing from me again on September 1 to see whether or not it gets answered.

You should submit a question too! Blog it, tweet it, facebook it. Too often people have said that the race between Fenty and Gray is about style, not substance. But in this, and in other areas, there are real substantive problems that need to be addressed. Let's make sure those problems see the light of day before this race is over.

Perish this particular thought

noreply@blogger.com (jterry) — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 14:05:00 +0000

Via teh facebooks, I saw an article from Sunday's Post inquiring as to the future of the home library. Allow me to say, unequivocally, that this assault on culture and learnedness shall not stand.

At least not in my house.

You see, anyone who knows me well can attest that I love my books. I love their look, their smell, and even the words printed in them. I catalog them and gently arrange them according to my own bizarre sense of logic. I bought an old fashioned rocking chair so I could sit around and read them for hours while gently relaxing. And yes, I have a room of my house dedicated to my books, and I'm out of shelf space. I particularly cherish older editions of great works. Of course, there are a few that go unread, that I keep for purely quirky value, like that 900 page beast on what the U.S. should do about the Soviet Union after the fall of the Berlin Wall, published about a month before the Soviet Union ceased to be. I picked that one up at a used book store in Yellow Springs, Ohio, and bought it out of sympathy for the poor schmuck who did all that work.

Then there are others. The books inscribed with love by my English teacher from high school, who is one of my personal heroes. A random assortment of titles about the U.S. Civil War, shelves dedicated to my weird fascinations with Queen Elizabeth I and Eleanor Roosevelt, inspirational pieces from activists of yore, and heavily used books from grad school all have their place.

I spend far too much time in used book stores, looking for something unique to jump out at me, or hoping to find treasures by favorite authors that may have since gone out of print (I found one just last week).

I'm not going to be so bold as to say I'll never have some tacky electronic book reader. I (sort of) see their merits. But to think that I'll ever be willing to give up that visceral connection you make with a text you hold in your hands and flip through with care seems preposterous. So I'm keeping my books. And trying to figure out where to put them all.

Happy Monday, office drones!

noreply@blogger.com (jterry) — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 14:35:00 +0000

And, uh, to all the passive aggressive micromanaging manwhores out there. Enjoy the following.

Don't you feel better now? I know I do.

Your guide to registering to vote in DC. Deadline is Monday!

noreply@blogger.com (jterry) — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 15:26:00 +0000

Do you live in the District of Columbia? If you don't live in DC, or otherwise can't vote in DC (you're a foreign national, you're registered elsewhere, you ignore everything I ever write) then feel free to ignore this. But otherwise, please pay attention to the following:

September 14 is primary election day in DC. If you're not yet familiar with District politics, you should know that many races, including the mayor's race, are usually decided in the primary (especially the Democratic primary). Yet, to vote in that primary, you need to register!

The deadline for pre-registration for the primary election is Monday, August 16. You can still register after that date, including on-site on election day, but will only be allowed to vote on a provisional ballot that may or may not be actually counted. Thus it's still important to register to vote by Monday. You should also note that Monday is the last day to change your party affiliation (the options are Democratic, Republican, Statehood Green, or independent).

Who should register (or change their registration)? Anyone who is a new resident of DC or anyone who has moved within DC since the last election.

How do you register? Visit www.dcboee.org and click Register to Vote in DC or Update your Registration Info in the Voter box. You'll be walked through some question and at the end will be presented with a nicely filled out form for you to print and mail (postmarked by Monday) or deliver in person to the DC BOEE, 441 4th St NW, WDC 20001. You'll need to include proof of residency at the address you put down on the registration form. This can be a pay stub, government check stub, utility bill, lease or copy of a DC driver's license/ID card.

What if I don't know if I'm registered? That's easy! At the DC BOEE website, click Check Your Registration Status in the Voter box. Just enter your name, address, and date of birth and you can find out.

Thanks for your attention to this really important stuff. Happy voting!

ETA: I've received a few questions from folks asking for additional clarifying details. Here you go:

I checked my registration status, and it says INACTIVE. What do I do? Your name was removed from the voter roll for one reason or another. You need to register again.

I'm registered as a member of the Statehood Green Party. Can I vote in the Democratic primary? No, you can only vote in the primary for the party of which you are a registered member. If you're not registered for the party for which you would like to cast a primary ballot, you MUST change your party affiliation by August 16 to vote in your preferred primary. You CANNOT change party affiliation after that date.

A particularly peaceful podcast

noreply@blogger.com (jterry) — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 20:56:00 +0000

Warning: this here post is about 7.2 million years late for the blogging world, but you're getting it anyway. :)

I recently was tipped off by a friend that NPR's Speaking of Faith had done a very good show related to peacebuilding. Turns out, it featured none other than legendary peacemaker John Paul Lederach. Legendary, that is, if you've been to peace school.

Anyway, you should listen to the show when you get a chance. It's incredibly insightful, and even spirit-warming. And it will help you to understand just how peace can be made, and what a beautiful process it can be. If you have the time, listen to the unedited interview for extra tidbits of fun.

Boldly going back to my life

noreply@blogger.com (jterry) — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 12:21:00 +0000

I have a confession. Sometime last year, my illustrious partner started watching a few Star Trek episodes online. He doesn't watch old shows in any particular order, but eventually he (sometimes joined by me) knocked out both The Next Generation and Voyager. However, unlike me, he generally saved this supreme nerdiness for sick days, rainy days, and the like.

Not me. No, no, no, no, no. When I bite a bullet, I want to taste powder. So I set about watching the entire Voyager series, in order. All seven seasons, 26 episodes each. That's some big number my little head can't compute. But then I switched to Deep Space Nine, with its huge story arcs and that whole being a seven-year long allegory thing. The boy abandoned me at that point. This ridiculous feat was all mine. Besides, I'd watched parts of both series on my mom's couch while I was in high school (mostly before I got involved with the artist formerly known as Bunny).

And this past weekend, I finished it. Good finally conquered evil, and there was even an exceedingly awkward farewell montage. (Sadly, this montage did not include any hot lesbian make-out sessions.)

Now I'd be lying if I said I didn't have a burning desire to go watch The Next Generation from start to finish. But, no, it's time to stop. I've spent too much time on Memory Alpha researching bits of nuance about cultures and technologies that don't actually exist. I'm ridiculously fascinated by Borg, and that has to stop. I think.

Anyway, look for more blogging, more socializing, more world saving, etc., now that I've successfully completed this mission of exploration and defense of liberal enlightenment.

Just don't forget the prime directive.

The battle for conflict resolution: graduate training vs. the real world

noreply@blogger.com (jterry) — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 18:31:00 +0000

A new report by the U.S. Institute of Peace helps explain a lot of my recent(?) career woes. The results are from a study commissioned to examine the correlations between graduate study and actual careers in the international peace and conflict work. The results, however, are a little grim. The first summary bullet really gets you:

Graduate-level academic institutions are not adequately preparing students for careers in international peace and conflict management. Curricula need to incorporate more applied skills, cross-sectoral coursework, and field-experience opportunities.

The report goes on to outline the crucial differences between academics' views of what their graduates should know compared to employers' views of what their staff should be capable of doing. Let's just say these two things don't match up terribly well. Part of the problem, according to the authors, is that the international conflict resolution field is relatively new, and that the primarily development oriented agencies and funders that are doing this work don't necessarily understand how conflict resolution works or what its underpinnings are and how it changes their long-established games.

But there are some core issues here too, primarily (in my view) the lack of adequate field training/experience building that students need to get jobs in the profession. I was actually lucky enough to get some brief field experience, and even so, you can't exactly say I roll in the conflict resolution world at my current job. Here's your money quote:

Students face a perpetual Catch-22. Employers want applicants with field experience, but if all employers want this, how are students to get their first experience? Although all programs provide some opportunities for field experience, in general, opportunities are few and far between for people to gain experience abroad, especially hands-on work in conflict areas, whether focused on development practice or directly on conflict resolution practice, and also whether through their academic program, other institutions, or on their own. A significant related obstacle for most students is the lack of funding to enable their travel abroad, especially for unpaid work.

That, to me, is a much bigger issue than whether or not someone can actually comprehend USAID created gobbledygook-speak, which one can probably (if not grudgingly) learn on one's own. Like I said, I managed to get some field experience while in grad school, and several of my classmates got loads of it. But we were still relatively young, and at the end, many of us struggled to find work even remotely related to what we studied.

This raises another, essential question that the USIP report does not address: What is the demand for an international conflict resolution graduate student? Is the supply of conflict-sensitive people currently larger than the demand? There's some hint of that in the report, but it's not really explored. Or, alternatively, are the senior decision makers that allocate resources and set staffing not yet adequately aware of the need for/value of having conflict sensitive people on their teams (this is alluded to much more fully in the report). I guess for me, as a young professional, I want to see people with crazy little peacenik grad degrees get jobs in our field, or at least quite close to it, within a reasonable amount of time after graduating. As it stands, it seems that there are several catch-22s that get in the way.

ETA: Inside Higher Ed has coverage of the report, and additional perspectives, here.

Your undecided voter's report on last night's Ward 1 candidates forum

noreply@blogger.com (jterry) — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 16:03:00 +0000

For those of you not the least bit interested in ridiculous minutiae of DC local politics, feel free to read on. Or, better still, if you religiously followed my live tweets last night, you can at least skip to the end. I must say that the City Paper's account of what went down seems hugely distorted. The event wasn't a victory for incumbent Jim Graham by any stretch.

There were four candidates present, including Graham, along with Jeff Smith (who lives in my current neighborhood), Bryan Weaver (hailing from Adams Morgan, my former home) and Marc Morgan, the Republican running in the November general election (the first three are Democrats battling in the primary). There were large turnouts by supporters of at least the three democratic candidates, but I walked in truly undecided. Graham has been helpful in some of my activist projects, and I appreciate that (even if it has required my serving as a presentable sexual object on behalf of my justice league pals, including knowing when to coyly grin). But Jeff Smith chatted me up at the bus stop one morning, and had good things to say. And Bryan Weaver had that catchy youtube video. (And, let's face it, will I vote for a republican? Not so much.) And in spite of progress, our ward has faced it's share of idiocy. Unemployment is still in the double digits. Affordable housing stock is quickly being replaced with new (and ugly) condos for affluent people. It's taken well over 5 years and repeated ripping up and repaving of 14th and Irving Streets to get Columbia Heights to where it is now. Georgia Avenue is still woefully neglected, and there's the wee debacle over the closing/demolition of my neighborhood school (latest status update here). I'm not saying that in 12 years in office, Jim Graham should have hung the moon squarely in Ward 1, but his accomplishments are not without critique.

That's where Smith and Weaver come in. Last night was clearly a debate for nerds, and the biggest nerds were probably the ones sitting at the table. Weaver's biggest strength is clearly in housing issues. Smith's expertise in education. Both these have impacts on jobs, so they're both strong there. Morgan seemed like a nice guy, and definitely a DC Republican (focusing on green jobs, etc.), but public-private partnerships can't possibly be the answer to every question. Then there was Graham himself, who seemed firmly entrenched in defending the past, and spent nary a second saying what specifically he'd do in the future. In short, it was what DCist once dubbed Grahamstanding, and the performance wasn't terribly impressive. He basically came across as an old crank, and that was disappointing.

So again, I'm stuck on Smith and Weaver. I like them. Both. A lot. I think either would be an excellent legislator. But I couldn't really distinguish much between them. They seemed to agree on the substantive issues at hand (and, admittedly, the pre-selected questions were a bit odd), even whispering back and forth at the table. There was definitely a style difference. Weaver seemed slightly stronger in the rhetoric department, but Smith had his handy dandy charts, graphs and photos. A friend had a follow-up conversation with Weaver at the end, and he said most of the difference, in his opinion, was in process. Not what the problems are, or even what the solutions should be, but how to get there. See why this was a debate for nerds?

While I've made up my mind on most of the DC races, this one still leaves me puzzled. I clearly can't merge Smith and Weaver together to form one ultra-wonky superlegislator, so I guess that means more research and more forums. Stay tuned!

Sunday news: here's your sign edition

noreply@blogger.com (jterry) — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 18:08:00 +0000

Ah, Sunday, that joyous day when we celebrate all that is special to us. When we relax in a hammock sipping lemonade. When the air temperature is hot enough to melt the skin off a tomato. Here's how we shall mark this splendid occasion.

Health insurance companies: the root of all that is evil. And I should know, my mother works for one.
Oil companies: the back-up plan for the root of all that is evil. Are we noticing the #capitalismfail yet?
The U.S. Senate: where evil goes to lay its eggs. And, ya know, starve people in the name of grandstanding.
The United States continues to pretend that the government of Somalia exists in some meaningful way, and that poorly trained and equipped peacekeepers can help this imaginary government. Meanwhile, people suffer. Perhaps it's time to end the ruse, no?
DC was struck by a minor earthquake on Friday, and will continue to write news articles about it for at least two weeks. Panic? What panic?
And, finally, Hillary Clinton: "the godmother of 21st-century statecraft." Orly?

There you have it, kids.

Sunday news: out of character edition

noreply@blogger.com (jterry) — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 16:54:00 +0000

There's been much to report on lately, and I'll freely confess to being largely absent. This, in part, has been due to not really feeling the need to add to the din lately, and also due to my being in the thick of things. I'll have a few reflections on those things later. Meanwhile, a few snippets of interest.

I rarely find myself in agreement with Our Lord and Savior the Kristof, but in this case, I agree that you must go see the film Budrus, about the nonviolent struggle against the boundary fence in a small Palestinian village. I have faith that a nationwide nonviolent movement is possible in Palestine (and don't necessarily think it means lining up all the women). And, I had the pleasure of seeing this film at the Capitol a few weeks ago, followed by a panel featuring Ayad Morrar and Reps. Keith Ellison and Brian Baird. See the film when it's in your town. You will be moved.
A Kansas City barber (nice town, btw) sums up Obama's image: "That man has a hell of a workload, and Bush left a hell of a mess. I like what he's doing. But I can't feel it."
Maybe it's summer fluff, but I still suspect that Sonia Sotomayor will be my favorite justice.
In spite of all the myriad issues that people have on their minds, I'm increasingly convinced the DC mayor's race is going to come down to education. Here's the WaPo's take on Gray's plan. I generally support the age 4-24 approach to education that Gray backs, but share concerns over how to pay for it.
And while we're at it, what's the role of literature in the fight for justice? One opinion on To Kill a Mockingbird.

Finally, I want to plug two events this week at the DC Council (Wilson Building, 1350 Pennsylvania Avenue NW):

Monday, 4pm, room 500: Committee on Public Safety and the Judiciary hearing on ICE's Secure Communities Program. The Council has already unanimously blocked MPD's planned participation through emergency legislation. Come here advocates speak about why that rejection should become permanent. DC would be the first jurisdiction to reject participating in the program, which requires mandatory immigration checks. More details are here.
Wednesday, 2pm, room 123: Committee on Aging and Community Affairs roundtable on DC's recent LGBT health report, which notably failed to include information on transgender folks in the District. My fellow members of the DC Trans Coalition raised a stink over this last week, and a hearing was scheduled 48 hours later. How's that's for effective advocacy? Details are here.

Money can't buy you class

noreply@blogger.com (jterry) — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 16:22:00 +0000

I'm just back from a 12 day jaunt through Missouri for work (with a little fun tossed in), and am still going through reams of emails. However, let this entertain you in the meantime.

Government for the racists, by the racists... wait...

noreply@blogger.com (jterry) — Wed, 26 May 2010 11:31:00 +0000

I would like to take just a brief moment to thank the president for continuing to govern as though he has no spine. In an act of blatant pandering, he has decided to send 6,000 National Guard troops to the states that share a border with Mexico, half of whom will be sent to Arizona.

Just so we're clear, we need immigration reform, not an immigration army. This does nothing to fix our extremely convoluted immigration system. Not one thing. (But this would.) It simply lets hypocritical racists who view immigrants as aliens and not people get a victory in an election year.

Sunday news: there's a tear in my beer edition

noreply@blogger.com (jterry) — Sun, 23 May 2010 14:46:00 +0000

I'm trying to spend the bulk of the weekend working on a long-overdue project that I owe to some of my crazy activist pals. But one should always take a few moments to soak in the radiant rays of sunshine that are Sunday newspapers. Here's a few kickers for you.

Dear Europe: This is the point where you develop an affinity for sad country songs. Save the last dance for me.
I'm reconsidering the issue of spawn. Here's your one chance Fancy, don't let me down.
Perhaps if I weren't so cynical, I'd believe all these lines about Obama/Bush differences. Waitin' for the love of a travelin' soldier.
Dear Graduates: "entry-level" is now defined as somebody who's 35 and has an MBA. One of these days.

And that's all she wrote. You don't have to say you love me.

In the big rock candy mountain

noreply@blogger.com (jterry) — Tue, 18 May 2010 09:49:00 +0000

Last week we took an adventure to the Jones Mountain Cabin, in celebration of my turning 27 years old. We took the long way in, from Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park. From there, we had to hike about 6 miles, crossing three mountains (up, down, up, down, up, down), and changing elevation from roughly 3800 feet where we started the trail to about 1500 feet at the cabin. It took about three hours to get out there, but closer to 4 (for me) getting back. We had to leave kinda early on Tuesday in order to avoid getting totally drenched, though it did rain pretty heavily (a cold ass rain too) the last mile or so.

Because I assume you're bored and have nothing better do to, I present you with a few humble photos. The trail was gorgeous the whole way, and we only saw one other person along the AT shortly after we got started. After that, it was just us and the critters.

Some big rocks on the way in. They reminded me of balls.

Elijah got to the cabin before me, and this was the scene upon my arrival.

Here's a front view. This place was built by a moonshiner in 1908.

Looking down onto the fireplace from the upstairs loft.

The view from Bear Rock Church on the hike back.

Nothing but untouched mountains. :)

Oh, and for those wondering about the outhouse, lack of running water, no electricity thing. Yes, this delicate flower survived it fine. Of course, I also avoided the outhouse since Elijah went in and came out with two ticks. Delicate comes in handy sometimes.

Filed under: things I don't understand

noreply@blogger.com (jterry) — Mon, 17 May 2010 10:07:00 +0000

As the scandal around the repulsive George Rekers continues to swirl, Sean Bugg over at MetroWeekly raises a question that I share myself: why is it that in these scandals, the powerful man who falls from grace ends up relatively unscathed, while the sex worker involved gets the short shrift?

I don't seem to understand why people can't see sex work as legitimate work (ignoring, for a moment, that it's illegal in most places in the U.S.). Some people do indeed choose this line of work as their preferred means to support themselves, while others find that economic hardship and systemic discrimination have limited their employment opportunities elsewhere. Clearly there is a demand for people to do this work, and clearly there are dangers associated with partaking in it -- much moreso for the sex worker than the client. Why can't we focus on making the work safer instead of ostracizing those who engage in it. Moreover, why can't we do more to end the systemic discrimination issues (towards, say, transgender women of color), that make sex work the only option some folks have?

Obviously I have no answers here. In the meantime, support groups like these friendly people.

Sunday news: competence gap edition

noreply@blogger.com (jterry) — Sun, 16 May 2010 15:38:00 +0000

We're here, we're queer, and... wait, wrong speech. This week we find ourselves, as usual, surrounded by individuals of less than stellar mental prowess. And they run the world. Of course...

How many overpaid idiots does it take to to stop a volley of crude oil shooting into the ocean? Zero. They're all too damn stupid to do it right, and they probably won't pay to clean up their mess.
Why is it that Democrats seem both spineless in governing and spineless in campaigning? “I just think I bought the sizzle, not the steak.” [ed. note: I'm about as wackadoo a liberal as they come... oh, for a decent left-wing party in these United States...]
Do you wear lots of dress shirts and think it would be wicked kewl to design your own? Well now you can! (Though you may want to visit the site in question when 40 million other people who just read the same article aren't there.)
Did you know that the WaPo is sort of stupid about the DC budget? How about we stop shoveling money into gentrification projects (like the 5-year long "streetscape enhancement" around Columbia Heights metro and that damned stadium and the damned bougie street cars) and stop doing generally stupid things (like tearing down a school, sending the kids to a rat infested temporary school that's a hundred years old, and then spending money on "intermediate use" of the bulldozed school site because nobody ever bothered to issue an RFP for a new building or properly renovate the temporary building, like what happened to Bruce-Monroe). Oh, and DC has the same tax rate for everyone making over $40,000/year. How's that for progressive?

And after all that, I got fed up and quit reading. :)

Sunday news: motherly love edition

noreply@blogger.com (jterry) — Sun, 09 May 2010 15:17:00 +0000

Last Sunday happened to also be my mother's birthday, and, of course, today is a special Hallmark Holiday aimed at making mothers feel special. I see it more as a plot by a one person to get two cards in a week. So, here you go: a motherload of Sunday tales to keep us all reproducing (ya know, if you want... totally cool if you don't).

Greece: we created western civilization, and maybe we'll destroy it.
Britain (Britain, Britain): here lies the last vestiges of actually being able to govern one's nation.
Would you believe that people are constantly trying to manage their public persona, even the one they put on teh internets?
"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military bureaucratic complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist."
Do you ever get the impression that DC schools chancellor Michelle Rhee doesn't understand money? And wasn't she supposed to cut bureaucracy?
This happens every day.