DCentric

Good morning, DCentric readers! Ready for some links?

Elitism On A Food Stamp Budget? “We complain about and assume food stamp recipients are the dredges of society, all fat and miserable (and Black welfare queens) and eating up all the cheetos… but we’re angry as hell – collectively – when they prioritize health and wellness (and preservation of both) above all else? When they use the little bit of money they’ve got wisely? (Or are they?) Would we feel better about paying into a system that takes care of others if and only if they still appeared to be doing worse than we are? Is that element of superiority required here? That we feel superior to food stamp recipients?” (blackgirlsguidetoweightloss.com)

Muslim employees of D.C. hotel say they were barred from floors where Israelis stayed “The one worker said that after he was barred from the floors in question, co-workers teased him about being a terrorist…He said he had worked in proximity to other VIPs, such as George W. Bush, with no security concerns. “I don’t care about Israel. To me, it’s just another country,” he said. “I work for [the hotel] 12, 14 hours a day, and they profile me like I’m a criminal, like I’m going to harm them. I’m like, ‘If I’m going to harm them, why would you keep me in your hotel even one day?’” (The Washington Post)

Nats Looking to Add a Curly W to Navy Yard Metro Station Name “At tonight’s ANC 6D meeting, Nationals vice president Gregory McCarthy asked the commission to support the Nationals’ request for a name change for the Navy Yard Metro station. But, instead of asking to add “Nationals Park” or “Ballpark” or “Baseball Stadium” or “[Insert Corporate Naming Rights Winner Here] Park” or some other permutation, the Nationals are asking that the Nationals’ “Curly W” red logo be added to Metro’s maps and signage instead.” (JDland: DC Redevelopment )

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Good morning, DCentric readers! While you were dreading dreaming of a White Christmas, we were out, gathering links!

Gandhi wants D.C. to be Bermuda on the Potomac “…do we really want to encourage gambling on our home turf? Brown would have to face the fact that gambling is a drug to poor folks and those already down on their luck. Why prey on them? Natwar Gandhi has a better idea: Let’s bring in dollars from rich corporations, namely banks and insurance companies who currently park millions of dollars abroad in island tax havens. Gandhi wants to change federal tax laws and make D.C. “Bermuda on the Potomac.”…”The financial center of the country is in Washington now,” Gandhi tells me. “All the trading can be done in New York, but the decisions are made here.” (Washington Examiner )

Pro-WikiLeaks denial of service attacks: just another form of civil disobedience. “…the DDoS attacks launched by Anonymous were not acts of civil disobedience because they failed one crucial test implicit in Rawls’ account: Most attackers were not willing to accept the legal consequences of their actions. This is the crucial difference between Anonymous and the civil rights movement. Those who participated in lunch counter sit-ins…knew that they would likely be arrested for it. Their faces could be photographed, their papers could be checked. The civil rights-era protesters knew that effective civil disobedience could not be carried out in complete anonymity; members of the Anonymous collective have not grasped this yet.” (Slate)

At Gray’s D.C. jobs summit, leaders express doubts about city’s progress in preparing workers “Employers repeatedly brought up obstacles – from government policies and labor disputes to social ills – that prevent them from hiring D.C. residents. Despite about 300,000 jobs that are expected to be developed in the District over the next decade, George Mason University professor Stephen S. Fuller opened the summit by challenging Gray (D). He and others urged the city to prepare residents for those jobs but also to bring in industry that could match the skills of the unemployed and underemployed. “There’s a large group . . . unprepared for the jobs being created,” he said.” (The Washington Post)

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Good morning, DCentric readers! Here are some delicious breakfast links to ease you back in to the work week:

Homeless man in D.C. uses Facebook, social media to advocate for others like him “Eric Sheptock has 4,548 Facebook friends, 839 Twitter followers, two blogs and an e-mail account with 1,600 unread messages. What he doesn’t have is a place to live. “I am a homeless homeless advocate,” he often tells people. That’s the line that hooks them, the one that gives Sheptock – an unemployed former crack addict who hasn’t had a permanent address in 15 years – his clout on the issue of homelessness.” (The Washington Post)

The Politics of Reality TV “The (Marion) Barry show is a mixed bag, but not without some odd appeal of its own. We get to see him sing (not terribly), play golf (terribly) – and conduct blunt conversations with aides and pols over the kickback scheme that led to his censure this year…there’s a certain poignancy in the loyalty of Barry’s son to his flawed and somewhat self-deluded dad. What’s amazing, at first blush, is the number of Washington municipal politicians who participate in the show. But then again, a chance to be on TV, in whatever form, outweighs what used to pass for common sense.” (NBC Washington)

D.C. Homicide suspect was ward of DYRS “A 20-year-old D.C. man arrested Friday in connection with the killing of a 16-year-old was a ward of the city’s Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services, The Washington Times has learned….In a recent series of articles, The Times explored youth violence in the District and found that DYRS has been plagued by a pattern of crimes committed by and against youths under the agency’s supervision. An analysis of a year’s worth of homicide data found that one in five killings involved a youth in the custody of the city as either a victim or a suspect.” (Washington Times)
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