Morning Roundup: Circling the Wagons Edition
Good morning, Washington. Yesterday, D.C. Council Chairman Vincent Gray held his usual press conference to preview the next day's legislative session, and it was predictably a doozy. For one, Gray called for DCPS CFO Noah Wepman to be fired. If you watched any of last week's Council hearing on the recent DCPS layoffs, you may have caught the boyish Wepman squirming under pressure as he admitted that he had failed to disclose a roughly $12 million deficit in the 2010 schools budget. For two, the Council will today take up emergency legislation designed to stop D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty from transferring any funds to the D.C. Housing Authority for the next 90 days while the Council figures out what to do about those controversial DPR contracts. This move comes after the recent revelations about Banneker Ventures, a firm owned by Fenty pal Omar Karim, and the role it played in helping the administration sidestep Council oversight again and again as it doled out non-competitive contracts, often to companies also run by Fenty friends (including Sinclair Skinner!) through the quasi-independent Housing Authority. On the DPR/Housing Authority shenanigans, Harry Thomas, Jr., who will introduce the emergency measure, is talking subpoenas, and Gray says he wants to find out if these questionable procurement practices extend to other agencies.
Virginia Heads to the Polls: It's Election Day in Virginia, just in case Sarah Palin didn't reach you at home last night to remind you. The big gubernatorial race has been shaping up to go pretty solidly for Republican Bob McDonnell, and further down the ticket, incumbent Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling (R) and Attorney General candidate Ken Cuccinelli (R) hold similarly comfortable leads. But anything can happen in an election year when that same polling indicated that "one-third of respondents could not offer an opinion of the candidates," meaning a whole lot of Virginians just haven't even heard of these guys. Plus there's all those House of Delegates races to consider. If you're a Virginia voter and trying to find your polling place, head here. The polls are open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Shooting in Downtown Silver Spring: A 25-year-old man was shot in the leg during a failed robbery attempt outside the Gold's Gym in Downtown Silver Spring at about 6 p.m. on Monday evening, an unlikely spot for a shooting, to be sure. WTTG/FOX5 reports that the victim was taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries, and that Montgomery County police are now searching for two suspects who fled the scene.
Briefly Noted: Giant, Trader Joe's and BJ's all pull recalled ground beef from area stores ... D.C. pays out $1 million to family of fatally beaten St. Elizabeths patient ... D.C. child abuse cases left in hallways, unlocked rooms ... Montgomery County sues librarian who hurt herself trying to get shampoo bottle out of car ... John Allen Muhammad attorneys plan to appeal to U.S. Supreme Court ... Co-owner charged in fire at Fairfax City bar.
This Day in DCist: Last year, large swaths of Northwest D.C. were grappling with water outages, and three years ago, we wondered exactly who is falling for those sketchy Craigslist apartment listings.
Filed in News
You had to use a racial idiom denigrating Native Americans for your headline?
We were defending our lands from encroaching white settlers...you were the aggressors.
I expect better out of "semi-journalistic" blogs.
With all due respect, I don't really see how this particular idiom denigrates Native Americans. It's a widely used term that merely refers to being in a defensive position, and that's the only thing I meant by it.
http://carl.army.mil/download/csipubs/killblane.pdf
The origin of the term comes from US Army supply train tactics used in the ethnic cleansing and genocide committed against Native Americans as white aggressors pushed West into lands ceded to Indians by treaty.
It's as bad "off the reservation" and "having a powwow with the Chief"...
The earliest mention of "wagon forts" is by the Roman officer Marcellinus when used against the Goths in the 4th Century. The formation was also used by the Chinese, the Germans, the Poles, and the Boers. So while I can appreciate the association of this particular tactic with the Native American extermination, to say Americans originated this technique is factually incorrect. Not only that, but taking offense at something that's entered the common parlance ranks up there with feminists being offended by vulgar mudflaps on tractor trailer rigs.
"The earliest mention of "wagon forts" is by the Roman officer Marcellinus when used against the Goths in the 4th Century"
Those damn goths. Now we just use $9 drinks and high cover charges to exact our revenge. That, or we remake their shoegazing anthems into dance covers, and their little painted heads explode.
I would say I'm sorry if I thought that it would change your mind. But I know that this time I've said too much been too unkind. I try to laugh about it, cover it all up with lies. I try and laugh about it hiding the tears in my eyes.
Cause boys don't use racial idiom denigrating Native Americans.
Perhaps not, but I did see you standing on a beach with a gun in your hand. Staring at the sea, staring at the sand. Staring down the barrel at the Arab on the ground. See his open mouth. Hear no sound.
Some day, some day, some day - DOMINION!
Dammit, now Sisters of Mercy are stuck in my head. I need a Jaeger bomb and some sheet cake, stat.
I see you read some of the same Wikipedia pages I did, Monkey, but not the one about the Battle of Mobei where the Chinese circled the wagons about 500 years before Marcellinus.
Regardless of whether the Chinese or the Romans or the Americans invented "circling the wagons," I think we can all agree that illegal immigrants are at fault.
I'm almost positive Jimmy Stewart invented circling the wagons in the classic western 'Winchester '73'
Some say it was Henry Fonda, but if you bring that nonsense up around me, I'll gouge your eyes out!
Cultural sensitivy lesson: FAIL
My suggestion: learn a little diplomacy and to keep things in perspective. Utilizing a widely used cultural idiom is far from endorsing genocide. Had you actually tried to explain your concerns and how it is offense without attacking Sommer, you might have actually gotten somewhere. As it is, you come across as a dick.
Heh. You used "come" and "dick" in the same sentence.
You had to use a racial idiom denigrating Native Americans for your headline?
Better way to phrase so as to not come across as a jackass: "Are you familiar with the racially motivated history of this phrase? Just so you know, this is what it means to some people..." etc.
Not all of us grew up in areas with Native American populations or grew up with teachers that could cover every politically sensitive topic in all of human history (or really, more to the point, had any time to do so, unless they had a particularly strong background in it).
If you're so offended by it, consider next time being a teacher instead of a self-righteous ass.
It's a total troll Sommer. If he persists, go all Blitzkrieg on him.
Gotta admit...there are few better ways to get to a 100 comment thread than by crying racism.
Looking forward to tomorrow's headline about DCPS:
Morning Roundup: Free Smallpox Infected Blankets Edition
You know the Nazis had something called the "Morning Roundup".......just saying.
Achtung! Plus Ein, bitte!
Oh, man, awesome comment.
A key give away is the term "native american" EVERY full blooded American Indian I have ever met has referred to themselves as just that "Indian".
As the chief of a certain tribe in New Mexico told me once. "To us, Native American sounds like a term made up by guilty white people."
Sorry, didn't mean to feed the troll.
so can retarded monkey circle a wagon?
Yay for the early post!
I have just one word = BLAZING SADDLES. Okay...two words.
Get back in the Conestoga, Liz
Posted: Notice to all wandering trolls
The space underneath the DCist bridge is taken and will be defended vigorously.
Signed,
(cheerful splatter of poop)
I'm still recovering from wagon farts and mudflaps.
Of course, I've more often heard this in the terms of a joke:
"Circling the wagons and shooting inwards" as a means of describing complete and utter ineptitude. Which is what I thought of when I saw this headline prefacing those stories about the DC Council.
amen. if this phrase had a racial start, it's been pretty much stripped away in its current meaning.
I thought the settlers circling the wagons were protecting their delicate white woman from the smooth-skinned, devil-may-care hot Indian stud warriors. Nothing like a tiny-dicked pale little Irishman having to keep his woman from seeing a dark-skinned hottie on horseback, lest she start thinking she got the short end of the stick, so to speak.....
And my admittedly written-by-white-people high school history books told me that wagon caravans circled the wagons to protect against all sorts of things, from weather during storms to wild animal attacks.
And wasn't the practice of circling wagons for protection used in military campaigns long before any whites ever set foot in what is now America?
The term "circle the wagons" was coined on the American frontier, but the tactic has been recorded back to at least China during the second century BCE. It made its way from China to Europe by no later than the 4th century CE, when it was used in battles between the Romans and Goths. Central and Eastern European armies used the tactic widely during the middle ages and Renaissance, to the extent of regularly linking wagons into trains with chains, bringing the trains deliberately into combat, and turning them into mobile fortresses when needed by chaining the first and last wagon together. The probable direct inspiration for the Americans would be the similar formations, called laagers, used by first the Dutch and then the British against the native population in South Africa beginning in the 17th century CE.
Pale Irishman? Really? Have you no respect for the hardship the Irish people have gone through in America? Treated as second class citizens, forced to build your now crumbling rail infrastructure with those Chinamen... Come on, have a little sensitivity!
What the f**k are you talking about? The Chinaman is not the issue here, Dude. I'm talking about drawing a line in the sand, Dude. Across this line, you DO NOT... also, Dude, Chinaman is not the preferred nomenclature. "Asian-American," please.
That rug really pulled the room together, Dude.
I bought it on the rez. They used to wrap people who died from smallpox in it. It was a steal! They were practically GIVING it away!
This is why the nickname Fighting Irish should be banned. I'm a lover not a fighter and I do not wish to be pigeon holed.
Until they took power in Boston and basically did the same thing to everyone else.
Breaking, Loose Lips is reporting that Fenty is under investigation for accepting a free cruise on the bejeweled Ruby Yacht of Omar Karim?
www.instantrimshot.com
Is there a way to lob an actual tomato thru the interwebs?
No, but this is close
http://www.sadtrombone.com/
Yep, familiar with that one. There's also:
www.bombombombomwooooo.com
My personal favorite.
Oh but kudos to you for getting it.
wocka wocka wocka
Oh, and nice 8:30 post Sommer!
Hey Newy ... your avatar is pure EVIL! But eyes loves ya.
Oryx!
gosh, if not for the 'racism' this morning, there'd be nothing to comment about.
even if this were meant to be offensive, it would be pretty weak...
As a Hyphenated-American Person-of-Gender, I find your dismissive attitude offensive. I am also offended by the 2012 Olympics Logo, which is clearly a goatse.
Gotta admit...there are few better ways to get to a 100 comment thread than by crying racism. and BLAZING SADDLES:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/11/jury-reaches-verdict-in-cycling-case.html
Oohh...veeeeeeeeeery well played. Now all we need is guns, gay marriage and voting rights, and this could be the perfect storm of angry comment threads. Martin, where are you when we need you????
You know, there would have been a lot less blood shed if the Indians would have just put down their guns when told to.
What guns? They were holding up their wallets when they were shot. And look, if you can't speak English, you need to go back to Indiana or wherever you come from.
How about this?
http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/1109/674407.html
Followed by a "they should buy a gun" comment.
Last time I checked, he was austermuhling some underaged girl at the Black Cat.
Oh, sorry. I meant "polling the electorate" with the "bone of contention" in his "legal briefs" "in quotes."
Careful, Monk-- this is just about the point where Jim Graham shows up to inject his taint into the conversation!
Btw, re: our Council at work, I loved this from T-Tommy in the WaPo today:
"We can't get caught up in the fact that neighborhoods have been promised things."
Aww, no, HELL no, let's not do that-- not when, instead, we can engage in more turf-protecting, trifling-ass bullshit. Screw the neighborhoods, I'd rather be signing every $75k DPR check, and trying to get my earmarks back for stuff like this (thanks LL 5/4/09):
Dept. of Me: From Harry Thomas Jr.’s libraries, parks, and recreation committee: “Redirect $1M from General Improvement (RG001) to Harry Thomas, Jr. Recreation Center Project, created in the 2009 Capital Budget.” The height of narcissistic legislating? Probably not: There is a Harry Thomas Sr. rec center in Eckington, named after the current councilmember’s father and predecessor as Ward 5 councilmember.
That takes me back. I remember Graham Taint Injection when they opened for Youth Brigade at the Wilson Center. Good times. I think.
Throw in an oryx or two and we've ourselves a Pulitzer Prize comment thread!
An Irishman, a Chinaman, and a Native American walk into a troll thread, when the bartender says, "Oryx you glad it's a slow news day?"
That joke is worse than Hitler.
Get back into the Reichstag fire, Liz. And take these marshmallows with you.
Three commenters walk into the middle of a circle of wagons. The monkey has a cocked shotgun in his front pocket, the woman with the erotic lips is wearing a boustiere and the oryx has in tow a dog that was abandoned at the Whole Foods on P Street. Suddenly, a Cree falls from the sky and all of them are killed. What is the moral of the story?
If God had meant man to fly, he would have given us tickets.
Oh how I miss DCist here in Austin. Austinist doesn't write about anything funny or particularly offensive...Mostly because they don't talk about sketchy local political things or even make fun of hipsters wearing skinny jorts.
Rug, I tried to help you get the ball rolling on Austinist.
It's OK, because we bought the Indians flowers afterward.
And we made them reservations!
Wow, them Injuns' are gettin' restless.
Now you know why the red man's red.
All this anger and drama this morning and none of it is aimed at Sinclair Skinner? I'm disappointed.
he'll get his, don't worry...
Montgomery County sues librarian who hurt herself trying to get shampoo bottle out of car
I liked this move better when it starred Christy Canyon as the librarian and Ron Jeremy's penis as the shampoo bottle.
Maybe we should stick to less controversial discussion topics. I for one am enjoying this lovely Indian Native American Summer we are having.
WEATHERIST!!!!
Get back in your slow-moving cold front, Liz.
For tomorrow's forecast, look for partly to mostly golden showers with a 30% chance of Hitler.