YouthPAC Takes It's First Major Step

Yesterday, YouthPAC, the organization a group of ambitious friends and I started just a few months ago, took first steps in becoming a legitimate organization in the city and in getting young people involved in the political process.

In conjunction with DC Students Speak and the DC Federation of College Democrats, YouthPAC hosted a candidates forum for those running for At-Large City Council Member in the upcoming Special Election on April 26th.

The forum, that discussed youth issues, gave a chance for native Washingtonians and college students studying in the city to have a direct voice to the candidates who may become our city's next At-Large Councilperson.

Sekou Biddle, Tom Brown, Joshua Lopez, Dorothy Douglas, Alan Page, Bryan Weaver and Patrick Mara discussed issues including noise ordinances, the DC opportunity scholarship, public education, civic engagement in the younger population and youth involvement in redistricting.

YouthPAC also held an endorsement vote for the At-Large Council Race and the State Board of Education Race in Wards 4 and 8. YouthPAC was honored to endorse Bryan Weaver and pledged to work hard to make him our next Councilman on April 26th. Read YouthPAC's Statement of Endorsement here.

Thanks to all the candidates who participants who participated, all the young people who attended and all the organizations that worked so hard to put it together!

Extras: See what everyone at the event was tweeting about at yesterday's event: Click here.

Hard to Believe

What's Hard to Believe- March 27, 2011

The District Government- Just two months after the new administration arrived in the Wilson Building, both in the Mayor's Office and in the Council, public trust has plummeted and the Mayor's approval rating is barely hitting 40%. The "One City" motto that thrust Gray into the City's highest office is slowly beginning to fall and seems only like a nice motto of an era long gone. For a mayor and an administration that was elected in the spirit of optimism, that emotion is in short measure and is on the brink of disappearing very soon. It will be interesting to see what the Mayor has to say to restore the public trust tomorrow at his State of the District Address. It will be a hard task to pull off, and restoring his approval to the height that it was 2 months ago is highly unlikely and will probably happen never again. If it does, that will be hard to believe.

George Washington University- It is very hard to believe that the George Washington University has throw a total of 200,000 dollars my way to attend in the fall by way of the Stephen J. Trachtenberg Scholarship! Yeah...pretty hard to believe. Thanks, Colonials! Check out the day's photos here.

Geraldine Ferraro- It is hard to believe that the first woman ever nominated for the office of Vice President of the United States, Geraldine Ferraro, is dead at the age of 75. As the running mate to the 1984 Democratic Nominee for President, Walter Mondale, she was a trailblazer for equal opportunity and a testament to America's evolution as a nation representative to everyone's interests. Mondale/Ferraro lost to Ronald Reagan and Vice President George H.W. Bush, who were running for reelection in 1984. Listen to Ferraro's speech at the 1984 Democratic National Convention as she accepts the party's nomination for Vice President.

Amazing Day: Awarded the Stephen J. Trachtenberg Scholarship for the George Washington University

Today was an amazing day for me. At lunch today, Moo Ho Bae and I were awarded the Stephen Joel Trachtenberg Scholarship, equaling a full ride to the George Washington University. The surprise ceremony was definitely a highlight for me, not only in the day, but in a lifetime and to get the opportunity to go the one of the nation's top universities fee of charge is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Am I settled on GW yet? That decision will come within the next week or so.

Read the article attached here.

GO COLONIALS!

Social Media Addiction: There's a Cure

I think all of us can admit that using social media can be quite addicting sometimes. When something good happens, when something bad happens, when you hear your favorite song, see a good movie, read a good news article, got a new job, lose an old job, get a significant other or lose that significant other, we run to Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, etc. to share our news. And because something like this (or something less significant) happens to us everyday, we spend a significant amount of our lives changing statuses and tweeting and messaging. Furthermore, because this happens to our friends hundreds of times a day, we spend an even larger time checking their statuses and tweets and messages.

Before we know it, we have spent hours on Facebook and Twitter, not doing homework, laundry, grocery shopping, calling family members, reading, cooking, exercising or anything that we should have. For most of us, it is not necessarily our intent to waste our entire lives on these social networking sites. Most of the time, it starts as a very innocent break in between assignments or a way to relax after a long day or an honest attempt to get in touch with a friend and before we know it, it's half past 1am and you are writing a blog post for Advanced Computer Applications that you probably should have done hours ago.

The article we were assigned to read for our computer apps class gave some very helpful tips on how to kick the habit of obsessive use of social networking. I thought all of them were very helpful. They definitely take practice and a lot of commitment, but they are definitely manageable. To put the main idea of the article plainly: prioritize your time and do other things with your life.

I can personally say that whether for business or entertainment, I spend an excruciating amount of time on social networking sites. This enables procrastination, doesn't help me get a lot of work done and is distracting at times. The article mentioned above has very helpful suggestions on how to kick the habit of habitual social networking, but I was also interested in the forced restraints that were suggested at the bottom of this article we read in class the other day, such as programs you can install on your computer that blocks whatever sites you want for a pre-determined amount of time, which you cannot take back once its activated. I will definitely try the more voluntary regiments first and then move to more drastic measures if these don't work.

I suggest that everyone in my same predicament try these methods (voluntarily or involuntarily) so that we can all free ourselves from this "obsession and addiction" to social media, because it wastes too much time.

A Week Without Facebook = A Week Without Air

Earlier this week in Advanced Computer Applications class, we were challenged to log off of Facebook and to not log back on for 7 days. For everyone who uses Facebook, we know that is 7 days without status updates, pokes, inbox messages, quizzes, chats and everything that we spend hours doing every day.

Starting out, I thought it would be pretty easy. A week without Facebook would fly by and I would be back on Sunday evening without even missing it. Then, the next day, I got a letter telling me I got accepted to Elon University. Well, there was no way I could go seven days without telling my 1,100 friends on Facebook, right? So, I did. Disappointed in myself, I logged off again...until the next day, when I had to check on Facebook on the time and date of an event I had to go to. I logged off again, pledging to still do seven days without Facebook. But every day since that day, I have always found a legitimate reason to log onto Facebook, if just for 5 minutes.

It is a source of entertainment, networking and organization and it is especially difficult to lose a tool like this for one week. I will try again at some point, but it always seems that the need to communicate and network is always there. We ALL will kick the addiction at some point, but we have to take it ONE day at a time (not seven).

Hard to Believe

I am starting a new series here on The Batch' Blog called Hard to Believe, a blog series that will mention certain things I think are quite unbelievable in politics, on the internet, in the community, on television, etc. On March 13, 2011, this is what I believe is Hard to Believe.

Law and Order SVU: It's a Sunday, so I spent a considerable amount of time on the couch watching television (a break from the "keep going" mantra of Monday through Saturday). For the past 4 or 5 hours, I have been watching a Law and Order SVU marathon on the USA Network. I must admit, that episode after episode, I just have a hard time believing some of the plots of the episodes. From a 7 year old drug smuggler who accidentally shot one of his friends in daycare while trying to escape the grasp of his drug pimp to a former cop turned neighborhood watch captain who goes around the neighborhood murdering sex offenders, the plots just seem ridiculous. Now, don't get me wrong, I am very fond of Law and Order SVU, I just do not think I would go to work as a detective for the New York Police Department and be confronted with these outrageous cases. It's one thing to write plots that captivate your audience, but at least make them remotely believable.

ANC8C: I know I have already blogged about the decorum of monthly meetings of Advisory Neighborhood Commission 8C, but I think it's very hard to believe how bad it is until you actually go and witness, just as I did on March 2. The monotony of the meeting was comforting early on, as attendees complained about the irresponsibility of Pepco in the wake of the snow storms and planning for the return of the Martin Luther King Parade this April. Then comes the talk about the finances of the ANC and all "heck" breaks loose. Between one commissioner asking another to "sit down and shut up" and another angrily banging her fist and yelling "sit yo' $!? down", we can say the meeting heated up a little. So, you say to me "that is very hard to believe that elected government officials would act in such a way, especially in a public meeting". Well, you just have to go yourself.

Second Semester, Senior Year: If someone comes to you in the last half of their senior year and says "Well, it's all down-hill from here. I'm living on easy street", you should tell them it is very hard to believe. The last semester of Senior year is one of the most stressful, busy, time-consuming semesters of anyone's entire educational career. By the 3rd week of the 3rd quarter, College Acceptance letters are still weeks away, extra-curriculars are gearing up, projects are getting heavy, you have to apply for scholarships, AP exams are right around the corner, Final exams right after, Senior dues are....due, letters on report cards mean more than ever before and every day moves by a little slower. Second semester, senior year: UNbelievable.

That's what's hard to believe.

Brownish-Gray: The Color of Dysfunction in Washington?

Two shades of Brown mixed with Gray: that seems to be the color of dysfunction in Washington, D.C. politics in the first 2 months of a new administration. I have to say, it is not a very attractive color and a lot of people are not too fond of having to see it painted all over the Wilson Building now-a-days: from the dais of the Council to the 6th Floor, closed-off, "office with a view" of our 7th Mayor, Vincent C. Gray.

The new administration wasted no time mixing up the dysfunction and it is very shocking, especially in an administration that preached more transparency, honesty, accountability, responsibility and everything that doesn't rhyme with "Fenty".

Now, "cronyism" and "quid quo pro's" are words circulating around the Wilson Building and around the city, even 2 months since "the root of all evil" packed up his cubicle in the bullpen. How did we get this nasty shade of dysfunction in Washington? Just mix two shades of Brown and Gray.

Brown: So, the first shade of Brown we will discuss is Sulaimon. Unless you have been under a rock for the past few weeks, we all know Sulaimon Brown as the former Mayoral Candidate who advocated more Gray during his campaign in 2010 than he did for himself. In fact, one of the most memorable quotes of this terrible candidacy for Mayor is "you can vote for Brown or you can vote for Gray; Just don't vote for Fenty". So why is this important months afterward? Well, it just so happens that this former Fenty-basher got a job in the administration, that paid close to $100,000 a year.

However, he was fired from this job about a week later, when the Washington City Paper published an article revealing criminal charges on Sulaimon Brown, including stalking a 13-year old girl. That is when the allegations of corruption broke wide open and this shade of brown began to smear the new government.

Brown made allegations that during his 2010 Campaign, he was paid handsomely by Gray Campaign to stay in the race and continue to bash then-incumbent Mayor Adrian Fenty. In return, he said he was also promised a job for him and his brother in the new administration. Now Mayor Gray, of course, denies these claims. So do numerous other upper-level Mayoral staff (who were, at the time, upper-level Gray for Mayor campaign staff).

However, the evidence is close to air-tight and it will be pretty hard for Mayor Gray to deny a quid pro quo (even though he already has). Brown has also alleged later that Gray fixed the September 2010 Primary election, but thats for another day....

Brown: The next shade of Brown is of course Kwame. I think we all know very well the fascination that our Chairman of the Council has with Sports Utility Vehicles (SUV's). We all know the infamous "Kwamemobile (a fully loaded Cadillac Escalade)" that the triumphant Councilmember has touted both in his 2008 and 2010 campaigns. And just because the Kwamemobile couldn't make it to the Wilson Building, that doesn't mean he shouldn't ride is style, right?

That is why weeks after the Chairman-Elect was elected in November, he ordered city officials to get him an all black (inside and out), fully-loaded Lincoln Naviagtor with a DVD player, power moon roof and polished aluminum wheels. Also, he wanted it ready and parked outside the Wilson on the day of his inauguration- January 2nd.

When the first one arrived, it just so happened to have a gray interior, not the black interior per Brown's request. Brown requested he have the one with the black interior sent to him. And it was: it was driven from Coldwater, Michigan to Washington at a cost of $1,500. However, there's another issue. The car with the gray interior cannot be returned until October, so the city taxpayers are footing the bill for both leases on both SUV's- both at $1,900 a month. And all while (get ready for this) the city is in a $400 Million budget shortfall.

The Chairman says that if he had known his request would be so pricey, he never would have ordered it. I'm sure he is even sorrier now, since Councilman Tommy Wells called for an investigation into the purchase, while a report says that the purchase may be illegal. The Chairman has returned the vehicle to the DC Department of Public Works while the Attorney General negotiates a cancellation of the lease.

So what is Kwame Brown riding around in now, you ask? The Batch' Blog spotted the Chairman right after Councilman Barry's State of the Ward Address being whisked away in an army green mail truck, similar to what he was pushing during his first campaign for Council in 2004.

Gray: Of course, we could not forget the last shade that makes this color most undesirable for the people of Washington: Gray. Mayor Vince Gray, at least according to the Washington Post, has had a bad start as Mayor of the Nation's Capital City. Though the jury (and possibly a federal judge) is still out on his relations with Sulaimon Brown, it is no secret that a lot of Gray's friends are getting the city's top jobs and it is very obvious they are getting paid a lot more than they are supposed to. In fact, many of the children of Gray's upper-level campaign staff have landed jobs in the new administration.

Many people are asking "What's Wrong with Vince Gray?". Mary Cheh, one of Vince Gray's most avid supporters, and his former Council colleague from Ward 3 calls the large amount of scandal coming out of the Mayor's office now-a-days "kind of depressing".

Let's also not exclude the Mayor from this whole SUV scandal either. Along with the two (now, unused) SUV's ordered by the Chairman's office, the Metropolitan Police Department order a "fully loaded" Lincoln Naviagtor for the Mayor and a Lincoln Town Car for his security team, at a cost of $1,941 and $1,785 a month respectively. The only difference is that there is no sign those will be going back any time soon.

This new District government has a long way to go in securing the public trust and getting city politics back on track.