The Minnesota Canvassing Board is meeting, and it will likely declare Al Franken the winner of the Minnesota Senate seat by 225 votes. Obstructionist Republicans will try to prevent him from taking the seat, but I for one look forward to calling him Senator Franken - it has quite a ring to it, doncha know?

There are some other paper tape obstacles and of course Norm Coleman can sue, but as Senator Schumer recently declared, “there is no longer any doubt who will be the next Senator from Minnesota.”

Sorry Norm, and don’t let the door of your friend’s “bargain” DC apartment hit you on the way out.

– Caroline

Caroline, Running for Office | 1 Comment »

In a surprise, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson has withdrawn his nomination for U.S. Secretary of Commerce. The reason? One of his donors is being investigated:

“Let me say unequivocally that I and my Administration have acted properly in all matters and that this investigation will bear out that fact,” Richardson told Andrea Mitchell. “But I have concluded that the ongoing investigation also would have forced an untenable delay in the confirmation process.”

A number of Asian American leaders, including columnist Emil Guillermo, had opposed Richardson’s nomination. Why? As Bill Clinton’s Secretary of Energy, Richardson played a key role in imprisoning scientist Wen Ho Lee.

TPM’s Josh Marshall provided a quick snapshot of Dr. Lee’s ordeal in 2000:

The case first erupted into public view on March 6, 1999, when Jeff Gerth and James Risen of the New York Times reported that China had stolen top-secret American technology used to miniaturize nuclear warheads. Though the thefts had taken place as long ago as the mid-1980s, Gerth and Risen further alleged that the U.S. Justice Department had been slow to press the investigation.

Two days later Lee was abruptly fired from his job at New Mexico’s Los Alamos National Laboratory by Energy Secretary Bill Richardson. And months after that, on December 10, 1999, Lee was arrested and charged with offenses which, if proven, would have earned him life behind bars several times over. From the moment the New York Times broke the story, the case was quickly swept into congressional Republicans’ effort to tar the Clinton administration over its China policy.

Despite the uproar, the government’s case against Lee was an ever-dwindling thing from the start. Claims of espionage were succeeded by charges that Lee had mishandled government secrets with an unknown, but nefarious, purpose. Now it turns out that that purpose was apparently not nefarious enough to garner Lee even 12 months in prison.

Indeed, the federal judge who tried Dr. Lee’s case took the extraordinary step of apologizing to him:

“I sincerely apologize to you,” [Judge James] Parker told Dr. Lee in remarks from the bench, “for the unfair manner in which you were held in custody by the executive branch.” And the judge went on to level against the government a verdict which could scarcely have been more scathing. “The Departments of Energy and Justice,” Parker said, “have embarrassed our entire nation and each of us who is a citizen of it.“

When he was running for President, Richardson had this to say about Dr. Lee:

Well, and I will add that in twenty-five years in public service, there are probably many more other mistakes that I’ve made, but I want to say to you that when it was with Wen Ho Lee, this was the issue of protecting our nuclear secrets. And he did plead guilty. I do feel that he was incarcerated in solitary confinement—this was wrong. I tried to change it, but I didn’t work hard enough. The point is that we do have in all of our lives—as a congressman, as a UN ambassador, as a candidate, I’ve made a lot of gaps, and I’m glad you didn’t raise them. But, you know, I’ll stand behind my record as Energy Secretary.

Governor Richardson still owes Dr. Lee an apology.

– Gautam Dutta

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Our friends at Progressive States Network just recognized AAA-Fund for supporting a key political reform. As we mentioned earlier, here’s why we support the National Popular Vote:

Currently, Presidential nominees only campaign in a handful of hotly contested “battleground states” like Florida, Iowa, or Ohio — excluding 85 percent of Asian Americans, 79 percent of African Americans, and 72 percent of Latinos that live elsewhere.

Hardly any Asian Americans live in battleground states: most live in California, Texas, Hawaii, and New York. As a result, Presidential nominees have scant electoral incentive to court our community’s vote.

Fortunately, we can change our system so that our votes will finally matter — by adopting the National Popular Vote. In a nutshell, each state promises to award all of its electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote. But this promise will only kick in on one condition: that states adding up to an Electoral College majority have also made the same promise. (Roughly, that amounts to about 20 to 25 states.) Thus, the winner of the National Popular Vote will automatically win the Electoral College — and the keys to the White House.

Our goal: to have the National Popular Vote adopted in time for the 2012 Presidential election. Four states (totaling 50 electoral votes) have already passed the National Popular Vote: Illinois, Maryland, Hawaii, and New Jersey.

With your help, we will pave the way for a permanent 50-state strategy.

– Gautam Dutta

2012 Presidential, AAA Fund, Gautam Dutta, Grassroots Activism, Political Reform, Social Justice | No Comments »

The newspaper industry’s slump has now hit the Asian American community.  After three decades, San Francisco-based AsianWeek has shut down print publication.  While keeping its online edition, AsianWeek will fire most of its 11 staff members (via SF Chronicle):

AsianWeek will continue to publish online, at www.asianweek.com, and produce special editions about Asian American business, professional development, heritage and other issues and will still host events, but the print edition is going away because of economic realities, Ted Fang, editor and publisher, said in an interview Wednesday.

“It was very tough,” Fang said of the decision to shut down the presses. However, he said he believes the printed newspaper is but one of several means of communicating and noted the increasing adaptation to digital formats, particularly by Asian Americans.

While print journalism faces an uncertain future, web-based news and analysis are here to stay.

– Gautam Dutta

California, Gautam Dutta, Media | No Comments »

Congressional candidate Judy Chu is gathering some early momentum. According to reliable sources, Dr. Chu has a strong chance of winning the endorsement of the powerful Los Angeles County Federation of Labor. With its formidable army of campaign volunteers at the ready, the “County Fed” is poised to play kingmaker in this special election.

What’s more, hefty support may soon come from Los Angeles City Hall. In 2005, Dr. Chu was a strong supporter of Antonio Villaraigosa’s underdog campaign for Mayor. The next year, Mayor Villaraigosa endorsed Dr. Chu when she ran for California Board of Equalization. Don’t be surprised if Mayor Villaraigosa endorses Dr. Chu for Congress.

Throughout her 25 years in public service, Dr. Chu has earned the friendship and support of the San Gabriel Valley’s diverse community: Latinos, Asian Americans, Caucasians.

The special election to fill Rep. Hilda Solis’ seat will probably be held late March or early April. At this point, Dr. Chu’s strongest challenger is State Sen. Gloria Romero.

This exciting race is dead even.

– Gautam Dutta

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A Russian professor of US-Russia relations predicts the disintegration of the United States in 2010, with 55-45% chances. It’s the top article of the day over at the Wall Street Journal online.

Although he had been treated as a marginal figure, recently the state sponsored media has been given him more and more attention. So how exactly does Igor Panarin believe the US will split up?

He based the forecast on classified data supplied to him by FAPSI analysts, he says. He predicts that economic, financial and demographic trends will provoke a political and social crisis in the U.S. When the going gets tough, he says, wealthier states will withhold funds from the federal government and effectively secede from the union. Social unrest up to and including a civil war will follow. The U.S. will then split along ethnic lines, and foreign powers will move in.

California will form the nucleus of what he calls “The Californian Republic,” and will be part of China or under Chinese influence. Texas will be the heart of “The Texas Republic,” a cluster of states that will go to Mexico or fall under Mexican influence. Washington, D.C., and New York will be part of an “Atlantic America” that may join the European Union. Canada will grab a group of Northern states Prof. Panarin calls “The Central North American Republic.” Hawaii, he suggests, will be a protectorate of Japan or China, and Alaska will be subsumed into Russia.

“It would be reasonable for Russia to lay claim to Alaska; it was part of the Russian Empire for a long time.” A framed satellite image of the Bering Strait that separates Alaska from Russia like a thread hangs from his office wall. “It’s not there for no reason,” he says with a sly grin.

With Alaska going back to Russia, I guess Sarah Palin really will be able to see Russia from her front porch.

-Caroline

Caroline, Foreign Affairs | No Comments »

Tongues have been wagging over who Gov. Paterson might pick for the Senate seat that will be vacated by Hillary Clinton. In trying to read his mind, people have made all sorts of speculations. But perhaps the most telling is this recent exchange, brought to us by the New York Times:

Questions from reporters about the appointment overtook Mr. Paterson’s efforts to enjoy a relaxed New Year’s Day at the Executive Mansion. The governor and his wife, Michelle Paige Paterson, opened the house to the public on Thursday for the first time since Mr. Paterson became governor.

. . . At one point, a family from Delmar, N.Y., approached the governor and introduced their 7-year-old daughter, Caroline Spore. Upon hearing the little girl’s name, Mr. Paterson shouted, “Oh! Caroline is here, everybody!”

As heads turned, the governor added, “She’s 7. And she’s ready to go to the Senate.”

–Caroline

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Vanity Fair has a great retrospective on the presidency and nation under George W. Bush. In chronological order, they highlight key events and quote the main decision makers on how these events transpired, how they were perceived. It has taken me some time to digest it, but it is one of the most damning articles I have ever read of the large scale failure of the Bush presidency and Cheney’s takeover of executive power.

It is former administration insiders coming out and saying everything they ever wanted to before, no holds barred, firing away. Also included are comments about incoming VA Secretary Eric Shinseki’s prescience on troops needed for Iraq, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson admitting he doesn’t know much about housing regulation, Katrina as the end of Bush’s credibility, and much more. Key quotes include the following:

On Iraq:
Dan Bartlett, White House communications director and later counselor to the president: At the end of the day I think the divisiveness of this presidency will fundamentally come down to one issue: Iraq. And Iraq only because, in my opinion, there weren’t weapons of mass destruction. I think the public’s tolerance for the difficulties we face would’ve been far different had it felt like the original threat had been proved true. That’s the fulcrum. Fundamentally, when the president gets to an approval rating of 27 percent, it’s this issue.

Jay Garner, retired army general and first overseer of the U.S. administration and reconstruction of Iraq: When Shinseki said, Hey, it’s going to take 300,000 or 400,000 soldiers, they crucified him. They called me up the day after that, Wolfowitz and Rumsfeld. They called me the next day and they said, Did you see what Shinseki said? And I said yes. And they said, Well, that can’t be possible. And I said, Well, let me give you the only piece of empirical data I have. In 1991, I owned 5 percent of the real estate in Iraq, and I had 22,000 trigger pullers. And on any day I never had enough. So you can take 5 percent—you can take 22,000 and multiply that by 20. Hey, here’s probably the ballpark, and I didn’t have Baghdad. And they said, Thank you very much. So I got up and left.

On terrorism:
Richard Clarke, chief White House counterterrorism adviser: The contrast with having briefed his father and Clinton and Gore was so marked. And to be told, frankly, early in the administration, by Condi Rice and [her deputy] Steve Hadley, you know, Don’t give the president a lot of long memos, he’s not a big reader—well, shit. I mean, the president of the United States is not a big reader?

On 9/11:
Scott McClellan, deputy White House press secretary and later press secretary: I remember Karl Rove was out there talking at some events about how we’d use 9/11, run on 9/11 in the midterms, and that it was important to do so.

On Guantanamo:
John Bellinger III, legal adviser to the National Security Council, and later to the secretary of state: The Department of Justice often was the decisive voice on detainee matters, but the Justice Department really never lived up to its name. It was not the Department of Justice—it was often the Department of Litigation Risk, and they saw everything through the perspective of whether a decision might result in some kind of liability, whether someone might get sued or prosecuted. But that’s not the only role of the lawyer. The role of the lawyer is also to exercise good judgment and to look at long-term consequences, and ultimately to do what’s the ethically and morally correct thing.

On the housing bubble:
Henry Paulson, secretary of the Treasury: I easily could imagine and expected there to be financial turmoil. But the extent of it, O.K., I was naïve in terms of—I knew a lot about regulation but not nearly as much as I needed to know, and I knew very little about regulatory powers and authorities. I just had not gone into it in that kind of detail.

On Katrina:
Matthew Dowd, Bush’s pollster and chief strategist for the 2004 presidential campaign: Katrina to me was the tipping point. The president broke his bond with the public. Once that bond was broken, he no longer had the capacity to talk to the American public. State of the Union addresses? It didn’t matter. Legislative initiatives? It didn’t matter. P.R.? It didn’t matter. Travel? It didn’t matter. I knew when Katrina—I was like, man, you know, this is it, man. We’re done.

On Cheney:
Lawrence Wilkerson, top aide and later chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell: We had this confluence of characters—and I use that term very carefully—that included people like Powell, Dick Cheney, Condi Rice, and so forth, which allowed one perception to be “the dream team.” It allowed everybody to believe that this Sarah Palin–like president—because, let’s face it, that’s what he was—was going to be protected by this national-security elite, tested in the cauldrons of fire. What in effect happened was that a very astute, probably the most astute, bureaucratic entrepreneur I’ve ever run into in my life became the vice president of the United States.

He became vice president well before George Bush picked him. And he began to manipulate things from that point on, knowing that he was going to be able to convince this guy to pick him, knowing that he was then going to be able to wade into the vacuums that existed around George Bush—personality vacuum, character vacuum, details vacuum, experience vacuum.

On Colin Powell:
February 5, 2003 Colin Powell appears before the United Nations Security Council to present evidence that Iraq is actively seeking to make or acquire weapons of mass destruction. In the ensuing months, it will emerge that, although Powell was unaware of the fact, many of his claims are unfounded.

Joschka Fischer, German foreign minister and vice-chancellor: I spoke over and over and over with Colin Powell. He always looked, I don’t know, not at me, but I could see the pain in his eyes. These are very powerful questions, he used to say. I understood. It meant: I have serious problems inside the administration.

On “compassionate conservatism”:
David Kuo, deputy director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives:I’ll never forget the discussion—we’re sitting around the table, and someone says, I know what we should do. We should tackle chronic homelessness. I hear there are like 15,000 homeless people in America.

What can you say to that?

On Rove’s permanent majority:
David Kuo, deputy director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives: It’s kind of like the Tower of Babel. At a certain point in time, God smites hubris. You knew that right around the time people started saying there’s going to be a permanent Republican majority—that God kinda goes, No, I really don’t think so.

It masterfully demolishes the rest of Bush’s legacy, if it ever had any legs to stand on. Read Farewell to All That: An Oral History of the Bush White House.

Caroline, Economy, Foreign Affairs | No Comments »

From the NY Times, a provocative piece on China and India’s divergent paths to prosperity:

Two days after last month’s terrorist attack on Mumbai, I met with a Chinese friend who was visiting India on business. He was shocked as much by the transparent and competitive minute-by-minute reporting of the attack by India’s dozens of news channels as by the ineffectual response of the government. He had seen a middle-class housewife on national television tell a reporter that the Indian commandos delayed in engaging the terrorists because they were too busy guarding political big shots. He asked how the woman could get away with such a statement.

I explained sarcasm resonates in a nation that is angry and disappointed with its politicians. My friend switched the subject to the poor condition of India’s roads, its dilapidated cities and the constant blackouts. Suddenly, he stopped and asked: “With all this, how did you become the second-fastest growing economy in the world? China’s leaders fear the day when India’s government will get its act together.”

What’s the most effective approach to growing a nation’s economy: top-down (China), bottom-up (India), or both? With a new stimulus package in the works, these are hardly idle questions.

– Gautam Dutta

Economy, Foreign Affairs, Gautam Dutta, Obama Administration | No Comments »

How has the Blagojevich scandal affected Chicago’s Asian American community? Guest Blogger Vijay Prashad, a professor at Trinity College, examines the disgraced Illinois Governor’s ties to the Indian American community. His piece was originally published in Counterpunch.

In 2007, the Illinois government renamed a major freeway that links the wealthy suburbs of northern Chicago the Jane Addams Memorial Tollway. This roadway runs though the heart of northern Chicago’s urban sprawl, the expanse of concrete and glass that makes up corporate headquarters (Motorola and United Airlines) and mega-shopping centres (the Woodfield Mall and the Huntley Prime Outlets). Jane Addams, a famous social reformer, would probably not have taken kindly to her name being tied to these churches of American capitalism. The town of Schaumburg sits in the middle of this “Golden Corridor”, and in the middle of this town is the India House Restaurant.

On October 31, a Konkani businessman, Raghuveer Nayak, booked India House for a private party. He hosted luminaries of Chicago’s business community, people such as pharmacy owners Harish and Renuka Bhatt, hotelier Satish “Sonny” Gabhawala, and prominent political leaders of the Indian-American community, such as Babu Patel and Iftekhar Shareef (both past presidents of the Federation of Indian Associations). Nayak, also a former head of the Federation of Indian Associations, owns a group of surgical centres. A highly regarded Democratic Party fund-raiser, Nayak is also a friend of another person who attended the lunch, Rajinder Bedi, an aide to Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich (the Governor calls Bedi “My Sikh Warrior”). In addition, among the few who are not Indian American, the party included Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr.’s brother Jonathan. Governor Blagojevich made a brief appearance.

People who attended the party made it clear, anonymously, that Nayak brought them together to put his friend Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr.’s name up for the Senate. It had become clear that Senator Barack Obama would win the presidential contest to be held the next week, and these deep pockets realised that his elevation would open the Senate seat. The Governor of Illinois would have the right to fill the seat until the next election cycle. Nayak, Bedi, Bhatt and others wanted to put in a good word for their friend, Congressman Jackson. Gabhawala told Chicago Tribune that he saw Bedi and Nayak try to convince Babu Patel, a Blagojevich fund-raiser, to use his influence and money on Jackson’s behalf.

In a country whose highest court decided that political donations are a form of free speech, it is to be expected that you cannot put in a word for someone without opening your wallet. According to a federal indictment and to reliable sources at the meeting, the fund-raisers promised to raise over a million dollars towards Blagojevich, who would then nominate Jackson to fill Obama’s Senate seat. Later that day, a federal government wiretap caught the Governor saying, “We were approached pay-to-play, that, you know, he’d raise me 500 grand. An emissary came. Then the other guy would raise a million, if I made him a Senator.”

On December 4, the Governor met with “Advisor B” (as he is named in the criminal complaint) and told him that “Senate Candidate 5” (Jesse Jackson Jr.) would get “greater consideration” because of a surety that No. 5 would help Blagojevich raise money and that he would give him “some [money] up front, maybe.” Blagojevich wanted something “tangible” now because “some of this stuff’s gotta start happening now… right now… and we gotta see it. You understand?”

Two days later, a month after Obama’s victorious election, the principal fund-raisers from the India House gathering came to a suburban home in Elmhurst, another of the wealthy suburban towns that ring Chicago. Here, according to Chicago Tribune, the Indian-American businessmen discussed raising $1 million to $1.5 million. At the October 31 fund-raiser, Nayak had already made it clear to Bhatt that he could find half a million, but Bhatt and others would have to come up with the other half million. The December 4 meeting apparently made this vision reality.

Right after Obama’s election, Blagojevich said, “I want to make some money.” He was agnostic about whom he would nominate to Obama’s seat as long as he would get some tangible benefit from the act. Obama’s team, by all accounts, refused to barter the seat although questions remain about the contact between Obama’s Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and the Blagojevich people.

Jackson says that he had limited contact with Blagojevich, and when the scandal broke, he said, “I did not initiate nor authorise anyone, at any time, to promise anything to Gov. Blagojevich on my behalf. I never sent a message or an emissary to the Governor to make an offer or to propose a deal about the U.S. Senate seat.” Federal officials arrested Blagojevich on December 9 on charges of corruption. He is now out on bail, facing an impeachment motion in the Illinois legislature.

The spotlight turned, briefly, on the Indian-American community in Chicago. These men, Nayak, Bhatt and Bedi, were a sideshow to the greater scandals, which were how much Jackson knew and what kind of contact Obama’s transition team had with Blagojevich. Over the years, Blagojevich and Jackson had cultivated the increasingly affluent Indian-American community in Chicago. Blagojevich had a fruitful relationship with the banker Amrish Mahajan and his wife, the businesswoman Anita Mahajan. “Uncle Amrish”, as many know him, came to prominence through his close ties with the Parrillo family (a political clan that is linked to the Chicago mafia).

Mahajan rose to the head of Mutual Bank, whose well-heeled customers donated money to politicians anointed by the Mahajans. Blagojevich was a major beneficiary, as money entered his campaign war chest, and his wife, Patti, earned huge real estate contracts from the Mahajan circle. In 2007, the government arrested and charged Anita Mahajan with overbilling the State for millions of dollars on her State contract. Harish Bhatt’s pharmacies are currently under investigation on the grounds that Bhatt’s fund-raising for Blagojevich turned into phone calls to regulators to lay off from their investigation of fraud.

All of this has frazzled the Indian-American community. Nayak is a well-regarded businessman and a philanthropist. His charity includes setting up hospitals in India and raising funds for tsunami relief. Nayak’s closest ties are with the Jackson family.

He won the PUSH Excellence for Public Service award from Jesse Jackson’s Operation Push and accompanied Jackson to India in November 2007. (Nayak organised a lecture by Jackson at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi.) In addition, Nayak brought the main Chicago Democrats into the India Caucus and was a booster for the India-U.S. nuclear deal. Nayak, Mahajan, Bedi, Bhatt and others are all close allies who have leveraged their political connections for economic gain and used that money to strengthen their political heft.

Everything that the Indian Americans did is customary. Political campaigns have become overwhelmingly expensive. The 2008 presidential race cost more than $1 billion. In addition, elected officials live within the social confines of the very wealthy and often aspire to their lifestyle. Even as more and more millionaires run for public office, the bulk of the elected officials do not win on the strength of family wealth.

Their jobs do not provide them with the kind of funds to earn the six- or seven-figure salaries that they would need to fulfil their upwardly mobile aspirations.

Scandals are now commonplace. The fallout from the sleazy pay-to-play empire set up by the lobbyist Jack Abramoff continues to resonate through Washington, D.C., notably inside the Republican Party (many of whose elected officials, such as Congressman Randy Cunningham, are now in prison).

Near my town, in western Massachusetts, a contractor goes to see the local Mayor to deliver his regular payment of $5,000. The Mayor, Richard Goyette, stops him. “What, no envelope?” he asks, stuffing the money into his pockets. In a federal wiretap, Goyette complains about those who had to pay him to earn city contracts, “They’re all greedy.” The symbiotic relationship between money and power is evident regardless of the scale, from a small municipal contract to the large no-bid contracts for firms to operate in Iraq (such as Vice-President Dick Cheney’s Halliburton).

Sleaze is characteristic of American politics, and it is one of the principal reasons for the lack of faith among the population in their elected officials and in the political process in general. Large numbers of people refuse to vote on election day for precisely the reason that they do not trust the process. Their withdrawal allows the connected and the wealthy to make the system their own, cynically.

Obama’s election raised hopes and brought large numbers of people to the polls. Millions hope that it will turn the page on the corruption at all levels of government. The Blagojevich scandal is a reality check, a reminder of how widespread corruption has become. Obama’s link to Blagojevich threatens to revive a sense of hopelessness.

Blagojevich’s various scandals are quite pedestrian in today’s America. One of them is that he wanted a payoff for the expansion of the Jane Addams Tollway. That deal did not happen over samosas and masala tea. But others did. When Obama won, Blagojevich recognized quickly that he had a “golden” opportunity, a goose that could lay a million eggs in one swoop. The larger the deal, the less the squalor.

Three of the past six Illinois governors spent time in jail for corruption, so the odds were always against Blagojevich. His affinity with the Indian Americans is not just for their money but also because both share the hunger of immigrants (Blagojevich is the son of a Serbian immigrant and a working-class American woman). Just as Bedi, Nayak, Bhatt and Mahajan turned to Blagojevich for their ascent, he was gifted by marriage to the politically connected Mell family. Money, power, family: this is as much a Hollywood as a Bollywood drama.

– Vijay Prashad

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Last weekend, California State Controller John Chiang was hospitalized in Texas after experiencing chest pains.  We are happy to report that Chiang, who sits on AAA-Fund’s Honorary Board, has checked out of the hospital and is spending New Year’s with his family.

Chiang generated headlines last summer, when he foiled Gov. Schwarzenegger’s attempt to pay minimum wage to state employees.

We salute Chiang’s wise leadership and wish him well.

– Gautam Dutta

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We at AAA-Fund wish everyone a joyous New Year.  Stay tuned with us in 2009 for more Asian American empowerment!

– Gautam Dutta

AAA Fund, Gautam Dutta, Grassroots Activism, Social Justice | No Comments »

Independent-turned-Republican Joseph Cao, the first Vietnamese American to be elected to Congress, has a remarkable life story. As the Washington Post reports, Cao’s political career was inspired by AAA-Fund Honorary Board President Rep. Mike Honda:

So when the city put a landfill in their neighborhood in February 2006, Cao and other local residents were furious. They formed civic groups to fight back. Cao leapt into the fray, lending guidance and legal strategy to the protests. It was about this time that Rep. Mike Honda (D-Calif.), chairman of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, came to a meeting at the neighborhood church. He said the Vietnamese community would have to get more involved in politics.

“Joseph raised his hand and said he would run for a state representative seat,” remembers the Rev. Vien The Nguyen, pastor of the church. “Before Katrina, that might have been a little scary for us. But after Katrina, we saw new possibilities, not just as Vietnamese, but for everybody in Louisiana. Bobby Jindal [an Indian American] was governor. Besides, we were up to our eyeballs with being on the bottom of the pile all the time. Joseph stepped in with the intention of correcting the wrong.”

We wish Congressmember-Elect Cao well as he embarks on his new challenge — and hope he inspires many more Asian Americans to run for office.

– Gautam Dutta

AAA Fund, Environment, Gautam Dutta, Grassroots Activism, Media, Running for Office, Social Justice | No Comments »

Day of Service and Donations at Union Rescue Mission
(Day of Service - January 19)

Volunteer with Asian American Action Fund on President-Elect Obama’s National Day of Service by joining us at Union Rescue Mission in Downtown, Los Angeles.

AAA-Fund will be serving food and collecting donations for the mission.

Food service volunteers needed: 15
Donations and donors: Unlimited!*

*Items requested by Union Rescue Mission include all kinds of food (especially non perishables), new clothing, diapers, hygiene products, and new toys. Other items will also be appreciated. Please drop off items at the mission between 11 am - 3 pm on the day of service.

Parking will be reserved and secured.

If you have any questions, please feel free to email Helen at helentra@usc.edu.

Sign up here: http://www.pic2009.org/page/event/detail/wjj

AAA Fund, The Editors | 1 Comment »

I am reading this a few months after it was published, but David Maraniss of the Washington Post does an excellent job of showing the local color of Hawaii, where Obama spent a lot of time growing up. It’s a profile rich with quotes of Hawaiians that Obama grew up with, and it talks about the racial diversity of the islands, juxtaposing Hawaii with Chicago where Barack grew up professionally. Much of it retraces the lives of his parents and grandparents. Read Though Obama Had to Leave to Find Himself, It Is Hawaii That Made His Rise Possible:

Those who come from islands are inevitably shaped by the experience. For Obama, the experience was all contradiction and contrast.

As the son of a white woman and a black man, he grew up as a multiracial kid, a “hapa,” “half-and-half” in the local lexicon, in one of the most multiracial places in the world, with no majority group. There were native Hawaiians, Japanese, Filipinos, Samoans, Okinawans, Chinese and Portuguese, along with Anglos, commonly known as haole (pronounced howl-lee), and a smaller population of blacks, traditionally centered at the U.S. military installations. But diversity does not automatically translate into social comfort: Hawaii has its own difficult history of racial and cultural stratification, and young Obama struggled to find his place even in that many-hued milieu.

He had to leave the island to find himself as a black man, eventually rooting in Chicago, the antipode of remote Honolulu, deep in the fold of the mainland, and there setting out on the path that led toward politics. Yet life circles back in strange ways, and in essence it is the promise of the place he left behind — the notion if not the reality of Hawaii, what some call the spirit of aloha, the transracial if not post-racial message — that has made his rise possible. Hawaii and Chicago are the two main threads weaving through the cloth of Barack Obama’s life. Each involves more than geography.

Hawaii is about the forces that shaped him, and Chicago is about how he reshaped himself. Chicago is about the critical choices he made as an adult: how he learned to survive in the rough-and-tumble of law and politics, how he figured out the secrets of power in a world defined by it, and how he resolved his inner conflicts and refined the subtle, coolly ambitious persona now on view in the presidential election. Hawaii comes first. It is what lies beneath, what makes Chicago possible and understandable.

The writer also interviews Keith Kukagawa, who recounts what it was like reading Dreams from My Father as somenoe who knew the author in his formulative years:

This was their story, too. They wondered why Obama focused so much on a friend he called Ray, who in fact was Keith Kukagawa. Kukagawa was black and Japanese, and the Petersons did not even think of him as black. Yet in the book, Obama used him as the voice of black anger and angst, the provocateur of hip, vulgar, get-real dialogues.

But what interested the Petersons more was Obama’s interior dialogue with himself, his sense of dislocation at the private school, a feeling that no matter what he did, he was defined and confined by the expectations and definitions of white people. Keith Peterson had felt the same way, without being fully able to articulate his unease. “Now keep in mind I am reading this before [Obama] came on the national scene,” he said later. “So I am reading this still person to person, not person to candidate, and it meant a lot more for that reason. It was a connection. It was amazing as I read this book, so many decades later, at last I was feeling a certain amount of closure, having felt so isolated for so long. I wasn’t alone. I spent a good portion of my life thinking I had experienced something few others had. It was surprisingly satisfying to know I wasn’t crazy. I was not the only one struggling with some of these issues.”

I appreciated the effort and imagery that Maraniss put into the story, which is why I’m recommending it as a read. But I’m also the kind of person who finds personal family histories interesting, be they of our president or our neighbors.

–Caroline

Caroline | No Comments »

From the LA Times, a moving tale of how a American sailors saved several Asian American refugees from certain death. After fleeing Vietnam by boat, Linh Duong and her family were in dire straits on the high seas:

Duong’s father, a machine shop owner, paid 12 gold pieces each to secure himself, his wife, his toddler son and infant daughter spots on a fishing boat crammed with more than 400 people. They headed toward Thailand; however, vicious storms blew them into the South China Sea. “We were rocked in all directions. We were sick and fainting and throwing up. No one had water.” After drifting for several days, the boat started to flood and its motor died. Sharks circled. “Everyone was crying and praying to Buddha for mercy.”

An American naval frigate, the U.S.S. Whipple, finally discovered the rickety vessel bobbing in the waves. “It was very emotional. There were extreme acts of kindness. They gave us clothes and food, and they gave us their beds.” The Whipple sailed to Hong Kong, where the refugees were greeted as heroes.

Duong went on to become Public Relations Director of LA’s Chinese American Museum, which recently opened an exhibit on her family’s immigration experience.

In the process of writing the story, the author made an unexpected discovery:

Shortly after my visit to the museum, I email Duong about a website I found while double-checking the name of the Navy ship. It includes an essay by a man who served on the Whipple, as well as photos of haggard refugees being taken aboard. I assume Duong is aware of the site; I just want to let her know that I I might mention it in this item.

It turns out she knew nothing like this existed. “I’ve been reading/exploring all of its sublinks for the past hour,” she e-mailed back, “and am speechless to know that the images I am seeing are most likely the raw images of our rescue — the missing visual pieces to my family’s journey. It never really dawned on my siblings and I to further explore this story — certainly not for lack of interest — we always felt that hearing these stories from my dad and mom were fulfilling enough, we took them for face-value and honored it by sharing it with our friends….”

The web builds community.

– Gautam Dutta

California, Civil Rts/Liberties, Foreign Affairs, Gautam Dutta, Immigration, Social Justice | No Comments »

Mercifully, George W. Bush’s White House days are winding down. And that tees up an important question: Was he the worst President ever?

Consider this prescient 2006 piece from Rolling Stone:

Now, though, George W. Bush is in serious contention for the title of worst ever. In early 2004, an informal survey of 415 historians conducted by the nonpartisan History News Network found that eighty-one percent considered the Bush administration a “failure.”

I nominate George W. Bush as the second-worst President in U.S. history — behind only James Buchanan.

Why did “W” lose out on the top honors? Let’s examine the competition:

James Buchanan (1857-61). Under his watch, the country careened from “Bleeding Kansas” to a far bloodier Civil War — leaving Abraham Lincoln to pick up the pieces (we can take up Best Presidents later).

Richard Nixon (1969-74). Although he was forced to resign in disgrace over Watergate , “Tricky Dick” had at least a couple positive traits. Unlike Bush 43, Nixon cared about the environment and actually believed in diplomacy. Indeed, Nixon launched the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), signed the Clean Air Act, opened relations with China, and promoted peace in the Middle East.

Now let’s turn to our final contestant:

George W. Bush (2001-09). In eight years as “Decider-in-Chief“, he tricked the nation into a ruinous war, enabled his cronies to corrupt the U.S. Justice Department, and did nothing to prevent Hurricane Katrina from killing almost 2,000 New Orleans residents.

So what’s worse? Failing to prevent a catastrophic civil war (Buchanan)? Or recklessly going to war while disregarding public safety and civil liberties (Bush)? Let us know what you think: please comment below, or send us a blog post.

While my vote is for Buchanan, I must confess it’s a close call. At a recent Rosenkranz Foundation debate, two-thirds of the audience agreed that Bush was the worst President in the last 50 years.

Come Jan. 20, it’s time for change.

– Gautam Dutta

Civil Rts/Liberties, Environment, Foreign Affairs, Gautam Dutta, Grassroots Activism, Obama Administration, President 2008 | 1 Comment »

Looks like the economic downtown has hit canines too. On Christmas Day a dog walked into a Utah supermarket, helped himself to a bone, and sauntered out of the store:

The dog picked out a rawhide bone worth $2.79 and headed for the exit when he was confronted by the store’s manager, Roger Adamson.

“I said, ‘drop it!’” Adamson recalled, but the dog chose to ignore the unreasonable request. “I decided I wanted to keep all my fingers, so I didn’t try to take it from him.”

The dog turned away and sauntered out the front door, daring anyone to follow him.

Check out CNN’s video of our precocious bloodhound here.

It’s a dog’s world. We just live in it.

– Gautam Dutta

Gautam Dutta, Humor | No Comments »

We get some interesting spam comments here, which we editors spend too much time deleting, but I wanted to point out a recent repeat offender (text left exactly as is, typos and all):

Cash in on the latest booming business!

Loss mitigation consulting or more widely know as foreclosure consulting.

Foreclosure consultants make $500-$2,000 per case on average. And, loss mitigation training is fast and simple!

Anyone can be a foreclosure consultant and Foreclosure consultants are in hugh demand!

With all the homeowners across the country facing foreclosure, there are simply not enough trained foreclosure consultants to handle the massive numbers of potential clients.

Get Foreclosure consulting training today!

It’s pretty depressing when foreclosure consulting is a booming cottage industry. I’m guessing that the euphemism of “loss mitigation” in this case doesn’t refer to reduced losses for homeowners but rather for the banks and companies that actually hold the properties. I.e., how do we turnover houses as quick as possible and evict people as soon as we can?

Also, where are people’s priorities? Families have a vested interest in staying in their homes, so what’s wrong with working with them to figure out a mutually agreeable repayment plan?

Shouldn’t we be spending money on trying to figure out how to KEEP families in their homes, so that their kids can continue going to school with friends? This would keep families and communities together. What happened to those kinds of family values?

If you’ll notice, I left out the contact info and website for this infamous spammer. I don’t believe in throwing red meat to vultures.

– Caroline

Caroline, Economy | No Comments »

I had wanted to write something upbeat for Christmas, because I am tired of the doom and gloom, of the cloud that has hovered over this nation for the past eight years.

I had wanted to write something uplifting about how 2009 is a new year, full of new opportunities for change. How ‘09 will be different, and how our nation will pull together in shared joys and sacrifices.

Then I read this New York Times article about how the last UAW plant in Janesville, Wisconsin, is closing. Janesville is a middle class town in Southern Wisconsin, located on I-90. One of the most famous people to hail from Janesville is progressive icon Senator Russ Feingold.

It’s funny because I actually oppose the idea of SUVs, of the whole “my car is bigger than yours and I sit higher on the road than you and block your view of the road ahead, and if I wanted to I could offroad in the suburban shopping mall” mentality. I hate the Chevy Durango in particular for being a very unwieldy and scary behemoth to drive (I once got stuck with one, despite having rented a sedan, as it was the only vehicle left on the rental lot.) I had a horrible time driving it on the highways and trying to park in winding multi-level garages with tight spaces, to say nothing of the wretched gas mileage.

But none of this fully explains why this short 2 page article tugs at my heart. I should explain - I spent a summer organizing in Janesville and Beloit. It was my first real community organizing experience, and it pushed me. I was younger, shyer, and less certain of myself then, and I was tasked with organizing a community town hall meeting that would attract gubernatorial candidates and sitting elected officials. There were 8 weeks to get to know community leaders, find a location, inform the press, get bodies there, and pull it all together. I literally went to the tourism center and asked for a list of all the local organizations. The first 2-3 weeks was just cold calls trying to set up meetings. I was never so sick of the phone. I think at one point I was wondering if I should contact the Masons, we had a discussion of “well, are they masons or freemasons, and what’s the difference?”

I worked really hard, harder than I did on some of my classes. There were a lot of things I was supposed to learn in a short amount of time about a very complicated issue - Medicare and reimbursement rates. I felt like I couldn’t let these people down. I was living in Madison, where I didn’t know a lot of people, so I had a lot of time to try to puzzle through the differences between Medicare Part A and B (this is before we had the disastrous Medicare Part D donut hole.)

In talking with community leaders, I spoke with a pastor who said that about 1 in 11 of his parishioners lacked jobs and that after the major employer (a paper plant) had closed, things were already worse. I spoke with a bunch of faith leaders, retired educators, the leader of the local NAMI chapter, UAW representatives, to a Kiwanis Club, the executive director of a local health care clinic, and the owner of a mom and pop pharmacy. All of these people echoed the pastor’s concerns about the rising cost of health care. The pharmacist said the he had a hard time watching his elderly customers pick between buying groceries and necessary medications, knowing that many of them would cut the pills in half or take one every other day.

The week before my event, I lost my voice. I had been working long hours pinning down the final details, and eating and sleeping poorly. I freaked out, because I couldn’t call people who I needed to reach. The pastor prayed for my voice to come back. You can read whatever you want into the timing, but it stressed me out a lot.

Nonetheless, the event came together, and we had more than 100 people there, as well as gubernatorial candidates, sitting Congresspeople and state senators. The community was able to submit questions about rising healthcare and prescription drug costs, and the community leaders who were on a panel were glad that their towns had been represented. Despite the struggles that people faced, the community came together and the leaders celebrated. They thanked me for helping them pull the event together.

That article tugs at me because I know that people were feeling the hard times even back then, and that now that the last UAW plant in Janesville has closed, that 9% number the pastor cited then is probably higher now. The community is going to have to pull together even more, work even harder to preserve what they have. What they do have a surfeit of strength, of hope.

“Janesville will lose a lot,” said Patti Homan, as she finished a strawberry-topped waffle at the nearby Eagle Inn restaurant. “I expect my electricity to go up, water rates to go up, property taxes to go up, and the value of my home to go down.”

Ms. Homan worked in the plant for 23 years, and her father, brother and husband all retired from the factory. “It’s generation after generation for so many families here,” she said.

So no, I’m not crying because one of the last remaining US based SUV manufacturing plants closed. I’m crying because of what it will do to the community. This economy is testing the strength of local communities, of the bonds that tie neighborhoods together, and generations to each other. The time is now for organizing to rebuild our local infrastructures, ourselves.

– Caroline

Caroline, Economy, Healthcare, Social Justice | No Comments »

I don’t believe that Obama’s choice of Rick Warren represents a fundamental or even practical change in Obama’s positions, especially those regarding religiously-related or sensitive issues. I must point to both men’s statements which remind us that how disagreement doesn’t justify a personal hate which disables useful cooperation, an attitude we cannot afford to forget as progressives and Americans in this era of hope.

I instead focus my entry on Rick Warren himself. Understanding him is insightful into how religious conservatives may run their 2010 and 2012 political campaigns.

Rick Warren’s charm is in his intelligently forming the systems necessary to grow his mega-church. His insistence on quality is
charismatic:

• high quality media (produced videos, podcasts, satellite broadcasts, all manner of print media, glossy publications, you name it)
• personalized outreach worthy of lusciously funded corporate advertising
• well-managed outreach and welcome committees that make everyone feel included into the fold
• a hip appearance with a competent grasp of culture, media, technology, and general today-ed-ness

This high-quality presentation is naturally alluring, like that of Hollywood and the mass advertising industry. We should, however, examine the message all that media from Warren and Company reinforces. Is it a generic one that Jesus Christ is the Savior? Is it a more conservative one that all heathens shall be cowed into repenting all too late? Is it a more liberal one that Christians should go beyond preaching only about abortion and gay marriage and onto environmental justice, rich-poor gaps, and whole-life full-of-life-ed-ness?

The many messages which Warren sends at once makes his campaign’s core message difficult to decipher. Everyone sees what they want in him, reinforcing his cleverness. Moderate conservatives who pretend to be nice remind me of Bush’s 2000 claim of “compassionate conservatism” and being a man who would reach across the aisle. Never let such claims fool one. Disarm such claims of kindness by pointing to their message. In Rick Warren’s case, the message is that the world (technology, material things, secular things) can be used to advance the campaign for Christ as the sole Savior. With that view comes uncompromising views which are divisive, not exactly an Obama-like trait. The problem is, more generally, that ideologies have no tolerance for dissent. Anti-intellectual stands use a fixed self-justifying opinion to neuter external debate. Organized
religion’s inherent inability to tolerate dissent inspires strong passions in all. I again warn against such passions and remind us of one of Obama’s brilliant traits: to “seek common ground with people with whom we disagree fundamentally.” Even when the message is disagreeable, dangerous, and hateful, we progressive must progress beyond the hate and do better. Rick Warren may represent a general threat to discussion and disagreement, but we should not.

– Richard Chen

Richard Chen | No Comments »

Everyone can be owned by the banks.

Says former Treasury Secretary John W. Snow, about the vast success of Bush’s homeownership policies:

“The Bush administration took a lot of pride that homeownership had reached historic highs,” Mr. Snow said in an interview. “But what we forgot in the process was that it has to be done in the context of people being able to afford their house. We now realize there was a high cost.” (Original interview at NYTimes.)

And everyone can own the banks (or just pay for it, with no real oversight!) The best of both worlds!

Bush totally ownzored us. And our houses. And our little dog too.

-Caroline

Caroline, Economy | No Comments »

We at AAA-Fund wish you a Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, Joyous Kwanzaa, and a wonderful holiday season.

– Gautam Dutta

AAA Fund, Gautam Dutta, Religion | No Comments »

####################################
Asian American Action Fund Online Newsletter
Volume 8, Number 29, December 24, 2008
www.aaa-fund.org and www.aaa-fund.com
Subscribe/unsubscribe info at the end
***********************************
CONTENTS:
1. Judy Chu for Congress
2. Golfing With the Prez
3. Hey There, Good Lookin
4. Shinseki, Jpz. Am’s, and WII Veterans
5. Dandekar: Person of the Year
6. Hilda Solis’ Lessons for As. Am’s
7. Honda Lauds Obama Cabinet Picks
8. Sonal Shah Controversy
9. Advantage: Franken
10. Facebook Us!
11. Advertise with AAA-Fund
***********************************
The Board of the Asian American Action Fund
wishes everyone a wonderful holiday season
and a happy new year. We look forward to
working with each of you to support the Obama
Administration and encourage more Asian
Americans to get involved in politics on the
local, state and national levels.

====================================
1. Judy Chu for Congress

It’s official: AAA-Fund Honorary Board member
Judy Chu is running for Congress. If elected,
she would become the first Asian American
Congressmember to represent Southern California
since 1998.

More: http://www.aaa-fund.com/?p=1278

***********************************
2. Golfing With the Prez

Talk about a dream assignment: golfing in
Hawaii with the President-elect of the United
States. Who got the job? None other than Eugene
Kang, one of the first Asian Americans to serve
on the President-elect’s campaign staff. Check
out this nifty NY Times pic here.

Who says politics can’t be fun?

http://www.aaa-fund.com/?p=1275

***********************************
3. Hey There, Good Lookin

In this month’s issue of Asian Fortune,
AAA-Fund Executive Director Gautam
Dutta is featured as an instrumental
force behind AAA-Fund, “a major
difference-maker on the state,
local and national levels in the
Nov.4 elections.”

More: http://www.aaa-fund.com/?p=1251
***********************************
4. Shinseki, Jpz. Am’s, and WII Veterans

For all Asian Americans and Pacific
Islanders, it was both poetic justice and a
major milestone when President-elect
Obama named Japanese American General Eric
Shinseki as Secretary of Veteran’s Affairs
on the anniversary of the bombing of
Pearl Harbor.

More: http://www.aaa-fund.com/?p=1249

***********************************
5. Dandekar: Person of the Year

Asianweek columnist Phil Tajitsu Nash just
profiled a number of AAA-Fund leaders,
including Rep. Mike Honda, Yeni Wong,
and Bel Leong-Hong. We join Phil in
congratulating Iowa State Senator
(and AAA-Fund Honorary Board member)
Swati Dandekar, who was named 2008 APA
Person of the Year.

More: http://www.aaa-fund.com/?p=1274

***********************************
6. Hilda Solis’ Lessons for Asian Am’s

The announcement of Congresswoman Hilda
Solis as President-elect Obama’s choice
for US Secretary of Labor not only testifies
to the growing strength of the Latino
community but provides a valuable lesson
for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

More: http://www.aaa-fund.com/?p=1273

***********************************
7. Honda Lauds Obama Cabinet Picks

“I am so pleased that President-elect Obama
has named two Asian Americans to his cabinet,
Dr. Steven Chu as Secretary of Energy, and
retired Army Gen. Eric Shinseki as Secretary
of Veterans Affairs. I’m glad that the new
Administration is demonstrating its commitment
to not only diversity, but also to science.”

More: http://www.aaa-fund.com/?p=1264

***********************************
8. Sonal Shah Controversy

Although it started with good intentions,
has the Sonal Shah saga become a
political witchhunt?

Join the debate at: http://www.aaa-fund.com/?p=1263

***********************************
9. Advantage: Franken

The Democrats may get to 59 U.S. Senate
seats after all. AAA-Fund endorsee
Al Franken, who is locked in a bitter
recount against GOP Sen. Norm Coleman,
just got a huge boost.

More: http://www.aaa-fund.com/?p=1258

***********************************
10. Facebook Us!

Join AAA-Fund on Facebook! Find
APIA politicians, organizers,and
events in your area! Advertise
your events and campaigns on our
group page. Expand AAA-Fund’s national
network by helping us recruit more
supporters and strengthen our
connections. We’re just one click away:
http://tinyurl.com/8h9ybz

Official Facebook group name:
“Asian American Action Fund”

***********************************
11. Advertise with AAA-Fund

AAA-Fund is now sharing blog and
website space with sponsors.

The Asian American community has
some of the fastest growing, highest
income, and highest educated populations.
Since April, AAA-Fund Blog’s readership
has doubled this summer alongside
increasing visitors on AAA-Fund Website.
As the AAA-Fund Blogteam heads to the
Democratic National Convention this
August with its credentialed pass for
live coverage, we expect our Blog
readership to explode at an
unprecedented rate.

Advertise on AAA-Fund Blog or
Main Website and target a
large political and Asian American audience.

Click here for more information on
advertising with AAA-Fund:
http://tinyurl.com/a72u4b

#####################################
To subscribe to the AAA-Fund Newsletter,
send an email to info@aaa-fund.org and
type “subscribe” in the message line.
To stop receiving the AAA-Fund Newsletter,
send an email to info@aaa-fund.org and
type “remove” in the message line.
AAA-Fund
707 H Street, NW, Suite 200
Washington, D.C. 20001
info@aaa-fund.org
#####################################

AAA Fund, The Editors | No Comments »

Recently, two of my New America Foundation colleagues were published in the Los Angeles Times and San Francisco Chronicle. We have shared both pieces below.

In the LA Times, my colleague Blair Bobier points out that Instant Runoff Voting (IRV) would help avoid messy, Minnesota-style recounts and wasteful, Georgia-style runoff elections.

In the SF Chronicle, my colleague Steven Hill discusses how IRV has been successfully used in five straight San Francisco elections.

– Gautam Dutta

****

Instant Runoff Voting

Such an electoral system saves time and money, and ensures a majority winner.

http://www.irvinla.org/latest_news/irv-saves-tme-and-money-and-ensures