as if the roots which I had abandoned, the land lost with my childhood, suddenly came searching for me, and I stopped, wounded by the wandering aroma.
I Dedicate This City To You
I owned this city The day I moved in Now I just have to work And make it official
I dedicate this city to you
I am a Third World guy I love the filth, the crowds, the obnoxiousness The unpicked garbage, I love the package deal If there is any Third World in America It is in New York City
I own this city I dedicate it to you
I have measured the grounds of this city that I own With my own steps I have crisscrossed this city like sun rays On foot To claim what I own
I dedicate to you
To walk through the outer boroughs Is to go on world travel Manhattan is magic Times Square Center of the known universe
I love this city But if it were not for the parks I would go mad Homo Sapiens are not designed To stare at concrete all day Day after day after day Hour after hour
The lights in Times Square Are so rude and in your face They are sound Pretending to be light
From my room I can hear The bells of icecream trucks I dedicate to you this city and its quiet
Trains are cheaper and better When you ride a train you feel like You are riding something Cabs look awfully like the cars Out there in the Midwest somewhere So small you can barely spread your legs The cabbie revolutionaries of mini Nepal in Queens
I dedicate to you this city The Amazon forest of humanity There is not a human life form you can't find here Every town on earth is represented No language not spoken This city your gift to me My gift to you
while inside, a ferocious love wound around and around me - till it pierced me with its thorns, its sword, slashing a seared road through my heart
Love Is The Reason
It is the season for loving Love is the reason for loving.
Loving you is the best thing I could do For my people, though that is not the reason In claiming you I could reclaim my family That I never lost, but I have not seen in ages Like Lord Rama in the Ramayana Who was gone into the vast jungles for 12 years I have been a goner
It has been my destiny To be gone
It would have made perfect sense To hook up on day one, during week one The first month, the first year I might have been able to skip Utility bills At least
You would have known to help me With my urgent work for Nepal My ambitious attempts for my startup I would have liked being near you I would have liked to have someone to talk to I could have played with time Made it go faster, slower
But how I have struggled The past I never left behind Just because I moved to New York City First hometown I ever had Do you know what it means to say that Can you imagine
I have had to relive so many of the past experiences In attempts at liberation Kathmandu and Kentucky are like fingers to me Those landscapes are part of my identity And I will not have it any other way But the institutional abuses of power Those two places Kept getting at me Had me immobilized So many times When you were only a look away A word or two away So many many times I dropped the ball And made you feel bad I sent out signals I did not mean to send
I have had to struggle It has been a shame Because I look normal, and happy, and ambitious The pain lurking beneath the calm exterior Has been a shame
But I have dug with my own knife And taken many bullets out While never stopping the fight I have fought much bigger fights than any in the distant past The scales don't even compare But the memory is a strange thing Especially if your mind video never lost nothing The past looms large The past is never past
I feel better I feel ready I will dig deeper for more bullets So I can feel even better But I am about ready
I am so very sorry It took me a while I have been foolish For love is the antidote to pain Solitude is not as strong That is what wisdom says That is what instincts say But as if I had a choice
But I got stuck on the vast symbolisms From accumulated experiences Real and imagined slights Having the night vision goggles on While surveying a near all white room Seeing the threads of the perceived value system That binds all together Yes, I have doubted you Because you were in the room It was me doubting me Me struggling not with you But my past that was refusing to let go of me Until I stared it in its face And threw it to the ground I fired my guns
In seeking you I seek nothing less than rebirth And I have worried It might be too much for you Unfair perhaps You should not have to share All that I have lived
Especially when What really fascinates me Is the future What fascinates me Is this world before me Not me I am but a conduit
Every time I was made to feel lesser For being a Madhesi For being not white My instincts got stronger My dreams became bigger Some day the possibilities will catch up
Have I played safe Perhaps not The safest thing would have been to look you in the eye Instead I have been paralyzed by my past I thought I left behind at the city boundaries But obviously I did not
I am sorry it took me a while But I take solace in that Amitabh and Jaya did not hook up on day one
Woman, but this is not even the beginning You must have your own elaborate story I should listen up
To think anywhere along the way You could have bought me a drink To wash away my 10,000 years of male guilt
Or perhaps The fights were necessary The points had to be made There perhaps are no short cuts
Woman, who are you Really, but who are you
The time was like never, and like always. So we go there, where nothing is waiting; we find everything waiting there.
Hillary: But my husband Bill He is a political animal He eats and breathes politics I have to stick it out for as long I can If only for him
(Chorus) But Hillary Quit
Hillary: I am sure the big boys want me to But I am not going to Who do the big boys think they are
(Chorus) But Hillary Quit
Hillary: But the money keeps coming Thank god for Al Gore Who invented the Internet
(Chorus) But Hillary Quit
Hillary: My daughter Chelsea She got a hang of it She has started campaigning Have you seen
(Chorus) But Hillary Quit
Hillary: The brave men and women Who work the coal mines in Pennsylvania What will they think of me if I quit
(Chorus) But Hillary Quit
Hillary: But the people of Iraq who need a respite Who know better than Barack To blame me for the war in Iraq
(Chorus) But Hillary Quit
Hillary: But what if I quit And Barack picks someone else For running mate Eliot Spitzer imploded But have you seen Johnny boy lately He might be waiting in the wings
(Chorus) But Hillary Quit
Hillary: I am a numbers girl I am all about numbers Tell me if Obama has 2024 delegates yet If not, why do you want to hijack due process Are you a Jihadi?
Hillary will not quit until Barack gets past that magic number. But he should not have to wait until the convention to get that number. The superdelegates must all cast their votes one way or the other now. Do it in full public view now instead of waiting to get into smoke filled rooms at the convention.
To ask Hillary to quit is chauvinistic, but for the superdelegates to all come out of the closet one way or the other now is democratic.
If we wait until the convention, we are giving McCain a headstart. The guy is already leading in the polls. He just made a trip to France. He is acting like he is the future. We thought he was the past.
By the time the final primary/caucus is held, all superdelegates must have cast their preferences. Conventions are supposed to be when the nominee puts on a show. Conventions are not designed to be events where we pick our nominee. We decided on that decades back.
If we wait until the convention to decide, our nominee might not get the poll bounce that conventions are supposed to give. We might still win, but it might end up an unnecessarily scary, close election. Why take that chance?
The nominee must have all of summer to crisscross the country, preferably with a running mate, I think Hillary. If we can do that, we are looking at 60 Democrats in the next Senate. Otherwise it will be hard to build the momentum.
Deciding early is not about who the nominee will be or who will get the White House. Barack will be the nominee and the Dems will get the White House. That we already know. What we don't know is if we will end up with the magic number of 60 in the Senate. If we wait until the convention to decide on the nominee, we will not get the 60 we need. This is about the US Senate, this is not about Barack.
The superdelegates are all hard core political animals. They already know who they want. They should not keep the party waiting. It hurts the party to wait.
The nominee needs the summer to go full throttle. Don't deprive the nominee of the summer. After that the temperature goes south. We all know that.
Personally I want a million strong rally in Central Park for Barack this summer. We set a record in Washington Square Park. (The Largest Rally In US Presidential Campaign History) Oprah broke it. We would like to break her record.
Oprah, looks like you will draw 80000 people to your South Carolina event. I forgive you for breaking our record of 30000 in Washington Square Park here in ...
Kick Mugabe Out Of Zimbabwe
Mugabe is the weirdest head of state on the planet. It is high time he got kicked out. An inflation rate of 100,000 a year? The man is nuts. He is a thug. His time is up.
Rosemary at Planned Parenthood is fat, but I did not want to say it like that, so I said she has a comfortable body size.
Barack's Cutting Edge Mother
In the movie about Rwanda, the good, white guy says to the good, black guy, "You are not even a n____, you are an African." This white woman did not marry a black dude, she married an African. Few people marry outside their race even today. Back then it was illegal many places. This Ann Dunham person was cutting edge.
She also got into microfinance for women in the poor countries before Yunus did, decades before Yunus won a Nobel for it. This Ann Dunham person was cutting edge.
And to give birth to and raise a guy who is poised to become one of the top five US presidents, that is also cutting edge.
China asks Dalai Lama to use his influence' to stop Tibet violence Hindu Facing mounting international flak for the crackdown on Lhasa, China on Monday gave first signs of softening its stand by asking the Dalai Lama to use his "influence" to stop violence in Tibet and said the "channels" for dialogue with him are "always open." ..... and recognise both Tibet and Taiwan as inseparable parts of China .... an apparent softening of China's stand on the 72-year-old exiled Tibetan spiritual leader .... taking the number of those arrested to 414 Zimbabwe tense after opposition victory claim Christian Science Monitor "The police chief says he will not allow a Kenya to happen in Zimbabwe," says Mr. Boshoff, a military analyst at the Institute for Security Studies. Postelection violence in Kenya last December is blamed for the deaths of nearly 1,500. Zimbabwe Slowly Releases Vote ResultsThe Associated Press inflation of over 100,000 percent a year, by far the world's highest. ...... Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Changes said vote counts it saw posted at polling stations in 128 of the country's 210 parliamentary districts showed Tsvangirai taking 60 percent of the vote over 30 percent for Mugabe. ...... Tsvangirai narrowly lost disputed 2002 elections ...... The Movement for Democratic Change said the opposition won 96 seats of the 128 for which it had gathered results. Parliamentary and local council balloting was held alongside the presidential vote. ..... The Electoral Commission acknowledged that one of Mugabe's Cabinet ministers lost his seat in a district seen as a ruling party stronghold. ..... Zimbabweans shared election results among themselves, sending cell-phone text messages and e-mails that congested the country's networks. Obama Pushes Superdelegates to Declare Support Washington Post the rumored support for the Illinois Senator by the entire North Carolina Democratic House delegation ..... she had been leaning his way since her state's Feb. 5 caucuses, which were won overwhelmingly by Obama. .... his campaign in exerting ramped up pressure behind the scenes for superdelegates who are with Obama privately to be with him publicly. .... the only way this race will end is if a clear majority of the remaining superdelegates come out against Clinton between now and June 3. Short of that, Clinton will win enough states -- Pennsylvania, Kentucky, West Virginia, Puerto Rico and, potentially, Indiana -- to keep her in the game. Second Female Senator Endorses ObamaThe Associated Press Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar ... Obama has the support of 13 senators .. Clinton also has the support of 13 senators, including six women. Klobuchar Endorses Obama Washington Post she compared him to homestate icon Hubert Humphrey, lauding Obama's "different voice, bringing a new perspective and inspiring a real excitement from the American people." ..... Campaigning across Pennsylvania by bus, Obama is taking a new approach to engaging with Clinton, urging her to continue campaigning as long as she wants while asserting that their 15-month battle is "historic" and would do no lasting damage. .... presumptive GOP nominee as "clinging to the past," while offering himself as the stronger contrast, with generational overtones. Party Leaders Migrating To Obama?U.S. News & World Report Clinton promised over the weekend to fight for the nomination all the way to the convention ...... North Carolina's seven Democratic House members "are poised to endorse...Obama as a group -- just one has so far -- before that state's May 6 primary ..... Klobuchar said Obama 'has inspired an enthusiasm and idealism that we have not seen in this country in a long time. ...... the ex-president met privately with about 15 of the state's uncommitted superdelegates, trying to move them into his wife's camp ....... a mostly male party establishment is unfairly muscling Clinton out of the race ...... the candidate played nurse maid to a one-month-old calf" ..... "one of several stops this weekend designed to show Obama not as an ivory tower elitist, but as a regular guy. At a diner in Altoona, he ordered hot dogs, French fries. Later, he and his chaperon, Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey, went to a bowling alley." ...... Obama has opened a 10 point lead over Sen. Hillary Clinton in their national tracking poll. Obama leads Clinton 52%-42% .... McCain leads Obama 47%-44% and Clinton 48%-44%. .... Pennsylvania Democratic voters taken March 26-27 shows Sen. Hillary Clinton leading Sen. Barack Obama 51%-39%. ...... Jay Leno: "I know we have a lot of college students here. Now, here's kind of a philosophical question. Now, if a sniper fires a gun in the woods and nobody is around, does Hillary Clinton still hear it?" ..... Jay Leno: "Big movie opening this weekend is 'Run, Fat Boy, Run.' Isn't this what the Democrats are trying to get Al Gore to do now?" .... Jimmy Kimmel:"Hillary Clinton was in Indiana trying to get more people there to like her. She claims to have taken some incoming sniper fire at the Indianapolis Airport baggage carousel, but other than that, they say the trip went very well." Clinton faces tough odds as Obama's lead widens AFP a new opinion poll showed rival Barack Obama consolidating his nationwide support. ..... 52 percent versus 42 percent, Obama's largest lead of the year so far. ..... Governor Edward Rendell, speaking on ABC television, also said he would "love" for the two star Democrats to join forces .... idea of a gathering in mid-June of the nearly 800 party luminaries ..... the last primaries in Montana and South Dakota on June 3 .... "You guys look good," Obama told reporters forced to wear blue plastic boots to keep disease out of the dairy complex. "I bought some new shoes," he said, explaining why he escaped the barnyard chic look. Obama snags more superdelegatesBoston Globe The trickle of Democratic superdelegates declaring for Barack Obama is turning into more of a gusher ..... Obama, boasting a more than 6-1 edge in superdelegate endorsements since Super Tuesday, is quickly catching up to Clinton in that count. He already leads in overall delegates and popular vote Clinton Heads Back to Pennsylvania CBS News Ex-president Bill Clinton defends wife's choice to fight on San Jose Mercury News Clinton faces tough odds as Obama's lead widensAFP Democrats face summer of bitter infighting Reuters Hillary Clinton Says She Won't End CampaignVoice of America Rudy Giuliani: Governor of New York PoliGazette Rudy Giuliani “is eyeing a run for governor in a special election this fall should Gov. Paterson be forced to resign.” ... Sadly for Giuliani however Paterson’s admissions have created little to no outrage. Major bureaucratic reshuffle in Bihar Hindu Opposition Claims Win in Zimbabwe on Unofficial TallyNew York Times the Movement for Democratic Change had unseated President Robert G. Mugabe, the man who has led this nation for 28 years. ..... a state of suspended animation, with people awaiting the first official results, wondering if the numbers were being carefully tabulated or craftily concocted. ..... a signal event for Africa itself, with another of its enduring autocrats beaten against long odds ..... “It’s a tsunami for M.D.C.,” was a phrase frequently repeated. ..... Seven of Mr. Mugabe’s cabinet members were defeated in their races for Parliament, according to reports phoned in by journalists. It appeared that Mr. Mugabe was being thoroughly repudiated. .... Prior to the election, Zimbabwe’s security chiefs each said they would support no one but Mr. Mugabe ...... “It’s hard for me to believe that Mugabe will go peacefully,” he said. “When autocrats fall, that’s the most dangerous time.” China Says It Has Evidence Dalai Lama Incited Riots New York Times riots erupted March 14 in Lhasa .... Pressure continues to mount for China to negotiate with the Dalai Lama and find a solution to a problem that has already begun to affect preparations for the Olympics. Clinton says she will fight to the finishGuardian Bill Clinton urges superdelegates to be patientLos Angeles Times Before his speech, the former president met privately with more than a dozen superdelegates Hillary Clinton portrays calls to quit as chauvinismTelegraph.co.uk Clinton is falling back on what she sees as her trump card - her gender. ...... televised tearful moments. Now she is portraying the calls for her to quit as male chauvinism. ..... compared her plight to "big boys" trying to bully a woman. ...... Howard Dean, the Democratic National Committee chairman, called for the nomination to be decided by July 1 at the latest and counselled "super-delegates" - the 796 party officials who will have the final say - to make their choice known before then. ..... not all her staff support her win-at-all-costs strategy. Two senior advisers and one close ally told the New York Times that they would recommend she pull out if she loses in Indiana on May 6. ...... On the social networking site Facebook, among the anti-Clinton groups there are seven with names around the theme "Life's a Bitch - Don't vote for one." ...... Another is entitled "Hillary Clinton Stop Running for President and Make Me a Sandwich". As of Sunday, it had 43,432 members. Obama leads in ongoing tally of Texas county caucus results Dallas Morning News Nepal royalists warn of civil war if king ousted Daily Times Al Qaeda Trying to Change the Look of Terror ABC News the United States faces an imminent threat of attack from al Qaeda fighters ...... the attackers, he says, will look like many of us. ...... operatives that ... wouldn't attract your attention if they were going through the customs line at Dulles with you ...... al Qaeda knows it can't return again with an attack by 19 Arabs ....... these days they favor blond-haired, blue-eyed recruits ...... attackers bearing European passports would breeze through U.S. airports. ....... their current rhetoric is much more aggressive and confident
You undermine the horizon with your absence. Eternally in flight like the wave.
CSC: Caputo's Subconscious/Subliminal/Symbolic Communication
My life grows tired, hungry to no purpose. I love what I do not have. You are so far.
Thursday, April 10
5:30 pm
DL21C's Women's Issues Committee presents a forum on Women's Issues and the 2008 New York State Legislative Agenda
with State Senator Liz Krueger (D-NY-Manhattan's East Side) State Assemblywoman Deborah Glick (D-NY-Greenwich Village) Moderated by: Ellen Chesler, Distinguished Lecturer, Director of the Eleanor Roosevelt Initiative on Women and Public Policy, Hunter College
5:30pm - 7:30pm K Lounge at the Bombay Palace 30 W. 52nd Street (between 5th and 6th)
Bombay Palace. That is an Indian place. That is where I met a three time Prime Minister of Nepal. (Surya Bahadur Thapa) One of the sharpest political minds ever, even though two of his terms were during absolute monarchy. But Caputo's political mind is sharper and warmer. His granddaughter was at Mt. Holyoke. She, her white roommate and I ended up at a bar owned by a Nepali in midtown, Snafu. (Chiran Thapa: Snafu) I confused Mt. Holyoke for Bryn Mawr. When I lived in Philly in summer 1999, I took the train to Bryn Mawr, and from there I walked to U Penn. I told them I have walked from Mt. Holyoke to U Penn. They are like, no way. Then they thought I was trying to impress them. They acted impressed.
I was there for another major event with a leading human rights activist from Nepal. (Sushil Pyakurel)
I am half Indian. I had to come all the way to America to claim my Indian side. There is some major anti-India sentiment in Nepal.
I am working to assemble my tech team in Mumbai, Bombay's new name, rather the original name.
K Lounge, my middle name is Kumar.
Near the UN. After all countries have been turned into democracies, a world government is inevitable, but until then the UN is only mildly interesting, but it is interesting in its symbolism.
April 10 is when Nepal will hold its first elections in almost a decade. The civil war is formally over. It was in April 2006 that Nepal had its magical revolution.
You are like the night, with its stillness and constellations. Your silence is that of a star, as remote and candid.
A new door opened between you and me
The Spy Event
laugh, because your laughter will be for my hands like a fresh sword.
Barackface: The Need For A Race Gender CoalitionThe first time Rudy, the state director for Obama 2008, met me, he asked me if I was a "spy!" Spy for who? Hillary? Rudy? My blog cured him, but that was an ...
The first greeting by the mystery woman (Satyagraha, Day 1) that there is a mandatory coat check, and the second greeting by the white guard asking to see my ID might have been a way to say, you took two offenses at the Holiday party, and that is when you walked away and never really came back. ("Is This An Obama Party?", December 18: Crash The Party) You ended it, not me. True: Confronting My Own Demons.
This was the first DL21C event of so many I have been to where people were made to wait out in the street. That might have been a response to my complaining I got "street level welcome" on March 4. (March 4 Returns Parties)
The Pollster Event
perhaps it was the voice of crying rain, a broken bell, or a torn heart.
I praised the race balance of there being one black guy, one white guy at the March 4 event, so Dan and Mike were balanced out this time by two women receptionists.
At the March 4 event the black guy saying "Hold on, there is this woman" and its implication of how I might have been described, and the offense I took, these two women asked for my name instead. That was an attempt at sensitivity.
March 4
"The event has not started yet." Meaning: You had a full half hour before the event started at the Texas debate watch party. Why did you leave? Why did you not look me in the eye and talk?
Texas Debate Watch
I have no other star. You are my replica of the multiplying universe.
At the December Baby party why did you tell Dan Berger that he had "until February 5." Why did you not tell me directly that you are very busy until then? I will similarly talk through him to tell you stay away until February 5. Then I will speak to you in a major way after that. And you know how I express myself, through events.
If you are uncomfy with white guys, how about women?
If a DL21C event is not conducive, how about an event by another organization?
You showed up for a Women's Issues Committee event. The following day was an Economic Policy Committee event. I get it: The 12 Year Itch.
The suggestive location.
How about an Asian and a Hispanic instead of a Jewish and an Italian? Is that better? You like that better?
I don't love you as if you were a rose of salt, topaz, or arrow of carnations that propagate fire: I love you as one loves certain dark things, secretly, between the shadow and the soul.
I love you as the plant that doesn't bloom and carries the light of those flowers, hidden, within itself, and thanks to your love the tight aroma that rose from the earth lives in my body in darkness.
I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where I love you simply without problems or pride: I love you like this because I don't know any other way to love
I could go on and on on the symbolism, digging further and further into the past. But I will stick to only the most recent events.
The subconscious, the subliminal, the symbolic are not supposed to go away. But it is high time we claimed face time, the verbal, and the conscious zone of our minds. It is time to make it official.
Enough.
I would like to rub your nose with my nose. That is how they greet in some cultures. Will you let me rub your nose?
Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity. Surely some revelation is at hand; Surely the Second Coming is at hand. The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out When a vast image out of "Spiritus Mundi" Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert A shape with lion body and the head of a man, A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun, Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds. The darkness drops again; but now I know That twenty centuries of stony sleep Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle, And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
-- William Butler Yeats, "The Second Coming"
I forgave Dan Jacoby. He is a court clown. Lewis Cohen tries to be.
I am eager to give Heather Woodfield a fresh start to our political relationship as long as she agrees to sit on the Women's Revolution Committee. The only thing wrong about your trying to hook me up with an Asian is just like you can't imagine a dozen wise Indian men finding a man for you, my idea is two people hook up on their own or not, otherwise we Asians are all the rage. Heather knows a lot of nuts and bolts of politics, besides she is from Howard Dean's home state. Dean is all the rage.
Tracey Denton, social butterfly, tries to be extra respectful of people. I think because of her Republican family background she feels the need to be extra nice to the traditionally Democrats. I don't know if she lives in Europe these days or what, but if she does, she should never stop telecommuting into the NYC political scene. If I can telecommute from NYC to Nepal, she can telecommute from Brussels to NYC.
I am the other way round. I start with distrust for white guys. Some of them go on to earn my respect.
Abhishek Mistry is the smart Asian, it is not me. I disapprove of stereotypes.
Charles knows a ton about Indira Gandhi.
Leila Noor is like Barack, she is both. She has a great sense of empathy and a rather huge mailing list. She is more political than she makes out to be. She is friends with the next Mayor of the city, looks like. She is a focal point to many black politicians in the city, people like Hakeem and Karim.
Delilah Rothenberg is a white person absolutely, totally fascinated by Africa. How often does that happen?
Justin Krebs has extreme social intelligence: it is an extreme sport for him. He learns names like he were trying to acquire vocabulary for the SAT.
Negina Fersad is funny as hell, especially when she is talking about nuclear energy. She is Persian cute too. I told you, we Asians are all the rage. By the way, she also makes fun of her sex life.
Kristina Hoke is "one smart cookie." But I hear she retired. I hope she comes to sit on the Women's Revolution Committee, and brings Liz along. Ben needs a Jerry.
Lee Motayed is a cutie. I told you we Asians are all the rage.
Dan Berger has sharper emotional intelligence than Justin Krebs, but the dude is a Jihadi. He tries to invade your privacy with the passion of a Jihadi. Each attempt shrinks his space. And you don't get along with me by suggesting Rangel is a bigger deal than I am.
Mike Lupinachi has great killer instincts. He has good martial intelligence. He can shift through the terrain in a fight and come out intact.
David Pollak hovers over the entire scene like Santa, quietly understanding and appreciating everyone's impulses. People who fight each other all relate to him one on one. He takes in the unfolding scene like a Supreme Court Justice.
Me? I am ether. I am everywhere. It is called having a blog, it is called being a digital democrat. I am a Third World guy on a mission.
But ultimately it is the queen we all respond to. Things fall apart when the center can not hold. She is "clean. I frisked him." People are clay, she makes pots out of them.
Long live the progressive political religion. We are the New York Mafia, here to take over the world.
Trying To Become More Social
Naturally I am bubbley and excited socially. But the first two plus years into the city I did intense work for Nepal. It was urgent. The country was on fire. And the work ended up being amazing. Then I coasted along to do some good work for Obama.
All that 2.0 work cost me dearly socially. But now I am trying to become social. I am trying to meet and greet and get to know people. When you step out of the dark, you start with squinty eyes. Right now I got squinty eyes.
I don't ask for forgiveness. It is the other way round. I forgive you for not getting involved when I was doing urgent work for Nepal.
At a gay rights event on the Upper West a few months before he became state party chair, Dave Pollak suggested I do it and I produced this: Democratic Vision For The 21st Century. I emailed it to him the following morning.
I think the DL21C Chair should gun for running for President Of The United States. If you can run the top political organization in the top progressive city in the country, the world, why can't you run a country? Maybe not now, but down the line. Barack will get his eight years, then it is an open field.
I carry 10,000 years of male guilt. I am ready for a woman president.
In this post, I will touch upon mainly on organization.
2016 will surely be a broadband election, likely a wireless broadband election. Media as we know it today will not be there. Anyone running for president will have to be their own media for a big part.
DL21C has to become a completely digital organization. Every event has to be videoblogged. And it is okay, actually desirable to have more than one video blogger in attendance. This is key. This might be the single biggest step the DL21C could take at this stage. It is so easy to do, hosting is free. Anyone can purchase a video camera for a few hundred bucks. Many people already own one.
Then the DL21C also has to move to videoblog many of its internal meetings. Ordinary members should be able to see how events are planned. You got to open things up.
New York City is a very special place. When you organize a political event here, you can assume there is a national, global audience for it. All the fancy guests you bring, but if you don't videoblog the events, I am like, what a waste.
The Facebook page for the organization is impressive: Democratic Leadership for the 21st Century. There are almost 600 members. It is amazing to me how many of them are women. But so few of them show up for events. At some point these women will come out of the closet. That also goes on to show traditionally excluded groups of people find the digital tools of involvement very appealing. It is egalitarian to go digital.
If there had been online video for all past DL21C events, can you imagine what that would have meant? Granted online video did not exist in 1993 or even 2003, but just a thought.
DL21C organizes great events, but it can not stick to only organizing events. There is an urgent need for an online think tank. And this would be almost entirely online. You would use Blogger, word processing for the internet age. Here, the key thing would be to employ the spectrum concept.
You build a spectrum on all policy issues: education, health, you name it. The spectrum idea is that if you can rope in people from 5 to 10, you got a majority. The idea is to try and build a permanent progressive majority. People at the cutting edge can do all the cutting edge work they want to do, but those who run for office take people from 5 to 10 on each spectrum along with them.
This think tank would be run by the DL21C central chapter in New York City, but it will be peopled by members across the country. There would be a special effort to dig into the top academic institutions across the country.
You build a robust, local template, and then you work to set up a chapter each in the largest city in each state. All the top elected officials in the state should think it an honor to show up for a DL21C event. And the entire time you are building this huge online video library of their appearances.
Organization would be the 50 plus DL21C chapters across the country. Message would be the think tank. Money will be raised online aplenty. Look at my boy Barack, he seems to be doing just fine. In my personal capacity, I take my company public. Right now I am busy assembling my tech team in Mumbai, NYC's sister city.
We go take the White House. We start by lifting the DL21C ban on me. I should be able to go to all DL21C events I might want to go to. I would like to start with the event on April 1. Mr. Pollak, Chairman, Sir, can you help?
Tuesday, April 1
7:00 pm
Superdelegates: A Foolish or Smart Solution to the Democratic Nomination Battle? Location TBD
This uprising in Tibet and elsewhere is also on schedule to going to waste for lack of political clarity. Political leadership is lacking. The uprising in Burma went to waste last year.
Street Action: Where The Action Is
People come out in the streets, and next thing you know the White House is paying attention, the Prime Minister of Britain is paying attention. A few weeks later when the streets go empty, those people then move on to other things, whatever is now in the headlines.
Street action is the dog that wags the tail.
Tibetan Diaspora Is Not Acting Right
I am a Buddhist. I think the world of His Holiness. He is better than the Pope. He is better than any mullah or pastor on earth. He is better than Jeremiah Wright, no offense to Barack. But he is a spiritual leader, he is a religious leader. He is not a political leader. His remark that Mao treated him "like a son" tells me all I need to know about him politically.
The Tibetan diaspora has to enact the church and state separation. The political leadership has to be elected every four years or so. The political leadership can not be someone born to it.
This uprising has not been the handiwork of the Tibetan diaspora. This has been homegrown and spontaneous. But it is true the diaspora is working in close coordination.
Seek Allies
Tibet's number one potential ally is Taiwan. If Tibet and Taiwan can together come around to a common goal of a federal, multi-party China of state funded parties, the rest of China will follow them.
Let 2008 be that year when China wakes up to itself as the world wakes up to China. Strike when the iron is hot, or when the world is paying attention.
In The News
Bush calls Hu to urge Tibet talks BBC News The anti-China protests began on 10 March ..... The Tibetan government-in-exile says about 140 people have been killed ..... the delay in Mr Bush's response is a measure of how delicate relations are between the US and China - two countries whose huge economies are deeply interlinked. ...... French President Nicolas Sarkozy has also called for dialogue over Tibet - adding he had not ruled out boycotting the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games being held in China in August. ..... Bush will attend the Olympic Games opening ceremony. European Leaders Press China Over TibetNew York Times Nepal Police Break Up Tibetan Protest Voice of AmericaPolice in Nepal armed with batons dispersed a protest Tuesday by Tibetan refugees and monks in front of the Chinese Embassy.
Pitt And Jolie Related To Obama And Clinton? San Francisco Chronicle, USA Brad Pitt can trace his family tree back to Barack Obama and Angelina Jolie can follow hers to Hillary Clinton ..... Obama is a distant cousin of Pitt ..... Pitt and Obama are ninth cousins, as are Clinton and Jolie, twice removed.
Obama Warms to Wrapping Up Contest New York Times and has been adding more superdelegates to his column at a faster clip than she has .... Clinton, meanwhile, has indicated that she is willing to slug it out for the nomination through the summer ...... Nor did he get much writing done, as he had said he had hoped; instead he said he enjoyed reading a book, Philip Roth’s latest novel, “Exit Ghost.”
Pitt And Jolie Related To Obama And Clinton? San Francisco Chronicle, USA Brad Pitt can trace his family tree back to Barack Obama and Angelina Jolie can follow hers to Hillary Clinton ..... Obama is a distant cousin of Pitt ..... Pitt and Obama are ninth cousins, as are Clinton and Jolie, twice removed.
Somebody - has to be some Republican, a Hillary Republican - somewhere along the way revealed Barack is a distant cousin of Dick Cheney and we have been suffering since. We lost New Hampshire, we did not do as well in New York City as I thought we might. People don't like Dick Cheney around here.
This contest was supposed to be over in January. Then I thought we might wrap it up on February 5. Did not happen. Then I thought March 4. Did not happen. I am blaming Dick Cheney. Otherwise we have had the money, the message, the man. What else do we need?
We lost Ohio. Who do you think is responsible? Two whisper campaigns did us in. One that Barack is a Muslim, another that he is a Dick Cheney cousin. The Muslim thing you can discount, especially now that everyone knows he has had a Christian pastor for over 20 years. But how do you make Dick Cheney go away? It is not true that Barack is a Muslim. But it is true that Dick Cheney is a distant cousin of Barack. That is not a notion you can hope to dispel.
So far I have kind of kept a distance from Barack, otherwise I have a feeling he might be my cousin too through his sister Maya. I mean, I did like the idea of being related to Barack, but I was wary of his Dick Cheney baggage. If Barack is my distant cousin, is Dick Cheney also my distant cousin. I can't stand the thought. I am not for that much mingling of the races. That would be a little too much for me.
But now I am kind of warming up to Barack after this Brad Pitt revelation. I would not mind having Brad Pitt in the family. I think he is a decent guy. What do you think?
India silent as China deploys forces on Nepal soil Times of India China stationed forces on the Nepalese side of the border with Tibet last week ..... The Chinese forces were in plainclothes, but armed with small weapons .... the major diplomatic snub inflicted by China when its foreign office summoned Indian ambassador to Beijing, Nirupama Rao, at 2am to give her a list of demonstrations that Tibetans planned to organize in India. .... foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee and US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice jointly addressing the Tibet issue in Washington. Fresh violence in Sichuan, China vows action fortnight-long monks-led pro-independence protests ..... the first major challenge to the Communist giant in two decades. Detroit's mayor indicted in sex scandal Reuters The criminal charges stem from text messages between Kilpatrick and Beatty dating back to 2002 ..... now included more than 40,000 pages of documents as evidence, including text messages. ..... Granholm, a prominent Clinton supporter Clinton, Obama campaigns snipe at each other Newsday Poll boost for Obama after race speech Guardian Experts Analyze Impact Of Obama's Speech On RaceVoice of America Obama-Clinton tie in new poll: Pastor flap erased Baltimore Sun Clinton Says She ‘Misspoke’ About Dodging Sniper Fire New York Times Clinton's YouTube ad backfiresGlobe and Mail and Casey just happens to have grown into an 18-year-old Obama supporter. She saw the ad and started talking to the media about how she didn't agree with the "politics of fear" that the Democratic hopeful was using. Barack Obama surfaces in the Caribbean Los Angeles Times Clintons lose luster with black votersChicago Tribune Richardson: Clinton Backers Practice "Gutter" Politics.U.S. News & World Report Clinton rolls out economic crisis plan NEWS.com.au the acute economic anxiety stalking Americans ...... she trails Senator Obama in pledged delegates, the popular vote and in fundraising. ..... "She was very gracious, she was not happy, she did say she was disappointed," Gov Richardson ..... on vacation with his family in the US Virgin Islands. Asia Day Ahead: JPMorgan Quadruples Bear Stearns Bid (Update1) Bloomberg XM, Sirius merger clears Justice Department scrutinyBizjournals.com Riots rage in China as protests overshadow Olympic ceremony AFP 130 people had now been confirmed killed in the Chinese crackdown after two weeks of protests ....... The Olympic flame is scheduled to pass over Mount Everest in Tibet in early May, and through the capital Lhasa the following month. .... Its journey is expected to spark a wave of global protests against Chinese authorities over Tibet and a range of other issues, such as Beijing's record on human rights and religious freedoms. Clinton's road to nomination gets steeper Christian Science Monitor with Florida and Michigan giving up last week on new primaries ..... some 300 superdelegates, or party leaders, who remain uncommitted. ...... The efforts in both states bogged down in a quagmire of legal, financial, and logistical questions, as well as bitter disagreements between the Clinton and Obama campaigns.
Geremiah Wrong: Lady, you are no clean spigot yourself.
Geraldine Ferraro: You have one filthy mouth.
Geremiah Wrong: Another way to look at it would be that I am oozing with black anger.
Geraldine Ferraro: So you now claim to speak for an entire people? And not just for yourself?
Geremiah Wrong: In case you did not notice, that chicken coming home to roost was not an original line. I borrowed it from Brother Malcolm X. I also intend to borrow his greatness.
Geraldine Ferraro: A God fearing man would not say God damn America. It is America that puts food on your table.
Geremiah Wrong: If God can damn New Orleans, is America a sacred cow?
Geraldine Ferraro: So you stand by your word?
Geremiah Wrong: If white men can stand by their word, why can't this black brother?
Geraldine Ferraro: You support a black man for president. Because he is black? Is that not racist?
Geremiah Wrong: Your slave owner great-grandfather, and your restaurant owner father would know better.
Geraldine Ferraro: Slavery and segregation are dead horses. How long do you intend to beat those dead horses?
Geremiah Wrong: Segregation lives in my personal memory. Slavery is on Discovery Channel. They are not going away. Not on my dime.
Geraldine Ferraro: You are a disgrace to your church.
Geremiah Wrong: Too late to make that point. I am retired.
Geraldine Ferraro: You are a disgrace to Obama 08.
Geremiah Wrong: Too late to make that point. They already kicked me out.
Geraldine Ferraro: You are a disgrace to America.
Geremiah Wrong: America is a disgrace to me.
Geraldine Ferraro: Do you vote?
Geremiah Wrong: If a brother is running.
Geraldine Ferraro: If Barack were a white man, he would not be where he is today. You agree?
Geremiah Wrong: I agree. He would already have been in the White House for 200 plus years.
Geraldine Ferraro: It is so much harder for a woman. Ask me what it was like in 1984.
Geremiah Wrong: 1984, the book?
Geraldine Ferraro: No, stupid. When I ran.
Geremiah Wrong: You ran the marathon?
Geraldine Ferraro: No. When I ran for Vice President Of The United States.
Geremiah Wrong: I thought that was brother Jesse in 1984. Actually I am pretty sure.
Geraldine Ferraro: Do you ever read? Or do you just preach?
Geremiah Wrong: Neither. Not no more. I have served my time on the pulpit.
Geraldine Ferraro: But the woman thing.
Geremiah Wrong: Black liberation also automatically applies to black women. Don't black women look black to you?
Geraldine Ferraro: There's no point talking to you. There is a short circuit in your brain.
Geremiah Wrong: This conversation has felt unreal the entire time to me as well. Why are we even talking?
Geraldine Ferraro: Because you have a big mouth.
Geremiah Wrong: Lady, can we please just not go into the name calling territory? I have a reputation to live up to.
Geraldine Ferraro: It is not like you ever ran for Vice President.
Geremiah Wrong: Like you did.
Geraldine Ferraro: You are not in my league.
Geremiah Wrong: I am not white. I know that. That is the point I have been making my entire life.
Geraldine Ferraro: I was talking about achievement, not skin color.
Geremiah Wrong: You mean the achievement gap? It all goes back to slavery.
Geraldine Ferraro: Out you bring that dead horse.
Geremiah Wrong: If it is on Discovery Channel, how dead can it be?
Geraldine Ferraro: You know, the Hillary 08 people kicked me out as well.
Geremiah Wrong: Really? Just when I thought we had no common ground at all.
Geraldine Ferraro: I guess we do have a little bit to start with after all.
When you go through the streets no one recognizes you. No one sees your crystal crown, no one looks at the carpet of red gold that you tread as you pass, the nonexistent carpet.
Yellow Rose To Reclaim
At the Sounds Of Brazil In a sea of women Filtered by their taste of music I missed you intensely After having thought the chapter closed.
A Seattle woman said She had a 5:30 AM flight back home. I said, I hope you get plenty of sleep On the plane. And, by the way, nice music. Have a nice life, I got to head out.
At the Leela Lounge Some women from Law School On Spring Break Wanting to know If I will walk them to the train station. Was I chivalrous?
But I missed you.
That was indication There is another chapter to the book And another.
You have done me the favor Of firmly saying It is face time or not I have been sinking deeper and deeper into the swamp Of spending too much time alone Too much time online, alone To the detriment of my health And basic social oxygen.
At moments of anger We have taken turns Of offering narratives That discount the other. Taking full advantage of Not having hooked up yet.
The truth is I never stopped liking you. I have been moving towards you Relentlessly I have not meant to Seek your permission.
Maybe 99% of white women Follow the Miss 99% rule Does that mean there is greater solace Among 100% of Indian women I think not, I know not. What about white women who did like me But who I did not click with?
I don't deal with race with you. I deal with a world that deals with race. It has not been you.
We share a religion The progressive political religion. I tried attending a Buddhist service One Sunday on the Upper West Side Upon invitation from a Japanese American young woman From a Women's Unity Day event Who met her NYU boyfriend in India. I could not sit through I could not focus on the mind When I soar every day with group dynamics. The difference is between a cell and an organism.
Long ago You seeped into my subconscious. Perhaps even deeper. You did not ask. I did not grant you permission. You did not wait.
And yet you keep me away.
Every time you make your statements You are right, you are right every single time But by the time you are done making your statement You end up alone. I end up alone.
You are used to being alone. Make space for me.
You make it sound like there is All the time in the world. There is not.
When we have misunderstood each other We have acted to prove the other right I guess there are no short cuts. We will risk becoming a laughing stock To the world While we have our lovers' quarrels Before we are formally so.
I so wanted to take a look.
You wanted to shut the door in my face Enough times That I also would think the chapter closed. Point taken. Now open up.
Let's establish channels of Communication. There is so much living to do. So much to talk about.
Or throw me to the dogs Once and for all. Talk to me no more Through messengers and Security guards and receptionists. English is my sixth or ninth language It is hard enough when you talk to me direct.
Don't touch me means you will touch my private part I don't like you never did means The event has not started yet, but stick around Let's have a conversation.
You seek combat Verbal jujutsu.
Take back your threat to become Condi Rice. You are not going to become one You are going to appoint a few. I was grossly misunderstood. All I meant was let's meet outside of events. But events are where we meet, my bad. Why get distracted?
It is finally happening to me Put me through Another mandatory coat check.
This has been a model primary season. Every state got to feel it mattered. All the superdelegates will get to feel similarly important and outright indispensable. This will be their chance to make small talk to Bill Clinton and then go ahead and ignore him. The entire party in all 50 states will have been involved before we get the nominee. Wow, is this something or is this something? This is how the nomination process is supposed to play out. I am not bored.
Black Man, Woman
If you are a white male you can be mediocre like George Bush and still be president. But we have an amazing black man not running against some random white male, and an amazing woman not running against some random, mediocre white male, but against each other, and in such a tight race that their ending up on the same ticket is a foregone conclusion. Is this something or is this something?
The Progressive Way
Making progress on race and gender is not some kind an anti white male agenda. It is the progressive thing to do. I am male but I am for making progress on gender. So what does make me? It makes me a progressive, that's what. Sexism is not good for men either. It gnaws at your soul, saps energy overall.
Whimper
If Barack had won New Hampshire, he would have won with a bang, the race would have been over. If he had won New York or California on February 5, it would have been a victory with a bang. If he had won Ohio on March 4, it would have been woohoo. But the way this thing is playing out, it will go all the way to the convention, and he will barely sqeek by. That doesn't take away from the glamor though. Lincoln barely won. Kennedy barely won. I see greatness gleaming from Barack's impending narrow victory.
Race: Charged
Some people say, don't talk about race, that is a charged issue. Of course it is a charged issue. But I don't get the don't talk about it part.
I am like race, I am a charged individual. Talk about me.
Race Speech: A Victory
Barack scored a major victory with his race speech. The Wright wrong has been righted. Hillary's numbers are down again. There was talk he might want to give another speech on race. I wrote one last year.
In The News Pakistani Party’s Leader Chooses a Prime Minister New York Times Taiwan victor promises China ties BBC News Taslima episode shame for India NDTV.com Tibetan revolt has China's empire fraying at Times Online the roof of the world once again looks like a hostile place to most Chinese. ...... many Chinese do not believe that Tibet is secure and do not think things can go on as they are. ..... Fiercely resisting a Chinese campaign to force them into new towns, the nomads burst onto television screens around the world last week as they galloped into village after village at the head of protesting Tibetans. ...... “All the shops and businesses have been closed for three days,” said a Tibetan clerk, speaking by telephone from Litang on Friday. “It’s very tense.” ....... “Tibetans are being told they will be detained until the end of the Olympics; and once the Olympics are over court proceedings will begin,” a local source told Radio Free Asia. ...... “A Tibetan from Aba killed two Chinese people with a knife on Xiaotiandong Road,” said a taxi driver, repeating a rumour that spread like wildfire via the taxi radio link and text messages. ...... Local Chinese feared a terrorist attack. ..... China’s empire is fraying at the edges. ...... the city’s business people went to make money in Tibet but would never buy a home there. ..... “The central government’s policy towards Tibet has clearly failed” Wright to deliver 3 sermons at Wheeler Houston Chronicle Cuba Condemns Criticism of China The Associated Press All parties in Nepal must stop violence for polls: UN AFP Pope Baptizes Prominent Italian Muslim The Associated Press Did Bill Clinton Call Obama Unpatriotic? CBS News "I think it would be a great thing if we had an election year where you had two people who loved this country and were devoted to the interest of this country. And people could actually ask themselves who is right on these issues, instead of all this other stuff that always seems to intrude itself on our politics." ..... a "deliberately pathetic misreading of what the president said." ....... "As a Hispanic-American, I was particularly touched by his words," Richardson said. "Senator Obama has started a discussion in this country that is long overdue and rejects the politics of pitting race against race." Obama's speech on race rings true for Britain, too Guardian Polls suggest Obama rebounding from pastor flapBaltimore Sun McCain Gains from Clinton-Obama FeudABC News Was Bill Clinton Questioning Obama's Patriotism? ABC News Patriotism spat tars latest round of Clinton-Obama battleAFP Obama Adviser Likens Bill Clinton Comments to Joseph McCarthyBloomberg The Obama Dividend Newsweek All presidents are blind dates. ..... even many conservatives agree with liberal editorial writers that Obama's approach was brilliant ..... using the bully pulpit to instruct and illuminate and rearrange our mental furniture ...... The election of President Barack Hussein Obama would blow the minds of people in the Middle East and other regions ......... Just look at Kenya, where one tribe involved in the recent unrest loves Obama (because his father was a member), and the other tribe has no use for him. ...... He told the crowd that kids couldn't keep on "drinking eight sodas a day," then went in Bulworth's direction. "I know some of y'all got that cold Popeye's [chicken] out for breakfast. I know," Obama said with a smile. He continued: "That's why y'all laughing. You can't do that. Children have to have proper nutrition. That affects also how they study, how they learn in school … It's not good enough for you to say to your child, 'Do good in school,' and then when that child comes home, you got the TV set on, you got the radio on, you don't check their homework, there is not a book in the house, you've got the videogame playing." Instead of being jeered, he was cheered wildly. ......... that they need to stop being homophobic and anti-Semitic. ..... Obama knows how to think big, elevate the debate and transport the public to a new place. An Easter Break question: Can Hillary Clinton win? Baltimore Sun do-over votes in Florida and Michigan appear next-to-impossible ..... whether Clinton could conceivably pull off a superdelegate-fueled victory even if she trails in pledged delegates and popular votes. ..... "Hillary’s path to the nomination is not 'narrow,'" he wrote this week. "It’s barricaded."
Imagining A Federal, Multi-Party China Of State Funded Parties
China will not become a democracy like America. Tibet will not become another country. Taiwan will not seek or get full independence. But China can not remain as it is. China has to become a federal, multi-party democracy of state funded parties. The Chinese Communist Party could still rule for a decade or two uninterrupted if such a change were to be brought about. But the CCP is nowhere close to budging, not even an inch, on democracy. They don't feel a counter force.
Mainstream China itself will have to rise. Tibet and Taiwan alone can't do it.
Tibet In The 1950s Was Politically Feudal
The idea of an unelected spiritual leader also being the political leader has no place in this century. The Tibetan diaspora has to engineer a church and state separation. I am a Buddhist, I think the world of the Dalai Lama. But political leadership must be separate and elected.
The protests in Tibet lack political clarity. The oppression and discrimination are very real. And it is obvious the protesting crowds have been inspired by what happened in Burma in Fall 2007, and in Nepal in April 2006, January-February 2007, and February 2008. Street action is the best way to fight entrenched authoritarianism.
The efforts in Nepal succeeded because there was political clarity. That was lacking in Burma, and is lacking now in Tibet.
Chinese Action
China's economic growth for the past few decades has much to teach the rest of the Third World. Don't throw the baby with the bath water. The communist party's autocracy is not a reason to disrespect its amazing economic stewardship.
China: Bank To The Third World
China has been a banker to America. But why America? China instead should become a banker to the Third World. Kind of like micro credit, but between countries.
Wake Up CCP
The only way Taiwan will become just another province of China is if China becomes a multi-party democracy. Because China is not a democracy, it finds itself on the side of dictatorships in many parts of the world, be it Burma, or Darfur. That is no way to become a world power. China has worked hard to learn western technology. Mao's Marxism was imported from the west. The Chinese Communist Party should now work hard to learn western democracy. But it need not be a photocopy. It can be an improved version.
China can not realize its full potential as a one party state. But if the CCP is the reason why China becomes a federal, multi-party democracy of state funded parties, then the CCP gets to continue to be in power for decades. That would make things smooth. It would become a model democracy. In American democracy money has too much influence. China could be the new and improved version of democracy.
Human Rights
There is a document called the Universal Declaration Of Human Rights. There is a reason it starts with the word universal. Religious freedom is a basic human right. In a federal, multi-party China, Tibet will be one of many states. The Dalai Lama may be the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists, and Buddhists all over the world, but he will not be a political leader. A regional Tibetan party may compete at the ballot box with the CCP for state power in a state parliament. That is the future we have to move towards.
In The News
Obama recaptures edge over Clinton USA Today 48% of Democratic voters favoring Obama and 45% Clinton. Media Asks "The Beginning of the End for Clinton?"NPR A "drumbeat" has started to sound in the media the past week with the speech on race by Sen. Barack Obama and with the announcement of Bill Richardson's endorsement of Obama - "this could be the beginning of the end for Clinton." ...... Hillary Rodham Clinton has virtually no chance of winning." ..... there will be no knockout blow, no head shot. Rather it will be a long, slow exit that causes pain to everyone involved First a Tense Talk With Clinton, Then Richardson Backs Obama New York Times despite two months of personal entreaties by her and her husband ...... described Mr. Clinton as more philosophical than angry about it. ..... rejecting the candidacy of a close friend ...... “There’s something special about this guy,” Mr. Richardson said of Mr. Obama. “I’ve been trying to figure it out, but it’s very good.” ...... Richardson stopped returning Mr. Clinton’s calls days ago ....... as of Friday, Mr. Richardson said, he had yet to pick up the phone to tell Mr. Clinton of his decision. ...... Richardson’s endorsement came right around the anniversary of the day when Judas sold out for 30 pieces of silver, so I think the timing is appropriate, if ironic,” Mr. Carville said ....... a positive campaign about hope and opportunity ...... Richardson is the 62nd superdelegate to endorse Mr. Obama since Feb. 5, compared with fewer than five who have moved into Mrs. Clinton’s column since then. After Years of Political Turmoil, Nepal Busily Prepares for Vote Washington Posta decade of insurgency that claimed an estimated 14,000 lives and left this nation the poorest in the world outside Africa ..... Its first attempt at democracy was in 1950, but for more than five decades, the king and parliament engaged in power plays that sapped the country. The political turmoil was punctuated in 2001 when the crown prince gunned down 10 members of the royal family, including the king, before shooting himself. ......... scattered violence continues ..... Armed groups calling for autonomy for Nepal's southern Terai region, on the Indian border, have threatened to stage attacks and disrupt the vote. ...... Maoists have been accused of several other attacks on candidates, and on Tuesday a Maoist group was accused of charging a police post after rival candidates fled inside for protection. For their part, the Maoists accused police in another district of threatening to open fire on locals if they did not vote for the Nepali Congress party. ......... Sher Bahadur Deuba of the Nepali Congress party has said he will succeed Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala .... the first act of the constituent assembly will be to abolish the monarchy
Political Memo Clinton Treats Obama Pastor With Extreme Caution New York Times Former rival endorses 'extraordinary' Obama Independent Richardson Throws Support to Obama Washington Post Obama Aide: Bill Clinton Like McCarthy The Associated Press Gallup: Obama has narrowed Clinton's lead to 2 pointsUSA Today Over the past two days, Clinton's advantage has narrowed from 7 points to 5 points and now to 2. ...... the race is back to a near tie. It is possible that Obama's aggressive efforts to diffuse the Wright story, including a major speech ... have been effective. Obama outpaces Clinton again at fundraisingBizjournals.com in January, Obama raised $242,745 in the Pittsburgh region, compared with Clinton's $146,055 Tibetans appeal for world's help, but they're resigned to getting ... International Herald Tribune with the world counting on the emerging superpower to keep the global economy ticking as the United States appears headed into a recession. ....... Nancy Pelosi, lent her voice, calling China's crackdown "a challenge to the conscience of the world." ...... Pelosi was the first major foreign official to meet the Dalai Lama since the start of the unrest. She visited him in Dharmsala ...... a planned meeting between British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the Dalai Lama. ..... last year China temporarily barred U.S. warships from docking in Hong Kong after U.S. President George W. Bush presented the Dalai Lama with the Congressional Gold Medal, Congress' highest civilian honor. After repeated clashes with China, Taiwanese voters look for a quiet spell advocates wedding Taiwan's high-tech expertise with China's white-hot economic boom to restore the island of 23 million people to its former place as one of Asia's four economic tigers, together with Singapore, South Korea and Hong Kong. ...... 57-year-old Ma, who has a doctorate in law from Harvard .... a democracy that often descends into brawling on the floor of Parliament. Dalai Lama gives Pelosi a warm welcome in India Wall Street's slump becomes Main Street's problem
From Wall St. to Main St., an economic slump deepens The broadening of the economic slowdown, the plunge in home prices and near-paralysis in the financial system are fueling worries that what most economists now see as an inevitable recessioncould end up being especially painful. ...... the downturn will last longer and inflict more bite on workers and businesses than the last two recessions, which gripped the U.S. economy in 2001 and for eight months straddling 1990 and 1991. ..... rising incomes in China, India and elsewhere spell growing demand for meat. ...... economists say, as the impact of lowered interest rates kicks in later this year, encouraging businesses to expand and hire. Tax rebate checks to be mailed out by the government this spring may lubricate spending as well. ..... the economy will shrink only modestly during the first half of 2008, then resume expanding as more money washes through the system. ....... Households have borrowed against the increased value of their property to buy cars, send their children to college and add home theater systems.
Obama Has Clear Money Advantage The Associated Press Clinton lived hand to mouth during the rush of presidential primaries while Democratic rival Sen. Barack Obama outspent her and put money in the bank. ...... Obama raised at a clip of nearly $2 million a day in February, an open spigot of money that left him with $30 million in the bank for March. ..... even though he outspent Clinton 2-to-1 heading into the March 4 contests in Texas and Ohio, he lost both those primaries ...... On Friday, a month before the primary in Pennsylvania, Obama launched three ads in the state, two of them brand new. One is a 60-second commercial that is mostly biographical; the other two are 30-second spots that portray Obama as a politician who fights special interests and who works in a bipartisan way. ....... the general election money can only be used in the fall. Whoever loses the nomination would have to return that money to the donors. Clinton has been the most aggressive at raising general election money, with nearly $22 million in the bank. Obama has $8 million set aside for the fall.
Nicolas Sarkozy hopes to gain a little ‘va va voom’ from the Queen Times Online Controversial pastor coming to Wheeler Avenue Baptist Houston Chronicle China Shows Photos of Tibetan Protesters New York Times the toll from anti-Chinese riots in Tibet had risen to 19 dead and 623 injured. It said 18 civilians and a police officer had been confirmed dead in the unrest. The news agency said 241 police officers and 382 civilians had been injured in Lhasa. ...... began in Lhasa and have spread to many smaller towns on the Tibetan Plateau ..... 99 people have been killed in the government crackdown Op-Ed: After the End of the Affair David A. Paterson, who said Tuesday that his own extramarital affairs ended several years ago ...... In the parlance of American couples recovering from adultery, “D-Day” is the day you discover your spouse has been cheating on you. And as with the birth of Jesus, time is reset from there. ...... “The reactions of the betrayed spouse resemble the post-traumatic stress symptoms of the victims of traumatic events.” ..... “9/11 always reminds me of how it felt — one floor collapsing into another,” said a woman in her 40s who lives near Seattle. Another woman, writing in an Internet chat room, compared her husband’s affair to the Asian tsunami of 2004, which killed a quarter of a million people. ..... X.O.W. is the “ex-other woman,” O.N.S. is a “one-night stand” ...... A “cake man” is a husband who wants to have his wife and his mistress, too. ..... Wives from sub-Saharan Africa, a part of the world with the highest levels of male infidelity, told me how they went running down the street after their husbands, begging them to sleep at home. ........ If your spouse cheats, you’ve been living a lie. Americans describing their D-Day experiences say that they weren’t just shocked, jealous and profoundly upset, but that their whole view of the world had collapsed. “It robs you of your past,” one husband said. “What is real? What is fake?” ....... We’re the only country that peddles the idea that “It’s not the sex, it’s the lying.” (In France, it’s not the lying, it’s the sex.) America is also the only place I found that has a one-strike rule on fidelity: if someone cheats, the marriage is kaput. ....... he had had “a number of women” (and his wife had cheated, too). ...... Mrs. Spitzer discovered her husband’s apparent penchant for call girls only the night before he announced his “private matter” to the press. ....... marriage-industrial complex ..... A woman in Tennessee told me that she had gained 60 pounds since her husband found out she had been sleeping with a co-worker, in part because the couple now spends most of their free time on the couch rehashing the affair. “Neither of us cries as much as we used to, because of the antidepressants,” her husband said. What About Gehry’s Vision for Brooklyn? eight million square feet of residential and commercial development on an eight-acre site extending east from Flatbush and Atlantic Avenues, one of the borough’s most congested intersections ..... the nearby Williamsburgh Savings Bank tower — a classic stone phallus ..... Brooklyn’s vibrant answer to Times Square, minus the saccharine Disney décor. ...... the core of his concept, the charged relationship between the enclosed arena and the street Barack Obama's race speech an online video hit AFP Online searches for "Obama speech" rocketed 7,627 percent the day after the US presidential candidate took on the sensitive issue of race in a March 18 oratory, according to a Yahoo Buzz service that tracks what's hot online. ..... record-shattering honesty .... queries for 'I have a dream speech' and 'Martin Luther King Free at Last speech' both spiked the day after Obama spoke .... laid bare racial tensions in US culture that politicians usually avoid discussing..... Stewart made sport of "Obama talking to Americans about race as though they were adults." Obama race speech garners good reviewsBoston Globe Kenya: Obama Euphoria Now Hits Music Scene With a Bang AllAfrica.com the kind of attention he has attracted in the entertainment scene remains unmatched ..... The heat generated worldwide has attracted many celebrities across the world. Musicians, through their songs, are endorsing their favourite candidate. ..... Obama has more celebrity muscle going by the number of A-List entertainers rallying behind him ...... William, of the Black Eyed Peas did a pro-Obama song Yes We Can and its videos have generated more than five million hits on YouTube....... In Kenya, Cocoa Tea's Obama song has continued to rank top in a local radio station as "Beat of the Week" and is said to have one of the largest endorsements. ..... Revellers in Kenyan dancehalls usually go into a frenzy and dance with abandon, as soon as Obama's song rends the air. ...... Perhaps when he comes back to Kenya, he will look for me," says Nyadundo. Richardson says Clinton phone call got 'heated' MSNBC the conversation he had with Hillary ..... "It was tough to make the call, but I did. It got a little heated. It got a little tense. But it was understood, and I'm proud of my decision." .... He stressed that his decision to endorse Obama came a week before, but it was reinforced by the speech Obama gave on race last Tuesday. He cited his own racial background as a Hispanic to underscore why the speech was so significant. ....... I believe that Senator Obama is going to be the nomnee. ..... "I can tell you that there are very few people in American public life that have the breadth and depth of experience that Bill Richardson has," Obama said, adding that he would play a role in the campaign and hinting that he would have a role in a future Obama administration. New Mexico Governor Richardson Endorses Obama Voice of America Richardson endorses ObamaLos Angeles Times Richardson, Endorsing Obama, Looks for Generational ChangeWashington Post The line forms here for Rudy Giuliani campaign refund checks Los Angeles Times Some Tibetan Exiles Reject ‘Middle Way’ New York Times High Court admits Bihar plea against Lalu acquittal Hindu The Obama effectCanada.com Clinton Says Her Passport File BreachedThe Associated Press "an outrageous breach of security and privacy." ..... basic personal data such as name, citizenship, age, Social Security number and place of birth ..... the information could allow Obama's critics to dig deeper into his private life Obama, Clinton, McCain Passport Files Breached (Update1) Bloomberg State Department Employees Fired For Snooping Obama PassportU.S. News & World Report Clinton extends poll lead over ObamaIrish Times A top Nepali blogger recalls late King Mahendra NepalNews Kathmandu-based intelligentsia and expatriates say they anxiously await for Maila Baje’s postings every week.
Hillary Clinton's campaign uses pastor scandal to undermine Barack ... Telegraph.co.uk to argue that her Democratic rival would be dangerously vulnerable in a general election against John McCain. ..... Obama became the undisputed Democratic front-runner after his string of 11primary victories in February ...... a 13-point swing towards the former First Lady in under a fortnight. .... Geraldine Ferraro .... she was outraged to have been cited in the same breath as Mr Wright ..... "To equate what I said with what this racist bigot has said from the pulpit is unbelievable"
If you took high school biology, old man James Watson was your pastor, face it.
Fury at DNA pioneer's theory: Africans are less intelligent than ... Nobel Winner's Theories Raise Uproar in Berkeley Geneticist's ...Nobel laureate James Watson, whose co-discovery of DNA revolutionized the field of genetics ..... suggested there was a biochemical link between exposure to sunlight and sexual urges. ``That's why you have Latin lovers,'' Watson said. ``You've never heard of an English lover. Only an English patient.'' ...... Watson showed a slide of sad-faced model Kate Moss to support his contention that thin people are unhappy and therefore more ambitious. ..... ``Whenever you interview fat people, you feel bad, because you know you're not going to hire them,'' Watson said. ........ `He took a lot of what I consider sexist and racist stereotypes and claimed a biochemical basis without presenting any data.'' ....... Watson once suggested Japan should be bombed for dragging its feet on supporting the Human Genome Project. ...... listening to Watson at the podium was ``more embarrassing than having a creation scientist up there.'' ..... ``I found it really offensive,'' said Sarah Tegen ...... Watson showed slides of women in bikinis and contrasted them to veiled Muslim women, to suggest that controlling exposure to sun may suppress sexual desire and vice versa. ...... people who live in northern climates drink more alcohol to compensate for the unhappiness they suffer because of sunlight deprivation. .... ``To be a woman in science is difficult enough as it is without one of your own demeaning women'' ....... Now-deceased Stanford University professor William Shockley, who shared a Nobel for inventing the transistor, was ostracized during his lifetime for calling certain races genetically inferior, and for suggesting that people with IQs under 100 be paid bonuses if they agreed to be sterilized. Controversial Nobel winner resigns - CNN.com Watson Rediscovers 1940s Attitudes Towards Race | Wired Science ...First he said that “all the testing” has proven that people descended from Africa aren’t as smart as white people. Then, because apparently the testing comment wasn’t enough, he used some anecdotal evidence from his friends. He said he hoped that everyone was equal, but countered that “people who have to deal with black employees find this not true”. James Watson Retires After Racial Remarks - New York Timesoverall, people of African descent are not as intelligent as people of European descent.
In The News
In Tibetan Areas, Parallel Worlds Now Collide New York Times The big factory, said a man sitting next to him, benefits only members of the Han Chinese majority. .... “Tibetans get the low-income and the hard-labor jobs,” the man said. The Han, he said, “are all paid as technicians, even though some of them really don’t know anything.” ...... they occupy separate worlds. Relations between the two groups are typically marked by stark disdain or distrust, by stereotyping and prejudice and, among Tibetans, by deep feelings of subjugation, repression and fear. ...... privilege and power are overwhelmingly the preserve of the Han, while Tibetans live largely confined to segregated urban ghettos and poor villages in their own ancestral lands. ...... Tibetans whom they described as lazy and ungrateful ..... “We believe in working hard and making money to support one’s family, but they might think we’re greedy and have no faith.” ...... Han Chinese said they had no Tibetan friends and confessed that they tended to avoid interaction with Tibetans as much as possible ...... professed near-universal devotion to the Dalai Lama ..... “All Tibetans are the same: 100 percent of us adore the Dalai Lama” Editorial: Mr. Obama’s Profile in Courage Obama had to address race and religion, the two most toxic subjects in politics ...... Wright Jr., who denounced the United States as endemically racist, murderous and corrupt. ...... an honesty seldom heard in public life. ...... continues today in racial segregation, the school achievement gap and discrimination in everything from banking services to law enforcement. ...... the often-unspoken reality that people on both sides of the color line are angry. ...... both sides must acknowledge that the other’s grievances are not imaginary. ..... “Anger over welfare and affirmative action helped forge the Reagan coalition” ..... he raised the discussion to a higher plane. The Professor as Open Book It is not uncommon for professors’ Web pages to include lists of the books they would take to a deserted island, links to their favorite songs from bygone eras, blog posts about their children, entries “written” by their dogs and vacation photographs. ...... a professor’s job today is not just to impart knowledge, but to be an entertainer. ...... by divulging family history and hobbies, they hope to appear more accessible to students. ...... “It’s better when your professor’s human” .... there are students today who think professors are not doing their jobs unless they convey information in zany, interactive ways. ..... “It bespeaks a certain kind of desire that all of us have for that moment of fame” ....... this increased transparency Political Memo: Clinton Facing Narrower Path to Nomination Without new votes in Florida and Michigan, it will be that much more difficult for Mrs. Clinton to achieve a majority in the total popular vote in the primary season, narrow Mr. Obama’s lead among pledged delegates or build a new wave of momentum. ..... Obama had turned the furor to his advantage with his speech on race.
Senator Obama’s remarks follow as prepared for delivery.
Remarks for Senator Barack Obama The Cost of War University of Charleston Charleston, West Virginia Thursday, March 20, 2008
Five years ago, the war in Iraq began. And on this fifth anniversary, we honor the brave men and women who are serving this nation in Iraq, Afghanistan, and around the world. We pay tribute to the sacrifices of their families back home. And a grateful nation mourns the loss of our fallen heroes.
I understand that the first serviceman killed in Iraq was a native West Virginian, Marine 1st Lieutenant Shane Childers, who died five years ago tomorrow. And so on this anniversary, my thoughts and prayers go out to Lieutenant Childers’ family, and to all who’ve lost loved ones in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The costs of war are greatest for the troops and those who love them, but we know that war has other costs as well. Yesterday, I addressed some of these other costs in a speech on the strategic consequences of the Iraq war. I spoke about how this war has diverted us from fighting al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and from addressing the other challenges of the 21st Century: violent extremism and nuclear weapons; climate change and poverty; genocide and disease.
And today, I want to talk about another cost of this war – the toll it has taken on our economy. Because at a time when we’re on the brink of recession – when neighborhoods have For Sale signs outside every home, and working families are struggling to keep up with rising costs – ordinary Americans are paying a price for this war.
When you’re spending over $50 to fill up your car because the price of oil is four times what it was before Iraq, you’re paying a price for this war.
When Iraq is costing each household about $100 a month, you’re paying a price for this war.
When a National Guard unit is over in Iraq and can’t help out during a hurricane in Louisiana or with floods here in West Virginia, our communities are paying a price for this war.
And the price our families and communities are paying reflects the price America is paying. The most conservative estimates say that Iraq has now cost more than half a trillion dollars, more than any other war in our history besides World War II. Some say the true cost is even higher and that by the time it’s over, this could be a $3 trillion war.
But what no one disputes is that the cost of this war is far higher than what we were told it would be. We were told this war would cost $50 to $60 billion, and that reconstruction would pay for itself out of Iraqi oil profits. We were told higher estimates were nothing but “baloney.” Like so much else about this war, we were not told the truth.
What no one disputes is that the costs of this war have been compounded by its careless and incompetent execution – from the billions that have vanished in Iraq to the billions more in no-bid contracts for reckless contractors like Halliburton.
What no one disputes is that five years into this war, soldiers up at Fort Drum are having to wait more than a month to get their first mental health screening – even though we know that incidences of PTSD skyrocket between the second, third, and fourth tours of duty. We have a sacred trust to our troops and our veterans, and we have to live up to it.
What no one disputes is that President Bush has done what no other President has ever done, and given tax cuts to the rich in a time of war. John McCain once opposed these tax cuts – he rightly called them unfair and fiscally irresponsible. But now he has done an about face and wants to make them permanent, just like he wants a permanent occupation in Iraq. No matter what the costs, no matter what the consequences, John McCain seems determined to carry out a third Bush-term.
That’s an outcome America can’t afford. Because of the Bush-McCain policies, our debt has ballooned. This is creating problems in our fragile economy. And that kind of debt also places an unfair burden on our children and grandchildren, who will have to repay it.
It also means we’re having to pay for this war with loans from China. Having China as our banker isn’t good for our economy, it isn’t good for our global leadership, and it isn’t good for our national security. History teaches us that for a nation to remain a preeminent military power, it must remain a preeminent economic power. That is why it is so important to manage the costs of war wisely.
This is a lesson that the first President Bush understood. The conduct of the Gulf War cost America less than $20 billion – what we pay in two months in Iraq today. That’s because that war was prosecuted on solid grounds, and in a responsible way, and with the support of allies, who paid most of the costs. None of this has been the case in the way George W. Bush and John McCain have waged the current Iraq war.
Now, at that debate in Texas several weeks ago, Senator Clinton attacked John McCain for supporting the policies that have led to our enormous war costs. But her point would have been more compelling had she not joined Senator McCain in making the tragically ill-considered decision to vote for the Iraq war in the first place.
The truth is, this is all part of the reason I opposed this war from the start. It’s why I said back in 2002 that it could lead to an occupation not just of undetermined length or undetermined consequences, but of undetermined costs. It’s why I’ve said this war should have never been authorized and never been waged.
Now, let me be clear: when I am President, I will spare no expense to ensure that our troops have the equipment and support they need. There is no higher obligation for a Commander-in-Chief. But we also have to understand that the more than $10 billion we’re spending each month in Iraq is money we could be investing here at home. Just think about what battles we could be fighting instead of fighting this misguided war.
Instead of fighting this war, we could be fighting the terrorists who attacked us on 9/11 and who are plotting against us in Afghanistan and Pakistan. We could be securing our homeland and stopping the world’s most dangerous weapons from falling into terrorist hands.
Instead of fighting this war, we could be fighting for the people of West Virginia. For what folks in this state have been spending on the Iraq war, we could be giving health care to nearly 450,000 of your neighbors, hiring nearly 30,000 new elementary school teachers, and making college more affordable for over 300,000 students.
We could be fighting to put the American dream within reach for every American – by giving tax breaks to working families, offering relief to struggling homeowners, reversing President Bush’s cuts to the Manufacturing Extension Partnership, and protecting Social Security today, tomorrow, and forever. That’s what we could be doing instead of fighting this war.
Instead of fighting this war, we could be fighting to make universal health care a reality in this country. We could be fighting for the young woman who works the night shift after a full day of college and still can’t afford medicine for a sister who’s ill. For what we spend in several months in Iraq, we could be providing them with the quality, affordable health care that every American deserves.
Instead of fighting this war, we could be fighting to give every American a quality education. We could be fighting for the young men and women all across this country who dream big dreams but aren’t getting the kind of education they need to reach for those dreams. For a fraction of what we’re spending each year in Iraq, we could be giving our teachers more pay and more support, rebuilding our crumbling schools, and offering a tax credit to put a college degree within reach for anyone who wants one.
Instead of fighting this war, we could be fighting to rebuild our roads and bridges. I’ve proposed a fund that would do just that and generate nearly two million new jobs – many in the construction industry that’s been hard hit by our housing crisis. And it would cost just six percent of what we spend each year in Iraq.
Instead of fighting this war, we could be freeing ourselves from the tyranny of oil, and saving this planet for our children. We could be investing in renewable sources of energy, and in clean coal technology, and creating up to 5 million new green jobs in the bargain, including new clean coal jobs. And we could be doing it all for the cost of less than a year and a half in Iraq.
These are the investments we could be making, all within the parameters of a more responsible and disciplined budget. This is the future we could be building. And that is why I will bring this war to an end when I’m President of the United States of America.
But we also know that even after this war comes to an end, the costs of this war will not. We’ll have to keep our sacred trust with our veterans and fully fund the VA. We’ll have to look after our wounded warriors – whether they’re suffering from wounds seen or unseen. That must include the signature injuries of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan – not just PTSD, but Traumatic Brain Injury. We’ll have to give veterans the health care and disability benefits they deserve, the support they need, and the respect they’ve earned. This is an obligation I have fought to uphold on the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee by joining Jay Rockefeller to expand educational opportunities for our veterans. It’s an obligation I will uphold as President, and it’s an obligation that will endure long after this war is over.
And our obligation to rebuild our military will endure as well. This war has stretched our military to its limits, wearing down troops and equipment as a result of tour after tour after tour of duty. The Army has said it will need $13 billion a year just to replace and repair all the equipment that’s been broken or lost. So in the coming years we won’t just have to restore our military to its peak level of readiness, and we won’t just have to make sure our National Guard is back to being fully prepared to handle a domestic crisis, we’ll also have to ensure that our soldiers are trained and equipped to confront the new threats of the 21 century and that our military can meet any challenge around the world. And that is a responsibility I intend to meet as Commander-in-Chief.
So we know what this war has cost us – in blood and in treasure. But in the words of Robert Kennedy, “past error is no excuse for its own perpetuation.” And yet, John McCain refuses to learn from the failures of the Bush years. Instead of offering an exit strategy for Iraq, he’s offering us a 100-year occupation. Instead of offering an economic plan that works for working Americans, he’s supporting tax cuts for the wealthiest among us who don’t need them and aren’t asking for them. Senator McCain is embracing the failed policies of the past, but America is ready to embrace the future.
When I am your nominee, the American people will have a real choice in November – between change and more of the same, between giving the Bush policies another four years, or bringing them to an end. And that is the choice the American people deserve.
Somewhere in Baghdad today, a soldier is stepping into his Humvee and heading out on a patrol. That soldier knows the cost of war. He’s been bearing it for five years. It’s the cost of being kept awake at night by the whistle of falling mortars. It’s the cost of a heart that aches for a loved one back home, and a family that’s counting the days until the next R&R. It’s the cost of losing a friend, who asked for nothing but to serve his country.
How much longer are we going to ask our troops to bear the cost of this war?
How much longer are we going to ask our families and our communities to bear the cost of this war?
When are we going to stop mortgaging our children’s future for Washington’s mistake?
This election is our chance to reclaim our future – to end the fight in Iraq and take up the fight for good jobs and universal health care. To end the fight in Iraq and take up the fight for a world-class education and retirement security. To end the fight in Iraq and take up the fight for opportunity, and equality, and prosperity here at home.
Those are the battles we need to fight. That is the leadership I want to offer. And that is the future we can build together when I’m President of the United States. Thank you.
In The News
Worsening polls reveal Obama's pastor problem AFP Obama suffered in the polls Thursday after a much-acclaimed speech on race that, pundits said, had failed to defuse voters' anger over rage-filled sermons by his former pastor. .... white working-class voters and independents especially alienated. ...... Just before the Wright videos emerged last week, Obama's rating was 52 percent. .... the row was grist for her aides' lobbying of superdelegates. ..... "Mrs. Clinton's advisers said they had spent recent days making the case to wavering superdelegates that Mr. Obama's association with Mr. Wright would doom their party in the general election"
Obama Tries to Shift Focus Away From Race New York Times Iraq is costing each household about $100 a month ..... the costs of this war have been compounded by its careless and incompetent execution ..... Obama’s campaign has kept track of the reaction to the speech in Philadelphia to help decide whether he will need to address the subject again ..... Pennsylvanians are rushing in record numbers to sign up as Democrats so they can vote in the primary ..... Mrs. Clinton waged a low-key campaign on Thursday in Terre Haute and Anderson, Ind., two once-affluent industrial cities that are now struggling economically. ...... Clinton said that women were usually the “designated worriers” in any family, and said she filled that role in her own family. ..... said Dan Parker, the Indiana Democratic chairman. “Race? We don’t really want to talk about that.”
It first hit me as a feeling, unarticulated, but immediate. It took me weeks to articulate the feeling to myself. But I started reacting to it immediately. I started looking for the person who put me through the coat check. Who did it? Some time in January I blamed Berger: Berger masterminded the mandatory coat check. Then I decided, Berger could not have done it alone. Maybe Pollak was part of it as well. At the Texas debate watch in Caputo's presence I started thinking maybe it was not the two guys. It is always Caputo who calls the shots. At Tonic for the Texas Ohio returns watch, I saw the same white guy security guard. So it was Caputo. I tried to be understanding, all that data on violence on women, the data on violent crime in this city itself.
It took me full three months and a mystery woman (Satyagraha, Day 1) to realize a mandatory coat check is a routine, boring thing bars do for events where many people show up. I clearly misunderstood. And by a wide, wide margin.
If I had not misunderstood I would have reacted differently to Elizabeth at the Holiday party, at the December Baby party, the Planned Parenthood event, also when I showed up for the Texas debate watch.
There are two facts. One, I clearly misunderstood. Two, why did I misunderstand. Both facts are important. You don't get to dismiss the second.
The civil war in Nepal started after I left Nepal in 1996 and lasted a full decade. I did not have anything to do with it, I have not been there physically. But I have been there every day. My mind has been there. A part of me has been living in that war zone every day. My entire time in New York City, I have played a very active role in trying to bring that war to an end. All that violence is going to occupy a part of your mind. It does not feel normal at all. You are not at peace. Once in a while you will get spasms of unease.
Only a few months back my Harvard grad brother-in-law, married to my youngest sister - they live in the city - lost his father to a vicious murder back in Nepal. The police think at least five people must have been involved. I have not seen my family go through a more intense emotional turmoil. My mother was bed ridden for days.
I would not feel safe going to Nepal right now.
My reaction to Benazir's death was intense, personal, emotional. Faraway events impact me: they are not far away to my mind. I was 23 when I landed in America. (Nobody Quite Like Benazir)
The day 9/11 happened, I was in a small town in Kentucky. The locals called the cops on me. That was not the last such experience.
When in Nepal, I was politicking right out of high school. I was politicking at the national level. I got to know this guy called Mirza, barely. More like we knew of each other, met in person a few times. But he was extremely good friends with some people who I was very good friends with. He was a MP. He was also Dawood's top guy in Nepal. Dawood ran - runs - Mumbai's underworld from Dubai and Karachi. His Hindu rival Chhota Rajan ran his business from Bangkok. A year into America I learned Mirza had been mowed down. They pushed 42 bullets into his body. They could not afford the news he was "still alive" so they did a thorough job. I was never mafia, but I got to know this guy. He was quite a celebrated politician, gave great speeches at mass meetings.
In Texas some cowboys emptied their guns into my truck. It felt like being under machine gun fire. The closest bullets hit perhaps 15 feet from me.
In Kentucky I got detained once for 35 hours over something this or that email. They let me out at midnight. It was in another town.
Towards the end of my Class 10 year in Kathmandu, some classmates from a rival dorm came to beat some of us up at the city buspark when we were on our way home for the most important vacation of the year, us out of Kathmandu boys. In how the school authorities reacted to that incident, I woke to the social gravity of prejudice and racism for the first time in my life. It was 1989. It was a slow waking up that took years, gave me major career hits. The number two guy in class went on to Harvard to Goldman. I was number one before that bus park incident.
I once got into a major road accident in upstate New York: ice in early spring, early morning. I counted. The difference between life and death is three seconds: 1001, 1002, 1003. I did not get a scratch, but when you get lucky like that, you don't try your luck a second time.
I once drove overnight through a hurricane, I followed it up the east coast. The rainfall was horizontal.
I am a Third World guy. I think about deaths on a daily basis, deaths to stupid violence, petty disease. My tech startup is not a guy saying okay, bye bye to politics, let's go make some money to buy fancy cars. Internet access is the voting right for this century. The Internet is what will bridge the wide gulf between the first and third worlds. This is the Internet Century. I don't have the option to say bye bye politics. But I also have the compulsion to do other things.
Weak Social Muscles: What Do I Mean
A few weeks back, I was at an Obama event at the Irish Rogue. I was there for four hours. The first two hours, I had a hard time connecting. I would go for 30 seconds with someone, maybe a minute, then I necessarily had to walk away, go be by myself. After two hours I left and went outside. Then came back.
Two more hours and I was finally into small talk, small banter, small jokes. But by then most people had already left.
I know I have it, it is in there, but intense 2.0 work for Nepal, Obama, and my startup has left me with weak social muscles.
Lesson: a rich social, emotional life is necessary to a rich 2.0 life. There is no 2.0 without 5.0.
I am bigger on personal space than anyone I ever met. It is like, there is India and its communal culture and arranged marriages. There is America and its individualism. I am beyond America. And that has implications. I feel like every white guy who has tried to hook me up with the Queen has cost me a few months of my life.
But the mystery woman has proven me wrong. I can't do it on my own. A relationship is not just something between two individuals. It perhaps takes a village, or a few close friends. Just don't start with white guys! They have been part of the pain in Kathmandu and Kentucky. I get a little irrational.
Love, Work
They say to be happy in life you have to find two things: love and work.
When Hillary showed up on the scene in 1992, it was news that she did not stay home to bake cookies. Career women don't have a long history.
But that was 1992. Today it is 2008. The question I am asking is this. Would it be possible to imagine two high voltage careers and one happy relationship? Has never been done before.
The way it could work is if (1) there were an intense soulmate recognition, (2) there were numerous channels of communication open, (3) there would be zero tolerance for the slightest hint of racism or sexism in the relationship, (4) a detached, pragmatic separation between the personal and the social, political on race and gender, (5) and a total celebration of work: work is worship.
Jeremiah Wright is right about one thing: race has to be talked about. Finally race is being talked about at the highest level. That is a good thing. That is the best way to make progress on race, the most productive way. Race relations are like a marriage: communication is the lifeblood. People got to talk.
If Barack wants to compete with Abraham Lincoln in the greatness department, he has no option but to tackle race head on as he did in his Philly speech. That is a good start.
Hillary has played foul. In one recent interview, when asked if she thought Barack was a Muslim, she said he was not Muslim, and then added, "as far as I know." That would be like Barack saying in New Hampshire, iron my shirt too.
Racism, Sexism Can Be Cured Like Polio Vaccine Was Found, Slavery Was Ended
I am not talking about I have black friends kind of a cure, although it helps to have many many friendships across the racial, cultural barriers and boundaries. I am talking about tackling the concrete data on disparity. It is about ending the chronic poverty in the inner cities, it is about dreaming up a Marshall Plan for all the inner city schools, it is about health for all, it is about taking all of America into the Information Age.
But ending racism is primarily about ending all Third World dictatorships. Lincoln liberated a few million black slaves, Barack is going to have to liberate billions who still live under the thumb of dictators.
Ending sexism today is primarily about ending all Arab dictatorships. All pro-choice white women in America are going to have to realize that. Arab women are in bad shape.
That Lovey Dobey Feeling
There is the hard, concrete part of Third World dictators, and data on racial disparity in education and health. Then there is the soft part, of racial prejudices and stereotypes, and of conversations on race and gender. We have to tackle both.
In The News
Clinton takes lead over Obama in Gallup poll Reuters March 14-18 national survey .... a 49 percent to 42 percent edge .... McCain leading Obama 47 percent to 43 percent .... edged Clinton 48 percent to 45 percent Liberal activists choose Obama over Clinton in new straw pollWashington Times Superdelegates Await Impact Of Obama Race SpeechU.S. News & World Report Violence in Tibet strains China's relations with India, Nepal Christian Science Monitor Anti-Chinese protests broke out in Tibet March 10 on the 49th anniversary of an abortive 1959 uprising against Chinese rule . ..... Fallout from the turmoil is clouding diplomacy and Olympic preparations. ..... Top Chinese official Zhang Qingli has described Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, as a "wolf wrapped in monk's robes, a devil with a human face and a beast's heart." ..... Armed police and troops poured into distant towns and villages in Tibetan areas of adjacent provinces, with demonstrations continuing to flare. ... planned meeting between British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the Dalai Lama. Obama's Speech on Race Tops YouTube NPR The most popular video on YouTube ..... 1.6 million times ..... "Barrack to the Future!!" .... "He didn't try to skirt the issue and really spoke to us about race from a very honest and transparent place" The Origin of Obama's Pastor ProblemTIME Obama called for blacks and whites to move beyond the "racial stalemate" .... shouting "God damn America!" and calling 9/11 a case of "America's chickens ... coming home to roost." ...... a story that threatened to capsize Obama's front-running campaign with the speed of a Wall Street bankruptcy. ..... the speech he'd been turning over in his mind for much of his adult life. "There wasn't a discussion," says spokesman Robert Gibbs. "He made a decision." Obama went home to Chicago that night, and after his wife and two daughters were asleep, he started composing. ...... an artfully reasoned treatise on race and rancor in America, the most memorable speech delivered by any candidate in this campaign and one that has earned Obama comparisons to Lincoln, Kennedy and King. ....... a 27-year-old ... Obama was searching for an identity and a community, and he found both at Trinity. ...... the era of slavery, when African Americans held services under trees, far from their white masters. "Churches have always been the place where black people could speak freely," she says. "They were the only institutions they could own and run by themselves." ..... "If you're black and you're trying to get ahead in politics, you're not going to join Trinity," says Dwight Hopkins, a Trinity member who is also a professor at U. of C.'s Divinity School. "Not because it's radical — it isn't radical in its context. But it would be safer to join a North Side ecumenical church — the sort of place where people are quiet. They stand up, sit down, listen and leave." ....... his response to controversy isn't to walk out of the room but to try to understand what's fueling the fire ...... Obama is counting on voters to accept nuance in an arena that almost always rewards simplicity over complexity. ..... After he delivered his speech, Obama found his wife Michelle backstage. She was weeping. He shared a quiet, emotional moment with her. Then Obama was all business again. "What's next?" Reaction to the Obama Speech a serious speech about the incendiary topic of race in America ..... Whether he likes it or not, and whether Americans generally like it or not, race is a big part of this election ..... race isn't just another issue; it is THE issue of American history .... He actually needs to have the racial debate continue until it exhausts the media and the electorate as a whole. If he has to confront racial division in October in a major way, he will lose the election. By October, he needs to have the media and voters say, "We've already finished with this subject. What about Iraq? What about the economy?" ....... honest, frank, measured in tone, inclusive and hopeful ...... he appeared wise beyond his years and genuinely presidential. ..... truly a transcendent speech and a remarkable piece of oratory. ...... connect the concerns of black Americans with the needs of unemployed white men and underemployed white women. ...... a stunning effort: both to expose the seamy elements of racism to public view and to redefine the issue for the future as the challenge of building opportunity. ...... white men who have proven one of the toughest political nuts for the Obama campaign to crack ..... centuries of racial tensions that have been part of Pennsylvania politics ..... there's one town — York — that surrendered to the South before the battle of Gettysburg ....... John Kerry got hammered just for protesting the Vietnam War, a war that George W. Bush ducked. A black candidate named Barack Hussein Obama can't have questions about his patriotism, and commitment to America, not if he is going to beat a genuine war hero. ...... The Internet is a powerful thing ...... I thought the speech was incredibly honest and personal. Very few politicians in this country, black or white, could have given an authentic speech like that and speak to the experiences of every American. I don't think these issues are going away, but Obama changed the terms of the debate. From the start, the promise of his candidacy has been about moving beyond petty politics and confronting the big issues confronting the country. He did that today. There are likely lots of voters giving him a second look today who had previously written him off. ....... He's unlike any other politician ..... the most profound speech about race that I could recall in my lifetime. .... A bunch of consultants did not dream this up. He denounced Wright but stood by him and compared him to his grandmother, that is politically risky. ...... an incredibly honest speech ...... nothing in American politics is more divisive or more volatile than race: not political parties, not ideology, not abortion, not gun rights, not war and peace. ......... today's Quinnipiac Pennsylvania poll showing sharpening African-American support for Obama and sharpening white support for Senator Clinton. Obama's Bold Gamble on RacePoliticians don't give speeches like the one Barack Obama delivered this morning at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. Certainly presidential candidates facing the biggest crisis of their campaigns don't. ...... the breathtakingly unconventional speech Obama gave ..... "As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me." ...... Obama declared today that the only way to transcend race is to focus on it rather than downplay it — to acknowledge its sometimes oppressive presence in American life, in the form of both black anger and white alienation. ....... seek to understand those whose emotions seem threatening, wrong-headed ...... the anger behind Rev. Wright's comments, while paralyzing, was also valid, the result of decades and centuries of real discrimination and oppression ...... asked blacks to understand that whites who resent affirmative action and whose fears of crime lead them to stereotype blacks should not be dismissed as racists, because their concerns and fears are real and valid, too. ....... Obama's speech was profound, one of the most remarkable by a major public figure in decades. ...... race still divides us ....... Explicitly asking Americans to grapple with racial divisions, and then transcend them — that's a bold request. Joe Klein on Obama's Speech comparing apples and freight trains .... unequivocal in his candor about black anger and white resentment—sentiments that few mainstream politicians acknowledge ...... free-trade agreements like NAFTA have only a marginal impact on the loss of manufacturing jobs and that it will be impossible to end the war in Iraq in 16 months. ...... For many Americans, the Wright flap is the third thing they've learned about Obama. The first two were that he is black and has a "funny" name. All too many voters don't get beyond first impressions ...... the media—where cynicism too often passes for insight Clinton's Hopes for Florida Fade Will Dean's War on Florida Backfire? So now, just as that state party is regaining full use of its limbs, it defies credulity to watch Dean and the DNC go out of their way to chop them off. ..... Third World countries like Mexico today hold more modern and truly democratic primaries than America's, whose Iowa- and New Hampshire-centric traditions seem as atavistic to a lot of people as using groundhogs to forecast the arrival of spring. Barack Obama Linked to New Controversial PreacherFOXNews Trinity helps the poor. Trinity feeds the hungry. Trinity does things for the homeless. ...... he has said some pretty horrible things, denounced Hollywood Jews. He has called being gay an evil sickness. His church has held a party where they sent gay people to hell. ...... do you accept the idea that Barack Obama isn't responsible for every single thing that someone who supports him says ...... many people outside the black community have no idea what goes on in the black church. What is being done at Trinity is mainstream black churches. ....... that G.D. America, that the American government caused AIDS, that America is the worst terrorist nation on earth. McCain gains edge over Dems, Clinton over ObamaBaltimore Sun Obama Accuses Clinton of “Bankrolling” Re-Vote CBS News Clinton Presses Obama on Efforts For Revotes in Florida and MichiganWashington Post Clinton challenges Obama to agree to new Michigan, Florida primariesKansas City Star Clinton gets Voters Rights Fever ABC News 368 Florida and Michigan delegates ..... Two Clinton-backing governors, Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania and Jon Corzine of New Jersey, have even lined up donors to help pay for the contest because Michigan's and Florida's governors say the states will not foot the bill. ..... officials from both states now say that revotes seem unlikely. ..... it's a mess for those important battleground states and Republicans are loving every minute of it. Clinton opens up White House filesThe Age Looking ahead: Clinton still up in PAMSNBC Clinton’s lead keeps growing. ..... Clinton leading by 16 points, 51% to 35% ..... one in five of each candidate’s backers said they would vote for McCain if the other person won the Democratic nomination. Analysis: Obama goes beyond generalities on race Boston Globe added gravitas to a candidacy that some have found superficial ..... few have tried to capture Lincoln's almost mournful tone of parsing painful issues, piece by piece, in reference to timeless principles ...... the legacy of discrimination - and current incidents of discrimination, while less overt than in the past - are real and must be addressed .... the moment that Obama got a little more down and dirty ..... a nation confronting its sins and overcoming its deeply held fears and prejudices. Speech Aimed at Diverse Audiences Draws Some Comparisons to JFK Washington Post "He was between the devil and deep blue sea, and he did a good job ..... As skilled an orator as Obama is, he has faced few moments as fraught as yesterday's. .... clips of his longtime spiritual mentor declaring "God damn America" for its mistreatment of blacks and saying that the country had provoked the Sept. 11, 2001 ..... The speech drew praise across the political spectrum ....... "If he wins the presidency, this will be seen as a very important speech." ...... a friend of Wright's, clapped in his living room as Obama lauded Wright for "housing the homeless, ministering to the needy, providing day-care services and scholarships and prison ministries." ...... "All of us from that generation had to go around through the back door, had to ride in the segregated portion of the train. That anger can keep us marred down in the mud, or it can be creatively used. Nepal Maoists face the ballot box Reuters Canada Giuliani, After Campaign, Returns to Private Sector Wall Street Journal Dalai Lama Threatens to Resign New York Timesthreatened to resign as leader of Tibet’s government-in-exile in the event of spiraling bloodshed in his homeland. ..... remained committed to only nonviolent agitation and greater autonomy for Tibetans, not independence Invited to Wrestle in a Racial Mud Pit, Obama Soars Above It Washington Post those whites who want Obama to "transcend race" while they get to hold on to their racist ways. ..... Right-wing TV commentators then detonated it with ignorant vitriol, including an insinuation by Pat Buchanan that Wright was a black David Duke, the former leader of the white terrorist organization known as the Ku Klux Klan, and that Obama was the disciple of a hateful man. ...... I no longer wanted to risk getting stuck in a racial tar pit with Buchanan ..... the racial divide, the gap in black and white perceptions of reality ...... connect slavery to black suffering today. .... inferior, racially segregated schools that still haven't been fixed "50 years after Brown versus Board of Education." Obama's history, and America'sBoston Globe Obama took the opportunity to engage the question of race in America, starting a bold, uncomfortably honest conversation. He asked Americans to talk openly about the deep wells of anger and resentment over racism, discrimination, and affirmative action. It's a call to break out of the country's racial stalemate and finally reach a new national understanding....... European immigrants have shortened multisyllabic names to fit in. ..... building a better America, one with stronger schools, better health care, reliable voting machines, fairer taxes, strong roads and bridges, and a healthy economy. Clinton Tries to Keep Plan for Two Revotes Alive New York Times Florida officially scuttled plans for a new vote and Michigan lawmakers appeared far from a deal. ...... Michigan Democrats are divided, that a revote would not make much difference in the overall delegate count ..... “I also question the legality of someone raising private money to conduct a public election.”
Obama And The Bigots New York Times Americans have typically said in polls that they are less willing to vote for a woman than a black ..... Yet the most monstrous bigotry in this election isn’t about either race or sex. It’s about religion. ..... detailed theological explanations for why he is the Antichrist, and the proof is that he claims to be Christian — after all, the Antichrist would say that, wouldn’t he? ..... These charges are fanatical, America’s own equivalent of the vicious accusations about Jews that circulate in some Muslim countries. They are less a swipe at one candidate than a calumny against an entire religion. They underscore that for many bigoted Americans in the 21st century, calling someone a Muslim is still a slur. ...... the word “miscegenation” was coined in 1863 and 1864 in charges that Abraham Lincoln secretly plotted for blacks to marry whites, especially Irish-Americans. ........ a Los Angeles Times poll in 2006 found that only 34 percent of respondents said they could vote for a Muslim for president. ...... the Muslim call to prayer is “one of the prettiest sounds on earth at sunset”) ..... If you can’t reach the White House with a hijacked plane, then storm the Oval Office through the ballot box. ...... When Mrs. Clinton was asked in a television interview a week ago whether Mr. Obama is a Muslim, she denied it firmly — but then added, most unfortunately, “as far as I know.” To his credit, Mr. McCain scolded a radio host who repeatedly referred to “Barack Hussein Obama” and later called him a Manchurian candidate.
Declaring Satyagraha On The DL21C White Establishment I showed up right on time, around seven. There was a rather long line outside the venue. It kind of reminded me of the February 5 party in Little India: Tonic: What A Party. I guess the event had been rightly touted as one of the most high profile for the year. Valerie Plame is a small scale martyr for the women trying to make headway in the corporate and governmental worlds.
In her photos this Plame person looks like she might have been a Bond girl in one of the Bond movies. I wanted to take a look.
I got in line and started making small talk with the people in front of me and behind me. It is amazing how technology can help. You set up a website where people can sign up to be on your mailing list, and that is a big chunk of it. You send out emails for your events and people pick and choose which ones to go to. It all works out beautifully.
Mystery Woman
Then I saw a mystery woman - mystery because this was my first time of seeing her - walk along the line from the front accompanied by a guy who I was seeing in person for the first time but who I am Facebook friends with. At the DL21C Facebook page, he was listed as someone on the Steering Committee, so I sent him a friend request, he accepted. Later in the evening when I went home to check, I realized he was no longer on the committee. What happened? He got booted out for speaking good of me? That is how impulsively Larry Ellison fires people.
The woman was getting people to sign up to be DL21C members. It is seven dollars for the event, but if you become a member, all events are free. When she came close to me she said, there is mandatory coat check, and walked back to the front of the line and went inside. That is when I realized she had been briefed on me. This was her first time of seeing me, but she knew who I was.
I showed up for the Holiday party to have a good time. I had nothing to do with the Obama stickers that got distributed. It would not have been my idea.
I think the party started later. For the first hour it was some group called Lord And Manor, whatever that is, I might not even be saying the name right. But I showed up at seven and was allowed in after a compulsory coat check. The white guy security guard did ask "Which party?" but he let me in despite my wrong answer. I established a connection through eye contact. But the mandatory coat check stuck with me through the Holiday party, through the December Baby party (December Baby?), through the Planned Parenthood event (Planned Parenthood: A Different Kind Of Event), until yesterday. Yesterday the mystery woman made me realize I had grossly misunderstood just like I had misunderstood Liz on the bag thing at a MYD event.
Liz
I was talking to Lee Motayed at a MYD event. Lee is an ethnic Indian, Bengali to be precise. She is now a major MYD officer. You rarely meet Indians at political events in Manhattan. So when you do, you gravitate to them. Claim a little solidarity. My first language Maithili and Bengali are two closest languages to each other in the families of languages. Lee grew up in America. I was born in India, but I grew up in Nepal. But still, in this color coded country, an Indian face is enough.
So I am talking to Lee. We are both standing next to this chair. On that chair is a bag. Liz comes along, picks that bag up and walks away. This was before I had written my online autobiography - Rambo digging with his knife into his own arm for bullets - and there were many unprocessed thoughts and feelings. I had managed to move to NYC, but my mind and memories were still hostage to Kathmandu, Kentucky, Indiana, all three of which are part of my identity like my fingers and I am glad they are, like the beautiful eastern Kentucky landscape, but in each case there were specific instances of abuses of institutional power that still haunt me. Those bullets were still in my arms when Liz picked up that bag.
The following day I went berserk on my blog. I am humbled that someone of Pollak's stature - I mean, the dude just so happens to chair the state party - showed up for a MYD event, and it was partly to help me see Liz is okay.
But that was before I had dug into my arm with my knife, and I was not so sure. By now I am 100% sure that Liz meant nothing by picking that bag up. But that still does not change the fact that the pain that I had was real, and still exists in remnants, and that there are white women out there who do do the bag thing to nonwhite men. But being unfair to Liz is not how you make those points.
Coat Check
The mandatory coat check was like Liz picking up the bag. For one, it is good business for the club. You make people pay. It is also good logistics. You get a large crowd, and it is warm inside, and the first thing people do is take off their coats and lay it out on the chairs, tables, and ends up looking like the municipality has stopped picking up garbage.
On my own I was getting to the point where I was willing to be understanding, as in granted you did the mandatory coat check, I am willing to move on, forgive. I was trying to throw in data on domestic violence in India, crime in NYC, all of which are valid issues to bring up. But the mystery woman helped me out. Now I am as liberated from the mandatory coat check at the Holiday party as I am from Liz picking up the bag.
If I had never misunderstood the Holiday party coat check in the first place, would I have reacted differently to Elizabeth at the Holiday party? At the December Baby party two days later? At the Planned Parenthood event in early February? I think so.
But then misunderstanding and now liberation does not change the fact of pain accumulated in Kathmandu, Kentucky, Indiana, and it does not change the validity of some of the issues I raised in the process. (My Third World People Don't Get To Vote In This City) But then again, that pain and those issues have to be talked about not in connection with the mandatory coat check. And also I am pragmatic about the proposal to expand voting rights in the city. Someone running for Mayor would have to adopt it for it to happen. It is okay to get theoretical while thinking, exploring, but when it is time for action, you have to be pragmatic.
ID Check: Indiana Driver's License
When they check your ID at a bar, they are trying to make sure you are old enough. I am 35, but I have had to go through the ID thing many times many places. I look 25 to some people.
So finally I am at the front of the line. Next group of people to go in, and I would be in. The doors are dark, so you can't see in. There is a black guy security guard working the rope. Out comes a white guy security guard.
"Can I see some ID?"
I take it out and show it to him, and ask. "Am I not allowed in?" I am thinking the DL21C ban on me is still in place.
"Probably not," he says.
The black dude looks puzzled. He does not have a clue what is going on. How did I not figure out this guy could have been underage? Or is he? Probably not.
I walk away.
Women's Choices
A married woman can end the marriage. I understand that.
A woman engaged can call off the wedding. I get it.
A woman in a relationship, in a girlfriend boyfriend situation, can end that relationship. I get that.
A woman can express curiosity or interest in a guy as if to explore, trying to figure out if that might be a guy for her, and she can stop right there after figuring out that is not the guy she had in mind. That would not have been a relationship, or a start of one. I understand.
A woman is going to have colleagues, friends, comrades, allies, adversaries of both sexes. I get that.
If a woman is not into you, she is not into you. I get that. To not get it would be petty sexism.
DL21C Events
My showing up for DL21C events has to be independent of everything else. I saw white guy Dan Jacoby get in. He is 10 times more sexist than me. He is much more likely to not "get it" than me, if the idea is to "get it."
Barack
Barack wants the DL21C to lift the ban on me. I am no Salman Rushdie.
There was day one. Wise guy Justin Krebs was there. He saw it all. He heard it all.
I have a feeling that after that I was put through a mental ID check.
Then a little something started at the NYU event, there was a backpedal at the bookstore event with the black Newsweek writer who towards the very end made a nuanced comparison between Caputo and Condi. "Condi is a tough woman." The "don't touch me!" at the bookstore event deprived me of all the subsequent overtures. Pollak saw the touch at the summer bash: he was playing his guitar on stage but he was watching. The street fair: I don't know why I did not walk straight to the DL21C table. That is why I went. After the standing-next-to-you-to-wave-to-the-crowds at the Paterson event - now Governor - I shot her an email. I wish there were a movies version of DL21C, I'd like to meet Al Pacino. And, you have been four different places on the map with me, it has been very confusing knowing you. At the subsequent Irish Rogue event, she kept trying to undo the "don't touch me!" by brushing against me to touch my palm that had touched her at the bookstore: I am telling you it was a magnetic pull, not a conscious touch. The following day I went berserk again at a friend of hers who walked to stand between us. Now I realize Caputo had been looking at me right before that, so the friend reacted to her looking away in haste, as if to not get caught. Sorry Liz. Sorry guy friend. At the subsequent education committee event, I was supposed to say something. At the subsequent Washington governor event, she was standing right behind me on purpose, the same way she was standing behind me from a little distance at the Planned Parenthood event. Whisking the two women away: that was a gesture.
At the Parenthood event I got the impression she looks down upon the elected women officials in the city and the state. It is not like any of them are Governor. The same way I kind of in my own way look down upon politicians in Nepal. I don't have to travel, I don't have to sit through endless meetings, I don't have to address mass meetings, I don't have to suffer the small talk, I don't even have to be there: but I will make impact.
And then, boom, it was bookstore part two at the swankiest venue ever: Bobby got elected. (Pledge Of Allegiance)
And then it was round two: Holiday party, December Baby party, even the Iowa returns watch was not a black and white kicked out thing. It was a go-do-your-Obama-thing-until-Feb-5 gesture. If this guy is going to show up for a Women's Issues Committee meeting, and he thinks I could be Mayor and President, he is going to show up for a night out with women in politics. Hello Jessica.
The way the host of the Planned Parenthood event kept reacting to Caputo, I got the impression Caputo was like goddess to her. So I am saying Caputo had a major say in the event's planning all the way to hosting it at The Zipper Factory.
But I dropped the ball. But then I was still struggling with the mandatory coat check. Who does this white woman think she is? Putting me through a mandatory coat check? Now I am no longer, thanks to the mystery woman.
Conversation
I wish Caputo would give me a conversation. There would be ground rules.
No time pressure. It would last an hour, two hours, maybe more.
No yelling.
But it would be okay for either to take time out at any point.
Seeking Understanding
I think it might be a religion thing. I am a Buddhist. In my religion, you don't accept anything you don't understand. Whereas the basics of Christianity, you just have to accept on faith.
I have to achieve understanding of some basic events from the past to be able to fully move on.
The mystery woman performed magic. I already have understood most of the events from the past.
Career
Say if it is just about career. Even so I think we should talk.
My bet is her heart is not in banking. She wants to make her stamp in politics ultimately. But say I am wrong, and what she wants to do is climb up the ladders at Morgan Stanley. Even then becoming COO of my startup is a much better proposition than sticking it out with Stanley. Not right now, I could not afford her. But in about a year or more things will be different. For big bucks and big impacts, there is nothing like a tech startup. (Silicon City) She does not know it, but she already thinks of 5.0 like it were technology. Or maybe she knows it too well. (Web 5.0: Face Time)
But if the idea is to end up with a political career, when you project into the future what she has been doing - accumulating a ton of political knowledge, and building a ton of political contacts - sh is headed to getting appointed by some politician. The top slot would be to end up a federal cabinet secretary. If that is the idea, talking to me would be the best thing to do. I could get her into Barack's cabinet during Barack's second term, the number one reason being because she is so very qualified. So far I have asked only one thing of Barack: total debt relief for Africa. I could ask for a bonus after helping him with his reelection.
But that would be such a waste. Why would you want to be cabinet secretary when you can be president? This woman is destined to be President Of The United States. But for that accumulating knowledge and political contacts is not enough, you have to go mass based, you have to create an online think tank arm for the DL21C, you have to take the organization 100% into Web 2.0, you have to create a robust local template and fan out into all states, we have to become a party inside a party. (Rabbits Birthing Rabbits) For that you need someone who is really into 2.0 and who is good friends with Justin Krebs. I think I just described myself.
Her DL21C events are like my blog: neither are mass based right now. It is not like my blog gets 10,000 page hits a day.
So
So someone please tell me as to why Caputo will not shoot me a email with her phone number right away and say, hey, I want to talk to you. And we could arrange to meet and talk. Paramendra is at Gmail.
Senator Barack Obama’s speech on race in Philadelphia
“We the people, in order to form a more perfect union.”
Two hundred and twenty one years ago, in a hall that still stands across the street, a group of men gathered and, with these simple words, launched America’s improbable experiment in democracy. Farmers and scholars; statesmen and patriots who had traveled across an ocean to escape tyranny and persecution finally made real their declaration of independence at a Philadelphia convention that lasted through the spring of 1787.
The document they produced was eventually signed but ultimately unfinished. It was stained by this nation’s original sin of slavery, a question that divided the colonies and brought the convention to a stalemate until the founders chose to allow the slave trade to continue for at least twenty more years, and to leave any final resolution to future generations.
Of course, the answer to the slavery question was already embedded within our Constitution – a Constitution that had at is very core the ideal of equal citizenship under the law; a Constitution that promised its people liberty, and justice, and a union that could be and should be perfected over time.
And yet words on a parchment would not be enough to deliver slaves from bondage, or provide men and women of every color and creed their full rights and obligations as citizens of the United States. What would be needed were Americans in successive generations who were willing to do their part – through protests and struggle, on the streets and in the courts, through a civil war and civil disobedience and always at great risk - to narrow that gap between the promise of our ideals and the reality of their time.
This was one of the tasks we set forth at the beginning of this campaign – to continue the long march of those who came before us, a march for a more just, more equal, more free, more caring and more prosperous America. I chose to run for the presidency at this moment in history because I believe deeply that we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together – unless we perfect our union by understanding that we may have different stories, but we hold common hopes; that we may not look the same and we may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction – towards a better future for of children and our grandchildren.
This belief comes from my unyielding faith in the decency and generosity of the American people. But it also comes from my own American story.
I am the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas. I was raised with the help of a white grandfather who survived a Depression to serve in Patton’s Army during World War II and a white grandmother who worked on a bomber assembly line at Fort Leavenworth while he was overseas. I’ve gone to some of the best schools in America and lived in one of the world’s poorest nations. I am married to a black American who carries within her the blood of slaves and slaveowners – an inheritance we pass on to our two precious daughters. I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles and cousins, of every race and every hue, scattered across three continents, and for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible.
It’s a story that hasn’t made me the most conventional candidate. But it is a story that has seared into my genetic makeup the idea that this nation is more than the sum of its parts – that out of many, we are truly one.
Throughout the first year of this campaign, against all predictions to the contrary, we saw how hungry the American people were for this message of unity. Despite the temptation to view my candidacy through a purely racial lens, we won commanding victories in states with some of the whitest populations in the country. In South Carolina, where the Confederate Flag still flies, we built a powerful coalition of African Americans and white Americans.
This is not to say that race has not been an issue in the campaign. At various stages in the campaign, some commentators have deemed me either “too black” or “not black enough.” We saw racial tensions bubble to the surface during the week before the South Carolina primary. The press has scoured every exit poll for the latest evidence of racial polarization, not just in terms of white and black, but black and brown as well.
And yet, it has only been in the last couple of weeks that the discussion of race in this campaign has taken a particularly divisive turn.
On one end of the spectrum, we’ve heard the implication that my candidacy is somehow an exercise in affirmative action; that it’s based solely on the desire of wide-eyed liberals to purchase racial reconciliation on the cheap. On the other end, we’ve heard my former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, use incendiary language to express views that have the potential not only to widen the racial divide, but views that denigrate both the greatness and the goodness of our nation; that rightly offend white and black alike.
I have already condemned, in unequivocal terms, the statements of Reverend Wright that have caused such controversy. For some, nagging questions remain. Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely – just as I’m sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed.
But the remarks that have caused this recent firestorm weren’t simply controversial. They weren’t simply a religious leader’s effort to speak out against perceived injustice. Instead, they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country – a view that sees white racism as endemic, and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America; a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam.
As such, Reverend Wright’s comments were not only wrong but divisive, divisive at a time when we need unity; racially charged at a time when we need to come together to solve a set of monumental problems – two wars, a terrorist threat, a falling economy, a chronic health care crisis and potentially devastating climate change; problems that are neither black or white or Latino or Asian, but rather problems that confront us all.
Given my background, my politics, and my professed values and ideals, there will no doubt be those for whom my statements of condemnation are not enough. Why associate myself with Reverend Wright in the first place, they may ask? Why not join another church? And I confess that if all that I knew of Reverend Wright were the snippets of those sermons that have run in an endless loop on the television and You Tube, or if Trinity United Church of Christ conformed to the caricatures being peddled by some commentators, there is no doubt that I would react in much the same way
But the truth is, that isn’t all that I know of the man. The man I met more than twenty years ago is a man who helped introduce me to my Christian faith, a man who spoke to me about our obligations to love one another; to care for the sick and lift up the poor. He is a man who served his country as a U.S. Marine; who has studied and lectured at some of the finest universities and seminaries in the country, and who for over thirty years led a church that serves the community by doing God’s work here on Earth – by housing the homeless, ministering to the needy, providing day care services and scholarships and prison ministries, and reaching out to those suffering from HIV/AIDS.
In my first book, Dreams From My Father, I described the experience of my first service at Trinity:
“People began to shout, to rise from their seats and clap and cry out, a forceful wind carrying the reverend’s voice up into the rafters….And in that single note – hope! – I heard something else; at the foot of that cross, inside the thousands of churches across the city, I imagined the stories of ordinary black people merging with the stories of David and Goliath, Moses and Pharaoh, the Christians in the lion’s den, Ezekiel’s field of dry bones. Those stories – of survival, and freedom, and hope – became our story, my story; the blood that had spilled was our blood, the tears our tears; until this black church, on this bright day, seemed once more a vessel carrying the story of a people into future generations and into a larger world. Our trials and triumphs became at once unique and universal, black and more than black; in chronicling our journey, the stories and songs gave us a means to reclaim memories that we didn’t need to feel shame about…memories that all people might study and cherish – and with which we could start to rebuild.”
That has been my experience at Trinity. Like other predominantly black churches across the country, Trinity embodies the black community in its entirety – the doctor and the welfare mom, the model student and the former gang-banger. Like other black churches, Trinity’s services are full of raucous laughter and sometimes bawdy humor. They are full of dancing, clapping, screaming and shouting that may seem jarring to the untrained ear. The church contains in full the kindness and cruelty, the fierce intelligence and the shocking ignorance, the struggles and successes, the love and yes, the bitterness and bias that make up the black experience in America.
And this helps explain, perhaps, my relationship with Reverend Wright. As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me. He strengthened my faith, officiated my wedding, and baptized my children. Not once in my conversations with him have I heard him talk about any ethnic group in derogatory terms, or treat whites with whom he interacted with anything but courtesy and respect. He contains within him the contradictions – the good and the bad – of the community that he has served diligently for so many years.
I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother – a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.
These people are a part of me. And they are a part of America, this country that I love.
Some will see this as an attempt to justify or excuse comments that are simply inexcusable. I can assure you it is not. I suppose the politically safe thing would be to move on from this episode and just hope that it fades into the woodwork. We can dismiss Reverend Wright as a crank or a demagogue, just as some have dismissed Geraldine Ferraro, in the aftermath of her recent statements, as harboring some deep-seated racial bias.
But race is an issue that I believe this nation cannot afford to ignore right now. We would be making the same mistake that Reverend Wright made in his offending sermons about America – to simplify and stereotype and amplify the negative to the point that it distorts reality.
The fact is that the comments that have been made and the issues that have surfaced over the last few weeks reflect the complexities of race in this country that we’ve never really worked through – a part of our union that we have yet to perfect. And if we walk away now, if we simply retreat into our respective corners, we will never be able to come together and solve challenges like health care, or education, or the need to find good jobs for every American.
Understanding this reality requires a reminder of how we arrived at this point. As William Faulkner once wrote, “The past isn’t dead and buried. In fact, it isn’t even past.” We do not need to recite here the history of racial injustice in this country. But we do need to remind ourselves that so many of the disparities that exist in the African-American community today can be directly traced to inequalities passed on from an earlier generation that suffered under the brutal legacy of slavery and Jim Crow.
Segregated schools were, and are, inferior schools; we still haven’t fixed them, fifty years after Brown v. Board of Education, and the inferior education they provided, then and now, helps explain the pervasive achievement gap between today’s black and white students.
Legalized discrimination - where blacks were prevented, often through violence, from owning property, or loans were not granted to African-American business owners, or black homeowners could not access FHA mortgages, or blacks were excluded from unions, or the police force, or fire departments – meant that black families could not amass any meaningful wealth to bequeath to future generations. That history helps explain the wealth and income gap between black and white, and the concentrated pockets of poverty that persists in so many of today’s urban and rural communities.
A lack of economic opportunity among black men, and the shame and frustration that came from not being able to provide for one’s family, contributed to the erosion of black families – a problem that welfare policies for many years may have worsened. And the lack of basic services in so many urban black neighborhoods – parks for kids to play in, police walking the beat, regular garbage pick-up and building code enforcement – all helped create a cycle of violence, blight and neglect that continue to haunt us.
This is the reality in which Reverend Wright and other African-Americans of his generation grew up. They came of age in the late fifties and early sixties, a time when segregation was still the law of the land and opportunity was systematically constricted. What’s remarkable is not how many failed in the face of discrimination, but rather how many men and women overcame the odds; how many were able to make a way out of no way for those like me who would come after them.
But for all those who scratched and clawed their way to get a piece of the American Dream, there were many who didn’t make it – those who were ultimately defeated, in one way or another, by discrimination. That legacy of defeat was passed on to future generations – those young men and increasingly young women who we see standing on street corners or languishing in our prisons, without hope or prospects for the future. Even for those blacks who did make it, questions of race, and racism, continue to define their worldview in fundamental ways. For the men and women of Reverend Wright’s generation, the memories of humiliation and doubt and fear have not gone away; nor has the anger and the bitterness of those years. That anger may not get expressed in public, in front of white co-workers or white friends. But it does find voice in the barbershop or around the kitchen table. At times, that anger is exploited by politicians, to gin up votes along racial lines, or to make up for a politician’s own failings.
And occasionally it finds voice in the church on Sunday morning, in the pulpit and in the pews. The fact that so many people are surprised to hear that anger in some of Reverend Wright’s sermons simply reminds us of the old truism that the most segregated hour in American life occurs on Sunday morning. That anger is not always productive; indeed, all too often it distracts attention from solving real problems; it keeps us from squarely facing our own complicity in our condition, and prevents the African-American community from forging the alliances it needs to bring about real change. But the anger is real; it is powerful; and to simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races.
In fact, a similar anger exists within segments of the white community. Most working- and middle-class white Americans don’t feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race. Their experience is the immigrant experience – as far as they’re concerned, no one’s handed them anything, they’ve built it from scratch. They’ve worked hard all their lives, many times only to see their jobs shipped overseas or their pension dumped after a lifetime of labor. They are anxious about their futures, and feel their dreams slipping away; in an era of stagnant wages and global competition, opportunity comes to be seen as a zero sum game, in which your dreams come at my expense. So when they are told to bus their children to a school across town; when they hear that an African American is getting an advantage in landing a good job or a spot in a good college because of an injustice that they themselves never committed; when they’re told that their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudiced, resentment builds over time.
Like the anger within the black community, these resentments aren’t always expressed in polite company. But they have helped shape the political landscape for at least a generation. Anger over welfare and affirmative action helped forge the Reagan Coalition. Politicians routinely exploited fears of crime for their own electoral ends. Talk show hosts and conservative commentators built entire careers unmasking bogus claims of racism while dismissing legitimate discussions of racial injustice and inequality as mere political correctness or reverse racism.
Just as black anger often proved counterproductive, so have these white resentments distracted attention from the real culprits of the middle class squeeze – a corporate culture rife with inside dealing, questionable accounting practices, and short-term greed; a Washington dominated by lobbyists and special interests; economic policies that favor the few over the many. And yet, to wish away the resentments of white Americans, to label them as misguided or even racist, without recognizing they are grounded in legitimate concerns – this too widens the racial divide, and blocks the path to understanding.
This is where we are right now. It’s a racial stalemate we’ve been stuck in for years. Contrary to the claims of some of my critics, black and white, I have never been so naïve as to believe that we can get beyond our racial divisions in a single election cycle, or with a single candidacy – particularly a candidacy as imperfect as my own.
But I have asserted a firm conviction – a conviction rooted in my faith in God and my faith in the American people – that working together we can move beyond some of our old racial wounds, and that in fact we have no choice is we are to continue on the path of a more perfect union.
For the African-American community, that path means embracing the burdens of our past without becoming victims of our past. It means continuing to insist on a full measure of justice in every aspect of American life. But it also means binding our particular grievances – for better health care, and better schools, and better jobs - to the larger aspirations of all Americans -- the white woman struggling to break the glass ceiling, the white man who's been laid off, the immigrant trying to feed his family. And it means taking full responsibility for own lives – by demanding more from our fathers, and spending more time with our children, and reading to them, and teaching them that while they may face challenges and discrimination in their own lives, they must never succumb to despair or cynicism; they must always believe that they can write their own destiny.
Ironically, this quintessentially American – and yes, conservative – notion of self-help found frequent expression in Reverend Wright’s sermons. But what my former pastor too often failed to understand is that embarking on a program of self-help also requires a belief that society can change.
The profound mistake of Reverend Wright’s sermons is not that he spoke about racism in our society. It’s that he spoke as if our society was static; as if no progress has been made; as if this country – a country that has made it possible for one of his own members to run for the highest office in the land and build a coalition of white and black; Latino and Asian, rich and poor, young and old -- is still irrevocably bound to a tragic past. But what we know -- what we have seen – is that America can change. That is true genius of this nation. What we have already achieved gives us hope – the audacity to hope – for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.
In the white community, the path to a more perfect union means acknowledging that what ails the African-American community does not just exist in the minds of black people; that the legacy of discrimination - and current incidents of discrimination, while less overt than in the past - are real and must be addressed. Not just with words, but with deeds – by investing in our schools and our communities; by enforcing our civil rights laws and ensuring fairness in our criminal justice system; by providing this generation with ladders of opportunity that were unavailable for previous generations. It requires all Americans to realize that your dreams do not have to come at the expense of my dreams; that investing in the health, welfare, and education of black and brown and white children will ultimately help all of America prosper.
In the end, then, what is called for is nothing more, and nothing less, than what all the world’s great religions demand – that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Let us be our brother’s keeper, Scripture tells us. Let us be our sister’s keeper. Let us find that common stake we all have in one another, and let our politics reflect that spirit as well.
For we have a choice in this country. We can accept a politics that breeds division, and conflict, and cynicism. We can tackle race only as spectacle – as we did in the OJ trial – or in the wake of tragedy, as we did in the aftermath of Katrina - or as fodder for the nightly news. We can play Reverend Wright’s sermons on every channel, every day and talk about them from now until the election, and make the only question in this campaign whether or not the American people think that I somehow believe or sympathize with his most offensive words. We can pounce on some gaffe by a Hillary supporter as evidence that she’s playing the race card, or we can speculate on whether white men will all flock to John McCain in the general election regardless of his policies.
We can do that.
But if we do, I can tell you that in the next election, we’ll be talking about some other distraction. And then another one. And then another one. And nothing will change.
That is one option. Or, at this moment, in this election, we can come together and say, “Not this time.” This time we want to talk about the crumbling schools that are stealing the future of black children and white children and Asian children and Hispanic children and Native American children. This time we want to reject the cynicism that tells us that these kids can’t learn; that those kids who don’t look like us are somebody else’s problem. The children of America are not those kids, they are our kids, and we will not let them fall behind in a 21st century economy. Not this time.
This time we want to talk about how the lines in the Emergency Room are filled with whites and blacks and Hispanics who do not have health care; who don’t have the power on their own to overcome the special interests in Washington, but who can take them on if we do it together.
This time we want to talk about the shuttered mills that once provided a decent life for men and women of every race, and the homes for sale that once belonged to Americans from every religion, every region, every walk of life. This time we want to talk about the fact that the real problem is not that someone who doesn’t look like you might take your job; it’s that the corporation you work for will ship it overseas for nothing more than a profit.
This time we want to talk about the men and women of every color and creed who serve together, and fight together, and bleed together under the same proud flag. We want to talk about how to bring them home from a war that never should’ve been authorized and never should’ve been waged, and we want to talk about how we’ll show our patriotism by caring for them, and their families, and giving them the benefits they have earned.
I would not be running for President if I didn’t believe with all my heart that this is what the vast majority of Americans want for this country. This union may never be perfect, but generation after generation has shown that it can always be perfected. And today, whenever I find myself feeling doubtful or cynical about this possibility, what gives me the most hope is the next generation – the young people whose attitudes and beliefs and openness to change have already made history in this election.
There is one story in particularly that I’d like to leave you with today – a story I told when I had the great honor of speaking on Dr. King’s birthday at his home church, Ebenezer Baptist, in Atlanta.
There is a young, twenty-three year old white woman named Ashley Baia who organized for our campaign in Florence, South Carolina. She had been working to organize a mostly African-American community since the beginning of this campaign, and one day she was at a roundtable discussion where everyone went around telling their story and why they were there.
And Ashley said that when she was nine years old, her mother got cancer. And because she had to miss days of work, she was let go and lost her health care. They had to file for bankruptcy, and that’s when Ashley decided that she had to do something to help her mom.
She knew that food was one of their most expensive costs, and so Ashley convinced her mother that what she really liked and really wanted to eat more than anything else was mustard and relish sandwiches. Because that was the cheapest way to eat.
She did this for a year until her mom got better, and she told everyone at the roundtable that the reason she joined our campaign was so that she could help the millions of other children in the country who want and need to help their parents too.
Now Ashley might have made a different choice. Perhaps somebody told her along the way that the source of her mother’s problems were blacks who were on welfare and too lazy to work, or Hispanics who were coming into the country illegally. But she didn’t. She sought out allies in her fight against injustice.
Anyway, Ashley finishes her story and then goes around the room and asks everyone else why they’re supporting the campaign. They all have different stories and reasons. Many bring up a specific issue. And finally they come to this elderly black man who’s been sitting there quietly the entire time. And Ashley asks him why he’s there. And he does not bring up a specific issue. He does not say health care or the economy. He does not say education or the war. He does not say that he was there because of Barack Obama. He simply says to everyone in the room, “I am here because of Ashley.”
“I’m here because of Ashley.” By itself, that single moment of recognition between that young white girl and that old black man is not enough. It is not enough to give health care to the sick, or jobs to the jobless, or education to our children.
But it is where we start. It is where our union grows stronger. And as so many generations have come to realize over the course of the two-hundred and twenty one years since a band of patriots signed that document in Philadelphia, that is where the perfection begins.
Obama picks up 14 more delegates Baltimore Sun Obama grabbed nine delegates in Iowa as the majority of John Edwards' delegates were awarded to him. And late Saturday night, he added five delegates in California. ...... If you take what happened in Mississippi and Wyoming, he won more net delegates in those two races than Senator Clinton did in Ohio and Texas combined ...... Tim Russert quoted Clinton saying in October about Michigan: "You know, it's clear, this election they are having in Michigan is not going to count for anything."
I have decided to show up for all DL21C events. If I am told by a DL21C officer that I may not go in, I will not go in. If in, if I am asked by a DL21C officer to leave, I am going to leave. But I am going to show up for the next event all over again.
There have been a few times in the past when Elizabeth has acted like she likes me. Nothing wrong with that. There have been times in the past when I have acted like I like her: she is just amazing as a person, and one of the most amazing political talents I ever met in a few different countries, in many age groups. But if she does not like me today, and regrets ever having acted like she likes me, the point is taken. To suggest I am not capable of taking that basic point is to accuse me of petty sexism. Every white guy who shows up at these DL21C events is at least five times more sexist than me. They do not get offended by social and work settings that are overwhelmingly male. I do, all the way to the paddy fields of India. Most of them end up with dry mouths when having to discuss issues in gender. I relish discussing race and gender and seek out opportunities to do so. I have yet to meet a female feminist who will outdo me in terms of my progressive policy positions on gender. (Looking For 10 Ninja Women) I mean, I am for total gender equality. I mean mathematical equality, dry ice equality.
New York City is 60% nonwhite, and DL21C is the premier political organization of young progressives in the city. But 98% of the people who show up for DL21C events tend to be white. So instead of making me feel unwelcome, DL21C should offer free beer to all black, brown and yellow people who show up until the ratio hits 50:50. What do you do with the membership money anyway? I mean, every time I show up for a DL21C event, I feel like I represent at least two different outer boroughs. I end up feeling like a major league elected official. As in, here I come DL21C.
I have actively mattered to the peace process to end a decade long civil war in a country with as many people as California minus the physical and communication infrastructure and with the largest, most ultra left, armed group on the planet since the end of the Cold War. The method - Web 2.0 - is as much news as the substance of the work I have done. Is there anyone else who shows up for DL21C events who can make a similar claim? (Madhesi Movement Victory In Nepal) I am also Obama 2008's self-proclaimed national shadow Campaign Manager. Why only in the audience, I qualify to be a guest speaker.
Barackface: The Need For A Race Gender CoalitionThe first time Rudy, the state director for Obama 2008, met me, he asked me if I was a "spy!" Spy for who? Hillary? Rudy? My blog cured him, but that was an ...
Message To Dan Jacoby Sent Over Facebook Email
I hereby forgive you for your "you should instead work in the porn movies" comment when I was talking to a young woman European journalist at a DFNYC monthly mixer that you made by barging into our conversation and made her feel very bad and out of place. Let's become Facebook friends.
Barack Obama's pastor quits campaign after explosive 9/11 remarks Telegraph.co.uk The clips show Mr Obama's spiritual mentor railing against Hillary Clinton because of her race, comparing Mr Obama to Jesus and blaming America for the Sept 11, 2001, terror attacks. In one sermon he takes aim at former US president Bill Clinton's supposedly good relationship with the black community...... "Hillary is married to Bill, and Bill has been good to us. No he ain't! Bill did us, just like he did Monica Lewinsky. He was riding dirty," the clergyman boomed. ..... Geraldine Ferraro, a prominent Clinton supporter and 1984 vice-presidential candidate, had earlier asserted that Mr Obama was “only in this position” because of his skin colour. ....... a newspaper column in which Rev Wright was quoted telling audiences that they should sing “God Damn America” instead of “God Bless America”.
One wrong white woman, one wrong black man, both of them prominent, one having run for Vice President, another a pastor to a would be president. This is a perfect example of two wrongs not making a right.
Hillary is not responsible for what Ferraro said, Barack is not responsible for what Wright said. Neither Ferraro nor Wright will see the light any time soon, but both are out of the campaigns, and that is the best the two campaigns could hope for.
But let's get real. The sentiments these two expressed did not come from the moon. These sentiments pervade life in America, now they also need to be talked about in public life. Conversation is the best, most healing way to deal with the issues of race. Ferraro and Wright have given us an opportunity to discuss race openly. Race is the elephant in the room we too often ignore. I hope we also talk gender. But I hope we don't wait until some prominent Obama person says something so very clearly sexist.
I too was hoping this thing would be over on March 4. (Hillary Should Concede March 4) Instead it just keeps going on and on and on. I did not lose my temper, actually I am having fun. This can go on all the way to the convention, and I will be okay. But Ferraro and Wright blew off the top. They could not contain themselves. They lost their cool.
Ferraro is from a different generation. She probably thinks black people are poorer because they are lazy, stuff like that. I met people in Kentucky who talked of people living in the trees. That was their idea of foreign students.
Black America feels the frustrations. Black America has been wronged. History is testimony. Black America continues to be marginalized. There is concrete data on racial disparity. I felt the disenchantment as a Madhesi in Nepal. I have said after Nepal gets a new constitution that gives us Madhesis our own state, then, in that new Nepal, for the first time, we Madhesis can claim Nepal as our own country, a country that has never before really been ours. (Madhesi Movement Victory In Nepal) I can imagine blacks feeling the same way about America. We were born here, we live here, but this country is not fully ours. We are second class.
I hope we can capitalize on some of Wright's comments to stare focus on the concrete data on disparity.
There is legitimate anger in the black community in this country. That anger has to be vented. But that can only be the first step. Ultimately it has to be less about finger pointing, and more about dealing with the concrete data on disparity. That is why Barack talks little about race and talks mostly about education, health, jobs. But there is no avoiding race as a topic.
Ferraro and Wright are two Clinton and Obama fans who went overboard. We should forgive both.
Note To Ferraro
Barack is a white man. What do you mean? He was born half white. He was raised by his white mother and white grandparents.
A WiMax Breakthrough in India ...... Tata Communications unveils an ambitious plan to become global leader in wireless broadband by launching the world's largest commercial network India is about to become the frontier for high-speed, mobile Internet connections. ....... countrywide rollout of a commercial WiMax network, the largest anywhere in the world of the high-speed, wireless broadband technology. ..... by next year Tata will offer service in 115 cities nationwide. ...... "WiMax is not experimental, it's oven-hot" ...... a WiMax network in Washington next month, and in other U.S. cities next year. ..... Predicting that the new technology will make other types of Internet access obsolete, he boasts "Tata will set the cat among the pigeons." ....... The company has invested about $100 million in the project, which will increase to $500 million over the next four years as it begins to near its goal of having 50 million subscribers in India. ...... And as WiMax scales up fast, it will give service providers greater flexibility and costs will drop equally rapidly. ....... an early morning worship service at the famous Balaji temple in South India. The temple permitted Tata to install cameras so that Hindu devotees from around the world could watch the proceedings in the temple around the clock. ...... To get connected initially, users will simply have to go to a store, buy a router, install it, and then they become instantly connected. It will be as easy as buying apples ...... a chance to launch a brand new. fourth-generation technology that the world can follow. "India is becoming the knowledge center of the world; it should take the lead in this"
Message To David Pollak
Chairman Pollak, Sir. Do me a favor. Pass on this email to the Governor. You yourself are someone I hope to have on my corporate team some day, even if only like Terry McAuliffe tipping his toe in companies while still politicking full time. You are one of those people to have on one's side every day if possible.
Message To Governor Spitzer
Governor. Granted its been dramatic, but I see a silver lining to the cloud. I have a young, ambitious tech startup. The vision statement is "to connect every human mind to the web, and then some." That can not be a vision statement for one company, likely a few different industries, a vision statement for an ecosystem of industries and companies. But it is what it is.
My company hopes to play a key, defining role in the next era of computing, the IC era. Mainframes to PCs to ICs. IC, Internet Computer.
Internet access is the voting right for this century, and the agenda is global. Politics is war by other means. Business is politics by other means. You would come in as a small investor to start with. And you take six to nine months off. Then we together create a role for you that will get you plenty of telecommuting. You are plenty rich to never have worked, but you are too young to retire. You have not lived half your life yet. If you want to live long, get into another intense career. Don't tank, don't drift, don't wallow in the mud of tabloid attention. I promise you greater intensity than what you felt as Attorney General. We are going to be picking fights as we create markets, invent markets, eat into markets, destroy markets for others. Feel like a fresh college graduate all over again. Launch a new career. If the idea of public service through elected office is to do good, you will do more good for more people through this than anything you have done yet.
We will also be spearheading a major effort down the line of spreading democracy the progressive way, the war of communications technology way, the nonviolent way. We might be part of some battles with the military-industrial complex part of the way, and that's okay, you will love it. The government can be a huge customer. (Progressive Political Religion: No Place For Superpowers)
My man Friday on my corporate team is a guy named Adam Carson who starts looking like my personal hero Larry Ellison when he grows a slight beard. Adam wrote directly to the Morgan Stanley CEO Mack to create his 2.0 job a few years ago which he has now duly quit to come along with the startup. When he first said he will quit, they promoted him, but he quit regardless. Adam has raised most of the early seed money from his personal circle of contacts. Right now he is on a cross country road trip - his vehicle is much smaller than mine was, but then he is not the top guy on the team, is he? - with his wonderful Romanian girlfriend: he telecommutes to work. He learned this from me: before you take over a country, it is a good idea to take a good look at it.
Ellison has said he is too uncompromising to be any good in politics, precisely the trait that has made him a legendary CEO. Your candidate was better on merit but the legislators went ahead and appointed someone mediocre and you went ahead and campaigned against legislators from your own party who were part of such an idiotic move. Mofos. That uncompromising subservience to merit is not a bad personality trait at all if you are in a functional setting that Albany is not. My way you don't have to go through the indignity of asking for votes to make large, positive impact, especially votes of unaccountable Albany warlords who function best in smoke-filled rooms, never coming out to see daylight.
So what's it gonna be? I hope we can cook something up. We are listing this baby on Nasdaq. Come be part of the Silicon City dreams. Someone uniquely gifted as you deserves a front seat. You are perfect to be part of my team. This swing could last a few decades. All the early people will get hugely rich.
Let's meet and talk. I am not in the same borough but I am in the same city, the magic city, first place on earth where I felt really comfortable, first hometown I ever had. (Madhesi Movement Victory In Nepal)
We are the New York Mafia. And we are here to take over the world.
Paramendra Bhagat Chairperson, CEO JyotiConnect Inc.
Eliot Spitzer's Seven Deadly Sins BusinessWeek As a leader and manager, Spitzer made plenty of other mistakes ...... the lessons they contain for any leader or manager. ... 1. Failure To Deliver ..... a disappointment as governor. .... Lesson: You've got to deliver consistently. You're only as good as your most recent accomplishment. ...... 2. Wrong Tactics for New Job .... a combative nature, an unwillingness to compromise ...... 3. Alienated Too Many ... Lesson: You can't expect to get things done if you only have adversaries, not allies. ...... 4. Hypocrisy .... 5. Hubris ..... Lesson: No one is above the law; no one is untouchable, and no matter how smart you are, it doesn't matter. ........ 6. Underestimating the Crisis ..... Albany came to a standstill for two days ..... 7. Some sins just aren't forgivable. .... cheating, on a seemingly perfect wife, with call girls
Obama's calculus to victory Sydney Morning Herald, Australia In politics, there is spin and doctoring and downright monstering on message management, and it is waged with no holds barred 24/7. It's the foghorns of war. And then there is calculus and the clarity of numbers. ...... Obama is in fact closer to clinching the Democratic nomination. .... Even if Clinton wins Pennsylvania 55-45 per cent, Clinton will net a gain of only 15 delegates. In the polls today, the candidates are tied in Michigan and Clinton is comfortably ahead in Florida. Even if those two states revote, and the outcome tracks today's polls, Clinton would net perhaps 30 delegates. ..... Obama for his part is expected to do well in North Carolina, Oregon, Montana and South Dakota, where 250 delegates are at stake ....... he has more voter intensity behind him. ...... Democratic voters, by a 48-38 per cent margin, say that Obama has the better chance of beating McCain than Clinton. ..... Bill Clinton is now viewed unfavourably (42-45) by more voters for the first time in five years. ..... "I have the most delegates, have won the most states, have won them more convincingly, and am the more electable. Ratify the verdict of the voters of our party, and do the right thing." .... It will be hard for most of the supers to reach a different conclusion. .... Obama today is poised to win the nomination.
Sunday, April 6, 2008 at 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM Support & Signatures Rally for Hillary Rodham Clinton! Meet-Up WE WILL ARRANGE FOR YOU TO PICK UP YOUR MATERIALS SIGNS and OTHER CAMPAIGN ITEMS Location in Central Park will be from Columbus Circle Entrance at 60th Street / Central Park South / Cen...
I've sent the friend request already. The english service at the temple starts at 11:30 tomorrow. Here's the website: http://www.newyorkbuddhistchurch.org/ Hopefully I'll see you tomorrow. 332 Riverside Dr New York, NY 10025 (212) 678-0305
Spitzer Resignation
Fucking FBI. Don't respect nothing.
In The News
Paterson Says He Is Ready Wall Street Journal Paterson Faces Early Test With State BudgetNew York Times Obama: Clinton Should Not Get Florida and Michigan Delegates CBS News McCain, Clinton, Obama together again in Senate Baltimore Sun Movie Stars Help With Obama Ad The Associated Press Oscar clout like Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. Michael Jackson will keep Neverland RanchLos Angeles Times Friends defend call girl who took down SpitzerMSNBC they have known Dupre for three years, but had never suspected that she was a call girl who adopted the name “Kristen” while allegedly employed by the Emperors Club VIP escort service. ..... “She’s a great person,” Mysterious said. “A lot of people are portraying her as this monster, which she definitely isn’t. She has the biggest heart.” ...... “The leftover food she wanted to take with us just so she could give it to the homeless — the guys who were sleeping out on the street ..... was leaving public life to “atone” for his “personal failings.” ....... “When I was 17, I left home. It was my decision and I never looked back. Left my hometown. Left a broken family. Left abuse. ..... Dupre until recently shared an apartment in an upscale building in the Flatiron district of New York City with a boyfriend ..... a 22-year-old aspiring musician from Manhattan. Obama talks Spitzer, race, FL-MI MSNBC race and gender issues are very powerful in our society ...... I'm not naïve enough to think that we're going to solve the country's racial problems, and some of these other divisions in the span of six months or a year. What I do think is that our campaign has pointed towards the future, an era where these distinctions are less prominent in our politics ...... "Our campaign has been in conversations with the Michigan delegation, the Florida delegation, and the DNC Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton camps reject Michigan revote-by-mail MLive.com Maybe Bill Clinton should stay home Los Angeles Times As for Obama, the more voters saw of him -- or, at least the more they learned about him -- the more they liked him. How a Michigan Do-Over Would Hurt ObamaBusinessWeek Obama, in recent weeks, has not connected with working class white voters the way Clinton has in Ohio and Pennsylvania. ..... The official unemployment rate in Michigan is about 7%. But the real number is higher, perhaps in excess of 10% ...... one in ten homes currently in foreclosure proceedings. ...... The University of Toledo, Bowling Green State University, and Kenyon College were among the Ohio schools on spring break for the Mar. 5 election. ....... the Obama campaign favors seating the Michigan delegation in the convention, with 50% going to Clinton and 50% going to Obama. ..... Axelrod says the best course for a Michigan do-over is a series of caucuses .... If Obama is forced to have a rematch in Michigan, one source of strength may be the Arab-American vote. Southeast Michigan is home to some 400,000 to 500,000 Arab-Americans. A WiMax Breakthrough in India ...... Tata Communications unveils an ambitious plan to become global leader in wireless broadband by launching the world's largest commercial network India is about to become the frontier for high-speed, mobile Internet connections. ....... countrywide rollout of a commercial WiMax network, the largest anywhere in the world of the high-speed, wireless broadband technology. ..... by next year Tata will offer service in 115 cities nationwide. ...... "WiMax is not experimental, it's oven-hot" ...... a WiMax network in Washington next month, and in other U.S. cities next year. ..... Predicting that the new technology will make other types of Internet access obsolete, he boasts "Tata will set the cat among the pigeons." ....... The company has invested about $100 million in the project, which will increase to $500 million over the next four years as it begins to near its goal of having 50 million subscribers in India. ...... And as WiMax scales up fast, it will give service providers greater flexibility and costs will drop equally rapidly. ....... an early morning worship service at the famous Balaji temple in South India. The temple permitted Tata to install cameras so that Hindu devotees from around the world could watch the proceedings in the temple around the clock. ...... To get connected initially, users will simply have to go to a store, buy a router, install it, and then they become instantly connected. It will be as easy as buying apples ...... a chance to launch a brand new. fourth-generation technology that the world can follow. "India is becoming the knowledge center of the world; it should take the lead in this" Obama counters with brass Chicago Tribune nine retired generals and admirals entered a room Wednesday with military precision ..... "no shock Barack" and "no drama Obama" Nepal party says 10 hurt in Maoist attack on rally Reuters India More than 4000 candidates to contest key Nepal electionEarthtimes Maoists struggle to win in KathmanduHindustan Times In 1768, Prithvi Narayan Shah, the conquering Shah King from Gorkha had attacked the kingdom of Kirtipur (Prachanda's constituency) and after a tough siege, the kingdom was captured. Angry with the resistance, King Prithvi Narayan Shah had ordered to cut off nose and lips of all the male residents. The people of Kirtipur have still not forgotten the ghastly king's torture.
Former Obama aid discusses 'monster' moment Seattle Post Intelligencer the Harvard professor has been hot news on two continents. ..... Power, a 37-year-old Pulitzer Prize winner ..... Power's 12-city U.S. tour for her new book, "Chasing the Flame: Sergio Vieira De Mello and the Fight to Save the World" a 535-page biography of the late United Nations commissioner for human rights. De Mello once was described as "a cross between James Bond and Bobby Kennedy." The Brazilian native was widely admired at the time of his death as a fearless troubleshooter around the globe. .......... Until last week, Power seemed to live a charmed life. .... She had gone to Bosnia as an unknown freelance reporter. and her work there led to her first book -- "A Problem From Hell: America and the Age of Genocide," winner of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize in nonfiction. ....... Only one U.S. official ever contacted Power to discuss her genocide book, a new senator from Illinois. Her long dinner with Barack Obama persuaded her to take a leave from Harvard and work in his Washington office. ........ He tended to care more about the needs of strangers than the needs of those around him. ...... the most compelling international figure of the last half-century, the most important person that no one had heard of ..... It's not a question of whether to engage but how to engage. Humility without paralysis is incredibly important.
This time the messengers were two female receptionists. I guess that makes it very gender neutral.
Digital Democrat
I am a digital democrat. My best work I do in the 2.0 environment. It feels like meditation.
Not Into Shaking Hands
That is what politicians do. I am not one.
Obama 08 Events
The movement does not end in November. It begins in January. I will have plenty of political events to go to. There are quite a few Barackface fans among the Obama crowd.
Nobel Peace Prize 2010
By then Nepal will have a new constitution, and will have had all its elections, and will be back on track. (पाँच बुँदा, पाँच चुनाव)
Startup
Every fiber in my body, every ounce of energy needs to go to the startup. Anything else will not do. It is high risk behavior. It has to feel intense.
Wet Clay Group Dynamics
I am to venture into 5.0, but this is going to be wet clay group dynamics. Group dynamics has to feel like technology. 2.0 does not go, but 5.0 comes with a vengeance.
Facebook
I belong with the Facebook generation.
Not Local
I think I will stick with the presidential stuff. Local races don't get me. Not even the mayoral race.
मनका हो तो अच्छा मनका ना हो तो अौर भी अच्छा
When what you want happens, that is good When what you want does not happen, that is even better - Hindi proverb
In The News
'Deeply sorry,' Spitzer to step down by Monday CNN Eliot Spitzer Resigns as NY GovernorWashington Post Trippi on Democratic Campaigns Washington Post Clinton insists Michigan, Florida votes should be countedLos Angeles Times Govt mulling India-Nepal border road construction Economic Times Ferraro 'absolutely not' apologetic on Obama remarks Los Angeles Times For Clinton and Obama, next six weeks are critical Christian Science Monitor With wins in Wyoming Saturday and Mississippi Tuesday, Obama made up most of the delegate losses from last week's defeats in Ohio, Rhode Island, and Texas. ....... Pennsylvania's 158 delegates. .... would throw 366 delegates back into play ..... would also raise the threshold to win the nomination from 2,025 to 2,208. ...... Neither candidate is likely to pile up enough pledged delegates – those awarded through voting – in the 10 remaining contests to seal the nomination. ..... a mail-in primary. ... 338 super delegates who remain uncommitted. .... Geraldine Ferraro, who told a California newspaper that Obama owed his political fortunes to being black. (Clinton later told the Associated Press that she disagreed with Ferraro.) ...... if the popular voting does not produce a nominee by the convention, analysts say, that could demoralize voters and cripple Democrats in November. Obama's Mississippi Win Blunts Clinton's Recent Gains (Update3)Bloomberg win gave Obama six more delegates in Mississippi than Clinton .... Clinton had a net gain of about six or sevendelegates after her comeback wins March 4 in Texas, Ohio and Rhode Island ...... Obama's campaign projects he'll wind up with five more delegates because of the way they are apportioned and his advantage in the caucuses. In Ohio, Clinton, a New York senator, picked up at least nine more delegates than Obama ...... as counts were finalized in some of California's congressional districts, Clinton's delegate lead in the state slipped. ...... Even a 60 percent to 40 percent victory can mean the delegates are divided almost evenly. ..... In overall votes Obama has about 13.3 million to 12.6 million for Clinton Obama, Clinton seek to frame the race aheadBoston Globe a pledged delegate lead of 161. ..... The Obama campaign says it will not accept the January results, because Obama was not on the ballot in Michigan and did not campaign in Florida. ..... Plouffe criticized the Clinton campaign's approach to resolving the dispute as "heads we win, tails you lose."
