On Location The H8 Protest in New York City

Last Saturday I went to City Hall for the H8 protest.  It was a pretty impressive size group.  I think I heard there over four thousand people there.  It was cool to be part of something that was nation wide.  My personal feelings about the atmosphere is mixed.  I got off the subway at the City Hall Station.  People were immediately corralled into sectioned off groups.  My section was way in the back. There were speakers set up so we got to hear everything.  Finally after a while the cops had pity on us and connected our section with the section in front of us.  I moved up as far as I could get and still couldn’t see anything.  I noticed the cops weren’t too worried about the level of dissent.  They were letting people out of their section to cross the street.  So I left my section.  I walked all the way up to where the stage was, noticed an opening in the first section and recrossed the street.  All the cops were like, “whatever, dude.”  So I did get to see the last few speakers.

I thought people were enjoying the event a little too much.  The subject at hand was a denial of basic civil/human rights to tax paying citizens of our country.  Everyone should be really pissed off!  Lots of people seemed preoccupied with the signs.  As I got closer, it seemed as though this was less and less the case, so I think it may have something to do with the proximity of the stage.  But, I say again, it shouldn’t have been that calm.  Their was no tension in that crowd.  No real sign of serious dissent.  The people simply were not pissed off enough.  I am not advocating violence at all, but for god sakes, how about a little civil disobedience.  The event was neat and proper and there were no mishaps and it ended on time.  I guess I don’t know what I was expecting.  Hopefully people there were moved to take an active role in politics.  Maybe someone saw this on the news and had a revelation.  I just thought people would be more angry.  It was nice and sunny for the first half.  Who can be angry on a nice sunny day in New York City.  And the signs were lovely.

Just Say No to Joe!

So this is what went through my mind when I heard Joe Lieberman was going to keep his chairman role in the homeland security committee. I’ll break it down by hundredths of a second.

0-.33: Enraged beyond belief. “WHAT THE HECK! WHY IS HE BEING REWARDED FOR SUCH TREACHERY THAT GOES WAY BEFORE THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION!!!”

.34-.66: Attempt to understand. “Well done Democrats. Reach a hand out to Joe. We are one party of understanding compassion and love. It is right to keep Joe as a brother. Sure he messed up. But, don’t we all make mistakes?

.67-1sec: Realization of the situation at hand. “NO! This is bullshit! He’s burned us too many times!

I trust the Party to do the right thing, but come on, this guy needs to burn for what he has done. Not only is he not a Democrat anymore, (remember) looking at his views, he couldn’t possibly be considered a Democrat. Bad move Harry. I do not concur. Thank you Daily Kos for keeping things in perspective…

Democrats let Lieberman keep committee chair (AP)
Joe Lieberman Can Still Sit in His Favorite Chair (New York Magazine USA)
Democrats give it all to Lieberman (Salon)

Way to Go Samantha!

Samantha Ronson rocks! I’d be pissed off too if some animal rights terrorists threw flour on my hot girlfriend’s fur coat. Samantha Ronson is awesome. She is super hot. And PETA can piss off. Anyone who thinks I’m wrong is a hater and they need to stop sippin on that haterade!

http://celebrity.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=celebrity.blog

SAMANTHA! I LOVE YOU!! lol!

Thanks, Kerry.

Kerry Wood will most likely not return to the Cubs next Year.
http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20081113&content_id=3677970&vkey=news_chc&fext=.jsp&c_id=chc

Making Sense of Prop 8

I’ve been wanting to say something about Prop 8 in Cali, but just didn’t know how to go about it. So, I’ll let Keith do the talking. Special thanks to my friend Kyle for facebooking this video.

I couldn’t have said it better.
Good night and good luck.

Change Has Come

I’m not gonna give you the usual forced eloquence of my very mediocre blog entries. I will simply say that today is definitely different. November 5th is the first day of a brand new world. Where people have genuine interest in the political process. Where peace has a fighting chance. Where we truly are our brother’s keeper. Today the world is brighter. Today the dreams are manifest and God’s presence on earth could not be more real. The wrong begun eight years ago has been made right. The end of tyranny is within our grasp and we will soon be free. Free to live a life without fear, in authentic holiness and righteousness. A promise has been made to all Americans. It is beyond the promise of tax cuts, civil liberties, and health care. It is the promise to be present. The promise to walk together and witness to one another. It is exactly the type of promise that we need, that we can not afford to break. And luckily through God’s divine grace, this type of promise is impossible to break. And it is a promise well received all over the world; from Grant Park in Chicago, to a bus in Jamaica, Queens to a grade school in Japan and every place else. Faith is restored not just in America but in the idea of faith itself. And we are that much closer to a more perfect union.

The Pinoy Push for Obama

All to often the ever powerful Filipino-American vote is overlooked. Yes it is true. Filipino-Americans don’t just live in Seattle, San Francisco, and Hawaii. These tiny Tagalog speakers have burrowed themselves into the epidermis of America. They are in Flushing, Houston, South St. Louis and all points in between and they must have their voices heard! They hunger not just for lumpias and pancit, they hunger for change and that is why Filipino-Americans all over America overwhelmingly support Barack Obama for president…i think. Well, at least they should, right? The interesting thing about Filipino-Americans is that they are one of the most “integrated” minorities in the country. Every single minority group in America overwhelmingly votes Democrat, except for Filipinos-Americans. This is for a whole host of reasons, anyone of which can be true or false. Filipino-Americans can be very libertarian in a capitalistic sense. Filipino-Americans are also solid Catholic, and are prone to be influenced by hardlined conservative preachers. Filipino-Americans are also prone to racism as is explained in the article, Barack Obama Through Filipino-American Eyes. (Read the article before you bite my head off.) In any case, there has been a huge effort to get Filipino-Americans to support Barack Obama. The Economist did some sort of world-wide poll to see how other countries would vote. Not surprisingly, every single country supports Obama over McCain except for Iraq, Sudan, and Georgia. The Philipines was no exception. Filipinos (Not Filipino-Americans) support Obama over McCain overwhelmingly by 88 percent to 12 percent. That’s like a 76 point lead! This is used to show that if Americans care at all about foreign relations, they might want to consider what the rest of the world thinks. Whether it’s a full on blitz from Filipino-American media, or guidance from the mother country, Filipino-Americans are being pushed hard to get behind Barack this tuesday. Filipino-Americans are a major voting block, and they will influence politics. Whether it’s for better or for worse remains to be seen. These articles are quite fascinating.

Why Filipino-Americans Should Vote for Barack Obama
Barack Obama Through Filipino-American Eyes
Filipino Americans’ Unutilized Voting Power
Whichever Way US Polls Go, Pinoys Seen Landing Top Jobs