Daily Archive

This is an odd election year.

Not just because the Democratic nomination has been running longer than usual –which, I have to admit, I like.  It has never been fair that a few early voting states get to decide who the nominee should be.

It’s also odd because we have two candidates who seem confused at times what party they are running for.  One candidate may be a wolf in Democrats clothing and the other candidates past keeps creeping up on him.

Because all eyes (and ears) are on Obama for his speech on race, Clinton and McCain are being ignored like Brittney Spears on prozac.  But really, we shouldn’t.  The New York Times ran a piece yesterday about two events John McCain would like everyone (especially the far left conservatives) to forget.

The first event is that he courted or was courted by Democrats to jump the fence and play for the other side.  He was still ticked from being slammed and defamed by GWB’s team during the 2000 primaries and supposedly thought of changing sides.  So some Democrats say.  He says they asked him and he turned them down.

The second event is the rumor that McCain was going to be John Kerry’s V.P. in 2004.  Again, each side is claiming to be the pursued, not the pursuer and it’s odd that within a span of four years McCain could be a Democrat tease in that way.

But now, in order to shore up his base, McCain has decided to align himself with those he rebuked back in 2000.  A Salon.com article has even gone as far as to say that McCain is Bush.

When John McCain went to the White House last week, President Bush seemed to be offering him an out. Bush “welcomed” McCain as “the Republican nominee” in his official statement, but didn’t initially use the word “endorse.” It was McCain who leapt for the e-word. “Well, I’m very honored and humbled,” said McCain, “to have the opportunity to receive the endorsement of the President of the United States, a man who I have great admiration, respect and affection [for].”

McCain, perhaps, is not the same man who Independents fell for 8 years ago.  Maybe he feels he can’t be, because he didn’t get the nomination with Independent support back then and perhaps he’s afraid he either won’t get enough of them if Obama should happen to get the nomination.  So now, he’s banging the gong to get his base geared up and excited, in hopes that he can slide through in November on the strength of those votes because the Democrat contender will be limping from this prolonged brawl.

Or maybe McCain is just doing the old bait and switch and will turn back to the old John once he’s in.  But if the Democrats should win the White House, I’m sure McCain won’t have a problem with it.  Like McCain said in 2004, “the Democratic Party is a fine party“.

When J and I first started dating, William Hung was riding high from his short appearace on American Idol and making the morning radio rounds. J hated him immensely, referring to him as a blight on the image of Asian American men.

“It’s like that movie when I was in school,” J recalled of the Long Duk Dong character from the John Hughes Gen X smash “Sixteen Candles”.  He remembers getting into a fight with whomever tried to refer to him as the character.

The character of Long Duk Dong has been noted in NPR’s series “In Character” which takes a look at American characters from books and movies that have made an impression on the culture.

Eric Nakamura and Martin Wong, the founders of the magazine Giant Robot agree about how bad the Long Duk Wong stereotype is.  They spoke with NPR.

“If you’re being called Long Duk Dong,” Wong explains, “you’re comic relief amongst a sea of people unlike you.”

Worse, says Nakamura: “You’re being portrayed as a guy who just came off a boat and who’s out of control. It’s like every bad stereotype possible, loaded into one character.”

Listen to the full NPR story here.  Not to be left out, the series also examined the characters of Rasputia and Medea and the black female dichotomy.

I’m not a fan of BET.  It might be Black and Television, but there is nothing entertaining about the degradation of black people. 

Obviously those who are working on The Boondocks aren’t feeling too enamored of the who either.  The last two episodes of this season skewered BET so badly that the Cartoon Network pulled the episodes (they said they weren’t asked to although other reports are saying BET threatened to sue).

To see the full episodes then go here and here.

Within a week we’ve hit two landmarks with the war in Iraq.

Last week marked the fifth year anniversary of the war and today we reached the milestone of 4,000 dead Americans who have given their lives to this war for our country.  (Not many seem to be paying attention to the 90,000 civilian Iraqi deaths since the war began.)  And there seems to be no end in sight. Does it really matter who we elect in November?  Can they really get us out of this quagmire?

I remember the talk leading up to the war and how a few righteous people went around pointing the finger at those who thought brought this upon us.  It was the gays and our acceptance of their lifestyle that brought this to our door.  It was because we turned away from God or let other people worship the way the want to that 9/11 happened to us.  It’s because women want equal rights and aren’t in the home when the children return from school that bombers flew into the Twin Towers.

And where are these harbingers now that we are deep into a never ending war and slipping precipitously toward a recession?  We were so hypocritical then, we wanted it both ways.  We wanted to be out in the New World economy but swore we could make this war work on our own.  And we have gone it mostly alone, perhaps that’s why our money is no good anywhere anymore.  Not even in England, our staunches allies, even they want to gauge us.

Are homosexuality and the ACLU really our biggest sins?  Perhaps what got us into this situation and this war was our avarice, our bloodlust and unforgiving vengeance, weren’t those specific things that Jesus came to preach against?

But then I sit and think, perhaps those religious pundits were right, I am the cause for this war.  I didn’t vote for Bush, nor did I serve in congress but I didn’t do more.  I spoke up, but I have never carried a sign against the war.  I didn’t write my congressperson to inform them that I disagreed with their vote.  I didn’t write letters to the newspaper when I doubted the veracity of their stories.  I was in the silent majority; against the war but afraid to stand up and be noticed because I was afraid I’d be standing alone. 

I am not for this war.  But I am not against those who decided to take a stand for what they believe and this country that we love.  I pray that we can have our soldiers home before the casualties double in number.  I pray for the families who have lost loved ones. 

I got this video from Reappropriate.  I think it sums it up.