Gonzalez: The Ethnic Angle

Unlike many Democrats, I have not been following the Gonzalez saga in any detail. I don't remember clicking on any headlines while he was being pilloried. I have only read a few stories now that he has resigned.

I like it that Bush put Colin Powell, Condi Rice and Alberto Gonzalez in top positions. Democrats should have done it before him but didn't.

When you come from where Gonzalez came from, it is a big deal to become Attorney General. It is like being President of the United States. You have arrived in the big leagues. I relate to the feeling fundamentally. When I quote my scant conversations with Howard Dean from having met him at events in the city, people in the Nepali community are all ears, and Dean never even appointed me to anything. I am still the same guy, before and after, but I need some big shot white guy to elevate me even with my own people. I am a huge, diehard fan of Howard Dean, don't get me wrong, for me Obama picked up where Dean left, but at some level I find the symbolism of it all a little amusing and offensive. Look at me for me, I seem to want to say.

Bush messed up big time. He lied to a country to take it to a trillion dollar war. That is what impeachment is for. But so far noone has tried to impeach Bush, noone in a position to do so. So Gonzalez was the fall guy. Not even his own conservatives liked him. He was not white. He was incompetent, so to speak. He gets accused of being a crony appointment. When white people nominate white people like that, it is not crony appointment. Give me a break.

Bush messed up. So if Gonzalez worked for Bush, he must have messed up as well.

Gonzalez provided some symbolism for the Hispanics, but what did he actually do for them besides the symbolism?

I am more interested in an elected symbol like Bill Richardson than an appointed one like Gonzalez. Richardson is for real.

Gonzalez has been a victim to the progressive tide sweeping the country. That tide will also sweep about 10 white guys in the Senate next year. I am glad.

Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, we belong in the Democratic Party. That is my message to my fellow Indians. Go Barack. The right wing of the Republican Party has too much history, if you get the gist of what I am getting at.

In The News

Bihar police beating is broadcast BBC News the beating highlights the widespread problem of police brutality in India. .... the paper-thin suspect is seen wearing only tattered trousers. .... His hands are bound behind his back, and he is repeatedly punched in the face and kicked in the stomach, chest and back by a mob on Monday in the eastern city of Bhagalpur. ..... "He was dragged for some time and the police constable stopped his bike only when he lost consciousness ...... the victim, Salim .... in many cases, the victims are low caste and poor. ..... not the first time that police in Bhagalpur have been accused of abuses. .... In 1979 they were accused of blinding 31 alleged criminals by pouring acid into their eyes. .... Bihar is considered to be one of India's most lawless states.
Number of Uninsured Americans Hits Record High Washington Post
Clinton picks up first big union endorsement Boston Globe
Clinton scores transportation union endorsement Politics on the Hudson
Castro Essay Criticizes 2008 Candidates Washington Post Castro accused U.S. presidential candidates of "submission" to his exiled foes in Florida and offered a favorable assessment of only one of the 10 presidents he has known: Jimmy Carter. ...... Castro said that both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama "feel the sacred duty to demand 'a democratic government in Cuba'" _ something Cuban officials insist already exists. ...... Castro has not been seen in public in the 13 months ....... Castro said Bill Clinton was "really friendly" during a brief encounter at a U.N. summit and said he was "intelligent in demanding that rule of law be followed" in the case of castaway boy Elian Gonzalez ......... Clinton apparently tried to stop flights by exile pilots who had enraged the communist government by repeatedly scattering anti-communist literature over Havana. ...... Cuban jet fighters shot down the civilian planes off the island's coast during a repeat visit in February 1996.
Seek cover; Hillary hailstorm ahead UT The Daily Texan The same week thousands stood in the rain to watch Barack Obama speak in Austin last spring, Hillary Clinton made an appearance at a closed-door fundraiser thrown by some of Austin's elite. ....... Hillary Clinton, for all her incredible political gifts, has become Public Enemy No. 2 for a disturbingly large number of Americans. ...... She was for the Iraq war before she was against it. ...... the last 27 years under administrations that contained either a Bush or a Clinton. ..... party-machine-made candidates like Bill Clinton and George W. Bush
Indian student found dead in Nepal Hindustan Times Two tablets of an anti-depressant cum sedative drug were found near the body ..... had been depressed following the results of the final year examinations on Monday afternoon, which showed him to have flunked the test. .... it was Sinha's third attempt to pass the examination, having failed twice earlier.
Gonzales Kicked On His Way Out The Door U.S. News & World Report "For a man accused of lying to Congress, it was a fitting way to go out." ...... Overwhelmingly, opposition to Gonzales is being cast as deep and bipartisan and even unnamed sources in the Administration are said to be glad the embattled Attorney General decided to leave. ...... The announcement caught his top aides at the Justice Department by surprise ..... Gonzales' departure came "to the relief of many administration officials who have long considered him an embarrassment." ..... no one in the White House asked him to reconsider and change his mind ..... was actually "a firing ...... in one of those Washington, no-fingerprints ways." ..... Bush saying, "It is sad that we live in a time when a talented and honorable person like Alberto Gonzales is impeded from doing important work because his good name was dragged through the mud for political reasons." ..... would continue their investigations on Gonzales' actions. ...... "ineffectual or counterproductive" in his defense of the Administration's war-time powers. ...... conservatives have "questioned both Gonzales's legal acumen and his ability to manage the sprawling Justice Department." ....... "You can bring your politics to Agriculture. ... You can do that at Interior. But the Justice Department is supposed to be different. ...... One who was a very decent person but seemed incapable of handling the Justice Department. At best he was seen by Republicans as incompetent, he was seen by Democrats as not truthful ...... just how deep the political corruption went during his time at Justice." ....... "for all of his undeniable deficiencies, merely reflected the principles of this administration. His resignation is a necessary but hardly sufficient step in restoring the nation's commitment to the rule of law." ........ "inadequate and inept ..... he "lacked the political skill and leadership ability to survive in a high-profile post." ...... recalling his rise up from poverty ...... "dirt-poor Texas childhood." ..... "I have lived the American dream. Even my worst days as attorney general have been better than my father's best days." ....... "to the bitter end, Gonzales remained the most self-involved attorney general in modern memory. ..... the grandchild of immigrants .... Solicitor General Paul Clement "will be acting attorney general ...... a solid conservative and "savvy" insider ...... hard-right conservative unwilling to consider the other side."
no rakhi in many Bihar homes Economic Times
Senate prospects seem brighter for Democrats MSNBC it now looks possible that in next year’s elections the Democrats just might attain the 60 seats they need to foil Republican filibusters ...... there are 22 Republican-held seats to be defended, and six of them appear in jeopardy ..... Senate Democrats have only two seats that appear to be at any risk .... The financial momentum also is with the Democrats. ...... 2002. .. Bush seemed at the peak of his post-9/11 powers and was a big draw on the campaign trail. ...... Idaho — a state which no Democratic presidential candidate has carried in 43 years and no Senate Democratic candidate has won in 33 years ...... the Mountain West, where the Republicans have been dominant for the past 40 years but which is turning more competitive ...... Democrats will keep the focus on the Mountain West next summer by holding their presidential convention in Denver.
India aiming for free trade accord with ASEAN by November: official Channel News Asia
In Hyderabad, a tale of two cities Rediff
In dodgy neighborhood, India easy prey for bombers Reuters India was second only to Iraq in terms of terrorist incidents and deaths between January 2004 and March this year, with 3,674 people killed, more than hotspots like Afghanistan and Colombia. ........ Shahid Bilal of the Harkat-ul Jihad Islami (HuJI), a Bangladeshi group .... Pakistan's Lashkar-e-Taiba works hand-in-glove with HuJI ..... "A huge problem the Indians face is that they don't have a functional relationship with their near neighbors... with the people who can help them ....... vast swathes of the rural hinterland virtually unpoliced. The criminal justice system is overwhelmed and outdated. ..... no central database of militant suspects and little time for the kind of meticulous, post-attack hunt for clues undertaken elsewhere. ...... Foot soldiers in India are given small, specific tasks without necessarily knowing the people they are dealing with, or the grand plot. ....... "Our country is so big, things are happening in such a manner that even if we have the information that something is likely to happen we do not know when and where it is likely to happen." ....... India's 140-million-strong Muslim population is beginning to provide recruits for militant groups, especially after communal riots in Gujarat in 2002 in which around 2,500 people died. ..... Militants' attacks in recent years have failed in what most presume is their aim -- to destabilize India by fomenting violence between Hindus and Muslims, and to destroy the peace process with Pakistan.
10 die in mosque bombing in Iraq Los Angeles Times
Germany's Merkel prods China on rights, women Guardian Unlimited
Angelina Jolie visits Iraq refugees Reuters
US Income and Poverty Rates Improved in 2006 New York Times
Google Germany slammed for Neo-Nazi YouTube clips Register
Google + CNN = Good for You Motley Fool
Google Cuts AdSense Deal with CNN.com Wired News
Samsung Will Roll Out WiMax In New York For Sprint InformationWeek Samsung has already been rolling out WiMax in Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia, Boston, and Providence, R.I. ...... Sprint said it expects mobile Internet services to be available for New York area customers in late 2008. ..... Sprint's New York-area WiMax service will cover New York City; Nassau-Suffolk, Long Island; Jersey City, N.J; and some areas in northern and central New Jersey including the Newark, Bergen-Passaic, Middlesex-Somerset-Hunterdon, and Monmouth-Ocean regions.
Google's Secret Society Forbes Orkut.com, with a redesign intended to prettify the site's Spartan look. ...... Orkut now draws 38.2 billion page views a month worldwide, 7.8 billion more than Facebook ...... In Brazil, where Facebook and MySpace are virtually unknown, Orkut has become a smash hit, with 15.6 billion page views monthly ...... 10 billion more monthly page views than Facebook draws from Americans. ...... Orkut's success in Brazil seems largely to be a fluke. The site hasn't made any special appeal to Brazilians, and only began to offer a Portuguese-language option in April of 2005, long after it had become the social network of choice in Brazil. One blogger argues that its name, which was taken from Turkish-born Google engineer Orkut Buyukkokten, is catchy in Portuguese and reminds Brazilians of a popular yogurt drink for kids. ....... Facebook will earn more than $100 million this year ...... "If you've got the ad coverage, an international user is as valuable as anyone ...... brings the percentage of Google's foreign revenue to 60.8%, up from 46.7% last year. ..... MySpace still leads the social networking market by a large margin, and Facebook tripled its audience in the last year .. Orkut grew only 64%. ..... Socialstream, a prototype for a site that allows users to post text and multimedia content to a single page, then syndicate that content to any social network where they have a profile. ........ Combined with Orkut, Socialstream might be just the sort of Googlish innovation that breaks down the "walled-garden" approach to social networking favored by Facebook and MySpace and brings American eyeballs to Orkut. ...... If Google could provide Orkut with a competitive advantage, it could easily build a community from the audience that uses its services like Gmail, Google Docs and Spreadsheets, Google Maps, Google Calendar and its photo-sharing site, Picasa ..... "Until now, Orkut has been an also-ran in the U.S. because it's been neglected by Google," Sterling says. "But with just a few tweaks and redesigns, and in combination with all of Google's services, it has the potential to really differentiate itself from MySpace and Facebook."
looking forward to RGV's Aag Rediff
US Obesity Rates Continue To Rise, Study Finds Kaiser network.org
Britney, Kevin under child abuse investigation? Xinhua the heated child custody battle between Spears and Kevin Federline

Fotolog and the French CNet hearty congratulations to Scott Heiferman and Adam Seifer, on selling Fotolog to France's Hi-Media Group for $90 million ....... Launched in May 2002 by Scott Heiferman and Adam Seifer as a small community project of 200 friends, Fotolog today generates more than 3.5 billion page views and receives more than 15 million unique visitors each month. Fotolog ranks among the top 25 in the Alexa list of the world's most trafficked websites (click here for today's ranking) and was recently named Site of the Week by PC Magazine.
Marc Andreessen: "Step 1: Go dark and execute... Money talks, hype walks -- when you're hitting your numbers, everyone thinks you're a genius and believes everything you say, no matter how silly. When you're not hitting your numbers, everyone thinks you're a moron and won't believe anything you say, no matter how true. So go dark, focus on the business.... Step 9: In six months, relaunch the company with a single, crisp, coherent message and strategy. Then go dark again and go right back to work."
Eleven lessons learned about blogging, so far It is crystal clear to me now that at least in industries where lots of people are online, blogging is the single best way to communicate and interact. ..... Blogging is clearly the second coming of high-quality Internet conversations ..... conversations on the Internet would eventually all revolve around every individual having a blog ....... and the communication would flow through the links. ..... I am also reading both Technorati and Google Blog Search results for my blog, multiple times per day. ...... writing a blog is way easier than writing a magazine article, a published paper, or a book -- but provides many of the same benefits. ..... how much more fun blogging is versus public speaking -- at least for me. ...... I'm not sure I'll ever speak in public again -- I'll be at home instead, blogging in my underwear. ..... a piece of original content that goes viral generates way more page views than a piece of content that does not. ...... we are definitely entering a world in which bloggers are taken super-seriously by political candidates, company PR departments, government officials, and book editors, among many others
The truth about venture capitalists, Part 1
The truth about venture capitalists, Part 2
The truth about venture capitalists, Part 3
Analyzing the Facebook Platform, three weeks in Facebook is promising economic freedom -- third-party applications can run ads and sell goods and services to their hearts' content. ..... The leadership that the Facebook team is showing here rivals anything that the large and established software and web companies have done in this decade.
Why there's no such thing as Web 2.0

Overheard In New York

Conductor: Due to a stalled train at Lorimer Street, there is no L service to Manhattan.
Hispanic lady: Why would someone stole a train? Where they gonna put it?
--M train

Mom: I need a size 'Small.'
Little girl, loudly: Mommy, aren't you a Large?
--H&M, 51st & 5th

Newspaper guy: Read all about it: girl passing me right now has holes in her jeans. Girl with holy jeans: They're made like that, asshole.
--Port Authority

Hipster dude: ... And she ended up renting some movie about Madame Curie. Hipster chick: That's the wax lady, right? Over at Times Square? I didn't know there was a movie about her.
Hipster dude: I hate you.
--Union Square

Drunk chick: Oh my god, you look like the last tsunami!
Guy with really short hair: What?
Drunk chick: I said you look like that last tsunami guy in the Tom Cruise movie! Guy with really short hair: You mean The Last Samurai?
Drunk chick: Oh, yeah. Him.
--Party, 46th & 8th

Tourist #1: Why is New York called 'The Village'?
Tourist #2: Huh? Oh, no. Greenwich Village. It's a section of New York.
Tourist #1: Why does it need sections?
Tourist #2: 'Cause it's huge. It's like the size of Chicago or something.
--13th & 4th

Bench chick #1: You know you can get, like, melanoma or skin cancer without suntan lotion.
Bench chick #2: So? At least I'll die tan.
--NYU

NYU boy, about man with cane and sunglasses: Why do all blind people have to wear sunglasses?
NYU girl: Isn't it all part of the persona?
NYU boy: What, like they don't want me to see their eyes?
NYU girl: I guess. And like how they wear baggy pants and FUBU shit.
NYU boy, slowly, after long pause: I said 'blind people.'
--F train, 14th St

Teacher: And Montana--
Asian girl, interrupting: --Wait, isn't Montana somewhere near Germany along with Maine?
--Bronx Science