What Tibet Needs Is A Political Party

Church, State

If the Tibetan diaspora does not have the sense and the guts to engineer a church and state separation within itself, they are throwing the Tibetan protesters to the dogs inside China. They might as well ask to call off the protests.

Nothing prevents the Tibetan diaspora from organizing a political party. Call it the Tibet People's Party or something.

Puppy Love With The Dalai Lama

I am on record saying I am fond of him, he is the ultimate, I am a Buddhist, he is bigger than the Pope. But he is a religious leader, a spiritual guide, at most he may give political advice. But political leadership has to be separate, elected.

Politically speaking what's the difference between His Holiness and Fidel Castro? The Dalai Lama went into exile in 1959, I believe. And he has been the political leader of the Tibetan diaspora ever since. There is something very wrong in that picture. He should have had to face at least 10 elections by now, but he has not, neither has Castro.

Doomed

Unless the diaspora engineers this separation, the movement in Tibet is doomed. It is only a matter of time before the protests are snuffed out. It is very hard to ignite a mass movement. So it is a great tragedy when a mass movement is sent to waste because people who could did not make the right political moves.

Clear Goal

That political party will have to say very clearly that it does not want Tibet to become a separate country. That party will also have to say it believes Taiwan is a part of China. And then the goal becomes that China grant Tibet the status of a federal state with its own parliament and competing political parties. Legalizing that Tibetan political party becomes the primary goal. Then we are talking. Right now we are not talking.

Don't Forget Burma, Pay Attention To China
Imagining A Federal, Multi-Party China Of State Funded Parties

Reaching Out To Taiwan

Taiwan is in a much better position to help Tibet than any other land mass. Not India, not America can help Tibet like Taiwan can. So much so that the Tibetans might as well moving their Dharmashala to Taiwan.

The Tibetan political party will have to enter into all the top political parties in Taiwan to try and engineer a common plank that as long as China agrees to become a federal, multi-party democracy of state funded parties, Taiwan will agree to become just another state inside that federal China.

You put that state funded parties part to give a very clear message that the idea is not to demolish the Chinese Communist Party. You give them wiggle room. Otherwise all attempts will be non-starters.

Agitate

Then you agitate. First you organize a political party. Then you come up with political clarity. Then you build a strong coalition with the parties in Taiwan. Then you agitate. At that point not just Tibet and Taiwan, but the rest of China might also join you. And then the CCP will have no option but to give in.

I can't think of a better use of the Olympic games than turning China into a democracy, although a democracy with Chinese characteristics.

In The News

As Rivals Battle, McCain Builds November Machine Washington Post beginning a conversation with voters who live in states where he has not campaigned. ..... a novel and risky campaign structure that will rely on 10 "regional managers" who will make daily decisions ...... his "Service to America" tour. ...... a departure for a party that has prized itself on running hierarchical, highly disciplined campaigns .... moving too slowly to build a large national apparatus. .... The senator has chosen former Hewlett-Packard chief executive Carly Fiorina to be a high-profile pitchwoman for the campaign and the Republican Party. She will travel the country as a key surrogate for McCain and other Republicans.
Zimbabwe election may go to runoff Los Angeles Times Morgan Tsvangirai winning 49.4% of the vote and Mugabe 41.4%. A presidential candidate would win outright by receiving more than 50% of the vote. ..... The runoff would be held within 21 days. ...... ZANU-PF lost key rural strongholds, including a seat in Mugabe's home village ..... met in emergency session with military and security chiefs. ..... In recent weeks, several hard-line security chiefs said they would not serve Tsvangirai, and last week Mugabe said the opposition leader would never be allowed to rule Zimbabwe. ....... "They have effectively been wiped out in large parts of their heartland. They're in shock. They have no idea what to do about it." ..... "But even if Mugabe steals the election, he misses the point. This is not just a rough patch. This has been seismic. The country has rejected him."
Zimbabwe Opposition Insists Mugabe Lost New York Times the posting of vote counts at individual polling stations ..... Immensely crafty and thoroughly ruthless, he is not a man likely to give up his hold on power without a fight ...... There is a great nervousness among those who have hitched their fortunes to an old autocrat. ...... “There’s no way the key older military people will support” the opposition against Mugabe ..... the president would steal the election if he could, but that it was not certain he had complete control over the apparatus of power, from the military to the intelligence agency. ..... Mugabe, once a guerrilla leader, retained some of his most bitter enemies after taking power, including a head of the secret police who had spent considerable effort trying to assassinate him.
Who Are We? New Dialogue on Mixed Race Being accepted. Proving loyalty. Navigating the tight space between racial divides. Americans of mixed race say these are issues they have long confronted ........ “Maybe we’ll get a little bit further in the dialogue on race” ...... the advancing age of marriage in the United States fuel a steady rise in the number of interracial marriages. ........ 6 percent of married couples. ..... two or more races, a category that now includes 7.3 million Americans, or about 3 percent of the population. ...... “When you’re mixed, you see how absurd this business of race is.” ..... “Sometimes, when I’m at the playground, people think I’m the nanny,” she said. ..... “It’s really unfair to expect people to choose,” she said. “It’s like asking to be loyal to one parent or the other.” ...... 41 percent of the mixed-race population was under 18. ...... the uproar that greeted Tiger Woods when he described himself as “Cablinasian” (for heritage that includes Caucasian, black, American Indian and Asian) in 1997 ...... the benefits of a mixed identity outweigh any challenges. ..... “Ultimately,” she said, the goal is “to not have to check a box.”
Tibetans Protest in Delhi, but March Is Off New York Times India continues to be in the eye of the Tibet storm. It shelters about 100,000 Tibetan refugees .... New Delhi says it does not allow anti-Chinese agitation on its soil
Obama Wins Most Texas Delegates The Associated Press Obama leads the overall race for the Democratic nomination with 1,631 delegates
Clinton's vow may be hazardous to party's health Globe and Mail
Hillary Clinton should pull out Telegraph.co.uk

Obama swamps Clinton on Pennsylvania airwaves Boston Globe he is buying five times more air time than Clinton. Thus far, the TV ads have mostly been biographical ..... The $2 million in ad buys could help partly explain why Obama, who is in the middle of a bus tour across the Keystone State, is closing the gap in the polls to the low double digits.
Experts Debunk Clinton's Electoral Vote Idea U.S. News & World Report the superdelegates holding their collective breath, waiting for someone to pull decisively into the lead ..... a race between Clinton and McCain could break down very much like the 2000 and 2004 elections ..... Clinton would lose to McCain 314-224, while Obama would beat him, 273-265. .... Obama seems to perform better than Clinton in a race against McCain.

I Dedicate This City To You

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

My Back Against The Wall

and I pace around hungry, sniffing the twilight,
hunting for you, for your hot heart,
like a puma in the barrens of Quitratue

the month of June trembled like a butterfly;
and you, Matilde, passed through noon,

Two happy lovers, without an ending, with no death,
they are born, they die, many times while they live:

I Dedicate This City To You
Love Is The Reason
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New York City's Progressive Galaxy
Blueprint For DL21C: Party Inside A Party
Tera Saath Hai To Mujhe Kya Kami Hai
Yellow Rose
Yellow Rose To Reclaim
Confronting My Own Demons
Satyagraha, Day 1
Barack In Town With South Asians For Obama: March 27
Declaring Satyagraha On The DL21C White Establishment
CCC

the wholesomeness of your busy feet

But I can not give up your love, not without dying.

Love Is The Reason

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.

But, Hillary, Quit

(Chorus)
But
Hillary
Quit

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?

Superdelegates Should Not Wait Until The Convention

2024

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.

Barackface: OO Oprah, Sa Sa Santa

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.

What Tibet Needs Is A Political Party

And it can't be headed by the Dalai Lama.

Don't Forget Burma, Pay Attention To China
Imagining A Federal, Multi-Party China Of State Funded Parties

Rosemary

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.

Bill Clinton In Top 10, Barack Obama In Top 5



In The News

Nepal Muslims call general strike to protest mosque bombing International Herald Tribune
Muslims call strike after Nepal blasts Times of India

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 Results The 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 Obama The 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 superdelegates Boston 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 widens AFP

Democrats face summer of bitter infighting Reuters
Hillary Clinton Says She Won't End Campaign Voice 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 Tally New 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 finish Guardian
Bill Clinton urges superdelegates to be patient Los Angeles Times Before his speech, the former president met privately with more than a dozen superdelegates
Hillary Clinton portrays calls to quit as chauvinism Telegraph.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

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CCC
Yellow Rose

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)

Please RSVP!

1. Gender, one of my favorite topics.
   
2. 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.
   
3. I was there for another major event with a leading human rights activist from Nepal. (Sushil Pyakurel)
   
4. 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.
   
5. I am working to assemble my tech team in Mumbai, Bombay's new name, rather the original name.
   
6. K Lounge, my middle name is Kumar.
   
7. 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.
   
8. 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 ...

1. 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.
   
2. 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.

CCC, Pledge Of Allegiance

1. 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.
   
2. 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

1. "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.

1. The script for the evening is at your blog: Texas Debate Watch: Another Story In Indigntiy? I don't need to read your face.
   
2. I am wearing my coat. You got offended by the mandatory coat check at the Holiday party.
3. Four different moods.
   
4. I got offended by the Al Pacino, Meryl Streep talk. So you admire my political acumen? Is that it?
   

The Zipper Factory

Planned Parenthood: First Impressions
Planned Parenthood: A Different Kind Of Event

1. 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.
   
2. If you are uncomfy with white guys, how about women?
3. If a DL21C event is not conducive, how about an event by another organization?
   
4. 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.
   
5. The suggestive location.
   
6. How about an Asian and a Hispanic instead of a Jewish and an Italian? Is that better? You like that better?
   
7. You want to talk? (An Open Letter To Elizabeth Caputo) Okay, I am sticking around for two and half plus hours after the event.
   
8. I want two drinks but I have no money.

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?

New York City's Progressive Galaxy

New York City's Progressive Galaxy

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.

Blueprint For DL21C: Party Inside A Party

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.

DL21C is the top political organization in the city. It is just that Charlie Rangel is not in my political league, who the fuck is Dan Berger? (Madhesi Movement Victory In Nepal, Don't Forget Burma, Pay Attention To China, Yellow Rose, Eliot Spitzer Needs To Go Into Business With Me, Barack In Town With South Asians For Obama: March 27, The First Major Revolution Of The 21st Century Happened In Nepal) Don't you threaten me?

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.

Health Care As A Spectrum
The Spectrum Concept: Wide Applications
The Spectrum On Gender
The Spectrum/Dialogue Concept Is Key To Power

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.

Money, Message, Organization

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

Please RSVP!

My take on the situation: A Model Primary Season.





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