Showing posts with label Howard Dean. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Howard Dean. Show all posts
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Wayne Barrett: Suspicious Package
Image via WikipediaVillage Idiot Wayne BarrettWayne Barrett has a track record of doing the bidding for the Maloney 2010 campaign manager dude. Barrett puts out hack articles on behalf of whoever this campaign manager dude might be working for at any particular time. It is okay to do paid blog posts, but when you do the FCC requires that you make it clear it is a paid blog post. Wayne Barrett has violated the FCC rules, and the same people who are going after Rangel, and should be but are not going after Maloney need to now go after this Wayne Barrett guy. (Rangel And Maloney Need To Vacate The Premises And For The Same Reasons) This guy is a disgrace to journalism in this city. I hereby report this asshole Wayne Barrett as a suspicious package. Like Bush said. Where is President Bush when I need him? (Bush: Genius? Visionary?)
What Maloney 2010 and its lackeys like Wayne Barrett have been saying for months since the start of this race is Reshma Saujani's weakest point is actually her strongest. This country's biggest crisis right now is its 10% unemployment rate. That kind of unemployment sustained for too long could lead to social unrest and potential domestic terrorism. A high unemployment level is a security threat. Mending the frayed relationship between Wall Street and Main Street to get the private sector to invest two trillion dollars into the creation of new jobs has got to be this country's very top priority. When she is in Congress, Reshma Saujani is going to be best positioned of all people in Congress to bring that mending about.
To say Reshma Saujani's Wall Street experience is a bad thing is to say Howard Dean's being a medical doctor is a bad thing. You can list me all the names of all the departments and Wall Street firms that Reshma worked for and that does not change a thing. It takes me one split second to decide not only does Reshma have Wall Street knowledge but that she was entrepreneurial. In tech you could go work for a big company like IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, Intel or Google, or you could go work for a small startup. On Wall Street Reshma had a tendency to go work for small startup types.
Goldman Sachs paid a huge fine to the SEC. That does not make all workers of Goldman Sachs criminals. One of Reshma's former bosses was indicted for something. You can't rope in Reshma into that. That is not how justice works in real life, or in Hollywood, and it should not on the campaign trail.
Hedge funds were supposed to be these small, agile, innovative entities. Perhaps they still will be. A lot of dot coms flamed out in the late 1990s. I would know. I was part of a few of them. That does not make me a criminal.
Candidate Reshma has always been for Wall Street reform. Actually she feels like the reform did not go far enough. Candidate Reshma has not taken a dime in corporate PAC money from Wall Street or any other industry. People who think individuals working on Wall Street no longer have a right to make their individual contributions to political candidates are one step away from denying the Bill of Rights to the people working on Wall Street. That is not Wall Street reform. That is Wall Street demonization. And this country can not afford to pay the price of Wall Street demonization.
Congress made Wall Street bad behavior possible. That Congress has not been reformed. There is a direct relationship between Maloney voting for deregulation in 1999 and the Great Recession 10 years later. Maloney should be indicted. If not, she needs to be voted out.
Maloney owns BP stocks. Don't tell me that has not swayed her votes on the oil industry. She was with Bush-Cheney on the Iraq War, on the Patriot Act, and on oil industry legislation. Blaming Maloney for the Gulf Oil Spill is not political sleight of hand. It is like adding two plus two and saying the answer is four.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Reshma Saujani: Top 10 Women To Watch In America
Image of Reshma Saujani
I think it is remarkable that Reshma Saujani is on this list: Reshma Saujani Makes Top 10 List.
This is not just a list of Democrats, there are Republicans on the list. This is not just a list of people running for public office either, although most are. And this is no regional list. Call me an ignorant male, but I did not recognize any other name on the list. Or maybe I am not that ignorant. This is not a list of people who are big today but will be big tomorrow.
I would not be surprised if her Netroots Nation appearance played a small role in getting her on the list. (Reshma Saujani At The Netroots Nation) The list was put together by a blogger, I believe. It is possible the blogger saw her in action in Vegas and then dug up background information on her and got impressed.
I hear she was sitting on a panel next to the brother to the Founding Father of netroots in America: Howard Dean's brother Jimmy Dean.
Reshma 2010 has echoes of Obama 08 for me, although I am clearly biased as one of Barack's earliest people in the city, and one of Reshma's staunchest supporters. Let's start with their names. They rhyme: Obama, Reshma.
Obama 08 did not take any PAC money. Reshma 2010 is not taking any PAC money. (Barack Obama: The NRA's Candidate)
Obama 08 put a major emphasis on field organizing. Reshma 2010 has been doing the same and has been making remarkable strides, "street by street, block by block." This is urban warfare.
Obama went to two top schools. Reshma went to three top schools.
Obama's fundraising made Hillary 08 nervous. Reshma's fundraising on behalf of Hillary 08 made Obama 08 nervous. (There Is An Albert Einstein On The Obama Campaign Staff)
Obama's style rested on positivity. Reshma's style is excellence.
Obama has done as much for race relations as anyone in history, but he has done so without holding talk marathons on race. Instead he will go ahead and pump billions into inner city schools. Reshma will contribute to gender in similar ways. Major strides will be made, big things will get done, and it will all feel normal. But there might not be big, specific talks on gender. Reshma Saujani is the embodiment of the New Woman.
Reshma Saujani is The New Woman.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Chris Matthews Repeated The Lie That Reshma Is Wall Street's Candidate
Image via WikipediaBasically he was saying to Reshma, you are Wall Street's candidate. And he read from a list of her donors. Many of them were people working for the various banks in New York City. Well, Chris, have you heard of the Upper East Side? There is a reason Democrats across the country come to the Upper East Side of New York City to raise money. There is a reason Obama and Pelosi had a fundraiser on the Upper East Side a few months back. There are a lot of moneyed people living on the Upper East Side. And that Upper East Side is part of District 14, the district Reshma is seeking to represent in Congress. If people in your district are making individual contributions to you, where is the mud in the picture?
Reshma Saujani And The Chris Matthews Band
The real story is as to how she has managed to raise all this money. During the last quarter of 2009, Reshma outraised Maloney two to one. She is obviously tapping into a hunger for leadership that a lot of Upper East Siders feel. Maloney comes across as vacuous to many of them.
Reshma Is Better At Raising Money, Way Better
Maloney on the other hand has been taking PAC money from Wall Street. T-h-a-t is Wall Street's candidate. Reshma has not taken a dime in PAC money. She has had hundreds of people who have given the legal max. But she also has hundreds of people donating to her small sums of 20 dollars and 60 dollars and 200 dollars. This has been a very grassroots effort. And if a house party in Astoria is grassroots, so is a house party on the Upper East Side.
Maloney has not only taken gobs of PAC money from Wall Street, she just might have crossed the line recently when she out and out organized a fundraiser among Wall Street people when at the same time she was supposed to be shaping Wall Street reform. There might have been an ethics violation. Where is the outrage? Where is the investigation?
And then there is the policy part. Reshma has been for reform for Wall Street from the very beginning. She stands with Obama on this one. And she feels like she is also standing for her constituents who work on Wall Street. Because only a reformed Wall Street has a bright future.
Reshma Saujani At The Huffington Post
And then there is the issue of just knowing what you are talking about. Having worked on Wall Street for a few years after having earned degrees from three of the fanciest schools in the country - University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Harvard, Yale Law - when Reshma talks Wall Street reform, that is like a doctor talking medical issues. I trust Reshma on Wall Street reform like I trust Dr. Howard Dean on health care reform. Dean actually is a medical doctor. He would know a thing or two about health care. Don't you think? Maloney has none of the expertise but all the hot air on the topic. All of a sudden I am supposed to think Maloney is a woman of the people? Give me a break.
Reshma's Wall Street experience is a plus. That makes her informed.
She is the national leader to the tech sector. There her appeal is bi-coastal. Her appeal is national.
Reshma Saujani "Gets" Tech
Maloney takes Wall Street PAC money, and Reshma does not, and she is the Wall Street's candidate? If we are going to blame Reshma for the Great Recession, we might as well blame her for the earthquake in Haiti. That is so misplaced that I am going to call it demonization. Maloney, on the other hand, can partly be blamed for the Gulf Oil Spill. She owns oil stocks. Don't tell me that did not shape her motivations when she voted the way she voted on oil over the past decade. Follow the damn money.
There is a term in Hindi: safed jhooth. Or, white lie. When someone looks straight in the eye, and says something utterly untrue, that is a white lie. Calling Reshma Wall Street's puppet candidate is a white lie.
And then there are people who make it sound like her having gone to Harvard and Yale is a bad thing. Obama went to Harvard. Clinton went to Yale. Reshma went to both. Look at it that way, because that is the only right way to look at it.
Reshma Saujani, Haiti Earthquake, Harvard Yale, And 2016
So stop demonizing Reshma Saujani and start instead asking as to why Maloney refuses to debate her. Debating is the essence of democracy. The people deserve an open discussion. The two candidates need to tell the people in the district as to where they stand on all the issues.
Debating Is "Stunt" In A Maloney Democracy
Reshma Saujani, Carolyn Maloney
Reshma is not Wall Street's candidate. Reshma is a candidate for a district that a lot of Wall Street workers live in. Reshma is a candidate for Wall Street reform. Reshma is the only candidate in this race who has not taken PAC money. Stop spreading the white lie that Reshma is Wall Streets' candidate.
It is a sorry day for democracy when a reputed journalist like Chris Matthews repeats a white lie.
And you want me to tell you how Reshma Saujani and Carolyn Maloney are different from each other? Where do you want me to begin? I'd like to start with the brains part.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
June 3 Immigration Court Date
April 22 Immigration Court Date
June 3, 2009
New York Immigration Court
26 Federal Plaza
12th Floor, Room 1237
New York, NY 10278
917-454-1040
Court Administrator: Star B. Pacitto
9 AM, Judge McManus, Margaret "The judge with the smallest proportion of denials [the most asylum grants] of all the judges for this period was Margaret McManus of New York. She declined 9.8% of her 1,638 asylum requests in represented cases. Judge McManus was appointed in 1991. She began her career in private practice and for one five year period was a staff attorney with Legal Aid Society's Immigration Unit......With an over 90 percent grant-rate for asylum cases, oh that all EOIR immigration judges could emulate former legal aid lawyer McManus . . . the Treason Lobby hopes!"
Rudrakumaran Visuvanathan, Immigration Lawyer
875 Avenue of the Americas, Suite 2309
New York, NY 10001
212 290 2925
I fear political assassination upon return to Nepal between now and the 2010 election because of (a) my ethnicity: I am a Madhesi, (b) my political beliefs: I have a firm commitment to democracy and social justice, (c) my political abilities and the intense visibility that will invite upon my return: Barack Obama, Howard Dean, Terry McAuliffe, David Pollak all know me, I have played a central role to the three mass movements in Nepal in April 2006, January-February 2007, and February 2008, and (d) my association with the Madhesi Janadhikar Forum, the organization that has best countered the Maoists politically.
My fear comes from (a) remnant elements of the old political order who lost much after the democracy movement of April 2006 that turned the poltical order upside down, (b) the Pahadi power brokers of the three largest parties in Nepal, the Maoists, the Nepali Congress, and the UML, (c) specifically the Maoists who might see me as an American agent, however erroneously, (d) elements of the Maoists who might still harbor their original dream of a one party communist republic, (video of the top Maoist from January 2008 where he openly talks of capturing state power) (e) elements of the Maoists who see the Madhesi Janadhikar Forum as their number one threat, (f) rivals from the Madhesi rights camp, (g) one or more of the armed Madhesi groups who might find I am not in tandem with their separate country agenda or their violent methods, and (g) mafia elements hired by any of the forces described above.
It is going to be very easy to finish me off. I am not going to have any security detail. A likely scenario is one person with a handgun who manages to flee. Or I might get poisoned. Or I might get killed in a choreographed road accident. That is how the life of the last charismatic Nepali leader ended: Madan Bhandari in the early 1990s. I am a MLK to the 13 million Madhesis on the planet. If I go to Nepal now, I die a MLK death.
The two city charges of harassment and court order violation that got me into this immigration mess in the first place have long been dropped by the city. (An Event Invite From DL21C: This Can't Be Real) That is to say those two charges should never have been pressed in the first place. But Charlie Rangel's office got involved, and this was before Barack beat Hillary, and so you have to wonder. If my political opponents in America, in New York City can do this to me, what will my political enemies in Nepal be willing to do?
You had me in jail for six months from June to November last year. I received two death threats during that time period.
- A MLK Style Death Awaits Me In Nepal
- Lipstick On A Pig
- Jail Time
- Letter To The Department Of Homeland Security
- Freedom, Finally
- Independent For Bloomberg
In 1999 I was one of the founding members of a dot com company that went on to raise $25 million during its second round before it went down during what in the industry is known as the nuclear winter. I was also team member number two of another dot com that sought to challenge then industry leader AllAdvantage that paid people for watching ads while surfing the web. That company also closed shop once the nuclear winter set in and there was a massive dot com meltdown. The founder Paul went on to Duke.
You can work for a year after graduation. During that year my college sweetheart proposed to me and we got married. I got a green card. She was the smartest student at Berea. She had spent her first semester at Macalester, the Kofi Annan college in Minnesota.
It so happened that we ended up spending quite some time apart. There was travel involved on my part. She had a semester long internship in Australia, another subsequent semester long internship in Thailand. Somewhere along the way we fell out of love. I moved to New York City. I was a few months away from renewing my green card, something you do within two years. My ex still cared enough about me to suggest I renew the green card before we filed for divorce. I refused for emotional reasons. I passively let the deadline pass. As of winter 2005 my green card expired. Our separation paper said we had no children, no property to divvy up, and that she will get 5% of the income from my first published book. She had not asked for that 5%.
I have eaten into savings, swiped credit cards; I have borrowed money from my business partner, I have done some writing online. Adam Carson was a Vice President at Morgan Stanley before he quit and joined my team, but that before you nabbed me. The technology company I have founded had raised round one money, thanks to Adam, but that money got pulled back a few months back. But if I can raise 80K, I can raise 100K, I expect to hit round 2 by the end of this year, and round 3 in early 2011.
Right before you nabbed me I was thinking I would grow the company a little more and then apply for a green card based on that. A friend of mine, a fellow Madhesi from Nepal, got his green card through his Seattle based software company. But now I am in a rather urgent situation, and I have decided to seek political asylum. I have an extremely strong case. If I show up in Nepal right now, I am dead meat.
The king of my country pulled a coup in February 2005 and took over. The country already had gone through a decade long civil war led by the Maoists in which 13,000 people died in active combat, twice that many committed suicide. The Maoists of Nepal had proven themselves to be the largest, deadliest ultra left group this planet saw since the end of the Cold War. At their peak they had 80% of the country.
In February 2005, three forces in Nepal were at loggerheads: the monarchists, the Maoists, and the democrats. Since February 2005 no Nepali outside of Nepal has put as much time into the democracy movement of Nepal as I have. Part of the reason I let my green card expire was because I was so busy thinking about the 27 million people in Nepal - days, nights, weekends, it was a zombie existence - I literally was not thinking about myself. There would be piles of unopened mail on my floor. The work I have put into Nepal's democracy and social justice movements is going to win me the Nobel Peace Prize. I am working to make it happen in 2010. 75% of the work is done, 25% remains, and I intend to write and publish directly online a 1,000 page autobiography. This work has been so cutting edge it is going to sell itself.
What happened in Nepal in April 2006, January-February 2007, February 2008 and again in February 2009 in the form of a Tharu Kranti was magic. If Nepal can become a multi-party democracy of state funded parties and one where at least one third of the legislature is female by law, what happened in Nepal during the four mass movements will have been the French Revolution for this 21st century.
I went to the best school in Nepal. The number two guy in class went on to Harvard to Goldman. Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard, I never went to Harvard. When Bill Gates was 19, he launched a company. When I was 19, I launched a political party.
I am a Madhesi in Nepal. In Rwanda they got Hutu and Tutsi. In Nepal they got Pahadi and Madhesi. Jesus was a Jew. There are 13 million Jewish people on the planet. Buddha was a Madhesi. There are about 13 million Madhesis on the planet. That is how many black folks MLK had when he was doing what he was doing.
More than 40% of the people in Nepal are Madhesi. Of the 30,000 Nepalis in New York City, maybe 30 are Madhesi. That should tell you of the filters in Nepal that work against the Madhesis.
I am half Nepali, half Indian by birth. More than 99% of the Nepalis in America are not my ethnicity. More than 99% of the Indians in America are not my ethnicity. I need to point out the ethnic politics in countries like Nepal and India are way more complicated than the racial politics in countries like America. Barack did not have it tougher growing up.
Please check my Nepal blog for my work into Nepal: http://demrepubnepal.blogspot.com. Please check my Barackface blog for my work into Obama 2008: htp://democracyforum.blogspot.com. Barack knows me, as does Howard Dean. Terry McAuliffe knows me. I have a feeling the Clintons might be aware of my presence. All the top politicians in Nepal know me or of me.
There is a concrete mathematical theory called the butterfly effect. A butterfly flapping its wings in the Amazon forest could be the reason a cyclone hit Bangladesh. What happened in Nepal in April 2006, January-February 2007, and February 2008, and more recently in February 2009 were political cyclones. I was the butterfly flapping my wings in New York City. What I did I could not have done from Kathmandu. I fathered the very concept.
Fractals: Apple, Windows 95, Netscape, Google, Facebook, Twitter March 2009
An astronomer does not have to be on the surface of planet Jupiter to know what's going on. I don't have to be in Nepal to know what's going on. The distance gives me greater objectivity. My non player status gives me ears in all the top parties in Nepal. And I have personally met top politicians from all parties in Nepal right here in New York since I moved to the city in the summer of 2005.
In April 2006, over a period of 19 days, about eight million people out of the country's 27 million came out into the streets to shut the country down completely to force a dictator out. The Maoists wanted to take credit but they had been pushing for an armed uprising all along. (Baburam Bhattarai May Not Preach Violence To The Seven Party Alliance January 2006) The seven democratic parties kept pushing for a mass meeting here, a mass meeting there, a daylong shutdown here, and a daylong shutdown there. I am the father of the concept of continuous movement in the Nepalese context. I pushed the concept from the very beginning. If there is a tortoise sitting on the fence, chances are it did not randomly get there.
- Non-Violent Militancy, Concerted Global Action February 2005
- Human Rights ----> Political Platform ----> Full-Fledged Movement March 2005
- eDemocracy, 4S Campaign, 24/7 Vigil For Democracy: Take Over Tundikhel March 2005
- The King Will Only Respond To Internal Pressure April 2005
- Project Take Over Tundikhel: Draft 1 August 2005
- The Nepali Rasputins Want A Revolution September 2005
- For The First Time In A Decade, Permanent Peace Feels Possible September 2005
- 100,000 Unarmed Maoist Cadres October 2005
- Timi Sadak Ma Utreko Dekheko Chhu (I Have Seen You Come Out Into The Streets) October 2005
- The King Is Intent On Visiting France And Russia October 2005
- Seven Party Forum In Jackson Heights October 2005
- Gameplan November 2005
- Maoist, Moriarty, Madhav, Manmohan: Get Behind The 3 Point Program November 2005
- Pyramid Of 10 In Kathmandu November 2005
- Lilamani Pokharel For Continuous Movement November 2005
- A War Of Words, Not A War Of Bullets December 2005
- Nepal Needs To Be Hitting The World Headlines: Write To The Media January 2006
- Janakpur Rally, Biggest In Nepal Since 1990 January 2006
- "Robin Hood Im Internet" February 2006
As soon as Upendra Yadav landed in the US, Prachanda, the top Maoist started calling him an American agent. And Upendra Yadav is actually a former communist.
In March 2007, not long after the first Madhesi Movement, after the Maoists kept disrupting mass meeting after mass meeting by the MJF, there was a major clash between the two political groups in Gaur, Nepal, where Madhav Nepal is from. Over 30 Maoists were killed by people with bamboo sticks.
- Youth Communist League: Prachanda's Brown Shirts
- Mathura Shrestha: Liar
- Goal Is Ideological Fusion, Not Mainstreaming Maoists
- Gaur: The Organized Crime Angle
- Best Option For All: Elections In June
- Banning MPRF: Not An Option
- Hamro Nepal, ANTA Press Releases On Gaur Incident
- Gaur: Prachanda's Reichstag Fire?
- Gaur: The Madhesi Gongabu
In February 2006 Madhav Nepal, then leader of the largest political party in the country, was put under house arrest by the royal regime. A month later he managed to come online wireless. His brother lived in the house next to his. The first person he contacted was me. We chatted on Google Talk. Here's the transcript: Madhav Nepal. Madhav Nepal is a Pahadi.
A few days back Madhav Nepal became Prime Minister. (Time To Rally Around Madhav Nepal)
But he became Prime Minister of a country where the Maoists still have their own army, 20,000 strong, not counting the 100,000 strong militia, and the top Maoist leaders still have their personal security provided by their own army.The civil war in Nepal is officially over. Nepal had elections on April 10 last year. Why would I feel unsafe in Nepal today? Me going to Nepal would not exactly be like Benazir Bhutto going back to Pakistan and getting killed. I have never been Prime Minister of Nepal, but I was thought of as a future Prime Minister when I was at high school back in 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, and 1992. Result? The Pahadi teachers and administrators destroyed my final three and a half years of high school experience. Besides I am not going to have Benazir's bulletproof car, her bodyguards, and her money. I guess you could say there were declared threats on her life. I don't have any known declared threats on me. That is discounting the numerous, random email threats I received during April 2006 and January-February 2007. I took those in stride from the safety of NYC. Most of them would say, come to Nepal, and we will know to take care of you.
So why do I have safety concerns about going to Nepal? Do I know for sure that I will be in harm's way if I show up? No, I don't. But my instincts tell me I will not be safe, the same instincts that helped me smell the April 2006 Revolution before anyone inside or outside of Nepal did. (The French Revolution And DFNYC January 2006) (And this on Barack in February 2007: Jupiter And Obama) Why? There are a few different reasons.
Nobody in the Nepali diaspora put as much time, effort and talent into the democracy movement in Nepal as I did. The old regime is gone. A new set of people have come into power. A lot of peple who used to be very important are not important no more. They don't have their old prestige, but they still have money and resources to inflict damage. In a country like Nepal you can get killed and although there will be all sorts of rumors, no one will know for sure who did it. Not claiming responsibility is the best way to do it. I do fear the anger of those who have lost much with the onset of democracy in the country.
April 2006 saw the democracy movement, but January-February 2007 and February 2008 saw the Madhesi Movement. I am a Madhesi. This was like our own civil rights movement. Upendra Yadav has been the face of that movement in Nepal. Until March 2008 Upendra Yadav did not move around like a free man but rather an underground political worker. He would always have 12-15 people with him. Very few people knew where he spent his nights. He did nonviolent political work but he moved around the country like there was a price on his head. I got to meet Yadav in New York City for a few days in July 2007 when he flew over, his airfare paid for by a Madhesi entrepreneur in Russia who in summer 2008 became Russia's Manager Of The Year: Upendra Mahato.
Why would someone want to shoot and kill a Martin Luther King? Why would some random person want to do that? I am a MLK to the 13 million Madhesis on the planet. Of the six biggest parties in Nepal, three are Madhesi. The top leaders of those three parties are practically my fans. The top leaders of two of those parties used to be on the central committee of the party to which I was Vice General Secretary before I flew to America in 1996. Both have been cabinet members, one a few different times. One, Rajendra Mahto, is a cabinet minister today. Another, Hridayesh Tripathy, is about to become cabinet minister again in the new government.
Rajendra Mahto In Town
Rajendra Mahto: Three Hours Of Video
Phone Talk With Madhav Nepal, Hridayesh Tripathy (2005)
What might work in the favor of my safety though is that although all the top politicians in Nepal know me, I am not exactly a household name. I have mattered fundamentally to the peace process, the democracy movement, the Madhesi movement, but my work has been primarily to suggest tactics, strategy, and moves. In that I have almost been like a political consultant to the peace process. Also, my ways have always been nonviolent. So I don't exactly have people waiting to get "even" with me. But all it would take is one bad apple, one sick mind, one twisted heart.
And there is always jealousy. People like me who fight for equality for Madhesis and Blacs - Black, Latino, Asian Coalition - sometimes lose sight of the fact that our own peoples can harbor our worst enemies. Bob Marley made it big in America and Europe. He went back to Jamaica and was shot at.
Talk of physical harm, it has already happened. My youngest sister lives in the city. She is married to Bisun, a Madhesi who went to the same high school in Kathmandu as me, was a few years junior, he went to Harvard, now works at the Columbia Medical Center where Bill Clinton got his heart surgery, headed to Harvard Medical School this Fall.
Bisun's father was brutally murdered about two years ago. His body was chopped into pieces like a butcher's meat. The police said at least five individuals must have been involved. To this day no one knows for sure who did it. There were all sorts of rumors. Two of the largest rival armed Madhesi groups blamed each other. 700 armed cadres of one left the group and joined the other as if in protest. Some people blamed the Maoists. Others blamed some low caste groups in the village. Some blamed some Muslim youths in the village who a few days later fled. The largest armed Madhesi group blamed the Prime Minister of the country - Nepal has never had a Madhesi Prime Minister - and retaliated by murdering a close relative of the Prime Minister. If you are going to kill a Paramendra Bhagat relative, we are going to kill one of yours. That was the thinking. In a case of internalized rage, Bisun ended up blaming his own brother and that brother's wife.
I want to make it absolutely clear that I have never had any contact with any armed Madhesi group ever and there have been over a dozen of them. But their thinking highly of me should tell you how much I have mattered to the Madhesi Movement.
But the worst happened a few weeks later. The story about the Muslim youths caught fire. My family lives in the eastern plains of Nepal. In the western plains a prominent Muslim from the then Prime Minister's party was murdered by two gunmen on a motorbike who managed to flee. Many suspect one of the two largest armed Madhesi groups might have been involved. That murder sparked riots that engulfed a few different districts. The riots were Pahadi-Madhesi, Hindu-Muslim. The riots lasted two weeks and were so bad the police and the army were not able to penetrate hundreds of square miles for those weeks. There was much damage to lives and property. It is very possible there is leftover anger. Do you think there are at least some people who don't believe I have had nothing to do with any of the armed Madhesi groups?
Dawood ran - runs - the Mumbai underworld from Dubai and Karachi. Mirja was Dawood's top guy in Nepal. I was never mafia, but I was very good friends with some people he was very good friends with, people like Hridayesh Tripathy (see above). We knew of each other, met a few times. He was a wildly popular politician. At one point he was a cabinet minister. I guess they don't do FBI background checks back there in Nepal. A few months after I came to America, they pushed 42 bullets into Mirza's body. They could not afford the news that he was "still alive." Dawood retaliated. His rival Chhota Rajan ran his business from Bangkok. There was an attempt on Chhota Rajan's life in Bangkok.
I came to America in 1996. I never left.
Safety is my number one personal reason to press for asylum, but I would also like to press the special talent narrative. A Nepali music entrepreneur I know and several Nepali movie stars and artists got their green cards in the special talent category. I am a very special talent. America needs me, and America needs me in New York City.
I am the un-Bin Laden. I mean no disrespect to Christianity and Christ and if I use this metaphor it is because it is such a vivid one. Bin Laden is the anti-Christ, I am Christ. If 9/11 has been the modern day Pearl Harbor, the first major revolution of the 21st century happened in Nepal. Between eight years of a Barack Obama presidency, a possible Mayor of NYC who will get behind my idea of a new definition for voting rights in this city to engulf everyone who lives inside the city boundaries, and my tech company that will work to get hundreds of millions of new people online, I think you are looking at a total spread of democracy by 2020. The day all Arab countries have been turned into democracies is the day the War On Terror ends. There are two aspects to that war. There is the part about killing mosquitoes. The US military, law enforcement and intelligence agencies working with their counterparts in other countries get to kill mosquitoes: that is not my area of expertise. Someone like me helps drain the swamp. Everybody you need to spread democracy everywhere on earth lives right here in New York City. America needs me, and America needs me to be in New York City.
China is also going to be a multi-party democracy. But likely it will become a multi-party democracy of state funded parties, and the Chinese Communist Party will continue in power for a few more decades. Taiwan and Tibet will be states in a federal China.
My company is the best thing I could do for my country and countries like mine. Not everyone has to come to America like I did. The Internet is what will bridge the gap between the First World and the Third World, between the west and the rest. I could not work on my company in Nepal. I have to be in New York City to grow my company. I am going to list my company on NASDAQ. I am going to turn this into a Silicon City. (Silicon City) I am going to be the reason the center of gravity of the tech industry shifts from California to New York. My very young company alone might be reason enough to give me legal status.
I would like to share a story. In ancient Greece there was this mathematician, I forget the name. One day he was out in his yard, drawing lines in the sand, deep in thought. That very day his country got conquered. He was famous enough that the conquering emperor sent a soldier to fetch him for a private audience. The mathematician told the soldier he was in the middle of solving a theorem and waved him off. The soldier got angry and hacked him to death. During the six months of detention and after it has felt to me like I am that mathematician. I have been doing cutting edge work in politics and business. Don't hack me.
Warren Buffett once said he could not be CEO of General Electric. My management and leadership styles by now place a heavy emphasis on Web 2.0 and a heavy consumption and production of mind food. The worlds of academia, media, politics and business are seamless. I might have more in common with a theoretical physicist than your stereotypical MBA.
I am not someone who wants to stay back in America for the good life. I am someone who decided staying back is how I could make the greatest positive impact on the country I grew up in, the country that I left, and other countries like that one. Although I don't mind the good life, for myself and for as many others as possible.
America is a concept, America is an idea, that concept, that idea is democracy, it is the market mechanism. When was the last time an immigrant into America played a larger role for democracy and social justice in his country of origin and intends to play a similar role for all countries that are not yet democracies? The medium is not the message, but my role would not have been possible before the advent of the Internet. I am a new breed revolutionary intending to wage wars with communications technology. I am a digital democrat. I am the un-Bin Laden. Neither of us seem to need states or standing armies. He is for violence. I am for nonviolent militancy, the kind where you shut a country down completely for three weeks to bring a dictator to his knees.
Burma did not have a Paramendra Bhagat or Burma too would have succeeded. Tibet did not have a Paramendra Bhagat or Tibet too would have succeeded.
I got into this immigration mess due to two charges of harassment and violation of court order. Both got dropped "for lack of prosecutorial evidence." I am not someone trying to run. I am not someone trying to hide. I expect to list my tech company on NASDAQ in seven years or less. Someone like that intends to play by the rules, function in the system. The work of mainstreaming the Maoists in Nepal is not over yet, and Charlie Rangel and Charlie's Angels, and the immigration authorities of this country are going to have to take some responsibility for the conclusion of this International Crisis Group report of February 2009 that claimed Nepal's peace process was in the toughest spot it had been in years: ICG: Nepal's Faltering Peace Process. You stole me from Nepal's peace process for six months and Nepal suffered. That country needs my help to write itself a new constitution. I am still very much needed on a near daily basis to monitor the situation and to suggest political moves. And while I am at it I am also going to be useful to the Obama presidency. Barack's campaign has taken advice from me a few times. My young tech company also needs me on a near daily basis. That was true all those six months, the first of which I shared lodging with about half a dozen accused murderers.
- Long Walk To Freedom: Just A Third World Guy Dazzled By The City April 2007
- Long Walk To Freedom May 2007
- Barack Has To Talk Much About His Mother
- Barack's Mother Makes An Appearance
- Give Me A Huge Rally In This City Before Summer Is Over September 2007
- The Largest Rally In US Presidential Campaign History September 2007
Please grant me my work authorization papers immediately, please grant me political asylum right away. Give me back my green card. After I win the Nobel I expect President Obama to grant me an honorary US citizenship. Do one better, grant me an honorary citizenship now.
Madhav Nepal is Prime Minister of Nepal. Upendra Yadav has been Foreign Minister. That makes me less not more safe to show up. That just adds to my visibility without any addition to my physical security, scant as it is on its own.
Paramendra Bhagat
A 095156466
- The Maoist Attack On Himal (demrepubnepal.blogspot.com)
- Who Killed Journalist Uma Singh? (demrepubnepal.blogspot.com)
- Web 5.0 Is Da Bomb (technbiz.blogspot.com)
- Most Immigrants In Detention Did Not Have Criminal Record, Reports AP (huffingtonpost.com)
- Obama's deportation fugitive aunt gets another day in court (michellemalkin.com)
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