Monthly Archives: November 2006

Colonel Sekhon runs for Congress

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We blogged earlier about the congressional races of Jindal, Bhakta and Nigam. However, we neglected to tell you about Colonel Sekhon’s campaign for Congress in California’s Second District (thanks big bhapa!).

Sekhon is an MD, and a Colonel in the Army Reserves. He’s also one of only two turbaned and bearded Sikhs in the US military (grandfathered in from an earlier time when there was no outright ban). Like many other veterans and reservists running for office, he’s opposed to the war in Iraq and running as a Democrat.

Sekhon started the race strong, with a surprise win in the Democratic primary against favorite Bill Falzett. He’s also running in a district with a large desi population, even if it is still 75% white:

The Punjabi population in the Yuba-Sutter area has grown to be one of the largest in the United States and one of the largest Sikh populations outside of the Punjab state of India. [Link]

However, the incumbent, Wally Herger, has been in office for nearly two decades and has loads of money. Herger has spent almost 11 times what Sekhon has spent, and has almost 7 times as much cash as Sekhon has remaining. For this reason, most pundits and prognosticators think Herger is likely to be re-elected.

Here’s what Esquire Magazine has to say about the race

For someone who has been in Congress for 20 years, Herger seems not to do much more than issue press releases. To wit: “I strongly support the Pledge Protection Act because Congress must not stand idle and let activist judges remove ‘under God’ from our Pledge.” We agree with this small point. But the larger point is: Herger’s pathetic. His opponent is an MD and an Army Reservist. Esquire endorses: Sekhon. [Link]

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Finally, Indian Christmas carols

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On our News Tab SM reader Pallavi introduces us to the music of “Boymongoose.” They’ll be dropping their album, Christmas in Asia Minor, just in time for the Holidays:

1. Thanking You
2. 12 Days Of Christmas
3. Single Girls
4. Internet Dating (Radio Saffron)
5. Once In Rahul Dravid’s City
6. Oh Therapy
7. No More Brown
8. It Had To Be Said (Radio Saffron)
9. Hark the Herald, Angel Singh
10. The Worst Motel
11. Miss India (Radio Saffron)
12. We Are Wishing You A Merry Christmas
13. Think Of The Children

Here is a video of their version of 12 Days of Christmas. It’s an outstanding 4 minute waste of time (and the animation is solid):

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Something to get your Election Day juices flowing…

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SM reader Bindu from Illinois informs us about a truly ugly campaign in the 101st Illinois House District between incumbent Bob Flider (D) and his challenger Dick Cain (R):

Bob Flider and Dick Cain should be ashamed of themselves.

In fact, we hope that when the dust settles after Tuesday, both men apologize to the residents of the 101st Legislative District for their behavior during this campaign.

Flider, the Democratic incumbent, and Cain, a Republican challenger, have managed to take this campaign right into the gutter.

At the beginning, we had high hopes for this race. We think it’s healthy when incumbents have legitimate challengers. We looked forward to a spirited debate about the direction the state should take and the role the representative of the 101st District would play in setting that direction. [Link]

Want to know just how pathetic it has become? Take a look at this blatantly xenophobic attack ad by the Flider campaign:

The macaca in front of the blue screen is the evil Indian out to steal your job. Bindu tells us that both candidates are using such tactics. Go forth and vote, and make sure to vote for a write-in candidate in a case like this.

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Rano Singh

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Rano Singh is the Democratic candidate for state treasurer in Arizona. Singh was “catapulted … into public service” by the racist murder of Mesa based gas station owner, Balbir Singh Sodhi, after the September 11th attacks. (Singh is also Sikh.)

“For me, it was definitely the 9/11 situation that propelled me to give service… for the future of the country, the future of our children,” Singh told News India-Times. “Our leadership here in Arizona was incredible and made sure hate crimes were stamped out immediately. I was very involved after his killing. He was our friend and was known to everyone in the community…” [Link]

She joined the state attorney general’s Hate Crimes Task Force that year, became president of the India Association of Phoenix and in 2002, was appointed by Gov. Janet Napolitano to the Citizens Finance Review Commission. In 2004, Singh ran for the state Legislature. [Link]

Although Singh lost in 2004, she was undaunted, and won the Democratic primary unopposed.

Although a newcomer to elected office, her chances were boosted considerably when the Republican incumbent was forced to agree to step down as part of his plea bargain. This allows her to run as an outside candidate who will clean up an office that has repeatedly been embroiled in scandal:

“We must restore integrity and trust to the office by providing ethical and professional leadership,” said Singh… “There must be internal controls in place so conflicts of interest and collusion are eliminated…” [Link]

The last Treasurer lost $131 million dollars due to the alleged fraud and mismanagement of National Century Financial Enterprises. Lance Poulsen, the CEO of National Century Financial Enterprises, was a high flying campaign donor. Too many politicians have seen the Office of Treasurer as an opportunity to give jobs to political cronies, friends and even family members.(Arizona Republic 2/24/2006). I am not a politician. I will always place competence first. [Link]

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South Asian "icebergs" as king makers?

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A while back in the comment section of this post about the power of the “Desi voting bloc,” I introduced the term “iceberg” as an alternative to “bloc.” Some people argue, correctly, that you can’t have a “South Asian/desi voting bloc” because on certain issues Indian, Pakistani, Sri Lankan, Bangladeshi-Americans etc. simply won’t agree. True. However, I believe that living in America there is far more that we agree on than disagree on. So why not icebergs? They float around and clump together and then float apart again. Nothing forces them to stay together all the time. When they do clump together they can bring down a ship with ease (and drown DiCaprio as a bonus).

In this election cycle SM has been asked to help in a number of political campaigns. People know that we have a diverse South Asian audience that is pretty knowledgeable. We turned all such requests down of course since SM is a non-partisan blog that does not have a political agenda other than to inform our readers of South Asian American politics and politicians. All previous requests came from South Asian candidates. Now we have non-South Asian candidates vying for the attention of this audience (YOU GUYS) as well. You want an example? Tammy Duckworth (D) is running for U.S. Congress in Illinois’s 6th Congressional District (open seat). She is Thai American, and she is also a veteran:

Tammy Duckworth of Hoffman Estates has built her life and career upon serving her country, her community and those in need around the world. She is a dedicated, tireless leader and an inspirational example of what can be achieved through hard work, determination, compassion for others and a positive outlook. Having recently recovered from serious injuries sustained while serving on active duty in Iraq, Tammy’s next goal – in addition to flying helicopters again for the Illinois Army National Guard – is to fight for the interests of the people of Illinois’ Sixth District in the United States Congress…

On November 12, 2004, Tammy was co-piloting a Black Hawk helicopter north of Baghdad when a rocket-propelled grenade struck the cockpit of her aircraft and exploded. Focused on the safety of her crew, Tammy was determined to land the helicopter not realizing she had been severely injured and that the other pilot was already at the controls. It wasn’t until the helicopter landed that she passed out. Ten days later, when she woke up at Walter Reed Memorial Hospital in Maryland, she learned that the explosion would cost her both legs and had shattered her right arm. It has been a long road to recovery, but Tammy is optimistic and determined to serve her country in a new way. [Link]

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It’s on! Some desis to watch tomorrow

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Can you all feel the excitement in the air? I surely can. Election day is tomorrow and I am sure the vast majority of you will be voting (well, I mean those of you that haven’t already voted).

So which desis should we keep an eye on? The biggest hope is Rano Singh in Arizona but Ennis will cover her in more depth a bit later so I am going to talk about a few others of note (although there are quite a few more that I don’t have time to cover):

1) Bobby Jindal (R)- Jindal is considered a safe bet for re-election in Louisiana:

Incumbent U.S. Rep. Bobby Jindal, R-Metairie, is running against a trio of challengers — Metairie Democrats David Gereighty of Metairie and Stacey Tallitcsh, as well as River Ridge Libertarian Peter Beary.

The 1st District generally covers the suburban areas around New Orleans and the parishes to the north and west.

Jindal, who ran an unsuccessful race for governor in 2003 and is considered a strong contender for a re-match with Democratic Gov. Kathleen Blanco in next year’s race, raised about $2.5 million for the race.

While Jindal has taken care of buying his ad time, yard signs and other campaign staples, he has also donated a few hundred thousand to the Republican Party at the state and national level, as well as Republican candidates in Louisiana and other states.

Jindal has run his campaign on the issues of economic development and job growth, winning the war on terror, improving health-care access and using the rebuilding of the state in the wake of Katrina and Rita as a platform to make improvements that were needed before the storms. [Link]

For Jindal this is just a dress rehearsal. He is spreading his wealth to curry favor with other Louisiana politicians because he will definitely make a play for Governor Blanco’s job.

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This Convert’s Zeal Could Kill Us

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dirty bomber jackass.jpg

Sepia Friendster postergirl Jane of All Trades reads the BBC at the same time I do, because we’re both horrified at the latest development in the War on Terror:

A Muslim convert planned to detonate a dirty bomb and launch an attack on London’s Tube, a court has been told.
Former Hindu Dhiren Barot, 34, from London, plotted “massive explosions” in the US and UK and synchronised attacks.

I tripped over “former Hindu” as I was reading this and barely absorbed the appalling nature of Barot’s plans, which his lawyers argue he didn’t have the resources to carry out.

Barot, from Kingsbury in north-west London, described by prosecutors as “a member or close associate” of al-Qaeda is to be sentenced on Tuesday.
“The plan was to carry out massive explosions here and in the USA, the principal object being to kill hundreds, if not thousands, of innocent people without warning,” prosecutor Edmund Lawson QC told Woolwich Crown Court

This tidbit is kinda interesting:

The BBC, The Times and the Associated Press news agency successfully challenged a judge’s ruling that had threatened to prevent reporting of details from the court hearing.

In order to cause the greatest amount of devastation possible, Barot wanted to blow up a subway train as it traveled in a tunnel under the Thames. These are the suspect’s own words regarding his plans:

“Imagine the chaos that would be caused if a powerful explosion were to rip through here [London] and actually rupture the river itself.
“That would cause pandemonium, what with the explosions, flooding, drowning etc that would occur.”

As for Amreeka, the IMF, the World Bank (what, no White House?), the NYSE and various bank headquarters were part of the accused’s plans. I will be all the more bitter about this truism tomorrow, after some deluded person in Nebraska votes red to foil terrorists who don’t give a shit about that state, since they prefer to target places where I live, like D.C. But hey– who cares? Let’s keep creating terrorists faster than we can kill them! Continue reading →

Keeping up with the Joneses

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There is a more political way in which there is a “tax” on some South Asian names, and that is when it comes to gaining citizenship. We all know that since 9/11 the gap between the political rights of citizens and non-citizens has grown. Now there is another gap that has arisen amongst applicants for citizenship, between those with relatively common and uncommon names:

The first step involves a computerized search of the F.B.I.’s Universal Index of 94.6 million records for all mentions of a name, a close date of birth and a Social Security number. Different permutations of the name are tried, like the first and middle name only. Nearly a third of naturalization cases come back as having a potential match….

“Common names (such as Mohammed, Singh, or Smith) may result in hundreds of potential matches,” government lawyers wrote. “The sheer volume of the requests has also resulted in delays…” [Link]

This cases sit in limbo even as the INS has promised to eradicate its backlog of applications, since they have simply defined these cases as outside its purview. In fact it now

… takes responsibility for fewer than 140,000 of the 1.1 million immigrant applications that it identifies as pending for more than six months. [Link]
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What’s in a Name?

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With what seems to be the ongoing theme on Sepia Mutiny this week of (self) identification of South Asian Americans and racialization of America, I had to share the following story I got in my inbox this morning. My friend’s name is Nirva. Nice desi name, right? Nirva is shopping for a bicycle, and found one on craigslist…

Nirva: I saw your add on craigs list about the bicycle sale. And, I’m really interested in the nishikisport and murray women’s bikes. Are both of these frames lightweight and are they new? Thanks, Nirva

Craigslist Bike Seller: what nirva, whateva

[What exactly deos the “whateva” mean? Was it an insult to her name? Or was it a “we have no bikes for you”?]

N: i am sorry what did you say?

CBS: oh yeah righ they are brand new for 80 dollars yes. come right over this is hollywood and you can buy a bike nishiki brand for 80 dollars. what boat did you just get off?

[“What boat did I get off?” Kind of presumptuous to get all of that simply from her first name, don’t ya think?]

N: Excuse you…..First of all. It’s a question. If you want to answer it then answer it right. Damn you’re great with customer sales. Ya really want the bike now. Go take some happy pills and think twice before you get on a high horse and act anti-immigrant.

CBS: anti-immigrant? I just saw the movie Borat and you can not take a Joke! I do not think you want the bikes since they are not Brand New. They are used and I am sorry if I offended you but you are obviously too serious.

[Oh no. She didn’t go there with a Borat reference…]

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Where are Desis in Affirmative Action?

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Sunday marks the 10 year anniversary of the overturning of Proposition 209 in California. Thursday, here at UCLA students of all colors got together in the morning for a funeral procession for the Death of Diversity. Students dressed in black staged a silent “walk-in” by walking into law classes and standing in silence, in an effort to depict what a classroom should look like if it were representative of the population of CA. There were over 50% minorities enrolled in the law school in 1995, the year before Prop 209 took place, far more than there have been since that year.

Ten years ago this Sunday, California voters passed Proposition 209, which banned the use of race, ethnicity, color, gender or national origin as a factor in hiring and admissions in public institutions….Since then UCLA has seen a substantial drop in the number of black, Latino, Chicano/a and Native American students who are admitted.

Out of the 4,422 students in UCLA’s freshman class of 2006, 100 are black. The low enrollment numbers have incited criticism from the UCLA community as well as national media outlets…Alina Ball [in the UCLA Law School Class of ’08] …found herself to be the only black female student, and one of nine black students total, in her class of more than 300. [daily bruin]

At UCLA, Johnson and other speakers noted that African American, Latino and Native American students continue to be underrepresented at UCLA and other UC campuses, with their numbers at the schools well below their proportions in the state’s population. The numbers plummeted the year after the ban took effect, and although they have recovered since then for the UC system as a whole, they have remained low at its most competitive campuses, including UCLA and UC Berkeley. [la times]

But what does this mean for desis? South Asian Americans were out at the rally in full force, with members of the South Asian Law Student Association (SALSA) and Muslim Student Association (MSA) making an appearance. If the law school were to directly reflect the 1.24% [p.48] South Asian American population that we have in California, that would mean of the 340 law students in the 2008 class, there should be at least 4 desis in the entering class. I’m not sure about the exact stats, but I believe last year’s class had 13 South Asians. To further complicate the matter in trying to get stats on how many South Asian Americans are in the UC system, as far as categorization in the UC system is concerned, ‘Pakistani’ and ‘East Indian’ are lumped in with ‘Other.’

Last month, the satirical article written by Jed Levine at the UCLA Bruin caused some ruckus in the Asian American blogosphere…His main gripe? There are too many Asian Americans on UCLA’s campus and their numbers on campus should be limited to make room for other ethnicities… Continue reading →