It’s not that I’m against Sunny Leone (NSFW). I am totally pro desi woman in any non-mainstream industry. I even blogged about her on Sepia Mutiny previously as a ‘cool desi woman under 30.’ I like her, you know, for a porn star.
But at work today, I was researching voting public service announcement (PSA) targeted toward the Asian American community. There was the bikini-clad Korean one, the kung fu epic one, the Kelly Hu bowing to George Takai one. There are even several PSAs put out by the non-profit APIA Vote that have a stream of famous Asian American actors talking about voting. But of course, none of the PSAs had a desi face.
SAJA Forum‘s Sree Sreenivasan had brought this issue up earlier this year…
…I am writing today to bring attention to the fact that to some (just some) Asian Americans, South Asians still don’t count as Asian Americans…How else to interpret these two political public service ads, created by and starring Asian Americans and aimed at Asian Americans? Take a look at each and see neither bothers to put in any South Asian faces. John Cho, one half of the “Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle” team is featured in both ads, but you won’t find his at-least-as-equally-famous partner, Kal Penn, in either ad… I am glad there are such efforts out there to get Asian Americans to vote. But I am struck by how ridiculous it is not to have even a token brown face in these ads. [SAJAForum]
Sree, I found the token brown face amongst the sea of voting PSAs!!! I found the one! The youth vote organization Declare Yourself has a stream of quirky/sexual PSAs targeted directly to the youth demographics (at least “quirky/sexual” is what comes to mind when I watch McLovin teaching me how to pull the lever.) Declare Yourself partnered with Vivid Entertainment to create the following PSA, starring our gal, the sole desi starring in a voting PSA, Sunny Leone.
“As an immigrant who is thrilled to exercise her right to vote in a presidential election for the first time, I wanted to do what I could to get other young people to participate,” said Leone who only recently became an American citizen. “There’s no excuse not to register -DeclareYourself.com makes it so easy.” [LVTSG]
I could go on and on about the innovation behind a voting non-profit partnering with an adult entertainment company… but I’m sure you just want to get to the video already, don’t you?
Did Sunny get you excited…to vote?
Go to Rock the Vote and register to vote online today. We have less then 45 days till Election Day on November 4th. You’ll need to re-register if you moved, changed names, or changed political parties. In most states the last day to register to vote is 30 days before Election Day.
So here’s my personal request. Though it’s great Sunny is the first desi face in a voting PSA, I think there should be more. And since the boys have Sunny, how about we gals get some brown sugar like Sendhil Ramamurthy, Naveen Andrews or Kal Penn to make a voting PSA? That would definitely rock my vote. 😉
Oh. Thank you for the link to Sunny’s web site Tazminderji
51 · khoofia said
or kirpan, apparently.
Congrats, Sepia Mutiny for reaching a new low in silliness.
i’ve heard her wife swapping film, “sunny and share”, is quite interseting, though viewers have reported a sudden loss of interest just as the plot peaks.
what is the difference between sunny and shyla?
53 · Desiriksha said
You make it sound like “low” and “silly” are bad things. :-p
mccain famously dated a stripper (as well as a brazilian model). he doesn’t get enough credit for this so i thought i’d mention it. dems have wisely avoided making political hay out of this (unlike their self-defeating bristol pregnancy hysteria) perhaps realizing if the general public catches wind of this, it could be worth 2% points for him.
If there’s a vote…
Folks on Wall Street are putting a 15-20% chance on the possibility that elections will be called off and Bush/Cheney will continue to remain in office. The reasons given will be “extreme circumstances” caused by two or three black swan events in quick succession. One event happened last week when the yield on the treasuries dropped to almost nothing, and the value money market funds fell below par.
For. The. Very. First. Time.
I know this is as close as it comes to rumour mongering, but anything can happen. Three weeks ago, if I were to tell you that no invesment banks would be left standing, the US government would end up owning half the houses in the country, and would be providing life-insurance to quarter of the population – you would have thought that I forgot to take my medication. Three weeks later, all that and more has happened.
Remember – you heard it here first…
M. Nam
57 · Manju said
what credit should i get for this?
hmmm? with recent rumblings of al qaeda planning an october surprise, moornam’s scenario is not unthinkable. is there any constitutional provisions for cancelling elections? Imagine if Obama’s way ahead in he polls and that happens? o boy. that’ll be fun.
(I’m sorry in advance for enjoying all sorts of stuff I’m not supposed to enjoy)
Well, if they managed to hold elections in 1864 and 1932, somehow I’m guessing they’ll follow the Constitution and hold them in 2008.
Plumbing depths has rewards all its own. There are some who spend their lives diving for treasure within bivalve lips. it’s a dangerous job but someone has to do it.
59 · john mccain said
if prez, you’ll ensure good times are here again, a la clinton. we don’t need another hyper religious goody-2-shoes in office, like your opponent.
Rob: >>Well, if they managed to hold elections in 1864 and 1932, somehow I’m guessing they’ll follow the Constitution and hold them in 2008.
There was a civil war in 1864, and 1932 was three years after the big crash. This time, there’s war and there’s the crash – at the same time. And of course, there are many other known unknowns…
Neo-cons are more powerful than most people realise.
Just in case you’re right, and elections are held – please don’t vote for any incumbent (that includes McCain and Obama). Vote out all of them – bring fresh blood in.
M. Nam
Folks on Wall Street are putting a 15-20% chance on the possibility that elections will be called off and Bush/Cheney will continue to remain in office.
this is one of the dumbest things i’ve seen asserted seriously on this weblog.
and if moornam is right, folks are wall street should be strung up for being even more idiotic than they’ve shown themselves to be over the past few years.
Hmmm, a porn actress who does not look at all desi represents desi-americans???
No american would guess that this ho was an ethnic indian.
No american would guess that this ho was an ethnic indian.
your language is uncalled for sir!!!
67 · interesting_times said
i once heard someone, lawrence otis graham i think, say that if someone doesn’t look black at first, just put them next to a black person and then you can see the simialrities.
So this may help you.
58 · MoorNam said
i think moornam also still believes in those inflated cdo valuations too.
Lets put it this way folks: free-market capitalism screwed up big time again and socialism has come to the rescue again. When will these wacko libertarians learn?
I am surprised no blogger has yet written about the most important event unfolding in America today.
71 · interesting_times said
it’s not socialism. only the fat cats are likely to win on this one. so it is privatize gain, socialize losses. something that republicans love, and what they basically mean when they eulogize the power of the market.
58 · MoorNam said
Forgive me for not putting my stock in the predictions of “folks on Wall Street,” but the Cheney/Bush administration does seem to be making moves toward martial law, again(though it was mercenaries that time).
69 · Manju said
looks like a republican in this one.
71 · interesting_times said
YES! Even among these insipid and uninspiring remarks, there is a pearl of wisdom a shining diamond of an observation in a sea of filth. I stand and applaud you for your understanding and empathy for THOSE /*insert sneer */
lLlibertarians71 · interesting_times said
haven’t you been telling us america’s greatness lies in her mixed economy this whole time. now that she screws up, she gets transformed into free-market capitalism? Just like in your world, if a desi chick is hot, she ceases to look desi.
71 · interesting_times said
fire chris cox!
John Mccain, you’re such an innocent little puppy. don’t you see your getting played? dems believe this too. notice the bipartisanship. is an unholy alliance between unprincipled libertine libertarians like myself and limosine liberals like ruben and clinton. and frankly, our system, current blips notwithstanding, remains the envy of the world, thank you very much.
78 · Manju said
Yoo-Ess-ay! Yoo-Ess-ay!
79 · john mccain said
Go back to India.
dodd sees paulson and raises him. and disagreement with paulson’s bailout seems to be the consensus.
i mumble some more about accountability, golden parachutes, regulation blah blah blah. steve told me to. country first.
75 · RahulD said
Not much a desi angle there (i bankers?). How about the bombing in Pakistan or the general strike in India?
49 = best comment
How does he turn his alumnus status on and off? Super-power?
81 · john mccain said
Yes, but notice the parameters of the debate…between 2 separate bailouts.
85 · Manju said
dodd:
Equity Stake
The legislation requires Treasury to take an equity stake equal to the purchase price of the assets being bought. If the company isn’t publicly traded, the government would take senior debt instead, placing it in the front of the line of debt holders for repayment in the event of a bankruptcy.
Penalize Executives
Dodd is proposing to penalize executives who take
inappropriate or excessive'' risks. The executive compensation and severance packages could be reduced if that isin the public interest,” the proposal says. It would also force executives to give back profits they earned that were based on company accounting measures that are later found to be inaccurate.paulson/bush:
take off bad debt, taxpayers get nothing in return, give out taxpayer money no strings attached.
john merriweather often said that the key to winning is holding onto the bet long enough. When his fund, LTCM, was bailed out, his portfolio, which was valued at nothing at one point, turned out to be extremely valuable. warren buffet famously wanted to acquire it but a previous engagement to party with bill gates in alaska (i think) prevented him from negotiating in person.
but merriweatrhers bets/financial models were right in the long run, he just didn’t have the money to hold onto them. my guess is the current models aren’t that wrong this time either, just that the bets were too huge to survive the black swan. these loans are secured, my guess is the government will be getting a portfolio on the cheap and recoup their losses with a tidy poifit in the long run, once housing prices recover.
78 · Manju said
president, the word is adjustment.
86 · john mccain said
thats not an accurate description. there’d be repercussions and regulations. notice what happened to bear and aig or even LTCM during their bailouts. be that as it may, notice the bipartisanship. we’re talking about 2 ends of the tory party here. there are important distinctions to be sure, but a lot more similarities. either way, there is going to be a bailout.
89 · Manju said
as krugman points out in the link you have, there is a difference in the details. there isn’t much choice on a bailout thanks to the profligacy of the deregulated market. “comissar paulson has seized control of the means of production”
as keynes said….
90 · john mccain said
well then, what is our disagreement? you yourself point out the consensus is the paulson plan is dead. the deregulation you allude to was also bipartisan. in fact, in one important instance, dems provided the most resistance to overseeing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, who provided the bulk of liquidity for these mortgage backed securities despite warnings by alan greenspan, john mccain and the wsj.
good for dodd and his counterpropsal. repubs going along with this is quite predictable.
wow, leave it to desis to take a porn post and turn it into an economic policy discussion. i haven’t been this ashamed since i traded my aishwarya rai poster for and arundhati roy novel.
92 · Manju said
As I was catching up with comments, I thought the same thing. Can’t you people stay on topic, ever? Especially when the topic involves PORN??
In the history of the internet nothing as come close to the level of dweebness that this post has taken.
92 · Manju said
well, first the govt, then we, blow our wad, i see. i guess every post needs its money shot.
82 · Harbeer said
I didnt say that…Besides I’m not liberal enough to consider Pakistan and India as the same…I wouldn’t complain about bloggers on their own blog not writing something that I want to read…and never would call myself a “Desi” because Hindi isn’t my language.
So yea…I didn’t make that statement./
Good Gawd…The quote thing is baffling…
42 · Taz said
I call misquote!!!! should have read “PRACTICAL and EFFECTIVE OR SOMETHING”
😛
can we talk now that the discussion’s turned to the bailout? Or shall we go with talking about the effects of the bailout on porn? 🙂 Or just how pornographic the American political system really is? 🙂
Vote Nader!
She’s muy caliente. By the way, in terms of the economic discussion, Democrats botched this whole thing up from the beginning. Giving loans to minorities who couldn’t pay them up? Give me a break. Oh yea, it doesn’t make sense why they don’t get rid of the mark to mark rule (FAS 157..for all you accounting fans out there).
Did Sunny get you excited…to vote?
Yes Yes Yes