Since posting about the desi-fication of danieldrezner.com, I’ve been eagerly waiting for the first posts from Reihan Salam & Siddharth Mohandas- I haven’t been disappointed.

They start by brown-nosing their host –

Simply put, Dan Drezner is my hero. I feel really lucky to be here. Now I will abuse this privilege with a long, rambling post that will alienate almost everyone.

Vote of thanks followed by rambling? Sounds like he’s giving a desi wedding toast. Reihan in particular sounds like a good candidate mutineer after his Drezner guestblogger gig is up –

I dig a good rogan josh at least as much as Siddharth, so I figure that, if not my undying love for Panjabi MC and Nehru jackets, makes me an honorary member of the Indian “diaspora” (to use a problematic and widely misused term).

… IÂ’ve always identified very strongly as an American. While I donÂ’t consider myself a national chauvinist (I wouldnÂ’t, for example, pee on someone for being Canadian, let alone set them ablaze, though I might be sorely tempted), I love my native country for fairly old-school nationalist reasons—i.e., not for the Constitution, which is perfectly adequate, but for its language, culture, and a sense that IÂ’m entangled in its troubled-yet-inspiring history. Which is why I think “Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle” rules so hard. IÂ’ve already seen it three times, and I imagine IÂ’ll see it again very soon. Go watch it. Seriously, it rules.

Anyone who identifies PMC & H&K as high points of the American cultural ethos qualifies in my book 😉 [yes, I know PMC is Brit, but you get my meta-point…]

So like, whatÂ’s up with South Carolina? Not widely recognized (at least by this blogger) as being a bastion of minority politics, all of a sudden South Carolina is the place to be if you are South Asian and have your eyes on the prize. Earlier this year, you may recall that Nikki Randhawa-Haley, 32, won the Republican Primary in South CarolinaÂ’s House District 87 and was to run unopposed in the November election. Until the middle of last month she was guaranteed a victory. Despite the fact that she now has a Democrat petition candidate running against her, she will most likely have an easy victory. That however is not where the sudden embrace by South Carolina for its brown sons and daughters ends. Continue reading →

Daniel Drezner is proprietor of one of the most influential Classical Liberal / Libertarian / Academic blogs (take your pick of pigeon holes…) out there . The man has quite a following and regularly squares off with the equally eminent Brad DeLong. Drezner’s blog has landed him writing gigs for top tier national magazines and expert commentator roles on several TV news shows.

So, when you’re Drezner and you decide to take a weeklong blogging break – you need not one but 2 guys to guest blog and fill your shoes. It’s a pretty wild coinki-dink that from the sea of folks who’d kill for the exposure (sigh, myself included), both bloggers ended up desi.