Bihar-Jharkhand Association of North AmericaBJANA DIWALI 2006 INVITES YOU, YOUR FAMILY & FRIENDS TO CELEBRATE Diwali 2006 On Sunday, October 15th, 2006 at St. Demetrius Community Center, 691 Roosevelt Ave, Carteret NJ 07008
The other day there was a DL21C event where Brooke Ellison was to introduce Claire McCaskill. And I showed up a few minutes early, and McCaskill was still on her way. There were few people in the room. I naturally walked over to Ellison to introduce myself. She took one quick glance at me and just broke into this disarming smile. I joined in. It was a naughty, prankish smile.
Usually I introduce myself saying, "Hi, I am Paramendra, I am from Nepal." If you say India, people think outsourcing and are alarmed, first thing.
It felt like I had seen her at some other event before. I had recently visited her website.
Then I wandered off onto the floor. When you do that, you usually bump into at least a few young, white males who are huddled into each other, talking perhaps baseball. You read the Do Not Enter sign and let them be. I don't much care for baseball, or football, or basketball. I care, but not enough to know the scores. And I am fine with that. Politics is my sports, politics and soccer, world cup soccer.
After her speech, McCaskill worked the room. I walked over to her and told her I hope she wins because we need more women in the Senate. Then I asked her who she thinks is going to be president. I guess I am a little too early, too excited about Hillary. I don't hear the clear echo. She gave me a long list of hopefuls, which was perhaps the diplomatic thing to do.
"Here, I just touched a Senator," I said, and touched her shoulder. She grinned.
This guy David who runs the show at DL21C, I don't know if he knows me or not, but we have talked at least once. I am not too eager to get on his rolodex. I am not yet rolodex material. Although I ended up talking to this guy who works at the same company as David. The guy had worked for Bobby Kennedy. I was impressed.
Leila Noor showed. Dana Northcraft was in tow. They make quite a pair. I guess they are good friends. I have seen them together so many times. Leila told me Brooke is running near her part of Long Island. I did not know. She noticed I looked dressy.
"I am discovering I actually like the rest of it, I just dislike the tie."
Dana took me to task for drinking Coors beer. "Did you know that they fund anti-choice positions?"
I did not know.
"I'd rather be drinking tea right now," I said.
Dana is a midwesterner. I am a refugee into New York City from the great states of Kentucky and Indiana.
Right now Drinking Liberally is my organization of choice in town. I like the structurelessness of the whole thing. You just show up. You don't even talk politics half the time. There are no guest speakers. There is no center. There is no top. There is occasionally free beer, although it is perfectly okay to not drink, my first choice option.
And Justin Krebs and I have gotten a little jokey. There is that comfort level. Only last Thursday I learned for the first time that David, one of the cofounders of Drinking Liberally, works at Google in town. I was so impressed. And I did not know during all these months of knowing him.
This is such a commercial town. People are constantly trying to figure out how much money you have. As in, where do you live? What do you do? The idea of making money fascinates me, although I don't enjoy the process of spending all that much, although you will have to try me after big bucks. But money is a privacy issue, no? As in what you make and spend is your thing. And classist comments are no different from racist comments, sexist comments.
Getting people to talk about their work is great. But skip the money part. Just talk to me the craft of what you do. Are you a carpenter? How do you work the wood?
So I cornered David. He said yes, he has been with Google five years now. I told him I think Google is the sexiest company alive. ("I read your blog regulary," he said months ago.)
Leila knows David, but at the Brooke event Leila and Justin introduced themselves to each other. I was so surprised they did not know each other.
At the last Drinking Liberally Justin talked up some attack ads Brooke was facing. One says, "I don't play golf, I have a handicap." That made me so angry.
"That will backfire," I said.
"And there is another in California. The Dem in question has no legs. The ad there is, the Democrats want to cut and run in Iraq," Justin informed.
That is so low. For the electorate such attack ads should be dead on arrival.
I also met this guy who makes political documentaries. He apparently has won some Emmy Awards for his work. And his beautiful Russian wife.
"The largest electronics shop in Moscow is owned by someone from my country."
"I read War and Peace at high school."
"What do you think of Putin?"
"Moscow in the most expensive city on earth."
She said she had met some "weirdos" at the Drinking Liberally in San Francisco where she was recently. Justin was on defense.
"That is a smaller town. The weirdos have fewer things to do there." I was chuckling.
The guy expressed interest in making a documentary on the Maoists of Nepal. When I got back home, I introduced him to a few people over email, including the editor of what is perhaps the largest, definitely the first Nepali newspaper in America, a Li Onesto who has interviewed the top Maoists in the past, a local Julie who has made two movies in Nepal, and the star video blogger of the April Revolution who I worked closely with.
Adam and Stephanie were just done working on a campaign. And one guy whose name I forget. He is headed next to Ohio for election work. He said he can't drive.
It was at the Brooke event, I was one of the last to leave, as was Justin. And Elizabeth, who is one of the DL21C leaders, and Hilary with the Spitzer campaign. We talked shop. Justin said he knew Brooke from college.
George Washington was a white man. John Adams was a white man. Thomas Jefferson was a white man. James Madison was a white man. James Monroe was a white man. John Quincy Adams was a white man. Andrew Jackson was a white man. Martin Van Buren was a white man. William Henry Harrison was a white man. John Tyler was a white man. James Polk was a white man. Zachary Taylor was a white man. Millard Fillmore was a white man. Franklin Pierce was a white man. James Buchanan was a white man. Abraham Lincoln was a white man. Andrew Johnson was a white man. Ulysses Grant was a white man. Rutherford Hayes was a white man. James Garfield was a white man. Chester Arthur was a white man. Grover Cleveland was a white man. Benjamin Harrison was a white man. Grover Cleveland was a white man. William McKinley was a white man. Theodore Roosevelt was a white man. William Taft was a white man. Woodrow Wilson was a white man. Warren Harding was a white man. Calvin Coolidge was a white man. Herbert Hoover was a white man. Franklin Roosevelt was a white man. Harry Truman was a white man. Dwight Eisenhower was a white man. John Kennedy was a white man. Lyndon Johnson was a white man. Richard Nixon was a white man. Gerald Ford was a white man. Ronald Reagan was a white man.
Jimmy Carter is a white man. George H.W. Bush is a white man. Bill Clinton is a white man. George W. Bush is a white man.
Benefit screening of Robert Greenwald's new documentary, "IRAQ FOR... ABC News: Documentary Slams US Companies Working in Iraq YouTube - Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers - Trailer News Hounds: Olbermann Talks To Robert Greenwald About New Film ... Robert Greenwald Robert Greenwald's documentaries Iraq for Sale OUTFOXED: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers The Blog | Arianna Huffington: Iraq For Sale: Will a ... Democrats looking for another way to nationalize the midterm elections need look no further than their movie multiplexes and DVD players. ...... Robert Greenwald's latest film, Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers (coming soon to a theater -- and a living room -- near you) is a devastating expose of how the Bush administration and the Republican-led Congress have allowed private corporations free rein in Iraq, leading to billions of dollars in profits at the expense of American troops, American taxpayers, and the people of Iraq. .... the hits-you-in-the-gut documentary also highlights their shocking incompetence -- and makes a mockery of the GOP's "we can keep you safer" 2006 framing. ..... The Republicans have turned Iraq into a corporate welfare gravy train ...... a film that connects on both an emotional and an intellectual level ...... the political action committee of Halliburton, the king of the Iraq profiteers, has given 91 percent of its donations in the current election cycle to Republican candidates ...... the GOP has repeatedlyderailed Democratic proposals to increase competition for government contracts, create a new criminal penalty for war profiteering, put limits on the kinds of jobs (such as interrogations) private contractors can do, and establish a Truman-style committee to investigate the companies making a killing in Iraq and Afghanistan while young Americans make the ultimate sacrifice. ....... companies such as Blackwater Security, CACI International, Bechtel, Fluor, and, of course, Halliburton ...... Remember how in 2004 a DVD presenting Bush as having "the moral clarity of an old-fashioned biblical prophet" was distributed to tens of thousands of American churches? Well, Democrats should get a hold of that mailing list and make sure those same faithful viewers see Iraq for Sale before Election Day.
