I think I left more than 100 voice mails during my Sunday stint at the Reshma 2010 headquarters earlier today. This past week I have been trying to put extra hours into phone calls. I showed up on Tuesday, I showed up on Saturday.
People on the Upper East Side seem to be like me. They don't pick up the phone. They n-e-v-e-r pick up the phone. But I was trying to imagine it was a new voter each time, and so leaving the same voice mail over and over again is still a unique experience each time, but you can take that only so far before your brain goes numb. And I was trying to have fun with the wording of the voice mail. I think the final version went something like this.
"Hi. My name is Paramendra. I was one of Barack Obama's earliest and strongest supporters in New York City. Today I am calling on behalf of Reshma Saujani. Reshma is running for Congress and you can learn more about her at her website online at reshma2010.com, that would be r-e-s-h-m-a-2-0-1-0-dot-com. I strongly urge you to vote for her on September 14 in the Democratic primary. Like I said, Reshma is running for Congress. She is running against Carolyn Maloney. Carolyn Maloney is like Al Sharpton, Reshma Saujani is like Barack Obama. I think you should vote for someone who is like Barack Obama, and that is Reshma. Thank you."
But at some point I ran out of steam for the day. I guess there is a limit to how many voice mails you can leave in one day, in one sitting. After each hour I would get up and go into a corner and do some push ups. To those who looked at me curiously I said, "Making phone calls is a physical act."
Your mouth runs dry, you drink water. You take your restroom breaks. You take a break to go stare at the wall. That is when I found out there are so many community events scheduled for the month.
I am going to drastically cut down on the phone calls now. I am going to focus more on the digital activism part, and the meeting people in person part. Blogging is the big part of my digital activism, but not the only part. And I am really, really looking forward to meeting people in person. Like really.
I think as we move closer to September 14, there are going to be more and more news articles and blog posts about Reshma and my blogging activity is going to have to keep pace with that.
There is this Upper East Side newspaper called Our Town. They had an article a few days back. I replied to it at my blog, and then posted a link to my reply post in the comments section of that article. I see me doing more of that. I might reach more voters that way than by making phone calls.
So today for my phone calls my point person was Paul. Here's my Paul story. In Kentucky once someone asked me,"Can we call you Paul?"
"No, you can't call me Paul," I replied.
I have been showing up for the Reshma events wearing the red, white and blue Reshma 2010 shirt and the rest black. I think I will stick to that until September 14. But there is a dress nazi inside of me that is itching to wear a few different shirts.
I’m writing with the exciting news that Deepak Chopra will be speaking at an event hosted for my campaign on August 11th.
The event is an opportunity to take a fresh look at foreign policy at a time when the world is facing so much conflict, and I am honored to be joined by Deepak Chopra, who is widely renowned for bridging diverse communities and encouraging compassion and empathy. He will be sharing a new and unique perspective on the current state of the world, New York, and leadership.
I started suspecting during the final week of July that it had been an unusually active month. Yesterday I looked up the archives. My suspicions were confirmed. July 2010 has been the busiest month so far at this blog. That is remarkable because July 2010 has been busier than those long months of 2007 and the first half of 2008 when I was doing a lot for Obama 08.
I died a small death in June 2008. I am the body Reshma 2010 found in the water at the beginning of the first Bourne movie. Slowly but surely I am waking up. My hours into Reshma 2010 are making me do some major rethink in terms of my life and career. I am beginning to find myself. ($35 PC) I am beginning to find my groove.
Reshma 2010 is my on ramp to Obama 2010. The Barack-Hillary tussle was a contest. Either side could have won that one. The Barack-McCain thing was a no contest. Barack was surely going to win that one. But I did very much want to be there for the victory party, for the six month long victory party. Now it is contest time all over again. It is not at all clear which side will win in November. I am with Barack. Completely. Calling the Obama 08 spirits all over again. Wherever you are, wake up. It is time to go marching again.
This is now a Reshma Saujani blog. But I am going to keep the name. I would not want to hurt Barack's feelings.
Saujani received the maximum primary donation earlier this year from lawyer Marc Bern. Mr. Bern is one of the lead attorneys for thousands of people suing for compensation for illnesses and injuries suffered in the wake of working on the World Trade Center site or being exposed to its toxic dust. ...... He has given tens of thousands of dollars to Democratic candidates over the years, including donations to Ms. Maloney in her past two elections. He declined to comment Thursday when asked why he now supports Ms. Saujani...... Last week, the legislation championed by Ms. Maloney to provide long-term health care for Ground Zero workers failed a vote in the House. ..... "It breaks my heart that the New York delegation, led by Carolyn Maloney, hasn't been able to deliver for our city's 9/11 heroes. A real leader would have passed this bill years ago,'' said Ms. Saujani. ...... Alix Anfang, a spokeswoman for the congresswoman, said ..... unions and liberal activists.
Maloney's heart might be in the right place, but she is plain incompetent.
The labor bosses were all with Hillary in the fall of 2007. De ja vu.
And who is this Alix Anfang person? I keep reading her name in news articles. I did a search on her and found out she is a Reshma 2010 volunteer. It is good to have our people deeply embedded in the opposition camp.
Mar 23, 2010 ...alix anfang rsvped for March Volunteer Organizational Meeting. 2010-03-18 15:40:17 -0400 · Comment · Like ... www.reshma2010.com/profiles/8247-alix-anfang - Cached
The debate around the Cordoba House—or “the Ground Zero Mosque,” as it is sensationally being referred to in the media ...... That religious freedom and interfaith dialogue can endure at such a symbolic site, I believe, is a testament to the strength of American democracy. ...... Sarah Palin urged her supporters to reject the “Ground Zero Mosque” and implored “Peace-seeking Muslims” to scrap plans for the Cordoba House because it represents “unnecessary provocation” and a “stab in the heart.” ...... Michael Berry, a Republican talk-radio host in Houston, told listeners, “I hope the mosque isn’t built, and if it is, I hope it’s blown up, and I mean that.” ..... they have forgotten what makes this country great. The Cordoba Initiative was actually named for the city of Cordoba, where Jews, Christians, and Muslims lived in peace for nearly 800 years during the Middle Ages...... In many ways, New York City today strikes me as a modern day Cordoba ..... We must both relentlessly pursue terrorist networks and staunchly defend our pluralistic democracy. The raw human component of this challenge calls on us to make an equal effort to combat extremism with education, intolerance with interfaith exchanges.
So is Carolyn Maloney saying she has NOT taken special interest money? Why does she not spell it out? Why this non denial? Sorry, but I am being able to see through this stunt. Try something else. Maloney has taken half a million dollars from Wall Street PACs alone, and that's just for this election cycle.
Our Town: Upper East Side: Maloney Pushes Back on “Dishonest” Attacks Maloney’s campaign sent out a mailer highlighting newspaper editorials and fact-checking websites that rebuff Reshma Saujani’s claims. Saujani’s campaign has repeatedly noted that she has not taken money from Political Action Committees while Maloney has accepted $2.5 million throughout her career.
Which newspaper editorials? Which fact checking websites? I have a Google Alert thing set up on the Reshma Saujani name. I get daily email from Google when someone a-n-y-w-h-e-r-e writes anything about Reshma. I have not seen those editorials. Where are they? Which particular Reshma claims? The two claims in this particular paragraph that (1) Reshma "has not taken money from Political Action Committees" and (2) " Maloney has accepted $2.5 million throughout her career," well they are true. They are facts like the height of Mount Everest is a fact.
Our Town: Upper East Side: Maloney Pushes Back on “Dishonest” Attacks “Independent news organizations and watchdog groups agree: Reshma Saujani’s negative campaign is twisting the facts and distorting the truth,” Maloney’s mailer reads. “On Sept. 14, say NO to Reshma Saujani and her dishonest negative campaign.”
Look who is talking. The person who t-a-k-e-s Wall Street PAC money - half a million dollars total - and then turns around and says Reshma Saujani, who as a matter of principle takes NO money from PACs whatsoever, is The Wall Street's Candidate. I agree with Maloney on this one. Vote down the dishonest person on September 14. That dishonest person happens to be Carolyn Maloney. Carolyn Maloney voting for the Iraq War is negative. Carolyn Maloney voting for the Patriot Act is negative. Carolyn Maloney doing BP's bidding in Congress is negative. Carolyn Maloney making Wall Street bad behavior possible over a decade is negative. Carolyn Maloney now standing in the way of Congress reform is negative. Vote down the negativity on September 14.
Our Town: Upper East Side: Maloney Pushes Back on “Dishonest” Attacks criticized Saujani, a former hedge fund attorney, for claiming she doesn’t take “special interest money.”
That claim is so very true. Reshma 2010 is the successor camapaign to Obama 2008. The people wo put Obama into power now want power for themselves and Reshma 2010 is their vehicle. Obama 08 took no PAC money. Reshma 2010 has taken no PAC money. Obama 08 was all grassroots. Reshma 2010 is a grassroots effort. Carolyn Maloney, stop lying. But then I am not counting on it.
She sure has. After 18 years of representing the district in Congress, Carolyn Maloney still does not know a lot of the workers of Wall Street happen to live in District 14. As citizens of the United States, they have a right to make their individual contributions.
Our Town: Upper East Side: Maloney Pushes Back on “Dishonest” Attacks Saujani’s claim that Maloney, who was on a committee that dealt with the details of financial reform legislation, went to a James Taylor-Carol King concert fundraiser and took money from “special interests she is supposed to regulate.”
Charlie Rangel has been charged with 13 "serious" - the president's word - ethics violations. A few weeks back Carolyn Maloney raised money at an event from some Wall StreetPAC types at a time when the Congress and Wall Street were in negotiation on the Wall Street reform bill. Similar behavior had six other members of Congress under investigation.
Why is Carolyn Maloney not under investigation? To have Charlie Rangel under trial, and to not have Maloney under investigation smacks of double standards, smacks of racism, frankly.
They both engaged in similar behavior, but old man Rangel is the only one being put on trial for it. Why would that be?
We now live in the age of Obama. Such double standards should no longer be the way we conduct our business. Put Maloney under the ethics bus, yo.
I don't believe the basic premise of this Time article completely. But increased volatility is bad enough news for that part of the world, war or no war. This is troubling.
last Friday's unprecedented joint visit to Beirut by the leaders of Saudi Arabia and Syria ....David Cameron's pleas to Turkey to keep open its communication channels with Israel's leaders ...... despite the outward calm, the region may be on the brink of another catastrophic war ...... exceptionally quiet and uniquely dangerous, both for the same reason ...... "As Hizballah's firepower grows," the Crisis Group notes, "so too does Israel's desire to tackle the problem before it is too late ... What is holding the current architecture in place is also what could rapidly bring it down." ...... Israel is determined to strike a devastating blow more quickly than it did during the last conflict ..... Hizballah believes its capacity to fire missiles into Tel Aviv is key to restraining Israel from returning to finish off the Shi'ite militia ..... the self-styled "axis of resistance" — Iran, Syria, Hamas and Hizballah — have deepened their alliance ..... "tensions are mounting with no obvious safety valve." ..... in the tragic tradition of Middle Eastern wars that have erupted in part because the adversaries failed to understand one another's intentions..... his movement's "divine victory" in standing up to Israel's 2006 offensive, a feat that made him a hero on the streets of the Arab world, Hizballah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah ....... the Israel-Lebanon border, where both sides have been preparing for the next war ever since the last one ended, neither desiring that option but both accepting it as inevitable ...... should Iran's nuclear facilities come under attack, Hizballah's rockets would figure prominently in Tehran's retaliation plans...... "there is no mechanism in place to either address or ease" those mounting tensions
Extensive dialogue mechanisms have to be sought. Those of use who operate in democratic frameworks tend to look down upon those who don't, and I might not want to argue with that, but if that looking down upon leads to vastly reduced engagement, that can create situations that run counter to the self interests of the larger world.
While we hope to create new realities, we have to engage with realities as they exist.
I hope you are coming, because the last Reshma 2010 office opening party I went to was a total blast. This is party time all over again. We have much to celebrate. You have to celebrate the incredible momentum before you get to celebrate the victory. The victory train is on the way.
Those who have suffered Maloney for 18 years. Help is on the way.
Image by Getty Images via @daylife
I have tried to stay away from the Rangel drama, but it is no longer possible. This motherfucker now stands squarely in my way when he had other, better options. Charlie Rangel has become a political suicide bomber, and he knows exactly what he is doing.
Motherfuckers like Charlie Rangel don't have legacies. They don't have places in history. He is too dumb, too shallow, too superficial, too much of a crook to have a place in history, he is too much of a sideshow. He is a fucking nobody. People like me decide what Charlie Rangel's place in history is going to be. Charlie Rangel is a motherfucker. That is his place in history. There, I just decided.
Capitalism has to have its creative destructions. You have to destroy a few banks to create the clean tech, bio tech and nano tech companies of tomorrow. That is the nature of the beast. Democracy, capitalism's twin brother/sister, also has to have its creative destructions. That is the nature of the beast. You have to necessarily destroy Charlie Rangel to create Barack Obama. We created Barack Obama in 2008, but we did not destroy Charlie Rangel before that. That was a mistake. We started the work on destroying Charlie Rangel in 2008. Now is the time to complete the task. This guy needs to disappear from the stage already.
Putting Malia and Sasha into the White House has been a bigger deal than putting Barack and Michelle Obama into the White House. Putting Malia and Sasha into the White House does for the self esteem of young black children across America, and across the continent of Africa, and perhaps for many children in Latin America and Asia that I would not know how to do with a trillion dollars to spend on the project. Having a great leader helped, but countless people like me put countless hours into Obama 08 to bring that about. And I am not letting this guy take away from that achievement. The heck with Charlie Rangel.
You can not win elections as many times as Charlie Rangel has and not see what your idiotic stand now is doing to Barack's effort to keep the House. Rangel is doing this on purpose. This motherfucker never really made peace with the fact that some time in 2004 Barack Obama became a bigger deal than him. The fuck with this guy.
White politicians in New York City who stand by this crook are being racist. They think playing nice to Charlie is playing nice to black people. Instead of doing the hard work of working through their racial prejudices and racial stereotypes and glass walls and ceilings that keep black people away, these whities have long been accustomed to thinking of Charlie Rangel as some kind of a racial short cut. Be nice to Charlie and you are clean, you are not racist. White politicians in New York City who stand by Charlie are racist people who think blacks as a people are crooks and Charlie Rangel somehow represents them. I have walked around and asked in Harlem. Most people never heard of the Rangel name. Obama, on the other hand, is another story.
For every JFK, there is a Richard Nixon. Charlie Rangel is the black people's Nixon. The guy is a crook. His ways have always been corrupt. How dare this pig equate my president with Dick Cheney? How dare he! My guy's very run for the presidency was about his having opposed the Iraq War from the start.
Cut Him Loose, Completely
Rangel was not able to get in the way when he had all the power and we had none, although he tried. He sure is not getting in our way when now we have all the power and he has none. If the American people had mistaken Barack Obama for a Charlie Rangel, they would never have elected him in the first place. I count on the American people's judgment to not mistake a Barack Obama for a Charlie Rangel. But the president has to keep doing what he has been doing. He has to make it absolutely clear Charlie Rangel is responsible for his own bad behavior, and that he wants him to step down and go away, sooner the better. He has to do it more forcefully as necessary.
Depriving My President Of A House
Charlie Rangel has one and only one goal left. The final mission of his political career is to deprive my president of a House. He failed in his mission to deprive my guy of the White House. What the fuck is the House?
Barack Obama has done wonderful things in his first two years. He has achieved FDR status after he passed health care reform. He is going to continue to do wonderful things. But losing the House now would jeopardize the next two years of his presidency. It would jeopardize his plans to work on comprehensive immigration reform next year. And Rangel knows this. I would know a thing or two about Rangel's stance on immigration.
Send this guy back to Uganda where he came from. He does not belong in the capital city of the world.
DL21C
And while we are on the topic.
I consider DL21C an enemy organization. That organization has two options. It can dismantle itself, or I am going to dismantle it. It is not necessary for me to do it. But I am going to do it for fun. And I am in no hurry to do it. Pre-digital organizations have no place in the Obama era. I am going to take that organization apart like it were an old computer, which is what it is.
What is this? Gangs Of New York? Eliminate the leader and take over his organization? I don't think so. I put blood, sweat and tears into nurturing the Obama crowd in this city. My gums were bleeding when you had me inside.
If any DL21C person ends up with any kind of a leadership role in town for Obama 2012, I am boycotting all Obama 20102 events in Manhattan. You got to know who your people are.
I did not expect Reshma 2010 to join Obama's national effort to keep the House and the Senate before September 15, but now our hand has been forced. I went through some tough times for Barack. Having Charlie Rangel for breakfast is going to be easy to do. Now I am going after Rangel like no Republican before me. That motherfucker is not getting in the way of my president and his House. So help me God.
I touched upon some details in this blog post that can disconcert people. But there is a method to the madness. It is a political decision.
Reshma 2010 makes me wants to think of big issues like the mass rapes in Liberia. The Second Avenue subway line is too small an issue by my standards. I want to think about big issues. I want to think about global issues. I feel lucky to be in New York City. Global issues are local to New York City politics. I absolutely love that.
When the democracy movement was ongoing in Burma a few years back, I made a point to read up on the gory details. The regime was killing people in the streets, taking the bodies away, and burning them. I was hungry for all details to do with that.
The issue I think about a lot as I volunteer for Reshma 2010 is that of the global trafficking of women.
Frankly talking about small, unpleasant details from my personal story helps me retain the political boldness to learn up on the gory details of the ugly realities out there that might have political solutions.
Making The Blues Go Away
But my personal pain is real. And I have decided to work extra hard to make it go away, to manage it.
Rigorous socializing. Instead of spending all my time on the phone while in the office, I think I should spend some of my time just shooting the breeze, swapping stories, getting to know the staffers and interns. I have learned many of their names, but I have not gotten to know them well. That is not good.
Rigorous blogging. Blogging is workout for the mind.
The idea is not to make the memories go away, but to train yourself to the point the memories are still there, but they no longer bother you emotionally. The more ambitious thing to do is to turn it all into fuel.
I have thought in terms of writing a very raw 1,000 page autobiography and publishing it online myself. I might do that at some point.
By the time Obama 2008 was claiming the crown in May 2008, the Obama positivity was doing wonderful things for me personally already. I was looking at my 1989 from another angle. Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard. I never went to Harvard. That makes me one better in the out of the box thinking department.
I have a feeling Reshma 2010 might take me to that state as well. If it does, it is going to feel like reclaiming lost ground.
I was not living in the city at the time, I was about nine months away from moving in. I was in town for a few days, staying with someone in Chinatown.
I remember exactly where I was. I was at Grand Central near the newspaper store. I overheard two women excitedly talk about the guy. I am not much of a TV guy, so I had not watched any of the ongoing speeches at the Democratic Convention. These two white women looked comfortable about how he looked, but they were more excited about what he had said. Whoever this guy was, he was some sort of an arrival. I sensed that before I learned his name, before I saw his face. I immediately walked over to a newspaper stand. There he was pointing his finger into the crowd like in a famous JFK picture. I dropped the rest of my plans for the day and headed straight home. I looked up his speech online and I watched it. I did what I do when I come across a really good music video. I watched it again and again and again. The speech was nothing short of mesmerizing. (Go Outside: Cults)
For the next few days I went all over town taking pictures of anything and everything. The person I was staying with worked at Goldman Sachs. A high school classmate was at Citi. I did go to the many of the tourist spots, but for me it was not about that. The entire city was one big tourist spot for me. (The Al Qaeda, Internet, Globalization)
I would take hundreds of pictures, come back home, download, go back out, take hundreds more pictures. The MTA ran a major loss on my weekly metro pass for those few days. The following evening I got told that a few police officers showed up at the door, they were let in, they walked to the roof, then walked back down and went away.
Soon after Tom Ridge issued an alert. A few days later Bill Clinton went ahead and had a heart attack. John Kerry is the first presidential candidate in history not to have received a bounce from his convention.
Bill Clinton tried very hard to get Hillary to run in 2004, but she refused. That is when I knew she was never going to be president. To be fair to Hillary, I would say the same thing about Obama. If he had not run in 2008, he was just another Evan Bayh, just another pretty face. The world does not run on your schedule, it is the other way round. (Bush Is Anarchy, Hillary Is Monarchy)
There is a reason soccer players are no longer playing after a certain age. Bill Clinton played his last soccer game in 2004.
I love Barack Obama like a brother. We are both Deaniacs from 2004. My love for him is unconditional. Well, almost unconditional. He did need to win in 2008. But other than that he has not needed to do anything else for me.
The next time the police came four years later, it was still a three storey building. This time they did not go to the roof. They stopped on the third floor. Once they had me in their car, they asked, "Which way to the tunnel?" Was that supposed to have been an inside joke?
They both have engaged in unethical behavior. The House Ethics Committee has been too busy with Rangel, and so it has not had the time and resources to zero in on the fact that Maloney was raising Wall StPAC money the same time she was working on regulation efforts. Six other House members got caught in the net for similar behavior.
They are both old. They are both past retirement age. They have lost touch. Maloney has been there 18 years, Rangel has been there 80 years. That's enough. Now you are overstaying your welcome. It is time for a new generation to step in.
They have no new ideas. They offer no solutions. They are the problem. These are not exactly 21st century people.
