Superdelegates Should Not Wait Until The Convention

2024

Hillary will not quit until Barack gets past that magic number. But he should not have to wait until the convention to get that number. The superdelegates must all cast their votes one way or the other now. Do it in full public view now instead of waiting to get into smoke filled rooms at the convention.

To ask Hillary to quit is chauvinistic, but for the superdelegates to all come out of the closet one way or the other now is democratic.

If we wait until the convention, we are giving McCain a headstart. The guy is already leading in the polls. He just made a trip to France. He is acting like he is the future. We thought he was the past.

By the time the final primary/caucus is held, all superdelegates must have cast their preferences. Conventions are supposed to be when the nominee puts on a show. Conventions are not designed to be events where we pick our nominee. We decided on that decades back.

If we wait until the convention to decide, our nominee might not get the poll bounce that conventions are supposed to give. We might still win, but it might end up an unnecessarily scary, close election. Why take that chance?

The nominee must have all of summer to crisscross the country, preferably with a running mate, I think Hillary. If we can do that, we are looking at 60 Democrats in the next Senate. Otherwise it will be hard to build the momentum.

Deciding early is not about who the nominee will be or who will get the White House. Barack will be the nominee and the Dems will get the White House. That we already know. What we don't know is if we will end up with the magic number of 60 in the Senate. If we wait until the convention to decide on the nominee, we will not get the 60 we need. This is about the US Senate, this is not about Barack.

The superdelegates are all hard core political animals. They already know who they want. They should not keep the party waiting. It hurts the party to wait.

The nominee needs the summer to go full throttle. Don't deprive the nominee of the summer. After that the temperature goes south. We all know that.

Personally I want a million strong rally in Central Park for Barack this summer. We set a record in Washington Square Park. (The Largest Rally In US Presidential Campaign History) Oprah broke it. We would like to break her record.

Barackface: OO Oprah, Sa Sa Santa

Oprah, looks like you will draw 80000 people to your South Carolina event. I forgive you for breaking our record of 30000 in Washington Square Park here in ...

Kick Mugabe Out Of Zimbabwe

Mugabe is the weirdest head of state on the planet. It is high time he got kicked out. An inflation rate of 100,000 a year? The man is nuts. He is a thug. His time is up.

What Tibet Needs Is A Political Party

And it can't be headed by the Dalai Lama.

Don't Forget Burma, Pay Attention To China
Imagining A Federal, Multi-Party China Of State Funded Parties

Rosemary

Rosemary at Planned Parenthood is fat, but I did not want to say it like that, so I said she has a comfortable body size.

Barack's Cutting Edge Mother

In the movie about Rwanda, the good, white guy says to the good, black guy, "You are not even a n____, you are an African." This white woman did not marry a black dude, she married an African. Few people marry outside their race even today. Back then it was illegal many places. This Ann Dunham person was cutting edge.

She also got into microfinance for women in the poor countries before Yunus did, decades before Yunus won a Nobel for it. This Ann Dunham person was cutting edge.

And to give birth to and raise a guy who is poised to become one of the top five US presidents, that is also cutting edge.

Bill Clinton In Top 10, Barack Obama In Top 5



In The News

Nepal Muslims call general strike to protest mosque bombing International Herald Tribune
Muslims call strike after Nepal blasts Times of India

China asks Dalai Lama to use his influence' to stop Tibet violence Hindu Facing mounting international flak for the crackdown on Lhasa, China on Monday gave first signs of softening its stand by asking the Dalai Lama to use his "influence" to stop violence in Tibet and said the "channels" for dialogue with him are "always open." ..... and recognise both Tibet and Taiwan as inseparable parts of China .... an apparent softening of China's stand on the 72-year-old exiled Tibetan spiritual leader .... taking the number of those arrested to 414
Zimbabwe tense after opposition victory claim Christian Science Monitor "The police chief says he will not allow a Kenya to happen in Zimbabwe," says Mr. Boshoff, a military analyst at the Institute for Security Studies. Postelection violence in Kenya last December is blamed for the deaths of nearly 1,500.
Zimbabwe Slowly Releases Vote Results The Associated Press inflation of over 100,000 percent a year, by far the world's highest. ...... Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Changes said vote counts it saw posted at polling stations in 128 of the country's 210 parliamentary districts showed Tsvangirai taking 60 percent of the vote over 30 percent for Mugabe. ...... Tsvangirai narrowly lost disputed 2002 elections ...... The Movement for Democratic Change said the opposition won 96 seats of the 128 for which it had gathered results. Parliamentary and local council balloting was held alongside the presidential vote. ..... The Electoral Commission acknowledged that one of Mugabe's Cabinet ministers lost his seat in a district seen as a ruling party stronghold. ..... Zimbabweans shared election results among themselves, sending cell-phone text messages and e-mails that congested the country's networks.
Obama Pushes Superdelegates to Declare Support Washington Post the rumored support for the Illinois Senator by the entire North Carolina Democratic House delegation ..... she had been leaning his way since her state's Feb. 5 caucuses, which were won overwhelmingly by Obama. .... his campaign in exerting ramped up pressure behind the scenes for superdelegates who are with Obama privately to be with him publicly. .... the only way this race will end is if a clear majority of the remaining superdelegates come out against Clinton between now and June 3. Short of that, Clinton will win enough states -- Pennsylvania, Kentucky, West Virginia, Puerto Rico and, potentially, Indiana -- to keep her in the game.
Second Female Senator Endorses Obama The Associated Press Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar ... Obama has the support of 13 senators .. Clinton also has the support of 13 senators, including six women.
Klobuchar Endorses Obama Washington Post she compared him to homestate icon Hubert Humphrey, lauding Obama's "different voice, bringing a new perspective and inspiring a real excitement from the American people." ..... Campaigning across Pennsylvania by bus, Obama is taking a new approach to engaging with Clinton, urging her to continue campaigning as long as she wants while asserting that their 15-month battle is "historic" and would do no lasting damage. .... presumptive GOP nominee as "clinging to the past," while offering himself as the stronger contrast, with generational overtones.
Party Leaders Migrating To Obama? U.S. News & World Report Clinton promised over the weekend to fight for the nomination all the way to the convention ...... North Carolina's seven Democratic House members "are poised to endorse...Obama as a group -- just one has so far -- before that state's May 6 primary ..... Klobuchar said Obama 'has inspired an enthusiasm and idealism that we have not seen in this country in a long time. ...... the ex-president met privately with about 15 of the state's uncommitted superdelegates, trying to move them into his wife's camp ....... a mostly male party establishment is unfairly muscling Clinton out of the race ...... the candidate played nurse maid to a one-month-old calf" ..... "one of several stops this weekend designed to show Obama not as an ivory tower elitist, but as a regular guy. At a diner in Altoona, he ordered hot dogs, French fries. Later, he and his chaperon, Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey, went to a bowling alley." ...... Obama has opened a 10 point lead over Sen. Hillary Clinton in their national tracking poll. Obama leads Clinton 52%-42% .... McCain leads Obama 47%-44% and Clinton 48%-44%. .... Pennsylvania Democratic voters taken March 26-27 shows Sen. Hillary Clinton leading Sen. Barack Obama 51%-39%. ...... Jay Leno: "I know we have a lot of college students here. Now, here's kind of a philosophical question. Now, if a sniper fires a gun in the woods and nobody is around, does Hillary Clinton still hear it?" ..... Jay Leno: "Big movie opening this weekend is 'Run, Fat Boy, Run.' Isn't this what the Democrats are trying to get Al Gore to do now?" .... Jimmy Kimmel: "Hillary Clinton was in Indiana trying to get more people there to like her. She claims to have taken some incoming sniper fire at the Indianapolis Airport baggage carousel, but other than that, they say the trip went very well."
Clinton faces tough odds as Obama's lead widens AFP a new opinion poll showed rival Barack Obama consolidating his nationwide support. ..... 52 percent versus 42 percent, Obama's largest lead of the year so far. ..... Governor Edward Rendell, speaking on ABC television, also said he would "love" for the two star Democrats to join forces .... idea of a gathering in mid-June of the nearly 800 party luminaries ..... the last primaries in Montana and South Dakota on June 3 .... "You guys look good," Obama told reporters forced to wear blue plastic boots to keep disease out of the dairy complex. "I bought some new shoes," he said, explaining why he escaped the barnyard chic look.
Obama snags more superdelegates Boston Globe The trickle of Democratic superdelegates declaring for Barack Obama is turning into more of a gusher ..... Obama, boasting a more than 6-1 edge in superdelegate endorsements since Super Tuesday, is quickly catching up to Clinton in that count. He already leads in overall delegates and popular vote
Clinton Heads Back to Pennsylvania CBS News
Ex-president Bill Clinton defends wife's choice to fight on San Jose Mercury News
Clinton faces tough odds as Obama's lead widens AFP

Democrats face summer of bitter infighting Reuters
Hillary Clinton Says She Won't End Campaign Voice of America
Rudy Giuliani: Governor of New York PoliGazette Rudy Giuliani “is eyeing a run for governor in a special election this fall should Gov. Paterson be forced to resign.” ... Sadly for Giuliani however Paterson’s admissions have created little to no outrage.
Major bureaucratic reshuffle in Bihar Hindu
Opposition Claims Win in Zimbabwe on Unofficial Tally New York Times the Movement for Democratic Change had unseated President Robert G. Mugabe, the man who has led this nation for 28 years. ..... a state of suspended animation, with people awaiting the first official results, wondering if the numbers were being carefully tabulated or craftily concocted. ..... a signal event for Africa itself, with another of its enduring autocrats beaten against long odds ..... “It’s a tsunami for M.D.C.,” was a phrase frequently repeated. ..... Seven of Mr. Mugabe’s cabinet members were defeated in their races for Parliament, according to reports phoned in by journalists. It appeared that Mr. Mugabe was being thoroughly repudiated. .... Prior to the election, Zimbabwe’s security chiefs each said they would support no one but Mr. Mugabe ...... “It’s hard for me to believe that Mugabe will go peacefully,” he said. “When autocrats fall, that’s the most dangerous time.”
China Says It Has Evidence Dalai Lama Incited Riots New York Times riots erupted March 14 in Lhasa .... Pressure continues to mount for China to negotiate with the Dalai Lama and find a solution to a problem that has already begun to affect preparations for the Olympics.
Clinton says she will fight to the finish Guardian
Bill Clinton urges superdelegates to be patient Los Angeles Times Before his speech, the former president met privately with more than a dozen superdelegates
Hillary Clinton portrays calls to quit as chauvinism Telegraph.co.uk Clinton is falling back on what she sees as her trump card - her gender. ...... televised tearful moments. Now she is portraying the calls for her to quit as male chauvinism. ..... compared her plight to "big boys" trying to bully a woman. ...... Howard Dean, the Democratic National Committee chairman, called for the nomination to be decided by July 1 at the latest and counselled "super-delegates" - the 796 party officials who will have the final say - to make their choice known before then. ..... not all her staff support her win-at-all-costs strategy. Two senior advisers and one close ally told the New York Times that they would recommend she pull out if she loses in Indiana on May 6. ...... On the social networking site Facebook, among the anti-Clinton groups there are seven with names around the theme "Life's a Bitch - Don't vote for one." ...... Another is entitled "Hillary Clinton Stop Running for President and Make Me a Sandwich". As of Sunday, it had 43,432 members.
Obama leads in ongoing tally of Texas county caucus results Dallas Morning News
Nepal royalists warn of civil war if king ousted Daily Times
Al Qaeda Trying to Change the Look of Terror ABC News the United States faces an imminent threat of attack from al Qaeda fighters ...... the attackers, he says, will look like many of us. ...... operatives that ... wouldn't attract your attention if they were going through the customs line at Dulles with you ...... al Qaeda knows it can't return again with an attack by 19 Arabs ....... these days they favor blond-haired, blue-eyed recruits ...... attackers bearing European passports would breeze through U.S. airports. ....... their current rhetoric is much more aggressive and confident

CSC

CCC
Yellow Rose

You undermine the horizon with your absence.
Eternally in flight like the wave.

CSC: Caputo's Subconscious/Subliminal/Symbolic Communication

My life grows tired, hungry to no purpose.
I love what I do not have. You are so far.

Thursday, April 10

5:30 pm

DL21C's Women's Issues Committee presents a forum on
Women's Issues and the 2008 New York State Legislative Agenda

with
State Senator Liz Krueger (D-NY-Manhattan's East Side)
State Assemblywoman Deborah Glick (D-NY-Greenwich Village)
Moderated by:
Ellen Chesler, Distinguished Lecturer, Director of the Eleanor Roosevelt Initiative on Women and Public Policy, Hunter College

5:30pm - 7:30pm
K Lounge at the Bombay Palace
30 W. 52nd Street (between 5th and 6th)

Please RSVP!

1. Gender, one of my favorite topics.
   
2. Bombay Palace. That is an Indian place. That is where I met a three time Prime Minister of Nepal. (Surya Bahadur Thapa) One of the sharpest political minds ever, even though two of his terms were during absolute monarchy. But Caputo's political mind is sharper and warmer. His granddaughter was at Mt. Holyoke. She, her white roommate and I ended up at a bar owned by a Nepali in midtown, Snafu. (Chiran Thapa: Snafu) I confused Mt. Holyoke for Bryn Mawr. When I lived in Philly in summer 1999, I took the train to Bryn Mawr, and from there I walked to U Penn. I told them I have walked from Mt. Holyoke to U Penn. They are like, no way. Then they thought I was trying to impress them. They acted impressed.
   
3. I was there for another major event with a leading human rights activist from Nepal. (Sushil Pyakurel)
   
4. I am half Indian. I had to come all the way to America to claim my Indian side. There is some major anti-India sentiment in Nepal.
   
5. I am working to assemble my tech team in Mumbai, Bombay's new name, rather the original name.
   
6. K Lounge, my middle name is Kumar.
   
7. Near the UN. After all countries have been turned into democracies, a world government is inevitable, but until then the UN is only mildly interesting, but it is interesting in its symbolism.
   
8. April 10 is when Nepal will hold its first elections in almost a decade. The civil war is formally over. It was in April 2006 that Nepal had its magical revolution.
   

You are like the night, with its stillness and constellations.
Your silence is that of a star, as remote and candid.

A new door opened between you and me

The Spy Event

laugh, because your laughter
will be for my hands
like a fresh sword.

Barackface: The Need For A Race Gender CoalitionThe first time Rudy, the state director for Obama 2008, met me, he asked me if I was a "spy!" Spy for who? Hillary? Rudy? My blog cured him, but that was an ...

1. The first greeting by the mystery woman (Satyagraha, Day 1) that there is a mandatory coat check, and the second greeting by the white guard asking to see my ID might have been a way to say, you took two offenses at the Holiday party, and that is when you walked away and never really came back. ("Is This An Obama Party?", December 18: Crash The Party) You ended it, not me. True: Confronting My Own Demons.
   
2. This was the first DL21C event of so many I have been to where people were made to wait out in the street. That might have been a response to my complaining I got "street level welcome" on March 4. (March 4 Returns Parties)
   

The Pollster Event

perhaps it was the voice of crying rain,
a broken bell, or a torn heart.

CCC, Pledge Of Allegiance

1. I praised the race balance of there being one black guy, one white guy at the March 4 event, so Dan and Mike were balanced out this time by two women receptionists.
   
2. At the March 4 event the black guy saying "Hold on, there is this woman" and its implication of how I might have been described, and the offense I took, these two women asked for my name instead. That was an attempt at sensitivity.
   

March 4

1. "The event has not started yet." Meaning: You had a full half hour before the event started at the Texas debate watch party. Why did you leave? Why did you not look me in the eye and talk?
   

Texas Debate Watch

I have no other star. You are my replica
of the multiplying universe.

1. The script for the evening is at your blog: Texas Debate Watch: Another Story In Indigntiy? I don't need to read your face.
   
2. I am wearing my coat. You got offended by the mandatory coat check at the Holiday party.
3. Four different moods.
   
4. I got offended by the Al Pacino, Meryl Streep talk. So you admire my political acumen? Is that it?
   

The Zipper Factory

Planned Parenthood: First Impressions
Planned Parenthood: A Different Kind Of Event

1. At the December Baby party why did you tell Dan Berger that he had "until February 5." Why did you not tell me directly that you are very busy until then? I will similarly talk through him to tell you stay away until February 5. Then I will speak to you in a major way after that. And you know how I express myself, through events.
   
2. If you are uncomfy with white guys, how about women?
3. If a DL21C event is not conducive, how about an event by another organization?
   
4. You showed up for a Women's Issues Committee event. The following day was an Economic Policy Committee event. I get it: The 12 Year Itch.
   
5. The suggestive location.
   
6. How about an Asian and a Hispanic instead of a Jewish and an Italian? Is that better? You like that better?
   
7. You want to talk? (An Open Letter To Elizabeth Caputo) Okay, I am sticking around for two and half plus hours after the event.
   
8. I want two drinks but I have no money.

I don't love you as if you were a rose of salt, topaz,
or arrow of carnations that propagate fire:
I love you as one loves certain dark things,
secretly, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that doesn't bloom and carries
the light of those flowers, hidden, within itself,
and thanks to your love the tight aroma that rose
from the earth lives in my body in darkness.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where
I love you simply without problems or pride:
I love you like this because I don't know any other way to love

I could go on and on on the symbolism, digging further and further into the past. But I will stick to only the most recent events.

The subconscious, the subliminal, the symbolic are not supposed to go away. But it is high time we claimed face time, the verbal, and the conscious zone of our minds. It is time to make it official.

Enough.

I would like to rub your nose with my nose. That is how they greet in some cultures. Will you let me rub your nose?

New York City's Progressive Galaxy

New York City's Progressive Galaxy

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of "Spiritus Mundi"
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

-- William Butler Yeats, "The Second Coming"

I forgave Dan Jacoby. He is a court clown. Lewis Cohen tries to be.

I am eager to give Heather Woodfield a fresh start to our political relationship as long as she agrees to sit on the Women's Revolution Committee. The only thing wrong about your trying to hook me up with an Asian is just like you can't imagine a dozen wise Indian men finding a man for you, my idea is two people hook up on their own or not, otherwise we Asians are all the rage. Heather knows a lot of nuts and bolts of politics, besides she is from Howard Dean's home state. Dean is all the rage.

Tracey Denton, social butterfly, tries to be extra respectful of people. I think because of her Republican family background she feels the need to be extra nice to the traditionally Democrats. I don't know if she lives in Europe these days or what, but if she does, she should never stop telecommuting into the NYC political scene. If I can telecommute from NYC to Nepal, she can telecommute from Brussels to NYC.

I am the other way round. I start with distrust for white guys. Some of them go on to earn my respect.

Abhishek Mistry is the smart Asian, it is not me. I disapprove of stereotypes.

Charles knows a ton about Indira Gandhi.

Leila Noor is like Barack, she is both. She has a great sense of empathy and a rather huge mailing list. She is more political than she makes out to be. She is friends with the next Mayor of the city, looks like. She is a focal point to many black politicians in the city, people like Hakeem and Karim.

Delilah Rothenberg is a white person absolutely, totally fascinated by Africa. How often does that happen?

Justin Krebs has extreme social intelligence: it is an extreme sport for him. He learns names like he were trying to acquire vocabulary for the SAT.

Negina Fersad is funny as hell, especially when she is talking about nuclear energy. She is Persian cute too. I told you, we Asians are all the rage. By the way, she also makes fun of her sex life.

Kristina Hoke is "one smart cookie." But I hear she retired. I hope she comes to sit on the Women's Revolution Committee, and brings Liz along. Ben needs a Jerry.

Lee Motayed is a cutie. I told you we Asians are all the rage.

Dan Berger has sharper emotional intelligence than Justin Krebs, but the dude is a Jihadi. He tries to invade your privacy with the passion of a Jihadi. Each attempt shrinks his space. And you don't get along with me by suggesting Rangel is a bigger deal than I am.

Mike Lupinachi has great killer instincts. He has good martial intelligence. He can shift through the terrain in a fight and come out intact.

David Pollak hovers over the entire scene like Santa, quietly understanding and appreciating everyone's impulses. People who fight each other all relate to him one on one. He takes in the unfolding scene like a Supreme Court Justice.

Me? I am ether. I am everywhere. It is called having a blog, it is called being a digital democrat. I am a Third World guy on a mission.

But ultimately it is the queen we all respond to. Things fall apart when the center can not hold. She is "clean. I frisked him." People are clay, she makes pots out of them.

Long live the progressive political religion. We are the New York Mafia, here to take over the world.


Trying To Become More Social

Naturally I am bubbley and excited socially. But the first two plus years into the city I did intense work for Nepal. It was urgent. The country was on fire. And the work ended up being amazing. Then I coasted along to do some good work for Obama.

All that 2.0 work cost me dearly socially. But now I am trying to become social. I am trying to meet and greet and get to know people. When you step out of the dark, you start with squinty eyes. Right now I got squinty eyes.

I don't ask for forgiveness. It is the other way round. I forgive you for not getting involved when I was doing urgent work for Nepal.

Blueprint For DL21C: Party Inside A Party

At a gay rights event on the Upper West a few months before he became state party chair, Dave Pollak suggested I do it and I produced this: Democratic Vision For The 21st Century. I emailed it to him the following morning.

DL21C is the top political organization in the city. It is just that Charlie Rangel is not in my political league, who the fuck is Dan Berger? (Madhesi Movement Victory In Nepal, Don't Forget Burma, Pay Attention To China, Yellow Rose, Eliot Spitzer Needs To Go Into Business With Me, Barack In Town With South Asians For Obama: March 27, The First Major Revolution Of The 21st Century Happened In Nepal) Don't you threaten me?

I think the DL21C Chair should gun for running for President Of The United States. If you can run the top political organization in the top progressive city in the country, the world, why can't you run a country? Maybe not now, but down the line. Barack will get his eight years, then it is an open field.

I carry 10,000 years of male guilt. I am ready for a woman president.

In this post, I will touch upon mainly on organization.

2016 will surely be a broadband election, likely a wireless broadband election. Media as we know it today will not be there. Anyone running for president will have to be their own media for a big part.

DL21C has to become a completely digital organization. Every event has to be videoblogged. And it is okay, actually desirable to have more than one video blogger in attendance. This is key. This might be the single biggest step the DL21C could take at this stage. It is so easy to do, hosting is free. Anyone can purchase a video camera for a few hundred bucks. Many people already own one.

Then the DL21C also has to move to videoblog many of its internal meetings. Ordinary members should be able to see how events are planned. You got to open things up.

New York City is a very special place. When you organize a political event here, you can assume there is a national, global audience for it. All the fancy guests you bring, but if you don't videoblog the events, I am like, what a waste.

The Facebook page for the organization is impressive: Democratic Leadership for the 21st Century. There are almost 600 members. It is amazing to me how many of them are women. But so few of them show up for events. At some point these women will come out of the closet. That also goes on to show traditionally excluded groups of people find the digital tools of involvement very appealing. It is egalitarian to go digital.

If there had been online video for all past DL21C events, can you imagine what that would have meant? Granted online video did not exist in 1993 or even 2003, but just a thought.

DL21C organizes great events, but it can not stick to only organizing events. There is an urgent need for an online think tank. And this would be almost entirely online. You would use Blogger, word processing for the internet age. Here, the key thing would be to employ the spectrum concept.

Health Care As A Spectrum
The Spectrum Concept: Wide Applications
The Spectrum On Gender
The Spectrum/Dialogue Concept Is Key To Power

You build a spectrum on all policy issues: education, health, you name it. The spectrum idea is that if you can rope in people from 5 to 10, you got a majority. The idea is to try and build a permanent progressive majority. People at the cutting edge can do all the cutting edge work they want to do, but those who run for office take people from 5 to 10 on each spectrum along with them.

This think tank would be run by the DL21C central chapter in New York City, but it will be peopled by members across the country. There would be a special effort to dig into the top academic institutions across the country.

You build a robust, local template, and then you work to set up a chapter each in the largest city in each state. All the top elected officials in the state should think it an honor to show up for a DL21C event. And the entire time you are building this huge online video library of their appearances.

Money, Message, Organization

Organization would be the 50 plus DL21C chapters across the country. Message would be the think tank. Money will be raised online aplenty. Look at my boy Barack, he seems to be doing just fine. In my personal capacity, I take my company public. Right now I am busy assembling my tech team in Mumbai, NYC's sister city.

We go take the White House. We start by lifting the DL21C ban on me. I should be able to go to all DL21C events I might want to go to. I would like to start with the event on April 1. Mr. Pollak, Chairman, Sir, can you help?

Tuesday, April 1

7:00 pm

Superdelegates: A Foolish or Smart Solution to the Democratic Nomination Battle?
Location TBD

Please RSVP!

My take on the situation: A Model Primary Season.





Visits on previous 'day': 437.

Don't Forget Burma, Pay Attention To China

Anti-China Protests Escalate in Nepal Voice of America

This Will Also Go To Waste

This uprising in Tibet and elsewhere is also on schedule to going to waste for lack of political clarity. Political leadership is lacking. The uprising in Burma went to waste last year.

Street Action: Where The Action Is

People come out in the streets, and next thing you know the White House is paying attention, the Prime Minister of Britain is paying attention. A few weeks later when the streets go empty, those people then move on to other things, whatever is now in the headlines.

Street action is the dog that wags the tail.

Tibetan Diaspora Is Not Acting Right

I am a Buddhist. I think the world of His Holiness. He is better than the Pope. He is better than any mullah or pastor on earth. He is better than Jeremiah Wright, no offense to Barack. But he is a spiritual leader, he is a religious leader. He is not a political leader. His remark that Mao treated him "like a son" tells me all I need to know about him politically.

The Tibetan diaspora has to enact the church and state separation. The political leadership has to be elected every four years or so. The political leadership can not be someone born to it.

This uprising has not been the handiwork of the Tibetan diaspora. This has been homegrown and spontaneous. But it is true the diaspora is working in close coordination.

Seek Allies

Tibet's number one potential ally is Taiwan. If Tibet and Taiwan can together come around to a common goal of a federal, multi-party China of state funded parties, the rest of China will follow them.

Imagining A Federal, Multi-Party China Of State Funded Parties

Make Use Of The Olympics

Let 2008 be that year when China wakes up to itself as the world wakes up to China. Strike when the iron is hot, or when the world is paying attention.





In The News

Bush calls Hu to urge Tibet talks BBC News The anti-China protests began on 10 March ..... The Tibetan government-in-exile says about 140 people have been killed ..... the delay in Mr Bush's response is a measure of how delicate relations are between the US and China - two countries whose huge economies are deeply interlinked. ...... French President Nicolas Sarkozy has also called for dialogue over Tibet - adding he had not ruled out boycotting the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games being held in China in August. ..... Bush will attend the Olympic Games opening ceremony.
European Leaders Press China Over Tibet New York Times
Nepal Police Break Up Tibetan Protest Voice of America Police in Nepal armed with batons dispersed a protest Tuesday by Tibetan refugees and monks in front of the Chinese Embassy.

Pitt And Jolie Related To Obama And Clinton? San Francisco Chronicle, USA Brad Pitt can trace his family tree back to Barack Obama and Angelina Jolie can follow hers to Hillary Clinton ..... Obama is a distant cousin of Pitt ..... Pitt and Obama are ninth cousins, as are Clinton and Jolie, twice removed.

Obama Warms to Wrapping Up Contest New York Times and has been adding more superdelegates to his column at a faster clip than she has .... Clinton, meanwhile, has indicated that she is willing to slug it out for the nomination through the summer ...... Nor did he get much writing done, as he had said he had hoped; instead he said he enjoyed reading a book, Philip Roth’s latest novel, “Exit Ghost.”

Barack Obama talks about his church, the Rev. Wright and his mom Los Angeles Times, USA Wright gave at least three sermons a week for 30 years ..... she was "not a believer."

Obama took the risk to confront race relations in America San Francisco Chronicle
Obama bounces back - speech seemed to help San Francisco Chronicle
Clinton stokes Obama pastor row amid Bosnia embarrasment AFP
Clinton criticizes Obama over his pastor's inflammatory words Boston Globe
Clinton Would Have Left Obama's Pastor The Associated Press
The GOP attack plan for Hillary Clinton Salon former GOP Rep. Dan Burton of Indiana, shooting pumpkins in his backyard to prove Vince Foster was murdered by White House hit men. Or the $50 million Whitewater investigation, which dragged the country through six years of political turmoil ..... former Sen. Trent Lott, musing publicly that "maybe lightning will strike" Clinton before she could be sworn in to the Senate in 2001. ...... Republicans are digging deep into Obama's past now, ready to chip away at any warm feelings about him voters may still retain after a bruising primary. ....... McCain's campaign will call her a liberal and paint her support for ending the war in Iraq as a surrender to terrorists (the same strategy they'd use against Obama)


I Will Take Brad Pitt Over Dick Cheney Any Day

Pitt And Jolie Related To Obama And Clinton? San Francisco Chronicle, USA Brad Pitt can trace his family tree back to Barack Obama and Angelina Jolie can follow hers to Hillary Clinton ..... Obama is a distant cousin of Pitt ..... Pitt and Obama are ninth cousins, as are Clinton and Jolie, twice removed.

Somebody - has to be some Republican, a Hillary Republican - somewhere along the way revealed Barack is a distant cousin of Dick Cheney and we have been suffering since. We lost New Hampshire, we did not do as well in New York City as I thought we might. People don't like Dick Cheney around here.

This contest was supposed to be over in January. Then I thought we might wrap it up on February 5. Did not happen. Then I thought March 4. Did not happen. I am blaming Dick Cheney. Otherwise we have had the money, the message, the man. What else do we need?

We lost Ohio. Who do you think is responsible? Two whisper campaigns did us in. One that Barack is a Muslim, another that he is a Dick Cheney cousin. The Muslim thing you can discount, especially now that everyone knows he has had a Christian pastor for over 20 years. But how do you make Dick Cheney go away? It is not true that Barack is a Muslim. But it is true that Dick Cheney is a distant cousin of Barack. That is not a notion you can hope to dispel.

So far I have kind of kept a distance from Barack, otherwise I have a feeling he might be my cousin too through his sister Maya. I mean, I did like the idea of being related to Barack, but I was wary of his Dick Cheney baggage. If Barack is my distant cousin, is Dick Cheney also my distant cousin. I can't stand the thought. I am not for that much mingling of the races. That would be a little too much for me.

But now I am kind of warming up to Barack after this Brad Pitt revelation. I would not mind having Brad Pitt in the family. I think he is a decent guy. What do you think?

Tera Saath Hai To Mujhe Kya Kami Hai

In The News

India silent as China deploys forces on Nepal soil Times of India China stationed forces on the Nepalese side of the border with Tibet last week ..... The Chinese forces were in plainclothes, but armed with small weapons .... the major diplomatic snub inflicted by China when its foreign office summoned Indian ambassador to Beijing, Nirupama Rao, at 2am to give her a list of demonstrations that Tibetans planned to organize in India. .... foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee and US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice jointly addressing the Tibet issue in Washington.
Fresh violence in Sichuan, China vows action fortnight-long monks-led pro-independence protests ..... the first major challenge to the Communist giant in two decades.
Detroit's mayor indicted in sex scandal Reuters The criminal charges stem from text messages between Kilpatrick and Beatty dating back to 2002 ..... now included more than 40,000 pages of documents as evidence, including text messages. ..... Granholm, a prominent Clinton supporter

Clinton, Obama campaigns snipe at each other Newsday
Poll boost for Obama after race speech Guardian
Experts Analyze Impact Of Obama's Speech On Race Voice of America
Obama-Clinton tie in new poll: Pastor flap erased Baltimore Sun
Clinton Says She ‘Misspoke’ About Dodging Sniper Fire New York Times
Clinton's YouTube ad backfires Globe and Mail and Casey just happens to have grown into an 18-year-old Obama supporter. She saw the ad and started talking to the media about how she didn't agree with the "politics of fear" that the Democratic hopeful was using.

Barack Obama surfaces in the Caribbean Los Angeles Times
Clintons lose luster with black voters Chicago Tribune
Richardson: Clinton Backers Practice "Gutter" Politics. U.S. News & World Report
Clinton rolls out economic crisis plan NEWS.com.au the acute economic anxiety stalking Americans ...... she trails Senator Obama in pledged delegates, the popular vote and in fundraising. ..... "She was very gracious, she was not happy, she did say she was disappointed," Gov Richardson ..... on vacation with his family in the US Virgin Islands.

Asia Day Ahead: JPMorgan Quadruples Bear Stearns Bid (Update1) Bloomberg
XM, Sirius merger clears Justice Department scrutiny Bizjournals.com
Riots rage in China as protests overshadow Olympic ceremony AFP 130 people had now been confirmed killed in the Chinese crackdown after two weeks of protests ....... The Olympic flame is scheduled to pass over Mount Everest in Tibet in early May, and through the capital Lhasa the following month. .... Its journey is expected to spark a wave of global protests against Chinese authorities over Tibet and a range of other issues, such as Beijing's record on human rights and religious freedoms.

Clinton's road to nomination gets steeper Christian Science Monitor with Florida and Michigan giving up last week on new primaries ..... some 300 superdelegates, or party leaders, who remain uncommitted. ...... The efforts in both states bogged down in a quagmire of legal, financial, and logistical questions, as well as bitter disagreements between the Clinton and Obama campaigns.

Geraldine Ferraro, Geremiah Wrong: A Dialogue

Geraldine Ferraro, Geremiah Wrong: A Dialogue

Geraldine Ferraro: You racist bigot!

Geremiah Wrong: Lady, you are no clean spigot yourself.

Geraldine Ferraro: You have one filthy mouth.

Geremiah Wrong: Another way to look at it would be that I am oozing with black anger.

Geraldine Ferraro: So you now claim to speak for an entire people? And not just for yourself?

Geremiah Wrong: In case you did not notice, that chicken coming home to roost was not an original line. I borrowed it from Brother Malcolm X. I also intend to borrow his greatness.

Geraldine Ferraro: A God fearing man would not say God damn America. It is America that puts food on your table.

Geremiah Wrong: If God can damn New Orleans, is America a sacred cow?

Geraldine Ferraro: So you stand by your word?

Geremiah Wrong: If white men can stand by their word, why can't this black brother?

Geraldine Ferraro: You support a black man for president. Because he is black? Is that not racist?

Geremiah Wrong: Your slave owner great-grandfather, and your restaurant owner father would know better.

Geraldine Ferraro: Slavery and segregation are dead horses. How long do you intend to beat those dead horses?

Geremiah Wrong: Segregation lives in my personal memory. Slavery is on Discovery Channel. They are not going away. Not on my dime.

Geraldine Ferraro: You are a disgrace to your church.

Geremiah Wrong: Too late to make that point. I am retired.

Geraldine Ferraro: You are a disgrace to Obama 08.

Geremiah Wrong: Too late to make that point. They already kicked me out.

Geraldine Ferraro: You are a disgrace to America.

Geremiah Wrong: America is a disgrace to me.

Geraldine Ferraro: Do you vote?

Geremiah Wrong: If a brother is running.

Geraldine Ferraro: If Barack were a white man, he would not be where he is today. You agree?

Geremiah Wrong: I agree. He would already have been in the White House for 200 plus years.

Geraldine Ferraro: It is so much harder for a woman. Ask me what it was like in 1984.

Geremiah Wrong: 1984, the book?

Geraldine Ferraro: No, stupid. When I ran.

Geremiah Wrong: You ran the marathon?

Geraldine Ferraro: No. When I ran for Vice President Of The United States.

Geremiah Wrong: I thought that was brother Jesse in 1984. Actually I am pretty sure.

Geraldine Ferraro: Do you ever read? Or do you just preach?

Geremiah Wrong: Neither. Not no more. I have served my time on the pulpit.

Geraldine Ferraro: But the woman thing.

Geremiah Wrong: Black liberation also automatically applies to black women. Don't black women look black to you?

Geraldine Ferraro: There's no point talking to you. There is a short circuit in your brain.

Geremiah Wrong: This conversation has felt unreal the entire time to me as well. Why are we even talking?

Geraldine Ferraro: Because you have a big mouth.

Geremiah Wrong: Lady, can we please just not go into the name calling territory? I have a reputation to live up to.

Geraldine Ferraro: It is not like you ever ran for Vice President.

Geremiah Wrong: Like you did.

Geraldine Ferraro: You are not in my league.

Geremiah Wrong: I am not white. I know that. That is the point I have been making my entire life.

Geraldine Ferraro: I was talking about achievement, not skin color.

Geremiah Wrong: You mean the achievement gap? It all goes back to slavery.

Geraldine Ferraro: Out you bring that dead horse.

Geremiah Wrong: If it is on Discovery Channel, how dead can it be?

Geraldine Ferraro: You know, the Hillary 08 people kicked me out as well.

Geremiah Wrong: Really? Just when I thought we had no common ground at all.

Geraldine Ferraro: I guess we do have a little bit to start with after all.

Geremiah Wrong: Welcome aboard.

James Watson, Now, Was He Your Pastor?
Talking About Race, Finally
Geraldine Ferraro, Geremiah Wrong

Yellow Rose

Always, always you recede through the evenings
towards where the twilight goes erasing statues

Yellow Rose

When you giggle, when you laugh
I get to wash
My 10,000 years of male guilt

Look happy for me, will you?

Queen, sometimes I think
Does it matter
That we are not together

You could not be president without me
On my own, I could not become
A billionaire

Two high voltage careers
And one happy relationship
Has never been done before

This is a brave new century

Love is electricity
Work is magnetism
Together they make for electromagnetism

Love is oxygen, lifeblood
Work is worship
If you believe in love

You will believe in God
That you have to find on your own
Or not, it is okay to doubt

Mouthing it
Is of anthropological
Interest

New York City is so much light
It is actually sound
DC is charming

The progressive political religion
That will engulf the planet
We will help build

Infrastructure
Political, social, economic
Infrastructure

We are the New York Mafia
Here to take over
The world

We measure progress
In the dollar figures
On every forehead

Shanghai has the skyscrapers
But not New York City's diversity
We live in the capital of the world

You run its premier
Political
Organization

Your 5.0 world I marvel at
As it unfolds in your presence
And absence

People are clay to you
You make pottery
Out of them

They get happy
When they are
Relevant to you

Let me just
Watch
You

In the love department though
Our entire mutual past
Feels dense with love

There are threads everywhere
Threads that no third person
Can make sense of

In the most public places
Privacy
Is possible

It feels to me like
You waited while I
Worked through my private pain

Pain from institutional abuses of power
In Kathmandu, Kentucky
Places that are part of my identity

Like my fingers
The landscapes
In my mind like scars

I will not have it
Any other
Way

But it is not about the past
Although that it is
It is not about the present

Even if that is all we got
And it is not even about a future
That has not happened, none can predict

The loftiest dreams can go mush

It is that feeling
That finally it is
Happening to you

You have found
The One
You are not in control

The Pahadis and Madhesis
Are all the drama in Nepal
But they are like medical patients

To me
In New York City

Race is for real
But so is technology

It is time to shame the men
Into making progress on gender
Fundamental progress

Progressive men
Will have to
Comply

5.0 and 2.0
A war between the sexes?
I think not

Instrumental?
Relational?
Maybe a little bit

Look in th eye
Open your mouth
And talk

Experience
The extreme interactivity
Of face time

If that is the point
I am getting it
I am getting there

I am one of those
My people persons
I can't think just of me

That is
My
Predicament

My Third World people
They need the message of democracy
Without exception

The Arab countries
Have to become democracies
Before they start making sense

Mostly though
It is about
Private moments

It is that feeling
That chemistry
That communication

Of being understood
Of wanting desperately
To understand

To give
It
All

To
Touch





Yellow Rose
Yellow Rose To Reclaim
Yellow Roses To Keep
Yellow Roses

How you must have suffered getting accustomed to me,
my savage, solitary soul, my name that sends them all running.

I go so far as to think that you own the universe.