Tuesday, October 7th, 2003

And now for something completely different. Peep the love my man Lyrics Born is finally, deservedly getting from Robert Christgau and Peter Nicholson, then go out and cop the album. Today ain’t just election day, it’s Lyrics Born day. OK? OK!

posted by @ 9:48 am | 0 Comments

Tuesday, October 7th, 2003

NO ON 54

Just a final note from my stromie Ying Sun. For more info on the Proposition, check this out.

————————

everybody –

sorry for the mass e-mail, but sometimes it’s like that.

i know the recall is the big news today. and with 135 candidates, anything else on the ballot might well get buried and forgotten.

but the truth is that prop 54 is more important than the recall. if the recall passes, the worst that happens is three years of the governator.

if prop 54 passes, we’ll have a retrenchment of overt government racism that could last for generations – and cost countless lives and livelihoods.

for those who aren’t familiar, prop 54 is an attempt by the same folks who eradicated affirmative action in california to go even further and make it illegal for the government to collect racial or ethnic data.

under prop 54, there would be no way to investigate charges of discrimination, no way to track special medical or educational needs of different communities, no way to escape the ignorance that reinforces structural racism.

in short, prop 54 would allow massive racism without a paper trail.

please, please, please – fight back this racist assault on third world people throughout california. vote no on prop 54.

in solidarity,

ying-sun

posted by @ 8:49 am | 0 Comments

Monday, October 6th, 2003

WILL THE HIP-HOP GENERATION MAKE THE DIFFERENCE?

With the race narrowing and all polls show the recall election becoming a virtual toss-up, voting officials are all reporting they expect a huge turnout tomorrow. Pollster Mark DiCamillo said today that where in the past elections 50% of the electorate has been over the age of 50, this time, it looks like 55% of the electorate will be under the age of 50. The high interest in the campaign leads many to believe that turnout in communities of color and among young adults may actually be very high. Whether that happens remains to be seen.

WHY I’M VOTING AGAINST THE RECALL

In the last gubernatorial election, I voted for Peter Camejo. I felt Gray Davis had squandered all kinds of opportunities with communities of color and young people, and indeed that his pro-prisons agenda was only going to take us backward. So when the recall first surfaced, I was ready to vote for it.

I’ve been tired of doing the pragmatic thing. The Democrats’ rightward drift, and its open hostility many times toward progressives since the end of Jesse Jackson’s 1988 presidential campaign, has been profoundly alienating.

I was in Florida to cover the fiasco in November 2000, and decided then, after seeing how many Democrats actively suppressed calls for voting reform and thus sabotaged Gore’s best chances to become president, that it was not worth my time to give away my vote any longer.

But the Republican-funded effort to recall Davis is, above all, an example of how big money can hijack true democracy.

The Dems have tried to turn this into a partisan issue, that it’s a vast right-wing conspiracy. It is. But partisanship is meaningless when there are barely any differences between the two parties on issues that matter to us.

The fact that pro-death penalty Davis has mobilized the right to launch this recall and that Bustamante, the Democratic alternative, has been, from the start, pro-prisons and anti-youth points to the lack of progressive voices in this state.

But voting for the recall is agreeing that it is OK for the rich to hijack democracy anytime its interests are not being served. This recall did not come from us. It came from those who are against us and what we believe in.

I’m voting No on the Recall.

posted by @ 9:55 am | 0 Comments

Monday, October 6th, 2003

Just got back from Chicago, and the Hip-Hop and Social Change Conference. It was a great experience and lots of plans are being laid for future work and networking. Thanks to Raymond Codrington and the staff of the Field Museum for being great hosts.

You may have also heard that the keynote speech by Mos Def and Talib Kweli ended in chaos as the artists debated with an audience member, a local activist and recent Death Row pardonee who challenged them on their responsibility as artists to the community, and threw the crowd into an uproar. It’s a lot to get into and I’ll try to do so in the future. What folks there may not know is that Kweli was meeting Sunday with Chicago activists behind closed doors to come to a meeting of the minds.

Also want to send a big big shout to Robert Karimi, who is holding it down out there as the Artistic Director of the Guild Complex and doing amazing theater work on his own also. Looking forward to coming back to work with all the great folks in Chicago next year!

posted by @ 9:24 am | 0 Comments

Wednesday, October 1st, 2003

It’s official. Arianna Huffington has dropped out of the race. She made the announcement on Larry King, assuring the highest possible audience. The question: did she get anything for it?

In the meantime, Arnie’s numbers do appear to have surged. I’m sure Davis’ camp will be mad that Gray was not included in the Sac State debate, which in retrospect is where Arnie’s numbers turned around. The Reep strategy was to hold him back and do as much retail work as possible, keeping him in the local nightly news without much of anything to say, while prepping him for the debate. The canned lines should have backfired, but Bustamante’s strategy of laying back made him look like he didn’t have answers for Arnie.

At the same time, do not count out a Dem surge in the final days. The troops are on the ground. What the polls are unable to measure is how committed people are to their choice. Polls always function as snapshots, not prophecies. There has been so much volatility in the numbers in the space of just a few weeks that it’s dumb for anyone to put too much faith in them.

posted by @ 7:14 am | 0 Comments

Tuesday, September 30th, 2003

The SF Chronicle today reports that Huffington is seriously considering leaving the race and urging her voters to support Bustamante. If the CNN Poll is to be believed–which the article notes is based on some ridiculous assumptions–Huffington may have no good options. She’s doing the right thing. Whatever anyone wants to say about her, she’s gone into the campaign to play a role, and she has the strength of character to stay with the bottom-line–to empower progressives. That’s something real.

posted by @ 7:14 am | 0 Comments

Monday, September 29th, 2003

The CNN/Gallup Poll showing a 65-35 pro-recall sentiment is deconstructed in this LA Times article, which also shows Huffington and Camejo reconsidering what they are planning to do now that Bustamante seems to be losing a lot of ground to Schwarzenegger. Again the poll highlights “likely” voters, which is at best a dubious proposition in this historic race. At the same time, there is no doubt that Arnold did better than anyone expected in last week’s debates. What all that says about likely voters in California is not gratifying.

If Camejo and Huffington drop out of the race, it’s not likely to help Bustamante unless there is some sort of endorsement going on. It’s something that Huffington appears to be giving signals over, if not Camejo. At the same time, the margin may not be enough to help Bustamante. If Dems want to win the no vote and Bustamante as their second choice, they will need to focused right now on turning out progressives and people of color.

A sidenote: last night’s debate was an historic Asian American-hosted debate in Sacramento, but none of the mainstream venues I saw carried anything regarding how the candidates would speak to Asian American issues. Should I be surprised? No. Am I angry about it? Hell yeah. Free James Yee.

posted by @ 4:18 am | 0 Comments

Sunday, September 28th, 2003

Today, Matier and Ross reported that Bustamante seems to have stalled with voters and the race is coming down to a referendum between Davis and Arnie. They also say that numbers haven’t shifted fast enough for Davis to feel good about surviving the recall.

Of course, these surveys are based largely on “likely” voters, and the interesting thing about the recall so far has been how much interest it has generated, evidenced by what everyone agrees is a higher than normal voter registration.

To me, the Prop 54 ads have been pretty wack as well–naked ads for Bustamante that don’t shed much light on how bad Prop 54 actually is. At the time, it was announced it seemed like a good idea. Now I worry that the growing negative s for Bustamante may also affect voter’s perceptions of 54.

posted by @ 10:48 am | 0 Comments

Friday, September 26th, 2003

Pour out a little for Edward Said, the brilliant Palestinian intellectual , who has been a profound influence on me as a young Asian Americanist and a hip-hop generation writer. Especially in these confusing times, Said was always a voice of clarity and truth. Respect. Rest in peace.

posted by @ 9:08 am | 0 Comments

Thursday, September 25th, 2003

ARNIE VS. ARIANNA

The first, and likely, only debate of the top 5 candidates in the race turned into a demolition derby between The Hummer and The Hybrid.

Arianna played anti-heroine–getting all up in the candidates faces. Arnie showed his inner macho airhead by taking Arianna’s bait, and brutalized her all night with consultant-tested one-liners and one apparently off-the-cuff retort that could cost him all the Democratic soccer moms Maria has been diligently trying to assemble for him.

From the start, Arianna baited Arnie and Cruz with zingers regarding their parties’ priorities. As the candidates sparred over worker’s compensation, Huffington said, “This is the two parties that brought us the broken worker’s comp system.” The difference was in how the two took the bait. Cruz agreed with Arianna that the Dems were complicit and laid out specific faults with previous proposals. Arnie called Democratic maneuvering “pre-election bogus” and “trickery”. The split defined the evening–Arnie was vague and vituperative, Cruz was collected, even deferential.

When Arianna laid out her proposal to close the budget gap by closing corporate tax loopholes, Arnie responded with a canned one-liner: “Your personal tax income tax has the biggest loophole–I can drive my Hummers through it.” Arianna pointed out that Arnie’s lines had been rehearsed, and reported in a debate preview by the New York Times.

The debate reached its tit-for-tat high (or low) in an exchange over

tax policy:

HUFFINGTON:…But I want to return to something very important because the people of California need somebody who is going to fight the Bush administration for that, because you know what? Let me just tell you the facts, let me tell you the facts. The repeal of the estate tax alone is costing us over $3 billion.

MODERATOR: We’re starting the clock. Two more minutes left on this. Two more minutes on the budget.

HUFFINGTON: Right, well there’s a huge connection between our budgetary problems here and the decisions made in Washington. And we need somebody who’s going to fight for properly funded mandates — whether it’s on education or in health care — and who’s going to fight the administration when it’s completely costing us jobs? It’s completely hypocritical of Arnold to come here…

SCHWARZENEGGER: Arianna, we’re talking about the car tax right now and not about education.

HUFFINGTON: Let me finish. Let me finish. Let me finish. You know, this is completely impolite and we know this is how you treat women and we know that, but not right now.

MODERATOR: On that point, excuse me, excuse me, excuse me. Candidates please, let me take control of this for a moment. I’m going to decide it is my privilege as moderator that that was a direct and personal attack on Mr. Schwarzenegger, so would you respond?

SCHWARZENEGGER: I would like to say that I just realized that I have a perfect part for you in ‘Terminator 4.’ That’s it.

Today’s LA Times reports that Huffington believes the scene Arnie was referring to is one in which he stuffs a female robot’s face down a toilet. Whoa. Where’s C. Delores Tucker when you really need her?

You can bet the Dems will be taking up Arianna’s cause in the next two weeks with fervor. If Arianna wants to be around in 2008, she’ll parlay this clout to play ball with the Dems. The possibilities that could result from Arianna joining with a coalition of folks of color and progressives to re-energize the left wing of the Democratic Party are actually pretty mind-boggling.

By contrast, Tom McClintock and Peter Camejo continued to hammer away at their points. They were both sharp and informed, but last night turned out not to be about positions. If the recall is all about entertainment, they wrote themselves out of the storyline. It’s not likely that either will make any more significant gains in their polling. McClintock’s pro-life position, dropped almost surreptitiously in his closing, combined with his bug-eyed seriousness about himself couldn’t have played well anywhere but deep O.C. Camejo is brilliant, earnest, and correct–but as a candidate, he is plagued by a crippling blandness. He has made no myth of himself, and his laser-like policy focus leave nothing to an electorate’s imagination. In this hypermedia bubble, both disappear.

As far as the leaders in the yes-recall race, Arnie stands to lose the most. Those hoping for specifics got platitudes, those hoping for compassion got vagaries, those hoping for intelligence got one-liners. No matter how dumb pundits think the electorate is, the main question most have about Arnie is, wouldn’t we prefer him on-screen than in Sacramento? At some point, the charisma and comedy has to give way to a certain discipline and rigor. It did not happen last night.

Cruz played the background in the Arianna and Arnie thing, which gave him an advantage. It made him look sober, serious, a governor-in-training. But it did not dispel the major doubts that have been raised about his interests. By looking like the responsible one, he failed to distinguish himself as anything other than what he is: a party politician, a nod to the status quo. If he did a few photo opps in which he showed up at backyard BBQs in shorts with a Tecate in hand, now that might be something. Hard to do the man of the people thing when you’re buttoned-down everyday and fighting out your campaign contributions in court.

Which raises the question, of course, why vote for the recall in the first place then? Gray’s ongoing act of contrition may actually work, if for no other reason than the Battle Royale actually looks more devilish than the alternative.

A transcript of the debate is here.

posted by @ 10:17 am | 0 Comments



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