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Twitter
Our group Twitter account is at http://www.twitter.com/aa4o
To properly send Twitters to other Asian Americans for Obama, in your
Twitter client, type "d aa4o #aa4o [your message here]".
Those of you already adding the #aa4o hashtag did a great job during the last debate.
The results are below.
Obama Shout-outs
Latest on Sun, 07:19
Raghda: I just pay off my credit cards ctllpeoemy when the bill arrives. I haven't paid a cent in interest but have received several gift cards from them [...]
ALexandre: Heres my oipoinn on Heres my oipoinn on green energy.If green energy made sense economically, then the free market would have gone that way. The research that [...]
Wendy: Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics. "There would be long-lasting ecmoonic damage. The economy would be back in recession. Tax revenues would be falling again and the deficit increasing."Sounds [...]
Marisol: Either Obama has no stomach for learedship, taking some big risks without which nothing big will be accomplished, OR he really is just a representative of the kind of people [...]
Safica: Suze is right. Most people at least use cridet cards, but YES should do so responsibly! Credit card companies need MORE laws holding them in check! [...]
(SAN FRANCISCO) - Tuesday night, more than 150 community leaders, advocates, elected officials, artists and professionals rallied together in downtown San Francisco to launch the efforts of Filipinos for Obama to unify the pinoy vote behind Barack Obama. Filipinos for Obama is a Bay Area-based grassroots organization founded to mobilize pinoys nationally in support of Senator Obama.
"We want to make the case for why Barack Obama is the best candidate for Filipino Americans and the strongest leader for addressing our issues, such as immigration reform, affordable healthcare and equity for Filipino veterans," said Rich Pio Roda, a field organizer for Filipinos for Obama. At their first event, just over a week ago, Filipinos for Obama marched and registered dozens of voters at the 15th Annual Pistahan Parade in San Francisco.
(Photo by Jerms Estrada: FFO Kick-Off Host Committee, L-R, Top-Bottom: Ace Climaco, Fred Cabasa, Rich Pio Roda, April Joy Damian, Genevieve Jopanda, Eric Casher, Audrey Bangi, Angelica Jongco, Dexter Ligot-Gordon, Virg Cristobal)
Check out more photos of the event by Photographer Jerms Estrada here.
When I went to help with the Primary in Hawaii, I met great people all over Honolulu and the Big Island. On the buses I met people who upon seeing my Obama button asked where they could get one and commented, "He’s my homeboy!" It was great to experience the Aloha spirit, but trust me when I say it was not all fun, sun and beaches! Over the 4 days there, I got about 12-16 hours of sleep. I also met some of the hardest working and the most dedicated Obama volunteers ever, including Brian Schatz and Andy Winer.
After the Hawaii state Democratic party biannual meeting, I got this exciting report from Andy. A great number of delegates for Obama are AAPI!.
The Democratic Party of Hawaii held its biannual meeting from May 23 to May 25. At the convention, delegates selected former state representative Brian Schatz as its new Party Chair. Schatz worked on the Hawaii Obama campaign from its inception, and he has committed as a superdelegate for Senator Obama.
The convention also finalized the selection of the Obama national delegates. Including superdelegates, the 21 Obama national delegates include 8 Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders. The 8 are as follows:
1. U.S. Senator Daniel Akaka (Chinese/Hawaiian) 2. Rep. Mazie Hirono (Japanese) 3. Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann (Samoan) 4. State Senator Donna Mercado Kim (Filipino/Korean) 5. Vice Chair of the Hawaii Democratic Party Kari Luna (Filipino) 6. Donna Hoshide (super Obama campaign volunteer)(Japanese 7. Caroline Sinavaiana (University of Hawaii professor)(Samoan) 8. Al Lewis (Hawaiian)
In addition, all 3 Obama alternate delegates are Asian American/Pacific Islanders 1. Lono Lyman (Hawaiian) 2. Gil Keith-Agaran (Filipino) 3. Melody Aduja (Filipino)
The convention also featured a terrific speech by Rep. Neil Abercrombie, who was one of the first members of Congress to endorse Barack. Maya Soetoro-Ng, Barack’s sister, introduced Rep. Abercrombie to the crowd of approximately 1000 delegates.
The Hawaii delegation is looking forward to the national convention, where we will get to see Barack, a native born son of Hawaii, receive the nomination of the Democratic Party.
I’m recovering from a long day in Orange County yesterday. Driving down there from Los Angeles yesterday with my friend Jennifer, we both commented on how rare we ever spend time in the "orange curtain." It takes something special to get us Angelinos to the OC, but to be honest we were also a bit skeptical about the "APIA Presidential Town Hall," by APIA Vote, because there are 2 important primary elections coming up on Tuesday making this weekend a critical GOTV weekend. So we were pretty sure that none of the candidates would make a personal appearance, but we were looking forward to seeing old friends and meeting new people. Plus, there was a "Unity" event scheduled later that evening at a local lounge, to bring together AAPI’s supporting Clinton and Obama. Yes folks, we need to unify in time for the November general election… for Obama! That’s right, I said it
The event exceeded my expectations. It was a hot day, so it was nice to finally get let into the Bren Center. In the lobby there were 3 tables. The Hillary supporters were already there with all their chum - a huge pile of signs for people to wave inside the venue, stickers, and buttons. Next to the table were 2 empty tables - the one in the middle was reserved for McCain, and the 3rd table was for Obama. No one was there set up to table! By now, Jennifer and I had reunited with grassroots campaign buddies Emily and Michelle. I called Van from the campaign to see if he was bringing stuff and to check to see where he was. He was, in true So Cal fashion, stuck in traffic, but said he only had some AAPI for Obama literature. So in the spirit of grassroots campaigning, Jennifer took charge and said, "Let’s go. We’re at the table!" Michelle came over and told us she still had some stuff from February in her trunk. Next thing you knew, we had some campaign signs for the front of the table, flyers, and a handful of stickers… and most importantly sign up sheets for new volunteers! Our friend Steve showed up next and had a big home made "Obama ‘08" banner and about 15-20 HOPE posters. Van showed up with some more AAPI for Obama flyers in different languages, and explained that everything else had been sent on to Oregon and Kentucky. In the end we looked alright, and we had tons of people come over to our table signing up to help with the general campaign! Even KABA MODERN from MTV’s America’s Best Dance Crew came by, and took a picture with Steve’s banner.
Overall, there was definitely good energy in the Bren Center.
AAPI’s did great this past Sunday at the California Democratic Caucuses to elect district-level delegates. Out of the 241 delegates elected, I estimate that there were about 15 AAPI’s elected as delegates for both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. For Obama, I counted about 7 AAPI elected district-level delegates. Congrats to all, especially since they were really competitive contests! In CD 33, my district, some candidates were running radio ads!!!
Anyway, I did some research on the process to select at-large and PLEO (Party leader and elected official) delegates. Here’s what I found, particularly as it pertains to AAPI’s in California interested in going to Denver to represent Obama!
These ballpark figures are based on the estimate that there were 15 AA/PI elected this past Sunday, and doesn’t include alternates.
Given the affirmative action goals articulated by the state
party of 9% AA/PI, the 241 district-level delegates should aim to
select at least an additional 18 AA/PI delegates through the at-large
and PLEO process.
"At-Large Delegates are confirmed by a vote of the 241
District-Level Delegates at the Statewide Delegation Meeting on May
18." (cadem.org)
The
ball park breakdown, assuming there needs to be proportional
representation for each candidate based on Feb. 5 results, should break
out like this at the end of the process to select at-large and PLEO
delegates:
8 additional AAPI delegates for Obama (5 at-large and 3 PLEO)
10 additional AAPI delegates for Clinton (6 at-large and 4 PLEO)
Of
course at the end of the day with all the affirmative action goals and
the rule that the gender split needs to be even, I won’t try to venture
a guess as to how many of our 8 Obama AAPI delegates will need to be
women v. men.
For more info on the at-large and PLEO process and for application forms, go here. The deadline to apply is April 23.
For a list of AAPI’s elected as district-level delegates this past Sunday, keep reading…
One of my favorite bloggers, Carmen Van Kerckhove from Racialicious was recently on NPR in a roundtable discussion with Gustavo Arellano from Ask a Mexican, and Frangela from VH1’s Best Week Ever. The discussion, found here, is one of the most on point yet down right hilarious analyses on race and the elections. Carmen represented an Asian American voice.
Thanks Carmen for reminding the NPR listeners about McCain’s racist use of "the G-word" in reference to Asians, specifically Vietnamese. Some might say that it’s ok for McCain to call his Vietnamese captors with a racial slur, but Frangela commented that it would be wrong for her to call white people "crackers" because her ancestors were slaves. Great point!
Pinay columnist Anne Cardenas Branigin writes of Obama’s speech that it "wasn’t just the audacity to discuss race in a thoughtful and meaningful way that was exceptional." But that "[m]ost importantly, the speech rang true." What I really appreciate about this piece is that she offers her unique perspective as and Asian American woman, a Filipino immigrant, someone who is privy to closed conversations among friends of different racial backgrounds, and also as an enthusiastic participant in a Southern black church. Read her column here.
"The lesson that we should take from [Obama's] speech is this: even though
people experience racism individually, the origins of racism are
actually structural. That is, it’s our public policies that create bad
schools, unemployment, poor health care, and deadly wars." Rinku Sen, president of the Applied Research Center, explains in this clip. "Our best chance to change our attitudes towards each other, to transform anger and resentment into unity and progress, is to change the rules that govern society."’
Hat tip to John Delloro’s blog for highlighting this clip.
Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have historically been less likely to vote than other populations, but not necessarily because we don’t believe in voting. We have to acknowledge numerous institutional barriers to voting in the U.S. that we have faced.
Let’s make this year different! Do your part to empower our communities to overcome voting barriers.
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August 21st, 2008 
