Big Bird at 40

November 9, 2009

BigBird

WASHINGTON—Congress’ first Vietnamese American member Rep. Ahn “Joseph” Cao was interviewed on CNN Sunday morning, just hours after casting the lone Republican vote in favor of H.R. 3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act.

“I felt last night’s decision was the proper decision for my district even though it was not the popular decision for my party,” Cao, a first-term representative from Louisiana’s traditionally Democratic 2nd District, told CNN.

“A lot of my constituents are uninsured, a lot of them are poor,” Cao said. “It was the right decision for the people of my district.”

Watch Rep. Cao field questions from CNN weekend anchor Betty Nguyen, also Vietnamese American, who tries to pin the congressman down with a list of GOP talking points. Cao hangs tough. Perhaps this was Ms. Nguyen’s audition tape for Fox News.

Initial reports had Cao, 42, who won his seat in December, under severe pressure from his Republican colleagues Saturday after he made it know that he intended to support the Democratic plan once abortion funding was removed from the measure. An article filed by a reporter for the Alaska Dispatch shortly after Saturday’s vote told of Minority Whip Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Virginia) and Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) both figuratively and physically “leaning” on the Asian American freshman congressman as he waited to cast his vote. However, Dispatch reporter Amanda Coyne later revised her story saying that Rep. Young had actually been protecting Cao from party leaders.

According to the Dispatch account: Cao didn’t want to be the deciding vote, but once it was sure to pass, with Young on one side, and another protectorate Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.), on the other, Cao was free to be the lone Republican to vote ‘aye.’ As soon as he did, Reps. Jim Oberstar (D-Minn.) and Mike Honda (D-Calif.) waded into the Republican side of the aisle to get to Cao, rub his shoulders and slap him on the back.

Cao has come under attack from opponents of the bill, who hurled racial slurs and compared him to former Chinese leader Mao Tse-tung.

Health care opponents attack Rep. Cao

anh-joseph-cao

WASHINGTON—The House passed a sweeping reform of health care practices 220-215, a vote that followed party lines except for Louisiana Rep. Ahn Joseph Cao (R-Louisiana) who voted with the Democrats. Cao,  a 42-year-old first-term congressman from New Orleans won his 2nd District seat by upsetting Democratic incumbent William Jefferson last December.

Born in Vietnam, Cao attended high school and college in Texas. A graduate of Fordham University, he taught at a parochial school in Virginia before attending law school at Loyola Univ. in New Orleans. He worked as an immigration attorney before entering politics.

Rep. Cao is married to pharmacist Hieu Kate Hong. They have two daughters, Sophia and Betsy.

Cao is the first Vietnamese-American elected to Congress. Politico.com declared Cao’s victory one of America’s “Top 10 Political Upsets” of 2008.

Only the Best

November 6, 2009

Calven Klain

via: TheRealMalingering.com

GLAMOUReuna-lee-laura-ling_Euna Lee and Laura Ling, two American journalists jailed in North Korea for 140 days earlier this year, have been named 2009 Women of the Year by Glamour magazine. Lee, 37, and Ling, 32, were on assignment for Current TV’s Vanguard Journalism unit based in Hollywood when they were captured by guards along the border of China and North Korea on March 17.

In June, they were sentenced to 12 years hard labor by a North Korean court after a closed trial in Pyongyang.

The Current reporters were freed Aug. 4 after former President Bill Clinton brokered their release and flew to the North Korean capital to fetch the pair in a private jet. Lee and Ling have made few comments on their capture and imprisonment since returning home three months ago.

“They are extraordinary women who were brave and resourceful, reporting a story that no one else was. They showed remarkable courage and initiative during their ordeal,” said former vice president and Current TV chairman Al Gore in reaction to the Glamour selection today.

Also named among the magazine’s 2009 Women of the Year were pop singer Rhianna; fashion designer Stella McCartney; California First Lady Maria Shriver; comedienne Amy Poehler; Google executive Marissa Mayer; athlete Serena Williams; pediatrician June Aronson; U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice; The Women of Iran’s One Million Signatures Campaign; and poet Maya Angelou.

Read the Glamour’s entire Lee-Ling tribute here.

‘My dog ate my laptop’

November 3, 2009

Paper laptop as imagined by designer Park Je Sung

boingboing’s Lisa Katayama is always a wonderful fount of mind blowing shit. Recently, she posted on designer Park Je Sung’s concept cardboard laptop. Throwaway computing may be just around the corner. LK also turned me on to Yanko Design, an Asian American-staffed Web site that ranks 52 out of the 75,000,000+ blogs currently floating around on the Internet.

Pimpin Phuket: Jackson Choy and Lori Fujikawa-Choy of the LBC love Thailand... a lot.

Jackson Choy and Lori Fujikawa met and fell in love while attending Cal State Long Beach. Later they traveled to Thailand and fell in love all over again… with the country and its culture. Find out what they’re doing to promote Thai tourism by clicking this link to Gil Asakawa’s Nikkei View. One thing is clear: Jackson and Lisa are both persistent and talented Internet marketers who really know how to mount a ‘Net based promotion campaign.

  • U.S. State Dept. Travel Safety and Security Advisory: Thailand

Somalian Pirate Media -- Niggaz4Lyfe

My first reaction to the story broken Saturday by Chris Foster, L.A. Times‘ UCLA beat reporter,  about freshman wide receiver Randall Carroll using a racial epithet in reference to offensive coordinator Norm Chow was “Gee, I hope he got his slurs right.” You know, I thought that maybe Carroll, the highly recruited L.A. Cathedral High star, called Chow a Jap or Gook. Chow, of course, is a Chinese American (or Chink). But the Times didn’t print what the alleged epithet was leaving Southern California sports fans (and racists) hanging.

My curiosity demanded that I pin down fo’ sho’ what the dis be, and after some due diligence came up with a screen grab of a cached version of @OCiAM’s (Carroll’s Twitter ID) “racial epithet” as posted on Twitter Oct. 22 (below) to high school running back Dietrich Riley. Either school officials or Carroll had tried to erase the tweet by closing his Twitter account, but we have our ways. Check it out.

OCiAm (Randall Carroll Tweet 2 Dietrick Riley)

Sounds more like a frustrated 18-year-old who wants the muthafuckin’ ball more to me. But I ain’t mad at cha. Everyone’s forgiven… even Chris Foster for filing such a thin, poorly sourced story in his lame effort to expose dissension in the ranks of Coach Rick Neuheisel’s squad.

But hold up, cuz. Yeah, I checked reporter Foster’s @cfosterlattimes Twitter account too. Foster tweets about the Chow-Carroll piece four times. The first two hype the Web-sourced piece. But in the final two Foster be frontin’ to cover his messy ass, linking to a sorry revised version of the story that includes somewhat exculpatory comments from Randall not used in the original article.

Then before beddy-bye, Foster, with an eye toward damage control, tweets: “Everyone seems fixated on the ‘racial’ term Carroll used to describe Chow (check most hip hop songs to hear it).”

Well, @cfosterlatimes, when the headline reads: “Tweet from UCLA player’s account uses racial epithet for Norm Chow.” readers will tend to “fixate” on the “racial term.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer showers gifts on five-yeear-old "Kylie," the software firm's most effective spokesperson to date. The fate of Microsoft's new OS may lie in the hands of Kylie, 5, a girl from Orange County, Calif.,

Back in April when her first “I’m a PC, and I’m 4½” for Windows Live Gallery first hit the airwaves, she was called everything from adorable to annoying. Epicanthus tried to go a little further in depth on the little tyke, but was frustrated by the wall of secrecy erected by Microsoft’s ad agency and PR firm. Now we know why; Microsoft had bigger plans for the Orange County, Calif. preschooler.

Last week (Oct. 22) Redmond went all-in with Windows 7, its sleek and fast apology for Windows’ legacy of trash OS rollouts, and along for the ride was little Kylie—more annoying adorable than ever.

Now, the newest 30-second ad — designed by Microsoft’s agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky — taps into the innocence of a four-and-a-half year old child to highlight Windows 7’s vaunted user friendliness.

Responses from commenters on both the Windows 7 team blog as well as on Twitter varied, ranging from “it’s sickeningly sweet,” to “her innocent ignorance of Windows is very cute indeed.”

Lyoto "The Urinator" Machida (left) takes a punch from Mauricio "Shogun" Rua at Saturday's UFC 104 light-heavyweight mixed martial arts title bout in Los Angeles

Second-generation Japanese-Brazilian Lyoto “The Urinator” Machida, 31, scored a controversial victory over fellow Brazilian Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, 27, to retain his UFC light-heavyweight title Saturday, Oct. 24 at Los Angeles’ Staples Center. Machida won his title in May by knocking out Rashad Evans in Las Vegas.

Machida is the son of Shotokan karate master Yoshizo Machida and is a protégé of Japanese wrestler-turned-politician Antonio Inoki. Since revealing that he uses urine therapy as part of his training regimen, Machida has been nicknamed “The Urinator” by MMA fans.

The L.A. crowd booed Machida’s victory. Read MMA authority Michael David Smith’s wrap up of the UFC battle here.

  • UFC 104: Zombies, Blind Men and the False Triumph of the Piss-Drinker, Deadspin

Mad Cow

October 22, 2009

The Godzilla of franchise cheeseburgers,

h/t Mahalo

Dodger Internment Camp

October 21, 2009

DodgersInternJAs

Thanks Malingering

Philadelphia Phillies' all-star outfielder Shane Victorino, a Maui-born Filipino American, played a key role in eliminating the L.A. Dodgers from post-season play for the second year in a row.

Filipino American Shane Victorino used his power and speed to crush the hopes of the L.A. Dodgers and propel the Philadelphia Phillies into their second consecutive MLB World Series Wednesday. The 28-year-old Maui, Hawaii native and son of Maui County Councilman Michael P. Victorino, always seems to play his best against the Dodgers, the team that originally drafted him out of high school in 1999.

With a World Series appearance last year, an All Star selection and a Gold Glove, Victorino was a track star at Maui’s St. Anthony High School and once held the state record in the 100-meter dash.

Victorino is the 27th native Hawaiian and second Maui-born player to take the field in a regular season MLB game. He is today arguably the finest Asian Pacific American player to ever play in the major leagues. He is half Portugese and half Filipino.

Balloon boy Falcon Heene, and brothers Ryo and Brandon pose with parents Mayumi and Richard. Falcon attracted national attention Oct. 15 when it was feared he floated away aboard his dad's experimental flying saucer balloon.

  • Balloon boy family known for taking risks, HuffPo
  • Wife Swap on ABC, TV Guide
  • Meet the Brothers Heene (Falcon’s the youngest), YouTube

Mia Lee’s Gone

September 18, 2009

Mia Lee leaves KCAL/KCBS

Is Your Baby Racist?

September 18, 2009

Stolen from Priscilla Ahn's Flickr stream by Somalian Pirate Media team

Singer and now photog Priscilla Ahn captured this shot of this Newsweek cover dated Sept. 5 somewhere from the road on her Blackberry 8900.

Date An Asian

September 15, 2009

Jen Kwok is a California-born finance manager-turned-comedian now living and working in Brooklyn, NY. Some say this Chinese American funny girl is ready for her close-up.

Apparently, Kim Jong-il has a Facebook account

PYONGYANG, DPRK.—North Korea’s Dear Leader Kim Jong-il reportedly was enraged when he saw a photo of L.A. Galaxy soccer star David Beckham posing with journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee after Kim had pardoned them just three weeks earlier, according to Asian News International.

Sources deep within the Hermit Kingdom say the 68-year-old Kim is now intent on defeating Beckham and the English team if his North Korean national squad should meet them in next year’s World Cup and has promised his players cash bonuses and a party to end all parties if they beat the Brits.

  • Becks Incurs Wrath of NKorea’s Kim Jong-il, Gaea Times
  • David Beckham: He’s No Bill Clinton, but… Eonline
  • NKorea Prepping 3rd Nuke Test, AFP

U.S. Open (Food) Winners

September 10, 2009