DISGRASIAN™

We’re #1: 2012 Election Was An Election Of Firsts For AAPIs

This year’s election was an election of firsts. Not least of all for our people, who are often left out of election and post-election talk altogether. A brief recap:

MAZIE HIRONO (D-HI) becomes the first Asian American woman elected to the Senate, and the first woman senator representing Hawaii. She’s also the first Senator born in Japan, and she’s Buddhist. Plus her name is Mazie–from the Japanese “Meiji,” pronounced “May-zee”–which officially gives her the coolest name in Congress.

TAMMY DUCKWORTH (D-IL), who will represent the 8th Congressional District of Illinois, becomes the first Thai American and the first disabled woman veteran elected to Congress. She’s fluent in Thai, Indonesian, and before she was deployed to Iraq in 2004, she was pursuing her Ph.D. She was a US Army combat helicopter pilot in Iraq when the Black Hawk she was co-piloting was hit by an RPG, causing damage to her right arm and the loss of both her legs. Now, thanks to prosthetics, she is fully mobile. So yes, she is more badass than anyone you know.

GRACE MENG (D-NY), from New Yorks’s 6th Congressional District, becomes the Continue reading We’re #1: 2012 Election Was An Election Of Firsts For AAPIs

Filed under: 2012 election, 2012 Presidential Election, AAPI Vote, Asian American Vote, Asian Americans and Voting, Asian Americans in Congress, Asian Americans in Government, Asians Voted Democratic 2012, Badass Women, Badasses, Barack Obama, Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes, Congress, election, firsts, GOP, Grace Meng, Heroes, LGBT, Mark Takano, Mazie Hirono, Mike Honda, Most Asian Americans In Congress Ever, Oh The Times They Are A Changin', Openly-Gay Politicians, Pacific Islanders, President Barack Obama, Tammy Duckworth, Tulsi Gabbard, United States Congress, US Congress, War Veterans, We Love Being First, Yay Us

AMAZIAN OF THE WEEK! Democratic Congressional Candidate Colleen Hanabusa

Name: Colleen Hanabusa

Hails from: Wai’anae, Hawaii

Occupation: Labor lawyer, Hawaiian State Senator, and Democratic nominee for Hawaii’s 1st congressional district

Known for: Becoming Hawaii’s first woman President of the Senate in 2006, thereby becoming the first Asian American woman to preside over a state legislative chamber in the U.S.; getting endorsed by U.S. Senators Daniel Inouye and Daniel Akaka, former President Bill Clinton, and President Barack Obama; running a close race against Republican incumbent Charles Djou, who won the seat in a May special election, in part because the liberal vote was split among Hanabusa and several other candidates.

Karl Rove has spent more than $16 million on ads trying to defeat Democrats like Hanabusa and install candidates in Congress like her opponent Djou, who favors extending Bush’s tax cuts even to the most wealthy Americans and limiting government spending even at the expense of job creation. The irony, of course, is that Rove is one of the main architects of our current deficit that the GOP has been so keen on blaming on Obama and Democrats. The last thing Hawaii–which had the ninth-highest foreclosure rate in the 3rd quarter–needs is to put someone in office supported by Rove.

The GOP also wants this seat so badly because it’s in Obama’s home state and district, and a win would be “hugely symbolic”–so it’s time to show your mahalo spirit, Hawaii, and not let that happen!

[Colleen Hanabusa for Congress]

Source
Thanks, Cate!

Filed under: American Crossroads, Asian-American Politicians, Bush Tax Cuts, Charles Djou, Colleen Hanabusa, Congressional Races, Deficit, George Bush, GOP, Government Spending, Hawaii, Hawaii 1st Congressional District, Hawaiians, Karl Rove, Karl Rove Acolytes, Pacific Islanders, Tight Congressional Races, Turd Blossom

Cadillac, The Car Of Choice For Philanderers And Wife-Beaters

First Tiger Woods, now Junior Seau…what is it about the Cadillac Escalade that makes it the perfect getaway car for men involved–allegedly–in domestic disputes?

Seau’s Escalade Escapade

Seau, who was arrested Sunday night on suspicion of domestic violence committed against his 25 year-old live-in girlfriend, drove his 3-ton SUV off a seaside cliff a few hours after the arrest. The NFL veteran came away from the accident with minor injuries and reportedly told police that he had fallen asleep at the wheel. His agent, Mike Kinkler, told ESPN that the arrest and the accident were unrelated.

“One had nothing to do with the other,” Kinkler said. “It’s unfortunate the two events happened so close together, but what people are reporting is completely untrue.”

Uh-huh. That’s what Tiger said.

This can’t possibly help the reputation of the Escalade as the douchemobile of choice, but it likely won’t hurt sales either, especially since Cadillac’s have soared 43.8% in the first nine months of this year. Because even philanderers and wife-beaters–alleged, that is–need a bumpin’ set of wheels.

[NY Times: Seau Is Injured in Crash Only Hours After Arrest]
[USA Today: Ex-wife: Junior Seau was not trying to kill himself when car plunged off cliff]

Source
Thanks, Aliah!

Filed under: Alleged Girlfriend Beaters, American Samoans, Arrests, Cadillac, Cadillac Escalade, Dicks, Domestic Disputes, Domestic Violence, Douchemobiles, Douches, Junior Seau, NFL, NFL Players, Pacific Islanders, Philanderers, Tiger Woods, Wife-Beaters

Sarah Palin Makes Us Uncomfortable

A young Sarah Palin’s reason for spending only one semester at the Hawaii Pacific University is under debate after The New Yorker’s Sam Tanhauser revealed this gem of info in a comparison of Palin’s autobiography, Going Rogue: An American Life, and Scott Conroy and Shushannah Walshe’s career examination, Sarah From Alaska:

She is equally circumspect on the issue of ethnicity, pointing out that Todd, whom she met in high school, is “part Yupik Eskimo” and opened her to the “social diversity” of Alaska. (Wasilla is more than eighty per cent white.)Palin, though notoriously ill-travelled outside the United States, did journey far to the first of the four colleges she attended, in Hawaii. She and a friend who went with her lasted only one semester. “Hawaii was a little too perfect,” Palin writes. “Perpetual sunshine isn’t necessarily conducive to serious academics for eighteen-year-old Alaska girls.” Perhaps not. But Palin’s father, Chuck Heath, gave a different account to Conroy and Walshe. According to him, the presence of so many Asians and Pacific Islanders made her uncomfortable: “They were a minority type thing and it wasn’t glamorous, so she came home.” In any case, Palin reports that she much preferred her last stop, the University of Idaho, “because it was much like Alaska yet still ‘Outside.’ ”

Continue reading Sarah Palin Makes Us Uncomfortable

Filed under: Alaska, Autobiographies, Chuck Heath, Conroy and Walshe, Discomfort, Going Rogue, Hawaii, Hawaii Isn't Glamorous? And Idaho Is??, Idiots, Minority "Things", New Yorker, Pacific Islanders, Sarah From Alaska, Sarah Palin, Sarah Palin Father, Sarah Palin Uncomfortable, Too Many Smart People, Toxic Humans