Karma.
All posts by Amok
Holy pot sticker: First Asian American mayor of San Francisco?
Ed Lee is Mayor of San Francisco.
Or I.M. (interim mayor).
Hooray?
Hold your horses. There’s still lots of process left before it’s final.
And even then. It’s still just “I.M.”
So why doesn’t it feel as exciting as it is historic?
I would have wished it were done in a more heroic and mythic way, perhaps a thrilling campaign with speeches and drama and perhaps a nail-biter ballot count.
And then maybe we could hoist up Ed Lee on the lions at the Grant Ave. gate.
This was perhaps a bit too political.
A little like an arranged marriage. An internal Supes vote with a touch of intrigue for this interm mayor.
The pick was between some retreads (Hennessey, a good guy and a progressive’s progressive, Agnos the former mayor, Peskin the former but still ambitious supe). The vote deadlocked at 5 between Lee and Hennessey.
Then Lee won a subsequent vote, 10-1. ( Chris Daly was the lone dissenter. That’s enough reason to like Lee if you’re a non-Asian).
But a new board installed Saturday or Sunday could change it all.
A moment in the sun, is what it is.
A campaign for the real mayor in November could begin sooner than Lee can rearrange the pictures on the office wall.
And then we may even see some Asian American candidates (as well as others) who may challenge Lee for the post.
But if this weekend plays out, Lee was there first and that deserves a firecracker or two.
And he’ll be mayor for the New Year parade!
Still, to use a math analogy, is Lee more than a “placeholder” enjoying his time in the sun?
We shall see.
This may have been a little symbolic affirmative action. Asians have been powerful in city politics but no one got the top job, until now. A generation of younger Asian Americans will definitely change thatnc certainly in the next 5-10 years. Ed Lee is just the beginning as San Francisco’s official leadership actually begins to look like the city it serves.
Happy New Year? Happy New Decade? Are you better off now than you were a year ago? Ten years ago?
2010 is ending up with me battling a wicked headcold. Better than being snowbound and stuck onan airport tarmac.
And I can do my own TSA pat down. (Last I checked, I am still considered a mild threat to the free world).
But this is a good New Year’s to get out and tear up the town.
2010 isn’t just the end of the year. It’s the end of the decade.
You can tell how bankrupt of ideas news ppeople are when they start listing the best and worst from the decade.
But it’s true. The decade is over, We really are turning over a new page into a new year and a new 10 year cycle.
Remember 2000 and how we were all afraid of Y2K?
Isn’t that so turn of the century?
Then 2001 came and we saw the real threat.
George W. Bush.
They always ask this question at election time, but never on New Year’s Eve: Are you better off now than you were a year ago?
How about a decade ago?
Too depressing for New Year’s Eve?
Drink up.
The decade is over, hurrah!
2011— can’t wait.
Emil Guillermo: No wussy approach on Ed Rendell’s “wussy-gate.” Rendell’s China comparison was racebaiting at its worst
Interesting how all the comments on Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell’s wussy remarks want to focus on America’s softness. I happen to agree that Americans are overprotective but only because we’re over litigious.
My complaint with Rendell is why he pulled the China card in his comments to prove America’s wussiness.
If Rendell were John Stewart I might think about giving him a pass.
But he’s no John Stewart. (Just like John Stewart’s no Edward R. Murrow).
Rendell is governor in a state where dozens of Asian American and Asian immgrant students have been harassed at a South Philadelphia high school. It was so bad the Department of Justice had to be called in.
Check out my blog at www.aaldef.org/blog
