Category Archives: news

blog, journalism, news

Ode to Andy: CBS,”60 Minutes” commentator Andy Rooney was my broadcast hero

I was saddened by the news early this morning when CBS alerted the world that Andy Rooney died Friday night.

I actually got word of his death on my Blackberry (yes, I still have one) as an alert from the Washington Post. That probably would have rated a sentimental jab from Rooney about the demise of the teletype and cable wire as the main bearer of bad news, but I digress.

The 92-year-old was one of my broadcast heroes throughout my career.

It was tough going to want to be a curmudgeon when you’re  just in your twenties, which I suppose explains my career arc, or lack of one.  You spend your life in punk purgatory before anyone lets you curmudge for a living.

But CBS seemed to have all the broadcast oddballs.  Kuralt, Osgood, Rooney. They were the guys allowed to be a little more than a minute-and-a-half would allow. They had personality and more.  They weren’t the hard-ass stand up guys with the Capitol sticking out of their head. Oh,they were good reporters, too. But Kuralt was folksy. Osgood was witty and bow-tied. Rooney was, well you know what he was.  Eyebrowed. None of those guys  were the prettiest things on TV. But they were the writers on TV, the literary stars who could turn a phrase when there were no pictures. 

Rooney was the most daring.  More often than not it was just him staring into the camera like an aging bullfighter, or  doing a show-and tell, holding up an example of his  ironic subject and point of his ire. One commentary that made an impression was where he held up a Sunday paper and started cleaning it as if it were a fish.  I never quite looked at another Sunday paper the same way again.

Not many places let you do the kind of thing Rooney did. And there was a time I could tell the TV guys made him throw more pictures in. That’s when I first thought maybe Old Eyebrows was  failing. But he still had the  look and the sound. He could still pose the rhetorical “nagging question” better than anyone.  When you’re a professional curmudgeon, fine wine is for sissies. Curmudgeons age like an old boot.

When everyone said goodbye a month ago, I resisted joining in on the tributes back then, knowing he was just reaching his  curmudgeonly prime, hoping that all the retirement talk was premature, and that, indeed, he’d be back for more. They always say that, and  then it never happens.

My regret is that I never got to meet him, though I suspect it’s better that way.  I would probably have done something non-pre-curmudgeon-like  like ask  for an autograph.  And we all know how much he liked that. 

The closest I came to him was working briefly with his daughter Emily in Boston.  Now there’s a tough cookie.

My condolences to the family.  

So long Andy. And don’t worry,  after you get past the gates, there are few autograph seekers in the after-life.

blog, news, politics

Did the ’60s have a plan? Occupy Oakland needs a plan

Some old friends of mine from when I lived in a semi-1 percent neighborhood posted a Halloween photo on Facebook recently. They are now in a true 1 percent neighborhood, and I am in the Valley of the 99 percent, so I was hardly amused by the photo. The husband, a big time corporate lawyer was dressed nattily as a “1 percenter.”  His wife? A big sign on her identified her at the 99 percent.

Ha-ha? Only the rich can joke about these things.  But it’s not funny.  The husband as a 1 percenter? It’s like the hooker going to the Halloween party as a ….hooker.  Not funny. And the wife with a 99 percent sign?

I wish being a 99 percenter was all about wearing a costume.

My bias toward the OWS movement should be fairily obvious. Americans tired of corporate greed and the economic reality should be able to loudly protest and make the banks rethink actions, just as B of A did recently on their greedy little idea to charge for using debit cards.

 The question becomes is OWS the best way to protest? Is Occupy Oakland the best way?

I wrote about the recent Occupy Oakland general strike on the Asian American Legal Defense Fund blog: www.aaldef.org/blog

The city of Oakland it turns out has stalled on forming a resolution to support and “collaborate” with OO campers at Frank Ogawa Plaza, but mostly because the local group, just as the national group, is a leaderless, amorphous, venting operation subject to whatever loud voice prevails within. So when veterans join in, there are veterans marching. When the unions support the group, the call for a general strike is inevitable. When anarchists want to have a little fun, bring on the tear gas.

It makes civil disobedience and protest more of an improv. But as skilled improvers know, half the art is making people think you’re making it up as you go. There’s still a plan, a structure, a sense of a goal.  Do the Frank Ogawa plaza folks want to camp indefinitely?

I give some kudos to Oakland Mayor Jean Quan for trying to work things out with protestors. A resolution planned by the council to support the campers is the right thing, because if one occupies anything, the First Amendment should be top of the list.

But the politics is getting tricky as the general srike, marred by anarchists’ violence truly at the end of the day, has polarized the city.

The council couldn’t really vote on Thursday night after a majority of people expressed outrage at what appears to be a city giving in to the city. Some city officials were concerned that Oakland can’t afford to keep paying for the services and cleanup as a result of the continued encampment and protests.  Do they want to camp forever?  Before more people bail on the OO group, I hope someone comes up with a plan soon. It’s making one yearn for a little capitalist action. Perhaps they need a consultant?

A little venting as long as it stays non-violent is fun. But at some point, OWS/OO/OSF and all the rest need an exit plan?  Does it IPO like Groupon? Or pack up go home and spend the winter thinking of something a little more constructive–like campaigning for an alternative vision in 2012?

Or is that too mainstream and indirect?

www.aaldef.org/blog

 
blog, diversity, news, politics

The “New Mud”: Ranked Choice voting changes everything in SF Mayoral Election; How Lee’s voter fraud controversy puts everything in a new light with less than two weeks to go

 A big conference on Asian American activism is taking place in San Francisco this week.

Ed Lee used to be one of them, an unabashed non-profit good guy.  But now his life has changed as the lead dog in the San Francisco mayoral race. He just may not be in the lead for long.

Lee, the interim mayor attempting to make it for real, has been tripped up by some overzealous campaigners on his behalf who may have committed voter fraud.

The now infamous “Ed Heads,” blue shirted members of the San Francisco Neighbors Alliance for Ed Lee for Mayor 2011, had been out in Chinatown the last few weeks setting up tents and helping specifically Cantonese speaking voters.

Tents!  Or maybe they were voter cabanas?

How much help the voters got is he issue, and with translated ballots and handbooks, how much help is needed, unless the volunteers really were filling out ballots and telling people how to vote.

Beyond language, there’s the issue of taking a ballots in a plastic bag for delivery to the elections office. These are ballots not pizzas. No delivery allowed.

And then there’s the last big question. How direct is the  connection of the volunteers  to Lee? 

As close as Rose Pak?

The U.S. Department of Justice is looking into this after seven candidates faxed a letter of complaint Sunday to D.C.

I talked to one candidate today who said when he talked with Lee over the weekend, Lee wanted to be on the letter to show a united front.

Makes sense.  All major candidates want a fair and ethical election, right? In the spirit of Ranked Choice Voting, that would take the sting out of any appearance of mudslinging and show consensus. Take the politics out of it.

But apparently there was no strong feeling to provide Lee a fig leaf.

Besides, this is just what the other candidates were looking for: Acceptable campaign “mud.”

Ranked Choice Voting makes things a bit to collegial sometimes. Like a parish council. You’re looking for consensus? Boring.

So this was too good for the other candidates to pass up.

A little local October surprise to stop the front-runner in his tracks and help others make up ground.

Lee’s best response so far: Proclaiming it’s “Hammer time”?

With all the possible investigations emerging, Lee is going to have to do much more to regain any momentum.

Otherwise, the voter fraud scandal has done the real heavy lifting for the candidates. Its isolated Lee. And it’s changed the dynamic of race. The cloud of voter fraud may even be enough to keep Lee off voters’ RCV top-three.

If an “anyone but Ed” campaign emerges, then the seven who sent the DOJ letter (especially  Leland Yee, David Chiu, Jeff Adachi, Dennis Herrera and John Avalos)  have just made this race much tighter than expected.  

The No.2 vote will be very important. That means candidates will be on good behavior from here one. They know who they’re No.1 with. Now their goal is to be everyone’s No.2.

As candidates get eliminated, those No.2 ballots will eventually make someone a winner.

But who?   Chiu?  Yee?  Adachi?  

This historic race in Asian American history is coming up to an exciting finish.

And the winner will be the best No.2 person around.

Whoever gets the majority of Avalos’ or Herrera’s No.2 votes will be the first elected Asian American mayor.

More on the controversy at the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund blog:

www.aaldef.org/blog

http://aaldef.org/blog/voting-rights-violations-in-san-francisco-mayoral-election-1.html