Nos vemos

Ever have a time in your lofe when your world shrinks waaaay down to just what's in front of you? I have been like that for weeks, depressed over the state of national politics, immigration reform or lack thereof, too much work with not enough time for myself, grumpy and tired.

But then Wednesday night would roll around and I would get enthused again, if just for a few hours with my APALI class. Tonight was the last class and we were silly, hopeful, as always and a lot sad. My muses, my new family were all dispersing to the four directions soon. We won;t be back in that classroom together ever again.

I guess the finality of the program ending is what is hard to take. We created such magic and the network will always be there, we just won't be together again in that same way. It's not like someone died or anything, I just miss everyone already and I have been gone from the classroom for all of an hour.

So while DC continues to battle, Iraq continues as hell on earth, my little patch of safety, hope and creativity has gone the way of the buffalo. I'll just keep calling everyone to make trouble with me.

Until the next time, mi familia, nos vemos.

You did not just say that!

Want to see what the Army can do to you? Head over the Pam's place and read the racist homophobic email from an army recruiter using her army email address. Goodbye career, hello Klan.

Election for me

I am happy to report that I spent the evening at the Silicon Valley LGBT Dem club meeting tonight. Going to another meeting is not what I am happy about but being elected president of the club is something to dance about. So I will be going to the Dem convention in San Diego next month plus getting to work in the party for homos again. Not that I ever stopped.

Thanks to all the wonderful people who voted for me and the new crew I will be working with in the coming year. Adelante.

Some thoughts on Elizabeth and Julia

Well the Edwards' confirmed the cancer diagnosis today. I watched the press conference. She did not look good, pale and certainly thinner than in the past. But I was glad to see she hadn't lost her feistiness, snapping at the media that they had gotten the story wrong and the former Senator was indeed going to keep on the campaign.

Unfortunately for Ms Edwards, the cancer has returned in her bones. According to my sister the oncology nurse, this is not good. While in fact this makes the cancer incurable, it is also sign of movement of the cancer. My sister says they have been able to keep people with this type of cancer alive for more than six years, it is also a concern because of the spread.

This brought back of flood of memories of my friend Julia. Ms Marinucci, Julia and I went to high school together. Julia and I were in the choir and she had the most beautiful voice. I remember some absolutely thrilling moments listening to her sing. Carla and Julia did journalism things together like the school paper. Plus they lived very near to each other.
Julia was quick witted, a killer writer and just fun to be around.

I forget how it happened but somehow I found Julia about 10 years ago. She was married with three girls and living in what she called "god forsaken France." We kept in touch over the years and then she was diagnosed with cancer, breast cancer. By the time I got to see her in person, the cancer had moved quickly into her bones. She had lost a vertabrae in her neck and had trouble turning her head.

She went through all kinds of nasty treatments which she would tell Carla and I about in excruciating detail. I had to blot a lot of it out of my memory it was so painful and grotesque. She became an experiment for nasty ass drugs which made her body do horrible things. She was so miserable at times, not even the pain drugs helped.

But oh did she love her girls. She kept saying she wanted to see them married or even just to see them graduate from high school. Julia was a great mom, forever reasoning with the girls like they were adults, giving them the chance to live every moment they could with her.

Her husband, Colin, was a champ through this whole nightmare. He just kept helping her paying great attention to her needs. In these situations, the cream doesn't always rise to the top but Colin showed how much he loved Julia.

The last time I saw her, she was bedridden. But Julia had a sparkle that I miss to this day and will miss every day. I spent four hours with her that day. We laughed, we talked, I cried. Carla came over and we all carried on like we were still in high school. Only this time we were mocking Bush not the cheerleaders.

So today as Elizabeth Edwards facing the next chapter in her journey with cancer, I remember my friend Julia and wish there was a different way to see women's bravery.

No!

Oh no oh no oh no. John Edwards is holding a press conference tomorrow to discuss his wife's health. According to CNN there are mixed signals coming from the campaign. Actually the campaign won't talk about it.

Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards accompanied his wife, Elizabeth, who has been treated for breast cancer, on a doctor's visit Wednesday. His campaign said they would hold a news conference in their hometown Thursday to discuss her health.

I wouldn't wish this on Laura Bush or Lynne Cheney. I have seen this horrible disease happen so many times and lost so many important women in my life, it is the scourge for women in our times.

Update: seems Edwards went with Elizabeth to a follow up appointment. This is bad.

But why would they call a press conference? Could Edwards be dropping out because of a bad diagnosis? Why would they have a presser to announce a clean bill of health? Plus, we don;t know if this was a follow up doctor's visit that he attended with her.

The one time I met Elizabeth Edwards my impression of her was that she was a lovely woman. The kind of gal I could easily hang out with and talk about a number of things. Apparently she was the one who got the hubby to pay attention to the blogosphere.

A lot of good intentions should go out there tonight for her health and the health of all women.

Today

The idiot in chief continues to amaze me. Today was no exception. He threw a temper tantrum of a press conference getting all pissy like some drag queen that his servants, er, staff was going to be questioned. Not while he is in charge, apparently. I guess this week will be his refresher on the Constitution.

According to the WaPo, he is all upset.

President Bush sought yesterday to defuse the controversy over the firings of U.S. attorneys, offering strong support for embattled Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales while proposing to make Karl Rove and other top aides available for private interviews with congressional investigators.

The White House, however, limited the kinds of questions the aides would answer and said the interviews may not be conducted under oath or transcribed. The conditions enraged congressional Democrats, who vowed to go ahead with plans to issue subpoenas as early as today that would compel the aides to testify.

Oh waaah, this is what democracy looks like.

But Representatives John Conyers and Linda Sanchez are going to issue subpoenas tomorrow for the House Judiciary committee.

Let's get ready to RUMBLE! Bring it on, baby! I will hurt you so bad your whole family will hurt. You want a knife fight, I'll give it to you.

I can hardly wait for tomorrow's battle.

APALI

For the past 10 weeks I have been part of a new program at DeAnza college for leadership development. It is part of the Asian Pacific American Leadership Institute (APALI). The focus was on cross cultural education with Latinos and APAs. For me it was so much more.

The two teachers, Michael Chang and Ruben Abrica are both on faculty at DeAnza but also political types. Michael is a former mayor of Cupertino and Ruben is on the East Palo Alto City Council and a former mayor of that city also. It was their vision to create this program.

We had speakers in to talk about leadership, politics, non-profits and various other topics. But the real joy of being int he class was the other students. Sharing our stories, frustrations, experiences not to mention hopes and dreams was nothing short of wonderful and revolutionary.

My work group of Anne Im, Winnie Lee and Linda Leu has just about broken my fun meter. We have laughed and laughed but our project is going to be awesome. If we can stop laughing long enough to present it.

There are a number of us who are working together on other projects outside of class. This is where the revolution begins. If we can create a wave of community activism between the two groups, however small it is, we can change many things in Silicon Valley.

I am very interested in expanding the notion of immigration being simply a Latino issue. By working collaboratively with the APA community we can change conversations here. We saw that already with testimony offered at the San Jose City Council in support of an immigrant friendly resolution passed last month. There were five people from the class there and two of us testified for passage of the resolution.

The time has flown by and I am deeply sad that I won't be getting the chance to see everyone every week. Guess this gives me an excuse to call up folks and try to find ways to work together again.

Let the revolution begin.

Wild Thing

Well I just flipped on KQED and caught the Trogs singing "Wild Thing." Perfect Saturday night fare. I was again a teenager on a Saturday night but I wasn't stoned. A lot more fun and a lot less paranoia.

Thursday this and that

So a while back I blogged about the pros and cons of not working. That list could be totally reversed now, I have no time but I have money. I don't get to sleep in anymore. Ok tomorrow I get to do so. I have to do something every day this weekend and I just want to garden. Waaaahhhh!

The lst two weeks have been a tear in the evenings too. Between my APALI class at DeAnza, evening meetings, hockey games, the women's PAC-10 and various other things, I am barely home. Plus, Stanley Cup is coming up!!!!

Please God, let this be true. Karl Rove is finally getting really caught up in the weekly White House scandal. According to AP:

White House political adviser Karl Rove raised questions in early 2005 about replacing some federal prosecutors but allowing others to stay, an e-mail released Thursday shows. The one-page document, which incorporates an e-mail exchange in January 2005, also indicates Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was considering dismissing up to 20 percent of U.S. attorneys in the weeks before he took over the Justice Department.

I will be dancing in the streets if this one plays out the way it is headed.

Over at my hermano, Andres Duque's place, Blabbeando, he has a fabulous set of photos from today's ACT-UP demo in NYC. How wonderful to see Larry Kramer out on the streets again, pissed off as ever. Cus we sure have plenty to be pissed off about today. Plus there is something so poetic about seeing the giant rainbow flag being carted off to jail.

They were out in the streets taunting the head jack ass of the joint chiefs while he was giving a speech. No doubt he was moralizing about something while being responsible for killing hundreds in Iraq today. The NYT had a great editorial today about his high level of stupidity.

Maybe there is life in the lgbt movement still. I can only hope.

Disco fever

These people are disgusting.

Chair of the Joint Chiefs, Peter Pace, today announced that we homos are immoral. We shouldn't serve in the military. These are the same folks who got us into an immoral war, having handled veterans returning in an immoral fashion and then have the nerve to declare themselves the moral arbiters of the country. The sad part is they don't even understand the damage they have done to themselves and the world. Sad and immoral.

The joys of being in the majority are on display here at the Washington Post.

Congressional committees are now demanding the testimony of President Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove, in the burgeoning investigation into the reasons behind the unusual firings of eight U.S. attorneys last year.

Heehee, click your heels together with me now and do the happy dance.

Here's another reason to dance, the man responsible for the responsible for the horrible conditions at Walter Reed from 2002-2004 was kciked to curb this weekend. More from WaPo:

Ongoing probes could lead to more firings, two defense officials said yesterday.

Break out those disco shoes baby!!!

I continue to be amazed with the escandalo in New Mexico. Now it seems the chair of the GOP exchanged more than business cards at a White House meetings. Like the aforementioned US Attorney link. Who knew NM would be the downfall of Rove?

What's that? I hear KC singing "Get down tonight."

Now what?

Well, well, well, this is a such a good week to be an American.

• Scooter is toast. Convicted on 4 of 5 counts. Convicted liar!
• The US Attorneys get a chance to testify in front of both the House and Senate committees about their firings. Gonzalez is on the hot seat and Senator Spector predicts the little G doesn't make it to the end of the Bush term. Gonzalez continues to prove that not all brown people are committed to social justice.
• Ms Leather Wilson continues to sweat her moral lapses in Congress. I imagine she will have to lawyer up soon, just like her teacher, Domenici. For inside NM dirt on this story, check out joemonahan.com.
• While I'm at it, Josh Marshall over at TPM has been doing a fabulous job covering the cover ups.
• My buddy, Kathy over at Birmingham Blues asks this very important question:
  

  Given Dick Cheney’s ongoing health issues, do you think he may take the opportunity to resign in the wake of the Libby verdict and let W pick a new VP — one who could be anointed as the 2008 GOP presidential frontrunner?

  I bet there are some folks in the Republican party who would be thrilled with that idea.

• Poor thing, the astronaut who drove straight through to Florida from Houston to hook with a guy she wasn't really involved with got the boot today. I hope someone gives this woman some help. But given what has happened to people in New Orleans and in Walter Reed, I have not one shred of hope.
• Not a homo to blame for this one...Newt Gingrich was having an affair while he was trying to impeach Clinton.

I am looking forward to the return of my brain. Work has been very long hours and lots of stress. Sunday cannot come soon enough. To make things even better, I found out this week I have to have suregery on both my feet. There goes my soccer season.

Back in a minute.

Yaaaa, what happened to my blog??? I disappeared! Between work, school, hockey and women's Pac-10 basketball, I got consumed, having waaaay too much fun. I think I rel-lined the fun meter.

Looks liek there will be some interesting info out in California tomorrow from a Field Poll on gay marriage.

I must say too, that the blonde bigot is, well, a bigot. I thought that kind of name calling was left on the playground. Apparently I was wrong.

In the mean time, a big shout out to the Stanford women's backetball team. They were nothing short of amazing tonight. Another big shout out to my gal pals, Marta and Leslie, celebrating one of the anniversaries today.

Cry me a river

There are two things that really piss me off, when people lie and are just plain stupid. Hence my disgust with the liar-in-chief and all his thugs in this administration. Now Heather Wilson of New Mexico shoots to the top of the list.

Seems the woman who burst into tears during Congressional hearings about Janet Jackson's boob making an appearance on Super Bowl Sunday is now awash in her own lies. She is apparently one of two NM congressional types who are responsible for US Attorney David Iglesias getting the boot. He is one of the nine USA's who have been kicked to the curb during the latest purge by the liar-in-chief.

She is now being scorned in public for her attempts to get Mr Iglesias to hurry up an investigation he was doing about a prominent Dem in NM. Seems she wanted the attorney to spill the beans to her so she could use it in her very tight race for re-election. Leather, I mean Heather, wanted a verdict before election day and Iglesias a)wasn't talking and b)wasn't playing ball by divulging anything on the phone so c)he is out of a job and d)he has been subpoenaed to testify about the phone calls and his termination.

Heehee, run for hills Leather, the Dems are finally going to see some justice on this one.