That the President of the World’s Super Power akin to something along the lines of God of Earth, the United States of America should feel the need to bend over for a small Asian man (repeatedly, as Obama also bowed in an equally as controversial greeting to Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah at a G20 meeting recently) is thought of as repulsive, weak and definitively, unamerican by his critics.

Never mind that in Japanese tradition, the Emperor is a direct descendant of a divine being (the sun goddess, and thus probably even more powerful than any ‘god of earth’) and in American tradition, the president is just some chap who is popular.

Are the Obama critics really so afraid of being respectful of Asian traditions that they care about the angle of the President’s back? Is the WW2 anti-Japanese sentiment resurging to combine with some weirdo homophobic pride in a hybrid critique of the nation’s first non-white president?

Perhaps it would be more productive to critique the deep bowing of Obama to a symbolic ruler who represents a government that refuses to acknowledge many of its wartime atrocities and genocidal policies towards its Indigenous cultures. Or would such a critique be too close to the truth of America’s own national history?

“For months, Mr. Shinseki has been crisscrossing the country as President Obama’s pinstriped evangelist for veterans’ care, raising concerns about a coming tide of post-traumatic stress cases, traumatic brain injuries and other physical and psychological scars of battle… The problems are daunting. Nearly 8 million of the 23.4 million veterans are enrolled in the veterans system, which administers compensation for disabled veterans and runs the nation’s largest health care system … But amid the plaudits, some advocates wonder how well a general can run a bureaucracy filled with unionized civil servants. He can hire and fire at will only a few dozen of the department’s 298,000 employees. And some friends worry whether Mr. Shinseki, famously plainspoken and earnest, can survive in sharp-elbowed Washington.”

After reading the daunting challenges, who the hell would want this job? I give a lot of credit to Shinseki to taking on the challenges of trying to transform this unwieldy government agency; it’s a true testament that Shinseki has risen to every call of duty.

Cao won his seat over troubled eight time incumbent William Jefferson, who still received 47% of the vote despite charges of bribery and corruption (Louisiana politics, do you expect any less?).  Rep. Cao is very “moderate” for a Republican, as highlighted by his vote for the Health Care Plan; he has to be, if he wants to have any chance to be re-elected in a very blue district.

Signed in February 19th, 1942 by President F.D. Roosevelt, Executive Order 9066 granted military personnel the right to move en masse many Japanese Americans, of which the majority were American citizens, into internment camps for a good two years.  The move forced many of these individuals to sacrifice much of their possessions, property, and even family.  People like Star Trek star George Takei, Malcolm X’s confidant Yuri Kochiyama, civil activist Richard Aoki and about 120,000 others had their lives shaped by these internment camps.  In short, Japanese Internment is seen as a black stain in American history, and is often considered a hypocritical blind move by the American government by many due to its various associations with the Nazi’s concentration camps, but I digress.  The most well known of these internment camps is in Manzanar, CA but before much of the interned were forced into Manzanar, they first settled into temporary staging areas held at various stables and race tracks in places like Pomona, Fresno, Salinas, and so on; the most famous of them the Santa Anita Race Track.  The exhibit hopes to bring much of the forgotten history of Japanese Internment back into the forefront of our view on World War II, which is generally viewed as the perennial battle in which the good of the Allies defeated the evil of the Axis.

I grew up around the area and often drove by without drawing any connections between the race track and its dark, hidden past.   The race track sits right next to a modern mall and when I went to the mall in middle school, I always considered the track to be a relic of the past; mostly because I failed to understand the excitement of horse racing and failed to recognize the significance of the venue to the sport.  I guess it would be as if I looked down upon the Rose Bowl simply because I didn’t watch football.  I didn’t know of its purpose, let alone its role in 1942.  Therefore, I’m excited to visit the exhibit not only because I hope to catch some great exhibits and read some excerpts from primary sources first hand, but also because it gives me a reason to step into a place so heralded by horse racing enthusiasts.

(EDITORS NOTE: Mabel Teng was acting mayor of San Francisco in 1995. Thanks to Jim at SFCitizen for the hat tip.)

“For Chin, a 56-year-old Hong Kong immigrant, the long road to political victory has not been easy. As she closes in on a probable November victory, though, she’s confident the lessons learned along the way will serve her — and her constituents — well. Chin’s American story began almost a half century ago, during the Kennedy administration. Her father, seeking new opportunities, left China for Colombia. A few months later, he became an undocumented U.S. worker, scratching out a living as a waiter in the Bronx section of New York. When the family’s immigration papers came through in 1963, he borrowed money to bring them to America. Margaret, the third of five children, remembers her dad’s exhaustion and pain after spending long days on his feet.”

Maybe I’m ignorant, but I think these kind of stories can only be made in America: Chin has run for city council three times before, but lost in the Democratic primaries. Because of greater Chinese-American involvement and through experience, Chin was able to win in her primary. Since New York City is predominantly Democratic, the chances of her losing to her Republican candidate is slim (must be frustrating to be the token opposition). Best of luck to Chin – I look forward to reading about her victory!