This is a Netroots Nation success story.  I met Irwin Tang, the author of Gook: McCain's Racism and Why It Matters, at the Netroots Nation Asian American Pacific Islander Caucus.  I'd heard of McCain's use of the word "Gook" before, but even as a half-Chinese person myself, I'd dismissed it as understandable.  I mean, he'd been tortured by the North Vietnamese, right?  He had a right to be angry, or so I thought.  

"Gook" is just the beginning of McCain's racism.  As Irwin pointed out, it goes much deeper, to the point of being White supremacist racist.  I found myself piping up and said, "This needs to be a film and I want to work on it!"

I met Irwin Tang first thing Thursday morning at Netroots Nation at the Asian American Pacific Islander Caucus.  He held up his book Gook: John McCain's Racism and Why It Matters.  As Irwin says, many many people have an immediate visceral reaction to it, and this was true of me.  

During the introduction rounds, I found myself saying that his book needed to be a film, and I was volunteering!  Even faster, though, was Uptake, who videotaped an interview with Irwin at Netroots Nation and put it up:  

Blackwater, as part of the State Department's Worldwide Personal Protective Service, is protecting Barack Obama on his current trip to Afghanistan according to Jeremy Scahill, speaking today at the Gitmo panel at Netroots Nation.  Jeremy was vehement in a way I haven't heard him before in exhorting us to let Obama know what we think about his attitude towards these contractors. He's pressing on us to make our voices heard now, when Obama most needs us--before the election, not after.  

Update:AllisonInSeattle said it just as I stopped myself from climbing into bed to come back and say it myself.  It is NOT a good thing to have OUR candidate being protected by right wing Bush-supported forces!  Think about it.

Update 2:  I can see that many of us don't know about Blackwater and who they really are.  Maybe some Blackwater 101 diaries are in order.

I attended the panel called Maze of Injustice: The Failure to Protect Indigenous Women from Sexual Violence in the USA, which had 2 panelists from women's shelter, Pretty Bird Woman House, Georgia Little Shield and Tinnekkia Williams, as well as Amanda E. Flott, from Amnesty International. (Report)  

[Update I updated the clip with the correct names this time!  So it has a new link.  The old one will be left up for a bit until people can update.]  Here are a few clips I took:

I was born and raised in San Francisco.  I know I mention it a lot.  For one, it's slightly unusual as a lot of the people who live here now were not born here.  Two, it speaks to my deep love for the land and the ocean here. That's why this oil spill is so heartbreaking to me.

I can't believe that Ocean Beach, the first place I ever saw the mighty ocean, is closed. Baker beach where I used to go with my first boyfriend is closed. The water nearest to me in Berkeley is contaminated.  I would have to travel at least an hour or more to find an uncontaminated beach right now.

Angel Island is closed:

Of course loss of my own enjoyment pales in comparison to what's happening to the wildlife.

Late last night, with the site down, and little to no network news on the fires in SoCal, I started reading Jeremy Scahill's Blackwater when on page XXV of the very introduction I saw:

Blackwater executives have met with California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger about deploying there in the aftermath of an earthquake or another disaster.  

The more I read about Blackwater, the more absolutely breath-stopping moments I have. Sometimes it's the amounts of money involved. Sometimes it's the brazenness of Erik Prince, whom I've taken to calling Evil Prince, Mordred incarnate.

Good Environmental News
Native Hawaiian groups and their supporters, along with the Sierra Club's Hawaii Chapter, have won an important battle for the preservation of their sacred volcano, Mauna Kea.   On the reversal of the permit to build 6 more telescopes on the peak,

Paul K. Neves of the The Royal Order of Kamehameha I...[said,]  "We are grateful for the opportunity to serve the Poe Hawai`i (the people of Hawai'i). From the beginning we affirmed that the jurisdiction in Hawai`i rests with the right-holders not stakeholders, meaning Hawaiian Kingdom and its peoples, not the University of Hawai`i.  We will continue to be involved in working with the people of Hawai`i towards lasting protection and oversight of Mauna Kea that the people can be proud of. We thank the people from all islands and the world for their prayers and support. We say deeply, Mahaho Ke Akua, Na Akua, Na Aumakua." [From the press release from appellants, received via email from a Native Hawaiian friend]

That got me thinking about the classes I took with Joanna Macy a few years ago.  I hope that I'm not insulting her with my cherry-picking of her great teachings, but I do want to help people stay positive.  

Our unifying quality: passion.

A huge mushroom cloud of dust is expected to rise over Nevada's desert in June when the Pentagon plans to detonate a gigantic 700-ton explosive -- the biggest open-air chemical blast ever at the Nevada Test Site -- as part of the research into developing weapons that can destroy deeply buried military targets, officials said yesterday.

The Nevada Test Site is on Western Shoshone land.  Most media reports have left out the information that this test is in violation of a U.N. decision.