Senator Ted Lieu. Two Time Loser

This is what happens when a politician doesn't possess any core convictions. California State Senator Ted Lieu hails from the South Bay area of Los Angeles. It is generally more conservative than the Westside and has a large Asian demographic. Even though the senator is a Democrat, he has been able to win elections here based on his Asian American background and an impression as a moderate Democrat.

When longtime U.S. Congressman, Democrat Henry Waxman of Hollywood announced he is retiring when his term ends this year, multiple candidates jumped into the fray, hoping to win this coveted and long occupied seat. Mr. Lieu quickly won the endorsement of the California Democratic Party. But now he is in serious hot water with the more liberal members of the group.

What is the sin that he committed to get him in trouble? He initially voted for SCA 5, the California Senate bill that will bring back affirmative action as a factor in public college admissions in the state. Needless to say, there was a huge uproar from the Asian American community over this discriminatory plan. Mr. Lieu and two other Asian American senators were forced to back down and said they would no longer support the bill. He claimed he had never heard any of his Asian constituents complain about the contents of the bill prior to the senate vote.

Now the other shoe has dropped. Since affirmative action will likely help mostly Latino and black students, some of the state senators from those districts with large minority voters have now rescinded their endorsement of Sen. Lieu. A letter to the senator from his Democratic peers read in part, "At this point, we cannot in good conscious endorse a candidate who does not share (our) perspective."

Unfortunately for the senator he has lost two of his Democratic constituencies. He has alienated his Asian American voters with his short sighted and asinine vote for SCA 5. If he had spent one minute talking to the Asian parents who go to the same school as his children, I personally have met him at after school activities, he would have realized that the bill would be a total deal breaker for Asian American parents. What Asian voter is going to vote for him now? His attempt to curry favor with Democratic party bosses by endorsing the bill has now backfired as the powerful Latino and African American party members have turned against him too for turning tail just when they thought they had sure passage of a treasured Democratic principle, affirmative action.

Senator Ted Lieu has shown himself to be nothing more than another mediocre opportunistic politician. He has lost two core Democratic voter blocs because he couldn't decide which side of a controversial issue to take a stand. Ultimately he took both sides and quickly lost voters from all sides. You think white voters will choose him from the myriad of white candidates who are also running? I don't think even the Westside voters are that liberal. He had better hurry up and make nice with his core voters of the South Bay if he hopes to have a chance of winning the upcoming election. Otherwise the sewage that spilled into his house recently may have just been an ominous omen for his political career.

New Poster Child For Affirmative Action

First I want to say right at the start that congratulations should be given to Kwasi Enin, the New York high school student who got accepted to all eight Ivy League schools. He deserves all the accolades he's been receiving for this extraordinary achievement.

However, every Asian American parent I've spoken with had the exact same thought when they first read this news--he got in because he is black. Now before you start saying this is just sour grapes, let me just go down the reasoning for our carping.

Mr. Enin's SAT scores are brought up in every article. He scored a 2,250 out of 2,400, which ranks him in the 99th percentile of all test takers. While that sounds wonderful, it's not out of the ordinary for high achieving students. Two thousand two hundred and fifty is just the bare minimum required for Asian students to get into a competitive school, much less an Ivy. I know Asian kids who scored a perfect 2,400 and still were not accepted by Stanford or tougher Ivies like Harvard. They may have a shot at lesser Ivies such as Brown or competitive University of California schools like Berkeley or UCLA. But 2,250 for Asian students will probably land them in the second tier of UC schools: Irvine, San Diego, or Davis.

Articles point out that Mr. Enin also participates in music and arts programs in school. He sings in an a cappella group and plays three instruments in orchestra. I would suggest that most Asian students, with equally high SAT scores, also play musical instruments. Heck, piano and violin are practically de rigueur for a proper Asian American upbringing. Three instruments in orchestra? I played four. It's not that hard if you play the same family of instruments such as B flat woodwinds or brass instruments. My precocious ability to play multiple parts in an orchestra never got me an invitation to an Ivy.

Sports as the reason Mr. Enin was accepted into multiple Ivies? While he is noted to participate in discus and shot-put, there is no mention that he got in on a sports scholarship. And since the Ivies don't offer any sports scholarships anyway, he didn't get accepted for his athletic abilities. Asian American kids also play actively in school sports, just not the usual football, basketball, baseball that many white and black kids play. We're more likely to excel in tennis or golf, which are not the usual glamor events that schools like to recruit for. If table tennis and badminton were NCAA Division I sports, we would totally rule. But since white people don't play or watch those activities, Asian kids don't benefit from these traditional Eastern pastimes.

Some people say that Mr. Enin probably received outstanding letters of recommendation from his counselors and teachers. That maybe true. But frankly, and not to put too delicate a way of saying this, his classmates probably made it easy for him to stand out. Studies have repeatedly shown that African American students score well below the averages of Asian and white kids. When a few of them inevitably break out of that mold and score above their peers, it is easy for their counselors and educators to sing their praises to the high heavens. They may see only one or two African American kids score that high each year. Meanwhile, in Asian predominant schools, a score of 2,250 with musical abilities will land you right in the middle of a pile of similar and not particularly outstanding students.

So once again, congratulations to Mr. Enin. He has achieved what most Asian American parents can only dream of. But his accomplishment only highlights the feeling that competitive colleges use race as a major factor in deciding who gets admitted. Though they all deny it, it is clear to many of us that affirmative action is alive and well in college admission offices around the country.

Filipino Americans Are Kicking Ass!

This has been an amazing month for Filipino Americans. First Robert Lopez won an Oscar for Best Song for "Let It Go" from the movie "Frozen." He becomes the youngest person in history to win all four major artistic awards: Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony. And he did it all in less than ten years, also another record.

Then we hear that a 16 year old FA from New Jersey managed to elude tight (?) security in and around the new World Trade Center and climb all the way to the rooftop spire. Justin Casquejo snuck through a hole in the fence surrounding the building and climbed the scaffolding to the sixth floor. From there he hitched a ride on the elevator, courtesy of a trusting elevator guard, to the 88th floor. Then he climbed the stairs to the 104th floor and walked around a sleeping security guard to get to the roof. Too bad he didn't post any of the pictures he took from up there from his cellphone. At least I didn't find any on the web. It sounds like the hardest part of that journey was sneaking out of his house after midnight to get to lower Manhattan.

Finally, here is the amazing victory by Emil DeLeon on the game show Wheel of Fortune. With only two letters on the board, he correctly guessed the phrase "NEW BABY BUGGY" on his first try, thus winning himself $45,000. That is practically supernatural.

Congratulations to all three FA's this month. You have made all Asian Americans proud of your achievements, even if one of you had to break the law to do so.

Asian Americans Don't Buy Domestic Cars

What Asian Americans don't drive.

I'm in the market for a new car. I'm currently driving an eleven year old Honda that we bought before my wife and I got married. Since then our finances have gone towards a wedding, having three children, buying a house, and purchasing a minivan followed by a second minivan after the first one started to have maintenance issues. So you can see we've been pretty busy the last decade. Luckily during all that time my Honda has been running like a champ and the need to get a replacement always ranked at the bottom of our endless priorities list.

My job has been going pretty well these last couple of years. Even though my car is still running great the missus said it's time for me to get a new car. Great, I thought. It's about time. Since I've been having a good year professionally, I asked my wife if I could get a Cadillac. The new CTS is pretty nice according to all the car reviews. It also looks awesome. It's not a car that you see coming and going on every block here in Southern California, like Lexus and BMW. "No way," came her emphatic answer. "Asian people don't by American cars."

"What's wrong with American cars?" I asked. Tiger mom replied that Asians with means only drive Mercedes or Lexus. None of her friends own domestic cars. Now I grew up here in the States so I wouldn't mind driving an American car again. We were an Oldsmobile family, having owned three before the company was eliminated by GM. I said I like the new Cadillacs. In fact I wouldn't mind owning a Buick. All I need is a car that I can commute to and from work with in comfort. I don't need some fancy label on the hood.

"Absolutely not," she said. "American cars are not reliable. You need a reliable car for your work. You don't want to have a bunch of repair issues that causes you to miss work. That's why you cannot get BMW or Audi either. Besides, American cars are built for tall Americans. You would never fit inside a Cadillac. Plus my parents in China have never heard of Cadillac, no matter how prestigious they are here."

Even though this will be MY car to use, I cannot spend such a large amount of money without mutual agreement on this one. If I bought a Cadillac and something did go wrong or the dealer service department treats us badly because they're not used to dealing with Asian customers, I would never hear the end of it from the wife. So now we are only looking at Mercedes or Lexus cars. Though they're nice enough, I can't help looking enviously at the beautiful Audi's and Caddy's that drive by us on the road. Maybe if Jeremy Lin and his mom promoted Cadillacs it would find more acceptance in the Tiger Mom community. Oh, and having car dealerships that don't look like they are stuck in the 1970's time warp would help too.

Is "Let It Go" the greatest gay coming out song ever?

My children love the movie "Frozen." We have watched it many times and they want to listen to the soundtrack every time we get into the car. It's got some of Disney's catchiest tunes since "The Lion King."

Now a couple of right wing wacko radio talk show hosts have declared that "Frozen" promotes a homosexual lifestyle and even suggests bestiality in the relationship of two of its animated cast members. Kevin Swanson and Steve Vaughn claim that the lead character Elsa is a single, young, extremely eligible queen who doesn't seem to have any interest in the men that come to her castle to celebrate her coronation. She must be a lesbian then for not attracting any male suitors. Then the more preposterous idea is that Kristoff, the ice seller, and his faithful reindeer, Sven, maybe having an unnatural relationship because they sleep side by side in the barn and even share food.

Thanks to these nut jobs I have a hard time watching "Frozen" without some of these opinions creeping into the back of my head, no matter how ridiculous they sound. If you listen to the lyrics for "Let it go," the song that won the Oscar for best song, I can see how people might, emphasis on might, interpret it as being pro gay.

The snow glows white on the mountain tonight

Not a footprint to be seen.

A kingdom of isolation

And it looks like I'm the queen.

The wind is howling like this swirling storm inside.

Couldn't keep it in, heaven knows I tried.

Don't let them in, don't let them see

Be the good girl you always have to be.

Conceal, don't feel, don't let them know.

Well, now they know.

Let it go, let it go.

Can't hold it back anymore.

Let it go, let it go.

Turn away and slam the door.

I don't care

What they're going to say.

Let the storm rage on.

The cold never bothered me anyway.

These words could suggest to some that the song encourages people to come out as homosexuals. It certainly has all the requisite themes like not hiding who you really are and not caring what people think about you. Will this song reach the pantheon of other great cross dressing and gay karaoke tributes like Charlene's "I've Never Been To Me," or Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive"? Two snaps in Z formation point to yes.

SCA 5 is defeated. Why are Asian Americans still voting Democratic?

SCA5 has gone down in defeat. The California Senate's proposed constitutional amendment to bring back affirmative action for admissions to public colleges in the state was opposed by thousands of Asian Americans who believed their children's advancement into higher education was going to be impaired by the proposal. Over 112,000 people signed a Change.org petition urging the California Senate to remove the proposal from November's ballot.

After hearing so many anguished voices from their constituents, three Asian American democratic state senators have withdrawn their support from the bill. Since the amendment requires a two-thirds majority for it to pass the chamber and every Republican state senator opposed it, the Senate no longer had the numbers to pass the bill onward. Instead a task force will now be formed to study how to improve access to higher education for minorities.

This again raises the troubling question of why so many AA's vote Democratic in elections? They were the largest supporters of President Obama's reelection two years ago, greater than even Latinos. Democrats will always place the priorities of African Americans and Latinos ahead of Asian Americans because of sheer numbers. They are a much bigger voting bloc and thus will always have a greater say in how Democrats form their priorities. Their policies of income redistribution and tight government regulations of commerce are the antipathy of most AA's core beliefs.

Perhaps this episode will wake up all those Asian American college students and young adults who voted for Democrats last time. Though it's fun to vote for a young hip president who espouses color blind rhetoric and environmental nirvana, ultimately elections do matter. Though many look down on the Republicans' image as the party of the 1%, isn't that ultimately the goal for most of us? Voting Democrat will only get you higher taxes and decrease your children's chances of getting into a good college.

By the way, no thanks to California Democratic State Senators Leland Yee, Ted Lieu, and Carol Liu for changing their minds about SCA 5. Their change of hearts shows how out of touch they are with their constituents and heritage. These politicians display their true colors by pandering to the Latino and African American voters for their upcoming elections while ignoring those who voted for them in the first place out of ethnic pride. For shame senators.

Facebook's Left Wing Hypocrisy

Facebook yesterday announced that it is limiting the pages on its site that sells guns. Apparently it feels that guns are so evil that they must do anything to stop the sale and spread of this legal device to members of its community. This public service would feel more sincere if they were more diligent about advertising on its pages that sells illegal substances.

When you go to Facebook and search "drugs for sale," there are dozens of pages from companies willing to sell you anything you desire to get yourself wasted or stoned. Marijuana, check. Cocaine, check. Prescription drugs, check. Most of these substances are illegal without a medical prescription, or just plain illegal period, but Facebook doesn't seem to be in too big a hurry to shut them down or trumpet any noble intentions to do so to the media.

But I guess I shouldn't be surprised by the lack of concern about drug abuse from these left wing liberal Silicon Valley hipsters. These are the same people who think they are doing the community a favor by driving home prices so high in San Francisco that ordinary people like teachers and policemen are forced to move out because they can no longer afford to live there. Since they are bringing technology and Starbucks into a neighborhood they feel they are doing the community a service. When they block people's access to the buses that allows them to get to their jobs by their own wifi connected charter buses, the clueless tech geeks think it's only right since they are making their world a better place.

These people are completely isolated from what happens in the real world. They ride company buses to work without ever feeling the frustration of commuting in traffic or paying for skyrocketing gas prices. They eat their gourmet meals in their own private dining halls, never having to go outside to wait for a table and pay out of pocket. They have their own private gyms and sport courts so they don't have to get splashed with sweat from the tech challenged community. They don't even have to wait at a doctor's office for an exam as many companies have in house physicians or nurses waiting to take care of them. Heaven forbid they might have to experience what people who go through Obamacare have to experience. And they don't pay taxes on any of these perks since they are so special that companies classify these items as recruitment expenses, which are company write offs, rather than employee benefits, which are taxable.

So yes I can see why Facebook can be so two faced about what it limits on its pages. Legal gun sales is a no no. Illegal drugs splashed across its website, no big deal. As long as their stock prices to shooting up these folks could care less about the difference between legal and illegal, a constitutional right vs. a federal crime.