NO REST FOR THE AWAKE - MINAGAHET CHAMORRO

Right now I'm writing up my final thoughts on my trip in August to the Democratic National Convention and will be posting them soon. While writing, I had a chance to go back through my photos and see all the pictures I took of famous people while I was there. For those who want to radically increase the amount of people that they can claim to have been in the same room or within five feet from them, I highly reccomend going to a a Democratic National Convention (or even a Republican one). My list of famous movie, media and political celebrities that I can claim to have bumped into or been pushed aside by their secret service entourage shot up to well over two dozen. Here are some pictures of the famous people I saw at the DNC (naturally if we were to change this to list of people that I actually had the chance to talk to at the DNC, it would be much much shorter): The formating for the blog makes it tough to write the names of each famous person underneath their pictures, so I&

I was finally able to meet Aaron Silverstein from the Colorado blog Squarestate.net who I first came across on the blog Guam Loves Jason Rosenberg . I had no idea that I could even apply as a blogger to attend the Democratic National Convention, and it was Aaron who first let me know about it. I posted this morning about a painting that I'm planning on giving Aaron to show my appreciation for his help, and actually when I met a random blogger from Pennslyvania today, and introduced myself as a Guam blogger, he immediately said, "yeah, you made a watercolor painting for Howard Dean!" Not exactly, but close enough. Speaking of Aaron Silverstein and Howard Dean being confused with each other. At the blogger's Tailgate today, Howard Dean spoke at length with those attending, and enjoyed some watermelon and corn while doing so. Obviously in a hurry to go to yet another event, he left his plate and his finished food on the table. Goldy, a Washington blogger from Horse&#

Things in Denver have gotten off to a rocky start so far (no pun intended). Getting lost, problems with technology, confusion over passes and access. I'm having a great time, and very excited, but things have also been incredibly stressful. More soon on all that though. Everywhere you go in Denver, especially in the downtown area you see evidence of Democrats. They even have the official vehicles for the convention driving around with special DNC plates. And by the way all of them are hybrid. Here's a little silly humor for Chamorros and everyone from Guam. For those who know, she also has a hairstyling salon in Hawai'i. The lobby of the hotel where I received my press credentials was a madhouse. Motmot dimasaio. Although this convention is supposed to be fully wired, its been a real pain trying to find accessible wireless. Which as a blogger, really really sucks. Barack Obama's book Dreams of My Father is very good. Gof kapas na titige' gui'. Olaha

Its just a few days now until the Democratic National Convention. Right now, I'm preparing for it by reading through Dreams of My Father, going over press releases from the Select Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, and pouring over letters and interviews that Senator Obama has given on Asian American, Pacific Islander and Native American issues. This is my first convention, so I'm making sure I've done my homework ahead of time, so I don't make a fool of myself. Here are some Youtube videos to help yourself get ready: Last month, Howard Dean and the Convention held a contest titled " Why are you a Democrat in 2008? " Youtube members were invited to make short videos explaining why they are Democrats or why they were planning on voting Democratic this year. These videos would then be submitted to the convention planners, whereby five would be selected and could be voted on by the public. The owner of the winning video would be flown to Denv

Now that the general election has officially started for the Democrats and for Barack Obama, I'm starting to take more seriously my role as the official blogger from Guam for the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver at the end of this summer. First off, I've posted several articles critical of John McCain since last year, but its only been in the past few months that I've actually started coming up with my own iyo-ku/tinige'-ku posts, criticizing the Republican nominee. My first was in January, and titled " 100 Years ," where I discussed the now infamous statements by John McCain about how long he'd be willing to have US troops in Iraq, in the larger context of American global power and militarism. Then I had a short post titled " There Once Was a Man Named McCain..." which was inspired by the following limerick I heard on The Colbert Report: There once was a man named Mccain Who had the whole White House to gain. But he was such a hobb

For those who have read my blog over the years, they may have noticed a new sort of political trend in the posts that I've written over the past few months. I've been writing alot lately about the 2008 Presidential Campaign, and in particular a lot about Barack Obama . There are a number of reasons for this. First, I am in the states now and so the Presidential campaign has become a large part of my life. Me and i nobia-hu Rashne, are sort of MSNBC junkies when it comes to the latest political news (no CNN for us, because Lou Dobb's head is huge and stuffed full of race baiting). Second, from an Ethnic Studies perspective, there are so many interesting things taking place in this election, because of the ways the media and other people are being forced to talk about race and gender, or doing their damndest to make sure that race and gender were never mentioned in any meaningful way . I've found the dynamics of the campaigns, at the level of race, gender and class, to b