Goodwin Liu finally got justice. The title that is.
It’s not the U.S. District Court spot that may have led ultimately to the highest court in the land. Instead he’s Justice Liu, member of the California Supreme Court.
Check out the new AMOK column at the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund blog:
I visited Detroit recently when I attended the Asian American Journalists Association Convention.
But the highlight of the trip was meeting Hall of Fame activist Grace Lee Boggs.
If you are an unabashed capitalist, maybe even a free-market Tea Party-type, you might not give Boggs the benefit of an open mind.
She’s a radical, maybe the most radical Asian American I know.
And we all know what happens when “socialism” enters into any discussion in America. Witness the debate over universal health care. In the U.S., there is a low tolerance for Marx, unless you’re talking Groucho.
But Grace Lee Boggs is different. When capitalism fails us (as it is currently), Boggs has answers.
Read my profile of her:
With the media attention on the DSK affair, I now take an extra look at the maids whenever I check into a hotel. Depending on the region, the workers represent the lowest immigrants on the totem pole, newcomers from Asia, Mexico, Africa, the Caribbean. I have relatives who work “housekeeping.” They are generally overworked and underpaid.
As a hotel guest, I am quick to show my empathy. I try to leave a few dollars more as a tip.
Unlike Dominique Strauss-Kahn, I don’t see the workers as being at my disposal to be used as if they came complimentary like the bathroom toiletries.
So there’s my bias.
Initially, I cheered when they got DSK because his arrogance is so ripe. He seemed ready for a fall. Man of power taking his imperial liberties with a housekeeper, that’s so Masterpiece Theatre.
But it’s just his luck to have a victim who appears to have so little credibility the prosecutors lost faith in the case and in her.
Reportedly, the victim lied about a gang rape that had happened previously to her. When it couldn’t be verified, what other conclusions could the prosecutors come to? They knew they couldn’t win a “he-said she said” case with a victim who could be discredited so easily.
So they punted. Too bad.
They’ve just created a new climate for every victim going forward. They’ll now have a double burden.
Convincing a jury is one thing, but considering how hungry and overzealous prosecutors tend to be at putting someone behind bars, convincing a prosecutor is just a formality.
Not anymore.
Getting justice just got harder for the innocent.
I kept wondering could this be a cultural thing, a language thing. Did they not understand the victim from Guinea?
But though the accent is thick, she had no problem communicating. Reportedly, she was so convincing to prosecutors on the fake gang rape story she was in tears. Then later she recanted.
Great acting can be truth in art.
It just doesn’t make it as truth in court.
As I was monitoring the fall of the markets, President Obama made a brief cameo to remind everyone that S&P doesn’t know squat.
You want to bet the house on a ratings company that couldn’t rate the financial companies right in 2008?
S&P has a credibility gap.
But they’re right on one score. We still have a less than Triple-A political process.
It was bit strange to see Obama come out fighting today.
Where was that fight,the spirited sense of pump priming last week when we needed to see it?
“Pump priming” is what succesful stimulus packages are all about. Government spends on infrastructure and more people go back to work. And it does work. It’s the way Clinton got us out of debt.
On Monday, Obama talked like he had a plan. He was still a big lukewarm. But at least he acknowledged all the things government can do, including some things the GOP has already agreed to and can do today.
Obama mentioned political will as if the lack of it was due to those spoil sport Tea Party folks.
But all along, Obama could have shown a bit more muscle too.
He just hasn’t been pumping up priming the pump hard enough.
Don’t forget the power of the pump, Mr. President.
Check out my amok column at the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund website blog:
http://aaldef.org/blog/downgrade-pain-courtesy-of-our-political-class.html