Los Angeles Times‘s “John McCain Enjoys Wide Support in Vietnamese Communities“:

In the waning days of the presidential campaign, a team of McCain boosters — made up largely of former Vietnamese war veterans who are less concerned with Joe the Plumber than with the bonds forged in wartime — is trying to rally the vote in Orange County’s Little Saigon, the largest Vietnamese American community in the country.

Like McCain, the old, bitter, out-of-touch, Viet Nam War veterans in the Vietnamese community are still looking back into the past instead of looking forward into the future. The American economy is collapsing and it is effecting the entire world, yet all that these old folks care about is the thirty-three-year-old war. We all know that McCain is clueless about the economy. I am not sure what he can do for these folks since he is the one who supports the trade between the U.S. and the communist government despite the abuse of human rights in Viet Nam.

Let me not grab chopsticks by the bundle. Not all Vietnamese-American veterans are still in their war state of mind. Many veterans have moved on. Although the pain could not go away, they have restarted their new lives in America. This election is not about the Viet Nam War. We should vote for the one that could restore America, not for the one that used to fight in the same war. I don’t doubt that McCain was a war hero, but his ego and desperation to take over the White House have buried his dignity and integrity. The grumpy, hotheaded McCain today isn’t the honorable McCain he once was.

John Artz gives some thoughts on blogging:

I think there is great value in writing a blog even if nobody every reads it. About a decade ago, I started a daily journal in which I would write every morning. My goal was to write around 500 – 1000 words a day. It was great writing practice and I think my writing is much stronger today as a result. But, there were further benefits beyond writing practice. Writing every morning sharpened my thinking and helped me organize my thoughts. So, I am also a much more organized and disciplined thinker today as a result. So writing everyday or even a couple times a week had merit.

New York Times‘s endorsement is not a surprise, but it does bring up some great points:

Mr. Obama has met challenge after challenge, growing as a leader and putting real flesh on his early promises of hope and change. He has shown a cool head and sound judgment. We believe he has the will and the ability to forge the broad political consensus that is essential to finding solutions to this nation’s problems.

In the same time, Senator John McCain of Arizona has retreated farther and farther to the fringe of American politics, running a campaign on partisan division, class warfare and even hints of racism. His policies and worldview are mired in the past. His choice of a running mate so evidently unfit for the office was a final act of opportunism and bad judgment that eclipsed the accomplishments of 26 years in Congress.

Given the particularly ugly nature of Mr. McCain’s campaign, the urge to choose on the basis of raw emotion is strong. But there is a greater value in looking closely at the facts of life in America today and at the prescriptions the candidates offer. The differences are profound.

Mr. McCain offers more of the Republican every-man-for-himself ideology, now lying in shards on Wall Street and in Americans’ bank accounts. Mr. Obama has another vision of government’s role and responsibilities.

According to the hockey hoochie, someone who seeks to destroy the government is a terrorist, but someone who bombs an abortion clinic, she “doesn’t know” if that person could be labeled as a terrorist. Isn’t she incredible? Incredibly dumb.

Call 911. Joe McCain did.

Hoang writes:

I have no beef with conservative values or the Republican, in fact I think conservative values are important, what I have problem with is the hypocrisy that accompany with a lot of the so called conservative, of which Palin is a perfect example. McCain is an advocate for war and his temperament is a liability for this nation. Palin is a religious fanatic and her cluelessness is a threat to just anybody. Together they are probably the worst president ticket in history.

Damn right!

Campaign Wardrobe-Finance

Rob Kapilow breaks down George Gershwin’s iconic song. What makes “Summertime” great is its simplicity.

Somehow “Rico Suave” come back to me last night and I had to fired up my Mac to check it out on YouTube. My wife thought I was nut. You guys remember Gerardo back in the early 90s, right? Hip-hop was still in its infant stage and there was this Latin dude blew up the pop chart with “Rico Suave” and “We Want the Funk.” I didn’t know what the funk he was rapping about (I still don’t), but the beats were infectious.

A 93-year-old woman wanted to vote for Obama before she died:

On the morning of Oct. 8, Fitzgerald scratched her signature on an absentee ballot from a bed in her North Charleston, S.C., home, where she had moved to be close to some of her nine children.

She died an hour after the ballot was mailed, said her son, Terry Fitzgerald, of Woodland Road in Foxboro.

Isn’t that a touching story?