Check these other blogs about Mamta Popat, the photojournalist who was asked to reveal her race by the Secret Service and Vice President Dick Cheney's office:

Wesley Clark
Proof Through The Night
Catch
Vidiot
DiatribeR
MetaFilter
Asylum
Just Orb

Thanks to Jackie Cerretani for this list.

“I never really thought of myself as a threat to national security before…”

Add “racist” to the list of ugly labels that the Bush/Cheney ticket exemplifies. Why you ask? Well, read this story about Mamta Popat, a staff photographer for the Arizona Daily Star (and a friend of mine) that ran last Saturday in that paper.

I understand and accept that the Secret Service has some basic security requirements when approving access to the two highest positions in the government. But when they demand to know a person's race, the Bush/Cheney administration took a huge leap back in history to the days when African Americans were hosed down, dogs set upon them, or worse, lynched. In this one instance I do hope history does not repeat itself.

The racial profiling of Mamta Popat has my blood boiling. I can see it now – the dress code at the Republican National Convention will be casual: white bed sheets and hooded hats. Burning crosses, optional. Harsh, you say? Fuck that. I am sick of the bullshit that's been thrown at us since 2000. The Bush administration has been a sham from the get-go. I say to all who can legally vote in the US – take back YOUR government! Make it your own again. Your vote is your voice. Speak up! Fight for our civil liberties. Register to vote. Find out who your elected representative is and demand to know where she or he stands on issues that are important to you and your family. Write to them if you wish.

Voter apathy and nonchalance towards US domestic and international policy is getting us ALL screwed in the end. So, here is TIFFINBOX's official endorsement of the Kerry/Edwards ticket in black and white (or really off-orange). We will expect great things of them and we do hope is on its way. The alternative is scary, very scary.

If you know an American, check this site out to help put the word out! If you are an American, on November 2nd get off your ass to vote! You have earned that right to express yourself.

Bush camp solicits race of Star staffer

By C.J. Karamargin

ARIZONA DAILY STAR

President Bush's re-election campaign insisted on knowing the race of an Arizona Daily Star journalist assigned to photograph Vice President Dick Cheney.

The Star refused to provide the information.

Cheney is scheduled to appear at a rally this afternoon at the Pima County Fairgrounds.

A rally organizer for the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign asked Teri Hayt, the Star's managing editor, to disclose the journalist's race on Friday. After Hayt refused, the organizer called back and said the journalist
probably would be allowed to photograph the vice president.

“It was such an outrageous request, I was personally insulted,” Hayt said later.

Danny Diaz, a spokesman for the president's re-election campaign, said the information was needed for security purposes.

“All the information requested of staff, volunteers and participants for the event has been done so to ensure the safety of all those involved, including the vice president of the United States,” he said.

Diaz repeated that answer when asked if it is the practice of the White House to ask for racial information or if the photographer, Mamta Popat, was singled out because of her name. He referred those questions to the U.S. Secret Service, which did not respond to a call from the Star Friday afternoon.

Hayt declined to speculate on whether Popat was racially profiled, but said she is deeply concerned.

“One has to wonder what they were going to do with that information,” Hayt said. “Because she has Indian ancestry, were they going to deny her access? I don't know.”

Journalists covering the president or vice president must undergo a background check and are required to provide their name, date of birth and Social Security number. The Star provided that information Thursday for Popat and this reporter.

“That's all anybody has been asked to provide,” said Hayt, adding that this is the first time in her 26-year career that a journalist's race was made an issue.

Organizer Christine Walton asked for Popat's race in telephone conversations with two other Star editors before she spoke to Hayt. They also refused to provide the information. Walton told Hayt that Popat's race was necessary to allow the Secret Service to distinguish her from someone else who might have the same name.

“It was a very lame excuse,” Hayt said.

Popat, a photographer with six years' experience, was on assignment Friday and unaware of the controversy. But she said she was glad the Star refused. “My race shouldn't have anything to do with my job,” she said.

Tickets are required for the public to attend the rally, which begins at 12:50 p.m. All tickets were distributed by Friday.

Reporter C.J. Karamargin: 573-4243.

You Decide activities invite you to become part of the debate through a critical exploration of the issues. In the end, perhaps you will ask different — and better — questions than those presented here.

I have held off saying anything evil about the Broadway musical Bombay Dreams, but that self-inflicted gag order ends now.

I have been biting my tongue for a week and a half. That has to do with the small fact that my wife forked over $148 for two discounted tickets; a pretty penny in these lean economic times.

Having succumbed to part folly, part pride, and perhaps equal parts guilt and curiosity, how could I come out of the theatre bemoaning an insipid plot line, smarmy lyrics and trite comedy? No, I had to put on a brave front, nod courteously to my neighbors in the same row who readily guffawed about how “great” it was and quietly slip out onto the curb of reality.

Is this the best that Andrew Lloyd Webber, Shekar Kapoor and A.R. Rahman could cook up? The musical touts itself as the “Feel Good Fantasy.” Neither did it feel good, nor was it a fantasy. Perhaps I am from that generation that could never sit still through a three hour Bollywood flick. The musical was nothing but a sophomoric attempt to deliver unconvincing lines in a setting injected with limp humor about sexual identies, class, caste and other with social inequities.

My advice to those of you usurped by the hype about this musical – save your cash! Buy your mother something nice instead. This was a waste of my time (and did I mention again, money) and so shall it be yours as well should you be tempted to check it out. However, as my wife exclaimed, in the musical's favor and providing it's only saving grace, the constumes and set designs were good.

Some may counter that this musical has opened up Western audiences to Indian culture. Pshaw! That's straight up ‘buckwaaz yaar.' I do know that you don't introduce cultures by subjecting a captured audience to some schmaltzy song-and-dance routine.

Some may even go the distance and suggest that a successful run in the US and UK will mean more such extravaganzas. I shudder when I think of such possibilities. Bollywood cranks out enough of these melodramas. So, why suffer through three popcorn-less hours of so-called entertainment on stiff over-priced seats in NY city when one could get a great big dose of masala in the relative comforts of one's own home?

Sholay, anyone?

Via Times Of India

“Angry youths in this Kerala capital on Friday burnt an effigy of US President George W. Bush, not because they are anti-American but because he has named his cat India.

Members of the citizens group Prathikarana Vedi assembled before the Kerala assembly saying that Bush calling his cat India was an insult to the country.

“This is a disgrace to our great country and this has come from none other than US President George W. Bush. This is nothing but an insult to India because there are hundreds of thousands of Indians in US, and many who occupy key posts in the White House,” said M A Latheef, president of the group.

“He should make amends,” Latheef added.

The members of the group walked to the front gate of the assembly building but were stopped by police. After a brief speech and some slogans, the members burnt an effigy of the US president.”

All this timed on the eve of the long weekend marking the American Independence day. But I ask you, to what end does this sort of display bring us? It's not like Dubya is going to say, “Ummm, people in Kerala are sure a sensitive bunch, let me call the cat ‘Chechnya,' instead.”

Burning people in effigy is, in my opinion, old hack. It's been done before and quite frankly, I am not impressed. The television cameras focus on the ruckus and then they are gone. Vying for media attention in this manner is a sheer waste of energy. And what a topic to protest! There are so many inequities in India to address. Let me say this – being disgruntled over the naming of a cat, which supposedly has nine lives, isn't going to advance your own karma.