Saturday, October 16, 2010

Candidate Mailers for November 2010 Election (Sanchez, Tran, Phu Nguyen, etc..)

Here are some of the mailers from candidates for your pleasure:

State Assembly 68D

http://www.badongo.com/pic/10714105

http://www.badongo.com/pic/10714295


http://www.badongo.com/pic/10714300


http://www.badongo.com/pic/10714110

http://www.badongo.com/pic/10714113

 
Congressional Race 47D
 
http://www.badongo.com/pic/10713855



http://www.badongo.com/pic/10713859


http://www.badongo.com/pic/10713863


http://www.badongo.com/pic/10713869


http://www.badongo.com/pic/10713873


http://www.badongo.com/pic/10713877


http://www.badongo.com/pic/10713884


http://www.badongo.com/pic/10713889


http://www.badongo.com/pic/10713896


http://www.badongo.com/pic/10713899




http://www.badongo.com/pic/10713906


http://www.badongo.com/pic/10713911


http://www.badongo.com/pic/10713918


http://www.badongo.com/pic/10713923


http://www.badongo.com/pic/10713929


http://www.badongo.com/pic/10713939


http://www.badongo.com/pic/10713948


http://www.badongo.com/pic/10713955


http://www.badongo.com/pic/10713960


http://www.badongo.com/pic/10713965


http://www.badongo.com/pic/10713970


http://www.badongo.com/pic/10713975


http://www.badongo.com/pic/10713980


http://www.badongo.com/pic/10713984


http://www.badongo.com/pic/10713987


http://www.badongo.com/pic/10713991


http://www.badongo.com/pic/10713995


http://www.badongo.com/pic/10713998


http://www.badongo.com/pic/10714000


Van Tran vs. Janet Nguyen

http://www.badongo.com/pic/10714125



http://www.badongo.com/pic/10714126


http://www.badongo.com/pic/10714128


http://www.badongo.com/pic/10714130


http://www.badongo.com/pic/10714131


Wesminster Council Race

http://www.badongo.com/pic/10714079



http://www.badongo.com/pic/10714081


http://www.badongo.com/pic/10714082


http://www.badongo.com/pic/10714083


http://www.badongo.com/pic/10714085


http://www.badongo.com/pic/10714086


http://www.badongo.com/pic/10714087


http://www.badongo.com/pic/10714088


http://www.badongo.com/pic/10714090

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Van Tran vs. Loretta Sanchez - A Street Brawl

According to an article by Voice of OC, a nonprofit investigative news agency,  Van Tran is trying his best to silent his critics in the media in the Vietnamese-American community.   In this latest episode of silencing the media, it is alleged that he took out the Long Vo's radio show and forced the show to be cancelled.  

This sounds like a familar tactics that Van Tran used against Janet Nguyen in 2008 and 2007.   His influence as the "Godfather" is powerful in the Vietnamese-American community, especially with the print and radio media.  Janet Nguyen could not even buy an ad in both Viet Bao or Nguoi Viet in 2008 in response to some of Van Tran's attack against her.   Both of the newspapers would print Van Tran's attack on Janet Nguyen as communist sympathizer but they refused to allow Janet Nguyen to answer the false charges.

Now the "Godfather" is up to his old trick again.  See the excerpt of the investigative piece below:


Controversy Surrounds a Now-Silent Little Saigon Radio Show

Posted: Wednesday, October 13, 2010 11:10 am
Updated: 1:34 pm, Wed Oct 13, 2010.

NORBERTO SANTANA, JR.
0 comments
http://voiceofoc.org/oc_central/garden_grove/article_7205e986-d6f6-11df-8f25-001cc4c002e0.html

Every day dozens of broadcasters go on the airwaves in Little Saigon -- which sits in parts of Garden Grove and Westminster --- and talk politics. The news programs, which rent time by the hour, have dedicated Vietnamese-language audiences and the potential to sway elections.

For more than 20 years, Long Vo has been one of the local stalwarts in this arena. His "Vietnamese in California" show has received commendations from the Republican Party of Orange County as well as Democratic lawmakers.

But on Sept. 29, his show was yanked off the air.

The reason given by the station is that Vo was taken off AM 1190 because he refused to sign the station's newly constituted pledge regarding what can and can't be said on air about politicians.

Vo, who was a political prisoner for five years in Vietnam after the fall of Saigon, said he was told that the shut down was ordered by Republican state Assemblyman Van Tran, who is in a tough battle with Democrat Loretta Sanchez for her 47th District seat in the U.S. Congress.

Tran, Little Saigon's most recognizable and powerful politician, denies having anything to do with the shutdown of Vo's show. And Bob Hastings, who manages the station owned by Salem Communications, backs up Tran. Hastings said the station is requiring all show hosts, not just Vo, to sign the new pledge.

Regardless of whose version is closer to the truth, the controversy shows just how much of a street brawl the race between Tran and Sanchez has become.

Vo and others say the timing of the station's new pledge is too coincidental to not have been done on Tran's behalf. There are also those who say that the rhetoric on the 4th District race hasn't changed on the pro-Tran news broadcasts.

On Sept. 29, Vo hosted a call-in program on AM 1190 that began with him reading a story from the Voice of America on recent allegations that ethnicity had become an overriding issue in the race. Sanchez was criticized for remarks on Spanish-language TV, saying that Vietnamese were trying to take the congressional seat away from Latinos.




Vo said callers to his program criticized Republican nominee Tran but didn't slander him. Other Vietnamese language speakers who have listened to a reproduction of the broadcast verify Vo's comments.

Yet the morning after the broadcast aired, Vo said he got a call from a broker who sells time to broadcasters, such as himself, who put their news shows on commercial radio stations.

Vo said the broker, Chan Phan, told him that the heat was on and that Tran's supporters were putting pressure on him to keep the broadcasts under wraps. Unless Vo agreed to cease talking about the 47th Congressional District, he would not be allowed back on the air.

Phan did not return calls for comment. Tran knows about the situation with Vo but denies making any phone calls to the station to complain about Vo's broadcasts.

Yet soon thereafter, Vo said he was faxed an amended policy from the radio station that precluded him from "denigration of any person, whether a private citizen or public figure" over the airwaves.


Vo refused to sign the agreement and so the night of Sept. 30 his program went silent from its usual timeslot of midnight to 5 a.m.

"We have the rights to have freedom of speech," Vo said. "This is totally unfair having my radio station cut when I talk about the race while the others are not. This is very un-American."...........................................

Minh Duong vs. Madison Nguyen, The Final Stretch

So it comes down the final three weeks of a boring D7 city council race to see whether the controversial incumbent Madison Nguyen deserves another 4 years.    Despite her barrage of negative campaigns on the radio, Vietnamese-American newspapers  and mailers, the voters so far apparently are not convinced.   Minh Duong is being portrayed as a pro-communist, negatively as a struggling businessman trying to keep his business alive and about his personal lives from the car he drives to the suit and tie he wears.

Yet, the latest rolling poll done by the Asian-American Poll Media shows that Duong is at 47% and Nguyen is at 44%.  The margin of error is +/- 5%.   The survey was done by telephone with a representative sample of 125 most likely voters among  14,000 registered voters in D7 whom are considered likely to vote in the 2010 election.

This is a suprising result since so far in the race,  Nguyen has refused to talk about issues facing the people of D7.  She refused to debate her opponents no matter what, when, where.  Instead she and the Mercury News, the only newspaper in town, have chosen to make Minh Duong's small business enterprise and his struggle to keep it afloat a central  issue in the race.   By going negative on her opponent's personal issues and refusing to discuss real issues concerning to the D7 citizens, she is hoping to hide her shortcomings. 

But this has backfire,  to a lot of people in this economic down turn, they think Minh Duong's struggle represents their struggles.  And they don't need a city councilmember and a newspaper to politicize it and paint it as a shameful thing.    After all, this country economic backbone is being built on entrepeneurs and small business people who are willing to take risks to create jobs for the community.  It is historically the government, especially here in San Jose, that always put heavy burdens on the small business people with high taxes and suffocating regulations. 

The Mercury News never made an issue of Rose Herrera's bankruptcy, the lawsuit from her creditors on the debt that she owed  during her race for city council in 2008.   And  D5 candidate Magdalene Carrasco's financial struggle is portrayed by the Merc as a positve for it shows that she can relate to the people's economic plight. 

It is comical to note that Nguyen's negative campaign flyer sent to the voters the day after the latest Mercury News article attacking Minh Duong on personal issues has the same comparison points.  To some of the voters, it was as if both the newspaper and Nguyen are cooperatively running the same negative campaign against Duong.  

Minh Duong's message meanwhile is " A Time To Change". 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHUsq8UuYQo


As an elected official, Nguyen is controversial with her decision to support special interest groups.  She received her election money from out-of-town special interest groups.  She has shown that she will do anything to get elected even though her talks and promises are empty after the election.  During her term, she has consistently voted with Labor Unions in supporting programs that have costed tax payers money without any benefits.  It was not until the result of the primary where she only received 42% of the votes despite spending 2 times more money than her opponents combined that she realized that she needed to play a different tune.   Whether the voters will believe her or not, it will be decided at the poll in November. 

The question the voters need to ask is what has she done for them in the last 5 years besides less services, higher taxes and empty promises and why she is receiving so much money from out-of-town people.

Slow Voter Turnout in Santa Clara County for Midterm Election?

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