Madison Nguyen & Public Safety Committee

When talking to the community, Councilmember Madison Nguyen always points to the fact that she is the chair of the San Jose City Public Safety Committee. She also emphasizes that she is a member of Reed's Gang Prevention Task Force (with a $4.3 million budget for gang prevention). And in her flyers to people of District 7, she boasted her record of crime fighting while bringing job and economic prosperity to her community.

That takes us to a recent development in the fierce campaign for her political life.

The Merc's article titled" San Jose falls to 4th safest big city" written in December 8, 2008 pointed out that -

"Officials blame the increase in violent crime in large part on a spike of gang violence......"

" Other data revealed that assaults in San Jose increased by nearly 7%..."

"Bobby Lopez, president of the San Jose Police Officer's Association, said there were 8,000 reported robberies last year in San Jose but the department investigated about 1,000.......

"Mayor Reed said reclaiming the status as America's safest big city is a priority and that city officials have already implemented some changes that could help achieve that goal".



The people in District 7 certainly hope that the change would not include having Nguyen's campaign staff shawdowing and taking pictures of people as they walk the precinct against her.

But that was exactly what had happened so far in this campaign. According to the City Clerk's office, Nguyen's campaign submitted pictures to the city attorney, Richard Doyle, who personally asked the DA's office to take action.

DA's investigators knocked on the volunteers' homes at 7:00 AM demanding to see if they are US citizen as well as resident of District 7.

Four known families living in District 7 were interviewed by investigators because as one of them would mention:"When was it a criminial activity to walk the precinct and gather signatures against a political candidate." One young college student, Linh Phan, who was being shadowed and his photograph taken decided to ask for a business card of one of the investigators. Pete Olive, the DA's investigator actually came to his parents' house at 7:00 AM in the morning. He was nice about it the best he could of course.

None of the four families were being charged with any violations.

Nguyen being the chairperson of the Public Safety Committee definitely can pull some strings to intimidate the voters and peơple who are living in District 7. The irony of course is that most of her volunteers and supporters are either out of state, out of town or don't even live in District 7.

Personally, LSI thinks Nguyen are overcautious with her hard ball politics, with all the powerful elected officials, government people, mainstream media, South Bay Labor supporting her, she will literally crush the Recall Team. Why even bother?

Tuyet Nguyet and "Arts of Asia"

This is an amazing story of one woman's love of the art and dedication to her culture. The magazine founded by Tuyet Nguyet almost 40 years ago introduces Asian arts to a worldwide audience at an unprecedent level. It is now an indispensible magazine to art collectors in over 80 countries as well as a valuable source of reference for students of the arts. Some back issues of the magazine themselves also have become collector items

Her trailblazing effort gains her as one of the most respected people in the world of international museums and private galleries

http://www.artsofasianet.com/publications/20060526.pdf

http://www.artsofasia.com/

Mayor Reed Predicts Nguyen to Win

The community is buzzing with Mayor Reed's prediction that Nguyen would win when asked by the Merc after last week conference by the Recall Team. Reed made the prediction with confidence and LSI would not blame him. The vast resources and supports Nguyen is receiving make her a concensus favorite. Nguyen has powerful elected officials, wealthy developers, influential lobbyist and hundreds of members of South Bay Labor Unions to help her. She also unites the two most powerful but opposite political forces in the Bay area in her corner - Mayor Reed and South Bay Labor Unions under the leadership of Cindy Chavez.

It is not a secret that Reed and Chavez personally could not stand being in the same room together. But the two have many things in common, more than they would care to admit. Both political careers were greatly influenced by Ron Gonzales. Chavez's political career was paved for by Gonzales (Even though she would never admit it according to Gonzales). Reed's ascending to mayor was paved because of the corrpution under Gonzales administration. They also share a trusted friend who has an office on the nth floor of the Knight-Ridder building. Now, they are united against the same community that they had worked hard to gain support during their mayoral election.

And they both predicted that Nguyen would win, one publicly, the other one indireclty. LSI says right on!!

Sam Liccardo Supporting the Recall of Nguyen?

Two weeks ago, Councilmember Liccardo was walking the precinct with South Bay Labor Unions in support of the anti-recall on El Cajon Dr. In an awkward moment, he ran into the recall team walking in the same block. The leader of the team politely asked him (Well, more like calling him out). To not causing anymore embarassment than necessary, LSI would just report that the leader basically asked in the context - "What is going on, we thought you think Madison Nguyen is deserving it and wish that she would go away." Liccardo did not answer directly and walked away mumbling some excuses.

In today's Tet Parade, in front of mostly an anti-Madison Nguyen crowd and recall signs, he announced he is one of the greatest supporters of the community. According to the organizers (who are recall suporters), he only agreed to attend the parade under one condition, he would only stand on the podium addressing the crowd and would not take part in the traditional riding of the car with other city councilmembers. Councilmembers usually take part in both as part of the tradition.

See the video for yourself on

http://www.vietnamdaily.com/

Councilmembers were under pressure to boycott the Tet Parade. Kansen Chu was not about succumb to such pressure. The councilmembers knew that and to them he is Asian so he is part of the Vietnamese-American community anyway. But it took the chutzpah (no pun intended) of a new councilmember to stand up to what is right. Of course LSI does not know what being said behind close door. But it could not be more dramatic than what John Zamora said in front of city hall when calling out Madison Nguyen: " I must be myself as a Latino, when I face adversity, choose right over wrong, ethic over convenience and self benefit, truth over popularity".

Five of the councilmembers took the cue and followed the new councilmember's lead and the rest of the council members, well you can see on the video. Nora Campos stuck by her Labor Union's sister, Madison Nguyen and did not response to the invitation. Unlike last year, Nguyen was invited but similar to Campos, she did not response.

Reed declined and his excuse was he had a preplanned event and would be out of town. This was much better than last year when he did not even offer an excuse for not going.

Liccardo did not show up last year and gave an out of town excuse. It was awkward when an aide from the then Vice Mayor Cortese's office ran smack into him on Santa Clara Avenue as Liccardo was crossing the street while the Tet Parade was occuring.

Madison Nguyen has a lot friends in powerful places and she can pull alot of strings to intimidate people. With Cindy Chavez and Labor Unions squarely behind Nguyen, councilmembers like Liccardo who are looking to further their political career are wise to play both sides of the fence.

But if Liccardo was true to his friend, why even showed up to support an anti-Madison Nguyen crowd and risked upsetting Nguyen and Labor. These are the same people whom he insulted to be "so much disrespectful" to him and Nguyen. LSI still thinks Nguyen will crush the recall team so Liccardo should not worry.