04:53 PM by 
http://www.digitalarchives.wa.gov/governorlocke/bios/bio.htm
http://www.mltsf.com/lawyer-attorney-1067081.html
On Friday October 3, 2008, James Yee and other notables attended an Obama Victory Fund event at the home of Laurie and Scott Oki in Bellevue, WA. The Asian American Finance Committee also headed the event.
Representative Mike Honda was scheduled to attend this event, but he was unable to attend, because he was voting on the Emergency Bill to bail out Wall Street. The first person that spoke at this event was Washington State Senator, Maria Cantwell. She talked about why Obama is good for Washington State and for America. There were several people who were there from the Microsoft community. It was not surprising, because Microsoft is headquartered in Seattle.
The second person to speak at the event was Honarary Gary Locke, former Washington State governor. He spoke about how the Bush administration has locked up people based on mere suspicions. He then recognized James Yee using him as an example of the injustices that people have faced under the Bush administration. Hon. Locke talked about the oppression that James Yee faced, how James Yee was sent to prison and threatened with the dealth penalty, only to be exonerated later. Hon. Locke said how can things like this happen in our country. We have to change our country to make sure things like this do not happen.
Didi Saluja and James Yee
http://www.obamadelegates.org/page/Didi+Saluja?t=anon
Asians have seen things like this happen to them before. For example, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, banned Chinese from coming into United States and countless other acts of oppressions against Asians in America. We have come a long way, but there is still so much more to do to ensure everyone is treated equally and fairly.
The Asian American community seems to relate better to Obama over McCain. And it was evident from the event that many in the Asian American community believe that Obama’s approach to running the government will be much better.
Jame Yee also caught up with an old friend, Dale Minami, who is from San Francisco, but was also attending the event. James Yee said they remembered Dale, because of his work in overturning the Fred Korematsu case,involving Japanese internment. http://www.trackedinamerica.org/timeline/pearl_harbor/korematsu/
Dale Minami and James Yee spoke on a panel together a few years ago in Philadelphia during NAPABA-National Asian Pacific American Bar Association. http://www.napaba.org/napaba/showpage.asp?code=home
There was encouragement to have some fun and celebrate at the event, because they consider it a pre-victory party in relation to the upcoming election on November 4th of this year.
*NOTE TO READERS*
I added some pictures from the DNC that James Yee attended on the blog about him. Please go to this link here: http://mai.ningin.com/2008/08/21/interview-with-national-delegate-james-yee/ to view them. Thank you
Tags: Asian American Finance Committee, Bellevue, chinese, civil liberties, Dale Minami, Didi Saluja, election, Emergency bill, Fred Korematsu, Gary Locke, Indian American, james yee, japanese, Laurie Oki, Maria Cantwell, Microsoft, Mike Honda, National Asian Pacific American Bar Association, Obama Victory Fund, Scott Oki, Seattle, wall street, Washington
hehe
