President Hu Jintao at the White House

[GeneChing]

I only post this because Jackie got acknowledged as 'best dressed'


Obamas Host China's President Hu at Glitzy White House State Dinner (http://www.politicsdaily.com/2011/01/19/obamas-host-chinas-president-hu-at-glitzy-white-house-state-din/)
19 hours ago

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.politicsdaily.com/media/2011/01/new-article-main-427.jpg
President and Mrs. Obama welcomed China's President Hu Jintao to a glittery state dinner for 225 Wednesday night, with guests ranging from Wall Street titans to a human rights champion, to a pair of former presidents -- Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton -- and a clutch of entertainers and business leaders.

The event also featured an all-American dinner capped by apple pie and ice cream and the news flash from Obama that China will let Washington's National Zoo keep Mei Xiang and Tian Tian, its adorable loaner pandas, for another five years. After the toasts came a jazz concert.

Most guests arrived via a ground floor entrance and walked across the marble floor past a media scrum -- there was no red carpet, this being the White House, not the Golden Globes -- and it's not clear whether any of them noticed the dozens of protestors across Pennsylvania Avenue. The protestors spent much of the day demonstrating against China's crackdown on the religious group Falun Gong and against China's tough policies in Tibet.

Kenneth Roth, who heads Human Rights Watch, stopped to talk to reporters on his way to ****tails and addressed that very issue when he said, "I take it that was the reason I was invited, as a statement to President Hu. . . . These days the Chinese accept human rights as a topic of conversation. That is a step forward from the past."

This state dinner was the smallest of the three the Obamas have hosted -- there were more than 300 guests at the 2009 dinner for the Indian prime minister and some 260 honoring the Mexican president. This is also the first one held exclusively inside the White House, rather than under an enormous tent outdoors.

Guests were seated in three adjoining rooms, and although a state dinner invitation is, by definition, a hot ticket, best bragging rights arguably went to those in the State Dining Room. The Obamas and Hu -- who eschewed a tux for a dark business suit and necktie -- sat at a long rectangular head table for 20. Ten smaller round tables were arranged throughout the room. The rest of the guests were in the Red and Blue Rooms, which where equipped with large TV monitors so everyone could see and hear the toasts that came at the end of a long day of events dealing with trade and security.

The tables were covered in richly colored cloths -- teal, garnet or sable -- featuring a pheasant print that may have been meant to kill two birds with one stone: The pheasant is native to China, and was a favorite avian subject of American naturalist John James Audubon. Floral centerpieces of roses, hydrangeas, orchids and foliage toned down the gold service plates and flatware, some of it dating to the 1890s. The china came from the Reagan and Clinton presidencies.

At the request of the Chinese delegation, the menu was quintessentially American (think surf and turf) and for the first time at an Obama state dinner, White House chef Cristeta Comerford did not have to share her kitchen with a "guest" chef. The meal started with a pear, fennel, walnut and goat cheese salad, followed by poached Maine lobster with orange glazed carrots and black trumpet mushrooms, then a spot of lemon sorbet (the all-important palate cleanser) and proceeded on to dry, aged rib eye with buttermilk crisp onions, creamed spinach and double-stuffed potatoes. Dessert was that old standby, apple pie and ice cream.

As they have at previous celebrations, the Obamas used a professional party firm in addition to the White House staff. Rafinelli Events of Boston, which did the honors, is perhaps best known for staging Chelsea Clinton's knockout wedding in July.

And now, let's get down to the really important stuff: Who wore what, and who had clever repartee en route to pre-dinner ****tails.

Michelle Obama did not choose a gown by either Jason Wu (she wore one of his creations to the inaugural balls) or Vera Wang, two Chinese-Americans she has favored in the past. Instead she chose a long, deep red and black number with asymetrical shoulders, a tight bodice and draped skirt by Alexander McQueen, the bad-boy British designer who committed suicide last year.

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.politicsdaily.com/media/2011/01/obamas-chan-318.jpg
The best-dressed man at the dinner, hands down, was martial arts movie mogul Jackie Chan, in a buttonless, open black jacket and high-collared white shirt with no tie. He carried a large camera to take groupie pix, and said he'd spent to morning hoping to hear some news about the American and Chinese film industries.

Wang wore, well, duh, Wang, a taupe and cream chiffon column; around her neck was a chunky stone collar of bronze-y bling (diamonds? crystals?). Barbra Streisand, who joked she'd been invited because "I worked in a Chinese restaurant," also claimed design credit for her ensemble: a long, dark pinstripe skirt with a high slit, a low-cut vest with giant sparkly buttons, a matching jacket and perhaps 200 carats of clear bling (diamonds? crystals?) around her throat.

Vogue Editor Anna Wintour -- who put the First Lady on the fashion mag cover -- sported an elegant knee-length white Chanel suit accented with geometric glitz. Conspicuously absent were her trademark sunglasses. Was there anything she wanted to know about Hu? "Will he invest his money in Chinese fashion?" she asked. We presume she was not referring to China's notorious knock-off clothing and counterfeit accessories factories.

Actor B.D. Wong of "Law & Order" was so thrilled to be at the White House he took cell-phone pictures of the media on his way in with his mother. Imagine his delight to discover he would be seated at the head table.

Perhaps it was an accident of timing, or maybe a minor global financial conspiracy, but Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs and Jamie Dimon of JP Morgan Chase came in one after the other, with their wives on their arms. There were no shouted questions and no volunteered remarks.

Although the crowd was heavily Democratic there were some Republicans, including Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, and former Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, who brought her father rather than her husband, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. He was one of several lawmakers who declined the Obamas' invitation. So, too, did House Speaker John Boehner, who meets Thursday on Capitol Hill with Hu.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid also declined, which is probably a good thing given that he called Hu a "dictator" on Tuesday during a radio show in Las Vegas, although House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi happily attended with husband Paul.

Then there was John Huntsman, the U.S. ambassador to China who is widely rumored to be interested in running for the Republican presidential nomination. Asked about future plans on the way in, he said simply, "We are loyal to our country and our president."

But the State Dinner was about the moment, not the future. And so when dinner ended, guests filed into the East Room to hear such jazz greats as Herbie Han**** and Dee Dee Bridgewater and Chinese pianist Lang Lang. On a school night, Obama daughters Sasha and Malia were allowed to stay up late and come downstairs to catch the concert, for which they had the president of China to thank.
What does Jackie's shirt remind me of? Oh yea... this (http://www.martialartsmart.com/11-11.html).

[GeneChing]

Here's Jackie at the White House, only 37 years after Jet.

Jackie Chan, Streisand head Hu dinner (http://video.couriermail.com.au/embed/1752813836/Jackie-Chan-Streisand-head-Hu-dinner?player=narrow)

[Syn7]

i wonder what the fallout will be like... i hear alotta cats complaining that he even met with the guy??? for a country to destroy one brutal dictator only to host another sends a confusing moral messege, at best... i do understand the politics tho, and i would probably have met with him too... but then i wouldnt have either propped up and built saddam nor would i have then taken him off the pedestal i had paid for during a different war that i also wouldnt have been involved in had it been my call... but thats just me...

i think the US should liberate china...:rolleyes:


jackies suit was nice tho... dig that... michelles dress was nice too... Hu was pretty average, blue tie and all... obama look pretty tall in a tux...

[Drake]

Nihao, President Hu Jintao!

[David Jamieson]

Dictator.

China needs to dump the authoritarian totalitarian police state governance and get with democracy.

The States needs to stop pandering to China and needs to continually push Hu to make the changes required.

Obama did make good with his criticism though, so bravo for him and also a nod to Hu for admitting there is a lot of work to be done.

[wenshu]

Yes, because the U.S has a completely justified overabundance of moral superiority, and China has no reasons whatsoever to distrust the U.S.:

http://www.eubios.info/EJ106/EJ106C.htm

1. "Factories of Death"
From 1933 to 1945, Japanese doctors in China performed thousands of cruel experiments on Chinese, Russians, Mongolians, and Koreans and killed all of them. At Unit 731 alone, at least 3,000 people were tortured and murdered. In addition, similar human experiments and vivisections were done at four branches of Unit 731, four other "Boeki Kyusui Bu" (Anti-Epidemic Water Supply and Purification Bureaus), "Gunju Boeki Sho" (Anti-Epizootic Protection Units) including Unit 100, the Manchuria Medical School, and army hospitals

(1). These experiments and vivisections can be classified under the following four categories.
(1) vivisections for training newly employed army surgeons
At army hospitals in China, army surgeons did many vivisections on Chinese prisoners. These doctors performed appendectomies and tracheostomies on the prisoners, shot them and took bullets from their bodies, cut their arms and legs and sewed up the skin around the wounds, and finally killed them. This surgical practice was purportedly part of the training program of newly employed army surgeons to teach them how to treat wounded soldiers at the front lines. However, since in these "training" careful skill to avoid the patients' needless harm and death was not required at all, the main purpose seems to have been to make surgeons desensitized, rather than to make themskillful.
(2) intentional infection of diseases
At the research faculties of the "Boeki Kyusui Bu," including Unit 731, researchers infected prisoners with many kinds of diseases, for example, plague, cholera, epidemic (kidney) hemorrhagic fever, tuberculosis, typhoid, tetanus, anthrax, glanders, typhus, and dysentery. The purpose of this intentional infection was to seek the pathogen of the disease (for example in the case of epidemic hemorrhagic fever), to measure the infectiousness of the pathogen, to select more infectious strains, to investigate the effect of bacteriological weapons, etc. The subjects were dissected after their death or vivisected to death.
(3) trials of nonstandardized treatments
Many prisoners were killed during trials of nonstandardized, unestablished, and unusual "treatments." Many kinds of vaccines in the development stage were tried directly on prisoners, with no prior trials on animals. As another example, searching for treatment for severe frostbite, Dr. Hisato Yoshimura made the prisoners' arms or legs suffer severe frostbite and then warmed them with hot water. When the temperature of the water was over 50 degrees centigrade, the skin and muscles came off. Some other doctors tried horse blood transfusion, which was said to be developed for emergency transfusion to wounded soldiers at the front lines where there is no blood supply.
(4) learning tolerance of the human body
There were deadly experiments with airtight chambers at Unit 731, the same ones as those conducted at the Nazi concentration camps. Some prisoners were forced to breathe poison gas. Others were killed by lowering the air pressure. In addition, there were doctors who only wanted to know how much air could be injected intravenously, how much bleeding brought prisoners to death, how many days prisoners could live with no food or water or only water without food, or how high electric current or voltage human beings could bear. There were also many trials of newly developed weapons with human subjects.


http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/biography/weapon-biography-shiro-ishii/

Immunity
No doubt aware that his activities constituted war crimes of the highest order, Ishii faked his own death in late 1945 and went into hiding. When American occupation forces learned that Ishii was still alive, they ordered the Japanese to hand him over and investigators from Camp Detrick began interrogations. At first Ishii denied any human testing had taken place but, aware that the Soviets also wanted to talk to him and their methods might not be so mild, he later offered to reveal all the details of his program in exchange for immunity from war crimes prosecution. Anxious to learn the results of experiments that they themselves had been unable to perform, the American military accepted Ishii’s offer, and approval was then given by the highest level of government. Ultimately Ishii’s materials proved to be of little value, but the United States kept its end of this dubious bargain. Biological weapons were never mentioned in the Japanese war crimes trials, and Ishii died a free man in 1959.

[sanjuro_ronin]

History has taught us that the best way to bring down any dictatorship is NOT via war or political sanctions but by talking and winning them over with the all powerful force of economical freedom :)
It is happening in China and will happen in our lifetime I bet.


Gene, nice shirt dude, looks nice and soft too...may decide to get one...

[Drake]

China has already come a long way with civil rights and free trade. They are getting there. Like they have said before, it will be on their terms. Try managing over a billion people... it's not easy.

[sanjuro_ronin]

China has already come a long way with civil rights and free trade. They are getting there. Like they have said before, it will be on their terms. Try managing over a billion people... it's not easy.

Well, I think everyone learned the lessons of when the USSR went belly up and certainly no one wants anything even remotely like that to happen in China.

[BJJ-Blue]

The States needs to stop pandering to China and needs to continually push Hu to make the changes required.

When you owe someone alot of money you really aren't in a position to dictate to them how they run their house.


China has already come a long way with civil rights and free trade. They are getting there.

Tell that to Liu Xiaobo, the human rights activist who won the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize, who China has thrown in prison.

Our latest Nobel Peace Price winner is our President, theirs is languishing in prison.

[Drake]

When you owe someone alot of money you really aren't in a position to dictate to them how they run their house.



Tell that to Liu Xiaobo, the human rights activist who won the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize, who China has thrown in prison.

Our latest Nobel Peace Price winner is our President, theirs is languishing in prison.

Did he break Chinese law?

[sanjuro_ronin]

Tell that to Liu Xiaobo, the human rights activist who won the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize, who China has thrown in prison.

At least he didn't get run over by a tank !
You can't put a price on progress like that !!!

[BJJ-Blue]

Did he break Chinese law?

Are you actually defending them throwing him into prison?

[Drake]

Are you actually defending them throwing him into prison?

If you break the laws of the country you live in, being thrown in jail isn't a terribly surprising result. So I'm asking... did he break the law?

[BJJ-Blue]

If you break the laws of the country you live in, being thrown in jail isn't a terribly surprising result. So I'm asking... did he break the law?

Yes he did.

And so did Rosa Parks....

[Drake]

Yes he did.

And so did Rosa Parks....

Rosa Parks wasn't openly condemning and calling for the dismantling of our government either.

[Syn7]

do you really think billions of people in one area are managable, period???

[Drake]

do you really think billions of people in one area are managable, period???

It gets harder when you have people trying to dismantle a plan that, while not good enough, is working.

If you cannot understand the culture, the value system, or even the basic fundamentals of Chinese society, then of course you won't understand why they do things the way they do them.

[sanjuro_ronin]

A little FYI:
As some of you may know, my parents are JW's ( Jehovas Witnesses) and a such I was and am expose to their literature, far too exposed but that is another story, LOL !
There is a story of a lady in China that was arrested because she was a JW.
According to the JW's she was arrested for preaching the Truth of God, as per the JW doctrine of course.
So I did some digging and it was true, she was arrested for preaching the JW doctrine, bit as usual there is more to that.
The JW's preach Door-to-door, unsolicted canvassing basically.
That is against the Law in China, she was told to stop THAT part of her preaching work since door-to-door canvassing is illegal.
She refused, she broke the law, she went to Jail.
Religious persecution?
You tell me.

[Syn7]

It gets harder when you have people trying to dismantle a plan that, while not good enough, is working.

If you cannot understand the culture, the value system, or even the basic fundamentals of Chinese society, then of course you won't understand why they do things the way they do them.

i dont really have an opinion one way or another... ive never been to china and i havent put very much time into learning their population control methods and future plans... i know whats common knowledge, like the one child policies and stuff like that, but thats it... i do understand the culture from the chinese community here, ive put alotta time in... but thats here, i dunno about over there...


so what are you talking about that is "working" but being dismantled??? what? and by who?

[Syn7]

Religious persecution?
You tell me.

well in her mind i guess she thinks shes like rosa parks... but she broke the law, she knew what she was doing and i cant feel sorry for her... she made her choice and chose to martyr herself... so shes either where she wants to be or shes monumentally stupid and naive... she could have just stopped going door to door and kept doing everything else... is knocking on doors like the most essential part of JW??? how long is she in for???

[sanjuro_ronin]

well in her mind i guess she thinks shes like rosa parks... but she broke the law, she knew what she was doing and i cant feel sorry for her... she made her choice and chose to martyr herself... so shes either where she wants to be or shes monumentally stupid and naive... she could have just stopped going door to door and kept doing everything else... is knocking on doors like the most essential part of JW??? how long is she in for???

Yes, for pioneering JW's the door-to-door preaching is "mandatory".
I don't recall how long she was in for in TOTAL, because every time they were gonna let her out she said she would do it again, so they put her back in.
Or something like that.

The JW religion is a religion of works and deeds, not on of Grace and faith.
Every JW is expected to preach D2D and drop off the literature of the Watchtower corporation (its basically a printing/publishing house).

[BJJ-Blue]

Rosa Parks wasn't openly condemning and calling for the dismantling of our government either.

Is Liu Xiaobo?

And she was fighting for the repeal of laws that were lawfully passed by the Government. And you can be darn sure people involved in the civil rights movement here were comdemning our Government/country/laws/etc. Hell, Obama's own 'pastor' was/is condemning this country. Should he be thrown in prison?

I'm stunned a man who is defending our freedom appears to be ok with a dictatorship locking up a non-violent human rights activist.

[BJJ-Blue]

but she broke the law, she knew what she was doing and i cant feel sorry for her... she made her choice and chose to martyr herself... so shes either where she wants to be or shes monumentally stupid and naive... she could have just stopped going door to door and kept doing everything else... is knocking on doors like the most essential part of JW??? how long is she in for???

Wow. Do you feel those people who hid Jews during the Holocaust and got caught and executed either wanted to die or were monumentally stupid and naive?

[sihing]

Last year while at a local fund raising spagetti dinner, the guy next to me (after finding out that I taught a Kung Fu class) related me his experiences visiting China each year and living there for months at a time. He's in his mid 50's, caucation, lived/worked in Canada all his life, I've never met him before.

He talked about how family is really important in China, and how the older son, after going to school and getting work, would support the family with their earnings, this happened in all the families he was familiar with. He said the food was great, the atmosphere and culture was great and they were giving people. I asked him about the health care, he related a story to me about how when he was visiting a friend at his house, the custom is to always finish the drink that was put in front of you, as it would be an insult not to do so, well it was alcoholic drinks being put in front of him, shots per say, and he ended up getting alcohol poisoning, lol. He went to the hospital, they hooked up a IV to rehydrate him, and set up appointments with a variety of specialist to make sure he was well, and also over the next weeks regular IV appointments. All of this cost him $500 CAN. I couldn't believe it.

He also said when he comes back to Canada, he is sort of disgusted with the culture and selfishness exibited by the people. I quote "How stupid is it to spend your whole income on a big truck, to drive it around town, just to look good, all the while wearing old, grungy clothing and living in a house that is ready to fall apart..."

Just sharin an experience, of course this is not the same experience for everyone that travel to China.

James

[sanjuro_ronin]

I'm stunned a man who is defending our freedom appears to be ok with a dictatorship locking up a non-violent human rights activist.

Dude, do you really want to go there in regards to a country locking up non-violent activists?
WE do it all the time.

[Syn7]

Yes, for pioneering JW's the door-to-door preaching is "mandatory".
I don't recall how long she was in for in TOTAL, because every time they were gonna let her out she said she would do it again, so they put her back in.
Or something like that.

The JW religion is a religion of works and deeds, not on of Grace and faith.
Every JW is expected to preach D2D and drop off the literature of the Watchtower corporation (its basically a printing/publishing house).

watchout the replicators are comming!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!





i know what watchtower is, lol... i toss em out all the time...

they used to come to my door when i lived with my ex in this one area... every week they would come and every week we'd either ignore them or say we arent interested...

anyways once they knocked on the door while me and my girl were gettin freaky... we tried to ignore them but they heard the music so they kept knocking and ringing the bell over and over and over and over... finally we both just got up and answered the door buck naked and said "WHAT?".... they never came back, ever...

stay away from the angry naked people, they are eeeeevil!!!

[Drake]

Is Liu Xiaobo?

And she was fighting for the repeal of laws that were lawfully passed by the Government. And you can be darn sure people involved in the civil rights movement here were comdemning our Government/country/laws/etc. Hell, Obama's own 'pastor' was/is condemning this country. Should he be thrown in prison?

I'm stunned a man who is defending our freedom appears to be ok with a dictatorship locking up a non-violent human rights activist.

I'm stunned that you think we have the right to tell every nation out there to act exactly like us, despite their culture, history, and way of life. You think Afghanistan is democratic?

[David Jamieson]

China has already come a long way with civil rights and free trade. They are getting there. Like they have said before, it will be on their terms. Try managing over a billion people... it's not easy.

I agree. There is a completely different cultural ethic at play and we all have to be patient. Nevertheless, I think we should be persistent with our protestations to keep the boat sailing, so to speak.

China has the advantage of having institutional mechanisms already in place. They can implement change management and have an entirely different way and system in place in a short term that those billion plus folk can have access to.

It is now not only technologically possible to do this, but it is also possible to find globally shared values with all humanity.

This will require divergent thinking on everyone's part and a paradigm shift overall.

Anyway...

[wenshu]

I'm sure the 1.3b people of China are relieved to know that some mollycoddled, whitebread westerners know what is best for them.


Do you have any idea what polling in China would look like?
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1005/4606224000_2706806378.jpg

Democracy is overrated.

[Syn7]

no doubt... but we'll have to meet in the middle somewhere, and as long as we have enough people that are unwilling to change their lives for the betterment of ALL lives, its gonna be a tough battle... but the majority has the real power, everyone else is just an agitator...

[GeneChing]

I suspect Yee's demands will be forgotten soon. Too bad. I like Yee - he's always been a great supporter of Shaolin (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=53389).

Asian-American lawmakers demand Limbaugh apology (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110128/ap_on_en_tv/us_limbaugh_asian_americans)
By JUDY LIN, Associated Press Judy Lin, Associated Press – Fri Jan 28, 7:05 am ET

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Rush Limbaugh's imitation of the Chinese language during a recent speech made by Chinese President Hu Jintao has stirred a backlash among Asian-American lawmakers in California and nationally.

California state Sen. Leland Yee, a Democrat from San Francisco, is leading a fight in demanding an apology from the radio talk show host for what he and others view as racist and derogatory remarks against the Chinese people.

In recent days, the state lawmaker has rallied civil rights groups in a boycott of companies like Pro Flowers, Sleep Train and Domino's Pizza that advertise on Limbaugh's national talk radio show.

"The comments that he made — the mimicking of the Chinese language — harkens back to when I was a little boy growing up in San Francisco and those were hard days, rather insensitive days," Yee said in an interview Thursday. "You think you've arrived and all of a sudden get shot back to the reality that you're a second-class citizen."

During a Jan. 19 radio program, Limbaugh said there was no translation of the Chinese president's speech during a visit to the White House.

"He was speaking and they weren't translating," Limbaugh said. "They normally translate every couple of words. Hu Jintao was just going ching chong, ching chong cha."

He then launched into a 20-second-long imitation of the Chinese leader's dialect.

The next day, Limbaugh said he "did a remarkable job" of imitating China's president for someone who doesn't know a language spoken by more than 1 billion people.

"Back in the old days, Sid Caesar, for those of you old enough to remember, was called a comic genius for impersonating foreign languages that he couldn't speak," Limbaugh said. "But today the left says that was racism; it was bigotry; it was insulting. And it wasn't. It was a service."

A telephone and e-mail to Limbaugh's station operator Clear Channel Communications Inc. was not returned Thursday. Clear Channel's Premiere Radio Networks Inc. is home to Limbaugh, Jim Rome, Ryan Seacrest, Glenn Beck, Bob Costas and Sean Hannity.

An e-mail to Limbaugh's show requesting comment was also not returned.

Yee has been joined by Asian-American state and federal lawmakers who say Limbaugh's comments are inciting hate and intolerance amid a polarized atmosphere. A number of civil rights groups, including Chinese for Affirmative Action, Japanese American Citizens League and the California National Organization for Women, have joined Yee in calling on sponsors to pull advertisements from Limbaugh's program.

An online petition has been created on Yee's website.

"I want an apology at the very least," said New York Assemblywoman Grace Meng, a Queens Democrat. "Making fun of any country's leader is just very disrespectful for someone who says he is a proud American."

She added: "He was, in his own way, trying to attack the leader of another country, and that's his prerogative as well, but at the same time he offended 13 percent of New York City's population."

There are about 14 million, or 4.5 percent, Asian-Americans in the United States, more if counting those of mixed races.

In California, Asians make up more than 12 percent of the state's 38 million population.

While Asian-American lawmakers demand an apology from Limbaugh, some are increasingly concerned for Yee's personal safety. Public officials have been put on alert after the deadly rampage in Tucson where U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was shot while meeting with constituents.

Shortly after condemning Limbaugh's remarks, Yee said he received racist death threats to his San Francisco and Sacramento offices. The lawmaker also received a profanity-filled telephone message Thursday.

The caller, who did not identify himself, called Yee a "cry baby" and urged him to resign from office.

Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Tony Beard Jr. confirmed the Legislature has launched an investigation and is cooperating with other security agencies.

He said Yee had received similar faxes in April after he called on a state university to disclose how much it was paying Sarah Palin for a fundraiser.

"We need to stand up for civility and be respectful of one another. Otherwise the consequences are dreadful as we can already see in the death threats against Senator Yee," said Rep. Judy Chu, a Democrat who represents a large Asian district outside Los Angeles.

Yee, who has a chance to become San Francisco's first elected Asian mayor, said he has no plans to change his behavior because doing so would amount to "stepping down." He said his staff has received additional security training.

"It's just been a disappointing experience," Yee said. "I'm not angry about it, more disappointed that in the year 2011, we still have individuals who are racist."

Threats to minority lawmakers are not new. California state Assemblyman Paul Fong said he was the target of racist comments in 2009, when he introduced a resolution officially expressing California's regret for the way it treated Chinese living in the state.