Séverine Baron

Manu Kenzo Baron-Jerugim

2007-08-27T08:05:00.000-07:00

So our little Prince showed up on this planet a week ago, and we have the whole story on a new blog at the Manu Kenzo Experience
Everything is good, except that after a lot of work and preparation for an extreme natural birth we had the opposite experience and Manu was born through a C-section...
Nothing is ever perfect, but everybody is fine, healthy and the little one is especially beautiful!

VOILA!

Mike posting: Any day now....

2007-08-06T12:01:00.000-07:00

Hi All! I haven't posted here in a while, but seeing as my lovely wife is currently sleeping and fit to pop at any moment, I thought I would post a few shots for curious minds.

As of today we have officially hit the 40 week mark. Nesting, to the extent that not having moved into our own apartment will allow, has been taken care of. The bags are packed for the hospital, and we are simply waiting for the little monkey to let us know when the time is right.

Isn't she pretty?

We have also occasionally been watching Raphael dance tango in the park, as there are gazillions of tango in the parks here, and Raph is becoming quite the tanguero! Go Raph, go!

More to come soon.....

Moved to Montreal... yes we did!

2007-05-24T07:03:00.000-07:00

Ah yeah, we finally did it! We moved to Montreal!!! YEAHHHHH!
We're very happy to start something new, explore new things, make new friends and have our new baby!
Things have been going well, we're staying at my parents' house for now but have been visiting apartments and hopefully found one that's just right, we'll find out later this week or next.
Mike has been interviewing for jobs and had an offer he's still waiting to finalize, so no comment about that until it happens.

I'm almost 29 weeks at this point, so there is only about 80 days to go... It passes by way too fast!

26 weeks.... and growing... Time goes fast!

2007-05-03T20:52:00.000-07:00

Moving boxes and new belly pictures

2007-04-17T14:31:00.000-07:00

Ohhhhhh, movingg..... backaches.... grrrrrrrr
There are boxes everywhere, it's a mess here... We're selling a bunch of stuff, pretty much every furniture we own actually. It'll be great to start everything fresh over there!
i'm getting fat though, so bending over to put stuff in boxes is becoming hard.
otherwise we've been seeing a bunch of our friends since they want to see us before we lieave, and that's been cool! We never see our friends here in Los Angeles, too much driving, too much stress in everybody's lives anyway, so it's hard to get out and drive for an hour to go out at night, everybody has become part of this mode it seems.
Luckily we have a few friends who live closer to where we do, and we have been able to see these guys...
nothing else is very new, the baby Monkey is kicking when there is music, especially loud music, he/she loves it... then sleeps for 2 days... hahahaha It's a hard life!

We took new pictures, and are religiously archiving the evolution of the belly... quite an impressive achievement we women go through, I mean, I don't want to sound like I'm patting myself on the back, but do you all ever think about the physical changes we manage to produce when we're expecting a child? I never thought about it of course before it happened to me, but oh man! I still wonder how much more my belly can grow out of the petite-ness that I am!
Nature sure has a very crazy interesting way of doing things!
Love it!

Baby monkey pictures (ultrasound)

2007-04-04T14:23:00.000-07:00

Here are the pictures from the ultrasound we had monday evening. He/She is a monkey! The legs are above the head like a contortionist trick!
Cute huh!?

20 going on 21... weeks...

2007-03-28T06:29:00.000-07:00

We heard the heartbeat.... Very cool!!!
Next monday will be the ultrasound where we'll finally see our little monkey!
Can't wait.

2007-03-19T10:42:00.000-07:00

Week 20.... Meaning I'm 4 months pregnant!

I found that picture on the left on the internet, we're actually getting our own ultra sound very soon while in Montreal but there are some amazing actual photographs of other babies that are truly astonishing!!!

We're leaving tomorrow for two weeks to go for check ups and finding a place etc etc!

That's the update....
Oh, we also had a baby shower which went well, we saw a bunch of Mike's family members who we don't get to see very often, so it was nice. Of course they brought gifts which is always nice! haha Mostly though, everybody was happy for us, and it was exciting to have so many people as excited as us! :-)

We felt "flutters" or little bubbles a few days ago, and that was really fun, feeling the baby move really subtly is amazing and we really are looking forward to bigger movements that we can track. I remember my brother in my mother's belly who had different reactions to me playing the piano or to when my mom was in a bath.... sooooo much fun!

So there. We'll probably post some pictures on the travel blog if anybody wants to see and will try to have the ultra sound with us to put up on there.

Until then, bask in the glow of my new "front pack", it's becoming more and more apparent!
hahahaha

13 weeks and growing...

2007-02-01T10:57:00.000-08:00

Ok ok, I never write here.... Anymore... So in light of this, I'll write about what's going on now, which to many people will be oh so boring, but oh well!

Here is what a 13 week old fetus looks like (not mine):

I think it's alreay partying in there without me knowing. It's like a practice for everything he/she is going to be doing behind my back later on in life!
That's ok, I'll get you, little one!

So far I've had many people ask if my belly is bigger. Yes it's SLIGHTLY rounded, it's really just a bump. I look like I fell in the cookie jar more than anything else!
But it will change fast enough. For now, I'm still enjoying being able to fall asleep on my stomach.
I never had nausea, just about a week of aversions to certain smells and therefore foods. But nothing bad. I had bouts of tiredness that got me to my bones, but that also was rather mild. I feel irritated here and there, but nothing different from any old PMS. Which goes back to the eternal "don't mess with a pregnant lady!", and I would add "even if she doesn't look pregnant!"

So there, that's the scoop, nothing that interesting since I don't have any gory details of how I threw up there or there, nothing like "I have been beating my husband every night since I found out I was pregnant", and nothing like "my eyes are so puffy from crying I can't see through them"....
Sorry! ;-)

ooops...

2007-01-12T22:26:00.000-08:00

Another good green gift guide

2006-12-13T10:30:00.000-08:00

inhabitat offers a good selection of gifts in categories that make it easy to find something for that person who has everything!
I love the lumen stuff, I think you can find them at Design Within Reach also.

There are also things like mini solar keychain LED lights, or trees can be planted in the recipient's name (45$ for 450 trees), egglings are also very cool for cheap, a sort of garden in a bag but in an egg... Ecospheres are starting to be known by all, of course a photovoltaic bag is nice though on the expensive side, but nice!

Then there is Generate (or gnr8) which has very modern type of gifts.
The salt & pepper hug is so cute! Moi jewelry for the geeks and many more...

Last but not least is uncommon goods!
There you can find menu organizers, procedural dating organizers, pregnancy prep gift sets, door mats, and so many more fun gifts....

Really cool original gift guide

2006-12-11T11:54:00.000-08:00

Between a twist n spout, an inconvenient truth DVD, sign language bookmarks, and more, all under $77. I love it!
Find it at Core77.com

Then for the more ecological oriented, the treehugger gift guide is pretty resourceful with a nice "user friendly" navigation. Everything is featured including bamboo utensils, fuel cell car kit for kids, eco camp kit for the outdoorsy type person, organic wine and beers, green jewelry, organic chocolate and teas, clothing etc...

Affordable Solar panels

2006-12-11T11:49:00.000-08:00

It's getting hot in here has a quick interesting article on the affordability of photovoltaics. Seems like everyone should be getting on the train at this point!!!!

According to the U.S. Department of Energy itself, PVs are now “producing electricity at a cost of 8-10 cents per kilowatt/hour, making solar electricity a more cost-competitive and integral part of our nation’s energy mix.”

Furoshiki, or how to origami your giftwraps

2006-12-09T11:37:00.000-08:00

The Japanese government publiched this in an effort to be "green"....
The idea is not to wrap in plastic but still be able to carry them, except this way is pretty!
cool, huh!?

2006-12-08T14:24:00.000-08:00

So you're telling me I can build my own house with my own little hands, make as sustainable as I wish, AND it would look like a hobbit's house?
Mike, when do we start?
heyheyhey
Link

Trash in our water

2006-12-08T12:37:00.000-08:00

I know sometimes Greenpeace can be a tad extremist, but they have some very good campaigns too, and information which can be very educational.
Today I stumbled upon a very easy to understand animation showing very simply where trash goes in the oceans....
Check it out... it's disturbing!

Link

Green Blog extravaganza

2006-11-28T10:45:00.000-08:00

Well, after my previous blablablabla I wanted to share a friend's blog that I have come to really enjoy:
Survive LA
There you will find really interesting posts on self-sufficiency and greener homes.

Also in the green web realm, I just found this site:
tip the planet which has a lot of articles from growing your own veggies, to energy saving bulbs.

And one last one: Downsizer which also has a lot on sustainability.

Quebec's independance

2006-11-28T10:07:00.000-08:00

Well... There is another subject that I get all excited about... Quebec's independance from Canada.
I mean, why would frenchies swear allegiance to the British Queen?
Frankly there is a lot involved that I will not get into right now, simply because there is way too much involved in this subject. One thing though, Quebec has loads of resources and can sustain itself without Canada without a question. In fact it brings so much to Canada you would think the general population would have a good median income, but noooo...
Anyway, instead of keeping my rants on, I'll let good writers explain the last "generous gesture" from federal Canada:

Reuters article:

OTTAWA (Reuters) - The Canadian Parliament recognized Quebecers as a nation within a united Canada on Monday
(...)
"They (the separatists) will argue that if the Quebecois are a nation within Canada, then they are certainly a nation without Canada."

Segolene Royal wins primaries in France

2006-11-17T10:27:00.000-08:00

So there, we had primaries in France (which are not that common there!)....

The left in France is sort of like the Democrats here in that they can't agree to be united against the overwhelming conservatism and police state compulsion of the right wing.

There were three people who wanted to be the candidates to the presidentials for the left wing party called the "Parti Socialiste" (there are other left wing parties, but this one is the biggest), but of course all three had the best program ideas and were the best candidates. Instead of seeing that Segolene Royal was the obvious choice of the people, the two other guys HAD to oppose her!
So we had primaries yesterday which showed that Segolene Royal was indeed that choice.

Now that it's done, I'm feeling sort of scared because the opponent, Sarkozy (who is the PM at the moment) is venomous and I also don't really know that the french people will in fact overwhelmingly be ready to elect a woman.
It seems it will come very close and I even can catch myself praying that the little lunatic dwarf won't become president as he's probably one of the most pestilent person I could see in power there (not counting the ever present extreme right wing racist jerk, Le Pen, who always manages to snake his way close in the presidentials!)!!!

Anyway, let's hope we elect the first woman president in France next year. Let's hope people realize that electing a malicious right wing gnome cannot be beneficial to this country by watching what happened to the US in the last 6 years!

No more seafood by 2050......

2006-11-03T09:23:00.000-08:00

There may be no more commercial fish stocks left in the sea by 2050, according to a new study cataloguing the global collapse of marine ecosystems.

WOW, I knew there would be a problem with that, but I had never read about it with a date in mind (kinda like no more oil by 2045).... And when I have fears of my children not having the same life style we have now, it seems it's getting more more comfirmed!
SCARY!!!! WHICH ARE THE LAWS AGAINST OVER FISHING? (even though it's not the main culprit it's quite a big one!)
Check out "whyfiles.org"

Article here

“Unless we fundamentally change the way we manage all the ocean species together, as working eco-systems, then this century is the last century of wild food,” says Steve Palumbi at Stanford University in California, US, who carried out the four-year investigation with colleagues.
(...)
The good news is that fish stocks can recover if ecosystems are protected and biodiversity revives. Boris Worm, a marine conservationist at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada, who led the study, says that inside the 44 protected areas studied, “species came back more quickly than people anticipated – in three or five or 10 years. And where this has been done we see immediate economic benefits.”

And for the french speaking people here is an AFP article in french:

Pêche: la quasi-totalité des poissons risque de disparaître des océans d'ici 2050
WASHINGTON (AFP) - La quasi-totalité des espèces de poissons et de crustacés pêchés pour la consommation auront disparu des océans avant 2050 si les tendances actuelles se poursuivent, ont mis en garde jeudi des scientifiques américains et canadiens.
(...)
A ce stade, "29% des espèces de poissons et de crustacés sont en passe de disparaître", précise Boris Worm ajoutant que "les prises de pêche de ces espèces ont diminué de 90%" ces dernières années. La morue de l'Atlantique nord a déjà atteint le point de non-retour et est considérée quasiment éteinte.
"Toutes ces données montrent aussi qu'il est possible d'inverser les tendances actuelles avant qu'il ne soit trop tard", estiment les auteurs de l'étude, déplorant toutefois "que seul 1% des océans soit protégé actuellement".
Au lendemain de la publication de cette étude l'organisation écologiste Greenpeace a réclamé vendredi l'inscription de près de la moitié des océans au titre de sanctuaires marins. "La surpêche et la pêche illégale détruisent nos océans à un rythme alarmant", a déploré Nilesh Goundar la porte-parole de Greenpeace pour l'Australie, qui appelle à la mise en place d'une vaste zone de protection sur 40% des mers

2006-10-28T23:12:00.000-07:00


	United States		European Union

Year	DST Begins at 2 a.m.	DST Ends at 2 a.m.	Summertime period begins at 1 a.m. UT	Summertime period ends at 1 a.m. UT
2002	April 7	October 27	March 31	October 27
2003	April 6	October 26	March 30	October 26
2004	April 4	October 31	March 28	October 31
2005	April 3	October 30	March 27	October 30
2006	April 2	October 29	March 26	October 29
2007	March 11	November 4	March 25	October 28
2008	March 9	November 2	March 30	October 26

Date change in 2007

On August 8, 2005, President George W. Bush signed the Energy Policy Act of 2005. This Act changed the time change dates for Daylight Saving Time in the U.S. Beginning in 2007, DST will begin on the second Sunday in March and end the first Sunday in November. The Secretary of Energy will report the impact of this change to Congress. Congress retains the right to resume the 2005 Daylight Saving Time schedule once the Department of Energy study is complete.
(...)
For the U.S. and its territories, Daylight Saving Time is NOT observed in Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and Arizona. The Navajo Nation participates in the Daylight Saving Time policy, even in Arizona, due to its large size and location in three states.

OH GREAT.... So before, in the US, things took a little while to get moving in the spring compared to the rest of the world, but at least fall seemed to bring unity about and we all changed time at the same moment.
Granted, as seen above, one whole country can't even agree to observe it...

AND NOW WE'RE ALL SCREWED! Spring change in the US is going to be much earlier than in the EU and it's not even going to be the same in the fall anymore.

WHY OH WHY MUST YOU TORTURE US DOWN TO THE DETAILS OF OUR EVERYDAY LIVES, Mr. BUSH!?????????

Some random pictures from Montreal

2006-10-22T10:06:00.000-07:00

In Montreal

2006-10-18T16:48:00.000-07:00

Montreal time, back to Planetary Vagrant blog

WOOHOO!

Sickness and population growth article

2006-10-11T10:49:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted here in a while because I've been sooooo sick.... Feeling better now, but I have been breeding new sicknesses everytime I thought i was over one... So from a gastro intestinal problem that drained me of all energy to a sort of bronchitis that turned into a sort of laryngitis while in the middle dealing with women stuff, people, you do not want to see me right now!

There was this article in Treehugger this morning, shmish! Scary:

"Sometime this month, the U.S. population is projected to reach 300 million. In times past, reaching such a demographic milestone might have been a cause for celebration. In 2006, it is not.
(...)
More people require more of everything, including water. In our highly urbanized society, we fail to recognize how much water one person uses. While we drink close to a gallon of water each day, it takes some 500 gallons a day to produce the food we consume."

Informative read... *sigh*

Cool graph: where tax money goes

2006-09-19T12:18:00.000-07:00

Can't upload the little picture of the graph, but the link goes straight there...
Interesting huh!?
Budgetgraph

Makes me miss her....

2006-08-29T12:01:00.000-07:00

Looks like my kitty who's gone now... snif...

PS: about the previous post and the lovely comment attached to it, I won't delete it because I like to show the balls on the anonymous who prefers to accuse me a being a nazi instead of having an open discussion!

30 days pro choice/pro life

2006-08-25T10:01:00.000-07:00

Yesterday evening Mike and I watched a bit of TV. We swear by the show "30 Days" which is a series made by the same guy who did "Super size it" the movie, Morgan Spurlock.
30 days takes one person and puts them in a situation completely opposite from what she/he believes in.

"30 days, a six-part FX original series, places an individual in a living environment that is antithetical to their upbringing, beliefs, religion or profession in an effort to examine real societal differences that Americans face everyday."

Last night we were catching up on our Tivo list and watched the 30 days where a pro choice woman from Atlanta, who works at a clinic where they offer abortion, went to Long Beach to spend 30 days in a christian "maternity" (so they call it, it's a group home for pregnant women. They also show videos to first comers to promote keeping their baby, but forget to show them anything about child birth!) led by these people who were part of Operation Rescue in the 80's.

First of all, I thought it was as usual the "liberal" person goes and lives with the "conservatives" and has to adap to their view, instead of the opposite. But that's beside the point, it's just a detail that I got over fast.
What I didn't get over was the way pro-lifers harass people, from getting to these women in front of the abortion clinic (like that's not a hard place to be in the first place for them) to showing pictures of pieces of dead foetuses on Hollywood Blvd.
IT made me so sick I almost barfed.

These are the same people who claim the decency of our country has gone to shit, the same people who probably like the fact that we can't see a nipple on TV, can't say shit or fuck on TV, or have parental control on the same TV and the internet.
Yet they show these extremely disturbing pictures to a wide array of public that includes a lot of kids (Hollywood Blvd in Los Angeles is probably the most famous tourist place). And that's ok with them?
How awful are these people? I know I wouldn't want my kids to grow up thinking a boob or a butt is a bad thing to see, I don't see why we want to be so freakin' puritan, it makes for inhibited hypocrite fucks.
But I wouldn't want my kids to see pieces of a dead baby out of the blue while walking or driving down the boulevard just because some weirdo feels the need to convert people in the streets!!!!! Just like I wouldn't want them to watch a surgery taking place if it was happening in the middle of Melrose Ave.!

If I had seen these pictures when I was 8, I probably would have been very traumatized!!!!
It just makes me so angry that these ignorant assholes dare to impose their views aggressively on other people who don't ask them for anything or bother them in any way!

Honestly! Why is it that these people have more rights to harass women at the entrance of a clinic than these women themselves trying to just make choices for themselves?
They have the same amount of rights, yet have to be accompanied by clinic escorts to get to the door, in order to do something that can't be that easy!

The show also brought up a good point about the fact that most people in the US have a middle ground view about it anyway! People who were asked said that they would not get an abortion themselves, but that other people do what they want, it's their choice.
Isn't it what a "free world" is about? individual choice? Without being harmed for it?
I thought that was why all these people came to America in the first place... wasn't it? for the freedom of choice?
and now we're talking about banning abortion in certain states? Which by the way is unecessary seeing that because of all these aggressive movements, the number of pro-life centers have increased by at least double what they were in the 80's whereas the number of abortion clinics have dramatically decreased, so in the end aggression, harrasment, and accusations always wins, huh!? That's definitely NOT what I want to teach my children!

Funny to think that it's such a hard thing to do in the US, the land of the "free", and that the first colons tried to escape the old world where it is now possible in certain countried to marry a same sex partner and to have an abortion if that's what you choose!
Where did it go the opposite way from where it started here? How many people who escaped and created a new world must be turning in their graves right now?

I can't get these images out of my mind. I fear for women who have to go through miscarriages with these images in mind!
Seems to me that if I ever saw these jerks protesting with these photos, I would probably be as stupid as they are and start punching. After all why should they be able to throw bombs at clinics in the 80's and still continue to be violent now?
I bet in our day and age I would probably be the one accused of doing a bad thing!

WHAT CRAPPY SOCIETY ACCEPTS THIS????????????

All these interesting things today...

2006-08-24T09:35:00.000-07:00

I'll go from nice to outrageous!

Brain and Music:
This article in Wired about Daniel Levitin whose book, This is your brain on music, it's probably my next book!!!!! He's an associate professor at McGill University in Montreal and does a lot of very interesting neuro-research with music.

Navajos sign Cuba trade deal
This is so cool! Maybe I'm wrong, but I find this very cool!

Morning Edition, NPR, August 24, 2006 · The Navajo Nation and Cuba sign a trade deal. The Navajos will sell beans, corn, wheat and other products to Cuba. The deal is possible because of a little-known loophole in the U.S. trade embargo.

FDA approves viruses as food additives
This article in CNN talks about the new FDA approved spray that will be part of what we eat when we buy not only a hot dog but also packaged meat... Don't you love the FDA and how they care for us all, the more crap they can approve the better they are it seems!!

The combination of six viruses is designed to be sprayed on ready-to-eat meat and poultry products, including sliced ham and turkey(...)
The special viruses, called bacteriophages, are meant to kill strains of the Listeria monocytogenes bacterium, the Food and Drug Administration said in declaring it safe to use on ready-to-eat meats prior to their packaging.

Bush to allow more drilling on Alaska's North Slope
And now for a big bummer, Bush luuuuvs his oil, and drilling in Alasak is really far away from him, so it's like when kids don't see something then it musn't exist or something!

Yesterday, the Administration announced that on September 27 it would sell oil and gas leases for portions of the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska. This will open the entire Teshekpuk Lake area, an irreplaceable wildlife habitat, to drilling and oil infrastructure.

Bu$hmerika's latest post includes article on troops being recalled:
Well, I would post about every article in Bu$hmerika everytime Chuck writes a new one, but this one I find particularly interesting because it points out how powerless we are to this administration. The population has no say whatsoever, the military has no choice but to go get killed or kill themselves, and it's going to be another generation of seriously traumatized people, just like we have now with the Vietnam veterans. The result of course is that IF they come back, they are screwed mentally, AND they don't even get very good benefits as veterans judging by the number of Vietnam veterans not eating everyday! GGRRR

THERE ARE NO FLOWERS OR CANDY BEING THROWN AT THE FEET OF U.S. SOLDIERS. IRAQI CITIZENS ARE NOT GRATEFUL FOR THE DESTRUCTION OF THEIR HOMES OR THE MURDER OF THEIR FAMILY MEMBERS. Fresh water and electricity would be nice, but that's not part of the bush game plan

Laments

2006-08-23T17:30:00.000-07:00

Today was productive as far as household things are concerned...
Did a LOT of laundry. Got further in my book about learning macromedia studio 8. Drank my milk.
Mike went to do his taxes with his dad (his dad is a tax preparer, it helps!).
I even crammed in making cds of our best friend's kid's pictures...
Interesting, huh!?
What's up with blogs and talking about boring stuff!???

I guess it's a good distraction intro to better think that I can be less weird and more normal!
HA...
Well, actually now that I think about it I might be very normal since I am starting to be in my I-want-a-family phase. You know, I guess I reached that kind of oestrogene level where I'm wondering when I might become a mother, when and if my husband will take all the responsabilities a woman takes a lot earlier, if by any chance we actually reproduce are we going to be good parents, how are they going to get the french culture, and most importantly where are we going to live. And everything that all this entails!
Feels like a cliché, doesn't it? YEAHH i AM normal!!!!!!
ahhh, I was begining to worry but this phase actually reassures me instead of freaking me out!

Oh, a couple days ago I started writing a song.... That's right, a song, not a soundscape/drone/instrumental only thing, no, a real song, with lyrics and a structure, a form, kind of like having verses and a refrain! So I'm proud! I don't know that it's that good, but it's a start, maybe in the end I will make accessible music.
hahaha

Our neighbor painted one of her living room wall red. And one of her bedroom wall olive green. It's cool!

I'm making sheperd's pie tonight.

The Arcade Fire rocks!

More boring posts coming in the next few days , weeks and months!

Tata...

DRC, elections inconclusive... Surprise surprise...

2006-08-22T13:13:00.000-07:00

First article mentioning the fighting between supporters of Bemba and supporters of Kabila:

KINSHASA (Reuters) - The European Union rushed more peacekeepers to Congo's capital Kinshasa on Tuesday as the U.N. tried to broker an end to gunbattles between President Joseph Kabila's soldiers and fighters loyal to his election rival.

In the July 30 first round vote, Kabila gained 44.81 percent, well ahead of Bemba, who had 20.03 percent.
But Kabila, who assumed the presidency when his father Laurent was assassinated in 2001, failed to obtain the more than 50 percent needed to win outright in the first round.
The elections were meant to draw a line under a decade of conflict in the former Zaire, where a 1998-2003 war sparked a humanitarian crisis that killed more than 4 million people. But they have underlined deep political and ethnic divisions.

Second article about the cease fire in Kinshasa today:

KINSHASA (Reuters) - Soldiers loyal to Congolese President Joseph Kabila and fighters backing his election rival Jean-Pierre Bemba agreed on Tuesday to end days of gunbattles in the capital Kinshasa, U.N. sources said.

Technorati tags: Congo, DRC, kinshasa, elections

Project Censored

2006-08-03T11:50:00.000-07:00

I don't remember if I already posted about this web site... I think I did. But it doesn't hurt to remind about it because it's interesting to see what we don't get to read in the papers. Lucky us, the internet "community" is well and alive!

Project Censored Media democracy in action

Project Censored is a media research group out of Sonoma State University which tracks the news published in independent journals and newsletters. From these, Project Censored compiles an annual list of 25 news stories of social significance that have been overlooked, under-reported or self-censored by the country's major national news media.

This year's top 25 news:

#1 Bush Administration Moves to Eliminate Open Government

#2 Media Coverage Fails on Iraq: Fallujah and the Civilian Death

#3 Another Year of Distorted Election Coverage

#4 Surveillance Society Quietly Moves In

#5 U.S. Uses Tsunami to Military Advantage in Southeast Asia

#6 The Real Oil for Food Scam

#7 Journalists Face Unprecedented Dangers to Life and Livelihood

#8 Iraqi Farmers Threatened By Bremer’s Mandates

#9 Iran’s New Oil Trade System Challenges U.S. Currency

#10 Mountaintop Removal Threatens Ecosystem and Economy

#11 Universal Mental Screening Program Usurps Parental Rights

#12 Military in Iraq Contracts Human Rights Violators

#13 Rich Countries Fail to Live up to Global Pledges

#14 Corporations Win Big on Tort Reform, Justice Suffers

#15 Conservative Plan to Override Academic Freedom in the Classroom

#16 U.S. Plans for Hemispheric Integration Include Canada

#17 U.S. Uses South American Military Bases to Expand Control of the Region

#18 Little Known Stock Fraud Could Weaken U.S. Economy

#19 Child Wards of the State Used in AIDS Experiments

#20 American Indians Sue for Resources; Compensation Provided to Others

#21 New Immigration Plan Favors Business Over People

#22 Nanotechnology Offers Exciting Possibilities But Health Effects Need Scrutiny

#23 Plight of Palestinian Child Detainees Highlights Global Problem

#24 Ethiopian Indigenous Victims of Corporate and Government Resource Aspirations

#25 Homeland Security Was Designed to Fail

Elections in Congo, follow up

2006-07-30T09:33:00.000-07:00

Elections in congo, follow up

KINSHASA (Reuters) - Millions of Congolese turned out enthusiastically to vote in their first free elections in 40 years on Sunday, protected by the world's biggest U.N. peacekeeping force and hoping to end years of war and chaos.
(...)
Voting appeared to be generally orderly. But complaints over irregularities and an opposition boycott have already raised the specter of violence and a rejection of the results, which are expected to be announced within three weeks.
(...)
Congo is blessed with enormous mineral wealth -- it holds one third of the world's cobalt reserves, as well as copper, gold and diamonds. But it has known little but war and dictatorship since independence in 1960.
(...)
President Joseph Kabila, who is viewed as favorite out of a field of 32 presidential candidates, voted in Kinshasa.

Technorati tags: Congo, DRC, kinshasa, elections

Elections in Congo, article on Reuters

2006-07-29T11:08:00.000-07:00

Elections in Congo| Reuters.com

Interesting article. People in Congo are still dying, elections are coming this week-end, I wonder if the people are really informed about the candidates... *sigh*

Technorati tags: DRC, congo, Kabila, elections, kinshasa

The Wrath

2006-06-06T16:37:00.000-07:00

Leaving town!

2006-05-29T23:48:00.000-07:00

Mike and I are off on our honeymoon, first Canada, then Italy, then France, then back to Canada, and after a couple months away, we'll be back in this area of the world.
Switching to travel journal:

planetaryvagrant.blogspot.com

WOOOHOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!

New songs from the new album

2006-05-28T13:03:00.000-07:00

I have put up a couple songs from the new album on my 'myspace' page:
-Raggedeering
-For Now

and I left a couple of the old ones that people generally like ('I'll wait home' and 'Prub').

The album doesn't have an "official" release date yet, but soon, verrrry soon!
Muahahahahahha

Severine Baron ambient music
electronic composition composing sabolab

Think Progress: Exxon-Backed Pundit Compares Gore To Nazi Propagandist

2006-05-23T23:20:00.000-07:00

That's just great, now Gore is a nazi... Where the hell do these people grow up!? And who raises them? (movie clip here)

Think Progress: Exxon-Backed Pundit Compares Gore To Nazi Propagandist

I mean, it wasn't enough to say that this movie was going to ruin the US economy, it has to be compared to nazi propaganda now.

Are they THAT threatened by the guy?

Technorati tags: Gore, Global warming, green, politics, presidentials, al gore, environment, ecology, warming, earth, movie, an inconvenient truth

Mastering

2006-05-23T14:17:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was spent in the Mastering Lab with Robert Hadley who mastered my new album like the master of masters he is!
A few details to be changed and I'll have the final master in a day or so.

What this means? THE ALBUM IS FINISHED!!!!!!!!!!!

It's now called Générations, I'm done, it's finished, it's closed, I walking away from it, and turning the page! FINALLY!
I'm sooooo happy this is over. I always compare it to a diary, the page has to turn at some point, and if the conception of an album lasts too long, the page turns in one's life but the music stays the same which makes it practically impossible to finish since the atmosphere and vibes from the previous page are gone!
HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY

What might sound even stranger is that finishing an album is like vomiting, the process is torturous and hard but in the end you feel relieved! Purged...
Sounds ugly I know, but it's really what it's like for me!
So now I'm purged, I'm done, I'm proud to be done, and we also have a double celebration since Mike is done too, we both have a new album and we're HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY!

BU$HMERIKA IS BACK!!!!!!!!!

2006-05-17T11:18:00.000-07:00

Welcome back Chuck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We missed you so much!

The link to Bu$hmerika can always be found on the right under "surroundings".
And of course you can visit from this post by going here:

Bu$hmerika

So happy Chuck is back! Say like it is, Chuck!

Titan Descent movie has avant-garde music

2006-05-04T18:59:00.000-07:00

On the blogosphere today I saw this movie from NASA being posted here and there... Not only it's really cool to watch but it's also incredible to listen to. The probe actually emits sounds that resemble a minimal composition!

NASA - Titan Descent Data Movie with Bells and Whistles - Movie: “This movie, built with data collected during the European Space Agency's Huygens probe on Jan. 14, 2005, shows the operation of the Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer camera during its descent and after touchdown. The camera was funded by NASA. ”

Technorati tags: space, huygens, cassini, nasa, titan, saturn, orbiter

David Gilmour on the Tonight Show

2006-04-20T23:34:00.000-07:00

Oh yeahhhhh! We had the best day today, we saw David Gilmour play at the tonight show with Richard Wright, David Crosby and Graham Nash....
They sang a song of Gilmour's solo album, on an island, and then Gilmour and Wright did "Wish you were here"... Ahhhhh.
The complete report (WITH pictures I might add!) from this wonderful dream realizing day is on the other blog here:

Planetary Vagrant

Wow, what a way to go to sleep!!!!
What only a couple songs can do when it's done by some of your legends!!!!

sabolab jerugim gilmour wright floyd crosby beth sherman california leno nash pink severine pink floyd david gilmour tonight show

Bu$hmerika is gone...

2006-04-20T22:40:00.000-07:00

Yep... Bu$hmerika, a blog I was lucky enough to contribute to a few times has gone offline.
Thanks Chuck for your support and your drive, the blog was informative, clever and true!
Best of luck to you and your family!!!!

The end of the world... A funny movie

2006-04-19T21:58:00.000-07:00

Definitely not short of funny!!!!!!

check it out here:
http://www.fjolletobak.com/detail.php?&content=15798

sabolab green carbon offset ecology Severine Severine Baron california politics international world news climate change sea rising global warming

Wash. Post article on Al Gore and his movie

2006-04-18T14:16:00.000-07:00

A Campaign Gore Can't Lose

This article is very telling when it starts like this:

Boring Al Gore has made a movie. It is on the most boring of all subjects -- global warming. It is more than 80 minutes long, and the first two or three go by slowly enough that you can notice that Gore has gained weight and that his speech still seems oddly out of sync. But a moment later, I promise, you will be captivated, and then riveted and then scared out of your wits. Our Earth is going to hell in a handbasket.

That paragraph is pretty much a good summary of what it develops on. It does also mention the fact that Gore would be a perfect candidate for 2008 despite what he might have said on his presidential aspirations:

Gore insists his presidential aspirations are behind him. "I think there are other ways to serve," he told me. No doubt. But on paper, he is the near-perfect Democratic candidate for 2008. Among other things, he won the popular vote in 2000. He opposed going to war in Iraq, but he supported the Persian Gulf War -- right both times. He is smart, experienced and, despite the false caricatures, a man versed in the new technologies -- especially the Internet. He is much more a person of the 21st century than most of the other potential candidates. Trouble is, a campaign is not a film. Gore could be a great president. First, though, he has to be a good candidate.

Can't wait to see the movie!!!!

Technorati tags: Gore, Global warming, green, politics, presidentials, al gore, environment, ecology, warming, earth, movie, an inconvenient truth

ggggaaaahhhhhh

2006-04-17T13:25:00.000-07:00

CSS hell!

"These are the stakes" at It’s Getting Hot In Here

2006-04-16T14:25:00.000-07:00

"These are the stakes" at It’s Getting Hot In Here

In recent weeks two great resources have been developed that make the reality of global warming all to real. This map shows what will become of our country if sea levels rise 6 meters, or nearly 20 feet.

(...)
This spectre of a future is not a foregone conclusion. We must use visceral images like these to inspire us personally and then send them to others as we ask them to join us in reclaiming our future with clean and efficient energy. If we don’t, the wide-ranging impacts of a destabilized climate will be measured with human body counts as much as they will be by thermometers. Stopping global warming is the moral obligation of our time: these maps bear witness as to why.
Technorati tags: climate change, sea rising,

global warming, sea level

2006-04-16T14:12:00.000-07:00

Technorati tags: Bush
, Office
,

Night Bird's Fountain graphic tells it all!

2006-04-15T23:42:00.000-07:00

Night Bird's Fountain

2006-04-14T13:47:00.000-07:00

global warming electricity ecology international world sabolab green

Carbon offsets

2006-04-12T00:00:00.000-07:00

I got obsessed today with finding out about carbon offsets.

SO, I decided to sign up with better world club
which is pretty much AAA but green with advantages like carbon offsets for your car and a percentage of their memberships that goes to alternative power companie etc...

Then I had to find out about the guilt of traveling as frequently as we do (even if we only flew once a year i would feel the same!), and what to do about it. Well until they find an alternative fuel for planes, I won't have a choice, I do want to see my family!
So, we can also offset flights, there a several places, including the better world club travel agency, but there is also sustainable international travel, which will give the donations to WWF projects like reforestations and such.

I thought Terrapass was also pretty well done, and we will sign up with them very soon. I am very proud that without being able to afford a hybrid we can still manage not to drive so much (we're very lucky!), so we actually only need the equivalent of a hybrid average driver offset... Reassuring!

So now I feel a little better about the fact that the kids in Somalia who are starving will at least be able to have one breath more thanks to my husband and my tiny efforts this week!
It's like voting, one vote makes a difference! Although that's another subject in the US... Ok, another day!
;-)

sabolab , green , carbon , offset , ecology

New Yorker article everyone's talking about today

2006-04-09T11:20:00.000-07:00

Everyone has been posting and reading about this article today...
It's a really good article, yet I can't help but wonder about all these "leaks" of information...
It seems to always be the type scandalous information that never brings the current "regime" down.
This issue is obviously more of a global problem than wiretapping, but I still can't help but think that the american people have no power of opinion and request with this guy. If we all go down in the street to protest the Iran bombing, will it do anything, like all the protest we did against the Irak war? The reason why I'm bringing this up is that the media had an easy time playing a lot of the protests down, sometimes not even showing it (like the last immigration protests in LA, we were there and tried to find it on the local channels which are usually interrupted for car chases, but not this protest, we had to wait for the scheduled news to briefly say that there was a few people protesting, lying about the numbers too!).
So that power the media has, is it also for selective leaks of information so we're focused on something while something else happens? Or is it that finally we have a real journalist back in action?

Anyway, this article is definitely hard, everybody's views on the Iran issue differs, and the question about how long they have until the Iranian have the bomb is the main problem... Then the American want a regime change... hmmm, I wonder why? Well, you don't need to be a rocket scientist to see why...

oh, and of course, dealing with an issue by using nuclear power has always been the best solution, we all know it. Japan knows it too huh!? And we'd all be happy to deal with the after effects of these, because we don't already... (sarcasm, people, sarcasm... Gee!)
I wonder what we are going to do with the Koreans then...

I'll stop here... I guess as always I just need to write it down before it really gets to me!

New Yorker full article

A few passages:

The Bush Administration, while publicly advocating diplomacy in order to stop Iran from pursuing a nuclear weapon, has increased clandestine activities inside Iran and intensified planning for a possible major air attack. Current and former American military and intelligence officials said that Air Force planning groups are drawing up lists of targets, and teams of American combat troops have been ordered into Iran, under cover, to collect targeting data and to establish contact with anti-government ethnic-minority groups.
(...)
There is a growing conviction among members of the United States military, and in the international community, that President Bush’s ultimate goal in the nuclear confrontation with Iran is regime change.

(...)the President believes that he must do “what no Democrat or Republican, if elected in the future, would have the courage to do,” and “that saving Iran is going to be his legacy.”
(...)
“This is much more than a nuclear issue,” one high-ranking diplomat told me in Vienna. “That’s just a rallying point, and there is still time to fix it. But the Administration believes it cannot be fixed unless they control the hearts and minds of Iran. The real issue is who is going to control the Middle East and its oil in the next ten years.”
(...)
While almost no one disputes Iran’s nuclear ambitions, there is intense debate over how soon it could get the bomb, and what to do about that. Robert Gallucci, a former government expert on nonproliferation who is now the dean of the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown, told me, “Based on what I know, Iran could be eight to ten years away” from developing a deliverable nuclear weapon. Gallucci added, “If they had a covert nuclear program and we could prove it, and we could not stop it by negotiation, diplomacy, or the threat of sanctions, I’d be in favor of taking it out. But if you do it”—bomb Iran—“without being able to show there’s a secret program, you’re in trouble.”
(...)
It’s too early to give up on the U.N. route.” He added, “If the diplomatic process doesn’t work, there is no military ‘solution.’ There may be a military option, but the impact could be catastrophic.”

Saturday night

2006-04-09T02:01:00.000-07:00

And THIS is how a 27 years old someone with a little time and absolutely no will to mingle with "people" does on a saturday night at 2:30am... heyheyhey

Huh... That one is interesting...:

Your French Name is:

Mercy Lacroix

What's Your French Name?

Then I kinda like that one too... I'll think about it:

Your Band Name is:

The Juggling Pickles

Band Name Generator

Indispensible:

Your Elf Name Is...

Holly Blinking Bum

What's Your Elf Name?

This one is reassuring, although I should probably study a little...:

You Passed the US Citizenship Test

Congratulations - you got 8 out of 10 correct!

Could You Pass the US Citizenship Test?

heyheyhey:

Your Daddy Is Darth Vader

What You Call Him: Papi

Why You Love Him: He's the Mack Daddy

Who's Your Daddy?

The problem with plastic bags...

2006-04-08T12:43:00.000-07:00

The reason why you should bring your own tote to the supermarket is:

Top Facts - Consumption

Each year, an estimated 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide. That comes out to over one million per minute. Billions end up as litter each year.

According to the EPA, over 380 billion plastic bags, sacks and wraps are consumed in the U.S. each year.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the U.S. goes through 100 billion plastic shopping bags annually. (Estimated cost to retailers is $4 billion)

According to the American Forest and Paper Association, in 1999 the U.S. alone used 10 billion paper grocery bags, requiring 14 million trees to be cut down.

According to the industry publication Modern Plastics, Taiwan consumes 20 billion bags a year—900 per person.

According to Australia’s Department of Environment, Australians consume 6.9 billion plastic bags each year—326 per person. An estimated .7% or 49,600,000 end up as litter each year.
Top Facts - Environmental Impact
Hundreds of thousands of sea turtles, whales and other marine mammals die every year from eating discarded plastic bags mistaken for food.

Plastic bags don’t biodegrade, they photodegrade—breaking down into smaller and smaller toxic bits contaminating soil and waterways and entering the food web when animals accidentally ingest.

As part of Clean Up Australia Day, in one day nearly 500,000 plastic bags were collected.

Windblown plastic bags are so prevalent in Africa that a cottage industry has sprung up harvesting bags and using them to weave hats, and even bags. According to the BBC, one group harvests 30,000 per month.

According to David Barnes, a marine scientist with the British Antarctic Survey, plastic bags have gone "from being rare in the late 80s and early 90s to being almost everywhere from Spitsbergen 78° North [latitude] to Falklands 51° South [latitude].

Plastic bags are among the 12 items of debris most often found in coastal cleanups, according to the nonprofit Center for Marine Conservation.

See for yourself: http://www.reusablebags.com/

sabolab green carbon offset ecology

2006-03-31T13:38:00.000-08:00

State of the Village Report

2006-03-31T10:14:00.000-08:00

If the world were a village of 1000 people:

584 would be Asians

123 would be Africans

95 would be East and West Europeans

84 Latin Americans

55 Soviets (still including for the moment Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, etc.)

52 North Americans

6 Australians and New Zealanders

The people of the village would have considerable difficulty communicating:

165 people would speak Mandarin

86 would speak English

83 Hindi/Urdu

64 Spanish

58 Russian

37 Arabic

That list accounts for the mother-tongues of only half the villagers. The other half speak (in descending order of frequency) Bengali, Portuguese, Indonesian, Japanese, German, French, and 200 other languages.

In the village there would be:

300 Christians (183 Catholics, 84 Protestants, 33 Orthodox)

175 Moslems

128 Hindus

55 Buddhists

47 Animists

210 all other religons (including atheists)

One-third (330) of the people in the village would be children. Half the children would be immunized against the preventable infectious diseases such as measles and polio.

Sixty of the thousand villagers would be over the age of 65.

Just under half of the married women would have access to and be using modern contraceptives.

Each year 28 babies would be born.

Each year 10 people would die, three of them for lack of food, one from cancer. Two of the deaths would be to babies born within the year.

One person in the village would be infected with the HIV virus; that person would most likely not yet have developed a full-blown case of AIDS.

With the 28 births and 10 deaths, the population of the village in the next year would be 1018.

In this thousand-person community, 200 people would receive three-fourths of the income; another 200 would receive only 2% of the income.

Only 70 people would own an automobile (some of them more than one automobile).

About one-third would not have access to clean, safe drinking water.

Of the 670 adults in the village half would be illiterate.

The village would have 6 acres of land per person, 6000 acres in all of which:

700 acres is cropland

1400 acres pasture

1900 acres woodland

2000 acres desert, tundra, pavement, and other wasteland.

The woodland would be declining rapidly; the wasteland increasing; the other land categories would be roughly stable. The village would allocate 83 percent of its fertilizer to 40 percent of its cropland -- that owned by the richest and best-fed 270 people. Excess fertilizer running off this land would cause pollution in lakes and wells. The remaining 60 percent of the land, with its 17 percent of the fertilizer, would produce 28 percent of the foodgrain and feed 73 percent of the people. The average grain yield on that land would be one-third the yields gotten by the richer villagers.

If the world were a village of 1000 persons, there would be five soldiers, seven teachers, one doctor. Of the village's total annual expenditures of just over $3 million per year, $181,000 would go for weapons and warfare, $159,000 for education, $132,000 for health care.

The village would have buried beneath it enough explosive power in nuclear weapons to blow itself to smithereens many times over. These weapons would be under the control of just 100 of the people. The other 900 people would be watching them with deep anxiety, wondering whether the 100 can learn to get along together, and if they do, whether they might set off the weapons anyway through inattention or technical bungling, and if they ever decide to dismantle the weapons, where in the village they will dispose of the dangerous radioactive materials of which the weapons are made.

(Donella H. Meadows is an adjunct professor of environmental studies at Dartmouth College.)

Copyright Sustainability Institute.
This article from The Donella Meadows Archive is available for use in research, teaching, and private study. For other uses, please contact Diana Wright, Sustainability Institute, 3 Linden Road, Hartland, VT 05048, (802) 436-1277

Links to see relativity

2006-03-30T12:31:00.000-08:00

This one shows you the footprint you have, mine was devastating even though I try as much as I can to recycle, use biodegradable products, eat less meat, etc etc... Is also has a bunch of resources for action:
www.ecofoot.org

New Dream is an action oriented web site, but it also has a ton of resources and tips of how to be a little more conscious. Lots of things for education to help kids become more aware of their surroundings:
www.newdream.org

Centralized global issues on the internet

2006-03-30T12:12:00.000-08:00

On one site:

www.globalissues.org

Oh yeah, I got merch!

2006-03-21T11:31:00.000-08:00

Want some?
sabolab Severine Severine Baron
ambient music electronic

Our wedding week in Mexico

2006-03-11T18:31:00.000-08:00

We posted a whole entry in one shot on our travel journal.

It was a lot of fun, we are very thankful to have been able to get married in this manner and are still coming down from our little cloud!

Leaving for Mexico

2006-02-27T11:39:00.000-08:00

That's it, we're off tonight for Mexico... to get married!
Yep, that's right, it's actually happening, and we're excited about it!
We're going to have a blast with our family and friends, and we're going to comment on it on our travel blog (as usual):
planetaryvagrant

Hope to bring some of that sunshine to everyone's home with our pictures!

Cheers!

Right Wing Nut House - HAMAS SIGNS CONTRACT TO RUN AMTRAK

2006-02-26T20:32:00.000-08:00

HAMAS SIGNS CONTRACT TO RUN AMTRAK:

"In a continuing effort to prove that Americans are not anti-Arab Islamaphobes, the government has announced that day to day operations of the passenger rail carrier Amtrak will now be in the hands of a state owned company run by the Palestinian group Hamas.

The deal comes on the heels of an agreement to allow the state owned Dubai Ports World(DPW) to manage ports in the United States."

Songs in the key of church and state

2006-02-23T18:17:00.000-08:00

Reassuring thoughts....

I'm not alone to be upset and a little involved mentally with the current situation in this country (and others but let's not go there for this post!)...

My very soon to be husband is also completely nuts, and now I have proof!!!!!
Yes, I do, he's nuts and he writes songs about it, check it out:

Mike's latest single... with video and all!!!

Watcha think!? huh!?

Coming out on February 28th on the Itunes Music store, until then you gotta go to his site...

Mute for a while

2006-02-22T11:28:00.000-08:00

I realized this morning that I haven't come here at all in a while...
It seems that the death of my cat affected me a little more that I thought it would and it's been harder to deal with the whole organizing the day thing.
So while Mike and I have about 3 jobs or more at all times, my excuse for not being able to also write in this blog lately is my cat!...
... And the fact that we're getting married in a couple weeks, leaving for Mexico in exactly a week and also the desperate state the world is in, which prevents me a lot from surfacing more!

So for now I guess I won't write about how I sort of hate the world today, the governments in all their forms and languages, the people in the streets of LA who IF they are out of their car think nobody exists but them, and the way we find it funny that a guy got shot by our vice president while people die under mud slides and earthquakes or in unecessary wars...

On such a note, I do have to quote a bumper sticker I saw the other day that I simply love and worship:

"Somebody please give Bush a blow job, so we can impeach him!"

Oh, and I might not have been writing, but I've been following the blogosphere. It's quite fascinating how much that guy (or his cronies) can do every day, every single god damn day, but still is... well.. here.

NPR : Congo Violence Creates Medical Crisis

2006-02-13T11:22:00.000-08:00

NPR : Congo Violence Creates Medical Crisis

Morning Edition. February 13, 2006 ·

Hundreds are dying daily in the embattled Democratic Republic of Congo. But most of the deaths aren't from bullets. Disease and malnutrition are taking a steady toll. After years of civil strife, the health care system in much of the Central African country has collapsed. In one town, the organization Doctors Without Borders is attempting to provide services to nearly 20,000 refugees.

Technorati tags: Congo, Zaire, Doctors without borders

More on the subject at NPR

This seems like it will never end....

Duty

2006-02-12T10:10:00.000-08:00

Duty, according to George W. Bush and George Bernard Shaw

See, we have a duty. The job of the President is to confront problems, not to pass them on to future Presidents and future generations. ˆGWB

I have a duty to nominate well-qualified men and women to the federal judiciary. I have done just that, and I will continue to do so. ˆGWB

We have a duty for future generations. We have a duty to leave this world more peaceful. We have a duty to reform the institutions that are old and tired. That's our duty. ˆGWB

I have a duty as the president to define problems facing our nation and to call upon people to act. ˆGWB

I have a duty to protect the Executive Branch from legislative encroachment. I mean, for example, when the GAO demands documents from us, we're not going to give them to them. ˆGWB

When a stupid man is doing something he is ashamed of, he always declares that it is his duty. ˆGeorge Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)

LAist: Global warming: hot economic news for California

2006-02-12T01:20:00.000-08:00

LAist: Global warming: hot economic news for California

A report released last month by the California Climate Change Center at UC Berkeley says that global warming presents California with valuable business opportunities. "Managing Greenhouse Gas Emissions in California" says that "climate action in California can yield net gains for the state economy, increasing growth and creating jobs." In more simple terms, that spells ECONOMIC BENEFIT. If California is smart, our state could easily become "a leader in the new technologies and industries that will come into existence worldwide due to the common goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions."

Technorati tags: Los angeles, climate change, california climate change, schwarzenegger, climate action team

She's gone...

2006-02-10T09:56:00.000-08:00

No more furry ball making a figure 8 around my legs, no more talking back when i say no, no more butt elevator, no more hair everywhere on our bed and sofa, no more big huge eyes looking at us to try and communicate telepathically...

Our cat is gone, we had to let her go after trying so so so many things to help her and help us, but it was all in vain, and now we might not have the risk of her injuring someone, but we also don't have her anymore.
And that hurts.... a lot!

She left us February 8th around 9pm, and now there is white burning candle in the living room I can't get myself to not replace...

Back to inquisition times....

2006-02-06T09:59:00.000-08:00

The bubble says:

"Don't be so pissed, Mohammed, we were ALL caricatured here!!"

Global warming map

2006-02-02T15:20:00.000-08:00

Check it out... link

Been there, heard that!

2006-02-02T11:45:00.000-08:00

"House Republicans are taking a mulligan on the first ballot for Majority Leader. The first count showed more votes cast than Republicans present at the Conference meeting. Stay with RollCall.com for updates."

Thanks C&L for pointing this out!!!

Climate change

2006-02-02T11:41:00.000-08:00

Here we are again, with another study showing that the climate change is real and is a big problem...
Treehugger published this article commenting on this study:

The UK government has published a book that collates evidence presented by scientists at a conference hosted by the UK Meteorological Office in February 2005 called Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change (Cambridge University Press). We've been aware that climate change is a problem for some time; we can now consider ourselves on alert that climate change is a real problem. Among its conclusions, the book states there is only a small chance of greenhouse gas emissions being kept below "dangerous" levels, and that rising concentrations of greenhouse gases may have more serious impacts than previously believed. In the book's foreword, UK Prime Minister Tony Blair writes that "it is now plain that the emission of greenhouse gases... is causing global warming at a rate that is unsustainable." The conference set two principal objectives: to ask what level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is too much, and what the options are for avoiding such a level; what did it come up with?

Currently, the atmosphere contains about 380 parts per million (ppm) of carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas linked closest to climate change and the principal concern of scientists, compared to levels before the industrial revolution of about 275ppm. The European Union adopted a previous target of preventing a rise in global average temperature of more than two degrees Celsius, which, according to the book, might be too high -- enough to trigger melting of the Greenland ice sheet. Above two degrees, says the report, the risks increase "very substantially", with "potentially large numbers of extinctions" and "major increases in hunger and water shortage risks... particularly in developing countries". The book concludes, therefore, that in order to have a good chance of achieving the EU's two-degree target, levels need to be stabilized below 450 ppm.

The UK government's chief scientific adviser, Sir David King, was less than cheery about the feasibility of such an accomplishment. "We're going to be at 400 ppm in 10 years' time, I predict that without any delight in saying it," he said. "But no country is going to turn off a power station which is providing much-desired energy for its population to tackle this problem - we have to accept that. To aim for 450 (ppm) would, I am afraid, seem unfeasible."

So what are the options for avoiding dangerous concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere? The book notes that the technological options to reduce emissions do exist. It concludes that the biggest obstacles to the take up of large-scale use of technologies like clean and renewable sources of energy lie in vested interests, cultural barriers to change and simple lack of awareness. ::Avoiding Dangerous Climate Change via ::BBC

climate change sea rising global warming ecology sabolab green

Bush didn't mean it literaly

2006-02-02T10:57:00.000-08:00

From Afarensis:

Via Eschaton and Daily Kos comes this interesting story. Remember the bit in SOTU where Bush says he wants to reduce dependence on middle eastern oil? Apparently he didn't mean exactly what he said:

One day after President Bush vowed to reduce America's dependence on Middle East oil by cutting imports from there 75 percent by 2025, his energy secretary and national economic adviser said Wednesday that the president didn't mean it literally.

What the president meant, they said in a conference call with reporters, was that alternative fuels could displace an amount of oil imports equivalent to most of what America is expected to import from the Middle East in 2025.

But America still would import oil from the Middle East, because that's where the greatest oil supplies are.

*snip*

He pledged to "move beyond a petroleum-based economy and make our dependence on Middle Eastern oil a thing of the past."

Not exactly, though, it turns out.

"This was purely an example,"[emphasis mine - afarensis] Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said.

He said the broad goal was to displace foreign oil imports, from anywhere, with domestic alternatives. He acknowledged that oil is a freely traded commodity bought and sold globally by private firms. Consequently, it would be very difficult to reduce imports from any single region, especially the most oil-rich region on Earth.

Ummm, now I'm confused...an example of what? Saying something you didn't mean and have no intention of following up on?

Asked why the president used the words "the Middle East" when he didn't really mean them, one administration official said Bush wanted to dramatize the issue in a way that "every American sitting out there listening to the speech understands." The official spoke only on condition of anonymity because he feared that his remarks might get him in trouble.

Oh yeah, Condi and her helmet look like...?

2006-02-01T10:07:00.000-08:00

yes, Rick Moranis!

That's too cool!

Shmates of the Shmunion!

2006-02-01T10:01:00.000-08:00

Post on Bushmerika

What else to say!?
Except that this picture pretty much says it all?

Well researched site for corporation shitlist!

2006-01-28T00:18:00.000-08:00

This site is very disturbing! At first I was going to post only about a segment in there that I most closely related to, but found myself way to concerned with everything in there... And the first I must do is go throw away my l'oreal make up!
I know I don't have to believe everything I'm being told, but this site seems very well researched! If anything a lot of what they give for information about different corporations can be found on the internet.
It is important for people to know what they buy, we all know that a lot of the product we are accustomed to purchasing are part of a sick cycle of life that in the end makes us unique for not being sick, dead, or working in a sweatshop since we were 5!
So, in that light, I hear the ones who tell me it's a hippy thing to yell "the corporations will kill us!", but it's what we live in, realistically, it's what our government encourages through their fascism!
That's why I want to post about this site, because beyond being disturbing, the only way to reclaim a real democracy is to try not to give power to the people who run everything...

Badcorp.org

Drive him out!!!!!!

2006-01-26T11:16:00.000-08:00

Here is info about the next big protest:

World can't wait web site

You can click on "find the nearest location" and figure out where you need to go on January 31st to march against this joke!

Apple's got us!

2006-01-25T21:01:00.000-08:00

Find what's wrong with this picture

And now for some humor!

2006-01-25T11:08:00.000-08:00

Our friend and neighbor, Beth Sherman, is a writer for the Jay Leno show and she's cool!
After posting so much sad entries, I thought I'd put up the latest quote she wrote for Leno in which comedian Gilbert Gottfried appeared with Fred Willard (from all the Christopher Guest movies like "Best In Show" and "Waiting for Guffman") as the
two cowboys Brokeback Mountain was based on:

"JAY: Was it hard to tell your family you're a gay cowboy?
GILBERT: Yes and no.
JAY: What do you mean?
GILBERT: I'm Jewish. Gay they can understand. Cowboy, not so much."

Also, if you want to watch a fun clip, Beth also wrote the photo booth series which keeps airing regularly. Here is one of them (3.8 million views, YEEAHHH GO BETH!!!!):

Photo booth video clip

The next one is airing February 2nd! Don't miss it!

Eco-study, the facts about our planet.

2006-01-25T09:37:00.000-08:00

Good news, everyone!
We might not have totally screwed ourselves YET...

Alternet published this article in which the latest eco-study is related.

The world's "most underappreciated eco-study" came out. Hence the media here don't mention it!

It shows hope, and also facts.
"60 percent of the planet's ecosystem services are being run down or used up faster than they can replenish themselves."
There is a link to scenarios of what the planet would be like in 2050 which are not reassuring either!!!

BUT the people who ran or were part of this study are optimistic:
"We can make a very positive difference in ecosystem services by 2050. The caveat is that fundamental changes would have to be undertaken."

So obviously we all need to make changes, at least for a start, we all need to make efforts, and it's not going to change a thing in our lives to start using bio cleaning products or bike a little more when we can.
However, it sometimes makes me very angry to not be able to make my efforts all the way! While we're killing people in Irak (and elsewhere), spending all this money we had after Clinton and more, we're not helping the enormous share of pollution we're producing (correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the US is producing %25 of the world pollution, even if that figure is not completely right, we all know we're the biggest polluter!)! Shouldn't it be the government's role to provide more help when we want to buy a hybrid or electrical car? Here in Los Angeles we have a bunch of electric stations that barely get used because we weren't sold the cars to go with it!
And when I look at the prices for the hybrids, even with government deductions, it's still too much for me! So with all of the will in the world, I still can't help all that much if I want to reduce my own share of destruction!
So I know I'm very biased and I really don't like the administration we currently have, I know that during the Clinton years I didn't have a cleaner car in my garage, but at least I was happy to hear that there was a surplus in the economy which gave me hope to get one of those vehicles at some point!
Now I feel like the optimism in this study is a little naive in some respect, because beyond changing our house cleaners and bringing totes to the grocery store instead of taking plastic, I don't feel I have the power to change anything!

"Economic policy can contribute to sustainable ecosystem services over the long run."

Google censors human rights searches in China

2006-01-25T09:22:00.000-08:00

That is pretty despicable!

The Raw feed's explanation of this is here...

Thousand reasons why the Bush admin is failing

2006-01-24T13:38:00.000-08:00

Chuck (Bushmerika) pointed out the number of postings not only here but everywhere else as well... It's quite a bit, I agree, seems people have had enough! Though we've had enough 5 years ago when our amazing economy plundered fast!
Well here is another site Mike pointed me to, it's very informational, and comfirms the principle of... how do you say this... WHY IS THIS ADMINISTRATION STILL RUNNING THE COUNTRY????????

Thousand reasons the Bush administration is failing.... yet still in power!

Movement to impeach George W. Bush

2006-01-24T13:29:00.000-08:00

Another great link to wikipedia about the impeachment a lot of people want.
Thanks to Bushmerika!

Movement to impeach George W. Bush - Wikipedia

Nice way of saying it!

2006-01-24T13:00:00.000-08:00

Everybody should watch this video:

Go Tim Ryan!

And more good finds!

2006-01-24T09:08:00.000-08:00

Dailykos shows how Ben Laden can sound like a republican!!!

Destabilize what?

2006-01-24T09:05:00.000-08:00

Found on Reuters:

Venezuela's Chavez hosts World Social Forum

CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of international activists gathered in Caracas on Tuesday for the World Social Forum to protest U.S. imperialism and debate topics from fair trade to indigenous rights.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a self-styled socialist revolutionary, has become a regional standard-bearer for left-wing, anti-U.S. movements since allying himself with Cuba to become one of the U.S. government's most vocal opponents.

The sixth world forum, an event that began in Port Alegre in Brazil, has registered more than 67,000 participants and starts with a march against imperialism and war that will likely focus on U.S. President George W. Bush and the war in Iraq.

"This is a process that can bring change for everyone," said Colombian Lucy Martinez, who belongs to a solidarity group with Cuba. "It's great that it is here in Venezuela because Chavez, like Fidel Castro, is an example for everyone."

Ecuadorean Indians in traditional shawls sat among piles of luggage while Brazilian students checked out street stalls offering Che Guevara T-shirts and bracelets, watches and posters printed with Chavez's image.

Lines of participants waiting to register snaked inside the Teresa Carreno Theater complex and nearby officials set up a campsite in a public park.

Many traveled by road from neighboring Brazil and Colombia. At least four Brazilian students were killed and 11 injured when their bus crashed in Peru en route to Caracas.

The forum began as an alternative to the gathering of world leaders in Davos, Switzerland, but it is now a broad movement where activists campaign for everything from fair trade and gay rights to debt forgiveness and anti-globalization.

Two parallel events have been organized in Mali and Pakistan.

The forum took place as Bolivia's Evo Morales became the latest left-wing president to assume power in South America on a wave of regional rejection of U.S.-backed free-market economic policies.

The event bills itself as independent. But much attention will likely focus on Chavez, a former soldier who has branded Bush "Mr. Danger" and who says he is bringing socialism to the world's No. 5 oil exporter to better the lives of the poor.

"With Chavez taking some incentives for the poor we wanted to know more," said Benjamin Inuca, president of an Ecuadorean indigenous association taking part in the forum.

Chavez, who often claims inspiration from South American liberation hero Simon Bolivar, says he has sought out trade and energy deals with South American neighbors to counter Washington's damaging influence in the region.

U.S. officials dismiss Chavez's accusations they are plotting his overthrow. They counter that the tough-talking, retired army paratrooper is working with Cuba as a destabilizing force in other South American countries.

Reuters.com

And again...

2006-01-24T08:52:00.000-08:00

Surprise?

“More humans are about to become lab rats for the pesticide industry, according to a leaked copy of a rule due to be finalized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency later this week.”

Thank you Thinkprogress.org for the heads up... Not that we didn't have to be careful before, but it seems even more justified now to spend more and get organic food when we shop. Although I suppose there are some unknown facts about what is organic anyway...
Ok, everybody, let's all move to Canada... AAAAAH NOOOOO! It's too late!!!!!! We're doomed!!!!!!

Project Censored Media democracy in action

2006-01-23T23:06:00.000-08:00

Ever wondered what real thorough research is good for? Here is the 2006 top 25 censored stories... brought to you by Project censored!

Project Censored Media democracy in action

Don't forget to go the their archive, it goes on!

Following previous post

2006-01-23T11:36:00.000-08:00

Mike sent me this link to the wikipedia article about the US government.
Very interesting, and I should have thought about wikipedia, since I'm sort of obsessed with it, but hey...
Here's what I get from it as far as impeachment is concerned:

"The President may veto legislation passed by Congress; he may be impeached by a majority in the House and removed from office by a two-thirds majority in the Senate for "treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.""

"Impeachment in the United States at the federal level can apply only to those accused of "treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors"

"In law, treason is the crime of disloyalty to one's nation."
"Traitor may also mean a person who betrays their own party, group, family, and friends."
--> So the spying without warrants could be considered a betrayal of the population, hence his group, and Nation? Or am I blind?

"Bribery is a crime defined by Black's Law Dictionary as the offering, giving, receiving, or soliciting of any item of value to influence the actions as an official or other person in discharge of a public or legal duty."
--> Sometimes I think Nader was the receiver of a giving of some sort... but that's among other things of course.

""High" in the legal parlance of the 18th century means "against the State". A high crime is one which seeks the overthrow of the country, which gives aid or comfort to its enemies, or which injures the country to the profit of an individual or group. In democracies and similar societies it also includes crimes which attempt to alter the outcome of elections."
--> So the way Gore lost and the way Bush was reelected would without a doubt fall into that category! Or am I blind again?

""High" in the legal parlance of the 18th century means "against the State". A high crime is one which seeks the overthrow of the country, which gives aid or comfort to its enemies, or which injures the country to the profit of an individual or group. In democracies and similar societies it also includes crimes which attempt to alter the outcome of elections."
--> Where is what Clinton did affecting our Nation, our government and our any of our liberties and rights?

What I gather from all this, is that the terms in which a president is impeached are treason, bribery, and high crimes... They had Clinton under one of these terms (unjustifiably in my opinion and a lot of others' opinions!) but the fact that Bush can be equated with all three doesn't make anybody in congress move a finger?
Is that REALLY possible?

2006-01-23T11:13:00.000-08:00

Bush's approval rating is still awfully low...
So with all of these scandals he is part of, how come he's not impeached yet?
What does it take to impeach somebody like that? who needs to propose this and to whom does it need to be presented to? The senate?
To somebody from the "outside-in", me, it seems the democrats are being too still while the republicans jumped on Clinton in a minute. I know I can't get over the whole cigar incident and I reiterate a lot, but come on! What's going on? Nobody wants the guy anymore, not even his most loyal christian southern lovers it seems! So why is he still in power? and how come he's getting more and more power as more and more scandals emerge?
That's a lot of questions, yes, but nobody has answered the simple question of who can take him out!? I guess I don't understand the government structure very well. At least not the US one, and that disturbs me, I searched quite a bit on the internet and a lot of it is blurred, I imagine on purpose since knowledge would certainly bring down a lot of the "values" implanted in this society, but if someone knows of a good website made by somebody who doesn't need to keep me ignorant, that would be great!
In waiting for that, where do the petitions and movements that we signed for the impeachment? Don't those have ANY power here?
ARGGHHHHH

Now, THIS is a speech!!!!

2006-01-22T09:11:00.000-08:00

Taken from this article at the Washington Post online.

Sen. Kennedy Speaks on the Nomination of Samuel Alito

JANUARY 19, 2006

SPEAKER: U.S. SENATOR EDWARD KENNEDY (D-MA)

Supreme Court nominee Samuel A. Alito Jr. decided to study constitutional law because he was distressed over the liberal activism practiced under Chief Justice Earl Warren's leadership. The young conservative's distaste judicial activism would frame his career as a jurist.

Supreme Court nominee Samuel A. Alito Jr. decided to study constitutional law because he was distressed over the liberal activism practiced under Chief Justice Earl Warren's leadership.

KENNEDY: Well, thank you, Melody, for that generous introduction, and thank you for your vision and effective leadership on so many issues of such paramount concern to the nation. Our Judiciary Committee in the Senate today just isn't the same without you.

I'm grateful to the Center for American Progress for hosting us here today, and I commend you for the difference you've already begun to make. Keep up the great work.

It's an honor to be here to address all of you on the nomination of Judge Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court. As you know so well, the stakes for our nation could not be higher. This is the vote of a generation. If confirmed, this nominee will have an enormous impact on our basic rights and liberties for years and even decades to come.

The Alito hearings, as well as those for Chief Justice Roberts before them, show the need for change in the way that we learn a nominee's views on our laws and the Constitution. Instead of a free and honest exchange of ideas, our hearings have become stylized and choreographed appearances in which the nominees are coached to say as little as possible.

And when it comes to lifetime appointments to the highest court in the land, surely the American people deserve better. After all, the Supreme Court is the guardian of our most cherished rights and freedoms. They are protected by the most solemn promises of the Constitution and symbolized in four eloquent words inscribed above the entrance to the Supreme Court: "Equal Justice Under Law. "

Those words are meant to guarantee that our courts will be an independent check against abuses of power by the other two branches of government. It is a commitment that our courts will always be a place where the poor and the powerless and the underprivileged can stand on equal footing with the wealthy and the powerful and the privileged. And the Senate has a constitutional duty to ensure that any person confirmed to the court will uphold that clear ideal.

The nomination of Judge Alito is particularly significant because it comes at a time of new challenges for the nation and for the court.

Suddenly, in this new century, we are faced with unprecedented claims by the White House for sweeping expansions of presidential power that are grave threats to the rule of law.

Despite progress in recent decades, we continue to face serious inequalities and injustices in our society, as demonstrated so clearly by the immense tragedy a few months ago in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

We face new controversies over governmental intrusion into people's private lives -- from the interference with personal medical decisions on how long a loved one should be kept on life support, to new attempts to limit or even deny a woman's reproductive decisions.

KENNEDY: We face new attacks on the progress that we have made in civil rights. The signs proclaiming "whites only" may be gone, but we know that discrimination and bigotry in countless other manifestations still blights our societies and limits opportunity.

One of the most important of all the responsibilities of the Supreme Court is to enforce the constitutional limitations on presidential power. A justice must have the courage and the wisdom to speak truth to power, to tell even the president that he has gone too far.

Chief Justice John Marshall was that kind of justice when he told President Jefferson that he had exceeded his war-making powers under the Constitution.

Justice Robert Jackson was that kind of justice when he told President Truman that he could not misuse the Korean War as an excuse to take over the nation's steel mills.

Chief Justice Warren Burger was that kind of justice when he told President Nixon to turn over the White House tapes on Watergate.

And Sandra Day O'Connor, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, was that kind of justice when she told President Bush that a state of war is not a blank check for the president when it comes to the rights of the nation's citizens.

We need that kind of justice on the court as much as ever. For today, we have a president who believes that torture can be an acceptable practice despite laws and treaties that explicitly prohibit it; we have a president who claims the power to arrest American citizens on American soil, jail them for years without the benefit of counsel or access to the courts; we have a president who claims that he has the authority to spy on American citizens on American soil without a court order.

KENNEDY: The record of Judge Alito is clear and ominous. Examine his writings. Read the transcript of the hearings. Consider the cases he's decided. The record demonstrates that we cannot count on Judge Alito to blow the whistle when the president is out of bounds.

Judge Alito is a longstanding advocate of the expansion of executive power, even at the expense of individual liberty. His statements show that he favors a far greater role for the president than is currently recognized by the Supreme Court.

In his now notorious job application to the Justice Department, he cast doubts on the role of the courts as well. He said, "I believe very strongly ... in the supremacy of the elected branches of government."

He never explained his reason for advocating such an extraordinary departure from the basic understanding of the Constitution, that the courts are intended to be co-equal with the president and the Congress. And when asked about the extreme statement, he said only that it was "inapt." That's certainly true, but it does not begin to tell the American people why he would make a statement so at odds with basic system of checks and balances that have guided our democracy for two centuries.

Judge Alito's testimony gave us no clue, but one thing is clear. If the elected branches become supreme, the Supreme Court will not be able to fulfill its historic role of enforcing constitutional limits on presidential power. His statement may have been music to the ears of the Reagan Justice Department, but it was a shock of a thousand volts to all of us who care about our democracy and the rule of law.

Judge Alito's consistent advocacy of what he called "the gospel" of the "unitary executive" is just as troubling. Professor Steven Calabresi, one of the originators of the unitary executive theory and a co-founder of the Federalist Society, has acknowledged that if the concept is implemented, it would produce a radical change in how the government operates.

As he wrote in the Harvard Law Review in 1992, "The practical consequences of this theory is dramatic: It renders unconstitutional independent agencies and counsels to the extent that they exercise discretionary executive power."

Independent agencies, such as the Federal Election Commission, created to see that our voting laws are properly enforced and interpreted, would be subject to the president's control.

KENNEDY: The same is true of the Securities and Exchange Commission, which is charged with preventing corporate abuses such as we recently saw in the case of Enron, with tragic consequences for American workers.

It would compromise the historic independence of the Federal Reserve Board, giving the president unprecedented and dangerous power to manipulate the economy.

It would compromise the mission of every agency created to protect hardworking Americans from the exploitation of those who care only about profits, not the health and the welfare and the very safety of their employees.

Nor is the impact of this bizarre theory limited to the independence of administrative agencies. It has a major effect on other assertions of presidential power as well.

Discussing President Bush's aggressive claims for unprecedented executive power in the field of national security, even Professor Calabresi stated recently that without accepting such a theory, there would be no way that President Bush's anti-terrorism policies could be constitutionally justified.

During his confirmation hearing, Judge Alito attempted to downplay his extreme view of executive power. But he did not disavow them. He refused to candidly discuss his current views of the constitutional limits on presidential power. Instead, he pointed to the Supreme Court's rejection of the unitary executive theory. He cited the court's decision affirming that independent agencies who investigate executive branch abuses can be removed from the presidential control.

But a speech he gave in 2000 to the Federalist Society provides an insight into his real view. He stated that he believed that the theory of unitary executive best captures the meaning of the Constitution's text and structure.

He went on to strongly criticize those rulings rejecting the theory of the unitary executive.

KENNEDY: He then outlined a strategy for bypassing the court's precedents, including the same independent counsel case he claimed to support in testimony before the Judiciary Committee last week.

When Judge Alito made that speech, he was not applying for a job in the Justice Department. He'd already been serving as an appellate judge for 10 years.

The timing of the speech to the Federalist Society may be significant. In November 2000, the Florida recount was on and the right wing was salivating over the prospect that George Bush would prevail in that close election. Judge Alito may well have been submitting his application for a Supreme Court nomination.

Judge Alito also failed to satisfactorily explain his controversial advice as a Justice Department official that "the president's understanding of a bill should be just as important as that of Congress."

He recommended that when the President signs a bill passed by Congress, he should issue a signing statement announcing his own interpretation of the law in the hope of influencing the way courts would construe the law.

That proposal was clearly the recommendation of an activist seeking to reduce the power of Congress and expand the presidential power beyond its traditional boundary.

The fundamental role of Congress is to pass laws and define what those laws mean in the text of the statutes themselves or in their legislative history. That power is exclusively for Congress, not the president.

As Justice Hugo Black wrote in the steel seizure case, "In the framework of our Constitution, the President's power to see that the laws are faithfully executed refutes the idea that he is to be a lawmaker. The Constitution limits his functions in the lawmaking process to the recommending of laws he thinks wise and vetoing of laws he thinks are bad."

Some years ago, the Supreme Court rejected the line item veto as unconstitutional.

KENNEDY: It reaffirmed Justice Black's view that presidents may either veto or sign bills that Congress passes. They cannot pick and choose the provisions they will enact. But the kinds of signing statements that Judge Alito advocates amount to a back-door line item veto of congressional actions.

President Bush showed this with his recent signing statement on a bill that contained Senator McCain's ban on torture. In that statement, the president reserved the right to ignore the McCain requirements and even asserted that in certain circumstances his actions are beyond the reach of the courts.

These views exalting presidential power are troubling enough on their own. But they are also reflected in Judge Alito's decisions as a judge. His record on the bench only reinforces the deep concerns raised by his broad expressions of support for executive power.

His deference to executive power is especially clear in cases where persons claimed the government violated the privacy and security of their homes. He refuses to enforce core constitutional standards protecting individuals against low-level government officials in routine situations, and there is no reason to believe he will say no to a president who violates individual rights under the cloak of national security.

Time and again in cases involving claims of privacy, security, and freedom from unjustified searches and seizures under the Bill of Rights, he has accepted the government's defense. That was true in his dissent defending a strip search of a 10-year-old girl without a warrant. Even now, when asked about the decision, Judge Alito repeatedly refuses to admit that he was wrong.

Michael Chertoff, the former head of the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice, who is now President Bush's secretary of homeland security, served with Judge Alito in that case, and he sharply criticized Judge Alito's view as threatening to turn the requirement of a search warrant into little more than a rubber stamp.

In still another case, Judge Alito ruled that it was reasonable for marshals carrying out an unresisted civil eviction to pump a sawed-off shotgun at a farming family sitting in their living room. The family had committed no crime.

A fellow judge on the case dissented in calling the marshals' conduct "Gestapo-like," since "seven marshals had detained and terrorized a family and friends, and ransacked a home, while carrying out an unresisted civil eviction." Yet Judge Alito's decision meant that the family never got a trial before a jury of their peers.

KENNEDY: In another area of controversy, his views on issues of particular concern to women should give every woman pause, from his role in striking down the key provisions of the Family and Medical Leave Act, to his opposition to the privacy of women's reproductive decisions.

He was unwilling to accept the constitutional right of privacy recognized by the current Supreme Court. Judge Alito's testimony failed to resolve the very serious concerns that he's itching to overturn Roe v. Wade. He said that he will keep an "open mind" on the issue.

But there is no comfort to those who know his record. The record includes his 1985 memo to the Reagan administration's solicitor general. And in that memo, he advised that the best way to undermine Roe was by gradually chipping away at its protections, and we have every reason to believe that he will do exactly that if confirmed to the Supreme Court.

On the court of appeals he was required to follow Supreme Court decisions, but as a member of the Supreme Court, he'll be free to overrule those precedents when he disagrees, no matter how well- established and longstanding.

A third area of major concern is Judge Alito's record on civil rights. He has a 15-year record on the court of appeals, and the facts are inescapable.

The weight of his record in job discrimination cases is against the victims of discrimination. Time and again, he voted to make it more difficult than the law intended for victims to prevail in court or uphold a verdict in their favor.

His written opinions on racial discrimination in employment have consistently ruled against African Americans on the merits of claims alleging such discrimination.

During the hearings, his supporters pointed out that he joined opinion by other judges supporting such claims in two cases and issued procedural opinions supporting such claims in several other cases.

But on opinions he has authored, he has issued no less than 30 decisions dismissing job discrimination claims.

KENNEDY: And in many of the cases where he voted against the victim, his fellow judges ruled that they had a valid claim of discrimination.

In one case, a hotel worker claimed that she was denied promotion because she was an African-American. The 3rd Circuit held she was entitled to a trial because the employer had falsely stated that she was unqualified and evaluated her qualifications differently compared to white applicants.

But Judge Alito would have denied her the chance to prove her case. His colleagues -- his colleagues -- on the court wrote that his dissent would have "eviscerated" the employee's statutory right to be free from job discrimination under the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

In another case, in which a disabled person sought physical access to medical school under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the court's majority wrote that "few if any Rehabilitation Act cases would survive" if Judge Alito's view prevailed.

In another case, a jury ruled that a woman had provided enough evidence to show she had wrongly lost her job because of sex discrimination. Ten members of the 3rd Circuit who heard the case on the appeal agreed. Only Judge Alito argued that she hadn't proved adequately the discrimination -- only Judge Alito.

In still another dissent, Judge Alito voted to deny a mentally retarded young man the chance to challenge severe abuse. In his very first job out of high school, he had suffered vicious sexual harassment -- held down in front of a group of workers, subjected to sexual touching, feared he would have been raped.

The employer didn't dispute the facts. Yet Judge Alito would have denied him a trial.

Judge Alito even dissented from a ruling prohibiting the removal of African-American jurors because of their race. It's unbelievable in today's America, in a case involving a minority defendant, that Judge Alito was willing to ignore overwhelming evidence that the government insisted on an all-white jury.

These cases are not isolated instances. It's all in the record.

Law professors at Judge Alito's alma mater, Yale Law School, analyzed more than 400 of his published opinions and concluded: "In the area of civil rights law, Judge Alito consistently has used procedural and evidentiary standards to rule against female, minority, age and disability claimants..."

"In the context of these civil rights cases, Judge Alito seems relatively willing to defer to the claims of employers, the government, over the individuals advancing civil rights claims."

KENNEDY: And other objective observers who have examined Judge Alito's record have reached a similar conclusion. According to an analysis by the respected University of Chicago law professor, Cass Sunstein, said, "when there is a conflict between institutions and individual rights, Judge Alito's dissenting opinions argued against individual rights 84 percent of the time. In almost all of the cases in which Judge Alito dissented in order to reject an individual rights claim, he was sitting on a court with a majority of Republican appointees."

A comprehensive review of Judge Alito's published opinions by Knight-Ridder similarly found that Judge Alito has "seldom sided" with "an employee alleging discrimination" and "almost never found a government search unconstitutional..."

An analysis published by The Washington Post found that "routinely, he defers to government officials and others in positions of authority" and has "very little sympathy for those asserting rights against the government."

In sum, in case after case, Judge Alito's decisions demonstrate a systematic tilt toward the powerful institutions and against individuals attempting to vindicate their rights. He cites a few instances in which he has decided for the little guy, but they are few and far between.

Justice Lewis Powell captured the spirit of America best when he said: "Equal justice under law is not merely a caption on the facade of the Supreme Court building. It is perhaps the most inspiring idea of our society. It is one of the ends for which our entire legal system exists."

In evaluating Supreme Court nominees, there are no more important questions than whether they are dedicated to equal justice under law. Judge Alito is a highly intelligent man, but his record does not show a judge who is willing to enforce the constitutional limitations on executive power when government officials intrude on individual rights.

His record does not show a judge who is open to the claims of vulnerable individuals asking only justice against powerful institutions. His record does not show a judge who upholds the liberty and privacy of citizens seeking to protect their fundamental rights.

His record just does not show a judge who is committed to equal justice under law.

That is why I oppose his confirmation to the Supreme Court, and I fervently hope that the Senate will do so as well.

Thank you very much.

END

Glaciers and Glacial Warming Globally

2006-01-21T09:10:00.000-08:00

And in the series of good web sites, Mike sent me this link, it's quite disturbing and we are all aware of this (well, by all I mean people out of the denial phase! And that's not a political comment... hum hum...), just how many people try to make efforts to help this so our children don't grow up needing oxygen from a tube and in special suits?... That's the question! Maybe these hybrids should have a slashed price, that way more of us could afford to help this phenomena of melting ice!

Glaciers and Glacial Warming Globally

Phylotaxis / for Seed by Jonathan Harris

2006-01-21T08:47:00.000-08:00

Phylotaxis is a site I found through the Science blogs... It's a really cool interface and filled with extremely interesting facts!!!

ScienceBlogs

2006-01-21T08:44:00.000-08:00

ScienceBlogs are sooo cool!
Thank you Boing Boing for pointing me there!!!

LAist: Shelterporn: another stinker from the LA Times

2006-01-20T10:25:00.000-08:00

Another reassuring plot to explain the healthy aspect of our metropolises!
LAist: Shelterporn: another stinker from the LA Times

Doesn't that make everyone want to move to the forest, burn all your clothes and become a buddhist?
Anybody know of a small island in the somewhere under the sun with land for a somewhat large vegetable patch, room for cows and accessible enough for delivery of solar panels and composting septic tank?

I knew I was allergic to the air!

2006-01-20T08:20:00.000-08:00

Los Angeles #3 on the list of fine particle pollution... #1 being right next door (San Bernardino!)...
Ouch!

Cool link on LA history... what there is of it at least!

2006-01-19T17:45:00.000-08:00

Curatingthecity.org
is a very cool site where you can view photos of old LA and especially Wilshire Blvd.
There are a lot of buildings that were demolished, but some stay, and there are pictures of all of them back in time!
Very cool to see how LA was packed so fast!!!!!!

Back in town...

2006-01-17T08:14:00.000-08:00

We're back from Canada, it was great, a lot of chilling and a lot of getting things done with the wedding and other things.

So I'll be starting to post again here at some point or another!

Can you believe this guy?

2005-12-30T01:15:00.000-08:00

This 16 year old boy took off for Baghdad without telling his parents... Some passionate dude!

Link to full article on AP

Example of activity in Montreal:

2005-12-29T11:44:00.000-08:00

Switching to travel journaling

2005-12-29T11:38:00.000-08:00

Time to check out Planetary Vagrant again...
We're leaving tomorrow early morning for Canada so we will start posting on the travel journal again although it might not be as exciting as our trip to Costa Rica since it's going to be mainly visiting family.
So don't expect adventures of new seen lands, it's all pretty much known.
Still it's beautiful there at this time of the year, and we will make it out to the mountains to go ski, so we promise some good pictures as always!
This trip is going to be great, relaxing, hanging out with the family and finding out what my wedding dress is going to look like since my mother and I will get it together to make this dress!

Happy new year to everyone, Mike and I truly hope that all our friends reading this will have a magical year coming, full of love and health and good news all around!