Le Blog Exuberance //

Impeach Cheney: sign the petition from Congressman Wexler

Today, January 16, 2008, is a national call-in day. Call Congress, connect to your representatives, and demand that the vice president and president be held accountable for the disaster they have brought upon America:

Congressional switchboard phone: 202-224-3121

From After Downing Street:

What are the charges against Vice President Cheney? Here they are.

What can you do?

1. Email Congress, send a letter, send a postcard, lobby in person, honk to impeach, sit in.

2. Sign Congressman Wexler's petition.  And spread the word with this flyer.

3. Help lobby members of the House Judiciary Committee and Speaker Nancy Pelosi.  Contact contributors to House Judiciary Committee members.

4. Contact the media.

5. Contact the pollsters.

Impeach Cheney: sign the petition from Congressman Wexler…

From Brad Newsham:

“BACKGROUND (if you're not familiar): On April 24, 2007, Representative Dennis Kucinich filed articles of impeachment against Dick Cheney (HR 333). During the last eight months, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and House Judiciary Committee chair John Conyers have twisted themselves into pretzels in order to keep the bill bottled up -- no discussion, no hearings, no vote. Poll after poll after poll show that a majority of all Americans want Cheney impeached, but the mainstream media has demonstrated an allergic reaction to reporting impeachment news. Nonetheless, activists around the country have succeeded in passing impeachment resolutions in nearly 100 cities; members of Congress are deluged with impeachment demands. Perhaps this move by Wexler, Gutierrez, and Baldwin will prove to be the straw that undoes the camel. Let's support it! Note: In the time it took me to write and edit this paragraph, 300 more people signed the petition: http://www.wexlerwantshearings.com”

Technorati Tags: GeorgeWBush, DickCheney, impeach, politics, Iraq

Night Ride: View from Potrero Hill, with the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition

This Sunday, January 20, 2008, join the San Francisco Bike Coalition for Night Ride: View from Potrero Hill.

6 pm — meet at Panhandle Statue (Fell Street at Baker)

“Catch beautiful views after following the sneaky least-steep route up this hill. By taking it slow and steady, you'll find the hill is not so bad, and the view is worth the effort. Bring blinkies, snacks to share (thermoses of hot beverages are encouraged in winter!). For more info, contact ”

Technorati Tags: bicycles, BikePower, PotreroHill, SanFrancisco, SanFranciscoBikeCoalition, SFBC

Down with the Big 3: U.S. automakers, go away!

I heard on NPR today about how presidential candidate Mitt Romney thinks that Detroit's auto industry can come back if it just gets the tax breaks and deregulation it needs. What a joke! Who is this bozo, and what is he smoking? He’s obviously delusional.  The U.S. auto industry has proven time and again that it can churn our clunky, unreliable, inefficient and ugly cars. After a couple of decades of brilliantly designed cars coming out of Japan and Europe, we’re supposed to believe that we taxpayers should give Detroit a big break? Listen, I want Detroit to be a healthy place as much as anyone, but it is clear to me that the American auto industry has been making garbage for years and the market is working just fine as long as American automakers are required to compete as they are now.

I'm convinced that it would a very good thing if the Big 3 U.S. automotive manufacturers went out of business. That would pave the way for upstart companies to make vastly more efficient vehicles that get better mileage and consume fewer resources. The years of the S.U.V. boom are finally coming to and end, but not without having caused enormous damage: in deferred technological investment, in wasteful fuel consumption, in lives lost through accidents made more dangerous by the involvement of these too-large vehicles.

So let the Big 3 fail, as they have been slowly doing. The U.S. has the talent and technology to spawn dozens of new companies that will forge ahead with engine and fuel technology, giving consumers both what they want and need: efficient cars that get them from point A to point B, at a price they can afford, without endangering the lives of others or themselves any more than is absolutely necessary.

That's really what it comes down to: we can have an automotive fleet that burns more gasoline than it needs to, and thus requires more wars for oil; or we can have an automotive fleet that is as efficient and as safe as we can possibly make it, embracing every technology we have at our disposal to make a vehicle that gives people the mobility they seek with a minimum of damage to the environment and to societies.

The Big 3 have failed to innovate at a pace required by the speed of change in the last 20 years. They simply crank out the same tired old hunks of crap that they have for years. Then they then throw millions of marketing dollars at their products, to convince us that we should buy their highest-profit models. And we have, sadly; we've embraced S.U.V.'s wholeheartedly, filling our suburban streets and parking lots and driveways with stupid huge cars (moms in Hummers should be banished from their neighborhoods, thank you). We've ignored the consequences of driving gigantic egotistical trucks, and now they’re coming back to bite us: a tragic war in Iraq, increased global warming, a squandering of oil, and, finally, a loss of market share as we consumers wake up and realize that maybe driving S.U.V.s is a bad idea and we ought to choose our cars for their fuel efficiency, not for the bogus promises promoted in advertising.

Choose an S.U.V., and you choose war. Choose an efficient car for your needs, and you choose peace.

Technorati Tags: Detroit , MittRomney , globalwarming, autoindustry, hybridcars, NPR, OilAddiction

Anna's Danish Cookies, now Farina, in the Mission

From Tablehopper's review of Farina, the restaurant on 18th Street in San Francisco's Mission District that replaced Anna's Danish Cookies, I learned this about the fate of the Anna's old sign:

“There is a spacious communal table, with two-tops that that are cleverly made out of the former Anna's Danish Cookies sign that line the towering front bay windows…”

Technorati Tags: AnnasDanishCookies, MissionDistrict, SanFrancisco

Whirlpools in San Francisco during winter storm

We're in the midst of a walloping winter storm here in San Francisco. I created a giant whirlpool in the street by clearing the leaves off a storm drain that had clogged. When I walked into the water, it was about mid-calf deep — nearly 12“ of standing water, soaked to the bone. Potrero Hill neighborhood, 20th and De Haro.

Technorati Tags: rain, SanFrancisco, storm, street, whirlpool, california

The Dalai Lama’s instructions for life

Here's what some friendly person had to say about how to live life. I can't remember who said this; might have been the Dalai Lama, or Jesus Christ, or Mark Twain, or Oprah, or Allah, or Buddha, Abe Lincoln or my Grandpa, or a British World War II veteran, or somebody like that.

1. Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.
2. When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.
3. Follow the three R’s: Respect for self,  Respect for others, and Responsibility for all your actions.
4. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.
5. Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
6. Don’t let a little dispute injure a great relationship.
7. When you realize you’ve made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.
8. Spend some time alone every day.
9. Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.
10. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
11. Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and  think back, you’ll  be able to enjoy it a second time.
12. A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.
13. In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don’t bring up the past.
14. Share your knowledge. It is a way to achieve immortality.
15. Be gentle with the earth.
16. Once a year, go someplace you’ve never been before.
17. Remember that the best relationship is one in which your  love for each other exceeds your need for each other.
18. Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.
19. Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon.

Happy new year from Le Blog Exuberance!