at the reception 

Ciuapilli and la mama-ma. 

Jessie and Nayeli with the bride. 

The Valdez Family plus 1+. 

The Lopez family at church. 

Linda and Antonio taking there vows. 

First of a few Pictures from the wedding...  

Linda y Antonio

well this week will end with a celebration of my Aunt Linda getting married. Here's a picture for a preview.

Grito

Happy Independence day Mexico... I think MEChA de Yale worked out and had a great Grito. I missed it on TV but I hope my sister shouted out a Que viva cabrones. I hope one day to be in the Zocalo to witness it. This also marks the real begining of the Presidencial race in Mexico. The final players are going to be named soon and the drama and scandals should really get going now. I'll try to drop a few insights or at least share some news reports from what's going on.

Have a tequila or at least some Mexican food today.

Indifference

Obama was asked on ABC’s “This Week” whether there was racism in the lack of evacuation planning for poor, black residents of New Orleans. He said he would not refer to the government response in that way, but said there was a much deeper, long-term neglect.

“Whoever was in charge of planning was so detached from the realities of inner city life in New Orleans ... that they couldn’t conceive of the notion that they couldn’t load up their SUV’s, put $100 worth of gas in there, put some sparkling water and drive off to a hotel and check in with a credit card,” Obama said.

Obama laments ‘historic indifference’
“There seemed to be a sense that this other America was somehow not on people’s radar screen. And that, I think, does have to do with historic indifference on the part of government to the plight of those who are disproportionately African-American.” He added that “passive indifference is as bad as active malice.”

Barack: I think it points to one of the big problems in this administration. They have excellent responses when it comes to PR, more detachment and less effectiveness when it comes to governing. I think that's been true in Iraq, it's been true across the board. A good example of this-We had a cabinet meeting this week, the senators had eight cabinet members, Donald Rumsfeld, Michael Chertoff. What was striking was even if people were reading the statistics of all the evacuations that had taken place-were telling us of all the wonderful things that have been done. There was no sense of reflection, no sense that ahhh things didn't go the way they were supposed to and that we needed to take away....There was a terrific spin operation, but not the kind of soul searching that I 'd think you'd want to see...from any administration..."

My Lopez girls

Ciuapilli a month ago. Lety still in Mexico.

Perfect word

Kleptocracy

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Kleptocracy (sometimes Cleptocracy) (root: Klepto+cracy = rule by thieves) is a pejorative, informal term for a government so corrupt that no pretense of honesty remains. In a kleptocracy the mechanisms of government are almost entirely devoted to taxing the public at large in order to amass substantial personal fortunes for the rulers and their cronies (collectively, kleptocrats), or to keep said rulers in power. Kleptocrats typically use money laundering and/or anonymous banking to protect and conceal their illegal gains.

Kleptocracies are by and large dictatorships or some other form of autocratic government, since democracy makes thievery more difficult to accomplish and conceal. Kleptocratic states consistently tend to be politically and socially unstable, while being stably kleptocratic. That is, the political governance of such states typically consists of one set of thieves displacing their predecessors by subversive or violent means.

The economies of kleptocracies tend to perform badly, as the systematic corruption engendered by kleptocratic governance means that the economy is subordinated to the interests of the kleptocrats. Kleptocrats realize that they have more to gain from taking a large share of a stable or shrinking pie than from a shrinking share of an increasing pie. Economies based on the extraction of natural resources (eg. diamonds and oil in a few prominent cases) can be particularly prone to kleptocracy, as the kleptocrats simply tax the Ricardian rent. Historically, the socio-political environment associated with colonial rule - in particular the dominance of colonial economies by a small number of commodities - has been particularly conducive to the later creation of kleptocracies, especially in Africa and South America.

The creation of a kleptocracy typically results in many years of general hardship and suffering for the vast majority of citizens as civil society and the rule of law distintegrates. In addition, kleptocrats routinely ignore economic and social problems in their quest to amass ever more wealth. As kleptocrats do not attempt to build or maintain functioning states, or even maintain large security forces for fear of coups d'état, kleptocracies are generally incompetent in the face of social crises, and often collapse into prolonged civil war and anarchy.

Some observers use the term 'kleptocracy' to disparage political processes which permit corporations to influence political policy. Ralph Nader called the United States a kleptocracy in this sense of the word during the 2000 US presidential campaign. A more accurate term for this influence over a state is plutocracy.

Cat Blogging with Ciaupilli

Cat and Ciuapilli Blogging.

Pilli and Mom Blogging. 

Ciuapilli Blogging For September. 

Last one for Fridge set. 

These are for Amy's classes. 

These are for Amy. 

so many reasons why, but the death under his watch (culture of life my ass) is ridiuculous. This country is ashamed of what is done in our name and rightly so. The world is ashamed of us, understanding but nonetheless disheartened. How could this happen in America? Too many issues, but all F*d up in my opinion. Bush should be impeached for this crap. Don't blame the mayor of New Orleans or Govenor. They have very limited resources, FEMA is suppose to step up and do what needs to be done that hasn't happened and people's heads should roll.

I did not put up a pilli picture this week because there was nothing bigger than this in my eyes. Few chicanos are suffering, but there are some. Most of them are very recent imigrants and I hope the Mexican counluate can help them and find them. Poor white people are suffering too.
For all the great things this country does and has done, this is not one of them. I hope this makes the entire country reflect on our definencies and tries to correct them by giving up on the so called compasionate conservatives and this enboldend the Left to fight for our rights and humanity.

Kanye West is the man telling it like it is, plus his album is great!

Unhappy days

Today, this page mourns the dead , the dying,
and the American ideal.

At this moment, people are dying in New
Orleans while a smirking, arrogant son of
privelege institutes half measures designed
more to boost his flagging popularity than to
save the lives of a class of people he detests.

Despicable.

Money won't help those doomed by presidential
neglect, but it may help those who survive it.
Please consider helping out if you can.

Happy surprises - Ciuapilli's Godmother

Its always great when you find pictures of people you know even when your not looking for them. Here is a nice profile picture of Ciuapilli's Godmother Leonora Anzaldua.

Would Jesus want war?

Plus a few posters from early Socialist Cuba, more at this site, but would Jesus be an ARMED Revolutionary? http://www.iisg.nl/exhibitions/chairman/cubintro.html#cub01

summer pic

Movement

A word that has the ablity to encompass many things. It is one of my favorite words, but what always facinates me the most about a movement or movements it that we typically don't realize they're happening when we're in them. We tend to focus on the beginings and the ends of movements however small or noticable. But as they say in the movie Garden State, your so in it right now. Its about being and transending the movement because as with most of life it is very fleating and short lived.

Speaking of movements- Ciuapilli recieved her first teacher praise today. her is the reproduced text of said note-

teacher Erin Sheahan-

Today at small group Ciuapilli worked with beads and string. She filled the entire string with the same color bead ! During the work time Ciuapilli tried many activities such as puzzles, experimenting with musical instruments, and playing with friends in the pretend area.
Ms. Sheahan

So proud of our daughter, she's seems to be adjusting well. I was not that excited about her going but she enjoys the new surroundings and active attention she gets. And as her nerdy parents I think she like school. But were hands off and not pushing her into calculus just yet but we might get ansy one of these days. For the movement of Ciuapilli's education in academics and larger society has begun. Heres for hoping for the best.!!

This little one is done with one week of school. 

Ciuapilli picture blogging Friday

please leave a coment if you have a favorite.

July 4th Ciuapilli Picture

Family Portiat Summer '04

Yale Hearld Picture 02

Movie to watch

Latin groove act Ozomatli has recorded the song "Casas de Cartén" (cardboard houses) for the U.S. release of the film "Innocent Voices." Considered an anthem of hope amongst the people of El Salvador who struggled to survive civil war and earthquakes, the song was once officially banned by the Salvadoran government.

"Innocent Voices" was directed by Luis Mandoki, who co-wrote the script with Oscar Torres, a Salvadorian who based the story on his own life experience. The film follows an 11-year-old boy in the year leading up to his mandatory enlistment in the army.

Screened over the past 10 months around the world, "Innocent Voices" received best film honors at international film festivals in Seattle, Bangkok and Berlin. Distributed by BB Entertainment Marketing, the film is scheduled to open Oct. 14 in Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Miami, New York, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Dallas and Washington D.C.

-- Barry A. Jeckell, N.Y.

Scrubs

4.05 "Her Story." From MOPNT:

CAFETERIA

J.D.: Half of what rappers say doesn't make any sense. Like that Snoop Dogg-Dr. Dre song? What does "still hittin' them corners and those ho-hos girl" mean?

Turk: Many disadvantaged African-Americans have limited nutritional choices, therefore they must subsist on Ho-Ho snack cakes. It's a black thing, bro.

Molly: Actually, Turk, it's "still hittin' them corners and them 'lo-los' girls." Lo-los, not ho-hos.

Elliot: See, Turk, in the 'hood, a lo-lo is a lowrider, or a car with an adjusted suspension that allows it to bounce up and down.

She and Molly demonstrate the movement with their hands, much to J.D.'s amusement.

Elliot: And Dre and Snoop enjoy driving around together in their lowriders around the corners, or lizzle-rizzles.

Elliot: [rapping] I'm representin' for them gangtas all across the world!

Molly: [rapping] Still hittin' them corners and them lo-los girls!

Elliot: [rapping] Still --

Elliot
& : [rapping] -- taking my time to perfect the beat, and I still got love for the street!
Molly

Carla: Turk! You just got schooled on rap by the two whitest chicks in America!

Turk: None of you can prove it!

J.D.: I got it on tape.

Elliot and Molly make scratch noises.

http://scrubs.mopnt.com/scripts/DRAFT_405_-_her_story.htm

UFW and Labor

Well its happened the UFW is not part of the ALF-CIO. The times are a changing and hopefully this will help the labor movement in the long run but the entrenched people are going to have a very hard time swallowing this type of change.

Que viva la causa!

[Update 6.28.05] - the UFW did not split yet, they just joined the Coalition to Win that has the unions that left in them. I doubt the UFW could afford to leave the AFL-CIO otherwise I'm sure they'd bounce.

Old School

non paper related topic

First from my first knowledge my uncle will be buried on Wesnesday at 10 am. Might go on Tuesday night.

Second with so much difficulties happening in the left side of the political sectrum I am often reminded why I'm liberal minded. theses quotes encapulate that...

The inherent political weakness of liberals is in their very open-mindedness and willingness to consider all sides of an argument before drawing a conclusion. Immovable ideology and dogma are anathema to a liberal, by definition. Which is why the Republicans have succeeded in coercing an entire country into their clutches.

Most people are inherently liberal -- but almost half of any given group of people is of below average intelligence (if you subscribe to that paradigm, which unfortunately, I do), and therefore more susceptible to propaganda. The right has the better propaganda machine thus far, and the left is averse to the use of propaganda in extreme measures by virtue of... virtue. It looks like a losing battle, doesn't it?

Propaganda is not an inherently negative tactic -- it's the only way to reach the masses effectively. In the hands of the right wing (talk about a mixed metaphor), through the use of the vast right wing conspiracy and its puppets -- the media -- propaganda has been used to convince the masses that the word "liberal" is an epithet. That even though the majority of them are not rich, taxes on the rich are unfairly applied. That although most of them would be the beneficiaries of universal healthcare, they must protect the minority who would lose the money they (the majority) put in their (the minority) pockets. It's ingenious, really. People will buy anything if it's repeated often enough and loudly enough by the pretty people on their television screens.

If you accept the premises that the majority of people have their minds made up for them by outside influences (propaganda), that "conservatives" are more adept at using propaganda because they'll say anything they need to say to make their point, that liberals are hampered by their principles in the use of propaganda (and, yes, it's all theory, and a lot to swallow whole), then it stands to reason that there is only one way for the liberal side to win in a contest of this sort: We must have principles on our side. We can only feel justified in resorting to propaganda if the propaganda is actually true and right.

Well, hallelujah. We are right, what we are saying is true. Karl Rove is the doppelganger-- he is the devil, the Evil Twin. There must be a good twin out there somewhere. We need someone driving our propaganda machine whose relentlessness, dedication to the cause and commitment to winning the hearts and minds of the majority matches that of the right wing. We have the message of truth; we need effective messengers.

Then there's this longer quote from kennedy,

President John F. Kennedy on being a liberal...

"I believe in human dignity as the source of national purpose, in human liberty as the source of national action, in the human heart as the source of national compassion, and in the human mind as the source of our invention and our ideas. It is, I believe, the faith in our fellow citizens as individuals and as people that lies at the heart of the liberal faith. For liberalism is not so much a party creed or set of fixed platform promises as it is an attitude of mind and heart, a faith in man's ability through the experiences of his reason and judgment to increase for himself and his fellow men the amount of justice and freedom and brotherhood which all human life deserves.

I believe also in the United States of America, in the promise that it contains and has contained throughout our history of producing a society so abundant and creative and so free and responsible that it cannot only fulfill the aspirations of its citizens, but serve equally well as a beacon for all mankind. I do not believe in a superstate. I see no magic in tax dollars which are sent to Washington and then returned. I abhor the waste and incompetence of large-scale federal bureaucracies in this administration as well as in others. I do not favor state compulsion when voluntary individual effort can do the job and do it well. But I believe in a government which acts, which exercises its full powers and full responsibilities. Government is an art and a precious obligation; and when it has a job to do, I believe it should do it. And this requires not only great ends but that we propose concrete means of achieving them.

Our responsibility is not discharged by announcement of virtuous ends. Our responsibility is to achieve these objectives with social invention, with political skill, and executive vigor. I believe for these reasons that liberalism is our best and only hope in the world today. For the liberal society is a free society, and it is at the same time and for that reason a strong society. Its strength is drawn from the will of free people committed to great ends and peacefully striving to meet them. Only liberalism, in short, can repair our national power, restore our national purpose, and liberate our national energies.

What do our opponents mean when they apply to us the label "Liberal?" If by "Liberal" they mean, as they want people to believe, someone who is soft in his policies abroad, who is against local government, and who is unconcerned with the taxpayer's dollar, then the record of this party and its members demonstrate that we are not that kind of "Liberal."

But if by a "Liberal" they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people -- their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties -- someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a "Liberal," then I'm proud to say I'm a "Liberal."

President John Fitzgerald Kennedy

Death in the family

About 30 minutes ago I found out my sick uncle passed away. His long struggle with a bad liver made his last years rather difficult and despite the sadness of his light being dimmed, I do pray that is soul will rest in peace. I was not close to him as he married into my Lopez family but he is my sister's godfather, she was closer. We saw him 10 days ago when we went to LA for the 4th of July. I feel glad having been able to see and say goodbye to him. Now the rituals.

Funny I find comfort in the rituals of the culture and catholic church, in many ways it makes the alienaiting emotion of sorrow a public rite. I stumbled upon the Jewish rituals for mourning and it intruged me, its called "sitting shiva" click there for a full explaination from Wikipedia, its rather fitting I think. Especially this,

During this time, family members traditionally gather in one home and receive visitors. It is considered a great mitzvah, or commandment, of loving kindness and compassion to pay a home visit to the mourners.

Daria

one of my late night break has given me a new mantra. beside Jon Steward conflating Poo's importance, this exchange in Daria has me chuckling.

(Jane walks into the store, followed by Daria; a bell goes off and the staff rushes up to Daria, giving her a bundle of balloons)

Staff - (singing) When your feeling bad or mad or sad, buy a doo dad! You'll feel glad! It's not too sad, to buy a doo dad, today!

Jane - What are you doing to my friend?

(store manager has given Daria an armload of merchandise)

Manager - You're our lucky ten-thousandth customer. All these doo dads are yours for free! (pause) Don't you get it? You're our winner!

Daria (shocked) - Winner?

Jane - You know, it's another word for loser.

PS doesn't Daria look like Mari? its the glasses I think, or the sass.

Hard rough slog

Ok I'll admit I slept, it was only suppose to be for an hours, damn body. Anyways the daily update is that pilli has behaved extremely well and I've gotten a large number of quotes into the paper thus quickly fill up space and bringing me closer to the end. Remember there's going to be a celebration so be ready.

Late night musings

So I plan to not sleep today. Hopefully when I do sleep I will be done with this damn project that has taken too freaken long. The party will start in my sleep and continue after I wake up. However the hard part is ahead. 3/4 is done but this last 1/4 is going to be difficult to make me happy. Nevertheless, I want to thank everyone for so many encouraging words and thoughts. I should recap the last few weeks but I will when I finish this week. Till then much love and to quote my favorite band in the world, pa dar sabor al caldo. Pura YESACA!

Blurry picture of the reunion, kinda like being there. 

Titi's everywhere, Li Yun and Lety 

Reunion on the 4th!