French Politics, Google, and Hot Air

The New York Times is reporting an 84% turnout for the presidential runoff in France today. This event allows two candidates to emerge from the field to face each other in the final vote on May 6. The two candidates are not a surprise as they've been in the news since the beginning. What I loved about the French election is two-fold - well the truth is what don't I love about anything French!

But seriously, two things: 1.) there is a 24-hour media blackout before voting begins. Can you imaginer? and 2.) Note that election day is on Sunday - makes it just a tad easier for the working man and woman, n'est-ce pas? Although, Paris isn't completely dead on Sundays, many things are closed including my favorite store, Prisunic (kinda like Target).

Nicholas Sarkozy, the current Minister of the Interior, was prominent during the civil unrest in the Paris suburbs in 2005, and is very conservative and controversial. Segolene Royal, an unmarried mother of four, who although she represents the Left, comes from a long line of elite politicians who attended the Harvard for politicians in France, École nationale d'administration (ENA), including my favorite, Dominque de Villepin. You may recall his thunderous speech at the United Nations in 2003 denouncing the march to war in Iraq.

Eighty-four percent of a population voting! In 2004, the U.S. Presidential election posted 60.7 percent of those eligible voted in the election (the highest turn-out since 1968.) White men are still the highest percentage of voters. I'm curious to see about the final vote in France - more or less than 80%? A shout-out to Jade and Gabs Maron for going with their Dad to vote this morning!

If I were a citizen of France, based on what I've read (which may be indeed be biased), my vote would go to Royal. If elected, she'll be the first female President of France. Both candidates have a very colorful life - much more interesting than most of the "safe" political candidates in the U.S. Google to find more. And speaking of Google...

Google Rocks

Except for their lame sell out to the Chinese government, they are so cool. Check out their graphic today for Earth Day.








Speaking of Global Warming, Karl Rove spews more toxins...

Take note of Missourian Sheryl Crow's encounter with Karl Rove at the White House Correspondents Dinner. What a charmer! I think all those trans fats and animal meat Karl eats make him a very angry man. Or perhaps like most sociopaths, there are underlying issues of which we know nothing. What I know for sure is this is a man who has bad breath.

The Last Word

The Supreme Court put another nail in the coffin of a woman's right to choose with the 5-4 vote this week to uphold the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act . I'm no legal eagle but it doesn't take much wisdom to understand the gross lack of scholarly aptitude that decides as reported in The New York Times,

"The justices went so far as to eviscerate the crucial requirement, which dates to the 1973 ruling in Roe v. Wade, that all abortion regulations must have an exception to protect a woman’s health...these five male justices felt free to override the weight of medical evidence presented during the several trials that preceded the Supreme Court showdown.... ratified the claim that criminalizing the intact dilation and extraction method of abortion in the second trimester of pregnancy — the so-called partial-birth method — would never pose a significant health risk to a woman. In fact, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has found the procedure to be medically necessary in certain cases. Justice Kennedy actually reasoned that banning the procedure was good for women in that it would protect them from a procedure they might not fully understand in advance and would probably come to regret."

Justice Kennedy, you will never know what is good or bad for me or any other women - ever - in your life time. Shout-out to Barrister JP Bednar for alerting me to the atrocity of this latest SCOTUS decision.


The Second Last Word

And now, the second last word specifically for the second worst Attorney General in U.S. history:


ALBERTO GONZALES: RESIGN NOW!