It's true... I'm in love with Tom Allen from CBC Radio. I wake up every morning with my clock radio alarm and there Tom is, telling me some quirky annecdote about composers dead 200 years or more. I never used to like classical music at all, but Tom has converted me. I was in hysterical laughter this morning as he got all worked up over a story in the New York Times today about how Canada is "declining" and "lacking imagination". He kept musically countering by playing piece after piece of goregeous contemporary Canadian classical music. GO TOM!

Nope... definitely not thinking about pink elephants... wouldn't even cross my mind... particularly when I'm consciously not thinking about them. All I think about is work. Really.

Particularly when I'm at work. Working. Not surfing the Internet. Not on discussion boards. Just working.

AAAARRRRRGGG... this isn't working.

Where did freedom of the press go in America?!?!?! This is unbelievable!!

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Source: Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER)
Posted by: Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility - archive
Posted on: Sep 22, 2004 @ 2:44 pm
Memo from EPA Midwest Acting Administrator http://www.peer.org/EPA/epagagorder.html

Inside EPA account of the above Rocky Mountain “No Comment” rule

http://www.peer.org/EPA/epaarticle.html

Press Release

For Immediate Release: Wednesday, September 22, 2004
Contact: Chas Offutt (202) 265-7337


Washington, DC — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has directed to its staff to “refrain from answering” inquiries from the news media in order to “prevent EPA management from being surprised by news coverage,” according to an agency memo (see above) released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).

Earlier this month, Bharat Mathur, the top EPA official for the six-state Mid-western region (covering the states of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin), issued a memo to the entire staff within the region entitled “Working with the Press.” The memo, however, orders EPA not to communicate with, let alone work with, the press. Instead, all inquiries from reporters are to be routed to the EPA Office of Public Affairs.

Mathur’s memo forbids employees from initiating any contact with a reporter or from responding to inquiries made by the members of the press. Even EPA employees who are designated public spokespersons on particular matters must “report their conversations” with reporters to the Office of Public Affairs.

“The ultimate sin in the Bush Administration is going off message, especially when that discordant note is authoritatively accurate,” stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch, whose organization is challenging Bush Administration non-disclosure policies for federal workers. “This policy shows the EPA political leadership’s profound fear of the expertise of its own professional staff.”

This new EPA non-disclosure policy –

· Overrules previous practice of allowing agency scientists or other specialists to answer questions that fall within their recognized expertise;

· Appears to violate Congressionally-enacted bans on agencies imposing any “nondisclosure policy, form, or agreement” on its employees without explicitly informing employees about their rights to reveal matters covered by statutes such as the Whistleblower Protection Act; and

· Seems designed to hide information by directing reporters away from experts and toward relatively uninformed public affairs staff.

“This non-disclosure policy is so broad that EPA employees cannot reveal where the bathrooms are located or what the time of day is to a reporter,” added Ruch. “Significantly, under this policy, EPA staff can still talk to environmental groups or members of the public – just not reporters.”

Similarly, in EPA’s Rocky Mountain region (covering Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming), Inside EPA reports that employees have been directed not to answer any “potentially political inquiry” from the media.

OK... I'm in awe. Last Friday night was the second time I've seen Cirque du Soleil perform and I'm still wandering around in a bit of a daze over their performance. I saw Quidam in Boston a couple of years ago, but this time it was Alegria, which has some of the most amazing music ever composed in it. If you can't get to a show, at least watch the clips on the Web site. I find myself crying every time at what they show about what people can do when they work hard together.

Well, according to the local newspaper headlines this morning it looks like tomorrow Manitoba will become the fourth Canadian province (plus the territory of the Yukon) to officially legalize same sex marriage. This is a result of a legal case brought forward by 3 gay couples last year. This is the first such case in Canada that the federal government has NOT opposed. So given that neither the federal or the provincial government are opposing the case, there is good reason to believe the judge will resolve the case today and make a formal announcement. Following that, same sex couples in the province will be able to register for marriage licenses immediately.

It will be interesting to see how many people decide to formally marry in the coming months. For many, like me, there's not a huge pressing need since Manitoba ammended its common-law legislation a few years ago. When it did that, it made common-law status equal to marriage in all laws on the books AND it gave common-law status to same-sex couples on the same basis as heterosexual couples (kicks in after people have been living together as a couple for 3 years).

At this point, the same-sex couples with the greatest incentive to apply for marriage would be those who have been together for less than 3 years. My only hope in the next few days is that younger couples don't leap into things too quickly in their excitement over the new court ruling. We'll see how it goes.