Raul Julia Levy

An Orca named Lolita - An Interview with Raul Julia-Levy

Orcas do not belong in tanks. They were created and belong in the sea.

Lolita is a member of L pod and her home is Puget Sound. Orcas stay with their families for life. There are only two ways they are separated from their families: death and capture.

Orcas swim 80-100 miles per day. They cannot do that in a tank. There is a comprehensive plan put together by The Center for Whale Research. They will bring her home and let her live out her life in her native waters.

It is time for Lolita to come home where she belongs.

Note: Since this interview was done, the numbers of orcas in the southern residents pods has changed. According to The Center for Whale Research, the number now stands at 85. Lolita needs to come home.

An Orca named Lolita - An Interview with Raul Julia-Levy

Hollywood figures: Return Lolita to Puget Sound

Lolita The Killer Whale

SEATTLE — Some big Hollywood names are behind a push to free a captured orca whale and return it to Puget Sound.

Protesters have hounded the Miami Seaquarium for years, urging it to free its star, Lolita. The orca was just seven years old when she was captured in 1970 in the waters off of Whidbey Island, and has been performing daily shows ever since.

But now actor Raul Julia-Levy is getting Hollywood involved. He is the son of the late Raul Julia who starred in “Addams Family” films. Also involved in the effort are Ron Howard, Johnny Depp and Harrison Ford.

“I believe we’re going to get her back,” said Julia-Levy.

The Hollywood figures are asking producers and directors to boycott film shoots in Florida.

“I believe Hollywood represents three (hundred) to 400 million dollars in films. We have CSI Miami that brings a lot of money into the state,” he said.

But the Miami Seaquarium says Lolita couldn’t survive in the wild.

“She has entertained and educated millions of children. We think letting her go would be an irresponsible act on our behalf,” said Robert Rose of the Seaquarium.

Aquarium officials point to Keiko, the killer whale who was freed after he starred in “Free Willy.” He died before learning to live on his own.

But activists say Lolita is different. She was captured after she learned to fish and could be reunited with her family, the “L” pod in Puget Sound.

And if Julia-Levy gets his way, she will be back.

WASHINGTON — Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska, convicted last month on federal ethics charges, lost his bid for a seventh term as final ballots were counted on Tuesday, giving Democrats at least 58 seats in the Senate for the first years of the Obama administration.

With an estimated 2,500 votes still outstanding and other election certification steps still to take place, Mark Begich, the Democratic mayor of Anchorage, had taken a lead of 3,724 votes out of more than 315,000 cast, and he declared victory.

“I am humbled and honored to serve Alaska in the United States Senate,” Mr. Begich said. “It’s been an incredible journey getting to this point, and I appreciate the support and commitment of the thousands of Alaskans who have brought us to this day. I can’t wait to get to work fighting for Alaskan families.”

Mr. Stevens did not immediately concede the race. He could request a recount, but he would have to pay for it if the current vote margins hold.

Mr. Begich’s victory will end the career of Mr. Stevens, the longest-serving Republican senator ever and a pivotal figure in the history of his state after it initially appeared that he would triumph despite his criminal conviction just days before the election.

The defeat came on Mr. Stevens’s 85th birthday, at the end of a day in which he avoided expulsion from the ranks of Senate Republicans as his colleagues awaited the final results.

“I wouldn’t wish what I am going through on anyone, my worst enemy,” Mr. Stevens said Tuesday morning in the Capitol. Mr. Stevens’s defeat will strengthen a majority that Democrats sought to bolster Tuesday by allowing Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, independent of Connecticut, to retain his high-profile committee chairmanship.

Instead, Democrats dropped Mr. Lieberman from another panel, delivering a mild rebuke for his strong support of Senator John McCain and other Republicans in this month’s elections.

The decision was part of the postelection Congressional tableaux as senators of both parties re-elected their current leadership teams for the first two years of President-elect Barack Obama’s administration. House Democrats met to make Representative Nancy Pelosi of California their candidate for speaker and essentially kept their leadership intact as well, with Representative Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland remaining majority leader.

Aware of the legislative battles ahead, Senate Democrats said they wanted to adhere to Mr. Obama’s call for reconciliation and leniency for Mr. Lieberman.

But a pragmatic dynamic was at work as well. Having added seven new senators to their side, Democrats want to avoid driving Mr. Lieberman into the Republican fold. Even though they remain short of the 60 needed to cut off filibusters, the Democrats are aiming to keep their majority as large as possible next year when, for the first time since 1994, they have control of Congress and the White House. Two other Senate seats, in Minnesota and Georgia, have yet to be decided.

“We have got some big issues here, and we need all hands on deck,” said Senator Christopher J. Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut, who had pushed to keep the retribution against his home-state colleague to a minimum.

Democrats voted 42 to 13 to let Mr. Lieberman stay at the helm of the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs while removing him from the Environment and Public Works Committee, where he led a subcommittee. The formal resolution before the Democrats, considered in what was described as an emotional meeting in the Old Senate Chamber of the Capitol, also declared that the Democratic caucus “rejects and disapproves of Senator Lieberman’s statements against Senator Obama in the 2008 presidential campaign.”

Lawmakers who attended the session said that Mr. Lieberman openly discussed the political and personal hurt he had experienced when many of his colleagues campaigned against him after he lost a Democratic Senate primary in 2006 before winning re-election as an independent. After the vote, he expressed some remorse for his campaign comments but noted that the resolution did not chastise him directly for backing Mr. McCain, who returned to Capitol Hill on Tuesday to resume life as a senator.

Mr. Lieberman, who only eight years ago was the party’s nominee for vice president, said he could have made some statements “more clearly.” He added: “And there are some that I made that I wish I had not made at all. And obviously in the heat of campaigns, that happens to all of us. But I regret that. And now it’s time to move on.”

Some Democrats remained angry that Mr. Lieberman had been so outspoken not only in his support of Mr. McCain, but also in his campaigning for Republicans like Senator Norm Coleman, who continued to hold a narrow lead in his re-election bid in Minnesota. They said that stripping the chairmanship was only fitting.

Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont who aligns with Democrats, said allowing Mr. Lieberman to run the committee was a “slap in the face” to Americans who “worked day and night to get Barack Obama elected and to move our country in a very new direction.”

“Having said that, there is an enormous amount of work that is facing the Senate and we all have to move on and work together to address these issues,” Mr. Sanders said.

The reluctance to move forcefully against their colleagues illustrates again how cautious senators are when it comes to punishing their own. After being thwarted repeatedly by Republican resistance in the past two years, Senate Democrats were unwilling to lose the support of Mr. Lieberman on most domestic policy issues, particularly after Mr. Obama had urged that Mr. Lieberman be allowed to remain in the Democratic fold.

The resolution noted that Mr. Lieberman’s vote gave Democrats the majority in 2007 and that he voted almost 100 percent of the time with the party on important procedural issues.

“I would defy anyone to be more angry than I was,” said Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, who will remain majority leader, about Mr. Lieberman’s criticism of Mr. Obama. “But I also believe that if you look at the problems we face as a nation, is this a time we walk out of here saying, ‘Boy, did we get even’? I am very satisfied with what we did today.”

The decision touched off attacks on the Democrats by liberal and progressive groups and on the Internet, where critics accused Democrats of weakness in their posture against Mr. Lieberman, whom they have branded a traitor to Democrats.

But senators pointed to statements by the Obama campaign in support of Mr. Lieberman as justification for their decision. “The Senate Democratic Caucus has decided that if President-elect Barack Obama can forgive, so can we,” said Senator Thomas R. Carper, Democrat of Delaware.

Despite a second round of Republican losses, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky was returned as Republican leader.

Senate Republicans also easily disposed of a call by Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina to impose term limits on the Republican leader and members of the Appropriations Committee, overwhelmingly rejecting the proposals.

In the House, Democrats gathered for the leadership elections and bid farewell to Representative Rahm Emanuel, the Illinois Democrat who is relinquishing his No. 4 post in the party hierarchy to become chief of staff to Mr. Obama.

Those in the closed meeting said Mr. Emanuel became emotional and told his colleagues it was “not an easy decision for me” to give up his House seat.

“I want you to know, I’ve got your back,” Mr. Emanuel said, according to one account. “I’ll feel better knowing that you’ve got my back.”

He was a boy with a distant father, raised in a family of modest means. He had a curious intellect, devouring history and memorizing passages from Shakespeare. He became a lawyer and settled in Illinois, where he was elected to the state legislature. With relatively little political experience, he decided to run for president. Few believed he stood a chance of winning a primary campaign against the party’s heir apparent, a senator from New York.

There is a second transition underway over which President-elect Barack Obama has no control — the transition of conservatives to minority status. How they do this will have a powerful impact on the new presidency.

If you doubt that, ask Bill Clinton. Clinton was elected in 1992 with only 43 percent of the popular vote, while Republicans gained seats in the House. The right felt empowered to treat Clinton as a not fully legitimate minority president and moved into unrelenting opposition. Republicans took over Congress in 1994 and pushed the logic of their hostility to impeachment in 1998.

This time, conservatives can find no silver linings. Obama won the first Democratic majority in 32 years, and Democrats added seats in Congress. And conservatives can’t blame John McCain for running as a moderate. He picked a right-wing running mate, abandoned some of his own unorthodox positions (notably on taxes), and ran a classic conservative attack campaign against the “socialist” Obama. None of it worked.

Note that I have been using the word “conservative,” not “Republican.” This is because the Republican Party is now wholly owned by the conservative movement. The new Democratic majority is built in part on voters who once thought of themselves as moderate Republicans but have abandoned the party in large numbers.

Because of these conversions, moderate Republicans in Congress have been knocked off, one by one, and are nearly extinct. This year’s defeat of Rep. Chris Shays of Connecticut is the most evocative symbol of moderate Republicanism’s death.

In the meantime, today’s Democrats are a more confident, disciplined and pragmatic lot than their 1993 counterparts, and this is one of Obama’s big advantages over Clinton. Right-wing Democrats have been replaced by moderates with a greater sense of solidarity with the rest of the party, particularly on economic issues.

The early signals — notably the appointment of Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, an ally of incoming White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, as the House liaison to the new administration — make clear that congressional Democrats are determined to govern with, not against, their new president.

But how conservatives resolve their differences will also matter to Obama’s success. For now, the right is divided into ideological conservatives and dispositional conservatives.

The ideological conservatives hold to a faith linking small government and tax-cutting to extreme social conservatism. That mix is increasingly incoherent and out of step with an electorate that is more diverse and more suburban than ever. Ideological conservatives talk obsessively about returning to the glory days of Ronald Reagan and sometimes drop Sarah Palin’s name as a talisman.

Dispositional conservatives have leanings and affections but not an ideology. They have had enough with rigid litmus tests, free-market bromides irrelevant to the current economic downturn and anti-government rhetoric that bears no relationship to the large government that conservatives would inevitably preside over if they took power again.

The dispositional conservatives want to check government’s influence on the economy but not eliminate it. They would call Obama to account but wouldn’t oppose him on everything. They accept that social problems, notably the growing ranks of those without health insurance, will require new action by government. They want solutions that are as unobtrusive as possible, but they do want solutions.

Think of the dispositional conservatives as the new moderates, and of leaders such as Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota or Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee as their potential champions.

The hero for dispositional conservatives is not Ronald Reagan but David Cameron, the leader of Britain’s Conservative Party. Cameron has rehabilitated what once seemed to be a dying outfit by pulling his party back toward a moderate brand of conservatism similar to that of Prime Minister Harold Macmillan. Tomorrow’s American conservatism will find its own Cameron.

For Obama, a victory by the ideological conservatives could make his life unpleasant — they will attack him on everything — but also allow him to brush the right aside as a pack of irrelevant naysayers.

The less ornery dispositional conservatives would allow Obama to breathe easier in the short run. But they pose a bigger threat for the long term because they would reconstitute the right as a plausible alternative government.

My bet: The ideological conservatives will hold sway for a while, but the dispositional conservatives will triumph eventually. As Margaret Thatcher noted in a different context: For the right, there is no alternative.

by Robert Levin

Barack Obama sent a reassuring signal to Jews who doubted his commitment to Israel by choosing Rahm Emanuel as his chief of staff. Rahm’s father is an Israeli who fought for the Irgun under the late Menachem Begin. Rahm himself went to Israel to volunteer on an army base during the Gulf War of 1991, making sure the weaponry was in a functional state.

To the Palestinians, hearing that a Jew was the first pick can’t be encouraging. To hear he’s an Israeli must be galling. But to hear he comes from an Irgun family will enrage them to a fever pitch.

The Arabs, even the most simpatico among them, are not fans of the Zionists who liberated Israel from British rule. The fact that Ben-Gurion, Weitzmann and their Haganah force were political leftists endears them but little. Still, through gritted teeth they learn to tolerate. But try and mention Begin’s Irgun or Yitzhak Shamir’s Lehi to any non-Jewish Middle Easterner and watch smoke coming out of their ears. The Irgun and Lehi were the right-wing, and a much tougher crew. The story of Anwar Sadat is rendered far more amazing by his willingness to make peace not only with Israel, but an Israel led by archenemy Begin.

The Irgun (full name Irgun Zvai Leumi, i.e. National Military Organization) was a group that used guerrilla tactics very effectively to undermine British confidence. They even successfully stormed a British prison in Acre to free some of their arrested comrades. Once the British left, the Arabs took up the fight, including Muslims from countries as far away as Yugoslavia.

The bloodiest battle in the Jerusalem area took place in a village called Deir Yassin. There are many competing versions of what happened there between April 9 and 11 of 1948, but over one hundred Arab villagers were killed. This became a major public-relations coup for the Palestinian combatants, who claimed it was a massacre of women and children. The clearest fact to emerge from that troubled event is this: Palestinians hate anyone associated with the Irgun.

For them to see Emanuel as the first pick out of the box is certainly not helping their digestion any.

At the same time, Republicans are not very thrilled, because his political style is strictly of the Chicago-junkyard-dog variety. He attends a modern Orthodox synagogue named Anshei Sholom, which means ” people of peace,” but his path to global tranquility is through the Republican jugular. Like many peace activists the world over, he views straight-laced conservative types as the dogs of war in drag. Don’t ask me to explain it, that’s just an odd fact of life; maybe a stern teacher once rapped his knuckles too hard.

Still, the symbolic message to the people who thought their boy Hussein was going to put out the prayer mats and the welcome mats for the imam-mullah-ayatollah brigade is ringing loudly in their ears. Emanuel was also the only Chicago Democrat in Congress to vote for the Iraq war in 2003. Jews on the right who believe the Oslo Accords were misconceived may have cause to grumble; Emanuel was in on that deal, in the selling if not in the shaping. But they have to like that Obama’s first thumb went into someone else’s eye.

The best guess at this point would be that Israel will limp along in its usual way, taking a pot shot here, making a peace overture there, and continuing to thrive as a Western country in the Eastern world. Presidents of the United States will come and go, each hailing the newest version of the old plan, and the newest negotiations with the old troublemakers, and the newest proposals from the old playbook. Eventually one of two things will happen: the Messiah will come or everyone will just decide to embrace a perpetual state of war.

Then again, perhaps the better plan would be for Obama to hire Rahm Emanuel’s brother, Ari, the high-powered Hollywood agent. Send him to the Middle East with a deal: everyone signs on the dotted line, George Clooney will play Abbas, Russell Crowe will play Olmert, Johnny Depp will play Ahmadinejad, and Raul Julia Levy will play Uday Hussein and everyone gets royalties. Peace on earth, no more massacres, and everyone lives happily ever after, with the possible exception of John McCain.

Elton John, Lindsay Lohan, and 50 Cent unite to free a killer whale — meet the man who brought them together

By Sarah van Schagen

Hollywood producer Raul Julia-Levy’s current project involves an impressive cast ranging from Johnny Depp, Lindsay Lohan, and Harrison Ford to Elton John, 50 Cent, and Plácido Domingo. He’s attracted high-powered producers including Cameron Crowe, Ed Elbert, and Ron Howard. It’s a veritable A-list role call, and he’s still recruiting.

But the brightest star in Julia-Levy’s lineup — and no doubt the biggest, at 7,000 pounds — is Lolita, a 40-year-old killer whale living in a 20-foot-deep tank at the Miami Seaquarium.

Taken from her family while still a juvenile, Lolita has been performing for sunburnt tourists twice a day over the last 37 years. The tank she lives in is just four times her size at its widest; she’d have to circle it more than 600 times to travel the same distance her still-wild family members might in an average day. Her only companion — another killer whale from her pod, or family group — died 20-some years ago after repeatedly bashing his own head against the enclosure walls. In her native Pacific Northwest waters, whales like Lolita have lifespans similar to humans; in a tank, that life expectancy is cut in half.

Raul Julia-Levy

Courtesy Raul Julia-Levy

“The conditions that she lives in are barbaric,” Julia-Levy shouts to me over the phone, unable to contain his anger. He decided to get involved in the campaign to free Lolita last year, when he learned that it was in need of star power. But as spokesperson for the glittery troops he’s amassed, Julia-Levy — the son of Addams Family actor Raul Julia — emphasizes that he and the other Lolita-loving producers and celebrities are involved as regular citizens, not activists.

“We are people who have consciences,” he says, “and everyone in this campaign from Hollywood has a mind of their own, and we believe that what we’re doing is the right thing simply because animals should live in their normal habitat.”

Their fight is not a new one. In fact, activists have been trying for years to convince the Seaquarium to retire Lolita — at times, offering up to $1 million for her release. She made national television in 1995 when Dateline NBC played a recording of her pod’s vocalizations and viewers watched the whale cozy up to the speaker and listen. In 2003, a documentary about Lolita, Slave to Entertainment, hit film festivals across the country, garnering more attention for the cause. But only in the last few months has the campaign begun to gain momentum again, making news as more and more big names join up.

Julia-Levy’s passion for this campaign was evident just a few moments into our conversation — and his fervor shows no signs of waning. When asked what’s next, he hinted at a plan “involving a ‘big stick,’” but said he couldn’t elaborate just yet. No doubt when he does, he’ll have plenty of star power behind him.

How did you first hear about Lolita and get involved in the campaign?

I knew about Lolita for a long time, but it was probably about a year ago when I really got involved with the campaign. I was actually a little depressed because my little dog had just died — he was 9 years old. It was a very tough time for me, and I was looking at pictures of my dog on the internet and then I came across … [a video] of Lolita and the conditions of where she lives. And I got even more depressed.

Who all is on board so far?

The latest one to join the campaign is Elton John. We have some of the most powerful producers on board: Jonathan Sanger, Ed Elbert, Richard Donner (who was behind the Keiko campaign and was extremely instrumental in the release of Keiko), David Permut, Steve Longi. We have a wide range of celebrities, too, including Johnny Depp, 50 Cent, [Hayden Panettiere, Lindsay Lohan, Plácido Domingo, Janet Jackson, Ringo Starr], Harrison Ford … the list is pretty extensive.

We really just want to send the right message. We want people to educate themselves and to learn and know that it is not possible for an animal of that magnitude, that large, that in her normal habitat is used to traveling long distances — at least 80 to 150 miles a day — to be confined in a small, little tank, day after day, night after night for the past 30-something years. That’s not normal. That animal needs to go back to her normal habitat.

What does it say about our culture that it wasn’t until these famous faces got attached to the campaign that people started to pay attention?

Unfortunately, in our society nobody listens to your next-door neighbor when he raises his voice. … When celebrities speak loud and stand up, it seems like everybody listens, it seems like everybody takes it more seriously, and I don’t understand why normal people do not do the same thing … This is work that we all have to do as citizens. We all have to raise our voices when something is not right. Why do we have to wait for celebrities to raise their voices first?

Is it the responsibility of celebrities then — because they are influencing the public this way — to research these organizations and get involved?

I think it’s everybody’s issue … every citizen in this country has the same responsibility as any celebrity in Hollywood. Everybody should be responsible for taking care of our environment, our water, our animals. This responsibility belongs to everyone.

The bed we’re gonna be sleeping in tomorrow, we’re making it today.

What do you say to the argument that Lolita shouldn’t be moved?

Lolita in nets during her capture.

Courtesy Raul Julia-Levy

Those who oppose this are extremely arrogant. Who are they to say that animals cannot be relocated? If you put a person in a cage for 30 years and you ask him to choose — “Do you want to get out of that cage or do you want to stay there?” — what do you think he’s going to say? He’s gonna say he wants to get out of that cage. Unfortunately, animals cannot speak. That’s why we need to speak for those animals who cannot speak for themselves.

For those who say, “Oh, the animal is happy here because we love him,” it’s completely erroneous. Animals need to be loved by humans — but in their normal habitat. Meaning: Respected. We need to respect their habitat; we need to respect their privacy; and we need to respect their freedom.

I don’t want to love animals in captivity; I want to let them go. And this animal surely deserves to go back to her family, to her normal habitat. This animal has paid the highest price of her life: Being confined to a cage for 37 years. I can tell you 100 percent that animal cannot wait for the day to come that she’s going to be free.

Speaking of raising voices — tell me about the benefit concert. Is that still in the works?

It’s part of our plans to put on a benefit concert — absolutely. We want to do it in Miami, a couple of blocks from the Seaquarium. We’re planning a series of events.

But right now, our team is in the process of negotiations with the Seaquarium. We will try every single diplomatic road to resolve this situation properly for both parties. This has to be a winning situation for both parties.

I think [Seaquarium owner Arthur] Hertz should really think about this because he’s got a whale that’s not going to live more than five years in that tank. And he can come out of this one looking like a hero. It’s up to him. But like I said, our team is putting together a diplomatic plan to negotiate the situation, make both parties win, and do the right thing.

So that’s the first step … and if that doesn’t work?

Then the campaign goes to a whole new level …

Then I did a little bit of research on the situation and I contacted the Keiko Foundation, which is [under the umbrella of] the Earth Island Institute. They’re the ones that have the vast experience relocating animals to their natural habitat — like Keiko [the star of Free Willy] and Springer.

After taking their girls to school on Monday morning, Barack and Michelle Obama flew to Washington:

In Washington, they dropped in at the White House, where they were greeted by Laura and George Bush:

Bush and Obama went to the Oval office where they discussed national and international affairs, and Obama asked Bush to help the struggling U.S. automakers:

While their husbands met, Laura gave Michelle a tour of the Executive Mansion and talked about raising daughters in the nation’s most famous house. Michelle spent time in the US capitol after their meeting looking for schools for Malia and Sasha:

While the Obama and Bush couples met, the Peruvians very kindly offered a puppy dog to the soon-to-be first family. The Peruvian Hairless Dog, their national dog, a bald and often toothless breed popular among Incan kings, is hypoallergenic. Also very ugly, I think:

Pictures: AP

A group from Peru believe they have the perfect dog for Barack Obama and his family when they move into the White House - the only problem is it’s bald and toothless.

Mr Obama revealed he wanted his daughters to have a dog when they moved but the pup would have to be hypo-allergenic as his daughter Malia is allergic.

The Peruvian Hairless dog, dates back 3,000 years and depicted in pre-Hispanic ceramics.

Claudia Galvez director of the Friends of the Peruvian Hairless Dog Association told the Daily Telegraph: “We want to give a male puppy to Obama’s daughters, so they get to experience all the joys of having a dog but without any allergies.”

Mrs Galvez has delivered a letter to the US embassy in Lima containing details about a 4-month-old pedigree puppy currently known as Ears ready to send to the family.