Half Empty

• Shocker: Bill White is Running for Governor

  Well I’m shocked. Shocked I tell you. Bill White is abandoning his plans to run for Kay Bailey Hutchison’s non-empty seat in the Senate and is instead throwing his hat in the ring to vie for the Democratic nomination in next March’s gubernatorial primary.
  
  Well, not really.
  
  The [...]
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  Posted: December 04, 2009, 5:37pm EST
  

• Did the Salvation Army Drop Its "Humbug Policy?"

  OK, a couple of posts back I castigated the Salvation Army for requiring that a family member who wants their needy children to receive a free new unwrapped gift from their Angel Tree program show a social security card beforehand. Today I see in The Chron that the Houston [...]
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  Posted: December 03, 2009, 6:50pm EST
  

• On Ending War in the Middle East

  I started this blog a little over 3 years ago with an aim to add my voice to the growing throng who wanted to stop Bush’s illegal and immoral war in Iraq. My premise was, and has always been, that the very presence of American military in Middle East countries [...]
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  Posted: December 02, 2009, 6:20pm EST
  

• Charity Strikes a Blow Against Illegal Immigrants

  You have to love charities in Texas.
  
  They are so . . . Texan.
  
  Texans, you see, make a great show of being against illegal immigration. They elect state and federal legislators who make it their business to wave the bloody shirt of illegal immigration whenever possible, especially [...]

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  Posted: December 01, 2009, 8:12pm EST
  

• Wear Your Teabagger Shirts!!!

  In a nice catch by Eljefebob at the Daily Hurricane (I don’t frequent these sites for the sake of self-preservation) the Fort Bend County Tea(bagger) Party Society wants to crash the Sugar Land Tree Lighting Ceremony this Thursday.
  
  As if we don’t have enough party crashers out there.
  [...]
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  Posted: December 01, 2009, 5:56pm EST
  

• Cornyn: A Few Apples Short of a Full Load

  Nice headline huh? I wish I had thought of it. But no, it’s the eye catching headline featured these days on the Austin American-Statesman’ blog “Postcards From the Lege.”
  
  “Cornyn just a few apples short.”
  
  Well, OK, I finished their sentence for them.
  
  It refers to [...]
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  Posted: November 30, 2009, 5:08pm EST
  

• A Ban on Minarets? In Switzerland?

  When you think of Switzerland, as we call it, I would hardly expect the words “religious intolerance” to come up anytime soon.
  
  Not before say, the Red Cross, the World Health Organization, The League of Nations, military neutrality and the Swiss army knife.
  
  So it came as a [...]
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  Posted: November 29, 2009, 2:13pm EST
  

• Texas-Based Military Contractor Appealing Loss of Contract

  I mentioned it here last month that a British-owned military truck manufacturer, BAE, previously known as Stewart and Stevenson, a truck manufacturer with a factory in the Sealy area, lost its bid to renew its lucrative truck manufacturing contract to Wisconsin-based Oshkosh Corp.
  
  Well come to find out [...]
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  Posted: November 28, 2009, 3:44pm EST
  

• The US Secret Service Meet Reality TV

  I never could understand what the draw was for so-called reality TV shows. Reality TV, to me, is just another oxymoron. It draws the oddest people to it. The least real people you will ever meet want to be on reality TV.
  
  Reality TV creates nothing of value. It [...]
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  Posted: November 27, 2009, 10:35am EST
  

• Things I Am Thankful For

  I generally detest Thanksgiving. It’s just another holiday where I can justify to myself eating too much food I shouldn’t eat at all.
  
  Except for cranberries. Cranberries are good for you.
  
  Still, everyone seems to set aside some time today to reflect on what they are thankful for, [...]
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  Posted: November 26, 2009, 3:56pm EST
  

• Operation Intervention?

  Has Governor Perry gone right off his rocker? Operation Intervention?
  
  Rick Perry’s re-election campaign has launched what they term “Operation Intervention” this week. Their stated goal? Let me guess.
  
  To use religious intervention to turn drug addicts away from their ill-advised vice?
  
  No.
  
  To [...]
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  Posted: November 25, 2009, 12:41pm EST
  

• What You Mean We, Dick?

  Former Vice President Dick Cheney can’t seem to get out of the verbal rut that he is in. He seems to have become like the proverbial scratched record where the needle used to backtrace to the previous record groove and he keeps repeating himself over and over and over again.
  [...]
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  Posted: November 24, 2009, 5:59pm EST
  

• When Is Bill White Off To Greener Pastures?

  Now that Kay Bailey Hutchison has all but slammed the door on there being a special election to replace her in the senate, much to the consternation of some on both sides of the political aisle, it appears that the next shoe has dropped.
  
  Today Tom Schieffer dropped [...]
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  Posted: November 23, 2009, 4:55pm EST
  

• Let’s All Boycott Cafepress

  You know, coming on the 46th anniversary of the murder of an American president, John F. Kennedy, I find it particularly disturbing that I read today that a new rightwing witticism has made an appearance on the streets of America. A witticism that is being hawked at Cafepress [...]
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  Posted: November 22, 2009, 11:22am EST
  

• Senate Healthcare Vote: Voinovich (R - Ohio) Votes Absent

  I am aghast. Senator Voinovich failed to vote against the Reid bill to bring healthcare reform finally to the US Senate’s attention and debate.
  
  The vote was 60 to 39.
  
  Not 60 to 40.
  
  Voinovich (R - Ohio) voted absent. Said Senator Voinovich on his position:
  
  [...]
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  Posted: November 21, 2009, 9:42pm EST
  

• Joe Lieberman Is an Opportunistic Snake

  We were all pretty shocked and at the news coming out of Fort Hood two weeks ago. News that soldiers were killed by an army major, a psychiatrist no less.
  
  A Muslim army psychiatrist.
  
  Then news came out that the perpetrator was still alive and being treated in [...]
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  Posted: November 21, 2009, 3:47pm EST
  

• TEA Lawsuit on Grading Filed

  AP has the story, as found here, that six separate Houston area school districts have joined in a lawsuit naming Texas Education Commissioner Robert Scott as the defendant in their suit to allow the districts to continue their grading policies without state interference.
  
  The districts include Fort Bend, [...]
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  Posted: November 20, 2009, 6:02pm EST
  

• Barbara Radnofsky: Texas AG Abbott Oversaw Nullification of Texas Marriages

  Texas voters, it seems, in their zeal to deny to their gay neighbors rights and privileges that they take for granted, may just have shot themselves, and their marriages, right in the foot.
  
  Apparently, according to Barbara Ann Radnofsky, who hopes to unseat Republican State AG Greg Abbott, the [...]
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 5:38pm EST
  

• Fort Bend Teabaggers Are Organizing

  What do you do when your Teabagger Movement in Fort Bend County starts to languish on the vine? What do you do when attending TEA Parties was all the rage in April, but can barely scrape together enough Libertarians and Republican Sore Loser outsiders to cast a shadow of any [...]
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  Posted: November 18, 2009, 6:20pm EST
  

• The Obama Bow: How Low Can You Go?

  Dick Cheney, marginalizing himself even further if that is even possible, has criticized his president, Barack Obama, for performing perfect protocol in producing a well-executed traditional bow at the waist to the hereditary potentate of the Empire of Japan – a nonexistent political entity.
  
  Here is the offending [...]
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  Posted: November 17, 2009, 6:53pm EST
  

• What is So Special About Anti-Abortion Opinions?

  I’ve been thinking about this ever since the Stupak-Pitts Amendment was foisted on a noble effort to pass healthcare reform in the House of Representatives. What is it about this single moral/religious opinion that it is raised above all other ethical opinions of any kind?
  
  What is it [...]
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  Posted: November 17, 2009, 5:45pm EST
  

• In Allah We Trust

  You have to wonder what is wrong in Washington DC if 41 neoconservative members of the Republican Party are taking time out of their schedules to sign onto an amicus brief filed by the rightwing American Center for Law and Justice (as long as you are a white [...]
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  Posted: November 16, 2009, 5:56pm EST
  

• Texas School Districts Ignore State Law

  When can a law, duly passed unanimously by the Texas State House and State Senate, be ignored and who can do that? Apparently, at any odd moment Texas state law can be ignored by its school districts.
  
  The law in question was enacted by the 81 session of the [...]
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  Posted: November 15, 2009, 5:56pm EST
  

• Texas Teacher: State-Required Fingerprinting Is a Devilish Affair

  On November 3rd Pam McLaurin, an otherwise unassuming kindergarten teacher in Big Sandy ISD filed suit in federal court against Texas TEA Commissioner Robert Scott and Associate Commissioner Jerel Booker.
  
  At issue, according to this posting at the American Constitution Society, is Ms. McLaurin’s rights as a person [...]
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  Posted: November 15, 2009, 1:23pm EST
  

• Whither Bill White?

  Now that Kay Bailey Hutchison has all but slammed the door on a special election in May to replace her in the Senate, I have to wonder what soon-to-be former Mayor of Houston Bill White’s plans are.
  
  Recall that yesterday, KBH ended speculation that she would resign from her [...]
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  Posted: November 14, 2009, 12:00pm EST
  

• Hutchison Blinks

  In the latest of what has proven to be a great Texas Soap Opera, Kay Bailey Hutchison, who at one time assured Dallas conservative talk show host Mark Davis that “the actual leaving of the Senate will be sometime -- October, November -- that, in that time frame,” now has [...]
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  Posted: November 13, 2009, 6:26pm EST
  

• Looming: Outrage Against Republicans Who Vote For Rapists

  Last Month our new senator from Minnesota, Senator Al Franken, proposed an amendment to HR 3326 the Defense Department Appropriations bill, S 2588. This bill was meant to fix the problem that became big news in 2005 when Jamie Leigh Jones, an employee of KBR in Iraq who was [...]
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  Posted: November 12, 2009, 6:30pm EST
  

• Mike Conaway (TX-11) Attracts Two Teabaggers in Primary

  Jumping Jehosaphat. Congressman Mike Conaway of Texas CD – 11, a district entailing a newly drawn sprawl of 35 counties lying west of Austin (The Free Republic of Austin, to some) has attracted not one but two opponents for the March 2010 primary. I saw it here at the [...]
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  Posted: November 11, 2009, 6:04pm EST
  

• It's Veteran's Day Again

  Ditto. [...]
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  Posted: November 11, 2009, 4:53pm EST
  

• Pete Olson Just Says “No” to Anti-Terrorist Protection at Chemical Plants

  One day before my congressman, Pete Olson of TX 22 voted against healthcare reform and for a thinly disguised GOP gift to the healthcare industry, one day before he sold out his seat to healthcare lobbyists to the detriment of voters in his district, Pete Olson voted with the rest [...]
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  Posted: November 10, 2009, 5:19pm EST
  

• Healthcare Vote Repercussions

  Both sides of the aisle in the House of Representatives are going to suffer repercussions as a result of the recent votes entered on Saturday for and against healthcare reform.
  
  The DNC is going to be targeting 32 Republican members of congress who voted against HR 3962 on final [...]
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  Posted: November 09, 2009, 7:00pm EST
  

• Congressman Pete Olson Votes Against Texans

  Obviously, since only one Republican voted for HR 3962, the recently passed House measure to reform healthcare insurance in America, and it wasn’t my congressman, and no congressman abstained from voting last night, one could reasonably conclude that Congressman Pete Olson of Texas CD 22 voted against, as he would [...]
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  Posted: November 08, 2009, 4:37pm EST
  

• 220 – 215

  The House voted to pass the Affordable Healthcare for America Act, HR 3269 sponsored by Congressman John Dingell by two votes last night.
  
  Surprisingly one of those two votes was from a first term Republican congressman, Congressman Anh “Joseph” Cao (LA - 2).
  
  Of his bipartisan vote, [...]
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  Posted: November 08, 2009, 11:43am EST
  

• Whatever Happened to the 10th Amendment?

  I’ve been listening to the House debate on HR 3962 since it began this morning. This is a rare luxury for me because I usually find myself at work during House debates. But today congressmen are working on a Saturday, giving me the opportunity not only to listen to the [...]
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  Posted: November 07, 2009, 4:49pm EST
  

• Anti-Choice Amendment to Go To the House Floor

  Anti-Choice advocate Bart Stupak was given the nod last night by the House Rules Committee to introduce his anti-choice amendment to HR 3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act being debated on the House floor as I write this.
  
  Ironically, they didn’t choose also to rename the bill [...]
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  Posted: November 07, 2009, 1:36pm EST
  

• We Hold These Nations Under God

  What is it about the guys that Republicans keep sending back to Washington, DC? Are they all completely without any education at all? Any kid in first grade can well and accurately recite the Pledge of Allegiance, especially the version passed by congress back in 1954 that includes the words [...]
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  Posted: November 06, 2009, 6:07pm EST
  

• On Jumping to Conclusions

  OK, let’s assume that if a guy has a name like Nidal Malik Hasan he is either descended from Middle Eastern parents or is a convert to the religion of Islam.
  
  The name is going to be infamous, now, because this guy is responsible for the deaths of several [...]
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  Posted: November 05, 2009, 5:28pm EST
  

• New York CD 23: A Microcosm of What the Future Holds for the GOP?

  I never really thought that Bill Owens, the Congressman-elect from New York’s conservative CD 23, would be able to pull it off in an upset against teabagger Doug Hoffman, the Conservative Party candidate who was endorsed by teabaggers and non-teabaggers alike from one end of the country to the [...]
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  Posted: November 04, 2009, 6:32pm EST
  

• Election Day Is Here Again

  It’s the first Tuesday in November and that means it’s Election Day. Honestly I can’t for the life of me figure out why they can’t hold these things on weekends as they do in other civilized countries.
  
  And uncivilized ones, to boot.
  
  Here in Texas, statewide propositions are [...]
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  Posted: November 03, 2009, 5:56pm EST
  

• When is a Town Hall Meeting Not a Town Hall Meeting?

  Announced this past weekend in FortBendNow is the convening of a “Town Hall Meeting” hosted by State Rep and gas passer, John Zerwas (R - Richmond) along with State Rep Bill Callegari (R - Katy).
  
  And that ordinarily would be the end of it. Town hall meetings happen [...]
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  Posted: November 02, 2009, 5:16pm EST
  

• Early Vote Totals for Fort Bend County

  October 30th was the last day of early voting in this off-off year election in Fort Bend County. At issue were the eleven statewide propositions that would become constitutional amendments for the Texas constitution.
  
  And that is all unless you are lucky enough to live in a city or [...]
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  Posted: November 01, 2009, 12:14pm EST
  

• Halloween Truth

  It’s Halloween again. Cities, towns and villages across the country are braced for the onslaught of sweets-seeking spooks aged from 1 to 31.
  
  Jack o’Lanterns are carved. Spooky sounds fill the air.
  
  Little brats are everywhere.
  
  Truth to tell, Halloween is one of the last pagan holidays [...]
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  Posted: October 31, 2009, 6:42pm EDT
  

• Obamopoly

  Take a look at what got forwarded to my email address.
  
  Obamopoly.
  Just in time for Christmas.
  
  You have to hand it to the Republican Sore Losers Club, they know how to use their time well in the photoshop while they continue to be out of power and [...]
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  Posted: October 31, 2009, 6:16pm EDT
  

• Who Will Rid Me of This Turbulent Priest?

  This quote, ascribed to England’s Henry II, is said to have led to the murder of Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury by knights loyal to Henry.
  
  The quote comes to mind as I learned today that Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman, an Independent who used to call the Democratic [...]
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  Posted: October 30, 2009, 5:27pm EDT
  

• Perry Does Palin a Tit For Tat

  Ignoring, for now, the mental images evoked by the title, today we find that Governor Rick Perry has gotten on the Sarah Palin bandwagon to endorse uber right wing Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman, who is running in a 3-way race against a Republican and a Democrat for the [...]
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  Posted: October 29, 2009, 5:30pm EDT
  

• Kay Scores One for the Neocons

  Every day is another day of amazement and wonder here in turbulent Texas. Today we learn that Kay Bailey Hutchison, who announced that she is running for governor in the Republican primary next March against incumbent Rick Perry, who is a teabagger’s teabagger, has a new ally.
  
  Dead [...]
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  Posted: October 28, 2009, 6:26pm EDT
  

• A Country Where the Crazies Control the Nukes?

  Yes, unfortunately, I can.
  
  
  [...]
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  Posted: October 27, 2009, 9:01pm EDT
  

• A Modest Proposal to Pass the Public Option for Healthcare

  I just figured out how we can pass healthcare reform in the US Senate with 60 votes to bring the measure to the floor.
  
  Stuff it in something Republicans absolutely slobber over.
  
  The epiphany came this afternoon as I was casually reading my weekly email message from Congress.org. [...]
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  Posted: October 27, 2009, 5:46pm EDT
  

• Voting in Texas Elections vs. Parental Complaints

  As one who votes in every election that they will let me in the door for, I have to say I am surprised and a little miffed at a story I heard today when I went to cast my vote in the Texas Constitutional Amendment election, the only election here [...]
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  Posted: October 27, 2009, 5:44pm EDT
  

• Ron Paul Draws a Primary Opponent.

  FortBendNow has the announcement that Congressman Ron “Dr. No” Paul (TX - 14) will have a primary opponent next March. He will be opposed by a Katy small businessman by the name of Tim Graney.
  
  Graney a Katy teabagger, told Paul on Sunday that he needs to move [...]
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  Posted: October 26, 2009, 5:27pm EDT
  

• Texas GOP Chair: Who Lost and Who Won

  The big story this past weekend was who won the vote to become Chair of the Texas GOP. That the rightwing conservative got the most votes in the SREC was the big story, but now that we have relished in this news, it’s time to look a little at [...]
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  Posted: October 26, 2009, 5:01pm EDT
  

• Legitimizing Fox News

  I was amazed this morning to see that included in the “Roundtable Discussion” on ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos was a Fox News talking head by the name of Laura Ingraham.
  
  Why is this legitimate news program including someone in the discussion who has no real credentials in [...]

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  Posted: October 25, 2009, 1:18pm EDT
  

• On Going Rogue: The Republican Party of Texas

  Jesus must love Democrats. Especially Democrats of the state of Texas
  
  He must, or He wouldn’t have let 36 of the 61 SREC Committee members present who cast their votes for the election of Texas’ own rightwing lunatic, Cathie Adams to the post of Chair of [...]
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  Posted: October 24, 2009, 3:15pm EDT
  

• New US Department of Education Policy on NCLB Dings Texas

  In an October 19 report on Texas’ compliance to policies outlined in the federal No Child Left Behind law, a law that is set to be rewritten very soon now, the feds have slammed Texas for its policy in classifying its new teachers as “highly qualified.”
  
  From their report, [...]
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  Posted: October 23, 2009, 6:22pm EDT
  

• How We Do Things in Texas

  This is how we get things done in Texas. When you want to curry favor with public servants, people who live on the taxpayers’ dollars, you make them really generous but completely anonymous gifts. You do something like giving each and every sheriff’s deputy in Fort Bend County, Texas a [...]
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  Posted: October 22, 2009, 5:24pm EDT
  

• Mark White on State-Sanctioned Killing

  Former Governor Mark White has now weighed in on the use of the death penalty as an ultimate form of punishment of criminals in Texas. Coming on the heels of the little blow up between Kay Bailey Hutchison and Rick Perry, this looks like a smackdown from the former Democratic [...]
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  Posted: October 21, 2009, 5:54pm EDT
  

• Pete Olson: Giving Texas CD – 22 Its Money’s Worth

  I get this email notification on how my two Republican senators from Texas, and how my Republican congressman from TX-22 voted on recent congressional action. Today I was informed that my congressman, Pete Olson, voted NO on accepting House Report 111-292 on HR 2892, the Department of Homeland Security [...]
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  Posted: October 20, 2009, 6:22pm EDT
  

• Early Voting on Texas Constitutional Amendments Begins Today

  On every odd year the state government of Texas throws a little party for 181 part-time state employees. A party that lasts 140 days. And these are part-time because they only work for those 140 days every other year.
  
  This past year the 150 state house legislators and 31 [...]
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  Posted: October 19, 2009, 6:09pm EDT
  

• The TEA Party That Wasn’t

  It has only been a six months since we saw the TEA Party phenomenon spread across the country with mass meetings being held in cities and towns across the country around April 15th, the day that federal income taxes are due at the post office.
  
  It has only been [...]
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  Posted: October 18, 2009, 2:06pm EDT
  

• Arnold Schwarzenegger Signs Harvey Milk Bill

  I didn’t even hear about this on the news this week. Earlier this week, on October 13 to be exact, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed the Harvey Milk Bill into law. The bill designates May 22nd, the former San Francisco City Supervisor’s birthday, as Harvey Milk Day.
  
  Harvey [...]
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  Posted: October 17, 2009, 12:49pm EDT
  

• On Swapping Wives

  I promised myself yesterday that I would withhold any and all opinions on the story that unfolded in northern Colorado. It appeared to be a tragedy averted by the timidity of a little boy who couldn’t accept being “yelled at” by his father. Better that he hang out for a [...]
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  Posted: October 16, 2009, 5:44pm EDT
  

• Embryonic Stem Cell Grown to Heart Muscle Tissue

  The political arguments for embryonic stem cell research took on new meaning today when it was announced in this AP news release that a team of research scientists at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard University have “grown” a heart muscle from an embryonic stem cell.
  
  And the heart [...]
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  Posted: October 15, 2009, 6:38pm EDT
  

• Hutchison Remains Adamant: She’s Running Against Perry

  Today Kay Bailey Hutchison took a cue from Perry spokesman Mark Miner, quoted here yesterday, that she most assuredly was going to run against Governor Rick Perry and try to replace him on the November ballot.
  
  “I have said pretty clearly that that’s what I’m going to [...]
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  Posted: October 14, 2009, 6:40pm EDT
  

• 14 to 9

  OK, OK, the Baucus Bill, that some call a healthcare reform bill, passed out of the Senate Finance Committee with a unanimous Democratic vote, and one lone Republican vote.
  
  By a vote of 14 to 9.
  
  14 to 9 with the 14 including a Republican vote [...]
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  Posted: October 13, 2009, 6:01pm EDT
  

• Will Kay Bailey Hutchison Resign? Not a Chance.

  In her announcement that she was interested in challenging Texas Governor Rick Perry in the Republican primary next March, Kay Bailey Hutchison said that she would be resigning from her senate seat to run for the nomination in October or November.
  
  From the Washington Post (last July):
  
  [...]
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  Posted: October 13, 2009, 5:42pm EDT
  

• Another TEA Party

  You have to love FortBendNow, the online newspaper where I get a lot of my local news. Today I noted a short article announcing that the “Fort Bend County Tea Party” has “scheduled a call to action.”
  
  From FortBendNow:
  
  “The Fort Bend County Tea Party has scheduled [...]
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  Posted: October 12, 2009, 6:26pm EDT
  

• Top Ten Things that Barack Obama Should Do With His Nobel Prize Award

  I was inspired today when I read that the Republican Party of Texas has commented on Friday’s announcement that a sitting US President has won the Nobel Peace Prize by reminding all of us that the prize comes with a monetary award. In this case a $1.4 million monetary award. [...]
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  Posted: October 11, 2009, 2:04pm EDT
  

• On Accomplishing Peace

  I have had it with the rightwing nuts who alternately celebrate wildly when their country loses its bid to host the Olympic Games in 2016 and grumble and complain when their sitting president brings home the Nobel Peace Prize.
  
  “He hasn’t accomplished anything to deserve it,” they whine.
  
  [...]
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  Posted: October 10, 2009, 12:49pm EDT
  

• Making Healthcare Reform Optional for States Won’t Work

  The latest fad in the Senate is to amend healthcare reform legislation so that states that don’t want healthcare reform can opt out of it.
  
  It’s an insane idea. Who on Earth would have ever thought that this was a good idea? I know, Rick Perry probably thinks [...]
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  Posted: October 09, 2009, 5:25pm EDT
  

• Dismissing The Prize

  The country is full of people today who are going out of their way to dismiss the President of the United States. Dismissing him because he is too black. Because he is too young. Because he is too foreign. Because he is too liberal.
  
  And now they are [...]
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  Posted: October 09, 2009, 5:00pm EDT
  

• Putting Wimmen in Their Place

  Jesus Christ himself was smiling down on the Democratic Party today when He made NRCC Communications Director Ken Spain say in a nationally released press statement that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, third in line to ascendency to the Presidency of the United States of America, should be put “in [...]
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  Posted: October 08, 2009, 6:00pm EDT
  

• Pete Olson Lauds “Stunt Journalism”

  It could only have come from my congressman. Pete Olson, the duly elected congressman representing Texas CD-22, a redneck’s redneck, has filed a House Resolution honoring the “journalism” of Hannah Giles and James O’Keefe III, who ran a “stunt” at a couple of ACORN offices.
  
  Ran a stunt [...]
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  Posted: October 08, 2009, 5:09pm EDT
  

• Tom DeLay Quits . . . Again

  I heard it on the morning news (because unlike some of my compatriots I have grown tired of watching Tom DeLay make a fool of himself . . . again) that Tom DeLay, lately my congressman from Texas CD – 22, has quit his run on Dancing With the [...]
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  Posted: October 07, 2009, 5:47pm EDT
  

• Texas Farm Bureau Endorses Kay Bailey - Yawn

  You might say that yesterday’s monumental endorsement flip-flop on the part of the Texas Farm Bureau has breathed some life into Kay Bailey Hutchison’s as yet still unannounced bid to oppose Governor Rick Perry in the March 2010 Republican primary. Perry, who will attempt to gain his unprecedented 3rd [...]
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  Posted: October 06, 2009, 6:03pm EDT
  

• Republicans Cheer Loss of 2016 Olympics

  You heard it might just be true. That Americans would actually cheer the fact that the 2016 Olympics Games would NOT be held in the United States. Now there is video.
  
  From a video shot at a meeting of Americans for Prosperity no less.
  
  
  
  If it [...]
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  Posted: October 05, 2009, 7:05pm EDT
  

• To Urge Courage on 14 Democratic Senators

  There stand 14 centrist Democratic senators in the way of what, by one estimate, 67% of Americans desire (and by another estimate 77%). 14 Democratic senators who continue to defy the command of a majority of Americans in preference to the will of corporate lobbyists of the [...]
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  Posted: October 05, 2009, 4:48pm EDT
  

• If At First You Don’t Succeed, Cry, Cry Again

  Those lyin’ cryin’ eyes of Glen Beck, master of ultra rightwing rants on the Fox “news” network have had a little help, it seems.
  
  Help in the way that Vicks VapoRub helps to relieve your cough.
  
  Applied to the upper cheek, just below those pale blue orbs [...]
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  Posted: October 04, 2009, 2:32pm EDT
  

• Pete Olson Got It Wrong and Gets It Wrong

  Well there’s a switch. All summer my congressman, Pete Olson, has been dismissing the Democratic plan for healthcare reform. Not coming up with any plan himself, just blindly opposing anything that Democrats propose, including giving constituents the same kind of free choice that he and his family enjoys from the [...]
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  Posted: October 04, 2009, 1:08pm EDT
  

• Republicans Doing Backflips: It’s Rio

  Ho man, talk about a double play. Republicans are beside themselves with glee today as the IOC not only eliminated Chicago as the 2016 Olympics Games venue in the first round of voting, but then went on to select Rio de Janeiro.
  
  Beside themselves.
  
  Here we had Barack [...]
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  Posted: October 02, 2009, 6:19pm EDT
  

• The Real Benefits of Being in Power

  If you’ve ever wondered why billions of dollars are spent every other year getting people elected to federal office all you have to do, as “Deep Throat” told Bob Woodward, “follow the money.”
  
  Republicans are out of power. That much is true. What doesn’t usually make the news is [...]
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  Posted: October 01, 2009, 6:43pm EDT
  

• Do Republicans Have An Ulterior Motive for Attacking Obama on Olympics Bid?

  I just have to wonder which of the following is true:
  
  Are Republicans piling on in their criticism of Barack Obama’s personal appearance in Copenhagen this week at the 13th Olympic Congress because they just want to berate Obama over any old thing that he does? Or do [...]
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  Posted: September 30, 2009, 7:01pm EDT
  

• Baucus Committee Stops Public Option

  Acting on the myth that it will take 60 Senate votes in order to pass a healthcare reform bill with a public option intact, Max Baucus’ Finance committee today turned aside two attempts to amend the Baucus Bill in include a public option.
  
  From the Washington Post:
  
  [...]
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  Posted: September 29, 2009, 5:47pm EDT
  

• Will America Add More Instructional Time in Public Schools?

  Arne Duncan, Barack Obama’s Secretary of Education and onetime CEO of the Chicago Public School system says that American school children need to spend more time in school.
  
  Said Duncan to an AP reporter:
  

  “Young people in other countries are going to school 25, 30 percent longer than [...]

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  Posted: September 28, 2009, 5:07pm EDT
  

• Calling Out a Lying Liar: John Boehner

  The DNC has a new video spotlighting GOP Minority Leader John Boehner lying again and again about healthcare reform.
  
  This is the guy who knows how to lie.
  
  My congressman, Pete Olson, needs to take a lesson in how to deliver a well-planted lie. Instead Olson marches out [...]
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  Posted: September 28, 2009, 4:55pm EDT
  

• RPT Chair Tina Benkiser Resigns

  Tina Benkiser will resign as Chair of the Republican Party of Texas at the end of the upcoming week. This is something that could have been predicted had anyone really cared to think about it. The Republican Party of Texas, however, is fast becoming a relic [...]
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  Posted: September 27, 2009, 2:33pm EDT
  

• Pete Olson: Getting Things Done In DC

  Just when you think the voters in your district have sent another Do-Nothing Zero to congress, out comes the startling announcement that Pete Olson, my congressman, has actually done something this week in Washington DC.
  
  To be specific, as mentioned in FortBendNow (because you can’t find a single [...]
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  Posted: September 26, 2009, 3:33pm EDT
  

• What Do Rick Perry and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Have In Common?

  Ha! I thought that would get your attention.
  
  But really, the Governor of Texas and the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran do have a common trait.
  
  They are both given to overgeneralization. In Ahmadinejad’s case, he just can’t help it: he’s a weasel. In Rick Perry’s [...]
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  Posted: September 25, 2009, 6:03pm EDT
  

• 60 Again

  With Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick’s appointment of Paul Kirk, longtime Ted Kennedy ally and supporter, and chairman of the board of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, we are back to a filibuster-proof 60 Democrats in the Senate.
  
  And with Kirk’s known leanings in the area of healthcare [...]
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  Posted: September 24, 2009, 6:24pm EDT
  

• Pete Olson Still Can’t Find the “Yes” Button

  From time to time I get an email alert on how my federal legislators voted on key votes in the House and Senate. This past weekend I received the latest and it held only mild surprise for me.
  
  Kay Bailey Hutchison actually voted “Yes” for something.
  
  Actually she [...]

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  Posted: September 23, 2009, 7:16pm EDT
  

• 16 Out of 30

  Tom DeLay danced the Cha-Cha on national TV tonight.
  
  I suppose it is the closest thing that Hot Tub Tom could come to “Cotton-Eyed Joe” or the “Texas Two Step” (or the DC Side Step).
  
  Since judging was solely on the performance of DeLay, it seems appropriate that [...]
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  Posted: September 21, 2009, 9:47pm EDT
  

• Five News Programs in One Weekend: A Record

  It should come as no surprise that the great communicator of the present generation, Barack Obama, accomplished a Guinness Moment this weekend, breaking all records for news program appearances on a single weekend day, Sunday.
  
  Obama should go down as one of the most accessible presidents in American history, [...]
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  Posted: September 21, 2009, 5:43pm EDT
  

• Tom DeLay’s "Second Act" Premiers Tomorrow Night

  I had to laugh when David Gregory, moderator for Meet the Press asked House Minority Leader John Boehner about whether he would follow in the “dancesteps” of former House Majority Whip Tom DeLay as the man we all used to call “The Hammer” prepares for his debut on ABC’s Dancing [...]
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  Posted: September 20, 2009, 3:36pm EDT
  

• Fifteen Senators That Need a Lesson in “Providing for the…General Welfare of the United States”

  The US Constitution, contrary to the opinions of the “Tenthers” out there who cite the 10th
  Amendment as evidence that Congress has no right to act on healthcare legislation, includes healthcare reform in Article I Section 8, an enumeration of the powers and responsibilities of Congress. To wit:

  “The Congress shall [...]

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  Posted: September 19, 2009, 6:06pm EDT
  

• On Taking Your Religion Very, Very Seriously

  They like to say that here in Texas people take their barbecue, and their religion, seriously. Now having sampled the former from one end of the state to the other, and having witnessed the exercise of the latter everywhere from a Texas church to a Texas state school board meeting [...]
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  Posted: September 18, 2009, 5:25pm EDT
  

• Governor Dean: Healthcare Reform Without 60 Is Possible

  I received an intriguing email message from Governor Howard Dean today. One that I thought I should pass on in case you didn’t. It's also on Facebook.
  

  Now I am nowhere near an expert on this, and have to bow to others to show the way, [...]

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  Posted: September 17, 2009, 5:34pm EDT
  

• Indiana Voter ID Law Struck Down . . . For Now

  Here in Texas we have been watching as Indiana wrestles with its Voter ID law, which up until today was the law of the land in the Hoosier State. Up until today, voters in Indiana were made to provide some evidence that they were citizens of the United States and [...]
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  Posted: September 17, 2009, 5:12pm EDT
  

• Pete Olson Heartily Agrees With Nancy Pelosi

  I swear I thought it would never happen.

  My congressman, Pete Olson (R – TX-22) has gone on public record as saying that he agrees with the House Majority Leader.

  Well, it’s about darn time.

  Having not voted, nor never will vote for this [...]

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  Posted: September 16, 2009, 6:50pm EDT
  

• Joe “The Nut” Wilson According to His Own Wife

  What is it about these wives of South Carolina politicians? The SC governor’s wife moved out of the governor’s mansion in reaction to her husband’s inclination toward “Hiking the Appalachian Trail,” and now SC congressman Joe Wilson’s own wife calls him a “Nut” for his outburst in congress last week. [...]
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  Posted: September 15, 2009, 9:53pm EDT
  

• The End of Civility in America

  It has been coming for some time now. As an educator I have noticed the increase in tolerance for bad behavior among our children. Incivility has slowly and consistently increased as the tolerance for uncivil behavior has increased over time.

  And now their parents may be taking a [...]

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  Posted: September 15, 2009, 5:45pm EDT
  

• Who Supports “The Public Option?”

  If you are listening to what Maine’s senator, Olympia Snowe, is saying, not one Republican in congress supports “The Public Option,” which, as I now understand it, is a government-run healthcare insurance system like Medicare, but available to only a small fraction of the American public – something around 5% [...]
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  Posted: September 14, 2009, 6:08pm EDT