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• 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