Friday August 11th It's just another hot August morning in Southeast Texas. There are a few clouds floating around in the sky but there's not enough moisture to even wet your mouth. It's exactly this time of year that I start hearing the call of the mountains... And I guess…
Tuesday July 25th "A combination of slightly cooler temperatures and slightly lower dewpoints means that the National Weather Service, for the first time in more than two weeks, has not issued a heat advisory or an excessive heat warning for today. These moderately cooler temperatures—mostly highs in the mid-90s instead…
Friday July 14th There is just a slight haze hugging the ground this morning. It's not thick enough to be fog. Basically, it's just the 97% humidity. And when you add that humidity to the dew point of 78° our temperature of 79° feels much warmer. So needless to say,…
Monday June 26th Well, it's another day that I won't be sitting on the back porch. Even with the ceiling fans on, an 80° day with a 78° dew point and a 94% humidity just isn't conducive to back porch contemplation... And look at that.. it already feels like 88°…
Friday June 2nd I an really enjoying these unexpectedly spring-like days we've had this week. Lower than expected overnight lows.. lower than expected afternoon humidity.. gulf breezes as the day warms.. all in all, a quite pleasant week to end May and start June... As I was sitting and putting…
Tuesday It's another warm one today. It's already 71°. The prognosticators say this is what we have to look forward to for the rest of the week. We might see it cool down after this coming weekend. But the progression of color in my backyard goes on. Although the color…
It's Tuesday, Election Day 2022 In honor of the day... and to keep my blood pressure down... have a little Lyle. https://youtu.be/uCC7VBxw_d8 And be sure you get out and cast your ballot...
saturday Every week or so I get an email from my congresscriter... Every email has a poll at the end, This particular poll question has shown up fairly regularly. It really makes me mad every time I see it because I can't think of a single American who could answer…
It's Saturday Yesterday's email brought the latest propaganda piece from my Congress-critter, as Molly liked to identify them. And Troy E. Nehls, Member of Congress for my district, as he does every week ended his MAGA approved puff piece with a survey... A bit of history here about his surveys...…
It's Saturday To hell with MAGA... I just want America to be America Again! And a bunch of angry old conservatives don't seem to care about what I want... Or even what a majority of my fellow citizens want America to represent. When precedent no longer matters, what makes them…
Tuesday https://youtu.be/Da1TdpwTBlk I walked out before sunup this morning and it was just a bit chilled on the back porch. I wasn't expecting the temperature to be as low as it was after the high of 70 degrees yesterday. But WeatherUnderground let me know it was all of 33 degrees…
It's the start of another month. But, it's the same old same old when it comes to weather. Overcast, looking very rainy, warm, muggy, just plain depressing looking. The temperature this morning is 76 degrees. The humidity is at a stomping 92%. Welcome to Southeast Texas in summer. I saw…
It's 69° outside this morning. And the skies are cloudy. Birds are playing. Winds are blowing. What a winter we are having. I've been catching some of the political arguments going on. Can't say I'm impressed by the strength of the Republican angst. Complaining about someone's tweets after having to…
It's warm outside... warmer than normal for this time of year. Almost as warm as it is inside. And the heat is on. Outside it's 65º... inside it's 68º. And, it's overcast. The prognosticators have been foretelling of storms forming by tomorrow... and not the metaphorical storms caused by the…
It's frosty out there this morning. I wasn't expecting it... It's also pretty frosty in Washington. I listened to much of the hearings yesterday. What really came thru for me was the hate Republicans feel for Democrats... even as they accuse us of hating President Trump. Even as President Trump…
Another summer morning hanging on into fall. A bit of morning fog hangs low over the neighbor's yard. The warm stillness feels like a too long goodbye to summer. It's also another morning of impeachment news and, of course, Presidential Tweets. In other news, the prognosticators are foretelling of a…
Another overly warm humid morning in southeast Texas. Hummingbirds still fight for dominance at the feeders. I have heard low flying aircraft pass over the past few days. So maybe we'll see fewer mosquitoes. Though, so far the evidence doesn't seem to suggest it's working. I see that a large…
Hello October. It's time to feel a change on the air... past time. I was reading yesterday online that should we reach October 7th without a cool front, it will break a record for the latest cool front since records have been kept. Once again, my coffee muses are happening…
Mosquitoes... that's becoming the theme of the week around my neck of woods. Impeachment... that's becoming the theme of the week on the internets and news. Quite late. Should of happened long ago. Hummingbirds... the bulk of them seem to have moved on without waiting for a cool front to…
Even though it's officially the beginning of fall, the weather outside tells a different story. Heat, humidity, mosquitoes, it seems like early summer to me. Finally, Washington has come to the conclusion that the President's criminal behavior has to be held accountable. It's too bad that so many of our…
The fireworks are early, lightning flashes and thunder booms on this gloomy morning coffee muses.
It's nippy out for this early morning coffee muses.
PHOENIX — President Trump on Tuesday threatened to shut down the government over border wall funding, said the North American Free Trade Agreement is likely to be terminated and signaled that he was prepared to pardon former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio, who is anathema to the Latino community. So, taking…
Humidity and overcast skies for this Morning Coffee Muses
Overcast And Humid Morning Coffee Muses
Cool And Windy Coffee Muses Morning
Here's the truth of the 2016 Election... Donald Trump was elected by 19.5% of the American People. 22% voted for someone else.
Another Warm And Muggy Sunday Morning Coffee Muses.
Cool And Cloudy Coffee Muses.
A Bright and Sunny Winter's Sunday Coffee Muses
I find myself torn between ignoring the day and watching it unfold in a forlorn hope that my worst fears will be unfounded.
Warning Political Rant Follows Is it the weather or the political outlook that has me so down in the dumps on this New Year's morning? As we begin this the question isn't will DJT be bad for my country... It's how bad will he be. When Obama took office, Republicans…
Yes it does... Mitt Romney may have joked yesterday that the White House was “not sleeping real well” last night. But a lot of people tonight and in the future will sleep a lot better for this result. Young people, people with pre-existing conditions and mainly people who through the…
Pledge to the Republicans Print or type your name And your home address All of it Dear former Republican friend: This letter is to let you know that your Party’s tactics of destroying the ability of our government to function by means of your no-tax increase-pledge is too recklessly destructive…
Refund Status Results There is a delay in processing your tax return. For more information, please continue. If you have questions or need additional information, please have the following on hand when you call: A copy of this page. A copy of your tax return. The Social Security Number, Filing…
And it's one she really deserves... From Media Matters description of the awards... This year, Palin stood out for her sheer ability to dominate our national conversation and draw the attention of the entire news media to her factually challenged claims and vicious attacks. She has blurred the line completely…
Mr. Will, from his pontificating height, has this to say about Sarah Palin in his latest column... She is what she is, and what she is merits no disdain. She is feisty and public-spirited, and millions of people vibrate like tuning forks to her rhetoric. When she was suddenly forced…
The logical outcome to the Supreme Courts twisted reasoning... Murray Hill is planning to run in the Republican primary for Maryland’s 8th Congressional District, which would be pretty unremarkable national news but for the fact that Murray Hill is not, well, actually a man named Murray Hill. Murray Hill For…
It's understandable the drugmakers would want a roll-call accounting of who their friends and enemies are, considering the size of the investment they are making on Capitol Hill: in the first six months of this year alone, drug and biotech companies and their trade associations spent more than $110 million…
Compare this... "We're winning the argument," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) declared inside the hotel ballroom. "We know that most Americans are common-sense conservatives and that most of the people running our government in Washington are not. . . . We've been calling their agenda what it is. The…
I keep reading how this reform is dead. We have Texas Republicans in Congress claiming if the Dems pass a plan they will be back in power and repeal it. Yet, the only alternative they seem to have to offer is Health Savings Plans...Call me stupid, but exactly where do…
...the public — struggling with the worst economic downturn since the 1930s — is looking on with great anxiety and confusion. If the drug companies and the insurance industry are smiling, it can only mean that the public interest is being left behind. Bob Herbert said it today, I've been…
Cheney's disappointment with the former president surfaced recently in one of the informal conversations he is holding to discuss the book with authors, diplomats, policy experts and past colleagues. If there is anything that could improve the historical reputation of George W. Bush, this could be it...Dick Cheney is voicing…
LONDON — In America, the health care debate is about to come to a boil. President Barack Obama has put pressure on both houses of Congress to pass versions of his flagship domestic legislative program prior to their August recess. Good luck. Opponents are filling the airwaves with the usual…
If only there was a court to try the cases in... So the House passed the Waxman-Markey climate-change bill. In political terms, it was a remarkable achievement. But 212 representatives voted no... And as I watched the deniers make their arguments, I couldn’t help thinking that I was watching a…
Paul Hawken: The New Great Transformation This talk is quite long...but quite good. Take a bit of your day and be inspired...
Can someone explain the connection between Credit Card Reform and the right to bear arms in national parks? Now don't get me wrong, I was raised to be a hunter, I bought my first guns at 18, my grandfather was a life long hunter who bought and passed down a…
...maybe they’d take away his parking space, too. What is it with Republican Governors these days. Especially, Republican Governors with national aspirations. It's almost as if they can't walk and chew gum at the same time. Even members of their own party have noticed. And it seems as if they…
Yesterday I had to swing by the Post Office to drop off a couple of Netflix returns and ran into the local "teabagger" protest...All 100 of the...maybe. All I could do was shake my head and wonder what exactly they were protesting. Do they even know? Was it taxes? Was…
Just recently, the small-business boogeyman came up in the debate over the estate tax -- specifically, whether it is unfair to impose a tax on estates in excess of $7 million per couple (the level this year) or whether the first $10 million of every estate should be exempt from…
I have a confession to make...I just discovered Marion Nestle and her blog Food Politics. I know, I'm slow on the uptake sometimes. I find that my feelings about food are becoming somewhat activistic...I am getting more upset by the industrialization of our food on a daily basis. So you…
After eight years of backpedaling by the previous administration on the requirements that it protect the environment, there is a new group in charge. They seem to feel that the laws passed by congress prior to the Bush Administration really are laws...Go figure.
When I read this yesterday I wasn't surprised. Gov. Rick Perry today told the federal government that Texas doesn’t want $555 million to expand benefits for the unemployed in exchange for widening the program to include part-time workers. The Legislature can decide to accept the money, but Perry said the…
Reading the news this morning, I saw this short spot: Marion Nestle went to see Food, Inc and she gives it two thumbs up. I've only seen clips and heard a talk by the director and stars Eric Schlosser and Michael Pollan about the making of the movie. It's going…
The garden for recovery movement keeps gaining ground...Roger Doiron has an op-ed out this weekend... In Jerzy Kosinski's novel and award-winning screenplay, "Being There," the U.S. president turns to a plain-spoken gardener named Chance for wisdom at a time of economic crisis. The insight Chance offers is as simple as…
While most successful food producers are far more diligent — big name-brand peanut butter is considered safe, for example — American consumers have faced far too many food-supply emergencies in the last few years. Congress and the Obama administration must finally make food safety a serious priority.The new agriculture secretary,…
High compensation doesn’t attract the very best. It attracts the greediest. via Letters - Wall St. Bonuses - Enough Is Enough - NYTimes.com. Why is this the first time I've ever seen anyone say this? A more true statement has never been said. This sentence should be the banner headline…
I watched and listened to this as it was given on Tuesday. It wasn't until today that I actually read it...I find myself even more encouraged than I was with the first hearing. I foresee the American people will be inspired to greatness once again. Maybe, just maybe, our leaders…
Wandering down my Google Reader list today led me to Seth Godin's Blog and his muse on Newspapers...Go check it out... I worry about the quality of a democracy when the the state government or the local government can do what it wants without intelligent coverage. I worry about the…
Zell Miller was right sort of - Paul Krugman - Op-Ed Columnist - New York Times Blog.
Pre-Election Day Twenty O'Eight While everyone else is focusing on the election tomorrow, Bush and Company are getting a lot of the agenda they tried to pass and failed to do done anyway. The power of the executive office being used better to overthrow the will of the people. They…
The Center for Responsive Politics calculates that, by Election Day, $2.4 billion will have been spent on presidential campaigns in the two-year election cycle that began in January 2007, and an additional $2.9 billion will have been spent on 435 House and 35 Senate contests. This $5.3 billion is a…
Currently (on Tue 5:53AM CDT from Pearland Regional Airport) Clear Temp: 41° Dewpoint: 34° Wind: Calm MPH I woke up this morning at about 3:45 smelling something burning. Sherry sat up at about the same time and said something. We both jumped out of bed before I realized it was the…
Just call me Paul the Professor Colbert, via Crooks and Liars: I for one appreciate the McCain campaign treating us like children. McCain will bring us back to a simpler time. A time when you could identify your neighbors’ jobs by the hats they wore. Like Sam the Fireman, Bill…
This I can believe... Check out the comments from the Congresswoman from Minnesota at about 2:40...Are we back to McCarthyism already? When I heard her on Cris Matthews' podcast I was amazed by her comments...
This link is as much for me as it is for you few folks who read these daily musings. Farmer in Chief By MICHAEL POLLAN Dear Mr. President-Elect, It may surprise you to learn that among the issues that will occupy much of your time in the coming years is…
Palin, the Republican vice-presidential candidate, launched the attack Saturday and repeated it twice Sunday, signaling a new strategy by John McCain's presidential campaign to go after Obama's character. "The comments are about an association that has been known but hasn't been talked about," Palin said as she boarded her plane…
Every time Joe Biden made mention of the last eight years, Sarah Palin would chastise him for looking to the past not the future. Look who's digging deep now. SEDONA, Ariz., Oct. 4 -- GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin opened a new assault on Barack Obama on Saturday, accusing…
Makes sense to me...
After wondering for days where the cool mornings the weather prognosticators kept telling me about were hiding, they arrived this morning. As a native to this climate in SE Texas, I am always amazed to hear these same prognosticators (most of whom arrived from climes much closer to the poles)…
But it’s equally clear that in recent years Mr. McCain has become impish cubed — impulsive, impetuous and impatient — and those are perilous qualities in a commander in chief.(1) What we learned last week is that the man who always puts his “country first” will take the country down…
As a die hard West Wing fan I just loved this from Maureen Dowd... OBAMA The problem is we can’t appear angry. Bush called us the angry left. Did you see anyone in Denver who was angry? BARTLET Well ... let me think. ...We went to war against the wrong…
Deprivatization I wish people wouldn’t say that Fannie and Freddie have been “nationalized.” I mean, it’s basically accurate, but it conveys the wrong impression. The fact is that Fannie Mae was originally a government agency; it was privatized in 1968, not for any good economic reason, but to move its…
For all the Republicans who are exulting that there’s now a “rock star” on the GOP ticket (and all the Democrats who are freaking out about it), there is one minor detail that’s worth considering in the days and months ahead. And that is that the “rock star” on the…
Hurricane Rita Image by alpoma via Flickr As of this morning at 7am this was the latest on what was happening with our tropical weather As the three-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina nears, federal, state and local officials along the Gulf Coast are keeping a wary eye on Tropical Storm…
Anything Wendell Berry writes is worth the time it takes to digest...My recommendation is to go spend some time today with the man... The general reaction to the apparent end of the era of cheap fossil fuel, as to other readily foreseeable curtailments, has been to delay any sort of…
This one's for you... While reporters at The Post and The New York Times have been vetting McCain, many others give him a free pass. Their default cliché is to present him as the Old Faithful everyone already knows. They routinely salute his “independence,” his “maverick image” and his “renegade…
This has to be one of the strangest things about Texas Republicans... When health care in Texas makes headlines, the issues raised by administrators and physicians are hardly rosy. They include overcrowded emergency rooms, mounting hospital budget deficits created by unfunded indigent care, and uninsured rates for adults and children…
Obama is the first political figure since Carter to understand the energy efficiency and conservation approach and actually try to present it to the American people. Republicans want to nip it in the bud -- that's why they are so aggressively jumping on the tire gauge thing. They want to…
In order for the American dream to work, everyone must do their part. As you can see from this report, the majority of the corporations doing business here don't. WASHINGTON — Two-thirds of U.S. corporations paid no federal income taxes between 1998 and 2005, according to a new report from…
Image by Getty Images via Daylife Ohio Sues Over Trouble With Voting Machines - washingtonpost.com During the May primary, Brunner said officials in Butler County, north of Cincinnati, realized that 150 votes were dropped when they were being transferred from memory cards. When Brunner looked into it, she found that…
Could McCain possibly have received a better response to his "Celebrity" ad than this? See Paris Hilton Responds to McCain Ad and more funny videos on FunnyOrDie.comSee more funny videos at Funny or Die For the first time in my life I have to say...You go girl...
This project began as so many good things do, over a cup of coffee. So begins the preface to Rebooting America, Ideas for Redesigning American Democracy for the Internet Age. Dana Boyd blogged about the availability of the download this morning and I pulled the pdf down before leaving the…
Image by Getty Images via Daylife Yesterday there was an op-ed in the Times that said a lot of what I have been feeling here lately...and said it well...Go read the whole thing... Thomas L. Friedman - Anxious in America - Op-Ed - NYTimes.com “America and its political leaders, after…
David Broder has a column today that touches on a subject that has bothered me for a good while... After watching the effects of the Delay led gerrymander in Texas a few years ago I have felt that it is time for us to do something to end the safe…
A good overview of the Keith Olbermann rise in the New Yorker. It was nearly midnight before Keith Olbermann left the NBC News election studio on May 13th, having spent five hours on the air, co-anchoring coverage of the West Virginia Democratic primary. Olbermann had a short ride home from…
Hmmm... Eat that?: Agriculture secretary's reassurance rings hollow in light of current industrial beef processing | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle "Every single carcass that's processed is inspected by a USDA inspector," Schafer told reporters in San Antonio. "That beef is stamped A-OK, and we want to assure our consumers here…
State GOP targets Obama at Houston convention (w/video) | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle Cornyn was among several speakers who called the party home to its philosophical foundation and urged voters to view Obama as a near-socialist who doesn't share Texas values. The state's other senator, Kay Bailey Hutchison, said Obama…