Going through the Google Reader feeds this morning I stumbled over Dick Cavett at the Times. If you need a review of his column take this into consideration...I read all the wy to the end to get these final lines to drop quote here. Witness for theWho, Exactly? - Dick…
There was a post by Gina over at Lifehacker yesterday about coffee that caught my eye. How To: Make Better Coffee - Lifehacker This morning's cuppa joe a big letdown? Self-described "coffee snob" Brett Kelly says you can make a fabulous cup of coffee for a reasonable price yourself. Kelly's…
For the past week or so I have been catching myself with my mind in the clouds so this weeks horoscope from Rob Brezsny really resonated in me. Free Will Astrology : Aquarius Horoscope Aquarius Horoscope for week of September 27, 2007Aquarius (January 20-February 19) It'll be a good week…
It looks like I've had one of my domains phished spoofed. All morning long the spam folder has been filling up with undelivered mail receipts. Since around 5am this morning there have been over 2,000 undelivered messages. Almost makes you wonder how many must have gotten through. I am sure…
There is a new deal floating through Washington DC. It's called Republican Speak. Whenever a Republican does something, blocks some law, breaks some law or rule the idea is to get the MSM (mainstream media) to blame it on the Democrats. Damned if it ain't working. Yet, to hear the…
I began thinking of the wordsmiths I enjoy who make their primary living working on the farm. I haven't made it a point to search these folks out, but maybe I should. There is something about the solitude of farm work that seems to allow the wordsmiths it produces to let their words steep and age before they commit them to paper (or electronic replacements thereof).
It's Wednesday on the SE Texas coast in September which means there is a stalled out "cold" front somewhere in the neighborhood. The upshot that is we will be adding to our 18" surplus of precipitation for a few days as the weather system tries to sort out it's conflicted…
It’s not straight from the VP’s mouth, but it’s straight from his policy book. Energy companies rule and all you folks living in the neighborhood can “just go f— yourselves” to quote on Administration Official.
As the sun sinks slowly behind the trees to the west the heat of the day begins to approach the lowly mid-eighties. Mid summer on the Texas Gulf Coast is always a charmer unless you live here, then it just becomes a dodge the mosquito chore of sweaty clothes and…
It looks like it's time to keep an eye on the tropics if you live in this part of the world. Hurricane Dean has reached category 4 and he's still strengthening. He is prognosticated anywhere from the Bay of Campeche in Mexico to the mouth of the Mississippi, due to…
Today's emails contained this week's copy of the "Weeknight Kitchen Newsletter" from The Splendid Table. I've been listening to Lynne Rossetto Kasper on the Splendid Table Podcast for a while now and enjoying it immensely. This week's newsletter contained a link to the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch. I had…
From Washington Forgive me a few moments of happiness at the news from Washington. The one bit of uniting not dividing to come out of the White House in six years...Karl Rove is resigning. One of the few good quotes I've seen about the resignation of Karl Rove... "Buh-bye, Karl…
This morning Garrison informs us of a birthday... It's the birthday of Wendell Berry born in Port Royal, Kentucky (1934). He grew up on farmland that had belonged to his family since 1803. He went on to college and to graduate school. He lived in California and Italy and New…
The bridge collapse in Minneapolis hadn't really impinged upon my conscious as I don't spend a lot of time on the TV. I have only seen passing references to the disaster on the net until this morning. I guess it was Eugene Robinson's column in the Washington Post; A Catastrophic…
Today's number is 34...Only one more day to go. As I was rambling through the news today, reading the stories out of Washington, and the comments from readers, I was struck with a wild and crazy idea. My idea was to give the veto power to the people. In addition…
Today's number is 28... Last evening we had a real gully washer of a thunderstorm roll through after 8pm. As Sherry and I sat at the kitchen table reading we started hearing distant rumbles. The first time, I pulled up the National Weather Service site and there wasn't anything showing…
Warning: Bush Bashing Political Rant Follows The New York Times has a great question in the first paragraph of this editorial... FEMA Runs for Cover - New York Times How many times can the federal government let down the victims of the hurricanes that ravaged the Gulf Coast two years…
I see my Congressman is still stirring the pot... When U.S. Rep. Ron Paul recently gave the keynote address at a ceremony presenting overdue medals to 24 veterans, he talked about patriotism, the country's debt owed to veterans, the need for a strong military and strong personal freedom. What he…
We carry with us these footprints of vanished places: apartments we moved out of years ago, dry cleaners that went out of business, restaurants that stopped serving, neighborhoods where only the street names remain the same. Verlyn Klinkenborg - Remembered Spaces - New York Times Today's number is 24...One of…
Today will be radiation treatment #23. That means just 13 more to go... The weather station on the wall has the outside temperature at 73°. That would be very comfortable for this time of year except that the humidity reading is 99%. After the morning rains yesterday we had a…
Lady Bird Johnson dies at 94 | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle Lady Bird Johnson, a former first lady, a Texas legend, a woman who used the humble wildflower to teach an entire nation to treasure and preserve the environment, died Wednesday. She was 94. She was a damn fine Texas…
Today is the end of my fourth week of radiation treatment. After today I will have three more weeks to go. The treatments have become a daily routine...The people at the treatment center are really nice and always courteous. The patients I see each day are all friendly. I have…
They can't spin it, they can't excuse it, they can't hide it. It's a payoff for taking the fall for the big guys. And Bush's very history spells it out. In the six years that Bush was governor of Texas, he commuted a single death sentence and allowed 152 executions…
Keith Olbermann has another of his special commentaries out. It's too bad neither President Bush nor Vice-President Cheney have an iota of understanding about what it is they have done that sets so many Patriotic Americans teeth on edge. And as far as doing the right thing is concerned, Mr.…
People are going to be having fun with the convoluted logic of this step by President Bush right up until he is facing judgment himself. In commuting Lewis "Scooter" Libby Jr.'s 30-month prison sentence on Monday, President Bush drew on the same arguments about the federal sentencing system often made…
Can you imagine what must have been going on behind the scenes on this day all those years ago in Philadelphia? The discussions, the arguments, the compromises all to commit...treason. Each and every signer of the Declaration of Independence was putting his head in a noose for what he believed…
Well after a couple of weeks of playing target practice with a ray gun the sore throat they were promising has arrived. Looks like this most expensive of diets has now kicked into it's starting phase... Checking the news this morning I see Warren Buffett is living up to the…
"This is a little bit of a nonissue," Perino said at a briefing dominated by the issue. Cheney is not subject to the executive order, she said, "because the president gets to decide whether or not he should be treated separately, and he's decided that he should."These guys really need…
With the sentencing of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Fitzgerald has apparently finished his work, which was, not to put too fine a point on it, to make a mountain out of a molehill. At the urging of the liberal press (especially the New York Times), he was appointed to look…
There was a break in the afternoon gully washers yesterday. I took that opportunity to play a bit of catchup on the yard work. I managed to mow about 2/3 of the yard...if I'm lucky I may get the rest mowed this afternoon. At 6am this morning we are already…
To judge by his latest columns my answer would have to be yes. It looks like I'm not the only one who thins so either. Marbo is Guest Posting over at The Carpetbagger Report this weekend and has a systematic rebuttal to George Will's latest column telling us how good…
Charles Krauthammer has a long piece on the Immigration Bill and building fences. This whole fence argument comes with a timing that I find full of synchronicity. What with all of the air play Ronald Reagan's Berlin speech has gotten on the anniversary of the dismantling of the Berlin Wall.…
I hope Charles Osgood doesn't get upset with me for borrowing his date format. I have liked the way it sounds ever since he started using in, I think it was Twenty O'One...Sorry for the sparsity of posts. I have been playing with WordPress for a few days now, first…
My email brought me the latest "News From Vermont" a regular newsletter put out by Burr Morse from the Morse Farm Sugarworks. I stumbled upon a copy of one of his email missives a while back and I enjoyed it so much I was moved to subscribe. I have been…
What a difference a day makes...Yesterday morning I was in Medical Mode and not hurrying out the door, so I drew my first cup and glanced up at the "Weather Station". The outside temperature was 68 and the humidity was lower than normal, just in the 80% vicinity, so I…
There is a firestorm brewing in Washington DC. It is a storm fueled by scandal...Scandals based on the perception of dishonesty. At this moment, it is only the perception of dishonesty that is fueling this firestorm of scandals. But each days news cycle brings more reports of lost documents, lost…
Leave it to the Senator to put his finger on the "New" policy for Iraq. One innovation of the new strategy is closing markets to vehicles, thereby precluding car bombs that kill so many and garner so much media attention. Petraeus understandably wanted us to see this development. How far…
On Easter Sunday the Iraq prognosis could be better. A political breakthrough in Washington already happened, Hamre (John J. Hamre, a former deputy defense secretary) said, when November's elections turned into a referendum on the war. "The American people have been waiting to hear how we were going to win in…
1992 was the year I became a Democrat. That was the year I got the opportunity to attend every session of the Republican National Convention. I was in the building before the delegates and I left each evening after they went off to their parties. The thing that turned me…
Tony Snow had this to say about his boss and his environmental policies... Mr. Bush had in fact been “keenly committed both to environmentalism and conservationism from the start.” Must be something in the Kool-Aide up there in the White House. As the NY Times points out in an editorial...…
Somehow, after four years, the debate on Iraq is still animated by wishful thinking. The White House talks as if a surge of 20,000 troops is going to stop a civil war. Democrats argue that when America withdraws its troops, Iraqis will finally take responsibility for their own security. But…
Charles Krauthammer takes us to task for those blaming America for the deaths in Iraq... We have made a lot of mistakes in Iraq. But when Arabs kill Arabs and Shiites kill Shiites and Sunnis kill all in a spasm of violence that is blind and furious and has roots…
Molly Ivins, the liberal newspaper columnist who delighted in skewering politicians and interpreting, and mocking, her Texas culture, died today at her home in Austin. She was 62. Ralph Barrera/Austin American-Statesman, via Associated Press Molly Ivins in 2006. Her death, after a long fight with breast cancer, was confirmed by…
I don't know about you but to me it looks to me like Bush and Cheney have seen to many police shows on TV. I mean come on guys, good cop bad cop is so lame... We often wonder whether there is a limit to the Bush administration’s obsession with…
You have to wonder what they are putting in the Kool-Aid at the Cheney manse. Vice President Cheney said yesterday that the administration has achieved "enormous successes" in Iraq but complained that critics and the media "are so eager to write off this effort or declare it a failure" that…
All it took was for the ruling party to be kicked out of power. Now we have legislators actually legislating. Perish the thought, the Republican minority may have to prove that government can actually can work for the American people contrary to anything they may have espoused in the past.…
Today's Washington Post Editorial by Richard Cohen goes a long way in making me understand the "inner" Bush that has seemed so out of touch with reality. Mr. Cohen gets your attention with the first sentence. George W. Bush has executed 153 people, 152 of them in Texas and one…
This Washington Post Editorial touches on a number of points about the Bush tax cuts, most of which are not in the President's favor. PRESIDENT BUSH wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed Wednesday that "it is also a fact that our tax cuts have fueled robust economic growth and…
It's a bit disconcerting to have Peggy Noonan agree with me on anything. But she seems to have had the same gut reaction to the Bush/Web confrontation that I did. Sadly that was pretty much all we agreed on. Though I do find part of her theory on why there isn't…
I found the following paragraphs most telling. In an article in the latest issue of the conservative Weekly Standard, Yuval Levin, a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, explains the tension between the market and the family as clearly as anyone has: "The market values risk-taking and creative…
The election may be over but the battle to protect the American Constitution has just begun. Do not think that if these rulings are allowed to stand that they will only be used against non-citizens. It will only be a matter of time before someone born in this country is spirited…
I find myself intrigued... I'd like to try this idea in Elizabeth, New Jersey Tyler Cowen How about cities without any traffic signs or lights?: European traffic planners are dreaming of streets free of rules and directives. They want drivers and pedestrians to interact in a free and humane way,…
This morning's OP-ED from David Broder makes some interesting points. He has divided the Bush Presidency into four phases. I think he should have added a fifth. In trying to gauge where things stand in our government after the political upheaval that has taken place, it helps to think back through the…
It is nice to read something on the Op-Ed pages at the WSJ that I can agree with for a change. Looks like the new Senator from Virginia has a way with telling it like it is... The most important--and unfortunately the least debated--issue in politics today is our society's steady drift toward a…
She was the last of the Blue Governors from the Great State of Texas. Bush and Rove lied her out of office. Now the whole country knows what it's like to live in Texas. AUSTIN — A downtown bridge famous for political marches, parades and a bat colony will soon…
Today's emails brought the following: On their journey through the stages of grief, conservatives don't yet seem to have gotten past denial. Republicans may have lost, conservatives argue, but only because they misplaced their ideology. "[T]hey were punished not for pursuing but for forgetting conservatism," George F. Will, conservatism's most…
I guess the reason I have been quiet in regards to the resounding change in the political climate is I have been waiting for the other shoe to drop. Congratulation to all of the winners across the country. In particular, congratulation to us, the American people. We have begun the…
This story caught my interest today because the company I work for changed our insurance to United last year. Now I wonder who it is that is being insured.How William McGuire earned that fat paycheck | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle: "Moral hazard theory, which has governed health insurance since the…
Angry Campaigns End on an Angrier Note - washingtonpost.com:"'As you go to the polls, remember we're at war,' (President Bush) told thousands of GOP supporters in Pensacola, Fla. 'And if you want this country to do everything in its power to protect you and at the same time lay a…
No one else would have come up with the throw down quote below.Who Needs to 'Help' America Vote? - washingtonpost.com:"Having fixed Iraq and New Orleans, the federal government's healing touch is now being applied to voting. As a result, days -- perhaps weeks -- might pass after Election Day without…
Do you feel safer with your lawful rights in the hands of these people?A Dangerous New Order - New York Times: "Once President Bush signed the new law on military tribunals, administration officials and Republican leaders in Congress wasted no time giving Americans a taste of the new order created…
I was sitting at the kitchen table going through my morning emails, reading the blogs I keep up with and generally doing what I do during the quiet of a Saturday morn when after checking out Fragments I started running Fred's link list. Basically, I was looking for some new…
John Scalzi started a hell of a conversation. Join in...I'm proud to be an American, but I'm tired of being ashamed of my government. I'm tired of having to count the seconds until this bilious waste of a president is shoved out the door in January of 2009. I'm tired…
The Houston Chronicle is reporting that Colin Powell is not backing down from his stand on the issue of American Principles...Nor the decision to invade Iraq.American principles are vital to terror fight, Powell says: "Former Secretary of State Colin Powell defended Wednesday the decision to invade Iraq and topple leader…
I guess this is what sticks in my craw most about these self-righteous leaders we are stuck with and Eugene Robinson said it pretty well...Eugene Robinson - Torture Is Torture - washingtonpost.com: "But we shouldn't have to talk about the practicalities of torture, because the real question is moral: What…
Ok I was wrong...Bloggermann: This hole in the ground - Bloggermann - MSNBC.com: "History teaches us that nearly unanimous support of a government cannot be taken away from that government by its critics. It can only be squandered by those who use it not to heal a nation's wounds, but…
I was reading the morning papers (on-line of course), and Richard Cohen's column had some interesting thoughts. His contention that Bin Laden has won resonates. He lays out a very good case that everything Bin Laden set out to accomplish he has, and the Bush Administration has taken each of…
I was trying to come up with a way of expressing my feelings for this anniversary of the day America awoke to the realities of the world...This post led to same thoughts...Daily Kos: The lessons of 9-11: "The lessons of 9-11by kosMon Sep 11, 2006 at 10:53:17 AM PDTAravosis learned…
As a followup to the previous post and a commentary on the many conservative pundants who don't understand the sour attitude of the American Public on the state of the economy I would like to point to this Washington Post Editorial:Mr. Bush and Labor DayWorkers aren't benefiting from growth.Monday, September…
Whatever: Being Poor: "Being poor is people who have never been poor wondering why you choose to be so.Being poor is knowing how hard it is to stop being poor.Being poor is seeing how few options you have.Being poor is running in place.Being poor is people wondering why you didn't…
The Carpetbagger Report » Blog Archive » President Cheney: "President CheneyWe've all heard the jokes, some of them funny, about Dick Cheney being the real president, but over the weekend, Robert Kuttner made a compelling case that the jokes actually understate the case  Cheney really is the one 'running…
Bush Team Casts Foes as Defeatist: "When Bush and his allies accuse those favoring such a timetable of 'self-defeating pessimism,' as Cheney put it this week..."I guess that should make me proud to be an American, the land where name calling is the name of the game when you don't…
I guess this pretty much explains the shenanigans in Florida in 2000...ORLANDO, Aug. 25 -- Rep. Katherine Harris (R-Fla.) said this week that God did not intend for the United States to be a 'nation of secular laws' and that the separation of church and state is a 'lie we…
Cheers and Jeers: Rum and Coke FRIDAY!: "From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE...What the Terrorists WantI lived for 5 years in Dusseldorf, Germany inthe late 70s when I was just a li'l nipper. Terrorism was a fact of life thereand throughout Europe. The police carried machine guns, bombs went off,…
The War Bush Isn't Fighting:When unsmiling agents at the airport take away your contact lens solution, your toothpaste, and your cologne or after-shave, remember Osama bin Laden. Remember the real war on terrorism that the Bush administration and its allies decided not to fight, preferring cowboy-style military adventures.The revelation yesterday…
As for the primary election in Connecticut last night, I know there's a lot of concern and interest about that. Democratic voters in Connecticut have made their choice, and they have chosen Ned Lamont over Senator Lieberman. Just a couple of observations. Key leaders in the national Democratic Party have…
BUSH'S BACKFIRE:As usual, Jim Hightower says it better than I can:Giving credit where credit is due, I'll concede that Bush's gang of neo-con ideological nutballs were right when they said that Bush's approach to Iraq would be held up as a model of success in the Middle East. Unfortunately, it's…
Molly Ivins - Creators.com - Creators Syndicate: "The poor man who is currently our president has reached such a point of befuddlement that he thinks stem cell research is the same as taking human lives, but that 40,000 dead Iraqi civilians are progress toward democracy." You know, I've been reading…
I.R.S. to Cut Tax Auditors - New York Times: "The federal government is moving to eliminate the jobs of nearly half of the lawyers at the Internal Revenue Service who audit tax returns of some of the wealthiest Americans, specifically those who are subject to gift and estate taxes when…
The People's Business: "On Tuesday it (the House) took up the gay-marriage amendment. This was a meaningless exercise, except in terms of amassing political ammunition: The Senate had already defeated the amendment. Nonetheless, some members had no trouble explaining the value of the dead-end debate. 'This is probably the best…
Daily Kos: What Did You Expect, America?: "If you put people in charge of running a project they are ideologically committed to proving a failure, it will fail. " I would normally add something here, but I don't think I can say it any better than SusanG so go read…
OpinionJournal - Peggy Noonan: "I note here what is to me a mystery. It is that people with lower IQs somehow tend, in our age, to have a greater apprehension of the meaning of things and the reality of life, than do our high-IQ professionals, who often seem, in areas…
I guess one of the things that really bothers me about this country is the way everyone lives the myth. If you ask almost anyone in the USA, they will tell you they are "middle class" or "middle income". The funny thing about this is the disconnect between what people…
Lawmakers' Profits Are Scrutinized: House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) made a $2 million profit last year on the sale of land 5 1/2 miles from a highway project that he helped to finance with targeted federal funds.A Republican House member from California, meanwhile, received nearly double what he paid…
You know, Tom Delay had been my Congressman for most of my adult life. I have been voting against him for that entire length of time. Today I am happy to say “don’t let the door hit you, Tom.” I look forward to enjoying your retirement from politics. The Washinton…
I continue to hear and read stories about how the business analysts cannot explain the general feeling of unease that the public keeps feeling over the “Robust American Economy”. The keep quoting all of the indicators that they say should make us feel great about where the economy is going,…
Daily Kos: Science Friday: Tis The Season: "Science Friday: Tis The Season by DarkSyde Fri Jun 02, 2006 at 03:41:48 AM PDT In the aftermath of the devastating 2005 hurricane season, the following soundbite was repeated incessantly, packaged in various ways, on every network news station by head meteorologists with…
Jim Hightower HEALTH CARE MORALITY: "How is it that the richest country with the most democratic ideals of any country in the history of the world has 45 million people with no health coverage and millions more with pathetic coverage? And how is it that We The People pay $1.2…
Estate Tax Lunacy: "A decades-long campaign by right-wing activists (brilliantly documented by Yale professors Michael Graetz and Ian Shapiro in their book 'Death by a Thousand Cuts') has convinced many Americans that the estate tax poses a threat to countless hardworking families. That was always nonsense, and under the estate…
The Blog | Bob Burnett: Enemy of the People - Al Gore or George Bush? | The Huffington Post: "There's been a reversal of fortune. Americans are waking up to discover that they made a bad mistake electing George Bush. That he can't be trusted and isn't even that likeable.…
