Texas' overall uninsured rate of 25.2 percent, and its 20.2 uninsured rate for children, continued to be the highest in the country. Nationally, the number of people without health insurance last year declined from 47 million in 2006, the Census Bureau said. Median household income — meaning half of households…
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…
What do you call a Republican who is happy to lie directly to people's faces? John W. McCain. The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan.
Up early to check on the status of Edouard...Looks like a miss for my house...Heading inland already on the Louisiana border. Should miss the majority of the Houston area, rain and moderate winds only. Sherry has headed for work already...Television on, radar on the monitor... Happy Birthday Wendell Berry It's…
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…
Wouldn't it make a great birthday present to the country if we could get serious about Energy Independence? Yale Environment 360: As Energy Prices Rise, the Pressure to Drill Builds Perhaps we should be amazed that America’s largest protected area — the 19.2 million-acre Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) —…
I have never felt that the Corporate pushers of GMOs were looking out for anything other than their own profits. That has led me to look on their actions in an unfavorable light. While this has always been a personal "feeling", I find my concerns expressed very well by this…
One of the email missives I look forward to comes in on it's own schedule each month. It is from Andy Griffin of Mariquita Farm called "The Ladybug Letter". Andy tells tales of his life in agriculture on the west coast...Funny stories, ironic stories...Stories of life...Great stories... The Ladybug Letter…
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…
I saw the notice in my email first thing and as I worked my way down the list I was trying to formulate a post. Then I read John Scalzi's...If you are or were a Carlin fan go read John's short tribute. Whatever » RIP, George Carlin He was my…
Danah Boyd had an interesting comment on her blog today... In an attention economy, it's better to ignore than to critique. This drives me absolutely bloody batty. Anyone who's been online for too darn long knows has heard the expression, "don't feed the trolls." This stems from the general belief…
It’s easy to forget sometimes that everyone has a story to tell if we take the time to listen. We are so accustomed to hearing the stories of people in the news that we sometimes lose track of the fact that the random stranger on the bus also has a…
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…
As if we needed another reason to think that this years election is as important as any in a generation, the very fact that but for an appointment to come...George W Bush would not be denied the right to imprison his perceived enemies... Eugene Robinson - A Victory for the…
And the conservative will discount the numbers because of the source...But come on, can't we expect a little bit of research from the speech writers? Fact check John McCain: Another of my disagreements with Senator Obama concerns the estate tax, which he proposes to increase to a top rate of…
Obama's In Control: No More Lobbyist Contributions To Democratic Party - Politics on The Huffington Post "The DNC and the Obama Campaign are unified and working together to elect Barack Obama as the next president of the United States. Our presumptive nominee has pledged not to take donations from Washington…
Way back when, in the final season of the West Wing there was an episode with the title "The Presidential Voice". The premise was that Congressman Santos didn't have the "Presidential Voice" and they were trying to teach it to him. Long story short...You don't teach the "Presidential Voice", it…
Like many of his fans I discovered Utah Phillips late in his life. My daughter, a fan of Ani DiFranco, introduced me to him a few years back... U. Utah Phillips, 73; Folk Singer Championed the Working Class - washingtonpost.com U. Utah Phillips, 73, a Grammy-nominated folk singer, rabble-rouser and…
For those who are following the rough weather... Wunder Blog : Weather Underground The tornado that devastated Parkersburg, Iowa on Sunday has now been rated an EF-5 by the National Weather Service. An EF-5 is the strongest possible classification a tornado can receive, and is only given to those tornadoes…
Tuesday Evening It was good to get back to work after a long and busy weekend. It seems to have been one of those weekends that requires a work week to recuperate from. I spent two days finishing up a bit of remodeling and furniture construction (good ol' IKEA). You…
Susan Albert linked to the National Arbor Day site and their animation showing the changes in hardiness zones. Lifescapes Yep, it's true--101.8 on our digital thermometer yesterday, and that's in the shade. Austin hit 101, too, a record temp for the day and an indication of what's in store in…
Shifting winds: A victory for island development | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle Weather forecasters and climatologists have long warned that unbridled development of the vulnerable Gulf Coast is setting the stage for a disaster that might dwarf the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. Coming hard on Katrina's heels was Rita, which…
I've linked to the writing of Andy at The Ladybug Letter before. I first stumbled across him in a link to his history of field greens and spinach during the spinach disaster a year or so ago. I've been a subscriber to the newsletter he and his partners put out…
There are many people in the public eye that leave me embarrassed of my home state...Bill Moyers is not one of them.
Two years ago today I started North Carolina Mountain Dreams, my first blog. That first post was entitled "Inventing the Myth as I Go". It seems that not much has changed in two years. I am still dreaming about the mountains, still creating the myth of my life as I…
Bill Moyers Journal . Transcripts | PBS
May 2, 2008
BILL MOYERS:Welcome to the Journal.
I once asked a reporter back from Vietnam, "Who's telling the truth over there?" Everyone he said. Everyone sees what's happening through the lens of their own experience." That's how people see Jeremiah Wright. In my conversation with him on this broadcast a week ago and in his dramatic public appearances since, he revealed himself to be far more complex than the sound bites that propelled him onto the public stage. Over 2000 of you have written me about him, and your opinions vary widely. Some sting: "Jeremiah Wright is nothing more than a race-hustling, American hating radical," one viewer wrote. A "nut case," said another. Others were far more were sympathetic to him.
Eugene Robinson - The Surge Turns Into the Stall - washingtonpost.com Of course, Bush long ago lost any credibility with Congress and the American people on Iraq. It's understandable that he hides behind Petraeus's breastplate of medals and Crocker's thatch of gray hair, sending these loyal and able public servants…
“The most alarming sign of the state of our society now is that our leaders have the courage to sacrifice the lives of young people in war but have not the courage to tell us that we must be less greedy and wasteful.” Wendell Berry, Farmer, Essayist, Conservationist, Novelist, Teacher,…
