Unexpected Meetings

Today was quite interesting, if not tiring and exasperating.  I don’t even want to go into the nonsense at work regarding that damn Halloween party tomorrow.  Having spent the afternoon decorating to no avail (I am sure), I “ran into” an old friend.  Actually, he accosted me.  We had a good talk — at least on my end — I hope to convince him to contribute here on this blog and to help me get Roberto to do so as well.  I also hope he will come speak to my students at school. . . . .

Which reminds me . . . I think Sparkly Kathleen can’t quit the chron reader blog habit.  Who am I to criticize?  I can’t either.  She’s stuck to the religious blogs and got a “BOO!” when she failed to check out the blog she was commenting on.  That’s her typical MO, so if the Kathy commenting on the reader blogs at the chron is not our beloved Kathy, I’d be truly surprised.  Give me maybe a week and I will know for sure if the commenter is the Sparkly one.

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A Question and More Questions

Why would Nick Lampson go to the Shelly bonanza GWB this afternoon in Sugarland?  Why would KHOU channel 11 criticize him for not attending?  Why would Nick Lampson keep running just one (arguably good ad) and not any others?  (Is it a money thing?) Why would the RNC take credit for paying for and being responsible for the content of an ad that is technically false?

What?  That’s politics you say?  That’s the media you say?

John and David

I only have two blogs on my roll for a reason.  You cannot trust newly converted conservatives to carry the weight of opposition.

I read John Cole every day.  I don’t care for his posts.  I read his commmenters.  His commenters post links that I find very helpful.  John, on the other hand, will only vote democratic this Tuesday after next, because, like David Letterman, he is fed  up with the republicans.

 The Editors is correct.  John nor Dave will stick with us if we win the House or the Senate.  Day ONE after the election, they will be trashing democrats like mad.

 There is one truth in our country’s political discourse:  the right will whine and more ad naseum forever.

Lesson learned:  don’t trust a Republican to do a Democrat’s job.

The First hurdle — win in November.

The Second hurdle — counter all the sour Republicans.

Joe Neikro

Joe Neikro died. You remember Joe if you lived in Houston.  He was a very good pitcher and, from all accounts, a very good teammate.  Damn. Joe was the guy who taught me the knuckleball (via tv).  And he lived the ‘idea’ that if you aren’t cheating you aren’t trying!

He and his brother Phil were great supporters of women’s baseball.  I can only hope that lefty (as in pitching hand not politics) Mormon type old pitcher for the Astros Bob Knepper will go to the funeral.

RIP Joe.  I am grateful for having seen you pitch, listened to your ideas, and you had an impact on my life.  Thanks Joe.

James Webb

My clearest memory of James Webb is something he wrote that I read. It was one of those moments of clarity that one never forgets. It was in the little garage apartment on Peddie Street. At that time Houston had two newspapers. I took the Post. It had Parade Magazine in it on Sundays. James Webb had an article in Parade. What he wrote made me angry.

When I heard that Webb had come back around to the Democratic side that he had originally held, I was skeptical. I wondered what he would run on and what he might do if elected. I had formulated my view of Felix already. Webb was an unknown as a Democrat for me. I visited his website and read his editorial for the NYT there. He spoke the words I had myself. The ‘swiftboating’ of veterans by Robert Perry of Perry Homes of Houston was despicable. Despite that editorial, Robert Perry continued to fund and run ads against John Kerry and John Murtha. But Webb recognized that what Robert Perry was doing was wrong. I was inspired to support Webb.

I had some spats with wingnuts because I went out on the vast internets to counter the swiftboating of John Murtha. In one forum, Webb came up. Even back then — this past summer — there was a question of Webb’s support.

This morning, I was listening to Bennet and then Gallagher. Bennet zzzzzzz per usual. However, Gallagher came out with the Drudge report tripe from Allen, challenging his listeners to defend Webb, after having warned all to get their children out of the room, turn the radio down etc.

I looked up Webb’s books this morning at work. His campaign knew what he had written. I know it didn’t take Felix’s campaign types 5 years to read Webb’s book. Webb knew this was coming and so today, I was waiting to see the slap back. Hannity and Rush are still busy with CYA over Rush being stupid with a webcam and cheerleading for their team.

Here it is spilling out. Allen’s divorce? The issue of respect for women? That’s the Felix angle.

The Candidates’ Four Minutes

I’m watching and taping a program on PBS that has candidates having their say for four minutes.  It’s almost like classes.  You’ve got four minutes — convince me!

It’s been pretty good.  Of course, as I typed that, it goes downhill fast.  Almost painful.

They are going from the top — governor — to the district races.  This is really interesting.

I’ve learned to label my tapes, so I will be able to dissect this later.

 Oh yeah, and Kinky was on R,W & B.  It reminded my of poor old Sparkly.  I’ll always connect the two of them.

Thursday

 The pack dogs were back.  Dora alerted to them and went nuts, as she always does.  I tried to scoot them along from the safety of the fenced front yard.  I hope the outside kittens are ok.  BecauseTammy is in, I hope that they went to the garage.  Since it’s been raining, I doubt they are on the carport or my neighbor’s roof.  I’ll check again in a bit.

 There was a problem with a dog pack in another neighborhood.  I remember hearing about it on the news.  Sometimes I see several dogs sleeping in Moody Park on my way to work.  I worry about them.  They are reverting back to their basic instincts.  They travel together and claim their territory.  They sleep spread out.  One morning I saw a mom with a pup near the street as I drove by.   Given my experience, I think the ones that were caught in that other neighborhood were probably put down.

I wish I could take them all in.  Tam could have joined that group and been part of that terrifying pack.  Luckily, she found her way back to the house and has been a loved member of our household ever since.  While she doesn’t interact with the outside kittens, she knows that they are her responsibility.  She watches over them, and they know they can go in her backyard when she is inside.  I started thinking tonight that when I refurbish the garage, I should make a nice nest for outside kittens — up off the ground — so they always have a place to run to — whether from rain or dog packs.

Stem Cells and Political Ads

Yesterday morning, I listened to that Gallagher guy on the local AM radio.  He comes on after Bill Bennet and I just happen to like hearing Bennet do commercials in his wholly unenthusiastic unconvincing way.  (I want to call his show early one morning and tell him how enjoyable it is to listen to his commercials, having listened to him talk down to the likes of me for years.  Every time I hear him, I think of that.:)

Back to the point — Gallagher was couching his remarks about the Michael J. Fox add oh so very carefully.  He was hemming and hawing and finally said what he thought.  Yesterday evening, I sent him an email through his website, asking why he needed to speculate about the ad, since Fox clearly has a PR type as does the Parkinson Foundation.

This morning, I was tuned in again.  Gallagher was attempting to make an analogy about ticks.  He told some pretty nasty stories about farting, getting caught with his hand down his pants and lastly, shitting himself while driving.  Making these sort of confessions is a tick he has, much like Michael Jackson — wait — Michael J. Fox has.  (Yes, Gallagher said Jackson and then “caught” himself.)  He then decided that the issue was not about stem cell research, but rather the contest over federal funding.

Later in the day, I had a chance to listen to Rush over the internets.  I was lucky enough to catch the call from a woman who called him on his webcam performance of the day before.  His excuse?  He was simply trying to re-enact what he had seen for his audience. 

RIGHT.  Anyone who can watch Rush on his webcam has the ability to see the ad for her/himself.  Quite a lame excuse.  Rush was doing what the caller accused him of, namely, making fun of Michael J. Fox.

 Gallagher, Rush, Hannity — don’t get me started — are the proto-typical bullies.  They will always pick on the “other.”  This time, the “other” is actually someone who didn’t ask to be put in the position he is in, is fighting for his life, and except for a marginal minority, is well liked by a great number of people.

Since I have a real job, I am unable to listen to any of the radio talkers for more than a few minutes a day.  Perhaps someone set this straight over the air and I didn’t catch it.  What I take away from what I heard is that Gallagher, Rush and Hannity find it easier to float specualtion than do some work.

Same as the other day.  Nothing changes with them.

My Excellent Saturday Adventure

I ventured into Bushlandia today and it wasn’t nearly as bad as I had thought it would be.  Driving through The Villiage and Bellaire, I saw lots of Martha Wong signs, but a good number of Ellen Cohen signs, too — sometimes right next door to each other.  I also saw a few Radnofsky signs, but absolutely no Kay signs. 

The best part of the adventure was my niece’s birthday party.  It was held at a tea room.  The girls got to choose a dress (very fru-fru) and hat (nicely floppy ones!) and then two nice ladies put make up and nail polish on them.  Then the young ladies had “tea.”  It was actually lemonade, but they each had their own little teapot of lemonade and miniture teacups and saucers.  They were all proper little ladies and it was quite the success.  The best part for me, of course, was when my niece opened my present.  I gave her the second book in the Laura Ingalls Wilder series and a children’s atlas.  The atlas got the “oohhh” I was hoping for.  Since I have always given her series books, the Wilder book was something she probably expected.  It was cool.  

I spent most of the party playing with my youngest niece.  She’s walking now and everything is PUPPIES!  Amazingly enough, she’s also a salad eater, like her middle sister. (Tomatoes are fun to eat!)

On the down side, my onery brother ticked me off and that led to my mom and sister thanking me profusely for helping out earlier in the day (when I didn’t have to).  I know it’s not really fair, but I scored points with MA today, even though I didn’t do as much as he did.  Since he’s never played fair though, I deserve those freaking points. (SCORECARD!)

Tasks for tomorrow:  Clean up the debate post, review Kay on Red, White and Blue from Friday, and learn more about this wordpress thing.

The Senatorial Candidates Debate

I can’t watch the tape because I’m taping something now, so I’m going from memory.  I’ll clean this up more later. 

Radnofsky goes first.  The question is about Iraq.  She supports staged withdrawal connected with goals for the Iraqi government to meet.  She also spoke about paying for the medical needs of returning vets and how that contrasts with continued tax breaks. 

Jamison, the libertarian is next.  He’s got a point about funding.  None of the costs for the Iraq war are part of the actual budget and therefore are not counted toward the deficit.  He went on to say that funding the war on an emergency basis allows politicians to tack on other spending, since they know it won’t get vetoed.

 Kay gets the “C&R” chant out first.  C&R x 2.  She mentions the rest of the NIE  — is that classified? (I’ve got to look this one up.)  “We should come up with ideas.  That’s what leaders do.”  She wants limited partition.

Q#2

J first — SS and Med are not entitlements — just a source of revenue.  More money is taken out of paychecks than is dished out.  Mentions fraud. Look at market alternatives to SS.

Kay — We will not walk away from our commitment — Bush — Kay has singlehandedly increased the vet admin budget. 

R — massive healthcare — attacks the medicare drug bill — dough-nut — preventitive care — save money, (Damn she’s good)  got the website in — attacks Kay record on vets.

Q#3 — Had you known about no WMD, would you —

Kay -Wouldn’t have voted, but she claims Bush wouldn’t have asked for it.  9/11 (secret document)

R – Our senators made a mistake. Derilict in the leading.

J –  diplomacy could have solved it.  It was a mistake.  But we are there.  Goals — Attacked Bush — leadership goal left to the military.

 Q#4 Lybia – embolding NK and Iran, force

R — yes. 1999 Kay voted to NOT radify the test ban treaty.  Excuse of the time – it would not preserve US nuke supreiority.  Look forward — US must take a lead.

Kay — going back — C&Rx3.  It’s not the same.  The NIE SHE mentioned?  I thought you did that.  C&Rx4.  NK

J — treating them like allies — don’t label  other nations — don’t develop a laundry list — diplomacy again.  Some snark! Go back to inspectors — still a moment for diplomacy

Q#5 Fence, Immigration amnesty deportation how?

R — comprehensive — economic Attacks Kay — voluntary deportation — Senate’s latest — fence won’t work –7Billion — attack!!!!

k – comprehensive tautology.  excuse for her proposal — but it’s gotten wide acclaim! 

J — wall but in NOLA! — wall from Mexico is LAME  — problem is SSC fraud — focus on existing laws — don’t need to fear immigration.

Q#Term limitations!

K — Introduced term limitations constitutional amendment? 

J — no need for term limits — third party politics sec of state thingy.  About me session! Help America Vote Act — ran out of words — campaign finance.

R — voters don’t trust — attack Kay again!  stand by the commitment!  Leardership — a joke!  About me time again.Integrity voted against — K Street hostess. 

Q# Congressional pay raise — minimum wage — stand on it’s own

R — yes!  Attack again — senority means nothing.  Plans to resign?

J — researched the numbers. $20/hour in comparison — pay what you want — min yielded his time

K — double speak — Ted Kennedy. Small business — 9/11 — military —

Q# Earmarks

 J — attacks Kay, irresponsible way to legislate — internet gambling — Constitutional amendment

K — MY cities?!?!?!?!?!? transparency

R — end earmarks –  41st with Kay — corruption — transportation bill Kay voted for the bridge to nowhere — called Coryn Junior!

Last one — prescrition drugs — negiating — VA

K – we should look at that — private companies competing — doughnout hole we — I dont do pork — #2 in Fed Spending

R — yes negtiating — drug profiteering — damn she’s tough (mean?)

j — univeral manditory health insurance — my neighbor not having health insurance isn’t good for me — damn this guy is not a libertarian —

Two minute closing statement. 

I’m wondering about this Lib guy.  Paranoid me thinks he is trying to pull from the Dems. 

K– lower taxes, tax cuts, tax cuts, tax cuts,

C&R

troops freedom — PHIL GRAHAM?!?!?!?

I’ll post this since Kay B will be on tomorrow night.  I’ll get all of it together and post somehting comprehensive by Sunday at the latest.