August 2010 Archives

I got a safety inspection and emissions check today. The State of Texas mandates that cars get a safety inspection and that cars in high pollution counties get an emissions test.Government has the right to mandate people to do things in order to serve the public good. Government has that right even in Texas.Liberals and progressives should not be hesitant to assert this fact.A few fearful people will tell you that stuff like this starts...

The gubnatorial race in Texas is getting a lot of attention as it should, but I wanted to put in a simple plug to pay attention to the races in our state legislature. This site gets out to a lot of folks in a lot of places, so I don't want to talk specifics. Each of you might have a different person representing you in Austin. I don't want to be a shill for Democrats...

How any Texan can even consider voting for this clown for governor--again--is beyond me. Of course, now that we don't have any voting machines in Harris County (how convenient) it could make his re-election a bit easier. First he takes stimulus money allocated for education, cuts the education budget by the same amount, and puts the stimulus money in the state's "Rainy Day Fund." So to prevent that from happening again, Congressman Lloyd Doggett added...

Since it falls under the heading of cruel and unusual punishment, I won't subject anyone to the video of Sean Hannity interviewing Sarah Palin yesterday. For the masochistic, News Hounds has it. But here's some of what Palin said in response to President Obama telling NBC's Brian Williams that there is a "network of misinformation" which keeps alive non-news like his birth certificate and his religion. "I was pretty appalled at that notion that Brian...

As W. C. Fields once said, "It was a woman who drove me to drink and I never even had the courtesy to thank her for it." And according to this latest study showing that abstainers have higher mortality rates than either heavy or moderate drinkers,  I owe additional thanks for a few extra years of life. "...the researchers (a six-member team led by psychologist Charles Holahan of the University of Texas at Austin) found...

Glenn Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally this weekend showed the true power and magnitude of Beck and his message. The supposed noble goal: Restoring honor, taking back the civil rights movement, and to pay tribute to America's military personnel and others "who embody our nation's founding principles of integrity, truth and honor." While most attention has been paid to the bold goal of taking the civil rights movement back, it's the 'restoring honor' part I'd...

As we have seen over the past couple of years, prejudice and racism is on the rise. Xenophobia seems to be growing. All of it is threatening to come to a head. However, as I was reading Charles Krauthhammer's column on Sunday, while I usually disagree vehemently with him and did this time, I noticed again what we are dealing with. The GOP, conservative movement, Fox news, and whoever else they claim in their tent...

Rival press conferences were held last Friday in Downtown Houston as details continue to emerge about what appears to be a campaign of suppression and intimidation against poor and minority voters by conservatives in Houston and Harris County, Texas.One press conference was held by the non-partisan voter registration group Houston Votes, while the other was conducted by a right-wing group called the Liberty Institute and a local tea party outfit. I attended both events.(Above--Houston Votes...

Thanks to Shortstuff for the inspiration! Unlike many of the talking heads who now appear on various "news" shows, Edward R. Murrow was a journalist with integrity who not only fought for free speech, but for TRUTH in journalism as well. He once said at the RTNDA Convention in Chicago in 1958 to a group of fellow journalists: "It is not necessary to remind you that the fact that your voice is amplified to...

Three in a little over a week, and counting: "Federal officials are investigating a fire that started overnight at the site of a new Islamic center in a Nashville suburb. Ben Goodwin of the Rutherford County Sheriff's Department confirmed to CBS Affiliate WTVF that the fire, which burned construction equipment at the future site of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro, is being ruled as arson. Special Agent Andy Anderson of the federal Bureau of Alcohol,...