October 2010 Archives

Jon Stewart's and Stephen Colbert's Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear was held today in Washington, DC and estimates place the number of participants at as many as 6 million, more than double those who attended President Obama's inauguration in January, 2009.  The two rallies drew the record crowds as inspired participants from all over the country were bound and determined to put the Tea Partiers in their place as also-runs with their lame "whites-only"...

Among much hoopla Thursday, the Presidential Oil Spill Commission released a letter from lawyer Fred Bartlit, Jr., saying that 3 of 4 tests that Halliburton conducted of the cement designed for BP's Macondo well were unstable.  They also published a report of tests performed by Chevron that all nine of their tests using Halliburton ingredients showed it as unstable.  One of Halliburton's tests run prior to the actual cement job showed that formulation to be...

The last few days have been busy after the spill commission finding about Halliburton's cement job.  Here is a video from Al Jazeera English where I talk about the report:...

People don't use pay phones so much anymore.Above you see a picture I took a few days ago of a pay phone in Houston.Over time and as technology changes, we use different methods to communicate.That's okay. The only thing that matters is that we communicate our values and our care for one another as best as we are able.This is something we all can do regardless of the specifics of how we communicate.It is just...

Voice has a great piece up about getting support for the School of Visual and Performing Arts. In the comments for that post, one of our regular readers asked why a particular student was not being praised for brilliant work while other students were being praised for mediocre work. I tried to respond in the best way I know in a few paragraphs, but this is an important issue in education I have yet to...

Here are my endorsements for the 2010 general election.(Above--The red is the City of Houston within Harris County, Texas.  In the upper right is Harris County in Texas.)Where possible, I am voting the straight Democratic ticket.In the case of the office of the State Comptroller, I am voting for Green candidate Edward Lindsay. There is no Democrat in this race. If the Green gets 5% in this race, then Greens get automatic ballot access in Texas...

I've said many of these it seems like a million times, but it seems we always need to be reminded. Some of these are going to hit rather close to home and some will even punch me in the gut. We are all guilty of at least one or two of these general rules. I will try to come up with ten, but I can't make any promises.1. We all want what is best for...

David Swanson of OpEd News reviewed Disaster on the Horizon....

Last night, a group of Rand Paul goons assaulted a Move-On supporter protesting Paul's support of the corporatization of the Republican party.  Paul was arriving at his debate with oppponent Jack Conway in Lexington, Kentucky when Lauren Valle approached his with a sign that said "RepubliCorp Employee of the Month".  She was either tripped or shoved to the ground by a large middle aged male supporter, who then stomped on her head before being called...

Above you see Andy Wilson of Public Citizen here in Texas speaking in Houston today about reports of intimidation of voters at polling paces in Harris County.With Mr. Wilson to the left is Anita Privett of the League of Women Voters of Texas.Here are details of this press conference from the Public Citizen blog Texas Vox.From the press release---"Last week as early voting for the Nov. 2 General Election got under way, there were complaints of poll watchers interfering...