Musings of a Liberal Texan

BREAKING NEWS Action Alert -- House Vote on AETA this Monday! T his is your ONLY chance to defeat the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (HR 4239, S3880)! In a late night move on Friday, AETA was added to the House Suspension Calendar for THIS Monday! This underhanded fast-track maneuver, like the one in the Senate, means that AETA will not have any debate... only an up/down vote. Contact YOUR Rep this weekend and Monday morning! Identify your House Representative: name, fax, e-mail, and phone number at http://www.house.gov Then, use our sample letter and/or the talking points below to... Be a triple hitter for the animals: Call direct or use the switchboard 202-225-3121 Fax E-mail Remember, all contact info is at www.house.gov . Call & Fax Representative Scott ALL Day! Rep. Robert Scott (D-VA) is the leading Democrat on AETA. He's also the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary so assert your right to have a voice with him, even if you are from another district. Be the squeky (but r...

In Response to The Garden Guy’s “Personal Choice” (submitted to the New York Times and the Houston Chronicle letters to the editor) I know many people who make choices, “personal choices”, based on the movement of their hearts. People who have chosen to stop consuming animals, people who have decided to foster children or become missionaries, people who have decided to join Doctors Without Borders or to run to Darfur to help in anyway that they can. I know about “personal choice”. But when you make a “personal choice” that negatively affects other people, you cannot hide behind this alleged “heart choice” or behind religion. You have to recognize that you are not standing on moral ground, you are standing under the lynching tree, next to the hobbling mallet, next to the torturer, you are standing in front of the jail house door, unjustly mandating how others are treated. The Garden Guy Company in Houston Texas discriminates. Do they have a right to? Of course, it is a free country. How...

Political Musings Can I just say...WOW! What an incredibly great week. Not only did I find a job where I am not micro-managed, I am given such a wide variety of projects and stuff to do that I couldn't for a second be bored, and I am working for the best department ever, but the American people finally got to express their feelings about this administration and this congress. We won thhe house AND the senate? Is that just crazy? AND Rumsfeld is gone??!! Pinch me, baby, I think I'm dreaming. Now I just want these guys to do what they have been given an actual mandate to do. Clean up. Set a different course in our foreign policy. Correct the minimum wage debacle. Work on national healthcare. And fix the voting machines. Because regardless of who came out on top, I cannot express how distrustful this system is. We need a paper trail. We need to be able to close the gaping holes open to hackers. Fix the machines. Clean up the environment. Open up the market for innovative alternati...

Local Musings Deep in DeLay Country, a Backlash Takes Shape In Houston, Texas, a Republican state legislator finds that party discipline has a cost: Are voters turning on the hard-liners? Josh Harkinson October 24 , 2006 Until recently, few people in Houston would have called Martha Wong conservative. She was the first Asian American elected to the city council in this blue-collar town and was a champion of immigrant workers; once in office, she fought for hiring more Chinese-speaking police officers, funding low-income housing, and preserving the bus system. Urban voters sent the Republican to the state Legislature in 2002, believing she was a political moderate. But they were in for a surprise: The next year, Wong voted to ax $1 billion in health funding for the poor—booting 180,000 low-income children off the state’s health insurance rolls—and for a law requiring abortion providers to tell women that the procedure could cause breast cancer, a claim that has been found to have no ba...

Complaints Mount at US Fortress in Iraq by David Phinney WASHINGTON - Several months before a U.S. construction foreman named John Owen would quit in disgust over what he said was blatant abuse of foreign laborers hired to build the sprawling new U.S. embassy in Baghdad, Rory Mayberry would witness similar events when he flew to Kuwait from his home in Myrtle Creek, Oregon. The gravelly-voiced, easygoing U.S. Army veteran had previously worked in Iraq for Halliburton and the private security company, Danubia. Missing the action and the big paychecks U.S. contractors draw there, Mayberry snagged a 10,000-dollar a month job with MSDS consulting company. MSDS is a two-person minority-owned consulting company that assists U.S. State Department managers in Washington with procurement programming. Never before had the firm offered medical services or worked in Iraq, but First Kuwaiti -- Owen's employer -- hired MSDS on the recommendation of Jim Golden, the State Department contract offi...

The Elephant Lady If you have spent any time reading this blog, you will know that I have a soft spot for animals - especially those involved in factory farming and the circus. To the left is a video called "the elephant lady". She documents the lives of elephants in Southeast Asia, where there are now only 500 elephants in the wild. It is here : http://www.current.tv/studio/media/14709077?cpg=vmmA . If it gets enough "greenlights" it will be given the opportunity to be on television. This woman is AMAZING. Take a look. It's hard at times, but as I have said before, if they can endure it, you can at least watch. For the most part it is incrediby uplifting.

I will assume that the readers of this blog got a riotous howl out of the latest Fox News BREAKING REPORT - that wild pigs might have been responsible for the e coli outbreak. Oh my. It is funny...if only so many people didn't actually buy that b.s. And now for something completely different....wanna know where some of our tax dollars have gone? Hint: the same place as thinning hair. Bush Giving Up on Reconstructing Iraq By Sherwood Ross Washington, DC - Four months after US forces rolled into Baghdad, President George Bush declared his goal would be nothing less than to convert Iraq's infrastructure into "the best in the region" - yet US contractors today are readying to depart the country, leaving that goal unattained. Since President Bush's comment of August 8, 2003, some $50 billion has been spent to create what the US Army calls a record of "historic and magnificent accomplishments," rebuilding a nation neglected by Saddam Hussein and ...

Foxy Musings I heard what slush said about Michael J. Fox. This is my perspective. When someone "famous" steps up with an underfunded disease and puts himself out there to help not only raise awareness but funds, that is a HERO. My brother died from ALS, a severely underfunded disease with little to no "celebrity" ties. Famous people afflicted with this terminal illness for the most part, and with every right, decided to guard their privacy. Now, if MJF went off his meds for a commercial what does this mean? Does it say something about the medication? About his character? Well, to me it says - I take medication that controls this disease. I will be on this medication for the rest of my life until I find A CURE. Showing the disease as it is - not repressed or suppressed by medication is not "exploitive" it is HONEST. To say that he is "using" his disease is probably one of the most retarded things I have ever heard in my life. To say that he was ...

A Coupla Things Janitorial Musings There's a janitors' strike going on in the City of Houston. Seems that the janitors are protesting their 5.15/hour pay, no benefits, and part-time status. The building owners say that they cannot possibly change any of this because they have the problems of continuously rising building costs including utilities, property taxes, etc. Does anyone find this a tad bit insane? Are you or are you not making their argument for them? The janitors are saying that their 5.15/hr pay hasn't been raised in years and they are all suffering because of it - due to the RISING COST OF LIVING INCLUDING UTILITIES, PROPERTY TAXES, ETC.!! DOH ! 5.15 an hour. To me that is such an incredible slap in the face. Your time is only worth 5.15 an hour. Which comes out to what about 3.44 per hour after taxes? Golly. That's like 140 buckeroos for a 40 hour week. Huh. Crazy janitors. Presuming Musings Now I recently heard a bit of disdain over the airwaves about ho...

What’s Bad for America, Is Good for Halliburton…Just Ask the Vice President By Steve Young In the same month that we lost a record number of American soldiers and Iraqi citizens lost many more, Vice President Dick Cheney told Rush Limbaugh that "if you look at the overall situation they're doing remarkably well." Now we know that the Darth was speaking about Halliburton. This week the Halliburton's third-quarter net income rose 22 percent with third-quarter revenue rising 19 percent to $5.8 billion. But even more indecent was that the VP's talking point was dittoed by Halliburton officials. "Iraq was better than expected," said Jeff Tillery, analyst (who does research for Halliburton) at Pickering Energy Partners Inc. "Overall, there is nothing really to question or be skeptical about. I think the results are very good." "Overall, there is nothing to question or be skeptical about." Dost that not soar far off the puke-ability chart? M...

Oh hey! This just in. Bush is NOT about "staying the course". That was just some ugly rumor, probably generated by the liberal elite desperate for power. He and Snow categorically deny this rumor...which would also put to bed that ridiculous statement bush allegedly made about staying in Iraq even if Barney and Laura were his only two supporters. Phew! I am so relieved. Ignoring Senate, Bush Taps Mine Exec to be Safety Chief By Justin Rood - October 20, 2006, 6:09 PM Ah, the magic of the presidency. The Senate has refused to confirm former coal company executive Richard Stickler as the head of the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA). So, while they were out, Bush gave him a recess appointment to the post. MSHA exists to protect miners' well-being. Once a miner himself, Stickler spent most of his career above ground, much of it as an executive for companies like coal giant Massey Energy. According to the Charleston Gazette, Stickler's mines had accident rates...

Volunteer Blues Musings Below is an email exchange between me and a parent, as well as the head coach. I am an assistant coach for my son's under fourteen recreational soccer team. The head coach was out of town for the first month of the season, so I lead until he came back. You might ask, why is this here? I guess, because I am still really pissed off about it. It is probably one of the major reasons that people don't step up to volunteer. You do everything you can, you take on responsibility, and then you get sniper fire from someone that doesn't volunteer, someone who points out problems and offers no solution. I have to admit, I kind of knew that he wasn't volunteering to help out, but I wanted to point out that he was asking people who already shouldered the greater weight of responsibility for the team to do more, while offering nothing. He is from Spain, but his tone and message are pretty evident to me. -----Original Message----- From: AV Sent: Saturday, Octob...

Media Biggies shouldn't be allowed to get bigger From the Seattle Times The Federal Communications Commission's hopscotch through the rules that govern the press and media began last week with a hearing in Los Angeles. The commissioners should treat the restrictive rules like a porcelain vase filled with Grandpa's ashes, given the overwhelming response from the public at the hearing to keep the Biggies from owning everything. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin should not be surprised by the lopsided support for his commission to maintain rules that stymie huge media conglomerates from adding to their already massive portfolios (a disgusting term when talking about the press). At least Martin showed up. His predecessor, Commissioner Michael Powell, did not attend any of the hearings set up by Democratic commissioners Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein in 2003, when the FCC rewrote the rules so the Biggies could buy anything without regard to readers and communities. A Stanford pro...

Recipe for a Cooked Election by Greg Palast A nasty little secret of American democracy is that, in every national election, ballots cast are simply thrown in the garbage. Most are called "spoiled," supposedly unreadable, damaged, invalid. They just don’t get counted. This “spoilage” has occurred for decades, but it reached unprecedented heights in the last two presidential elections. In the 2004 election, for example, more than three million ballots were never counted. Almost as deep a secret is that people are doing something about it. In New Mexico, citizen activists, disgusted by systematic vote disappearance, demanded change — and got it. In Ohio, during the 2004 Presidential election, 153,237 ballots were simply thrown away — more than the Bush “victory” margin. In New Mexico the uncounted vote was five times the Bush alleged victory margin of 5,988. In Iowa, Bush’s triumph of 13,498 was overwhelmed by 36,811 votes rejected. The official number is bad enough — 1,855,827...

Bush's Family Profits from 'No Child' Act by Walter F. Roche Jr. A company headed by President Bush's brother and partly owned by his parents is benefiting from Republican connections and federal dollars targeted for economically disadvantaged students under the No Child Left Behind Act. With investments from his parents, George H.W. and Barbara Bush, and other backers, Neil Bush's company, Ignite! Learning, has placed its products in 40 U.S. school districts and now plans to market internationally. At least 13 U.S. school districts have used federal funds available through the president's signature education reform, the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, to buy Ignite's portable learning centers at $3,800 apiece. The law provides federal funds to help school districts better serve disadvantaged students and improve their performance, especially in reading and math. But Ignite does not offer reading instruction, and its math program will not be available unti...

November First I received this in my Christian Vegetarian Association newsletter. Regardless of your opinion on veganism or vegetarianism, it makes beaucoup sense. November 1st. One day. Try it. Go vegan or vegetarian for one day. Before you do, check out recipes on some of the sites listed at the left or google "vegan recipes" and that should bring some up. The choices are so much better than they used to be! There are products that are competitively priced that you can sub in for your favorite stew, casserole, or dish. Just try it for one day and know that if you become vegetarian you will not only be saving animals but you will be making a global impact while helping yourself at the same time. CVA member Jenny Moxham recently had the following editorial published in her local newspaper: If you could improve your health, help alleviate world hunger, reduce animal abuse, reduce global warming and environmental damage and save hundreds of thousands of litres of water, simply ...