Musings of a Liberal Texan

Robert F. Kennedy = Danger Boy! If “living dangerously” is questioning the status quo then count me in. As a precinct chair, and election judge in my area I was told that I could pick up the voting machines for my area on Monday evening. I asked if I was supposed to take them to the polling place upon picking them up and the answer was no, take them home, as long as you get them there by 6 a.m. I got to the pickup area, and the machines had already been picked up by the republican election judge. I doubt that any changes were made since I do live in a distinctly red area. However, it takes two minutes of unsupervised access to these machines to corrupt them. Robert Kennedy is not the only one ascertaining that the 2004 vote was rigged. There were over a million claims on election day. To pretend that nothing is going on, that everything is fine and that machines are 100% accurate is a fallacy that is being fed to the public by those who don’t want them to be curious. This is the most i...

Mad Cow: Symptoms Emerge Decades Later Researchers Say Incubation Period for Mad Cow Disease May Be Longer Than Thought By Jennifer Warner WebMD Medical News Reviewed By Louise Chang, MD on Friday, June 23, 2006 June 23, 2006 -- Symptoms of mad cow disease (bovine spongiform encephalopathy, BSE) may emerge more than 50 years after infection in humans, according to a new study. Researchers say the findings show that the size of a potential mad cow disease epidemic may be much bigger than previously thought. John Collinge of University College London and colleagues studied the only other known BSE disease outbreak in Papua New Guinea and found those infected in the initial outbreak in the 1950s were still developing the disease 50 years later. Researchers say large segments of the U.K. population have been exposed to BSE prions by eating infected meat. So far about 160 cases of the human variant of mad cow disease (variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, vCJD) have been identified in the ...

Miami Vice I have to weigh in on this recent arrest of the “terrorist cell” in, where is it, Florida? Ok. When I see something like this I can’t help but get a little skeptical. From what I gather, the government is not only monitoring phone calls and emails it is also monitoring bank activity. With all this monitoring, they still had to send some guy into an impoverished, BLACK neighborhood, to a group of young men meeting for a prayer group and start suggesting ways to make some cash? I mean, seriously, this is how our government with all its access and unlimited resources is conducting its War of Terror? It reminds me of these drug lords in massive mansions surrounded by machine gun clad guards living their lives unscathed while the drug war gets waged on kids in the projects. For all the discussions with suspicious international operators being monitored and money being tracked all of over the world, this is it? Did you see their faces? They looked stunned. Some looked petrified. ...

Friendship’s End I have just experienced an emotional meat grinder. Not pleasant. Not at all. Having someone whom you have known for twenty years, had hoped to reconnect with, turn around and take you down for things that happened ten to fifteen years ago is brutal. I realize that there are some people that have expectations when it comes to friendships. Expectations that are not shared. I have found that my eldest has this trait. It is harmful not only to others but to him as well. He is chronically disappointed in people. He has this intangible checklist that he applies to his friends, furrowing his brow and shaking his head as he applies an X to the offended expectation. Recently, a friend made plans with him and when he was on his way over to this friend’s house, he saw the friend with other friends on their bikes going the opposite direction. He called out to Josh and said “come on, we’re going to get something to eat.” Josh declined. X – changing plans without notification. His f...

Circus Countdown - Less than one month!! Houston, thankfully, is moving forward. Looking to our landmarks, seeing potential, and working for years to make it happen. Take the Bayou for instance. What a mess that was thirty years ago! It was an area to be avoided, with a horrendous stench. Now. Ah! It’s lovely. Kayaks, picnickers, grass, flowers. It’s amazing what a city can do, when it looks at something that “has always been” and says “we can do better”. This is the approach that Houston has got to take in regards to the circus. Oh, the circus! Good clean family fun. Escape the heat, go and see people and animals performing amazing tricks. This year there are a staggering fourteen performances. The people, well, they can choose to perform these tricks, these feats of acrobatic skill. But the animals? I wonder if anyone actually thinks whether the animals really want to be involved. When I was little, I remember going to the circus. My mom had an aversion to it; she didn’t like the dog...

Interesting Story..... A Mountain of Riches on Capitol Hill By Tom Hamburger, Richard Simon and Faye Fiore The Los Angeles Times Thursday 15 June 2006 Annual disclosure data offer a look at the finances of lawmakers and their top aides. Washington - A top aide to House Appropriations Committee Chairman Jerry Lewis (R-Redlands) reported Wednesday that he received more money than he previously disclosed from a lobbying firm that has come under scrutiny for its ties to Lewis. The aide, Jeffrey Shockey, corrected his financial disclosure reports to reveal that his salary in 2004 from Copeland Lowery Jacquez Denton & White totaled about $500,000 more than he had reported. He also collected nearly $2 million from the firm as a payout when he left to return to work for Lewis in 2005. The firm, whose partners include former Rep. Bill Lowery (R-San Diego), a longtime Lewis friend, is being examined as part of a federal investigation into the practice among lawmakers of slipping federa...

Marine Monument Today, President Bush created the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands Marine National Monument, protecting the marine life around the islands with the largest marine reserve on the planet, an area of almost 140,000 square miles, including 4,500 miles of coral reef habit. In his remarks the President rightfully stated, “This is a big deal.” The Monument will protect one of the last intact marine ecosystems in the world, one that is home to sharks, whales, extensive coral reefs, threatened sea turtles, and the endangered Hawaiian monk seal. It will be free from commercial extractive activities, allowing the entire marine ecosystem to continue to thrive for future generations. By immediately creating a National Monument, the President jump-started efforts to protect the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands by at least a year. The Sanctuary process would have taken at least another year to complete. National monument designation also ensures protections are permanent, and not subject ...

Repetitive History Musings In I927, during an era when the Republicans held control over all three branches of the federal government, the levees in New Orleans were breached. New Orleans was submerged. Out of this wreckage, a man stood in the back of flatbed pickup, took hold of the airwaves, via radio, and began a grassroots revolution. He spoke out about the government’s inability to care for those in need, unwilling to provide any kind of security or healthcare safety net for its citizen, how it left the workers to the mercy of the big corporations, how they were being led into war. Huey Long, a common guy, started a fire that spread throughout the nation, because as we all know, when someone comes out of chaos and starts speaking truth, everyone stops. Everyone listens. Everyone follows. Because in the midst of uncertainty and strife, those that can put into words the thoughts, the frustrations, the desires of the masses is all that those held down need. That’s all they need. That...

It’s sad how the average us citizen can be whipped into a frenzy – even when the news is manufactured. I wonder if all this rattling about immigration is just that. It is obviously a racial issue. You really can’t deny that as fact. All the focus, all the video has been the stealth night vision images of Mexicans, South or Central Americans stealing across the divide. I have yet to see the Canadian footage. The recent sweep “across the country” labeled “Return to Sender” (dry heave) seems to entail a lot of olive skin tones, and black hair. Couldn’t really see any Canadians. But then again, how do you distinguish a Canadian from an American? I mean, besides the red “mountie” outfit. Considering the lack of peeps (that would be the sound not the people) emanating from our southern neighbors and the riotous ruckus that was present this past week about some crazy Canadians planning an attack on their own parliament (I might want those notes…), it does seem that our attention is, well, mis...

Centrist Musings My thought on this whole thing is pretty clear. I am not here to sway middle of the roaders. People who sit on the fence and speculate. I have no interest in people who cannot make up their minds about something so incredibly obvious. It’s only those that are removed from the situation that have the luxury of a long, leisurely paced stroll to opinion. I have to visualize standing in the middle of some Iraqi street with gunfire, bombs, screams, cries, chaos and thinking – well, I don’t really know if this situation, this war situation is something I am ready to form an opinion about. I can’t imagine how someone could watch another human being having gasoline injected into his penis and still feel the need for contemplation on the whole notion of torture. It boggles my mind. If you are for the war, if you think it is a good idea, fine. Say so. If you are against the war, if you think it’s a bad idea, then by-gum, say something. These hemmers and hawers are driving me ins...

It's a continuous battle - putting out fires that you thought were put out long ago. Not true in the case of whales. In the next 10 days, Japan's long campaign to end the hunting moratorium could pay off. As offers of aid sway poorer nations to side with pro-whalers, conservationists fear the tide is turning. It is early morning in Tokyo, and the narrow streets of Tsukiji fish market are already packed with shoppers inspecting the overnight catch. At this time of day they are spoilt for choice: salmon, crab, shrimps, enormous sides of tuna and enough dried fish to last a lifetime. Tucked away among row upon row of exquisitely fresh seafood are the telltale red and white slivers of flesh, presented, rather unattractively, in tightly sealed polythene bags: whale meat. Within the next 10 days the pro-whaling nations of Japan, Norway and Iceland are expected to win control of the International Whaling Commission meeting on the Caribbean island of St Kitts and begin wholesale change...

BAN THE CIRCUS!! TESTIMONY TO CONGRESS Testimony of TOM RIDER "Good morning Mr. Chairman and members of the committee. I am Tom Rider, a former circus employee. I worked with Clyde Beatty Cole Brothers Circus in 1997 as an elephant keeper and I loaded the children for the elephant ride. The elephant which we used, Pete or Petunia, was considered to be a dangerous animal and we were cautioned not to go near her. Despite this, she was used for rides before the show and during intermission carrying as many as ten children at a time on her back. She was surrounded by people waiting to ride. The only barrier between her and the public was a plastic net fence. Typically during elephant rides, the handler walks in front of the elephant as she carries the riders on her back. If the elephant decides to wander off, it would take at least a few minutes for any handler to regain control. Since the elephant is surrounded by people, literally, there would be no way to prevent serious injuries i...

This is no joke. Click on this link http://www.savetheinternet.com/ and do everything you can to get behind this movement. This is the deal. Right now, the internet is a completely open book - you can go to any site any web page. But the congress is moving to change that. It has already passed the house. They want to give control of the internet, access to the hundreds of billions of pages out there, to companies like verizon, comcast, telephone companies who will grant access based on fees. So, while Joe Blow is sitting at his computer being barred from one site after another, while Nelly Netter is trying to get hits on her site but isn't even being picked up by search engines, while Polly Public sits waiting for her pages to load, the CORPORATIONS will once again be raking in the dough. Is this getting old to you? We seem to be so docile when it comes to the price of gas, the reduction of quantity with no reduction in price, the mucking up of our water and air and land, the pois...