Musings of a Liberal Texan

I am extremely allergic to mold. I have all of my boys papers, projects, report cards, newsletters and more that have traveled in boxes with me from the time they were tiny. They are now 28 and 29. The boxes have not always been in the appropriately climate controlled spaces (ahem old run down damp garage for instance) and have acquired their fair share of silverfish and meals for a variety of little beings. Who came up with the idea of macaroni art? Seriously. Whose idea was it to stick food on construction paper with white glue that ended up more as a way to peel off one's skin in a white hazy layer? Ridiculous. But I digress. I have moved these boxes from the garage to the office which I have renamed the scrapbook room. Because that's my intention. I visualize the long table with neat piles of historical data chronologically compiled with a variety of themes - Josh, Cody, Josh and Cody, vacations, etc. I have the books. I have scissors that provide different edging, just to ...

Well now. Where to start? I can't possibly recount all that has transpired since my last post seven years ago. the death of my mother. The death of my stepdad. The overwhelming relief I feel that they are not here during this time of a rampant virus, growing civil unrest, and a psychopath in the white house now floating the idea of delaying the November elections...due to the out of control virus. Delay the elections for the safety of the public but funding will be denied to those public schools that don't resume in person classes for Fall 2020. A Corononavirus Bill that includes billions of dollars for the exclusive purpose of saving Trump's hotel, yet reduced food aid to those in desperate need. The funding the remodel of the FBI headquarters is to keep it in place instead of the planned relocation of to a new site. Why would this be an issue for a Trump hotel? If that building gets demolished and the land is sold, a developer could come along and provide competition by b...

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...

Just saw Barney Frank on Real Time with Bill Maher on HBO. I'll tell you something, it is an awe-inspiring thing to see a democrat actually start speaking up, calling people out. He was dead on, he was relentless, he was unapologetic, he was firm, he was strong, and he was the most solidly logical person I have heard in a long time. Everytime the repub guest would try to insinuate that all the focus on "gay" republicans was some kind of bizarre assault on a group of people that just happen to have a connection with the conservative doctrine - strong defense, smaller government, lower taxes - Frank absolutely impaled him. How can you categorically vote against a group of people giving them rights, try to criminalize them for private behavior, and then go home and be engaged in that kind of behavior? It makes no sense. It is how I like my liberals. Seriously. I like them to be strong and show that you know what? Talking to your enemies takes BALLS. Pulling brave and honorab...

Foleygate My opinion on this is as follows. I don't care how old these pages were. I don't care if Foley ever touched anyone. Obviously, taken out of context this might seem innocent and nonthreatening. But within the true context, it is anything but. This is a guy with power. This is a guy that is in charge. I wonder what would have happened to a principal that was told five years, two years, six months, two weeks prior to information going public that a PE instructor was being sexually suggestive, inappropriate, "overly friendly" with students. I wonder what the board and the parents would expect if they found out that the principal had sat on this information. The point of this is that this man was in a position of authority. Everyone knew and no one did anything. Do we wait until the guy is on top of some fifteen year old page in a broom closet to do something? The fact that people knew, the fact that pages spoke amongst themselves about steering clear of this guy...

I know a lot of you probably already know this, being the savvy politico watchers that you are, but just in case. When people who release news items don't want a whole lot of attention paid to their story, they release it late Friday....much like the article below. Remember the administration's denial of any knowledge of or communication with Abramoff? Abra-who? Turns out that might not be (I can already hear the gasping!) true. An aide to Rove...former employee of Abramoff, resigned on Friday due to her ties with her former employer. Rove aide resigns in fallout over Abramoff report By Steve HollandFri Oct 6, 5:01 PM ET An aide to top White House political adviser Karl Rove resigned in the fallout over a congressional report showing many White House contacts with ex-lobbyist Jack Abramoff, a spokeswoman said on Friday. Last week's report by the U.S. House of Representatives Government Reform Committee said Rove aide Susan Ralston had passed inside White House information t...

Can you say "Police State"? That's right, I knew you could... Criticizing Cheney to His Face Is Assault? by Matthew Rothschild Steve Howards says he used to fantasize about what he’d say to President Bush or Vice President Cheney if he ever got the chance. That opportunity arrived on June 16, the same day he says he read about U.S. fatalities in Iraq reaching 2,500. “Initially, I walked past him. Then I said to myself, ‘I can’t in good conscience let this opportunity pass by.’ So I approached him, I got about two feet away, and I said in a very calm tone of voice, ‘Your policies in Iraq are reprehensible.’” Howards says he was taking two of his kids to their Suzuki piano camp in Beaver Creek, Colorado. They were walking across the outdoor public mall area when all of a sudden he saw Cheney there. “I didn’t even know he was in town,” Howards says. “He was walking through the area shaking hands. Initially, I walked past him. Then I said to myself, ‘I can’t in good conscienc...

I was speaking with my conservative...ultra conservative friend yesterday. We are working out together and being on the eliptical machine for an hour goes SO much faster when you have someone who likes to talk with you. Anyway, we never discuss politics, she is way to the right of ultra conservative and I am...well, liberal to say the least. But she shocked me. She said that if the entire Foley thing turned out hurting the republicans, it served them right. She believes very strongly in the conservative agenda but feels that they have all been charlatans. I said, we need people of integrity, and I named my personal choice of president - Barack Obama. I was stunned when she agreed wholeheartedly with me. First generation American, true understanding of a work ethic, real pride, real character. She was as moved as I was by his keynote address at the convention. Very exciting. Is Obama Ready to Roll? The Illinois Democrat may be more serious about '08 than you think WEB EXCLUSIVE By J...

Heard this morning.....on AM Radio! Tony Snow, at a Spina Bifida fundraising event, got up and said this - I have the worst job in the world. Everyday I have to get up behind a podium with the nation's media trained upon me and say things that no one would believe on a bet. Light chuckling ensued. Not the best commentary, regardless of the situation, for the White House Press Secretary.

Rice More Sordid Than Foley By Robert Scheer Truthdig Tuesday 03 October 2006 They are such liars. And no, I am not speaking only of the dissembling GOP House leaders led by Speaker Dennis Hastert who, out of naked political calculation, covered up for one of their own in the sordid teen stalking case of Rep. Mark Foley. Call me old school, but I am still more concerned with the Republicans molesting Lady Liberty while pretending to be guarding the nation's security, an assignment which they have totally botched. The news about the Foley coverup, while important as yet another example of extreme hypocrisy on the part of the Republican virtues police, should not be allowed to obscure the latest evidence of administration deceit as to its egregious ineptness in protecting the nation. On Monday, a State Department spokesman conceded that then-National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice had indeed been briefed in July 2001 by George Tenet, then-director of the CIA,...

Powell: Staying course in Iraq isn't enough Sharon Schmickle , Star Tribune The United States and allies can not resolve the current sectarian violence in Iraq, former Secretary of State Colin Powell said today during a lecture in Minneapolis. "Only the Iraqi people can resolve this," Powell said. U.S. troops have to stay in Iraq for "some time," he said. "But there is a limit to the patience of the American people." Powell was the featured speaker at this year's distinguished Carlson Lecture at the University of Minnesota. In Iraq, "staying the course isn't good enough because a course has to have an end," Powell said. More than any other event of this era, the war will define the Bush presidency and Powell's own tenure as Secretary of State, Powell said. In the U.S. today, a challenge the war poses is a question of whether an essential "bond of trust that must exist within a nation...has been shaken," he said. The exte...

Current Event Musings I suppose if it hadn’t had such an incredibly profound effect on the nation, I would be feeling sorry for the Republican Party right now. Grasping at anything that resembles a life preserver, the likes of hannity and slush squeal like stuck pigs about when “they” knew about the foley ims and emails. Turns out, the republican leadership knew about it too, a long time ago. “Dirty tricks!” they seethe. And I think “got it from your own play book.” Yesterday mush was talking about how the repubs need to get back on message. That the libs (who have no standards) love it when the people with standards fail. Huh. Interesting. Let’s see if I got this right. You guys put Clinton on the rack for how long over Monica, a consenting, OF AGE female? You pursued and pursued until you could completely humiliate him. Now a guy who was on a committee for missing and exploited children, a republican is caught sending really foul IMs to an UNDERAGE boy, and WE have no standards? Inte...