February 28, 2007
By waiving offensive tackle Zach Wiegert, defensive tackle Seth Payne and receiver Eric Moulds, the Texans cleared up salary-cap space for the start of free agency on Friday and provided opportunities for some younger players to solidify their positions on the team.Wiegert, 34, and Payne, 32, suffered season-ending knee injuries last season. Moulds, 34, saw his performance drop off over the second half of the season.
Expected to replace them as starters are offensive tackle Eric Winston, defensive tackle Anthony Maddox and receiver Kevin Walter.
"We all face difficult decisions at this time of the year," Texans general manager Rick Smith said. "We're doing everything we can to improve our team."
The Texans saved $3.07 million on Wiegert and Payne. Moulds, who played one season in Houston, wasn't a cap casualty.
"We have several areas we want to improve," Smith said. "We've got a couple of free agents we've targeted, but we're going to be prudent financially."
Like it or not, these are older guys who needed to go. The team has struggled since the beginning, and Coach Gary Kubiak is moving in a different direction from that of the Capers era. Young players stepped-up last season and are ready to take the roles filled by these older guys.
And on another interesting note, discontent over QB David Carr's role on the team is bubbling up. This comment comes from teammate Dunta Robinson.
Texans cornerback Dunta Robinson said Wednesday night that he believes it is time for quarterback David Carr to be traded.
"It's just my opinion, but I think it's that time," Robinson said. "We haven't won. I'm not saying it's David's fault, and I'm not saying he can't be a great quarterback with another team. But he's been here for five years, and the best we've been able to do is 7-9. I just think it's time for us to make some moves that'll help the Texans become a winning team."
That he is making such statements publicly tells me that the sentiment is much more widely shared on the team. The question is, do the Texans listen to this sentiment that is shared by players and fans alike?
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House Republicans plan to force a floor vote on the appointment of Rep. William J. Jefferson (D-La.), who is the subject of a federal bribery investigation, to a seat on the Homeland Security Committee.The decision to put Jefferson on the panel was made by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), and House Democrats endorsed the move at a private meeting Tuesday night, but his appointment must be confirmed by a vote on the House floor. Such an action would normally be a formality, but Republicans said yesterday that they would pursue a rarely used maneuver to force a recorded vote on the matter.
"This is a terrible mistake by the Democratic leadership, to take someone with serious ethical allegations against him and put him on one of the most sensitive and important committees in Congress," said Rep. Peter T. King (N.Y.), the ranking Republican on the committee.
Remember, this is the same William Jefferson who commandeered emergency equipment and personnel to remove personal property -- including evidence in the criminal probe against him -- from his New Orleans home in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, while people still needed rescuing. This appointment will give him oversight responsibilities for FEMA. While I agree that a New Orleans area official belongs on the committee, it cannot be this one.
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Rick Perry's actions were anything but, having waited until yesterday to move to reform the Texas Youth Commission, despite knowing of such abuse since last fall of sexual abuse dating back to 2005.
Gov. Rick Perry's staff learned last fall of a Texas Rangers investigation into allegations of sexual abuse in 2005 at a West Texas state juvenile facility, but the governor took no major action to reform the Texas Youth Commission until after the report became public last week.On Wednesday, Perry removed the agency's board chairman, Pete Alfaro, of Baytown, and appointed Don Bethel, of Lamesa, as Alfaro's replacement.
Perry also recommended that at its meeting Tuesday, the board hire Ed Owens, the deputy executive director of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, as the acting TYC director and set up an inspector general who answers directly to the board.
And late Wednesday, the Senate voted to ask the legislative audit committee to recommend the entire state agency be put into a conservatorship. Perry would have the final say on whether a conservatorship is adopted.
Legislative committees held hearings last year in which former TYC employees and the parents of youth offenders testified that there was widespread physical and sexual abuse of those incarcerated in the system.
But Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and Sens. John Whitmire, D-Houston, and Juan Hinojosa, D-McAllen, said they didn't find out until last week about the Texas Rangers' report on the possible sexual assault of boys by TYC administrators at the West Texas State School in Pyote.
They said there appeared to be a cover-up by high-ranking TYC officials.
I'd agree with that last assessment -- and would go further, including the Governor among those involved in a cover-up. Here's hoping that the legislature acts decisively to investigate and, if appropriate, punish that apparent malfeasance.
And for those who think I'm being harsh, please realize that any teacher facing similar allegations of sexual abuse would have been out of the classroom in a matter of day and not permitted back in until cleared -- if then. Instead, TYC abusers were permitted to stay in supervisory roles and to move elsewhere in the field of education with no check upon them.
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Schlesinger, who was also an active liberal who worked in the Kennedy Administration, has died.
n his 89 years, Arthur M. Schlesinger was a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, a Kennedy insider, and an influential thinker who helped define mainstream liberalism during the Cold War."(He had) enormous stamina and a kind of energy and drive which most people don't have, and it kept him going, all the way through his final hours," Schlesinger's son Stephen said early Thursday morning, hours after his father's death. "He never stopped writing, he never stopped participating in public affairs, he never stopped having his views about politics and his love of this nation."
Schlesinger was dining with family members in Manhattan on Wednesday when he suffered a heart attack, Stephen Schlesinger said. He later died at New York Downtown Hospital.
Schlesinger was among the most famous historians of his time, and was widely respected as learned and readable, with a panoramic vision of American culture and politics. He received a National Book Award for "Robert Kennedy and His Times" and both a National Book Award and a Pulitzer for "A Thousand Days," his memoir/chronicle of President Kennedy's administration. He also won a Pulitzer, in 1946, for "The Age of Jackson," his landmark chronicle of Andrew Jackson's administration.
Indeed, it is the work on the Jackson administration that first introduced me to Schlesinger, some 35 years after it was published. It remains a classic in the field of American history.
Quite frankly, I don't have the words to express the sense of loss I feel upon the passing of this intellectual giant.
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Indeed, I looked at my own field, teaching, and found a number of excellent articles about education and how to go about finding a job in education. This, in turn, pointed me to other employment-related sites that would help an aspiring teacher, or one looking to make a change of schools, find a classroom where they fit.
The site is easy to use, and the results good in terms of organization and quality. if I may note one thing though -- this site is NOT a job-bank, so don't go there expecting to find job listings. Instead, look more for a "how-to" site on finding a job.
Paid Endorsement.
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A Massachusetts Democrat on Wednesday plans to re-introduce a bill repealing the congressional ban on homosexuals serving in the military.Rep. Marty Meehan's Military Readiness Enhancement Act died last year in the Republican-controlled Congress. But with Democrats in charge, Meehan is more optimistic about passing the bill.
Meehan, who chairs the Armed Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, plans to hold hearings as early as April, USA Today reported.
Meehan's bill would require the U.S. Armed Forces to adopt a policy of nondiscrimination based on sexual orientation -- allowing homosexuals to openly serve in the military, something they cannot do now.
Three Republicans have signed on, including Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida.
IÂ’ll concede the policy might have once made sense, but it doesnÂ’t now, given certain changes in social attitudes over the course of the last thirty to forty years. End it, donÂ’t mend it.
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The millionaires who've turned to this state's left-leaning Legislature to authorize a $300 million tax subsidy for a new basketball arena have been playing right-wing politics. Two members of the new Sonics ownership group are heavyweight financiers of a national political group dedicated to banning gay marriage.Together, co-owners Tom Ward and Aubrey McClendon donated more than $1.1 million to Americans United to Preserve Marriage, a conservative Christian group that opposes gay marriage.
The group is led by Gary Bauer, an outspoken leader of conservative groups including the Family Research Council and Focus on the Family.
I’m curious – should their position on homosexual marriage be the basis for denying the subsidy requested? Would a “conversion” be a legitimate basis for granting it? My answer, in both cases is “No.”
But then again, I donÂ’t think the government should be in the business of subsidizing stadiums and arenas, any more than I believe they should be in the business of building factories for companies that say they cannot afford to do so.
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A state legislator whose district is home to thousands of Caribbean immigrants wants to ban the term "illegal alien" from the state's official documents."I personally find the word 'alien' offensive when applied to individuals, especially to children," said Sen. Frederica Wilson, D-Miami. "An alien to me is someone from out of space."
She has introduced a bill providing that: "A state agency or official may not use the term 'illegal alien' in an official document of the state." There would be no penalty for using the words.
In Miami-Dade County, Wilson said, "we don't say 'alien,' we say 'immigrant.'"
She said she encountered the situation when trying to pass a bill allowing children of foreigners to get in-state tuition at colleges and universities. Wilson, who directs a dropout prevention and education program in Miami, said she politely asks witnesses at public hearings on such issues not to use the term.
"There are students in our schools whose parents are trying to become citizens and we shouldn't label them," she said. "They are immigrants, through no fault of their own, not aliens."
Actually, you idiot, they are aliens, as the word means “one who is not a citizen of a place.†By your own explanation of who you seek to protect, you make it clear that they are, in fact, aliens, and that you are simply trying to debase the English language in the name of political correctness.
But if you would like, I would support legislation changing the proper term ti “border-jumping immigration criminal†– just for clarity’s sake.
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A state legislator whose district is home to thousands of Caribbean immigrants wants to ban the term "illegal alien" from the state's official documents."I personally find the word 'alien' offensive when applied to individuals, especially to children," said Sen. Frederica Wilson, D-Miami. "An alien to me is someone from out of space."
She has introduced a bill providing that: "A state agency or official may not use the term 'illegal alien' in an official document of the state." There would be no penalty for using the words.
In Miami-Dade County, Wilson said, "we don't say 'alien,' we say 'immigrant.'"
She said she encountered the situation when trying to pass a bill allowing children of foreigners to get in-state tuition at colleges and universities. Wilson, who directs a dropout prevention and education program in Miami, said she politely asks witnesses at public hearings on such issues not to use the term.
"There are students in our schools whose parents are trying to become citizens and we shouldn't label them," she said. "They are immigrants, through no fault of their own, not aliens."
Actually, you idiot, they are aliens, as the word means “one who is not a citizen of a place.” By your own explanation of who you seek to protect, you make it clear that they are, in fact, aliens, and that you are simply trying to debase the English language in the name of political correctness.
But if you would like, I would support legislation changing the proper term ti “border-jumping immigration criminal” – just for clarity’s sake.
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, and 
), and
For more than a decade, the Kesbehs lived in Houston without proper documents, relying on the family's business selling American flags and other banners to get by.Like millions of others from around the world, the Palestinians were in the United States illegally. They paid taxes, sent their children to school and tried not to be noticed.
Then, as pressure mounted on Muslims after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the Kesbehs were found out, two members of the family were detained, and the whole clan was deported. They were sent to Jordan, a country the seven children barely knew.
They live in a cramped, cold apartment in Amman, the capital, where they rely primarily on the income generated by Noor Kesbeh, the eldest daughter, who has found steady work at, of all places, the U.S. Embassy.
Enterprising American dreamers or lawbreakers? Hardworking folk who should be welcomed back, or opportunists? Either way, the Kesbehs are desperate to return to the United States if they can find a way to do so legally.
The answer is clear – they are lawbreakers and opportunists. However, if they can legally get back in the country, they will be welcome in my book.
But as for all the hardships in the article, my response is simple – tough shit. That is part of the price you pay for your crimes.
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For more than a decade, the Kesbehs lived in Houston without proper documents, relying on the family's business selling American flags and other banners to get by.Like millions of others from around the world, the Palestinians were in the United States illegally. They paid taxes, sent their children to school and tried not to be noticed.
Then, as pressure mounted on Muslims after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the Kesbehs were found out, two members of the family were detained, and the whole clan was deported. They were sent to Jordan, a country the seven children barely knew.
They live in a cramped, cold apartment in Amman, the capital, where they rely primarily on the income generated by Noor Kesbeh, the eldest daughter, who has found steady work at, of all places, the U.S. Embassy.
Enterprising American dreamers or lawbreakers? Hardworking folk who should be welcomed back, or opportunists? Either way, the Kesbehs are desperate to return to the United States if they can find a way to do so legally.
The answer is clear – they are lawbreakers and opportunists. However, if they can legally get back in the country, they will be welcome in my book.
But as for all the hardships in the article, my response is simple – tough shit. That is part of the price you pay for your crimes.
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FILM Queen DAME HELEN MIRREN has admitted she didn’t wear undies at the Oscars.The star, 61, revealed her saucy secret on US TV as she showed off the gown she wore to the awards.
“It was all made for me so I didn’t have to have any underwear,†she told presenter OPRAH WINFREY.
“It fitted me like two angel’s hands,†she giggled, cupping her boobs to illustrate the point.
“I cried when I put it on, it is a work of art.â€
TMI!
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FILM Queen DAME HELEN MIRREN has admitted she didnÂ’t wear undies at the Oscars.The star, 61, revealed her saucy secret on US TV as she showed off the gown she wore to the awards.
“It was all made for me so I didn’t have to have any underwear,” she told presenter OPRAH WINFREY.
“It fitted me like two angel’s hands,” she giggled, cupping her boobs to illustrate the point.
“I cried when I put it on, it is a work of art.”
TMI!
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President Hugo Chavez ordered by decree on Monday the takeover of oil projects run by foreign oil companies in Venezuela's Orinoco River region.Chavez had previously announced the government's intention to take a majority stake by May 1 in four heavy oil-upgrading projects run by British Petroleum PLC, Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp., ConocoPhillips Co., Total SA and Statoil ASA.
He said Monday that has decreed a law to proceed with the nationalizations that will see state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA, or PDVSA, taking at least a 60 percent stake in the projects.
"The privatization of oil in Venezuela has come to an end," he said on his weekday radio show, "Hello, President." "This marks the true nationalization of oil in Venezuela."
By May 1, "we will occupy these fields" and have the national flag flying on them, he said.
The law is expected to be published shortly in the government's official gazette, and the companies will have four months from then to negotiate terms and conditions with PDVSA to decide whether they will take part in new joint ventures as minority partners, Chavez said.
Chavez did not detail how the government will pay for its increased share in the projects in which the companies are estimated to have invested some $17 billion.
Leave the bastard with nothing but wreckage – sort of like he has made of the rest of the Venezuelan economy.
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Former radio talk show host Jon Matthews was ordered to spend three years in prison after a Fort Bend County judge this morning revoked his probation.Matthews, 61, left the courtroom of state District Judge Brady Elliott after agreeing to a three-year sentence on a charge of indecency with a child.
The state claimed Matthews violated several terms of the probation he received two and half years ago after he pleaded guilty to exposing himself to an 11-year-old girl. Matthews did not dispute the claims made in court this morning.
Matthews, a fixture on Houston's radio scene for almost two decades, was jailed in August after prosecutors filed a motion to revoke the probation and asked that he be sent to prison. He was later released on bail.
Court records show Matthews violated several probation conditions the court set in 2004 when he entered his plea on the charge that stemmed from the October 2003 incident.
The violations included testing positive for alcohol, being terminated from a sex offenders counseling program and engaging in sexual fantasy activity over the Internet, court records said.
The man is a sick freak who needs to be out of circulation for far longer, but weÂ’ll take what we can get. Still, it is a sad end to a sordid story.
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It starts with criticism of the food choices offered based upon the preferences of diners.
Chain restaurants in the United States are promoting dangerous "X-treme Eating", a US watchdog has said.They are serving up "ever-more harmful new creations," says the Center for Science in the Public Interest.
It says that some individual dishes can exceed 2,000 calories, more than the recommended daily intake for women.
As more than one in five US adults are obese, it says restaurants should list nutritional information on their menus to make consumers more aware.
The next step, as we have seen in the past from CSPI, is to call for regulation and legislation to take away choices from people.
One such food fascist is calling for bans on one chain restaurant.
The Prince of Wales told a nutritionist in Abu Dhabi Tuesday that the “key” to people eating healthily was to ban McDonald’s fast food restaurants.
Prince Charles was attending the launch of a public health awareness campaign aimed at fighting diabetes in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).He visited the Imperial College London Diabetes Centre and watched as a group of children chose from a selection of “good” and “bad” snacks for their school packed lunches.
Talking to Nadine Tayara, a nutritionist from the centre who had put the children through their paces, he asked her: “Have you got anywhere with McDonald’s? Have you tried getting it banned? That’s the key.”
Well, that is enough to keep me saying “God save the Queen” until her moron son has passed into the next world. Charles, surrounded by wealth, luxury and privilege, so he thinks it is his place to dictate to everyone else what and where they eat. Even though I agree with him on the relative merits of a fast-food diet, I simply reject the notion that it is the place of government to choose for us what and where we can eat.
But if Prince Up-Chuck is going to get involved in our diets, consider this comparison.
One is marketed by McDonalds. One is marketed by Prince Charles.
Which one is worse for you – but which one does he want banned?
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Many on the right profess amazement at the lead he's opened up among Republican primary voters, considering his pro-choice views and sloppy personal life.Meanwhile, writers on the left express disbelief at the notion that a pro-choice Republican candidate might be able to win the GOP nomination. According to the best Leftist analyst of American politics, Michael Tomasky, abortion is simply "too fundamental an issue for most Republican caucus goers and primary voters (even in California, with its likely Feb. 5 primary) to work around."
There's a perfectly simple answer to the Rudy paradox. When Republican voters look at Rudy Giuliani, they know one key fact about him: They know he's no liberal.
* * * We're going to hear a lot about how rude, abrasive, arrogant, high-handed, combative, isolated, difficult and aggressive Rudy Giuliani was as mayor. And yet he was the key factor in turning New York into the safe, clean, pleasant, polite, neighborly and genuinely nice place it was when we were attacked on 9/11.
His record is clear: He fought the left mercilessly, and he not only won politically, he won as far as history's proper judgment of his tenure in New York.
Is it any wonder conservative Republicans are so eager to think the very best of him?
Well-said.
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An Eta prisoner on hunger strike has ripped out his feeding tube, sparking fears that he is close to death after 112 days without eating.The Spanish prison service said that Iñaki de Juana Chaos, the Basque separatist leader convicted of killing 25 people, mainly soldiers and policemen, in the 1980s, had received no nutrients since Friday. A lawyer who spoke to de Juana said that he had pulled out the tube keeping him alive, apparently furious with media reports that he had abandoned his protest.
The case has exposed the deep divisions within Spain and placed the Socialist Government in an excruciating dilemma. More than 75,000 people rallied in Madrid on Saturday, calling on the Government not to free de Juana despite a recent Supreme Court judgment making him eligible for parole.
The only tragedy here is that the Spanish government didnÂ’t send this mutt to Hell years ago, due to Euro-weenie opposition to the death penalty. Let him get there of his own accord, the sooner the better.
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The chairman of the federal panel that recommended the new cervical-cancer vaccine for pre-teen girls says lawmakers should not make the inoculation mandatory, as the District and more than 20 states, including Virginia, are considering.Dr. Jon Abramson, chairman of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's advisory committee on immunization practices (ACIP), also said he and panel members told Merck & Co., the drug Gardasil's maker, not to lobby state lawmakers to require the vaccine for school attendance.
"I told Merck my personal opinion that it shouldn't be mandated," Dr. Abramson told The Washington Times. "And they heard it from other committee members."
Dr. Abramson said he opposes mandating Gardasil, which prevents the cervical-cancer-causing human papillomavirus (HPV), because the sexually transmitted HPV is not a contagious disease like measles and he is not sure states can afford to inoculate all students.
"The vaccines out there now are for very communicable diseases. A child in school is not at an increased risk for HPV like he is measles," Dr. Abramson said.
Gee, that argument sounds familiar to me. Where have I heard it before? Oh, yeah – that is the same argument I made against the vaccines on day one, only to be told how wrong-headed my position was. Anybody want to reconsider that criticism now?
Oh, and there is this minor consideration as well.
Middle-school girls inoculated with the breakthrough vaccine will be no older than 18 when they pass Gardasil's five-year window of proven effectiveness -- more than a decade before the typical cancer patient contracts HPV, The Washington Times reported last week.Infectious disease specialists and cancer pathologists say the incubation period for HPV becoming cancer is 10 to 15 years -- meaning the average cervical cancer patient, who is 47, contracted the virus in her 30s and would not be protected by Gardasil taken as a teen.
Dr. Abramson said the panel thinks the vaccine will last for at least 10 years. Even if it provides 10 years of protection, it would still leave girls given the inoculation in the sixth grade vulnerable during their late 20s and early 30s, when most cervical-cancer patients contract HPV. At that point, another round of Gardasil would be necessary.
So it seems to me that folks like Rick Perry and others seeking to play doctor with the little girls of the nation are not merely engaged in bad politics, but in bad medicine as well.
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The chairman of the federal panel that recommended the new cervical-cancer vaccine for pre-teen girls says lawmakers should not make the inoculation mandatory, as the District and more than 20 states, including Virginia, are considering.Dr. Jon Abramson, chairman of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's advisory committee on immunization practices (ACIP), also said he and panel members told Merck & Co., the drug Gardasil's maker, not to lobby state lawmakers to require the vaccine for school attendance.
"I told Merck my personal opinion that it shouldn't be mandated," Dr. Abramson told The Washington Times. "And they heard it from other committee members."
Dr. Abramson said he opposes mandating Gardasil, which prevents the cervical-cancer-causing human papillomavirus (HPV), because the sexually transmitted HPV is not a contagious disease like measles and he is not sure states can afford to inoculate all students.
"The vaccines out there now are for very communicable diseases. A child in school is not at an increased risk for HPV like he is measles," Dr. Abramson said.
Gee, that argument sounds familiar to me. Where have I heard it before? Oh, yeah – that is the same argument I made against the vaccines on day one, only to be told how wrong-headed my position was. Anybody want to reconsider that criticism now?
Oh, and there is this minor consideration as well.
Middle-school girls inoculated with the breakthrough vaccine will be no older than 18 when they pass Gardasil's five-year window of proven effectiveness -- more than a decade before the typical cancer patient contracts HPV, The Washington Times reported last week.Infectious disease specialists and cancer pathologists say the incubation period for HPV becoming cancer is 10 to 15 years -- meaning the average cervical cancer patient, who is 47, contracted the virus in her 30s and would not be protected by Gardasil taken as a teen.
Dr. Abramson said the panel thinks the vaccine will last for at least 10 years. Even if it provides 10 years of protection, it would still leave girls given the inoculation in the sixth grade vulnerable during their late 20s and early 30s, when most cervical-cancer patients contract HPV. At that point, another round of Gardasil would be necessary.
So it seems to me that folks like Rick Perry and others seeking to play doctor with the little girls of the nation are not merely engaged in bad politics, but in bad medicine as well.
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February 27, 2007
A long-simmering scandal over sexual abuse of juveniles at schools for youthful offenders broke into the open on Tuesday with an outraged state senator calling for a takeover of the troubled Texas Youth Commission.At a school in West Texas, a youth commission official acknowledged at a hearing of the State Senate Criminal Justice Committee, the schoolÂ’s superintendent was aware that two supervisors routinely awakened boys for late-night encounters behind closed doors in deserted offices.
The two supervisors — one of whom had been transferred from another state school after pornography was found on his work computer — were allowed to resign in 2005 without charges. One became the principal of a charter school in Midland, Tex., state officials said. The superintendent was promoted to director of juvenile corrections, a post he still holds, the youth commission confirmed.
“It’s outrageous,” said State Senator John Whitmire, chairman of the Criminal Justice Committee, who accused the commission of a cover-up.
Whitmire asks a valid question -- does the agency need some much more intense supervision, like being placed under completely new leadership ? The answer would appear to be yes, given that the TYC director was allowed to stay in place until last Friday and one of the freaks in question is still working for the state in a policy position that gives him direct control over the lives of juveniles!
Frankly, it is looking like one more failure on th part of Rick Perry -- and one more reason for the legislature to consider whether or not Perry is fit to remain governor.
Oh, and interestingly enough, Houston's "paper of record" couldn't even be bothered to cover this story on the front page -- or link to their coverage from the paper's homepage.
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February 26, 2007
Of particular interest to me, given the quote on this site's masthead, is this little tidbit about the man who is among Romney's favorite presidents.
But I love John Adams. His book is on my desk there. The first time I read that book by David McCullough when I got to the last page I literally had tears in my eyes because I felt like I was losing a family friend.
Adams is often underrated, coming as he does between Washington and Jefferson, two giants of American history. That Romney has such high regard for him shows a high level of understanding of what it means to be a good president, and an American patriot.
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Some Republicans are threatening to withhold future political support for County Judge Robert Eckels unless he backs a high-profile elected official as his successor rather than a relatively obscure former lawmaker."This decision is extremely important to whether the base will get behind Eckels if he runs for higher office," said County GOP Chairman Jared Woodfill.
Although Eckels is stepping down to become a partner in the Fulbright & Jaworski law firm, he has said he eventually may seek statewide office.
Many GOP precinct chairs want Eckels and the Commissioners Court to tap a Republican official already holding countywide office, such as District Clerk Charles Bacarisse or Tax Assessor-Collector Paul Bettencourt, Woodfill said.
But Ed Emmett, a transportation consultant and former state representative, appears to be the consensus choice of the Republican majority on the Commissioners Court.
The body consists of Eckels and the four county commissioners — fellow Republicans Steve Radack and Jerry Eversole and Democrats Sylvia Garcia and El Franco Lee.
Eckels, who may resign as early as the next meeting March 6, said he has not decided whom to support as his successor. "This will be about who the court is comfortable with and who will provide the best leadership for the community," he said.
But Radack said Emmett appears to have the votes. "Based on a conversation I had with Eckels, I have the impression he will recommend Emmett," Radack said.
An Emmett appointment would be a bad move on the part of Eckels and his colleagues, as I've said from the beginning. The people of Harris County deserve a COunty Judge who has stood before us and received our votes for office, not a political crony who hasn't held elective office in two decades. I'd be happy with either Paul Bettencourt or Charles Bacarisse, or even Beverly Kaufman -- all tested leaders who have been shown support by the people of Harris County.
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A suicide bomber blew himself up this morning outside the main gate of the United States military base at Bagram, just north of Kabul, where Vice President Dick Cheney had stayed the night. The attack killed and wounded American soldiers and Afghan and Pakistani truck drivers and laborers waiting for access at the gate. The explosion happened at the first security gate of the base, far away from where Mr. Cheney was staying, and he was not injured.There are conflicting reports on the number of casualties. An Afghan guard said he counted up to 15 dead at the scene, including three American soldiers, and 12 others wounded. But a report from the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan said that four people were killed in the blast, including the suicide bomber, and NATO says only three were killed, including an American soldier and a coalition soldier.
The Associated Press reported that the Taliban claimed responsibility and said Mr. Cheney was the target of the attack.
The bomber was carrying the explosives on his body and was blown apart, the Afghan guard said.
I, for one, am glad that the Vice President is safe and sound, even as I mourn the deaths of innocents murdered by this Taliban killer.
Let this serve as a stark reminder of the nature of those we fight in Afghanistan, Iraq, and around the world. And be aware that many of those opposed to the war are going to reveal their true colors in their response to this attempt on the life of the Vice President.
MORE AT Captains Quarters
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That distinct farm animal smell, the click-click of spurs and signs advertising every food imaginable "on a stick" have returned to Reliant Park.That's right — it's rodeo time.
The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo kicks off today, bringing thousands of youth livestock raisers to Reliant Park.
This year's 75th anniversary edition also features a new rodeo scoring system with more prize money, a different entertainer every night of the 20-day event, and a carnival with hair-raising rides and heaps of fried food.
It's a diamond anniversary organizers promise you won't want to miss.
"This is going to be a fun year," said Leroy Shafer, the show's chief operating officer.
Seriously, the rodeo is one of the best entertainment values I've ever encountered -- tickets for tonight's competition and the post-rodeo concert by George Strait could be had for a face value of under $20.00. Try getting into any concert by a top-name star for that price anywhere else. And its good to know that the money made at the rodeo goes for scholarships for Texas students.
Cowboy up!
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Republican Lt. Gov. Steve Pence threw his support to former U.S. Rep. Anne Northup, who entered the race saying the incumbent's legal turmoil has rendered him politically vulnerable to Democrats."She is the better candidate for the Republican party," Pence said. "She has a real chance of winning."
Pence had already refused to run for re-election with Fletcher and publicly questioned whether the first Republican governor elected in Kentucky in more than 30 years could win in the wake of a grand jury investigation into his administration's hiring practices.
A third Republican, businessman Billy Harper, is also vying for the GOP nod. Seven Democrats are running and have sharply criticized Fletcher.
The governor was indicted last year on charges that he illegally rewarded political supporters with protected state jobs. The indictment was dismissed in a deal with prosecutors, but the special grand jury later said Fletcher had approved a "widespread and coordinated plan" to skirt state hiring laws.
Hurrah for Pence -- the situation in Kentucky stank to high heaven, and choosing to set aside personal loyalties in favor of the good of the state and the party is admirable. Well done!
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Debate over a new vaccine to prevent cervical cancer and genital warts has reached a high pitch. State legislatures are debating whether to mandate the vaccine or insist that its use be kept voluntary. The manufacturer stopped a vigorous lobbying campaign lest it provoke more opposition than support. And some health professionals who had been championing the vaccine flinched at making it mandatory, at least for now.Even so, state legislatures should require that all young girls be given this vaccine, which protects against a virus that causes some 10,000 new cases of cervical cancer in the United States each year — and 3,700 cancer deaths.
The NY Times then goes on to dismiss every single argument against he vaccine in the most condescending of terms -- typical of the paper's editorial board, which believes it knows better than the commoners on every subject -- and urges a full-steam-ahead approach to mandatory vaccination with Gardasil, despite teh questions that remain about the drug and the financial pressure it will put on the states that mandate it.
But then again, since when has the New York Times ever cared about the implications of the policies it supports? And since it will save the lives of over 1,000,000 children annually, will the paper come out in favor of a ban on abortion?
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A disciplinary hearing is set for tomorrow for the Nashville taxi driver who is accused of trying to run over two students after a heated discussion over religion last week.The hearing for driver Ibrahim Sheikh Ahmed, 37, is on the agenda of the 1:30 p.m. meeting Tuesday of the Metro Transportation Licensing Commission.
Ahmed was arrested Feb. 18 on charges of criminal homicide after police said he hit Ohio student Jeremie Invus with his United Cab Co. van. Ahmed is in the Metro Jail awaiting trial.
Another student, Andrew Nelson of Dayton, Ohio, dodged the van as it sped toward them.
According to a police report, the three men had a conversation about religion while in the taxi that "became heated." Shortly after the men paid Ahmed, he chased them in his van across the parking lot and over a curb, police said.
Of course, the Tennessean and the local cops let loose with a big lie later in the article.
Metro police spokeswoman Kris Mumford said one of the students is Catholic and the other is Lutheran. Mumford said that Ahmed's religion was not known.
You see, Ahmed's religion IS known, and has been reported elsewhere. And yes, you are correct if you jump to the conclusion that he is a member of the Religion of Peace.
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February 25, 2007
Paid Endorsement.
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Senate Democrats are considering placing curbs on soft-money 527 groups amid evidence that they are beginning to lose the political advantage these largely unregulated funds have given them over Republicans.This is a move Democrats had strenuously opposed during the last Congress, when they were believed to benefit from the lionÂ’s share of 527 money, but now there is evidence that more of the money from these groups, named for a clause in the tax code, is flowing to the GOP.
Of course, that isn't the only attempt by the Dems to throttle political speech. they want to introduce public financing of congressional campaigns, too, and do more "campaign finance reform", which we know means speech limitation for the common man.
Why don't we simply go back to the system that worked so well for most of the first two centuries of the Republic -- Congress and the states staying out of the business of regulating political speech.
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What do I like about the Sony Ericsson W880i? Well, for starters, it is a great looking phone, available in great colors. I'd probably get the black version for myself, but my darling wife would probably want the Sony Ericsson W880i in red, though she might surprise me and select the sharp looking white version of the phone.
But it isn't just looks. The Sony Ericsson W880i also doubles as an Walkman MP3 player, meaning you can take your music with you wherever you want and not have to carry a second device. That is just plain efficient, folks, and something of an advantage in my book. And with a 1 GB memory card, there is plenty of room for music, don't you think? And since the phone is Bluetooth capable, you can listen to the music using your Bluetooth earpiece. Great idea. It is even able to handle video streaming as well as the streaming audio!
Of course, it has other bells and whistles as well. This phone has a camera, can handle video calls, is internet ready, and let's you check your email on the go. I love it!
So if you want to get cheaper UK Sony Ericsson W880i deals, visit Get Cheaper UK. You won't be sorry.
Paid Endorsement.
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| Votes | Council link |
|---|---|
| 1 2/3 | A Rock, a Hard Place, and the Deep Blue Sea Right Wing Nut House |
| 1 1/3 | I'm Tired of ‘Supporting the Troops’ Joshuapundit |
| 1 1/3 | The Impossibility of Victory The Glittering Eye |
| 1 | Best (And Worst) TV Show "Replacements" The Colossus of Rhodey |
| 1 | Fallen Angels Eternity Road |
| 1 | Global Warming -- What Can We Do? (Part I) The Sundries Shack |
| 2/3 | No, They Are Not America Rhymes With Right |
| 1/3 | Getting the Grown-Ups To Grow-Up The Education Wonks |
| 1/3 | The Temple Dodge Soccer Dad |
| 1/3 | Bomb Shells Done With Mirrors |
| Votes | Non-council link |
|---|---|
| 2 | Islamist Historiography Cross-Currents |
| 1 2/3 | No Blogger Is an Island Wizbang |
| 1 1/3 | Convergence Harry's Place |
| 1 | Five Years Went By Fast Captain's Quarters |
| 1 | Why Global Warming Is a Crock Alpha Patriot |
| 1 | On Assumptions Andrew Olmsted |
| 2/3 | Townhall Columnist: Our Troops In Iraq Desperately Need More Protection -- From Porn Ace of Spades HQ |
| 1/3 | When Congress Turns Its Back On the Troops Webloggin |
| 1/3 | My Favourite Militia The Possum Bistro |
| 1/3 | Is the Teacher Teaching? Right on the Left Coast: Views From a Conservative Teacher |
| 1/3 | Abortion on Demand: Reverberations and Vicissitudes ShrinkWrapped |
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And it isn't just business names and phone numbers we are talking about here -- this database also has contact names, employee counts, and other information that will be relevant to your marketing program. If you are doing business in Canada, my question for you is how you can operate without this Canada Company Marketing Data?
Paid Endorsement.
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Meeting on the grounds of the former Confederate Capitol, the Virginia General Assembly voted unanimously Saturday to express "profound regret" for the state's role in slavery.Sponsors of the resolution say they know of no other state that has apologized for slavery, although Missouri lawmakers are considering such a measure. The resolution does not carry the weight of law but sends an important symbolic message, supporters said.
"This session will be remembered for a lot of things, but 20 years hence I suspect one of those things will be the fact that we came together and passed this resolution," said Delegate A. Donald McEachin, a Democrat who sponsored it in the House of Delegates.
The resolution passed the House 96-0 and cleared the 40-member Senate on a unanimous voice vote. It does not require Gov. Timothy M. Kaine's approval.
The measure also expressed regret for "the exploitation of Native Americans."
The resolution was introduced as Virginia begins its celebration of the 400th anniversary of Jamestown, where the first Africans arrived in 1619. Richmond, home to a popular boulevard lined with statues of Confederate heroes, later became another point of arrival for Africans and a slave-trade hub.
The resolution says government-sanctioned slavery "ranks as the most horrendous of all depredations of human rights and violations of our founding ideals in our nation's history, and the abolition of slavery was followed by systematic discrimination, enforced segregation, and other insidious institutions and practices toward Americans of African descent that were rooted in racism, racial bias, and racial misunderstanding."
In Virginia, black voter turnout was suppressed with a poll tax and literacy tests before those practices were struck down by federal courts, and state leaders responded to federally ordered school desegregation with a "Massive Resistance" movement in the 1950s and early '60s. Some communities created exclusive whites-only schools.
Personally, I would have abstained from any vote.
I owned no slaves.
My ancestors owned no slaves.
My political party actively opposed slavery and segregation.
On the other hand, I would have encouraged every Democrat to vote for the resolution -- but only if they had the integrity to include a condemnation of the DemocratICK Party and its paramilitary terrorist wing, the KKK, in the resolution. After all, their membership in that party indelibly tars them with its sins.
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There's more than meets the eye in that ongoing skirmish between Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama.Clinton's advisers are using the fuss to send a warning shot. They want the Obama campaign to know that everything it does will be closely scrutinized from now on and that Obama won't be getting any free shots against Clinton.
The donnybrook started when Hollywood mogul David Geffen said Hillary Clinton is too polarizing, that she should apologize for her 2002 vote in favor of the Iraq war, that her husband, Bill, has a reckless personality, and that the Clintons have a facility for lying. This prompted Clinton communications director Howard Wolfson to fire off a zinger to the media.
"By refusing to disavow the personal attacks from his biggest fundraiser against Senator Clinton and President Clinton, Senator Obama has called into serious question whether he really believes his own rhetoric," Wolfson said. "How can Senator Obama denounce the politics of slash and burn yesterday while his own campaign is espousing the politics of trash today?"
Well, given that the Clintons have exemplified the politics of white-trash for years, I suppose they would recognize the politics of trash. For that matter, the biggest problem with Geffen's comments from the standpoint of the Clinton campaign is that everything he said was true of the former First Couple. After all, Bill Clinton is a well-documented liar and lecher, and Senator Clinton's lack of candor in the many investigations of her husband's corrupt administration are well-known.
Which might explain why the Clinton campaign is working so hard to prevent any discussion of Bill Clinton's impeachment for perjury -- or any of his other shortcomings as president.
With a swift response to attacks from a former supporter last week, advisers to the New York Democrat offered a glimpse of their strategy for handling one of the most awkward chapters of her biography. They declared her husband's impeachment in 1998 -- or, more accurately, the embarrassing personal behavior that led to it -- taboo, putting her rivals on notice and all but daring other Democrats to mention the ordeal again."In the end, voters will decide what's off-limits, but I can't imagine that the public will reward the politics of personal destruction," senior Clinton adviser Howard Wolfson said Friday, when asked whether the impeachment is fair game for Clinton's opponents. Earlier in the week, Wolfson dismissed references to President Bill Clinton's conduct as "under the belt."
I just don't see how one uses Bill Clinton as one's biggest asset but avoids the liabilities that come with him. But Hillary Clinton wants to try.
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February 24, 2007
Well, I'd like to Recommend Mp3/Mp4 Player sales site to you. Over at uxcell.com they have an incredible selection of MP3/MP4 devices just waiting for you, and at great discount prices.
So get over to the MP3/MP4 store at uxcell.com and buy one -- you won't be sorry!
Oh, and for the record, here's my personal favorite.
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While Mitt Romney condemns polygamy and its prior practice by his Mormon church, the Republican presidential candidate's great-grandfather had five wives and at least one of his great-great grandfathers had 12.Polygamy was not just a historical footnote, but a prominent element in the family tree of the former Massachusetts governor now seeking to become the first Mormon president.
Romney's great-grandfather, Miles Park Romney, married his fifth wife in 1897. That was more than six years after Mormon leaders banned polygamy and more than three decades after a federal law barred the practice.
The article goes into intriguing historical detail about various nineteenth century ancestors and their polygamous marriages, all of which is interesting to me as a historian and a student of theology, but as an American preparing to vote in 2007 it is utterly useless and pointless.
I think there are two main reasons for this. The first, of course, is simply raw, anti-Mormon bigotry on the part of some in the media. But it goes beyond that, given that we don't see any articles about the family history of Mormons Harry Reid or Orrin Hatch. The problem is that Romney is an attractive candidate who could possibly become the next President of the United States (or at least the GOP nominee for that office), and that scares some folks in the media, as Dean Barnett points out.
TO START WITH THE OBVIOUS, MITT ROMNEY IS THE most conservative candidate in the field who has, at present, a chance of winning. The press doesnÂ’t like conservatives, or at the very least, is more hostile to conservatives than it is to liberals. The press sees everything regarding a conservative in the worst possible light; liberals are more likely to get the benefit of the doubt.A second reason is that Mitt Romney doesnÂ’t look like a politician should, or at least the way the media thinks a Republican politician should. Given that Romney is constantly praised for his patrician demeanor, his impeccable manner and his smooth-as-silk politicking, I know this point is counter-intuitive, but bear with me.
The press has come to expect Republicans to fit certain molds. They are supposed to be inarticulate and not quick on their feet. The press has stereotyped every Republican presidential nominee since Ford in this way. They are also supposed to be intellectually unimaginative or downright unintelligent. Again, every Republican presidential nominee since Ford has had to live with this label. They are further required to be creatures of politics who have accomplished nothing or next to nothing outside of the political world. Lastly, all Republicans ought to have a bit of Elmer Gantry in them. They should preach about morality and piety, but they should always be obliging enough to have at least a few skeletons jangling in their closet.
Mitt Romney fails to live up to any of these stereotypes. Glib and articulate, itÂ’s hard to imagine Romney ever fearing a press conference or a debate. Intellectually, Romney graduated HarvardÂ’s Business and Law Schools with top honors. Furthermore, it seems like heÂ’s completely unfamiliar with the media dictates that Republicans should wrestle with English like itÂ’s a hostile foreign language and make themselves available for lampooning as dullards.
Even more gratingly, Mitt Romney didnÂ’t become a full-time politician until 2002. Until then, he had been a phenomenally successful businessman who had made hundreds of millions of dollars in a fiercely competitive industry while earning a reputation for honesty and intellectual probity.
Lastly, and probably most frustratingly for the media, the Romney closet is depressingly barren. When Mitt Romney talks about family values, heÂ’s able to point to his own wife of 40 years and a brood of children and grandchildren that seems too good even for a Christmas card.
In short, Mitt Romney is more formidable than a Republican presidential candidate has any right being. He is a fat target in a way that a guy like Mike Huckabee never could be, even if Huckabee hadnÂ’t lost all that weight.
In short, he really doesn't have the vulnerabilities that many GOP candidates have had over the years, and so they are casting about for anything to stop this candidacy cold.
The media, of course, will draw "appropriate boundaries" in Election 2008. We will not get media rehashing of the problems in the Clinton marriage. Obama's father and step-father and the implications of his religious upbringing are off-limits, we are told. Biden's plagiarism and racist comments, and the tendency of John Edwards to excuse religious bigotry will also be swept under the rug. But the marital history of Romney's ancestors over a century ago, as well as his religious faith, will remain fair game, because they have nothing substantive to strike at him with.
H/T Captains Quarters, Blogs for Bush, Outside the Beltway, Conservative Times, Iowa Voice
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February 23, 2007
When his wealthy grandfather dies, trust fund baby Jason Stevens anticipates a big inheritance. Instead, his grandfather has devised a crash course on life with twelve tasks – or “gifts” – designed to challenge Jason in improbable ways, sending him on a journey of self-discovery and forcing him to determine what is most important in life: money or happiness.
Now the movie itself is based upon the book of the same title, which was published several years ago, and motivated many of its readers to engage in wonderful acts of charity towards their fellow human beings. It looks like the movie has the potential to do the same, given that at the 300 preview screenings that have been held so far there have been over $5,000,000 in charitable donations made. There is no reason to believe that there will not be more of the same once the movie opens on 800 screen nationwide on March 9, 2007. The film itself is quite powerful, if the clip they have posted online is any indication, so there is definitely reason to hope that this movement towards charitable giving, initially begun among readers of the book and continued in the previews, will continue among the viewers in the general population.
Speaking as a teacher, I hope many of my students see this film and are changed by it. Too many of them are influenced by the culture of conspicuous consumption and wealth at any cost found in popular culture. A movie like this has the potential to open their eyes and let them see that there is something more to life than the hedonistic pursuit of pleasure and property.
For more information on the film, visit the official site of the movie "The Ultimate Gift" and the grass-roots movement its starting to help charities and give to others.
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February 22, 2007
Joseph Loconte has this to say about the abolition movement and the message it should hold for those who express hostility to the involvement of people of faith in the political process.
A convert to evangelical Christianity, Wilberforce is greatly admired in religious circles today, if not always imitated. Early in his parliamentary career, he made a vow to avoid the corruptions of political influence — and kept it. He was known for his intellectual seriousness and personal charm. French author Madame de Stael confessed her surprise after dining with him: "I have always heard that he was the most religious, but I now find that he is the wittiest man in England."Wilberforce sought to change hearts and minds, not just laws. So he organized boycotts and petitions, staged demonstrations and commissioned artwork to mobilize public opinion on a national scale. Wilberforce suffered many setbacks — his abolition bills were repeatedly killed in committee or defeated in the House of Commons — but he kept on.
Most important, he was unafraid to invoke the Gospel to challenge the consciences of slavers and their supporters in Parliament. In his "Letter on the Abolition of the Slave Trade," published in January 1807, Wilberforce placed the brutish facts of human trafficking against the backdrop of Christian compassion and divine justice.
"We must believe," he warned, "that a continued course of wickedness, oppression and cruelty, obstinately maintained in spite of the fullest knowledge and the loudest warnings, must infallibly bring down upon us the heaviest judgments of the Almighty." A month later, on Feb. 23, the House of Commons voted 283 to 16 to abolish the slave trade.
In our post-Sept. 11 era, there's suspicion and antagonism toward religious belief, especially when it mixes with politics. Secularists such as Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris describe the beliefs of the faithful as a "delusion" and akin to "insanity." Wilberforce endured similar scorn. He was lampooned for his "damnable doctrine" and dismissed as a "treacherous fanatic."
Modern skeptics should remember that the great campaign against the international slave trade was not led by atheists. It was fought by people with deep Christian convictions about the dignity and freedom of every person made in the image of God.
In my lifetime, we have seen a civil rights movement that centered around the churches of America, black and white, for support, and a host of other efforts by people of Christian faith to be salt and light in the world. And yet all too often those efforts have clashed with the secular ideology of opinion elites, who have then attempted to delegitimize the efforts of those who, like Wilberforce, seek to denounce the moral evils of the day and bring about solutions to them.
We ignore and marginalize such voices at our peril.
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Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut told the Politico on Thursday that he has no immediate plans to switch parties but suggested that Democratic opposition to funding the war in Iraq might change his mind.Lieberman, a self-styled independent who caucuses with the Democrats, has been among the strongest supporters of the war and President BushÂ’s plan to send an additional 21,500 combat troops into Iraq to help quell the violence there.
"I have no desire to change parties," Lieberman said in a telephone interview. "If that ever happens, it is because I feel the majority of Democrats have gone in a direction that I don't feel comfortable with."
Asked whether that hasn't already happened with Iraq, Lieberman said: "We will see how that plays out in the coming months," specifically how the party approaches the issue of continued funding for the war.
Joe Lieberman is and has been a Democrat in the best tradition of his party for many years -- a patriot who believes in a strong defense and the goodness of America. Sadly, this strain has been sadly lacking among the elected officials of that party for many years now, dating back a couple of decades. While Lieberman would certainly be on the left in the GOP, his commitment to this country would make him a welcome addition to my party.
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