Birds in the Freezer, or Another Ike Diary

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Saturday September 20, 2008 · 11:17 AM PDT

2008/09/20 · 11:17

A widow in my neighborhood--let's call her Marie--walks her miniature schnauzer twice a day. I made her acquaintance on the street when we were both walking our dogs. She is slightly bent by scoliosis, and the walking helps her. I understand it does not help everyone. It all depends, she says, on the condition's whim. She probably knows more about this neighborhood than anyone else because she talks to people she sees on the street while walking with her dog. She knows the soap opera versions of our private lives and manages to discuss these intimacies with some discretion and taste.

lamdat

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Friday September 19, 2008 · 4:03 PM PDT

2008/09/19 · 16:03

First of all, thanks to everyone who offered updates from their own neighborhoods. I will include some of those here in this update. Find the original diary here. Thanks to Arken and everyone else who kept up the live blog for so long. I don’t think many people, including myself, were prepared for depth and breadth of destruction Hurricane Ike has wreaked across Texas and Louisiana. The list of towns that have sustained catastrophic damage seems to grow longer each day: Galveston, the Bolivar Peninsula, Gilchrest, Bridge City. Beaumont and Orange were hard hit. We are in the midst of the largest power outage in U.S. history.The chronically ill, the elderly and the disabled are struggling to stay alive. The area of North Houston and Harris County, where I teach, is still without electricity or even water in many places. Manvel, to the South, is no better off. The outlying counties remain without power or water, and the only relief apparent is that provided by faith communities. Their need is acute.

lamdat

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Thursday September 18, 2008 · 10:53 AM PDT

2008/09/18 · 10:53

Six days after landfall, I am fortunate enough to have a very stable situation with all services restored, plenty of food and water and relatively easy access to a functional supermarket. I have registered with a number of volunteer agencies and trust I will hear back from one shortly. Here is Houston's situation as I understand it.

lamdat

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Sunday July 13, 2008 · 6:11 PM PDT

2008/07/13 · 18:11

This is what happens when you militarize the border as part of a phony "war on drugs."

Cross-posted at So What?

lamdat

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Saturday July 05, 2008 · 3:01 PM PDT

2008/07/05 · 15:01

Economist Dr. Ravi Batra, of Texas' Southern Methodist University, predicts a "stock market disaster" in about six months.

Update: as the comments below point out, this guy has cried wolf many times in the past. Thanks.

lamdat

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Saturday July 08, 2006 · 4:34 PM PDT

2006/07/08 · 16:34

Yesterday Deleware Dem gave us the parable of the frog Today I submit that the pot is boiling. Read More

MSM is Shocked--shocked! at the treason card

lamdat

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Friday July 07, 2006 · 7:51 AM PDT

2006/07/07 · 07:51

Last weekend journalists expressed their outrage over the WSJ editorial that suggested the NTY acted on treasonous motives in publishing the SWIFT story. NYT columist Paul Krugman gets it. Read More

On Walls and Fences

lamdat

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Sunday June 18, 2006 · 1:34 PM PDT

2006/06/18 · 13:34

I was encouraged by Ginger Thompson's use of the term "wall" on the front page of today's NY Times www.nytimes.com (registration required) as in "Washington's plans to deploy troops and build more walls along the United States border." Yet other articles in the same issue referred to these same edifices as "fences." Right-wing gasbag William Safire took this misleading nomenclature to a new level when he referred to Israel's partition wall as an "anti-terrorist fence" in last week's NYTimes Magazine. I grew up in the country, and I know what a fence is. It is something you put up to keep cows and horses in the pasture, pigs in the pen, and deer out of the vegetable patch. Now that I live in the city, I know what walls are for: they are to keep me out of rich people's palatial estates. In other words, fences are for animals; walls are for people. More below: Read More

David Brooks Gleeful over Fake Iran Diplomacy

lamdat

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Thursday June 01, 2006 · 5:27 PM PDT

2006/06/01 · 17:27

David E. Sanger wrote in todays NYT http://www.nytimes.com/... that Bush was forced by the real diplomats negotiating with Iran (Europeans and Japanese) to offer to engage directly with the Iranian government. So the president instructed Rice to offer to join talks with Iran if Iran first suspended its nuclear enrichment program. Some suspect that the offer was "intended to fail." David Brooks is certain that the offer was fake and celebrates this mendacity in his weekly Times column [no link because op-ed is offlimits to non-subscribers]. He thinks this move has put the Iranian government in a box and that their refusal to suspend enrichment will cause the security council to authorize sanctions. The Bush administration has no intention of negotiating with Iran. They have never had any intention of negotiating with Iran because they are still bent--despite the Debacle in Iracle, our overextended military, and our near-empty treasure--on enacting "regime change" in Iran. Read More

Mr. President, Who Are You Spying On?

lamdat

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Wednesday March 15, 2006 · 11:01 AM PST

2006/03/15 · 11:01

I invite critical feedback on this letter to the editor (242 words) in regard to the illegal NSA wiretaps. My intent is to help drive down support for the program shown in polls in an effort to shift the terms of debate from one that is favorable to the far right to one that is favorable to the opposition. After the polls reflect shifting public opinion, this can better be used by Democrats to gain control of Congress and beat back the Bush crime wave. To that end, I seek to craft a message that will help readers percieve the illegal wiretapping not as a critical tool for the Warren Terra, but as a threat to their liberty. Text below the fold (disclosure: I sent a version of this letter to the Houston Chronicle March 9 but have not received a confirmation call, and--darn it--I couldn't get that cool blue box up): Read More

Cleaning House in TX-22

lamdat

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Tuesday March 14, 2006 · 8:50 PM PST

2006/03/14 · 20:50

This is my first diary, and I do not claim it is anything earth shattering. However, this is a top-tier race, and it is my intention to keep fellow Kossacks regularly updated on the progress of the campaign on the ground from a gumshoe perspective.

I have just returned from a volunteer kickoff meeting for Nick Lampson (the anti-Delay) in TX-22 and offer the following report on the flip:
Read More

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Birds in the Freezer, or Another Ike Diary

From Houston with Love, II

From Houston, with Love

Phony War, Real Casualties

In Six Months the Market Will Crash [updated]

The Pot is Boiling

MSM is Shocked--shocked! at the treason card

On Walls and Fences

David Brooks Gleeful over Fake Iran Diplomacy

Mr. President, Who Are You Spying On?

Cleaning House in TX-22