Monthly Archives: August 2003

It’s Fair And Balanced Friday!

Posted on August 15, 2003 by Charles Kuffner

Welcome to Fair And Balanced Friday, and what could be more fair and balanced than to start it off with Neal Pollack’s Fair And Balanced Blackout Story? So join in with Vice President Dick “Fair” Cheney, former radio “personality” Michael … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in General snarkiness | Comments Off on It’s Fair And Balanced Friday!

Read my lips: No new tax cuts!

Posted on August 14, 2003 by Charles Kuffner

I don’t actually have any comments about this story (although TAPPED does). I just wanted to be the first kid on my block to say that. Continue reading →

Posted in General snarkiness | Comments Off on Read my lips: No new tax cuts!

Pop goes Antarctica

Posted on August 14, 2003 by Charles Kuffner

Great. As if I don’t have enough to worry about: If Russian researchers in Antarctica succeed in drilling through the final 396 feet of nearly 2-1/2 miles of ice to reach an ancient, unexplored lake underneath, scientists at NASA warn … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Around the world | Comments Off on Pop goes Antarctica

No loonies, please

Posted on August 14, 2003 by Charles Kuffner

This is an amusing story about an important principle: The Harris County Commissioner’s Court is looking for a way to keep the wackos from wasting their time by adjourning their meetings before the floor is opened to the public. For … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Local politics | 7 Comments

More generosity from Farmers Insurance

Posted on August 14, 2003 by Charles Kuffner

This was in yesterday’s Chron, but I didn’t quite get to it at the time. Executive summary: A provision to limit a certain type of fee that insurance companies charge, which is factored into individual premiums, was stripped out of … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Scandalized! | Comments Off on More generosity from Farmers Insurance

What’s the catch?

Posted on August 14, 2003 by Charles Kuffner

So I get a phone call from Tiffany… T: A vendor wants to take a bunch of us to their luxury box at Minute Maid Park for an Astros game next week. Do you want to go? C: You’re asking … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Baseball | 3 Comments

My contribution to the Worst Americans list

Posted on August 14, 2003 by Charles Kuffner

Yeah, I know, John Hawkins put up the list on Tuesday. I overslept, OK? Here’s my list, with explanations: John Wilkes Booth, Charles Guiteau, Leon Czolgosz, Lee Harvey Oswald – Killing a President makes you a bad American. Anthony Comstock … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Society and cultcha | 14 Comments

Offshoring

Posted on August 13, 2003 by Charles Kuffner

I knew Ginger would have something to say about this article about L-1 visas and tech workers suffering the indignity of having to train the cheaper foreign workers who will eventually replace them, even if it was just a pointer … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Bidness | 2 Comments

Beckwith apologizes

Posted on August 13, 2003 by Charles Kuffner

David Beckwith, spokesman for Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, has apologized to Democratic Senators for a remark he made Monday. According to the Corpus Christi Caller-Times, Beckwith said 11 Democratic senators who fled to New Mexico to prevent Senate action on … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Killer D's | 5 Comments

Idol update

Posted on August 13, 2003 by Charles Kuffner

Well, hey, not only did our friend from Alaska make the first callback at the American Idol tryouts today, she and her dad made the front page of the Chron website, in the photo above. She’s also quoted in the … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in TV and movies | Comments Off on Idol update

Fine!

Posted on August 13, 2003 by Charles Kuffner

By now you’ve probably heard that the remaining members of the Senate, in the absence of a quorum and without any clear indication of how they might enforce it, voted to fine the boycotting Senators up to $5000 per day … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Killer D's | 11 Comments

Weird Al

Posted on August 13, 2003 by Charles Kuffner

Tiffany and I and a few friends, including Ted, saw Weird Al Yankovic in concert last night at the Verizon Theater. It was the second time we’d seen Weird Al at that theater, the last time while he was on … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Music | 10 Comments

Fair and Balanced Friday

Posted on August 13, 2003 by Charles Kuffner

Neal Pollack declares August 15 to be Fair and Balanced Friday in honor of Al Franken. (Don’t say I didn’t warn you, Fox News.) Continue reading →

Posted in General snarkiness | 1 Comment

David Beckwith

Posted on August 12, 2003 by Charles Kuffner

Is David Beckwith, spokesman for Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, a loose cannon? Given some of the things he’s said since the Democratic walkout, I wonder if his boss keeps much of a rein on him. He’s got all of the … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Killer D's | 15 Comments

More fair and balanced than you deserve

Posted on August 12, 2003 by Charles Kuffner

As you can see above, I’ve jumped on the Fair and Balanced bandwagon in support of Al Franken, who is being sued by Fox News Network because his latest book is called “Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in General snarkiness | 3 Comments

Ruling roundup

Posted on August 12, 2003 by Charles Kuffner

Democrats are rejoicing and Republicans regrouping after the State Supreme Court refused to issue a writ of mandamus that would have compelled the boycotting Senators to return to Austin. Chron coverage is here, Statesman is here, and Express-News is here. … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Killer D's | 7 Comments

He’s (about to be) baaaaack…

Posted on August 12, 2003 by Charles Kuffner

The Baseball Prospectus has an exclusive report which says that Pete Rose has reached an agreement with Major League Baseball that will allow him to come back in 2004 and includes no admission of wrongdoing by Rose. I am in … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Baseball | 6 Comments

Stoutdem poll

Posted on August 11, 2003 by Charles Kuffner

Bill Howell conducted a poll of Texas Democrats to see who they’d vote for in a Presidential primary right now. The results are here, and as he observed, it’s nothing surprising. Having a strong online presence is a good way … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in The making of the President | Comments Off on Stoutdem poll

Dems win one in court

Posted on August 11, 2003 by Charles Kuffner

The score is now Democrats 1, Republicans 0 as the Texas State Supreme Court refused to grant a writ of mandamus to compel the Dems to return. The GOP is now considering fining the Texas 11 for not showing up, … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Killer D's | 3 Comments

American Idol tryouts

Posted on August 11, 2003 by Charles Kuffner

They’re holding tryouts for American Idol at Minute Maid Park here in Houston. That picture is the line of hopefuls currently camped out at the stadium. Auditions are scheduled to begin on Wednesday, meaning these 5000 or so folks (so … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in TV and movies | 23 Comments

No smoking in San Antonio

Posted on August 11, 2003 by Charles Kuffner

So San Antonio has joined the list of cities with tougher bans on smoking in public places, though not without some confusion and a sense on both sides of the issue that no one is happy about it. Devastated after … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in The great state of Texas | 8 Comments

You may now kiss the cardboard replica of your spouse

Posted on August 11, 2003 by Charles Kuffner

Houstonian Ekaterina Dmitriev had her space wedding yesterday, tying the knot with Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko via proxy. There had been a few bumps in the road, with the Russians balking at first, but in the end it was all … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Elsewhere in Houston | Comments Off on You may now kiss the cardboard replica of your spouse

The task ahead

Posted on August 10, 2003 by Charles Kuffner

Kevin Phillips, on one of the keys to beating President Bush in 2004: The younger Bush’s vulnerability for pandering to the religious right is a lot different — bigger, but tougher to nail — than his father’s. In 1992, as … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in The making of the President | 1 Comment

More mold

Posted on August 10, 2003 by Charles Kuffner

It’s a Joe Nixon triple play in the Chron op-ed section today. An unsigned editorial wags a finger at the Houston Republican, while Clay Robison and John R. Cobarruvias, who appears to be an activist and the founder of Home … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Scandalized! | 1 Comment

Bush bashing

Posted on August 10, 2003 by Charles Kuffner

The folks at Public Citizen, whom I mentioned in an earlier post, lampooned President Bush in Crawford yesterday as part of their White House for Sale campaign. [A] group of advocates sought to put some heat on the president for … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Show Business for Ugly People | Comments Off on Bush bashing

Rally!

Posted on August 10, 2003 by Charles Kuffner

Somewhere between 2000 and 5000 people rallied in Austin against redistricting, depending on which account you read (“about 5000 Democratic activists”, “As many as 5000 people from across the state”, “between 2000 and 4000 rowdy protesters”, “about 4000 people”). It’s … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Killer D's | 3 Comments

Gary Gardner

Posted on August 10, 2003 by Charles Kuffner

There’s a nice article in the Star-Telegram about Gary Gardner, one of the leaders behind the movement to free those who were wrongly convicted in the infamous Tulia drug bust. He’s not who you’d expect. Check it out. Continue reading →

Posted in Crime and Punishment | 3 Comments

A little maintenance

Posted on August 9, 2003 by Charles Kuffner

I love Movable Type’s categories, but every once in awhile I come to the realization that they’re not doing the job for me. Categories are most useful for me when I want to search through my archives for a specific … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Administrivia | 6 Comments

Accused GOP leader has no plans to resign

Posted on August 9, 2003 by Charles Kuffner

Missed this on Thursday, but Rob caught it: Tommy Whaley, the State Republican Executive Committee member who was recently accused by state GOP Chair Susan Weddington of tape recording conference calls and leaking the tapes to the Chronicle, has no … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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Weekend update

Posted on August 9, 2003 by Charles Kuffner

A couple of followups to the flurry of lawsuits that were filed on Thursday. Democrats are wondering aloud if they can get a fair shake from the Texas Supreme Court. All nine justices are Republicans, and one, Priscilla Owen, has … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Killer D's | Comments Off on Weekend update

Another candidate

Posted on August 9, 2003 by Charles Kuffner

We’re not at California recall levels yet, but the November mayoral race now has seven declared candidates. Anthony Dutrow, part of a national Socialist Workers Party campaign to change the U.S. government under the party’s terms, will try to sell … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Election 2003 | 2 Comments

White House For Sale

Posted on August 8, 2003 by Charles Kuffner

Public Citizen has a new site called White House For Sale that will be tracking President Bush’s prodigious fundraising efforts. They’ve also got a permalinkless blog that appears to be their clearinghouse for tidbits about individual Bush Pioneers and Rangers. … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in The making of the President | 4 Comments

Lawsuitapalooza

Posted on August 8, 2003 by Charles Kuffner

Here’s the wall-to-wall coverage of the dueling lawsuits over redistricting, quorums, the powers of DPS, traditional rules, and whether or not Governor Perry’s harispray habit is accelerating the depletion of the ozone layer (okay, I made that last one up). … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Killer D's | 1 Comment

Does not compute

Posted on August 8, 2003 by Charles Kuffner

The designers of the new Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) test have admitted that they screwed up on one of the 10th grade math tests, though it appears from their explanation that they still don’t fully grasp the … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Technology, science, and math | 18 Comments