Monthly Archives: May 2004

How I use MT

Posted on May 18, 2004 by Charles Kuffner

SixApart is requesting feedback from MT users about how they use the product. In particular, they’re looking for data from people like Ginger who run multiple and multi-author non-commercial blogs. If that describes you, speak up! My situation is easy … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Blog stuff | 6 Comments

Texas Tuesdays: Nick Lampson

Posted on May 18, 2004 by Charles Kuffner

Greg is your tour guide for Texas Tuesdays today, and as we celebrate the launch of the new site, be sure to check out today’s featured pol, Rep. Nick Lampson. Nick Lampson is the first politician I ever gave money … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Texas Tuesdays | Comments Off on Texas Tuesdays: Nick Lampson

The Texas Quarter is coming

Posted on May 18, 2004 by Charles Kuffner

Get ready to see Texas quarters in your change soon. The U.S. Mint’s commemorative Texas state quarter will be distributed and officially unveiled next month. U.S. Mint spokesman Michael White said production began May 3. The Federal Reserve will distribute … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in The great state of Texas | 7 Comments

Before anyone asks…

Posted on May 18, 2004 by Charles Kuffner

Your attention, please. We do have names picked out for the baby (one of each, since there’s always that chance that the sonograms may have misrepresented certain crucial data). Though we are not currently releasing the names that are under … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in See, I do have a life! | 8 Comments

Another Bacardi complaint

Posted on May 18, 2004 by Charles Kuffner

Another day, another complaint about campaign law violations involving Tom DeLay and Bacardi. Anyone know what that makes the total so far? I’ve lost count. Thanks to AJ Garcia for the tip. UPDATE: URL fixed. Thanks to Charles M in … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Scandalized! | 1 Comment

Punt!

Posted on May 17, 2004 by Charles Kuffner

Somebody cue up Don Meredith singing When The Party’s Over: AUSTIN — The Texas Legislature signaled the full-scale failure of the special session on school finance today by taking final adjournment with two days remaining in the 30-day session. The … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Budget ballyhoo | Comments Off on Punt!

New sites of interest

Posted on May 17, 2004 by Charles Kuffner

Hopefully by tomorrow, the world’s DNS servers will have told your ISP about the new site for Texas Tuesdays, which is http://www.texastuesdays.com and which is where we’ll be doing our publicity for the various Democratic campaigns through November. For now, … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Blog stuff | Comments Off on New sites of interest

Three ducks lined up

Posted on May 17, 2004 by Charles Kuffner

Well, as Andrew D notes, State Rep. David Swinford is running for Ag Commissioner in hopes of replacing Susan Combs, who has announced that she’s running for Comptroller. The current Comptroller, Carole Keeton Strayhorn, has all but drooled over the … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Show Business for Ugly People | Comments Off on Three ducks lined up

Hard Sell Monday – The Colin Powell Connection

Posted on May 17, 2004 by Charles Kuffner

So, did you hear about the staffer for Colin Powell who tried to yank him off the air on Meet the Press yesterday because Tim Russert was asking him hard questions? Turns out she used to work for Tom DeLay, … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Election 2004 | Comments Off on Hard Sell Monday – The Colin Powell Connection

Goin’ to the chapel

Posted on May 17, 2004 by Charles Kuffner

Allow me to join Atrios, John Scalzi and no doubt many others in congratulating those who’ve queued up like American Idol wannabees in front of city hall in Cambridge in order to get married. Mazel tov, y’all! Here are a … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in National news | 7 Comments

Let’s hear it for large concrete statues!

Posted on May 17, 2004 by Charles Kuffner

Nice article in the Sunday Chron on David Adickes, the sculptor who created all those giant Presidential heads as well as the humongo Sam Houston statue in Huntsville. The good news, if you’re not a hoity-toity art critic, is that … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in The great state of Texas | 5 Comments

Road trip!

Posted on May 17, 2004 by Charles Kuffner

Got a little free time over the Memorial Day weekend? Consider taking a road trip to South Dakota to help get out the vote for Stephanie Herseth in the June 1 special election there. ‘Fraid I can’t make it – … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Election 2004 | 1 Comment

All about oil

Posted on May 17, 2004 by Charles Kuffner

Snarkout has a typically entertaining and link-filled look at the history of oil production. Check it out. Continue reading →

Posted in National news | Comments Off on All about oil

Clear the Air

Posted on May 16, 2004 by Charles Kuffner

Missed this Southpaw post on Thursday, which discusses the real reason to hold the line on clean air standards: dirty air has a negative effect on public health, and that negative effect costs us all money. Funny how advocates of … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in The great state of Texas | Comments Off on Clear the Air

The press and the President

Posted on May 16, 2004 by Charles Kuffner

I found this CJR article about the Texas press’ relationship with President Bush awhile back, via Amblongus and Easter Lemming. It’s the end of the piece that interests me the most, where some of the editorial board members are asked … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in The making of the President | 2 Comments

Look back at Ardmore

Posted on May 16, 2004 by Charles Kuffner

Via Kevin comes this WaPo story about the Texas Congressional situation one year after the Ardmore exodus. It’s more pessimistic than I am about the Democratic incumbents’s chances, and as Kevin says it doesn’t really break any new ground, but … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Killer D's | Comments Off on Look back at Ardmore

Prop 1 passes

Posted on May 16, 2004 by Charles Kuffner

Not surprisingly, City Prop 1 passed by a wide margin, though wider than I’d have thought. Mayor Bill White has been handed the keys to fix this problem along with the trust of the voters to do so. He’s also … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Election 2004 | Comments Off on Prop 1 passes

Another view on the MT upgrade

Posted on May 15, 2004 by Charles Kuffner

You know, if SixApart had had Jay Allen make the announcement about the MT 3.0 developer edition and various changes to the licensing agreements in the first place, I daresay they wouldn’t have had all these problems. There’s now an … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Blog stuff | 3 Comments

RIP, special session

Posted on May 15, 2004 by Charles Kuffner

What more can you say? Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst surrounded himself with a bipartisan group of senators on the Capitol’s south steps Friday as he announced the special session on property tax relief and public school finance has apparently failed. … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Budget ballyhoo | Comments Off on RIP, special session

Cops for Kerry

Posted on May 15, 2004 by Charles Kuffner

I’m glad to see this. Presumptive Democratic nominee John Kerry today collected the endorsement of the International Brotherhood of Police Officers, a police union that backed President Bush in the 2000 election. “After three and a half years of disappointing … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in The making of the President | Comments Off on Cops for Kerry

Votacion Hoy

Posted on May 15, 2004 by Charles Kuffner

Today we vote on City Proposition 1, which is leading by a 14-point margin in a recent poll. I have decided after a lot of back and forth on the issue to vote against it, but I have no criticism … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Election 2004 | 1 Comment

Morris Meyer interview update

Posted on May 14, 2004 by Charles Kuffner

At the time I published the Morris Meyer interview as part of this week’s Texas Tuesdays, I didn’t have URLs for the various newspaper stories that he cited – the HTML got munched somewhere between his mail program and mine. … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Texas Tuesdays | Comments Off on Morris Meyer interview update

Aaron Russo for President!

Posted on May 14, 2004 by Charles Kuffner

Jerome Armstrong points out that the Libertarian Party will have a dynamic and potentially very attractive candidate for President this year in Aaron Russo. Their anti-war, anti-PATRIOT Act, anti-big government message ought to be compelling and may allow some disgruntled … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in The making of the President | 1 Comment

More on the MovableType fiasco

Posted on May 14, 2004 by Charles Kuffner

Ginger explains clearly and thoroughly why those who are now defending Movable Type’s ill-received announcement about its new licensing scheme are wrong to simply say “why don’t you people want to pay for your software?” Read it all and you’ll … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Blog stuff | 3 Comments

Big deal, we changed our minds

Posted on May 14, 2004 by Charles Kuffner

Who said this? “Gerrymandered congressional districts are an affront to democracy and an insult to the voters. We oppose that and any other attempt to rig the electoral process.” I’ll give you a hint: They’ve apparently changed their minds about … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Show Business for Ugly People | 1 Comment

Morrison press release

Posted on May 14, 2004 by Charles Kuffner

They’re pretty happy about how things are going right now over at the Richard Morrison campaign. I’ve reproduced a press release that I received this morning, which you can find under the More link, that gives some of the details. … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Election 2004 | 2 Comments

Quorum ruling

Posted on May 14, 2004 by Charles Kuffner

One year ago Wednesday, fifty Democratic state legislators caused a political earthquake by breaking quorum in an attempt to derail a redistricting bill that had suddenly been fast-tracked. One day after the anniversary of that event, an appellate court has … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Killer D's | Comments Off on Quorum ruling

Special session ennui

Posted on May 13, 2004 by Charles Kuffner

No real news coming out of the Senate. Even these two articles in the AusChron have no new insights, though they do predict no action by the 19th – in fact, if the Quorum Report is to be believed, they … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Budget ballyhoo | Comments Off on Special session ennui

Movable mistake?

Posted on May 13, 2004 by Charles Kuffner

Wow. Michael isn’t kidding when he says that the trackback pings on SixLog’s announcement about the licensing scheme for MovableType 3.0 are hugely negative – I think Gigli got better reviews. Now, I’m a sole author of a single blog, … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Blog stuff | 6 Comments

Win now, lose later?

Posted on May 13, 2004 by Charles Kuffner

Buried in this article on cracks in GOP discipline regarding Iraq is this bit of strategizing: But talk to some House staffers who are privy to the thoughts and concerns of their congressmen and sometimes surprising expressions of anger and … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in The making of the President | 8 Comments

Let’s go over the ground rules

Posted on May 13, 2004 by Charles Kuffner

Via Jack, I too enjoyed this article by Rob Neyer on the quirky ground rules at some of Major League Baseball’s stadia. One thing I’d point out is that the well-known “ground rule double” has some history to it that … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Baseball | 2 Comments

Here we go again

Posted on May 13, 2004 by Charles Kuffner

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. Major League Baseball’s summer All-Star Game and related events in Houston will give Texas an $85.6 million boost, Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn predicted Wednesday. “The 2004 All-Star Week events in Houston will … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Elsewhere in Houston | Comments Off on Here we go again

Texas bloggers update

Posted on May 12, 2004 by Charles Kuffner

I’ve updated the Texas Political Bloggers page – cleaned out some 404 links and blogs that hadn’t been updated this year, added a few new blogs, fixed some URLs. Check it out, and please let me know if there’s a … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Blog stuff | 2 Comments

Partial settlement for Enron employees

Posted on May 12, 2004 by Charles Kuffner

Some action from one of the many class action lawsuits filed in the wake of the Enron collapse. This one seeks to benefit the retirement fund of current and former Enron employees. The settlement is at the level of the … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Enronarama | Comments Off on Partial settlement for Enron employees