Monthly Archives: July 2004

Morrison to DeLay: Return Enron cash

Posted on July 8, 2004 by Charles Kuffner

Got this in the mail from the Richard Morrison campaign: With former Enron CEO Ken Lay surrendering to the FBI, Richard Morrison today called on U.S. Majority leader Tom DeLay to return all of the money he received from Enron. … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Enronarama | 3 Comments

Now we’ve hit on the heart of the matter

Posted on July 8, 2004 by Charles Kuffner

HellieMae has the best reason I’ve seen to be optimistic about the Kerry/Edwards ticket, and a darned nice analogy, too. You Mac users, I swear. Continue reading →

Posted in The making of the President | 2 Comments

“Not guilty!”

Posted on July 8, 2004 by Charles Kuffner

So sayeth Kenny Boy. Former Enron Chairman Ken Lay pleaded not guilty today to charges he committed fraud and lied to his employees and others. Afterward, he called a news conference and told reporters, “It has been a tragic day … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Enronarama | 2 Comments

Rural voters revisited

Posted on July 8, 2004 by Charles Kuffner

Bill Bishop catches the New York Times in a dumb mistake regarding rural voters. Last week, the New York Times had a front page story headlined “Bush and Kerry Vie for Support of Rural Voters.” Both campaigns pushed out into … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in The making of the President | 1 Comment

Willis Wilson

Posted on July 8, 2004 by Charles Kuffner

Ohio State has hired Xavier’s Tommy Matta to be their new men’s basketball head coach. Rice’s Willis Wilson had been interviewed twice for this position, and the Chron’s John Lopez thinks that his current employer dissed him in the process. … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Other sports | 2 Comments

Followup on the Family

Posted on July 8, 2004 by Charles Kuffner

Last week, Jonathan Ichikawa and Ted Barlow noted that Focus on the Family included Michael Moore’s home address in an email to their members which they exhorted their supporters to “let Moore know exactly what they think about his new … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Other punditry | 1 Comment

Nice idea from Sandlin

Posted on July 8, 2004 by Charles Kuffner

I like this idea: Every Tuesday, Rep. Max Sandlin’s campaign blog is profiling a different county in the new CD01. This week’s feature is Angelina County. This allows Rep. Sandlin to highlight his connections to all of the communities that … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Election 2004 | Comments Off on Nice idea from Sandlin

Kenny Boy surrenders

Posted on July 8, 2004 by Charles Kuffner

The last and biggest domino has fallen. Former Enron Chairman Ken Lay, the man who guided the energy giant to greatness and was at the helm when it crumbled, turned himself into the FBI this morning and was whisked away … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Enronarama | 2 Comments

Frankly not

Posted on July 8, 2004 by Charles Kuffner

Atrios reported this late last week, but it’s just now getting into the media. rep. Joe Barton is being criticized for using his Congressional privilege of sending free mail (called “franking”) to people who aren’t yet his constituents. Morris Meyer, … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Scandalized! | Comments Off on Frankly not

The papers give their reviews

Posted on July 7, 2004 by Charles Kuffner

Here’s a quick editorial roundup of Texas papers’ opinions on John Kerry’s choice of John Edwards: The Express News says it suggests practicality on Kerry’s part. The Statesman says that Edwards will appeal to swing voters and his ” toughness … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in The making of the President | 4 Comments

New Enron indictment

Posted on July 7, 2004 by Charles Kuffner

It may well be Kenny Boy, but the indictment is sealed so we don’t know for sure yet. The Enron grand jury delivered a sealed indictment in court today, and lawyers close to the case believe it contains charges against … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Enronarama | 1 Comment

A tale of two headlines

Posted on July 7, 2004 by Charles Kuffner

I suppose this serves as someone’s definition of “balance”. It sure serves as a good reason why the concept is often meaningless in journalism. Two AP headlines, as carried in the Chron.com Politics section: Financial stats prove Edwards is privileged … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in The making of the President | Comments Off on A tale of two headlines

DeLay lawyers up

Posted on July 7, 2004 by Charles Kuffner

Via Political Wire and an email tip from AJ Garcia, I see that Tom DeLay has hired himself some lawyers to handle both the ethics complaint against him in the House and the Travis County grand jury investigation into TRM/TAB. … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Scandalized! | Comments Off on DeLay lawyers up

The Blogging Line

Posted on July 7, 2004 by Charles Kuffner

In the course of examining the Edwards-as-VP selection, Greg goes off on what may be an entertaining tangent. With the ticket settled, I think its time to begin turning a little attention to debates. The bigs will have their say, … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in The making of the President | Comments Off on The Blogging Line

Comment spam alert

Posted on July 7, 2004 by Charles Kuffner

I just deleted 10 comment spams from a weight loss site. If you’re using MT Blacklist, save yourself some grief and add the following regexp to your ban list: weigh[\w\d\-_]*less[\w\d\-_]*rx[\w\d\-_]*\.[a -z]{2,} Take out everything between the brackets and put a … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Administrivia | 8 Comments

Good but not great news from Gallup

Posted on July 7, 2004 by Charles Kuffner

The numbers in this Gallup poll, which deliberately oversampled blacks and Hispanics to get a better picture of their leanings, has what I would call qualified good news for John Kerry. The numbers here are decent, but not as good … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in The making of the President | Comments Off on Good but not great news from Gallup

The 70s really were different

Posted on July 7, 2004 by Charles Kuffner

You can tell by the bumper stickers for various Presidential candidates. (May I just say – Fred Harris? Birch Bayh? Jerry Brown? And to think some people thought the Democratic candidates this year were a bunch of nobodies.) Click on … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in The making of the President | 2 Comments

That’d be a fun presentation

Posted on July 6, 2004 by Charles Kuffner

Too bad I can’t make it to this. All Your Texts Are Belong To Us – Hacking Literature With Perl In 1996, Don Foster correctly identified Joe Klein as the author of the bestselling political novel “Primary Colors,” bringing instant … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Technology, science, and math | 2 Comments

Happy Birthday, Mister President

Posted on July 6, 2004 by Charles Kuffner

Today is President Bush’s 58th birthday, and the DCCC has some birthday wishes for him. I may be haiku-disabled myself, but my readers aren’t. And you still have a few hours left to compose one for yourself to send to … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in General snarkiness | 1 Comment

Strama interview

Posted on July 6, 2004 by Charles Kuffner

More Texas Tuesdays goodness from Mark Strama, who gave us a nice interview. Here’s a taste, on the question “what have you learned from your experience working in State Sen. Rodney Ellis’ office?” Probably the most important lesson I learned … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Texas Tuesdays | Comments Off on Strama interview

Oh, yeah, the All-Star Game

Posted on July 6, 2004 by Charles Kuffner

And a short break for local news: Hey, guess what, the city of Houston is going to be rolling in money thanks to the All-Star Game! About 40,000 tickets have been sold for the All-Star Game, Gardner said. State Comptroller … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Baseball | 3 Comments

Edwardsmania!

Posted on July 6, 2004 by Charles Kuffner

Here are a couple of images for you: via Brian Linse via Jack O’Toole I see that the Bush-Cheney team have their McCain ad up. Here’s the Democrats’ response (via Atrios), plus a few words from John McCain on Senator … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in The making of the President | 1 Comment

It’s Edwards

Posted on July 6, 2004 by Charles Kuffner

The Associated Press and CNN say that John Kerry has picked John Edwards as his running mate. All things considered, I think this was his best choice. If nothing else, I’ll be eternally grateful to not have to listen to … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in The making of the President | 4 Comments

Texas Tuesdays: Mark Strama

Posted on July 6, 2004 by Charles Kuffner

Another Tuesday, another fine candidate to check out on Texas Tuesdays. Today’s feature is Mark Strama, running against first-term incumbent Jack Stick in Austin’s SD 50. This is a race that has been targeted by the state Democratic Party, and … Continue reading → Continue reading →

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QOTD

Posted on July 5, 2004 by Charles Kuffner

Via Steve Casburn: At River Oaks Elementary, there is a bench with this dedication: “Education is the key to opportunity” — in honor of Linda and Ken Lay’s grandchildren This is true. Without education, you’ll never get the opportunity to … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Enronarama | 1 Comment

Paying taxes: Not optional

Posted on July 5, 2004 by Charles Kuffner

This article about the IRS taking the fight to tax evaders contains one of the best bits of unintentional comedy you’ll see this year: Also last month, a federal court in Nevada held Irwin Schiff, a well-known promoter of what … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Skepticism | 3 Comments

Reaching out

Posted on July 5, 2004 by Charles Kuffner

Excellent piece by Ben Rahn of ActBlue on how Democratic candidates can and should reach out to the online community. I pretty much agree with all of it – I’ve advocated quite a bit of it myself – and the … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Show Business for Ugly People | Comments Off on Reaching out

A whole lotta veeping around

Posted on July 5, 2004 by Charles Kuffner

Whole lot of speculation in the blogs that Kerry is about to name Dick Gephardt as his VP choice. Archpundit started it, then Political Wire and Kos picked it up. There’s a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth in … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in The making of the President | 1 Comment

Haiku!

Posted on July 5, 2004 by Charles Kuffner

Today is your last chance to compose a haiku in honor of President Bush’s birthday tomorrow. My muse for this sort of thing has obviously taken the weekend off, as I’ve tried and failed to come up with a good … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in General snarkiness | 6 Comments

Robison on the impeachment stuff

Posted on July 5, 2004 by Charles Kuffner

Clay Robison notes that all of the Democrats’ complaints in their exploration of impeachment against Governor Perry were first aired by Republicans, and that by raising these charges the odds of another special session have dropped. If that’s so, then … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Scandalized! | Comments Off on Robison on the impeachment stuff

Charlie Wilson: The man, the movie

Posted on July 4, 2004 by Charles Kuffner

Nice article on former Rep. Charlie Wilson, the eccentric Texan whose career may be making it to the big screen in an adaptation of the book Charlie Wilson’s War. He was an interesting guy – I wish I could find … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Around the world | 4 Comments

The view from the other side

Posted on July 4, 2004 by Charles Kuffner

Karl-T brings us a very interesting perspective on the state of the Texas Democratic Party from Gary Polland, former chair of the Harris County GOP and current editor of the Texas Conservative Review. Here are a couple of key excerpts, … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Show Business for Ugly People | Comments Off on The view from the other side

Happy Fourth!

Posted on July 4, 2004 by Charles Kuffner

Happy Fourth of July! We’re celebrating at home this year. Tiffany got to celebrate by taking a little shopping trip – to Target and Central Market – by herself. I got to give Olivia a bath (first solo effort by … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in National news | Comments Off on Happy Fourth!

WiFi at Minute Maid

Posted on July 3, 2004 by Charles Kuffner

WiFi comes to Minute Maid Park. Of course this means realtime baseball blogging is hot on its heels. What a great country we live in. Continue reading →

Posted in Elsewhere in Houston | 2 Comments