Monthly Archives: April 2005

Video? What video?

Posted on April 30, 2005 by Charles Kuffner

Defense attorneys in the Enron Broadband trial are claiming that a video which shows one former EBS executiva making false claims about the company’s capabilities, was never shown to stock analysts, contrary to prosecution claims. Defense attorney Tony Canales on … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Enronarama | Comments Off on Video? What video?

Radio from the road

Posted on April 30, 2005 by Charles Kuffner

Yes, I managed to survive Olivia’s swim lesson today and make it to my cellphone on time to do the weekly gig on BizRadio 1320 today. And before anyone asks, no, I wasn’t talking while driving – Tiffany drove us … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Blog stuff | 1 Comment

I admit it – somtimes I’m a complete Luddite

Posted on April 30, 2005 by Charles Kuffner

Dwight asks a good question: Why do cellular-phone ringtones — which last about 15 seconds at most — cost $2.50, while the full songs from which they are derived are only 99 cents? Confession time: Not only does my cellphone … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Technology, science, and math | 7 Comments

Regular radio reminder

Posted on April 29, 2005 by Charles Kuffner

Tomorrow is my now-apparently-regular gig on BizRadio 1320 at 10:30 along with Kevin. This one will be from the road, as Tiffany and I are taking Olivia to her first swimming lesson at 9:30 out in West Houston (long story … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Blog stuff | 1 Comment

The 300 Club revisited

Posted on April 29, 2005 by Charles Kuffner

Roger Clemens faces off against Greg Maddux tonight in a rare battle of 300-game winners. Not counting four matchups between Pud Galvin and Tim Keefe in the 1890s, such an event has happened only four times before, all involving Don … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Baseball | 5 Comments

Is the Talton Amendment dead or not?

Posted on April 29, 2005 by Charles Kuffner

Well, if push comes to shove, Governor Perry would prefer privatizing CPS to stigmatizing gay foster parents. I guess that’s progress. Perry said he didn’t think the House amendment against gay foster parents, which faces strong opposition from senators, will … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in That's our Lege | 2 Comments

RIP, HB1348

Posted on April 29, 2005 by Charles Kuffner

HB1348, the Smith-Eiland campaign finance reform bill, appears to be dead after an attempt yesterday to circumvent the usual committee process and bring it directly to the floor for a vote. That attempt failed on a 95-36 vote and some … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in That's our Lege | Comments Off on RIP, HB1348

The Alamodome

Posted on April 28, 2005 by Charles Kuffner

Cicero and The Jeffersonian talk about the Alamodome, quite likely the least utilized stadium in all of Texas. I believe they are both correct in saying that San Antonio will never get an NFL team, but I don’t believe it … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Other sports | 10 Comments

Invoking the ghost of Clutch City

Posted on April 28, 2005 by Charles Kuffner

After taking the first two games on the road against Dallas in their playoff series, Coach Jeff Van Gundy reminded the Rockets that the franchise has been here before from the other side. The locker room was rocking. The Rockets … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Other sports | 3 Comments

TWC vs SBC

Posted on April 28, 2005 by Charles Kuffner

Anyone else noticed the ads on Time Warner Cable lately that are agitating against letting “mega-telcos” get their way in the Legislature, which (we’re told) would lead to only rich people getting cable TV? I’d assumed these spots had to … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in That's our Lege | 5 Comments

That’s one way to reduce labor costs

Posted on April 28, 2005 by Charles Kuffner

Kimberly Reeves has a nice article in this week’s Press about the upcoming privatization of many Texas Health and Human Services Commission functions. Did you know that a fundamental aspect of the privatization plan is to outsource a bunch of … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Budget ballyhoo | 2 Comments

Must see Greg TV

Posted on April 28, 2005 by Charles Kuffner

Greg Wythe gets to burn a few minutes off of his fame clock tonight as he appears on “Texas Politics-The Real Deal”, a talk show hosted by liberal Democrat attorney David Jones and former Harris County GOP chair Gary Polland. … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Other punditry | 4 Comments

HJR6 predicted to sail through Senate

Posted on April 27, 2005 by Charles Kuffner

You know how I had a smidgeon of hope that HJR6 would fail to make it through the Senate? Looks like that hope was sadly misguided. Senate leaders Tuesday predicted support for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages in Texas … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in That's our Lege | Comments Off on HJR6 predicted to sail through Senate

Retreat!

Posted on April 27, 2005 by Charles Kuffner

It’s pretty sweet to see the Republicans in the House retreat on yet another special rule they implemented to coddle and swaddle Tom DeLay, isn’t it? “I’m willing to step back,” [House Speaker Denny] Hastert said after a closed-door meeting … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Scandalized! | 2 Comments

Plunk Biggio

Posted on April 27, 2005 by Charles Kuffner

How can you resist a blog that’s devoted to one man’s (probably unintentional, possibly unconscious) quest to become baseball’s all-time hit-by-pitch king? I can’t, so I’ve added a subscription to the oddly compelling Plunk Biggio to my Bloglines subs. Thanks … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Baseball | 5 Comments

The Star-Telegram on blogs

Posted on April 27, 2005 by Charles Kuffner

In the Pink points to this article on Capitol-focused blogs. It’s a good piece – in fact, I’d say it’s the piece I thought Gardner Selby was going to write when he contacted me last month on the same topic. … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Blog stuff | 3 Comments

From the It Takes A Thief Department

Posted on April 27, 2005 by Charles Kuffner

Who better to comment on campaign finance reform than a true insider? A Republican political consultant under indictment on charges of taking illegal corporate contributions in the 2002 House races is urging lawmakers to defeat a bill to tighten the … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Scandalized! | 3 Comments

A bit of DeLay fatigue

Posted on April 27, 2005 by Charles Kuffner

I haven’t had much to say lately about everyone’s favorite corrupt House Majority Leader. Not because there hasn’t been anything to say or because I’ve lost interest in watching his inexorable descent, not at all. It’s just that there’s so … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Scandalized! | 4 Comments

Catching up on the Enron broadband trial

Posted on April 27, 2005 by Charles Kuffner

Former Enron Broadband Services CEO Ken Rice, who has already pled guilty to a charge of fraud for his role in the EBS flimflammery, has been testifying busily for the past couple of days in the trial of five other … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Enronarama | 2 Comments

New frontiers in vice peddling

Posted on April 26, 2005 by Charles Kuffner

You know, I was just thinking that the problem with buying lottery tickets these days is that you have to actually leave your house and go to some kind of retail store to do it. Well, thanks to our ever-forward-thinking … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Jackpot! | 5 Comments

Defining tax breaks down

Posted on April 26, 2005 by Charles Kuffner

Remember the days when the air was filled with promises from the statewide leadership that they would cut property taxes by one-third, maybe even one-half? Reality can be such a bummer sometimes. Texas property owners would get a small tax … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Budget ballyhoo | 1 Comment

Life in Midlothian

Posted on April 26, 2005 by Charles Kuffner

D Magazine has a long essay by Midlothian resident Tom Boyle, whom I’ve mentioned here before in conjunction with the fight against pollution from cement plants there, on how he and his wife Julie came to be environmental activists. It’s … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in The great state of Texas | 4 Comments

Blog stuff in the op-eds

Posted on April 26, 2005 by Charles Kuffner

So there were a couple of op-eds in Sunday’s Chron that had blog themes to them. One was by Cragg Hines in which he chided bloggers on the right for their role in the case of the “Schiavo memo” that … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Other punditry | Comments Off on Blog stuff in the op-eds

Reflecting on Morrison’s withdrawal

Posted on April 26, 2005 by Charles Kuffner

After sending out his withdrawal email yesterday, Richard Morrison posted a Kos diary with the same message, getting many well-deserved messages of thanks and expressions of support for his mother. He specifically responded to several people who muttered about DCCC … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Election 2006 | 1 Comment

HJR6 makes it out of the House

Posted on April 25, 2005 by Charles Kuffner

HJR6, the bill that would make gay marriage Double Secret Illegal via a constitutional amendment, passed out of the House today by a 101-26 vote. As this was a vote on a proposed Constitutional amendment, the magic number was 100, … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in That's our Lege | 8 Comments

Morrison withdraws from CD22 race

Posted on April 25, 2005 by Charles Kuffner

Talk about things happening quickly: Richard Morrison has sent out an email to his supporters in which he announces his intent to withdraw from the CD22 race next year. Here’s the email: Dear Friends and Supporters, It is with great … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Election 2006 | 3 Comments

How risk averse are they?

Posted on April 25, 2005 by Charles Kuffner

Greg comments on this story from the weekend which assessed the odds of a primary challenge to State Sen. Jon Lindsay (a prospect which makes my fellow toll-road critic Anne Linehan positively giddy). I’m sure almost any one of the … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Election 2006 | 1 Comment

The next face of CD22

Posted on April 25, 2005 by Charles Kuffner

The Chronicle brings up an interesting point about CD22: The two words that usually follow U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay’s name in the news are “Sugar Land.” After DeLay leaves Congress, some political experts say, the next representative of the 22nd … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Election 2006 | 2 Comments

Upcoming City Council campaign events

Posted on April 25, 2005 by Charles Kuffner

I know the races in San Antonio and CD22 have us all spellbound, but the City of Houston will be having an election this year, and while I don’t expect this year’s slate to be full of barnburners, there are … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Election 2005 | 1 Comment

Seeing double in San Antonio

Posted on April 25, 2005 by Charles Kuffner

I saw the story of the Case of the Mistaken Candidate Identity in San Antonio last week but never had a moment to talk about it. The San Antonio blog crowd had it covered – see here, here, here, here, … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Election 2005 | 2 Comments

Get the smelling salts!

Posted on April 24, 2005 by Charles Kuffner

I love this line from this Washington Whispers piece on how Howard Dean is doing so far as the Chair of the DNC: So far, Washington likes what it sees, surprised he’s not the oddball that newsies pegged him as … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in General snarkiness | 2 Comments

Support Senator Hinojosa

Posted on April 24, 2005 by Charles Kuffner

Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa has apparently been targeted by the South Texas Specialized Crimes and Narcotics Task Force in retaliation for some bills he’s filed that they don’t like. It’s pretty ugly. See Grits for the full story. Continue reading →

Posted in That's our Lege | 1 Comment

Catching up on the Morrison campaign

Posted on April 24, 2005 by Charles Kuffner

Now that I’m feeling more like a human being, I want to catch up on the state of things in CD22 on the Democratic side. Richard Morrison wrote a Kos diary asking if he’d still get netroots support if he … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in Election 2006 | 11 Comments

Nelson vows to kill Talton amendment

Posted on April 24, 2005 by Charles Kuffner

Thank you, Senator Nelson. The Senate author of a bill designed to overhaul the state’s protective service agencies said Thursday that she will work to strip a controversial provision that would prohibit gays and lesbians from serving as foster parents. … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Posted in That's our Lege | 2 Comments