Sunday Funnies

The first toon to fete ZZ Top, which closes the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo this afternoon:

Edwards/Obama online, Clinton/Obama off

-- The Kossacks still like John Edwards and Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton not at all. The Direct Democracy-ites choose Obama by a nose in an allocated tally (go there for the explanation). The traditional polling favors the Senator from New York.

Hillary will be here in Houston tomorrow.

The Republicans are currently being led by the cross-dressing Rudy Giuliani, followed by John McCain, who seems to be fading fast. Romney, Gingrich (who still hasn't declared) and Brownback trail them in single digits.

-- A topic which has received much attention in the blogosphere has been the erupting scandal at the Texas Youth Commission. Incarcerated young people were routinely sexually abused, the entire board of directors has resigned, and now the US Department of Justice is threatening legal action against the state of Texas. Kuffner and Leibowitz have been updating this regularly.

-- Valerie Plame is testifying today on Capitol Hill.

-- Karl Rove and Harriet Myers are also implicated in the firing of federal prosecutors for political purposes. They will likely be subpoenaed by Sen. Patrick Leahy to testify before a Senate committee. The right-wing talking point on this scandal is: "Clinton did it, too!" Not only is it typically disingenuous, it's just pathetic that six years into the Bush Maladministration the conservatives are still bleating about the Big Dog.

Find a new whine, goonbats.

Gone-zales

Rumors are leaking that he and the Prezdent are no longer BFF.

This surprises me. After reading Booman's take that Abu Attorney General would never resign, I was in complete agreement until reading the account from ThinkProgress, and also the paragraph at the bottom of Dana Milbank's report -- that even Senator Box Turtle has taken out the long knife. That's probably so that he can be first in line to replace him.

And that would create a free-for-all for the vacant Senate seat on both sides. In other Senate news, Rick Noriega was outed by the lads at Texas Blue. Bad move by them, in my opinion. That sort of thing engenders enmity among his House colleagues at a time when he is advancing important legislation.

Lots more to come on several fronts, and I hope I have time to write about it.

Thank you all

... for your kind words here. We appreciate them very much.

Sue's mother was transported to the hospital early Saturday morning (as Sue prepared to depart for Miami and her father's funeral) and remains in ICU with congestive heart failure and possibly pneumonia. Sue's sister -- undergoing her own chemotherapy for lymphoma -- collapsed yesterday in the hospital and was taken a few steps over to the emergency room, where she was diagnosed with dehydration and a fever (she went home last night).

This is all the family she has left, and they are having a rough go of it right now. Please keep a warm thought for them in your heart.

Approaching Bracketville

Scroll on if you don't want to read about the NCAA tournament this week.

Sixty-five teams, three weeks, endless empty brackets and countless hours watching all the action. So you need a primer.

Here are the Sweet 16 things you need to know as the NCAA tournament gets set to tip off.

1. Repeat Gators

Since the John Wooden era ended at UCLA in the mid-1970s, only once has a team repeated as national champions – Duke in 1992 and 1993. There have been some close calls – Georgetown reached the finals in 1985, Arkansas in 1995 and Kentucky even went to overtime in the title game in 1997.

But for the most part, college basketball has been the land of the no-peat. And with the trend of top college players making immediate leaps to the NBA, there was a school of thought that it might never happen again.

Enter the Florida Gators, the defending champions with all five starters back and, after bulldozing the SEC tournament, the No. 1 seed overall. They even have, in the Midwest Region, what appears to be a favorable bracket. ...

2. The four most important players in the tournament

(There may be better players out there, but none are so valuable to their team's fortunes.)

Kevin Durant, Texas -- (more on all four)

Greg Oden, Ohio State

A.J. Graves, Butler

Darren Collison, UCLA

3. Cinderellas (13 seed or worse that are capable of an upset)

Wright State (vs. Pitt) – The Raiders finished the season 23-9, but they started 3-5 as they adjusted to new coach Brad Brownell. Since Christmas, this has been one of the hottest teams in the country. Wright State finished by winning 12 of its final 13 games, including two over Butler, and both the Horizon League regular season and tournament championships. This team is much better than a No. 14 seed.

Davidson (vs. Maryland)

Holy Cross (vs. Southern Illinois)

Oral Roberts (vs. Washington State)

And the other thirteen things you need to know are also here.

Sunday Funnies

Everybody still needs a giggle, right?





and three from Tom Toles:

Israel Behar-Ojalvo, 1929 - 2007

My father-in-law's suffering ended this morning about 1:30 a.m.



His family emigrated from Turkey to Cuba sometime after the turn of the century, and he and his wife left Cuba in 1962, carrying only my future wife and a bag of diapers. He left behind a comfortable life -- manager of a rayon plant, a large home with domestic help, sizable assets -- and went initially to Brooklyn, where his double doctorate in chemistry and pharmacology was at first only good enough for a janitorial position in a small pharmacy. By the time he retired in 1982, he was a manager of a chemical plant in Orange, TX and even after, his old employer Allied Signal (now Honeywell) sought his consultative services at the rate of $1,000 a day.



He leaves behind his loving wife, Nilda (they celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary last month) and two daughters, Nilda Hassell and Sue Dorrell. He will be interred in Miami, Florida.

Vaya con Dios, Papi. Te quiero mucho. Hasta luego.

Duty, honor, and curveballs

(I liked the story so much I plagiarized the title.)

Brannan had enlisted in the Marine Corps right after high school, learned honor and courage and commitment and Semper Fi, heard bullets whiz by his head, seen friends die, lost his left pinky to a flash-bang grenade. He had lived "in the Bible times," as he liked to say, so for a moment he allowed himself to appreciate the fortuity of this, him, here, sun and grass, in the uniform of a completely different kind.

"You still remember how to put that stuff on?" said Grady Fuson, the Padres' vice president of scouting.

Brannan nodded. He was weaning himself off "yes, sir" and "no, sir," learning to address his superiors by their first names and nicknames.

The last piece of the uniform was his hat. Brannan, 22, slipped it on nice and snug so it would cover his high-and-tight haircut. Officially, he is still a Marine until he receives his honorable discharge on May 31, so he'll stay clean-shaven and hang dog tags in his locker. The Corps is allowing him to complete his duty with the Padres as an ambassador of sorts, proof that there can be success after war.

"This is about the military," said San Diego CEO Sandy Alderson, a former first lieutenant in the Marines and the man responsible for Brannan being a Padre. "This is about all Iraq veterans. This is about people who are wounded. This is a story that makes everybody feel good.

And it's predicated on the fact that he can actually throw the baseball."

You may have to move past the fact that Cpl. Brannan is being used as a propaganda tool by the military and just appreciate the determination of a proud young man; a patriot, a pitcher.

That is what spring, the time of renewal, is all about. This is the season of Purim, and of Lent. Even as the buds and blooms begin to show their little heads, the cold winter just past (still with some of you, I recognize) reminds us that out of the bare dark nothing comes the beauty of hope, the excitement of unbridled possibility.

Wait a minute; are we still talking baseball?

Live from the cardiac unit of Methodist Hospital

... where my father-in-law will be discharged today, to hospice care at home. Occasional and subdued posting ahead. Thanks for all your kind wishes and offers of help and support.

Sunday Funnies

More Hou-centric scattershooting

... while wondering what happened to nobody in particular:

-- I rarely recommend our local right-wing blogs, but this is a great posting for Texas Independence Day.

-- Paul Burka has the latest on Debra Danburg and her recovery from cancer.

--via blogHouston, also mostly never recommended, is some detail from KHOU on the high-rise residential construction boom inside the Loop. Another big one downtown broke ground this week. We're in the market for a new abode, with the addition to our family, and this is precisely the style of living we love. Of course, the whining about mobility from the right is already under way. They don't want anything but more and wider lanes for their SUVs and they don't even want to to pay enough taxes to pay for that.

Really, it's kind of hilarious that people who live in Spring can feel any justification whatsoever in complaining about light rail in Houston. Just stay out there in the suburbs, you hicks.

-- Will we execute child molesters in Texas? Maybe, maybe not. Vince has multiple postings live-logging the debate in the Texas House (scroll down to the HB 8 series). In any case, the law's changes won't affect Jon Matthews, unless he is so sick that he can't stop his sexual predation even after he leaves prison in a few years.

-- The guy in Katy who had the pig races across from the mosque was on the Daily Show, and somehow I missed it. Anybody have a link?

Two-stepping some Lone Star speculation

Hey, it's rodeo time in H-Town, after all ...

Charles Kuffner made a plausible theory out of Markos Moulitsis' postulate regarding the prospects for dumping Senator Box Turtle. Most everything has already been said already, but here's two more cents' worth:

I'm pretty confident that Bill White would rather run for governor than for anything in Washington except the White House. He's a CEO, not a member of the tribe. And even though they are not usually the kind of Democrats we elect in Deep-In-the-Hearta, there are only a few people mentioned who meet the definition of "people-powered candidate". And of those, Lloyd Doggett is likely the guy Kos has in mind. Doggett has won a statewide race in the not-so-distant past (state Supreme Court) and he's sitting on a pile of money. Doggett would be an excellent candidate and an even better Senator.

Though my very first choice would be Rick Noriega.

Which reminds me that I haven't been as supportive -- online or off -- of Melissa's race for Houston city council as I intended to be.

This woman is a political powerhouse in her own right. She could have easily had the career in public service that her husband has, had that been her choice. There are some people who are just lifted by circumstance to serve, and Melissa is one of those people.

Besides that, we just need to put more women in office across this country. We'd probably have a lot more compassion and a lot less meanness if we did. We'd certainly have fewer wars.

James Rodriguez, with whom I lunched yesterday, is similarly a thoughtful and capable person who is standing for Houston city council. He was quick to point out that there is no such word as 'patrona' in Spanish. I hope to sit down soon with John Marron, who has labor backing and the endorsement of county commissioner Sylvia Garcia. Several heavyweights whose opinions I respect are in support of both men, so this race will be spirited and could be contentious. I don't get a vote in District I, and it's possible that I would endorse two men for the one job. Truth to tell, we need both of them in public service.

A slight case of bloggerrhea

-- I simply cannot add a single word to what has already been said about state attorney general Greg Abbott. Let's sample just two; first, Burnt Orange:

Abbott's getting some coverage for opening and then closing and then opening and then closing our county clerk's office. We aren't the only ones talking about an ill thought court ruling. KXAN points out, this recent republican flip flop would have taken years for all 254 counties to comply with.

Half Empty:

Abbott failed to realize that by issuing this opinion he would hamstring any company or organization that needs daily access to land records. County clerks across the state were presented with the choice of continuing to provide online land record services and garnering a misdemeanor warrant every time someone got access to another person’s personal information through the system that they support, or shutting off public access to their records. So they shut off public access to the records.

It's ridiculously stupid things like this that compelled me to work so hard to defeat him. Texas simply has the worst attorney general money could have bought (and did).

-- Yesterday's "Prevention First!" lobby day at the Capitol was a real treat in a variety of ways: from seeing Alison Bell among our group, to bumping into Kirk Watson getting coffee in the cafeteria (and thanking him for sponsoring the legislation in the Senate), to visiting with Valinda Bolton in the hall between floor sessions. Borris Miles' legislative aide Camille Foster was generous with her time and attention, and Rodney Ellis' staff member Kaitlyn Murphy likewise met a group of over one hundred of his constituents.

And what a difference two years makes. Last time several middle-school girls met with Martha Wong, who was mostly obnoxious and occasionally hostile. This year: Ellen Cohen. How refreshing is that?

BOR has the details of the two bills. Things look good for passage.

-- Today Teddi goes back to the vet for another round of shots and this evening is her first day of school (obedience training). I'll also have a bloglunch with James Rodriguez, who's running for Houston city council, and then go to a Kucinich Meetup tonight. We'll be among several hundred people greeting him in San Antonio next weekend as he keynotes the annual meeting of the Texas Progressive Populist Caucus. This weekend, the DFA Training Academy comes to Houston. I'll be assisting.

Pre-Lobby Day postpourri

-- Don't worry; Dick's OK. Apparently he set a world record in the 100-meter dash, but nobody was injured in his escape.

-- The stock market had a meltdown today. It was the worst single-day retreat since 9/11, and it was due to a belief that Chinese economic growth will be limited by an inability to secure raw material (as well as the lemming-like fear that stocks are over-valued). Since my business is driven by stock-market contrarians, if this trend continues I'll have another good year.

-- Robert Eckels is being threatened by the king of all Republicans in Houston:

"This decision (selecting the next judge of Harris County) is extremely important to whether the base will get behind Eckels if he runs for higher office," said County GOP Chairman Jared Woodfill.

Pop some corn. This ought to be a hoot. More:

Alice Rekeweg, a precinct chair from Kingwood, said some GOP activists are so upset that Eckels appears to be backing Emmett as his successor that they would not support the county judge in a run for statewide office. "It's a possibility some people will hold a grudge," she said.

No, it's not, Alice. You're all as full of shit as a Christmas turkey; you'll fall in line behind whoever is the standard-bearer just like you did when Shelley Sekula-Gibbs ran for Tom DeLay's -- nevermind.

Is that popcorn ready yet?

Update: Houston Consigliere has more.

-- Jon Matthews goes to jail. Once one of the most rabid right-wing talkers in Houston, even his longtime sycophants locally have finally been forced to abandon him.

-- We are raising an entire generation of narcissists. What a shock.

-- Tomorrow I'm in the state capital for Planned Parenthood's Lobby Day. Here's our report from two years ago (the last time the Lege was in session). Update: Sam Jones has more on the "Prevention First!" legislation filed by Rep. Mark Strama and Sen. Kirk Watson.

Breaking: Supreme Court awards Gore's Oscar to Bush

... and one more toon for Monday ...

Sunday Funnies

There's a new sheriff in town

Stetson tip to the Texas Observer.

What to do in Houston this weekend

-- See all of the Oscar-nominated films tomorrow on a $30 AMC pass. Babel is first at 11 a.m., and Little Miss Sunshine wraps up the marathon at 9:45 p.m. Since that's more than 12 hours of movie-viewing, the theater chain will throw in a large popcorn and soft drink, with free unlimited refills all day. Passes are available at amctheatres.com or the box office of any of the AMC multiplexes around Houston.

-- Go to the MoFA and see French masters Picasso and Degas, on loan to the only gallery outside of New York for a very limited time.

-- Support one of the bars and restaurants in the downtown entertainment district. They're having a rough go of it.

-- Take in the touring production of Twelve Angry Men, with John Boy Walton and Norm from Cheers, at the Hobby Center. The Houston Press even liked it.

Update (6 pm): To those of you have inquired about my father-in-law's surgery, it was successful. He's out of recovery and in ICU.

The Kos cattle call: Clinton, Obama, Edwards

My own thoughts after hearing Obama last night is that there is a slight little something missing -- I don't know, call it 'gravitas', without the negative connotation the word has always had for the current White House occupant, who remains a lightweight to this day. The senator from Illinois is a very good speaker but not a powerful one; his "rock star" reputation precedes his actual onstage presence IMHO, but he has the competence and quiet confidence to be the man. In any case, Markos has the cogent insight:

... (his) take on where these candidates sit in the race today. My long-term prognostication remains -- I think Obama will win this all by the time votes are counted. But what do I know?

Last month's rankings: 1) Obama, 2) Edwards, 3) Clinton, 4) Richardson, 5) Clark, 6) Kerry, and then everyone else.

THE TOP TIER

1. Hillary Clinton

Her announcement rollout was masterful. She leads in the national polls which, while not indicative of much, is helpful for fundraising and media buzz purposes. She leads all early New Hampshire polls and several of the Iowa ones (though numbers are all over the place suggesting that no one knows how to poll these early states, this far out).

Iraq is already giving her fits, and will present a long-term problem for her campaign. But for now, most people are blissfully unaware of her Iraq record.

2. Barack Obama

He has parried off the early attacks skillfully and is getting a great deal of traction on Iraq. He's drawing thousands to his rallies, hinting at a Dean-like popular phenomenon in the makings. He's got huge support in the Facebook world, and is he's neck and neck with Edwards in the Daily Kos straw poll showing strong and growing netroots support.

Oh, and the money will be there. Lots of it.

3. John Edwards

Boy, that blogger stuff wasn't his campaign's finest hour. They betrayed a lack of preparation, foresight, and basic vetting. They were pushed into "bunker" mode by the rantings of Bill Donahue, giving little confidence they'd be able to withstand a serious attack from the VRWC. Then, the campaign leaked like a sieve -- were the bloggers fired or not? Then, the campaign did the right thing and held tight on the bloggers, but didn't tell them they shouldn't blog elsewhere. A couple of days later, the bloggers resign anyway, giving the right wingers a scalp.

The good thing is that this happened so early that it won't register as even a blip in a few months. And hopefully the campaign learned some good lessons out of this.

Otherwise, the Edwards campaign appears to have been overshadowed by the battle of titans between Hillary and Barack. It's not a bad thing for Edwards to see the two front runners beat the shit out of each other while he safely stays out of the fray.

THE SECOND TIER

4. Bill Richardson

Put aside his hokey desire to have the candidates make a pledge to campaign only positively (those things never survive the heat of battle), Richardson is quietly building up support and raising money. In the dKos straw poll, he's the only candidate to gain every one of the last five polls. (Of course, when you start at 1 percent, that's easier to do...)

Of all the announced candidates, Richardson has the greatest potential to break into the top tier.

THE REST

5. Tom Vilsack

Coming out in favor of social security price indexing was rather odd for a Democratic candidate.

But he's the former governor of Iowa, so that might count for something.

6. Joe Biden

His announcement week was a nightmare.

7. Chris Dodd

His remarks at the DNC and AFSCME cattle calls were generally well received.

8. Dennis Kucinich

Ugh.

9. Mike Gravel

I'm not sure what Gravel thinks he's bringing to the table that isn't being covered by other, viable candidates.

10. Wesley Clark

He's not even in the race, has no operation, and his public profile is fading as the rest of the field takes center stage. This is the last time I include him in either the straw poll or cattle call unless he announces. He's bleeding support in the Daily Kos straw poll as people lose interest and move to other candidates. Given that his big mistake in 2003 was waiting too long before entering the race, it's crazy to think that he's going to make the same mistake again (and the race is definitely accelerated this year). So I'm starting to assume he's not going to run.

Some of this I agree with wholeheartedly, some -- as with his dismissal of Kucinich -- is just typically arrogant Kos. I'm not as certain as he that Obama will be the nominee as I write today. Biden ought to be the first one to drop out, even ahead of Gravel. Vilsack will quit after his home state loss and endorse Hillary (surprise). Update (10 am): LOL --or maybe a bit sooner.

At this point I don't know what General Clark could be waiting for, either.

Update II (3 pm): Chris Cillizza's line is nearly identical. He places Dodd in fifth, and ranks the Repubs McCain, Guiliani/Romney tied for second, then Brownback and Huckabee.

Update III (4 pm): Kos explains his "ugh".

Remembering DJ

Dennis Johnson skywalking in 1979, with the Seattle SuperSonics.

He passed away yesterday outside a basketball court in Austin, stricken by an imponderable illness for an athlete who spent most of his life in top aerobic condition.

In 1987, against the Detroit Pistons in game 5 of the conference finals, "Bird stole the ball!" but it was DJ who took the feed and put in the layup that won the game and broke the Pistons' backs.

He won three rings, one with Seattle and two in Boston, and was the MVP of the Finals in '79. Larry Bird said he was the best he'd ever played with.

Considering Bird played with HoFers McHale, Parrish, and Walton, that's a pretty high compliment.

Following his playing days he became a coach, for a short time with the Clippers in Los Angeles but with the Austin Toros of the Developmental League when he suddenly collapsed following the team's practice. The Statesman has more on the life of Dennis Johnson.

Rest in peace, DJ.

Yes, it's a pretty crappy picture

And how close did you get to Barack Obama this evening?

John and Martha got just as close and with better cameras. When they post one of their pictures, I'll link ya. Until then ...

Update: Here's Martha's. Hal was there, too.

Ash Wednesday bloggerhea

My father-in-law will have spinal surgery this afternoon. Say a little (whatever you say in this case). Update -- 4:30 pm: Surgery rescheduled for Friday morning.

--These are the photos of ABC News anchor Bob Woodruff's injuries and rehabilitation. Not too graphic.

-- Texans can contact their state representatives through this link and call for a moratorium on the death penalty. I believe even those who support capital punishment would not be in favor of executing innocent men, as Texas has probably done at least three times (their names were Cameron Willingham, Ruben Cantu, and Carlos de Luna).

-- Like Joe Wilson and FBI translator Sybil Edmonds, Jesselyn Radack was targeted by the Bush administration as an enemy of the state. Her offense was that she advised the Justice Department about the ethical restraints that applied to their pursuit of "the bad guys". Bush (and conservatives) like to say they're fighting the "war on terror" there, so we don't have to fight it here. The reality, as Radack makes clear, is that they actually are conducting a war of terror against American citizens here.

-- Senator Tim Johnson has left the hospital and entered a rehabilitation facility, where he will continue his recovery from a brain hemorrhage. My mother Jean, who had her knee replaced last Thursday, has likewise made the same transition from hospital to rehab this week. Now with both a bionic knee and hip, she will soon be able to kick Lindsay Wagner's ass.

Let's go for a walk soon, Mom.

Fat Tuesday postpourri

Tony Soprano, King of Bacchus.

Since I'm an XM subscriber, I hope this is good news.

How dare they expect justice?

D.C. news: A Fort Worth girl makes good. Meanwhile, net neutrality continues to be high-profile. And a military amputee was purposely left off the invitation list to an event with the president because he might have been photographed by the media.

Even John McCain thinks Don Rumsfeld sucked. Of course, McCain is a confirmed flip-flopper, so who knows how long he'll believe this.

Another reason why I'm glad I never had children:

In 2005, when government scientists tested 60 soft, vinyl lunchboxes, they found that one in five contained amounts of lead that medical experts consider unsafe — and several had more than 10 times hazardous levels.

But that's not what they told the public.

Instead, the Consumer Product Safety Commission released a statement that they found "no instances of hazardous levels." And they refused to release their actual test results, citing regulations that protect manufacturers from having their information released to the public.

That data was not made public until the Associated Press received a box of about 1,500 pages of lab reports, in-house e-mails and other records in response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed a year ago.

Which of these things is not like the other?


Fucking moron.

Obama, Edwards, Richardson/Clark, Other (probably Gore)

Hillary waaay behind. Biden in last, behind Gravel (LMAO). Clark needs to hurry up and declare before Democrats get enamored with another choice.

Differences between the MyDD and Daily Kos straw polls include a much weaker showing for Clark, a much better showing for Obama, a slightly weaker showing for Kucinich, and a slightly better showing for Edwards. How much of that is due to random error, taking the poll one week later, or the differences in our readerships is difficult to tell.

Four candidates have more last place votes than they have first and second place votes combined: Biden (-30.3), Gravel (-27.7), Kucinich (-11.7) and Clinton (-2.7). Two other candidates, Vilsack (+0.2) and Dodd (+0.9), are just barely positive. Clark comes in at a healthy +19.5, and Richardson is slightly better at +21.1. Edwards finishes in second at +53.2, while Obama places first with +57.2.

Edwards and Obama have such large leads in both first place and second place votes, that it appears either would become the clear netroots frontrunner if the other were to drop out. This certainly makes one wonder if the so-called "anti-Hillary" vote is being split, both online and offline.

Obamarama coming to H-Town

Sunday Funnies

(click to read a larger view)

Homophobia and the NBA

The NBA came into full bloom this past week (or is that came out). The quotes from Tim Hardaway, John Amaechi, Charles Barkley, Shaquille O'Neal, and David Stern, in that order:

"First of all, I wouldn't want him on my team. And second of all, if he was on my team, I would, you know, really distance myself from him because, uh, I don't think that is right. I don't think he should be in the locker room while we are in the locker room."

When show host Dan Le Batard told Hardaway those comments were "flatly homophobic" and "bigotry," the player continued.

"You know, I hate gay people, so I let it be known. I don't like gay people and I don't like to be around gay people," he said. "I'm homophobic. I don't like it. It shouldn't be in the world or in the United States."

Hardaway apologized but was removed from any NBA-related activities for this weekend's All-Star game.

"I'm actually tempted to laugh. Finally, someone who is honest. It is ridiculous, absurd, petty, bigoted and shows a lack of empathy that is gargantuan and unfathomable. But it is honest. And it illustrates the problem better than any of the fuzzy language other people have used so far.... His words pollute the atmosphere. It creates an atmosphere that allows young gays and lesbians to be harassed in school, creates an atmosphere where in 33 states you can lose your job, and where anti-gay and lesbian issues are used for political gain. It's an atmosphere that hurts all of us, not just gay people."

Amaechi is an impressive man. (I might have said 'articulate' if this had happened a few weeks ago.) Barkley:

"You don't think we've all played with gay guys? Of course we have. It has never been an issue. America, the more I live in it, the more I realize how full of it we are. If we're not bombing the wrong country, we're not fixing hurricane-relief areas. America is homophobic. It's so easy for (reporters) to say the other jocks won't like it."

Shaq:

"If he was on my team, I guess I would have to protect him from the outsiders."

And finally Commissioner Stern:

"This is an issue overall that has fascinated America. It’s not an NBA issue," Stern said, pointing to the ongoing debate over gay marriage at the state and federal levels. "This is a country that needs to talk about this issue. And, not surprisingly, they use sports as a catalyst to begin the dialogue."

February is Black History Month

Worthy of reminder until we get it right. I corrected a couple of misspellings but only wish I could write this well:

In what has been aptly described as the greatest speech of the 20th century, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said in part, "I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood." Dr. King was cruelly cut down by an assassin's bullet too soon to learn that science would give great weight to his stirring vision.

Within our cells are tiny organelles called mitochondria. They reproduce asexually, one indication of a possible origin as free living bacteria. Mitochondria are passed on to human children by the mother. Geneticists have analyzed that mtDNA use techniques that compare and contrast similarities in the individual letters of the genetic code. This molecular clock is one method to gauge how closely or distantly we are each related to one another. And it turns out that all humans alive today can trace their mitochondrial ancestry back to a single female who lived about 150,000 years ago. She's been dubbed Mitochondrial Eve.

MT Eve is not the only female ancestor shared by all humans. She's our most recent common ancestor exclusively via matrilineal descent. You have the DNA of your father's mother in your nuclear genome -- it's a fair bet we picked up an allele here or a sequence there from archaic hominid populations living around the same time -- but mitochondrial DNA comes from the female line, ultimately converging on Eve. Fossil evidence independently supports the idea that anatomically modern humans come from a small band of people that evolved near Kenya about 160,000 - 200,000 years ago.

February is Black History month. We honor the contributions of African-Americans and reflect honestly on the challenges many still face in fully securing the rights and privileges that others take for granted. But black history could also be accurately cast as Human History. Because biology reveals that we descend from such a small clan in the geologically recent past, the 'sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners' are brothers. The emerging scientific consensus is that each and every one of us belongs to a single African family, surname H. sapiens.

As a family, we have yet to reach the promised land of complete social equality that Dr. King envisioned. It is regrettable to say the least that some of our siblings still happily stoke the fires of prejudice for even a glimmer of political profit. But other family members have made great strides toward creating a just society, where our children are judged 'not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character'. Here's to hoping we swiftly finish making one African's Dream a reality for all.

There goes the judge

As we suspected, Harris County Judge Robert Eckels pulled the chain yesterday:

"A friend once told me, 'You never become what you want to be while remaining where you are.' Harris County is moving forward, and it's time for me to do the same."

I think that's "who" you are, Bob, but nevermind. Before we say goodbye (and don'tletthedoorhitchawheretheGoodLordsplitcha) let's note that we probably haven't heard the last from you:

He was set to run for attorney general or lieutenant governor last year if U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison had decided not to seek re-election and those top state officials sought her job. Instead, she sought and won another term, as did Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and Attorney General Greg Abbott.

Eckels said he still aspires to statewide office and could run in 2008 or 2010 while working in the private sector.

"I'll be seeing you
in all the old familiar places ..."

Speculation may now center on his replacement. A few days ago a front-runner surged:

The three (Eckels, Jerry Eversole and Steve Radack, all Republicans) told the Chronicle last week that Ed Emmett (scroll to second entry) a transportation consultant and former state representative, was a possible consensus candidate for the post. But today, the judge also mentioned District Clerk Charles Bacarisse as a candidate for the job.

Houston's most diminutive blogger announces that former HCDP chair David Mincberg will run in 2008. Hat tip to the ubiquitous Off the Kuff, who blogs onward with his now-two young daughters in tow.

A Valentine's Day Teddy

Teddi, to be precise.

Chow mix, 8 weeks old, wonderful disposition. Going to get her shots in about two hours, then a bath. That's why she's pouting.