Posting will be sporadic to non-existent through the holiday weekend as the lovely Mrs. Diddie and I take some vacation time in Bahstin.
Try to get by without me.
Wednesday, May 25, 2005
Tuesday, May 24, 2005
No nukes (for now)
And Bill Frist is toast.
GOP moderates in the Senate -- an admittedly endangered species -- yesterday emasculated their majority leader and refused to go along with the "nuclear option", which would have revised centuries-old rules of order to prevent "tyranny of the majority".
God, speaking through Dr. James Dobson, is allegedly unhappy:
More of that can be found here.
Frist looked stricken to say the least. He stressed that he was not a party to the agreement and that he hoped it would end a "miserable chapter in the history of the Senate," but he also stated what he keeps calling the "constitutional option" was still on the table. He also said he "will monitor this agreement closely."
Harry Reid, in contrast, seemed pleased. He said he was willing to work with Bush on his agenda, "but he should have a little more humility."
For the record, the nominations of Janice Rogers Brown, William Pryor and Priscilla Owen will proceed to a floor vote. The rest get no guarantees. The fact that the Republicans needed only 50 votes (with Dick Cheney breaking the tie) in a caucus of 55 means they had six Senators --or more -- who passed on pushing the "nuk-ya-ler" button.
Frist's presidential aspirations (that's the only reason he was doing this, for 2006 and the evangelical bloc) exploded on the launchpad. And John McCain's got stronger. But that's kaffe klatsch for another day.
What the GOP really failed to get was carte blanche on the next Supreme Court nominee.
That wonderful smell isn't just your morning coffee; it's victory.
Savor it, and stay girded for the next battle.
GOP moderates in the Senate -- an admittedly endangered species -- yesterday emasculated their majority leader and refused to go along with the "nuclear option", which would have revised centuries-old rules of order to prevent "tyranny of the majority".
God, speaking through Dr. James Dobson, is allegedly unhappy:
"This Senate agreement represents a complete bailout and betrayal by a cabal of Republicans and a great victory for united Democrats..."
More of that can be found here.
Frist looked stricken to say the least. He stressed that he was not a party to the agreement and that he hoped it would end a "miserable chapter in the history of the Senate," but he also stated what he keeps calling the "constitutional option" was still on the table. He also said he "will monitor this agreement closely."
Harry Reid, in contrast, seemed pleased. He said he was willing to work with Bush on his agenda, "but he should have a little more humility."
For the record, the nominations of Janice Rogers Brown, William Pryor and Priscilla Owen will proceed to a floor vote. The rest get no guarantees. The fact that the Republicans needed only 50 votes (with Dick Cheney breaking the tie) in a caucus of 55 means they had six Senators --or more -- who passed on pushing the "nuk-ya-ler" button.
Frist's presidential aspirations (that's the only reason he was doing this, for 2006 and the evangelical bloc) exploded on the launchpad. And John McCain's got stronger. But that's kaffe klatsch for another day.
What the GOP really failed to get was carte blanche on the next Supreme Court nominee.
That wonderful smell isn't just your morning coffee; it's victory.
Savor it, and stay girded for the next battle.
Saturday, May 21, 2005
Lunch with the Space City chapter of Western Blogonia
(West is left facing north).
I'm the sort of person that isn't content being an online slacktivist. I like to meet the people I converse with online if possible. And I've met discussion forum participants locally and in Austin and San Francisco, and hopefully next weekend in Boston (and recently one site had a Europe gathering I'm sorry I missed) but as I move away from open-season semi-moderated boards to the Wild West of Blogistan I find I get to make a whole new set of friends and alliances.
So yesterday a bunch of us locally got together for some Tex-Mex and political chat.
Specifically the group included this fellow, this lady, this guy, this gal, and "Red Dog", who shows up in the comments of those often but if he has a blog I can't find it. (BK, help me out if I'm blind, pal...)
My first observation is that among the group there might be only one other native Texan besides me, judging from one self-disclosure and the accents. They're also all a pay grade or three above me in terms of formal education, with at least one Ivy Leaguer and several graduate degrees in the bunch.
And I mention the Lone Star connection only because all of these people do a much better job following the Texas Legislature's shenanigans as well as the local political scene -- right down to city hall -- that I can, or intend, to do. Oh, I blog a lot about Deep-In-The-Hearta, as my half-dozen regular readers already know, but it's mostly from a macro perspective (though those freaks in Pearland will undoubtedly continue to draw attention to themselves). And my state representative has lately exposed a particular strain of stupidity, but I'll avoid for now saying something really bad (or good, for that matter) about him. Mostly because it's just too 'inside baseball' even for me.
I'd rather talk smack about John Bolton and Jeff Gannon -- what, you didn't know they were an item? -- than Bill White or Michael Berry.
I hope more of the rest of the H-Town Blogosphere takes Charles Kuffner up on his invite to make these little get-togethers a monthly regular on their calendars. Pete, rastro, this means y'all ...
I'm the sort of person that isn't content being an online slacktivist. I like to meet the people I converse with online if possible. And I've met discussion forum participants locally and in Austin and San Francisco, and hopefully next weekend in Boston (and recently one site had a Europe gathering I'm sorry I missed) but as I move away from open-season semi-moderated boards to the Wild West of Blogistan I find I get to make a whole new set of friends and alliances.
So yesterday a bunch of us locally got together for some Tex-Mex and political chat.
Specifically the group included this fellow, this lady, this guy, this gal, and "Red Dog", who shows up in the comments of those often but if he has a blog I can't find it. (BK, help me out if I'm blind, pal...)
My first observation is that among the group there might be only one other native Texan besides me, judging from one self-disclosure and the accents. They're also all a pay grade or three above me in terms of formal education, with at least one Ivy Leaguer and several graduate degrees in the bunch.
And I mention the Lone Star connection only because all of these people do a much better job following the Texas Legislature's shenanigans as well as the local political scene -- right down to city hall -- that I can, or intend, to do. Oh, I blog a lot about Deep-In-The-Hearta, as my half-dozen regular readers already know, but it's mostly from a macro perspective (though those freaks in Pearland will undoubtedly continue to draw attention to themselves). And my state representative has lately exposed a particular strain of stupidity, but I'll avoid for now saying something really bad (or good, for that matter) about him. Mostly because it's just too 'inside baseball' even for me.
I'd rather talk smack about John Bolton and Jeff Gannon -- what, you didn't know they were an item? -- than Bill White or Michael Berry.
I hope more of the rest of the H-Town Blogosphere takes Charles Kuffner up on his invite to make these little get-togethers a monthly regular on their calendars. Pete, rastro, this means y'all ...
Friday, May 20, 2005
Something's just wrong with this headline:
"Bush promises probe into Saddam underwear pictures".
And yes, there's a photograph. Not of the probe (thankfully).
And yes, there's a photograph. Not of the probe (thankfully).
More all-important rotisserie baseball wryness
From Fanball.com:
News
Remember Jason "Raspberry" Bere? The veteran right-hander, who was coming back from an elbow injury this spring with the Indians' Triple-A affiliate at Buffalo, announced his retirement on Thursday. The injury-plagued former All-Star fashioned a 71-65 record in 203 Major League starts for the White Sox, Reds, Brewers, Cubs, and Indians.
Views
If for some reason you had Bere stashed on a keeper league bench, you can go ahead and release him now and look for a cheap replacement—the kind you find in a second-hand store.
We're gonna "Cowboy Up" with data
Last night the Houston Democratic Forum hosted Dr. Richard Murray, who discussed (along with his son Keir, who also blogs) the creation of the Texas Research Foundation, a progressive think tank to "assist in gathering and disseminating academically sound data on important state issues, and making these findings widely known to business, civic, and community leaders as well as the general public."
In other words, get our message out.
Dr. Murray's expertise is polling, and the state of Texas is woefully underrepresented relative to the quantity (and quality) of polling data of its electorate. Typically the conglomerated media will commission a poll close to the election in order to fill 45 seconds on their 10 pm newscasts and create a week's worth of buzz, and of course the parties fund their own (read biased) pollsters, but again only sporadically and the results are issued mostly when it's favorable to their candidates. So one of Murray's goals for the foundation is to conduct a quarterly statewide poll on issues as well as politicians, one that is academically sound and uses transparent methodology. And as it relates to good news or bad news for Democratic candidates, let the chips fall wherever.
Marguerite has posted here in greater detail (she must've had a recorder, bless her heart).
This is all still in the formative stages, so if you would care to assist in building something like this from the foundation up (no pun) -- and I'm not just talking about donating money but helping to conduct research and "disseminate data", fellow bloggers -- then visit the Foundation's (also still rudimentary) website above.
In other words, get our message out.
Dr. Murray's expertise is polling, and the state of Texas is woefully underrepresented relative to the quantity (and quality) of polling data of its electorate. Typically the conglomerated media will commission a poll close to the election in order to fill 45 seconds on their 10 pm newscasts and create a week's worth of buzz, and of course the parties fund their own (read biased) pollsters, but again only sporadically and the results are issued mostly when it's favorable to their candidates. So one of Murray's goals for the foundation is to conduct a quarterly statewide poll on issues as well as politicians, one that is academically sound and uses transparent methodology. And as it relates to good news or bad news for Democratic candidates, let the chips fall wherever.
Marguerite has posted here in greater detail (she must've had a recorder, bless her heart).
This is all still in the formative stages, so if you would care to assist in building something like this from the foundation up (no pun) -- and I'm not just talking about donating money but helping to conduct research and "disseminate data", fellow bloggers -- then visit the Foundation's (also still rudimentary) website above.
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