Photos from the Courthouse Tour

Happy Anniversary, Katrina (you bitch)

One year ago as our merry little band of leftists was returning from Camp Casey, we heard on the radio that a strengthening hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico had turned toward New Orleans.

That bitch's name was Katrina.

Jordan Flaherty was an eyewitness on the ground; here's the archive of his postings. His journal begins here. I blogged about my experiences helping evacuees in the Astrodome and the GRB convention center, and I posted that of others'. Lyn's account was also significant.

Earlier this week the four-part documentary by Spike Lee, When the Levees Broke, aired on HBO. I urge you to watch it.

Here's a Katrina timeline from Think Progress.

This YouTube from scoutp is moving:



I'm left with these still-raw recollections, and the ominous foreboding that it could all happen again, shortly, here in Houston or Miami or New Orleans once more.

Do you feel safer?

"I ask only to be shot while my mind is still clean"

Thanks to Robb Zipp. Voiceover is from 1984:

You're eating WHAT ?!?

I've gotten more than the usual inquiries lately regarding the origin of the title of this blog, and though I've answered the question "What is 'Brains and Eggs' and why do you call it that?" many times, I haven't done so here.

Brains and eggs were considered a breakfast delicacy by my maternal grandmother, who lived in the South -- mostly Arkansas and Louisiana -- and through the Depression. I suspect that what she ate was cow brains scrambled with eggs, because during her life people rarely disposed of any part of a beef cow, and the two items cooked together have a similar consistency and texture. But it could have been calf brains or even pork brains that she was so fond of (perhaps my mother, who reads this blog, will post a comment and clarify).

KookyChow.com has an interesting page informing us that a 5.5 oz can of Armour's Pork Brains contains almost 12 days of the recommended (?) value of cholesterol:



More references to "brains and eggs" appear online; a Yahoo search turns up an episode of the television comedy "3rd Rock from the Sun" by that name which first aired in January of 1996, and contained some of the following dialogue:

Dick: I think we underestimated the life on this planet. The people have so much courage. Here they are hurling through space on a melting rock on at 67,000 miles an hour and the only thing that keeps them from flying out of their shoes is their misplaced faith in gravity.

Mary: For future reference I have a red Volvo.
Dick: Please, Dr. Albright, we barely know each other.

Nina: Is your wife out of town?
Dick: Er, Mrs. Solomon is no longer with us. She... er, burned up on re-entry.
Nina: I had a boyfriend who used to burn up on re-entry. He walks with a limp now...

There are recipes and accounts of having served as well as consumed the dish. I have never tasted brains and eggs and probably won't, and not just because of bovine spongeform encephalopathy. I find simply the consideration of consuming them perhaps as you do: nauseating.

A few songs have been recorded with the title "Brains and Eggs"; here's a place to download an mp3 of Los Straitjackets' riff. Before Aimee Mann formed 'Til Tuesday, she was in a band called the Young Snakes, who wrote a different version by the same name. I can't seem to dig up any published lyrics, so go give a listen.

I'll be happy to answer any further questions you may have ...

(This morning it's Total mixed with Honey Nut Cheerios, a banana sliced over the top and sprinkled with cinnamon. Tomorrow, back to the soy protein shake with strawberries and blueberries blended in. I don't drink cow's milk and haven't for years; Silk Soy Milk -- the Enhanced version with omega-3s and such -- is what replaces it.)

More arrogance and incompetence from the Texas Attorney General

The Corpus-Christi Caller-Times reports this rather alarming -- even for Greg Abbott -- defiance of a federal judge:

U.S. District Judge Janis Graham Jack is incensed at Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott for seizing X-rays, some of which are now missing, that are key to federal and state investigations into potentially fraudulent diagnoses of the lung disease silicosis.

Jack made national headlines last year when she issued an opinion that the majority of more than 10,000 silicosis lawsuits before her were about litigation rather than medical care and that the "diagnoses were driven neither by health nor justice: they were manufactured for money."

Abbott's office, along with a congressional committee and the U.S. Attorney's Office, have been investigating since.

Four armed agents from Abbott's office visited the storage facility where thousands of X-rays related to the case were being housed on behalf of the federal court with a subpoena June 23, threatening to arrest the storage supervisor if he did not turn them over.

When Jack learned July 5 that the state attorney general's office had removed the X-rays, she ordered the office to return them by noon the following day, according to court records.

Forty boxes of X-rays came back, but an inventory by records custodian Gary Cosgrove showed that 152 X-rays are missing.

"Let me tell you that real, real clearly. It may be a criminal matter, and we're going to have to turn this over to the appropriate people," Jack said during an Aug. 11 telephone hearing that included representatives from Abbott's office. "The arrogance of taking those documents from a federal court supervised depository is astounding. You all took documents that did not belong to you, under - with armed guards."

How is it beneficial to anyone -- the plaintiffs, the defendants, the courts, an atmosphere of cooperation between federal and state authorities and oh, maybe all of the people of the state of Texas -- when the OAG runs amok, seizing X-rays from a US federal record depository using men with guns, and then losing some of them?

Or are the X-rays even actually "misplaced"? Can we next expect Greg Abbott to grandstand something outlandish in order to bring attention to himself in an election season?

Abbott, suddenly realizing that he's in a tough re-election fight, is scrambling to show that he has been doing something -- anything -- to justify his term as the state's chief law enforcement officer and protector of Texas consumers (clue: he hasn't done a damn thing for anyone except conservative evangelicals and greedy corporations). All he's got to show for the past four years is a couple of online child predator convictions and some charges of voter fraud against little old ladies who took mail-in ballots to the post office.

Appalling. This is what it looks like when power-mad Republicans get desperate. To paraphrase the car commercials: they are arrogant, incompetent, and built to stay that way.

Of course, no matter how this matter is eventually resolved between Judge Jack and Abbott -- whether by sober discussion, flying subpoenas or flying bullets -- you have a clear choice in the Texas Attorney General's race.

Update: Tom Kirkendall links to the New York Sun, which has more on the legal backstory.

Update II (8/24): The Houston Chronicle remains mute on this story. They didn't even pick up the AP report, which the Dallas News had first, and the Austin Statesman and several Texas radio and TV stations managed. To the Chronic's credit, however, somebody over there reads (and maybe even likes) this blog, because this posting appeared on the Opinion page (it's now cycled off; it was listed shortly after I put it up). Other blogs commented ...

Pink Dome:

Short story: A federal judge was keeping thousands of X-rays under lock and key. They were to be used as part of a federal investigation into potentially fraudulent diagnoses of the lung disease silicosis. 4 armed men from the Attorney General's office, carrying a subpoena, threatened to arrest the owner of a storage complex if he wouldn't fork over the X-rays. They then walked off with the X-rays. Thing is, the Constitution bars states from intervening in a federal court's jurisdiction. Abbott could now be deposed in a federal court if it turns out he ordered the seizure of the X-rays.

Daily Kos (TXsharon's diary):

There's more to this story then an overzealous attorney general. That is out of character for Greg Abbott who is a corrupt, Karl Rove and Tom DeLay crony and an enabler of predatory corporations and monopolists.

John Colyandro, who worked for Karl Rove, was laundering Tom Delay's TRMPAC money while on Greg Abbott's campaign payroll during 2002. Colyandro has been indicted for money laundering and also faces 13 charges of unlawful acceptance of corporate political contributions.

Abbott's biggest donor is Bob Perry, tycoon homebuilder and financier of Karl Rove's Swift Boat smear campaign tactics.

I have a burning desire to discover those doctor's names and see if they happen to show up on Abbott's Texas Ethics Commission report. I do note that doctors seem to contribute heavily to Abbott.

McBlogger:

This isn't, by any means, an exhaustive list of the things which should not be entrusted to Attorney General Greg Abbott so please, just because you don't see something here, don't assume that Attorney General Greg Abbott can be trusted to care for it.

In fact, it would be best if you just didn't trust Attorney General Greg Abbott.

SouthTexas Chisme:

Ok. I understand the war on class action suits. Republicans don't want little people to band together to fight the big guys when the big guys do bad things. I understand that companies want plantiffs near death when they begin the process to sue for medical injury. What I don't understand is the battle between the judge who wanted the injured near death and the AG who is a Republican tool.

Capitol Annex reported the story and also David Van Os' response:

“I’m not surprised by this arrogant conduct. Greg Abbott is part of the silk-stocking social clique that runs Texas government as if it were their private club. This it the same Greg Abbott who lets the Texas Department of Transportation hide its contracts with foreign companies, who uses the taxpayers’ money to file legal briefs and maps on behalf of the Republican Party, who employs Tom Delay’s cronies, and who refuses to challenge the oil companies on behalf of the people of Texas. Seizing and then losing working people’s personal medical records from a court file is par for his course.”

Your thalamus is a club bouncer

Having a little trouble waking up this morning? Perhaps your brain stem isn't transmitting enough nitric oxide to your thalamus ...

As we yawn and open our eyes in the morning, the brain stem sends little puffs of nitric oxide to another part of the brain, the thalamus, which then directs it elsewhere.

Like a computer booting up its operating system before running more complicated programs, the nitric oxide triggers certain functions that set the stage for more complex brain functions, according to a new study.

Let me pause the article for a moment and say that I am one of those weirdos who has always been able to wake up early in the morning, and wake up wide awake. I inherited this from both parents; my mother would pop out of bed at 5 a.m. intense and focused; my father was at the refinery before 7 a.m. throughout his working career. I have become even more pronounced in this pattern as I've gotten older (witness many of my postings here as evidence). Furthermore, it took me a long time to understand that I am the exception compared to most other people. I spent quite a few years being harsh on those with whom I shared living arrangements -- siblings, roommates, spouse -- who could sleep soundly until noon. (Frankly, most of my life I thought they were simply lazy.)

In these first moments of the day, sensory information floods the system—the bright sunlight coming through the curtains, the time on the screeching alarm clock—and all of it needs to be processed and organized, so the brain can understand its surroundings and begin to perform more complex tasks.

"The thinking part of the brain is applying a sort of stencil to the information coming in and what the nitric oxide is doing is allowing more refinement of that stencil," says Dwayne Godwin, an associate professor at Wake Forest University and lead author of the study, which was funded by the National Eye Institute.

The little two-atom molecule, it seems, is partly responsible for our ability to perceive whatever it is we're sensing.

...

The thalamus was thought to be a fairly primitive structure, sort of a gate that could either open and allow sensory information to stream into the cortex, the higher functioning part of the brain, or cut off the flow entirely.

Godwin says the new research shows it's more accurate to think of the thalamus not as a gate but as a club bouncer, who doesn't simply allow a huge rush of people to go in or no one at all, but picks and chooses whom to let in and out.

"Instead of vision being a process going straight from eye to cortex, it's more of a loop," Godwin explained. "This constitutes a new role for the thalamus in directing, not just modulating."

While this study is the first to identify nitric oxide's role in the thalamus, elsewhere in the body it was already known to have an important, if somewhat different function. The molecule is actually integral to controlling blood flow and is, in fact, the molecule Viagra targets in order to increase blood flow to the penis.

The teeny molecule might have other medical uses.

"This study shows a unique role for nitric oxide. It may help us to someday understand what goes wrong in diseases that affect cognitive processing, such as attention deficit disorder or schizophrenia, and it adds to our fundamental understanding of how we perceive the world around us," Godwin said.

The club bouncer uses Viagra. Well, he's so obese that I guess he has to. What a simultaneously compelling and repulsive visual (within my own personal subcortex, of course).

There might be more postings today live from Camp Wellstone, as I can find a few moments. There are about sixty or so of us in attendance, most from Houston and elsewhere in Texas but also an independent candidate from Oklahoma, a guy whose family owns a restaurant in Chicago and a New York author of erotica.

You're all on notice!

Create your own at this link.

Barbara vs. Kay, Camp Wellstone, Fire Thunder and Feingold

The Dallas Women Lawyers Association confirms that Barbara Radnofsky will debate Kay Bailey Hutchison on Friday evening, September 29, at 6 p.m. at Dallas' Belo Mansion.

I'll be attending Camp Wellstone this weekend, as well as ROADWomen's Fork in the Road dinner on Saturday, which features Cecelia Fire Thunder as guest speaker.

And Senator Russ Feingold will headline the Harris County Democratic Party's Johnson-Rayburn Dinner, to be held Saturday, September 30, at the JW Marriott here.

Congratulations also to Jamaal Smith and Sandra Puente on their new gigs at the HCDP.

Jocularity! Jocularity!

This is a photograph of former Ohio State football hero Maurice Clarett's front seat, after he was arrested in a standoff with police in which he was first Tasered, then Maced because the Taser didn't work (he had on a bulletproof vest):


Only one observation:

When you finna throw down on tha playa-hatahs, it's important to be lint-free.

I found this while bumping around in Ted Stevens' tubes. It's a mock-out of both Star Trek and those inspirational posters that have been around for a few decades now:


There are many more here.

Texroots Tuesday

Chris Bell and Maria Luisa Alvarado are traveling together through the Rio Grande Valley the next few days.

Supreme Court Justice nominee Bill Moody started his walk across Texas this week; Land Commissioner candidate VaLinda Hathcox has joined him. (See photos here and here.)

David Van Os continues his Whistlestop Tour to county courthouses in North Texas (Comanche and Archer City and Wichita Falls) and West Texas (Albany and Sweetwater and San Angelo).

And the inaugural trio of Texroots-endorsed Democrats still need a little juice from you. Here's an excellent Q&A on what the Texroots are all about, and here's more on Hank, Shane, and Juan, courtesy of Vince Leibowitz at Capitol Annex:

Juan Garcia. [Website, Bio, Volunteer] Juan Garcia is running against entrenched Craddickat incumbent Gene Seaman (R-Corpus Christi). This is one of a hand-full of races that can be “flipped” from Republican to Democratic control this fall. While Seaman has a massive warchest on hand from previous election cycles, Garcia is actually leading the incumbent in fund-raising right now. To boot, he’s flipped a number of Seaman’s contributors and supporters who are tired of this district being in the hands of someone who is more concerned with staying in Tom Craddick’s good graces than serving the people. And, who could forget Seaman’s vacation to his home-away-from-home in Vail.

Here are some other good Garcia coverage: Why You Should Vote For Juan Garcia (South Texas Chisme), Where In The World Is Gene Seaman (CapitolAnnex), Juan Garcia vs. The Culture of Corruption (Truth Serum Blog), Gene Seaman Is Already Running Scared (The Red State), Juan Garcia Conference Call (CapitolAnnex).

Shane Sklar. [Website, Bio, Volunteer] At 30, Shane Sklar has already headed one of the state’s largest agriculture groups and made a name for himself in the agriculture community. Now, he’s seeking to unseat failed Libertarian Presidential Candidate turned Republican Congressman Ron Paul (R-Surfside) to give the people of Congressional District 14 effective representation. Paul’s main pet projects including voting against nearly every piece of legislation he has the opportunity to vote against—including aide for parts of Texas ravaged by Hurricane Katrina—and bemoaning the fact that the U.S. is no longer on the “gold standard.” Polling in the district earlier this year shows that voters are dissatisfied with Paul’s “Dr. No” attitude and his failure to support legislation that would benefit the district.

Here are some other links related to Shane Sklar: Guest Post at Off The Kuff, Interview with Shane Sklar (via Kuff, mp3), Sklar blasts Paul for voting against Relief (Baytown Sun), Captain Ron (In The Pink Texas), Interview with Shane Sklar (AustinNews.net), Bad Poll Numbers for Ron Paul (Kuff’s World).

Hank Gilbert. [Website, Bio, Volunteer] Remember Todd Staples (R-Palestine)? The State Senator who was one of the architects of DeLay’s redistricting scheme and is one of the Trans Texas Corridor’s best friends in the Legislature? He’s now running for Agriculture Commissioner, although no one can quite point to any major achievements he made for agricluture while in the Texas Senate. Hank Gilbert is a rancher and former high school ag teacher who actually wants to be agriculture commissioner, instead of simply use the post as a stepping-stone to higher office, like Leininger devotee Susan Combs. Hank’s fierce opposition to the Trans Texas Corridor and his common-sense goals for the Texas Department of Agriculture are far more suited to a state that boasts such an important agribusiness economy than those of his opponent.

Here are some links on Hank (or, in the case of the first link, against his opponent): Don’t Get Stapled, Hank Gilbert Or Corporate Interests–You Choose (Jobsanger), Hank Gilbert For Ag Commissioner (Burnt Orange Report), Hank Gilbert, 40/40 Project (Burnt Orange Report), Hank Gilbert: Candidate for Ag Commissioner has Better Solution (The Open Road [note: this is an anti-toll road blog, not a progressive “D” blog, but I thought it added some variety to this list), Interview with Hank Gilbert (mp3, via Off The Kuff).

So…what are you waiting for? Click here to support these three great candidates! You can split your donation among all three candidates or make separate donations to each campaign.

Update: The Blogging Representative has a report with photos of the Governor and Lieutenant Governor in the Valley. And I wish to express a humble 'thank you' to all who helped push David Van Os over the top in his "$30,000 in thirty days" fundraising appeal. (Note also the graphic in the right sidebar.)