Express Checkout

The Crowne Plaza in the Texas Medical Center ate it Sunday morning.



There was a big crowd watching, they served Dynamite Bites; I'm just sorry I missed being on the scene. My wife slept through the boom-boom-boom of the detonation, and all I could see from my living room window was the big cloud of dust that arose and then drifted away to the north.

I spent a weekend in the ballroom of that place doing my est Training in 1984. It had a horrible parking garage, so narrow you could barely make the turns, even in my Plymouth Laser. Later that same year we met my wife's cousin Salomon for dinner there; he was down from Brooklyn for an anesthesiologist's convention.

A few years from now that space will be home to a huge maternity ward.

This Swamplot fellow has all the dope (thanks to Kuffner for the tip, who also notes the demise of another landmark building in New Jersey).

Quoteworthy and Excerptilicious

"The death penalty ... says that to kill in certain circumstances is acceptable, and encourages the doctrine of revenge.

"If we are to break these cycles, we must remove government-sanctioned violence."

-- Desmond Tutu, writing in The Guardian ahead of a vote on a draft resolution at the United Nations General Assembly calling for a moratorium on executions

The Age of Dinosaurs ended roughly 65 million years ago with the K-T or Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event, which killed off all dinosaurs save those that became birds, as well as roughly half of all species on the planet, including pterosaurs. The prime suspect in this ancient murder mystery is an asteroid or comet impact, which left a vast crater at Chicxulub on the coast of Mexico.

Another leading culprit is a series of colossal volcanic eruptions that occurred between 63 million to 67 million years ago. These created the gigantic Deccan Traps lava beds in India, whose original extent may have covered as much as 580,000 square miles (1.5 million square kilometers), or more than twice the area of Texas.

Arguments over which disaster killed the dinosaurs often revolve around when each happened and whether extinctions followed. Previous work had only narrowed the timing of the Deccan eruptions to within 300,000 to 500,000 years of the extinction event.

Now research suggests the mass extinction happened at or just after the biggest phase of the Deccan eruptions, which spewed 80 percent of the lava found at the Deccan Traps.

-- "Double Trouble: What Really Killed the Dinosaurs"

Baseball's free-agent supermarket opens for business today, and Astros general manager Ed Wade apparently will be making offers to closer Francisco Cordero, second baseman Luis Castillo, pitcher Randy Wolf and several others.

Wade won't say how much money he has to spend. He'll just say that he has enough to do the things he needs to do.

Hearing this, I wanted to ask if Drayton McLane still owned the Astros. But Wade is new in town, and with us still being on speaking terms and all, I asked if he'd had the special at Irma's.

Besides, they say people can change, and maybe McLane has decided he likes spending money. Or maybe he has decided he doesn't like the way Minute Maid Park looks when it's empty in October.

--Richard Justice, in the Chronic

The Thought Crime Bill

Designated H.R.1955 and titled the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism and Prevention Act of 2007, it is an amendment to the Homeland Security Act of 2002. The bill was sponsored by Rep. Jane Harmon [Dem-CA] and overwhelming approved by the House on 23 October by a 404 to 6 vote.

Some people have called this the “thought crime bill”, and they are not exaggerating ...

This is the first terrorism-related legislation that specifically targets U.S. citizens and the vagueness of the wording is a dangerous threat to the First Amendment and to each of us in ways that have not been attempted before in the United States. The definitions in the bill hold the frightening keys to the undermining of our most basic liberty - to speak freely [bold emphasis is the O.P.'s]:

“VIOLENT RADICALIZATION - The term ‘violent radicalization' means process of adopting or promoting an extremist belief system for the purpose of facilitating ideologically based violence to advance political, religious, or social change."

The difficulties here are that “extremist belief system” means anything the government wants it to mean as does the word “facilitating.”

“HOMEGROWN TERRORISM - The term 'homegrown terrorism' means the use, planned use, or threatened use, of force or violence by a group or individual born, raised, or based and operating primarily within the United States or any possession of the United States to intimidate or coerce the United States government, the civilian population of the United States, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.”

Any variety of citizen activists or organizations could be found in violation if this bill becomes law. Operation Rescue could be prosecuted under this aegis. As could CodePink.

The warning again, and your action item:

It is not extreme to say that unless you want to find out what it was like to live in Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union under Stalin or Italy under Mussolini where any "wrong" thought and word could make a citizen subject to arrest and worse, this bill must be stopped. Write, email, telephone your senators and get everyone you know to do so too. You can easily do that here. It might be prudent too to ask the senators who are running for president how they will vote on this bill.

The Weekly TexProgBlog Wrangle

Time for this week's Texas Progressive Alliance's Texas Blog Round-Up, brought to you once again by Vince from Capitol Annex.

TXsharon at Bluedaze sounds an alert about an investigative report exposing the Most Toxic Substance on Earth and the Barnett Shale gas exploration.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme is disgusted with UT Southwestern Medical Center's policy of using state funds to give the 'elite' special treatment while the rest of us languish.

McBlogger wants to know why Barney Frank is loving on big banks in Kill The Mortgage Market bill, HR 3915.

Xanthippas at Three Wise Men says be on the lookout for how credit card and home mortgage lenders will screw you by making you pay debts you don't actually owe.

Muse finds herself in the middle of a massive police presence and wonders if she has wandered into a manhunt. Nah, not an escaped convict, just W in town to get slobbered on by his lapdog, John Cornyn, at a fundraiser.

At Half Empty, Hal questions whether Congressmen Lantos' and Smith's excoriation of Yahoo! chiefs for releasing information to the ChiComs is just the pot calling the kettle black.

Burnt Orange Report is all over the runoff for HD-97. Todd Hill gives an analysis of on the ground action and why Democrat Dan Barrett came in first place to secure a spot in the runoff. Phillip Martin breaks down the numbers and price-per-vote, while also looking at some possibly illegal practices by the Republican in the runoff, Mark Shelton.

John Coby at Bay Area Houston writes about state representative John Davis being slapped by the ethics watchdog. Again.

The Texas Cloverleaf's hide is chapped by the abolishment of the hide inspectors and calls for a new Texas Constitutional Convention.

BossKitty at BlueBloggin points out how the Bush administration shows their support for veterans and the troops in US Tax Dollars NOT Spent on Homeless Veterans - Words Are Cheaper.

Texas Toad at North Texas Liberal fills us in on Texas land commissioner Jerry Patterson's announcement of the delay in the sale of the Christmas Mountains, as well as the reaction of Environment Texas.

Lightseeker at Texas Kaos tells that gigantic slurping sound from a few acres of scrub in north Texas was just T. Boone Pickens stealing water rights.

Vince at Capitol Annex has some reservations about the fact that the Bill White 2010 bandwagon is already rolling down the tracks.

WhosPlayin takes a look at an aspiring new "non-partisan" political party - the GOOOH party.

Gary at Easter Lemming Liberal News had one of his (in)famous what I did election day posts.

PDiddie is fed up with Democrats like Dianne Feinstein and Chuck Schumer, and intends to support only members of the Democratic Party such as Dennis Kucinich and John Edwards. He clarifies the distinction in "The Democrat Party vs. the Democratic Party", at Brains and Eggs.

WCNews at Eye on Williamson has video of the TCRP's Scott Medlock discussing Williamson County, T. Don Hutto, & CCA.

Off the Kuff does a little after action review by examining his election day predictions to see how they turned out.

Late Sunday Funnies

Early Sunday Funnies

The 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month

In 1918, at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day in the eleventh month, after four years of bitter war, an armistice between the Allied powers and Germany went into effect, bringing the fighting of World War I to a close. Today we celebrate the anniversary of that cessation as Veterans Day.



More than 1.5 million men and women have served in Iraq and Afghanistan so far, and every one of them volunteered. As Tom Lynch, a military fellow at the Brookings Institution, said:

"Perhaps never before in American history have so few done so much for so long."

For many newly-returned troops, this is their first Veterans Day spent as veterans. Help welcome them home by attending a local Veterans Day event ...

The Veterans for Peace (VFP) Chapter 12, Houston will be marching in the Veteran’s Day Parade through downtown Houston on Sunday, November 11. The parade will last from approximately 12:30 PM until 1:30 PM. VFP would like a strong turnout behind our flag and banner to show the citizens of Houston that we are pro peace in an unprecedented time of war and turmoil. Please join us today.

Assembly Time: Between 11:00AM to 12:00PM
Assembly Place: Corner of Prairie and Louisiana
Entry Name: Veterans for Peace
Entry Number: 120
Complimentary Parking; In any of the Theatre District Garages

... or if you know a vet personally, take a moment and thank them.

You can write your own message of thanks to our veterans by clicking here.

Norman Mailer 1923 - 2007

Mailer at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. He wrote series of articles for Esquire on the 1968 Democratic and Republican conventions which were the basis for his book “Miami and the Siege of Chicago.”

Gore Vidal, with whom he frequently wrangled, once wrote: “Mailer is forever shouting at us that he is about to tell us something we must know or has just told us something revelatory and we failed to hear him or that he will, God grant his poor abused brain and body just one more chance, get through to us so that we will know. Each time he speaks he must become more bold, more loud, put on brighter motley and shake more foolish bells. Yet of all my contemporaries I retain the greatest affection for Norman as a force and as an artist. He is a man whose faults, though many, add to rather than subtract from the sum of his natural achievements.”

Yao v. Yi

The photographers pressed against each other, two rows deep, nearly 20 in all. The Chinese dignitaries also had taken their places about 30 feet away, flanking the man of the evening, the Houston Rockets' towering center, Yao Ming.

Together, they waited. This was supposed to be the standard NBA photo op: grip, grin, get out. But as a few minutes passed and the group continued to stand at midcourt, it became evident something was missing.

Yao's co-star.

Yi Jianlian, the Milwaukee Bucks' rookie forward and China's second-best basketball player, still was in the locker room. As a Bucks official hurried to fetch Yi, Yao continued to wait patiently.

"A rookie," Yao would later say, a smile beginning to stretch across his face, "should not do that."

The game was broadcast live on 19 networks and two web sites in China with a total audience expected to surpass 200 million viewers. In comparison, the Super Bowl is estimated to draw about 150 million watchers worldwide. The average audience during Sunday's much-hyped NFL battle between the New England Patriots and Indianapolis Colts drew an audience of about 33.8 million.

"The Fall of the House of Bush"

Craig Unger's excellent book reminds us what we have come through regarding the soon-to-concluded neoconservative period. Salon has the third excerpt, with links to the two previous (short ad viewing required as always). Here's a snip of it:

Much as he loathed Colin Powell, Vice President-elect Dick Cheney realized that the immensely popular general -- the most trusted man in America -- was essential to the political perception of the incoming Bush administration's foreign policy decisions. As former speaker of the house Newt Gingrich put it, "If you're George Bush, and the biggest weakness you have is foreign policy, and you can have Cheney on one flank and Powell on the other, it virtually eliminated the competence issue."

As a result, on December 16, 2000, three days after Al Gore conceded defeat, Colin Powell was flown to Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas, where the president-elect announced his first cabinet appointment: Colin Powell as secretary of state. "He is a tower of strength and common sense," said Bush. "You find somebody like that, you have to hang on to them. I have found such a man."

Tears filled Bush's eyes. "I so admire Colin Powell," he later explained. "I love his story."

Unlike other designated cabinet appointees, Powell had not been vetted by Cheney or other campaign officials. Nor, according to "Soldier: The Life of Colin Powell," Karen DeYoung's comprehensive biography of him, was Powell even asked any serious foreign policy questions. Such discussions were not necessary. According to a former Pentagon official who had worked with Cheney during the first Gulf War, "Cheney's distrust and dislike for Mr. Powell were unbounded." In other words, Powell was only there for show. Cheney immediately took measures to undermine him. The chess game began.

At the Crawford press conference on December 16, Powell was dazzling -- too dazzling for his own good. As he proceeded with his lengthy discourse about the state of the world, Bush's admiring expression gradually turned to one of sour irritation. Afterward, Richard Armitage, Powell's close friend and longtime colleague, told the secretary of state-designate that he had been so comfortable in front of the cameras compared to the president-elect, that it was somewhat disturbing. "It's about domination," Armitage advised Powell. "Be careful in appearances with the president."

Armitage wasn't the only one to notice. "Powell seemed to dominate the President-elect ... both physically and in the confidence he projected," reported the Washington Post. New York Times foreign affairs columnist Thomas Friedman concluded that Powell "so towered over the president-elect, who let him answer every question on foreign policy, that it was impossible to imagine Mr. Bush ever challenging or overruling Mr. Powell on any issue."

None of this was lost on Cheney. Initially, Bush and he had decided that the new secretary of defense would be former Indiana senator Dan Coats, a Christian fundamentalist on the Senate Armed Services Committee who had won over the Christian Right thanks to his undiluted antipathy toward gays in the military. But now it was abundantly clear to Cheney that Coats would be no match for Powell. When Coats added that he did not consider missile defense an urgent priority, Bush and Cheney dumped him immediately.

Meanwhile, Bush proceeded to pick other key cabinet officials. On December 22, he announced that his attorney general would be John Ashcroft, who had just been defeated in a bid for reelection as senator from Missouri. Ashcroft, who had preached at Jerry Falwell's Thomas Road Baptist Church, was a member of the Assemblies of God church, the denomination of Jimmy Swaggart, Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, and Elvis Presley, which was known for charismatic practices such as faith healing and speaking in tongues.

As secretary of commerce, Bush picked Don Evans, an evangelical oil man friend from Texas who had introduced Bush to the Community Bible Studies program in Midland. As chief White House speechwriter, Bush picked Michael Gerson, a graduate of Wheaton College, the so-called Harvard of evangelical colleges. These were the very people whom Neil Bush had scorned as "cockroaches" issuing "from the baseboards of the Bible-belt," and whom Bush 41 had derided as the "extra-chromosome set."

As the cabinet began to take shape in late December, Colin Powell still presented the biggest potential obstacle to the ambitions of Cheney and the neocons. There was less than a month before the inauguration. Time was running out. They had to find a way to neutralize him.

There's more great reading ahead. Craig Unger's website will give you information on where to buy his book.

Help oppose telecom immunity today

... because if they haven't done anything wrong, why do they need to be shielded from crimes that haven't been committed?

Of course, they did. Spy on us, that is. All of us. All of e-mail, our phone calls, everything. Everybody. You, me, your mother, every single American, every single phone call you made, every single e-mail you sent or received.

Chris Dodd has a nifty little tool you can use to see which Senators are for, against, or wavering:



Most haven't decided, so a call today would really be helpful. I called Senator Box Turtle's office, but since he has never represented my views in any way in the past six years, I also called Sen. Leahy.

I told his staffer that since I had no representation in the US Senate, if he would be so kind as to represent me (and all Texas Democratic voters, and several thousand independents and maybe even a few Republicans) by opposing the FISA law granting retroactive immunity to AT&T, et. al. for the blanket spying they did on us.

I was on the phone for ten minutes for anyone in Sen. Schumer's office before I hung up.

Welcome to Houston, Mr. President

Cheney in Dallas last week, Bush in Houston and San Antonio today. You think they're worried about their little box turtle? As political uber-guru Richard Murray noted: "I hope they can raise some money, that's about all they can do for Cornyn."

And as our beloved Pretzledent prepares to do that little fund-raising event here this evening for his bestest buddy in the US Senate, we're going to do a little raising of our own.

And you can join Democracy for America, Wes Clark, John Kerry and many more in giving Dubya a poke in the eye with a $50,000 stick.

The Rick Noriega Express is rolling again today; jump on board. More from my blogsista Share.