Just a little humor on a Tuesday night, it is Tuesday, right? I thought Ann Coulter had her mouth wired shut, oh, I guess she's been freed, and back at it again. And unfortunately, now that we have a Democratic president and a Democratic congress, probably will see more of her, blah! I got this from Huffington Post!
I just love Harry Smith, especially now, after his interview with Ann (can't shut me up) Coulter. "Tom Delay a victim?, Tom Delay a victim?, of what?" Notice, she didn't answer him.
"To achieve your best, get in over your head and rise to the top." - Dr. Richard Tapia Professor of Computational Mathematics, Rice University
It takes more than a yellow ribbon to support our service members and veterans.
As reported by Miller-McCune veterans are returning home to find that the Department of Veterans Affairs is not providing the support for veterans that it should. According to the article veterans face a wait of six months to two years to receive benefits.
Those who appeal a VA decision to deny their disability claims have to wait an average of 1,608 days, or nearly four and a half years, for their answer. During this process, veterans often fall through the cracks into homelessness, hopelessness and self-medication with alcohol and illegal drugs.
As military members are returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan many are experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In the hyper-masculine culture of the military it is difficult for many veterans to admit that they may have PTSD, much less seek the help that they need. This problem is compounded by the amount of time it takes to receive a claim from the VA; it can take months of submitting and resubmitting paperwork until veterans can receive the medical benefits they need.
Since the start of the Iraq war, the backlog of unanswered VA disability claims has grown from 325,000 to more than 600,000. In the six months ending March 31, 2008, a total of 1,467 veterans died waiting to learn if their disability claim would be approved.
However, the system that has been set up by the VA is much like the system that has been set up by many health insurance companies; a system of promotion based on denials.
The VA promotes claims adjudicators based on how many cases they clear, not on whether they make the right decision. "A VA claims official is required to clear 12 claims a day," Roche notes. "If they deny your claim, they can take an 'end product credit.' So as far as statistics go, they have cleared a claim. "Denying 12 claims a day is an easy thing to do."
Veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have filed a lawsuit against the federal government; the veterans are alleging that they were illegally denied disability benefits despite being diagnosed with severe cases of PTSD.
"The veterans allege that they each were discharged from duty after an Army review board concluded that they had suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and thus could no longer serve. Yet, in violation of federal law, the suit contends, the veterans' disabilities were not rated severe enough to qualify them for both ongoing disability payments and medical coverage for themselves and their families."
Wow, was watching the boob tube tonight, caught a snippet of Craddick, "making news." To my delight, yes, he is not making a bid for a fourth term as House speaker. See the Dallas News story here!!!
"To achieve your best, get in over your head and rise to the top." - Dr. Richard Tapia Professor of Computational Mathematics, Rice University
Here are links to all five of the Behind the Shale articles by Peggy Heinkel-Wolfe and Lowell Brown of the Denton Record Chronicle.
Eminent dominance Expansion of natural gas industry into Barnett Shale leaves Argyle families little recourse.
Chapter 1: Neighbors along Britt Drive are approached by land men eager to drill in the Barnett Shale. Some are wary of the impact on their quality of life and question whether the amount of money offered is worth it.
Perils afoot Gas boom brings potential dangers closer to homes
Chapter 2: Urban drilling means these rough-and-tumble workplaces are closer to homes than ever. But its boom-or-bust nature creates a psychosocial environment for the Britt Drive neighborhood that fosters distrust of both sides.
Culture clash Texas in tug-of-war between valuable resources underground and the people who live above
Chapter 3: Cities are trying to preserve their authority to make rules for health, safety and welfare, but the industry is pushing back. Britt Drive neighbors watch one such battle unfold in their backyard.
Voicing the silence Observations, studies show subtle, long-term effects of gas drilling
Chapter 4: A doctrine of exemption allows the industry to develop oil and gas resources without having to study the environmental or health impacts of their work. Britt Drive neighbors worry about how drilling would affect their environment.
Chapter 5: Industry insiders sometimes marginalize gas drilling opponents, but the conversation about where to draw the line in urban drilling persists. The Britt Drive neighbors' quest to keep drillers away grows increasingly desperate.
(John Robert Behrman is an economist and fifth-generation Texan. He is Executive Vice-Chair of the Progressive Populist Caucus of the Texas Democratic Party and State Committeeman for Senate District 13 writing his column here on Texas Kaos with his personal views only - promoted by boadicea)
The Center for American Progress (CAP), headed by Obama and Clinton insider John Podesta, has released a pretty definitive case against nuclear power:
"The Self-Limiting Future of Nuclear Power" (Part 1), ...
These are also accessible on Joseph Romm's excellent CAP blog, Climate Progress.
The second part uses a scary picture of dollars going up in smoke to make the point. (Actually, the picture is of a steam-condensing "cooling tower", not a smokestack.)
Such pictures are all that is misleading about the articles. They are meticulous and fair discussions otherwise. In any case, the nuclear (actually turnkey project government guaranteed finance) "industry" (meaning lobby) uses such pictures, too, so ... , as I used to say in my soccer referee days, ... "PLAYON!"
Nuclear power has been a bi-partisan failure in Texas. Any as would champion it, as do I, have a heavy burden to bear and should not get the benefit of any presumptions at all. The case against is the place to start building a case for nuclear power.
Christmas can be a trying time for anyone but even more so for a homeless person. There are so many things you wish you were doing besides standing in line or running around for meetings or appointments but life does not take a holiday. It didn't help that the public library and Work Source were both closed for 3 days this week and will be closed for those same days next week. You do what you have to do and keep going.
There is an old line used by leftists trying to salvage Marx's reputation from the horrors of Stalin's Gulag and the collapse of the Soviet economy. "Communism did not fail, it has yet to be tried. Today's Houston Chronicle article, Capitalism failed? Or did we fail capitalism? , is the right wing equivalent complaint. Ironically, they are both probably true, and both totally irrelevant defenses .
The problem with both Marxian socialism and Laissez-faire capitalism is that they both posit the existence of human beings of particular , consistent motivations. For the Marxists, men are basically altruistic, that the culture of capitalism corrupts them. For the high priests of the laissez-faire state, men are basically self-seeking and our salvation is in pitting them against
each other.
Given these flawed first presumptions, how could anyone ever take seriously the unalloyed application of these schemes in organizing real human societies?
As many of us prepare to spend time with the important people in our lives, it's usually light on blogging. (You may have noticed.)
So, as I get ready to host festivities at Chez Boadicea this evening, it seems a very good time to say thank you to all of you, and wish you the happiest of holidays with yours.
Texas Kaos is what it is because of your participation-whether you're writing for the front page, chiming in with a comment or two on someone else's diary, or simply read us in your RSS feed and never signed up for a user ID.
Many thanks for being part of this community, and may whatever festivities the next few days hold for you be joyful and refreshing.
Because we still got a lick of work to do here in Texas, and we're gonna need all of you beside us kicking ass.
It's Monday [Well ,actually it is Tuesday, I was out of town...] and that means it is time for another edition of the Texas Progressive Alliance's Weekly Blog Round-Up. This week's round up--the last weekly round-up of 2008--is compiled by Vince from Capitol Annex.
Next week, the Texas Progressive Alliance will bring you its Best of 2008--a compilation of the best posts from member blogs and bloggers from the historic year past.
Happy Holidays, and enjoy the last regular round-up of 2008.
At TruthHuggerThe crystal ball in BossKitty's head has instructed me to share its opinion on how the final month of a pretentious Bush Administration contributes to the destruction of the America we knew. And, Bush wondered aloud, "How did we get here?"
(Reminder-This afternoon we'll be at Fiddler's Hearth in Austin. Look for the rowdy group with the TK logo on one of the tables. - promoted by boadicea)
Every so often, we Kaos kids gather in person to gab face-to-face.
Lurkers, contrubutors, front pagers, and the rest of the rabble meet on a Sunday afternoon for conversation and kinship.
This time, it's festive! I hope you can take a break from your yuletide preparations and lift a glass with us at
Fiddler's Hearth on Winter Solstice.
See you there!
Where: 301 Barton Springs Rd
Austin, TX
78701
When: Sunday, December 21, 2008
Time: 02:00 PM - 05:00 PM
I'll also be raising a toast to the late Jennifer Gale.
Voices call out:
Hey, you got a smoke
Some weed
A dollar
A blanket
The crowd shuffles as lines form for
Food, beds, blankets, showers, toilets
Feet stomping, shuffling, slipping and sliding
While more lines form and hoops appear to jump through
Voices call out:
Food Truck coming
There's the law
Someone died last night
Who lost their bunk
New lines form
Same old faces
Strange ones mixed in
As the Homeless Shuffle continues
Find a bed
A job
A fix
Themselves
Voices call out:
F YOU!!!
Baby, you okay
Get Lost!!!
You can do it
The crowd shuffles
As some escape
Some Out
Some Down
Some just gone
Replaced by new faces & New Stories
As the Homeless Shuffle moves on
Drilling the Barnet Shale for natural gas is responsible for most of the smog in North Central Texas, according to a new peer-reviewed study. Currently, there are nearly 10,000 functioning gas wells in the Barnett Shale, with thousands more holding permits from the Texas Railroad Commission.
Research by Dr. Al Armendariz, an engineering professor at Southern Methodist University, found that emissions from gas drilling activities cause twice the ozone-forming pollution as the area's automobiles. His projection for 2009 shows that emissions from Barnett Shale drilling will be a whopping 200 percent higher than emissions from all motor vehicles and area airports combined.
When nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds-chemicals such as benzene and formaldehyde-are combined with sunlight, they transform into choking ground-level ozone or smog. Smog poses serious health consequences particularly for children and the elderly, triggering asthma, heart attacks and causing lung damage.
I agree with Burns. Wise County can't afford to be on that list! Wise County may have dodged the bullet this time, but we need to get ahead of the curve now to avoid that firing squad next time.
The following is the third installment of a Left of College Station series: The Issues We Face, an in depth look at the issues that progressive activist will face in the coming year and the coming 111th Congress and 81st Texas Legislature.
Possibly the most difficult task for progressive activist is continuing the movement to abolish the death penalty, particularly in a state that has executed more people than any other in the United States since 1976. There is a particular urgency to this issue; every battle fought is literally a battle for life and death. Organizations such as the Innocence Project of Texas have worked to save lives; Texas has wrongfully convicted 32 people which is more than any other state in the country.
On Friday's episode of Meet the Bloggers there were several activist and progressive bloggers who discussed the death penalty including Mike Farrell, President of Death Penalty Focus, and Liliana Segura, rights and liberties blogger at AlterNet.org. This discussion ranged from the racial inequality that is present in the justice system to the inhuman and uncivilized nature of the death penalty.
The United States has prided itself on being an example for the rest of the world, yet this country is the only developed western nation that has not abolished the death penalty and finds itself in the company of nations that we often point to as the most egregious human rights offenders. There are four countries that executed more people in 2007 than the United States (42): Pakistan (135), Saudi Arabia (143), Iran (317), and China (470); the United States and those four countries represented 88% of all the executions carried out throughout the world in 2007.
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) notes that while companies may keep their fracking "formulas" proprietary, the individual ingredients are public record in Pennsylvania. The agency supplied The River Reporter with a list of chemicals that may be used during the fracking process. Any of them may be present in the wastewater generated and may be stored temporarily in open pits at the site.
In the early states of the Republican revival, GOP strategist learned the value of running candidates for down ballot races , like say, state or local schoolboard. It was good training for the choosen candidates, it gave the GOP a local presence and a platform to publicly expound on GOP themes. As the role of the Religious Right grew in the party, those low level positions often went to activists members of this religious persuasion. The spawn of this strategy was predictable zealous and unabashedly certain in their views, but very few were in the same class as State Board of Education member Cynthia Dunbar, R-Richmond. Witness:
Christians should "occupy" all nations.
President-elect Barack Obama's pro-choice stance on abortion is the same sort of "fascist, supremacist attitude exhibited by Mussolini and Hitler."
Public education is tyrannical, unconstitutional and the Satan-following Left's "subtly deceptive tool of perversion." And parents who surrender their children to government-run schools are "throwing them into the enemy's flames even as the children of Israel threw their children to Moloch."
Ms.Dunbar sits on the Texas State Board of Education. She helps decide on education policies, cirriculum and textbooks for 4 million plus Texas students. Our work to reclaim our country from the nut cases and exremists is not done here in Texas. In particular, we have to pay more attention to these down ballot races.
(John Robert Behrman is an economist and fifth-generation Texan. He is Executive Vice-Chair of the Progressive Populist Caucus of the Texas Democratic Party and State Committeeman for Senate District 13 writing his column here on Texas Kaos with his personal views only - promoted by boadicea)
Piracy is not pretty or funny from, say, the perspective of a Somali fisherman or for many on either side of the Rio Grande River. Piracy (on the sea) and brigandage (the same on the land) are where the very worst of war and commerce intersect. These are criminal activities, with or without a political agenda. They go on some places on earth almost all the time. With a political purpose, piracy, as "Fourth" and even "Fifth Generation" warfare, is thought to be new, but these are as as old as history and always had political implications, especialy in Texas.
To be sure, in "cyberspace", they are new and much more extensive and dangerous than just downloading music and video files or even stealing bond-elections. They are central to financing and conducting terrorism. They have something to do with all those trillions that the central banks are wiring into cyberspace with no clue where it is ending up or what it is actually doing for or to the world economy. And, they are the pretext for massive assaults on traditional liberties by -- in the case of the National Security Agency -- US Navy (Cryptography) Admirals who may or may not know what they are doing other than, of course, spending lots of money in, say, Steny Hoyer's Congressional District.
Here is a recent comment from another naval officer, this one our commander of a flotilla off the Horn of Africa:
The U.S. commander in charge of the waters off Somalia, Vice Adm. Bill Gortney, told CNN on Monday that he thought it would take a force of 61 warships to safeguard the sea lanes just in the Gulf of Aden, compared with the 14 international ships now patrolling off the Horn of Africa. If the U.S. Navy alone had to provide a force that size, it would take every destroyer and cruiser in the fleet, plus three frigates. ( Navy Times, 12/09/08 )
That is the sort of devastating comment that usually gets a Vice Admiral fired because it is true but makes complete fools of Secretaries of the Navy and of the Senate and House leadership of both parties for over a half century now. It sounds like the Duke of Medina Sidonia ordering up a Spanish Armada.
Actually, piracy -- for all its history -- raises very serious questions about a lot of things today ...
Flames from a ruptured gas line shoot into the sky in the eastern part of the county Tuesday afternoon. The unmarked gas line was punctured while Eagle Pipeline crews were digging a ditch to lay piping.
This is part two of a hopefully short term series written by our own Refinish69.
This series of diaries is a way to explain what is going on in my life and what I am learning as I worked through the different programs available for the homeless in Austin, Texas. I am not seeking donations of any kind but warm thoughts as I do what I have to do to get back on my feet. Of course, if someone has an old laptop with a wireless card they would like to donate, I would gladly accept. LOL This will happen and I have started the process even if it does seem daunting at time.
A letter to the San Antonio Express written by David Van Os:
Dear Express-News Editor:
When the Wall Street elite went down to Washington, D.C. in support of their man Henry Paulson's bill to get them a government bailout to the tune of 700 Billion Dollars, nobody asked them how they traveled to Washington. It is highly doubtful they drove themselves in economical middle-class automobiles. Nobody required them to specify how they were going to restructure themselves to avoid another disaster in their industry; and nobody required them to be overseen by a government-appointed financial industry czar. To denote just two of the financial companies that have received bailouts, the insurance company AIG was given 40 billion dollars and Bank of America was given 25 billion.
The Center for American Progress (CAP), headed by Obama and Clinton insider John Podesta, has released a pretty definitive case against nuclear power:
Piracy is not pretty or funny from, say, the perspective of a Somali fisherman or for many on either side of the Rio Grande River. Piracy (on the sea) and brigandage (the same on the land) are where the very worst of war and commerce intersect. These are criminal activities, with or without a political agenda. They go on some places on earth almost all the time. With a political purpose, piracy, as "Fourth" and even "Fifth Generation" warfare, is thought to be new, but these are as as old as history and always had political implications, especialy in Texas.
