Hot town, summer in the city....

Starting around last week, maybe 2 weeks ago the letters started on how some in Houston are sick and tired of this free ride. The hurricane folks should pick themselves up by the bootstraps kinda thing.

I've been warning people that summertime in Houston is about to become (more) unpleasant (than usual).

I don't suppose that the national press has covered the profound stress that this city is under. The rise in crime rates and specifically the rise in killings, has everyone on edge like I've never seen it before, not to mention the increase in gang tagging (graffitti) and the desperate traffic situation.

The police are way undermanned -- estimated short 1500 police officers. And we're looking right down the barrel of another hurricane season.

And everyone's blaming the Katrinas.

Dixie Chicks # 1

I would like to take this moment to congratulate the Dixie Chicks for their success and to thank them for, once again, sticking it hard to Clear Channel and the right-wing establishment.

Thanks!

The GOP begins to implode

Yeah, baby...

The GOP begins to implode
By Sidney Blumenthal

Bush's immigration speech was a desperate attempt to keep his delicate coalition together -- but all it did was accelerate its shattering. :

...The Republican Party as a whole is recapitulating the self-destruction of the California Republican Party. In 1994, Republican Gov. Pete Wilson advocated Proposition 187, which threatened to deny social services, healthcare and education to undocumented workers, and it aroused the Hispanic sleeping giant. From that moment, in national elections, California became one of the safest Democratic states, and only an anomaly like Schwarzenegger, an immigrant, could emerge as a viable statewide candidate. Ronald Reagan's party is a thing of the past.

The delicate coalition Bush put together in 2004 has shattered. But in losing control of the debate on immigration, which reflects his loss of control of the political debate in general, he has lost something more -- the capacity to speak for the American idea. In 1938, President Franklin D. Roosevelt confidently spoke before the convention of the nativist Daughters of the American Revolution. "Remember, remember always," he said, "that all of us, and you and I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionists."

Running scared

Local news here in the Space City covered the Dubya impersonator but no mention of Colbert.

As if.

edit: Just noticed that Slate's not covering Colbert, either.

BTW: I dissed Colbert's show last week. I still think that he's too good of an OReilly parody for me to stand on a regular basis, but he's the Man.