Sunday, September 30, 2007

Shills for Hill--The Spin Goes On


Is anyone else out there tired yet of the MSM's unflagging efforts to give the Presidency to Hillary Clinton? Even when the news ain't so good, the friends of Hill find a way to give this particular turd yet another coat of shellac and a nice shine--as witness yesterday's
Newsweek piece on the results of their recent poll of voters in Iowa. The opening paragraph reads as follows:
"...Sen. Hillary Clinton holds a double-digit lead over her rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination in many national polls. But in Iowa, home to the January 2008 caucus that is the first major event of the electoral season, the Democratic race is much tighter, according to the latest NEWSWEEK Poll. Among all Iowa Democrats surveyed, Clinton enjoys a 6-point lead over her nearest rival, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama. But among likely Democratic caucus-goers, she is locked in a three-way race with Obama and former North Carolina senator John Edwards, with Obama enjoying a slight edge..."
All very well and good and true enough--but if you look at the poll numbers themselves, it's possible to come away with a slightly different interpretation. The total point spread of support for the top three democratic candidates among 'likely democratic caucus voters' is six points--28% Obama to 22% Edwards. The spread between Clinton (24%) and Obama is 4%--in others words, half the spread. A bookie would like those odds, and so does the Obama campaign. Another way of looking at it: 69% of polled Iowa democrats and 76% of likely caucus voters want anyone but Hillary. Considering the relentless campaign to make voters regard Mrs. Clinton as 'inevitable' over the last few months, her lack of solid support is pretty telling.

There are even signs within the Mainstream Media itself that the wheels may be coming off the Clinton steamroller. The NY Times Op-Ed page (no longer pay-per-view content--thanks, guys) leads off with Maureen Dowd and Frank Rich pieces entitled, respectively, 'The Nepotism Tango' and 'Is Hillary Clinton the New Old Al Gore?'

The Dowd piece has particular entertainment value, quoting the Literary Editor of The New Republic (in reference to Senator Clinton):
... She’s like some hellish housewife who has seen something that she really, really wants and won’t stop nagging you about it until finally you say, fine, take it, be the damn president, just leave me alone.”
Frank Rich's column compares the Clinton campaign to that of another one-time "inevitable" shoo-in--former Vice President Al Gore. Gore played it safe in the primaries-- just as Clinton is doing-- and continued to do so in the general election.....which he won, sort of. If Gore's support had been truly impassioned, rather than a weary concession to 'inevitability'......might it have been a bit harder for Republicans to steal the election?

Hell--this time they might even actually win.

There Goes The Neighborhood...

Yesterday the missus and I were riding our bikes to her office in the Texas Medical Center when we noticed some new lawn signs bearing the message 'STOP THE ASHBY HIGHRISE'. After I got back to the house, I did a Google search and came up with the following URL:

http://www.stopashbyhighrise.org/

The site tells the entire story. A couple of real estate developers have acquired title to an old apartment complex in the 1700 block of Bissonnet, plan to demolish it, and replace it with a 23 story residential tower. This is so wrong in so many ways that I hardly know where to start. To begin with, the area in question is one of the most beautiful residential neighborhoods in Houston. It isn't some barren wasteland that will be 'improved' by the presence of a residential mid-rise. Furthermore, the only two 'major' thoroughfares providing access to this proposed monstrosity are Bissonnet and Dunlavy, which dead ends into Bissonnet at the proposed site. Both are two lane residential streets with no possibility of being widened. Traffic problems will be bad enough on Bissonnet after construction of the seemingly inevitable 'Rail on Richmond' commences. Throw in this stupid thing and count on gridlock from Westheimer to Rice Blvd.

In this morning's Houston Chronicle, I was relatively pleased to see a guest editorial speaking out against the development project, as well as a little bit surprised--usually the Chron is as reflexibly pro-development as the national MSM is pro-Hillary. It's a good piece, and it speaks well of the consequences of this latest piece of greedhead developer stupidity (read it for yourself at http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/outlook/5175002.html).

There is an on-line petition on the 'Stop the Ashby Highrise' site, and I strongly recommend signing it. Given the lack of zoning in this city, it will be virtually impossible to stop this profoundly bad idea......but at least we have to try.

The site in question is mere blocks, BTW, from another, more horizontal, implementation of the same thing at the corner of Dunlavy and Richmond. Not long ago, developers announced plans to raze the picturesque semi-ruins at the corner of Dunlavy and Alabama for.....you guessed it, a residential mid-rise with ground-level retail.

I've lived in Montrose for 30 years and loved it........oh, well. It was fun while it lasted.

Sunday, September 2, 2007

"....a whisper from space..."

Courtesy of SlashDot, I ran across something truly inspiring today-- a newspaper piece published in Australia about the ongoing communications with the most distant man-made objects in creation--Voyager Probes 1 & 2.

These objects are now, respectively, 15.5 and 12.5 billion kilometers from earth. They've been in space for thirty years and have an anticipated life expectancy of at least another decade. The radio signals reach Earth with a strength of about a billionth of a watt, transmit data at roughly 32 bits per second, and must be decoded using computers that would've long since been decommissioned from any other purpose.

The fact that these tiny, distant objects still speak to us from the distant cold void where only comets have fared before.... it's just enormous to me. The image is powerful and poetic. Equally so, the thought of the scientists and technicians who keep faith with these tiny artifacts and their predecessors who made them. It's almost like monastic devotion--except for the fact that the faint voice these secular monastics hear from beyond the sky is, beyond question, real.

It will be a sad day, I think, when that faint whisper from space finally ceases. We will have lost a piece of ourselves--a tangible piece of the better aspect of human aspirations.....an aspect that has been, sadly, somewhat lacking here on Earth these last thirty years......I hope we get it back.

Before that small voice ceases.......before we lose ourselves.

Saturday, September 1, 2007

no wonder the poor bastard's quititng.....

Tony Snow, then & now:


I'm sorry the man's sick, but cancer is an occupational risk for people who handle toxic substances. Wonder what perky little Dana Perrino will look like after a year and half of telling lies for Shrub and The Rifleman?