Molly Ivins

She left us two years ago today. We were richer than we knew for the time she was here. Go read.

John Cornyn is a Major Asshat

Chart positioning Cornyn at the left isn't much more than I would need to convince myself but after listening to this idiot today on C-Span I couldn't stand it. So you get a small rant from willis.

Just from memory during Senator's Fiengold's censure hearing on Bush when John Dean was called to testify, Cornyn "assailed Dean calling him a “convicted felon” and accusing him of selling a book and his testimony being “part of the marketing effort.”" Dean is no angel. He is a convicted felon from the Watergate fiasco and regrets his crime. Cornyn's disregard for convicted felons only seems to go so far as he licks Oliver North's ass. Just as a side bar, North's actions in Iran-Contra resulted in deaths untold while I don't believe anyone lost their life in Dean's obstruction of justice.

Pastor John Hagee supports Cornyn with financial contributions (along with Huckabible and McSame). I don't care if its legal or not. Both are way right and way asshat.

Now Cornyn is all upset about "oversight" and vetting the new appointments from the Obama administration. Forchrisakes he hasn't batted an eye about oversight, subpoena avoidance, or spending us into oblivion for the past 8 years and now he gives a shit? I almost starting drinking at 10AM!

Cornyn will say whatever he has to to shove his philosophy forward. He is an opportunist that will shield his lies in persuasive oratory. He'll do his campaign ad's in jeans, cowboy hat and a work shirt on the Texas prairie to smoosh his re-election. What's worse is he enjoys the support of most Texans. Most Texas don't even know who the new vice president is. Gads!

Later in Life

No child left behind strikes. Ah, maybe not. I remember being forced to do this stuff when I didn't want to and the project reflected it. I had to do a term paper in Senior HS English where we couldn't pick our subjects and I was assigned "the effects of the middle ages on Thomas Gray". I had no idea who the fuck Gray was or how the middle ages affected him. It strikes me later in life that these were assigned to make it easier for the teacher to spend less time grading because it was a subject she knew. The bitch... why do I have to know about anything she enjoyed versus something I want to do (which was nothing, by the way)? I turned in something plagiarized from an encyclopedia, triple spaced and as a result, I hated Senior HS English and graduated with a "D".

It also strikes me later in life (as so much does - anyone have time for crap that smacks them later in life versus dealing with "later in life" as it is? Okay thanks.) that if I was her I probably would have done the same thing or worse. I'd have told the miserable little fucks to provide a written description of how to tie your shoe and pass it to the idiot to the left, see what they do with it and base the grade on that. Just because I didn't care about Gray or the middle ages doesn't mean crap. She wanted to see what I could do... the bitch.......I'll never forgive her for letting me graduate.

Former French President Chirac hospitalised after mauling by his clinically depressed poodle

No need to go into how I found this but it is pretty good. I'll try to make an effort not to post trash here....no I won't, I'll post all kinds of stuff here.

Do you know....

...That while the us airlines are required to meet very stringent interior flammability requirements to enhance occupant survival, there are no such regulations for buses or rail cars? From my background in maintaining & modifying transport category aircraft I have no problem with anything that helps anyone (child, adult, handicapped, etc) survive an accident. To me this was government oversight at it's best because as an airline, this stuff doesn't make any money except as a sales tool (Check a Volvo commercial for advertising pro activity). All it does is add weight and make maintenance more difficult but it forced the airlines to adopt standards that, at least in my opinion , have been a factor in saving lives in several accidents over the last 10 years. Most recently demonstrated by the Continental crash in Denver earlier this month. The caption to this picture from the Federal Railroad Administration is:

"Instrumented Anthropomorphic Test Devices (“crash dummies”) are used to develop improved occupant protection strategies in passenger rail cars.
The Train Occupant Protection Program will carry out research on structural crashworthiness and interior safety of locomotives and in intercity and commuter rail cars, in addition to improve the survivability of rail passengers and crewmembers in accidents. It also addresses system safety and fire protection issues. The goal of this research program is to promote and improve the safety of the national passenger rail transportation system."

Okay, all well and good. Why now.....Why isn't rail, bus, ship, ferry passenger transportation as overseen as much as air transport. The size of the transport vehicle or the medium in which it operates should not be what drives the oversight for passenger safety. The "Sunset Limited" didn't burn but after the recent "ditching" in the Hudson River demonstrated the relevant issue is "crashworthiness" of the vehicle and it applies to all vehicles.

Money to Local Schools, Not So Fast Says Brady

There's an article in today's local paper describing that the schools in Montgomery County Texas could be in for about 36 million dollars if the the new stimulus package goes through. Our local US Rep Kevin "I'm still carrying Bush's water" Brady (TX-8) isn't so sure its a good idea as it isn't "free money".

I don't know if the package is a good deal or not but I am amazed at the emergence of Brady's zeal for oversight now and wonder where the hell it was when retroactive immunity was approved for shredding the constitution and allowing an invasion of a country that didn't do anything to us. Asshat.

PS: I commented to this effect in the paper's web page. May stir this county's over-population of repubs to attack.

willis

There are pilots, then there are pilots!

This may be dated but still worth a look.

This pilot makes it look like part of the show. When these aerobatic aircraft fly wings vertical (or any aircarft for that matter. These are designed for it), they use the fuselage as an airfoil, a bunch of power and deft handling of the rudder and elevators. All that and some airspeed which this pilot acheived by the loss in altitude and full throttle.

So, the aircraft will need at least the right wing, maybe some landing gear work, and probably a new seat cushion!

Its January 20th, 12:15 in the AM Houston Time. Early but still 1/20/2009 and I have a blog (OMG!) where I can post anything I want to say to the world. First off, willis is fairly inebriated. Not planned, but it is what I am as shit sneaks up on one once in a while.

Tomorrow at 12:01PM we will have a new president. The eight years of horror from the Bush administration have resulted in two wars, one of them started under false assumptions aggressively sold to us and Congress resulting in almost 5000 American soldiers lost, close to 20,000 disabled and an untold number of innocent civilians dead in both theatres, the loss of New Orleans, The adoption of torture as a military means of intelligence gathering, the shredding of our rights of individual protections under the Constitution, etc.....Fuck it, check this to see all of it as it's too long a list.

I hope the bastards are all held accountable for their crimes. All of `em; Rice, Wofowitz, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Powell, Pearle, Ashcroft, Gonzales...my god, where does it stop.

If I was Obama, I wouldn't want the job. But he's there with better than a million others hoping for some salvation from the last 8 years of destruction, and I hope to hell he can deliver. I fear, however it may be beyond what any one man can do in 4 years or even 8, regardless how competent he is. Still I look on this new administration with hope. There'll be disappointments for sure, things he'll do I won't like and maybe policies I won't agree with. But as long as his administration is "relatively" straight with me, I can deal with it. I say "relatively" as there are 300 million of us....I don't expect a personal call!

If there is a God, now is the time for him to bless America and its leaders.

willis

Somebody May be Hiding Your Mail, & You Might Care!

Periodically, the Post Office audits the functions of carriers, clerks and others which doesn't seem like a big deal. Afterall, prudent management would want to be aware of changes in order to properly respond by shifting manpower or changing route structure, etc. as things evolve. However, recently in Philadelphia it was discovered by Nick Casselli (pictured at the link) after a little snooping that management at a Philly postal processing plant was using their audit to support management's position that they were over staffed by falsely dropping the workload by "hiding" the mail.

So why does "willis" give a shit what happened to postal workers in Philly beyond being the caring individual I am? My first wife (also my current and only wife) is a letter carrier at a Houston area post office which is undergoing the same audit process. It's odd that for some reason the mail volume at her office drops almost in half during "audit week" and this phenomenon occurs without fail every time they are audited. Her office currently operates with too few clerks and several "open" routes and yet they are taking the numbers they get from this audit to use to support additional staff cuts. Right now they use overtime to support the open routes.

Maybe not germane to any of this but the Postmaster General, John E. Potter, received a whopping 39% compensation increase last year ........$258,840, up from $186,600 . I'm sure its just a coincidence.

I'd like to put on the Greg Palast Hat and go under cover to see what really goes on. There would have to be a fair number of folks involved and everyone either isn't as good a liar as Rumsfeld, Rice, or Cheney and/or they would blow the whistle on a deception of this scale. One would think. However, rank and file postal workers are not generally millionaires and whistle blowing is a rare occurrence for fear of retaliation I have on good athority.

I'll post more if I hear anything....

willis

The View from Russia

Alaska village dying while Palin focuses on her mistreatment at the hands of the "liberal media". She needs to do the job she was hired to do and stop worrying about the national media.

View of Russia

Wanted to catch up on world affairs this AM, particularly the happenings in Russia so naturally I checked the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman in Wasilla. It's a better view than NORAD has nevermind the fact I have no access there.

Anyway, I was drawn to the following gossip on the Op-ed page. Go look, the comments are the best part.

http://www.frontiersman.com/articles/2009/01/08/opinion/letters/doc496060ba26f97695081760.txt

PS: I know there's a way to link to stuff by embedding the address in my text....I just don't know how. Any help there would be appreciated. I said I'd be challenged, dammit.

Dobbs Cheap Shot

So Lou Dobbs ask tonight if congress really needs another comedian with Al Franken coming in (hopefully). Actually, it was a pretty good line in a "Dennis Miller" kinda way but an easy rim shot for the front row folks.

I don't think much of Lou Dobbs as a "journalist". Maybe he was a journalist once but I don't think he is now. Wonder how many more aren't now....I'll look into that for future post (he said w/confidence).