Back from Texas

Yes, the Liberal survived total immersion in Wingnut culture and even managed to test-drive a Prius (about decided to be my next car) in Houston. Of course, people looked at you funny for gettin' in one of them lil' ol' tree-hugger mobiles. It's the land of trucks, the bigger the better, and diesels, the bigger the better. I test drove a little diesel, a VW Jetta, while there. They looked at you almost as funny as they looked at you in the Prius.

Oil closed above $70 per barrel today based on whatever tea leaves Exxon-Mobil is reading. As I watch my summer become limited to a smaller and smaller circle around Denver (unless I buy that Prius), my investments, some of which have oily rates of return, soar. I'm involved in both economies, the one where investments have been doing very, very well and the one where pay increases have been made into net losses by inflation and niggardly raises. Blame outsourcing, blame immigrants but don't blame the CEOs. They got their average 24% raise. We should all be happy about that.

It was warm in Houston and dry, unusual for April but then, it's warm and dry in Denver. Nothing to do with global warming, it's the zonal flow off the Pacific ocean. It was the zonal flow off the Pacific ocean in all but one summer since 2001. Nothing to do with global warming but my roses are fully leafed out, usually reserved for early May. Them pickups down there, the awl bidness ain't got nothin' to do with the weather, they say, while running hurricane drills to prepare for the next Rita (retired) and the attendant 42 hour drive from Houston to San Antonio.

Even my Texas conservative friends weren't too happy about things, it seems. One of the most vocal opponents of the Iraq debacle has a son flying Apaches in Iraq for the third time. Rumsfeld is a curse word around their house and when you say "bush" you'd better qualify it with "rose" or "bramble". Those two siamese twins of different mothers, Bush and Rumsfeld, are practicing their mutual admiration, backed up by a few Generals willing to sell themselves for whatever the spin machine pays these days. It seems the majority think Rumsfeld should be fired but the reality is he can't be: For Rumsfeld to be fired, Bush would have to admit an error and everyone knows that a divinely-guided, born-again president with Nixonian approval ratings can't admit error. So we're stuck with Rummy, get over it. We won't be rid of him until we're rid of Bush. Vote impeachment, vote Democratic.

Of course, the Deer Park area is quite brown. I heard a lot of Spanish, beginning at Bush Intercontinental Airport. "Los edificios de la terminal estan designados...." I came back to Tom the Xenophobe's mouthing off about wanting to round them all up and send them back by supporting other xenophobes in their bid for president and seats in Congress. Even the red-tinted fishwrap sold as a newspaper in the Houston area knew better. The roundup would cost over $200 billion, Tom. That's as much as one of Bush's wars. Are you willing to machine gun women and children crossing the Rio Grande, Tom? Probably but only by proxy. The image of you shooting them would probably cost you votes. By the way, what does"Tancredo" mean in any Native American language? Just checking. Your plan would make virtual slaves of eleven million people, many more than were enslaved by my native south. Here's one vote you'll never receive, Tom, and I'm in your district.

No one there thinks Iraq is going well but then, I didn't have a chance to speak to Mr. Delay. Too busy with his legal problems, I'd guess.

I sure do like that Prius.