KTRH 740 Is A Terrible Radio Station—No News 740

Above is the 740 KTRH SUV I saw today in my travels around Houston.

KTRH can afford that car in the picture and they can afford to paint it all up, but they cannot afford a real news operation.

The car says “NewsRadio 740.” However, what they should really now call this station is “No-News 740.”

KTRH recently dumped longtime morning news hosts Lana Hughes and J.P. Pritchard.

Instead, KTRH now has even more right wing talk for the morning hours.

KTRH is now so bad, that even the misguided folks at Blog Houston say it is bad.

KTRH is just another dime-a-dozen Clear Channel station that cares a lot about money and nothing about the towns and cities where Clear Channel stations can be found.

Even if you are on the right politically, why would you listen to station that does not care at all about where you live?

Happy Sixth Of July—Giant Declaration Of Independence

With the Fourth of July over for another year, your inclination might be to pack up your fifes and your drums and to go home.

(Both photos in this post copyright Neil Aquino 2011.) 

However, just as the forces of evil never rest, it is up to you to be engaged in the work of freedom each day.

Below is a giant Declaration of Independence leaning up against a tree. I took this picture in Houston on the Fourth.

I know with this being Texas, you might think this giant Declaration leaned up against a tree was being readied for a lynching by a states rights mob angry at all the founding documents of our great federal union.

This was not the case. Not yet at least.

Today–July 6–and every other day of the year, is the right day to know your history and to work hard to win the future.

Bumper Sticker

While doing some cleaning last week I came across the bumper sticker from my 1997 campaign for the Cincinnati Board of Education.

Though I did not prevail upon the people of Cincinnati to elect me to the school board, I’m glad to report that I was endorsed by the local AFL-CIO, UAW, SEIU, and Stonewall Cincinnati.

I did once win a race for precinct executive in Cincinnati. I think it helped me that I was the only person on the ballot for that high office in my precinct.

Every person has the ability to attend a public meeting, attend or organize a protest, write or call an elected official, talk to friends and family, start a blog, donate money, write a letter to the editor, engage in civil disobedience, volunteer for candidates and causes, and even to run for public office.

The work of freedom is up to each of us.

Hard Working, Imaginative, Polluted & Brutal

I visit the Houston Ship Channel sometimes because the channel is hard working, the product of imagination to have made the salt water sea reach 50 miles inland, polluted, & brutal in a way with huge ships and giant quantities of goods and chemicals of all sorts.

(Above–The Houston Ship Channel. Photo copyright 2011 Neil Aquino.)  

These qualities of hard work, imagination, polluted by the world, and brutal in ways we don’t always realize are what I am and what you are.

The world around us is what we are as individuals and as a society.

The world around us is hard-working, imaginative, toxic at times, and brutal.

Make the effort to see the world and what each of are as individuals for both good and ill.

A great book to read to learn about the Houston Ship Channel is Energy Metropolis–An Environmental History of Houston and the Gulf Coast.

Please Have A Great Fourth Of July

Today is the Fourth of July.

Please have a great Fourth of July.

You can see in the picture above that Uncle Sam takes a dim view of anybody not enjoying the holiday.

Here is some history of Uncle Sam. 

(Photo by Thomas Recke.)

Texans Mark 235 Years Of Federal Supremacy Over The States—Texas Progressive Alliance Round-Up

At the end of this post is the weekly round-up of the Texas Progressive Alliance. The TPA is a confederation of the best political bloggers in Texas. TPA members are citizen-bloggers who are working hard for a better Texas.

Every Texan has the ability has the ability to attend a public meeting, attend or organize a protest, write or call an elected official, talk to friends and family, start a blog, donate money, write a letter to the editor, volunteer for candidates and causes, and even run for public office. The work of freedom is up to each of us.

With this being Fourth of July weekend, it is good time to note the supremacy of our federal union over the states.

Above is a picture of the Fouth of July fireworks last night at Minute Maid Park in Houston.

It seems that for all the talk about so-called states rights and seccession, many Texans have no problem marking 235 years of federal supremacy over the states in a socialist taxpayer-financed stadium.

Here is the Declaration of Independence at the National Archives of the United States.

Here is a Fourth of July reading list.

Please have a good Fourth.

Here is the round-up—

The Congressional map got its final legislative approval, and Off the Kuff analyzes the new districts.

This week WCNews at Eye On Williamson posts on the (in)action at The Lege. Quorums were broken and tempers flared: This week’s Political wrap-up, GOP laziness was the theme.

Bay Area Houston thinks the Texas Tea Party is calling for an immigration raid on homebuilder Bob Perry for his roll in killing their sanctuary bill.

Barack Hussein Obama Approves Federal Assistance For Texas Wildfire And Drought Emergency That Texans Are Unable To Resolve Without Washington’s Help

President Obama has declared 45 Texas counties to be disaster areas because of wildfires and drought.

(Above–Homes destroyed by Texas wildfires earlier this year in the vicinity of Possum Kingdom Lake. Photo by unherdable) 

Federal money and other federal assistance will now come to Texas because of President Obama’s decision.

These fires and the never-ending statewide drought are problems that Texas cannot resolve without additional help from Washington.

That’s fine as far as I’m concerned. Sometimes in life you need help.

Maybe this is something that folks in the impacted counties and all across Texas can remember as they go on and on about about how bad government is and how the federal government is all about socialism.

So often the response from the conservative voting majority in Texas for a request for help is a kick in head.

Legal Challenge To Texas Forced Sonogram Law

There is a challenge in the works to the newly-enacted Texas Forced Sonogram law.

From the Houston Chronicle—

“A national abortion rights group has filed suit in federal court to stop implementation of a new Texas law that requires women seeking an abortion to undergo a sonogram and have details of the fetal image explained to them. Claiming the amendment to the state’s Woman’s Right To Know Act is unconstitutionally vague and violates physicians’ freedom of speech, the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights filed the motion for a preliminary injunction in Austin Thursday…Under the provisions of the amendment, sponsored in the Senate by Katy Republican Dan Patrick, women seeking abortions must obtain a sonogram and listen as physicians describe the image. The law also provides for women to look at the sonogram and listen to fetal heartbeats, but they have the option to decline.”

The issue here is not abortion. Abortion is legal.

The issue is that the State of Texas is forcing free citizens to undergo a medical procedure that may well not be wanted. If Texas can mandate one medical procedure, why can’t it force citizens to undergo other unwanted medical investigations and treatments?

We hear a lot about individual rights and small goverment in Texas.

It seems that these alleged beliefs don’t extend to Texas women.

Here are additional facts about the legal challenge being conducted by the Center for Reproductive Rights.

Protests Against Austerity Budgets In The U.K.—We Can Do The Same In The U.S.

Public workers and many others are protesting austerity measures in the United Kingdom.

From the New York Times-—

More than 10,000 schools were affected by the strikes, as were universities, Social Security offices, courtrooms, airport customs desks and other government operations. Union officials warned that the strike could be the first of a series of walkouts here in the next few months, reflecting growing unhappiness over layoffs, salary freezes, tax increases and a persistently sluggish economy.  Much of the workers’ anger, said Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union, has to do with a feeling of helplessness and resentment at having to suffer from the mistakes of bankers and others who caused the economic crisis. The government, Mr. Serwotka…, is “forcing some of the most vulnerable people in our society to pay for a crisis that was not of their making.”

All I can add to this is that we have the same option in the United States to take to the streets, and to protest against budgets and tax codes that reward the people who put us in the mess and that punish hard-working everyday people.

Hot And Dry Everyday

We had record heat and very little rain in Houston in June.

From the Houston Chronicle—

“June is ending Thursday as an exceptional month, weather-wise, for all the wrong reasons. Begin with the heat. The month is finishing with an average temperature of 86.1 degrees, making this the warmest June on record in Houston, besting the mark of 85.9 degrees set back in 1906, according to National Weather Service records. And it was dry, so dry in fact that Texas is on the verge of experiencing the worst drought on record…This year April, May and June have now all finished among the 10 warmest in Houston history. In fact the only day this June with a temperature at or below normal levels came on June 22, when Greater Houston got its first real splash of rain in five months. The heat, in turn, has worsened the drought, which has been building since last fall, by drying out soils more rapidly.”

Above is a picture of the drought in Houston that I took a few days ago.

I’m not sure this is an exciting picture, but a drought does not involve very much action.

Here are facts about heat stroke from the Mayo Clinic.

I imagine there is a bit of excitement to be found in having heat stroke. Though not the kind that would make for a nice Fourth of July weekend.