TO THE LEFT OF THE RIGHT....

I harp about my Republican views, but truth be known I probably swing closer to the left than most realize. I wanted to flash this one back up again for recall.  I believe Obama is wildly an amazing orator and McCain was not among my first choice for President, although I feel he is the most experienced.  I find Sarah Palin a refreshing choice but I certainly do not agree with many of her opinions.  Have we ever truly had the perfect candidate?? Who was your favorite??

Feeling the Love....
WOW! I arose this morning to over 922 emails from people wanting to be added to the privatization of my blog. VERY TOUCHING! I had people from as far as UK, Athens, Australia and Berlin. The emails are still pouring in by the hundreds. THANK YOU for all the kind words from the bottom of my heart!



First of all, let me say, I am very proud of the people serving for our great country. I am a registered Republican and have been long before I met my husband. I am the Liberal-Progressives worst nightmare. I believe in the First Amendment and the Right to Bear Arms. I have a concealed handgun license. I think owning a gun does not make you a killer, it makes one a smart American. I also believe in Gay Marriage and in Stem-Cell research. I believe in Immigration Reform. Yet, I think being a minority does not make you noble or victimized, and does not entitle you to anything. I believe in the "Right to Choose" on many levels, especially a Woman's Right. I believe the money I make belongs to my family, not some Liberal governmental functionary be it Democratic or Republican. I am in touch with my feelings and I like it that way!


I believe that if you are selling me a Big Mac, do it in English.

I believe everyone has a right to pray to his or her God when and where they want to.


I have raised money for many political candidates, generally Republicans, alas I have given money to Democrats on occasion. Hell, I was raised in the same neighborhood (within two miles) of Dr. Ron Paul -- yes, for those that did not know, the Libertarian Presidential candidate is also my little Texas town's Obstetrician. Small world.


Three of the most charismatic people I have ever met in my life have been Bill Clinton, Louisiana Governor Edwin Edwards and former Texas Governor Ann Richards -- all Democrats and none of which I voted for but whom I had various degrees of respect and admiration, Edwards for mainly entertainment value.


My heroes are John Wayne, Babe Ruth, Roy Rogers and whoever cancelled Jerry Springer.


I have never owned a slave, or was a slave, I have not buried any witches or been persecuted by the Turks and I am confidant, neither have you. If you do not like the way things our here, go back to where you came from and change that country. This is AMERICA. If you were born here and do not like it, you are free to move to any Socialist country that will have you.


I want to know which church is it exactly where the Reverend Jesse Jackson preaches, where he gets his money, and why he is always part of the problem and not the solution. Can I get an AMEN on that one?


I think if you are too stupid to know how a ballot works, I do not want you deciding who should be running the most powerful nation in the world for the next four years.


I dislike those people standing in the intersections trying to sell me stuff or trying to guilt me into making "donations" to their cause. I find myself always getting "suckered" in.


I do not think it takes a village to raise a child, it takes two parents.


As far as defending the oil business, independent and Majors included this is an open-ended topic that people way smarter than myself have filibustered for decades. Bottom line, if you do not support American oil producers you are forced to rely on countries that do not have our best interest in mind. We do not want to have to rely on countries and leaders we consider the enemy and bash in the State of the Union address. The US needs to be energy independent or we become at the control of Chavez or the Saudis, that has the most influence. Do you think Sadaam was a boy scout?? Do I think it was ironic we invaded an "oily" country? Of course not. Do you think that honestly, is it a toss up over Chavez and Kim Jong-il over humanitarian of the year? The US oil companies are doing as much as they can to find the oil and gas reserves that we have. The gas prices are driven by demand, which constitutes the lack of supply. Bottom line, if you do not like it, stop driving. If you want more logical possibilities write/call/email your Congressman and vote for drilling off Florida, the coast off of Maine, California, the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge. I can assure you, there is not a caribou in Alaska that is going to go to call Dr Phil for an emergency therapy session if he sees an oil platform.



There are alternatives being created as I type. Billionaire Texas tycoon, T. Boone Pickens has devised the Pickens Plan as a source of an alternative for our dependency on oil. Boone wants to wean us off our $700 billion dollar foreign crude habit. It is a start, maybe not the answer. Alas, in the words of TBP "A fool with a plan beats a genius with no plan"


I am confidant by now some Green Peace (tree hugger) is seething over my last few comments. It is NOT meant to make you mad, honestly.


Some people may think I am out of touch with reality -- I agree on some level. I can take it on the chin. Alas, some of these vocalists are the same people that think we should mow down all the Wal-Mart' in America because they have production in China.


If all this makes me a "Bad American", then yes, I am a "Bad American"


Privatizing my blog is SUCH a pain....which is why I have opted NOT to for now. There is nothing I love more than great banter. I respect if you do not wish to read my blog. That is the glory of your "Right to Choose"


Peace.

SNL- Tina Fey as Sarah Palin

Whatever your party this is HILARIOUS

Hurricane Ike....WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP!

This is from my dear (longtime) friend and former co-worker Dayna Steele. Houstonians that will remember Dayna as the "First Lady of Rock n" Roll" in Houston and her afternoon "Steeleworkers" -- She and her precious Astronaut/Author hubby, Charlie and the boys took a good hit. See below to what you can do to assist!

Thanks to everyone who has called, emailed and dropped by to see what they could do to help. The port-a-potty still sits happily perched in my driveway among the remains of trees and the contents of two boys' bedrooms that needed to be cleaned out anyway. We are fine and we will re-build, re-stock the LEGOs and eventually get all the fish, shrimp and jelly fish out of the pool.


Others are not so fortunate. A student group in our school district has started Operation Crayon - Children Rallying Assistance for Youth of Need. It is amazing what these kids have been able to pull off in just a few days; providing clothing, shoes, backpacks, supplies, etc to kids who have lost everything.

School starts Monday and that's where they can use your help. Operation Crayon is a clothing and school supply drive. So far over 500 children have received new backpacks, school supplies, clothes and some much needed hugs from the CCISD Team CRAYON. Businesses and individuals interested in participating in Operation CRAYON can help CCISD collect the following items for students in need:

New clothing
Standardized dress attire
New backpacks
School supplies
New shoes
Toiletries
Monetary donations are also being accepted made payable to Operation Crayon, 300 Pennsylvania Avenue, Webster TX 77598. For more information, contact Elaina Polsen at epolsen@ccisd.net or call 281-284-0020.

Charlie the Wonder Husband and I have so many great friends across the country and around the world. Again, we appreciate everyone asking what they could do for us. Well, this is it. We have so many kids in this area that were displaced from their own CCISD schools and an unbelievable amount of kids coming in from Galveston and other school districts where they have lost everything.

I am off to Target to buy a cart full of tennis shoes...

Spin This, Liberals.....

The old South Texas saying, “Pigs get fed and hogs get slaughtered” may not be true in the Freddie/Fannie mess. While most of us contend it is ‘killing time on Wall Street’, however the ‘chicken little’ brigade battling to save Wall Street and their political allies, are screaming for mercy. Act in haste and repent at leisure; please read the fine print this time. I know, they claim to be holding America, even the world, hostage. Well, even if they do, which many doubt, should we endorse an unconditional surrender to their outrageous demands? Hell NO!



The house Republicans are making a valiant stand. They want to protect the taxpayers and build in the reforms now as a part of the package. That is only reasonable. Call and write your elected representatives, within the hour, and also contact the media and your neighbors…. Stop the madness. This time, no slap on the hands in return for a promise they will sin no more…..nope, make sure taxpayers are protected and the crooks pay a heavy price. Also, we must not allow the Dims to excuse those who did not pay while they ask the 95% of Americans who do pay their mortgages and taxes to pay for their party and excuse the scofflaws. Yes, laws were broken ….it is call fraud. Dims want ‘bankruptcy protection’ for deadbeats and even forgiveness of credit card debt. Joe Biden wants to add ear marks to the bill. The car makers also want a bailout. There seems to be no end to the outrage pleas for taxpayer handouts. Should we folks in ‘Fly over land’, you know the people who ‘cling to our guns and bibles’ go along? Hell NO!



Barack Hussein Obama is the hands down winner of the chutzpah award. This clip below exposes his disingenuous posturing and that of Dirty harry and the disgusting Chris Dodd and worst of all Barney Frank. Make sure your family and friends understand Washington corruption and their handmaidens who exploit the corrupt system the politicos created. We have trusted and been sold out. Should we continue to go along and get along? Hell NO!



We the mules who pull the wagon should ‘jump the traces’ ….encourage the ‘throw the bustards out’ sentiment! This voter for one has had enough of their BS…and worst of all are the folks we elected who stand by shrugging, enabling Congress and the crooks to continue to loot the American treasury. McCain was wrong in singling out the SEC chair for dismissal….he should have called for the resignation of all the Wall Street apologists in the administration and singled out those in congress responsible for this fiasco, beginning with Barney frank, Chris Dodd and ‘Old #2’, B.H. Obama …… Hell YES!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usvG-s_Ssb0



Now isn’t that enough to make you puke….

Welcome to the World, Baby Liddie!

Well, our first Grand baby came into the world the week of Hurricane Ike.  Baby Liddie has more hair than the law should allow.  She tipped the scales at 7 lbs and 9 oz and was 19 1/4"

Mommy, Daddy and Baby have been bonding the past ten days and everyone is stellar!

Good job, Sissy!

We NO LIKE IKE

River Oaks ( I realize just the two words does not strike much pity from most) but my family took it very hard. From what I have been told from ROPO is that my street and San Felipe south of Willowick and Tall Timbers took it the hardest. The River Oaks CC lost 185 trees and Ima Hogg's Bayou Bend (just West of us lost 75 percent of their Botanical gardens and oaks) Our home is right on the banks of the Buffalo Bayou and the swelling has been ugly as you can see from my last post.

Keep in mind, my flagpole is 40 feet high and it came to the bottom of the Aggie flag. The water came within three feet of our wine cellar on the first floor. This is realistically within 36 feet of the flood plane. The good news is the obnoxious dollhouse we had built for our daughter (that has wireless, a/c and running water) survived without a hiccup! This is probably good since FEMA does not accept requests in crayon.

Friday started like this.... First we pondered fleeing to Laredo for margaritas at La Posada - alas, we decided to hang tough. John, my precious Aggie engineer wanted my 74 year old Momma, 2 yo daughter and me to all sleep on the floor in the master study "hunkered down" (a phrase I have come to loathe) with no windows. I listened intently to his reasoning and assured him he had "been watching way too many after school specials and oilfield safety videos" then I naturally scoffed at his suggestion. I arrogantly protested that the storm was "a category two and we probably would not get squat but some mild rain and at most a few branches" With all my attitude , I assured him I was raised on a shipyard, so naturally that made me almost a meteorologist.

Fast forward to 5:30 AM the next morning, while I was sleeping in the master bedroom that is all floor to ceiling glass overlooking the magical banks of the bayou we did receive (what I would consider peaceful) thunderstorms and that was it. I assumed it passed through and we thought it was over. ROPO did a drive through at 5:45 AM and it was all clear (or we thought) from the Captain's wave -- by 6:15 AM it literally sounded like MoPac was reverted to our backyard heading towards our bedroom. It was "freight liner loud" (as I have heard tornado's described). The four of us dove for cover and about twenty minutes later we came up for air. Four homes out of maybe twenty on our street took a large oak to the surface. Two homes including our immediate neighbor was totaled and is considered a complete loss. My neighbor, two down, totally lost their home from the four large oaks that pummeled the outside.

We are a little more than an acre and have a commercial size Rainbow play system. The tornado picked this equipment up (which had to be a half-ton) and lifted the entire piece across through to our neighbors backyard and never touched the 7-8 feet fence. None of the equipment was broken, it is just relocated to our neighbors yard. I am sure they would think this were cool if they were not 110 years old or they at least had small children.

They are sending a tech out to rebuild it in OUR backyard. You should have heard the tone in the owners voice at the corporate office of the Rainbow system, when I explained the play area (initially bolted and held with concrete) moved two yards over and never touch a fence and is still in one piece.

He said "You are totally screwing with me lady?"

I laughed and said "Yeah mister, it took me a half a gallon of Crown Royal and three hours to think this up. I have nothing better to do."

My friend called and wanted to know what type of stuff actually floated in our neighborhood in Buffalo Bayou.  I said "Well, we do not get debris such as hypodermic needles.  Since we are upstream, we mostly get Chardonnay bottles and Dommie P magnums."

Alas, I was told today by our landscapers that of all their yards in River Oaks (including the Bayou Bend Gardens) "Casa Chaos" has some of the worst damage they had encountered.  

The morning the storm barreled through, it took John 8 hours to cut us out of our house and the neighbors out of the street with his chainsaw!  Our neighbors were cheering him on as he cut them vehicle access.  He was really wearing his Superman cape! 

An hour after the storm and Sinclair strapped to me we climbed over the monster oaks and took refuge six houses down at our neighbors, the Cullens.  They have a built in generator that immediately kicks in when their electricity goes out.  They were out of town, but we had at least power to 25% of their home. Enough to keep their perishables cool and the a/c running! 

So far, our running total, we have salvaged a 30 lb. snapping turtle, 4 huge snakes, 6 dead fish in the pool, two live trout and a small gator.  This would be basically everyone that did not make the cut at the River Oaks CC.

Which in turn made me think of my friend Alex Knight and my idea about the "Ike" bag.  I want her to take my gator hide (Buffalo Bayou swamp gator green) and turn it into my prize accessory for the season.  I figure by the time the UT-Aggie football game at Thanksgiving, I will be sporting my hurricane "Ike" Buffalo Bayou gator.  Alex will have to make a little pocket for essentials like flashlight, USB card and Valium!   I am confidant it will be all the rage!

Now as far as power goes - we have none (like the other 6 million that lost theirs).  The first night of the storm we camped downtown at Daniel and Veronica's loft (they briefly lost electricity).  My wonderful resourceful hubby called his Louisiana office and got us an 18 wheeler size oilfield platform Generator that can keep 10000 square feet running for weeks without refuel.   Alas, you better love to look at (bright) yellow and green - its sprayed with Welch Generator on the side -- this thing makes my SUV look petite.  Our MacDaddy primary colored source of power is the envy of the hood!

Fortunately two other semis brought hundreds of small portable generators for all the company employees.  So far, we lost just one day in our home -- but we are going on day 12 without real power.  I just got a wireless (3G) USB card from the office and can I tell you that I am beyond thrilled.  I felt like Robert Downey looking for a NA meeting!!! I was seriously getting Internet withdraws.  

I was thinking about when I was a little girl growing up on a shipyard.  My Dad was in a variety of businesses.  One was commercial ice and the other being in the generator business.  Ice and Ingersoll-Rand does not seem that glam when you are a kid...but BOY did we take those luxuries for granted.

I got teary-eyed yesterday and John assured me "this too shall pass" and he said "I know this generator is big and unsightly but we are able to run everything at full capacity and the Mayor, President Bush and James Baker do not even have power"

I started laughing and said "Oh honey, I am from Freeport, Texas - if that thing were on blocks in the front yard - we would be certified rock star royalty!"

BAYOU CATCHES

Leo, making new friends with our floating strays from the storm.

Hurricane Ike Strikes

This is our backyard yesterday morning.  The water rose up 40 feet....four of our neighbors took trees through their homes.

Thank goodness no one was hurt -- but the damage was huge.

BOOM-BOOM Sundays...

Today was the resurrection of Boom-Boom, the pet chicken.  We have a "timeshare" of sorts on "Boom-Boom" and usually on Sundays CoCo brings him from her house to come visit  us.  

We hatched "Boom-Boom" and "Peep-Peep" (in our incubator) this past Easter and they have been getting prison furloughs to visit us on the weekends ever since.  

Piper Palin Grooming Her Little Brother Trig's Hair

I love this little girl!!!! Kids will be kids no matter what!