Author Archives: bshirley

Sheila Jackson Lee & Middle East peace

I think Jackson Lee is an excellent US Representative, and an excellent leader.  I am proud that she’s my Rep.  Go Sheila…

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Jackson Lee calls on Bush to name Middle East envoy

By ROSANNA RUIZ
Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle, June 15, 2003, 9:42PM

Upon her return from a summit in Norway involving Palestinian and Israeli women leaders, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee said here Sunday that she will call on President Bush to name a special envoy to monitor the peace process in the Middle East.

She proposed former Secretary of State Madeline Albright, and former Presidents Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton or George Bush as ideal candidates for the job.

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ACP IFE 123

So ACP is going along. I went to Reagan HS to check into a job and talked to one of the assistant principals. He’s not sure of next year because the school is getting smaller (and loosing some teachers). 45 days before the new school year the teachers have to confirm to him they will be back. From the unstated, I assume they have not already done so. So around July 4 is when that should happen.

I’m Math 8-12, so I can teach Junior High level, but only 8th grade.

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Corporate Personhood

It’s a bit lengthy, but historical and current knowledge that every self-respecting citizen should know.  The Santa Clara Blues: Corporate Personhood versus Democracy by Bill Moyers, is and excellent introduction.  If you happen to hear about the coming court case in the news, where Nike will be claiming First Amendment right to free speech, even when the speech is a lie, you will know the back story.

For some reason, I hear Ice-T singing in my head… “freedom of speech, that some mother-fucking bullshit…” but that’s a different political argument.

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John Henry Alley, b 1829

I went today, with my father, step-mother, and grandmother to a ceremony held by the Milam County Genealogical Society and the Milam County Historical Commission. It was in 5 separate graveyards, for 6 different confederate veterans.

The one we attended was in Pin Oak Cemetery near Gause and Milano. It included a confederate battle flag and singing of Dixie but there was not much grandiose bolstering of the Confederacy. And the main ceremony leader made a case for not forgetting history.

There was also a re-enactor dressed in frontier like clothes who brought a vintage cannon that was fired afterward.

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Art Car 2003 – Free for All

Well, I survived the 16th Art Car Weekend. This was my second year to drive the “Green Mobile”.  It belongs to Beverly Hayes and is a ’73 AMC Hornet.  It pulls an old (really old, like 40s) camping trailer that’s had a giant fin attached to the roof, made mostly of foam.
This year we worked on it to add a Stars and Stripes theme on the fin, with doves that had phrases on them with Green Party values.  Particularly “Peace” was on the larger doves.  That was about 5 days of sweaty work leading up to this years parade.

Thurs – The Art Car Artist’s Ball was in the Franklin Lofts’ Garage at Congress and Main.  My car was oversized so we parked on the unfinished light rail on Main St.  The Garage was fairly narrow compared to the Allen Center garage where they had the Ball maybe 5 years ago.  It’s a little nicer when you could have more people/level. It sprawled for 4-5 levels, so I mostly walked up and down constantly to interact with all the people I knew.

Also, the port-a-pots (which I never used, and the women were horrified of) were some bizarre cut-off version of port-o-pots so they could fit inside the garage.  They would have been much better served had they got some normal ones and hauled them to the top of the garage.  And perhaps left one or two at ground level by the elevators.

Last year it was in a more spread area, and I prefer the wideness to the up-and-down.  It was a good time, though, and $4 St Arnold wasn’t too horrible.  Of course, many people had stashes in their cars, as did I.   But my stash was out on the street.

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