Wednesday

Strange feeling morning. The humidity is high and the sky is cloudy and dark. Blech.

Son stayed home again as he is not quite up to going to school. The doctor gave him a perscription for a nasal spray and told him not to eat or drink dairy. Same old, same old. He also was told to continue taking Claridin as he has been doing.

State primary elections held yesterday produced the expected low voter turnout. On a national level, you may be interested in knowing that Tom DeLay won his district, no run-off necessary. He won, big, too. I'm sure many are disappointed by that.

I went to the monthly meeting of a group I belong to Monday morning. It's a woman's political group, a political action committee, otherwise known as a PAC. Our speaker was a local political columnist in the Houston newspaper. He was really interesting. His columns run twice a week, with Wednesday being one of the days. Today's column was a lot of what he was talking about Monday morning. And he is really relieved that the mayor pro-tem of Houston is in a controversy now as he is frequently critized as only bashing Republicans or conservatives with his writing. Now, he says, he can be an equal opportunity basher!

The office of Mayor Pro-Tem is a mostly ceremonial office that has been eliminated in most other places. Here it is used for events where the Mayor is unavailable to attend and the Mayor Pro-Tem goes and cuts the ribbon or waves to the crowd at a gathering or welcomes a visiting celebrity, etc. The current holder of the title is a city councilwoman who was thought to have bigger political ambitions than Houston City Council. She is Hispanic and very popular in her district. She was recently re-elected to her council seat.

During her last campaign, it came out that the degree from the University of Houston she claimed to have was a bit of an exaggeration. Ooops. She really didn't have the diploma. So, amid all the publicity of that disclosure the University "worked with her" and she got the actual piece of paper. Now she is embroiled in a financial scandal involving 4 employees, hired by her, in the Mayor Pro-Tem's office. They gave themselves huge bonuses, it seems, and forged her initials to the paperwork to ok the bonuses. She says she knows nothing about it, the employees deceived her, let her done, yada, yada. She finally, after waiting almost 2 weeks and after hiring a top criminal lawyer and a p.r. guy who used to work for Hillary Clinton, stepped down from the office. She says temporarily. We'll see. One employee claims her boss knew all about the bonuses at the time.

The City Council office is separate from the Mayor Pro-Tem office, so she remains on the City Council.

On a different note, I read that Cindy Sheehan is going to Germany this weekend to protest at the military base where the soldiers go for medical care from the battlefield. A counter-protest is being organized this time so that she knows she is not welcome. Cindy Sheehan, world traveler.

"Start by doing what's necessary, then what's possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible." - Saint Francis