All Y'All Get Back to Work, the Weekend's Over!

Heh. Don’t mind me. But get back to work.

Well, now. Here’s a switch: I watched the sun come up this morning from the “proper” perspective, meaning I got up early this morning instead of watching the sun come up and then heading off to bed. I like this view a lot better, actually. Today is clear, cold, and calm (relatively speaking). Our forecast is for winds in the 10 – 20 mph range, which is normal for this part of the world. I’m very glad the winds have abated. I think I’ll celebrate by cruising over to The Big(ger) City^TM later this morning to see what’s going on.

The lead item in today’s Washington Times:

Sen. Russell D. Feingold of Wisconsin, who is widely thought to be pursuing the Democratic presidential nomination for 2008, will introduce a Senate resolution today to censure President Bush for authorizing the wiretapping of telephone conversations of suspected terrorists.

In the House, Rep. John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, will ask for the formation of a committee to investigate whether the president should be impeached.

Neither effort is expected to succeed. Republicans, who hold a 55 to 44 majority in the Senate and a 31-seat margin in House, called the attempt "grandstanding" and "crazy."

Crazy it might be, but I feel there’s a genuine possibility the Dems will move to impeach the President should they gain control of the House this Fall. And the Dems gaining control of the House is a very real threat, given the behavior of the Republicans in Congress and the mood of the public at this point. The polls certainly don’t look good for the Republicans, but then again, that all depends on how much credence you give to polls. Politicians certainly seem to believe in the damned things, I take ‘em with a grain of salt. As for Conyers? I don’t take him seriously; after all, Conyers wanted to impeach both Reagan and Bush 41. How Uncle John manages to return to Congress year after year is one of the great political mysteries of our times, as far as I’m concerned. I’d be embarrassed to have him represent me if I lived in Michigan’s 14^th congressional district. But I don’t live there. Thank God.

The wild fires continue in our part of the world, both in Texas and New Mexico. Authorities in New Mexico cited both persistent drought and this weekend’s high winds as the prime movers behind the wild fires. (There’s a reason I complain about the damned wind, ya know!) The Texas fires burned more than half a million acres this weekend:

The fires scorched more than 663,000 acres - more than 1,000 square miles or about two-thirds the size of Rhode Island - far eclipsing the deadly wildfires that prompted Gov. Rick Perry to declare a statewide drought disaster in January. The earlier blaze charred more than 455,000 acres, destroyed more than 340 homes and killed three people.

That makes over a million acres burned in Texas alone this year; Oklahoma and New Mexico have also seen extensive amounts of land ravaged by the fires. Seven people died as a result of the latest fires, four in a chain-reaction collision on a smoke-obscured I-40. It could be worse, though. You could live in Kansas or Missouri.