They’re closing my 24-hour Randalls, and a lot of other stores:

Safeway said this morning that it will close 15 struggling Randalls stores in the Houston area by the end of the year.

Safeway, the owner of Randalls for the last six years, said 36 Randalls stores will remain open in the Houston area.

Safeway purchased Randalls and Tom Thumb from the Onstead family for about $1.8 billion in 1999, when Randalls was the No. 2 chain in Houston, with a 20 percent market share.

Since that time, Randalls’ market share in Houston has fallen to 10.8 percent, with a quarterly drop of more than 1.5 percent, according to the September issue of the Shelby Report.

I’m stunned Randalls’ market share is so low. I would’ve guessed something like 20 percent. Then again, what the hell do I know? Here’s a list of the stores to be shuttered:

Read more

The Dark Side clouds everything. Impossible to see the future is.

Has the Bush administration had a change of heart concerning the illegal immigrants pouring through our porous borders? Have the "Minute Men" made their point? Have we been heard in Washington?

This morning, the Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, in testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, said the following, indicating a change from our present policy, which is, "catch and release". He said the Government intends to end the present policy and to:

“Return every single illegal entrant — no exceptions,”

And further:

Chertoff said that the nearly 900,000 Mexicans who are caught entering United States every year are returned immediately to Mexico, “but other parts of the system have nearly collapsed under the weight of numbers.”

In the budget year that ended last month, the Border Patrol apprehended more than 160,000 non-Mexican nationals, but only 30,000 were removed from the United States. The others were released, often on their own recognizance, because there is no place to hold them. Few return for immigration hearings, he said.

 

Duh. You think?

This hearing is in response to a Bill being sponsored by Texas’ own, John Cornyn.

I just hope this "change" is not too late and that they really do it.

Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers’ response to the Senate Judiciary Committee’s questionnaire is available, thanks to the folks at National Review Online.

This is my favorite part, under "Published Writings, Testimony and Speeches":

"Recommended Reading: Issues for the Multijurisdictional Lawyer where pro hac vice Admission Does Not Apply," Arkansas L. Notes 131, 2001.

I wanna party with this chick.

There is something profoundly disturbing in Harriet Miers’ response to the questions proffered by the Senate Judiciary Committee:

So in this case, we may enquire whether Roe’s central rule has been found unworkable; whether the rule’s limitation on state power could be removed without serious inequity to those who have relied upon it or significant damage to the stability of the society governed by it; whether the law’s growth in the intervening years has left Roe’s central rule a doctrinal anachronism discounted by society; and whether Roe’s premises of fact have so far changed in the ensuing two decades as to render its central holding somehow irrelevant or unjustifiable in dealing with the issue it addressed.

Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the decision that reaffirmed Roe v. Wade.

Any decision to revisit a precedent should follow only the most careful consideration of the factors that courts have deemed relevant to the question. Thus, whether a prior decision is wrong is only the beginning of the inquiry. The court must also consider other factors, such as whether the prior decision has proven unworkable, whether developments in the law have undermined the precedent, and whether legitimate reliance interests mitigate against overruling.

Harriet Miers, in her responses to the Senate Judiciary Committee

I am completely against the application of starie decisis (letting precedents stand) in Supreme Court cases. While precedent can and should be valuable, it should not be permitted to undermine the Constitution. In Casey, the Supreme Court essentially said that it didn’t matter whether or not Roe was wrong, because women had relied on it, because it created a workable standard, and because no developments in the law had undermined its holding. Miers agrees that these standards are correct, and they are the ones the court used to reaffirm Roe.

This woman would not vote to overturn Roe. She just told us so.

News from the basketball world that the NBA is trying to improve its image by imposing a dress code on its players. Choking one’s coach will apparently still be permissible.

According to the story, players on the bench will be required to dress in sport coats and slacks instead of shorts, backwards ball caps, and chains with medallions the size of an SUV wheel.

Says the new policy:

Players will no longer be able to wear:

_Sleeveless shirts
_Shorts
_T-shirts
_Chains, pendants, or medallions worn over the player’s clothes.
_Sunglasses while indoors
_Headphones (other than on the team bus or plane, or in the team locker room).

Also jerseys and baseball caps will no longer be acceptable attire for postgame press conference.

Players will be expected to wear business casual attire whenever they participate in team or league activities, including arriving at games, leaving games and making promotional or other appearances.

Naturally, not all NBA players agree with the move.

"We don’t really sell to big business," Suns guard Raja Bell said. "We sell to kids and people who are into the NBA hip-hop world. They may be marketing to the wrong people with this."

Ah yes, selling and marketing. The love of the game really comes through.

From PTAD, to Tom DeLay, to Wilma. Plenty out there to vent about. Have at it kids.

AAAAAARRRRRRRGGHHHHH! WHY! WHY!

I just have to keep telling myself… It’s only 3-2… We’re still ahead…

Do you suffer the ravages of PTAD? Post Traumatic Astros Disorder afflicts millions. The symptoms?

Headaches
Anxiety, especially in the late innings
Cardiac arrest, especially in the late innings
Perpetual disappointment, typically in the fall
Fits of depression
Compulsion to chew gigantic wads of bubble gum to relieve stress
Mysterious need to pitch to the “one guy you shouldn’t let beat you.”

Never fear, dear readers, there is hope for PTAD. There is still time for redemption, and all will be forgiven. In the meantime, leave your symptoms in the comments section and help everyone feel better with some group therapy.

Here at the LST Weather Center, we’re keeping an eye on tropical storm Wilma who’s sure to form into a hurricane once in the Gulf. Using sophisticated scientific equipment, historical data from past hurricanes and our gut instinct, we’ve developed the track we’re sure it will take in the coming days.

To see the animated sequence, click here. That is… if you really want to know the truth.

Where do rock stars go when they need emergency medical treatment?

They go here.