does Ron Paul's cloak of invisibility cover the whole state?

Jon Stewart made a bunch of jokes recently about how the news and other Republicans seem to have this amazing ability to ignore Ron Paul. Despite his strong showing at the straw poll, you didn't hear any major coverage of him. It was kind of absurd.

I feel almost like that weirdness has somehow crept over the rest of Texas. There's a major disaster happening right now, and the top story with picture on the NY Times site is about sports medicine? It is at least at the top of the CNN National news page just now. There was nothing on the AP or Reuters almost all day yesterday. There was coverage of rain from the tropical storm rolling over Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama but not any coverage of the wind that fanned fires over Texas until late in the evening.

I get that there are disasters everywhere, every day and it would be hard to make anyone pay attention to all of them or to ask people to care. But after multi-day buildup coverage of Hurricane Irene and what felt like the 24/7 news focus on that storm for a week, I find myself wondering if everyone just went on vacation after that. The miserable drought doesn't make for exciting television, but one might think dozens of fires and skies blotted out by smoke might.

Texas desperately needs help fighting these fires. Governor Good Hair is too busy campaigning, so he isn't around to declare an emergency and call the National guard or anything. (Though I heard he might decide to fly home today. edit - apparently he will skip tonight's debate, but stuck around for some ridiculous town hall) Obama is off touring New Jersey. We don't even get Anderson Cooper!

In the face of the scary things happening right now (gigantic fire that has leaped over the Colorado river to burn at least half of Bastrop state park and hundreds of homes to the ongoing fires and new fires from Dallas to Amarillo) this is a really petty sort of concern. But it stuck in my mind.

Anderson Cooper, if you visit I'll bake you a pie.

(no subject)

If you just glanced, you might think it was only a weird low cloud hugging the horizon. But it is actually smoke. I'm so anxious. My fear is that some moron out there firing up the grill will spark a fire in my neighborhood. We made a list on the white board of what to throw in the cars, things like the cats and the backup hard drive. The uncertainty of it all is hard on my head. My mind won't stop turning things over. The pictures don't help.

When I look at the radar, you can see all the clouds and moisture drifting away west and east. We remain, lonely and dry. The only cloud on the map over Texas is actually the smoke fromt he Bastrop fires.

In more mundane news, Pumpkin destroyed my kitchen mat and now I need to find another. Of course they don't make the one I had anymore. Alas pears.