This is a mail-out from TRUFFULAUT.

In an ongoing effort to filter out noise while not ignoring all the available information, a decision was made that rather than forward things as they occur, a slight adjustment might be made for items which are not, strictly speaking, time-sensitive. So there will be news items as well as items of interest to me. A few (or a lot) of my comments may be included as the subject demands. Comments made may or may not reflect my own personal opinions which are precisely that -- personal.

TRUFFULAUT is a political pen-name adopted by me, David Strong. If you need a way to conceptualize a meaning for the nomiker, think of it as "Truth A Lot" (although it's pronounced "TROO-fuh-loe/low" (to my Texas ears, ice flow and ice floe sound identical). It's a quasi-French word with no meaning at all as far as I can tell; it came to me in a dream; I "googled" it with no resulting hits at all; and I couldn't find it in any French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, or Latin dictionaries. I'm claiming it as all mine.

I humbly request than any strictly political e-mails be sent to:

truffulaut@earthlink.net

My personal e-mail address, darost@earthlink.net, still works the same and is still available to any and all.

TRUFFULAUT #1

Vietnam Orders More Fighters

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2003/12/02/042.html

Yoo Hoo! Wake up, Mister President! Can you say индейка?

http://www.pueblozoo.org/archives/nov99/images/turkey2.jpg

Cabeza de Vaca was the first European to explore what is now Texas and the Southwest. In the Austin-American Statesman Monday, Dec 3, was a part of a story I'd never heard:

"La Relacin" is Cabeza de Vaca's account of the 1527 Narváez expedition that left Cuba to seek riches in the New World. The 600-person force fell apart in Florida, and the remainder of the crew was shipwrecked off present-day Galveston Island. One of four survivors, Cabeza de Vaca lived among the Native Americans for eight years... "When he arrived, he basically was a greedy conquistador looking for gold," said Steve Davis, the assistant curator of the writers collection. "At the end of his journey, he was transformed into a passionate defender of Native American rights."

This is the website for the journal online in English:

http://www.library.txstate.edu/swwc/cdv/

From time-to-time I like to check in with our friends in the labor unions; their side of things often goes unreported.

http://www.aflcio.org/issuespolitics/bushwatch/

An interesting twist to the Medicare "debate" ("debacle" might be more appropriate):

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/science_medical/story.jsp?story=471139

"Allen Roses, worldwide vice-president of genetics at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), said fewer than half of the patients prescribed some of the most expensive drugs actually derived any benefit from them."

As of Monday afternoon at 4:15 PM, CST (cool standard time), December 9, 2003, if you type "miserable failure" into Google (without the quote marks) and press I'm Feeling Lucky, the official biography of the man occupying our White House appears.

Peace!

Truffulaut