What a mess from the debate I didn't watch.

This is proving more interesting than the debate itself.

(from the Washington Times)

CNN/YouTube used a question at last night's Republican debate that came from a man who was named to a steering committee of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign.

Retired Brig. Gen. Keith Kerr, who asked a question about homosexuals in the military, was named to the leadership team of LGBT Americans for Hillary this summer, according to a June 28 article in the Advocate, at www.advocate.com.

Gen. Kerr was in the live audience, and moderator Anderson Cooper invited him to give what turned out to be a two-minute speech on the issue that drew audience boos. The general identified himself in his question as "an openly gay man" but remained in the closet about his ties to the Clinton campaign.

After the debate, an embarrassed Mr. Cooper said that CNN did not know of the Clinton ties and that "had we known that ... we would have acknowledged that if we used the question at all."

Fox News broke the story and has certainly been reveling in the misfortune of their rival...

After spending the day facing accusations it stacked the deck against the Republican presidential contenders by having Democratic backers ask video questions during its debate, CNN on Thursday responded that it doesn't know what the fuss is all about.

The cable news network, in collaboration with video Web site YouTube, hosted the Wednesday night debate that had more than 30 voters pose questions to the Republican candidates. It later turned out that several of those questioners are actively supporting Democratic candidates.

OK, reality check time: This is not good for CNN. A network that typically walks a fine line between hackery and journalism anyway. (Not that Fox News is any different, but they're not the ones (this time) caught with their hands in the cookie jar)

The BIG problem is that, when they identified the questioners, they typically included the words "undecided voter". We know now that this was an un-truth. Probably not a lie, but not true. Those of you who might be unclear on the difference probably don't understand why Bush didn't "lie" about Iraq either.

A lie entails that one knew the version you were telling was false. That would mean that CNN knew at the time of the questions that these were Democratic operatives asking the questions. I seriously doubt they knew this.

What CNN is probably guilty of is simply poor journalism. They didn't take the time to properly vet their sources and now are paying the price for their sloppiness. You would think that SOMEONE at the network would have thought to do a modicum of research before letting the questions air. You'd think that right?

Does it cast a "pall" over the debate? Not any more of one than was already there. These YouTube debates sound good on paper, but the execution of them has been spotty at best. Watching all of the debates has been painful as well. I already discussed why that is here. What this is probably going to illustrate is just how polarized America has become. Republicans are going to scream to the heavens that CNN is part of some "vast left-wing conspiracy" to discredit their candidates. Democrats are going to say that there's "nothing to see here" and that CNN did nothing wrong.

Both sides will be wrong of course. Just too worked up into a partisan lather to see why sloppy journalism doesn't benefit anyone.


Aside:

Example A of why the Chron needs to shutter the D.C. Bureau....

(from Julie Mason of the Chron)

Huh? We weren't even aware of this, it has nothing to do with the Cheney video and we wrote that little Anderson piece on a very tight deadline (try it sometime) but fair enough -- we're always trying to "grow as a reporter." For clarity we look to our friends at the Washington Times, who did investigate the matter.

(snip)

Sorry, we don't buy that this was an intentional plant on CNN's part. No news organization would intentionally undermine its own credibility with a stunt like that, and it's completely plausible that this guy could slip through the cracks without anyone checking out his background before the debate.

The Houston Chronicle D.C. Bureau, news breaks out....and we defer to the reporters at the Washington Times.

Texas Football Fridays

This game could be interesting...

(By Sam Kahn Jr. of the Chron)

It's strength versus strength.

A team with one of the most exciting offensive players in recent memory against a squad that traditionally boasts one of the best defensive units around.

What sounds like a dream matchup in area high school football will become reality tonight when Cy-Fair (8-4) hosts North Shore (12-0) in a Class 5A Division I Region III semifinal at the Berry Center.

I'm going to try and get out to this game this evening. If nothing else to see Michigan commit McGuffie in person. Besides, Berry Center is a wonderful place to watch a game.

The UH coaching search moves onward.

(From Michael Murphy of the Chron)

The Houston Cougars are in the process of finding a head football coach to replace Art Briles, who resigned Wednesday after deciding to take over the struggling Baylor program.

And while UH athletic director Dave Maggard will not comment on specific candidates, the list includes Alabama offensive coordinator Major Applewhite, former Miami coach Larry Coker, Missouri offensive coordinator Dave Christensen, Notre Dame offensive coordinator Michael Haywood, Texas A&M offensive coordinator Les Koenning Jr., Michigan State defensive line coach Lucious Selmon, Ohio University head coach Frank Solich and former Auburn coach Terry Bowden.

Current defensive line coach Tony Fitzpatrick is making a pitch, putting together a presentation that includes Art Kehoe, former assistant head coach at Miami, as associate head coach.

I'd heard that the Cougars talked to OU co-offensive coordinator Kevin Sumlin (my pick) but I'll defer to Murph here since he routinely doles out the best Cougar coverage in town.

That being said that list is hardly inspiring.

Coker or Solich would be a nightmare.

Waste not, want not.

Mrs. White is very concerned about Harris County waste.

In the case of the inappropriate and unconstitutional display of an open Bible outside the former Civil Courthouse on Fannin, Harris County Commissioners Court violated one of life's most basic rules: When you find yourself in a hole you don't want to be in, stop digging.

By foolishly and futilely appealing the case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, the commissioners tried to dig to China. As a result, the taxpayers are in the hole for what might be hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees.

Three years ago, U.S. District Judge Sim Lake ruled that the Bible display was unconstitutional government promotion of religion. He ordered the county to pay the trial lawyers' fees of more than $40,000. Because of four appeals made by the county and the monument's donors, Star of Hope Mission, costs incurred by appellate lawyers for the plaintiff, Kay Staley, could approach or exceed $400,000.

County Attorney Mike Stafford said he pursued the exhaustive appeals because the public needed to hear from the highest court in the land whether it was constitutional to display the Bible on public land. Anyone who follows the news, much less an attorney steeped in the law, knows the court has ruled numerous times that such displays are not permissible. That's why the court didn't need to hear the county's expensive but fruitless appeal.

County Judge Ed Emmett and Commissioner Steve Radack — imagine them as an American Gothic couple holding large shovels — just don't get it. Both said they would like to display the monument and its Bible somewhere on county property. Emmett said some court rulings were just silly.

There's a lot I could say about this argument. How suggesting that a case does not merit the full run of due process simply because it disagrees with your point of view is an affront to the same First Amendment on which your argument is based. How judging the worth of an appeal based on its success is an affront to our entire legal system. Or just how tiresome it is that Mrs. White feels to pick and choose Her targets based on ideology and not on fact. There's a lot I could say, but I won't. Because, Mrs. White is entitled to her ideology and opinion. She's also entitled to be wrong. Which, it should be noted, she frequently is, without any retraction when such errors are pointed out.

This isn't a case of "wrong" or "right" however. It's a matter of opinion. I'm of the opinion that the County had an obligation to ensure that the issue received a full and complete judicial review. Anything less would have been an affront to the citizens who were supportive of the Bible being on display. It's especially important to ensure that the entire process is followed when a minorities' interests are at stake. Because the majority can be a cruel mistress. Especially when they believe that they are operating from the moral high ground. The Christians have learned that lesson, sometimes painfully, over the years.

You see, there are many Christians out there who feel that not only are they "right" spiritually, but also that they are "right" morally. Although there is no moral superiority inherent in Religion. "What?" you might be asking? You read that correctly. There's nothing in Christianity or Islam or Hindu or Sikh or Judaeism or any other Religion that automatically grants its followers moral superiority over another. Christians have often failed to acknowledge the fact that you can be a moral person and not have a relationship with the Christian God. It's possible, and I would even go so far as to say it's probable.

The morality of America is not ensconsed in her Christianity. A Nation by itself cannot be "Christian" or "Muslim" or any other Religion for that matter. It can be founded on a set of principles and laws that are found in Religious texts (the partial basis for most systems of law) but that doesn't mean that said Country tied inexorably to that Faith. America's law was founded on the Judeo-Christian template using the Ten Commandments and parts of Leviticus as source documents. Because of this, for many years, Christians have acted as if the American legal system was a blunt object designed to mold the unfaithful to their way of thinking. The result of this has been systems of laws designed to outlaw events that the "Church" (used here in the generic form) viewed as running counter to established Orthodoxy.

Texas law against homosexual sex (fornication) between consenting adults is one such example. Blue laws outlawing alcohol sales on Sunday are another, less extreme, example of these laws. As the appeals process to strike down the fornication law progressed, it appeared at times that it was doomed to failure, that the claimants were "digging a hole to China". In that case the Gov't did its Constitutional duty and followed the process through the entire process all the way to the Supreme Court.

That was not the "wrong" decision then and it is not the "wrong" decision now to follow that same course of action. That the SCOTUS ruled against the State in both cases does not mean that the process was a waste. In the fornication case an onerous law was struck down and precedent was set. While there was no precedent set in the latter it served to forward the debate on what limits should be placed in regards to public displays of Religious objects.

All according to the system.

If that's considered a "waste" of taxpayer resources then the entire system is a waste and Mrs. White should just go ahead and say that she would feel more comforatable in a nice, quiet dictatorship.

The American system is messy. Politics has been likened to sausage making and the judicial process has been likened to molasses flowing uphill. It's designed to be slow, deliberate, and sometimes frustrating.

Which, of course, is why it makes for such spectacular theatre when done correctly.

It's official: I'm debated out

I didn't watch the Republican YouTube debate last night. I just didn't have the stomach for it.

(From Liz Sidoti of the AP via the Chron)

Republican presidential rivals Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney scornfully talked immigration Wednesday in a provocative, no-holds-barred CNN/YouTube debate just over a month before the first votes are cast.

Giuliani, the front-runner in national polls, accused Romney of employing illegal immigrants at his home and running a "sanctuary mansion." The testy personal exchange came after Romney said Giuliani had retained New York's status as a sanctuary city while he was mayor.

Romney said it would "not be American" to check the papers of workers employed by a contractor simply because they have a "funny accent." He had landscapers at his Belmont, Mass., home who turned out to be in the country illegally.

Giuliani shot back, calling Romney's attitude "holier than thou."

"Mitt usually criticizes people when he usually has the far worse record," Giuliani said.

The audience, however, booed Giuliani as he tried to persist in his criticism of Romney.

The confrontation came at the start of an innovative CNN/YouTube debate that forced the candidates to confront immigration immediately, signaling the volatility of the issue among Republican voters.

Blah, blah, blah. I'm more conservative than you, I have Reagan's underwear on etc.

You want to know why the Republicans are having PR problems? Because they're seemingly intent on proving reincarnation by trying to cast themselves as the second coming of Ronald Reagan. That may be good for some portion of the base, like the portion who thought Gordon Gecko was an OK guy or the female voter who's longing for the days of oversized shoulder pads and big hair, or the male voter who's idea of "the perfect babe" is Melanie Griffith in Working Girl. For most people however, and most independents, we would like to see some political policy that's rooted in the here and now. Besides, Reagan passed the amnesty bill back in the 80's, so if you REALLY want to wear Reagan's underwear then try to tack that way.

The Democrats aren't any better. Between Hillary trying to take credit for all of the good policy decisions of her husbands administration while shedding the bad decisions like a parka in a sauna and Barack Obama trying to be all things to all races and John Edwards trying NOT to sound like an elitist snob you pretty much are stuck with what could go down as the weakest slate of Presidential candidates in the young History of America.

There's literally no one that's worth voting for. I'm waiting for Richard Pryor to come back and revive his Brewster's Millions role. There are no creative ideas to address the very real problems that are starting to mount up in America.

No one's addressing the debt load.
No one's addressing the falling dollar.
No one's addressing the AMT.
No one's addressing new ideas for health care.

America is basically stuck in a Groundhog Day-like re-run of lifetime politicians recycling failed "quick fixes" over and over again trying to promise the biggest piece of the public largesse to the largest swath of people (notice, I didn't say American citizens). It's vote buying but on a legalized, Nationwide level.

You want "free" health care? Vote for me and I'll tax that guy over there to pay for yours.

You want "cheaper" energy? Vote for me and I'll tax that CEO over there to pay for yours.

You want "free" education? Vote for me and I'll tax that School District over there to pay for yours.

You want "fair pay" at your job? Vote for me and I'll tax that Country over there to subsidize yours.

In the process of doing this I'm going to support measures that progressively move to outlaw any thought or action that you could commit that might accidentially offend others or which could be a danger to yourself. All I ask in return for your vote are your guns, your economy, your children's hearts and minds. Oh, and if you throw in your God maybe I can cut you a deal on your retirement benefits.



And my opponent sucks.


I'll bless America, we don't want to offend those who don't believe in God.

More on Briles and Baylor. (UPDATED)

Ah geez, the pundits at the Chron are starting to weigh in...

Steve Campbell is against it...

Art Briles ... hello? Baylor? In your deepest, darkest thoughts, you'd consider becoming the next head football coach of the Baylor Bears? Baylor?

Look, I'm not going to go all provincial. The University of Houston clearly isn't an end-all job for an ambitious coach. Conference USA teams don't compete for national championships, and there is a low ceiling - so low, you can bump your head if you don't duck - on the sort of fan support the program will ever get.

But Baylor?

Understand, this isn't Grant Teaff's Baylor, which could pull the occasional David act when the Goliaths were limited to the Southwest Conference. This is Big 12 Baylor, the place coaching careers go to die. The roll call of the dearly departed coaches since Teaff left after the 1992 season:

• Chuck Reedy (23-22). Given the carnage to follow, that record's looking awfully good to Baylor fans. His last season was Baylor's first in the Big 12; the Bears went 4-7 overall, 1-7 in the conference.

• Dave Roberts (4-18).

• Kevin Steele (9-36).

• Guy Morriss (18-40).

Keep in mind, too, that Morris is nobody's stumblebum, and he couldn't avoid a winless Big 12 record this season. Even if Baylor is willing to double Briles' current $900,000 salary, is that enough of a golden parachute to compensate for the imminent demise of a promising coaching career?

He makes a good case, except that....I wonder if HE would turn down double the salary if offered it at say....The Waco Tribune?


Joseph Duarte says he shouldn't do it but, let's be fair, Duarte's College Football takes are suspect and scattershot. This is the guy who picked Okie State to win the Big XII and had the OU Sooners FOURTH. Hey, I picked Texas but at LEAST I had the sense to say that OU would finish SECOND.

Unlike Campbell Duarte just throws a bunch of mud against the wall and hopes that it sticks. "Baylor is a dead-end job...." blah, blah, blah.


Both of them are incorrect however, and let me tell you why...

Where the bar is set: Art Briles doesn't have to win National Championships (or Big XII championships for that matter) at Baylor to be successful. All he has to do is build the Bears into a consistent 6-8 win team and he'll be treated like the second coming of Grant Teaff. If he could step up and beat aTm once every so often well, then so much the better.

Baylor can do this by cherrypicking its non-conference schedule, and taking advantage of down years for other Big XII programs that always happen.

A well coached Baylor team could have finished with seven wins this year, probably SHOULD have finished with seven wins this year. If Briles can recruit talent to Baylor that's one notch higher than what he got at UH (and I don't see why he couldn't) then winning those games is almost a given.

Sure, it won't be the National Championships that Mike Singletary is wanting, but it would probably be good for most Baylor fans. And it'd certainly be good enough to propel Briles to the next coaching level four years from now.

Of course, what do I know? According to Steve Campbell I'm just beer swilling fan. Because, you know, the Chron columnists have much more sports knowlegde than the fans right? I mean, they've all played for years and....oh wait...nevermind.



UPDATE: While I was writing this the news broke: Briles is heading to Baylor...

From Murphy at the Chron

Art Briles on Wednesday accepted the position as head coach at Baylor, accepting a seven-year deal worth approximately $1.8 million per year.

Briles has four years remaining on a contract extension he signed last year. The reworked contract paid $900,000 per year and could have exceeded $1 million with incentives. That contract has a $300,000 buyout clause that allowed Briles, 51, to accept the Baylor job.

Briles has scheduled a 12:30 team meeting, where he will inform the players of his decision. The Bears have scheduled a 5:30 p.m. press conference to introduce Briles as their new head coach.

That's $12.6 Million dollars for those of you who aren't keeping score. I still wonder if the naysayers would have turned that money down. (I wouldn't)


UPDATE 2: Early names in the replacement coach rumor mill:

Larry Coker

Pros: History with DM and has a winning record and a National Championship to his name. Experience coaching at a Metropolitan University. (Miami)

Cons: Widely viewed as being the beneficiary of Butch Davis' coaching brilliance. Last two years' teams had severe discipline problems.


June Jones

Pros: Well, he's winning at Hawai'i.

Cons: Well, he's winning at Hawai'i.


Larry Fedora

Pros: OC at Okie State credited with assisting in the design of one of the most prolific offenses in major college football.

Cons: Gundy calls the plays.


Gus Malzahn

Pros: OC at Tulsa and the Golden Hurricanes OWNED the Cougars.

Cons: No HC experience, and he's the OC at Tulsa


Mike Locksley

Pros: OC at Illinois which had a very good offense this season.

Cons: only two years on the job. 13 total coaching football


Kevin Sumlin
(props to Coogfans for this name.)

Pros: Has ties to Houston, coached under Bob Stoops

Cons: Was OC at aTm under RC Slocum. (Zzzzzzzz)



One things for certain: Dave Maggard had better be on the phone to Larry Jackson and back up the Brinks truck to make SURE he doesn't get away. The Football team's improvement doesn't start with Briles, it starts when Jackson was hired on as the Strength and Conditioning coach.

This can't be right.

Hold on.

This is Exxon we're talking about here

That's right, the same Exxon that Loren Steffy accused of everything but outright lying in its appeal of the punative damages in the Valdez case. The same Exxon that Hillary Clinton wants to increase taxes on in an effort to stop their (and other oil companies') destructive exploitation of the Earth's resources.


So how can they be at the forefront of "clean" hybrid-battery technology?

(from Brett Clanton of the Chron)

Exxon Mobil Corp. believes it has found an answer to a problem that has bedeviled the auto industry in recent years: using rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, like those found in cell phones and laptops, to power cars and trucks.

This weekend, at a conference in Anaheim, Calif., Exxon Mobil will unveil a super-thin plastic sheeting the company says can improve the power, safety and reliability of lithium-ion batteries for use in automobiles.

Exxon Mobil considers the film a breakthrough because it allows battery makers to build smaller and cheaper battery systems — removing key obstacles that have kept automakers from building hybrid and electric vehicles on a wide scale.

"That desire to use batteries that are more powerful and lighter is something that the auto companies have yearned for for years," said Jim Harris, senior vice president at Exxon Mobil Chemical Co., a Houston unit of the Irving-based energy giant.

Today, most vehicles have toaster-sized nickel-metal hydride batteries under the hood. But battery makers and auto manufacturers have begun turning their attention to lithium-ion batteries because they are smaller, lighter, able to hold a charge longer and have a higher energy density.

"It's the natural next step for advanced battery technology," said Brian Corbett, a spokesman for General Motors Corp., which is developing models like the Chevrolet Volt that incorporate lithium-ion batteries.

I've already addressed the vapidity of levvying punative taxes against domestic production and companies as a tool for cutting foreign oil consumption, which pretty much destroys the rationale behind Hillary's tax plan.

It's really about revenue generation for the Government and has nothing to do with improving the environment.

Because, as you see here, if you increase taxes then the big oil companies are going to have to give up something to compensate. I can guarantee you that they will not give up the base of their business, but will instead abandon programs like these which could help make renewables more viable moving forward. They'll also increase their International sales to offset the losses they face in America. Thus depriving Americans of both jobs, and resources.

I'm a firm believer in working to reduce pollution and taking steps to increase conservation of shrinking energy sources. I'm also a firm believer in certain renewables.

I'm not a believer in going after the backbone of the economy to win the votes of those who place emotion and rhetoric above logic and fact. Namely the fact that America needs Big Oil to do what it does. They're the one industry that has the technical know-how and logistical networks to administer any large scale energy source that is designed to evenutally replace oil.

Of course, there's no current candidate looking at it from that angle now is there?

Texas Football week in review (so far)

"It's not about who's hired, it's about the process'...

Which pretty much tells you all you need to know about the foolishness that has become the Black Coaches Association. It's better to put on a dog & pony show so it LOOKS like you're considering people you aren't interested in than going out and getting the "best" candidate for the job.

That being said, how many major conference coaches are black? And while currently the Big XII is lilly white, I'm still banking on Gill being the new HC at Nebraska which will be a good hire for that school.

Not because he's black, but because Gill is a good coach. Which is the same criteria that should be used to judge Mike Sherman.


Adios coach Briles...

Protestations from the red and white delusional to the contrary, Briles is gone. Baylor is going to offer him $1.8 Million per plus incentives that will bring the deal into the $2 Million range. He'd be crazy not to take that deal. Besides, the cupboard is looking a little bare next year in Cougar land. This could be his best time to bolt.

Timing and money are everything in College Football.



Kudos to the MOB...

Rice Football may be rebuilding but the MOB had one of their best years ever. (if you ignore the flying tortilla monster in the Tech Game). The Tulsa halftime show was epic.

So far the show hasn't made it to YouTube, but I'm sure it will pop up somewhere. Kuff (the blogosphere's MOB member) has more. (including a link to the script of the show.)

BAM!

Better cancel that order for garlic futures. Emeril Live! is no more.

(from the AP via the Chron)

Food Network is kicking Emeril Lagasse down a notch.

The celebrity chef's Emeril Live, which has been on the air for 10 years, will cease production Dec. 11, Food Network publicist Carrie Welch told The Associated Press.

"However, Emeril is under contract with Food Network," Welch said Tuesday. "We love him, we support him and look forward to a long partnership with him."

Welch wouldn't comment on Lagasse's contract.

Asked why the show was canceled, she told the AP: "The only reason would be that it hit a ton of television milestones and, you know, all good things come to an end."

Or maybe the reason was that all of his recipe's were the same?

1. Take (insert protein here)
2. Add "the trinity" (onions, bell pepper, and celery)
3. Add Garlic
4. Add Emeril's "essence" spice.
5. Salt and Papper
6. Add bacon (or some other form of pork fat)


And that was pretty much his show, outside of a few running jokes ("keep it G") some pokes at Doc Brown and the Emeril Live band and maybe a special guest or two, that was it.

Not that Emeril is a bad chef (he's not, he's not one of the best either) but there's only so much you can do over the span of ten years. His heart just wasn't in it any longer, at least not THAT show. Essence of Emeril is still a competent show too bad the same thing can't be said for his "special" work for the Food Network.

Generally, I view this as a positive step for the once powerful culinary network that's REALLY fallen off of late. Where once there were entire evenings of good programming, the new shows are way too personality driven to provide much in the way of actual (you know) cooking food content. For every hit (anything with Alton Brown, Kitchen: Impossible, Throwdown) there are a bevvy of misses (Simply Delicioso, Semi-homemade, most of their "challenge" series) and they've gotten rid of a LOT of shows that had potential (Ham on the street) to replace them with dreck (Anything with Giada DeLaurentis) that people don't relate to.

Add to this the fact that the Food Network is often hopelessly behind current culinary trends and just flat-out wrong on several occassions and you have what adds up to a network in decline.

If you want to get a glimpse of why this is, take a look at the clueless group judging the "Next Food Network Star". So far that group has picked three winners, and doesn't have a "hit" (or a star - although to be fair Guy Fieti has limited potential) yet.



I'll be over on MOJO watching "three sheets" and "After Hours with Daniel" re-runs.

All of the good stuff happens when I'm away (part 2)

That's the thing about taking an extended leave of absence. When you get back there's a ton of things that happened.

Calls for a new "soccer-specific" stadium...

(courtesy of Glenn Davis)

So, yes, it is time for a soccer-specific stadium in Houston, and downtown is just the place for it.

After all, this is the fourth-largest city in the United States, the gateway to Mexico, Central America and South America.

A melting pot of nationalities has formed what Dynamo president Oliver Luck likes to call the "new Houston."

All you would have had to do is come to one of the final three Dynamo games, where they drew in excess of 30,000 fans each night, and you would have sampled the diverse mix of Houston inhabitants.

Here are some reasons the Dynamo and Houston would benefit from a new stadium.

With back-to-back MLS Cup titles and a growing fan base, the organization deserves the support of the city, especially when the Dynamo ownership, Anschutz Entertainment Group, is willing to put $60 million to $72 million into the stadium.

With a soccer-specific stadium downtown, the Dynamo would continue to elevate national and international awareness of our city. When the Dynamo play teams from Mexico and other Central American countries, the games are broadcast to other nations.

With the NBA, NFL and MLB not involved with international competition of "meaning," the Dynamo and soccer hold an important key for bringing global attention to Houston.

The Dynamo organization is challenged by playing at Robertson Stadium because all the ancillary streams of revenue (parking, concessions, merchandise and the rest) are affected by the team's inability to control scheduling.

(snip)

With a new stadium the Dynamo would be sure to host the MLS Cup final, All-Star Game, international competitions and collegiate and high school sports. And Houstonians would gain great joy watching professional soccer in a proper facility.

Top youth and adult soccer league events could be played in the new venue.

Its location near Minute Maid Park would also spur economic development downtown.

For the record, I'm not opposed to a soccer-specific stadium for the Dynamo. What I'm opposed to is corporate welfare. ALL kinds of corporate welfare that doesn't promote a single goal. If you're granting subsidies to promote a certain type of activity (for example: renewable energy research or domestic energy development) then fine, subsidize away. It could even be argued that there is an overriding public good to be gained from providing these incentives. But offering subsidies that provide zero public good is a waste of taxpayer money and shouldn't even be on the Government's radar screen. It was a bad idea with Reliant Stadium, Minute Maid Park and the Toyota Center, and its a bad idea here. Sadly, as is the case with most Government mistakes, this one will probably happen.

Let me ask you these questions:

If Minute Maid Park and Toyota Center have failed to provide lasting economic development to Downtown Houston then why should we believe that a stadium with 1/2 the fan base would do what those two did not?

Why not build the stadium in the middle of a soccer COMPLEX that's designed with youth soccer in mind? Yes, you could play a handful of local games per year in the Dynamo's new play pen, but you could play THOUSANDS of local games per year in a complex built around a central stadium with an entire youth facility built up around it. Work out a deal with the Woodlands and build it there.

If they cannot build it with private financing and turn a profit then why do the Dynamo DESERVE a stadium?

Bottom line: I have no qualms with the City or County donating the land, but that should be the extent of any dontation to a minor league in a major league town.


More on the Red Light cameras...

It's the issue that won't go away. Imagine when local governments decide to get speed limit cameras like they have in Europe now. (It's coming)



Why Christmas sucks...

Reason # 1: wackos who think using them to push their agenda is a-ok. (see: vegetarians getting preachy during Thanksgiving)


Why Christmas sucks...

Reason # 2: The overcommercialization of the season by America. (or, all I want for Christmas is for those damn elves to stop singing)


Why Chistmas sucks...

Reason #3: Because we don't have the guts to call it Christmas any longer.


You see, the Menorah is for Hannukah, they're not "the seven candles of the Holiday" etc. Being inclusive doesn't mean white-washing (no pun intended) one religion out of existence. It means that you have respect for all Religions. Somewhere along the way we've forgotten that. And the Christmas season sucks because of it.

The Wyatt Sentance

Does the "good" counterbalance the "bad"?

That's the question the judge will have to answer.

(from David Ivanovich of the Chron)

Hostages taken by Saddam Hussein after his invasion of Kuwait recount how Houston oilman Oscar Wyatt whisked them to safety.

One former employee tells how the oil tycoon intervened to help a desperately ill loved one. And his lawyers recall how Wyatt orchestrated the escape of 800 hotel guests caught up in a West African civil war.

But this same man made a "breathtakingly immoral" choice by "exploiting" the United Nations' oil-for-food program to win lucrative oil contracts from Saddam's regime, prosecutors say.

Today, the 83-year-old legend of the Oil Patch will appear before U.S. District Court Judge Denny Chin in federal court here to be sentenced, after pleading guilty last month to a conspiracy charge.

Wyatt could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison for that one count, although federal sentencing guidelines call for a prison stay of 18 to 24 months.

Wyatt also has agreed to forfeit $11 million.

For Chin, the task today will be to tally the sum of a complex man.

Wyatt supporters have flooded the court with letters asking for leniency. Famed Houston heart surgeon Michael DeBakey, former General Motors Chairman Roger Smith, even actress Farrah Fawcett have all spoken up on Wyatt's behalf, lauding a variety of venerable deeds.

(snip)

"We have letters of support from many distinguished people and ordinary working people who have been touched by Oscar Wyatt, who have been helped by Oscar Wyatt, who have been the beneficiaries of his generosity," Wyatt attorney Gerald Shargel said Monday. "And we're hoping for a favorable result."

God love the "ordinary working people". Those who are (by implication) without distinction according to Gerald Shargel.

In other words: Sucks to be you, now give my client leniency so that his jet-setting wife can get her butt back to the South of France.

There are a LOT of good people in prison right now who don't have Millions of Dollars or the luxury of having "stars" write letters of recommendation in regards to their character. History shows us that their transgressions aren't affected as much by their past deeds, no matter how generous they seem.

But, that's the American way is it not? Just buy your way out of trouble.

And we criticize the Mexican Government for their bribery and kickbacks....


UPDATE: 12 months. Out in 6 with good behavior. It's good to be wealthy in America.

I'll be out of the office....

Starting tomorrow morning, returning November 24th for Thanksgiving and will have zero access to the Internet etc.

In the interim, if you're considering eating one of these:


You might try to pair it with one of these:

1. The Dry Comal Creek White/Black Spanish.

A nice blush wine that doesn't have the sticky sweet taste of a normal blush. This is a very nice mixture of Black Spanish and Colombard grapes.

2. Texas Hills Due Blanco.

A mixture of of Pinot Grigio and Chardonnay that's very fruity and acidic and would mesh well with traditional Thanksgiving foods.

3. Messina Hof Semillon.

Possibly the best white wine from one of Texas' best wineries. Full flavored, robust and crisp enough to cut through giblet gravy.



Have a great Thanksgiving.

Happy *snicker* Thanksgiving.

In the Chron's letters page today comes a wonderful Thanksgiving wish from one of the local vegetarians.

That's right It's a top ten list as to why you shouldn't eat turkey this thanksgiving.

Let's count down shall we?

10. You will pardon a turkey — just like President Bush, but for the right reasons.

- Maybe I will, maybe I won't pardon said turkey. But who's to say that this turkey wasn't guilty? Now, if I knew this turkey, and if it was alive before I had to go out and kill it, I might have been able to pardon said turkey, of course, It would also hurt the local free-range organic turkey farmer that I bought the bird from if I took away from their income.

9. You'll celebrate life and good fortune, rather than death and misfortune.

- You see, its food. Eating food means that you have to kill something. YOU say that a plant doesn't feel pain, and that killing it isn't immoral. I SAY that killing a turkey for food isn't immoral, but I know several ears of corn who feel differently about things. You can't ask the turkey, I can't ask the corn. Call this one a push.

8. You won't suffer nightmares about how the turkey lived and died.

- I know for a fact that my turkey was awarded 77 virgin hens, a fifth of cognac (helps marinade) and a fine cigar before it was slaughtered. Even if I didn't know this, I'd probably not worry about said turkey. It has a purpose in life that its going to fulfill.

7. You won't have to call the Poultry Hotline to keep your family alive.

- Which would really suck for all of the people who rely on the turkey hotline job to earn extra money for Christmas. Besides, no one ever heard of a tofu hotline, probably because no matter how you prepare it, it tastes like tofu.

6. You won't have to sweat the saturated fat and cholesterol.

- Actually turkey is a very healthy, very lean meat that's recommended by most nutritionists as a wonderful protein source for dieters. It's a very heart healthy meat as well.

5. Your vegetarian friends will adore you.

- Unlike Dana Caldwell, my vegetarian friends aren't pretentious snobs who think their diet choices are somehow morally superior. They will love me regardless of what I eat. If they did base our friendship on my diet choices they probably wouldn't be friends of mine (or yours) for very long.

4. Your kids will tell their friends about their cool "tofurky."

- Yeah, if my kids want to have their lunch money taken for being idiots they'll talk about their "tofurkey". There's also the possibility that my kids (if I had them) would be too embarrassed to tell their friends what freaks mommy and daddy are, and that their parents think they have the authority to tell others what they should eat.

3. You won't fall asleep during the football game.

- Study after study says that naps are healthy. What are you trying to do Dana? Ruin my health? Besides, spreading out on the couch and catching some shut-eye to free up space for the fourth slice of pie is a Thanksgiving tradition. Back off my nap time.

2. You are what you eat. Who wants to be a "butterball"?

- Who wants to be a mung bean? Or fermented soy curd? As previously stated, I'm eating heritage turkeys this year, free range, organic, and oh so tasty. Ben Franklin wanted the turkey to be named the National Bird. I'm cool with my choice.

1. Commercial turkeys are too fat to have sex. Could happen to you.

- See number 2. Also, there's conflicting clinical evidence regarding the healthy effects of soy consumption in men. A little bit won't matter probably, but too much can lead to an overproduction of estrogen and other female hormones which could lead to sexual dysfunction. Could happen to you as well.



So, all of that aside, everyone be sure to have a Happy Thanksgiving and eat whatever the heck you want. Whether its a commercial turkey, a free range turkey or a tofurkey just enjoy it and be glad we live in a country where we (for the time being) have choices.

If people like Dana Caldwell ever get their way those choices will be limited to Soylent Green.

This just in: The sky is (still) falling.

And Mrs. White is concerned about it.

A crucial conference of world energy ministers next month in Bali, Indonesia, will plot the next steps by the world's governments in combating global warming. The final summary of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, issued over the weekend, lays out in stark terms the consequences the world faces if leaders fail to bring greenhouse gas emissions under control.

Even if rapidly increasing industrial discharges of carbon dioxide are slowed or stopped, temperatures and sea levels will continue to rise, low-lying lands will be inundated and many life forms will be driven into extinction. For the first time, the panel of hundreds of scientists, which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, warns that the melting of the Greenland ice sheet could cause catastrophic rises in sea level in much shorter time frames than previously thought.

It's amazing to me that no one has seriously taken a look at that bolded excerpt and wondered if maybe, just maybe this whole thing is cyclical and human activity doesn't have much to do with it?

Nope. That can't be it. It's all about those evil Americans and their consumerism and the ONLY way to stop the planet from superheating and roasting all of its occupants is to shut down the American economy and inject her citizens with double the amount of CO2 that they emitted.

OK, I'm joking about the last bit, but shutting down the American economy is certainly one of the responses that's being bandied about with a surprising amount of seriousness.

The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has made predictions that have swung wildly from one side (we're all going to die!!) of the spectrum to another (mild climate change). Their one consistency has been to blame America for the problem. Pretty much ignoring the fact that the air in China must be sliced before breathing is possible.

The simple, unavoidable fact is that there is nothing humans can do to stop the earth from warming. The planet is too big, and we are too small to radically change something that's been happening since God said "let there be light".

We don't have the keys to the thermostat.


We do have control of the power switch to the air purifier however, and we need to start making real decisions about using it. This means that we all need to do our bit to reduce pollution, to only purchase items that are made in an environmentally sensitive manner, and to think about consuming less as time goes on.

We may not be able to keep the sea from rising, but at least we can make sure that the water that laps at our toes is clean.



Addendum: Being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize is NOT an establishment of credibility. Just sayin'

Would the Chron spend this money?

Tom Fowler lets readers know that refineries could cut emissions to meet Mayor White's six-month deadline (maybe) IF they were just willing to sacrifice...

At least some measures to reduce air pollution from Houston-area plants are within reach, despite the industry's complaints that Mayor Bill White's six-month deadline for improvements is unattainable.

For less than $20,000 a plant could have an infrared camera crew scan its facility for major leaks. The scan would take a few days — though fixing the leaks could cost much more and take much longer.

In about six months a plant operator could build a dome over the top of an 80-foot-diameter storage tank, preventing escape of fumes. The cost would be around $200,000.

And with better planning and training, a refinery could cut the time it flares off gases during startups and shutdowns.

"I think some of it's doable, what he's asking them to do," said David Furry, whose Texas firm developed a widely used infrared leak detection system.

But costs and timetables for specific pollution projects vary because of the complexity of chemical plants and refineries.

"These can be very big capital expenses, and it's usually a matter of years of planning, designing and optimizing changes," said Don Bellman, a former manager in Exxon Mobil Corp.'s chemical business who now teaches at the University of Houston's Global Energy Management Institute.

Early this year White proposed revising the city's nuisance ordinance to include plant emissions. That could result in nuisance citations against companies that don't cut pollution. In response, business leaders formed the Houston Regional Air Quality Task Force to come up with their own proposals.

The task force recommended 18 voluntary measures for the companies and community over the next year, but White said earlier this month he wants to see results in six months.

Ah, how quick we are to tell others how best to spend their money. Nevermind that its unclear how expensive the fix would be, or how long it would take to implement it.

What's that you say?

Well, the "cheap" option, the photo scan, would only identify a problem. FIXING the problem would involve possibly (probably) shutting down the entire unit for repairs that could potentially cost in the Millions and could take well over six months.

So, what the article is suggesting is that plants accept an unworkable deadline despite the fact that they cannot meet it no matter what they do.

Oh, and they had better not lay anyone off either, or else the Chron would criticize them for that. Yes, you are remembering correctly. But that's not the point here.

The point is "changing Houston's economy" which means shutting down all of these refineries, forcing the big oil companies to relocate and re-employing a certain portion of the work-force in (much cooler) nanotech and renewable energy companies.

As for the rest of you who aren't cool. (read: 30 and under, and 'hip') well, you can just move away. You're getting in the way of the grand vision.


Now if we can just get rid of those pesky blue collar workers Houston would be grand.

The priorities of local leadership

Let's see, an expanding homeless population, infrastructure that's in dire need of attention, a police officer shortage that's becoming more and more obvious", but hey...Forget all of those problems. What would REALLY make Houston "world class" is a new downtown soccer stadium..you know, "for the kids".

(from Bill Murphy and Bernardo Fallas of the Chron)

The Houston Dynamo, fresh off the team's second straight championship, could have a private-public deal to build a stadium in place within weeks, city and team officials said Monday.

"I'm hopeful we can put a good deal together," said Andy Icken, the city's deputy director of public works, who is heading negotiations for the city. "If we're going to be successful, we'll be successful in the next two weeks."

Anschutz Entertainment Group, which owns the Dynamo, is laying plans to build a 22,000-seat, open-air stadium at a cost of $70 million to $80 million.

The Dynamo have been most interested in building the stadium between the George R. Brown Convention Center and Minute Maid Park on the other side of U.S. 59. The land is privately held.

Some members of the team, which won its second straight Major League Soccer championship Sunday by defeating the New England Revolution, said they are wondering why it is taking so long to secure a stadium deal.

"Mayor White, listen up: This team deserves it (a stadium)," Dynamo defender Craig Waibel said.

County Commissioner Sylvia Garcia said the Dynamo's second championship should energize officials and fans to get a stadium built.

"But nobody wants to see taxpayer dollars go toward this," she said.

(snip)

White is seeking a deal that would not require the city to contribute public money. While AEG's proposal calls for the company to bear most of the construction costs, it still would require the city to provide millions of dollars in needed infrastructure improvements, city and team officials said.

"The mayor has said he would not like to use any money that could be used for firefighters or policemen," Icken said.

The Harris County-Houston Sports Authority, which built Minute Maid Park, Reliant Stadium and Toyota Center with public funds, is not expected to be involved in construction of a soccer stadium.

The authority is paying off bonds floated to build the baseball, football and basketball facilities with hotel and car rental taxes. Officials have said there will not be enough tax revenue to finance a soccer stadium.

"We're prepared to put in the preponderance of the money for the stadium," Luck said. "I'm reluctant to say whether it would be $60 million, $62 million or $72 million," he said. "But we are asking the city for some financial help, no two ways about it."

Infrastructure improvements could include building streets to a stadium site and paying for expanded water lines and other utilities, Icken said.

I have no doubt in my mind that this is going to be built, and that Houston taxpayers are going to foot the bill for a larger portion of it than what is currently being bandied about.

Why? How can I say that when Mayor White is so (seemingly) opposed to spending taxpayer dollars? Because the Hispanic lobby is going to start wailing about how they're community is being "underserved" and how any opposition to this is racist and xenophobic. Just watch.

All I can say to that is that I was opposed to Reliant, Minute Maid and the Toyota Center as well. It's got nothing to do with race, and everything to do with sound fiscal policy and decision making.

Are the Dynamo the most successful sports franchise in Houston? Yup. But they still are only averaging around 20K per game and this is still the equivalent of minor league sports in America. Add to that the fact that Downtown real estate is some of the most expensive in Houston and the cost/benefit just isn't adding up.

Don't think for any second that this is about convenience. It's about status. Downtown Houston (and only downtown Houston it seems) is upscale enough to satisfy the need of AEG and team general manager Oliver Luck to be viewed on equal footing with the big boys.

When boiled down to its essence this (and really any) stadium deal is entirely about ego.


What that means is that the Dynamo are already VERY much Houston.




OTHER EYES:

BlogHouston: City ready to cough up millions for new Dynamo stadium.

Press Release Journalism

Michelle Middlestadt of the Chron Washington DC bureau submits this profile of CD-22 Congressman Nick Lampson that's so sticky sweet it ought to contain a warning label for diabetics.

Nick Lampson, the Democrat who gave the Republican Party heartburn by claiming Tom DeLay's House seat, has had a bull's-eye painted on his back by no less than Karl Rove's White House political machine.

Tagged by the White House as the GOP's top House target for 2008, the Stafford lawmaker is running hard and racing to stockpile the campaign cash he'll need to fend off whoever emerges victorious from the passel of Republicans vying for their party's nomination.

And perhaps most important, Lampson has tacked to the right to keep in sync with his heavily Republican 22nd District, which spans parts of Harris, Brazoria, Fort Bend and Galveston counties.

Since returning to Congress this year after being pushed out in a 2004 redistricting plan engineered by DeLay, Lampson has refashioned himself.

Gone is the moderate-to-liberal Beaumont Democrat from his earlier days in Congress. Nowadays, Lampson, 62, is keeping company with the Blue Dogs, a fiscally conservative bunch of Democrats working to bring budget discipline to Capitol Hill.

And he's far from a solid vote for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and her lieutenants, joining a small band of other endangered Democrats to defect on sensitive issues.

Last week, Lampson broke with his party over Iraq. He was among 15 House Democrats who sided with President Bush by voting against a $50 billion Iraq spending bill that would have required the administration to start bringing some troops home almost immediately.

And his favorite color is green and he loves babies and puppies.


It's fluff pieces such as this, that are really nothing more than glorified press releases for the candidate in question, that make some of us wonder out loud why the Chronicle budgets considerable sums to keep a D.C. bureau while laying off local reporters who are covering big stories.


A quality story on Lampson might have mentioned all of his cross-party votes, and would have examined why he cast them, and would have looked for reaction from both local Republicans, and the progressives who backed him to cast progressive votes on issues and are not getting what they expected. That would take some effort, but it'd be a more interesting story.

The sky is falling (again)

Is it me? Or is there at least an article per day telling us the economy is doomed?

Today's entrant from Jeannie Aversa of the AP:

The painful collapse of the housing market along with the credit crunch will weigh down economic growth in the final three months of this year and cause economic activity to lag in 2008.

It all means that the risk of a recession has increased, economic forecasters say.

The latest look-ahead from the National Association for Business Economics says the gross domestic product is on track to expand at just a 1.5 percent pace from October through December. If that proves correct, it would mark a sizable decline from the July-September rate of 3.9 percent.

The group's new fourth-quarter projection compared with September's prediction of a 2.5 percent growth rate. The GDP — the value of all goods and services produced in the United States— is considered the best barometer of the country's economic fitness.

For all of this year, the forecasters expect the economy to grow by 2.1 percent, which would be the weakest showing since 2002. Back then, the economy was emerging from a recession and grew by just 1.6 percent.

The association downgraded its growth forecast for next year — putting it at 2.5 percent, compared with an earlier projection of 2.8 percent.

"While the U.S. economy faces a higher risk of recession from credit markets, housing and energy prices, NABE's panelists still do not see recession as the most likely outcome," said Ellen Hughes-Cromwick, the group's president and chief economist at Ford Motor Co

All right, we get it, economists and reporters believe the sky is falling. Do they have to tell us the same story every day?

Not that the economy is fine (its not) but the overriding issues facing the economy are more related to debt spending on the part of the populace (and the Gov't) than it is due to the "sub-prime market". The housing crunch is just another symptom of the disease of over indulgence that Americans have been on for several years.

It's time for a retraction, something that every economy goes through from time to time to clear out the bloated, and the dead wood that's just riding the wave. Retractions are not the vile things politicians tell us they are. They're hard, they require sacrifice, but they also prune the economic tree.

And their natural follow-ups to growth spurts.

It will be ok, just watch your expenditures, cut back a little, and work to get yourself out of debt.

So much for "innocent until proven guilty"

Richard Justice has decided we don't need the whole "due process" mess in America

He's better equipped to make the call.

Barry Bonds has one last chance to redeem himself. It won't be real redemption because it's too late for that. It simply would be a step in the right direction.

He should ask for forgiveness. That's right, forgiveness. He should call a news conference and tell us why he did what he did. He might just be stunned at the reaction.

He used performance-enhancing drugs because he wanted to be the greatest baseball player who ever lived. That his ambition got the best of his judgment has been well documented.

Maybe he did, maybe he didn't. But let's allow the courts to run through the cycle before we decide what it is Barry should do.

Lies, damn lies, and statistics.

Further proof that you can manipulate statistics to say whatever you want them to say...

(from Mike Snyder of the Chron)

Houston area residents, including those in areas where transit service is scarce or nonexistent, overwhelmingly believe public transportation is the best solution to traffic problems, according to a new, expanded version of the 2007 Houston Area Survey.

Strong majorities, ranging from 85 percent on Galveston Island to 76 percent in Houston, named public transportation as their first or second choice among three options for easing traffic congestion. The other choices were building bigger and better roads or developing communities where people live close to where they work and shop.

Stephen Klineberg, the Rice University sociology professor who directs the Houston Area Survey, said the broad support for public transportation was striking in light of Houston's reputation as one of the most car-dependent metropolitan areas in the country.

"Virtually all of Houston was built by, for and about the automobile," Klineberg said.

His survey, conducted annually since 1982, has previously been limited to Harris County. After this year's findings were released in March, Klineberg expanded his sample to include Galveston, Fort Bend and Montgomery counties.

He presented the results today to the Center for Houston's Future, a nonprofit group focused on strategic regional planning.

Unfortunately, Dr. Klineberg hasn't released these full results for examination on-line as of yet.

Not that I'm questioning his honesty, just the completeness of the answer.


The key in this study is the bolded text that I emphasized.

Think about this. You're given three options for transit, two involve moving people, and one involves uprooting residences. How many people do you think will vote to have people leave their homes and move?

About 25% is my guess. The same people who want to move into the homes that the people moving into town are selling plus the people inside the loop who think that everyone outside the loop still rides a horse. That's pretty consistent with the numbers in the survey, and its also total bunk. (but you knew that right?)

Because the people I outlined probably don't exist, at least not in meaningful numbers, but it sure sounds good doesn't it.


That's why you have to be careful of ANY statistical analysis. It COULD be that a majority of people actually prefer road contstruction, and listed public transportation second. If you add to this the fact that rail proponents are more likely to list road construction last, you have what SEEMS to be "overwhelming public acceptance" of mass transit. Except its not. It COULD be a call for a balanced transportation model, instead of the either/or options that are in vougue with the Houston cognescenti. Except we don't know.


And that's always been the flaw behind the Houston Area Survey, the questions are not specific enough to lend themselves to any serious policy analysis. It may be ok to get a general feel, but not good as a tool on which to build a transportation plan.



I have no doubt that public transportation is a good thing for Houston. I have serious doubts that this study does anything to forward that argument. You'll hear differently, of course, because this sounds all-too reasonable to NOT be authoritative. (except its not)


Other eyes:

Lone Star Times: Survey: Houstonians want mass transit

Ok, just stop it!

Worst...idea...EVER...

(from the AFP news service)

Santas in Australia's largest city have been told not to use Father Christmas's traditional "ho ho ho" greeting because it may be offensive to women, it was reported Thursday.

Sydney's Santa Clauses have instead been instructed to say "ha ha ha" instead, the Daily Telegraph reported.

One disgruntled Santa told the newspaper a recruitment firm warned him not to use "ho ho ho" because it could frighten children and was too close to "ho", a US slang term for prostitute.

"Gimme a break," said Julie Gale, who runs the campaign against sexualising children called Kids Free 2B Kids.

"We are talking about little kids who do not understand that "ho, ho, ho" has any other connotation and nor should they," she told the Telegraph.

"Leave Santa alone."

A local spokesman for the US-based Westaff recruitment firm said it was "misleading" to say the company had banned Santa's traditional greeting and it was being left up to the discretion of the individual Santa himself.

No, no, no, no, no, no, NO!!

Hands off the 'Claus.

Learning to play the game.

I'll say this about Rick Noriega, he's a quick study...

(from R.G. Ratcliffe of the Chron)

With millionaire Mikal Watts out of the U.S. Senate race, the national Democratic Party is now treating Houston state Rep. Rick Noriega as the apparent party challenger to Republican U.S. Sen. John Cornyn.

Noriega is traveling today to Las Vegas as a guest of the Democratic National Committee to meet national party donors who are attending the Nevada Democratic Party's presidential debate, which begins at 7 p.m. Central Time.

"They've got a lot of national donors coming to this, and we wanted them to put a face with the name," Noriega told the Houston Chronicle on Wednesday. "What's going to happen is across the country folks are going to start realizing that Texas is in play."

In the past several weeks, Noriega also has picked up endorsements from past Democratic presidential candidates John Kerry and Wesley Clark.

"It's a different race now, from a primary to a general election," Noriega said Wednesday.

Another sign that Noriega is turning the national party to his favor occurred last week in Austin, where he was a guest at a fundraiser for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

The senatorial committee will not decide which state races to finance until late next summer, but chairman Sen. Charles Schumer had in the past indicated a preference for Watts as the party nominee because Watts, a San Antonio trial lawyer, could largely finance his own campaign.

Because of campaign finance limits, it will be difficult for Noriega to finance his general election against Cornyn with just the money donated by Texans. Noriega ended September with $510,000 in the bank to Cornyn's $6.6 million.

To date, the Noriega campagin has an amateurish feel to it. That's probably due to the lack of funds than anything else. Whether or not he can garner the funding to take on Cornyn seriously is entirely in the hands of the National Democratic Party.

The National Dems are only going to fund Rick if they feel he has a realistic shot at winning. There are a LOT of State's that are in play, and a Senatorial Majority is, rightfully, more important to the Dems than is appeasing the vocal minority that is the InterLeft.

One campaign strategy that Rick seems to be following is to keep his positions close to the vest, while focusing his efforts on criticizing John Cornyn. This might be his best option in the purpling (but still Red) State of Texas, where some of the less mainstream "progressive" ideas don't play well at the ballot box. His military service is a plus however that cannot be overlooked.

I agree with Rick that Texas could be in play. IF they take the correct steps and can raise enough money. If they can't, then this is going to be another Chris Bell scenerio where Noriega's closest competition will be to get more votes than a corpse, something that Bell famously failed to do.


Oh yeah, and Mr. Noriega still hasn't answered my question.


Not that I'm bitter.


OTHER EYES:

Greg's Opinion: Dissing Rick
I really think he's making too much out of this comment:

At present, there are no signs that any major candidates will enter the Democratic race against Noriega, apparently giving him all but a free ride to the nomination.

Greg says this is a dis to Rep. Noriega, I just read it as Ratcliffe saying there's no major opposition lining up against Rick. Not that Rick wasn't a "major" candidate, since (quite clearly) he is.

Studying the Galveston/Houston rail option.

Harvey Rice of the Chronicle files a report today outlining a glowing review of the proposed Galveston/Houston commuter rail line...

A commuter rail line connecting Galveston to downtown Houston is economical, will reduce air pollution, ease traffic congestion and provide an evacuation route if a hurricane threatens, according to a 14-month study released Wednesday.

The Galveston-Houston Commuter Rail Study estimates it would cost between $380 million to $415 million to revive commuter service on the 140-year-old Galveston-Houston and Henderson rail corridor that parallels Interstate 45.

That's a bargain compared with the estimated $2.2 billion cost of a two-way bus lane carrying the same number of passengers, according to the study.

"If people ask if we can do it, I say it's impossible for us not to do it," said Barry Goodman, whose Goodman Corp. conducted the study.

(snip)

The $350,000 study financed by the city of Galveston says that the 45-mile rail corridor is among the most underused in the region and that upgrading it would improve its freight capacity as well as easing traffic congestion in a rapidly growing section of the Houston metropolitan area.

A commuter rail line would carry about 11,480 passengers per year when it is completed in 2030, reducing travel by vehicles by 51.7 million miles per year, the study says. That translates into a 509-ton annual reduction in air pollution, the study says.

Development would flourish along the rail line, increasing property and sales tax values by an estimated $131 million within 1,500 feet of transit stations, the report says.

If a hurricane threatened, the commuter rail could move 6,900 evacuees as far as Austin several times a day, the study says.

(snip)

Galveston City Manager Steve LeBlanc said there is strong political support in his city. "There is total backing for this," he said. LeBlanc said the city has had conversations with Galveston County officials and other cities along the proposed route through the Houston-Galveston Area Council. "They have all been supportive," he said.

Metro spokeswoman Raequel Roberts said that the commuter rail line fits the transportation blueprint. "We already have a Galveston line on the boards and we are looking at other lines," Roberts said.

Breathless support is it not? There's sure to be just as much breathless opposition.

But since that hasn't coalesced as of yet lets take a look at some of the claims Goodman is making.

1. The study was financed by the City of Galveston, whose political leaders are solidly behind it.

What does this mean? It means that Goodman had better of come out with a glowing report if they want to get additional contracts relating to the rail line. It also means that, once again, there's a "study" funded by the folks that want the thing to succeed that is being used as the basis for debate. Where have we heard that before?...

To be clear, I'm generally in favor of commuter rail solutions to transit. I just want to see good data on them and am not in favor of boosterism.

2. Do you REALLY think "development" is going to spring up along the line?

Have you ever lived near a train track? Or tried to dine right next to one when a train goes by? How about booked a stay in a Hotel next to one? Can you hear me now? When the train goes by the answer is a resounding no. There are many ways to sell commuter rail, "mixed use" development isn't one of them.

3. The Hurricane evacuation tool thing is more of an emotional tool rather than a practical one.

I haven't had a chance yet to go over the proposal in detail, but I'm guessing the "route to Austin" relies on several factors. The most important factor being the inclusion of commuter rail down Highway 290, something that is several years from the planning stages. That's right, from the planning stages. I'm also not sure about the "several times per day" claim since that would involve having multiple cars on the track. Not to mention there are sure to be congestion issues with all of the freight rail trains trying to get out of harm's way.


Look, I think commuter rail makes much more sense for the region than even light rail. I might even be supportive of a commuter rail network that terminates into several Metro Intermodal Stations. Provided it was handled correctly, and Metro agreed to blow up their bus map and start again.

But what I don't want is a thrown together system that's designed without regard to travel patterns as a boon to increasing "mixed use" development that we all know is never going to materialize. Besides, if someone wanted to build near an affluent neighborhood the Gov't would act quickly to shut them down.


Let's try and do it right this time for a change.

Must not fisk the HPD Chief....

Houston's part-time Police Chief is blogging...

Go ahead, click it. You know you want to.


Ah forget it, I'm fisking the bad boy...

Welcome to my blog. I realize that I'm not the first police chief to start using a blog to communicate with local residents, and I'm hoping Houstonians will forgive me for being a little late to the game.

Welcome to my blog. It's hard to start these things up on time when you weekend in Phoenix. Crap, it took me three months just to stop referring to the Woodlands as Tempe.

I plan to use this forum as a tool to let you see some of the "behind the scenes" good work done by the men and women of the Houston Police Department … the kinds of things you aren't likely to see on the news. As you probably realize, the news media doesn't always show you the positive stories

Ted Oberg is a wimpy putz. I have proof.

Despite the headlines, violent crime is down, and, for its size, Houston is a safe city.

And Hurricanes are small storms when you compare them to storm activity on say....Jupiter.

And there are things you can do, in partnership with HPD, to make it even safer. I encourage you to check this site periodically because I'm hoping to show you how you can help make a difference in your neighborhood and this city.

For starters, HPD could really use your help as a volunteer. We have several programs that might interest you: Citizens Offering Police Support (where you can work in a variety of jobs and divisions here at HPD), Citizens On Patrol, Houston Citizens' Police Academy, and the Police and Clergy Team (PACT.) For more information on these and other volunteer programs, see this page of our web site.

Seriously, we need staffing help. We're so short of officers we're considering contracting with fathead.com.

Thanks for visiting. I look forward to hearing from you.

If you define hearing as "being able to have your comments screened by my IT guy/ghostblogger so that I don't have to pretend to answer any "tough" questions" that is.



Thank you Chief Hurtt, and we welcome your ghostblogger to the blogosphere.



OTHER EYES:

BlogHouston: Chief Hurtt's blog officially open for business

A grand meeting of the BTC

It's time for another meeting of the grand Holy and Secrative Order of the Byzantio Transportation Consortium or BTC.

Any suggestions for a location and time are welcome and everyone is invited.

Possible topics for discussion:

1. Why don't we have this type of entertainment at our meetings?



2. Winners of the "Mayor White picture captioning" contest will be announced.



3. Discussion of the local Republican reaction to the most recent elections.





So, all we need now is a time and place.

ideas?

Oh boy.

This doesn't look good...

(From Alan Bernstein of the Chron)

Johnnie German admitted he was nervous as he used high-security codes to tap into the Harris County elections computer system last week and change some of the results manually.

The system was in good hands as the votes were counted from the sprawling Nov. 6 contests. German is the county's respected administrator of elections, and there were witnesses present as he corrected the vote totals on a sales tax referendum for a fire/ambulance district in the Cypress-Fairbanks area of northwest Harris County.

But German's late-night deed, said by officials to be a first-time event in the six years Harris County has used the eSlate voting system, has rekindled the debate about whether the newest electronic methods for counting votes should be trusted.

What German graphically demonstrated was that with the proper physical and informational access, one person can alter the results of an election in a county of 1.8 million registered voters.

The adjustments also highlighted the fact that, with multiple election boundaries snaking through precincts to separate city voters from county voters and municipal utility districts from emergency services districts, there usually are flaws that put voters in front of the wrong ballot screens.

There's a rather large minority of folks who would like to see the e-slates abolished and replaced with paper ballots. Unfortunately their replacement options are paper ballots and a return to the "hanging chad" controversy of the 2000 elections.

While I'm not opposed to electronic balloting (as a matter of fact, I'd like to see it expanded), there are always concerns like the one in the story above that people can manipulate the numbers. Of course, we don't require identification to vote so there's also the argument that the numbers are manipulated anyway.

The howls of protest are only going to be louder after this little episode, I guarantee it.

Regardless of the luddites who want to just shut it all down, and others who are fine with voter corruption but don't want to see voter efficiency, I believe that the e-slates are here to stay. I also believe that there has to be a better job with vote security.

A paper trail would be nice, and there need to be strict, strict (did I mention strict) controls on the release of the upper level codes needed for adjustments. There always comes a time when adjustments have to be made, but there should be very restrictive rules on how they should be handled.

Outside of that you just have to trust the honesty and integrity of those who volunteer to administer the vote.


It should be noted that the votes that have been tallied on the e-slate machines have been very positive for those who are the loudest critics of said machines. That kind of kills the argument that the results will be manipulated by one side to stay in power.

The arguments pretty much dead, but that doesn't mean that some people will keep beating a dead horse now does it?


Either way this is going to get noisy.

Mrs. White stands by her man (Part eighty something)

Another issue, another slobbery kiss from Mrs. White...

The impatience of Houston Mayor Bill White with the timetable for cleaning up Houston's tainted air is understandable. The mayor held off on his own enforcement plan for months while a group sponsored by the Greater Houston Partnership, which included chemical industry executives, studied alternatives.

Not surprisingly, the group concluded that industry should police itself and be given a chance to install new monitoring technologies to see if the approach works. The task force's chairman, Dan Woltermann, said the city should wait a year to see the results.

Also recommended was a public education forum on clean air to inform citizens on how to help improve air quality. Other than to stop breathing, there is little the public can do to avoid documented high levels of benzene and other carcinogens being emitted by industrial facilities in the Houston area.

The task force's go-slow approach is mirrored on the state level, where Gov. Rick Perry appealed to the federal government this summer to delay enforcement of Environmental Protection Agency standards for smog-causing ozone in the Houston-Galveston area for an additional nine years, until 2019. That's far more lenient than an extension to 2013 supported by Houston and Harris County officials.

Mayor White postponed a city plan last spring to use nuisance ordinances to crack down on sources of toxic emissions outside the city. During the postponement, the task force was to come up with alternatives. The mayor's plan would have the city set its own standards for emissions of air toxics and then use its nuisance ordinance to sue violators. After it was unveiled, officials of neighboring municipalities where the industrial offenders are located protested. After White met with them the proposal was put on hold and subjected to further study. During the last session of the Texas Legislature, several lawmakers attempted but failed to outlaw the use of nuisance ordinances to curb pollution.

Yes, the air quality in Houston sucks. If you noticed the haze that was hanging over Houston last week you can't help but notice this.

But, is the answer best served by Houston running over the domain of other municipalities?

According to Mrs. White...yes...

Houston needs cleaner air. If the state won't enforce adequate clean air standards, it's up to city government to fill the gap.

Mayor White says he'll give industry six months to show results from voluntary efforts, or he will proceed to implement the city's enforcement plan. "If we have eight meetings about this, but the level of benzene goes up," White said, "the community will have been defrauded."

Given the time that the process has already consumed, six months seems more than an adequate interval for industry to demonstrate it is serious about cleaning up its act.

Funny how its the cities responsibility on THIS issue, but when it comes to immigration enforcement we're constantly reminded that its a "federal matter" and that Houston should just stay out of the way.

Because, you know, we only want to enforce those laws that are a priority to us right?


Or how about this: Mayor White and others who are concerned about the air quality in Houston and the rest of the region should work together with State agencies to get said standards enforced. If there are enough people who feel this is a priority then they should work to stack the deck in the State Government so that their elected officials make policy decisions with which they agree.

I know, that's not a "love letter" to Mayor White, but its plan of action that plays right by our Democracy. Of course, since his landslide election victory little things like the rule of law haven't seemed to hold much sway...

"You'd better stop this thing, because I'm going to stop it unless you stop it."

Mayor White has a LOT of political capital, it'd be nice if he'd spend some of it at the State level working to get cleaner air for Houston.

On the bright side, if he runs for Governor he can then enact these policies on his own. It might even garner him another big wet sloppy kiss from Mrs. White.

Oh the ecstacy.

Fiesta and the DoT

With any highway expansion, light rail construction or other major infrastructure comes some amount of dislocation and business disruption.

How much said disruption is worth is up for debate...

(from Brad Hem of the Chron)

When Fiesta Mart recently announced it will close its Blalock store at the end of the year, it became the latest business affected by the state's widening of the Katy Freeway, although it's not going away without a fight.

Fiesta and the Texas Department of Transportation disagree how much the highway project is to blame. The state used eminent domain proceedings to take 36 percent of Fiesta's parking lot that served the supermarket as well as businesses in an adjacent strip mall.

A TxDOT-hired appraiser said Fiesta and and landowner Weingarten Realty Investors deserve $3 million in compensation for the 1.3 acres and the cost of relocating the store, according to court records. An appraiser hired by Weingarten put the value at nearly $16 million — $9.7 million for Fiesta's trouble and the rest for the landlord. An independent commission appointed by a judge in the Fiesta case recommended the store get $7.7 million.

Barring a settlement, a jury will decide the amount due Fiesta and Weingarten next year. Of 442 pieces of property the state has taken through eminent domain for the 23-mile freeway project, only a handful have been this contentious. Cases only go to court if the state or the property owner disagrees with the special commission's recommendation and can't reach a settlement outside court.

Oddly enough, the Chron didn't decide to make this (very interesting) disagreement the focus of the headline. They went for more "inflammatory" prose:

•Katy Freeway expansion bad for businesses?

Heh. Too bad we didn't see that headline when all of those downtown businesses were shuttering because of the MetroRail construction eh? I know, I know, that wouldn't have been in line with the Chron's stated editorial position against roads and for rail. Just keep that in mind when Mrs. White waxes poetic against the expansion.

I digress....Let me repeat myself. Anytime there is a major infrastructure project there is going to be disbursement of businesses along the periphials of said project. When dealing with the opposition to the Universities Line opponents were told repeatedly to "suck it up" and take one for the community by pro-rail activists.

How much would you like to bet that the same activists line up behind Fiesta on this issue?

The same goes for anti-rail activists who (unsuccessfully) rallied behind those poor folks who stood to lose because of Richmond Rail. They'll be the first ones telling Fiesta just to 'shut up' and accept progress.

Buried in the mess is a very real debate regarding how much the loss of a prime real estate location is worth to a company. Also buried in the debate is that potential loss of land by a few is not enough to overrule the needs of the many. Both of these are true provided just compensation is provided, and the need is real (not imagined or created by someone with something to gain).

There's a very real need in Houston for better infrastructure and transportation. Since Metro has abdicated its obligation to the suburbs, the Texas Department of Transportation is forced to step in and fill the void.

This means a Katy Freeway expansion. Which means that Fiesta takes a hit at that location.

Outside of fair compensation there's really no further debate, despite the efforts of those who want to change the travel patterns of the unwilling.

Hype, and what we allow ourselves to believe.

I was reading Grits for Breakfast earlier today (a very good criminal justice blog) and was intrigued by Scott's post on the case of a female officer who was fired for using steroids...

Here's a snippet from Scott's post....

In related news, an officer allegedly peddling steroids was arrested in Tennessee last week. Allegedly he tipped off dealers about police surveillance in addition to profiting from the product's sale. Maybe it's time to begin demanding steroid testing of police officers, at least when supervisors suspect steroid use as with a new policy in Albuquerque. It would also help matters to conduct more thorough investigations when law enforcement discovers connections between peace officers and illegal steroid rings.

To be clear, I don't necessarily believe steroids should be illegal, although anecdotal tales of "roid rage" might make steroids inappropriate in any case in the law enforcement profession, where officers must always keep their heads. However as long as steroids remain outlawed, officers who use them expose themselves to black markets and corruption that risk compromising their ability to uphold the law. Police chiefs should be empowered to remove such risks from their departments.

This made me comment as follows:

FWIW: Steroids aren't "illegal". Possession of them without a prescription is however. Something that the FDA testified against during the hearings to schedule them. People forget that sometimes when talking about them.

Semantics? You bet, but in the twisted world of legalese semantics is all that we have to fall back on at times.

Substances such as cocaine, heroine and methamphetamines are "illegal". Steroids are classified as "controlled substances" not illegal substances. It is illegal to possess steroids without a legitimate prescription from a physician, but just the act of possessing them is not a crime. It is "against the rules" for an athlete to take steroids, provided the athletic organization has a stated rule against it.

That's something that often gets overlooked in high profile steroids cases involving athletes, wrestlers etc. Also overlooked is the fact that its illegal for a Doctor to prescribe steroids except in the case of some fairly specific conditions. As with any drug however there are many cases of "off-label" prescribing, especially at the local "health and wellness" centers, where most people are "legally" obtaining their 'scripts for steroids and gH these days.

Before you call for an outright "ban" of steroids remember that they are most effective in medical cases where muscle wasting is occuring, and are sometimes the ONLY means to prolong life. In many cases the side-effects are temporary and reversible, provided the drugs are taken under the care of a Dr.

Most of the trouble with steroids comes when people take black market drugs that are impure or contain "off-label" ingredients, or are nothing more than oil. Of course, the way to stop this is to cut off demand for the black market, which would involve making them accessible through the supervision of a Dr.

One last item: An "anon" commenter on Scott's blog brought up the "meatheads" that he said were using steroids.

A new study says not so much...

The most prominent steroid users are not who you'd expect.

Most of us know that steroid use in America is not limited to the likes of Barry Bonds and Marion Jones. In fact, the majority of performance enhancing drugs are taken by your average guy.

A new study published in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition claims the typical steroid user is not a competitive athlete, but a 30-year-old, highly educated professional who does not participate in organized sports.

Racism? Or a deeper problem.

One of the problems that I have with people pulling out the "race card" on every issue is that sometimes we miss the forest to stop and look at the trees. Such is the case with this story highlighting the income disparity between whites and blacks.

(from Stephen Ohlmacher of the AP via the Chron)

Decades after the civil rights movement, the income gap between black and white families has grown, says a new study that tracked the incomes of some 2,300 families for more than 30 years.

Incomes have increased among both black and white families in the past three decades — mainly because more women are in the work force. But the increase was greater among whites, according to the study being released today.

One reason for the growing disparity: Incomes among black men have actually declined in the past three decades, when adjusted for inflation. They were offset only by gains among black women.

Incomes among white men, meanwhile, were relatively stagnant, while those of white women increased more than fivefold.

"Overall, incomes are going up. But not all children are benefiting equally from the American dream," said Julia Isaacs, a fellow at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank.

Isaacs wrote three reports that looked at the incomes of parents in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and of their grown children 30 years later.

Parents' hopes were especially high for black children who came of age after the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

The reports found that about two-thirds of the children surveyed grew up to have higher family incomes than their parents had 30 years earlier.

It's very easy to look at these numbers and say that the playing field is not level. As a matter of fact, some community leaders say just that:

"Too many Americans, whites and even some blacks, think that the playing field has indeed leveled," said Marc Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League.

It has not, he added.

"We are like fingers on the hand," Morial said. "We are on the same hand, but we are separate fingers."

My question is: Is this racism? Or a mix of issues that are being overlooked because America still cannot come to terms with her past sins?

You see, I'm not naive (or stupid) enough to sit here and tell you that there is no racism in America. Yes, there is. I'm also not naive enough to tell you that there are not cases where people are denied opportunity based on just their skin tone. I know that happens as well.

But you would have to be pretty naive yourself to not admit that some of the problems faced are community driven. In other words, you get what you get because you work toward those ends. The fact that there are successes and sub-groups that show marked increase is evidence of that.

It's ironic that this story runs on the same day as this story talking about the importance of education:

(from Gary Scharrar of the Chron)

Even during the darkest days in American history when brother fought against brother in the Civil War, Congress passed legislation creating land-grant universities to help teach the illiterate masses, Henry Cisneros told the Hispanic Scholarship Consortium on Monday.

Education is more vital today, he said, as the demographic shift will dramatically increase the number of minorities, many of whom drop out of school or pass up college. Whether this country can compete in the coming decades all boils down to education, Cisneros said.

He said he views education as the country's lifeline.

(snip)

"There is no effort more important to the future of this country than to take the vast number of minority children in American and prepare them to be citizens, workers, participating members and leaders. There is no more important issue," he said.

"Demographics of the state are going to change to the point that the population demands leadership and responsibility here," Cisneros said later.

He complimented the consortium for creating opportunities for Hispanic students. He cited needs for parental involvement in schools, high quality teachers, effective school boards and administrators and education investment.

"There is no magic bullet here," he said. "We just have to recognize all of these as essential."

This is why I believe that re-tooling our education system is one of the most pressing issues facing the State today. Not artificially "gaming" the playing field, but ensuring that we are educating kids in a manner that helps them make living-wage salaries, not protest and picket to be paid higher than market value for unskilled labor.

I'm reminded of the phrase that's been filtering around City Hall in Houston lately "Pay to Play". If communities want to play with good salaries and good jobs, then they have to get serious about getting their kids to pay the price that a good education necessitates.

There are other things that could help; restraining the Governments tendency to make criminals out of large swaths of the population, taking seriously both instances where hiring is biased, and where false claims of bias are made, and providing health care for children so they don't have to pay for their parents mistakes, but the first step is fixing the schools.

Racism's got nothing to do with that.

"Pumps and Pipes"

Very cool story this morning about a conference where Oil engineers and Heart Doctors are working together to solve similar problems, just on different scales....

(from Eric Berger of the Chron)

It's not surprising that heart doctors and petroleum engineers have professional conferences. But it is rather unusual to find them sitting through PowerPoint presentations in the same meeting room.

Yet that's just what happened Monday when leading heart surgeons and cardiologists from the Texas Medical Center convened with oil and gas researchers from some of Houston's top energy firms.

Such a pairing might seem odd, but it turns out that two of Houston's biggest industries have a lot in common. Both heart docs and oil execs want to push liquids — be it blood or oil — through long, narrow tubes, without blockages or corrosion, for extended periods of time. Both also want to closely monitor these tubes, and want to be able to fix problems when they arise.

Would it be possible, then, for doctors and engineers to learn from one another? That's what Dr. Alan Lumsden, a professor of surgery at the Methodist DeBakey Heart Center, pondered 18 months ago when he dreamed up the idea of the "Pumps & Pipes" conference.

"I wanted it to be a uniquely Houston event," he said. "No one anywhere can do this quite like we can do it here."

He soon found a willing partner in ExxonMobil's research department to sponsor the conference.

"We put a high premium on thinking outside of the box," said Bill Kline, research manager for Exxon's Upstream Research Company. "The highest value thing we can have here is a new idea. What we really hope with this conference is to spark dialogue and creativity and fresh approaches to our problems."

Very clever concept. It only makes sense when you think about it.

If we can develop ways to better save patients with circulatory or cardio-vascular problems AND do a better job moving oil around the country then its a win-win.

A healthy idea

It'd be cool if BigOil Co. would do this...

(from the AP via the Chron)

Employees with the Texas Department of State Health Services are getting a chance to buy fresh produce at their Austin office.

The department, working with the Sustainable Food Center of Austin, recently started placing weekly orders with Sonny Naegelin, a farmer in Lytle, about 20 miles southwest of San Antonio.

"The whole concept was to encourage our people to eat healthier," said Doug McBride, a department spokesman. "What we were looking for was a pilot program, something we could try to see if it worked."

Andrew Smiley, of the Sustainable Food Center, said the nonprofit developed a Web site where state employees can order and pay for a food basket. The orders are sent electronically to Naegelin on Monday night for delivery on Thursday.

"Never in my wildest dreams did I believe I'd ever be doing this," Naegelin said. "I've learned that people are willing to pay for good, local stuff."

Participants pay $25 a week for basket of fresh produce, which last week included squash, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes and bell peppers. The number of employees who took part increased from 140 two weeks ago, when the program started, to 171 last week.

Lindsay Rogers, an obesity prevention specialist at the department who helped start the partnership, said she compared prices and found that the goods in the $25 basket would cost more than $28 at a grocery store.

"For the first time, I'm getting paid ahead of time for the stuff I grow," Naegelin said. "I get to meet the people I grow for. They get to trust you like their mom or their dad. It's a good feeling."

Not only are local, organic, vegetables more nutritious and better for you than their store bought counterparts (a claim that's disputed by the agriculture industry but fiercely defended by advocates), but they taste better as well. I buy organic, localized produce about once every other week at the various farmer's markets around Houston. It'd be nice to be able to order it from work.

The downside is that you are seasonal. You can never be assured that what you want is what's going to be there. The upside is everything is at least four days fresher than you get at the store. Add to that the fact that there are no pesticides, and it all adds up to a bargain at twice the price in my opinion.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a tin-foil hat wearing food conspiracy theorist. I still buy produce from the big-box grocery stores. I wash ALL of my vegetables thoroughly, especially the rough ones like peaches, etc. but when it comes to getting some organic squash that I know has been grown in the surrounding area?


Put me on that list any time.

Put it on the card.

If you thought that the sub-prime financing mess was bad, wait until we get immersed in the upcoming credit crunch that's just around the corner....

(From Eileen Alt Powell of the AP via the Chron)

Consumers struggling to keep up with higher gasoline prices and other rising household expenses have been pulling out their credit cards more often — sometimes too often.

Credit counselors report a sharp rise in the number of families seeking help, many of whom end up on belt-tightening budgets and debt-management programs to pay down their balances.

"People are using their credit cards because they don't have enough money to make it day-to-day," said Howard Dvorkin, president of the nonprofit Consolidated Credit Counseling Service in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. "It's driving the American consumer deeper and deeper into debt."

What happens, he says, is that "eventually they hit a wall — and then they call me."

And they're calling in increasing numbers.

Susan C. Keating, president and CEO of the National Foundation for Credit Counseling, said the nonprofit agencies in her organization dealt with a million consumers in 2005, 2.2 million in 2006 and are on their way toward seeing a record 2.8 million this year.

Mortgage foreclosure problems as well as pre-bankruptcy counseling have swelled their ranks, Keating said. But credit card debt also continues to trip up consumers. The Federal Reserve reported last week that outstanding credit card debt grew at an annual rate of 4.4 percent to $920.1 billion in September from $917 billion the month before.

And, my prediction is its going to get worse before it gets better.

Why?

Primarily because we don't teach our children anything about personal finance any longer. Today's graduate, fresh out of College doesn't understand the basics like balancing a check book, establishing and following a budget, or how to track expenses and set aside for the unexpected. Add to that a non-regulated environment that promotes high-interest credit cards as the "key to wealth" and a "now" society and you have a society where the personal savings rate is in the negative range.

Put simply, people are spending more than they are making in an effort to keep up with the latest trends. This spending is placing them deeper and deeper into debt.

And its (mostly) their fault. Because we can't say no in America to anything. We've been convinced by the Baby Boom generation that we shouldn't have to wait to get what we want, we've learned from an early age the lesson of materialism and name brands. We've been inundated with credit cards, alternative financing for cars, store cards, installment loans and a host of other products designed to "give us the money we need" since College.

Except that we don't "need" that money at all. We just think we do. We don't need the latest iPhone with the touch screen that can play movies on the fly, nor do we need to have a luxury car for our job, or that $200 pair of shoes, or that $3,000 flat screen TV so we can see the beads of sweat form on our sports heroes. We don't need any of that.

Nor do we "need" another Government bailout of the credit industry, or a "comprehensive plan" to "help" those who have over-extended. What America "needs" to get out of this is a healthy dose of belt-tightening, some fiscal responsibility, and (yes, Republicans get ready for it) some sensible regulation that prevents predatory credit practices. There's no reason in the world you should receive 40 offers for credit in a month. There's certainly no reason that someone with a debt load of 120% of their annual salary should be getting offers for more credit.

We also need a return to some sanity when it comes to usury. High interest rate (some would say "usurous") credit cards do nothing to "help" people get the rate they need. We regulate all areas of the economy already, why not regulate the amount of interest the credit card companies (and the villanous "pay-day loan" companies) can charge? You could roll enforcement under the Fed and just move right along.

Credit issuers are going to have to belt-tighten as well. They've helped us get into this mess, and they're going to have to suck it up to get out. That could mean looking at write-downs of high-interest credit offers, making below market-rate loans to help people get back on their feet, and some serious introspection when it comes to how and why they are in business.

The bottom line solution however is that people need to be more financially responsible. As a society we have maneuvered ourselves into a financial corner. There should be REAL discussion about requiring financial education for people who require credit counselling, we should teach it in our schools throughout the stages of development (we should teach civics as well, but that's another post) and we should teach people to take responibility for their own finances.

Failure to address these problems as a society could lead to another politically motivated Government bailout. And that doesn't help anyone becuase the Government needs to be taking the same classes as we....

U(g)H

What an ugly game yesterday at Robertson eh?

Any time you play against a team with more or less the same amount of talent as you and you turn the ball over 5 times while committing 11 penalties you have the makings of a disaster on your hands. Good coaches keep games like that relatively close, average to poor coaches get the crap kicked out of them.

Guess what happened to the Cougars? Tulsa wins, 56-7.

The "Mad Dog" defense gave up 516 yards to the Golden Hurricane's offense. The U(g)H offense could only muster up 324 yards offense against one of the worst defenses in the land. The Cougars special teams had four, count 'em four punts under 35 yards and gave up a blocked 25 yard chip shot field goal. Once again the Briles' coaching clique proved that, when a good team is on the other side of the field, the Cougars cannot match up.

Case in point: If the Cougars beat Marshal and Texas Southern to finish out the year, they will end up 8-4. The four losses will come to the four teams they played that have winning records. Their wins come over six teams with a combined record of 13-37. That's right, 13-37.

This is not a good team, regardless of all the speed and ability that the Cougar faithful swear to you is on offense.

My early season prediction for the Coogs was 8-4 with a berth in the Texas Bowl.

That is now looking to be the best case scenario for a team that was supposed to have "turned the corner" last year and moved out of mediocrity.


Oh, by the way.....will anyone be happy if Coach Art Briles gets to the Texas Bowl only to lose a 4th straight bowl game?


Rumor has it that Mike Leach is heading to UCLA, or at least considering it. Everyone said that Briles was at the top of their list. Somehow I doubt that now. I'm not even sure Baylor would want him. Although it might be best for the Cougars long-term if someone would take Briles off their hands. The Briles hero worship at UH has blinded them to the fact that the team is stagnant.

Texas Wine Fridays

It's been too long.

This week: Mandola Estate Winery and Trattoria Lisina.


That's correct, it's that Mandola.

Damien Mandola has decided to do Southern Italian varietals in Texas, and he's doing them in a big way. Big, flavorful and expertly blended.

Of the Six Wines that Mandola currently has available for sale I've tasted four.

1. Sangiovese - Currently my favorite Italian varietal that's being grown in Texas. This isn't the "Super Texan" jammy wine that I've been drinkning of late, but a more refined fruity wine with limited spice.

2. Syrah - I had to admit my initial confusion at finding this varietal at an Italian Winery. Until I remembered that Texas wines are typically not about following the rules set down by self-appointed "wine-snobs". So, if you like the Syrah's from Australia then do yourself a favor and try this warm weather production.

3. Viognier - Yes, this is my favorite white wine. Yes, I prefer the example at Becker Vinyards to this one. But you have to be impressed with a winemaker who chooses this varietal over Chardonnay as his first white release. That takes guts.

4. Pinot Grigio - A good representation of the style. Nice, light, fruity and best served with seafood. One of my wife's favorite wines during our tasting there. Also would make the best "frozen" wine drink for those hot Texas Summers.



Mandola's "new" wines are the Canto Felice (a blend) the Nebbiolo (An Italian varietal that I'm dying to try) and the Montepelciano (made in the traditional Italian Style) I haven't tried any of these but I admit that I'm looking forward to my next Hill Country excursion with the express intent of tasting them all.

When we previously visited the vinyard the restaurant was not yet opened. This has now changed, and Damien Mandola is promising food inspired by Tuscany coupled with traditional Italian style wines. As good of a restauranteur as he is this could grow into THE Texas Hill Country dining experience. Especially if he is successful in his cultivation of Southern Italian varietals...

Stretching out on a slope above Onion Creek, almost 20 acres of newly planted grape vines soak up the warm sun and cool evening breezes. The climate here echoes the warmer drier climes of Southern Italy and Sicily.

Many of the vines planted here are in their infancy, coming to maturity in the next few years. Better known varieities such as the rich Montepulciano, sweet Moscato, smoky Barbera, and noble Sangiovese are planted here. Lesser known grapes like the fruity Vermentino, hearty Nero d’Avola, and the aromatic Aglianico are also thriving here in the Texas hills.

A focus has been placed on varieties originating in Italy’s more southern regions- places like Sardinia and Sicily. We’ll keep you posted on their progress!

It also doesn't hurt that Mr. Mandola has built one of the prettiest wineries in the State. When I was travelling the Hill Country, almost every winery recommended that I stop by Mandola's to see what he was building. I wasn't dissapointed, and neither will you be.


Salud!

"Reasonableness" syndrome (long post warning)

Have you noticed that there's a lot of focus on "Reasonable" lately when people are debating issues? Both sides of any one issue claim exclusivity to the concept more and more often.

Let's take the Light Rail debate and the comments to this Rad Sallee story regarding rail critics as an example....


First, the argument...

Commenter PubliusTX (Kevin over at bloghouston) responding to some of Sallee's accusations:

I really don't think voters in 2003 thought they were voting for rail on Richmond when the ballot said Westpark, and it strains credulity to suggest they DID think so. Rather, I think most logical people assumed "Westpark" meant the straightest line possible from Hillcroft Transit Center through Westpark to Main -- which leaves the line far from Richmond.

METRO certainly never mentioned that Westpark could mean Richmond leading up to the vote (which might have tipped what was expected to be a close vote to the NO side). So if there was half-truth involved, you can blame METRO for that, not METRO's critics.

It may well be your opinion as a reporter that the half-truth on this matter is unimportant, but obviously some people don't share that opinion and think that accountability means government should provide the public full truth.

What's amusing is that if critics in 2002/03 had argued METRO might mean Richmond when it said Westpark, I'm sure the Chronicle would have obliged immediately with a column shooting down those crazy, rumor-mongering critics (who would have been proved right several years later). That's how the Chronicle rolled at that time:

http://www.houstonpress.com/2002-12-05/news/internal-distress/

http://www.bloghouston.net/item/7

and now...

some of the responses:

(from commenter rustico)

PubliusTX, the fact that you insist on quoting sources with no credibility, and that you cite "bloghouston" as a reliable source after they were completely debunked, says it all.

(from Christof Spieler of the CTC -a transportation advocacy organization)

Credit goes to Rad for actually tracking down the facts rather than simply taking "tips" at face value like much of the local media (TV especially) does. Every story is not "he said, he said;" sometimes someone is simply wrong. And one might think that when a certain source has been repeatedly proven wrong, they'd start to be ignored.

and finally...

(from commenter EloiseM)

Plubious Comment "I think most logical people assumed "Westpark" meant the straightest line possible from Hillcroft Transit Center through Westpark to Main -- which leaves the line far from Richmond."

Fact: Logical people do not assume. They work with validity and facts such as Rad has researched and provided.

So, since everyone is so concerned about the "facts" and "logic" let's review the "facts" that Rad Sallee provided, and how they "refute what was stated by Metro critics."

1. Stray Current.

(from Rad)

Tom Bazan, a persistent Metro critic, has accused Metro of downplaying the danger of stray electrical current escaping from its light rail line and the alleged threat it poses to buildings and overpasses.

Metro revealed the problem and has provided reams of data about it. The leakage has been reduced to acceptable levels on most of the line, and work continues on the remaining trouble spots. No damage to structures has been shown.

FACTS: (not "facts")

A. Tom Bazan and other Metro critics say that stray current from the MetroRail line could pose a problem to surrounding structures.

B. Metro admitted (they didn't "reveal") that there was a problem and that it was contained over most (but not "all") of the line.

C. It is a known fact that stray current CAN damage certain structures.

D. Current condition is not a reliable indicator of future outcome.


Based on the preceding facts it could be assumed (yes EloiseM, logical people do make assumptions) that there is a very real threat from stray current. It is probably not the infrastructural nightmare scenerio that Bazan is claiming, but would that make you any more comfortable if you worked in a building along the rail line that's not located by the "most" of the rails where stray current has been contained? How about if your son or daughter lived there in a high-rise? Feel any better? I didn't think so.


2. The Chron's transit bias.

The Chron "rail" memo...

A Houston odyssey: DeLay, Lanier and light rail

Next November, voters in the city and across the Metropolitan Transit Authority service area will cast a truly important vote: They will decide whether Metro should be permitted to expand our rail rail system beyond the 7-mile South Main line.

There isn't a more critical issue on the horizon. I propose a series of editorials, editorial cartoons and Sounding Board columns leading up to the rail referendum, with this specific objective: Continuing our long standing efforts to make rail a permanent part of the transit mix here.

The timing, language and approach of the paper's editorials would, of course, be the decision of the Editorial Board. But I suggest that they could be built upon and informed by a news-feature package with an equally specific focus: Telling the story of rail here by examining the long term relationship of the two key players in the local transit wars -- Rep. Tom DeLay and former Mayor Bob Lanier. For better or worse, (mostly worse, I would argue) no two have had a more significant impact on transit decisions here. Our readers deserve to know how they've operated to fund and promote an anti-rail agenda for the past two decades. This would be vital information for voters as they come to their decision on rail. It would also be highly entertaining read.

continues...

If you haven't yet read that memo, then you should go read it for yourself. It lays out a rather long and detailed news and editorial slant that the Chronicle has followed throughout the development of rail.

Again...FACTS:

A. The memo writer suggests a series of news stories and editorials that are supportive of Metro and (specifically) MetroRail and critical of opponents CONTINUING their effort to see rail as a part of Houston's transit mix.

B. Since the debate over the 2003 referendum, the Chronicle HAS continued this editorial tone. (that cannot be denied, unless you are just dishonest in the debate)


The problem with any debate on this issue is that some people view press releases from the Chron and Metro as "evidence" or proof of case. When Chron Editor in Chief Jeff Cohen stated that "it was just an internal memo" Metro and rail supporters accepted that as Gospel. Metro critics did not buy the argument.

The problem lies when you accept one side's word on an issue because it sounds "reasonable" to you. "Reasonableness" is the bedrock of lazy decision making. You allow other's arguments to hold sway because they are in tuned with your world view. Bloggers are typically VERY susceptible to this, mainly because they tend to only associate with fellow travellers. The "reasonableness" doctrine becomes a kind of self-congratulatory pat on the back and absolves them from any futher research. The "reasonableness doctine" isn't the sole provence of one political ideology either. There are prominent blogs on both sides of the aisle (many of which I read consistently and enjoy) which are frequently guilty of this.

The hard truth is that you are more likely to accept something as being "reasonable" if it agrees with the way you see things, whether that way is correct or not. Blogs are not much more than an on-line ego stroke, when bloggers see their world-view supported by others it seems imminently "reasonable" to them. Non-bloggers are the same way.

Metro has done a very good job offering up "reasonable" arguments for many of its problems. It can do this because there are a large number of people active in the community who truly want light rail to succeed. The result of this is that real problems and shortcomings with the system are disparaged as "unreasonable" and this allows the propoganda forwarded by Metro to be viewed as "fact".

Is this a problem? Let's see:

1. The "study" for the efficacy of the Light Rail Universities Line was commissioned and conducted by Metro and her consultants. What this means is that no impartial third party review has ever really been conducted on the Light Rail System. Neither have their been serious discussions on any viable alternatives. This has severely limited the transit possibilities for Houston. Especially when you consider that light rail is starting to lose its luster as the be all end all of transit solutions.

While other cities are having this debate, Houston is being spared any meaningful transit discourse because of the "reasonableness" of the light rail plan. What's also missing is the wisdom of designing a transit system that's punitive toward over 95% of the regions' commuters.

2. If you're loud enough, and "reasonable" enough, you too can be an expert. At least, according to the local newspaper of record. And once you get "in" you never get out, no matter how limited your analysis turns out to be.

BlogHouston points this out in respect to the CTC and Christof Spieler.

Not that I have a problem with Mr. Spieler's advocacy. I really don't. I don't agree with his view that transit design should be done with an eye toward "changing" travel patterns but I think he has a right to advocate for it. I would rather see transportation design that enhances the travel options of the majority, not one that limits them. So my problem is not a problem of "dislike" or even "distrust". I can respect an honest disagreement over a matter of policy. Heck, I can even respect "unreasonable" support of something with which I disagree. What I don't respect are people misstating their intentions and then miscasting any criticism. (see rebuttal below that Spieler left on the bloghouston thread)

I have to say I'm amused by BlogHouston's obsession with CTC. I wish we were half as important as you think we are.

So what does Harris County's road budget have to do with light rail? I don't know. Whatever my thoughts on light rail, they don't change the facts.

I've read the TIP. The County spends its road building funds largely outside of incorporated areas even though 2/3 of Harris County taxpayers are in the City of Houston. The same goes for park and library funds. Obviously, other county expenditures, like courts, jails, flood control, the port, and hospitals, benefit all county residents. But that doesn't negate the unequal distribution of road funding.

Does METRO spend its funds mainly inside the Loop? Well, the park-and-ride system serves only people who live outside the Loop, and it cost $1 billion to build. The average park-and-ride bus route costs over $8 per rider to operate. The bus system overall costs $3.23. METRORail costs $1.38. (http://www.ntdprogram.gov/ntdprogram/pu … s/6008.pdf).

A year ago, CTC didn't have a position on a University Line alignment. We took a position in August, when we submitted comments on the DEIS . And yes, we based that position on community opinion as well as on ridership and cost data. The neighborhoods along Richmond -- especially those between Shepherd and Main, the narrowest part of the street -- overwhelmingly support rail on Richmond. They voted an anti-rail incumbent state reprsentative out of office, and gave John Culberson, who called himself their anti-rail champion, 20% of their votes. Their civic clubs endorsed rail.

What, you say, the media didn't report that? You trust the media?

As for the idea that we're "working with METRO," I should note that we definitely didn't agree with METRO staff on where the University Line should go. We supported taking it to the Eastwood Transit Center; the METRO staff recommended against that option. Then the METRO board heard from a dozen speakers (including 2 representing CTC) that the line should go to Eastwood, and the board voted for Eastwood. I'd say that's a pretty bad job of cheerleading.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled ranting. I look forward to your continued coverage of CTC.

That argument doesn't work, and it doesn't go anywhere NEAR addressing the questions about how the Chronicle chooses to identify CTC. Kuff had a habit of using the same tactic when I mentioned his name in relation to some of Mrs. White's work on the old (unlamented) dead blog. I didn't say Kuff had any real power, I just commented that Mrs. White was obviously reading his prose. Personally, I like Kuffner, having met him a couple of times over beers at the West Alabama Ice House. I enjoy his blog as well. That we disagree on certain issues (and agree on others) is really not of consequence.

The problem with these types of arguments is that they trivialize the real issue. Kevin and the BlogHouston crew aren't saying that Mr. Spieler and Mr. Holzer are "important", they're saying that they are being mis-cast by the Chron. Something that the Chron has a tendency to do with certain sources from time to time. Bob Stein anyone?




One last item:

The 2003 Light Rail Referendum.

Going way back up to the top of this post you can see that Kevin feels that "Westpark" meant "Westpark" and if Metro meant for Richmond to be included it should have been on the ballot language.

Rad Sallee has the following to say:

This one isn't a rumor, but it's a half-truth: The voters in 2003 approved a rail line on Westpark, but Metro is violating that by building it on Richmond.

The issue affects only the part of the University line from Kirby to Cummins, since Westpark ends at Kirby and the line runs on Westpark west of Cummins.

The segment in between, at the heart of the dispute, makes up one-fifth of the line west of Main. More than half is on Westpark and the rest is on a part of Richmond where Westpark does not exist.

Again, we're dealing with what's "reasonable" and what the actual facts are.

The position of Kevin and BlogHouston is as follows: IF the original ballot language had included Richmond as an option, it may not have passed muster with the voters. Metro knew this and was very careful in regards to their drafting of said resolution.

You can take all of the semantics out of play and there's not ONE item in Kevin's statement that's been factually refuted. Since there was not polling data done in regards to this dynamic, and since there's (rightfully) been no second election regarding it, it's impossible to know who is right (or wrong) in their contentions. The people who say that one side has been "discredited" are basing that soley on the "reasonableness standard" and not on any point in fact.

It's like if I were to say "eye".

Kevin may hear it as "aiye"

Christof may hear it as "I".


I'm no longer around to clarify.


Who's been "discredited" by the "facts"?


The answer is neither, but we've allowed ourselves to let biased people control the debate for so long that we've forgotten to take an honest look at the dynamics surrounding the debate. Because of this Rad Sallee can pen a column where Metro press releases are stated as fact, several key elements of legitimate arguments are discounted or outright ignored, and members of Houston's on-line chattering class read it and say "Hey, that's "reasonable" I think that means I've been right all along."

Meanwhile there's STILL no good plan for transit from the suburbs to the inner city. Yet there are comments like this:

I applaud your hard work to get to the facts, something that is not used that often in reporting today. As an aside I think if you look deeply at the critics of rail, you will find they are not so upset as to where the lines run as much as who will now have a fast and affordable means from the inter city to the suburbs. Lock your doors!

Note: Last I checked 99% of the rail system was planned for INSIDE the loop. Hardly the "fast and affordable means" to go from the (I assume he means) inner city to the suburbs. Which is another side effect of "reasonableness syndrome", the ability to lay out false arguments against that which is deemed "unreasonable".



Whew! Sorry for the long post. If you've gotten to this point then you're head is probably spinning by now.

The continued war on smokers

This is a new tack...

(from the AP via the Chron)

The Texas Lottery Commission's sale of tickets in stores that allow smoking could be a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the attorney general's office said.

Lewisville resident Billy Williams complained to the commission in 2006 that he had an asthma attack after buying a ticket at a smoky store. He said his rights were violated because the store allowed smoking.

"A court would probably find that the Texas Lottery Commission violates the Americans with Disabilities Act if it fails to provide Texas residents with 'meaningful access' to state services" in this case, lottery tickets, Attorney General Greg Abbott's office said.

The opinion was requested by Sen. Rodney Ellis, who introduced unsuccessful legislation earlier this year that would have banned smoking in public places statewide.

Ellis, D-Houston, said Thursday's opinion means lottery tickets can no longer be sold in stores that allow smoking.

It won't be long before someone gets the bright idea in Texas to just ban smoking altogether. This will, of course, create a whole new class of criminals who buy cigarrettes on the black market which will more rapidly fill up those jails that voters approved last Tuesday.


Then they'll want more jails. Then they'll have to find someone else to criminalize.


I wonder if it will be you next time?

So much for the "fair share" myth...(corrected)

For a while now State and Federal elected officials have been telling you that their opposition to oil comapnies is a "fairness issue". It's not about punishing the oil companies and taking their profits, its about getting them to pay their "fair share" of taxes that they owe.

So much for that...

(from David Ivanovich of the Chron)

Democrats on Capitol Hill are calling for the Bush administration to appeal a federal court ruling that could jeopardize tens of billions of dollars in offshore oil and gas royalties.

A federal judge in Louisiana handed down the ruling last week in a lawsuit brought by Kerr-McGee Oil and Gas Corp. — now owned by Houston's Anadarko Petroleum Corp.

U.S. District Judge Patricia Minaldi ruled that a 1995 law designed to encourage producers to push out to the deeper waters of the Gulf of Mexico did not grant the Interior Department authority to order Kerr-McGee to pay royalties when oil and gas prices hit certain levels.

The ruling has caused an uproar on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers are hearing from constituents facing $3-a-gallon gasoline.

"This ruling could result in an unconscionable giveaway to the oil and gas companies on behalf of the American taxpayer," House Natural Resources Committee Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., wrote in a letter to President Bush.

White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said today the issue of an appeal "is under review."

Rahall also joined a group of House Democrats led by Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y., and Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., who said that at least nine other energy companies are poised to move forward with similar lawsuits against the federal government.

Among the companies Interior officials have identified as likely to file suit are Houston-based El Paso Corp. and Oklahoma City-based Devon Energy, the lawmakers said.

Bruce Connery, El Paso's vice president for investor relations, declined to comment, as did Devon spokesman Chip Minty.

In the Senate, more than 30 members signed on to a letter circulated by Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., declaring the ruling "wrong as a matter of law."

But former Sen. John Breaux, D-La., challenged that assertion. "Congress was very specific...there wasn't a price threshold at all," he said in an interview.

So much for fairness eh? Because Breaux is correct. The leases The Law did not specify a price threshold, only a volume threshold that had to be satisfied before royalty payments begin. Our elected officials are trying to go in and re-write the agreements Legislation after the fact.


Something that America frequently criticizes other Nations for.

Doesn't stop them from trying however:

At issue is Congress' intent when passing the Outer Continental Shelf Deep-Water Royalty Relief Act of 1995.

With that bill, lawmakers agreed to waive royalty payments for oil and gas produced in federal offshore waters leased by operators between 1996 and 2000 until a property yielded up a specified volume of oil and gas. Kerr-McGee then spent $3.5 billion to develop deep-water leases.

The debate centers on whether lawmakers, when writing that language, intended for the Minerals Management Service to retain the authority to assess royalties when prices reached specified thresholds.

Eight of the lease agreements Kerr-McGee signed with the government included price threshold language. But when the agency ordered the company to pay millions of dollars in royalties on production from 2003 and 2004 because prices had reached those thresholds, the company filed suit, arguing the law gave the agency no such discretion.

And the judge agreed.

Lawmakers acknowledged it may be difficult to win the case on appeal.

"We must contemplate the real possibility that the 1995 act will be implemented in a way Congress never intended and in a way that would shock the sensibilities of most Americans," the senators wrote.

If you intended for price triggers to be in effect then you should have taken steps to write them into the law BEFORE writing them into the agreements. What is a "shock to the sesnibilities" is that we're supposed to believe that businesses are supposed to pay the cost when Congress steps on itself.

The leases laws are what they are, any appeal would be a further waste of taxpayer dollars.


UPDATE: A typo above was brought to my attention and has been corrected. The LEASES did, in fact, contain the price thresholds, it was the original law enacted by Congress in 1995 that failed to grant the MMS the authority to set price triggers. I was thinking about the leases and typing about the law. I apologize for the error and any confusion it may have caused.

Confusion and Angst over the failed County Jail Bond

More post-election wrap-up from the Chron...

(by Bill Murphy and Alan Bernstein)

Voters rejected Harris County's request to issue bonds for a $245 million jail in part because of lagging support among African-Americans and an ineffective campaign by the county, two local political analysts said Wednesday.

County Judge Ed Emmett said Wednesday that he still was analyzing the loss — the first defeat of a county bond request in 20 years — and will consult with Commissioners Court on whether to hold another referendum for the jail project, possibly as soon as next year.

"We always have jail overcrowding," Emmett said.

"Sooner or later, we will have to have more cells."

The Texas Commission on Jail Standards has cited the county jail system several times in recent years for failing inspections because of overcrowding and staff shortages.

The jail bond was defeated, by a 51-49 margin Tuesday. Voters approved four other county bond propositions totaling $435 million and a $250 million Port of Houston Authority bond package. Three of the county bond packages passed by slim margins.

The rejected bonds would have provided $195 million for a 2,500-bed jail, booking center and expanded health and mental health centers for inmates.

City voters last year approved the spending of $32 million in bond funds on the joint project.

The county would have had to come up with the remaining $18 million to complete the project.

In a pre-election poll, the jail bond had the support of only 38 percent of African-Americans likely to vote, said Bob Stein, a Rice University political scientist who conducted the polling.

And a Bob Stein sighting to boot. Throw in a Richard Murray and the Chron's post election coverage will be complete.

All of the usual excuses are being given, and County Judge candidate Charles Bacarisse threw out his usual shot at appointed County Judge Ed Emmett....

Former Harris County District Clerk Charles Bacarisse, who is running against Emmett in the March Republican primary for county judge, said the county's five bond requests would have fared better if Emmett had done a better job justifying why they were needed.

To be fair, the PAC that did the legwork on the bonds was headed by former County Judge Rob Eckels, so not all of the blame goes to Emmett on this one.

Maybe the good folks of Harris County are just suggesting that 'more jails' are not the answer?

Mrs. White rolls out the old location saw...

Some voters objected to the proposed jail's site on Buffalo Bayou, where it would impinge on the placement and aesthetics of coming hike and bike trails.

Maybe a small minority, but the majority of dissention for this that I saw fell in with grits who suggests that "diversion" might be something to look at. (I agree with grits on this BTW.)

Sadly, the County isn't saying much about diversion, but is just looking at a different shade of lipstick for the pig.

Some unrelated (yet seemingly connected) events.

1. You've seen this all over the blogosphere by now: Several good reporters (and others) were laid-off by the Chron in part due to mostly flat circulation numbers which threatened the necessity of cutting the salary of upper-level executives.

I previously commented on this here. Replete with my observation that some of the cuts were head-scratchers.

Their response?

2. Crank up the free writers...


This is, of course, a joke. Almost all of the chron.commons stuff never sees the traditional Chron, and Dwight has been out front of consolodating the blogosphere under the Chron umbrella for quite a while now.

Do I think Dwight is trying to increase the advertising revenue to Chron.com? Well, of course. He's the on-line "guy". That's his job. (and he does a good job of it to boot)

Do I think that's his PRIMARY reason for suggesting this? No. But it sure makes for a good blog post eh?


3. Chris Baker got axed and Michael Berry is taking his place!

That's not right, I don't care who you are. (well, maybe not if you're this guy) Most people on the right and left understand what Chris was. Funny. He took an issue and hashed it out just for the fun of it. Did I always agree with him? Heck no. Did I usually laugh at him? Yup. Of course, I laughed at that other guy when he forgot to pay his electric bill as well. It's called schedenfruede. You know?? For fun.


So what does number 3 have to do with numbers 1 & 2?


Well....you see....Baker doesn't have a blog...and the Chronicle is looking for free help....


Get on the stick Dwight!!!

The Squeaky Wheel....(oops)

The path to Utopia (or at least some wealthy people's version of it) hit a speed bump today...

(from Mike Snyder of the Chron)

The Houston City Council today delayed for 90 days an ordinance that could require developers of a controversial high-rise building near Rice University to reduce the size of their project.

The council's action came after the developers, Matthew Morgan and Kevin Kirton of Buckhead Investment Partners, agreed in writing not to seek any additional permits during the 90-day period. Their planned 23-story, mixed-use building at 1717 Bissonnet has focused attention on the need for better rules to manage the impact of dense new developments on residential neighborhoods.

Councilwoman Anne Clutterbuck, who represents the neighborhoods adjacent to the project site, cast the only vote against the delay. Dozens of residents of the Southampton and Boulevard Oaks neighborhoods showed up for today's council meeting, and several of them pleaded with the council to act quickly.

Chris Amandes, an attorney who co-chairs a task force of leaders of the two neighborhoods, said Tuesday that he was worried that a lengthy delay would prompt efforts to add features to the ordinance that might jeopardize its passage.

"There are lots of opportunities for anybody who has any kind of land-use issue to tie their wagon to this ordinance," Amandes said.

Mayor Bill White pledged today that he wouldn't waver from his commitment to prevent the Bissonnet project from being built as proposed.

White said he had never met Morgan or Kirton, but had sent them a clear message in his public statements:

"You'd better stop this thing, because I'm going to stop it unless you stop it."

See what happened there? A measly 86.5% of the vote and he's gone all Whitus Rex on Houstonians. (that's a joke, for those of you sharing Mrs. White's collective IQ)

Seriously.

There were two rather large problems with this ordinance that City Council is trying to undo with this delay...

1. It REALLY smacks of elitism and favoratism. Defend it all you want, but this walks like a duck, it quacks like a duck, heck, it even looks like a duck. Nevermind that the Southampton residents are well-heeled, many of the movements ring-leaders are from Vinson & Elkins, that's right. THAT Vinson & Elkins. (the one that's made large donations to Bill White's campaign fund)

Did Mayor White attempt to fast track a bill that's a priority of some of his largest contributors?

Who knows? It's wise to slow down and think about this a bit however.


2. On top of all of that, it is really a BAD ordinance in its current form, a form that's designed to address THIS problem, and not future problems in neighborhoods that aren't populated by the wealthy and well heeled.

You see, the ordinance was delayed not because there's misgivings about passing legislation against one specific group (or developer) but because City Council wants to pass an ordinance that goes even further, (retaining the punitive effects toward said developer).


My question is this:

At the time of the purchase of the land, the expenditure for the architecture and the traffic surveys the agreement was that the developer had dotted all the i's and crossed all of the t's in getting this deal done. My bet on this is that there will be a compromise, and the urgency for the ordinance will go away. Mayor White has been very adept in compromising his way out of situations that are potentially damaging politically. This is far lesser of an image hit than the Center issue, partly because there are several people who are rooting for White to succeed. Zoning is a hot issue afterall.

But what happens if there is no compromise, an ordinance is passed which restricts the use of the land AFTER the fact, and which causes the developer real financial loss? After all, if no high-rise can be built, and if the land-use is restricted, then the value decreases correct?


If I'm interested in developing in the City of Houston I'm watching this situation closely. If damages are done I'm probably pulling out and relocating my plans to an area that's more developer friendly.



This is also known as the law of unintended consequences for those of you just now paying attention.

Mrs. White: You're idiots.

The biggest story arising from yesterday's election NOT related to the rise of the Democrats is the pathetic turnout. Mrs. White weighs in and subtly links low-voter turnout to reading the (you guessed it) newspaper...

Once upon a time, the term "participatory democracy" was a tautology, like saying "an essential necessity." A democracy that didn't include the participation of the citizenry would not be much of a democracy.

Now the qualifier is a vital distinction. In Texas, it seems, participation in democracy has attained a shameful minimalism.

In the run-up to Tuesday's election, Texas Secretary of State Phil Wilson predicted a statewide turnout of 9.5 percent, a figure that subsequent data might prove optimistic. The early vote in Harris County totaled 2.8 percent of all registered voters. If early votes constitute, as they sometimes do, a third of all votes cast, voter turnout here would not reach 9 percent.

A turnout of less than 10 percent makes the expensive election hardly worth holding. Some voters, of course, should stay home. They know nothing of the candidates or issues, and their votes would either be cast at random or reflect prejudices having nothing to do with the choices offered on the ballot.

More worrisome than the low turnout at the polls is the growing disengagement of citizens from all civic awareness. Stressful lives saturated with electronic entertainments leave little time for following local and state politics.

(snip)

Since the first days of the republic, the public's best source of information about political candidates and issues has been the local daily newspaper. By following the news in the paper, voters not only prepare themselves to vote, they also learn what's at stake, find the desire to affect the result and gain the motive for exercising their franchise.

Mrs White doesn't tell us what we should do if the local daily fails in its duty to "educate and inform" as the Chronicle did this time.

(from Reader's Rep Steve Jetton)

I've gotten a number of calls and messages about the Chronicle's Voter's Guide for the Nov. 6 election and I'm relieved to report that the online version is now available on Chron.com's Politics page. We tried a new approach to the guide for this election, thinking that interest would be low. We hoped to use the experience to prepare for the mega-battles coming up in the 2008 cycle. We underestimated the interest of our readers in the candidates and issues on the Nov. 6 ballot and for this we apologize.

I guess "educated" readers are just supposed to fend for themselves? Or, not vote:

Some voters, of course, should stay home. They know nothing of the candidates or issues, and their votes would either be cast at random or reflect prejudices having nothing to do with the choices offered on the ballot.

Ah the wonderful stench of elitism. And bad editorializing. This, of course, reflects the same thinking that was used to justify the poor and minorities not voting for years, before it was wisely overturned by Congress and the courts.

What Mrs. White DOESN'T say is who would determine what is "educated" on this issues and what is "prejudice". Are the people that opposed rail "prejudiced"? Or do they have prinicpled opposition? How about people who want picture ID's for voting? Are they "prejudiced"? Or are they standing on "principle"? There are arguments on both sides. Stace Medellin would argue that anyone who votes for a Republican is voting that way because of "prejudice". The Lone Star Times crew would dispute that. Who gets to make that call? Or should we just let people vote and accept the decision? Yeah, probably so.

And then, there's this:

Since the first days of the republic, the public's best source of information about political candidates and issues has been the local daily newspaper. By following the news in the paper, voters not only prepare themselves to vote, they also learn what's at stake, find the desire to affect the result and gain the motive for exercising their franchise.

Except that Houston's major daily was fiddling while Rome burns.

This is a sample of the election run-up from the blogosphere:

Lone Star Times offered up in-depth evaluations of all 16 propositions and a voters guide.

Charles Kuffner offered up extensive interviews with the candidates in most of the major local races, linked to a host of Democratic information regarding recommendations for almost every issue and the ballot, and offered commentary.

Vince at Capitol Annex offered up an extensive guide to the Texas Constitutional Amendments.

Slampo pontificated, bloviated and provided the most biting political commentary to be found.

The Madman was, well....mad about the Propositions.


And what did Mrs. White do during all of this?

Back to back editorial journals where J. Howard can convince us that he is, in fact, far more sophisticated than are we. (So I'm guessing J. Howard gets to pick who votes or not in Mrs. White's perfect world?)


The point that I'm making here is that it's one thing to lament low voter turnout. It's quite another thing to claim that voters need to turn to you for their information when a majority of the informed information is not appearing in your pages. If you blow it on the voters guide, screw the pooch in your run-up editorials, and fail to run your best political commentary consistently in the paper edition, why the heck should we care?


And you wonder why circulation isn't up to snuff?


UPDATED TO ADD:

Tautology:

needless repetition of an idea, esp. in words other than those of the immediate context, without imparting additional force or clearness, as in “widow woman.”

Or "clueless editorialist"?


Just sayin'

The obligatory election post-mortem

So this is where I'm supposed to say where I was right or wrong right?

There's tons of post-election glee from members of the InterLeft, and crickets chirping from the Holy Order of the Bloggers O' the Right.

Rightfully so. This was a VERY good night for the Dems.

Let's review....

Houston Mayor...

(from Matt Stiles of the Chron)

Houston Mayor Bill White's overwhelming re-election Tuesday, which sent him back to City Hall for two more years, may have also set the stage for what some see as a larger political future.

In breezing to a third term, White proved he still is widely popular despite the public's concern about crime and recent criticism over property taxes.

White touted his past four years, saying the city had worked to improve traffic congestion and reduce violent crime, but also promised to fight air polluters and spend $200 million on drainage projects before he leaves office.

"Breezing" to a win is defined as getting 86.5% of the vote. I concur with that assessment. The Professors and I were more curious about the undervote than the margin of votes that White received.

The verdict? About 7%. Which means that not only did Mayor White win convincingly, but that most people cared enough to cast a vote for him against less-than-token opposition. That's going to bode well for Mayor White when he takes his political resume to the State Democratic Party in his presumed run for Governor in 2010.

I still think that was the most important metric to track in the Mayor's race. It tracked well for Mayor White and his camp HAS to be heading to work with a spring in their step this morning despite the hangovers.

Houston City Council.

What started as a bad night for the Harris County GOP got worse as they are now officially shut out of any city wide office. More on them later. It was a very good night for Carol Alvarado, whose political career is less on the brink of irrelevency and looking more and more like it will last with the District I win of former aide James Rodriguez. This result shows that the voters in that district haven't been put off by her run of scandals and missteps, and she will likely be elected to State office in 2008.

HISD bond..

Whew! is the sound emenating from the Saavedra household this morning, as HISD wins a squeaker. There are many who are saying that this bond win is a statement of the arrival of the Hispanic voting bloc in Houston. I'm not going to disagree with them since LULAC supported the measure and the local black community did not. With Hispanic voters fleeing the GOP like rats off a sinking ship, this is also really bad for local Republicans going forward.

The Cy-Fair Bond...

Continuing the theme of a brutal night for the GOP was the (relatively) easy passage of the Cy-Fair school bonds. The 12K that voted for the proposal probably represent school workers, contractors and administrators who did a very good job getting out the vote. The GOP probably had this vote for the taking, would that they had any inkling of how to get out the vote. They didn't, Cy-Fair did, and tax rates are going up in the area. It's really just that simple.

Under the FWIW catagory I voted against the school bond because I thought it was too far-reaching. I thought it had a chance to be defeated, but am not surprised that it won.


Increasing Debt Load.

Probably my biggest concern about this election is the enormous amount of debt that the State has now authorized on all levels.

Harris County is issuing $685 Million dollars in new debt. (with only Prop 3 for new jails failing). With an operating budget of $1.1 Billion for the current fiscal year, that's a 61.1% debt load for the County.

School bonds totalling $2.2 Billion dollars were approved by voters in the Houston area alone.

Statewide (with the passage of all 16 propositions) Voters approved $9.75 Billion in new debt. Any way you slice it that's a huge departure from "pay as you go" Government and bears watching in the long term.


I don't see how such high debt service is going to be maintained without either an overhaul of the existing tax system or huge tax increases, especially if the economy becomes increasingly wobbly. The State is going on a spending spree, and they just might be mortgaging the future to do it. This at a time when there's excess revenue. The reason for this is the Republican insistance that taxes be cut, and cut now. It could be the public policy blunder of our time.

Don't get me wrong. I'm all for reduced appraisals and a more equitable taxation system. I've even gone so far as to suggest a State income tax. (and have the rotten tomato stains to prove it) But I'd rather have that over what I'm afraid will be mushrooming interest costs 10 years down the line.


I'm sure I'll have more to say about this as I have a chance to digest it more. I think that the first thing that pops out is that, were I a Republican, I'd be VERY concerned about holding onto any elected office in Harris County in 2008.

Right now Houston is the Democrats' oyster, and they are gloating at Republicans as they slurp it down.

You should be civic minded or something.

Today's the day to vote if you feel so inclined (or haven't already).

You can find out where to vote at Harris Votes! as well as view a sample ballot.

You can read all about building catapults and throwing money at the problem at the Chron voter's guide.

You can do all kinds of things through your local parties, probably none of them good.

Or you can choose to get your voting information from various members of the InterLeft or From the Holy Legion of the Bloggers O' the Right.

You can also choose to read through this blog *snicker* for various and sundry opinions. Or trust to Slampo and his puffy approval of Mayor White.

But, just in case you decide that I might have an opinion you care about *snicker* here's my official recommendations/prediction list.


Let's start with the fun stuff shall we?

Houston Mayor:

OK, the outcome isn't in doubt here, never really was. Mayor White is going to win going away. As a matter of fact, if the outcome is less than 85% then I would argue that's proof of case that there's something fishy with the E-Slate voting machines.

Savvy political observers (and you know who you are) will be tracking the undervote on this very closely. Those whose personal self-worth is overly tied up in whether or not their chosen candidates win will be tracking the percentage.

I'm tracking the undervote (and Kevin from PubliusTX and blogHouston is getting the credit for it).


Houston City Council:

At-Large 2:
Michael “Griff” Griffin
*Sue Lovell - winner (but maybe a little closer than the experts think)

At-Large 3:
Roy Morales
*Melissa Noriega - Winner (It won't be close)

At-Large 5:
Marlon Barabin
Jack Christie
John Gibbs
Jolanda Jones -runoff
Tom Nixon -runoff
Ray Ramirez
Zaf Tahir
Joe Trevino

I'm going to tack a little differently on this race than most. I believe that the negative press given to Christie and Tahir WILL have an impact. Jones will beat Nixon in a runoff.

District B:
Jarvis Johnson - winner (again, it won't be close)
Kenneth Perkins

District C:
*Anne Clutterbuck - winner (you get the trend yet?)
Robert Glaser
Alfred Molison

District D:
Wanda Adams - runoff
Lawrence Allen Jr.
Keith Caldwell
Florida “Flo” Cooper
Lana Edwards
Larry McKinzie
Leatrice Watson
Michael Patrick Williams -runoff

I'm going to admit to a healthy amount of unsure on this race. I'll give Wanda Adams a slight advantage in the runoff, but it's not my neighborhood so that's just a gut feeling.

District E:
Annette Dwyer -runoff
Manisha Mehta
Michael Sullivan -runoff
William R. Williams

I think eventually Michael Sullivan wins the whole thing, but if turnout is low enough look for William Williams to steal one for the "Dems" in a "non-partisan" election. (hey, it could happen)

District I:
J. Brad Batteau
John Marron
James Rodriguez

Rodriguez wins BARELY avoiding a run-off. (that's my pick and I'm sticking with it.)


Bonds:

Port of Houston:

There's opposition to this on both sides of the political spectrum, but there's more support for an entity that's never really delivered on its promises. I'm voting "no" on this one, but I think it eeks out a victory.

HISD Bonds:

This will pass, but with somewhere around 53-52% of the vote. I don't have a vote so I won't recommend here.

Cy Fair ISD Bond:

I do have a vote on this one, and I'm voting "No". Not because I don't think the district needs the money, but because they should have thought of that before they spend 80 Million on the Berry athletic support center. The district needs to be reminded of its priorities. I think this one fails (but it will be close)

Harris County Bonds:

All six of these are going to pass. I'm planning on being on the losing side of all six votes here. Bonds and the electorate are funny things. We treat debt spending the same in our personal lives as well, so why should this be any different?

State Propositions 1-16:

All will pass, some are good, some aren't. I'm voting "NO" on 4 & 12 and probably "yes" to the rest because I haven't seen any compelling arguments against them. (Although Paul Burka is seriously making me think about an "no" vote on Prop 15)


So, there you have it. Probably the most worthless political predictions in Texas. Just go vote. You can't do that in Pakistan.


Note: This is a meme of the voting prognostication system of the Texas Blogosphere had these predictions actually MEANT anything you'd be sent to your local disaster response coordinator to fill out emergency change of address forms.


Other Eyes:

Off The Kuff (fresh off his ego trip supplied by Miya *Thanks for that Miya, there'll be no blogging with him now)

Professors R Squared (who STILL give Kevin all the credit)

Greg Whyte (who's desperately hoping that the Mayor's election party contains a buffet, 80's music and "hawt political type babes").

I'm sure there are others, but I have a day job.

You can pick as well if you want, just do so in the comments.

The Government we Deserve (part something or other)

I guess you can imagine my surprise last night while watching Channel 11's expose on illegal gaming rooms to see City Councilman Jarvis Johnson jumping on the "throw the bums in jail" bandwagon:

“It should be a felony,” said Houston City Councilman Jarvis Johnson.

He believes the current law that makes it a misdemeanor to operate an eight-liner gambling establishment isn’t enough of a disincentive for crooks.

“There’s no ifs, ands, or buts about it,” Johnson said. He is also not happy about law enforcement’s ineffectiveness in dealing with the problem.

“We need to destroy those kinds of businesses, that are destroying our neighborhoods,” he said.

Which is a far cry from his campaign rhetoric of "Building businesses and infrastructure"....

(from Rosanna Ruiz of the Chron)

Johnson, a former youth program director, said he will continue to press for new development of commercial and residential projects to revitalize and improve the quality of life in the northeast Houston district.

"District B has great land mass that offers better development to bring in both affordable and high-end housing," he said. "When you talk about a mix of housing, that will bring in more commercial businesses that people have been yearning for a number of years."

If re-elected, Johnson, 36, said he will continue to promote the after-school, summer youth and jobs programs that he started during his first term.

"We're training young people on how to get these jobs because if you put young people to work, they're less likely to get involved in negative behaviors," Johnson said. "We're trying to do that so we can break a vicious cycle."

Johnson said he also will continue to build ties with community and city leaders outside his district.

Nevermind the fact that increased incarcerations of gaming room patrons (and owners) will futher erode the community that Johnson is so busy championing.

"But, what about the violent crime?" You might ask.

A very valid question, whose answer doesn't lie in making these parlours "more illegal" but in finally pulling our collective heads out of the sand and LEGALIZING gambling in Texas.

You legalize it, tax it, and regulate the crap out of it. Just like in Louisiana and Nevada.

My brother the vegetarian.

I found out a couple of weeks ago that my brother has decided to "go vegetarian". Now, before you vegetarians freak out, this isn't an "Oh No!! The world is coming to an end!" post. Really, I could care less about the culinary habits of my brother. I mean, he's my brother, but as long as he's not scarfing down Crisco out of the can, he's an adult and more power to him. Besides, this now means that there's more fajita meat for me at family gatherings. This is a good thing.

So this isn't a lamentation that my brother has abandoned the sub-set of homo-sapiens that are omnivores. I'm not really tore up about what people eat. Instead, this is a call for a moratorium of any and all vegetarians or vegans telling me what to put in my body for sustenance.

Where do they get off exactly?

And what is it about meat-eating humans that makes other people think they have the right to lecture? I'm referring to total strangers here.

First, some background....

Every other year my family gathers for Thanksgiving in the small town of Chickasha, OK to eat, belch and watch football. That's Thanksgiving. Always has been always will be for as long as the relatives are still with us. It's a nice little tradition that involves around an 8 hour drive that the wife and I have turned into an adventure more often than not.

You know the old saw about relatives however, espeically when it comes to Holiday meals. NO SUBSTITUTIONS ALLOWED!! Nope. We learned that the hard way when my wife was first diagnosed with Celiac Sprue. The first Thanksgiving was (shall we say) less than appetizing for my wife. Since then we've learned some lessons.

One lesson we learned was to bring whatever my wife wanted to eat. So we order wheat-free apple pies, are going to cook a wheat-free, rice based dressing on the road (more on that in another post) and my wife just goes without some things as well.

Armed with this knowledge I walked into a Vegetarian store (that shall remain nameless) with the express intent of checking out what options we might have to help my brother.

Big mistake.


What resulted was a five minute argument with the staff regarding my dining habits. I was called an animal killer and other things. People asked me if I knew what went into the killing of Thanksgiving turkeys, then glared in shock and dismay when I assured them that I did (replete with verbal example).

What I never DID get were ideas to help my brother stay on his chosen dietary path.


Because of this disaster I've sworn off trying to reason with Vegans. I also am taking the stance that, if you are a Vegan, and try to talk food with me I'm going to run away at the first opportunity. I've also found some good ideas on-line, on sites that don't soley cater to Vegan or vegetarian tastes.


Oh, and I'm still going to eat my share of turkey on Thanksgiving. If all goes well I'll eat my Brother's share as well.

Sallee vs. Bazan (UPDATED)

Rad Sallee is a little bit tired of Tom Bazan it seems...

Part of any reporter's job is to dig around for the facts behind the rhetoric and rumors. Sometimes you hit pay dirt, sometimes not.

The Metropolitan Transit Authority and its contentious light rail program have produced their share of the latter (and some good stories).

When a tip doesn't pan out, or a public statement turns out to be wrong, I assume the source had good intentions. In some instances, there was no way for the speaker to know he or she was wrong.

This happened in July 2006, when business owners and residents opposed to rail on Richmond used yellow ribbons to show how much land Metro was likely to condemn to build its University line.

The environmental study completed a year later for the line shows that the north side of the street and Afton Oaks, where most of the ribbons and signs were, will be spared. On the south side, about 40 properties will lose strips along the curb and five will be taken entirely.

•Tom Bazan, a persistent Metro critic, has accused Metro of downplaying the danger of stray electrical current escaping from its light rail line and the alleged threat it poses to buildings and overpasses.

Metro revealed the problem and has provided reams of data about it. The leakage has been reduced to acceptable levels on most of the line, and work continues on the remaining trouble spots. No damage to structures has been shown.

•Bazan said he heard that Houston Public Works Director Mike Marcotte made a speech saying the city spends $2 million a year on corrosion damage to water lines from Metro's stray current.

Marcotte said the sum is for corrosion control on water lines citywide. It was a small part of his speech and not about Metro, he said.

•Bazan and others said Metro is not living up to its obligation to set aside 25 percent of its 1-cent sales tax for general mobility payments to the city of Houston, Harris County and 14 smaller cities in its service area.

"The City of Houston should be able to claim an additional $250+ million for General Mobility Projects NOW!" Bazan wrote.

Houston officials provided an accounting to show that Metro is current in its payments, and officials of the county and smaller cities said the same. One official said the critics may not have known that Metro pays for certain projects before the rest of its mobility obligation gets shared by the recipients.

Ohhh Kayy. I'm guessing that Sallee heard "lemmings" and "N.U.T.S." one time too often and decided he'd had enough.

There should be some caveats added to this story however.....


1. The "reams of data" that Metro released on the "stray current" issue is mostly internal data. There are still persistent questions that need to be answered, especially with Metro's foolish assertion that stray current is "akin to a 9-volt battery and their admission that charge is still leaking from the line. I'm not suggesting that we are headed toward a collapse of the entire downtown infrastructure as is Mr. Bazan, but I'm also not suggesting that we should just ignore the issue as it seems Mr. Sallee is saying either.

2. There's a tendency for reporters to take Government statements as Gospel, and the Chronicle has a written track record of giving Metro the "benefit of the doubt" if you will. I've said before that the "paper of record" in Houston should be off the record when any decision regarding Rail is made. Everything they write has to be shot through the opinion prism of that (troubling) memo. As much as I appreciate Rad's transportation writing, his columns have to be included under this umbrella.

3. All that said, Mr. Sallee DOES make some good points. You have to view Mr. Bazan's (admitted) anti-public transportation biases as well. Mr. Bazan doesn't agree with public transportation in ANY form. He may be ok with bus routes into poor areas, but that's it (and I don't remember ever hearing him say that). I've had heated debates with both Tom Bazan and Owen Courreges on the light rail issue. Neither see my argument that the people have spoken, and the fight should be to get the "best" available system by working with (rather than all the time against) our shoddy transportation organization.


Now that Metro has its toy to play with, I would hope that they would be open to calls to redraw the system map with circulator routes being the keystone. I seriously doubt this will happen because the only criticsm that's getting any play are the "no public transit at all costs" crowd while the remainder of local commentators are engaging in nothing more than boosterism thinly disguised as "activism" and "commentary".

At the end of the day, a typical Houston Suburbanite will still have to drive into town and pay to park to ride public transportation. That's a bad system no matter how you try to explain it.

Don't tell me they should have to move into town either. If all 4 Million Houston area residents moved inside the loop then we'd have an overpopulation problem like you wouldn't believe.


How about some legitimate discussion eh?

Via blogHouston...Bazan Responds.

To: Rad Sallee, et. al.,

There is the impression left by your column that I am or have been wrong in voicing my concerns and criticism of METRO and the electrified boondoggle legacy of Lee. P. Brown, named METRORail.

Stray Current:

FACT - The system was shoddily built, and not properly tested for stray current leakage prior to service start-up. It took three years, and a significant expenditure of taxpayer funds to identify and attempt to cure the sources of stray current leakage. The system still operates outside the design specifications. Stray current still exists, and no one knows the extent of cumulative damage to the infrastructure in the three years METRORail operated prior to the repairs and modifications, which has brought the stray current leakage down to where METRO claims is "manageable." No one at METRO can state the stray current leakage has been stopped, and that infrastructure will not be damaged in the future.

The industry forms Corrosion Committees, as METRO has, to manage the expense of future damage resulting from stray current. I am not convinced that there was NO cumulative damage, and that there is no danger of premature failure of city infrastructure and the 40+ year old substructures of the expressway bridges which span the METRORail.

I presented evidence of City-owned infrastructure damage, I contend from stray current corrosion, to the METRO board last month. From METRO's own stray current reports, there was a significant level of stray current detected in the vicinity of the Museum District platform situated on San Jacinto, just north of Hermann Drive. There was a premature failure of an 8-inch steel-reinforced concrete water line pipe, situated at San Jacinto and Herrman Drive, around February 26, 2006, which interrupted the METRORail operation. The city claims there was no record of any failure analysis of this pipeline. The intersection was rebuilt during the construction of METRORail, and infrastructure was being worked on in this vicinity around March of 2002. There was no contractor daily work report referencing that this pipeline was ever protected from stray current.

Regarding the recent speech made by Mr. Marcotte concerned FY2008, one might be curious if you asked Mr. Marcotte if the words "Stray Current" and METRO or, the corridor where METRORail operates, ever rolled off his lips during that presentation when the $2 million for corrosion control out of the CIP allocations was being discussed?

Is this the same Mr. Marcotte who was running the water system in Washington, D. C. back in 2004 when the EPA started enforcement action over unsafe levels of Lead in the drinking water? Didn't he claim he had no knowledge that the Lead levels were too high? This denial seemed reminiscent of the "I Know Nothing!" denial from the Sgt. Schultz character in the 1960's era TV Comedy series "Hogan's Heroes."

That's just one portion of Bazan's rebuttal. You should go read the entire thing and then decide for yourself. (Or don't, which is probably what most will do, probably because they've already pre-determined who they want to believe.)

Oil and Water

The Feds are "cracking down" on gulf polluters again....


Well, at least they're sabre rattling...

(from Brett Clanton of the Chron)

State and federal regulators in Louisiana are preparing to crack down on oil industry pollution in the Gulf of Mexico under a new initiative that may herald a shift in the way environmental laws are enforced there and in other parts of the Gulf.

In the works for more than a year, the initiative will pool resources of 15 state and federal offices, including the Coast Guard, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, to ensure oil companies are properly disposing of wastes created during oil and natural gas drilling and production.

Under the program, training will begin soon for about 100 field officers, many of whom already patrol the Gulf for their respective agencies. The agents will learn how to identify oil and brine water spills and collect evidence that may be used to bring legal action against polluters.

Though the Louisiana initiative will focus only on those structures found in state waters — or the first three miles off the state's coast — it could pave the way for future partnerships across state lines, including with Texas, organizers said. And the program certainly could have ramifications for Houston companies working in that part of the Gulf.

The effort comes after recent environmental cases against offshore oil companies and amid concerns that oil industry pollution may be contributing to erosion of Louisiana's coastal wetlands.

But organizers say most oil companies follow the law, and the program is not a response to any noticeable rise in pollution or violations in the Gulf.

Rather, the effort is designed to put violators on notice.

The bolded excerpt (emphasis mine) will probably not be noticed by those who think that every oil company in the world operates with the sole intent of causing as much environmental damage as possible, but its still worth noting.

Why?

Becuase it sounds as if the Government is actually starting to get serious about pollution in the gulf and (hopefully) they will start cracking down on some of the worst polluters out there.

Trust me, they know who they are.

Gasoline and public perception.

As sure as rain, We get told how high the price of gas is today...

(from the AP via the Chron)

Historically high crude oil prices continued to carry Texas retail gasoline prices with them this week, according to a weekly survey.

Regular self-serve rose 9 cents to an average of $2.80 per gallon in 11 Texas cities in the weekly AAA Texas gasoline price survey released today. Nationally, regular self-serve climbed 9 cents to an average of $2.91 per gallon.

"Oil industry analysts say record crude oil prices hovering above $90 per barrel have put upward pressure on pump prices," said AAA Texas spokeswoman Rose Rougeau. "Every city surveyed saw substantial price increases this week."

Amarillo had the state's most expensive gasoline with regular self-serve averaging $2.91 per gallon after an 8-cent increase this week. Houston had the state's cheapest gas at $2.72, despite a 10-cent increase this week.

You can go read the comments and see how the on-line "experts" feel about such a trend. (Hint: it's that eeevil big oil)

Now, here's some reality to keep with you over the weekend.


Typically the price of gasoline is 60% comprised of crude oil costs, 10% transportation and retail, and the rest is refining. A barrel of oil is 42 gallons.

So let's do the math real quick shall we:

$2.72/gal x 60% = $1.63/gallon directly attributable to the price of oil.

$1.63 x 42 = $68.46 dollars

$68.46 is (roughly) the relative price of the oil in each gallon of gas that you consume. Considering that the spot prices for oil on the exchange were selling oil at approximately $83.00 for October delivery, you should expect to be paying around $3.29/gallon right now.

That is, IF the oil companies were trying to "get a new luxury car" as some say.

I'm not forwarding the argument that Oil and Gas companies aren't doing well, because we are. What I'm saying is that we're not doing as well as we could do if we REALLY wanted to stick it to the public as some accuse us of doing.

We pay the same high prices as everyone else. There's no "special pump" from which we pull our gas. Yes, there's a small employee discount with some firms, but IRS rules limit that or its taxed as constructive income.


So before you assail your friends that work for an Oil company with how bad things are, think about how bad they COULD BE if, say....ticket scalpers were running things.

The "Patrick" Effect.

More importantly, Will there be any?

(From Janet Elliot of the Chron)

Tomball businessman Allen Fletcher said Thursday that he will challenge Rep. Corbin Van Arsdale in the Republican primary for House District 130.

Fletcher is touting support from the district's senator, Houston Republican Dan Patrick. Patrick introduced Fletcher to the district's precinct chairs at a recent reception, according to Fletcher's announcement.

"Our elected representatives over-promised on property tax cuts, spent too much of our money, failed to fill in the gap on the border, made it more difficult for middle class folks to send their kids to college and now, to top it all off, we have an income tax on businesses in Texas," said Fletcher.

In September, Patrick sent precinct chairs an e-mail that fell just short of endorsing his business partner Michael Kubosh.

Kubosh, who voted in the 2006 Democratic primary and ran as a Democrat against Patrick, isn't running, said political consultant Court Koenning.

He said Kubosh was worried that his work as a bail bondsman would be targeted in campaign ads.

Koenning, former chief of staff to Patrick, serves as a consultant to Fletcher.

"It's the same folks with a new candidate," said Van Arsdale.

Patrick previously said that his criticism is based on Van Arsdale's votes, but it also appears related to Patrick's first run for public office in 2006. Van Arsdale supported then-Rep. Joe Nixon over Patrick.

Van Arsdale, general counsel to a construction company, is seeking his fourth term in the House.

He said he knows and likes Fletcher.

"We may disagree on some issues," Van Arsdale said. "I cast 4,000 votes this session and I have a pretty conservative record."

The part I bolded is editorializing that shouldn't have made it into the print edition. That's not the point of this post, and I'm not making some "liberal media bias" claim (so calm down Greg). What I'm saying is that line should not have made it past any competent editor.


Now, on to the REAL issue here:

After Dan Patrick won his race in my district (I voted for Hank Gilbert) he started talking about replacing (his term) "bad" Republicans with "good" Republicans. Van Arsdale was one that Sen. Patrick targeted due to disagreements stemming from the property tax appraisal cap issue. What the reporter in the Chron didn't mention (which I'm betting was edited out) was that Van Arsdale supported Joe Nixon mainly due to their agreement on property taxes, and a variety of other issues, NOT because of any personal animosity towards Patrick. For a long time Van Arsdale made appearences on Patrick's talk show.

Nope. The issue here isn't some small personal squabble between two factions of the Republican Party. The issue here is whether or not Patrick's movement is going to have any legs moving forward. Whatever your personal views on Patrick's politics, if he succeeds in unseating say...three local elected officials and has a hand in determining Rep. Hill's replacement in the Dallas area, then I think that the State Republican Party is going to have to take notice.

Not that all of his ideas are wrong-headed. Unless you're just a blind partisan, or just don't like Patrick personally, his ideas on education reform go way beyond the basic James Lenninger "voucher's at all cost" simplicity and delve into areas that include serious overhaul. He's also not afraid to entertain differing opinions. He may not agree or be swayed by them, but he's learning to at least accept them, which is something I wouldn't have thought possible two years ago.

Granted, his legislative "wins" have been limited to the ceremonial and trivial, but again he's used that to his advantage. If he convinces enough of the (still) Republican majority in Houston to see things his way, Van Arsdale could be in some trouble. So could other incumbents who won't play ball with him who live in Conservative districts, regardless of party.

It's an interesting dynamic that bears tracking over the next election cycle.


OTHER EYES: Professor's R Squared: The Patrick Proxy war continues.

Sunday Farmer's Market

At the Tasting Room in Uptown Park...


Farmer's Markets have become one of my favorite Houston indulgences. Not only do you get a chance to sample local foods, but you also can get some nice organic, locally grown produce and meat as well.

There's no charge to attend, but how much money you spend on goodies there is up to you.

Update on my Noriega Question

If you remember this post. I had the following question to ask Rick Noriega:

Some quick background:

Legislation was filed Thursday that would permanently extend the temporary federal sales tax exemption for residents of eight states, including Texas, that do not levy an income tax.
Lawmakers approved the exemption for one year in 2005 and extended it two more years in 2006, saying it was a matter of fairness.

So I asked the following:

Do you support this measure (and why) or do you oppose it (and why)?

I received the following from commenter "melissa", who I am assuming is Houston City Councilperson Melissa Noriega...

Good question--if I can get him home a few days, I will ask him.

(Not sure if I qualify as the interLeft...how 'bout interMom?)

So, hopefully, Mr. Noriega will be providing an answer soon.

I'm searched his campagin website but had a Devil of a time [note the Halloween reference ;)] finding positions on issues. I will admit to having genuine misgivings regarding Mr. Noriega because of the more "extreme" positions taken by some of his staunchest supporters. (read: the InterLeft) However, BOTH parties have a base which I understand is, by need, outside mainstream political orthodoxy. Most politicians would rather run extreme in primaries, and then tack to the center once elected.

I can not and will not support Sen. Cornyn in his re-election bid. The question is where my vote will go. To the presumed Democrat? To an independent? Or will I just "skip" this one? In the course of this maybe you will find a candidate to support as well?

Stay tuned.

Market forces

A lot of people like to blame "Big Oil" for manipulating oil prices. They do this despite the fact that there is a clearly developed commodoties market that sets the bar.

So when stories like this come out, the anger is sometimes mis-placed:

(From David Ivanovich of the Chron)

A federal judge in Louisiana has thrown potentially tens of billions of dollars in federal offshore oil and gas royalties into question, siding with a Houston firm in a dispute over how much authority federal regulators have to assess royalty payments.

U.S. District Court Judge Patricia Minaldi ruled this week that the Interior Department's Minerals Management Service could not order Kerr-McGee Oil and Gas Corp. — now owned by Houston-based Anadarko Petroleum Corp. — to pay royalties on production in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico solely because oil and gas prices rose to specific thresholds.

The case has been closely watched by offshore oil and gas producers who, if Anadarko prevails, could avoid billions in royalty payments.

"Those greedy theives at Big Oil!" many will say.

I present the following evidence:

To encourage production in the deeper waters of the Gulf, lawmakers agreed to waive royalty payments for oil and gas produced in deepwater tracks leased between 1996 and 2000 until an operator had produced a specified volume of oil or gas.

Kerr-McGee spent $3.5 billion to develop deepwater leases.

The Minerals Management Service asserted that it had the authority to assess royalties if oil and gas prices climbed to certain price thresholds.

Last year, the agency ordered Kerr-McGee to pay royalties on some production from 2003 and 2004.

Your anger should be directed at the Government for trying to go back on a deal and change the terms AFTER the fact. This is the same crap that Hugo Chavez has received widespread criticism for (albeit, on a much larger scale).

Whether or not you like "Big Oil" (and you should, despite your political leanings) its unfair for contracts to be re-written after the fact.

The fun stuff always happens when I'm away.

Exhibit A:

(from Mrs. White)

In Houston, apparently, it takes an urban village, whose influential residents are outraged by a planned residential tower, to get curbs on unrestrained land development at City Hall. It's about time.

The neighborhood protests over the planned Ashby Street high-rise on Bissonnet Boulevard has motivated the administration of Mayor Bill White to place on a fast track an ordinance that could whittle the proposed 23-story building — and others like it — down to size. Citing public safety concerns, the law would require developers who build projects with more than 100 units abutting streets with two-lane, two-way traffic to submit a traffic impact analysis to the city.

As with other innovative ordinances passed during his four-year tenure, such as red light cameras and Safe Clear, Mayor White is invoking the city's authority to regulate in the interests of public safety. According to the ordinance's language, "certain types of high-density development have a significant probability of creating an adverse traffic impact on the established and nearby areas of the city affected by such development." It cites increased congestion, vehicle-pedestrian accidents resulting in injury or death, and impediments to fire, ambulance and police access to areas during emergencies.

I can't help but dredge up the old saw: "The road to Hell is paved with good intentions." Appropo that this came out around Halloween is it not? (Had the good folks at the Chron had any sense of humor it would have ran ON Halloween, ah well) Despite all of the good intentions, and despite the fact that this MAY be a boon to so-called "quality of life" in Houston, there still remains the nasty fact that a well-heeled group of citizens (which, it should be noted, are already being speculated to be generous donors to Mayor White's political future) recieved results where other groups have failed. You can put as much lipstick on this pig as you want, its still, a pig.

Exhibit B:

(from Bill Murphy of the Chron)

The $450-million plan to reinvent the Astrodome as an upscale convention hotel may have died today when the Texans and Houston rodeo officials announced their opposition to the redevelopment effort.

The Texans and the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo's contracts in effect give them veto power over new development at Reliant Park.

Officials at both organizations said they opposed the Astrodome Redevelopment Co.'s complex that would include a 1,300-room hotel, restaurants, a food court and amusement rides because it could hurt their operations.

"Not until we saw their plans recently did we realize that this project has the ability to cannibalize our operations," said Leroy Shafer, the rodeo's chief operating officer. "Every dollar spent that is spent there is one that might not be spent at the rodeo."

Thus endeth the folly that was the Astrodome Redevelopment Plan.

Two Words: Demolition Ball.

That is all.


Exhibit C:

(from HouSTONED)

Among the familiar names taking the buyouts are Louis B. Parks of the features section and Salatheia Bryant and Melanie Markley of the news side.

Among those leaving in a less voluntary manner are Steve McVicker, the former Houston Press reporter who’s been bird-dogging the HPD crime-lab scandal, and Thomas Korosec, the former Dallas Observer reporter who has been the Chron’s Dallas bureau.

Astute Commentary:

(from BlogHouston)

Melanie Markley did the fine reporting on Mayor White's shakedown of the Center Serving Persons with Mental Retardation, and as Rich Connelly notes, Steve McVicker was doggedly keeping after the crime lab story. Did the Chronicle just give away a Pulitzer opportunity?

What a disappointing day. It's hard to comprehend that this is more valuable than Markley's or McVicker's contributions to the Chronicle; all we can do is shake our heads as upper management continues to make poor editorial decisions. And in this case, those decisions have affected the livelihoods of hard-working folks. We wish them the best in finding new opportunities.

Houston's LONE daily print news source is in shambles. Now they get rid of the reporters who were doing some of the better work in recent memory?

Smart.



Ah well, I'm back now, which means that nothing of interest will happen today.