Too Many Words About Godannar

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Ok, my time’s been eaten by a number of other things and I’m headed for Dallas on Friday afternoon, so it’s unlikely I’ll get my planned articles written in the next few days. So, although you’re probably here for choice words on another $15 million boondoggle and thin rationalizations, I am going to leave you with my single longest anime write up yet. Furthermore, instead of posting lots of cheesecake from a show with more (and racier) than I can post here, I’m going to leave you with lots and lots of words. Maybe too many of them! Continue reading →

Electric Rates Again

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So, prompted by this article at KHOU, I was checking on the Mayor’s program to advertise electric companies at our expense, and I noticed something really weird on this page.

Note the rates for the Reliant “Price to Beat” program:

1-250 kWh: $0.122159
251 – 800: $0.164428
800 + : $0.1564136

But here are the rates that appear on my bill, and in my earlier post:
PTB
1 – 250 : $0.29441
251-800: $0.077171
801 + : $0.0489826

Secure Plan
1-500 $0.058823
500-1000 $0.08567
1000+ $0.06533

After a half hour of puzzling it out, I finally figured out that it was because the website already adds the fuel factor into each rate, but it’s the variable piece of the puzzle which could invalidate the entire comparison. The website doesn’t mention this. So what’s the point of spending taxpayer money on a worthless tool?

(And in a sideline note, I may soon upgrade this site to WP2.x and it’s wysiwyg editing. Those tables were such a damn pain, I only now realized I left out the size of the brackets in each rate plan. Grrrrrr. I’ll have to work on the formatting later.

It’s Not Our Country Anymore

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A Colorado school revises the dress code to eliminate the American flag, camoflage, and anything deemed patriotic.

HISD teacher/coach is merely relieved of some duties for using district resources to print up pro-illegal alien handouts promoting the recent student walkouts. Oddly, the Chronicle’s web version doesn’t print the entire statement. What appears there:

“We gots 2 stay together and protest against the new law that wants 2 be passed against all immigrants. We gots 2 show the U.S. that they aint (expletive) with out us (sic)”

This coach (from which duty he’s been relieved) is now being paid $42,000 a year to be only an English as a Second Language teacher, a job for which he is evidently unqualified. The full text (thanks to BlogHouston):

2 all Latinos!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We gots 2 stay together and protest against the new law that wants 2 be passed against all immigrants. We gots 2 show the U.S. that they aint shit with out us. All this is going down Thursday March 30 at City Hall or Old Galveston road. All schools like Milby, Sterling, Chavez … Pasadena, and many more are down. So come support and fight for whats right.

He doesn’t need to be given an easier job, he needs to be FIRED.

Katrina and the (Criminal) Waves

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Would someone at the Chronicle like to explain to me why the hell I have to read a blog completely unrelated to the local area, which is posting about New Orleans and Bill freaking Cosby, in order to FINALLY locate this little tidbit?

Unfortunately, New Orleans is not the only city suffering. Since Hurricane Katrina evacuees were relocated to Houston, the crime rate has increased 32% since last year and 35 murders in Houston have been related to Katrina evacuees.

Thank you, Gateway Pundit. Nice to know someone’s doing the Chronicle’s job.

DeLay Resigns

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Meh. I was, at best, a lukewarm defender; it was more that I hated Ronnie Earle’s prosecutorial misconduct than liked DeLay. Because I didn’t. I’ve disliked him since he got neck-deep into screwing over Metro for about three years; I consider him one of the main reasons that the train is an inner-city boondoggle instead of a commuter rail line like we need. Or does anyone else remember how DeLay blocked federal funding for years in order to prevent Metro from running a line out to his Missouri City base?

Anyway, when I saw that one of his aides had pled guilty, I figured, “Well, maybe there’s some fire behind Ronnie’s smoke after all.” (Remember, those are the trumped-up state charges that I still expect him to beat because they’re essentially ex post facto; it’s the fed charges that nailed his aides.) Evidently, the Feds had a whole lot more on him, and his buddy may roll over and testify against him for a lighter sentence.

See ya later. Ain’t gonna miss ya, Tommy boy.

Reliant: Another Bad Deal

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Well, once again, Reliant is up to its old tricks, offering a “great deal” that isn’t so great once you actually look past the hype. This time, it’s the electricity rates and their new “Secure Plan with Heat Protection.” And just like last time with the gas plan, a major part of the trick is getting the user to lock in a high fuel factor.

The plan, in case you haven’t looked too closely, is in two parts. First is to lock in the current fuel factor for 12 months, so that it doesn’t rise (or fall). Second is to offer a break on the electrical bill; any month for which the average temperature for the whole month is 2.0 degrees higher than the 10-year average, Reliant will take $50 off the bill. It sounds great, but in reality, there’s so many problems with it I’m not sure where to begin. So let’s start with the trick borrowed from their gas plan: locking the natural gas Fuel Factor.

The FF is a surcharge added onto the bill that allows Reliant to adjust its rates when fuel prices go up. We do generate a fair amount of electricity from natural gas in this area, but we also have the nuclear power power plant. Also, welcome to summer in North America. This is a time that prices for natural gas tend to decrease, not increase, because residential/commercial heating use accounts for a major part of the market. Peak demand, and therefore, peak prices, are in the winter. Anyone locking in the current fuel factor is likely doing themselves a disfavor; historically, prices are lower in the summer.

The second trick is that for the 10-year average to be exceeded by 2.0 degrees for 30 days takes a major, major heat wave that lasts for several weeks. The killer kind, like we had in 2001. Oh, conveniently for Reliant, that one counts against the average. Five of the eight hottest summers on record have been in the last decade, which sounds like a great selling point, but what it really means is that they count against the average, making it harder to qualify.

The third trick is that the rate scales are re-jiggered. While the fuel factor remains the same in either plan look at the rates being charged:

PTB SCWHP
$0.29441 $0.058823
$0.077171 $0.08567
$0.0489826 $0.06533

Note that every one of the rates is higher for the Secure Plan than for the standard Price to Beat plan! But to confuse you, they rejigger the rate brackets, making the first bracket twice as big as normal. It doesn’t do enough however. Below are the rates that would be charged based on various usages. Pull your own electrical bills out and compare.

Charges for the Price to Beat plan:

Price
to Beat

0-250
kWh

250-800
kWh

800+
kWh

Fuel
Factor

TOTAL

Rate:

0.029441

0.077171

0.048926

0.092718

250 kWh

$ 7.36

$ –

$ –

$ 23.18

$ 30.54

500

$ 7.36

$ 19.29

$ –

$ 46.36

$ 73.01

800

$ 7.36

$ 42.44

$ –

$ 74.17

$ 123.98

1000

$ 7.36

$ 57.88

$ 9.79

$ 92.72

$ 167.74

1100

$ 7.36

$ 65.60

$ 14.68

$ 101.99

$ 189.62

1200

$ 7.36

$ 73.31

$ 19.57

$ 111.26

$ 211.50

1300

$ 7.36

$ 81.03

$ 24.46

$ 120.53

$ 233.39

1400

$ 7.36

$ 88.75

$ 29.36

$ 129.81

$ 255.27

1500

$ 7.36

$ 96.46

$ 34.25

$ 139.08

$ 277.15

1600

$ 7.36

$ 104.18

$ 39.14

$ 148.35

$ 299.03

1700

$ 7.36

$ 111.90

$ 44.03

$ 157.62

$ 320.91

1800

$ 7.36

$ 119.62

$ 48.93

$ 166.89

$ 342.79

1900

$ 7.36

$ 127.33

$ 53.82

$ 176.16

$ 364.68

2000

$ 7.36

$ 135.05

$ 58.71

$ 185.44

$ 386.56

2100

$ 7.36

$ 142.77

$ 63.60

$ 194.71

$ 408.44

2200

$ 7.36

$ 150.48

$ 68.50

$ 203.98

$ 430.32

2300

$ 7.36

$ 158.20

$ 73.39

$ 213.25

$ 452.20

2400

$ 7.36

$ 165.92

$ 78.28

$ 222.52

$ 474.08


Charges for the Secure Plan, with Heat Protection:

Secure
Plan

0-500
kWh

500-1000
kWh

1000+
kWh

Fuel

Factor

Total

Rate:

0.058823

0.08567

0.06533

0.092718

250 kWh

$ 14.71

$ –

$ –

$ 23.18

$ 37.89

500

$ 29.41

$ –

$ –

$ 46.36

$ 75.77

800

$ 29.41

$ 25.70

$ –

$ 74.17

$ 129.29

1000

$ 29.41

$ 42.84

$ –

$ 92.72

$ 164.96

1100

$ 29.41

$ 51.40

$ 6.53

$ 101.99

$ 189.34

1200

$ 29.41

$ 59.97

$ 13.07

$ 111.26

$ 213.71

1300

$ 29.41

$ 68.54

$ 19.60

$ 120.53

$ 238.08

1400

$ 29.41

$ 77.10

$ 26.13

$ 129.81

$ 262.45

1500

$ 29.41

$ 85.67

$ 32.67

$ 139.08

$ 286.82

1600

$ 29.41

$ 94.24

$ 39.20

$ 148.35

$ 311.20

1700

$ 29.41

$ 102.80

$ 45.73

$ 157.62

$ 335.57

1800

$ 29.41

$ 111.37

$ 52.26

$ 166.89

$ 359.94

1900

$ 29.41

$ 119.94

$ 58.80

$ 176.16

$ 384.31

2000

$ 29.41

$ 128.51

$ 65.33

$ 185.44

$ 408.68

2100

$ 29.41

$ 137.07

$ 71.86

$ 194.71

$ 433.05

2200

$ 29.41

$ 145.64

$ 78.40

$ 203.98

$ 457.43

2300

$ 29.41

$ 154.21

$ 84.93

$ 213.25

$ 481.80

2400

$ 29.41

$ 162.77

$ 91.46

$ 222.52

$ 506.17


And finally, a head-to-head comparison of the two plans:
PTB

SP
w/HP

Higher

250 kWh

$ 30.54

$ 37.89

$ 7.35

500

$ 73.01

$ 75.77

$ 2.76

800

$ 123.98

$ 129.29

$ 5.31

1000

$ 167.74

$ 164.96

$ (2.78)

1100

$ 189.62

$ 189.34

$ (0.29)

1200

$ 211.50

$ 213.71

$ 2.20

1300

$ 233.39

$ 238.08

$ 4.69

1400

$ 255.27

$ 262.45

$ 7.18

1500

$ 277.15

$ 286.82

$ 9.67

1600

$ 299.03

$ 311.20

$ 12.16

1700

$ 320.91

$ 335.57

$ 14.65

1800

$ 342.79

$ 359.94

$ 17.15

1900

$ 364.68

$ 384.31

$ 19.64

2000

$ 386.56

$ 408.68

$ 22.13

2100

$ 408.44

$ 433.05

$ 24.62

2200

$ 430.32

$ 457.43

$ 27.11

2300

$ 452.20

$ 481.80

$ 29.60

2400

$ 474.08

$ 506.17

$ 32.09

Note that because of the way the rate breaks, there is exactly one stretch where you’re not paying more on the Secure Plan. And remember, the Heat Protection only applies to four months out of the year!

Truly, with Reliant, it is “buyer beware.”

Afternoon News: Hearings Underway

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KPRC informs us that, as of 3 p.m., civil service hearings were underway downtown, which may determine if Mayor White and Council Member Alvarado will have to take the stand. Anyone betting the answer is “no?”

A civil service hearing commission, scheduled to take place Friday at 3 p.m., could decide whether or not Mayor Bill White could be summoned to testify in some of the termination hearings and if a continuance would be granted to two of the four fired employees who said they need more time to fight their terminations.

I’m thinking the answer may be no to the second request as well, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it went the other way. If it does not, it will be a clear signal that the hearings are not being taken seriously, but are being forced through as fast as possible to minimize the impact. Although Mayor White’s probably breathing a sigh of relief that the reconquistas have taken the spotlight off the Bonusgate affair, if the appeals drag out and they are forced to testify, it would turn into a media circus again.

The Harris County District Attorney’s Office is expected to receive details Friday of the city’s employee incentive pay and bonus plan. On Wednesday, subpoenas requesting the documents were issued to every council member and department head.

But is all the information being turned over to those who request it?

Watkins told KPRC Local 2 on Thursday that the city is refusing to hand over documents to her that would prove her innocence.

And of course the FBI is collecting Ms. Alvarado’s bank records. However, these are probably the words that make people feel the most uneasy this afternoon:

Watkins, who is currently writing a book about the bonus scandal, said she feels she is being singled out for talking about the investigation.

My suggested title: It Takes a Thief.

Of Fecal Matter and Rotary Air Impellers

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Although with a title like that, this post should belong over at TBIFOC, I simply couldn’t resist. No sooner than I take my eye off of the Bonusgate scandal than the other shoe drops. The FBI has requested Alvarado’s bank records.

The FBI request is for all of Alvarado’s bank accounts, open or closed. It went out Wednesday to major banks across the country through what’s known as the loss avoidance alert system, which is an electronic network connecting banks with law enforcement.

The FBI would not comment on the investigation. But Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal confirmed for KPRC that the federal request was made.

Her attorney Rusty Hardin and spokesman Joe “Butter Wouldn’t Melt In My Mouth” Householder immediately spun it into no big deal, just an example of how cooperative the council member was being with law enforcement, and how anxious happy she was to show that she was a virgin had done nothing wrong.

Her attorney, Rusty Hardin, told KPRC that the FBI’s involvement was expected because Alvarado is a public official.

Her spokesman, Joe Householder, said her account numbers have now been forwarded to the district attorney’s office.

“So they can get a hold of it as quickly as they can,” Householder said. “That actually happened this afternoon. We had reached out to them earlier and said, ‘If you want this material, you can have it.’ And, just as an extra step, we e-mailed those numbers to them.”

Hardin said he contacted the FBI several weeks ago offering to make Alvarado’s or any records available. He said he has not yet heard from the agency. Hardin said this is a natural progression in the investigation and not an indication that Alvarado has done anything wrong.

Yeah……nothing wrong. That’s the ticket. Counting down the seconds until someone claims she’s being persecuted because of backlash against illegal immigrants undocumented workers persons of Hispanic descent.

Hat tip to Bloghouston.

A Call To Arms

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Annoyed over students playing hooky and waving Mexican flags? Worried that half a million people who aren’t here legally are “showing their strength” in street protests? Pissed off that an HISD principal flew the Mexican flag at a Texas school?

Time to point out the error of their ways to the spineless politicians that are kowtowing to the illegal alien lobby and those who employ them.

San Jacinto day is Saturday Friday, 4/21/06. Be at the Federal Courthouse. Bring your flag. American, of course. Pass the word on to all your friends and neighbors. The gringo ones, anyway….

Water Meter Failures: How Accurate Is Your Bill?

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Ok, as usual, the press gets it half right. For that matter, Annise Parker isn’t exactly on the money either.

The project was supposed to cost $50 million and be complete in 2003. Instead, it’s now costing approximately $75 million and won’t be complete until 2008.

“The failure rate is beyond anything that we should have experienced,” Houston City Controller Annise Parker said.

She’s right about that much. How bad is it? Bad. Very bad. Is it as bad as it’s said to be? No, not hardly.

Lets get the worst out of the way: The program was ill-conceived, poorly planned, terribly executed, over budget, and has never worked as advertised. Inasmuch as it has caused numerous problems, resulted in many bill estimations, and caused hundreds, maybe thousands of man-hours per month to be devoted to correcting bills, and resulted in a great decrease in the public’s confidence level even before the story finally broke, it should be probably regarded as the single biggest failure in city administration over the last ten years, short of outright corruption. (Which is not to speak of any specific incident, just to say that I put malfeasance in a class seperate from mere incompetence.) Well, ok, it’s in the top two, anyway.

It will be made clear that the problems stem from decisions made as far back as the Lanier administrtion, but the key mistakes were made during the Brown era, and that the managers involved have since taken their retirement pay and run for the beaches. The current team running Public Works and the section responsible for meters (Utility Customer Service) is all-new, having been shuffled in after the Pension Massacre of 2004. They have inherited a very bad hand, and are trying to play it as well as possible, after about eighteen months of learning that their hole cards are deuces. They’re dealing with the administrative issues well enough, but this is a fundamental city policy–a decison to abandon this program wouldn’t be made in Public Works, not even by Marcotte. Whether they should just fold and ask for an expensive re-deal is a matter of public policy and high-level decision-making by the Mayor and Council–something we may now see if this story becomes a major public issue.

The good news is that, while it’s bad, it’s not nearly as bad as it looks when you see “47%.” If you think it means 47% of the bills are wrong, you’d be way off. You could take that on faith or my word, but I suspect that you, as the reader, want a bit more to go on. To explain why it’s not as bad, I have to explain exactly what is failing and why. It’s not very technical and I’ll avoid jargon as much as possible. In this article, I’m addressing just the technical aspects necessary to show why the 47% figure is highly misleading. History of the decisions and the people repsonsible will have to wait for a future article. Continue reading →

“I Wouldn’t Treat A Dog That Bad….”

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We’ve all heard that saying at some time or another. Well, you or I might not, but what about the City of Houston? Two former employees who got fed up with the city’s animal shelter took their message to the council Tuesday, and that message is the City ought to cite itself for animal cruelty:

They provided many photographs showing problems with cages.

Some are too small for larger dogs that can’t even turn around or wag their tails.

They also said there are serious problems with the grates.

“The grates have holes in them that are large enough for animals to get their feet caught in and if you don’t catch it within a few hours of it happening, then you end up euthanizing the animal in the cage because you couldn’t get their foot loose,” said Michelle Haberland.

Haberland says she’s witnessed it all first hand.

She was a veterinary technician there until last month. She says she couldn’t take it anymore.
“They were hanging art work that costs thousands of dollars in the lobby and we couldn’t order antibiotics for the dogs that we were euthanizing day in an day out for an upper respiratory infection. I said, ‘That’s it. I have got to go,'” said Haberland.

Artwork? Honestly, some buildings you want to dress up, because they should look imposing and/or be a culturally positive addition to the city. They are a mark of city pride. City Halls are obviously such, but so are libraries, and some public works. We could have dull, flat gray concrete retaining walls on the Southwest Freeway, but instead we’re putting in nice tan ones with a pattern and climbing ivy. So artwork in public buildings or architecture, per se, isn’t a bad idea.

The art work was indeed ordered and installed to improve the shelter’s image and to make it more people-friendly. Manager Cynda Lewis says it did not cost thousands of dollars.

“I think it was about $1,500 for materials and an inside person did it for us,” said Lewis.

Fifteen hundred dollars to decorate the lobby while the animals went without antibiotics or decent cages. Assuming they weren’t put to death.

Last year, of the 26,243 animals picked up by BARC, 21,214 animals were euthanized.

There were 1,463 animals adopted and 1,579 animals reclaimed by their owners. There were 1,698 animals saved by rescue groups and 289 animals lost or unaccounted for. Some of them were actually lost down the sewer drain.

Put to death, or lost down the drain. While $1,500 gets spent on artwork. Wonder if any bonuses were handed out there for best-looking lobby. Or killing dogs more efficiently.

I bet it’s a nice lobby, but just for the record, if you put pink cake frosting on a turd, it’s still a turd.

Annie, Get My Gun!

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This was a bit of a surprise:

There’s a battle looming over your right to take a gun to work. The controversy centers on whether you should be able to leave a firearm in your car. . . . In Texas, businesses have the right to keep concealed weapons out of buildings. Now there’s a move to allow companies to prohibit them from parking lots, too and that has some concealed carriers upset.

FYI: Civilian City of Houston employees are already prohibited from bringing firearms to work, even if left in the car, in the parking lot. It’s a firing offense. That was made very clear to us when the concealed carry law passed. I’ve recently discussed it with co-workers, as to whether we could “get away with it” if we parked on a public street instead of on a city parking lot. We concluded that making our cars more vulnerable to theft (with a gun in it) was probably a bad trade off, but still didn’t like the idea that our employer was essentially denying us the ability to defend ourselves while in transit from home to work.

Needless to say, I’m against yet another effort to gut the Second Amendment.