Monthly Archives: February 2008

Which Way Do You Want It?

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From a discussion over at Samizdata, jumping on Drudge for revealing that Prince Harry was in Afganistan.

Wait, let me get this straight. Here in the US we criticize the POTUS for serving in the National Guard as a fighter pilot during Vietnam and not shipping his daughters off to Iraq, but in England we criticize the royals for sending a Prince to serve in Afghanistan???

OK, anti-war-loonies, make up your dammed minds!!!!

I really don’t think they should have pulled him out. Instead, they should have made damn sure everyone around him was a volunteer (of which there’d be no shortage) and then gone to town on the jihadis when they made their inevitible attacks.

Just One Question About Leases…

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If the mayor really believes that the city is not bound by leases of over 30 years because they’re not legal, why hasn’t he terminated the 50-year lease with Zoo Development Corporation which gives them:

Complete control of the Zoo.
The right to raise admission prices up to 25% in a single year.
Free water and sewer service (~$70k per month value).

Additionally:

The city pays for all their electric and gas charges.
The city pays ZDC a yearly fee for managing the property.

Just askin’, that’s all….

Yao Is More Important

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Today, the city council will be voting on whether to buy five blocks of land for nearly $16,000,000, give away a street, and swap away a piece of the city infrastructure in order to create a place where the Dynamo might build a stadium.

The Houston Chonicle chose to lead its print edition today with a headline story that Yao Ming is out for the season due to a fracture in his foot. The online edition does no better, with two stories about the Rodeo, one the headliner.

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again. The Houston Chronicle is part of the problem in Houston. We badly need an alternative news outlet, and the Chronicle Houston Press isn’t it.

UPDATE:
So here we are, almost 7 p.m in the evening. Take a look at what the Chronicle thinks is more important than the result of today’s council meeting:

Bwhahahahaha!

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Couldn’t have been said better about a nicer candidate:

Hillarymandias

I met a pollster from an antique land,
Who said–“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand, one in Texas…., one near Canton,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose brow, and wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The electorate that mocked them, and the press that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Hillarymandias,
Look on my resume and campaign fundraising, ye fellow Democrats, and despair!
Nothing else remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away. Heh.

Via.

Don’t Be Evil (Until You’re One of the Big Boys)

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If someone asked me to pick two international entities that I don’t trust in the least, at the top of the list would have to be the United Nations. I’d be hard pressed to find a good second choice that obvious, but I would probably settle for Google, which I have long called “the Chinese Opressors’ Search Portal.”

Well, now they’ve cinched that second place, by playing footsie with the first-place finisher.

Google “disappears” critic of it’s UN Partner.

Go. Read. Be disgusted that any so-called “American” company would engage in such chicanery. And understand why I trust no company on the internet.

2/20/08: And this pales beside the actions of the California Federal District Court which has ordered the internet registrar to de-list their domain and park it until further notice. Significant First Amendment problems with that, obviously. Idiot judge.

Interesting Omissions

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I haven’t written much about the Bozonicle lately (well, truth is, I haven’t written much at all), but I caught something in the former “City Hall Blog” over there today. You know, the one that’s now about politics in city and county, instead of, you know, news. Since Matt’s been reined in, clearly I need to get back to doing my agenda summaries.

This article is about the Bar poll, asking local lawyers to rate the various candidates. Every race was on the questionnaire, but the only ones mentioned were the DA’s and County Judge. I can let that slide; both are the biggest news out there, thanks to Chucky’s seppuku, and someone’s (we won’t name names) exquisitely timed departure from the County Judge office. But note some odd inclusions and omissions in the article. Emphasis and comments in [brackets] are all mine.

Siegler was rated well qualified by 475 lawyers, compared to 380 for defense lawyer Jim Leitner, 296 for former Houston police chief C.O. Bradford, 291 for former judge Pat Lykos and 18 for police Capt. Doug Perry. [So Siegler got more top ratings than anyone else.]

These tea leaves can be read a number of ways, and we’ll mostly leave the decoding to you political junkies out there [but don’t worry, we’ll tell you exactly what we want you to know]. Here’s what we know [are gonna tell ya]: Siegler has been a prosecutor for 21 years and therefore is known by a ton of lawyers. (In addition to the 475 who rated her well qualified, 284 said she was qualified to be DA and 525 said she was not). [And since that’s more than said she was qualified, you can ignore the earlier number, mmmkay?]

Leitner is a veteran defense lawyer and former prosecutor. Bradford is the only Democrat in the race; the other four are running in the March 4 Republican primary. Lykos is a former judge who hardly ever did well in the bar polls back when. Perry has not practiced criminal law. [So you know who we want you to vote for, right?]

Bacarisse was rated well qualified to be county judge, the government executive position, by 696 lawyers; incumbent Ed Emmett by 427. They’re in the Republican primary [Which isn’t important, right?]. Democratic candidate David Mincberg got 408 well qualifieds; opponent Ahmad Hassan, just 26. [That’s Mincberg, M-I-N-C-B-E-R-G. Don’t forget it come general election time, we’ll be endorsing him again, after doing our best to make sure the Republican who got the most positive votes overall is knocked out of the primary in favor of our transit cheerleader.]

So what are the raw numbers? Take a look. Out of 2,068 responses:
Continue reading →

The Dream Lives

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Guy decides to start over with just $25 and a few clothes, then see if he can bootstrap his way out of poverty. Ten months later he had a truck, a furnished apartment, and nearly $5,000 in savings. This was despite a fake background that didn’t include his college degree, which he kept secret.

So yes, the American Dream still lives. Via.