RNC, the phone is ringing. Are you going to pick it up?

The voters are angry. The voters want tough enforcement of immigration law and they do not want amnesty. This is a 95%/5% issue. Both the Democrats and the Republicans have been pandering to the illegals instead of listening to the electorate. As a result, there has been a sharp drop in small donations to the RNC. Mom and Pop voter aren't sending in their money like good little sheep. As a result of the sharp drop in donations the RNC has had to let all of their fund raising telemarketers go.

"Last year, my solicitations totaled $164,000, and this year the way they were running for the first four months, they would total $100,000 by the end of 2007," said one fired phone bank solicitor who asked not to be identified.
There has been a sharp decline in contributions from RNC phone solicitations, another fired staffer said, reporting that many former donors flatly refuse to give more money to the national party if Mr. Bush and the Senate Republicans insist on supporting what these angry contributors call "amnesty" for illegal aliens.
"Every donor in 50 states we reached has been angry, especially in the last month and a half, and for 99 percent of them immigration is the No. 1 issue," said the former employee.
The RNC spokeswoman denied that the committee has seen any drop-off in contributions.
"Any assertion that overall donations have gone down is patently false," Miss Schmitt said. "We continue to out raise our Democrat counterpart by a substantive amount (nearly double)."

The voters are angry, you would not LIKE the voters when they are angry.

Hat Tip: Tom Bazan


UPDATE:
Mary Katherine Ham posts the transcript of one such RNC fundraising call at Townhall:

Ring, Ring

Emily: "Hello?'

Caller: "Hi, ma'am, this is the Republican National Committee calling."

Emily (aside to me, with a big grin on her face): "It's the RNC."

Caller: "We're just calling to see at what level you'd be comfortable renewing your contribution. Would $75 be all right?"

Emily: "How about nothing?"

Caller: "Oh, why's that?"

Emily: "I'm not real happy with the immigration bill."

Caller: "Well, that's not Republicans. Just the President loves that immigration bill."

Emily: "The President is head of the Republican Party."

Caller: "Not for long."

Emily: "And, Republican senators are supporting the bill. Why would I give you guys money to get them re-elected?"

Caller: "That's ridiculous."

Emily: "Yeah, I don't think I'm gonna give you any money. You just called me ridiculous."

An executive order that would be worthwhile

Governor Perry has shown a penchant for Executive Orders, not always to the betterment of his political position. I'd like to suggest one that would be approved by over 95% of the voters and is unlikely to be rescinded by the Legislature when it meets next.

I speak of Voter ID. If Perry were to mandate a photo ID be required for voting, and then mandated that anyone that did not have one could get one free of charge at any DPS office by showing the proper documentation to prove that they are who they are. The issue would be in place and settled before the next legislative session. I would predict that it would not be challenged, at least not openly.

Duh Mayor has met his match on red light cameras

One of the bills that awaits the governors approval concerns red light camera revenues. There is some interesting verbiage in that bill. For one thing, the city can only keep half the money, the other half has to go to the state. But the half the city may keep has strings attached, the city may only use the funds for public safety and may not put it in the general fund. Which of course means that the city will put less of the general fund money towards public safety so on the whole that is a bit of a wash. But there is one more tidbit that I find intriguing, the city may not notify the credit reporting agencies that you have not paid the fine. This was the one stick the city had to use to force people to pay the civil fines. Now there is no punishment for failing to pay the fine.

Hat Tip Mike Jones at BlogHouston

Yet another reason why HB2564 should be VETOED!

In Dallas, a DISD employee has admitted to ringing up over $100,000 in personal expenses to her district issued credit card in the last three years. But what is worse, she is not the only one, 5 other employees are under investigation and it would appear about half of the district's 1200 district supplied credit cards have some questionable charges made. Dallas Morning News had to sift through over 155,000 credit card transactions to sort this mess out, I bet there was more than 36 hours of records preparation needed on the part of DISD.

Dirty little secrets and how the Lege tries to bury them

HB2564 is sitting on the Governor's desk awaiting his signature, we need to encourage him to veto this bill. This bill increases the costs of a TXPIA request dramatically if it takes more than 36 hours of research time to fulfill, and that hourly quota is cumulative per year. You'd think that the newspapers and other media would be raising nine kinds of hell about this. Well, you see the newspapers and broadcast media are getting a break. There was a last minute amendment to the bill that exempted any print publication that was legally qualified to print legal notices as well as any media outlet that is licensed by the FCC. Bloggers? Individuals trying to keep an eye on our school districts and MUD districts? We get the shaft!

And why was this carve out done? Ask Ken Whalen.

Where have I heard this before?

China anti-satellite test a threat, Pentagon says

Hmm, where have I heard this before?

Why I dislike red light cameras

I was on my way to grab some lunch just now and I witnessed a wreck. The wreck happened because a driver in a blue Impala hit his brakes to avoid having his picture taken. He was behind a 18 wheeler and could not see the light changing until he was right up on the intersection. There was a white 12 passenger van that was not able to stop in time to keep from rear ending the Impala. I hope they send the repair bills to the COH.

Captialists on strike!

In Ayn Rand's seminal work, Atlas Shrugged, The Capitalists went on strike to protest the consumer's interference in the production of wealth and the confiscation and redistribution of wealth. In Wisconsin, the Capitalists have gone on strike to protest the confiscation and redistribution of wealth and interference in the production of wealth.

(oops, forgot to title it....)

File this under: "You can't win if you don't play....."

Bracewell-Giuliani keeps the fun coming... Fred Blanton had made a separate TXPIA request for the names and amounts of the donors to the NHMCCD Foundation that were lumped together on IRS form 990 for the tax years of 2003-2005. The foundation and it's lawyers again balked at providing the information and appealed it to the AG's office, but they screwed up. It would appear they sent all of their supporting documentation for withholding the information referencing AG cause number 277776 which was the cause number for the other TXPIA request noted below instead of 278812. As a result, legally they failed to respond to the AG's request for discovery, therefore the AG's office issued an order that required the information to be released or the Foundation must sue in state district court in Travis County. The order further defined the Foundation as not having the protection of an "institution of higher education" under section 61.003 of the Education Code (page 5). In my estimation, the Foundation technically has cause to sue Bracewell-Giuliani for malpractice. That said, if the previous ruling is a guide, the Foundation would have lost this one too despite Bracewell-Giuliani's obvious failure to represent the Foundation adequately. So suing for malpractice would only cause the Foundation to waste yet MORE money that is SUPPOSED to be used for scholarships and low interest loans to help low income students instead of paying lawyers to hide behind and to pay for awards banquets and travel and $2500 seafood dinners in Boston for the Chancellor.

Further thoughts on this order:

This order makes it clear that the Foundation is for purposes of open records a government entity, ALL of the Foundation. Therefore ALL of the Foundation's records are subject to TXPIA as if it were the college itself. Judging by some of the things that the Foundation has paid for over the years and some of the apparent relationships between donors, board members, and vendors, I'm willing to bet there are a lot of bodies buried in the Foundation's books. It's time we found a shovel.
Game, Set, Match.....

Foundation gets hammered, may crumble

There is some suspicion that the NHMCCD Foundation has in the past engaged in quite a bit of questionable activity. Paying for things like travel and meals for the current chancellor and other things of questionable nature instead of spending the money on scholarships as it is supposed to. In fact, it would appear that the chancellor and the board have used the foundation as a private slush fund to pay for a number of things that the board would be unable to spend college district money on. Fred Blanton filed a TXPIA request for the financial records of the Foundation. The foundation balked and argued to the Texas AG's office that since they are a private organization they are not subject to TXPIA requests. Fred argued that since the Foundation gets significant money and in kind support from both the NHMCCD district as well as Aldine ISD, and not as a straight arms-length vendor with a clearly defined responsibility and obligation like any other vendor, therefore that exemption was null and void. The AG's office agreed.

Now the ball is in the Foundation's court.

Open letter to David Dewhurst

Lt. Governor, I will be frank. Your handling of the Voter ID bill is despicable. A re-vote should never have occurred, and your pledge to Gallegos to kill it is treasonous, not only to the party, but to the state of Texas as well as the United States. The electoral system is the basis of our freedom and this bill ensures it's integrity. You MUST suspend the rules and allow this bill to come back up for a vote today, and again tomorrow. THIS BILL MUST PASS. If it does not, your career in Politics is OVER. The polls show that over 90% of Texans want his bill to pass, let me assure you that if it does not, it will be an anvil chained around your neck come election day. Your were told by the party to get rid of the blocker bill and you and your colleges refused. You and your colleagues turn your back on the party platform at your political peril. We, the base, will remember, and I personally will make sure that the voters here in Harris County never forget your treason if this does not pass.

Baylor Chapter of Students for Concealed Carry on Campus has been formed.

A student group at Baylor University has formed a Baylor Chapter of Students for Concealed Carry on Campus.

A Lack of Voter Integrity

If you've been reading my stuff for a while, you know that ensuring the integrity of the voting process is my number one hot button issue. But that does not just mean the election process, that is ALL voting. My state legislator, Debbie Riddle, has been busted on video, along with a whole bunch of other legislators, of voting for other legislators during house record votes. This undermines the very representative nature of the legislature. It is not clear in this report if the people voting are voting the way those absent legislators want to vote or if they are voting the way THEY want them to vote. Now, I could see, in a more polite and honest world, where a legislator needed to go to the bathroom or whatever and entrusted someone with their key in order to vote a particular way that they had already decided on. It is not exactly following the rules, but if the level of trust is there, I could see where corners might get cut. But in this instance, people are voting for legislators of the opposite party, I'd be willing to bet, they are voting against the legislator's wishes. When I check online to see who voted for or against a bill I'm following, how am I to know whether that legislator actually voted for or against that bill or not?

This is completely against the concept of one person-one vote and MUST BE STOPPED!

NHMCCD Board makes the right choice

Last night, on a vote of 6-3, the NHMCCD board voted to select Dr. Richard Carpenter as the next Chancellor to replace John Pickelman. It is my understanding that the back room discussions that took place prior to the board convening in open session late last night were extremely contentious, bordering on "knock down, drag out". Red Ink: Texas applauds this decision, but the job is not finished yet. Dr. Carpenter is an extremely competent leader and as such he was recently given very high marks by his current institution, along with a sizable raise. As a result, the incentive for Dr. Carpenter to come to Houston is no longer there. The salary he was initially offered is $40,000 less than his current pay in Las Vegas. Now given the respective cost of living in the two cities, $40,000 might not go as far in Vegas as it would in Houston, so the actual value of the difference may be something to consider. So far, no negotiations have taken place, and in fact as of last night at around 10:30 PM Houston time, nobody from NHMCCD had contacted Dr. Carpenter to even inform him that he had been selected. The difference is around 5-7% of the total compensation package so there is clearly room for negotiation. Let us hope that NHMCCD bargains in good faith and is not doing this for appearance sake so that when Dr. Carpenter rejects a lowball offer they can say they tried and then go about selecting either Steve Head or Diane Troyer as likely originally planned.

Signs of Intelligent Life in the South Carolina Legislature

In Columbia South Carolina, Republican Jeff Duncan has introduced a bill that would make it legal for Concealed Weapons Permit holders to carry in any state educational institution, from Elementary Schools, to Universities. The bill has passed out of committee but there is some question whether it will get passed before the end of the Session on June 7th.

Hypocracy, thy name is Democrat: Farmer's Branch Edition

In the run-up to the recent election in which the law requiring landlords to ask for and make copies of their prospective renter's Photo ID passed by a whopping 88 percent, with a record breaking 50% turnout, A group calling itself "Let the Voters Decide" funded by the ACLU, LULAC, MeCHa, and other race-baiting and libtard organizations, made a big deal of forcing the city council to put the measure up to a vote of the people. Well the people have spoken and the voters did decide. Now that very same group is filing lawsuits to get the law thrown out in court. I guess "Let the voters decide, but only as long as they decide the way we want them to" wouldn't fit on the signs....

Contemplations on the Rise in Obesity in America

Much is said in the popular press about the rise in obesity in America, and how wide spread it is (so to speak. =D). Eric Berger has taken the stand that a little body fat is not as unhealthy as it is made out to be and per some studies, it might be healthier than a very low body fat level..

I think I know where at least some of the obesity is coming from and it is NOT any of the usual suspects (high calorie processed foods, sugary sodas, lack of exercise etc.). It is coming from doctors. Let me explain:

The standard treatment for hypothyroidism USED to be treatment with a Bovine or Porcine thyroid extract which had both T3 and T4 in them. Armour Thyroid was (and still is) a popular brand of such extracts. The doc would increase your dose until your symptoms went away and then he declared you cured. However a seachange in the way Hypothyroidism was treated occurred 20-30 years ago when synthetic T4 and cheap thyroid hormone tests became widely available. Synthetic T4 was more consistent in dosage, and did not run the risk of introducing beef or pork viruses into humans and did not run the risk of causing allergic reactions.
T4 is normally converted to T3 by the body, T3 is the actual functional hormone. Synthetic T3 came along later but was never as popular among doctors because T3 levels do not reduce the TSH (Thyroid Stimulating Hormone) levels whereas T4 does. T3 is also 3-4 times more potent than T4 so titrating the dosage is more difficult, a little bit goes a long way.

Nowadays, the standard treatment that doctors are taught in school is to give you enough Synthroid/Levoxyl/Levothroid (levothyroxine) to get your hormone levels into the "normal" range and declare you cured. Even if you still have cold hands and feet, gain weight, are depressed, have no energy, lose hair, have hyperlipidemia (High Cholesterol) etc. As far as the Doctor is concerned, as long as the lab report says the levels are "normal" the doctor will treat all your symptoms as separate problems with other causes instead of recognizing that you are still hypothyroid. A lot of these people end up on statin drugs and antidepressants and myriad other drugs, undergo gastric surgery etc. when what they really need is the doctor to treat their Hypothyroid condition.

The problem is than many people with hypothyroidism are still not asymptomatic when given enough synthetic T4 to put both the T4 and T3 levels as well as the TSH level into the "normal range". There are two possible reasons for that: One is that the T3 their body makes is either non- or only partially functional. Perhaps it has the wrong sugars attached to it so it folds the wrong way. The other is that the "Normal" range is excessively wide. Either or both could play a role.

This was the case for my wife who is hypothyroid. Just recently she was put on a combination of synthetic T4 and T3, suddenly she has more energy, is losing weight, can think straight again. She is (well almost) a whole different person. how many other HT patients are still symptomatic despite being on T4? I'd bet a lot of them, and that will skew the obesity epidemiology quite badly I'd suspect.

People with Hypothyroidism are also 10 times more likely to have coronary artery disease, so it is skewing the heart attack rates too.

So if you are taking synthetic T4 for hypothyroidism and your doctor claims you are "cured" based solely on test results while still exhibiting all the classical Hypothyroid symptoms, You might want to consider getting a new doctor.

Missed Opportunities at NHMCCD

Dr. Richard Carpenter, current President at the Community College of Southern Nevada, and current recipient of an anonymous smear campaign against him was one of three finalists in the search for a replacement for John Pickelman. The Las Vegas Sun reports that he was recently evaluated at his current job and got very high marks, despite what Ms. Littlefield has reported in the past. But apparently instead of choosing Dr. Carpenter, Scuttlebutt has it that Dr. Diane Troyer, current president of the Cy-fair Campus since 2000, and former president of the Tomball campus from 1996 to 2000, will be getting the nod on Wednesday at 6 pm. So instead of a dynamic leader that has cleaned up a bunch of corruption and expanded the enrollment while cutting costs, we'll be getting more of the same.

How to make Whine from Sour Grapes while Grinding an Axe.

Someone calling themselves "A Concerned Las Vegas Citizen" is attempting to anonymously torpedo one of the three remaining candidates for NHMCCD's open Chancellor position to replace John Pickelman and the only candidate that is not an NHMCCD insider. They are sending a a compilation of articles from the Las Vegas Sun written by one Christina Littlefield in an effort to discredit Richard Carpenter, Ed. D, the President of the Community College of Southern Nevada, around to a number of board members and media contacts.

The articles cited is as follows:
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/sun/2007/may/06/566631269.html
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/sun/2007/mar/26/566686711.html?littlefield
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/sun/2007/apr/04/56671472.html?littlefield;

The person claiming to be a concerned Las Vegas Citizen used mypacks.net which is a email masking service for Earthlink customers. The email additionally had routing information in the header that indicated origin in Montgomery County Texas. Now whether that email actually originated in Las Vegas or Montgomery County Texas is open to question, this may be in fact an artifact of the masking process. However, we can consider the veracity of Ms. Littlefield. Ms. Littlefield is not an uninterested observer here, she has an axe to grind as well.

Seems Ms. Littlefield's mother works at the Las Vegas Permit office. Mr. Gilbert, the VP of the college and in charge of facilities had submitted plans for the Telecommunications building that Ms. Littlefield is complaining about, to obtain permits for it's construction. Her mother denied/delayed the permits for reasons that are unclear but would appear to have been frivolous. Mr Gilbert appealed the denials to Ms. Littlefield's mother's supervisor. The permits were approved by the supervisor and Ms. Littlefield's mom was disciplined for denying them. Ms. Littlefield then proceeded to go over Mr Gilbert's head in an attempt to get him fired and started trying to trump up charges that he was in collusion with a college contractor and was receiving kickbacks etc.. Dr. Carpenter admitted that Mr. Gilbert's use of a contractor on his personal work that was also doing college work looked bad and might have the appearance of a conflict of interest, but that it did not rise to the level of malfeasance and stood by him. This infuriated Ms. Littlefield. Prior to this taking place Ms. Littlefield had written glowing things about Dr. Carpenter, suddenly (and coincidentally?) everything she was writing was negative. Is this a vendetta? It would appear to be.

And Another Thing.... (5-12-07)

Dr. Carpenter cleaned up a lot of corruption and "good ol' Boy" networks in Vegas, He also streamlined the operations and eliminated a lot of waste. Along the way a lot of sacred cows got slaughtered and barbecued, and not a few rice bowls got busted, but the college is far better for the effort. So it is not entirely impossible that someone who has an axe to grind may be collaborating with one of Steve Head's or Diane Troyer's supporters in order to try to torpedo him. If that is the case (and that is the flavor I'm getting from this.) then instead of making me ask questions about carpenter, I have to start thinking maybe he is really the guy we need and the corrupt and incestuous organism that is NHMCCD is working to destroy an invader.

Mallard Fillmore on being unarmed

State Contitutional Amendment correction.

Like many people, I misunderstood Proposition 1. I had understood that the amendment gave property tax breaks for seniors and the disabled, but at the cost of allowing the Legislature to bust the constitutional spending cap, and as little as six weeks ago that was still true. But Senator Patrick, among others managed to de-link the two. I was unaware of this as were a number of other people. The property tax break is the same break everyone else got but because of an error in the way the bill was written, the elderly and the disabled were left out. This amendment gives the elderly and disabled the same break as everyone else.

Red Ink: Texas heartily endorses the proposition as it is written now.

Is Disney about to lose the copyright on Mickey?

Hamas has taken to copyright infringement as a means of spreading hate among small children in Palestine. A Mickey Mouse clone indoctrinates children on Hamas's official TV network Al-Aqsa TV. Will Disney do anything? Not unless forced to, but we have a nice little stick to beat them over the head with. You see, under Copyright law, if a company is aware of an infringement and does nothing, then they lose the right to enforce the copyright. Disney makes MASSIVE amounts of money off of Mickey. Make sure and write Disney and let them know that the infringement exists. And make sure that they understand that they must shut them down or risk losing rights to Mickey.

Last Call! Early voting ends May 8!

I would like to remind both of my readers that early voting for the May 12th election ends Tuesday May 8th. Polls will be open from 7AM to 7PM and you can vote at ANY of the polling places. If you have moved and have not submitted a change of address to the County Clerk's office for your Voter Registration, then you should vote tomorrow and make sure you turn in a change of address form. Otherwise you will have to go to your OLD precinct's polling place on Saturday. Either way, you will be voting in the old precinct's races.

If you live in the city, you will be voting on a replacement for the unexpired term of Shelly Sekula-Gibbs who decided to screw both the City of Houston and CD 22 residents. Hopefully your choice of replacement will show more intelligence, or at least more decorum than the former office holder. I might remind my readers that the only council candidate that deigned to respond to my questionnaire was Andy Neill. You can read his responses here. I want to thank Andy for responding. Additionally residents of a number of school districts will be holding bond and trustee elections. Spring, Aldine and Tomball will be holding elections, among several others.

And of course you will be asked to vote on a constitutional amendment that would allow the legislature to bust the constitutional spending cap. The spending is supposedly to allow the disabled and the elderly to receive some property tax relief, however The lege is sitting on a 13 billion dollar surplus as well as having passed the largest budget in the State's history. Like many I find it hard to believe that there isn't enough pork in the budget that could have been eliminated to offset the tax relief. You of course are welcome to vote any way you like, but I suspect I will be voting against the proposal. Perhaps that will force the Lege to reconvene in Special Session and find another way to skin the cat. Let us hope....

The Political Midnight Wranglers Updated

The Lege is about to try to pull a fast one by taking their sweet time. SB889 is scheduled to come before the House State Affairs Committee Monday. Here is what is going to happen. The committee will meet for an hour or so Monday morning before the legislative session begins and will then break so that the members can go into general legislative session. They will reconvene after the session has concluded late Monday night. The likelihood that they will get to this bill in the morning session is slim to none. Therefore, the bill won't come before the committee until late Monday night or early Tuesday morning. Nobody except paid lobbyists will likely be in attendance in order to testify. Odds are, the only testimony will be from the lobbyists from the school boards and the government entities that stand to gain from hiding their dirty little secrets from the public eye. Make sure the legislative aides of the members of the committee hear from you and make sure they know that we do not want it to pass. You and I cannot afford to give up our jobs to wait around all night to testify, lobbyists don't have to, but we can "testify" through their legislative aides. I encourage you to do so.

State Affairs Committee:

Rep. Dan Flynn Dist 2
512-463-080
Ashlei Leck
ashlei.leck@house.state.tx.us

Rep. Byron Cook Dist 8
512-463-0730
Beckey Moseley
beckey.moseley@house.state.tx.us

Rep. Wayne Christian Dist 9
512-463-0556
David White
david.white@house.state.tx.us

Rep. Tan Parker Dist 63
512-463-0688
Richard Dennis
richard.dennis@house.state.tx.us

Rep. Ken Paxton Dist. 70 (Vice Chairman)
512-463-0356
Allison Slayton
allison.slayton@house.state.tx.us

Rep. Marc Veasey Dist. 95
512-463-0716
Richard McPike
richard.mcpike@house.state.tx.us

Rep. Jessica Farrar Dist. 148
512-463-0620
Isaiah Warner
isaiah.warner@house.state.tx.us

Rep. David Swinford Dist. 87 (Chairman)
512-463-0470
Allison Scott
allison.scott@house.state.tx.us

Rep. Corbin Van Arsdale Dist. 130 (Budget & Oversight Chair)
512-463-0661
Corbin.Van_Arsdale@house.state.tx.us

Apparently the Dallas Morning News agrees that there is something fishy going on.

Comment Moderation is now on

I'm sorry I had to do this, I would have preferred not to, but I had no real choice. I had one commenter that was apparently an escapee from that asylum known as Daily Kos or may be it was DU, judging from the flavor of her rants and sarcasm. She was asked to behave and chose not to, she is now banned, but unfortunately due to the way Blogger works, I cannot ban a specific individual automatically, therefore comment moderation was the only alternative.

I'm sorry I had to tighten things up a bit, but when it comes to MY blog, it is a benign dictatorship. You can argue the rightness of my rule, but you may not become abusive to me, banishment is the sentence. Commenters have no first amendment right here because I am not the government, I control the horizontal, I control the vertical. =D Some people forget their manners when they post on blogs...

Narco-Terrorism, Money, and the Political Process.

Many people have asked "What in hell has gotten into our political leaders? Why are they rolling over on illegal immigration when the electorate is so clearly against it? I have a theory, let me explain.

In Politics, money is the lifeblood. You can have the best ideas in the world, but unless you have the money to invest in campaigning to win, you might as well just stay home. Special interest/lobbying groups raise such money and donate it to candidates in order to garner influence. It isn't technically a bribe, but let's not kid ourselves either, they are buying influence. I believe that the Narco-Terrorists have caught a clue and have invested heavily, using intermediaries, in groups that have their own agenda as to why illegal immigration should be allowed to flourish, in order to halt border enforcement so that their drug trafficking operations continue to remain ultra-profitable. Groups like MeChA, LULAC are obvious targets for these investments, but there are others, like the Texas Association of Businesses, purportedly a conservative group, have also succumbed to the siren song of cheap labor and lots of money to convince politicians to keep it coming.

And let's face it, Narco-Terrorism pays a heluva lot better than most any other industry out there, even the sex biz. But then again they are in that business too. and they gotta spend their money on something, might as well buy themselves some politicians. After all, it worked so well in south and central America. They have had quite a bit of experience in buying influence down there.

Next time some Republican From Dumas (or should that be Dumb Ass?) insists that the border fence cannot be built, you might want to track the money he's getting back to the source. I think you might be surprised as to where it REALLY comes from (he probably would be too!).

¿Dónde está Fidel?

¡Fidel es muerto! ¡Desea Fidel vivo!

Bias in the media: Volume #3257891 UPDATED

The following was filmed on April 28, 2007 at Mason Park where the US Border Watch was holding an anti-immigration rally. The camera crew was from KPRC Channel 2.

Make sure and let KPRC know what you think of this.





UPDATE:
Reportedly, the videographer has been "disciplined", but just what sort of discipline he has received is a mystery. I have tried to contact Skip Valet, the news director of KPRC for an answer as to whether the videographer is still in the employ of KPRC but I was directed to a voice mailbox when I told the person answering the news desk phone that I wished to speak to him concerning the incident. We'll see if I get a response.

TAB opposes concealed carry, they need to be educated.

The Texas Association of Business is against the lifting of CHL carry bans, especially bans in the workplace. But the workplace is one of the most likely places where CHL is needed. One of the worst massacres in history of this sort prior to the Va Tech shooting was the 1991 Killeen Luby's attack that killed 24 people including Dr Gratia-Hupp's Parents. That was a private business. So was the mall in Utah where the Bosnian teenager started his rampage before being stopped by a off-duty policeman who was violating the mall's policy on concealed carry. He only managed to kill 5 before being stopped, but he had come with enough ammo to kill many many more.

One reason they are against this is they are afraid of lawsuits arising from shootings. Well, I have a simple solution: Lawsuit immunity for the lawful actions of a CHL holder in their employ.

Now, I'm not quite prepared to suggest that courtrooms and bars should be part of the lifting of the ban. Like Jerry Patterson said, drunk people tend to have impaired aim. But on the flip side, the CHL laws require that holders have a maximum of 0.05BAL, so being drunk and carrying, even if the person never draws the weapon, is a violation of the law and the person is subject to arrest and license revocation, and CHL holders tend to be law abiding and most don't want their license and gun taken away and a good gun is not cheap and felons can't own weapons legally. So it is entirely reasonable to think that people with CHL's could go to a bar to meet with someone, or to work, or to shoot a game of pool or darts, or even nurse a single lite beer, without problems, so that restriction could be questionable.

But courthouses are extremely emotionally charged places. People have been known to do some pretty crazy things, especially in cases of rape or murder where the defendant might be sentenced to less than the victim or the victim's family feel is deserved. So I can see the reasoning for restricting CHL's in courthouses.

The first step in starting a grassfire, is striking the match...

The match has been struck...

Can you say "One Little Victory" (audio warning)?