In a display of Heavenly generosity unparalleled since the Israelites wandered Sinai subsisting only on manna, God Almighty himself has seen fit to open up the sky above Montgomery County Texas and pour nearly $10 million dollars into government coffers for local commissioners to spend on a bunch of new stuff that is completely FREE and costs taxpayers nothing and you have nothing to complain about at all!!!

[Hat-tip: Houston Chronicle, 7/30/05]

County commissioners have proposed a $131 million budget and a proposed tax rate of .4963 cents per $100 assessed value, the same as the current tax rate.

The proposal is about $10 million more than the current budget year, which ends Sept. 30. It includes money to staff a new jail wing and three new libraries and to fund county employee pay raises.

Gosh, you say, this almost sounds too good to be true… do I have to go down and vote or maybe express my opinion or exercise my rights as a citizen to get all this free stuff?

With the tax rate remaining the same, a public hearing will not be necessary.

Great! Gimmie my free stuff!

Read more

One of the biggest “news” gaps has been in the reporting from Iraq, which has been dismal at best.  The answer to “what is really going on” has no real easy way to find answers.  Sorting out the information that is reported and figuring out the truth, from what “filters” the Mainstream Media (MSM™) utilizes to prejudice or slant the reports in order to fit their world view, has never been more difficult. But at least we know that such a problem exists. 

A great example of this situation was the interview Edd Hendee conducted earlier this year with a nitwit from U.S. News and World Report.  Edd, in a fine example of cross-examination, got the guy to admit that he was not even in Iraq during the historical elections of January.  Edd then laid on him the fact that he (Edd) was not only in the country, but spent the day in the back of a Humvee with American Soldiers, monitoring the situation.  (By the way, this was done at no small peril to Edd’s life.)  In a fine example of “staying on point” the Nitwit continued on his message of being some sort of “expert” of how worldwide terrorism is not being stopped.  He did not even ask Edd one question about the events of that day.  NOT ONE.  (And the MSM™ says George Bush doesn’t exhibit intellectual curiosity!)

Fortunately for us, we have alternate media such as KSEV, and brave citizens such as Edd Hendee.  We also have the Internet to augment what the MSM™ does choose to tell us. 

One of the finest examples citizen reporting is Michael Yon. Michael is a former special forces Sergeant that has traveled to Iraq on his own dime, and reports on what is going on around him via the internet.  He is a fine writer, articulate, and his background in the military gives him extensive background knowledge on what “rings” right and wrong.  Unlike the MSM™, he doesn’t immediately assume whatever the Military says is a lie. He also understands and appreciates the true bravery and intelligence these soldiers around him exhibit.

For your Sunday reading pleasure, I would like to highlight some recent reports you will not find anywhere else:

• Welcome Aboard:
  Michael’s newest dispatch on how soldiers originating from other countries, are earning U.S. Citizenship through military service.  It is hard to appreciate how much these men are doing, how much danger they face, how much work they complete, and do so with good cheer and good humor for the defense of our country.  One of my favorite quotes is in this dispatch:

Never fear when the Q is here! You’ve seen me in action. You know I’ll get you out. I’m a Mexican, not a Mexican’t!"

These guys deserve a special place in heaven and all they want is U.S. citizenship.  The honor is all ours gentlemen!

• The Devil’s Foyer:
  How will the U.S. and other countries win the War on Terror? Through one captured terrorist at a time.  This is how a captured terrorist led to a weapon’s cache beyond imagination.  It also describes how our soldier’s face almost daily fire and how we go after the perpetrators of such behavior with extreme prejudice. This is fascinating, smart stuff that can only be appreciated by reading the whole thing.  It is a long post; but isn’t that what we complain about the most? That the MSM™ gives us the news in baby bites and doesn’t tell us enough?  Defy the MSM™ and read the whole thing!
• Empty Jars:
  The rest of the story and follow up to The Devil’s Foyer.  Again, please read the whole thing, it is worth you time investment.

For more information on the unit Michael Yon is reporting on, the Stryker Brigade, may I suggest Stryker Brigade News.

I would also like to encourage you to sign up for his mailing list (top of the page, right hand side)  It will notify you when he has posted a new story.  You will find it much more informative, interesting and worthwhile than any Houston Chronicle delivered to your door!

Britain’s high court has ruled that doctors can withhold food and water from patients, against the patients’ wishes:

The General Medical Council (GMC) was appealing against a previous ruling that gave Lesley Burke - who suffers from a degenerative brain condition - the right to insist on nutrition during the final stages of his illness.

Mr Burke, 45, won the original ruling last year and it was hailed as a landmark by groups representing the terminally ill.

But today a panel of three judges headed by Master of the Rolls Lord Phillips set aside the decision.

The appeal judges were told at a hearing in May that the High Court ruling could put doctors in "an impossibly difficult position".

Philip Havers QC, representing the GMC, said the ruling would force doctors to provide the treatment a patient demanded even if the doctor’s view was the treatment would not provide any benefit.

He said a patient did not have the right to demand any particular form of treatment.

With all due respect to Mr. Havers, Lord Phillips and their stupid wigs, I’ve got a simple question for these gentlemen: WHAT THE HELL IS THE MATTER WITH YOU PEOPLE?

Characterizing a hospital’s obligation to feed its patients as "impossibly difficult" is just absurd. It’s not like the guy is demanding a free kidney transplant when his last twelve transplanted kidneys have failed after a few days, and others on the transplant list are dying. The guy is asking for the very bare essentials: food and water.

By the way, here is the British Medical Association’s stance on the Hippocratic Oath: 

Today, the Hippocratic Oath is not generally sworn by medical students upon qualification, since the language of the Oath has become outmoded.

Here’s part of that outmoded language:

I will prescribe regimens for the good of my patients according to my ability and my judgement and never do harm to anyone.

My interview with Rob Kimmons regarding homeland and corporate counter-terror measures has generated off-air calls from people wanting to learn more; you can get in touch with him via their website.

As David Benzion is discussing right now, Steve Emerson of the Counterterrorism Blog doubts the sincerity of the CAIR-endorsed "fatwa" which supposedly condemns terrorism. It turns out the "fatwa’s" issuers have significant ties to global Islamic terrorism.

Emerson writes:

This morning a group of American Islamic leaders held a press conference to announce a fatwa, or Islamic religious ruling, against “terrorism and extremism.” An organization called the Fiqh Council of North America (FCNA) issued the fatwa, and the Council on American - Islamic Relations (CAIR) organized the press conference, stating that several major U.S. Muslim groups endorsed the fatwa.

In fact, the fatwa is bogus. Nowhere does it condemn the Islamic extremism ideology that has spawned Islamic terrorism. It does not renounce nor even acknowledge the existence of an Islamic jihadist culture that has permeated mosques and young Muslims around the world. It does not renounce Jihad let alone admit that it has been used to justify Islamic terrorist acts. It does not condemn by name any Islamic group or leader. In short, it is a fake fatwa designed merely to deceive the American public into believing that these groups are moderate. In fact, officials of both organizations have been directly linked to and associated with Islamic terrorist groups and Islamic extremist organizations. One of them is an unindicted co-conspirator in a current terrorist case; another previous member was a financier to Al-Qaeda.

Read it all.

HCAD is squirming:

Harris County property owners who protest their tax appraisals routinely lose because they face illegal obstacles, a lawsuit filed by a Houston firm that helps people challenge their appraisals contends.

The lawsuit, filed Monday by O’Connor & Associates, alleges that Harris County’s appraisal review board, which weighs protests, does not act independently of the Harris County Appraisal District, which appraises property.

Jim Robinson, Harris County’s chief appraiser, said the lawsuit is without merit and that review panels reduce appraised values in 70 percent to 80 percent of cases brought before them.

The plaintiff argues that the appraisal district has inappropriate influence over the process of challenging appraisals, including controlling the scheduling of hearings, and fails to provide advance copies of its evidence, as required by law.

"Some (appraisal review board) panels ignore the property owner’s evidence of unequal appraisal even under circumstances where the district presents no evidence at all," the lawsuit says.

O’Connor & Associates is seeking a temporary restraining order to prevent protest hearings until it ensures the protection of property owners’ rights.

Full disclosure: While in college, I worked at O’Connor for three summers. (I don’t work there now.) I represented property owners in about 2,500 hearings, and I can attest that the ARB’s actions raise serious doubts about its independence.

The law requires the appraisal district to make all its evidence available to the property owner 14 days before the hearing. Lately, the district has been introducing new evidence — heretofore unseen by the property owner — during the hearings, with no objections by the ARB.

In most cases, ARB members are fair and reasonably impartial. But in many cases, the body effectively serves as an extension of the appraisal district, and that’s just wrong.

Pat O’Connor is a tenacious, smart guy who knows pretty much everything there is to know about tax appraisals. I get the feeling HCAD is running scared on this one.

Wow. The Chronicle managed to write an editorial where they bash American police AND condemn the “shoot-to-kill” policy recently instituted by the London police. If they could just have included something about Tom DeLay, it would have been a leftist trifecta:

The shoot-to-kill policy regarding suspected suicide bombers places at risk the mentally ill, who often overdress for the weather and whose delusions sometimes prevent them from following police instructions. It could be bad news for other innocent commuters who might misunderstand a police directive or panic. London’s ethnic minorities must be particularly uneasy about the protocol.

Balancing anti-terrorism efforts with public safety and civil liberty requires that police undergo frequent drills and that they remain fully accountable to the public. That will help to ensure that English bobbies do not succumb to the “cowboy” mentality that some American police officers have adopted as their credo.

True, having a shoot-to-kill policy poses a greater risk to non-terrorists of getting shot. Yet the only alternative is to let suspected terrorists flee into subway cars, which increases the risk of innocent commuters getting blown up. And with “shoot-to-kill,” the only people at greater risk are either 1) terrorists/criminals, 2) crazy and possibly dangerous, or 3) panicy idiots, or 4) people too dumb to know what “STOP! POLICE!” means. A responsible ethnic minority should definitely not be uneasy about the protocol.

It’s just getting too easy with the Chron. This stupid, knee-jerk liberalism is too ridiculous to really take seriously.

Over at his blog, Houston Stategies, fellow Rice alum and urban development policy wonk Tory Garris posits A hypothesis on the deeper psychology of rail. Personally, I think he tries too hard to place a silver lining on what is, essentially, a very poor investment. However, for those who tire of the doom and gloom that I continually spout in reference to rail transit in Houston, it should be refreshing.

BACKGROUND: Shuttle foam loss linked to EPA regs

Matt Forge Toons Archive

Well, he’s in:

Chris Bell, the former one-term Democratic congressman best known for filing an ethics complaint against House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, will seek the Democratic nomination for governor next year, he announced in an e-mail to supporters today.

“I’m in,” Bell said in the e-mail and on his Web site.

“Over the past half year, I have traveled all over Texas, literally exploring the race for governor. You have indulged me in this process as I sought the answers to some important questions, some personal. . . and some of them public: Can a Texas Democrat win? Are Texas Democrats ready to try something different? Do people see what is happening in Texas the same way that I do?”

The answers?

No, a Texas Democrat cannot win.

No, Texas Democrats aren’t willing to try something different, which is why they’d be willing to vote for a nondescript candidate like Chris Bell.

And lastly, no, people do not see what is happening in Texas the same way a tax-and-spend liberal does.

I don’t like Bell. I particularly recall how, during his failed mayoral campaign, he tried to fool the voting public into believing that he was a conservative Republican. His campaign people were even signing up for awards from Republican websites who were oblivious to the fact that he’s a liberal Democrat. The man simply isn’t honest, which is hardly a breath of fresh air for Austin.

We’ve gotten a letter from somebody defending Governor Romney and maligning Houston:

Mitt Romney was dead on his remarks about Houston. I have lived here 24 years and the development both in the city and outlying areas is atrocious. There is no planning. Only closed communities with severe deed restrictions are safe. Developers continue to locate their strip malls, apartment compexes wherever they want. They (Developers) don’t care about local communities (becuase they don’t have to live in them and only the money matters) or the thousands of acres of forest they are destroying every year in Harris County. The “Truth” really does hurt.

Frank Kade

You know, Frank, if you don’t like Houston, you can always choose to live somewhere else.

Besides, if Houston was really so awful, then it wouldn’t be the case that our population is rapidly increasing, while Massachusetts’s is declining. People prefer freedom to the serfdom what people like Kade and Romney propose. They don’t want the higher cost of living, they don’t want the zoning board breathing down their collective necks, and they don’t want the government taking their home for the newest Stop and Gulp. Central planning of real estate development is inefficient and uneccessary.

And as for the “thousands of acres of forest” destroyed due to development every year, I have two words: WHO CARES. The amount of forest land in the United States has stayed roughly the same since 1920, despite the fact that our population has more than doubled. This is because of more efficient farming techniques which have permitted the reclaimation of farmland by wilderness. We current have more than 2 billion acres of forestland, much of which is owned and protected by the government (the government owns about a third of the total land area in the US). Given all of this, it is simply stupid to whine about the loss of farmland for urban grown on the fringes of Harris County. There is no crisis. Forests are not disappearing en masse.

That’s the truth, and it only hurts those who refuse to accept it.

Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, a Republican (scoff), has been preparing to make a run for the GOP presidential nomination in 2008. He recently came to an epiphany on the issue of abortion, becoming pro-life, and has generally been working hard to cast off his liberal, northeastern credentials.

Don’t be fooled.

Mitt Romney is not a good Republican, or really a nice guy for that matter. When he came to Houston for the Superbowl in 2004, he rewarded our hospitality by going back up to Boston and insulting our fair city. I noted this in an op-ed that ran in the Chronicle shortly afterwards:

Just this February, Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney had the opportunity to visit Houston for Superbowl XXXVIII. Later, in he was quoted in the Boston Globe describing the experience as a “eyeful,” saying that Houston was a negative example of “what happens when you don’t have zoning.”

He then clarified, “We don’t want to see strip mall after strip mall. We want to see lovely town centers and villages.”

Apparently, Romney decided to run with this characterization. In a speech given in Littleton in early April, he again mocked Houston ’s planning policies, noting that during the course of his visit, “I couldn’t find the town center.”

Of course, it should be pretty easy to find Houston’s center. It’s called the central business district; it’s that place with all the buildings. Romney no doubt saw it, but wanted to get in that extra jab against Houston, thereby enhancing his stature with the government-loving denizens of Massachusetts. What class.

So why would Romney insult Houston? Probably because he’s the type of guy who prefers to have government micro-managing urban development. Sure, he claims to have opposed the Supreme Court’s ruling in Kelo, which stated that local governments may use eminent domain transfer property to private developers. However, a law passed under his watch in 2003, Chapter 40Q, that allows local governments in Massachusetts to do just that. What a hypocrite.

This guy isn’t on our side. Don’t trust him.

A couple of weeks back I pointed out that if grievance-groups like CAIR wanted the broad American public to believe their claims that most Muslims truly have no sympathy whatsoever for terrorists, it might behoove them to, you know, actually pay to get that message out the way Jewish groups, and labor groups, and gay groups, and unionized homosexual bagel-baking groups do, rather than simply releasing a public service announcement and then expecting television stations across the country to provide free airtime for it to run.

Now comes this:

The Muslim Community Center is attempting to raise $500,000 for bail for its imam who was convicted earlier this month in the rape of a local girl four years ago. Yusuf Lateef, of the community center, said members believe that Imam Hisham El-Amin, 53, has been falsely accused of raping the daughter of one of the center’s members at various times from June 1, 2000, to Aug. 23, 2001.

El-Amin has been the imam of the Muslim Community Center, 1125 Hamilton St., for at least the last 25 years, members said. A Lucas County Common Pleas Court jury thought differently. El-Amin’s trial ended July with convictions on two counts of rape. [snip] Prosecutors said the jury relied on the believability of the 16-year-old victim, who was 12 when the incidents occurred, to find El-Amin guilty.

[Hat-tip: The Toledo Blade]

First, the obligatory disclaimer– despite a jury finding the guy guilty, I personally don’t know if Imam El-Amin actually raped this girl, lots of priests and rabbis and ministers rape kids too, some of my best friends are religious leaders accused of rape, blah blah blah. And while I wouldn’t want to cast aspersions, it seems odd to me that with sentencing just one week away (August 5th), this community is working so hard to get the guy out of jail.

Let’s hope the Toledo PD has made some recent investments in state-of-the-art electronic ankle-bracelets.

My point is this– according to the New York Times advertising rep I just got off the phone with, a single full-page ad in the (supposedly) most influential paper in the world runs about $150,000 bucks.

Which, by my liberal arts degree math, means that the $500,000 this one Muslim community is attempting to raise could instead be used to pay for three such full pages ads denouncing terrorism, with a cool $50k left over for pita and hummus.

So the LoneStarTimes.com challenge to the Muslim Community Center of Cleveland is simply this:

What matters to you more– rescuing your rape-convicted Imam from jail? Or rescuing the reputation of your religion from the small minority of extremists who have hijacked it through terrorism?

By now you’ve heard the news that the boys and girls at NASA have suspended post-Discovery shuttle flights due to their failure to solve the foam-shedding problem that fatally damaged the Columbia two years ago.

In announcing the suspension of flights yesterday, NASA makes some interesting statements:

"Until we fix this, we’re not ready to go fly again," William W. Parsons, the manager of the shuttle program, said at a news briefing at the Johnson Space Center here on Wednesday evening.

The effort to fix the foam problem had consumed more than two years and hundreds of millions of dollars. NASA identified the area on the tank that shed the latest piece of foam as a risk, but put off redesigning it.

"We decided it was safe to fly as is," Mr. Parsons said. "Obviously, we were wrong."

Your tax dollars at work, folks. NASA dragged its feet on foam-shedding prior to Columbia and seven astronauts paid with their lives. Now they put off working on an area of the Discovery they knew to be a risk and could have killed more people.

N. Wayne Hale, the deputy manager of the shuttle program, said that if the Discovery foam had been shed earlier, "we think that it would have been really bad."

If you were going to risk your life going into space, wouldn’t you want to know that competent people were behind you, minimizing that risk? Wouldn’t you also want it to be for something more meaningful than as an interstellar delivery boy?

"These soldiers say ‘Over There’ is ‘bogus’", courtesy the Seattle Post-Intelligencer: 

A truck tire hits a flagged wire, a roadside bomb explodes, a handsome private with shredded leg screams in agony. In the bloody chaos of the moment, his soldier buddies panic. One pukes.

Stop the cameras! Sir!

"People don’t act like that when an i.e.d. (improvised explosive device) goes off. They make us look like idiots. We’re not idiots!" said a first lieutenant previewing "Over There," the new TV series from Steven Bochco ("NYPD Blue," "Hill Street Blues") that debuts tomorrow night on FX cable network. It’s set in Iraq, hyped as "true to life" by producers and hailed by critics as "unflinching" and "gut-wrenching."

"Bogus" was the preferred adjective among the eight soldiers — most of them Iraq vets — viewing the series pilot last week at Camp Murray, headquarters of the Washington State National Guard in Tacoma.

"Thank God that’s over," said a master sergeant as the credits rolled.

It gets worse– read the whole thing.

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