After hearing earlier today that some folks were going to get together and show their support for Tom DeLay by welcoming him back home to the district, LST checked in with our sources and was reassurred that the party doors were wide open to regular old nobodies like you and me, and not just the alligator-skin cowboy boot wearing fat-cat insider donor-cronies with the blood of small children who survived Hurrican Katrina only to be kidnapped from the Astrodome and sacrificed as part of a secret TRMPAC fundraising ceremony dripping from their chins, as is usually the case with these types of events.

Date: Today, Friday, September 30, 2005
Time: 4:00 pm CDT
Location: The Hess Club
5430 Westheimer Road
Houston, Texas 77056
Between Chimney Rock and Sage (Mapquest)

The LoneStarTimes.com All Volunteer Texas Rangers Brigade will be providing security.

You can bet that representatives of the national mainstream media will be there in abundance, looking for any way possible to skew the story. Now is your chance to head down there in person and– metaphorically, of course –kick ‘em in the teeth.

Never one to lose touch with the common man, Congressman Tom DeLay poses at an earlier meet-n-greet with LST reader "dgribY2K@hotmail.com"

Here’s something you don’t see everyday.

No sex. That’s part of a sentence imposed on a 17-year-old girl by Texas state district judge Lauri Blake.

She’s ordered the young drug offender not have sex as long as she is living with her parents and attending school, as a condition of her probation.

It is one of several unorthodox rulings Judge Lauri Blake has imposed since she was elected 10 months ago in the district court that covers Fannin and Grayson counties.

She has also prohibited tattoos, body piercings, earrings and clothing "associated with the drug culture" for those on probation.

Good for the judge, though it’s unfortunate that she’s having to do things the parents should’ve done all along. Wait, there’s more:

Lawyers are also subject to her rulings. Blake has told female attorneys not to wear sleeveless shirts or show cleavage in her courtroom.

Forget everything I just said. This judge is a heartless monster whose warped perception of justice threatens the well-being of the state. She must be stopped.

Dr. Whited expresses dismay that the Chron.com sports page…

… has adopted those annoying full-screen ads that hijack a browser for a few seconds before allowing a user to see content.

I hope this advertising strategy is not permanent. I think it’s a mistake for interactive media to annoy its users. [Emphasis added by LST]

Expect your hopes to be dashed, dear professor.

For if there is but one conclusion that can be drawn from the refusal of decision-makers down at 801 Texas Ave to remedy the liberal bias of their editorial pages it is this– the Houston Chronicle is willing to annoy its readers year after year after year.

SIDE-NOTE: Lately, I’ve had the chance to actually meet, on a casual basis, a number of front-line reporters and writers for the Chronicle, and universally found them to be thoughtful, decent, pleasant and hardworking people. So the problem isn’t everyone in the building– it is something institutional, and likely rests on the shoulders of a few individuals.

Be sure to find a a moment today to go read David Gelernter’s op-ed in the Los Angeles Times, which contains more genuine insight into the cultural currents sweeping America than you will get in the course of a four-year liberal arts undergraduate degree.

Apparently not:

Rodney King, whose videotaped beating by Los Angeles police led to deadly riots in 1992, was arrested after he allegedly threatened his daughter and ex-girlfriend, police said.

King, 40, was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of making criminal threats. He was being held on $25,000 bail.

Here’s he kicker:

He was accused of threatening to kill his 23-year-old daughter, Candace, and her mother, Carmen Simpson, after the two got in a fight with King’s current girlfriend, Dawn Jean. All three women live in King’s home. [Emphasis added by LST]

And thus another reminder, this Friday morning, that some people lead very different lives than you and I.

Well, by and large folks seem to have comported themselves reasonably well under the new "comments directly under the post" system, so I feel comfortable moving forward with the next stage in LST-bloggy freedom– a daily, open comments thread.

Feel free to hang out here all day long, sharing your thoughts with other LST readers. Be advised that we reserve the right to capriciously and brutally censor anything that appears here, for any reason.

In fact, I may occasionally go in and delete a comment for no reason whatsoever just to keep folks off balance, and thus wary of revolt.

A couple of ground rules and guidelines:

• Do not feed the trolls.
• Comments that appear on LST should be assumed to represent only the opinions of the person leaving the comment. "Moderation" of comments on LST occurs "after the fact" and on an ad hoc basis– in other words when and if we get around to it.
• We will try to delete anything obscene, offensive, defamatory or libelous as quickly as possible, but don’t assume that just because a comment appears on the site it has been reviewed by an LST staffer.
• Please feel free to alert us at lsteditors@gmail.com if you think a comment is inappropriate, or a user needs to be asked to leave against their will.
• Open comment threads are the "intellectual bathhouses" of the Internet– don’t go wandering around inside if you aren’t willing to at least risk seeing something nasty.
• Long-time LST reader and participant "Squawkbox" has been empowered to delete inappropriate comments and banish uncooperative users as he sees fit. I suggest everyone start being very nice to him.
• Now that you have space to "play" in, please keep the comments made on other posts focused directly on the subject of that post.
• If LST were a movie, it would be rated "PG-16". Not exactly for kids, but not Sundance Film Festival material either. Blatant obscenity won’t be tolerated at all; if you feel you must add a little "salt", have the freakin decency to tweak it a bit, or your arse is grarse.
• Zero-tolerance for racism, or even anything that I suspect is motivated by ethnic animus. If you have to wonder if an opinion you want to express crosses the line, assume that it does.
• Dissenting opinions are welcome; disagreeable people are not.
• POSTING A COMMENT IN ALL CAPS IS A SURE-FIRE WAY TO GET BANNED FROM THE SITE.
• Don’t link to anything that wouldn’t be appropriate for actual posting on LST.
• For that matter, keep the links in comments real, real rare. If you have so many things that you just have to share with the world by linking to them, perhaps that is a sign that you need to go out and start your own blog.
• People pushing an agenda too frequently, whether political or personal, will be uninvited. You know who you are.
• Like Ronald Reagan, I’m paying for this microphone– so feel free to disagree with us and express your opinion passionately, but don’t expect me to allow you to bash, harass, or attempt to embarrass or harm either myself, other LST contributors, Dan, Edd, KSEV, or our advertisers.

And finally, always keep the LGF Prayer foremost in your mind:

Oh lord, grant me the serenity to ignore the trolls, the courage to debate with honest opponents, and the wisdom to know the difference.

Amen.

While New Orleans residents worked to get the Big Easy back up and running, Reuters went to the coonass man on the street:

"If they don’t get these businesses going again, the city ain’t going to have any money," said Art Depodesta, part owner of the restaurant and bar Cooter Brown’s. "I want to be the first to open in Uptown."

Workers busily scrubbed everything with bleach and Depodesta said he tossed away about $10,000 worth of rotten food.

"It was nasty. The oyster cooler, well, the dead bodies I saw got nothing on that oyster cooler," he said. "The time for all the ‘woe, woe, woe is me’ business is over. It’s time to get going."

New Orleans is going to be just fine.

Take down the roadblocks and call off the bloodhounds. James T. Campbell, the missing Chronicle reader representative, is alive and well. Yesterday, the following exchange ensued on Campbell’s blog, About:Chron:

Now that the hurricane is essentially over as a Houston story, do you think we could get Cohen’s answers?

Posted by: Matt Bramanti at September 28, 2005 09:46 AM

Yes, before week’s end.

Posted by: James Campbell at September 28, 2005 09:52 AM

That’s a relief.

OK, not exactly true, but we just couldn’t resist the headline.

Dr. Whited properly notes that every major metro daily newspaper in Texas (scroll to end of post) managed to offer editorial comment this morning on the indictment of Tom DeLay– except the Houston Chronicle, the one paper that supposedly "serves" the Congressman’s constituents.

Forget liberal bias… that’s just bad newspapering.

Check out the last line in this story — it’s a doozy:

The police department has launched an investigation into whether officers participated in the giant looting spree that overtook the city after Hurricane Katrina, a spokesman said Thursday.

News reports in the aftermath of the storm put officers at the scene of some of the heaviest looting, the Wal-Mart in the Lower Garden District. Some witnesses — including a Times-Picayune reporter — said police were taking items from shelves.

“Out of 1,750 officers, we’re looking into the possibility that maybe 12 officers were involved in misconduct,” police spokesman Marlon Defillo said.

He rejected the use of the term “looting,” but said authorities were investigating “the possibility of appropriation of non-essential items during the height of Katrina, from businesses.”

I’ll have to remember that. “Your honor, my client wasn’t looting! He was merely appropriating non-essential items from businesses!”

The NOPD has been in bad shape for a long time. I recall reading how back in ‘94 two officers were sent to death row, one for killing someone during a store robbery, and another for murdering a woman who had sworn out a complaint against him. Still, it’s a good thing that Police Chief Eddie “only law enforcement will be allowed to have guns” Compass was forced out. We can only hope that the NOPD will, at long last, start cleaning house.

Want to take the bus? I hope you like waiting nearly an hour for major routes!

The Chronicle had the following "article" in yesterday’s edition:

Catch the bus: Don’t drive yourself broke and crazy fighting traffic and coughing up all that dough for gas — save time and energy, catch a ride

By LOUIS B. PARKS
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle

For years the bus folks — Houston Metropolitan Authority, or Metro — have been trying to reverse declining ridership. Mother Nature and President Bush may have just given them a lift.

On Tuesday, Bush asked American to curb their fuel use to offset shortages left in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

If your previous view of a Metro bus has been from the outside looking in, here’s how to get on board.

The rest of the piece has general information on using Metro. It’s fairly inoffensive stuff, but what I resent is the implication that you can "save time and energy" by using Metro.

Since I’ve been back in Houston due to Hurricane Katrina, I’ve actually started trying to take the bus to school. I live in the Heights, and the number 8 bus runs very close to my apartment, and drops me off near South Texas College of Law. This is actually quite good, because most people don’t have a single bus route that connects their home with their work or school. It’s pretty lucky.

Well it would be, at least, if Metro weren’t incompetent. I used the bus once with no difficulty. It took 45 minutes door to door. This was at least remotely comparable to driving, which takes 30 minutes. I wasn’t saving time — buses virtually never save time — but it was easier and cheaper. Accordingly, the next two times I left to take the bus, I left an hour. Each time I waited about 20-25 minutes, and the bus didn’t come. I walked back to my car and drove.

After that setback, I’ve started leaving an hour and a half, or three times what it takes to drive. Today I got going early in the morning, however, and I decided to leave a little extra time — about 20 minutes. It turned out I needed it. The number 8 bus took over 50 minutes to arrive. Had I not left early, that hour and a half would not have been enough, and I would have been late. What’s more, I’d wager that the number 8 bus sees even greater delays from time to time.

I’m not sure that I can continue taking the bus under these conditions, despite being a prime candidate for public transport (i.e., I have some extra time to spare, and again, the route is perfect for me). If Metro would actually put more buses on the number 8 line, limiting the maximum wait time to around 20 minutes, then the situation would be different. But alas, Metro has invested all its money into a single, stupid light rail line, forcing it to neglect bus service.

The Chronicle thinks the bus will save you "time and energy?" Why don’t THEY try taking the bus now and then, hmmm?

LST reader and commenter Gregg sent this one along. These guys look like trouble. Fun trouble.

We got back into town day before yesterday and everyone is okay. My family evacuated earlyWednesday morning with no problems. I, however, left Thursday morning and only 32 hours later finally made it to my east Texas destination.

I’ll be recounting the ordeal in detail as soon as I can get the time to do so. Hope everyone made it through safely.

-Matt

Matt Forge Toon Archives

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The folks at NASA have taken their share of lumps here at Lone Star Times, with questions about the Agency’s direction and effectiveness receiving hard scrutiny. Apparently NASA’s top man shares some of those reservations. USA Today has the scoop:

In a meeting with USA TODAY’s editorial board, Griffin said NASA lost its way in the 1970s, when the agency ended the Apollo moon missions in favor of developing the shuttle and space station, which can only orbit Earth.

“It is now commonly accepted that was not the right path,” Griffin said. “We are now trying to change the path while doing as little damage as we can.”

Mr. Griffin is no intellectual slouch. A look at his bio reveals quite an impressive resume of business and educational accomplishments. It is also refreshing to hear an admission that spending billions on the shuttle to move satellites around and risk crews may not have been the best use of public money. The folks at USA Today aren’t quite done though:

Griffin has made clear in previous statements that he regards the shuttle and space station as misguided. He told the Senate earlier this year that the shuttle was “deeply flawed” and that the space station was not worth “the expense, the risk and the difficulty” of flying humans to space.

But since he became NASA administrator, Griffin hasn’t been so blunt about the two programs.

Asked Tuesday whether the shuttle had been a mistake, Griffin said, “My opinion is that it was. … It was a design which was extremely aggressive and just barely possible.” Asked whether the space station had been a mistake, he said, “Had the decision been mine, we would not have built the space station we’re building in the orbit we’re building it in.”

At this point Mr. Griffin probably deserves the benefit of the doubt. He has only been on the job since April and undoing years of bureaucratic lethargy at NASA is not something that will happen overnight. The comments reported here, along with the critical return-to-flight-report, seem to show a willingness to honestly assess what has been done, which is exactly what the space agency needs to break out of its current stagnant condition. Expectations are high with proposals to go back to the moon and Mars while phasing out the shuttle program. Is Mr. Griffin up to the challenge of getting NASA in gear, shepherding your tax dollars, and getting results? The nation is watching.

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