Heaven knows that we at LST rip on the Chronicle now and then, but we also like to point out when they get something right, and this is one of those times.

In a business piece about oil company profits, our beloved hometown rag provided a pretty good balance:

Exxon Mobil Corp. alone rang up a $9.9 billion profit. Whether Exxon and its competitors will be able to persuade the public their earnings aren’t really so huge remains to be seen.

"You make nearly $10 billion in a quarter, and you’re making more than number of Fortune 500 companies put together," noted Ed Rothschild, a longtime energy industry critic in Washington.

The story then turns to Exxon Mobil’s point:

For their part, the oil companies have been trying to make the case their earnings aren’t out of line.

Exxon Mobil has taken out ads in major daily newspapers comparing oil and gas company earnings with other sectors. An ad headline "Oil and Apples," features a chart that shows pharmaceutical companies, banks, software firms and tobacco giants all earning more pennies on the dollar than energy companies.

The ad shows energy companies earning 7.7 cents per dollar of revenue, and Exxon Mobil 8.6 cents, versus 7.9 cents for U.S. industry overall. With "a true ‘apples to apples’ evaluation — you see that oil earnings are not out of step with other major industries," the ad reads.

How about that?

DallasBlog is reporting these as the new poll numbers in the gubernatorial race. Perry is predictably weak, and it would appear that Friedman is largely taking away Democratic votes.

In any event, I don’t quite understand Friedman’s appeal. He hasn’t expressed any clear agenda, and while he now says he won’t raise taxes, he simulaneously complains about inadequate spending. He proposes legalizing casino gambling in Texas to raise funds, but he’s unlikely to get that accomplished. In any event, I doubt his supporters realize that gambling is essentially the centerpiece of his fiscal policy.

Bell is even worse, of course. He’s a petulant little brat who lost his Congressional district, and started attacking Tom DeLay as revenge. He’s too liberal for Texas, but that won’t prevent him from doing what he did in previous campaigns — lie to make it appear that he isn’t a mainstream liberal Democrat. Of course now he has a voting record to point to, which will hopefully be emphasized by the Perry camp.

And then there’s Perry. He’s generally unpopular, even among Republicans. That seems a tad strange to me as well, given how Perry displayed serious backbone when he managed to avoid massive tax increases, and actually cut spending in many areas. He’s never gotten enough credit for that.

Remember that pesky First Amendment? It’s understandable if you’ve forgotton. Here’s my favorite part:

Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press

Unfortunately, pesky things like the Constitution didn’t stop the House from…well, making a law abridging the freedom of speech:

The House voted 225-182 for a bill that would have excluded blogs, e-mails and other Internet communications from regulation by the Federal Election Commission. That was 47 votes short of the two-thirds majority needed under a procedure that limited debate time and allowed no amendments.

The vote in effect clears the way for the FEC to move ahead with court-mandated rule-making to govern political speech and campaign spending on the Internet.

At least we’ve got a Texan on our side — Rep. Jeb Hensarling, who represents part of the D-FW metroplex:

"The newest battlefield in the fight to protect the First Amendment is the Internet," he said. "The Internet is the new town square, and campaign finance regulations are not appropriate there."

Without his legislation, Hensarling said, "I fear that bloggers one day could be fined for improperly linking to a campaign Web site, or merely forwarding a candidate’s press release to an e-mail list."

The bill is HR 1601. Make sure to include that bill number on your placards when you descend on Washington in a marauding horn. Also, the phrase "Keep your filthy hooves off LoneStarTimes.com!" would be good. Make sure the cameras see it. 

This one pegged my Hypocritical-Scumbag-O-Meter:

I don’t own a single share of stock!" filmmaker Michael Moore proudly proclaimed.

He’s right. He doesn’t own a single share. He owns tens of thousands of shares – including nearly 2,000 shares of Boeing, nearly 1,000 of Sonoco, more than 4,000 of Best Foods, more than 3,000 of Eli Lilly, more than 8,000 of Bank One and more than 2,000 of Halliburton, the company most vilified by Moore in "Fahrenheit 9/11."

Silly me. I thought he invested all his money in Twinkies.

[Hat-tip: Relapsed Catholic]

Hey there, Mr. and Mrs. LST Reader and Parent of Impressionable Children! Would you have a problem if an agent of local government mandated that your first-grader take a psychological quiz to find out about his sexual activities? Tough!

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has issued its latest in a long series of disturbing rulings, saying that parents have no right to keep public schools from discussing masturbation with six-year-olds:

Parents’ rights were not violated when a Southern California elementary school conducted a psychological survey of their children and asked them about sexual feelings and masturbation, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday.

"Parents have a right to inform their children when and as they wish on the subject of sex,” said Judge Stephen Reinhardt in the 3-0 ruling. "They have no constitutional right, however, to prevent a public school from providing its students with whatever information it wishes to provide, sexual or otherwise.”

I’ll leave it to LST’s resident legal eagles to dissect the legal ramifications of this case, but it doesn’t look good. The list of Catholic schools’ advantages over government schools gets longer and longer every day.

[Hat-tip: The Everlasting Phelps]

I just can’t resist a story containing the words "wall of fake breasts":

A Dutch designer has created a wall of fake breasts to help male shoppers buy bras that fit their wives or girlfriends.

Wendy Rameckers works at the Piet Zwart Institute for Retail and Design in Rotterdam, reports Het Nieuwsblad.

"Most men have a selective memory," she explained. "They know all about their car, but never seem to know their wife’s bra size.

"When trying to buy a sexy bra for their wife or girlfriend, usually they point to other women in the shop or, when asked about size, they say a ‘handful’."

The wall consists of rows of silicon breasts in all sizes. By look and touch, male shoppers can work out the right size, she says.

Huh huh. Huh huh huh.

What is going on today?

Comments are open!

At the request of Edd Hendee, a re-post of the findings from our investigation earlier this year.

ORIGINALLY POSTED 3/30/05

A LoneStarTimes.com investigation has exposed concerted efforts last year by two senior officials of the Friendswood Independent School District to maximize district revenues and increase the property tax burden of Friendswood homeowners by manipulating the appraisal process, issuing legal threats, and deploying unprecedented pressure on the Galveston County Appraisal District.

The FISD officials in question are Superintendent Patricia "Trish" Hanks and Tax Assessor/Collector Becky Carbone.

In late February of this year, LST made an open-records request to both FISD and GCAD asking for any and all communication between the two entities for the dates 5/1 - 6/30, 2004. Documents subsequently reviewed by LST staff reveal a series of disturbing actions by FISD’s Hanks and Carbone.

According to a 6/9/04 memo written by Deputy Appraiser Mitch McCullough to GCAD’s Chief Appraiser Ken Wright, in early April 2004 FISD’s Carbone intervened in GCAD’s preliminary and ongoing appraisal process by supplying MLS home sale information she had collected and compiled on her own. A source close to the matter who asked to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of his position, tells LST:

"I don’t know if FISD ‘cherry-picked’ their data, but their intent was clearly to increase appraisals. Obviously, they are only going to present information that advances their position."

Carbone’s manipulation of GCAD’s sales ratio reports resulted in…

"… an increase in value to six neighborhoods."

… according to McCollough’s memo.

In a subsequent phone interview with LST, GCAD’s Wright indicated that the neighborhoods where property tax burdens increased as a result of Carbone’s actions were Castle Park, Regency Estates, Regency Estates Section Four, Sun Meadow, Carmel Village, and The Forest Section Seven.

On May 14th, FISD was informed by GCAD of their updated preliminary valuations for 2004. Still not content with the substantial increase in revenue they were set to receive, FISD’s Hanks and Carbone insisted on what our source described as an "unprecedented" face-to-face meeting between themselves, several FISD board members, and Chief Appraiser Wright, to be held 5/27/04.

The evening before this meeting was set to occur, FISD’s board of directors, at the request of Hanks and Carbone, unanimously authorized a "challenge petition" of Wright’s appraisals to the State Comptroller’s Office if necessary.

Although allowed under Texas’ Property Tax Code, such formal challenges being made to state-level authorities reflect poorly on county appraisers, and according to LST’s source:

"It’s safe to assume that by authorizing this protest on the eve of their meeting with GCAD, FISD was hoping to intimidate Wright and get him to ‘play ball’."

Sources confirm that the meeting was held on May 27th. Hand-written notes on a related memo indicate that in addition to Hanks and Carbone, the three FISD board members in attendance were Mike Shaw, Rev. Hobrascht and John Ring.

In response to the meeting, GCAD’s Wright sent FISD’s Hanks a letter, the full text of which follows (Note: Emphasis in bold added by LST; to see/print a copy of the actual letter, CLICK HERE):

June 16, 2004

Ms. Patricia Hanks, Superintendent
Friendswood Independent School District
302 Laurel Drive
Friendswood, Texas 77546

Dear Ms. Hanks:

After meeting with you, your tax assessor-collector, and several members of your Board of Trustees, I discussed your concerns about the level of appraisals for several of your neighborhoods with my appraisal staff. The additional information (sales) provided by your tax collector was evaluated and entered into our mass appraisal database. This changed our opinion of value on some properties. Some neighborhoods’ values were not changed because my appraisal staff determined that the level of information would not allow the CAD’s opinion of value to prevail. The CAD is held to a high level of accuracy before our Appraisal Review Board. The burden of proof in those hearings is on the CAD.

I briefed my staff on the importance of value increases to our taxing entities and emphasized the significance of every taxpayer’s hearing. While it is always wise to pay close attention to our property owners’ concerns, it is also important to keep the needs of our taxing jurisdiction in mind.

As you pointed out in our meeting, Friendswood ISD has historically counted on a 7-11% increase in value. The past three years bear this out with a 9% average increase during this time period. It appears that 2004 will fall a little short of that expectation after all efforts have been exerted to find additional value for your district. I personally know that Friendswood ISD with its student growth needs every penny that it can get, and with changes looming at the legislative level, we are all wondering where it will end up. I am disappointed that we could not meet your expectation with regard to value increases, but assure you and your Board of Trustees that we are making every effort to maintain an equitable and uniform appraisal roll.

Thanks for bringing your concerns to my attention. If I can be of further assistance, please let me know.

Sincerely,

Ken Wright,
Chief Appraiser

To summarize, Wright’s letter contains the following revelations:

• Confirmation that FISD’s manipulation of GCAD’s mass appraisal database with their own home sales data increased property tax burdens in a number of Friendswood neighborhoods;
• Indications that much of the data FISD attempted to feed into the appraisal process was of such poor quality and questionable accuracy that GCAD dismissed it in its entirety;
• Because of FISD’s pressure, appraisal district staff were encouraged to minimize the concerns of homeowners protesting their appraisals so that FISD’s revenue could be maximized;
• FISD has enjoyed and appears to "count" on Friendswood homeowners’ property tax burdens increasing at or near the current 10% cap annually, and views any less than that amount as cause to pressure the appraisal district to find more revenue.

————————————-

For those of you who live in Friendswood, don’t forget our enthusiastic endorsement of Deborah Winters Chaney and Kathy Rogers in the upcoming FISD elections.

Politics - The Strangest Show on Earth. Don’t you wish the Republican leadership would use the power we’ve given them?

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