T.R. Fehrenbach writes this commentary in the San Antonio Express News. This guy "Gets It". Some Excerpts:

Lately there’s been a rash of cop-bad guy shootings in the news.

Officers seem to have got four out of six. There were two misses, and those officers probably should be required to take further marksmanship training.

The emphasis of most news stories on this subject, here and elsewhere, is that police should take more care. Get sensitivity sessions on when and where (and who) to shoot or not to shoot. Every time these incidents make the news, various PDs review their practices, issue new instructions and generally make things worse.

First off, let’s face a salient fact: If you allow cops to carry, somebody is going to be shot. (If you don’t allow them to carry, it will invariably be the cop.) There are a lot of crooks and crazies with guns out there. Most policemen are courageous (if not, they shouldn’t take the shield), and faced with run or fight, they’ll fight. When in doubt, it is usually safer to shoot than be sorry. Any lawman worth his salt will obey the dictum: Better to be judged by 12 than carried by six.

I think the emphasis upon cop shootings (that is, shootings by cops) is all wrong. It should not be on the shooter but the guys getting shot. Usually a little investigation shows that these are felonious, intemperate, stupid or impolite, even when not armed. Most are not really worth the powder and lead to blow them up.

 (deletia)

I would be enraged if I were in authority and told a man to "freeze," and he thumbed his nose figuratively by leaving the scene. I fully understand why cops who’ve chased a suspect for miles, tying up tons of law enforcement and wasting gas, feel like beating him up when they catch him. Frankly, however, police need better training to learn not to do it with a potential picture-taker within five miles.

Lawyers have fixed it so that it’s hazardous for police to shoot anyone, especially on the run. The argument is that shooting inflicts the death penalty for lesser crimes. I agree that this argument is valid. The solution would be to make fleeing from law officers a capital crime.

This guys needs to run for office if you ask me….

This just in from Texas Railroad Commissioner Michael Williams:

For the second year in a row "Site Selection" magazine has ranked Texas as the number one state in the union for business creation. With 842 expanding or new facilities Texas far outpaced all other states. The state’s business friendly tax climate also puts the state among the leaders according to a new study by the Tax Foundation [PDF file].

Texas would have finished even higher than seventh overall but for the state’s heavy reliance on property taxes which will be resolved when Governor Perry calls the legislature back into special session.

Let’s hope the commissioner’s crystal ball is not on the blink. Personally, I never tend to expect much from a lame duck session, especially with legislators who have worked so hard in the past to disappoint the electorate.

Everyone laughed when the "progressive" minded Massachusetts legislature recently introduced a bill requiring citizens to register and license all machetes. These savage, uncivilized weapons are now allowed "solely for the purposes of cutting vegetation." Machete owners across the Bay State will have to find other tools for hacking up annoying neighbors, as this act is now expressly forbidden.

After last night, perhaps Texans should be expecting similar measures, as the Houston machete murder rate rose dramatically in one weekend. (That’s an unconfirmed claim, but I’m pretty sure we didn’t have a single machete-related killing in the preceding year or two.) Citizens across the state will soon be rising up to demand our own lawmakers do something about this horrible, violent trend. Machete control cannot help but lead to a safer, more peaceful society for all.

Machete owners beware!

The Pew Hispanic Center (source is a pdf file) has released a report that there is an estimated 11.5 million illegal immigrants in the United States today.

Analysis of the March 2005 Current Population Survey shows that there were 11.1 million unauthorized in the United States a year ago. Based on analysis of other data sources that offer indications of the pace of growth in the foreign-born population, the Center developed an estimate of 11.5 to 12 million for the unauthorized population as of March 2006.

National origins, family characteristics and labor force characteristics are a few of the statistics compared in the report. Take a wild guess which country supplies the United States with the most illegals.

Most unauthorized migrants come from Mexico. There were 6.2 million unauthorized migrants from Mexico in 2005, or 56% of the total (11.1 million), according to the CPS-based estimates .

So what is the government doing to resolve this problem?  This Christian Science Monitor commentary may provide some insght into what is in the pipeline.

The Republican Party is divided on how to deal with the issue, making a resolution even less likely. Democrats are also divided, but they can just sit back and watch the fuss.

Since the feds are unwilling to stem the flow of illegals (which is their responsibility) I can only hope that the border states are willing to find a way to turn off the faucet.

Last week Gov. Perry testified before a Senate Appropriations committee demanding $2 billion for "KatrinaRita" federal Aid.  Here is the response he got from (R) Sen. Kit Bond, Missouri, the chairman of the subcommittee.

(stltoday.com) Texas "took in displaced families who received benefits, fill empty housing and take on important jobs. And that should be part of the calculus, assuming the federal government should pay for the good works of the citizens of Texas," said Bond, R-Mo.

"I think it’s time we get back to being a good neighbor and not a paid companion, if that is strictly charity," he said in a hearing of the full Senate Appropriations Committee

(snip)

"I understand the state of Texas is seeking additional CDBG funds based on costs associated with taking on 400,000 or more displaced families. I know there are costs and burdens, but I need to be convinced that they should be compensated," Bond said.

All Texas did was provide housing, stretch the resources of city services such as police and ambulance service, provide emergency medical help, make space in over crowded schools and hire more teachers for an estimated 400,000 New Orleans refugees.  This in addition to caring for our own in Southeast Texas that were devastated by Rita.  Remember Rita the forgotten hurricane?  Nawww we don’t need no stinking help from the federal government.  Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson was, shall we say, just a touch upset.

"I supported wholeheartedly when Missouri asked for hundreds of millions of dollars after the flooding of the Mississippi River. I have supported the victims of California earthquakes and the victims of 9/11 in New York," said Hutchison, a committee member.

"To all of a sudden take Texas out of the mix because we did not get Katrina, but we have half a million in population that we are providing health care, education and housing for is — in my opinion, it’s beyond unfair and it is not the spirit of America, nor is it the spirit of Congress," she said.

From what I have read, the Feds still owe Texas for damages caused by Tropical Storm Allison.  I suspect we won’t see any money from the Feds for "KatrinaRita" either.

Be sure to email Kit and tell him thanks for his consideration.

And to start your day, news from the 48th Annual Sweetwater Jaycees Rattlesnake Roundup.

Total pounds of snakes caught: 13,542,
Longest snake caught: 6 feet 8 inches (1 inch shy of a record)
Total pounds of rattlesnakes caught in 48 years: 284,152

Hat Tip: An old trucker I know “Crazy Lazy Red”