On Friday, we poked fun at Chron cartoonist Nick Anderson, who’s still trying to sell a print of his Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoon on eBay.
It’s been on the auction block for 72 hours, and nobody wants it.
In an effort to show Nick how the new-media-fundraising game works, Lone Star Times is proud to offer something you’ll definitely want to hang on your living-room wall: the infamous photo of LST honcho David Benzion having his way with an inflatable rhino:
The photo was taken at a CLOUT rally in 2005 that also starred Dan Patrick, Edd Hendee, some goofball in a Darth Vader suit, and Cheryl Johnson (hubba hubba!)
The bidding starts at 99 cents. The auction will end Friday afternoon, so act now! Click here to bid, and prove that a photo of David humping a rhino is objectively more valuable than a liberal Houston Chronicle cartoonist’s chicken-scratchings.
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by LST Staff · 03/31/2008 12:00 am
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…With Affordable Housing and a Good Economy
Seen in an AP story on Yahoo News last Thursday:
“Four Texas metropolitan areas were among the biggest population gainers asAmericans continued their trend of moving to the Sun Belt in 2006 and 2007,according to Census Bureau estimates to be released Thursday. ….
“People are running away from unaffordable housing, from the economic slowdown,” said Karl Eschbach, a state demographer in Texas. “I would expect Texas to stay at the top of a slowing game.” ….
According to figures compiled by Eschbach, 16 percent of Americans who moved to other states between July 2006 and July 2007 came to Texas, which led the nation for the second straight year in that category.”
For more, click here.
The Gang of Five: Tedtam, American Woman, Duhmoose, Hamous, and Raiderdav
Unlike Bigjolly, my registration experience went very smoothly. I am in State Senate District 6 (currently represented by Mario Gallegos), Precinct 207. I was finished with registration in about two minutes. After that, got to spend some time with American Woman, Tedtam, duhmoose, and raiderdav. Bigjolly stopped by on his way to register (sorry things went so bad 
).
Once the meeting was called to order things went pretty smooth and followed the agenda fairly well. Richard Bernhard gave the invocation. Dorothy Olmos led the Pledges of Allegiance. Chairman Larry Bowles made some announcements and the meeting got underway.
A few candidates for various offices in the district were given a few minutes each to speak. Pat Lykos was present but did not speak. There was a roll call of the delegates, report of the temporary rules and credentials committees, report of the committee on permanent organization, election of permanent officers, and appointment of permanent committees by the chair. Then we broke up into congressional districts to pick delegates for the State Convention in June. Each district is allotted a fixed number of delegates based on how many voted in the primary. My congressional district (29) was one of the larger districts and was allotted 31 delegates and 31 alternates. There were also a lot more than 62 people present and your humble contributor was not selected as a delegate to the State convention. Several of the other CDs were given just a few delegates but only a few precinct delegates bothered to show up so they were guaranteed a spot at the state level. At any rate, since I wasn’t going to be a delegate at the state level and wouldn’t be voting on any of the resolutions, the thought of sitting another five hours in a hard chair not big enough for adult butts wasn’t very appealing so I decided not to remain as an observer and made like a banana.
Now for my rant. It was suggested by an LST commenter today that perhaps if we didn’t bother to participate in these events “they” would get the message and maybe things would change. HUH??? I can’t truly express in words how wrong that is. I’ll give a couple of real-world examples from the convention to demonstrate the absurdity of such a recommendation.
First, and these numbers are estimates because there was a lot of commotion around me while they were being read, the chairman gave some statistics. Senate District 6 contains around 170 precincts. Around 65 precincts sent delegates to the convention. Only 38% of the precincts were represented. I was lucky in that my precinct could send three delegates today and only four of us showed up. We are all neighbors so we voted to send three delegates and one alternate. As you will see, some folks are not so lucky. But back to District 6. It gets worse. 250 people committed to attend today’s convention. 112 of those bothered to show up. This is all very disheartening. Several people here at LST have been preaching the mantra that the time to take action is even before the primaries. I truly believe this. I hear many people say, “If you don’t vote, you can’t bitch.” I don’t buy that line of reasoning. But, if you don’t bother to attend your precinct convention (which means you would have to vote in the primary) I think your complaint loses a lot of legitimacy. The state party platform is decided at these events and it all starts at the precinct level. I introduced a resolution that unfortunately was not accepted by the committee. The reason given was that it is already in the platform. That’s not true, since it’s just a suggestion in the platform, but now I think my right to complain should carry a little more weight than the person who didn’t even bother to vote.
The second thing was even more troubling, although it too was related to lack of involvement. During the report of the credentials committee, which basically was to clear up any errors in the delegate seating at the precinct level, there was an objection by the Chair from (I believe) Precinct 3. His name was Conrad McCutcheon. His precinct had elected three delegates but had been allotted seven. Another man, I didn’t get his name, had asked the credentials committee to seat him as a delegate and Mr. McCutcheon was objecting. It was difficult to understand at first. Why would a precinct with seven delegates and only five people at the precinct convention not seat all five? As it turns out, McCutcheon and the other two seated delegates wanted to further only their views at the district convention. They voted as a bloc for each other but would not vote for the other two men. The party rules state that each delegate must receive a majority of votes at the precinct convention to be seated as delegates. Since these two only received two votes each out of five they could not be seated. The other three, however, now go to the district convention with the equivalent of seven delegate votes. By the way, the two guys that were stuck out voted in favor of the other three guys. Once it was all explained it was clear that they had followed parliamentary and party rules but the rest of the delegates made it abundantly clear that we thought these three guys were real jerks for not allowing the other two to be seated. There were many points of inquiry and order until finally the man being left out graciously withdrew his objection and headed out for his daughters birthday party. He had been a Republican since he campaigned for Barry Goldwater in 1964. Even though the moves made were legal I found the whole incident created by McCutcheon, et al to be a very sleazy maneuver. It smacks of what’s wrong with the leadership of the party at the local level. I’m sure these types of tricks are used all over to further personal objectives all the time. I may have agreed completely with McCutcheon’s positions and against the other two guys but they made an effort to join the process and should have been given a chance to have their positions heard.
This brings me back to my original rant. If more people had bothered to attend this precinct convention these three slicksters and their maneuvering could have been shut down. I guarantee this man will bring reinforcements next time. So in two years please make sure to ATTEND YOUR PRECINCT CONVENTION!
It’s 3am when the phone rings…
Hello? Hello? Heh-lo-o?? I can barely hear you.
(H/T to Hamous’ Aunt Sally and Big45Iron) - Better? 
One of America’s finest returned home from Iraq this morning. Sgt. Gregory D. Unruh, nicknamed “Professor” by his platoon, was killed in a vehicle rollover accident during a recon mission in Mandali, Iraq March 19th.
As usual, the Galveston County law enforcement community gave him a heroes welcome. The SE Texas Patriot Guard Riders turned out in large numbers this morning to escort him from Scholes Field in Galveston to the Forest Park Funeral Home in Webster. The procession was over a mile long as we wound our way down the seawall, up I-45 to Hwy 146, through the city of Dickinson on FM 517 and again on I-45 to the funeral home.
Sgt. Unruh did not take the typical route to the military, enlisting when he was 26 and had already graduated from the University of Houston-Clear Lake. He rose quickly to the rank of Sgt. because of his quick mind and leadership ability. He planned to attend law school after the Army.
Each time I attend one of these escorts or funerals, I’m filled with mixed emotions. Watching a grieving family suffer as they see the casket descend from the plane is heartbreaking. Listening to their cries brings tears of sadness to even the hardest of hearts. And yet, looking around at the ordinary Americans that take time out of their daily life to honor the fallen reminds me that there is a bigger picture to life. Seeing ordinary citizens stop what they are doing as we pass by reminds me that our country comes together as one during times of crisis.
As we rode through Dickinson, the volunteer fire department had placed ladder trucks on each side of the road and were flying a huge American flag. Hundreds of people lined the streets in silent honor of the service of Sgt. Unruh. The Dickinson High School ROTC gathered by the side of the road, honoring a true hero. The Faith Lutheran and True Cross Schools lined the streets with their students. Restaurants, grocery stores and office buildings emptied to pay respect. Tears streamed down our faces as we recognized the gratitude of the American people for the sacrifice this young man made.
“We’re extremely proud of him,” Anthony Unruh said of his son’s military service Thursday. “There was nothing he wouldn’t do for us, nor us for him.”
I’m proud too, Mr. Unruh. I’m proud of your son for his service and I’m proud of you for raising such a man. We will forever be in debt to you for your sacrifice. Thank you.
Chronicle cartoonist Nick Anderson, in an attempt to “shore up the finances” of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists, is auctioning off a print of his Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoon, predictably bashing the president.
Let’s see how the bidding is going:
Ouch. Might want to try a lemonade stand, Nick.
Let us suppose a man is married to a woman and as happens, they get into an argument. A neighbor hears the loud voices and calls the police. Somewhere in the chain of events, there is shoving back and forth and an officer happens to witness this. The husband is arrested on felony domestic assault charges which are eventually reduced to a single misdemeanor domestic violence offense. The husband is convinced by his attorney to accept a plea bargain with the DA’s office and he goes home and makes up with his wife.
Two months later, he is on a hunting trip with friends when a game warden decides to inspect their vehicle and runs a customary check on their licenses. The husband is identified as a violator of provisions of the Lautenberg Amendment of 1996 and is taken into custody by federal authorities. All because he had a fight with his wife and is now prohibited from owning or being in possession of any firearm. The husband is now awaiting trial on a felony charge in a federal district court. He is also being forced to resign his commission as an officer in the U.S. Marine Corps because in 1996 Democrats in Congress refused to allow a waiver for military personnel in the Amendment.
There is now a new challenge to this law (U.S. v. Hayes (07-608) which was granted a writ of certiorari by the U.S. Supreme Court just a few days ago. Douglas Berman, Ohio State law professor, maintains a legal blog, Sentencing Law and Policy, where he pointed out the interesting implications for this appeal in light of the current DC vs Heller case now before the Court. Here is Berman’s post on this subject and the very interesting comment section which follows it. I recommend it all for reading. This is a sample of the comments from Lone Star Times’ good friend and commenter, Grits for Breakfast, of Austin:
About 69% of federal prisoners are incarcerated for three things the Founding Fathers did not envision being regulated by the federal government - intoxicants, immigration, and non-violent gun possession offenses.
Where are the Originalists when you need them?
FWIW, I think you’re definitely right to view this as a tea leaf in favor of a pro-individual right ruling in Heller. The cert grant implies SCOTUS wants to address the politically thorniest resulting question - the gun rights of felons - as soon as possible after the Heller ruling.
Frances Rice, Lieutenant Colonel (Ret.), has published a demand for an apology from the Democratic Party at the Lincoln Heritage Institute website where she is a contributor. There is nothing more for me to add so I offer the full text for your enjoyment:
“We, African American citizens of the United States, declare and assert:
Whereas in the early 1600’s 20 African men and women were landed in Virginia from a Dutch ship as slaves and from that tiny seed grew the poisoned fruit of plantation slavery which shaped the course of American development,
Whereas reconciliation and healing always begin with an apology and an effort to repay those who have been wronged,
Whereas the Democratic Party has never apologized for their horrific atrocities and racist practices committed against African Americans during the past two hundred years, nor for the residual impact that those atrocities and practices and current soft bigotry of low expectations are having on us today,
Whereas the Democratic Party fought to expand slavery and, after the Civil War, established Jim Crow Laws, Black Codes and other repressive legislation that were designed to disenfranchise African Americans,
Whereas the Ku Klux Klan was the terrorist arm of the Democratic Party, and their primary goal was to intimidate and terrorize African American voters, Republicans who moved South to protect African Americans and any other whites who supported them,
Whereas, according to leading historians (both black and white), the horrific atrocities committed against African Americans during slavery and Reconstruction were financed, sponsored, and promoted by the Democratic Party and their Ku Klux Klan supporters,
Whereas from 1870 to 1930, in an effort to deny African Americans their civil rights and to keep African Americans from voting Republican, thousands of African Americans were shot, beaten, lynched, mutilated, and burned to death by Ku Klux Klan terrorists from the Democratic Party,
Whereas Democratic Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry Truman rejected anti-lynching laws and efforts to establish a permanent Civil Rights Commission,
Whereas the Democratic party has used racist demagoguery to deceive African Americans about the history of the Republican Party that: (a) started as the anti-slavery party in 1854, (b) fought to free African Americans from slavery, (c) designed Reconstruction, a ten-year period of unprecedented political power for African Americans, (d) passed the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments to the U. S. Constitution granting African Americans freedom, citizenship, and the right to vote, (e) passed the Civil Rights Acts of 1866 and 1875 granting African Americans protection from the Black Codes and prohibiting racial discrimination in public accommodations, (f) passed the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and 1965 granting African Americans protection from the Jim Crow laws, (g) established Affirmative Action programs to help African Americans proper with Republican President Richard Nixon’s 1969 Philadelphia Plan that set the first goals and timetables and his 1972 Equal Employment Opportunity Act that made Affirmative Action Programs the law of our nation, and (h) never sponsored or launched a program, passed laws, or engaged in practices that resulted in the death of millions of African Americans,
Whereas Brown vs. the Board of Education of Topeka (a 1954 decision by Chief Justice Earl Warren who was appointed by Republican President Dwight Eisenhower) was a landmark civil rights case that was designed to overturn the racist practices that were established by the Democratic Party,
Whereas after Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt received the vote of African Americans, he banned African American newspapers from the military shortly after taking office because he was convinced the newspapers were communists,
Whereas Democratic President John F. Kennedy voted against the 1957 Civil Rights Law, opposed the 1963 March on Washington by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and was later criticized by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. for ignoring civil rights issues.
Whereas Democratic President John F. Kennedy authorized the FBI (supervised by his brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy) to investigate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on suspicion of being a communist,
Whereas Democratic Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia, a former member of the Ku Klux Klan, made a 14-hour filibuster speech in the Senate in June 1964 in an unsuccessful effort to block passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and was heralded in April 2004 by Democratic Senator Christopher Dodd as a senator who would have been a great leader during the Civil War,
Whereas when the 1964 Civil Rights Act came up for vote, Senator Al Gore, Sr. and the rest of the Southern Democrats voted against the bill,
Whereas in the House of Representatives only 61 percent of the Democrats voted for the 1964 Civil Rights Act as compared to 80 percent of Republicans, and in the Senate only 69 percent of the Democrats voted for the 1964 Civil Rights Act, compared to 82 percent of the Republicans,
Whereas Democratic President Bill Clinton sent troops to Europe to protect the citizens of Bosnia and Kosovo while allowing an estimated 800,000 black Rwandans to be massacred in Africa, vetoed the welfare reform law twice before signing it, and refused to comply with a court order to have shipping companies develop an Affirmative Action Plan,
Whereas Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore created harmful racial division when he falsely claimed that the 2000 presidential election was “stolen” from him and that African Americans in Florida were disenfranchised, even though a second recount of Florida votes by the “Miami Herald” and a consortium of major news organizations confirmed that he lost the election, and a ruling by the U.S. Civil Rights Commission declared that African Americans were not denied the right to vote,
Whereas the Democratic Party’s soft bigotry of low expectations and social promotions have consigned African Americans to economic bondage and created a culture of dependency on government social programs,
Whereas the Democratic Party’s use of deception and fear to block welfare reform, the faith-based initiative and school choice that would help African Americans prosper is consistent with the Democratic Party’s heritage of racism that included sanctioning of slavery and kukluxery, a perversion of moral sentiment among leaders of the Democratic Party whose racist legacy bode ill until this generation of African Americans,
Now, therefore, for the above and other documented atrocities and accumulated wrongs inflicted upon African Americans, we demand a formal written apology and other appropriate remuneration from the leadership of the Democratic party.
Hat Tip: Gateway Pundit
YONKERS, N.Y. — Police say four teenagers have been arrested in a bizarre assault and robbery that began with one of them dancing in his underwear behind a Yonkers fast-food restaurant counter while another videotaped him.
Police Capt. Daniel Daly says the suspects told investigators they were “only clowning around” at the Central Park Avenue McDonald’s on Wednesday, but the violence was no joke.
Police say the teens punched and kicked a manager when he tried to stop them, and then beat up another employee who tried to intervene. Police say the suspects also took a worker’s wallet.
One of the teens was arrested on robbery and assault charges, and the rest on assault charges.
Courtesy Alan Bernstein of the Houston Chronicle, re-printed in full:
Individuals can contribute up to $2,300 per election to congressional campaigns, so Connecticut-based pollster Matt Dabrowski’s recent $250 contribution to Pete Olson’s campaign doesn’t make him a financial gorilla.
But $250 bought a defiant, unusual message. Until three weeks ago, Dabrowski was deputy campaign manager in Houston for Olson’s Republican runoff opponent, Shelley Sekula Gibbs.
The March 10 contribution was listed on campaign records Olson filed late tonight with the Federal Election Commission. So was a $3,646 “separation” payment made to Dabrowski by Sekula Gibbs’ campaign. With that much money from Sekula Gibbs, Dabrowski can make many more flinty gestures at her or any other candidate missing from his Christmas card list.
Dabrowski, reached by phone, had no comment. No one was immediately available at the Sekula Gibbs campaign. A few weeks ago, her campaign manager, C.B. Currier, said Dabrowski had left the campaign because he was ill.
Contributions under $200 do not have to be itemized on campaign finance reports. By donating $50 more, Dabrowski, who has conducted polls for Newt Gingrich’s political organization, made certain his name appeared as an Olson backer in the 22nd Congressional District race.
Previously–
- Shelley blows through $182,000 taxpayer dollars during a two-week lame duck session
- Entire congressional staff quits after a Shelley screaming fit
- “Doctor, Councilwoman, Congresswoman Shelley Sekula-Gibbs”
The warning signs are there… for those of you willing to see…
As AHCL has noted, apathy is Kelly Siegler’s greatest enemy as we enter the home stretch of the nomination process. Early voting begins Monday and it is much too important to procrastinate. Forgetting to vote could lead to a Siegler loss. And that would not be good for Harris County. Consider her opponent’s latest charge.
“The office is in disarray,” former judge Lykos said. “And it has been discredited nationally and worldwide.”
What utter nonsense. The office as not been discredited, either nationally or worldwide. One guy has become the butt of jokes because of a few personal errors in judgment. To say that his escapades have discredited the entire office is election year rhetoric, nothing more.
Do you really want someone as DA that thinks like this?
After Siegler repeated her theme that the next district attorney should have experience prosecuting cases, Lykos injected, “There is no special magic there” in being a trial lawyer.
No magic in being a trial lawyer when it comes to leading trial lawyers? She’s kidding right? If not, I think I’ll go down tomorrow and sign up. After all, I watched Perry Mason as a kid. Good grief.
Siegler is feisty and combatant.
After Lykos described strategies and work culture among prosecutors, Siegler said, “How do you know that? I was there. I have been there. I know what happened. We were there. You know what you read in the paper.”
That describes her opponent in a nutshell. Not a clue as to what is going on in the office, just yell “scandal” because she read in the paper about a guy sending romantic emails.
Vote early. For Kelly Sieger.
Sheesh, this guy is totally spineless.
“Had the reverend not retired, and had he not acknowledged that what he had said had deeply offended people and were inappropriate and mischaracterized what I believe is the greatness of this country, for all its flaws, then I wouldn’t have felt comfortable staying at the church,” Obama said Thursday during a taping of the ABC talk show, “The View.” The interview will be broadcast Friday.
Wouldn’t have felt “comfortable”, eh? Sat there for twenty years listening to this bile, noddin’ your head, clappin’ your hands, yellin’ hallelujah, bro! But now, after more people hear his garbage and your poll numbers drop, you wouldn’t feel “comfortable”? Yeah, that’s believable.
But, you have a defender! Yippee!
Asked about the controversy Wright’s comments have created, Republican John McCain said while campaigning in Denver: “I can only say that I am sure, knowing Senator Obama, that he does not share the extreme views that were expressed that I saw on television.”
None other than the Republican nominee, John McCain. Meanwhile, this is what Obama has to say about his defender.
His remarks were a taste of a full bore attack on McCain his aides have promised in a major speech on the economy set for Thursday in New York.
“John McCain has said that he doesn’t understand the economy as well as he should, and yesterday he proved it in the speech he gave about the housing crisis,” Obama, said in North Carolina.
“He said that the best way for us to address the fact that millions of Americans are losing their homes is to just sit back and watch it happen.
“We’ve been down this road before. It’s the road that George Bush has taken for the last eight years,” Obama said.
You keep on defending him, Johnny boy. Straight to defeat in November.
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