That was engineer Jim Allman’s response to CD-22 incumbent ‘Beaumont’ Nick Lampson’s non-answer when asked for his evaluation Barack Obama.
“I haven’t tried to run away from my endorsement of him,” the congressman from Stafford said. “I did endorse him sometime back, whenever it was.”
But at a meeting with National Rifle Association members in Sugar Land last week, Lampson gently brushed away engineer Jim Allman’s request for an evaluation of Obama.
“Well,” Lampson said, “I want to say something about me and what I am running for Congress for.”
“Thanks for the dodge,” Allman responded.
The Chronicle’s Alan Bernstein used the term ‘dance’ to illustrate Beaumont Nick’s new middle of the road persona. Beaumont’s challenger, Republican Pete Olson simply calls it what it is: an election year conversion.
Another election year conversion from Nick Lampson – this time, he’s changing his tune on energy. True to form, Lampson is running from his 10-year record of voting against American energy independence when the heat is on. Lampson voted against drilling in ANWR five times – two of which included using revenues to support alternative energy research. He opposed funds for clean coal research and then sought to divert that money to the National Endowment for the Arts. He even voted against allowing new American refineries to be built in June of this year.
Nick Lampson helped create America’s energy problems. Now, he’s touting a bill that is a compilation of all of the things he’s opposed for so long – domestic drilling, new refineries, alternative energy technology and the rest. It’s the same tactic he’s taken in the past, and it’s all about politics – not about solving our energy problems. Once this election passes, so will Nick’s new-found love for American energy independence – mainly because he’ll be back at his home in Beaumont.
American energy security is a national priority – not another election year political maneuver. We need a balanced approach that includes expanding offshore drilling and domestic oil and gas production, new nuclear plants, clean coal technology, as well as wind, solar, geothermal, biomass and other alternative energy sources that will make us energy independent in the future.
Having a guy from a decaying union town like Beaumont representing the vibrant, growing CD-22 makes about as much sense as the incumbent representative of CD-22 endorsing a socialist like Barry O. Ridiculous. November can’t roll around quick enough for this CD-22 voter. Go home, Beaumont.
This just in from Houston’s Leading Information Source:
Autopsies: Horn’s buckshot caused massive injuries
The two burglars who were fatally shot by Joe Horn outside his Pasadena home were struck in the back, shoulders and arms by buckshot, according to autopsy results released to the public this morning by the Harris County Medical Examiner’s Office.
The buckshot hit Ortiz in the back of both shoulders and elsewhere on the left side of his back, according to his autopsy. The pellets penetrated his left lung, heart, spleen, aortic root, left jugular vein and other areas, the Medical Examiner’s Office reported.
The autopsies were conducted November 15, 2007 and brought to you by the Chronicle’s hard-hitting investigative journalists less than eight months later.
In tomorrow’s Chron, expect to see an update on the health of Generalissimo Francisco Franco.
The City of Houston annexed an area near Highway 59 and West Mount Houston Road several years ago. Residents in the area now pay city property taxes, but they don’t receive even that most basic of municipal services: fire protection.
It was terrifying enough in March when a home in the 6600 block of Winfield went up in flames.
“Oh yes, (the flames) were up there and scary too,” said Annie Shephard, who lives five doors down from the home that burned.
But the fear of that night is compounded by the fact that the nearest fire hydrant to the neighborhood is a quarter of a mile away.
“That’s why I’ve been making all these calls trying to get some answers as to why there’s not a fire hydrant in this area,” said Shephard.
And what is the city doing about it?
“We are actually putting together a study to give us an accurate idea of what we need to do to resolve some of those concerns,” said Houston Public Works spokesman Alvin Wright.
Oh, that’s comforting. But hey, at least the city got its revenue, and that’s what really matters.
Fox is reporting that assistant district attorney Kelly Siegler has quit:
Assistant District Attorney and former DA candidate Kelly Siegler has resigned from her Harris County position.
The announcement came in a press release from DA Kenneth Magidson’s office on Friday afternoon.
Sources close to the office say Siegler’s resignation is effective immediately.
“Ms. Siegler has tirelessly served the citizens of Harris County during her long and distinguished prosecutorial career,” Magidson said in the release. “Her leadership will be missed, but I am sure she will succeed in whatever she chooses as her next endeavor.”
Someone’s going to have to put that DA’s office back together, and I have little confidence that either Pat Lykos or C.O. Bradford can do it.
BENZION UPDATES– LST sources close to the Siegler camp indicate that her next moves are undetermined at this time.
Just a quick reminder: Galveston County Tax Assessor-Collector Cheryl Johnson (hubba hubba) will host a Tax Freedom Day celebration tonight.
Here are the details:
WHEN
This Thursday, May 8th
Beginning at 5:30 pm (program begins at 6 pm)
WHERE
Gulf Greyhound Park
(1 block west of I-45 South at Exit 15 in La Marque)
COST
Tickets $10 at the door
Proceeds support Cheryl Johnson’s re-election campaign
GRUB
Hot dogs, hot pretzels
Tea, coke, and $.50 beer
Apple cobbler with ice cream
The guest list is pretty impressive, too, at least until the end:
- Galveston Co. Tax Assessor Collector Cheryl E. Johnson (hubba hubba)
- Harris Co. Tax Assessor Collector Paul Bettencourt (shudda shudda)
- Americans for Prosperity-Texas’ Peggy Venable (thugga thugga)
- GOP Nominee for State House District 130 Allen Fletcher
- Bruce Slover, Founder of Cy Fair Citizens
- Michael Kubosh, “The Voice” of the Protest Class TV Commercials
- With a special-guest appearance by LoneStarTimes.com’s very own Matt Bramanti! (glugga glugga)
And we’ll be auctioning off the notorious framed RINO picture.
It’ll be a good time. You’d better get there early, before Bettencourt and I eat all the hot dogs.
The average daily circulation of Houston’s Leading Information Source continues to fall:
Houston Chronicle, 494,131, down 1.8 percent
Sunday’s circulation hit was even worse, year-over-year:
HOUSTON CHRONICLE: 632,797 — 677,425 — (-6.59%)
And online, the Chronicle is getting whipped by its Dallas competitors. Traffic to Chron.com fell by more than a quarter, while traffic to DallasNews.com nearly doubled:
DallasNews.com - The Dallas Morning News — 2,727 — 96%
The Houston Chronicle — 2,690 — (-26%)
Ouch. For the few remaining people still employed by the Chronicle, it’s liable to be a rough day.
PITY-BASED SUBSCRIPTION PITCH ADDED
From my tailpipe to your beautiful landscape.
After a long-fought battle, we’ve finally done it — Harris County is now the forests’ best friend. We emit more carbon dioxide than anyone:
The first-ever analysis of county-by-county carbon dioxide emissions in the United States found that Harris County, which emits 18.6 million tons of CO2 per year, narrowly edged Los Angeles for the top spot.
That’s more than four tons for every man, woman and child in the county. Well done, y’all! Of course, some people think we’re not doing enough:
“Some regions will see this analysis as an excuse to point fingers, but I don’t really view it that way,” said Kevin Gurney, an assistant professor of Earth and atmospheric sciences at Purdue University who led the study. “This gives us an opportunity to improve the situation.”
Sheesh, doc, I’m trying! I put more than 22,000 miles on my car last year, but I’m only one man! Some city officials, however, have characterized our carbon dioxide — or “tree air” — as a bad thing:
“In part, this is the cost of conducting the business we conduct in the Houston area,” said Elena Marks, Mayor Bill White’s health policy director.
“People shouldn’t feel guilty about this,” she said, “but they should pay attention to the data and realize that we all have a part to play in reducing our carbon footprint.”
Shame on you, Ms. Parks, for advocating the slow suffocation of America’s forests.
Shame on you.
This reads like something from The Onion:
That’s why Mexican immigrant Jacinto Vasquez has joined the Houston Network of Day Laborers, formed over the weekend by approximately 200 day laborers.
Their goal is to improve working conditions, set a minimum wage they’ll agree to work for and fight wage theft.
Next month, the Houston network will convene to form a leadership group, drawn from representatives of various street-corner hiring locations.
There’s also an interesting contradiction in the article. From the first graf:
The housing market’s slowdown has made work scarce.
From the wannabe-union’s organizer:
What you have to understand is they are day workers who fulfill a function in the economy.
Which is it?
It’s runoff time, folks, and here’s what you need to know:
Harris County: View a sample ballot and find your polling place.
Fort Bend County: View a sample ballot and find your polling place.
Galveston County: View a sample ballot and find your polling place.
Brazoria County: View a sample ballot and find your polling place.
Happy voting!
Baytown police are investigating the death today of a full-term baby whose 14-year-old mother allegedly tried to flush her infant down the toilet at Baytown’s Cedar Bayou Junior High School.
The unidentified girl, a student at the school, had gone to the restroom where the baby was born, according to Lt. Eric Freed.
“The child cried, and then the mother tried to flush the baby down the toilet,” he said.
Baytown’s Goose Creek school offiicals are at the scene.
Another student was in the bathroom and tried to help the pregnant teen, an official at the school said. The student left the bathroom and reported the situation to a school nurse. The nurse and an assistant principal rushed to the bathroom.
Forget the notion of a scared kid who didn’t know what to do; this was a murder for the sake of convenience. When public policy bends over backwards to accommodate mothers of unwanted children like this, incidents like this are even more unforgivable.
Throw the book at her.
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.
Looks like Jeremiah “God damn America” Wright won’t be spouting his vitriol in our fair city:
Security concerns have prompted the Rev. Jeremiah Wright to cancel his appearance at Houston’s Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church for the first time in two decades.
Wright, who until February was minister of Sen. Barack Obama’s church, Chicago’s Trinity United Church of Christ, was scheduled to preach three guest sermons in Houston on Sunday.
Bummer. I was planning to attend (really!)
This just pisses me off:
A 63-year-old Virgin Mary statue was one of two religious monuments vandalized outside a Catholic church in the Heights during Holy Week.
In one case, vandals also spray-painted a religious slur on church property.
The incidents, which occurred during services on Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday at All Saints Catholic Church, 201 E. 10th, are being investigated by the Houston Police Department’s burglary and theft unit. Police spokesman Sgt. Gabe Ortiz said it is not known whether the incidents were related. He said they are not yet being treated as a hate crime, but officers are trying to determine whether people were specifically targeted because of their religion.
Maybe the officers can use this helpful little tidbit:
“Don’t let them worship idols,” was painted in black. In red were painted the words, “You are warned.”
Lisa Falkenberg’s column in yesterday’s Chronicle called for the creation of a Public Defender’s Office in Harris County, with Sen. Rodney Ellis (D-Houston) leading the charge.
“If you’re not with me,” the Houston senator sternly told members of the Houston Lawyers’ Association, “I hope you figure out a way to be quiet.”
Hmm. Silencing the critics. Looks like the Chronicle and Senator Ellis have a lot in common.
The article goes on to criticize the current system in place for the appointment of qualified defense attorneys to represent indigent defendants accused of crimes. Ellis and Falkenberg’s idea? Create a Public Defender’s Office.
Right now, some of the best criminal defense attorneys in the nation do criminal appointments in Harris County. Names like Skip Cornelius, Tyrone Moncreiff, Anthony Osso, David Cunningham, Alvin Nunnery, Jerry Guerinot, Layton Duer, Ricardo Rodriguez, Katherine Scardino, Robert Morrow, and other phenomenal attorneys do criminal appointments. And they do a damn good job of it, too.
If they need a private investigator to work on a case they are handling, they file a Motion with the court for the funds to hire one. I’ve never seen one of those motions denied. I’ve also never seen a Motion to Appoint an Expert denied, either. These fine members of the Defense Bar cover all of the bases. While it is easy for someone sitting on the sidelines to cast stones, I challenge Senator Ellis and Lisa Falkenberg to come down to the courthouse and watch these guys in action. They may like painting a picture of the bumbling “court appointed attorney” to their constituents/readers, but the facts just don’t support it.
I would strongly encourage Senator Ellis to solicit examples of where court appointed attorneys went to a judge for funds and were told “sorry, but we’re broke”. He should, at a minimum, look into that before single-handedly creating yet another governmental agency.
Falkenberg headlines a portion of her article as “Not a Radical Concept”, and goes on to write:
Fair Defense Act, eventually became law, but a series of scandals — from the tainted HPD crime lab to high-profile exonerations to District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal’s recent resignation — have forced anyone who cares about the criminal justice system in this county to question whether it isn’t badly broken.
Um, I’m not really sure what the crime lab scandal and Chuck’s resignation have to do with the creation of a Public Defender’s Office, but, her, it’s the Chronicle. They have to get their digs in where they can, regardless of the relevance to the topic.
Here’s the bottom line, folks. The Fair Defense Act weeded out unqualified attorneys from representing people accused of crimes. The attorneys on the appointment lists passed tests and have good reputations in the legal community for the work that they do.
Those same folks that I listed above would have no desire or incentive to go to work for a Public Defenders Office after creating successful and reputable law practices of their own. If these attorneys aren’t getting the resources that they need to defend cases, then give the County more money to assist them.
But a whole new Public Defenders Office? Why?
The people that would staff that Office would probably, for the majority, be people fresh out of law school. I don’t care if they went to the best law school in the world, they would still take years within a Public Defenders Office before they were able to develop the skills to defend against experienced Prosecutors.
And what will they do once they acquire that experience?
They will probably leave for private practice.
Falkenberg titles that section “Not a Radical Concept”. I agree that it isn’t radical, but it isn’t good either.
As for Senator Ellis, you need to realize there are other alternatives. If Judges aren’t in compliance with the Fair Defense Act, then sanction them into compliance. If appointed Defense Attorneys aren’t getting funds that they need to defend their cases, then give them more money. If those same attorneys aren’t effective at representing their clients, then remove them from the appointment list.
I know the idea of a Public Defenders Office sounds lovely on paper, but the real ramifications of it would cause dire consequences for people accused of crimes.
Dear Houston-area Freeway Pedestrian:
Crossing a freeway on foot is dumb. It killed this lady, and it killed this guy. As dumbass is very hard to clean out of the grille of a Toyota, I hope you will stop trying to cross freeways on foot.
Love,
Matt
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