From Tim Blair comes a challenge:

"France will launch an international news network to compete with CNN and the BBC, Prime Minister Jean Pierre Raffarin announced today. “This channel will promote a French vision that is more necessary than ever in today's world," he said.

Your challenge: to provide a slogan and/or graphic for the new network."

Well this is totally irritating. The spammers have figured out a way to insert their bull**** sales pitches (complete with links) into the 'Comments' section of this and presumably other blogs. So if you see an ad for phentermine or something in the comments, that is what is going on.

Farging Bastidges.

An interesting new development. Expect a massive increase in applications to serve in the French foreign ministry in the next few years.

Sorry.....I would have posted more the last couple of days...but my time has been taken up with the new toy googaw tool of industry that came yesterday. I was not sure that I wanted to branch out like this (t'wasnt cheap) but I have to say that the new Twin 2GHz Processor Apple G5 is one smokin' machine.

I have spent most of the last 48 hours loading software and comparing things old v. things new performance wise and am stunned. The new OS will take some time to get used to but learning same was one of the motivations for the branching out. I went ahead and got the 4gig of RAM so I could maximize the Photoshop work/speed in terms of multiple open projects. I figure this will also help tremendously with the non-linear video editing. And for that I will probably have to get more drive capacity.

And I don't know if it is the high quality video card that they put in these things (ATI Radeon 9600 Pro) or the 23" HD Cinema display or the true digital connection....probably the combination of all three....but what can I say? Wow.

I am currently just pretending to work during the day for the rest of the week (just day-dreaming, really) because all I really want to do is get to the house and load some more stuff on it this week-end and keep going.

So you are Craig Anderson.....just running your morning radio show and happy with the major coup of getting to have the Speaker of the Texas House on your show......

It must be quite a stomach punch to click over to the next phone line and hear the voice of the Eurasian dude come on the line.

The hospital (MMH) is currently running a deficit of about $5.1 million dollars for the year. Reporter Mark Werpney did not ask (or was not told) one of the most important questions: How much of this deficit is made up by those who get medical attention and services but do not pay for it?

So according to this article the Chamber gets $550,000 from city coffers to do various things.....and I think that it will be even more now that the Chamber managed to beat all of the odds and win the *cough* bid *cough* *cough* to manage a bunch of things for the Midland Development Corporation.

Here is a question: We know the Chamber has members.....but what percentage of the Chamber's income comes from it's members and what percentage comes from the taxpayer?

Is the Chamber now a de-facto governmental body? At the very least....isn't every taxpayer now essentialy a low-level Chamber member? And shouldn't we get cool membership decals, too?

Media Bias in Iraq?

''It's the nature of the business,'' Time's Brian Bennett says. ''What gets in the headlines is the American soldier getting shot, not the American soldiers rebuilding a school or digging a well.''

Arrrrgh!! This is large, steaming pile. Very frustrating. But...but...but, at least the story is getting out...in the USA Today now. Via Instapundit.

I guess that when General Wesley Clark said "That he might have been a Republican if Karl Rove had returned any of his phone calls" he forgot that the White House logs all incoming and outgoing calls.

"In the current issue of Newsweek, Howard Fineman reports Clark told Colorado Gov. Bill Owens and University of Denver president Mark Holtzman that "I would have been a Republican if Karl Rove had returned my phone calls."

Unfortunately for Clark, the White House has logged every incoming phone call since the beginning of the Bush administration in January 2001. At the request of THE DAILY STANDARD, White House staffers went through the logs to check whether Clark had ever called White House political adviser Karl Rove.

The general hadn't."

I wonder what the MDC paid for their new logo and flash animation? I did this in twenty minutes and they can use it for free.

UPDATE: For those that think this is a bit harsh....I will remind you that the Amarillo Development Corporation actually bragged about their PR campaign in which they mass-mailed fake $1,000,000 checks to prospective companies. Is this any different?

Naive Dreams, Nuclear Testing and North Korea.

Go here. Scroll to the bottom of the page. Run Mr. Miller's "Get This" video clip. It's only about a minute long and, yes, the audio should play if your computer/connection can't deal with the video stream.

Just do it!

"When Ma's clangin' the Armageddon triangle, I'm pretty sure you don't want to be the last one to the table."

Classic. He gets it.

Walsingham's First Law of Talk Radio:

"Your Arbitron ratings and the number of callers that you can call by name are inversely related."

From this article on the city budget:

"MOHRE, last month, was told it would face losing all funding from the city of Midland. The organization, which is charged with promoting Midland and Odessa as a destination for retirees from all over the nation, is now facing a contract with the city of Midland to phase out its funding by year's end.


'Cycling it out, I would say, encourages them to become more independent rather than using city funds to fund it,' said Councilman Berry Simpson, who noted initial plans to end funding immediately and not allowing a phase-out. "We did feel like that was a bit much. It was going to be hard to say no money right now. At least we're going to fund them to the end of the year."

"So we now consider ourselves part of the big Rock 'n' Roll family."

"Chicks to break with country scene." And we will miss them so.

For those who disagree with the use of and horrific nature of the banner posted (throughout September) and always seemingly less so with the horrific nature of the attacks themselves, I offer rare equal time on this blog. Here you go.



Happy?

Check out this rhubarb going on over at the Midland Shooters Association.

The answer is: "About 4 million dollars".

You pick the question:

"What is the amount of tax money used to fund the Midland Development Corporation?"

or

"What is the amount of the Midland County budget deficit for next year?"

Go ahead and pick either one....you can't be wrong.

MDC: "FROM EACH ACCORDING TO HIS MEANS. TO EACH ACCORDING TO HIS NEED."

Regarding the previous post, I was astounded at reading the MDC's goals. I've heard them ad nauseum from MDC's touters. But in black and white, they read just like Marx. A few exerpts:

"To keep existing jobs in Midland..."

Failed. See Marathon Oil, et al.

"To keep existing businesses in Midland..."

Failed. Same-same.

"To provide long term employment opportunities for Midlanders..."

We shall place a chicken in every pot, comrades.

"To promote and develop industrial and manufacturing enterprises in order to eliminate unemployment..."

Er, did they just say that taxation is the answer to unemployment? Welly-welly-welly-well, my droogies. Steaky-wakes and eggy-wegs all around, then!

"To promote and encourage employment and the public welfare..."

Mmmm hmmm. "Welfare" is the perfect word for it.

"To develop areas of the City that should be developed in order to meet the development objectives of the City..."

What the? Translation: "This superfluous spilth brought to you by the Redundant Department of Redundancy. It makes sense because we say it does."

"The Corporation shall consider the impact on any local business before providing an incentive to any corporation or entity."

Not that anything they consider, nor any outside opinions, will stop them.

From the Midland Development Corporation's new website:

"We are currently building a new site that should be available to you shortly. This new site will provide you with all the necessary details you need to know about the wonderful community of Midland, Texas."

From IHT:

"...now some defense officials are saying that the occupation force's state of siege, combined with continuing difficulties in restoring services in Baghdad, is making Iraqis increasingly hostile toward those who are supposed to be their liberators."

"Waaaah! Waaaah! Sure, I'm free from a potential dirt-date with a mass grave. And sure, I guess it's okay that my sister won't be sent to a rapehouse now. But if these stinking infidels don't get the power back on pronto, I'm gonna go Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs up in here! Where's my AK? Waaaah! Waaaah!"

Assuming the report is true, just imagine how violent these people would've become if Gray Davis had been their ruler. Sheesh. They'd have liberated themselves.

ACTUAL HEADLINE:

"Ratliff fears partisan politics creeping into [Texas] Legislature"

Gasp! The hell you say!

James Lileks uses today's Bleat to write to Uncle Milty.

Or at least to write to the Uncle Miltys of the world.

Cool! A new Midland Blog! Go visit Sleepless in Midland.

Several things bothered me about this local story covering a morning truck/train crash in Odessa.

From the body of the article:

"There are no crossing guards at this crossing."

Is this the correct terminology? I thought crossing guards were the people who helped little kids to safely cross the street. And is it just me, or does that line seem to imply that the collision was somehow the fault of the train and railroad?

Some of the reader comments below the article also reflect this mentality:

"I'm very supprised this has not happened more since they increased the speed at which Trains are allowed to travel through town to 70 MPH. It takes a train miles to come to a stop, even if they see the vehicle there is nothing they can do at that speed."

What about the responsibilities of the truck driver? I hate to break it to these people, but trains always have the right of way at railroad crossings. As far as I know, all the crossings along old Highway 80 have been brought up to code as of 2001. Therefore, it would seem to me that the absence of a "crossing guard" and the train's assumed 70-mph rate of speed are both irrelevant variables.

Perhaps I'm oversimplifying the usual circumstances surrounding car-train collisions, but I can't figure out why they happen at all. When approaching a railroad crossing; stop, look both ways, and don't proceed if there's a friggin' train coming. Am I expecting too much from the average driver in making this suggestion?

And here is the only thing I've seen this morning that had me laughing out loud (to the consternation of my co-workers). From the keyboard of the incomparable Jonah Goldberg:

WHY I'M OPPOSED TO WES CLARK

Besides the fact that the Clinton mafia is mysteriously supporting him (If they think he can win, then you'd think Hillary wouldn't want him to run since a Clark Presidency would ruin her chances to be president) I'm opposed to Wes Clark running for President because he is the only Democrat it's hard to make fun of. It's hard not to make fun of Sharpton, Kucinich, and Braun. Lieberman looks like a rodeo clown who hasn't had his foundation make-up removed yet. Edwards is a trial lawyer who would still be a trial lawyer if he looked like Kucinich. I think I've said this before, but Dean's the sort of arrogant liberal who yells at you for buying the wrong book at his used book store. John Kerry looks like some suction-cup-fingered demon sucked-out his soul through his temples. Graham thinks he's doing history some great favor by recording his bowel movements on notepads.

But what am I supposed to say about Wesley Clark? He's too neat? I'm sure we'll find something, but for now it's vexing.

An excerpt from a new book, Embedded: The Media at War in Iraq, an Oral History, quoting John Burns, a New York Times correspondent:

Now left with the residue of all of this, I would say there are serious lessons to be learned. Editors of great newspapers, and small newspapers, and editors of great television networks should exact from their correspondents the obligation of telling the truth about these places. It's not impossible to tell the truth. I have a conviction about closed societies, that they're actually much easier to report on than they seem, because the act of closure is itself revealing. Every lie tells you a truth. If you just leave your eyes and ears open, it's extremely revealing.

We now know that this place was a lot more terrible than even people like me had thought. There is such a thing as absolute evil. I think people just simply didn't recognize it. They rationalized it away. I cannot tell you with what fury I listened to people tell me throughout the autumn that I must be on a kamikaze mission. They said it with a great deal of glee, over the years, that this was not a place like the others.

Read the article here. This story is a pretty damning critique. I'd say that a some in the media may be opening their eyes to what is really around them. The need to report on the news rather than be the news. I hope the Battle of Iraq and its media coverage is studied for some time...eventually objectivity should prevail.

attribution: links via Drudge yesterday and Nat'l Review Online today.

UPDATE by Site Admin: Couple these with this paper found via Instapundit.

UPDATE II by Shepherd: The Wall Street Journal (link to article requires subscription) covered the Burns excerpt from the book on their editorial page on Wednesday, the 17th. Michael Reagan interviewed Burns on his show on the 17th as well. The story is getting legs.

Some of the things Craig Anderson said about this blog on his talk show this morning concerned me greatly. Namely, Craig seemed confused as to the difference between a blog contributor and a blog commenter.

Note to Craig: A blog contributor (i.e. Stevenson, Walsingham, the Site Admin, Shepherd, me, etc.) posts commentary to the main body of a blog with special software. Not just anyone who visits a given blog can do this. 'Root posts' on a blog are started by the blog's contributors. Okay, got that part?

Now then, a blog commenter can be anyone who strolls in and responds to a contributor's post. Everyone who reads the posts is free to comment on them, as you yourself have done before on several occasions at Jessica's Well. Contributors don't control the content written by commenters, although the Site Admin may see fit to remove the content in certain instances.

That said, the comments left by someone called DriBak were not the opinion of any of the contributors to this blog. In fact, if you would've continued reading, you'd have noticed where several of us defended you against the commenter's idiotic ideas.

Considering that you have your own message board at KWEL, it seems strange that you would associate us with the opinions of a fringe lefty wacko, simply because he chose to leave his comments here. You have the same problem in the KWEL forum, but I don't see you talking it down on the air as a result.

While we are on the subject....it is true that Craig Anderson is going to be the next makeover on "Queer Eye For The Straight Guy?" I read it on the internet, so it must be true.

Why isn't the media tallying the Iraqi dead as well as the deaths of the coalition troops? ...because it wouldn't support their view of the war as a failure? Ambit takes on the issue and collects a lot of information in supporting links. An excerpt:

According to the United Nations, prior to the invasion of Iraq up to 5,000 Iraqis, two-thirds of them children, were dying of privation (per month!)...

Since the end of the war the UN's economic sanctions have been lifted and, from what I can tell, Iraqis are no longer dying from privation or any humanitarian crises arising from the war. And since Iraq is crawling with both international and domestic journalists as well as NGO types making assessments, I have little doubt that if Iraqis were continuing to die in such large numbers we'd have heard about it by now.

The bottom line is that this should be running backwards, counting the additional people still living that would have died every day under the Saddamite Baathist regime, instead of counting the incremental deaths during and since the Battle of Iraq ended. No one is trying to diminish the tragedy of each and every death that occurs in Iraq, but it would be useful for the media to include a little perspective in their hyperventilation about the War on Terror.

via Instapundit.

Wow. Vaughn......buddy. Craig just read your whole post on the radio. You is now officially a famous person.

SADDAM FINALLY LOCATED!

Wow. I should've figured he'd turn up at a UT keg party. Well, at least he can throw down a fresh jam.

For optimum comedic results, stare at the picture while listening to the song.

Has anyone else noticed that Craig Anderson is no longer making direct references to jessicaswell.com on his radio show?

Example: This morning, he spoke of and gave detail concerning a "critic" that was unhappy with some of his callers and with the topic of 'alley trash,' but declined to say that it was from this post to our humble little blog.

In my opinion, he should've gone ahead and attributed the criticism to us, rather than leaving his listeners to determine the source. I say this because, in the process of attempting not to draw attention to us here, he actually came across as if the subject had arisen on the KWEL message board. I double-checked the board, but most of the threads haven't been posted-to for days.

Maybe Walsingham will get the co-host job and be able to straighten all this out for us. Walsingham! Walsingham! Gooooooo Walsingham!

Springsteen calls for impeachment.

Are you surprised? I'm not. What more can expect from people who think that releasing a 'memorial album' after September 11th is "fighting back."

And there are nine presidential hopefuls who think the same way. People who cannot even concieve of The Enemy in a form other than just a member of the opposite political party.

See 'ya Bruce. I just snapped your CD's in half. Even the memorial album. Especially the memorial album.

Meet Rick Rescorla. A man you should know about.

Hat Tip to Wallace at Big Gold Dog.

A great photograph of a Company of Marines in Iraq. It kinda speaks for itself.

200-mile per hour isolated gusts. 924 millibars of pressure. Gain-producing movement and atmosphere.

Note to east coast: Grab something and hang on to it tightly. Isabel cometh.

Lots of great writing out on our web in honor of the second anniversary of 9/11/2001. The best I have read so far is Victor Hanson on NRO found here. An excerpt:

The injury was frightening: More dead than any other precursor to an American war, from those lost at Lexington and Concord to Pearl Harbor; an entire city-block in New York vaporized and our nation's military nerve center gravely wounded. We forget the economic devastation — $100 billion in direct material damage (as much as the two-year cost of rebuilding Iraq) in New York alone, hundreds of billions more lost in harm to the airline and tourism industries and diverted to security, ruining the once free and easy association in almost every element of our lives from the airport to the office lobby.

Go get another cup of coffee and read the whole thing. Then hit our link to the VodkaPundit and read his 9/11 entry. Read Lileks, again. Let it soak in.

Watched "9/11: The President's Story" on TLC last night. CBS apparently produced it last year...a great documentary of the day from the point of view of the President and his staff. Find it. Watch it. My anger at the attack and those responsible is refueled.

Reflections: I am amazed at how much has been accomplished in 2 short years. I am amazed at how those accomplishments are belittled by the mainstream media. I am amazed by how many thoughtful writers are on the web, publishing through different channels and getting their insight and intellect "out there." I am amazed and humbled by the sacrifices of our military men and women who risk their lives for our freedom. I am grateful for the resiliance and perseverence of our country and of all of the people that go to work every day, on the job or in the family, doing their part for maintaining our society and civilization. And I remember the 3000+ people who went to work on September 11: airline pilots, restaurant waiters, financial executives, janitors, policemen, military support staff, firemen, travelling business-people and vacationers, all who were murdered in cold blood while just doing their jobs. Murdered to further a twisted ideology that argues against virtually everything we cherish about America, our society and civilization. Never forget.

From Instapundit's September 11th posting, an excerpt from an upcoming book by Lee Harris:

"Forgetfulness occurs when those who have been long inured to civilized order can no longer remember a time in which they had to wonder whether their crops would grow to maturity without being stolen or their children sold into slavery by a victorious foe. . . . They forget that in time of danger, in the face of the Enemy, they must trust and confide in each other, or perish.

They forget, in short, that there has ever been a category of human experience called the Enemy. And that, before 9/11, was what had happened to us. The very concept of the Enemy had been banished from our moral and political vocabulary. An enemy was just a friend we hadn't done enough for -- yet. Or perhaps there had been a misunderstanding, or an oversight on our part -- something that we could correct.

And this means that that our first task is that we must try to grasp what the concept of the Enemy really means.

The Enemy is someone who is willing to die in order to kill you. And while it is true that the Enemy always hates us for a reason -- it is his reason, and not ours."

Alas, it does not. You have seen the deep. Now witness the shallow.

A must read by blogger Sheila O'Malley on this eve of the second anniversary of the September 11th attacks.

Bound and determined to once again repeat a failed lesson of Midland history, the city takes its third stab at public transportation:

"We're excited to get transit started in Midland and Odessa after an absence of many decades in some cases," said the transit system's general manager, Ken Smithson. These buses are just the right size to get started with - not too big, not too small. And they'll take care of our needs for several years."

Know what would "take care of our needs" much better? No buses at all. The fact that we're using federal funds this time only means that the tax dollars of all Americans are being squandered -- not just the locals'.

Heh.

Is it just me or is the date "September 10th" just as eerie to look at as "September 11th"?

Is there anything.....anything at all that any of the twelve callers in to Craig Anderson's morning show can assert that is so dumb or illogical that it won't be left unchallenged by Craig?

The Eurasian guy is not the only idiot caller. But he is the only one that is treated like one. Anyone else can call in with the most idiotarian view or observation and it's like "Great...never thought of it that way before!"

And another thing.....callers that insist on dwelling on the trash in their alleys and whose responsibility it is to pick it up......while they may be correct.....don't need five frickin minutes on the radio.

Michelle Malkin hits the nail on the head. Eighteen times. An exceprt:

"Across the nation, public officials will strike somber poses and shed television-friendly tears and bow their blow-dried heads in memory of the victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks.

They'll hold hands, light candles, and pass around a plateful of platitudes: "Never forget," they'll intone. "Let's roll," they'll thunder. "God bless America," they'll warble in perfect harmony.

They'll assure us that they are committed to fighting terror and securing our borders and doing whatever it takes to protect the homeland from another horrific mass murder at the hands of freedom-hating fanatics. And then?

And then, from Washington state to Washington, D.C., they'll go back to work, roll up their sleeves, and spit on the graves of the 9/11 dead.

Your pious city councilwoman will return to the office to draft a resolution condemning the common-sense detention and deportation of Middle Eastern illegal aliens suspected of terrorism.

Your politically correct police chief will refuse to cooperate with federal authorities in criminal investigations of illegal visa overstayers and border-crossers and ship-jumpers."

A new and great-looking website now known to me thanks to a Comment we drew earlier on the MISD school lunches. Go visit The Swanky Conservative.

In Wink, a pet pig named "Bacon" is currently causing a city council meeting uproar and subsequent packed house.

Wow. Actual public interest in a city council meeting. If only they'd bring the animal to Midland and change his name to "We're raising taxes again."

There will be a fight among servicemen and women to get assigned to this ship. And this phenomenon will be completely incomprehensible to any of the Democrats currently running for President.

Another entry for the Mark Steyn Fan Club Hall of Fame. This is very appropriate for the week of September 11th...a reminder of why we are where we are in the War on Terrorism.

His latest begins with:

"Here's a news item from the too-lame-to-be-true category. But it is. It seems Bill Clinton and Mikhail Gorbachev have collaborated on a retelling of Prokofiev's beloved children's classic, 'Peter And The Wolf.' ''

In the middle, after tying concept behind the Willy/Gorby collaboration to the causes of the attack on September 11th, and to the feckless leadership of the Clinton administration, he invents the verb "Princess Dianification" to describe how some of the media chose to honor the first anniversary of 9/11. The article ends with:

"Each provocation, 'insufficient' to rouse Bill Cohen, confirmed Osama's conviction that America was too soft and decadent for the fight. Two years on, the defeatist elites of our culture are still desperate to prove him right."

Classic, priceless Steyn. Read the entire article here.

"We know that if they [school children] increase their physical activity and eat healthy ... they can prevent getting Type II Diabetes," said MISD health services supervisor Cathy Harris.

Is it just me, or was last week's MISD lunch menu comprised largely of nachos, pizza, and corndogs?

Here's an idea: How about a nice salad and only 1,500 steps a day?

Instapundit has had several posts recently wondering whether the President is losing his base. Here is the latest installment.

Could it be true? I know that in good old Midland, Texas this is almost unfathomable, but then we couldn't figure out how Bill Clinton got elected once, much less twice.

The crux of the matter seems to be the President's total abandonment of the idea of limited government on the domestic side. To be sure, he is spending money like a drunk sailor on the domestic front. But what is the alternative? Given their druthers the Dems would spend money like an entire Nimitz-sized crew of drunk sailors. So as unhappy as I am with current domestic policy, the opponents of the President offer nothing better, and in most cases much worse.

And then there is the foreign front. There, the President has not missed a beat, the constant whinging of the quagmirists notwithstanding. Is there any doubt at all that had Gore ended up in the Presidency in 2000 (or if any of the current Dem candidates were in that job now) that Iraq would still be a threat to us, it's neighbors, and it's 24 million own people and that the torture chambers, rape rooms, and mass graveyards would still be open for business?

Would the Taliban still be running Afghanistan and still be sheltering Al-Qaeda?

The answer, sadly, is yes and yes.

Until that changes....this boy isn't going anywhere. Even Ed Koch has said it: "It just isn't safe to vote for Democrats right now."

I am curious to hear from other Midlanders on this in the Comments section....on the idea on Bush losing his base but also on what you think of his performance on the domestic front.

Earlier this month in regard to KWEL's new internet forum I made the suggestion to limit the numbers of topics, otherwise they wither and die.

Case in point.

I have listened now for a couple of weeks and have decided that the KWEL morning show needs something additional. Craig Anderson needs a partner. Someone versed in economics. Someone familiar with current events both home and abroad. Someone on friendly terms with the English language.

Therefore, this humble delegate from the Great Zip Code of 79707...the Zip Code that brings you the Super Wal-Mart....the Zip Code that brings you Woofers and Tweeters....the Zip Code known throughout the world as being the home Zip Code of the fabulous Greentree Country Club hereby nominate....

Posted By Stevenson on September 6, 2003 8:53 AM
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September 5, 2003

This is good! A smile for Friday evening:

According to data published by the Social Security Administration, the name Hillary is the most severely poisoned baby name in history. Hillary had been steadily climbing the baby name charts since the 1960s, when it first graced the Top 1000, becoming the 136th most common name for baby girls in 1992. But the name sharply reversed course in 1993, smashing several longstanding records for name contamination in its plunge from the Top 1000 girl names last year.

Hmmmm. I wonder why? The blog also discloses which name was the 2nd most poisoned. Any guesses? Read the rest here. Via NRO.

Posted By Shepherd on September 5, 2003 6:06 PM
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Say goodbye to your stuff, Wallace.

Posted By Site Admin on September 5, 2003 5:01 AM
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Lileks. Just go read it.

Posted By Site Admin on September 5, 2003 4:58 AM
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September 4, 2003

Well, they say that violence will always boost ratings.

Posted By Walsingham on September 4, 2003 5:07 PM
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Gone.

Posted By Site Admin on September 4, 2003 2:02 PM
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September 3, 2003

DOGS AND CATS LIVING TOGETHER!!!

The only Democrat on the Commisioner's Court was one of two commisioners that voted against the county tax increase.

Although, I have to say that the local republicans on this issue are right in step with the federal level republicans when it comes to *cough* limiting the expansion and cost of government.

Posted By Walsingham on September 3, 2003 8:19 AM
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Wow. I had no idea. The new county "multi-purpose facility" was an unfunded federal mandate?

Posted By Walsingham on September 3, 2003 8:14 AM
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September 2, 2003

Senator John Whitmire (D-Houston) has his own end game now. The unity of the Eleven Profiles in Democratic Courage is apparently over. Whitmire said that:

he remained adamantly opposed to redistricting and committed to fight against the effort.

“But the time has come to return, put up one heck of a fight on the Senate floor” and then hope that the redistricting bill the Republican leadership wants will be ruled unconstitutional in federal court.

Um. Maybe that should have been the strategy to begin with?

Nonetheless, restrained congrats to Senator Whitmire for showing some actual courage.

Posted By Shepherd on September 2, 2003 3:47 PM
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