The Green Power Switch is a program of the TVA where caring customers can pay an extra $4.00 for 150 kWh of electricity. Said money goes toward the higher cost of green energy generation. Gore claims to purchase enough with this program to offset his piggish electricity consumption. However, nothing in the TVA literature promised to spend that surplus cash on more green power generation. Even if it is all spent on new green capacity will $4.00/kWh really offset the higher cost of green sources? Really? The Dept. of Energy cites the average yearly household consumption at 10,655 kWh. Do you really think we can generate all our electric power needs with green sources for an average household increase of only $24.00/month? It is just a pipedream; a feel good program, and Al must know it, because he is an expert on all things energy.

To compensate for his non-electric energy use he claims to buy Carbon Offsets. These offsets are sold by organizations like Carbonfund.org. But from Wikipedia we learn

The appeal of becoming "carbon neutral" has contributed to the growth of voluntary offsets, which often are a more cost-effective alternative to reducing one's own fossil-fuel consumption. However, the actual amount of carbon reduction (if any) from an offset project is difficult to measure, largely unregulated, and vulnerable to misrepresentation

One of the most frequent ways Carbonfund uses your money to "reduce" carbon emissions is to plant trees, but many environmentalists disagree with this approach because trees "produce more CO2 when they decay than they consume when they are alive".

So, is Al really so uninformed on the tradeoffs involved in alternative energy generation, or is he lying every time he opens his rapacious mouth?

This is quite unbelievable. In Al Gore's OFFICIAL response to criticism of his personal energy consumption (for just one of his houses, mind you) he touts the fact that he offsets his carbon emissions so that he has a neutral carbon footprint.

In the same response, he then provides a link to a site where you can calculate your own carbon footprint. At that site you can answer questions that help determine your carbon "impact".

Two of the questions are:

1) What is your average monthly electric bill?, and
2) What is your average monthly natural gas bill?

And if you take the time to look at the list of choices in the drop down boxes for each question shown above you will find that the maximum that you can choose for each question is less than half of Al Gore's actual consumption.

In other words, Al Gore's monthly electric and gas bills are so high that they are not even a choice in his own recommended "Calculate Your Impact" calculator.

Way back in 1998, when James Byrd, Jr. -- a black man -- was dragged to death in Jasper, Texas by John William King and two other white men, the outrage in the press was unquellable. There was anger, scorn, and 24-7 TV coverage from the steps of the Jasper County Courthouse. The term "Media Circus" qualified as an understatement. And perhaps that's as it should've been.

Now fast-forward to 2007. The location: Knoxville, Tennessee. The crime: The robbing, kidnapping, rape, torture, mutiliation, and murder of a young white couple by a group of blacks.

The reaction from the mainstream media: Silence.

Lemaricus Davidson, his half-brother Letalvis Cobbins, and George Thomas -- with assistance from a female accomplice -- allegedly took a leisurely four days to violently and repugnantly kill Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom, both in their early twenties. Before they met their tragic end at the gang's hands, both were raped and maimed for days. To give you some perspective on the level of violence committed upon them, Newsom's sex organ was severed and he was burned to death as Christian was reportedly forced to watch. The gang then repeatedly raped her for several more days before eventually severing her breasts and killing her.

Yes, it's normal for your stomach to be churning right now.

Now I ask you, what about the Newsom-Christian murders does not rise to the level of magnatude in the slaying of James Byrd? Why have we not heard about this in the MSM? Where are the camera crews? Where's the coverage? Where's the national outrage?

It's funny how any white on black crime is always front-page news for days on end, but when it's the other way around, the mainstream media falls suddenly silent. Remember this story the next time one of your left-wing friends tries to convince you that the MSM doesn't have a social agenda.

The MRT headline reads, "Court Officials Agree To Jail Consultant Hire".

He must have given some really bad advice.

Al Gore just won an Academy Award for his documentary film "An Inconvenient Truth", a piece warning us all about the coming planetary distaster if we do not reduce our carbon emissions.

It has just now been revealed that just one of Gore's homes (he has several...this one is in the Belle Meade area of Nashville) consumes roughly twenty times the energy of a normal home.

"Last August alone, Gore burned through 22,619 kWh - guzzling more than twice the electricity in one month than an average American family uses in an entire year. As a result of his energy consumption, Gore's average monthly electric bill topped $1,359.

Since the release of An Inconvenient Truth, Gore's energy consumption has increased from an average of 16,200 kWh per month in 2005, to 18,400 kWh per month in 2006.

Gore's extravagant energy use does not stop at his electric bill. Natural gas bills for Gore's mansion and guest house averaged $1,080 per month last year."

But before you get all huffy about how a guy who constantly travels by air, heats and cools at least three large homes, and probably has more personal vehicles than you can browbeat you into reducing your carbon emissions you need to read Mr. Gore's response:

Responding, Vice President Gore's office told ThinkProgress:

1) Gore's family has taken numerous steps to reduce the carbon footprint of their private residence, including signing up for 100 percent green power through Green Power Switch, installing solar panels, and using compact fluorescent bulbs and other energy saving technology.

2) Gore has had a consistent position of purchasing carbon offsets to offset the family's carbon footprint - a concept the right-wing fails to understand.

A few things stick out. Perhaps an electrical engineer can help me out with this but how can one purchase 100% green power from a power grid? I know that a grid can have some of its power supplied by "green" sources but you can't just take from a grid power that is "green", can you?

Also, isn't it kind of amazing that Mr. Gore's energy consumption is so high even after installing solar panels, flourescent bulbs and other energy-saving technologies?

There can only be one plausible explanation for both Mr. Gore's public policies and his level of energy consumption.

He has a huge weed farm in his basement.

While the Chamber of Commerce and the CVB compile the list of "ohh we were so close to landing that one" conventions, I invite the readers of Jessica's Well to browse the 2007 booking calendar for the Midland Center and find the events which are generating those all important room nights and out of town visitors.

I'll start us out with one:

April 2-4, 2007 - Petroleum Strategies presents The Annual Executive Oil Conference (est. 300-400 attendees, by google search)

Once we're done, I wager if you DOUBLE or even TRIPLE these events and attendees you will not put a substantial dent in the =operating loss= which is supposed to be covered by the economic impact multiplier of this increase in out of town visitors.

A great story, h/t Will at Vodkapundit.

Rambo fearlessly ran to the vehicle, reached thru the window and jerked the suicide bomber out of the vehicle before he could detonate and commenced to putting some red pipe to his heathen a**.

Read the whole thing!

"Fasten your seat belts. It's going to be a bumpy ride." I don't know if I, of all people, ought to start by quoting Bette Davis, but since this is about a bitch, it's somehow apropos.

In 1992 a power couple, as they became known, was vomited from Arkansas onto the public stage, and greeted with rhapsodic cheers from the pseudo-intelligentsia in New York and Los Angeles--the people who, before they get on camera to take pot shots at anyone who might not have disinherited a child who had once voted Republican, had spent the hours before in a waxing parlor, if a woman, or a barber shop, if a man. These days all bets are off where each sex might go, and in 1992 they were off with Katie Couric.

William Jefferson Blythe Clinton oiled his way in front of the camera, drawing life from it to the point that I wondered if he fed on it, like a vampire on blood, and the buffoon and glad-handing, duplicitous attention-suck he was and remains is obvious. And his unlovely wife, our next Dear Leader, appeared also, occasioning research by Sennheiser for microphones which could take her shrieking voice. Volcanoes and thunderclaps were a walk in the park, but her voice--it is my opinion that's when audio engineers went to 24-bit sampling.

Carbon Footprint Offsets.....or Purchased Indulgences?

You be the judge.

Hmmm. Read this. Maybe Reuters has been right: one man's "terrorist" is another man's "freedom fighter." But it depends on if you are fighting against freedom (Iraq, Spain, Britain, Lebanon, et al) or fighting for freedom (Iran, Khazakhstan, China, et al).

"Iran's enemies, through hiring some mercenaries and with their wishful thinking, want to create instability but ... the armed forces will strongly suppress anti-revolutionaries and rebels who are dependent to foreigners," Safavi was quoted by IRNA as saying.

Faster please.

h/t Gateway Pundit and Instapundit

Without question I have been disobliging in my life and have said things that violate the idea of "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all." And there is no question that some of my actions might have caused heartburn to others, and it is without doubt that some of the people at whom I've looked with more than passing interest would cause a frown of disapproval from the otherwise unruffled (at least by thought) brow of Oral Roberts, a man who boils his eggs in widows' tears--that is of course until I fixed it with a hefty contribution to the faith healer's medical school.

But nothing in my history, or in what I am likely to do, even if my brain is eaten by a tumor and I vote for our Empress Hillary, has been bad enough to warrant me having to deal with Counterclockwise Home Loans.

I guess all those folks who complain about Cap Rock Electric's prices may have a point. Caprock apparently has the where with all to shell out $352 Million in cash and assume $515 Million in debt to acquire Semco, a natural gas utility company with customers in Michigan and Alaska.

I guess this means Cap Rock is all about pleasing its investors, not providing reliable and affordable power to its customers.

Convention center task force holds first meeting

Midland, Texas, again seems to be the center of "national" news about culture, war and politics. It is coming across the wires this morning that a Midland Lesbian couple are the first international visitors to take advantage of a civil union law just enacted in the state of Coahuila, Mexico.

I figure we will not have to wait much more than 24 hours before the stories add the phrase "...the West Texas Oil Town and hometown of George and Laura Bush." Once that is added to the wire reports, activists and bloggers will again use Midland to advance various Bush Derangement Syndrome attacks.

I'll be sure and wave to all of you chumps in the balcony.

Losers.

Here we go again. Victor Davis Hanson's latest must read, on "NEWSWEEK's" "journalism" concerning the threat of Iran:

When Newsweek's Koran story went south, and after it had resulted in several deaths, we got this strange explanation from Isikoff: "Obviously we all feel horrible about what flowed from this, but it's important to remember there was absolutely no lapse in journalistic standards here." Actually, Mr. Isikoff, it is important to remember that several died precisely because of "a lapse of journalistic standards."

Go read the whole thing. Regarding the credibility of this story (or, in my opinion, dang near any other we might see in the Has Been Media), VDH is skeptical:

But given both the magazine's recent history, and its flawed methodology, we will never know - just as we can't any more trust the pictures we see, the memos that are read on the air, or the media inquisitors who are themselves cross-examined.

Faux-tography, faux-journalism, fake but accurate; all tools for the tools/"useful idiots*" in the media. Anything to undermine the Administration and the West's chances to win the war for Western Civilization.

*attributed to V.I. Lenin describing Communist-leaning propoganda repeaters in the western media.

Real Men all over America need to set aside a full ten minutes of silence today in honor of the passing a great pioneer whose work continues to affect our lives each and every day.

Robert Adler, Father of the TV Remote, is dead at age 93.

Wow.

The one thing that I had really not expected to hear upon the announcement of the building of a $48 million dollar regional performing arts center was that we just aren't spending enough money on it.

The Democrats have passed a symbolic and non-binding resolution against the war in Iraq...which matches up perfectly with their long-time symbolic and non-binding support of the troops.

How long do you think it will be before Child Protective Services begins showing up on the doorsteps of smokers?

As most in the blogosphere have heard, Amanda Marcotte, is now the former blogger for the John Edwards campaign and may be in need of work. (See Resume)

However, I think there is a typo in the resume, since Alpine, Texas doesn't have a TasteeFreeze, but Alpine is living up to it's reputation as home to a special breed of nutsroots and moonbats.

I was quite surprised that she is from the area and that her family is still out here, though I think she points out they live "near Midland" so she can put "Bush's supposed Hometown" in her posts as a form of mockery.

After browsing some of her West Texas writings, I must say she can certainly turn a phrase when it comes to Midland/Odessa:

Okay, I don't live at the P.O. I hightailed it much further than that to get the fuck out of West Texas, the Land of Cactuses and Despair. Don't get me wrong. West Texas is beautiful unless you are in the Midland/Odessa area, which is uglier than a bleached asshole and more depressing, especially if you spend much time regarding the zillions of oil pumps, none of which appear to function anymore.

I can't see why John Edwards let this expressive fire-brand go....

Originally from Michael Yon (whose site was overwhelmed by a Lizardlanche).

Answer: Iran's State-of-the-Art 'Tater Cannon?

Another leveled playing field, this time in North Carolina. Apparently, Midland is not the only town wishing to help out multi-billion dollar corporations (in our case Cingular) with some of your money.

North Carolina is also willing to take money from taxpayers in order to help out truly needy corporations....like....wait for it....Google.

Of course, this all happens with the blessings of Chambers of "Commerce" at various levels which, more and more, are less concerned with actual commerce than with advancing public policy and becoming pro-tax, pro-government-expansion lobbys in their own right.

From the Wall Street Journal, February 10, 2007, Page A8 (Registration required, sorry):

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce boasts that the organization's "core mission is to fight for business and free enterprise before Congress, the White House, regulatory agencies . . . and governments around the world." The national chamber has done just that, pushing tort reform and free trade -- but in the states, chambers have come to believe their primary function is to secure tax financing for sports stadiums, convention centers, high-tech research institutes and transit boondoggles [Emphasis mine]. Some local chambers have reportedly asked local utilities, school administrators and even politicians to join; others have opened membership to arts councils, museums, civic associations and other "tax eater" entities.

[snip]

"I used to think that public employee unions like the NEA were the main enemy in the struggle for limited government, competition and private sector solutions," says Mr. Caldera of the Independence Institute. "I was wrong. Our biggest adversary is the special interest business cartel that labels itself 'the business community' and its political machine run by chambers and other industry associations."

There is little to no evidence that Midland is behind the curve on this trend.

I was in El Paso this weekend to pick up my MacBook, which was repaired under warranty. The first Apple-made Mac that has failed in 30 isn't bad, I suppose, although my hands did twitch a bit not having any keys to stroke at home. While there I checked into the caravanserai, and on the bedroom television was CNN, which I muted with a reflex so fast that I could catch a fly in mid-air or keep Hillary's hand out of my pocket.

On the goggle box were people talking seriously about the death of Anna Nicole Smith, and the bottom half of the screen was consumed with the burning question of how did she die? The people on the top half had that look of earnest stupidity that I had seen before, mainly in Steve McQueen's eyes, trying, I suppose, to make gold out of dross, or out of golddigger--the final, ignominious end of that caricature of a woman. That burlesque of mammary glands, home to a hundredweight of Dupont's finest silicone, each as big as a normal head; her hair, the peroxide for which could let the HLH Foods make enough money for the Hunt Brothers for another run on the silver market; and rags which any puta in a high-class Juarez bordello would kill to have. If the face is a window on the soul, hers is the face of a street-walking Barbie dressed by Victoria's Secret, managed by Channel One Releasing, leering and tottering whenever she was in public. She made a sidewalk into a catwalk.

I would be rich and wouldn't be blogging for this poor blog if people would pay me royalties for my word! I invented THE word THE and I don't get any royalties for it! Everywhere I go I FIND PEOPLE USING THE WORD THE!!!

I tried to copywrite THE word THE but I didn't have THE money for it because I was in THE assylum!

I invented THE word THE when Charlemagne was chasing DemosTHEnes around Guinevere's chastity belt! And I get no royalties for THE! Abolish copywrite fees for inventors'!

I counted THE number of times that people on this blog used THE and I didn't get any money for THE times' that THEy used THE word THE and if I had that money this poor author would be able to buy a cottage on Martha's Vineyard and paint Hillary's trotters'! And count THE wrinkles' on Katharine Graham's neck! Oh, she's dead. I wonder where THEy buried THE body! Oh! I'm rich again!

I DEMAND ROYALTIES ON THE WORD THE AND EVERYTIME THE IS PART OF A WORD. IF YOU WRITE THEIR I WANT MONEY. IF YOU WRITE THERE-THERE TAKE YOUR MEDS, I WANT LOTS OF MONEY!

Abolish THE copywrite fees!

A THE saved is a THE earned.

The first two installments of this screed are here and here. This will be the 3rd and last, at least for the reference of the National Post articles. We have touched on the Holocaust Denier/ Global Warming Denier link. It seems to be picking up steam: the latest example being from Ellen Goodman of the Boston Globe (owned by the NY Times).

By every measure, the U N 's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change raises the level of alarm. The fact of global warming is "unequivocal." The certainty of the human role is now somewhere over 90 percent. Which is about as certain as scientists ever get. I would like to say we're at a point where global warming is impossible to deny. Let's just say that global warming deniers are now on a par with Holocaust deniers, though one denies the past and the other denies the present and future.

Good timing, Ellen, and thanks for making my point of a few days ago.

From the National Post of Canada articles by Lawrence Solomon, let's examine the preparation of Ellen Goodman's copy of the IPCC report:

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - A Dutch journalist asked an Amsterdam court on Friday to convict him for eating chocolate, saying by doing so he was benefiting from child slavery on cocoa farms in Ivory Coast.

A massive mulch fire has been burning near the town of Helotes, Texas since December 26, 2006. This fire, and its proximity to the Edwards Aquifer recharge zone (the water supply for San Antonio) has brought about some unique situations which expose the illogic and the competing interests of environmental and public health concerns.

The whole episode starts with a tenant of environmentalism to save us all from ever increasing landfills (or using what space we have too quickly): mulch and compost your trees and yard waste. Though, in some stories the burning heap is labeled a recycling operation, another tenant of environmentalism.

The latest chapter in this saga is the vote by the San Antonio Water System (SAWS) to deny water to the TCEQ to fight the fire because the possibility of underground water contamination is high.

The residents of Helotes are covered in smoke and soot, the TCEQ is hatching $4 million dollar plans to fight the fire, and SAWS is cutting off the water....all while the owner and others in the composting business tell all of them they are going about fighting the fire wrong.

I think Mayor Allan of Helotes sums it up pretty nicely:

"I am so furious and have had it up to here with all of them," Allan said. "This is a bureaucratic mess. Kids are sick. It is inexcusable for all the agencies to sit there and fight over how to fight the fire."

The worst part, is in the end, we will be saddled with MORE regulations, but we will not be immune to stupidity, lack of common sense and bureaucratic buck passing:

[TCEQ San Antonio area director Richard] Garcia says as far as he can tell, TCEQ followed the letter of its law. The agency's reputation may be scorched, but hey, its hands are clean.

With something as seemingly simple, and localized, as a 60-foot high, multi-acre, burning mulch pile is mis-handled by local and state government, why does it surprise anyone when any government venture is an unmitigated disaster. Yeah, more governmental control, regulation and more bureaucrats are going to solve this.

Many in the "science is settled" camp claim that the skeptics are untrustworthy - that they are either cranks or otherwise at the periphery of their profession, or that they are in the pockets of Exxon or other corporate interests. The skeptics are increasingly being called Deniers, a term used by analogy to the Holocaust, to convey the catastrophe that could befall mankind if action is not taken. Increasingly, too, the press is taking up the Denier theme, convincing the public that the global-warming debate is over.

Global Warming Deniers = Holocaust Deniers. Nice. The use of the phrase is designed to deny the correctly skeptical scientist any hint of respectability or credibility. "What? You deny the fact of global warming? You are worse than someone who denies that the Holocaust happened!" Lawrence Solomon, therefore, makes a point of including the resume' of each of the "deniers" he profiles in his articles. All are significantly credible and respected scientists in their fields of expertise. And these people are not "denying" anything other than the infallibility of the "science" behind the global warming hysteria.

The National Post articles continue here, here and here in parts 2, 3 and 4.

New York State Senator Carl Kruger has announced a bill to outlaw people from using an MP3 player, cell phone, Blackberry, or other similar device while in a crosswalk. This was prompted by the deaths of two people who were paying so much attention to their handheld electronics that they did not take time to recognize that they were entering into a contest between, say 200 pounds of meat, bone, hair and a few rags, and about 90% of that water, and several thousand pounds of steel and metal controlled by a New Yorker.

It is hard for me to get worked up about New Yorkers thinning the herd; after all, I've heard them sniff so many times about "fly-over country" that the well of my sympathy for them has run dry. And for LA too, but that's another story.

Nat the Narcissist. I like it.

Plus a Bonus: We get bagged on in the comments by another local blogger!

And this only 6 minutes in to our 15 minutes of double-good Anonynarcissist fame! If the last 9 minutes are even better I just don't think I can stand it.

Do you remember the "Fake But Accurate" news story controversy in the runup to the 2004 election? As it related to Dan Rather and CBS, it became known as Memogate. We covered it pretty extensively here, here, and and here.

If a person promoting a point of view believes that point of view strongly enough, and believes it is really, really true, it won't matter if they make up the evidence that supports their point. CBS News fell for faked documentation about the President's National Guard service (not showing up for duty at one point in his tour of duty) because they so wanted it to be true that they believed that it had to be true.

In the end, the letter that Dan Rather ran on the national evening news was proven to have been faked within a matter of hours. CBS's defense was reduced to stating that the story was correct even though the evidence may have been false, hence "fake but accurate." CBS News so wanted to throw the election for Kerry that they ran, with great publicity, a false story. The CBS News staff, Dan Rather, and his producer Mary Mapes, wanted it to be true so badly that they did not properly fact check the information. CBS was only working to get Their Boy in the Oval Office. They might have succeeded if not for the unpaid fact checkers in the blogosphere.

As bad as a Kerry presidency might have been, the country would have eventually gotten over it, at least by January 2009. What if the same "fake but accurate" tactic was being used on something more important? What could be more important than selecting the president of the United States during wartime, you ask?

You've all watched it...I'm sure some of you watch it multiple times a day and may even have it saved as a quick button on you remote control. No, I'm not talking about KOSA... I'm talking about the TV Guide Channel.

You know that hard hitting entertainment channel that provides all the programming that is fit to fit in 1/2 your screen.

It seems that TV Guide Channel has a new reality series that will run in the smallest of small screens called MAKING NEWS: TEXAS STYLE

Centered around CBS affiliate KOSA-TV Channel 7, MAKING NEWS: TEXAS STYLE will go inside the dramatic and fascinating world of local news and follow the daily struggles of a diverse cast, as they will do anything to get their story and produce their nightly newscasts. Taking an in-depth look at what it takes to run a local news station and the drama that ensues behind-the-scenes which sometimes translates on-screen, the series will focus on the people who put the news together including the anchors, reporters, trainees, and producers.

I know I'll be tuning in, for the Drama.

The United States and Texas in particular is moving toward the expansion of coal fired power generation plants and activist groups like the Clean Sky Coalition and their "Face it, Coal is Filthy Campaign" have themselves to blame.

I'm sure everybody who picked up the MRT, or any other paper in Texas over the last two days has seen the multiple ads trying to rally the "Environmental Troops" to oppose TXU's plans to build 18 "new" coal fired power plants.

As with most activist sites, they shout slogans and "dire" warnings, yet offer no solutions and no compromises, just NO, DON'T DO IT, IT IS BAD BAD BAD. Coal is so bad, this hollow quote seems to advocate any-other type of plant, except coal:

Any source of electricity generation, ranging from wind, solar, natural gas and hydropower - all the way to nuclear - produce less air pollution than the proposed coal plants.

OK, so which ones is your organization supporting? Which ones have folks like the Sierra Club (a major supporter of Clean Sky Coalition) supported in their history?

Wind? as long as it isn't in Massachusetts Bay. Ruining the vistas of West Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas is OK, but don't build any more power lines, those towers are ugly.

Solar? The whole Southern Half of Arizona is pretty useless and gets lots of sun, several hundred square miles of collectors could be built, so long as it doesn't impede the migration of any animal known to have happened by that part of the Country.

Natural Gas? So long as you don't drill for it in Colorado, ANWAR, on Federal Land or in the Gulf of Mexico...ohhh and you can't build LNG terminals for foreign Natural gas along the coast either.

HydroPower? So long as you don't dam any running river with any type of wildlife in it or flood any scenic canyon.

Nuclear? So long as you can overcome three decades of anti-nuclear power propaganda we produced, buy reactors from the French, and find a place to safely dispose of the wastes which is not on the planet earth.

Seems to me these very activists have forced America into using Coal.

It is my opinion that coal is vogue now because successful activism to limit the expansion of power generation using these other "more desirable" methods has caused them to be more expensive and inefficient than coal. TXU and many other power suppliers had limited coal use for decades because it was inefficient compared to other forms of power generation. Several of the proposed coal plants (like Colorado City) are conversions of Natural Gas Plants!

The only way I can see these organizations and activists redeeming themselves is for them to run a statewide campaign with lots of advertising that says "Face It, we were Wrong to demonize every type of Energy Production.....Go Nuclear!" However, it will never happen. They do not obtain their power and influence by supporting a compromised and rational energy policy for Texas or the Nation, they obtain their power by stirring dissent against the evil at hand, with no concern for the balancing of the needs of society and the conservation of nature.

Apparently, it sometimes pays to employ a "different and better kind of pathetic" cry for more ink.

Today, us Wellheads get a column from Jimmy Patterson (can't find the link yet) on the goings on here at the Well...and frankly, the man is a lot nicer to us than he probably has cause to be. For the record, I think the whole paper is.

The original topic concerned the proposed really!, really!, really! feasible! new convention center. I guess I am going to have to set up "categories" on the blog so that people will be able to go straight to those topics that would interest them.

I've been silent for a while but your luck is about to change. The leeches have given me an excellent bill of health, which is good as far as I'm concerned although it occasioned moaning in some quarters, and more to the point I've virtually quit watching the news. Or reading it.

There is, really, nothing to be done. If I lived in Midland I could take up the gauntlet and slap some people with the hope that the fishbowl is small enough to have some effect. (Try to untangle that metaphor. I dare you.) But in the national scene? No way.

I tried watching Nancy Peloski once, and found myself trying to reach through the television to strangle her chicken neck and make her pop eyes even more popped. I really tried, and had my hands in to the wrist, but could go no farther. If I'd had two witnesses, like people who make a hole-in-one, I would be in Sweden getting dressed to receive a Nobel prize for discovering the physics of teleportation, but, unfortunately no witnesses. Not even the cats, who ran from the room, sliding on the hardwood, at the sound of my outraged screams.

It is shift-change time for the foxes at the henhouse.

Perry told the Reporter-Telegram his reason from resigning from the MMMD is because he likes to "start things and turn them over to people that like to run them." He said he is confident the MMMD board members will be able to accomplish a lot over the next few years and that the organization will operate smoothly under Brown's leadership. Perry noted Brown has owned property downtown for a "long, long time" and understands the dynamics of downtown Midland and the challenges involved in helping to revitalize it.

Emphasis mine, of course.

Don't expect the MRT to delve too deeply into Mr. Brown's motivations behind understanding "...the challenges involved in helping to revitalize (downtown Midland)."

I appreciate councilman Perry being upfront with his motives and those of his replacement. Hiding in plain sight, if you will. But how many MMMD board members are not owners of property downtown? How much opportunity is there for the board to hear an alternate opinion?

But then why would the Foxes United Henhouse Management Board want any tax- and rent-paying hens on their board? I am sure they can think of no reason.

"I think where (the management district) is now-- it's got a funding source, a good board-- it's now just a matter of picking projects that are good. Now you'll really be able to see them do things," Perry said.

Hold onto your wallets, boys and girls. I think my growing downtown company is going to start looking at space out at Claydesta...as so many others have done.

Gov. Rick Perry signed an executive order mandating that most girls, starting in September 2008, receive the vaccination against the human papilloma virus, or HPV, prior to entering sixth grade...

By sidestepping the legislature, Perry - a conservative Republican - avoided a showdown with GOP lawmakers and Christian organizations that oppose mandatory HPV vaccinations on the grounds that teaching young people to avoid pre-marital sex is a better solution...

...the move drew immediate criticism from conservative groups, which noted that the governor had accepted campaign contributions from Merck & Co., the drug company that manufactures the vaccine.

"All Merck wanted was a mandate so the insurance companies would have to pay for this. Follow the money," said Cathie Adams, president of the Texas Eagle Forum, an organization that promotes socially conservative policies...

Merck has been pushing for laws mandating its Gardasil vaccine in numerous states...One of its top Texas lobbyists, Mike Toomey, is Perry's former chief of staff. Merck was paying Toomey between $25,000 and $50,000 to influence politicians...

I wonder if most Texans fully comprehend the truly diabolical level of civil rights infringment they have just been subjected to. Let me just summarize: Parents with female adolescents are now forced to vaccinate their daughters against an essentially avoidable, sexually transmitted disease. All so Perry, Toomey, and Merck can keep the profits high.

But wait, there's more. The vaccine, Gardasil, is not time-tested, having been on the market for only a matter of months. Sure, it has been approved by the FDA, but so was Vioxx (another exclusive Merck product) which was pulled from the market after being found to caused harm to users, harm including death.

Merck's profits were reduced by almost 60 percent as a result of the Vioxx lawsuits. Think they might be looking to make up a little scratch?

Perry defended his decision Friday, arguing that the vaccinations are needed to save lives.

"Necessity is the excuse for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of the tyrant and the creed of the slave." -- William Pitt

RTWTH.

Hilaaaaaaaarious!

The electricity-wasting incandescent bulb would be banned, replaced by energy efficient compact fluorescent, under a bill that Assemblyman Lloyd Levine plans to introduce.

RTWTH.

Molly Ivins has passed away. Which is sad because it will afford us all less opportunity to read good stuff from Florence King.

Recently the Midland City Council was approached to chip in $1 Million dollars, land at Beal Park and $160k decreasing to $50k in annual operating expenses to build a 35 court tennis center.

Setting aside the merits of the project and the fiscal aspects of this endeavor, why isn't this project being steered toward downtown development by the boosters? $7.8 Million with a projected net operating loss of $50k per year with a definite economic and quality of life impact for the whole town and especially downtown seems a better deal than a $68 Million dollar Convention Center with net operating losses of $250k per year.

A tennis center downtown seems to meet several of the wants and goals of the downtown boosters:

Additionally, you could cut back the number of courts from 35 to 30 and utilize the Midland High Tennis Center during large tournaments for preliminary matches. There are no nearby tennis courts at Beal Park.

Downtown Revitalization has been the Mantra of our City Fathers for decades, so why isn't every development project which is seeking local funds evaluated for suitability Downtown? Are the policy makers so unimaginative that they ignore their own stated goals for Downtown and look only at the recommendations in their consultant's reports?

Al Gore has been nominated for the Nobel Peace prize.

Gee, do you think he'll win?

"Al Gore, like no other, has put climate change on the agenda. Gore uses his position to get politicians to understand, while Sheila works from the ground up," Brende said.

During eight years as Bill Clinton's vice president, Gore pushed for climate measures, including for the Kyoto Treaty. Since leaving office in 2001 he has campaigned worldwide, including with his Oscar- nominated documentary on climate change called "An Inconvenient Truth."

Yeah, he was so effective in getting politicians to understand, that during his time as Vice-President the U.S. Senate voted down the Kyoto Treaty...wait for it....95-0.

And, yes, he will win the Oscar, also, on the surge of support of the Laurie Davids of the world phoning in their academy votes from their Gulfstreams flying between the coasts. You know....doing their part to help save the planet by raising awareness. Awareness is important! So is action! That is why you see Speilberg, Redford, DiCaprio, etc. all wedged into those Southwest flights into Salt Lake for Sundance. Okay, bad example.

So far, Al Gore's (et al) whole message is that we need to give up the idea that us little people can be allowed the same carbon footprint as...well....Al Gore. Give it up, commoner, the big carbon footprints are reserved for the Al Gore's of the world.