The Site Administrator has brought our attention to the egestion of Dave Lindorff in his smug, splenous, sniffing call for the extermination of people who disagree with him. Not discussion, not persuasion, but the literal death. The extermination. And it gives me the same sort of grim satisfaction that I got when Air America started bouncing checks.

Over the years people on the right have endured the sniffing of those who suppose themselves our moral superiors, owing, I suppose, to the sort of cocktail parties that they attend and the elevated thoughts that they pride themselves in having, which set them apart from the Neanderthals on the right, who by their definition are subhuman and lack their refined sensibilities. Utterly without evidence of course, but then leftist posturing has never cohabited easily with rational thought and rational thought is dangerous to leftist posturing, like a cross to a vampire, hence the shrillness to drown out the sound of an oncoming thought.

One of the constant themes of these people is the suggestion or even downright statement that everyone who is not a partaker of the Received Wisdom (du jour) of the Left is a fascist, that all-important boo-word that the left trots out as its one-size-fits-all term of disparagement for those who do not belong to their sodality. Ignore for the moment that most of us, by the age of 20, ought to know that all disapproving adjectives are not equivalent and acquire a more descriptive vocabulary, these people always, when anyone questions their ex-cathedra bulls and encyclicals, start calling people fascist. "Eew! He doesn't believe in global warming/spotted owls/nuclear winter! He's a fascist! A Nazi!" At long last I have proof that this unlovely sneer is projection and Dave Lindorff has given me it. Thank you Dave. May you get an extra bowl of borscht.

The Credentials: Philadelphia journalist Dave Lindorff is a 34-year veteran, an award-winning journalist, a former New York Times contributor, a graduate of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, a two-time Journalism Fulbright Scholar, and the co-author, with Barbara Olshansky, of a well-regarded book on impeachment, The Case for Impeachment and on 12/22/2007 wrote the stupidest article to ever appear in print.

Okay, I added the last part.

Several of the Economic Development reports I have read for our fine community and others talk of revitalization of the "Community Center," or the "Heart of the Community," and in most cases, this means Downtown. I will readily admit that the downtown Midland skyline is our "trademark", but is it our community center, is it our heart?

I ask because we have been seeing "cardiologists" for decades and we are gearing up to spend several more millions on "heart surgery," and in the end I think we may find out we've had them treating the community's nose with the best cardiac care money can buy.

I tend to think the "Heart of Midland" isn't even a place....it is a concept, it is our whole community. Our community is not so large, or so geographically diverse that we are divided in such a way that one cannot enjoy the full life and culture of the entire area with ease. There are no rivers to divide us, there isn't horrific traffic and poor street layouts that preclude easy travel from any point in the community to another and with the exception of Saddle Club North/Lakes, there really aren't any gated communities that really divide the haves and have nots.

Modern urban renewal was born out of a necessity to rebuild "community" in areas where non-residential, non-small business, and non-cultural uses drove out once thriving communities. Therefore, these urban renewal ideas are for problems in cities where thousands of people per city block fled to adjacent communities, and yet they try and scale these plans and apply it to a community, like Midland.

Midland, never lost a downtown "community" to these forces, we probably never had more than 4,000 people live in our downtown zone, ever. What we lost were people and capital, across the whole of the geographic area...and we didn't lose them to the adjacent suburbs (there are none), we lost them to the likes of Houston, Dallas, and Denver.

Lets face it folks, we're not spending money on downtown to rebuild the "Heart of Midland." We're spending money so property valuations will rise to pre-1980s bust levels, so that eventually, downtown can carry it's weight on the tax rolls and thus lower property taxes for everyone. The powers that be are seeking to improve the value of too small a portion of the Community, and one that was probably way over valued by boom real-estate thinking to begin with. This is why I think downtown projects never seem to work out, their "heart" is in the wrong place.

Our Empress in Waiting has delivered herself of a commercial in which she is wrapping presents that She Who Disposes will give us on acceding to the office of President for Life, after her coronation in January of 2009.

In this commercial she sits, hunched over a table laden with presents that look suspiciously like Father's Day shirts. A quick shot of scissors, operated by a hand that cannot be associated with her cackle, cutting wrapping paper and then she places cards on each package and smirks over the benisons She, The Hillary is granting us.

And, in this time when our country is threatened by terrorists, weenies, and goobers, it's that (much) more important we elect someone awesome -- a strong conservative who will kill and hurt those who need killing and hurting.

Fred. Fred. Fred!

I'm concerned that if we send Tom back to Austin, he will lose his speakership and Midland will lose her influence and suffer a backlash

Backlash is a way of life in State and National Politics, and electing a Conservative (D)emocrat to shield us from the "backlash" and thus preserve "her influence" is folly. It kind of reminds me of that old saying about playing with snakes.

Maybe the good people of Midland ought to call up some of those U.S. Congressional Districts that sent Conservative (D)emocrtats to congress this last term and ask "How's that working out?"

For starters, Austin has always thought Midland to be a threat and has exercised preemptive backlashing for decades. In 1991, Tom Craddick was a Republican minority representative in a comfortable Democrat majority Texas House, with Ann Richards in the Governor's Mansion. That doesn't exactly spell power broker, even if he had been in the chamber for decades. Yet, these democrats unleashed their love of Midland and it looked like this:

For the un-informed, this is the Congressional Districting Map from 1991, which put the City Limits of Midland into 4 congressional districts (though only 3 had people in them). Correcting that little piece of "Midland Love" took a decade, a supreme court fight and in his first term, almost cost Mr. Craddick the speakership. Seems Craddick's speakership is always in peril.

Like it or not, Midland derives its power by having its elected officials fight for the interests of the District and holding to their conservative principles. The instant we give ground and switch to a "defensive" stance to "protect our influence" we will have already lost it.

Dingus, with his opening statement, has not declared himself a "Champion for District 82" ready to bring the District's ideals and leadership into Austin....he's come to negotiate a soft landing and apologize for sending someone like Craddick to the Texas House. Yeah, that's gonna go far.

And we thought local Mayoral Politics got nasty.....

From the MRT (and the Dallas Morning News):

Bill Dingus, at-large member of the Midland City Council, announced today that he will challenge Representative Tom Craddick in the 2008 general election, running as a conservative Democrat. "In seven years of serving the people of Midland as an at-large city councilman, I have strived to lead with integrity, honor and good old-fashioned horse sense," Dingus said. "As a city councilman, I have always guided my actions by asking myself, 'What is best for Midland?' Over a number of months I have come to believe that what is best for Midland -- and District 82 -- is a change of leadership in Austin.

Update: The RSS Feeder is really hopping on Craddick now... add the Austin American Statesman.

Building A at La Entrada has stood empty for almost two years while companies are taking and building space all over the area in a hot economy.

The city-owned, then MDDD-owned, then city-owned again (or whatever) which has had more government involvement than the Manhattan Project still stands on a city block that is being torn down and redeveloped around it with the now seemingly novel approach of investors using their own money to develop their own properties.

It should not be lost on anyone that the two buildings that have the greatest amount of involvement and interest from local governmental and quasi-governmental agencies have been the buildings showing the least amount of development or movement.

The idea that government involvement, more times than not, actually interferes with true economic development is well-known by all involved as long as we are talking about other elected officials spending tax money on other projects in other areas.

But these are not "other" elected officials so what is considered "taxing and spending" when it is done on the other side of the county line is considered "investment in the community."

It is that time of year when we all commemorate the rebirth of the earth, when the days start to get longer and we can look forward to not having to sit in our earthen huts, roofed with sod, as we pray to our gods that the sun will return and bless our land with warmth. I refer, of course, to the Winter Solstice, our modern holiday based on the pagan ritual of Christmas.

Christmas was, for those of you who are not anthropology students, a holiday which celebrated by a good part of the world before its conversion to the First Church of Climatology (Reformed, Martha's Vineyard See), with its prelate Albertus Gorus Maximus Asinus I.

To celebrate it, I am embarking on my annual two-week Grand Progress and I plan to break my diet in such a fashion that I shall shame a lamprey eel, or perhaps even a mortgage broker. I have made every preparation: clothing, valet key for the car, DVDs, iTunes, books, a spit-shine on the MacBook, and I have made dire threats to various people tugging at my sleeve moaning, "Can't you just..."

And to make sure that I can pay for it, I have just gotten

Don't leave home without it.

I won't.

Maybe governing Arkansas is not sufficient experience to be president, especially at a time of international peril. James Taranto's opinion. Mine, too.

Now that Mattoon, Illinois, has wrapped up the FutureGEN project, I guess the state and local officials get to start taking most of that $981 million in incentives off the table, minus the 'ante' to be in the game.

The tax abatements and guaranteed sales contracts weren't really "present funds" but I'm curious as to what our state and local officials will do with the millions of direct cash grants from our current budgets that don't have to be put into the FutureGEN project?

I can already hear the drumbeats for HT3R.....

What? You think they'd give it back?

Can you guess which of the above 4 things is "bad?"

It's hard not to conclude a form of mental illness has gripped the world's elites. If you're one of that dwindling band of westerners who'll be celebrating the birth of a child, "homeless" or otherwise, next week, make the most of it. A year or two on, and the eco-professors will propose banning nativity scenes because they set a bad example.

Mark Steyn. Read the whole thing.

It seems that all organizations whether they be the networks, marketers, or municipalities like Midland now find it necessary to aggresively pursue the "youth" demographic.

Midland is not an attractive place to reside for singles or marrieds without children, generally.

Midland is very attractive to those same folks as soon as they have kids and need to start considering all of the things that go along with that.

Some have the have wherewithal to live in some of the more glamorous urban settings on their own terms, i.e. gated communities, high dollar neighborhoods, private schools, etc. But a lot of people don't and Midland should appeal to them as well as anywhere in the state.

Midland will always be alot more attractive to the 30-somethings with kids than it will ever be to the 20-somethings. Can anyone imagine the sitcom "Friends" being set in Plano....much less Midland?

For the sake of argument, let us say that we could wave a wand and make Midland attractive for the 20-somethings. Can this be done without making Midland fundamentally less attracive for the familied 30 and 40-somethings?

In short, can we really broaden Midland's appeal? Or just cannibalize its current appeal to a lot of folks?

Because it looks like we are prepared to spend a lot of tax money to attempt to do just that.

I was cleaning out some spam comments and may have deleted some legit comments by mistake. If you posted a comment and it is no longer there, it wasn't deleted on purpose...so put it back if you have time. Sorry.

A quarter of a million of your tax dollars. Savor the rich, nougaty goodness of economic diversification.

If there was ever an indication that the ED Sales Tax needs a sunset provision then this is it. It has just turned into a candy store at this point.

Does being one of six votes in favor of the Midland Development Corporation dedicating fully 35% of its funding towards downtown development....uh...constitute...you know....voting on a downtown issue?

From today's article on the City Council meeting:

The meeting was the last for [Mayor Mike] Canon and District 4 Councilman Berry Simpson.

I know it will seem odd for a heart-felt thanks to come from these particular quarters to these gentlemen for their long-term service to the city but heart-felt it is.

We do tend to concentrate on just a few controversial, high-profile, hot-button issues here and that is likely more than enough to give the impression that we aren't happy about anything ever or are unaware of all of the things required of those who sit on the council (and the MDC board for that matter).

Serving on the council involves a lot more time, patience, and outright drudgery than one can discern just by reading news reports of proposed conventions centers, city personnel, or economic development issues.

If you haven't ever done so, attend a city council meeting sometime when you happen to have absolutely no interest in any particular agenda item. For every high-profile issue, there are a hundred rudimentary items that have to be decided and executed in order that a city like Midland may run. Zonings, ordinances, personnel, contracts, bids, etc. etc. etc. All mind-numbingly dull and all necessary.

So don't let us here at The Well be totally written down by our pet peeves. We have knowledge of and understand what constitutes 95% of the duties of a councilman and you do have our appreciation for that even if the votes don't always go our way.

Good luck in your future endeavors.

Way back when, in the run-up to the last and successful referendum to create a 4A development corporation, and when the proponents were still actually having to justify getting the money in the first place we were told over and over through the electronic and print media that we need this tax in order that we may diversify our local economy away from its petroleum-based nature thereby safeguarding our economic future.

So in this context it makes perfect sense that we should be giving public funds to private concerns like BCCK (an already local petroleum industry engineering firm) and Sentry Equipment (a non local, but decidedly petroleum industry-based equipment company) in order that we may bolster their courage to expand in the face of $90 oil. Doesn't it?

The absolute worst job in the world has to be the person who has to write the defense of and justification for these types of handouts on a case by case basis to publish both on the Midland Development Corporation's website and in their Annual Report.

Which is why nobody actually does it.

It does get old having to point out the original impetus for the ED tax was the one stated above. That was the goal. That was the justification. More importantly, that was what was voted on.

Since that time have seen public funds going to ephemeral non-manufacturing jobs (i.e., call centers for Countrywide, the State of Texas, W Power & Light, etc.) that, while they provide jobs for a time are not the manufacturing base we said we wanted to pursue.

Even more public money has gone to several already locally-based companies in the oil-industry as an incentive to expand in today's market.

Trace Engines, a now local manufacturer of aircraft power plants, does fit the bill as being a non-petroleum industry based manufacturing outfit, but I will leave it to the reader to decide if the "incentive" that was provided with your tax dollars ($400,000) had more or less causal effect on its relocation to Midland than did the fact that Trace was a company bought by a passel of local investors who needed to move it somewhere.

In short, what was sold to the public as far as being necessary steps toward economic development during the actual referendum bears no real resemblance to what has actually happened since the minute it passed and your tax dollars began accumulating so that they could be turned over to in-favor private concerns when the time came.

Even the proponents of the ED sales tax have had to admit this. Not through words, but with constant "re-focusing" and "restrategizing".

And in the latest re-re-re-strategizing the Midland Development Corporation and the City Council have all agreed (save one) that more than a third of all of the funds used for economic development will now be used to revitalize downtown. You remember that tax referendum don't you? The one that said we were going to levy a tax so that we may spend $2 million dollars per year subsidizing downtown developers?

I didn't think so.

When the tax was passed we were told that economic devlopment meant bringing in non-oil industry manufacturing jobs to diversify and expand the economy.

With the council's passing of the MDC's proposal to use 35% of the assets for downtown revitalization they have now told us very clearly this:

That economic development means whatever the hell they say it means.

Given articles concerning how best to handle...I mean, pay for....the $741,000 per year operating deficit that is being run by the Scharbauer Sports complex I though that I would dredge up the very first post on Jessica's Well (from March, 2002):

Having completed and now opened our local shrine to a dying sport we will begin to see in print how "lucky" we are to have such a facility. As nice a stadium complex as it is it wasn't given to us, rather it was enthusiastically advocated by some, stridently forced on others not so willing, but most certainly purchased outright by all involved. Luck had nothing to do with it.

We haven't heard much lately on the proposed second ramp onto the football field at the Scharbauer Sports Complex. Proponents point to a $300,000 'surplus' as a way to fund the building of this ramp. You can consider yourself a born 4a Corporation board member if you can look at a $45 million sports complex that was orginally slated to cost $38 million and still see a surplus of funds.

Of course, I got it completely wrong. It should have said 4B Corporation board member, not 4A.

The vote was 6-1 to pay for the deficit out of the general fund. Councilman Dufford was the lone vote for using the 4B tax money to cover the operating deficit. His argument for using the 4B money and therefore spreading the tax burden beyond just Midland property owners is a valid one, but I am glad that the burden instead falls on the budget that the council controls in the hope that this will bolster their skepticism when the same kind of rosey estimates of the demand for other venues....*cough* convention center *cough* inevitably come down the pike.

So on this issue, 'ol Walser gets his way and the council votes to use the general fund.

Okay. So then why does this pi** me off so much?

The public forum leading up to the vote was a short one with four people offering opinions, including 4B board member Ken Marks and Midland County Republican Chair Sue Brannon. Both said they would like to see the general fund be used to pay for future operational debt.

The 4B board member (and if memory serves, the single biggest non-elected office holding driving force behind the stadium in the first place) Ken Marks, doesn't want any money taken from the 4B corporation that was set up to run the stadium to actually have to cover expenses from operating the stadium?

Are they looking at building a third ramp into the stadium or something?

Sure, they are playing in front of a sea of bald spots now, but the likes of Bono couldn't carry these guy's jock straps.

Correlation is when two things just happen. Causation is when one thing causes another. Correlation is the first step in a theory, and is needed before a theory can be tested. Causation is needed for the theory to be proven true. Correlation is simple. Causation is not.

Now for a few bits of causation:

In 2000 George W. Bush got more electoral votes than Al Gore. This caused George W. Bush to be elected president.

On December 7, 1941, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. That caused the United States to declare war on Japan and clean their clock.

On September 11, 2001, Osama bin Ladin caused members of al Qaeda to run jets into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and to try for another Washington building. That caused our president to take action in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Now for a few instances of correlation.

December 7, 1941, the sun was shining on Pearl Harbor. On December 7, 1941, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. This does not mean that the sun shining caused the Japanese to bomb Pearl Harbor 65 years ago.

On September 11, 2001, George W. Bush was in Florida reading to school children. That does not mean that when George W. Bush reads to school children Islamists run airplanes into buildings.

And for a bit more correlation: Michael Moore is fat. Michael Moore hates America. This does not mean that fat people hate America. Remember Bob Bork, who has a few extra pounds and loves America, and Jane Fonda, who does not have extra weight and who hates America.

The city council has scheduled a public hearing in order that they may learn from which pocket we taxpayers would like to draw to bail out the $741,000 yearly operating deficit ($2.7 million total to-date) created by the Scharbauer Sports Complex.

The question at hand is whether the city will continue to cover the roughly $741,000 yearly deficit out of the general fund or change the system...for a while at least*...to have the shortfall covered by allowing it to be paid for with money brought in through the 4B tax that was created in order to construct the stadium in the first place.

Let me make a predicition right now that those who own a lot of property in the county will advocate for using the 4B money and those who don't own a lot of property or only rent will advocate for using the general fund to pay for the shortfall.

I know. I know. That is just pure crazy talk.

But that is if they show up at at all. Because if they are like me (both a Midland property owner and one who shops here frequently)....and are wondering whether they would like to pay their share of the shortfall with one check per year to the Tax Assessor/Collector's office or a little bit at a time with each and every purchase they make locally...they, too, may be left wondering at this point....

....what F'in difference does it make?

I can certainly see why the city would want to push it off of their own budget and on to "someone else's"...perhaps so that it could free up some money to pay for the feasibility study that says we really, really, really could use a brand new convention center too... but we taxpayers are not fooled here. We will be paying for it either way. So pay for it however the hell you want.

Except for one thing. There is one reason why it is important to have it paid for out of the general fund....

I am in agreement with Councilman Dingus when he says...

Midland has an obligation to pay for stadiums which he called 'too big for Midland' but added 'we are going to have to maintain them one way or another.'

What Dingus is saying is that Midland wanted a stadium that it can be proud of, it was provided, and now that it is going to cost a lot more than originally was thought perhaps we ought to man up and put it in the budget and quit trying to foist off our stadium costs on unsuspecting out-of-towners through the use of 4B money.

Councilman Dufford may disagree:

District 3 representative Scott Dufford said its makes "good sense" to use 4B revenue to pay for the operating deficit as the whole idea of a sports complex was to generate sales tax revenue due to increased business at Midland hotels, restaurants and stores.

Granted, the whole idea of the sports complex was to generate sales tax revenue due to increased business at Midland hotels, restaurants, and stores but the reality is that we would not even be having this discussion if it had in fact done so. So don't go hanging this extra expense on the hotel/motel/restaurant owners because they are obviously not seeing any marginal benefit from the complex.

No. Put it in the budget. At $750,000 per year increasing with inflation and hold income steady over the same time period. Because that is what is going to happen.

Put it in the budget so that we can all actually take reponsibility for "the stadium that we can be proud of".

Put it in the budget so that we can all have a hugely expensive reminder that the proponents and consultants who come up with wildly unrealistic income estimates for these projects in order to sell them to the public never, ever suffer any penalties for failure.

Put it in the budget so that Midlanders can be forced to bear the full cost of their purchase of a luxury item.

A doctor friend of mine, Jan, has never practiced medicine. He went to Yale Medical School, then was a resident and then chief resident and then entered the industry of researching pharmaceuticals and getting them approved by the FDA. He's a fascinating man, the closest I've come to a renaissance man, and who is difficult to keep up with.

When last I visited him and his wife he'd just come back from Australia and Japan, sent there to help prepare the megabytes of data that the FDA requires to get a drug licensed, and we were talking about it, the state of American medicine, and intellectual property rights.

America pays, of course, for most of the medical research in the world because we don't have socialized medicine. There is a reason for drug companies to exist--and that is to make lots of money. Canada some years ago ruled, in its sniveling socialistic way, that medicines cannot be patented--health it too important, they said, for crass material consideration and thereby threw yet another burden on the US--that of Canadian medical research. And their defense. And entertainment. And...

Why would any drug research be done in Canada after that? Why spend a billion dollars getting a drug ready for market when anyone can take the formula and set up a production line and not even bother to thank you? I did some googling and find that there are drug manufacturers in Canada, but the ones I found made generics. Which by definition do not have patents.

Jan said that the problem with the free-market drug-research system is that the first drug, say Lipitor for cholesterol, had some problems, and the second one was better. The company that made the second one made lots of money so the other big pharma companies wanted to get in on the act, for the concept was proved. So we have several second-generation cholesterol drugs and really only needed one. And for every second-generation drug a billion dollars was spent which could have been more profitably spent, in terms of health, on another disease. But it wouldn't have necessarily been more profitably been spent in terms of keeping the pharmaceutical companies afloat, and if we didn't have pharmaceutical companies doing drug research, the medical state of the art would grind to a halt and all medicine would be generic because there would be no profit in research. The health stops here.

This is a bit long. Make sure your coffee cup is full, or just skip it and click on Iowahawk.

Elsewhere on this blog, I was recently taken to task for a comment regarding FutureGen, the government (read: your taxes) funded research facility which, using new and novel processes, to be proven in the Penwell facility, will make burning particularly abundant but particularly dirty varieties of coal a clean and sanitary process. As a byproduct it will give us nearly free carbon dioxide, that, instead of venting into the atmosphere, will be usable for enhanced oil recovery.

My comment was that I was uncertain that there was any need for FutureGen. I also suggested that if the project turned out to be a make work project for technicians and scientists, we should let the thing go to Illinois. I was told that we have a need for more domestic energy, a need for the ability to burn coal cleanly and a need for more CO2 in the Permian Basin for enhanced oil recovery. I believe that the country and industry has already dealt with those issues and would be pursuing all solutions, if they made economic sense.

So, my skepticism about the need for a government funded coal energy research facility in West Texas stems from my belief in the free market system. I have yet to understand what FutureGen may do that is not already being done. To wit:

A real, for profit, American power generation equipment company made this announcement this week. It is a probable breakthrough in clean coal combustion, using oxygen instead of air, eliminating a large number of pollutants from the flue gas. They are doing it because they see the future demand for such technology and see a way to make a buck for their shareholders by providing something their customers want, a bedrock principle on which the free enterprise system stands.

You can go to YouTube and watch these two videos that were deemed "too controversial" to air on NBC as as PAID advertising. Yes, that NBC....the peacock network...one of the big three nets that you grew up with.

But remember...they support the troops!

UPDATE: And isn't NBC the same network who thought it so courageous and forward thinking to go ahead and let Steven Bochco show the nation Dennis Franz's hairy ass 15 years ago on NYPD Blue? And then left it up the the individual affiliates to decide whether or not to show the episode?

Funny how the affiliates didn't even get the opportunity to choose here, huh?

UPDATE UPDATE: I am wrong. NYPD Blue was on ABC. It was Bochco's Hill Street Blues that was on NBC.

News items like this are a great thing to immediately post on your blog:

The Midland Development Corporation will present their annual development plan for Council approval. The plan will suggest targets for the 2007/08-year as well as highlight past successes. Media Contact: Jim Nelson/MDC President 571.4202

Though, I guess we will have to wait for the MRT to publish the MDC's / City's own press-release before it makes it on the MDC site.

As far as posting the Draft Annual Development Plan or the Approved Development Plan... well at least they have posted the 2006-2007 Annual Report (so, there is some progress).

Though, they might need to update the Property Directory, it is from 2005 and on page 31, the Heritage Building is listed as available....might want to check with the County on that.

And Gaia appears to be upset with all of the silliness transpiring in her name in Bali. Go get 'em girl!

The much ballyhooed NIE report, out this week, is taken by the MSM to mean that Iran is no longer (or was never) an offensive military nuclear threat. In a well-sourced and -linked article at Powerline, it is shown that other knowledgeable folk, who have actually read the document beyond the first sentence, beg to differ.

"We also assess with moderate-to-high confidence that Teheran at a minimum is keeping open the option to develop nuclear weapons."

Emphasis mine.

...the Israeli strike showed clearly that there is no reason to assume that Iran's nuclear program is located only in Iran. It is reasonable to assume that some of its components are located in Syria, North Korea and Pakistan and perhaps in China and Russia as well.

So focusing on Iran only, by geography, is wrong and intentionally misleading. Iran is developing offensive nuclear weapons through outsourcing and non-co-location of facilities in order to make them harder to take out. We will be fighting this battle sometime in the near future and our "intelligence" community is actively accelerating that point in time with their disinformation. I am sufficiently skeptical that I cannot believe that the "new" viewpoint on nukes in Iran is an intentional feint. I would like to be proven wrong on that point.

UPDATE: there is more information here, a nice article from the American Spectator on the additional damage done by the new NIE report.

Perhaps most dangerously, the new NIE detracts from the American public's understanding of the nature of the Iranian regime itself. Iran is the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism, and plays an instrumental role in sustaining and bolstering the activities of terrorist groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas. Iran is also active in Iraq, where it has helped expand the lethality of the insurgency against Coalition forces over the past two years. These activities -- and the radical expansionist ideology of the regime itself -- matter as much, if not more, than the current state of Iran's nuclear program.

I have a source of disobliging photos about our Empress in Waiting, Hillary Rodham Clinton. I'll dole them out for they are too good to have all at once, like drinking an entire cellar of fine port in one sitting. After the first sip one's taste buds become anesthetized, and after all, isn't delayed gratification so like, er, white and straight and middle class and all those other nasty things? Well, so be it.

I don't think that this is Photoshopped; this came from a site of a fellow who know about that stuff and I don't see any obvious Photoshopped things, but then I'm not an expert on fraud, which would disqualify me instantly from working on our Empress' campaign.

And if it is Photoshopped, it doesn't matter for I'll take the Dan Rather defense. And anyway, does that matter? Our Empress said that she was named after Sir Edmund Hillary, who first climbed Mr. Everest. On May 29, 1953. But our Empress was born October 26, 1947. Oops.

Well, she may be the Smartest Woman in the World, but counting isn't her forte, except electoral votes and of course the $1 per pair charity deduction for Bill's old underwear, which I wouldn't clean the toilet with, although the underwear, if sentient, might have a sense of deja vu out of that. But by all means. Let's let a woman be in charge of 1/6 of the gross domestic product and who cannot either reckon to within 5-1/2 years or is a congenital liar. I vote for both.

Well, that was longer than it took for her to find the Rose Law Firm records after their subpoena. I think. I'd like to give her credit for something. She's getting better! She's getting better, I tell you!

I leave you with a sound which we may hear over the next decade:

I need to wipe the flecks of foam off my lips and do something salutary like pre-clean for Consuelo.

Does anyone else think that Judge Bradford's defense if the ICA lease buyout as "not being tax money" as a bit....well, not disingenuous exactly but overly defensive?

County Judge Mike Bradford stressed the funds are not from tax dollars.

"The money we used to buy out the ICA lease came from revenue received on other leases in the Heritage (Building) since the county has owned it," Bradford said."

County money is County money. It is $65,000 the county had and now doesn't have.

It is understandable. The county bought the Heritage building and it still had tenants in it. Okay, the tenants need to be moved and this sometimes involves a buyout. We get that.

But unless that $65,000 could not be used by the county for any other purpose but to buyout the current lessees then it may as well be tax money. Why the charade? It was necessary to buy out ICA lease so do it, but don't toss some word salad our way that makes it look like it did not cost the county any money.

Even such a clear cut thing as this has to be spun so badly?

Now, on to the terms of the buyout.....

There is this:

KOSA's lease had another 26 years to run. Station General Manager Barry Marks said the original lease was for 30 years.

"Had we paid them full value for their lease, it would have been in excess of $90,000 [Emphasis mine]. We were able to negotiate a discounted price for their lease and the cost that they were out constructing the sign on top of the building -- not all the cost just some of it," Bradford said.

And then this....

Bradford thanked Marks and also station owner John Bushman for their cooperation on the deal. The initial asking price on the lease was $1 million [Emphasis mine], Bradford said.

Unless I am reading this wrong, John Bushman or ICA (same thing?) initially asked the taxpayers of Midland for $1,000,000 to buy out a lease that had a full value of only $90,000.

I hope that this isn't the case. Because that would be a hell of a way to treat the taxpayers of Midland who handed another Bushman related company (Trace Engines) a couple of hundred thousand dollars by way of the Midland Development Corporation.

Like I said, I hope I am wrong.

UPDATE: In the comments you will see that ICA/Bushman may not have run at the county with an offer to get their lease bought out for around $1,000,000 and that the initial offer may have been the $90,000 that they then dropped to $65,000...which isn't a bad deal for the county.

The amount the FutureGEN Alliance and the Department of Energy wants to spend on the future of coal power plants, $1.5 Billion, is pretty big, but so is the local incentive number published in the Odessa American Today: $981 Million or $0.981 Billion.

Permian Basin cities, counties, companies and residents want to bring FutureGen to the Penwell site so bad they're willing to put a few bucks behind the effort - a little more than 981 million bucks in fact.

Wow.

No, this is not a satire. This is an example of a possession which shouts your exclusivity.

You can get one of them, if they're not gone, at 20ltd.com

It's a Che humidor, and a snip at 1750.00 pounds. It's also a very bad sign.

Mark Steyn wrote a book, America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It. I've read snippets, and I've read a lot of Steyn, and flatter myself by thinking that I have some idea of how his mind works, so pardon me if I extrapolate a bit. The book, by the way, is on its way and Amazon's Steve Bezos can buy yet some more land in Hudspeth County.

Steyn's point is that he isn't sure that America has the cultural confidence in her institutions to survive, and he's quite sure that Europe doesn't. He has for years banged the demographic gong, and he's right about that; the numbers don't lie, and when you combine that with the fatal poison of multiculturalism, you have made a recipe for the destruction of a civilization. If a culture is held by a dwindling population which will not defend it, a culture which doesn't know enough about it to care about it, only a moonbat would be surprised to see that culture die.