The Noise Machine (12/04/09)

Bill White brings snow....


It could be a fun media Friday for a change. Bill White Texas Tribune (I keed) lays out the case for White jumping to the gubernatorial while ChronBlog claims the scoop reporting that he will officially make the jump today. Meanwhile, BlogHouston notes that White will be touting his crime record in his run for Governor....Good luck with that.


Speaking of crime, The Heights arsonist struck again last night, bringing the total suspicious blaze count to 19. Again, the target was an abandoned, run-down home, suggesting that these are either crimes of convenience or there's a well-off Heights area resident who's fed up with sub-standard structures in their neighborhood.


The Bill White Texas Tribune (I keed) gives readers a program for the ever-growing Texas Gubernatorial race. With White's entrance the fun scale gets points for potential (a White Showdown against Rick Perry's bare-knuckle campaign style) but moves very little in the actual catagory. (The Republican primary should be entertaining, but the Democratic primary is still going to be as bland as warm milk.)


I've called Sealy a lot of things, a nice small town, an awful long way to drive for an outlet mall (when it was there) but "suburban Houston"? That's kind of stretching it isn't it? *Senate Governor-Candidate Mayor White has an interest in the Sealy plant, Mayor White? Not so much. One of the problems White is going to have is his juggling of his remaining responsibilities as Mayor vs. his campaigning for higher office. Fortunately it seems that ChronBlog is ready to carry the water for him on this issue.**



Sometimes things that have no relation to each other are funny regardless. This is one of those times.


How bad has the "green" movement been botched? Pretty badly. While most pundits are turning their attention to where things went wrong all the green movement is left with are some celebrities with no financial sense beating the bushes because they (to be honest) they don't get it anyway. (economics or climate change)



The hospital deal is on hold. I'm only surprised it took this long to put on the breaks.


Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it. Locke's supporters are now saying that he didn't bring the diversity charges against Parker, so cries about his hypocrisy are ill-founded. (remember, Locke said that he wouldn't make race an issue) While he may not have "brought it up" he did issue press releases about it, which makes him at least as culpable in the situation as the organizations issuing the charge. There's something to be said about the state of the education system, our political system and culture and how they're all providing minorities with a severe disadvantage in life right now. I'm not talking about racism and bigotry (although both exist) I'm speaking of long-held beliefs in all communities that hold children down. The soft bigotry of low expectations etc. One of the descendants of racism is an education gap among races that needs to be addressed. However, the way we currently address the issue (lowering standards for certain groups) only adds fuel to the fire. There's a real opportunity here for a candidate to tackle these issues and promise to nudge HISD to re-examine what they are doing. Sadly, that's not going to happen with this crowd of also-ran candidates.



















**To be honest, that's about what you would expect the home-town media to do for a local candidate running for State-wide office. There's usually a sizable amount of homerism from the local media for local candidates seeking to expand their political horizons, especially when they agree with their ideology.