The Noise Machine (05/03/10)

The rest of what's out there on the Internet.....(this being Houston after all)



OK, so let me get this straight....your home flooded, it's going to flood again, yet a county buy-out and relocation (so drainage improvements can take place) is taking advantage of the poor? I don't think you've thought this one all the way through.


Only in ChronBlog does the increased national profile of a Republican Governor equate to potential bad news.(Well, Chronblog and the Bill White Texas Tribune.) I'm not sold on the idea that Perry filling a leadership vacuum in the Republican Party automatically equals plans for a National race. If anything I think he understands the value of playing kingmaker better than most politicians out there.


Also from the left, Facebook as political poll? Color me shocked that Democratic activist and InterLeft blogger Charles Kuffner isn't impressed with Perry's campaign. Next you're going to tell me that Lone Star Times doesn't think that Bill White is doing a good job.


Back to ChronBlog for a second: I guess we'll just have to keep on waiting for some adult analysis of the Texas Workforce Commission. There are a lot of issues on which I disagree strongly with Rick Perry, but the TWC stimulus rejection isn't one of them. All accepting the federal bailout money would have accomplished is to forestall the eventual tax increases, and require that they be even bigger down the line to cover the additional federal mandates. Considering the country, several states and municipalities are looking down the barrel at large budgetary short-falls because they've put off these hard decisions for years, you'd think that people would stop asking them to push it back even further. (Unless they're grinding a partisan axe that is, then.....well.)


It's official, Continental Airlines will be merging with United and moving to Chicago. As noted by BlogHouston, the good news is we don't have to watch local news media outlets get schooled by outlets in other markets any longer but we do lose Houston's airline. You'd think Houston leaders would want to use this as a real-life learning opportunity to see why the combined company chose Chicago over the Bayou City. You'd be wrong, but you'd think that would be a smart move.


Ah Houston...read the comments to this well-written editorial on TxDot and commercial rail funding. The representatives are laying out a strong case for funding freight rail etc....and Houston's commenting crew is focusing on Amtrak. This town is nothing if not predictable.


File this under "Bad ideas in politics never truly go away, they hide in dark places and multiply like roaches." - Debbie Riddle wants to copy the Arizona immigration bill. Before those on the right blow up in haughty anger...I don't believe that the Arizona bill is the second coming of the Nazi empire as do many in the MSM and the left. But I do believe it's a poorly thought out bill. The irony in the situation is that many of those who are decrying the bill for it's "show your papers" requirement are backing bio-medical National ID cards as the solution.....your documents please.


Bill White hits the airwaves in friendly territory. The ad is running in Houston. I have to wonder about this ad, since it touts his economic success as Mayor of Houston and the Perry team has expressed an interest in starting a discussion about said time.....Besides that I thought it was an OK ad. Typical Bill White, which is not a bad thing, his shop puts together some pretty good political ads.


I can see the Texas is being punished by mean-old Washington angle playing with the Republican base, and that's about it. I don't think it adds vote one to Perry's tally.


And finally....


We give you today's worst example of unbalanced, advocacy journalism courtesy of the Bill White Texas Tribune: A nation of immigrants. Blech. I really expected more out of the Tribune. They're good on breaking political news but their investigative or in-depth pieces have been pretty weak.