The Noise Machine (05/11/10)

Stormy weather......



When home-school numbers don't add up, the questions about drop-out rates come flooding in. (again)


Call it, selective morality, based on financial needs. Funny how that works.


Supreme Court nominee Kagan, cautious middle-of-the-road pick or anti-military lesbian? Next question: should lesbian even matter, from a legal perspective that is. (Obviously it matters from a social perspective, where many -mainly on the right- feel that a "gay" agenda is marching forward.) And what does her selection say about representation?


Houston Restaurant BB's Cajun Cafe is expanding with a new downtown location. Congratulations to the Bassler's.


And here comes the Grand Parkway again, ready or not. (Need it or not, like the idea of paving over the Katy Prairie or not....)


Left out of Jared Woodfill's GOP history lesson is the fact that he was a key player when the local GOP was asleep at the switch.


The bi-annual Chet Edwards is a goner countdown has officially begun. Why do I get the feeling he's still going to be standing in office when this is all over?


I'll give Bill White a C-minus for his white paper on Rick Perry's spending. He's right regarding the Texas Enterprise Fund, dead-solid wrong on Perry's refusal to take federal unemployment funds and then raising taxes, (an issue that I've previously blogged about in some detail) and wrong to continually release wonkish "policy papers" that few Texans are going to read, or even care about. (IMO what White needs to guard against is the impression that he's lecturing Texans on how they "should" be. People like to think they're voting for a candidate who understands them, not one who feels he's smarter than them and can continually talk down at them instead of speaking with them.)


Texas Watchdog lays out the details on the funniest story of the weekend. I can't see any way these votes are going to pass muster but, then again, I don't see how a taxing authority can be set up in a way that no constituents can live within it's boundaries. My guess is the vote will be disqualified, and something will have to be done in the Lege to straighten this mess out.


And finally....


Would someone please go explain the concept of commuter school to the Bill White Texas Tribune's Reeve Hamilton? As an alumni of UH-D I can tell you this. There are intelligent students there (present company excluded) who are working full-time and attending classes at night. That they don't graduate within six years makes their degree no less impressive. In fact, to my mind, their ability to juggle work and school makes it even more impressive were I making a hiring decision. (One of our great failures, as a society, is allowing the education bias of some affect the goals of the entire system. Especially when the 'some' operate under a sense of royal entitlement *cough*UT&aTm*cough*)