The Noise Machine (06/10/10)

Blow it up!!!


Remember way back when...say, a couple of months ago, when the City was touting their new "green" waste disposal bags as the civic equivalent of planting a big sloppy wet kiss on the derriere of Mother Gaiga? Don't pucker up just yet.


Texas Republicans are Happy! No...really....they just found out the State convention is giving out free elephant-themed chastity belts. (Which they plan to place on the children of "those people" to keep them from reproducing.)


Bill White...meet Rick Perry....more accurately....meet his campaign team. (You know, the one that's been knocking you around for the past couple of months? Yeah...them.)


It must be done safely! OK, granted, you'll all be too poor to care by the time we're finished, the rigs we need will be drilling away of foreign shores and we'll be importing 90% of our oil(making us LESS safe)...ever hear the one about omelettes and eggs?


Under article 57.2-3(c) of the blogger's code I'm required to say something about the three proposed options for the Astrodome. So....implosions are best witnessed during the cooler months in Houston. That is all.


Many observers feel that Houston's relatively free-market approach to land-use is one of the driving factors in it's leading the nation in cost of living. That developers can develop and people are (relatively) free to do with their property what they want (as opposed to having to do what their neighbor wants them to do) pretty much shielded Houston from the recent real estate bubble that was brought on (in part) by fights for scarce resources in prime locations. Amazingly, in it's race to world-classiness, City Council has decided to temporarily cede that advantage with the hopes of doing away with it permanently. Now if we can just continue destroying the jobs market our journey to Paris-style unemployment and urban design will be complete.


What is it about Houston government (or quasi-governmental agencies) and federal grants?


Consider this: If, during your second run for Statewide office your main concern is still increasing your profile you've got bigger problems than your campaign team wants to admit.


Charles Kuffner grabs a picture of the most vague campaign sign ever. My guess is Michael Williams views elections like a game of "Where's Waldo". Find his name on the ballot and check the box.


Where have we heard this before? We're popular...it's the POLLS that are flawed! Blaming the pollsters is the last refuge of the soon to be defeated. (Full disclosure: I've said on many times that I believe certain polls to be of limited predictive value. They're snapshots at best. That being said I do like issues polls, because they typically provide a fairly broad time-span over which to evaluate trends.)


Texas Watchdog takes a look at Texas' Whoops! Lost and Stolen Equipment list. And these are the people we want running our healthcare?


And finally....

Again from Texas Watchdog: That transparent stimulus spending is in desperate need of some Windex.