The Noise Machine (06/23/10)

Tinkering under the hood....


No advanced degree for you! Well, you're allowed to offer the degree, but the State won't recognize it. (There could be a Constitutional question here but I'm too tired and busy to pursue it. Moving on.)


Stop me if you've heard this one before: There's disarray at the HPD crime lab. (I am shocked to find gambling going on at this establishment. As soon as I cash in my chips I will investigate!)


The Jerry Eversole/Steve Radack vs. Sheriff Adrian Garcia pillow fight is in high gear. Of course, the sexy view is that this is all partisan noise. (Which it undoubtedly is, to some extent. Unfortunately this means that the small fact their point of contention is correct will be swept under the carpet in a (sexy)froth of partisan blogging. Ah well.)


Nope, those red light cameras have NOTHING to do with revenue. (What's that? You say we rejected non-revenue producing solutions like extending yellow-light times out of hand? Just ignore that bit.)


A hand-picked judge in Austin authorizes Houston's rather large water rate increase and no-one bats an eye. (You will have a fair trial, where you will summarily be found guilty and then drug outside and shot.)


And finally.....


Calling the TPJ a "non-partisan watchdog group" is the same thing as calling the Heritage Foundation a "non-partisan think-tank". While technically true, it ignores the basic belief structure of each group and is fundamentally a dishonest labelling of an ideological organization that typically targets one party to the benefit of the other. (The Bill White Texas Tribune practices lazy identification like this all the time. It's a media outlet that many had high-hopes for, and which occasionally can produce a good report (see Matt Stiles' work above) but, for the most part, has disappointed except during elections. {To be fair, their primary coverage was excellent.} If they could just get a simple thing like identification correct that would be a good start.)