The Noise Machine (07/19/10)

Poor Monday.....what with no friends and all....


Have gun, will travel. (To the Texas capitol at least.) Suddenly anti-gun leaning reporters everywhere are rushing to get conceal and carry permits to save themselves 5 minutes in screening every day. (When reality meets blind idealism reality is typically the winner)


More people wanting to spend large amounts of taxpayer money to create an urban "utopia" out of Houston. Well...an urban utopia once they build developments around the newly renewed areas. (It would be interesting to see how Wulfe's holdings and current developments dove-tail with the land picked out for the Master plan would it not?)


Why "cut, cut, cut" isn't going to be enough to get Texas out of it's budget hole. Streamlining plays a part, but Texas also needs to look at how it generates revenue. (And by "generates revenue" I don't mean calling for tax increases on everyone one pay grade higher than me. That's the LibDem way. Which is why I don't support their plans. Of course, I don't support the "cut at all costs" mentality of the Republicans either.)


More bad news for the HPD crime-lab. Despite Millions of dollars spent, they can't keep up. (Blame this on the administration of your choice.)


Here's a nice State PAC & competitive races funding overview by the Statesman's Jason Embry. Dollars are good (although not perfect) predictors of competitive races.


The InterLeft notes that some of the InterLeft is in opposition to RenewHouston. My guess is that the true opposition (if any) will not spring from this source. (However, it might not be built on opposition stronger than "well, Costello is a Republican!" either.)


Until now, Bill White has repeatedly denied in forceful (for him) terms that he every made money off of his investments in, now-defunct, Frontera Resources. The Dallas Morning News has investigated this claim and found it to be false. White Did profit, to the tune of $1.1 Million. One wonders what else is hiding in those tax returns he refuses to release? (Makes Perry's refusal to debate White, and keep this story in the press, look a little bit smarter doesn't it?)


And finally,


The inevitable result of bad candidates are bad political races. I have to admit that Hank Gilbert has turned out to be a disappointment. Short on ideas, long on mud-slinging, and full of ethical missteps himself, the entire race needs to be flushed down the toilet. Is there a reset button on this thing? (The scary thing is that the Ag Commish controls a LOT of the food safety in TX. Texans deserve better than this.)