The Noise Machine (09/17/2010)

News you can use......


Where were these critics when Millions were given away to sports franchise owners?

If all politics is local, then most politics are born of cognitive dissonance. Whether or not a Wal-Mart is built on that tract of land is immaterial and totally beside the point. Whatever is built there should be a tax donor to fund improvements not a tax receiver. We've gotten that very, very backwards in Houston these days. (This is a totally separate issue from Smart Growth proponents telling private entities what they should do with their land.)


To be honest, I didn't even know they were open.

Opening and closing in four months must be some kind of record or something. Wow.



Q: Would YOU live in downtown Houston?

A: (For most families with children..or, a large majority of the population) NO.

That being said there is a viable demographic for downtown, high-rise living. What the Smart-growth set needs to realize is that they're trying to knock down a brick wall with a feather arguing for this living arrangement outside of the target demographic. (Here's another tip: What works for you doesn't necessarily work for everyone else. Think about that.)


The "anti-business wing" of the GOP?

As much of a critic as I am of the Tea Parties, IF they were to successfully lead the Republicans away from corporatism and back to supporting the common man it would be worth all of the rallies, noise and poorly vetted candidates.



Again, It's a good thing Democrats don't trade in talking points or their columns might start sounding the same.

(I heard you get a free plate of nachos with every referral to journolist II. That's a pretty good deal.)


The elites, slamming the working class. Haven't we seen this before.....from the elites?

One of the left's biggest criticisms of the Founding Fathers was they they were really just a bunch of White Guy's that wanted to control the "uneducated" populace and force them to do what is "right" for them. Oddly enough, those same progressives want to control the "uneducated" populace and force them to do what's "right"...albeit not necessarily for them. Funny how that works.


Oh my....


I'll say this for Jolly, when he gets a burr in his saddle......



Chin UP! Progressives, the old grey lady is here to give you hope in this time of darkness!

(Hope, being defined as a Kafka-esque policy wonk with a spotty political track-record, the problems of which have been largely glossed over by the remnants of the political media in Texas. But hey....beggars can't be choosers right?)



That arson meme just won't die.....

Let's cut to the operative bit in Mike Glenn's story:

Houston Fire Department arson dogs didn't find any accelerants, such as gasoline, at the scene of the Aug. 27 blaze at the Harris County Election Technology Center, 606 Canino.

"We don't have any reason to believe that ignitable liquids were used," said HFD arson chief Gabe Cortez.

Although arson investigators haven't ruled out the fire being intentionally set, Cortez acknowledged that most suspicious cases involve an accelerant.

The most likely scenario is faulty wiring led to a short which ignited some papers or something else being stored and the whole paper-and-voting-machine mess went Foom! That's the most LIKELY, but far less fun than blindly accusing one's political opposites of starting the blaze to give themselves some type of imaginary advantage in a moderate turn-out election.



And finally.....


The Big Story: Metro is finally taking Houston's rail plan back to the voters.

As my friend Kevin Whited said, there could be a real chance to fix the problems that have plagued MetroRail by taking a fresh look at transit needs in Houston and crafting a workable plan to meet those needs. Instead, what we're likely to get is a re-hashed version of the same failed mess of a plan with a different (probably more expensive) funding mechanism. One's only hope is that another ChronBlog rail memo gets accidentally posted to Chron.com. Or, they could just save us all the trouble and recycle the old one......Maybe add some fawning praise for Greanias? Or Speiler?

The ball's in your court ChronBlog....don't let us down.