Things we hope not to see in 2011....

That we unfortunately saw too much of in 2010......


Proclamations that "New" Metro/BARC/HUD are "fixed": No they're not, they just have new leadership. The truth is all of these organizations are bureaucracies that are inflexible by nature. There was a commenter over on BlogHouston that likened Metro to a huge ship that's hard to turn. That's true for all dysfunctional organizations. It takes a long time to change an unwieldy organization. Attrition and a total culture change have to take place, and that's not done overnight.


That Mayor Parker is "promoting the gay agenda" when she makes an appointment: The simple fact is all politicians appoint their friends and colleagues to positions of power when they have the chance. Annise Parker has many prominent friends in the GLBT community. It only makes sense that many of her appointments would come from there. On another note: We're tired of partisans claiming one side accusing politicians of cronyism while ignoring the fact that all politicians partake in this practice. They all appoint their friends, that's the power of the executive.


Bad journalism: As an example. These political agencies spend enough on PR. They don't need help from ostensibly (but not really) neutral news organizations whose number one concern should be the well-being of the citizenry. Since we can pretty much rule out anything of substance from ChronBlog, We guess we're hoping for alternative news outlets to continue to shine.


A repeal of the Texas Senate Blocker Bill: One of the most conservative provisions in Texas law is the 2/3 requirement in the Texas Senate. The purpose of this bill is to keep most legislation from passing. What's left out of the discussion is the simple fact that most legislation shouldn't be passed into law. If you take the time to read the bills that are in the hopper for the 82nd you'd pray that the blocker bill stays in place as well. Related: That Texas Senate Democrats show a spine.



More news-ish organizations: The one's already in place (Texas Independent, Texas Observer and the Texas Tribune) have all failed at their #1 goal: framing the news in a manner that gets more Democrats elected. It's time for them to go. (Well...the Trib can stay around (how else are we going to follow eye-wear trends?) but he's hoping their future work is more along the lines of their in-session Lege reporting and less like their poorly edited issues reporting.)



A smooth redistricting: Messy redistricting fights are to bad political blogs what celebrity divorces are to bad entertainment blogs. And the sour grapes are fun to watch as well. While I doubt anyone will carry on a grudge to the level of perennial candidate (and 2nd place to a corpse vote-getter) Chris Bell, I'm sure one of the Republicans who are sure to lose their seat will be good for a laugh right?




Gary Kubiak as the head coach of the Texans: That one's pretty easy right?





Happy New Year Y'all. Here's hoping it's a good one.