What to Blog when there's nothing to Blog about?

Twelve years ago I could always find something on which to write a blog post. Back then I was very keyed into politics, especially the local variety, and there seemingly was always something I found interesting.

Fast Forward to today.

Don't give two shits about politics, don't vote, pretty much dislike every politician and political candidate out there, and except for a few close friends, I'm not particularly interested in debating any of the political bloggers still standing. Here's the rub though, there aren't many.  And the ones that are still standing are partisan and boring.

Mind numbingly boring.

Nor do I miss the days when a humorous blog post (usually making fun of a really bad political ad involving a motorcycle or some such) got me labeled as a "thinly veiled misogynist" or *shudder* a Teabagger. Granted, the fist insult probably involved deep research by the poster who had to determine whether they were using the words right (all three of them probably) and the 2nd was just a word thrown around to try and disparage anyone the poor second writer didn't like.  They had no clue what it meant, they just knew their political friends were using it and the Jr. High level humor made them feel wise.

From circular reasoning to begging the question the old political blogoshpere was a minefield of logical fallacies wrapped in a 5th grade writing level package. In short: It was bad. It was a little ironic that I won my one award, but shuttered my blog prior to the Houston Press releasing their issue naming me "Political blogger of the year" or something along those lines. (This was right at the tail end of their "Best of Houston" actually meaning something. In fact, it might have been the end of it meaning something.) [On another note: I miss the old Houston Press]

Political blogging became boring. Politics became boring. The Left disagreed with the Right who disagreed with others on the Right who disagreed with pretty much everyone. When it came down to it though, both sides were the same, it was just different courtiers hanging on to each side, seeking their pile of the public largesse. When it comes right down to it, the only philosophical difference between Team Red and Team Blue is who they want the government to write the checks to.

So, I bugged out, and I never looked back.

At this point you might be thinking "He's saying all of this to announce that he's dipping his toes back into the pool, that he's going to paint himself and some wonderful centrist, smarter than everyone else with a reasoned take on everything that the two parties are lacking."

Nope.

I'm not. For one, I'm not smart enough to try and solve all of the world's problems, shit, I'm not smart enough to solve my neighborhood's problems. Nor am I especially driven to try all that hard. And I'm sure as Hell not interested in talking to politicians again, or talking to political bloggers again for that matter, I'm quite content to leave them to their joyless corner of the World. Have fun kids.

The fact is that I just felt the need to write something today, and I've found that blogs are usually pretty good when there's a little bit of navel gazing going on.  I'm not sure what I'm going to write about on this thing going forward, but it will be something. I've always said that writing like this fills a creative void in my life that my job just cannot (nothing wrong with my job, but the nature of it is not creative).

I've tried to write a book, but I've neither the skill, nor the attention span to keep with it. I think I've written about one tenth of one chapter, then life gets back in the way.

So the accountant in me will continue to work at my job, and earn the money, and the failed, bad, writer in me will continue to pound away on this blog. I might touch on some current events, some sports and sports betty things, and I might just touch on the things I find absurd in this world. Trust me, there are a LOT of those things.

That's the fun stuff that I have been missing from my early days of blogging, just writing about whatever the Hell I want.  I've been meaning to get back to that, so here we go. I cannot promise a post per day or something silly like that, but I should be able to turn out at least one per every week or two. It just depends on what I find that interests me.

Your mileage and entertainment value may vary. At least you'll get out of it what you paid for it.

Bad travel blogging abounds. (Vegas Travel Edition)

So much bad travel blogging so little time.

Have you seen this?

Vegas Noob? 20 Things you must know before arriving. Getfreeflights.com

There are a lot of hotels in Las Vegas and choosing the right one can be difficult.
The way I see it, you have 3 options:
Pick the cheapest one (trust me, you don’t want to do this)
Comb through travel forums and take advice from total strangers
Check out Bryce’s color-coded map below this list

"The list" (go read the whole post) is a rather simplistic attempt to categorize Vegas hotels based on location.  The short version of this is "only stay in the middle of the strip when you come to Vegas".  That's fair advice, but not exactly relevant nor does it really establish the many reasons one might choose to stay in any of the many Vegas casinos.

But Vegas information, especially from bloggers, is always bad.  Always. Either they assume that you want from Vegas the same things that they do or they try and guess what you want to get out of the trip and are 100% wrong.  Unlike political bloggers (and most points/miles bloggers) I don't think they do this because of kick-backs (in most cases) I just don't think that the Vegas "insider" really understands why people come to Vegas in the first place.

It's all about having fun.  Most people don't come to Vegas specifically to gamble, but most end up doing so when they get there.  As a matter of fact, a recent survey revealed that only 4% of first time Vegas visitors come to the town specifically to gamble but, once there, over 70% end up wagering. A lot of visitors see shows, and a lot of people go to nightclubs. Oh, and you're probably shopping and just sightseeing as well when you're in town.

The dirty secret about Vegas is that, honestly, as long as you're either staying on The Strip or near Freemont Street, where you stay is merely a matter of price preference, because you can get anywhere fairly cheaply and easily using either cabs, public transportation or walking.

That said there are pros and cons to almost every hotel in Vegas, depending on what you're looking for. To try and say that there are "zones" to shoot for or avoid is really nonsensical.  Take Circus Circus as an example.  It's an older property in zone 3, which according to the "chart" you should always avoid.  However, I'm willing to bet, if you have children, this casino should be on the top of your list. The primary reason for this is The Adventuredome and the live circus acts and Midway which kids love. Then you have Excalibur which has the Fun Dungeon which kids also love. So, if you travel with the kiddies both of these hotels should be on the top of your list not "zone 3" places to avoid.

If you're a sports bettor you might consider staying at the Westgate which houses the SuperBook. If you follow the guidance to "never stay in a hotel off the strip" you'll be some distance from Las Vegas' premier sports book.

Advice of this type is becoming more and more prevalent among travel bloggers. There are, to be truthful, a lot of kick-backs that these folks receive which leads them to make odd recommendations most of the time.  This blog, unfortunately, is too small too receive anything like that so I hope that I'm always offering the best advice possible, in a fair and even-handed manner.  Even IF I had the readership to pull in endorsement money I'd like to think that I wouldn't.  For one, I have a day job that pays well and secondly, I find the endless "click my affiliate links" posts that most points/mileage bloggers are writing now to be incredibly boring.  One guy even blogged about applying for a credit card which allowed him to provide 21 separate affiliate links within one post. The saddest part about that is I'm not even sure it's a record.

There was a time that miles/points bloggers made sense, offered good travel information and did a pretty good job keeping up with the various loyalty programs. This was before they became thought leaders (no really) and compensated pitchmen for the affiliate credit-card industry. In fact, even when they were blogging about aspirational awards they STILL had SOME value. The problem now is that when they're slaves to content. So you get a ton of affiliate links and pictures of lounges, selfies in airplane restrooms (which are as creepy as they sound) and tons and tons of carping about mileage devaluations.

Over the weekend, for some odd reason, I did a lot of travel/miles/points blog reading. My takeaway from this was that, for many of the reasons noted above, the industry as a whole is almost dead. I'm not sure what the fix is, and I'm almost certain that this little blog isn't going to stem the tide. I just hope I don't ever contribute to the downfall. (of course, some might say that I already am)

Blog and InterNet open comments: Time to cut the cord.

When user comments were rolled out on several media sites they were heralded as the next logical evolution of user/news interaction.  Not only could the average citizen now read a news story, but they could weigh in and rationally discuss things with other citizens which would, it was theorized, lead to a more personal, interactive experience with the news.

Now that we've seen the experiment, it's time to say that it's failed and just move on. 

The sad fact is, the average Internet commenter, posting behind a shield of anonymity, has devolved into a low-rent shock jock or semi-literate partisan ram-rod who's inability to avoid a logical fallacy is rivaled only by their ability to bungle the English language.  If you don't believe me then take a look at the comment strings from these stories:

Al Sharpton's long bill of goods, from Tawana Brawley to Prime Time, Stuart Stevens, The Daily Beast

Wal-Mart to speed it's delivery of produce to stores. Nancy Sarnoff, Chron.com

Commentary: Queen Michelle is dead, long live Ted Cruz, King of the Tea Party. Jason Stanford, Chron.com

Granted, the third link is a little hard because what Jason Stanford managed to do there was take one long, rambling essay on the intellectual level of an Internet anonymous comment and convince the Chron's staff it was worthy as running as news.  Given content of that quality it's not fair to expect the readers to respond any other way but in kind.  In the race to the bottom, Chron.com has not only taken the lead, their editors are pulling a Ronnie Turcotte and turning around in deep stretch to see just how far back the competition has fallen.

It's time to end this experiment in citizen commentary, to shutter comments and re-hire serious reader reps who will do a better job answering reader questions.  There's news that the Chron is already moving this way, stopping the practice of paying certain free-lancers for content on "reader" blogs.  And this is a good thing.

An even better thing would be ridding the world of these comments sections.  Until they do however I'm just going to stop reading them.

There's bad travel writing everywhere....

...And this piece by "seasoned travel writer" James Marshall Crotty regarding his recent stay at the Aria in Las Vegas is proof of case for that argument.  (h/t: uggboy from MilePoint for the link)

As one commenter on MilePoint stated. "I stopped reading his rant when the "seasoned travel writer" seem surprised about the $20 resort fee."  And it was the resort fee that has Mr. Crotty all hot and bothered, a resort fee that he says was "never disclosed" to him until after his stay.  However, running through the Aria booking site one finds the resort fee prominently displayed before the reservation process is complete.

Aria screenshot w/booking fee

So IF Mr. Crotty is telling the truth and he DID, in fact, book the room on-site as he claims then it was not a case of the Aria omitting the booking fee, but it was a case of this "seasoned" travel writer not paying attention to what he was booking.  FWIW, the yellow highlight on the above screen shot is mine, the bolding is as/is on the website, so the fee was prominently displayed.

Here's Mr. Crotty's words on the resort fee:

First, there's the Aria front desk. It's modern and colorful in a 1990s Spago way. However, as with any deceptively labeled 5-star loser hotel front desk, once there, you learn that there all sorts of hidden fees you were never overtly, let alone covertly, told about when you booked a room online. For example, there's the $25 "Aria resort fee."

As an aside, I stayed at the Mandalay Bay hotel during the same time as Mr. Crotty stayed at the Aria. The main difference was I was an invited casino guest and, as such, received a lot lower rate than did this "seasoned travel writer".  However, even though I booked by phone the resort fee was still clearly disclosed as a part of our phone conversation, and in the confirmation e-mail that I received. 

I don't mean this post as some defense of the Aria, or any other MGM property.  I've never stayed at the Aria but I have walked through there, it's modern Vegas, bold, flashy and it gives the appearance and feeling of luxury to those who never get to experience it without all of the true costs associated with such.  Like most of Vegas, it's Louis Vuitton.  Faux luxury for the masses.  The thing is, that's OK.  Because people come to Vegas to experience and do things they otherwise wouldn't.  That the bed is actually wholesale, that the pillows are polyfil and not down feathers humanely harvested from pygmy swans, that the sheets aren't 10,000 count Eqyptian Cotton, or that the flatware isn't gold is of no consequence.  The important thing is that it looks nice.  Vegas understands that better than any other city. Why do you think 90% of the gaming areas are filled with penny and quarter slots?  That's where the demand is.

The larger issue, to my way of thinking, is the reduction of standards in travel reporting in today's media.

We've gotten to a point where anyone with a MacBook and a camera can spool up a blog or any reporter can be assigned to a "transportation" beat.  In Mr. Crotty's own HuffPo account he says that he's an education and politics writer. I've no doubt that he travels quite often, or that he might understand a thing or three about how to be from locale A to locale B.  But that doesn't make him a travel writer.  He obviously is lacking a certain eye for detail, nor does he seem to have much of an understanding how the travel industry works.

He's also hampered by the fact that he cannot remain impartial toward the little people around him.  His bile toward the citizenry in Las Vegas that weekend is telling.  Mr. Crotty finds himself unable to pen a decent critique of a place because he was embarrassed by his inability to read terms and conditions, and he didn't like the people that surround him when he was there.  I don't claim to be a "seasoned travel expert" but I do have, on many cases, the ability to at least keep my personal feelings toward the populace out of a review.

In Mr. Crotty's defense there are a LOT of people out there who don't like Las Vegas, who find it tacky and gauche and who don't get the attraction that so many people have to the city.  I get that, and I understand that it's not a city for all people.  But I also understand that you don't have to bet big money to have fun there, and that (unlike Mr. Crotty) MOST travelers don't want a spa day.  I also understand that, for those who do, the choice as to whether spa prices are 'exorbinant' or not is a personal decision, not one that I am going to make for them.

In essence, Mr. Crotty's article is everything that is wrong with travel (and much food) writing in today's media.  You have inexperienced writers with a very narrow world view criticizing anything and everything that doesn't shoe-horn into their limited reality without doing much research in the interim.  When confronted with fact, or a difference of opinion, they just scream louder.

Examining the media/public disconnect

The news-ish site Texas Tribune and liberal political scientist Dr. Jim Henson have inadvertently ran into something.

Inside out: Insiders and voters don't see eye-to-eye. Dr. Jim Henson, Texas Tribune

Most insiders are political professionals working in the halls of government. In The Texas Tribune's latest Inside Intelligence, they seem concerned with the kinds of problems that have been the province of government: above all, public education, but also infrastructure issues, like the water supply and transportation.
Texas voters, on the other hand, have recently demonstrated both in elections and polls that they are at best skeptical of and at worst downright hostile to what happens in those hallways. The problems that most worry voters lie outside areas of proactive government initiatives. They appear more focused on broad policy areas that are either outside such initiatives or point to perceived failure: the economy, jobs, immigration, border security. Public education is growing as a concern, but only among a small group.

My apologies to the Tribune for the larg-ish block quote. However, I believe the two paragraphs above to be telling.

If you ever wonder where news (and news-ish) organizations receive their story ideas you need look no further than political 'insiders' from various parties.  This is not the fault of a liberal (or conservative) media. Instead it's the result of familiarity.

Political reporters and political insiders spend a lot of time associating with one another.  At government hearings, functions, press conferences, super-secret Wednesday evening confabs at local watering holes etc.  The fact is a political reporter for almost any media outlet is going to spend more time with politicians and insiders than the general public, by a long shot.  The same effect can be seen with new-ish agencies, news agencies, party-affiliated political bloggers, and political bloggers who put a lot of stock into Netroots Nation or Right Online.  It doesn't matter your political leanings, or (to be honest) how good/influential you are as a writer.  I'm not sure if it's genetic or what, but political writers seem to be drawn to groups like moths to a flame.

Maybe it's because political writers don't actually produce anything of value?  (And yes, I'm including all of the writing on this blog -and any of my past blogs- in that category)

Where this becomes a problem is in story selection, and the importance of issues in hard news stories.  This is why Perry's "oops" became a bigger issue than did the fact that he was actually laying out a specific plan to cut the size and scope of government.  It's why Romney's dog on top of the car, and Obama's dog in the belly, overshadowed the fact that the economy is struggling along and people really want jobs.  It also explains why the bulk of Texas political coverage is education-centric while a majority of Texans are more concerned about work, the oil & gas industry and other things that might help them feed their children.

If you want to know where the stories are going, look to what the political insiders are fretting over.

The thing is, as the newspaper business model continues to implode and more and more political writing is ceded to bloggers and partisan online sites this trend is only going to get worse.  The idea of a citizen blogger banging out "I'm mad too Eddie" copy from their home offices, leading a political revolution from their living rooms and becoming the "Netroots" of the political parties have gone the way of the dial-up modem.

Today's political blogger is more likely to get their talking points from either major party than they are to flesh out a fully developed independent opinion, and those who do manage to stay apart from the fray are so lightly regarded as to not matter.  Meanwhile, Republicans and Democrats are funding groups to ensure that their bloggy messages are portrayed in the approved manner and won't come back to bite their candidates in their political behinds.  The fact is, bloggers who want the attention are likely going to get the attention, provided they play the game by the rules.

On the other end of the spectrum, the 'professional' newspaper reporters and opinion-makers are currently viewed as so out of touch by the general populace it is probable that their reputation cannot be restored.  It does not help them that the editorial direction was decided for them at an Austin cocktail party by editors in suits and hip-eyewear hob-knobbing with staffers and analysts who, for the most part, rely on government for their income.  You think the sand-lizard is endangered in Texas? How about the main-stream media POV that the government is not the solution to almost every problem?

Looking at all of this it's not surprising that cities such as New Orleans have made the market decision that a daily newspaper is not in their best interest.  Old scandals like the Houston Chron rail memo are leading Houston down the same path.  Sadly, given the editorial content of their stories, it won't be the public that misses out on anything meaningful. The real effect will be felt by campaign ad designers and think-tank marketing departments who won't be able to use newspaper "copy" in their campaign ads and sales pitches.  This brings about the sad reality that campaigns will start to tell naive, desperate for acceptance political bloggers what to say and then use those clippings in their campaign ads, pitches to make more ads etc.

That's hardly the premise on which citizen journalism was founded.  It's high time we bring it back, before it's all we're left with that is.  The alternative is a media that returns to it's roots of advocating for the people instead of shilling for its government paid friends and insiders. What the world needs now is a good, old-fashioned return to public-interest, watchdog and advocacy reporting.  I'm afraid it is probably too late however.  FutureMedia is not shaping up to be a pretty sight.

On Blogging Rules

I stand w/the majority opinion....

Blogging rules a great idea but..., Jim Romenesko, Romenesko.com

It's a nice idea, but the blogging community is, for the most part, a volunteer group with little or no income. Those who understand the concepts of correct attribution and why it's important are going to provide....correct attribution. Those who don't won't, and they really won't care.

There are big blogs in the Houston area that attribute poorly. They've been attributing poorly for quite a while, and some group offering up a "code of ethics" isn't going to make them change one iota.

Sadly, it comes down to the blog-reading public to make a stand. If you don't like people not giving correct attribution on their blogs, e-mail them and ask them to start doing so or just quit reading. Otherwise the answer is to just ignore it and move along.

As for this blog: I will always strive to fully attribute and keep blockquoted portions of posts well within the accepted standards of free use. That's about all any of us can do.

The more things change.....

...The more they stay the same.

Whether you call them "Mrs. White", "The ed board formerly known as Mrs. White", "Mr. Gibbons" (nice to see him back in the pages of ChronBlog" today) or "The Apple Dumpling Gang" one constant has been there though thick and thin, bad editorials and worse ones.

Through it all the irrational desire to roll out the catapult and throw increasingly large amounts of money at the problem has stayed the same. Today's editorial (and accompanying political cartoon) were no different. When it comes to education, The Apple Dumpling Gang just can't help calling for increases in funding to programs that continually produce diminishing returns. Given that the State's education system is experiencing more and more bloat, perhaps a forced diet is just what is needed in order to get the focus back on educating children, and less on how to feed the administration/union machine.

To my knowledge there have been no discussions of pooling resources to reduce construction costs, of not building schools that are more tributes to existing leadership than education centers and no talks about requiring schools to cut (or require hard audits on) programs that are notoriously wasteful. Instead of worrying about teaching children, the Apple Dumpling Gang are threatening to use ChronBlog's editorial and reporting resources (which ARE intertwined, since both Kilday-Hart and Fikac act as both columnists AND reporters) to attack law-makers who choose to not perpetuate the State's failing education model and not raise taxes on anyone ChronBlog and their fellow Statist travelers don't agree.

If the definition of insanity is to keep performing the same actions while expecting differing results than it can reasonably be said that those calling for additional funding into a failed education model are made by those who should be under the supervision of the State's Mental Health services. Of course, we're cutting those services as well, which means that those of us who understand this can't continue are forced to see dreck foisted on the public as "journalism". This leads us to surmise that the only two things more broken than the State's education system are the political system that's allowing this failure to exist and the State journalism machine that's seemingly incapable of allowing Texans to have an honest debate on how to fix it.

The best political news in Texas is on the blogs.

It's certainly not coming from Paul Burka, whose posting and pulling blog posts makes it difficult, at times, to see what he's saying. At least he admits to pulling the post and supplies an explanation for it, that's better than some at ChronBlog. (Hint: Rhymes with Jichard Rustice)

He's back at it again suggesting that Beaumont area Democratic Representative Allan Ritter is going to change parties.

Meanwhile, Evan, from Rick Perry vs. World, offers up some real analysis telling you why Peña won't switch. (Not if he wants to get re-elected anyway.)

Meanwhile, The Hearst Austin bureau snoozes. Hey, at least Austin's alternative weekly had something to offer. It's not very good, but it's something right?

Other places to watch are Peña's Blog and independent blogs such as On the South Steps, who hasn't written anything about it yet but probably will. Also worth following is the news-ish site Texas Tribune, the part of their budget that doesn't go toward hip eye wear for staffers goes to writing liberal interest pieces and (most importantly) doing a good job covering the goings-on in the State Capitol.

On the plus side these sources rarely pull posts.

What is "News-Ish"?

THIS is "News-ish"...

(Denying in-state tuition to undocumented college students would ‘be stamping out hope,’ Noriega says, Karie Meltzer, Texas Independent)

When Rick Noriega heard that Texas A&M University’s student senate voted to keep illegal immigrants from receiving in-state tuition rates, he was surprised –- but not angry.

Rick Noriega?

It's illustrative of how deep the hole is for TX Democrats that progressive news-ish organizations are starting to look to marginal candidates for leadership on big issues. What's next? Chris Bell on Education Finance? (Another moon-shot perhaps?)

Another telling point you're dealing with news-ish and not news? Unfair treatment of the opposing side's opinion:

Noriega said about 20,000 students –- not just immigrants, but students from other states — have gained access to higher education because of this law.

“I don’t know any rational argument that could refute the fact that that’s a good thing as it applies to our values as Texans,” he said. “Education and higher education are core fundamental values of Texas.”

IRCOT’s petition claims at least 8,000 illegal immigrants are attending Texas colleges and universities and receiving in-state tuition. However, a 2006 report from the Texas Comptroller’s office says the number of undocumented immigrants who attend Texas colleges and pay in-state tuition is unknown, so estimating the cost associated with HB 1403 is difficult.

State Rep. Leo Berman (R-Tyler) is confident the court will reverse the law. IRCOT’s attorney, David Rogers, said the case is still in discovery mode. But if the state law is upheld, Berman plans to file legislation to reverse it on purely economic grounds.

“The $42 million we’re spending on these illegal aliens should be benefits going to Texas students in the form of loans or grants which they aren’t getting,” he said. “The law says we have to educate these students from K5 through 12th grade; we don’t have to educate them in college.”

David Hinojosa, an attorney with the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund, is defending the state in the case.

“We think this is a frivolous case. People like [Rep.] Leo Berman don’t like undocumented immigrants,” Hinojosa said. “They want to make lives as miserable as possible for these people.”

Bracketing an opposing opinion with two opinions the writer favors, thus allowing the favored position to both frame, and respond to the argument, is a tactic employed not just by news-ish organizations, but by actual news organizations themselves. You find a lot of this on Op/Ed pages and in opinion columns: 1. There can be no reasonable argument against the favored position. 2. The opposing position says ..... 3. But they're wrong because.....

To be fair, it's also found a LOT in blogs and other amateur writing, on both sides of the political aisle.

To their credit, these news-ish sites (and the InterLeft that's increasingly using them for source material) are very good at latching on to the approved narrative and beating readers over the head with it. They did a very good job of establishing the truthiness around Perry's actions in the Cameron Todd Willingham case, and they maintained the fallacy that Bill White was a credible candidate up until the obvious. Now they're playing right along with the tune "Bill White was a bad candidate".


When they're not calling Texas voters ignorant that is.

At least they're mentioning bH now.

Blogger blogs....

(Chron: Scary "new" trend of big money in politics hits Houston! Kevin Whited, BlogHouston)

Now, we certainly wouldn't want to dissuade any Chron journalists from digging into campaign finance records and looking for conflicts of interest. Goodness knows, that would be a welcome change from the sorts of rah-rah stories that too frequently show up in the newspaper.

But "new national trend?"

Please.

Former newspaper of record (and current largest local blog) responds...

(Remainders on anonymous donations, Bradley Olson, ChronBlog)

Actually, yes, it is rather new, at least on the scale it has reached in this election, as these stories show. It's a big enough deal, in the estimation of some pretty seasoned journalists, that it could be the source of the next Watergate.

I encourage you to go read both posts, follow the links in both and see the sources each are using to make their case. Then, probably, you'll side with whomever is closest to your partisan leanings.

Hell, I'm just glad that ChronBlog has decided to join the conversation again, instead of banning certain blogs and bloggers from their site. Debate is good.

And so it goes....

(h/t: BlogHouston)


Lone Star Times, the original, planned "news counter" to the "liberal voice" of the Houston Chronicle announced it's shuttering today. It's done, kaput, finis, etc.


And that's too bad....


Yes, I was viscerally disliked by many on their staff (Hey Squawk!!) and was persona non-grata on their comment threads, but I still thought they should have had a larger role framing the debate in Harris County. Their biggest problem was, from the outset, they never spent their time & resources on....Harris County.

From the outset (excluding the Chronically Biased era) LST was a National blog at heart. Those are good for chest-thumping and some entertaining photo-shops, but if your goal is to counter the (former) local newspaper of record then you better have the local angle down pat. They didn't, nor did they ever really seem to have much interest in doing so.

Not that they are to blame for this. It's my belief that Republicans as a whole don't "do" local. Where the Tea Party has messed up is that they're focusing on spending at a Federal level only. Where's the TP rally against City and County finances?


I'll be honest and admit I haven't checked up on LST for around a year. So it was a surprise to me when I saw that they were closing down. Otherwise I'd have a better obituary to write for them.

I will say this: The staffers that remained there after Sen. Patrick abandoned the project were dedicated and loyal to their beliefs, they worked hard, posted with heart and humor and did everything they could do to keep that site running as long as they could. In the end it's hard to say that they made any difference, but they did make us laugh.


Kudos to them for that.


If you were an LST fan here's a list of where the contributors have gone, and how you can keep up with (some) of them in the future....


Squawkbox

Hamous (and others)

Ree-C?? (maybe)

David Jennings (BigJolly)

TexPat


As I find more links I'll update them here.


Courtesy of Kevin Whited (Another CB/LST alum {linked to in the post}): Rorshach

Must reads....

1. Tory Gattis' slap-down of Metro both for using short-term debt to cover it's city mobility obligations (dumb) and for it's current (lack of) vision. Agree or disagree with Gattis' take it's a pretty good read. That more of Houston's bloggers and media engaged in this type of debate....


2. Unca Darrell's take-down of ChronBlog for their fealty to Metro. (And, for that matter, his almost daily rebuttles to the Apple Dumpling Gang.)


3. BigJolly Politics' Third salvo in Houston's escalating blog tiff. (You know...for fun.)



Have a nice day.

Blog Fight!!!!!!

First, it was Tea Party blogger Big Jolly taking a couple of shots at the local InterLeft for their (accused)fast and loose interpretation of the "facts" in the matter of Leo Vasquez vs. Houston Votes.

Then you have one of the more out there members of the InterLeft taking passive-aggressive shots at BigJolly.

Then, in the comments to said post you have this jewel from local member of the InterLeft, Perry Dorrell:

A much calmer response to Jennings than I plan to post. Kudos to your temperament.

To all of this we here at HCA say:


Oh please, let's make this just as much fun as possible. We can't wait for Perry's profanity-laced, factually-challenged response that sends the InterLeft into a tizzy. Nor can we wait for the inevitable *appalled* response from the Blogger's O' the Right.


Time to watch the show.

What narrative are you setting?

For all of the talk about Rasmussen attempting to set the narrative in certain elections, you'd think all of their polls would have outlying results that made no sense when bumped up against the reality filter of poll results.


At the very least, in Texas, you'd think that they'd reveal Rick Perry scrambling to the top of the heap with few (if any) chinks in the armour.

You'd be wrong. Because according to the latest Rasmussen poll Democratic Goober nominee Bill White is closing the gap on Republican Goober Rick Perry, drawing to within 8 points in the latest version of the poll.

Such are the dangers of trying to demonize a pollster. When the results are beneficial to your candidate, it requires some hard dancing around believable logic to make the numbers suddenly work for your side. Ironically, this is why blogs are terrible repositories for political information*, many of the more-partisan blogs being nothing more than sounding boards for the narrative du jour of their chosen party.

This is why the funky chicken is being propped up as Rick Perry's Willie Horton moment and why anecdotal evidence of some voters that are marginally Republican (supposedly) "crossing over" to vote for White (how many of them voted for Perry in the last election?) is being given any run at all.

It's politics on the margins ran by people who desperately want to be included in the conversation. And, it should be ignored, like most political noise, until we get closer to the election and both candidates start their big State-wide TV buys. Only then will people start to pay attention, and the polls will matter.


Right now what we're seeing is pretty much a party identification result. Which should still be troubling for Democrats if they thought about it. Instead of continually blaming the messenger that is....



Other Eyes:

Perry vs. World




*And no...I'm not suggesting that you shouldn't read blogs. You should especially read this one, daily. If I don't post then read yesterday's post again. Using blogs as your sole source of political commentary is ridiculous however. As ridiculous as relying on the MSM for your news. The key is a variety of sources, both Conservative and Liberal in ideology.

Organic....

The Oil Spill.....


...it's my fault.

....it's my fault.

...it's my fault.

...it's my fault.

...it's my fault.

...it's my fault.


No...It's MY fault.



Good thing only Republicans use talking points and engage in politics as usual right folks? Right.*


*I'm not suggesting that only Democrats play politics, certainly Republicans are as guilty of this as anyone. What's tiring is holier-than-thou types suggesting that the Democrats are currently operating under both a different set of rules and out of a genuine sense of civic duty. In fact, they're just shifting the advantage to a different set of campaign donors. Such are the spoils of winning an election.

Because what Houston needs right now.....

...is gushing praise heaped on Metro.

Fortunately, for Metro, the ChronBlog Caucasian Think-Tank is ready and willing to gush for Greanias in a manner to which readers of America's Worst Big-City daily have become all to accustomed.

A real news organization, one committed to watchdog journalism instead of unquestioning devotion to the ruling elite, might have written something like this:

"We welcome the appointment of former City Council member and Controller George Greanias as the CEO of Metro and wish him well. Greanias has a distinguished public service record and his private-sector experience suggests he'll be pre-disposed to overseeing a Metro that is open and honest, traits that were sadly lacking during the Wolff/Wilson era.

We remind Greanias of this however: The public deserves to know the goings-on at Metro and how their tax dollars are spent. That shadow you see behind you as you conduct business is the (insert news agency here) looking over your shoulder."

Since CCTT is unwilling to say it, and the members of the Masthead at ChronBlog are unwilling to do it, I'll say it.

Congratulations on your appointment Mr. Greanias. Here's hoping that your leadership is more transparent, open and successful than that of the previous office holders. Don't slip back into Metro's old habits, or there will be people keeping tabs on what's going on at 1900 Main St. even if those in charge at 801 Texas have decided not to.

The staff at HCA (OK, me) wish you the best.

Columnist to bloggers....

...be insane


(Connie Schultz as interviewed by Tim Harmon of the South Bend Tribune, 04/18/10)

What do you as a professional newspaper columnist do for readers that the blogospherists can't or won't?

The overwhelming number of the blogosphere's "citizen journalists" would benefit a great deal by adhering to traditional journalism's best practices, starting with posting under real names and then setting out to verify, verify, verify. Gossip is not fact; at best, it's a starting point for running down facts and unraveling rumors. Too many blog posts begin with, "I heard that..." and then launch into rants and speculation. No phone calls, no e-mails, no interviews to find out if what they "heard" is true. It's the Internet version of the busybody neighbor, except far less benign.

It's patently obvious that Ms. Schultz hasn't been reading many blogs.

It's also obvious that Ms. Schultz feels bloggers should act insane, following the same journalism "best practices" that have led newspapers and network news to the brink of financial collapse.

Ironically, in this same interview, Ms. Schultz engages in the very same activity that she despises of bloggers. Anecdotal forming of opinions used to smear large groups, assumptions based on fact.

The mistake made, as I talked about yesterday is viewing independent or party bloggers as news vehicles. For the most part they are not. They are opinion drivers and opinion (by its very nature) is a messy, unruly, fluid medium. A place where there are more exceptions to core beliefs than bats in Dan Patrick's belfry, where consistency is checked at the front desk and where augmentative logic is barred from the meeting upon penalty of being forced to spend its days making a case for the newsworthiness of anything in ChronBlog's Good Life section.

Opinion is where America hangs its intellectual undies out to dry.

Trying to apply the standards of journalism to that makes as much sense as getting marriage counselling from Pamela Anderson.


All that said this interview is good for being a revealing insight into the mind of an MSM stalwart, and further explains the lack of understanding between media and the blogosphere.

And these reporters say they LIKE local blogs...

The "Blog Chat" video series on Texas Watchdog started out as an informative overview of some daily content for Houston's local blogs, sort of a video version of a link-post if you will. With multimedia journalist Lynn Walsh on board, the excellent news organization has promised to make video reports such as this an increasingly large part of their content.

Barely a month into the project and Mainstream media sources are dominating the video cast. Let's take a look at today's stories and their sources....

1. jail overcrowding: Off the Kuff and Grits for breakfast - (That's one for blogs. Granted, both blogs linked to held the same position, but that's probably more due to local Righty blogs surrendering the local turf to the InterLeft.)

2. Metro's financial malfeasance: Chron.com Mike Snyder and KHOU & Mark Greenblatt. (Well, that's one linking to other paid journalists, birds of a feather etc. MSM 1 Blogs 1)

3. The latest Rasmussen Poll: Texas Tribune, Evan Smith (Texas Tribune is not a blog, they're an on-line, advocacy journalism agency that's doing a good job covering the State. There was a LOT of blog material on this one. MSM 2 Blogs 1)

4. High Fees for Sarah Palin: Star-telegram - (No I wouldn't pay that much money to hear Sarah Palin FWIW. However, the S-T is decidedly a MSM outlet and NOT a blog. MSM 3 Blogs 1)

5. NASA Funding: Chron.com - (Important story but certainly not a blog. MSM 4 Blogs 1)

6. Buffalo Bayou Dredging: Chron.com - (+1 for MSM. MSM 5 Blogs 1)

7. What to do this weekend: Texas Tribune. (It's a whitewash....MSM 6 Blogs 1)


I bring this up NOT to poke fun at Texas Watchdog, I consider them to be doing some of the best journalism in town, what I'm trying to highlight is how tall the wall is for local blogs to sustain the interest of journalists working for an MSM outlet. (Yes, I consider non-profit web outlets to be MSM, most of their employees worked for newspapers or TV stations at one time, or went to journo school.)

Certainly all of the stories highlighted were important stories, they were timely, relevant and *gasp* local in nature. They also did something that the blogosphere frequently does not: They broke new ground. Well, except for the first one, the Kuff story that was really just a blockquote of the Grits post which riffed on a Chron.com story on jail overcrowding.

This is meant to take nothing away from Scott Henson and his terrific blog focused on Texas Criminal Justice. He's doing what all good blogs do (for the most part) he's taking a story that originally ran in an MSM source and expounding on it. Hell, that's what I'm doing in this post. As one person with a 7-5 job I don't have the resources to go out and break new news, so I rely on other sources to provide the articles that drive content. That, in a nutshell, is blogging. (opposed to reporting, which actually takes skill)

It's the problem that limits blogs to niche status no matter how hard they try to self-promote. Some bloggers, who work and play well with the journalists, may be incorporated into the mainstream to some level, but they're never going to be stand-alone content drivers. This means that, in order to be fair, video news reviews like those on Texas Watchdog are better served quoting the original story.


Either that or they're just not reading local blogs. In which case forget all of the previous bloggy-style navel gazing and move along. Nothing to see here.

News Flash! (Updated)

Just the opinions ma'am....


(Reports show more Americans feel economic recovery", Christopher S. Rugaber, AP Econ writer via ChronBlog)

A flurry of reports out today suggested that many Americans are feeling better about the economic rebound.

That's GREAT! Finally signs the economy is turning around! Democrats everywhere can breathe a sigh of relief, Obama has fixed this sucker.....Oh wait......

Pandl estimates consumer spending may have risen by as much as 4 percent in the January-to-March quarter — more than double the 1.6 percent rise in last year's fourth quarter. That would be the biggest quarterly gain in three years.

Well....that's good but:

The gain is largely a result of reduced saving. Disposable income actually dipped in the first quarter

Economics are calling this "an expectation of the American consumer that good times are on the way." That's fine, but it also could mean that people just finally got to the point where they needed stuff after making severe cutbacks, and had to dip into savings to get it.

That this opinion piece was written shouldn't offend. That the editors (both at the AP and ChronBlog) let this run as 'news' probably should. As should the ChronBlog headline: "Americans like what the economy's doing." Wow.




That pretty much explains it.....


Sleeping through a run-off, Joe Holley, ChronBlog)

Personally, I hope Curling wins, for one reason. Imagine all the puns we bloggers can bandy about with an anesthesiologist in the House.

It's nice to see that the beat writers are taking this ChronBlog suggestion to heart.




If a tree falls in the woods.....

(Houston and H20, ChronBlog Caucasian Think-Tank, ChronBlog)

We urge City Council to do best by Houstonians present and future by selecting the “best practices” option.

Sounds good to me, but the question is: Is anyone paying attention to what these folks are saying? You'd think a hot-button issue like the water rate increase would at LEAST get one comment right?



Wrong on so many levels......

(TribBlog: Don McLeroy on Al Jazeera, Brian Thevenot, Texas Tribune)

Yes, that Al Jazeera, the network known for a certain amount of sensationalism and anti-Americanism in its coverage

Just to clarify, the story ran in Al Jazeera ENGLISH which is actually ran by a Canadian and is one of the better International news organizations out there.

You might think McLeroy, known for liberal-media conspiracy-thinking, might shy away the Arab world's favorite news source. But you’d be wrong: The man loves a camera of any kind. (He likes in-depth print or online media interviews quite a bit less; he tends to cut me off after five minutes.)

What does it say that McLeroy knows he's going to get fairer coverage from a news source out of the Middle East than the very left-leaning Texas Tribune?

What’s more, the Al Jazeera piece is one of one of the more in-depth and fair I’ve seen on television, hitting the high points without the hysteria and fact errors that has plagued, say, Fox News' coverage. The piece ran some seven minutes — an eternity in TV. And the reporter treated McLeroy quite even-handedly.

Or say...Texas Tribune's coverage, especially this piece, which is so full of low blows and un-opposed writer opinion it's terrible. Not to mention the whole Western culture superiority vibe that Thevenot has going on here....That's right, how cute it is that the little foreign fella' over there had the pluck and know how to go out and do a right sure professional interview. Why he didn't even treat McLeroy unfairly! Hey, 'scuse me...what's another way to say McLeroy is a fat ass?



And reporters wonder why they find themselves less liked than politicians. Maybe it's because politicians are doing a better job in DC than reporter/bloggers are in reporting the news? (As hard as that is to believe.)



Update

Read L'il Red's blog post....Then go back and count how many times she uses "I" in the post.....terrible, terrible, terrible.

If you read one thing today....

...make sure it's this Unca Darrell deconstruction of The CCTT's error-filled editorial on the Euro Zone and CCTT member Lisa Gray's F-paper in macro-economics.


If you still have time, take the economic knowledge that UD provides and apply it to today's CCTT editorial on The (still) proposed Dynamo Stadium. Grade that editorial like you'd grade a ECON 1301 paper.

If you can give it any higher than a D- I'd be shocked.


I'll say it again: It's high time newspaper editorial boards such as the CCTT go the way of the Tasmanian Wolf. They've outlived their usefulness in a day when instant, expert opinion is but a touch of the remote or mouse away.