Did PeckBlog Plagiarize?

Saw a Tweet from Amy Peck tonight advertising an analysis of Texas' Constitutional Amendments on her blog. Always interested in political analysis I thought it wise to head over there and take a look. This is what I found:


Proposed Texas Constitutional Amendments, Amy Peck, PeckBlog

Here are the proposed state constitutional amendments coming up in the November election. As a state employee, I do not think it would be ethical to post my opinions about the proposed constitutional amendments. So instead I have posted an analysis and arguments for and against each proposed amendment. Post any questions you have in the comments, and I will do my best to get you an answer.

In and of itself, that's not too bad. The problem comes with the "analysis". If you go and read the PeckBlog "analysis" you might notice that it looks very familiar to the analysis found here. Again, this is not, in and of itself a problem.

What IS a problem is that it appears that Amy Peck has 100% either straight copied, or summarized the Texas Legislative Council's work without attribution, essentially presenting it as her own.

However you cut it, that's plagiarism.


Now, it's probable that this was unintentional, that Peck just used the TLC's document and is ignorant of copyright laws, and the pratfalls of not offering proper attribution. At worst, she intentionally ripped all of the content and presented it as her own. I don't think there's any way you can look at the two documents and make any kind of argument that the information on Peck's blog is her own.

Let's hope that we're dealing with the former and Peck corrects her error and apologizes.

Do endorsements matter?

My initial thought is: These two probably don't.

Bell endorses Jones. Chris Moran, Chron.com
Rodriguez, Harris and Stipeche for HISD board. The Apple Dumpling Gang, Chron.com

Let's start with the easy one.....



CHRIS BELL?????

I'm not sure the candidate who couldn't out draw a corpse is really someone who I would rely on to bring the vote. It's a testament to Kelly Cripe's savvy as a PR flack that she's wise enough to not use it in a mailer. Chris Bell? Meh.


At least, that's what most people would say, but Bell is a fave rave with the local InterLeft and Chron.com. Because of this, his endorsements are constantly paraded out in support of favorites that are probably going to win (comfortably) anyway. The effect of this is that Bell's self-delusion of popularity (Wow! My endorsement really put THAT candidate over the top!) is maintained and he's still mentioned as a serious Democratic candidate for almost any office that opens up for which he's eligible.


Even worse, is the Apple Dumpling Gang's endorsement.


First: No one pays attention to them any longer, and second, they obviously don't place the same weight on a Prog politician's cronyism as they do on a Republican candidate's cronyism. Besides that, when your definition of "qualified" seems too be more closely tied to idealism (in this case: Prog) than to actual qualifications you run the risk of losing credibility. For many years now the Apple Dumpling Gang has had zero.

If you haven't heard the phrase "post normal science" I encourage you to go look it up. Not only is it anti-science, but it's also the foundation for much of the human-driven climate change movement. What we're getting close to in Houston is "post normal politics". Where key players are recasting basic facts in a more favorable light to ensure a desired result.


I'd say you should think this is a problem no matter what side of the aisle you're on, but we know from the recent past that, at least, one side has no problem with hi-jacking civil discourse to advance something that's destined to fail. (Yet which has been sold to them as a panacea all facts to the contrary)

Alternative methods for traffic reduction

Courtesy of Metro rail.



Link to the text version of the story is here

Obviously this OLD plan wasn't doing the job as efficiently as possible. The obvious flaw, which Metro obviously overlooked, was that people were getting their cars fixed and back on the road soon after the Danger Train "relieved traffic".


Well now we can't have that. This new "phase 2" plan brilliantly attacks the problem from both ends. Metro takes out your car, and blocks the entrance to the places where it can get fixed.


I guess you can't make an omelet without breaking some eggs (or, in this case, cars)

Three unlikely data points (updated)

If you spend anytime at all listening to "those in the know" in Houston you'll hear a lot of stuff about how Houston will die on the vine without expensive, centrally planned, (and horribly inefficient) transit or how Houston is ugly or that Houston will lose their competitive advantage if they don't immediately stop what they are doing, give all of their planning over to David Crossley and his group and stop losing out to other cities in the race for "the creative class" and high priced workers.


Given all of the opinion and computer modelling that they've thrown at the problem (note: Not hard evidence, computer modelling) you might be surprised to find these three hard data points staring you in the face:


1. Houston home sales rise, break price record. Houston Business Journal
2. Harris County foreclosures take major dip. Houston Business Journal
3. Houston sets US pace for income growth, study shows. Houston Business Journal

So let me get this straight. Ugly, blighted, dumb, transit-deficient Houston, home of big traffic delays and buildings that no self-respecting liberal journalist could love. Houston, with its grungy air, mouth-breathing tea-party types and a cast-iron aversion to central zoning. Houston, a city so dumb some people don't want to live asshole-to-elbow in Crossley Towers (after their construction in a formerly blighted area of course, keeping them fully away from the "proper neighborhoods") where sustainable living, square foot gardens on two square foot balconies are the norm. Houston home of food deserts and an intellectual back-water where some people think they might, just might think they want a fenced-in backyard and believe that they should have some modicum of control over the property they own......


....that Houston is leading the nation in salary growth and is, by all accounts, experiencing a population boom.


Maybe we're not the armpit of civilization our would-be ruling class is making us out to be?



Funny, right after I posted this article David Crossley's group, Houston Tomorrow, rolled out this clap-trap, obviously meant to be a slight (again) at the Houston region:

Houston Region ranked 11th most stressful by Forbes, David Crossley, Houston Tomorrow.


There's just one small problem:

The Houston region is #11 out of 15 in Forbes new list of the Most Stressful Cities in America.

(emphasis mine)

Unsaid in the Houston Tomorrow article is that Houston came in BETTER than liberal utopias Seattle, San Francisco and San Diego and waaaay behind dense, transit heavy, walkable (Crossley's gold standard) New York (#1) and Chicago (#3). Again the facts don't match the rhetoric.

One District at a time

Maybe that's the path?

(Business owners want Montrose Management District dissolved, Ken Fountain, West University Examiner)

The Montrose Management District, not yet a year old, may be facing extinction.

Like all of the Houston’s management districts, the Montrose Management District runs on assessments solely to owners of commercial, not residential property. It was formed under a law passed by the Texas Legislature in 2009 -- after two failed earlier attempts -- to encompass the western part of the Montrose area. In January, it merged with the already existing East Montrose Management District to form one district.

From the outset, a group of small business owners have opposed the district, appearing at board meetings to voice their objections. Many claim that they were unaware of the district’s formation until last fall, when they received mailed notices of a meeting to set the property assessment.

Ever since, they’ve vowed to collect the number of signatures from property owners required by state law -- equal to 75 percent of the assessed commercial property in the district -- to force the board to dissolve the district.

And succeed they have, or so it seems. As of last word the District's lawyers are pouring over the signatures trying to determine if the signors "oppose the totality of the district". My guess is they will, and they'll have no other choice to disband.

If you need to know more about why this is a bad thing, take a look at this blogHouston piece that outlines some of that "bad crony capitalism" that The Apple Dumpling Gang finds so offensive when practiced by the wrong politicians (i.e. politicians who do not share their ideals.)


You'd think that the Mayor's life partner and the seemingly under-qualified son of fund "manager" David Hawes being employed by the district would have fired off a round of warning bells....You'd be wrong,


It's not the job of those from the ruling class party to worry about things such as conflicts of interest and cronyism, only to point out when they think the other side is doing it better than them.



More:

Texas Watchdog, Rhymes with Right

You know "for flood control"

So say we all?

(How tight is Houston's drainage tax 'lock box'? Bike trails funded by Rebuild Houston money for streets and drainage, Steve Miller, Texas Watchdog.com)

It was passed by Houston voters as a tax to address the city’s decrepit drainage system and Third World streets. But $857,000 of the new Proposition 1 fund --- which Mayor Annise Parker pitched as a "lock box that can only be spent for street and drainage improvements" --- is slated for hike and bike trails.

The money will pay for "design, acquisition and construction" of trails as part of an overall plan to provide "an alternate route of travel for bicyclists and/or hikers away from street traffic," according to the city's latest capital improvement plan.

If you're not reading Texas Watchdog for your daily news, my question is "Why not?"
The answer is THIS type of reporting that one won't find at Houston's newspaper of record. It's the type of reporting that Houston certainly needs.

Supposedly, the hapless Parker administration is none too happy that this news has been released to the public, which is all the more reason why it SHOULD be released to the public.

Don't expect the city's prog InterLeft to get upset about this, that's not what they do.

You should probably be upset about it however, because your tax money is going to end up paying for this*






*Not that we here at HCA have a problem with bike trails, we're avid bicyclists after all, but we believe in paying for them in an honest way, not under the guise of "flood control"