Hutchison Chases Texas Right

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, above, in August announcing her candidacy to unseat Gov. Rick Perry, who is seen below with Texas Rangers in October.
















Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison may have won the backing of former Vice President Dick Cheney in her race for Texas governor, a key endorsement for a candidate seeking conservative support. But her drive to unseat Republican Gov. Rick Perry remains an uphill battle.

Ms. Hutchison, one of the Lone Star State's most popular politicians, was expected to mount a formidable challenge to Mr. Perry in one of the long-anticipated GOP primary battles of next year's elections. The GOP winner is an overwhelming favorite to be the next governor in this Republican state.

"We Westerners know the difference between a real talker and the real deal," Mr. Cheney said before a small crowd of about 100 Hutchison supporters and journalists Tuesday evening. "Kay Bailey Hutchison is the real deal."

Perry is more conservative than Hutchison; he even alluded to Texas seceding from the Union. But the Senator is an old Washington pal of Cheney.

But Mr. Perry has built a large lead in polls with less than four months to go to the March 2 primary. In part, he has scored points using what's shaping up as a popular strategy for many candidates during this election cycle, with rhetoric portraying Ms. Hutchison as a Washington insider out of touch with down-home Texans. He also has accused her of waffling on a pledge to resign from her Senate seat, which she had initially said she would do in October or November.

"It really does appear that it is slipping away for her," said Calvin Jillson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

The Hutchison campaign hopes the backing of Mr. Cheney, who before being elected vice president was chief executive of Halliburton Co., then based in Dallas, will deepen the shallow conservative backing that has been long viewed as her principal weakness. But supporters of Mr. Perry, who has the backing of conservative groups and such governors as Haley Barbour of Mississippi, have tried to use the Cheney endorsement as evidence Ms. Hutchison is out of touch with Texas voters. "The Washington establishment usually sticks together," Perry campaign spokesman Mark Miner said.

That is almost an insult to Cheney, the right's darling.

Police Chiefs: Overhaul Immigration Policy

Chief John Timoney of Miami


Seeking to inject their views into the revived debate over immigration overhaul, several big-city police chiefs urged Congress on Wednesday to draft a new policy that improves public safety by bringing illegal immigrants out of the shadows.

Sensible.

The chiefs — updating recommendations made in 2006 by the leaders of more than 50 urban police departments — called for an overhaul that would integrate immigrants into the legal system, possibly with driver’s licenses, and separate the local police from immigration enforcement.
Have the federal government accept responsibility for a national policy?

Chief Timoney, Chief Art Acevedo of the Austin Police Department in Texas and former Chief Art Venegas of the Sacramento Police Department said local law enforcement had been undermined by the blurred line between crimes and violations of immigration law, which are civil.
Congress has avoided dealing with the issue, and by doing so they have shifted the burden to local law enforcement, including the costs.
Those who call illegal immigrants “criminals,” they said at a news conference here, are misreading the law and hurting their own communities by scaring neighbors who could identify criminals. “When you remove the emotion from the debate,” Chief Acevedo said, "no one can argue that it is in the best interest of public safety to keep these people living in the shadows.”

Emotion is what mucks everything up.

They said they favored tough border enforcement and efforts to prosecute employers who rely on illegal foreign-born workers. But they insisted that local law enforcement be kept apart from immigration enforcement because such agencies lacked the training and time, especially with recent budget cuts.

Another efect of the economic slowdown.

Jessica M. Vaughan, a senior policy analyst with the Center for Immigration Studies, which favors tougher immigration enforcement, said the chiefs were misguided.

The motto of the organization? Pro-immigrant, low-immigration think-tank which seeks fewer immigrants but a warmer welcome for those admitted.

The costs for local police are often minimal, Ms. Vaughan said, because the federal government pays jailing costs, and verifying immigration status can be done in conjunction with standard checks of criminal databases. Immigrants are less likely to report crimes, she added, because of language barriers, a lack of understanding about American law, and a general distrust of authority stemming from corruption in their home countries.

So the police don't understand what is really happening, but a think-tank analyst does. O, sure.

“None of this is related to fear of deportation,” she said.

Huh? It is corruption of law enforcemet in their home countries that afflicts immigrants

Mayor trades job for Romance

A twist on a tale.

Gov. Rick Perry, left, talks with Antonio Pontes, CEO of Martifer Energy Systems, center, and San Angelo Mayor J.W. Lown in September 2008 at the San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts.

J.W. Lown, the mayor of San Angelo in West Texas, recently narrated a video touting his town as a great place to live. Then he left to pursue another passion.

Follow your passion, it is said.

Mr. Lown resigned this week -- less than a month after winning a fourth two-year term in a landslide -- saying he was leaving to carry on a relationship with a Mexican man who had been living illegally in the U.S.
So the mayor did.

With his partner unable to legally remain in the U.S., the mayor said he realized around election day -- May 9 -- that he faced a choice: betray his duty to abide by the law by helping the man hide from immigration authorities; end the relationship, or join him in Mexico. He chose Mexico.

A, Mejico.

Mr. Lown's colleagues and constituents have rallied around him. Some said they hadn't known he was gay. Others were surprised he got involved with an illegal immigrant. Neither issue drew widespread censure or disapproval.

Neither issue?

"In this neck of the woods," said Councilman Johnny Silvas, "people are accepting."

Accepting? Have things changed.

San Angelo, with a population of about 90,000, is northwest of Austin, not close to the U.S.-Mexico border. But all across Texas, residents have business and personal relationships with Mexican immigrants, legal and illegal. Mr. Lown's family has roots in Mexico, and he has holds dual nationality.

It's about 130 miles southeast of Odessa, and a couple of hundred miles from Austin. Del Rio, right on the border, is about 156 miles, almost directly due south.

His constituents want him back. Councilwoman Charlotte Farmer said she had been besieged by voters asking her to urge the mayor to resume his duties if he can resolve his partner's immigration status. "They love our mayor," Ms. Farmer said. "Quite frankly, so do I."

Storm Clouds Gather Over Obama Nominees

Although the parties have changed places, the nomination wars continue. Senate Republicans are struggling to adapt to an altered political world when it comes to candidates for federal courts and senior Justice Department posts.

No longer able simply to defend choices made by a fellow Republican, as they did under President George W. Bush, Republicans on the Judiciary Committee have turned into vocal critics of many of President Obama’s legal nominees. They complain that several are committed liberal ideologues, much in the way Democrats complained that Mr. Bush’s choices were committed conservative ideologues.

Same old game, but there's a new sheriff in town.

The current Republican focus is on a pair of nominees: Mr. Obama’s first selection for a federal appeals court seat, David F. Hamilton, and his choice to head the Office of Legal Counsel at the Justice Department, Dawn Johnsen. (By coincidence, the two are in-laws.)

Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the Judiciary Committee’s ranking Republican, has complained that the Democrats are moving too quickly to consider Mr. Hamilton, a federal trial judge in Indiana since 1994. The committee has set for Wednesday the confirmation hearing on Judge Hamilton, who was nominated only in mid-March.

Specter is a slime. He tries to play the center, and sometimes does (he voted for the stimulus bill), but he often moves right and lobs grenades.

But the attacks on the nomination of Ms. Johnsen, who is married to Judge Hamilton’s brother, have been more severe. Ms. Johnsen, a law professor at Indiana University, was an unsparing critic of memorandums, written by lawyers at the Office of Legal Counsel in the Bush administration, that said the president could largely ignore international treaties and Congress in fighting terrorists and that critics have portrayed as allowing torture in interrogation.

It is incomprehensible that a lawyer would wrote an opinion stating that the president can ignore treaties and Congress.

The broad reading of presidential authority was “outlandish,” and the constitutional arguments were “shockingly flawed,” Ms. Johnsen has written. While her language was harsh, the memos have largely been withdrawn, and among lawyers a consensus agreeing with her views has emerged.

Nonetheless, Republicans have denounced her comments. Senator John Cornyn of Texas, a member of the committee’s minority, said Ms. Johnsen lacked the “requisite seriousness” to head the Office of Legal Counsel.

Cornyn makes Specter seem a statesman.

Vote on Challenge to Evolution

Where is Clarence Darrow when we need him?
Rev. Carl W. Rohlfs of the University United Methodist Church in Austin, left, talks with Texas Freedom Network President Kathy Miller, right, Thursday in Austin. The State Board of Education is voting on science-curriculum standards on the teaching of evolution.


We're still debating evolution? Maybe we should make sure the earth really rotates around the sun, unless we're in danger of falling off the edge of the earth while navigating. Geez.

The Texas Board of Education will vote this week on a new science curriculum designed to challenge the guiding principle of evolution, a step that could influence what is taught in biology classes across the nation.

"This is the most specific assault I've seen against evolution and modern science," said Steven Newton, a project director at the National Center for Science Education, which promotes teaching of evolution.

As Ralph Kiner once said about Casey Stengel, "if he were alive, he'd be turning over in his grave." This time it'd be Clarence Darrow.

Texas school board chairman Don McLeroy also sees the curriculum as a landmark -- but a positive one.

Dr. McLeroy believes that God created the earth less than 10,000 years ago. If the new curriculum passes, he says he will insist that high-school biology textbooks point out specific aspects of the fossil record that, in his view, undermine the theory that all life on Earth is descended from primitive scraps of genetic material that first emerged in the primordial muck about 3.9 billion years ago.

Huh? Never mind the separation of church and state, but this is ridiculous.

He also wants the texts to make the case that individual cells are far too complex to have evolved by chance mutation and natural selection, an argument popular with those who believe an intelligent designer created the universe.

Of course he couldn't possibly see that complexity arose across vast ages. Nah. God did it.

The textbooks will "have to say that there's a problem with evolution -- because there is," said Dr. McLeroy, a dentist. "We need to be honest with the kids."

That's rich: let's be honest.

Polls show many Americans are skeptical of or confused by evolution; in a recent survey by Gallup, 39% said they believe the theory, 25% said they didn't, and 36% had no opinion.

What can one possibly say about that? Well, 4 of 10 believe in evolution, 1 in 4 don't, and a third are skeptical, dumb or indifferent.








Someone sent this cartoon to the Wall Street Journal discussion of this article and topic.

Some 'Other' Wall Streets Embarrassed

"This is the real Wall Street,' says Mark Rosenstein, chef/proprietor of the Market Place restaurant on Wall Street (the one in Asheville, N.C.).



"If I ran this restaurant like the bankers ran their business, I would no longer have a job," says Celinda Knight, manager of the Wall Street Bar & Grill, on East Wall Street in Midland, Texas, childhood home of former President George W. Bush.

That is probably what infuriates people more than anything else: the double standard. That they get bailed out with our money is also infuriating.

Anger over runaway trading, financial engineering and compensation by financial companies has a strong resonance along at least 955 country roads, suburban streets and downtown blocks named Wall Street or something close to that. From Abilene, Texas, to south Los Angeles to Zeeland, Mich., these residents and business are wrestling both with the recession and the ignominy of a truly fallen address. (Never mind that most Wall Street financial firms aren't literally located on Wall Street, nor is The Wall Street Journal.)

"My father's always joked: 'My daughter works on Wall Street,'" says Robin Campbell, owner of Dolce Vita, an eclectic boutique halfway on Asheville's Wall Street that is stocked with handbags, earrings and wine. "Now he doesn't joke about that."

On Wall Streets throughout the country, the dominant view is that their New York cousins deserve their ruined reputation.

There is such a disconnect between normal people and financiers. Politicians straddle the two worlds, getting money from the latter, votes from the former.
As much as people on "other" Wall Streets want to distance themselves from the one known around the world, they can't escape its economic reach. In January, Asheville's unemployment rate hit 8.7%, up from 4.4% a year earlier. Tourism, the area's most important business, is slowing. Once-red-hot mountain real-estate developments are dormant.

Oops!

This is pure Fox News logic:

The hero pilot who miraculously guided his crippled jet into a textbook landing in the icy Hudson River was a straight-A student as a schoolboy in Denison, Texas — but his school district gets an "F" for making his academic records public.

Oops!

Ace pilot Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger III was in seclusion Friday, a day after he saved the lives of 155 passengers and crew aboard US Airways Flight 1549. But America was learning much about its newest hero — even his IQ scores.
• Click here for photos.

Shame on 'em ... but, heu, as long as the stuff is out there ...

This caged bird sang

Another drugs story in El Universal's website has this headline: ‘El Hummer’, sicario que ‘cantó’ muy rápido en la SIEDO - El Hummer, assasin that sang very fast to SIEDO (Subprocuraduría de Investigación Especializada en Delincuencia Organizada, roughly a sub-attorney's office of Specialized Investigation for Organized Crime).

It is a tale of drugs, violence, corruption. Los Zetas is one Mexican group of violent criminals. They deal in drugs, engage in violence against enemies, and are a scourge on Mexico. Smuggling drugs into the US, selling drugs both in the US and in Mexico, they rely on corrupt officials to lubricate their operations. This guy is, according to a website I found but which I am reluctant to rely on much, the killer of Valentin Elizalde. And El Universal states that this slug was probably (Es ‘El Hummer' probable ejecutor de Valentín Elizalde) the assassin of Elizalde. Arrested in Reynosa on 7 November 2008, he was taken out of the city quickly, and taken before federals in Mexico City. There, he sang, spilling details of how Los Zetas and the Gulf cartel, which seems to be enmeshed, overlapping organizations operate. One major component of said operations is police protection.

Stratfor has an interesting article about the arrest. One item of particular interest is the statement that various Zetas are army deserters.

Jaime González Durán, El Hummer, uno de los 31 ex soldados que fundaron el grupo de sicarios de Los Zetas, en el único lugar que se sentía seguro era en Reynosa, una de las zonas bajo control del cártel del Golfo

One of 31 ex-soldiers who founded the group of assassins Los Zetas (The Zees), only felt safe in Reynosa (state of Tamaulipas, near the Mexico-Texas border), one of the zones under the control of the Gulf cartel.

He, one of the most feared sicarios, was caught by surprise in his own house, and all he could do was hide under his bed. Considered one of the toughest Zetas, when he heard voice yell to him “Sal de ahí, entrégate” (get out of there, surrender). Without a way to escape, he surrendered, coming out from under his bed.

Obviously the Universal reporter is using language deliberately, to emphasize how a feared assassin hid under his bed, to ridicule him. I, who am not Mexican, but who have visited the country three times and follow news about Mexico on a daily basis, am sad, even angry, over how criminals are sowing fear and violence, damaging that beautiful country. So I can begin to imagine what this journalist is feeling by reading his story. It continues.

Se entregó a los federales, que sin perder tiempo lo subieron a uno de sus vehículos para sacarlo de la ciudad. Afuera, comenzó a armarse una intentona de sus cómplices para rescatar a El Hummer, pero nada impidió que llegara hasta el aeropuerto para ser trasladado a la ciudad de México y presentarlo ante fiscales de la Subprocuraduría de Investigación Especializada en Delincuencia Organizada (SIEDO).

Surrendering to the federals, who wasted no time in getting him on to one of their vehicles and getting him out of the city (Reynosa). Outside, a posse of his accomplices began to arm themselves to make an attempt to rescue The Hummer, but nothing impeded his arriving at the airport to be moved to Mexico City and being presented before attorneys of SIEDO.

Y ya ante los fiscales federales, con la misma mansedumbre con la que se entregó, comenzó a hablar y a delatar.

And in front of federal attorneys, with the same meekness with which he surrendered, he began to talk and betray.

Asegura que su poder no se ha extinguido en todos estos años de encarcelamiento, pues los hombres que estuvieron bajo su mando y la estructura criminal que conformó hasta antes de su captura, acata sin dudar sus órdenes.

According to the Hummer, Osiel Cárdenas Guillén continues in charge of the Gulf cartel. He insists that his power has not been extinguished in the many yeas he has been in jail, for the men of whom he was in charge and the criminal structure that he built before his capture continues under his orders.

El Hummer afirmó que Cárdenas Guillén es, hasta hoy, el jefe máximo de esa organización criminal, que continúa operando con la protección de cuerpos policiacos.

The Hummer affirmed that Cárdenas Guillén is, until this day, the maximum chief of this criminal organization, which continues operating with police protection. And that's the nexus of this problem: narcos are protected by people in power.

Y dio detalles de cómo el cártel del Golfo se reestructuró, amplió y opera en varios estados, principalmente en Oaxaca y Veracruz. Así, la PGR sabe ahora que pese a la ausencia de Osiel Cárdenas Guillén, la conducción del grupo delictivo recayó en Jorge Costilla Sánchez, El Cos o La Sombra, como líder y a su lado Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano, El Lazca, actual jefe de Los Zetas.

Less than 12 hours after being captured The Hummer began to sing, describing to federal lawyers how the cartel restructured, expanded and operates in various states, primarily in Oaxaca and Veracruz. Thus the feds know that despite Cárdenas Guillén's absence, Costilla Sánchez, El Cos (costilla means rib, sombra is shadow) is now the criminal leader, and at his side Lazcano is the actual chief of Los Zetas.

In effect, the leader being jailed has not prevented the gang from operating, or even from expanding. Others have taken lkeadership of the Zees.

El 7 de noviembre, cuando fue arrestado, concluyó el historial criminal que le atribuyen las autoridades federales a González Durán, un hombre de 32 años, quien fue uno de los escoltas directos de Osiel Cárdenas Guillén. Pasador de droga, ejecutor de enemigos del cártel del Golfo y de Los Zetas, se convirtió hasta el día de su captura en uno de los miembros de mayor confianza para El Lazca y El Cos, según la averiguación previa a la que tuvo acceso este diario, PGR/SIEDO/UEIDCS/147/2007.

When arrested on 7 November, the criminal career that the feds attribute to The Hummer, 32 years of age, and one of Cárdenas Guillén's escorts (bodyguards, I suppose), ended. Drug dealer, executioner of enemies of the Gulf cartel and the Zees, until the day of his capture he became one of the members that El Lazca and El Cos most trusted, according to the prior investigation to which this newspaper had access.

After declaring that Cárdenas Guillén is the head of the Gulf cartel, he said that he belongs to both the cartel and the Zees. The boss of the former is The Shadow and the boss of the latter is Lazca, the real boss of both is Cárdenas Guillén, according to the version of he who is considered a deserter by the Army.

That's quite a twist.

El Hummer explicó que Cárdenas Guillén envía todas sus instrucciones a través de los abogados que lo defienden, quienes pasan éstas a El Cos y al El Lazca que se encargan de ejecutarlas. Así, se ha hecho desde que el capo del cártel del Golfo fue detenido por soldados el 14 de marzo de 2003 en la ciudad de Matamoros.

The Hummer explained that Cárdenas Guillén sends instructions through two defense lawyers, who in turn pass them to El Cos and El Lazca, who then execute them. It has worked this way since the capo of the Gulf cartel was stopped by soldiers on 14 March 2003 in Matamoros.

Osiel Cárdenas Guillén was extradited to the US nearly two years ago, 22 January of 2007, where he is being held in a maximum security prison, subject to various penal processes (trials, I'd say) for his assumed responsibility for drug trafficking in the US -- and again it is stated that such imprisonment, according to The Hummer, has not impeded the cartel's operations in various states; in each there are local chief that report to the chief of each state.

Por ejemplo, citó que en Veracruz el jefe es El Gonzo, otro de los fundadores del grupo de sicarios del cártel del Golfo, y él le reporta directamente al encargado del estado que es Miguel Treviño, El 40. En todas las ciudades importantes de ese estado la policía, dijo, está involucrada en la protección a las operaciones del cártel y de Los Zetas.

For example, in the state of Veracruz the chief is EL Gonzo, another of the founders of the assassin group of the Gulf cartel, and he reports directly to El 40. In all the state's important cities, The Hummer said, the police is involved in the protection of the operations of the cartel and the Zetas.

When he was captured he had about $900,000 in proceeds from selling marijuana in McAllen, Texas, money he was going to turn over to El Cos. One can imagine that El Cos is not too happy with either not getting the money, or The Hummer singing.

“La droga la llevo en cámaras de llantas para que no se moje, aunque también lo hago caminando con dos o tres personas más y la cantidad siempre es de dos o tres toneladas”, de acuerdo con el testimonio que rindió ante fiscales federales apenas horas después de que fue capturado.

The dope, he said, he took into the US in tires (in a way I don't quite get) so it doesn't get wet. He also brings dope in walking with two or three other people. The quantities always are 2 or 3 tons. Of course, to this observer it is difficult to understand how four guys can carry 2 tons of anything.

A bridge to somewhere

This a fascinating story. Human contact and international cooperation and understanding are victims of the fear, immigrant-bashing and xenophobia so prevalent these days. This man wants to resist such nonsense.

SIERRA BLANCA, Texas – In a swampy corner of his desolate ranch, Bill Addington proudly flouts the law.

Good for him.

The Department of Homeland Security has demanded that he tear down a rickety footbridge from his land across the Rio Grande into Mexico. Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, authorities have shut down nearly a dozen of these informal river crossings along the Texas border. This is the last they know to be operating. They want it gone. Mr. Addington refuses.

Now that's great. How many terrorists are going to use that rickety little bridge 90 or so miles east of El Paso?

He crossed that bridge countless times as a boy, darting into Mexico to buy candy or watermelon juice or to flirt with the girls at church-hall dances. Mexicans crossed over, too, every day, to work the cotton fields for Mr. Addington's father – a U.S. Border Patrol agent. After a hard season's labor, they would all celebrate together with a night of bilingual poker, fueled by whiskey and calf-brain stew.

How ironic. His father was a wetback.

"They say it's a new era, but their vision of the border is a place of fear and trouble," he says. "We just don't see it that way. This is our home."

Common sense. Not something bureaucrats know.

He grew up on the river, soaring out over the international border on a tire swing, splashing in the lazy current, frying fresh-caught catfish with his Mexican buddies on one shore or the other. Border life has a unique culture and rhythm, he says, and he can't stand to see it locked down behind steel fencing. Or cut off by destroying a footbridge.

That's a point that is not often discussed, nor, I confess, one I thought of: making the border a garrison disrupts normal life, destroys culture.

The local sheriff, Arvin West, backs him up. Sheriff West believes that security imperatives will one day require the bridge to close. He acknowledges that it can enable illegal immigration -- in fact, his own grandfather used it to sneak into this country. But Mr. West says the bridge is hardly a threat and calls it ridiculous for the government to target a flimsy string of two-by-fours when miles of border remain unsecured. So for now, he vows to stand "toe to toe and nose to nose" against any federal official who tries to shut down the crossing.

The sheriff's grandfather crossed into the US on that bridge, and now the grandson is a law enforcement officer. Gives lie to the argument of cutting off immigration, no? Yes.

The letter from Homeland Security did contain a vague threat of unilateral action: "Our goal is to work...in a peaceful and cooperative manner," it read, "...however, we cannot allow your bridge" to remain open.

Mr. Addington shrugs off the warning. He'll take that risk, he says, for his friends across the border, for his fellow ranchers who rely on day laborers from Mexico, for the memory of those dances and the long evenings after the cotton harvest, when people from two nations bonded over barbecue.

"We should be building bridges, not walls," Mr. Addington says. "I'm not taking it down."

Hurricane Ike

Ike's moving deep into the Gulf, and Houston is under threat. Gov. Rick Perry today urged coastal residents in Hurricane Ike's path to evacuate immediately, describing it as a storm that could swamp houses in Galveston and other areas to at least their eaves. That's from a Houston Chronicle piece.

Its progress is something to behold.

Hannah leaving the Northeast, Ike approaching Cuba.

Ike over western Cuba










Ike past the Florida Keys









Ike inside the Gulf










Ike south of Mississippi












Ike south of Louisiana












Barreling toward the coast








Where will Ike hit?











Sept 12 11.45UTC

13 Sept 1.45 UTC (20.45 EDT)













13 Sept 3.45 UTC (22.45 EDT)






13 Sept 13.45 UTC (8.45 EDT)










9-13 19.45 UTC (14.45 EDT)














14 Sept 2.15 UTC (21.15 EDT)







14 Sept 3.45 UTC (22.45 EDT)

Hurricane Ike now ...

as of 19.15 UTC (2.15pm EDT)

Hurricane Iks is now...

Approaching the US coast.

Hurricna Ike aims for Texas

Picture is as of 8.15am EDT.

Hurricane Ike rumbles on

Ike is in the Gulf of Mexico. This picture is as of 1.15 UTC (8.15pm EDT).

That-a way / Hurricane

Love this picture from El Universal: Un auto transita en una de las calles de Matamoros, Tamaulipas, donde impacta el huracán Dolly con vientos de hasta 190 km/h (Foto: Reuters )
An auto drives on one of the streets of Matamoros, Tamaulipas, when hurricane Dolly hits with winds of up to 190 kilometers an hour.

Note the middle sign: United States this way.

This other picture shows the impact of Dolly smashing the cities of Matamoros, Tamaulipas (image), and Brownsville, Texas

Vendor who sold racist Obama pin apologizes

There'll be plenty of this stuff over the next 5 months, and then over the following 4 years.

AUSTIN – The vendor who sold a racist pin at the Republican Party convention last weekend in Houston apologized today and said he had no intention of creating the firestorm that has ensued.

One has to wonder what his expectations were, given the slogan.

T. Boone is back

He made a fortune in petroleum. Now he is moving on.

A renewable energy company founded by billionaire T. Boone Pickens said Thursday it's buying 667 wind turbines from General Electric Co. to start what it expects will be the world's largest wind energy project.

The project's $2 billion first phase — one of four planned — will make enough to power more than 300,000 average U.S. homes. When completed in 2014, it will become the world's largest wind energy project, with more than 4,000 megawatts of electricity, enough for 1.3 million homes, Mesa Power said.

The deal is a major investment for Fairfield-based GE, which in January announced it would focus more efforts on building its renewable investment business because of the high price of oil. GE has called renewable energy its fastest-growing business.

File under stupidity

This is amazing. The whole article is worth pasting here.

Texas teens tell police they converted skull into bong

HOUSTON (AP) — Three teenagers were arrested after two of them told police they dug up a secluded grave north of Houston, removed the skull from the coffin and converted it into a marijuana bong.

Police found a grave in the city of Humble that had been disturbed, but were still investigating the rest of the teens' story, Houston police Sgt. John Chomiak said.

Kevin Wade Jones, 17, and Matthew Richard Gonzalez, 17, both of Kingwood, were arrested Wednesday night and were being held on misdemeanor charges of abuse of a corpse, Chomiak said. The juvenile was referred to the Harris County juvenile justice system.

A woman who answered the phone at Gonzalez's home declined comment. A telephone number for Jones could not immediately be found, and it wasn't clear from court records if either had an attorney.

Police were interviewing Jones about the use of a stolen debit card when he told them about the grave theft, which purportedly occurred around March 15, according to court documents. Asked why Jones would volunteer such a story, Chomiak said, "We can only speculate and guess to what goes on in the criminal mind."

Gonzalez confirmed the story to investigators in a follow-up interview. Police were led to a heavily wooded site in Humble where they found a knocked-over headstone and water-filled hole more than 4 feet deep. At the time, the muddy water did not allow police to see if the coffin had been disturbed.

"They dug into this gravesite and that was enough to warrant the abuse of corpse charge," Chomiak said. "There has to be further investigation into the actual gravesite."

Police believe the grave is that of an 11-year-old boy who died in 1921. Preliminary reports indicate it was part of a 19th-century veterans cemetery, Chomiak said. While residents in the area knew of the cemetery's existence, it did not appear to be maintained.