Some things you can't put a price on

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For everything else, there are the local blogs.

"Of course I know. It is my business to know." -The Merovingian

Bing! Bing! Bing! We have a Winner!

I wondered why it took so long. I posted that bald-faced lie to provoke a discussion on community cooperative efforts. The city actually is, at this point, collaborating with Harlingen for a event center, hopefully as I described. The basic problem that plagues efforts like that are that by the time the location is chosen, everyone knows where it will be and we pay far too much for the real-estate, it costs 3 times as much (cough! sports-park)and is usually undersized by the time it is finally finished. It is not important that what I wrote was not true. What is important is that it should have been true. If you bought it, hook, line, and sinker, don't be sad or angry. You were optimistic about our city. As I was writing it, I was hoping it was true, too. Congratulations, Ralph Cowen. How long did it take to run down my bit of malarky?

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M,

I read your piece on a “supposed” event center on Port of Brownsville property. The concept is very interesting and very creative. I really hate to report to the blog-world that your “events center proposal” at this time is just not under consideration by anybody but yourself. This concept for BND diversity has great possibilities and real merit. Unfortunately at this place in time, your “concept” has no budget or backing. You see it my business to know too. After reading your script and looking at the drawing, I must say that you do have real “talent”. I am very grateful you were not around for the Orson Well’s radio broadcast of “War of the Worlds” in the last century. I am sure the public’s panic and hysteria would still be with us.

While we are conjuring up BND projects, let us consider these other concept projects that have great merit and no current funding or consideration.

1. A first class cruise line and Navy Port of Call based in a new turning basin located five miles inland from the end of the jetties. Those five miles of channel and basin would be maintained at 60ft and have the ability to turn an aircraft carrier around. It is cheaper to maintain a five mile channel and basin at 60 ft of dept than 18 miles of channel at a 50ft dept.

2. This basin would be serviced by a passenger train run by BRGV Railroad that is currently owned and operated by the BND. Cruise line passengers could check their luggage at the Brownsville airport and ride hassle free before boarding the cruise ship. No other port in the world offers this service today.

3. This same train would serve as a commuter train in the early morning and late afternoon for workers at the port to Park and Ride to and from parking lots located by the Brownsville Airport. Thus taming HWY 48 during shift change.

4. A power plant running on natural gas wells located on land owned by the BND to serve us all with cheap electric power.


5. If the proposed desalt plant isn’t in the cards, we will build an affordable one, coupled with the affordable power to make the Port of Brownsville a competitive and diverse world class business site.

6. We should all work toward making the Port self supporting, and wean off tax support


It all starts with an idea; RFK quoted “Some people see things as they are and say WHY? I see things and say why not?” He may have borrowed this idea from “Voltaire”.

We must dream or our dreams can’t come true. One day at a time, one dream at a time we can and will change the world. Sometimes I dream with my head in the clouds, but I keep my feet on the ground.

Step one; Start and do our due diligence as we go.

Ralph Cowen

Geek Speak for the Week

A little while ago, I needed to put the spanish letter "ñ" in a word on a post and it occured to me that maybe the collection of über-geeks at Microsoft headquarters might not have considered that in South Texas we type in two languages at the same time,sometimes in the same sentence.

The little, nasty thing I use is a built-in Windows aapplet called Character Map. It is pretty handy, especially if finding special characters within applications like Word, or Excell drives you nuts. Since blogging comment boxes are devoid of nice, little things like that, you must do them externally, then paste them into the word or sentence.

To make the Character Map applet come up on a machine running anything Windows '95 or newer, do the following: Click Start, then click Run. In the little dialog box, type charmap ,then click Ok. For the ñ, look at the second line from the bottom, the fifth character from the right hand side. Click it, then click select, then click copy. The ñ is now on the clipboard, ready to be pasted into words like niño, piñata, etc.

For most windows releases, right click, then select paste.

Now, a whole new world of interesting things to do in posts is at your fingertips.
You can offer your 2¢, ask "¿Qué dijo?", even § like an attorney.

HTH

"Of course I'm geek. It is my business to geek." -The Merovingian

People ask why I am anal about signs....

Photoed TODAY by ME from elections LONG SINCE DECIDED !!!!
Brownsville was like this all over the place when I was a kid, and it seems to be sneaking back. Not everything in the past was the "good old days" and endless re-campaigning for pubic notice and name recognition is something I was glad to see outlawed.

"Of course I know. It is my business to know." -The Merovingian

Eddy Hernandez back in the saddle at PUB?

"When one little panda sticks his furry little willie in another panda's ear, that's sexual harassment, and that makes me a sad panda." - Sexual Harassment Panda


What is it about PUB that a story is never over? I mean, come on people! In the rest of the real world, stories have an end, and this one did, too. This is like watching "JAWS XXII" or some such. Who was pulling whose strings? Who had the naked photos of someone wearing the wrong gender undergarments? Who cut the deal? Why was the deal cut? Are the lawyers driving ALL of the buses? What the hell is going on and why is it even going on in the first place? PUB seems to be a place worthy of note by Oral Roberts University, where the dead rise on a regular basis.

Is it time for a new local political party?

It has been customary in our city, school board, port, and other elections to avoid party labels. Is this done to make it seem that the usual suspects are not pulling the strings? Is there something more grass roots and pure implied in this? On the odd occasion when a candidate for one of these positions professes a party affiliation with regards to the position, it is looked upon as strange. It seems to me that we already have a few ad-hoc local parties running things. The one thing they all have in common is moving in stealth mode and it seems to be the public's job to figure out who belongs to what party AFTER the elections. There is also the problem of determining these ad-hoc parties agendas, which also can only be determined after the fact. This does not give the public a measuring stick to determine how effective these people are. The interplay and struggle between all these entites and players wastes so much time and so many resources that to me, cat herding would be a more orderly process.

Many great people (we actually do have some) do not seek local office because building a support base for their ideas and goals is time consuming and expensive.

We end up with a local system of compadrismo held together loosely by silly putty that fights other cliques for power with absolutely no vision for the future beyond the next election cycle. We elect crabs: scavengers with hard shells, to throw into the bucket of other crabs, then wonder why there is no cooperation toward long term goals.

There are valid arguments against a local party. It is not a perfect solution, as there are no such things when people and politics are involved. In the future, such an arangement would probably degrade into the corrupt sameness of the status-quo, but such is the nature of such things. It would need to be torn down and rebuilt, as the system we have does today. Does the inevitable failure mean that it shouldn't be done at all? No. The Roman, Greek, Persian, Chinese, etc. systems all eventually failed, but they had their glory years. Do we and our children not deserve the same?

"Of course I know. It is my business to know."-The Merovingian

Wow....

The Metropolitan Entertainment Center as it has been named will have three times the seating capacity of the Dodge Arena in Hidalgo, but use the same amount of utilities. The location is directly across from the proposed Desalination Plant on State Highway 48. The site abuts property owned by the Ytturia family, but is located entirely on Port of Brownsville property. Design architecture will be provided by the Benham Companies, LLC , who designed the Ford Center in Oklahoma City. Engineering has yet to be decided, but curiously Dannenbaum Engineering has not been excluded from the process at this time.
Sources say that this decision will financially diversify operations at the Port of Brownsville and provide a much needed outside revenue stream. Brownsville, Harlingen, Port Isabel and South Padre Island will also benefit from the ease of access and the lack of traffic and planning disruption the location provides. The site was chosen over other locations due in part to the Port of Brownsville offering very favorable lease terms as opposed to spending millions for acquisition of the property and for infrastructure improvements. The recent upgrade to Highway 48 was also a major factor, as this location will not suffer the traffic congestion that plagues the Dodge Arena. The tourism boards and Chambers of Commerce for the affected cities were not consulted before this decision was finalized in executive session after months of negotiating between the entities involved, however, they are expected to fully support the project The estimated time of completion is three years.
The City of Brownsville’s Public Information Office is unwilling to confirm this at this time.

The mulling is over

"They don't have the authority ... They can not screw around with my civil rights."-Joe Lee Rubio on not being allowed to run in TSC trustee race
March 11, 2008 - 11:49PM
By GARY LONG/The Brownsville Herald


Well folks, the waiting is over and in the morning a motion for injunction, and a temporary restraining order will be filed. It looks like it is going to take more than an "informal opinion" to keep Mr. Rubio off the ballot. Named in the order are Eduardo Campirano and the Board of Trustees of TSC.

I am not an attorney, but I figure I can read as well as the next guy, and what I read isn't going to give a judge any trouble in granting the requested relief.

"Of course I know. It is my business to know" The Merovingian

The Treacherous Waters of Cameron County

Soon after the flag ship of the Democratic Party of Cameron County, the Political Bounty had piped aboard it's new master, Captain Bleah, orders were issued to make ready for battle. The upcoming war to recover lands perceived as being stolen from them for the last eight years was neigh at hand. The Republic was going to pay for that outrage.

This upcoming final engagement was months away, but all ships needed to sail with haste to the battle. The Political Bounty was charged with leading the fastest, most powerful warships through the treacherous waters of Cameron County. At the helm of the Hillary, the captain ordered that a large supply of Latino provisions were needed for the upcoming battles. The Obama's captain was also aware of the need for laying in a large supply of Latinos. Captain Bleah pulled along side the Hillary and offloaded as many Latinos has he could, as the Obama made way for the nearby Caucus Islands, where her Captain had demonstrated many times that his crew was very effective in gathering provisions. The Political Bounty slowly turned toward the Caucus Islands, with the Hillary and the Obama arriving ahead of it. An earlier attempt to hoist "The Jolly Rodger" had been thwarted by the captain of the Shergold. The crew of the Hillary had decided on a "snatch and grab" strategy at the Caucus Islands, as they had quite a few Latinos already safely tucked away in the hold and if they hung around, the Obama's crew may have swayed many of the Latinos that they felt were rightfully theirs. The crew of the Obama, when they had put ashore had expected the Political Bounty to have arrived ahead of the other two warships to light the way and gather the Latinos in marked locations so that provisions could be gathered in large numbers. But the Political Bounty had arrived late, and many of the torch bearers from the Political Bounty seemed confused if not downright retarded, and some of the mapped locations of Latino's were unlit and dark when the crew of the Obama arrived. The captain of the Political Bounty put his blindfolded first mate ashore aboard the dingy Hockema to declare that everything was fine and the process was flawless and smooth. The Obama's crew gathered what they could and made for their ship.

As the warships sailed from the waters of Cameron County, the captain of the Hillary signaled Captain Bleah, "If we are victorious, I won't forget what you did for me and my crew." With a smile, Captain Bleah tucked the note in his coat pocket for later retrieval. He was disturbed at the news of the total annihilation of the crusier Remi, but at least the Sophia had made it through. There were, of course, a few details left to take care of. The hostage Yates was no longer looking like an asset, and ransom would not be paid. He would soon be a liability. Best cut him loose. A few of the crew of the Political Bounty looked suspicously independent during the last engagement and would need to be punished.

"Of course I know. It is my business to know." -The Merovingian

Observation on Two Races

The races were unrelated, but one issue was common to both: Amit Livingston. Of course I am talking about the D.A's and 404th races. I know that Villalobos was the intended target of Zavaletta's blasting away on the subject, but he was in a very difficult position of trying to aim that shotgun squarely at his opponents chest without collateral damage to Abel Limas, who was the early on favorite to win his race. It would have made his life difficult had Limas won if Zavaletta had painted both Limas and Villalobos with the same brush. A little side-stepping by Villalobos in addition to Limas trying to back away from that issue caught Limas in the crossfire between Zavaletta's shooting at Villalobos and Elia's direct attacks. So, did Peter Zavaletta put Elia Cornejo Lopez back into office? Woulda,coulda,shoulda is not my purpose. This is simply an observation.

"Of course I know. It is my business to know." -The Merovingian

View from the Couch

The poll I had up didn't generate statistically significant numbers on crossover voting, but nonetheless does play a huge factor in Valley elections. All politics is local as Tip O'Neil said. I would love to see some exit polling data from the valley on the question of why people voted in X party's primary.

Valley Democrats are a strange breed. Most of the planks in the National Party Platform personally shock,horrify, and disgust them, but they still identify themselves as Democrats. From my vantage point, they are not Democrats at all, but it is the party that gives them the most leeway and support for what they really are: 1890's era Populists. I am not saying this is a bad thing, and many of the issues from that era are still/again issues today.

If Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid moved to the Valley and ran on their platforms in local elections, they would get trounced for being so weird and out of step with the community (not to mention reality). Because of the party affiliation of Democrat, the Valley voice counts in their stable of support.

I have no solution to this dichotomy, I only offer the observation.

"Of course I know. It is my business to know."-The Merovingian

Part one of the Silly Season draws to a close

As we all hold local politics near and dear to our hearts, it will soon be time for some to gloat and some to lick wounds. Some of the gloating will cause some new wounds in others, and some of the wound-licking will take the form of looking for payback. NOTE TO FELLOW BLOGGERS: Hatchet burying should be the order of the day.
I am not trying to make myself the blog police, simply a suggestion to cut down on the future purchase of Rolaids.

Me? However things turn out, I will be demanding that the victors do the job they fought so hard to get. If someone wins an elected position they had better be prepared to to a better job than their opponent, or should it be a reelected incumbent, do a better job than last term. If they think this was a coronation, are they going to get a rude awakening from the public, and more than a few catty comments from me.

"Of course I know. It is my business to know."-The Merovingian