-- To Diet or not to Diet

Fat Kid Successfully Avoids Ridicule By Swimming With Shirt On


In The Know: Should We Be Shaming Obese Children More?

As promised I would handle the issues put before me.

-Diet or not-

In short, NO. The real problem is exercise. That is it. All of it. Period.

Active people, not those who describe themselves as active in phone polls from the couch with a remote in one hand and the other digging in a bowl of chips, do not have weight problems.

As a people we have gotten so fat and lazy that we blame everyone else for what they put in the food we shovel down our gullets while driving our Lincoln Navigators to sit at the movies, then home to veg in front of cable TV.

Of course, here I am perched before a keyboard calling the kettle black, however I lead a very active lifestyle and I can eat anything and as much of it as I want. When I get 'that ice cream feeling' that one gallon pail of cookies n' cream ain't safe.

Why do we have fat kids? Nintendo. Plain and simple. Kids have too many hand-eye toys and not enough upper torso strength activities. The other reason is that parents would rather shove a ho-ho in a kid's hand than discipline them for whining. Every time I see a fat kid at the mall, I have a serious urge to take a swing at their parents.

Well, I guess that is enough for now. I expect a slew of responses from 'fat appologists'

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

Johnson-Castro: Blackwater flows to the Rio Grande

By Jay Johnson-Castro
Jay Johnson-Castro

November 26 - As if a border wall is not enough of an insult and act of tyranny against our border community…how about this brute reality? Blackwater USA wants to police our Texas-Mexico border.


For some time, it has been well documented that the world’s largest mercenary army is not only setting up a new military training camp in Potrero, CA, but has applied to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to be on the Texas-Mexico border to assist in border security.


As John Ross, of Global Research, has reported: “For months, the North Carolina-based corporation has been pressuring local San Diego officials to grant it an operating license for an 824-acre training site to be known as Blackwater West in Potrero, California, 45 miles east of that bustling port city but only six miles from the Tecate, Mexico, border crossing.”


Ross has also reported on the testimony then-Blackwater president Gary Jackson gave before Congress in 2005. Jackson said his company was “prepared to provide assistance on border security” and that Blackwater’s long-time connections inside DHS “could generate lucrative contracts training increasingly heavily-armed ICE agents.”


Ross pointed to remarks San Diego Congressman Bob Filner, a Democrat, gave Salon Magazine's Elaine Zimmerman last month: that he believes Blackwater is positioning itself to move into the border security business.


Our Texas congressmen and senators must know this. Why have they not informed us? Why has the media not belted them with questions about Blackwater locating on the border?


All this year, we’ve been trying to get folks to look at the darkness that looms in our country due to the atrocities that Blackwater committed in New Orleans during the Katrina fiasco as well as the perpetuation of the Iraq way where their forces of international gun slingers are paid $1,000 a day to kill whomever they so choose with total impunity. No one seemed to want to believe it until recently when the Iraqi government itself demanded Blackwater’s exit from their country. Now, everyone has heard about Blackwater, probably because it was finally reported on by the national TV networks.


Recently, Blackwater has been under investigation for the atrocities it has been committing in Iraq. The U.S. State Department Inspector General, Howard Krongard, recently denied before a House Congressional committee that he knew his brother, a former high ranking CIA official, now serves on the Blackwater Advisory Board.


One thing for sure…we did not come to know about Blackwater from our senators and congressmen. One has to ask “Why not?” Do they not know that Blackwater, as far back as 2005, applied to be the privatized military presence here on the border? How about our state legislators and senators? Hopefully, our journalists “inside the checkpoints” will start asking the right questions. Here are a few hints for them:


According to Jeremy Scahill’s acclaimed book “Blackwater,” the company is “looking for a lucrative domestic opportunity.” Scahill writes that Blackwater made an application in early 2005 “to serve as a force to deal with immigration and border security.”


That was months before Katrina. So now we know that Blackwater is positioned to crack down on “illegal aliens.”


Blackwater’s game plan has been enhanced founded Erik Prince’s connections. His old boss is Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, a Republican who represents the 46th congressional district in California. Rohrabacher has endorsed the Minutemen. Blackwater has been further enhanced by another Republican congressman from California, Duncan Hunter, who is now running for president. Hunter is a strong supporter of the border wall plan. The ruling supremacists have been pushing for the “outsourcing” border security…with Blackwater in mind.


It’s all about the corrupt money. Money like that comes in the form of “outsourcing,” and here’s how it stacks up. Israel's private defense contractor, Elbit Systems, which has plenty of experience building border walls against Palestine, has been hired by private contractor, Boeing, to build the security system along our border. G4S Global Security is headquartered in England and Denmark. Its Wackenhut buses run around the country transporting immigrants on our nickel. We have “for profit” internment camps that leach mega-millions of our tax dollars to imprison the “huddled masses yearning to breath free.” All the while, Blackwater is waiting like hired guns for its border contract.


Where are our protectors? Are there really any in Congress? Why the silence and secrecy?


Meanwhile, we now know where Blackwater is now focused - the U.S.-Mexico border.


Do we of the Rio Grande corridor in Texas just roll over and allow this to happen? Will we allow our money to fund Blackwater to do to our Texas-Mexico border region what it did in New Orleans after Katrina…and now in Iraq?


Will we allow Blackwater to flow…unimpeded…to the Rio Grande?


Jay Johnson-Castro, Sr., is a humanitarian activist and businessman from Del Rio, Texas. He has traveled the U.S.-Mexico border extensively and organized the first public protest against the border wall plan. His column, Inside the Checkpoints, appears weekly in the Guardian.


For further reading:


http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=7310
http://www.gringogazettenorth.com/v6e17_03.php

Topics for Discussion - Impact fee first

From a comment on Recall Them All

Anonymous said...

M,
for discussion,
--Election and Politiqueras.
--BND and DEC
--PUB and/or City Commission
--The Wall and/or No Wall
--Hats or No Hats
--BISD or UTB
-- To Diet or not to Diet

Ok, I can take a hint. Get back with the program? Right?

PUB and impact fees for developers:
The report to the City Commission that the report will be available in August is not only slow, it is silly. I could do it in about 2 weeks.
Here's how:
First, we know that no matter where it comes out, the developers are going to squeal like stuck pigs and the amount will be lowered. This works exactly like a property appraisal. Therefore the method to apply is quite simple. We will use one of my favorite formulations called BG-squared (By Gosh and By Golly) and estimate each facet of each impact a bit on the low side. Then we will add up each slightly underestimated facet. Now we have a total impact that cannot be argued because it was done low on purpose. Apply this fee because there is no valid argument against such a low estimate. Done!

Now wasn't that easy? Let's see, I think I am due about 1/2 of 1% of the revenue generated for my study here, which is far less than the process is taking.....Oh, and maybe a $1000 bonus for completing the study so far ahead of schedule...Some small credit for saving so much fuel and paperwork.... Oh, what the heck, how about PUB just send me a check for $5000 total and we call it even. Do you think this will happen? I guess we will just have to wait to see where the actual cost of calculating the impact fees, which will be argued down if implemented at all, come in. Be prepared to lose your lunch when they do. Add to the study costs the lost revenue for all the time that passed before implementation and we will have to pass a bond issue for a new city vomitorium.

I'll get to the other discussion issues until they are all addressed.

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

Capt. Bob's Forum

Sorry, the board is unavailable at the moment while we are testing some functionality.

We will be back soon...

All times are GMT -5. The time now is 09:45 AM.

What functionality is being tested?
Will the original posts be there when it comes back up?

The time zone is STILL wrong, try GMT -6 for the timezone your readers live in. It may not seem like a big deal, but I get disturbed reading posts that haven't occured yet. It upsets my sense of reality.

Just really curious.......

Comment Worthy of Distinction

Can You Say: UTB/TSC? said...

Truth be told, UTB/TSC is only marginally "an institution of higher education." Much of that condition arises from the abysmal lack of preparation of the students coming to the school from the surrounding public schools. Beat your chest and tear your hair all you want, you misguided apologists for the hideous state of public education, it's not going to change that fact.

Any weight UTB/TSC carries in the world of education comes from its accreditation. Without that, it irrefutably becomes what many already see it as: Juliet Garcia's combination money factory and playground for border retards.

The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) is the organization that provides the accreditation to UTB/TSC. They accomplish this by periodically coming to each institution and looking very closely at what the institution claims its mission is, what the institution is actually doing as relates to accomplishing that proclaimed mission, what sorts of results the various schools and colleges are getting, and the levels of academic progress students are making.

They are very serious, and they don't play at it. And they're coming to you-know-where in the very near future.

Most institutions have what is generally known as an office of institutional effectiveness, or something very similar. This is the office charged with making sure that when the accrediting body comes to check stuff out, it all looks good. Most institutions have had such an office in place for years, if not decades. The office at UTB/TSC was only created in the last couple of years. And this was somewhat of a panic response to the realization that SACS was coming and they weren't really looking like a good candidate for continued accreditation. Or at the very least, not without sanctions, a probationary period or some other very obvious process that the entire rest of the educational world could not help but see as proof of failure and incompetence.

One way to make the horrendous numbers that accompany hundreds of students requiring more than the state or national average number of hours of remediation in order to even qualify to attempt college level work; degrees taking six, eight or more years to complete by students barely able to maintain a 2.0 Grade Point Average (GPA); students typically losing access to federal student aid due to failure to maintain academic standards mandated by that program; students completing enough hours to account for at least a bachelor’s degree, but their completed courses to not conform to any approved course of study for which a degree can be awarded – one way to get the low graduation numbers to look better, is to get all those struggling students out of the system.

It appears that it was decided that a Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) evaluation would be made as a means for culling some of the more embarrassing members of the student body. Finally, we’re getting close to addressing the Dual Enrollment students.

A Freedom of Information Act request will yield nothing. The institution, regardless of the fact that it disburses state and federal monies, is not a governmental body and is not required to comply. Even if it were, you can be sure that there is no appreciable paper trail in existence regarding this activity. All students, including high school students who are being duped into duel enrollment by the office of Enrollment Planning in order to artificially bolster sagging enrollment numbers, are subject to SAP standards.

(One of the university’s, and the Office of Enrollment Planning’s, paramount objectives has been to meet or exceed expected national averages for enrollment increases. This is essential in demonstrating that a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) in one of the poorest regions of the nation is being managed so remarkably by a Hispanic woman, Juliet Garcia, that it is able to show such advancement, which is undoubtedly being followed with the well known benefits that accrue to the surrounding area through the increased educational level of the population.)

The additional hidden problem here is that many of these dual enrollment students are C- and D-average public school students, not those students for whom the rather demanding dual enrollment program was designed. As a result, many of the little Pedro’s y Bonita’s don’t make the grade; they might come for a few classes but their English isn’t good enough and they’d rather be “hangin with their homies” so they just quit coming. Next thing you know, little Bonita is looking to get into TSC so she can get a respiratory therapist’s certificate, but she’s already on SAP probation because she doesn’t have a 70% completion rate and a 2.0 GPA because of her long forgotten episode with dual enrollment. Another 18 year old in skin-tight mid-calf length hip-hugging designer jeans, $65 dollar blouse revealing no more cleavage than would be appropriate for an 11 pm appearance at the favorite club, set off with pink patent leather Hello Kitty seven inch stiletto heels and coin purse-sized hand bag has her dreams of future financial success stomped hard in the middle of the back by the big muddy black boot of reality.

There is a LOT of ugly crap going down there, on the border by the sea, and it’s not all coming from across the border. To all appearances, Dr. Garcia has taken what could have been a beacon of hope, painted it up as a one-size-fits-all solution for the region’s ignorance and poverty, bought red rubber noses for all parties, and transformed it into her own private legacy building empire.

Post script:

The catch 22 to all this, and you knew with this level plotting and intrigue there would be at least one, is that if they ditch the students that make their numbers look bad for SACS, then their claimed amazing enrollment accomplishment disappears.

“Oh what a tangled web we weave,
When first we practice to deceive!”
~ Sir Walter Scott, Marmion, canto vi, stanza 17.

“NO CONFLICTS BUT A LOT OF INTEREST”

NEWS RELEASE - FOR IMMEDIATE PUBLICATION
Brownsville, Texas. November 18, 2007

“NO CONFLICTS BUT A LOT OF INTEREST”

Peter Zavaletta, candidate for the Democratic nomination for Cameron County District Attorney, addresses Baybridge and conflict of interest:

“After the Brownsville Navigation District Board voted unanimously on August 29 to authorize the Port Director to negotiate a lease contract with Baybridge, I ‘met’ Barry Chambers for the first time. Before that‘meeting,’ I had never met or even spoken with Chambers before, but it was common knowledge that he, along with Bob Berry, were the local managers of International Shipbreakers, a large ship dismantler at the Port, who had bitterly opposed both the lifting of the moratorium on additional shipbreakers at the Port and allowing Baybridge to locate there.

“After the August 29 BND board meeting, I bumped into Mr. Chambers in a social setting - entirely by accident. He was alone, apparently having a drink, and I was with some friends. I got up to go to the restroom and recognized Chambers standing at the bar. At that moment, I had no reason to think Chambers was anything but still a manager of International Shipbreakers, and an individual who probably wasn’t too happy with me - now that I had succeeded in letting Baybridge into the Port. For those reasons, I was somewhat surprised that as I approached where Chambers was standing on my way to the restroom, he smiled at me, and reached out his hand to shake mine. I stopped, shook his hand and formally introduced myself. He told me he really appreciated what I had done in allowing Baybridge into the Port, adding that he was seriously considering applying for employment with Baybridge to manage
their Brownsville operation.

“I wished him well, and thanked him for the kind words. I asked if he was aware of the taxpayers lawsuit I had filed against Dannenbaum. He said he was and thought it was tremendous. I said ‘Great - would you like me to add you as a Plaintiff, ’ and asked if he owned property within the tax district? He said yes - he had a small place at the turning basin at the Port and asked if that was sufficient? I said it was, so he said to please add him to the case.

“As a brief aside, as lead plaintiff in the taxpayers’ suit, I am asking that the court declare the settlement the BND reached with Dannenbaum void because of Dannenbaum’s failure to perform under the settlement agreement. That was the same result I was asking for when I filed the case and I was the only Plaintiff. The requested remedy hasn’t change and would be the same if I were the only plaintiff or if there were 100 plaintiffs. Adding Barry Chambers as a plaintiff does not change the remedy and doesn’t confer any benefit on either he or I or on any other plaintiff. He and all other plaintiffs are simply saying, ‘I agree, and will take a public stand as well.’

“I added Chambers as a plaintiff on September 7, a little over a week after the August 29 vote to allow Baybridge into the Port. At that time, I did not know
what Chambers’ employment status was - whether he still worked for International Shipbreakers or whether he had in fact followed through and applied with Baybridge. Moreover, neither Chambers, nor any Plaintiff, nor any other person or entity for that matter have paid me a dime for the work I have done in the taxpayers’ litigation. And I haven’t and won’t ask any BND taxpayer to do so.

“Equally important, I have neither asked for nor received any contribution or payment of any kind from any shipbreaker - including Baybridge. And, I have not and will not ask for or accept any campaign contribution from Baybridge in the District Attorney’s race. My sole interest in advocating for and supporting Baybridge - as long ago as this past Spring - is for one thing and one thing only - it was and is the right thing to do.

“When it comes to bringing growth, industry and high paying jobs to our people, I have no conflicts but a lot of interest."

Returning to Mr. Chambers, he contacted me a couple of months ago, after he had been added as a Plaintiff, asking for my help as Commissioner with an insurance issue he and other turning basin lessees were having at the Port. My response - he should take his concern to BND staff and work it through the chain of command, which I told him I believed in very strongly. I didn’t think to ask and didn’t ask what his employment status was - that is, whether he had in fact been hired by Baybridge or whether he had even applied. It just didn’t occur to me and I didn’t give it any importance.

“Apparently Mr. Chambers did take his concern to BND staff and then gave a public comment about that issue at a board meeting. As recently as that meeting, which was either in September or October, I had no reason to think Chambers was working for Baybridge - after all, he was speaking to an issue he and other turning basin lessees were dealing with. The land Baybridge was interested in was across the channel from the turning basin.

“With respect to Mr. Chambers’ concerns at the turning basin, I never intervened on his behalf. In fact, I seem to recall that I, along with the rest of the Commissioners, voted against the position Mr. Chambers was advocating.

“Before the BND board voted unanimously on November 14 to authorize the Port Director to negotiate a lease for land Baybridge would need for parking space, I didn’t think to follow up with Barry Chambers again and ask if he was employed by Baybridge. I did not know and wasn’t told that he was the registered agent for Baybridge of Texas. (I learned that for the first time in the newspaper article). In fact, the first time I learned Chambers had been hired by Baybridge was on November 14, after the vote, when Port Director Campirano briefed Commissioners in Executive Session on the main lease negotiations with Baybridge, and that Campirano was dealing primarily with its local manager Barry Chambers.

“Even when I heard that, however, it didn’t cross my mind that Chambers’ being a Plaintiff in a taxpayers’ declaratory judgment lawsuit posed any conflict of interest. It didn’t and it doesn’t.

“However, I understand some may feel differently. I respect their right to their opinion. I did nothing wrong. I did nothing unethical. I apologize to those who might have been confused by my actions. I hope and trust I have set the record straight.”

END

For more information:
COMMITTEE TO ELECT PETER ZAVALETTA
Tracey M. Zavaletta, Treasurer
5261 Wilderness Drive
Brownsville, Texas 78526
Telephone
(956)
546-5567
Facsimile
(956)
541-2205
email: peter@thezavalettalawfirm.com

Republicans Ecstatic

By LAURA B. MARTINEZ — The Brownsville Herald
November 13, 2007 - 11:29PM
Democratic Party precinct chairs on Monday selected former Cameron County Judge Gilberto Hinojosa to serve as their chairman.

In a stunningly bonehead move,Gilberto Hinojosa was crowned Democratic Party chair. Any and all previous promises to not use politiqueras are now null and void. Look for unheaded complaints from primary contenders that are not in the clique that party support is slanted even before the primaries.

Sanchez said he does not remember who nominated Hinojosa at the meeting......
I seem to recall that nobody could remember exactly how the Yates papers made it to the DA's office. Was not Hinojosa's name firmly in the middle of that one, too? Is this the new mantra for the local party of the people?

Local Republicans are beside themselves with glee. How else could they get an across-the-board 10% negative slapped on the opposition party without Karl Rove level spinning?

At least the Republicans will say that they came to the decission after praying for guidance.

Now Accepting Nominations

From now until Christmas, I will be accepting nominations for the Leaky Bucket Award. This non-prestigous award will be presented to the local entity who does the best job defending poor results while failing in their mission and wasting as many resources as possible in this pursuit.

The winner will be entitled, nay encouraged, to shamefully display the award graphic and award date on their website and on any and all correspondence. The use of window decals is strongly encouraged for all winners of this award, so that patrons can see exactly what kind of entity they are dealing with as they enter the door.

Depending on the volume and catagories that the various nominated enties fall into, it may become necessary to award to multiple receipients. In the case of a tie, both nominees will be awarded equally.

Nominations should include a short narative on the qualifications and lack of achievements of the nominees. Nominations will be accepted via reply to this post, or by email to revtallywhacker@yahoo.com.

Cameron Works - Francisco Castellanos Who is this Guy?

The Stable of Mice


From Spending powers curtailed for Cameron Works director
BY EMMA PEREZ-TREVIÑO/The Brownsville Herald

“The board decreased the sum to $500,000, then at its meeting last month lowered it further to $50,000. This decision, however, has not been ratified. When the board decreased the amount to $50,000 it was not in compliance with state regulations because it lacked two members representing community-based organizations.”

Ok, who was the one that pointed that little tidbit out? I could see someone pitching an awful fit if broader powers are being granted improperly, but doing something a prudent as requiring that the board be notified? I would think that should require no more than a memo from the chairman of the board to the CEO. That is the way it is done everywhere else in the US.

While I am on this, “notified”? What the hell is this “notified”? Shouldn’t the proper venue for large expenditures be “ratified” or “approved”? What is this board, this “Stable of Mice”, and gelded mice at that? Do we or do we not appoint boards to oversee public fund and expect them to do that job? If these folks don’t understand that this is their job, replace them all, at once or at the very least have a training in-service to explain to them what their job is. Castellanos, of course, is not invited to that in-service, because after the training the board can tell Castellanos what his job is, as is proper for a board to a CEO.

I was not happy with the move from the Southmost facility to ITEC in the first place. The explanations at the time made no sense, unless, “I did not have sexual relations with that woman.”, satisfied your doubts some years ago.

On another, but surprisingly related topic, I love the little popup calculator in Windows. If you don’t have it on your taskbar, right click on the task bar, near the start button, pick open folder. In the open folder, right click on a blank area and pick New, then pick Shortcut. Copy and paste the following in the blank “C:\Windows\System32\calc.exe” without the quotes. Now finish and the calculator is instantly available to check out little facts and statistics like the one I am about to show you.

The unapproved, but “perfectly ok under the existing policy” move to ITEC cost $1,000,000. Without even going into the further, long term additional $1,000,000 option, let’s see what we could have done locally that still put the million bucks in Juliette’s hands (we can’t forget the primary mission). Hmmm... Ok, a 4 year degree at the local money pit costs about $40,000 so. Using the little popup calculator we just installed, take the million for the move, divided by 40 thousand per 4 year degree and we get the number 25. That means that for the same money, Cameron works could have provided 25 residents of the Southmost area with a fully paid 4 year scholarship. People with a 4 year degree have no further need of the services offered by Cameron Works, so I would say that they would have done their job in providing decent jobs for 25 people with that money. Now let’s look at how many permanent jobs they did create with the million bucks…..Zero. Castellanos still accomplished the mission of routing a million bucks to the university, but if he had done it my way, he would have gotten something moderately defensible in return.

Now maybe he can see that there are good reasons to ask a board for guidance and approval. And maybe if any of the mice on the board aren’t afraid to read my site, they might see that, too. I promise not to post pictures of cats. I do, however reserve the right to display a rat or two.

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

The Harlingen Post Reference Article

Let's play a game

This game is for the folks who keep up
with the "Bridge to Nowhere"
For bonus points, name everybody who
swore they weren't in business with one
or more listed parties. People who are
new to the game are welcome to join.

Game Board Here

Now, let's discuss the findings of our players.

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

The 800lb Gorilla in the Room

One of my readers has been prodding me to say what everyone knows, but the politeness of social fiction prevents from being verbalized in public. It isn’t pretty, but it is very ‘South Texas’ and I wish I wasn’t the one to have to say it.

In order to clarify where I am coming from, here is the logic I employ for most social problem solving.

From Wikipedia, not an authoritative source, but adequate for our purposes:
Occam's razor (sometimes spelled Ockham's razor) is a principle attributed to the 14th-century English logician and Franciscan friar William of Ockham. The principle states that the explanation of any phenomenon should make as few assumptions as possible, eliminating those that make no difference in the observable predictions of the explanatory hypothesis or theory. The principle is often expressed in Latin as the lex parsimoniae ("law of parsimony" or "law of succinctness"): "entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem", or "entities should not be multiplied beyond necessity". This is often paraphrased as "All things being equal, the simplest solution tends to be the right one." In other words, when multiple competing theories are equal in other respects, the principle recommends selecting the theory that introduces the fewest assumptions and postulates the fewest entities. It is in this sense that Occam's razor is usually understood.

Now we get on to the meat of the matter.
The 9.2 million that Dannenbaum paid out was indeed stolen money, but it wasn’t stolen from us. I’ll give you a moment’s pause to let that outrageous idea sink in. Now that everyone has their normal skin tone back, I’ll explain.

Bribing Mexican officials is something that we don’t talk about openly anymore. It is not polite, nor politically correct. We like to think that those levels of corruption are a part of a distant, forgotten past and not a part of the “New, Modern Mexico”. Because we in the Valley share such close ties with Mexico, we try hard to ignore it the same way we ignore a close family member’s vices. We are ashamed of it and do not discuss it.

In 1988 the Congress passed Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. This act’s anti-bribery provisions are quite explicit and the penalties are stiff. More about it can be read here.
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act

It used to be commonly known that to do business in Mexico, you had to know who to pay off. Just because our law changed did not make the situation in Mexico change. Our rosy eyed social view of the “New, Modern Mexico” didn’t change this situation, either. So we still have the ugly, dirty fact that bribery was part and parcel of doing business with Mexico.

The Port Bridge, now commonly known as “The Bridge to Nowhere” was no different in any respect than any other business with Mexico. To make it happen, bribes needed to be paid. This fact was not lost on a single person or entity involved with the project. Not a one. As a matter of fact, the amounts needed were so large for a project of this size that it was impossible to simply pay it as a lump sum and disguise it as “fees and licensing” and because of the law in the US, it was impossible to pay it at all, yet it had to be paid.

Corruption only continues because it works, people are paid off because they can deliver. It is ironic that the amount that can be demanded for a bribe is contingent on the ability of the corrupt official to keep their word and deliver the goods. So if the money was sent out, and the unwritten terms and conditions were complied with, why isn’t the bridge built?

"All things being equal, the simplest solution tends to be the right one."

The money never got into the hands of the people it was intended for. Had it done so, construction would be underway, everyone would be happy, Dannenbaum’s name would not be mud, Eddie Lucio would not look like he was part of an orchestrated theft, Lencho Rendon wouldn’t look like a criminal mastermind, and there would have been no public uproar. All of this because it would have been business as usual with Mexico.

So what went so terribly wrong? At this point all I have to offer is conjecture, but it fits the facts as we know them.

Dannebaum was “the intermediary for the intermediaries” in the payoff. The three interlocked Mexican consulting firms were the bagmen for the payoff. It took three companies because the amount of the bribe was so large that it had to be broken up to try to keep it under the radar. Knowing what the money was really for, the BND board went along. The money was paid to the bagmen. This is the point where something went terribly wrong.

One of two things happened, and I’ll opt for the “greed” scenario. They simply kept the money. Pure and simple. Who could complain? It was now dirty money. The amount that the three companies could skim for their part as bagmen in the deal wasn’t enough, or the temptation for the whole $9.2 million was just too great. So there you are.

The other scenario is a touch more complicated, but still fits well with the facts. For some reason the bribe could not be accepted at this time and the bagmen were stuck with the money for a while at least. During the time they were stuck with the cash, the BND stupidly decides to toot their own horn by having a ground breaking ceremony for the new Port Bridge. There was only one small problem. There were no Mexican officials of any kind in attendance and the Brownsville Herald was right there covering the event and noticed this. With the light of day on this seemingly odd fact, the Mexican officials who were supposed to eventually get their bribe money could not touch it, because the house lights were on and they would be spotted.
This all explains things as they stand. I am afraid they offer no way out, other than a lot of jail time and very heavy fines for everyone involved, because the law is quite clear on that. I could go on for several more pages about nowhere investigations and all the piddly details of each and every irregularity, but they all fall neatly into the scenario that I have laid out.

I should feel triumphant at this point, but I do not. The Port board, Dannenbaum, Mr. B., and everyone involved were just doing business as usual with Mexico.

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

Bridge to Nowhere is Still News

This morning’s Brownville Herald had me glued to Emma Perez-Treviño’s articles tying Louis Jones of Dannenbaum directly to the lion’s share of the money that Dannenbaum paid out to Mexican consulting firms on the Bridge to Nowhere.
I have a couple of questions (but you all knew that was coming, didn’t you?) that really need answers.
The first is so obvious that I shouldn’t be the one to have to ask it. How in the hell does the Brownsville Herald find out all this horrible, RICO level involvement of previously named players in the scam and fraud perpetrated on our community when special investigations with bevies of attorneys paid buckets of money couldn’t do it? I did about ten minutes of internet searching on the information contained in the articles and it looks even more disgusting, if you could believe it, than the articles paint the picture.
My second question is a logical extension of the first: Who benefited from dead end investigations conducted by local entities? I ask this because simple incompetence, though common enough around here is insufficient to explain missing these direct financial involvements by Louis Jones at these levels. Also, were I in the position of James Dannenbaum, with his resources, I would have found out years ago about my top guy muddying my good name and not only fired his crooked ass, but turned him in to the FBI. And yet, he is still there. Not only is he not tucked away in an office without a window, he is out and about in public doing the company’s business. Posit: Dannenbaum knows, or has the IQ of a field mouse. Since he passed the DPS driver’s license test, I have a hard time believing the latter.
Based on what I saw about TBX in the articles, I did my own kind of research. It didn’t take long because I knew what I would find before I even started looking. TBX stock has been involved in “Pump and Dump” stock spamming. If you don’t know what that is, I’ll explain it here.
A flood of good looking spam e-mails are sent out, most look like they either “accidentally” found their way to your inbox, or look like you were subscribed to some mailing list that included hot tips on investments. When enough idiots take a chance that this information was legit, they buy the cheap, low cap stock (not a huge amount on the market) and the price zooms skyward. Wow, that tip was good. Now for the hammer. The “pump and dumper” has been sitting on the sidelines with a bucket of the cheap stock in their hand waiting for this moment. He dumps the stock at the inflated prices and walks away, profits in hand. The people who bought the stock, hoping to catch a ride on this rocket watch for their purchase to increase in value. It doesn’t happen. Some people start selling off this non-performer and the price starts to drop. As it drops further, the speed of its decline increases. In most cases the final price is even lower that the market price before the “pump and dump” campaign was started. This scam can involve totally innocent companies that are low cap and low priced. This is not the usual case, though. This game almost always involves company insiders and the end play of the game is even sicker than simply lying about the company’s upward movement to drive the price up.
After screwing the unsuspecting public and letting the price hit rock bottom, they take the bucket of money they made and buy back the now cheap stock until the price comes back to its starting point. The company or the insider who masterminded the play now makes the ‘pink sheets’ on the company look at least as good as they did before the scam. If it was a private criminal enterprise, the insider who did it has a larger stake in the company for no net cost. If it was the company itself that did it, there is less outstanding stock at the end of the play, with zero net cost to the company, which makes the apparent value of the company in the pink sheets look better. Either way an unsuspecting investor threw their money away on this and directly into the pockets of someone else.
It shouldn’t be too hard for someone at the SEC to prove who did it. Again I have a question. Why didn’t they?
Here are some links showing the “Pump and Dump” of TBX stock.
Spotted here
Showed up here
More spam
Spam -yet again!

“Of course I know. I is my business to know” -The Merovingian

Commission Impossible

Sorry for the Delay

Some of the readers may have thought (or possibly hoped) that I had gotten lazy. I assure you that is not the case. Over the last few days I have been doing my bit to help bring down those that are flying high on your money. There have been ah... certain notices that I should get out and do something instead of just spotlighting the waste, abuse, intellectual and financial fraud that is perpetrated on the people of Brownville by those giggling idiots that think they are untouchable. Worry not, for I play as good a game as I write.

On the positive side, I managed to get a few good things done for the area. For obvious reasons, I cannot discuss them here. Suffice it to say that I am satisfied with progress in certain areas.

I noticed that the link to Ortiz's press release was broken, so I hunted down where the press release was moved to and fixed the link. It was probably simple routine site maintenance that caused the link to break, but it was a little difficult to find afterwards. If any of the click links don't work, please let me know.

I know that there are many prayers said for me, although I'll admit that some of those prayers are that I rot in hell for all eternety. At this time I wish to offer my interpretation of the 23rd Psalm:

The facts are my Shepherd; I shall not want. They maketh me throw buffalo chips from green pastures: they leadeth me to the truth. They restoreth my resolve: They leadeth me to the guilty and the stupid for their sake. Yea, though I walk through the Rio Grande Valley shadow of deceit, I will fear no obfustication: for they are with me; good research and a baseball bat they comfort me. They spread files on the conference tables of my enemies: they annotate my writing with links; my blog runneth over. Surely subpoenas and firings shall follow the guilty all the days of their lives: and they will dwell in the big house forever.

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

I Hope the Water tastes Better

As the Southmost Regional Water Authority brackish water desalination plant gets ever closer to production goals, the cost of the water you are drinking has been creeping up. Yep. When it is running at full capacity, it will provide 40% of the water requirements of the partner entities (read PUB, which owns 94%). The production costs for water from this plant are far higher than those of PUB Water Plant #1 and #2. So naturally, plant #1 is scheduled to be decommissioned.

Folks, in an earlier posting I told you that there was an actual plan in place to raise the cost basis of drinking water. I am sure that some of you out there thought I was just being alarmist or silly. I assure you that this is not the case. Just look at it. The more they run the desal plant on FM 511, the higher the drinking water production cost. That is an absolute fact that cannot be argued nor spun with one of their famous number juggling acts.

They were originally talked into this by Dannenbaum Engineering. The project was picked up as the "Poster Child" for NRS Engineering, who have sucked it for all it is worth. Now they are blasting full speed ahead, damn the torpedoes for an seawater desal plant. They are doing it in partnership with the Port of Brownsville, and that should make anyone nervous. They are not slowing down to look around the landscape to see if anything is more cost effective.

Well, ok, they did try to send some people to Spain to look at this, but I have a hint for them: They have phones in Spain now, just call. If this is just to un-hip, could I suggest a virtual presence via video teleconference? Yes, we can actually do that from here. It is very hip and now and you don't need an engineering study to accomplish it. You don't even need lawyers. If it is too much to handle I suggest sending someone to hang around a video arcade and hire a promising looking eleven year old to set it up for you.

I don't know how else to say this. They don't care what you have to pay to live here. These are people who are trying to look hip and cool and with-it on the engineering scene without any regard for the costs to the people who have to ultimately pay for it. The cost basis for water is rising and PUB is the one raising it.

It isn't carved in stone. It is built with brick and steel and your money.

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