SitRep on Merovingian Central

I have the house running on a generator. I made a fancy cable to feed the whole house through the dryer electrical receptacle. There are a few things I have to do without, though; central air, and hot water. I should count my blessings. My neighbor only has a fridge, a single florescent desk lamp, and two box fans because I tossed an extension cord over the fence. They were very grateful and I wish I could have spared more power, but such is the nature of things.

If I time my showering right, the pipes through the attic are hot enough for a brief hot shower. I found myself wishing that my hot water was augmented by solar water heating.

There is nothing I can do about the air conditioning. It would take a minimum of 18 Kilowatts just to run one unit. I have only 5.5 to run everything. It is costing $40/day to run the generator.

AEP will get the power back on to this street....Thursday.

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

Hanging in there

For being such a technojunkie, some things really annoy me.
I had my cell phone working a couple of times as my internet connect, then *Poof*! it refused to do it anymore. This drove me crazy. My son insisted that I make his work on his laptop, because he saw it working on mine. No joy. Of course, in his mind I was doing it on purpose to deny him his God given right to cruise MySpace. after mine wouldn't connect, I hooked his up to my previously working connection on my computer, and it wouldn't work either.

While I was gone today, my son tried his phone on my computer. Of course my computer said that there were updates available for his phone because I loaded the latest super hot beta version of the software on mine. Well, he told it to update, then tried the connect again and it worked!

We changed the settings on the laptop to match my desktop, and his phone worked there,too!

Ah-Ha! Well, mine should work again, too, right? Baagh! Wrong answer!

Out of desperation, I told my phone to erase all application data, in preperation for a total reload of the software. Before taking the next step, I decided to give it a whirl again, and here I am. The phone books will all have to be reloaded, so if you phone me and I ask "Who is this?", it us because I don't have the books reloaded yet.

"Of course I'm confused. It is 2008." -The Merovingian

Enough said

Charter Review

Who wants to make book that the first order of business will be credentials on eligibility to accept appointment to serve?

There have been TONS of precedent in which that was the first order of business of a meeting body. I am curious about violations and/or arising conflict of interests for the committee of common citizens chosen for this panel.

I don't generally like lawyers on committees, because they insist on writing things, then they are so convoluted that it takes a bevy of attorneys later to figure out what was said, adding their own convolutions to the interpretation so the effective outcome has little resemblance to the intent of the drafters.

No outcome that helps the 'little kings for life' movement should even be considered. Limiting the scope of powers is always to be sought in a democracy.

GET RID OF DISTRICTING! The touted effort for representation by single district commissioners has proved divisive over the years and in an overall election, not one of the present herd of turkeys would stand a chance, as would be normal in a sane and ordered universe.

NO MORE STANDING COMMITTEES! There is nothing that the present band of honking geese would like more than the ability to appoint more people to more committees. It is the only issue they are likely to come to a unanimous consensus on. Maybe a few could be disbanded by charter and the ability to create new ones curtailed.
.....Well, it could happen!

PENALTIES FOR NON-COMPLIANCE: Put some teeth in some of the provisions, like: "Position will be declared vacant upon....", or the like. Maybe fines for contempt during meetings by a super-majority vote.

No synopsis of charter revisions on the ballot. The full text revisions only. There has been an unfortunate tendency in recent years to color the language of the synopsis on the ballot so that the full ramifications and scope of the changes are hidden in soft language that seems reasonable, or in some cases leaves out important changes that would be in effect altogether.

CHANGE THE REQUIREMENTS FOR RECALL TO A PERCENTAGE OF VOTERS IN THE LAST CITY ELECTION: No other changes AT ALL will fly with me unless this one is on the ballot.

Well that is all I have for now. I'll wait for the first round of self-serving suggestions from people inside and slightly outside of city government before I cut loose with one of my more unreasonable broadsides on contemplated revisions to the City Charter.

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

Disbarment proceedings, anyone?

Dannenbaum absolved of port bridge liability
AG opinion orders release of settlement with Villalobos
By Emma Perez-Trevino, The Brownsville Herald

..........
The district attorney's office had sought to keep the agreement confidential. The Herald on April 28 asked his office for a copy of documents in which his office, state, or the court cleared Dannenbaum, the firm and its principals of wrongdoing regarding the project.

This followed Villalobos' announcement days earlier of a $1 million seizure from DEC, finding it was either stolen or misapplied from BND. The funds reportedly were part of the "success fees" paid to subcontractors in Mexico via DEC.

I have seen lawyers disbarred for far less. Now what happens when a district attorney gets disbarred for such shenanigans, hmmm? Oh, by the way Mattingly, your boss can't cover your butt on this one,"I was just following orders" didn't fly too well at Nuremberg, and you got yourself so personally involved in this right up to your eyeballs that you will probably have to sing loud and long simply to avoid real prison time. Just about any clerk in the office can bring this whole house of cards tumbling down. Remember that these proceedings will not take place in protected Cameron County, but probably in some Republican stronghold like Dallas in front of judges that you never met.

It happens all the time, all over the country, so don't think you all are unassailable. Allow me to show some examples:

The disbarment of Joseph C. Pelletier, recently removed as District Attorney of Suffolk County, was ordered by Judge Carroll, of the Supreme Court, today....

District Attorney Mike Nifong was disbarred Saturday for his "selfish" rape prosecution of three Duke University lacrosse players ....

A former district attorney with a history of driving drunk was disbarred March 28, 2001, after covering up his involvement in an alcohol-fueled accident ...

Former Plymouth County District Attorney Thomas Finnerty has been disbarred for advising a client to lie to a federal grand jury.....

The Legacy Lives On !!!!

FOND FAREWELL

Larry Harmon, longtime Bozo the Clown, dead at 83
BY JOHN ROGERS
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Associated Press writers Polly Anderson in New York and Robert Jablon in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

Larry Harmon wasn’t the original Bozo the Clown, but he was the real one.
Harmon, who portrayed the wing-haired clown for more than half a century, died Thursday of congestive heart failure, said his publicist, Jerry Digney. He was 83.

It is a sad day that we lost the Real McCoy, but we can take some solace that we have so many local figures continuing the tradition, in their own life-long tribute to preserving everything insightful and brilliant that the character played by Harmon stood for.

While vigorously denied, one only has to look at public meetings, news interviews, minutes of meetings, or even simple conversations with them at the cafes and eateries to realize the profound depth the character with the funny red hair has had on their decision making. It is OK, we all know it. Just be upfront about it and put aside the false humility. You all do a bang-up job of emulating your hero and it is time you receive the recognition you deserve. So don the red nose, pancake makeup, wig, and costume and proudly proclaim "Yes, I am a Bozo, too!" We know,we know.

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

It was bound to happen

I had heard rumors of a "draft" movement. Verified.

After Careful Examination....

Most of the East/West traffic in Brownsville is horribly screwed up. I don't mean to state the obvious, but some of the why bears closer scrutiny.

I am not a half bad shirt-sleeve engineer, and from looking at it over and over, I can state now with absolute certainty that the destruction at the junction of FM802 and US 77 was done FOR NO REASON!

This project is a CCRMA project. Did they do it to fatten some buddy's wallet, or is this just some justification for their West Loop? Are there pressures to force through a westward expansion of Morrison Road that may prove easier if the other cross-town arteries are blocked?

If this is an example of CCRMA doing their job, I want the group disbanded for incompetence, if not bribery and graft, for you see IT WAS UNNECESSARY. This is an engineering certainty.

Some of FM 802 was lowered due to intentionally poor engineering the last go round in order to satisfy a harebrained scheme to keep Hudson's artificial resacas full.
The first time we had a gully washer of a rain, the intersection of FM 802 and Central Ave was under 2 feet of water and dozens of cars stalled out at night in the middle of the road. The road had never flooded before they lowered it.

In the latest round of unnecessary road destruction, they are lowering it again in front of the mall and near the intersection of Old Alice Road and FM802. Why do they want traffic stalled in high water at those fairly major intersections?

I am not so much of a conspiracy theorist to believe that that is their goal, but it most certainly will be the effect. So if the downside of the effect is so bad, what is the upside of the goal that would outweigh sound engineering practices? It has to be money involved, because no licensed Professional Engineer would sign off on such moronic stupidity.

Now, who gains from the roads becoming flood ways? The city for one. TxDOT builds the roads, but other than a drainage ditch, the city is responsible for storm drainage. With the roads as low as they have become, the storm waters will have to run uphill to keep the roads from flooding. This means that the city can get away with installing inadequate drainage for the roads, because it will be handling less run off BECAUSE THE ROAD ITSELF WILL BE UNDER WATER.

In Brownsville, we have been spared a major hurricane for so long, I fear we have rolled straight 7's too many times to expect another one. By the time a call for evacuation comes, the city will have already had some heavy rains preceding the hurricane. Our evacuation routes will be under water. Who do we blame then? During and after the hurricane, emergency vehicles will not be able to move because these major roads will be under water. What do we do then?

The truth of the mater is that there is nothing we could do then, there are some things we can do now, however. Get to the bottom of the UNNECESSARY reconstruction of the road at 802 and 77, and fire/prosecute/impeach whatever, every single person involved with that decision. Find out who profited and prosecute them, too. Since the whole CCRMA signed off on this wallet fattening proposal, disband the whole thing. It would have the added benefit of the end of toll road talk around here.

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

For a friend....

Fans of The Righteous Brothers will recognize the tune.


You never smack your lips
Anymore when I crack the lid.

And theres no chocolate sauce
On the end of your fingertips.

You say to "Please waffle cone it, baby."
But baby, baby I know it:

You've lost that ice cream feeling,
Ooh! That ice cream feeling.

You've lost that ice cream feeling,
Now its gone, gone, gone,whoa..whoaoo.

We are subjected to traffic BS by idiots

Recently, I was on US 59N between Goliad and Victoria, which is under as much revision as US 83 and down here. The difference is that the contractor doing that job would appear to have some real concerns for the existing traffic. The attack plan for that highway expansion does not do the concrete cattle chute for endless miles, nor jerk people off and on to semi-complete sections.

The incompetent traffic flow management planning during construction in our area looks almost intentional in its malicious implementation. I wonder if it is?

Would we really have such a traffic problem if they would just finish what they are presently doing and get the hell out of the way?

History is replete with examples of problems being created or blown out of proportion when it was in someone's interest to promote an unnecessary solution.

Right now, I am thinking that our Regional Mobility Authority is just such an unnecessary solution.

One of my favorite books is Malice in Blunderland which defines a committee as, "A collection of the unfit, chosen from the unwilling to do the unnecessary."

We seem not only to have a committee, but a committee with the name Authority in it's title.


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

From a comment in BATB

At May 29, 2008 11:51 AM, Anonymous said........
Do you all just look at Brownsville stuff? Because it looks like there's a potential firestorm about to develop in Port Isabel. I understand there's a new mayor and new set of commissioners after a decade long control of a certain faction. Based on this special meeting scheduled (http://www.portisabel-texas.com/city/commission/May312008SpecialCityCommissionMeeting5B15D1.pdf), it looks like they might be cleaning house.


I think this is the agenda item being referenced:

3. Personnel Matters pursuant to Section §551.074 of the Texas Government Code to deliberate the
appointment, employment, evaluation, re-assignment, duties, discipline, or dismissal of a public
officer or employee:
􀂙 City Manager
􀂙 Assistant City Manager
􀂙 Finance Director
􀂙 City Secretary
􀂙 Building Inspector
􀂙 Police Chief
􀂙 EMS Director
􀂙 Fire Marshal
􀂙 Museum Director
􀂙 Library Director
􀂙 Public Works Director
􀂙 Municipal Judge

Argh !!!!

There are THREE sections marked Latino and one Hispanic.
In addition, following the Asian section, there are two gondolas with imported Mexican products, that I guess they didn't know how to classify. It seems to me by what I saw with the imports that Walmart classifies foodstuffs imported from Mexico as neither Latino, nor Hispanic. Why is Asian squeezed in between the imported Mexican and Hispanic? If there was no buffer zone, would fist-fights break out in the aisle? Is it of some utmost importance that there are THREE classifications for people who trace their ancestry to south of the border?

As near as I can figure it, there are a lot of Latinos, enough Hispanics to warrant their own section, and the rest are Mexicans who don't even get one of those aisle markers that have been driving me crazy. But Walmart please, if you are reading, don't add one on my account, I'd have to visit the pharmacy section for some calming medication.

You may think that I obsess on this issue, and you are right. It is just too weird for me and I would really like to hear Walmart's thinking on this. I am worried, however, that their explanation would be stranger than my imagination running wild could have invented.

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

A few minor changes

I was getting a bit miffed at reading my blog using only the middle 25% of my monitor, so I widened it. If this causes problems, let me know.

Music. (by choice, not obligatory)
When cruising the local scene, I open them all at once (cool trick on IE 7) and the cacophony of ensuing caterwauling was driving me crazy, so I didn't wish to add my own to the mix. It was also driving me crazy to pop into comments and the song blowing up, so I use the pop-out player first, then comment away without musical interruption. Give it a try, it is especially helpful if the musical tract gives you some inspiration for what you are going to write.


Besides, some of the selections are crude and offensive, and as anyone who has read here knows, I am never crude. Offensive,maybe, but never crude. Play for your own amusement.

M.

Lawyer Jokes

A friend asked......



Did you hear they are going to start replacing lab rats with lawyers?

1) Lawyers are more plentiful.

2) No one really cares what happens to a lawyer.

3) There are just some things a rat won't do.




Q: What do you call a ship with 5000 lawyers stuck in it at the bottom of the ocean?

A: A good start.


The devil visited a lawyer's office and made him an offer. "I can arrange some things for you, " the devil said. "I'll increase your income five-fold. Your partners will love you; your clients will respect you; you'll have four months of vacation each year and live to be a hundred. All I require in return is that your wife's soul, your children's souls, and their children's souls rot in hell for eternity."

The lawyer thought for a moment. "What's the catch?" he asked



How many personal injury attorneys does it take to change a light bulb?

Three--one to turn the bulb, one to shake him off the ladder, and the third to sue the ladder company.


What is a criminal lawyer?

Redundant.



What's the difference between a good lawyer and a bad lawyer?

A bad lawyer can let a case drag out for several years. A good lawyer can make it last even longer




A junior partner in a firm was sent to a far-away state to represent a long-term client accused of robbery. After days of trial, the case was won, the client acquitted and released. Excited about his success, the attorney telegraphed the firm: "Justice prevailed."
The senior partner replied in haste: "Appeal immediately."


The lawyer (thinking he'd trap the witness): "Well, sir, will you tell the jury how you knew it was exactly that distance?"
The witness: "Because when the accident happened I took out a tape and measured it. I knew some annoying lawyer would ask me that question."


Two lawyers were out hunting when they came upon a couple of tracks. After close examination, the first lawyer declared them to be deer tracks. The second lawyer disagreed, insisting they must be elk tracks.

They were still arguing when the train hit them.



What's wrong with Lawyer jokes?
Lawyers don't think they're funny, and nobody else thinks they're jokes.

There is a campaign to make my head explode

What is next, a contract with J.D. Powers and Associates? This has got to be one of the sillier things that I have ever seen PUB spend advertising money on, let alone getting those guys to pose for the picture holding it. This is an award received for form over substance. An award for how pretty the package was wrapped.

I saw this and had a flashback to the movie A Christmas Story and images of the box arriving containing "a major award". What does it cost them to belong to the association that presented this award? What does this association actually do? Are there meetings, or merely annual trips to the post office box to collect dues and mail out a bi-annual newsletter and a few plaques once a year?

If they were awarded a Leaky Bucket, would they also take out a 1/8 page add with photos holding it up (properly bandaged and with makeup to hide the bruising, of course)?

I wonder......

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