Ok, here is the skinny

At Large "B" : Alberto Velez, Roman Perez, Rose Zavaletta Gowen, Carlos Ayala

District 3 : Melissa Zamora, Moses Sorola, Carlos Cisneros

District 4 : Robert Uresti, Argelia Miller*, Edward Camarillo

* Signatures "iffy" by the time I left the office.

So any more speculation about "Oh, if such-and-such..." is OVER!
The Fat Lady has sung. Now we await the Fat Lady singing again.

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

Monday 5pm

All the speculation will be over then, and the speculation can start once more. My stance is well known. Throw them all out. Throw out anyone who looks like them, is allied with them, or smells like them. Developer puppets; OUT! University puppets; OUT! Government official puppets; OUT! People whose day jobs are tax funded; OUT!

Well, that just about covers it, so who is left to run? Whoever it is, be sure I just listed your sworn enemies above.

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

You Lose, We Win

NUMBER 13-08-00267-CV
COURT OF APPEALS
THIRTEENTH DISTRICT OF TEXAS
CORPUS CHRISTI - EDINBURG
In its sole issue on appeal, the City attacks the trial court’s findings of fact and conclusions of law, arguing that, as a matter of law, the City Charter does not bar City Council members from participating in the City’s health insurance plan on the same basis as the City’s full-time employees. More specifically, the City contends that: (1) chapter 172 of the local government code authorizes political subdivisions to provide health insurance to city officials on the same basis as regular employees, see TEX. LOC. GOV’T CODE ANN. §§ 172.002(6), 172.004(a) (Vernon 2008); (2) the City Charter does not set a maximum limit on compensation; (3) the City Charter only applies to monetary compensation; and (4) the City “has consistently construed the charter to allow insurance for council members on the same basis as City employees.”

The Merovingian so stipulates as to item (1); TEX. LOC GOV'T CODE does allow political subdivisions to offer such insurance to city officials.

However, the Brownsville charter significantly differs from the Corpus Christi charter as to item (2); Brownsville's charter does set maximum allowable compensation in the form of payment for service that will be compensated as follows:

Section 13. Compensation.
The mayor and city commissioners elected after the adoption of this amendment shall each receive as compensation for their services during their term of office the sum of ten dollars ($10.00) for their attendance for the full duration of each regular and special meeting; provided, however, that in no event shall they be paid for more than two regular and three special meetings in any one calendar month.

Clearly, the intent and irrefutable statement of the writer of this clause is that there is a MAXIMUM ALLOWABLE COMPENSATION which was lacking in the Corpus Christi charter, which formed the basis of Judge Garza's interpretation, as excerpted:

Mindful of the following statements made by the Texas Attorney General’s Office addressing an issue similar to the one in the present case:
If the charter sets the maximum compensation for city council members, the City may not provide additional compensation to city council members absent an amendment to the charter. See generally TEX. LOC. GOV’T CODE ANN. § 9.004 (Vernon 1999) (election to amend charter). If the charter does not set their maximum compensation, the City may provide the additional compensation without a charter amendment.

HOWEVER the Brownsville charter CLEARLY addresses limits to compensation with the words, " that in no event shall they be paid for more than "
Language that is notably absent in the Corpus Christi charter.

In any event, it is noteworthy that for over twenty years, the City has interpreted the City Charter to mean that City Council members and the Mayor were entitled to participate in the City’s health insurance plan on the same basis as the City’s full-time employees, which was within their broad discretion.

The "squatters rights argument" (i.e. long standing tradition) played a noted part in the decision, as is clearly stated above. Brownsville has no such long standing tradition, ergo any and all related argument on this basis is moot.

What is significant in the appellate decision that applies to a potential Brownsville appeal is that insurance is compensation. This applies to stipulation (3) as well and establishes that the benefits, such as insurance, are monetary compensation.

The City Charter does not provide any further clarification as to the meaning of “compensation.” The trial court, in its second conclusion of law, stated that the payment of health insurance premiums by the City constituted “compensation.”
“Compensation” has been defined as “[r]emuneration and other benefits received Although opinions from the Texas Attorney General’s Office 4 are persuasive, they are not controlling on the courts. See Commissioners Court of Titus County v. Agan, 940 S.W.2d 77, 82 (Tex. 1997) (citing Holmes v. Morales, 924 S.W.2d 920, 924 (Tex. 1996)). 5 Section 141.004 of the local government code states that the “governing body of a home-rule municipality may set the amount of compensation for each officer of the municipality.” TEX. LOC. GOV’T CODE AN N. § 141.004 (Vernon 2008). “Home-rule municipality” officials have broad discretion in exercising their powers—including decisions pertaining to compensation—limited only by the Texas Constitution, general laws, or the City’s Charter. See In re Sanchez, 81 S.W.3d 794, 796 (Tex. 2002); see also Edwards v. Murphy, 256 S.W.2d 470, 473-74 (Tex. Civ. App.–Fort Worth 1953, writ dism’d) (citing TEX. CONST. art. XI, § 5). in return for services rendered; esp. salary or wages.” BLACK’S LAW DICTIONARY 227 (7th ed. 2000); see Op. Tex. Att’y Gen. No. GA-0130 (2003). In applying its plain and common meaning, it is clear that the City’s payment of health insurance premiums on behalf of City Council members and the Mayor constituted “compensation” because the premiums were paid in return for services rendered by the City Council members and the Mayor. See BLACK’S LAW DICTIONARY at 227. This conclusion is in harmony with several opinions issued by the Texas Attorney General’s Office.4 See Op. Tex. Att’y Gen. No. GA-0130 (2003) (concluding that “‘[c]ompensation’ includes benefits, such as insurance, provided to officers and employees”); see also Op. Tex. Att’y Gen. No. GA-0449 (2006) (same). We therefore conclude that the trial court correctly categorized the payment of health insurance premiums as “compensation” in its second conclusion of law.

As to the possibility that this appellate court decision directly applies to a Brownsville appeal:

Moreover, we presume home-rule city charter provisions to be valid, and the courts cannot interfere unless it is unreasonable and arbitrary, amounting to a clear abuse of municipal discretion. Id. (citing City of Brookside Village v. Comeau, 633 S.W.2d 790, 792 (Tex. 1982); City of Houston v. Todd, 41 S.W.3d 289, 295 (Tex. App.–Houston [1st Dist.] 2001, pet. denied)). Because the City is a “homerule municipality,” we must focus our analysis on the City’s Charter.

This leads directly to the assertion that in any appeal of the insurance ruling (Docket #2007-03-1359-D 103rd District Court) that the Brownsville City Charter must be examined in situ and any reference to the Corpus Christi charter is again, moot.

Conclusion:

Should Mark Socci in his newfound capacity as City Attorney even sniff at an appeal of Judge Leal's proper finding of denial of insurance benefits to the Mayor and City Commissioners, he will find his legal rump paddled by a pro se friend of the court brief. I will laugh, he will be gone, and they will all still get voted out, if not recalled sooner.

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

April 1st is Fast Approaching

Last year's April Fools postings were very popular and I wish to continue the tradition. With the local races falling on the heels of April 1st, I am *sure* there will be a lot of material coming from there. In the meantime feel free to email my good friend and confidant, revtallywhacker@yahoo.com with any suggestions for topics that will need coverage that day.

M.

Wasn't Gilberto Hinojosa Declared Politicly Dead?

If this is so, then WHY are we seeing Alberto Velez running for our City Commission?
Did Oscar the Minor not run because the U. has put up a proxy in Velez? (do I see headlights heading toward Edward Camarillo, again?)

Have we learned NOTHING in the past two election cycles? Does Rick Longoria need propping up for his run at mayor this badly? Does Carlos Cisneros need these few months on the City Commission so desperately before he makes his run at a County Commission slot?

I, for one, am truly sick of all these jokers propping each other up to maintain the status quo. There is not one scrap of vision or true concern for anything past the next election to be found in the lot.


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

Who Is Driving The Bus?

I saw a curious sight last night. Politicos in a parade nearing election time? Naw, that is as common doggie doo on the front lawn. What I saw was a rolling billboard and driving endorsement of a revolving door that is what these idiots think that we need.

Leo Garza picked up a packet from the City Secretary. Oh well, anything to delay the appearance of being what we all know; a lame duck commissioner on a lame duck commission.

Why was Leo Garza driving Carlos Ayala in last night's parade? Shouldn't it be the other way around? Is this supposed to signify some kind of endorsement? Whose bright idea was this? It isn't going to work. Do we need MORE tax-paid people watching the tax base? The people want all this inbred hanky-panky to end.

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

Annndddddd the're off!

From BATB:
Melissa Zamora said...
I haven't picked up a packet, yet, but I plan to run for the At-large B seat currently held by Commissioner Leo Garza.
Sunday, February 22, 2009

7-34-4

Look up at the title.

These are the numbers from the poll on incumbants standing a chance of reelection.

It reminds me of a basketball season record.
Hmmmm.... now what happens to coaches with those kind of stats?
We know. We know.

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

What the hell is going on with the DA's office?

We got 'em crapping on benches,
We had them playing "hide the salami" in parked cars.

Where is he finding these people, and more importantly, why is he looking there in the first place?

M.

Scientific Investigative Certainty

City Manager Charlie Cabler said: "Who are we going to administer that test to? We don't have any idea how that check got to the mayor. Maybe it was done in a way that no one knows it happened."
February 3, 2009 - 7:56 PM
BY EMMA PEREZ-TREVIÑO
The Brownsville Herald

Is he saying that we have some kind of Voodoo priest in town? Is there a special candle or oil you can get at one of the downtown herbiera shops that makes paper move from a distance? I heard more sense come out of Steve Martin's mouth when he played the character "Theodoric of York" on a Saturday Night Live skit.

This whole thing reminds me of trying to get to the bottom of "Who broke that?" in the middle of a room full of three year olds.

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

An ad for earmuffs

As of Monday it appears Antonio Juarez had abandoned his lawsuit against BISD. Ben Neece has taken no action to obtain a TRO to prevent BISD from firing Juarez. You see, in federal court rules tend to matter a bit more than in state court. In the case of Judge Euresti Ben Neece knew Judge Euresti would sign his own death warrant - but the same cannot be said for federal Judge Andrew Hanen who will hear Juarez’s case.
From: BROWNSVILLE VOICE
AN UNBOUGHT VOICE OF THE COMMUNITY

Why is it that day after day all I am seeing is junk like this being bandied about as if it were the Brownsville Gospel? It is crap like this that is a total distraction from any and all issues at had. The latest round of "Sphincter Speak" has gotten even more than I can bear, and I am overall a pretty tolerant guy.

If you know not from whence you speak, it would be better to remain silent.
This is but a small sample of the garbage on the net from irresponsible people pushing their own agendas.

Other than factual reporting when I have information, and I feel like it, I haven't weighed in on the BISD situation. This one simply took the cake for peering into the future by staring at ones belly button. This sort of "Navel Intelligence" needs to stop.

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

Board Of The Strings

A work of non-fiction

This is an epic tale of days of yore when magic played a part in the world, before the world was broken and changed. It was a time of fearful, living shadows that walked the Earth as men. It was a time of change. It was a time of action.

The white council met regularly to discuss pressing matters of the day and all felt that evil was kept at bay through their tireless efforts, but alas, this is not the way that evil works. Evil best achieves its goals by staying unnoticed by those who would oppose it.

There was unrest within the kingdoms and rumors of fell beasts and many unnatural things troubled the people of the lands. The One Ring was thought safe by all the members of the White Council as told to them often by Saruman the White, whom they looked to for guidance as he was most wise, and learned in Ring Lore.

As it was their custom in those days, every 26th moon, (two years in our reckoning) the Ents met at Entmoot, to make choices as to 2 or 3 members of the White Council. It was done in this way because the Ents concerned themselves not with the workings of the Council, as they were an introspective lot who trusted their choices to perform their office, while the Ents went about their daily lives with little concern for the Council or the Ring. When a “Great Turn” occurred, 4 members were chosen, as was the case in this cycle.

And lo, it came to pass that the darkness that was thought to be at bay did give sign of its creeping presence at the most recent Entmoot, when there were rumors of betrayal that darkened the deliberations and two longstanding members of the White Council fell out of favor with the Ents.

The first meeting of the newly formed Council was unlike any that had occurred within memory, as the rumors of evil troubling the lands were brought out in open Council. One of the new believed that evil had help from within. Rumors of treachery and betrayal from those closest to the Council were leveled with words of loathing and hatred. The loyal aides to the Council were prevented from lifting the veil of deceit by a spell of befuddlement cast by Saruman who had held much sway over the Council.

One of those most faithful to the mission of the Council was Aragorn, whose special service was to the Hobbits of the Shire. Elrond had enlisted him in this most special service two years prior and he had performed this difficult task, recognizing that something was amiss in the Shire. Elrond and Aragon held counsel often with Saruman, whose advice, while couched in riddles, they heeded as best they could. As time passed and the advice grew stranger, other counsel, although not binding, was sought. The guidance conflicted with that of Saruman and Elrond and Aragon did puzzle upon this, yet followed the rulings of Saruman, although within their hearts they were troubled greatly.

Aragorn did discover in his travels that Ugluk, Chieftain of the Uruk-hai had been about in the Shire, and regularly stole crops and did trouble and despoil the Shire. Bill Ferny and Harry Goatleaf were suspected by Aragorn of opening the gates at night to let Ugluk and his minions do their evil.

Aragorn and Elrond did again hold counsel with Saruman, who tried to sooth their troubled hearts and bid them keep silent for now, as all was known to Saruman and these troubles would pass. Saruman did assure them that all was in order and that even these evils, though egregious would be in the best interest of the Shire. Saruman devised a cunning plan to hide the depredations of Ugluk while appearing to allow Aragorn to carry out his special service to Elrond and the Shire.

The spell of befuddlement cast upon the members of the White Council lifted quickly from Arwen and Eowyn, as they were protected somewhat by “The Sacred Words of Truth”, with which they had been blessed at their birth. There was great destiny declared at their arrival and many white spells and incantations had been placed upon them during Entmoot.

At the meeting of the White Council inquiry was made as to happenings in the Shire and to disbursements from the treasury. Aragorn was brought before the Council, as would more befit a criminal to answer to rumors of wrongdoings in the Shire. Being a man of his word, nothing was said of the depredations of Ugluk, as had been sworn to Saureman. Much shame was heaped upon him and their hearts were hardened and his words would not be heard.

Elrond had been banished to the tower and those loyal to him were dismayed. The locks to the tower were bound with many spells cast by Saruman and again, the hearts of many of the Council were hardened to Elrond by the words and spells of Saruman as had befallen Aragon.

With Elrond imprisoned and Aragon shamed, Saruman was able to sway with fair sounding words, a majority of the Council to his will. His plans, almost complete, he could treat his doubters with contempt and arrogance.

As Arwin and Eowyn swore to find the truth of the matter and the manor of the imprisonment of one who had sworn fealty to the Council, Eomer, a rider of Rohan came to the castle. Eomer was a captain of the Roherim, loyal to Theoden by fealty, and not as a common bondsman held by promise of silver. He had seen a hooded figure having converse with Bill Fenny and Harry Goatleaf, and believing that there was evil afoot, followed the shrouded figure here. Having made inquiry, he discovered that his quary was indeed a member of the White Council. He rode swiftly back to Rohan and scribed a parchment with his findings for all the Ents to read.

The assault on Rohan was swift and terrible. Theodin, king of all the Roherim withdrew his forces as he sought counsel true upon these matters that threatened his kingdom.

What is 10 seconds?

I went to meet a friend at Rudy’s Barbeque for lunch today. Hearing of the tremendous progress being made on FM802 and the project nearing completion, I decided to take it coming westbound from Highway 48. Traffic moved smoothly until I got to the Margaret Clark swimming pool, the horror story begins there.

As I crept my way towards Paredes Line road, traffic moving at an average speed of less than 1.5 miles per hour, I thought I would lose some of it turning onto Paredes. Was I wrong! From all my reading, the unnecessary highway construction was nearing completion and traffic should flow smoothly. That is fine, if your definition of smoothly is “near standstill”. Was there an accident up ahead? None could be seen from my vantage point of where the bicycle trail crosses 802 near the North side bus stop. As time wore on (and my patience wore thin), I spent the next 20 minutes slowly (that word has new meaning for me now) working my way to the split, where traffic is diverted back onto the finished section. One would have figured that the bottleneck would have opened up and traffic would have started moving smoothly. Not the new, official definition of “dead standstill”, but smoothly in sense of the common usage. As you may have gathered from my sarcastic tone, nothing could be further from the truth.

From my new perch, I could see the string of traffic lights and the entire string of cars past the mall, up to the 77 intersection. My phone rang. It was my friend asking my whereabouts. When I told him, and he said “Bad move!” I had no choice but to agree. He took my order, because time was running short. I hung up, and stared straight ahead, because it was my only option.

Studying the light timing (something the “Person in Charge”) has obviously never done, I noticed something that came as a bit of a shock (but I don’t know why); the lights were timed to concentrate standstill traffic right in front of the mall! I am not exaggerating nor pulling your leg! The timing to accomplish this monumental feat of stupidity could not have been done better to accomplish this goal had a team of NASA engineers with 3 Cray computers designed it.

When I reached Starbucks, and Bennigans was only minutes away, I called my friend back to report my relative progress. He told me that if he had to go, he would leave my lunch with the kitchen staff and give them my name. I said that I understood, as it had already been almost an hour since he called me for lunch.

About here is where I intend to skin that worthless bastard, City slug “traffic engineer”. I don’t know who it is, but he has a name. I want to see that name with the prefix of “Former employee” in front of it on Christmas Day. He, of all people deserves to be fired on Christmas Eve. He is an idiot of the lowest order and shouldn’t be breathing, let alone getting paid for a job that he evidently is not doing. I wish to write something here that would be truly libelous about that sorry excuse for a human being, just so I could defend myself in open court with the truth, while repeating my statements over and over, then repeating them on a megaphone on the courthouse steps after the case is dismissed, with prejudice. He has got to be the sorriest excuse for a traffic engineer I have ever heard of! In case this follower of the testament of Bozo lives in a total vacuum, I wish to remind him that the City spent nearly a million dollars on a study called Imagine Brownsville, whose first poll of public sentiment can be summed up as “It’s the streets, stupid!”

There is, of course, the possibility that I am wrong, and he has been simply dead at his desk with a “Do Not Disturb” sign on the door for many, many months. Has anyone taken a nose count at staff meetings lately? Checking with Finance to see if he is cashing his checks would be a step I would take in a real city, but based on recent events, I think it would add further to the confusion.

Now that I have finished wailing away on this turkey, I am going to TELL you what to do. This is not a suggestion, this is a FACT: Increase the “Green light” timing on the westbound lane at FM 802 and US 77 by EXACTLY 10 seconds and the lights following at the underpass and Central Blvd intersection accordingly. I don’t want to hear any lame excuses, although hearing anything from you would be better than the buckets of silence we have suffered through. CITY COMMISSIONERS: Make the traffic department produce this idiot at a Commission meeting and ask him why he hasn’t done this. If he has a reason, it is a lie or simply something stupid he made up.

You don’t have a “traffic congestion problem” IF YOU DON’T CONGEST TRAFFIC!

By the time I arrived at Rudy’s my friend had already left, so I ate my sandwich alone and planned all afternoon what I was going to write this evening.

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

Sorry all, I have been busy

Those of you who do know me IRL (In real life, for the non-cyber crowd) know I have been busy.

Folks, the country is going straight to hell in a hand basket. We have an imploding economy which, as usual, is taking the rest of the world with it. We have the pigs at the trough squealing for more, which is also par for the course. We have saddled ourselves with a crowd of usual suspects who do nothing, NOTHING, but protect their place at the trough. We have a justice system that deals fairly well with your everyday, ho-hum normal crimes committed by idiots, but does everything it can to circumvent the law to protect everyone at the trough. For your own protection, and that of your family's future, we have to stop putting in the usual suspects and their clowns and puppets. Period. No choice. These guys remind me so much of the way that Saddam Husein was portrayed in the movie South Park when they go around singing "I can change, I can change" that they universally make me sick.

For being a fiscal conservative (big surprise there) it is odd that I find myself identifying with the '60s radicals, and at my age, that is something in itself.

We put these people in office to SERVE, and that is why they told us they were seeking the office in the first place. It was their first big lie, and we buy into it over and over again! We put them in, then they demand that their posteriors be covered in lipstick. To hell with them all! Not ONE incumbent in ANY office should even have the gall to run again, let alone expect ANY support.

"All politics is local.", as the saying goes. We can't change the country, or expect it to change until we change what we tolerate locally.

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

UFOs,ETs, The Universe, and Politicians

It is almost a statistical certainty that there is other life in the universe. The only thing that makes the Earth unique is that we are here to take notice of it. Whether there is sufficiently technologically advanced intelligent life, and if said life is within the timescale/distance from us to make meaningful contact is, of course, open to debate. The odds of such potential life being within some framework of parity with our own intelligence is appallingly small, not to mention the high likelihood of having no common frame of reference in order to engage in meaningful exchange. As an example, look at our marine mammals: Highly intelligent, no common frame of reference with modern man, hence no meaningful communication.

Have we been visited? I highly doubt it.

The size of the universe is unquantifiable. If one finds truth in Super String, or Super Symmetry theory then the extra dimensions involved that have shrunken to almost insignificance really gum up the works over intergalactic distances, making attempts at three dimensional measurements bogus.

On the "apparent size" issue I have looked at anomalies that would otherwise break current understandings of the age and beginnings of the universe. I am referring to astronomical oddities called "Faint Blue Objects". These show up on long exposure photographic plates and are thought to be galaxies at incredible distances from us. The problems with these objects are that they are too far away to fit current theories as to the age and expansion of the universe following the big bang. In addition, the further an object is from us, the more the visual spectrum should be shifted to the red, in keeping with the "red shift" predicted in the expanding universe.

So, are all the elegant theories as to the nature of the universe wrong? Are we surrounded with philosophy majors playing at scientist? In my mind, not really.

Einstein and others accept the curvature of space as a given. I am not personally sure which of the current theories adequately explain why, but at present I will accept that space itself is curved. If this is indeed the case, then looking "straight" out for immense distances should, in fact, be looking along the edge of a curve. Which direction it is curved, I do not know if I can comprehend, or if it can even be expressed within our three dimensions, but for the purposes of fitting observed anomalies within the framework of current theory, this is not important for now.

The repeatable, observable phenomena of the "Faint Blue Objects" would appear to me to be looking at our own backsides, billions of years in the past. The objects are blue shifted in spectrum because they are expanding toward us (or away from us, in the opposite direction, depending on how you prefer to look at it) This view doesn't break any current theories, adequately explains the apparently excessive distances that these objects exist at, the fact that they are uniformly shifted in the blue direction of the spectrum, and their density, as we are looking so far into the past.

This model implies that the universal "plane" on which we exist is much like the inside wall of an expanding balloon, if I may be allowed to compress a few dimensions into two for the purposes of explanation. We are only allowed to look along the inside wall of this balloon in any direction, as that is the plane on which we exist. As the balloon expands, every point in every direction that we observe appears to be moving away from us. So far, so good, red shift explained. If we look along one "straight line" far enough, we will see ourselves, but far distant in the past, due to the limitations on the speed of light. What we would observe is the leading edge of the expansion moving away from us in the past at the speed of the expansion of the universe, apparently heading toward us. "Faint Blue Objects" explained, no broken theories.

Where is the center of the universe? If you can accept my flattened model of three dimensional space into the two dimensions of the inside surface of an expanding balloon, then it should be obvious that the center of the universe lies in a direction that we cannot look, in a space that we have no way of perceiving. I find this personally disturbing, but I have to accept it, if I wish to remain intellectually honest with myself.

Now having thought about this for a couple of minutes, don't the petty, self-serving, self-aggrandizing, distracting, base,coarse,and just plain silly behaviors of the people that we choose as leaders fade to the insignificance they so richly deserve? Can you name a ONE that is remotely capable of following the explanation of the expanding universe that I have presented here, let alone UNDERSTANDING it?

The next time you hear the collection of baboons spouting off at the mouth and squandering whatever resources they can taint with their touch, don't become angry, simply oppose. They are stupid, one and all. I will make an exception if any one of them can intelligently discuss the matters I put forth here today, the odds of which, unfortunately are on par with having meaningful communication with an extraterrestrial intelligence.

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