Some things you can't put a price on

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For everything else, there are the local blogs.

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

Bing! Bing! Bing! We have a Winner!

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

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M,

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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


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

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

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

Ralph Cowen

Geek Speak for the Week

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

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

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

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

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

HTH

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

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

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

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

Eddy Hernandez back in the saddle at PUB?

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


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

Is it time for a new local political party?

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

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

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

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

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

Wow....

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

The mulling is over

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


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

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

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

The Treacherous Waters of Cameron County

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

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

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

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

Observation on Two Races

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

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

View from the Couch

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

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

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

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

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

Part one of the Silly Season draws to a close

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

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

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

He's Baaack !

After Christmas, I did a lot of things that had been put off for one reason or another and once I started getting them all done, it was hard to stop. Being now practically ill from doing 'domestic crap' I have returned to the fold.

This off time was also spent continuing my personal goal of knowing all that I can about everything. The following video gave me very much to think about and is well worth the time for you to watch it. It was very odd to me to hear someone else actually verbalize the embarassing truth that we have ideas of where oil comes from, but nobody is really sure.

Juan Enriquez talks about bio-energy

I tried to embed it, but the flash code is very wierd.


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

Loot - WARNING Intense Geek-Speak

What I got myself for Christmas thrilled me to no end.

I got a third monitor for my desktop computer.

This did, of course, necessitate cleaning and rearranging the desk so it would all fit. That chore took about 1/2 hour. I now have a pair of 22 inch flat panel wide screen monitors sandwiching a 19 inch CRT in the center. I did have to angle the outside panels slightly inward to fit on the desk as it is of modest size because it was not paid for with taxpayer funds. After getting the hardware all configured I hit the net searching for a very particular screen saver and after about 20 minutes of trying everything, I finally found the one I was looking for that would support multiple monitors. If you saw The Matrix you will recall the the bank of monitors on the bridge of the ship that showed the vertically falling streams of green characters and glyphs that represented the interaction of characters within The Matrix. I found a screen saver that does exactly that on my new three monitor desktop. It was most satisfying to see the falling green characters on all three monitors.

If any of you are in the market for something a touch nicer for you computer, I recommend the Envision G218a1 22 inch wide screen which is in stock at Best Buy for $209. It has DVI and VGA inputs, has built in speakers, and does an incredible 1680 x 1250 resolution. It comes with all the cables. The speakers are a little tinny by themselves, but on my system they perform well as the front speakers in a Dolby 5.1 setup.

It plays games VERY well, but before playing some games it is best to tell windows NOT to stretch the desktop onto the other monitors. You will know which games after the first time you drag the mouse to scroll the playing field and the mouse moves to another screen, instead of panning the play area. It is most annoying to have your game swap out because you panned off the screen and clicked on a different monitor.

This setup allows me to keep a ton of stuff open on the desktop at the same time for comparison and editing. The next steps for my machine include bumping the RAM up to about 6~8 gigs and upgrading the Windows Vista to the 64 bit version. The 32 bit versions of operating systems will only support 4 gigs of ram. The system already is set up to dual boot Vista or a 64 bit Linux release and it has 750 gigs of hard drive space installed.

I also finished building a Linux gateway/server machine to replace the tired old HP Brio Pentium that has been performing that function for a couple of years. The new system has a RAID 5 array of six SCSI drives in a hot-swap configuration with 5 active and one online spare. Getting it to boot from the RAID array was a pain in the butt, but that is what I get for laying Logical Volume Management on top of a RAID array. All this 'geek speak' means that if a hard drive fails, the system keeps running without losing any data and the spare kicks in to replace the failed drive. The missing redundancy is rebuilt on the spare drive and I could still lose another drive without the system crashing. As long as I don't lose two drives within 20 minutes, I will be just fine. I know it is a bit over the top, but that is just so me. To this system, I will add a couple of CD-ROM towers that were kicking around that will put 12 CD drives online. I found some really cool SCSI to IDE adapters that will let me replace the CD drives with cheap IDE DVD writers as finances permit.

I also have some excellent quality SCSI scanners that I will add to this system which will give me a commercial printing shop quality input system for photo editing and desktop publishing. I already have some quite good printers for high quality, high output printing.

At this point, all I am lacking is an 'E' size plotter or two. If anyone has any they wish to donate, I will put them to good use. Calcomp or HP would be preferred, because I can repair those.

This is the last post before the New Year as I am going on a short vacation.
So Happy Holidays to everyone and I will be back to clobber the incompetent powers-that-be shortly.

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

One week till done date

I am sure by now they have all the data they need. Lord knows they spent enough money on it. Now that it is all done and all the money is gone, I am really curious how their findings will affect the estimated price tag for the yet-to-be-built Golden Palace, on the wrong side of the ship channel. Did the pilot project meet its production goals? What were its real operating costs? Did the 1/2 million in hardware installed justify the over $2 million spent on this "mini-pig" after the last bill was paid?

Did anyone think I forgot or was distracted? Not likely.

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