Update to School Board Post

For those of you reading via a feed reader, I've updated the school board election post.

Free Money Redux

It seems the government will be sending out money sooner than we thought.

Like I asked earlier, is there any such thing as "free money?" It seems like it may have bad effects. If you increase the amount of money chasing after a fixed amount of goods, doesn't that tend to result in inflation? Wouldn't that defeat the purpose of the stimulus package?

Police Blotter - April 28

Innsbrook Drive, 3400 block
9 a.m. April 15: Burglary of a residence

Naaman Forest Boulevard, 5600 block
8:15 p.m. April 13: Burglary of a vehicle

Russwood Lane, 3300 block
8 a.m. April 14: Burglary of a residence

Trowbridge Street, 1800 block
8 a.m. April 15: Burglary of a residence

White Gum Lane, 2800 block
10 p.m. April 17: Burglary of a vehicle

Neighbors, let us know if there's anything we can do to help.

Elect Republican Presidents and You Won't Get This

He never met a dictator he didn't like.

Rick Who?

Rick Roosevelt Perry is running for governor again. While there are some things that he's done that I like, and things he's done that I don't like, I don't think he needs to be in office for another four years. But he's running again. And I thought the Presidential race was long!

I can't even bring myself to read it

Headline: Yale senior 'induced abortions on herself' for art project

I can't even bring myself to click on it. Murder as art? What have we come to?

Three potential nominees in Idaho

OK, this is just funny.

A guy pays $1,000, lists a few numbers that aren't his as his campaign's numbers, and gets on the ballot with no verification? And of course, Idahoans are complaining about his being allowed to file. Shouldn't it be more along the lines of some outrage at the public servants who didn't bother to call his "listed" phone numbers to see if he was legit?

Yay Free Money!

Is there such a thing? I'm not going to stimulate the economy much with mine, I'll confess.

Sometimes I wonder if trying to hold the government and banking industry to a gold standard on money would be a good thing.

What are your plans for the "stimulus" payments?

Waive the laws?

Let me see if I have this straight:

1. Congress passes laws that restrict land development
2. Congress passes laws calling for the building of a fence along the border
3. Congress passes laws saying that their restrictive land development laws can be waived so that the fence can be built more quickly
4. The Department of Homeland Security exercises the option referenced in #3 to waive the laws and go ahead with building the fence
5. Congressmen protest

It seems like Congress said that DHS could go thus far, but when they do go thus far, they don't like it.

I think I'll ascribe it to foolishness and leave it at that.

It's a singalong!

To the tune of "Oscar Mayer Weiner":

How I wish it was Election Day tomorrow!
That would be so good for the country-ee-ee!
How I wish it was Election Day tomorrow!
'Cause then officials would say goodbye-ee!

It would certainly be interesting if withholding were outlawed, and payroll taxes had to be paid directly by everyone instead of being taken out before you even see them.

Who thinks it would make a difference in who we vote for?

GISD Board Member Rick Howard Passed Away

News release on the GISD website.

Schwarzenegger - Schwarzenegge + ino = RINO

I'm sure the Republicans in California are glad they elected the Governator now.

They had to be told?

Pardon while my mind boggles at the headline:

Company told to stop selling fake driver's licenses to immigrants

Former Dallas Judge Moves (Maybe) to New Orleans

Congratulations to Catharina Haynes, who was just confirmed to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. From all accounts, she was a good judge here, and will be a good one there too. The only reason as far as I know that she lost her last election in 2006 was because of the Democratic sweep of Dallas County.

Oh Noes! The Fence Isn't Working!

That's what the DMN says in their headline. Of course, reading deeper into the story, they're having to bring hacksaws, wirecutters, blowtorches, and other implements of destruction. Oh, and they're having to redo that destruction every day since the Border Patrol is fixing it, and the fence is slowing them down.

I'd still like to see numbers on how many were getting through before and how many are getting through now.

Hang on to Your Wallets, part II

Hmm.

$400,000,000 a year for a suburban rail network.

Wouldn't it make more sense to spend that on a highly customizable system, where people can have smaller vehicles that could take them directly from point A to point B?

Wait. We have that. It's called

CARS.

And if they want to fund it, they always can raise property taxes. If they want to be in DART or the T, they can always give up some of their sales tax revenue for the privilege. But of course not. Governments tend to expand. They don't contract, so why should they ever give up revenue to another government agency?

Cannaday Wins! But watch for the media bias!

Suddenly, the jail is a good place now! Amazing how that works. Elect a Democrat and things are bad--until her Republican opponent is decided.

Mayor's Meet and Greet

April 24 at North Garland library

Garland Mayor Ronald Jones will visit with residents at his first Mayor's Evening Out from 5 to 7 p.m. April 24 at the North Garland Branch Library, 3845 N. Garland Road. No reservations are required for the come-and-go event. Call 972-205-2471.

John Cornyn on Iraq

From National Review.

Can we use this in political debates?

I can see it now: Crawler on the bottom of the screen blinking either green or red depending on whether the truth is being told!

Who's with me?

Button 53.18%, Dunning 46.82%

What a brutal race. One candidate stuck to the truth, one fired up the rumor mill to denigrate the first.

The denigration unfortunately worked. With "polls" that my friends told me about inaccurately describing Randy's storm shelter and radio ads (and TV ads too, I understand, but I don't take cable) that implied a lot of incorrect information about Randy's history, as of March 31, he was outspent $311,874.53 to $29,172.55, or 10.69 to 1. How'd that go? Her vote ratio was 3,103 to 2,732, or only 1.14 to 1. For each vote she got, she spent $100.51. He spent only $10.68 for each vote. He was outspent, plain and simple.

I don't know how well-known she was beforehand. I had never heard of her before this race. I have had the privilege of working with Randy before he was on the Garland City Council. Of course, I never heard of Jeb Hensarling before he ran for Congress in CD 5, but he turned out OK. She was serving Garland on the DART board (still is) when the City Charter says that to run, she needs to resign. But she didn't. As I understand it, she said she represented the region, not the city (though they happen to be coterminous), and as such, her position wasn't covered under the charter.

She was endorsed by Florence Shapiro and John Carona. They come from the "Country Club" wing of the Party. Randy was from the grassroots, and was endorsed by the grassroots. What happened is that he was doing his best fighting a ground war, but she could fight an air war against him.

She even had poll watchers there. I haven't ever worked with a poll watcher before. I have no idea why she felt she needed a poll watcher present all day.

At any rate, what else is there to say? The voters in the Texas Republican Party of House District 112 didn't vote for Randy. We get the representation we deserve.

May God use this for His glory.

Election results for Runoff!

Catch it here before the County has it!

Richardson already reported, so this fills out everything:

State Rep district 112:

Angie Chen Button: 3103 (53.18%)
Randy Dunning: 2732 (46.82%)

For precinct 2104:

Angie Chen Button: 43 (40.19%)
Randy Dunning: 64 (59.81%)

Sheriff in Pct. 2104:

Jim Bowles: 23 (22.12%)
Lowell Cannaday: 81 (77.88%)

ELECTION ON TUESDAY!

Election on Tuesday!

Vote for Randy Dunning and Lowell Cannaday on Tuesday, 7 am to 7 pm, at Wallace Ethridge Elementary School, 2301 Sam Houston. The easiest way to get there is to take Belt Line east from the precinct, then south on Sam Houston. The school will be on your right (west side) just south of Richoak.

Now it's OUR turn!

Republicans have blown away the Democrats in terms of early voting numbers here in Dallas County. Let's get to the polls on Tuesday and elect Randy and Lowell!

No more ghosts in the Capitol

My former State Representative, Tony Goolsby, has made a proposal to end "ghost voting" where a State House member can give a friend a key to their voting machine. Check out his letter to House members asking for their comments. I fully support it. It would be interesting to see how attendance really is, with, of course, exceptions for those committees meeting off the floor.

That and where'd I put my latex-casting kit to fake fingerprints?

Something right happened?

It seems that President Bush will use the authority granted to him by Congress to speed the building of the border fence along lines defined in 1836, 1848, and 1853. It's about time.

Of course, it will be played as Bush trampling on the environment. But wouldn't you expect that?

Good reading

Richardson City News has a very good wrap-up of the District 112 race:

In recent years many politicians have shown they will say anything to get elected, only to betray the public and ignore common interests of those who elected them once they are seated. Recent history is rife with examples.

Read the whole thing.