Ooh, have we influenced the local version of The Mainstream Media?

My work is done. The local paper ("The Facts," which is based in Clute, TX) actually reported and published a story on some local petrochemical companies being fined by the state. This doesn't happen very often -- no, not Dow, et al getting mildly spanked for pollution misdeeds, but The Facts bothering to write about it. Not that it's all that humongous a deal really (just one of the costs of doing business, actually) but hell's bells, if The Facts is gonna start reporting this stuff, I'll happily stop doing it cause I'm tired of it. Whatev.

Ron Paul's war on The Fed gains a key ally (Barney Frank); maybe Our Congressman isn't as kooky as some think?

Our Congressman, Ron Paul -- a hero to some, a certified kook to others -- continues to make serious waves.

His effort to audit the nation's central bank has gained an important ally, US Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., chair of the House Financial Services Committee.

The Wall Street Journal says:

"Barney told me, 'It's going to come. You're going to get what you want,' " Mr. Paul said. "We're going to have some hearings and we'll get a vote."

Frank said the details of a Fed audit would be released only after a delay so that markets wouldn't be roiled.

The WSJ noted:

In the interview, Mr. Paul -- whose book, "End the Fed," will be published next month -- said he doesn't want the audits to interfere with monetary policy.

But he said he wants to know more about the Fed's dealings with foreign central banks, foreign governments and individual firms. "I want to know who they're loaning the money to," he said.

Below is a 3 minute, 20 second video taped at recent town hall meeting convened by Barney Frank. He mentions the Paul bill at the 2:40 mark and predicts the Fed audit will be approved in October.

quote/unquote .........

"I'm a hopeless father. I don't know why. I don't think I was supposed to be a father. Just look around at my work -- they're either in jail or they should be."
--- Ryan O'Neal in Vanity Fair Sept. '09 issue


"There are no morals in politics; there is only expedience. A scoundrel may be of use to us just because he is a scoundrel."
--- Vladimir Lenin (1870-1924)

"In our age, there is no 'keeping out of politics.' All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia."
--- George Orwell "Politics and the English Language."

"High esteem doesn't improve grades, reduce anti-social behavior, deter alcohol drinking or do much of anything good for kids. In fact, telling kids how smart they are can be counterproductive. Many children who are convinced that they are little geniuses tend not to put much effort into their work. Others are troubled by the latent anxiety of adults who feel it necessary to praise them constantly....Kids lie, they inform us. In fact, 4-year-olds lie once every hour."
---- Wall Street Journal, Aug. 26, '09, review of book "NurtureShock"

(Editor's note: Quote/Unquote is compiled by Wilson of St. Louis, who remains a fan of the Houston Rockets though he moved out of Alief a long, long time ago to return to Missouri roots.)

I saw whales today

These are humpback whales in Monterey Bay in California, where I am on special assignment.

Also spotted were blue whales, the largest mammals in the world! But they didn't stick their tails out of the water. I'll share some pictures of the blue whales in another post.

A sunfish also was seen. Photos of it also will be shared at a later time.

That is all for now.

Memo to Dow: keep the damn flares lit!

Wish Dow Chemical would take a page from Tom Bodett and Motel 6 by keepin' the light on for us.

In Dow's case, it'd be the pilot light.

Today, up in Austin, Dow was fined $63,000 by state environment regulators.

Among the state's grievances was Dow's failure to keep a flare lit on Dec. 17, 2007, which resulted in 11,562 lbs. of ethylene being released to an unlit flare for 3 hours and 29 minutes.

(If the flare's not lit, it's not gonna burn up the stuff Dow isn't supposed to release in the first place, OK? )

The boo-boo was "avoidable by better operations practices," the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality says.

Yup.

Quote/Unquote

"Trying to have a conversation with you would be like trying to have a conversation with a dining room table. I have no interest in doing it."
-- Rep. Barney Frank to a town hall opponent of health care reform who showed up with a photo of Barack Obama altered to look like Adolf Hitler
 
"Protection, therefore, against the tyranny of the magistrate is not enough; there needs to be protection also against the tyranny of the prevailing opinion and feeling."
                             --- from "On Liberty" by John Stuart Mill (1806-1873)
 
"I saw everything. There was a hole in the door that closed off my room from the living room. I used to always — my little bad self — peek through that little hole and see my mom and the whole neighborhood. My grandmom worked the graveyard shift, and everybody knew that after she left and the kids were in bed, the party was at our house. Every night. Smoking, dancing, having sex, and there I was, couldn't sleep for the noise, looking through that little hole at a strange world, man. People so strung out that they're stuttering, a-a-a-a-a-a. I didn't know what strung out was, but I knew they were strung out. That was my window on the world. And I thought to myself, I don't know what else is gonna happen to me, but I do not want to be like that."
                   -- Vince Young, in current issue of Esquire, about his youth
 
"Soccer for me is fun. You have to see your life in a serious manner, always in a committed way, a rational way. But it's got to be fun. Imagine if I always came here with an angry look on my face. My day wouldn't be good. Life is too short for us to live it sadly. If God gave us this gift of living, while you're living, you've got to live happily. I think that's why I sleep little. If it's 24 hours, I prefer to enjoy 18."
      -- Jorge Barcellos, Brazilian) coach of the St. Louis Athletica, women's pro soccer team

(quotes provided by Wilson in St. Louis)

Some photos and a report regarding the Paul McCartney concert on Monday night at the Bank of Oklahoma Center in Tulsa

We didn't have what you'd call prime seats, so this shot (all were taken with my handy pocket Casio Exilim digital) was taken off the video screen.

The big peace sign came out during "Give Peace A Chance," the post-Beatles John Lennon anthem. This was the part of the show that served as Paul's tribute to his famously deceased songwriting partner. Paul sang the song he wrote after Lennon's murder in 1980 -- I forget the name of it and don't like it all that much. Whatever. But Paul also sang "A Day in the Life," a hell of a great song penned primarily by Lennon but which included the bridge that Paul added (You know it, right? "Woke up, got outta bed, dragged a comb across my head...")

Another shot of the peace sign set, just for the hell of it.

This photo was taken during the opening song, "Drive My Car." Paul had on a Nehru jacket (remember those?) but quickly doffed it after a couple numbers to play with his shirtsleeves rolled up.

This is probably the best still photo I got, given the circumstances of seat location and obeying the rules of not bringing in a "professional camera."

A few other things:

* Before singing "Blackbird," Paul said he wrote the tune during the civil rights strife in the USA and imagined it being for a young black girl in the States. I have read previously that he wrote it with Martin Luther King in mind. So, if you take him at his word, MLK isn't the "blackbird" in the song.

* Paul was quite chatty, for a superstar, during the concert. As the coda of one song (I forget which one) he did a guitar riff from a Jimi Hendrix number; then after the song he related an anecdote about Jimi opening for The Beatles somewhere after the Sgt. Pepper's album came out. At least I think that's what he said. It was a bit difficult to understand him at times because of crowd noise and his Liverpudian accent. Sorry.

* He brought out a ukelele and told how George Harrison first played "Something" for him on a ukelele, which he said George played quite proficiently. Then he played "Something" on the ukelele in a faster, more upbeat tempo than the original Harrison song, and then the whole band came in and they played the song pretty much the way it was recorded.
s
* He never mentioned Ringo.

* Paul is quite a showman and crowd pleaser. I saw him in Houston in '95 at the Toyota Center so this was no surprise. He mugs a lot for the audience and gives the feeling that he's genuinely a pleasant person. There was one moment during the night when I said to myself that I just couldn't picture Lennon doing a show like this if he was around today. They definitely were two different animals, Paul and John. Paul may be showing his age a bit. Not in his looks or showmanship but in the range of his voice. At least he's not dead.

* During one of his between-song chats with the audience, Paul noted there's been a lot of chatter/media on the 40th anniversary of Woodstock. Then he mentioned that it was 45 years ago that the Beatles played Shea Stadium in New York -- the band's last big stadium show before they retreated to the studio to escape the crazed crowds of screaming teenage girls.

* Oh, yeah. After the opening number, Paul mentioned to the crowd that he had been in Tulsa last year when he and his gal pal did a road trip down Route 66. Whether this had a bearing on selecting Tulsa as a stop I have no idea. The BOK Center in Tulsa, a new facility that appears to seat about the same number of people as the Toyota Center in Houston, was the only "arena" concert scheduled on his current, rather short tour. The rest are in huge monster stadiums, as I understand it. Next stop: the humongous, new Cowboy Stadium in Arlington on Wednesday night.

* I'll make a confession here that's a bit embarrassing. We stayed for two encores but apparently not to the very end. During the second encore, after he did "Yesterday" alone on acoustic guitar, I figured, well that's it. But then he and the whole band broke into "Helter Skelter" and I figured, OK, this has gotta be the last song, and I made the decision to leave (we already had left our seats and were standing on the concourse.) Charlie Manson really ruined "Helter Skelter" for me and I never much cared for the song anyway. So off we went. Ten minutes or so later, waiting in the car at a stoplight, I noticed there weren't thousands of people pouring out of the arena, so I asked a lady heading to her car if he kept playing after "Helter Skelter" and she said, "Oh, yeah." So i have no idea what the final song or songs were. So I guess you could say I wussed out. But I was tired.

Quote/Unquote

(editor's note: Wilson in St. Louis returns with another installment of Quote/Unquote, a semiregular feature of The Brazosport News.)

"It's not that these leaders underestimate citizens' intelligence, it's that the leaders' own intelligence is very low. We should ask how these people got to be public servants in the first place."
         -- Chinese academic quoted on NPR today about internal Chinese strife
 
"Yes, I"ve sinned. I"m a sinner. But I enjoyed it. And I've killed men, but the dirty sons-of-bitches deserved it. Any way I look at it, it's too late for no Bible."
     --- character Pretty Boy Floyd in the 1973 movie "Dillinger" directed by John Milius

"Eighty percent of everything built in America has been built in the last 50 years, and most of it is depressing, brutal, ugly, unhealthy, and spiritually degrading -- the jive plastic commuter tract home wastelands, the Potemkin village shopping plazas with their vast parking lagoons, the Lego-block hotel complexes, the "gourmet mansardic" junk-food joints, the Orwellian office "parks" featuring buildings sheathed in the same reflective glass as sunglasses worn by chain-gang guards, the particle-board garden apartments rising up in every meadow and cornfield, the freeway loops around every big and little city with their clusters of discount merchandise marts, the whole destructive, wasteful, toxic, agoraphobia-inducing spectacle that politicians proudly call 'growth.' "
                ---- from "The Geography of Nowhere" by James Howard Kunstler (1993)
 
"When I grew up, there weren’t many basketball teams or coaches around, and almost everything about sport was unorganized. There was a lot of play, in the strict sense of the word. We tried on our own to find out what was fun and what worked. My own basketball confidence came to me long before I received any serious coaching, and it paid off later when I took up the game as a profession......It’s the players, not the coaches, owners or commentators, who provide the art in sports. Every good player should think that he may be able to change the game, and he should have the craftsman’s pride and joy in what he does. In most professional sports the best players are unorthodox.”
                       -- Bill Russell in his book "Second Wind" (1979)
 

Was Dylan Searching for the Home Where Springsteen Penned 'Born to Run'? - ABC News

Bob previously has visited the childhood home of Neil Young and John Lennon. We suspect now that he's up in years he's wondering about his peers and their early days.

ABC News is on the story!

Remember the barn swallows that came to live on our front porch? Here's the rest of the story ...

Whiskers, the neighborhood bird-killing cat didn't get his paws on the two baby birds that hatched and fledged right outside our front door, though we caught him giving them the eye a couple times.

How does it feel? To be Bob Dylan? And not have any IDeeeeee?

The AP reports Bob Dylan was killing time before a concert in New Jersey when he was reported to police as a suspicious character. Bob didn't have any ID and the cops had no idea who he was when he told them.

Here's the full Associated Press report:

Rock legend Bob Dylan was treated like a complete unknown by police in a New Jersey shore community when a resident called to report someone wandering around the neighborhood.

Dylan was in Long Branch, about a two-hour drive south of New York City, on July 23 as part of a tour with Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp that was to play at a baseball stadium in nearby Lakewood.

A 24-year-old police officer apparently was unaware of who Dylan is and asked him for identification, Long Branch business administrator Howard Woolley said Friday.

"I don't think she was familiar with his entire body of work," Woolley said.

The incident began at 5 p.m. when a resident said a man was wandering around a low-income, predominantly minority neighborhood several blocks from the oceanfront looking at houses.

The police officer drove up to Dylan, who was wearing a blue jacket, and asked him his name. According to Woolley, the following exchange ensued:

"What is your name, sir?" the officer asked.

"Bob Dylan," Dylan said.

"OK, what are you doing here?" the officer asked.

"I'm on tour," the singer replied.

A second officer, also in his 20s, responded to assist the first officer. He, too, apparently was unfamiliar with Dylan, Woolley said.

The officers asked Dylan for identification. The singer of such classics as "Like a Rolling Stone" and "Blowin' in the Wind" said that he didn't have any ID with him, that he was just walking around looking at houses to pass some time before that night's show.

The officers asked Dylan, 68, to accompany them back to the Ocean Place Resort and Spa, where the performers were staying. Once there, tour staff vouched for Dylan.

The officers thanked him for his cooperation.

"He couldn't have been any nicer to them," Woolley added.

How did it feel? A Dylan publicist did not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment.

Mrs. Smith is missing and can't be found

Remember the murder of George Smith Jr. of Surfside Beach two years ago?

It looks like his widow, who's accused of hiring a guy to kill him, has jumped bail.

George Smith Jr. was one of Surfside's more colorful characters -- a guy who raised hell at town meetings, once ran a burger joint on the beach and sometimes talked about aliens that visited his place of business.

After he was found beaten to death on the beach, the papers described him as a "Maverick Millionaire," though his daughter said that description of his financial status was ridiculously incorrect.

Smith's wife, 50-year-old Margaret Lorraine Smith, is scheduled to go on trial Monday for the killing, but nobody's seen here since Monday, according to a story in the Friday edition of The Facts that was written by John Tompkins.

The man she is accused of hiring already has been convicted and sent to prison for life.

Left holding the bag now that Mrs. Smith has absconded is a woman with the unfortunate name of Beatrece McFatter, who posted the $125,000 surety bond under which the accused murderess was released. Ms. McFatter didn't sound too upset that Mrs. Smith is gone, judging from the tone of the newspaper story, but we admit that could be misleading. Ms. McFatter just said that Mrs. Smith hadn't given her a bit of trouble -- til now.

Mrs. Smith was wearing one of those ankle monitoring devices but it wasn't equipped with GPS capability.

The Facts story says:

Adult Probation Director Caroline Rickaway said GPS monitoring was requested for Lorrain Smith when she posted bond.

“We just did not have that in place,” Rickaway said. “We were in the process of reviewing vendors at that time.”

The electronic monitoring Lorrain Smith had was checked on a daily basis, Rickaway said.

So why didn't they provide the defendant with a GPS monitoring device after the county reviewed vendor bids? Mrs. Smith was released in October 2007, presumably long enough to get through the vendor process, we'd say. But we suppose those ankle devices are easily enough removed if someone wants to disappear, so maybe it's not that big a deal.

But then there's also this question: Mrs. Smith was last known to be in Brazoria County on Monday, but no arrest warrant was issued until Wednesday?

Did somebody screw up?

The Brazos, she's pretty low ... state decides to restrict junior water rights

We knew the water level on The Brazos was seriously low when we read Bob Dunn's blog and he described it on June 27 as brown and soupy.

The Lower Brazos, where Bob lives, suffers at the whim of those who control dams on the Upper Brazos during dry times like these.

" Early this year," Bob wrote on Bob Dunn's Brazos River Blog, "low water only being replenished by upstream sewage treatment plants provided nature with a major bloom of fish-killing golden algae. Since the beginning of this month, sunny highs of 98 degrees or more and a total absence of rain has helped turn the Mighty Lower Brazos into a stagnant ribbon of gruel. Three weeks ago I watched, undetected, as three somewhat intoxicated teenagers unsuccessfully powered a broken pedal-boat across my range of view, eventually tumping in mid-river. They simply stood up, in water between waist and chest high. A year ago the river wouldn’t have allowed such an insulting craft to launch, and if anyone were unlucky enough to tump in mid-stream, they would’ve found themselves swept a hundred yards downstream before even thinking about reaching shore."

So that was on June 27.

And now, just about 30 minutes ago, the state announced it would restrict non-municipal junior water rights holders on The Brazos because of the drought.

Here's the full text of the press release:

The executive director of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality notified non-municipal junior rights holders, with a priority date of 1980 and later, that their right to divert water from the Brazos River basin is immediately suspended.

The priority doctrine, according to Texas law, determines that the most senior water rights will be served first during times of drought regardless of the permitted water use. As a result, junior water rights, or those rights issued most recently, are suspended or curtailed before the senior water rights in the area.

The Texas Water Code requires that the flows of the Brazos River must be available for use by land owners with property adjacent to the Brazos River for domestic and livestock use as part of their inherent riparian rights. These D&L users have senior priority before any appropriated water rights.

The lack of significant rainfall in the area and the declining flow of the Brazos River means many junior water rights have already reached their permitted flow restrictions and have not been allowed to divert any surface water. All approved temporary water rights in the area have also been suspended. Should drought conditions continue to persist, additional suspensions or restrictions of remaining water rights may be necessary.

Here's what the TCEQ says you can to do conserve water:

$ water your lawn no more than twice a week and only during early morning hours,

$ use a drip irrigation system instead of sprinklers,

$ wash full loads of dishes or laundry,

$ cut back on washing your vehicle,

$ replace old plumbing with water saving fixtures,

$ consider installing a cistern to catch rainwater for future use,

$ plant native plants (that require less water).

My latest video: only 6 seconds long

One way to lobby your congressperson

We've been reading and watching this talk about "The Mob," which we understand is used in reference to the people showing up at public meetings called by Congress members.

These citizens, or at least those who wind up on TV, apparently are not only outspoken but a bit unruly.

The allegation is these citizens are being "put up" to do this by opponents of the president.

We at The Brazosport News support the rights of all American citizens to be unruly, if they so choose and it's within the bounds of the law, but if possible, it's a good idea to observe a bit of decorum, at least enough so that everyone can hear what the hell is being said from the podium.

Which brings us to the point of this post ...

The other day we came into possession of a set of instructions from "Organizing For America, a project of the Democratic National Commttee," which is located at 430 South Capitol St. SE in Washington, DC, 2003.

(fyi: I'm not a Democrat, I'm in independent)

The instructions are entitled "Office Visits for Health Reform. Guide."

They advise that "before your visit" to "call ahead. Some offices may change their office hours with short notice ..."

(Editor's note: the italicized words that follow are my thoughts and my thoughts alone and do not reflect any one else's thoughts, especially Organizing For America or the Democratic National Committee, so far as I know.)


(It's always good to call ahead, in our view. While it seems a simple notion, keep this in mind for any number of other chores in your daily life. It not only can save you a wasted trip but also help protect the environment and cut down on your stress/aggravation levels. Think about it. A wasted hour of driving, etc. is an hour you could spend napping or watching TV.)

Organizing For American then asks that you print out an attached flyer that sets out the president's "8 Health Insurance Guarantees that every citizen can count on ..."

Then it asks that you write out a "short personal message" to your congressperson about "why it's so important to you to pass health insurance reform in 2009, such as a personal story about your experience with the health care system. This will ensure a written record of your visit and your message and make your trip even more effctive."

"During Your Visit," the instructions advise you to:

"Introduce yourself (always important if you don't know someone, plus it's just plain simple courtesy; this applies whether you're lobbying your congressperson or trying a find the best deal on aluminum siding)

...Share your story...Ask for their support...Stay calm and positive (this is apparently a shot at the alleged rabblerousing mobsters who are on the TV news, we think, but we also firmly believe there should be more courtesy in the land.)...

... While some are attempting to disrupt and shut down debate, our goal is to engage in meaningful respectful discussion. Remaining calm, positive and polite while speaking to any staff member is the best way to be heard. Thank them for their time and hard work!" (again with the courtesy, but it's really sound advice in all of your endeavors, even if you are not inclined toward courtesy.)

Organizing For America asks you then to "share the details of your visit. It's really important for our campaign to hear how these conversations go and how the staff respond. To tell us how it went, please go to: my.BarackObama.com/OfficeFeedback .

So that's what's going on. If any of you out there care to share your experience of visiting your local congressperson (you'll probably wind up talking to staff member, we bet) please shoot us an email (Banjo.Jones@gmail.com) or post a comment on this post.

Go out and make it a great day! We love everybody.

"Abbey Road," the photograph, the crosswalk "zebra" after 40 years ...

The record album that became The Beatles' "Abbey Road" was originally to be titled "Everest," after the favorite cigarette of the band's recording engineer.

And there was an idea of doing an album cover of the Himalayas -- the mountains where Mt. Everest is located, which "helped kill the idea," reports the BBC in a story about the famous photo that became the famous LP cover that still draws tourists to the crosswalk, or "zebra," where the Fab Four once trod in a 15-minute photo session.

"...it is hard to think of an album cover that has been so thoroughly repeated.
Dozens of bands have put stripes on their cover, like the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, but of course the biggest tribute comes from the thousands of fans and tourists who go to leafy north London every year.

If you want to check the crossing now, there's a webcam.

Watch it for a while and you will see scampering fans snatching at a gap in the traffic to recreate the shoot - much to the annoyance of local drivers.

One black taxi cabbie, Ron, who also used to drive a bus down Abbey Road, told the BBC World Service: "I come here all the time and its always been the same - it really does annoy you."
"All they're doing is posing on the crossing. Someone's going to get mown down one of these days there's no doubt about it."

Click HERE for the webcam.

Click HERE for a video report (3 minutes, 42 seconds, preceded by a 30-second commercial for priceline.com starring William Shatner) from the BBC World Service, which includes a neighborhood resident complaining about the graffitti, a local official noting the grafitti is cleaned up every 6 to 8 weeks and an anecdote from a local bloke who recalled that within days of the Berlin Wall coming down he witnessed a group of East German Beatles lovers make the pilgrimage to the Abbey Road crosswalk, where they burst into tears.

Dow aircraft helped in freeing journos

We take a moment from our busy day to note that Dow Chemical Co. helped free the two female journalists from the clutches of North Korea and its nutty leader.

Hooray to Dow and its swashbucklin' and decidedly less nutty leader, Andrew Liveris, who's from Australia.

The freed journalists spilled the beans about the role of Dow and Liveris today, when they also expressed gratitude to former President Clinton and former Vice President Gore.

The connection between the chemical company and the Current TV journalists, Euna Lee and Laura Ling, was not readily apparent, until Liveris issued a statement that explained that a plane owned by the Midland, Mich.-based company was used "in different parts of the mission in recent days."

More from the Forbes story:

"Dow is appreciative of the opportunity to provide assistance in support of the release of Ms. Ling and Ms. Lee, by providing aircraft support," said Liveris.

"Dow is grateful that Ms. Ling and Ms. Lee are back home safely and we were honored to contribute to President Clinton's humanitarian mission to obtain their release."

The two journalists, along with Clinton, flew home on a plane owned by Stephen Bing, a close Clinton friend and longtime Democratic fundraiser, said Marc Foulkrod of Burbank, Calif., chairman of Avjet Corp., the company that manages the aircraft.

(Liveris "said" that in a statement, of course. Who wants a bunch of reporters asking probing questions at a noisy press conference about what else Dow does at the behest of the government? Only a fool subject himself to that sort of torture. Good call, Mr. L.)

While we're talking about Dow, we'll also take note that its stock price today closed at $23.15 -- a way-big improvement over its 52-week low of $5.89, so it looks like the company that made Brazosport famous will survive the current global economic woes.

And we're sorry, sort of, that we called for the Dow board to fire Liveris back when things didn't look so rosy.

You go, Mr. Liveris!

Big D football culture vs. Houston football culture

A while back Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones compared his National Football League team with the team in Houston, which I suppose included his assessment of the football culture in Big D as opposed to that in H-Town.

They're different, he said.

As I recall, Jones said pro football in Dallas was all about glitz and glamour while the game in Houston is all about cowboy hats and cowboy boots.

In other words, we're the hayseed shitkickers and they're high-class people in Italian shoes.

Anyway, word came today that you'll have the privilege of buying a pizza for $90 if you're in a luxury suite at the new Cowboy Stadium. And you can get a 12-pack of American beer for $66,

So enjoy that pizza and beer Cowboy fans.

Your little local newspaper doesn't have to be a piece of worthless dung

The reason we say that is the Victoria Advocate, which definitely qualifies as "little local newspaper," was recognized today by the Associated Press Managing Editors Association for papers with circulation less than 40,000.

The Advocate was honored for an interactive package complementing a 16-month examination of illegal immigration.

It also received a "First Amendment Citation" for shedding light on a "dysfunctional local judicial system."

No other newspaper in Texas won anything or even got an attaboy in the national competition, according to the AP story.

The Advocate is a "family owned" newspaper, meaning it's not owned by a corporation like, say, Southern Newspapers, which owns the local Clute-based daily called "The Facts."

Maybe that's a clue as to why The Victoria Advocate can do things that The Facts doesn't. Or maybe the Victoria newspaper has brighter employees and managers. We have no idea!

We won't go on and on about The Advocate because we realize many of you rednecks hate it when I write about newspapers, which you detest because (fill in the blank), but I will share something I stumbled across regarding the little paper located down the coast from us.

To attract college interns to the one-horse town for internship duty, they provide living quarters across the street from the paper and two meals a day (in addition to the $100 per week pay.)

On this page you can see a brief video that explains all that. Pretty clever recruting tool.

Oh, and here's the homepage for the Advocate. They feature lots of blogs. Meanwhile, the Clute-based daily still doesn't get the blog thing, apparently, since they have none.

***

A note about the illustration above this post:

A graphic artist, Charles Apple, on his blog, cited The Advocate's A-1 "page topper" as his favorite back when the last Star Trek movie made a big splash.

"Victoria — circulation about 33,000 — built some really, really interesting movie-themed pages last year," Apple wrote.

Apple interviewed The Advocate's creative director in this post last year about graphics stuff, with lots of examples of what they're doing down there in Victoria.

In liberal Austin, the natives are gettin' testy

The Austin American Statesman gave five paragraphs of coverage to the Doggett shoutdown. Here are the last three:

Witnesses said that when Doggett was asked whether he would support the plan even if he found that his constituents opposed it, Doggett said he would. People then began chanting "just say no" and overwhelmed the congressman as he moved through the crowd and into the parking lot.

"The folks there thought their voices weren't being heard," said Kathy Acosta, a Bastrop resident who attended the meeting at Randalls and another one later that day in her hometown. "They were angry, but they were respectful. There wasn't any violence."

Calls and e-mails to Doggett's office were not returned Sunday.

It's not a good sign when the local congressman (or his flak) won't return a phone call from the local paper.

Fear, anger, confusion and frustration are a'buildin' up out there, ladies & gentlemen.

Willie, John & Bob play Corpus

(Editor's note: our some-time correspondent and always-time friend Mike went down to Corpus Christi yesterday to see Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp and Bob Dylan play at the local ballpark. Mike's supposed to do some Zebco fishin' off a pier today, but he filed this concert report beforehand at our request, so here it is ...)

Willie - good, predictable set. He looked very well and tan and had large biceps for a 76-year-old man. He threw gimme hats to the crowd like Elvis threw scarves. E looked a lot more stoned though, which is kind of ironic, if you think about it. Three Kristofferson songs. High point: One for Waylon - Good-Hearted Woman.

Mellencamp - very good. Very rock with an intense, wildass woman on violin. (JM called it a violin not a fiddle, so I will too.) Crowd freaks at how good he is. I knew he was good. I'd seen him with Fogerty years ago at the Summit, where he encored with a medley containing Fortunate Son and Papa's Got a Brand New Bag. Nothing that righteously weird this night but he did do Cherry Bomb acapella. By shows end, he had won over a contingent of old-school stoned bikers in my section. In retrospect, that was probably a good thing. High point: Out-Bobbing Bob with the lyric change - "my wife was 13 when I wrote this song and that's small town enough for me ..."

Bob - other-worldly. In strangely good voice most of the night. Opened with guitar on Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat and unrecognizable, but cool It Ain't Me Babe. Bob wears an upgraded cowboy outfit, losing the tiny hat. Bob switches to keyboard, plays more harmonica than usual. Bob even grins occasionally and dances some, in a Bob sort of way. The lighting is trippy. The Oscar is nearby too. Something kicks in with the cycle gang during If You Ever Go to Houston. Howling and erratic dancing ensues. Brief fear of a geriatric Altamont sweeps over me. But they seem happy and I see no pool sticks, so this passes. Unrecognizable It's All Right, Ma kicks butt as does very recognizable Highway 61. Bob encores Like a Rolling Stone, Jolene and Watchtower. High point: Delivering the line "They say the whiskey will kill you, but I don't believe it wiiiilllll." Followed by a grin and a wave to the fiddle player to back off and listen to some harmonica.

Thanks, Mike

a conversation with a 3-year-old who will turn 4 next month ...

"I have decided not to eat my boogers anymore."

"Someone tell you not to do that?"

"My heart told me."

"Your heart?"

"Kinda my nose and my heart. But my heart told me."

A momentous decision in our view.

Bring yer whole gawdamm family

[via The Lost Ogle]

If you need a reason to vote against Texas Gov. Rick Perry, this might suffice

He made Sean Hannity a honorary Texan tonight.

Like I told the governor (in my Twitter response), "Honorary Texanhood shouldn't be given out lightly, sir. And not to curry political favor. I'm disappointed."

Brazosport premiere of Willie's new viddy!

Click here to see the new video by Willie Nelson. Name of the song is "Shoeshine Man."

We're pretty sure this is the Brazosport premiere of this.