Chupacabra Report

More news that gets my goat:

Today I accidentally read Robert D. Novak’s column “Socialized Medicine for Kids.” He starts out:

“There is no need to wait until a new president is elected next year for the great national health care debate. It is underway right now, disguised as a routine extension of an immensely popular, non-controversial 10-year-old program of providing coverage to poor children. In fact, this proposal is the thin edge of the wedge to achieve the longtime goal of government-supplied universal health insurance and the suffocation of the private system.”

>He goes on for another 1,000 words or so, (he’s probably paid by the word) blah blah blah, etc, then he wraps up:

“The future is now for universal health care coverage, and President George W. Bush may soon face the decision of whether or not to veto it going into the election year.”

>Novak speaks to the same ass-backwards conservatives that do their best to make Texas a third-world state, the same people who cut the Texas Children’s Health Insurance Program two years ago, leaving 20,000 children without health coverage in order to maintain the regressive tax system favored by their patrons.

A solid majority of Americans favor ending the gravy train for the health insurance and pharmaceutical cartels. Likewise, most Americans are calling for an end to the neocon chickenhawk’s Iraq adventure.

If Bush and the rest of those people will only keep on being themselves, regime change will surely follow, and the republicans can spend another fifty years in the wilderness.

The Meme Game

Sister Nancy (www.edictsof nancy.blogspot.com - see links) contacted me with a fun game that has all the charm of a chain letter without the penalty of losing a two dollar bill and painful shingles (or worse) for failure to comply:

1. All right, here are the rules. 2. We have to post these rules before we give you the facts. 3. Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves. 4. People who are tagged need to write on their own blog about their eight things and post these rules. 5. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names. Don't forget to leave them a comment telling them they're tagged, and to read your blog.

Here are my eight random facts, some of which few people know:

I was born in Houston Texas to a waitress named Myrna at the Telewink on Telephone Road, who was addicted to Tab and hoarded green stamps. She had a mountainous orange bee hive and always smelled of Aquanet and Dippidy Doo, the scent of which to this day comforts me in my desperate times. She liked to suck the blotters out of Vicks Inhalers and watch "Dialing for Dollars," but never missed an opportunity to torture my siblings and me;

My father, named Junior, was an alcoholic disabled lineman who lost a leg in a hurricane. He liked to chew aspirin and pee on the lawn. He smelled of Butch Wax, Lucky's and Creme ‘O Kentucky. His hobby was carving animals out of peach pits. He killed a man in a bar fight with a rusty carpet knife. He left me with the family motto I have come to live by: "No pain, no pain.";

My maternal grandmother was a labor organizer in the Pecan Picker's Union for the American Communist Party;

I am 1/4 African American;

At 17 I ran away and earned a job as an assistant projectionist at the Red Bluff XXX Drive In across from the Marathon refinery. My boss was a rapacious pedophile named Lester Head who introduced me to my short film career as "Flint Shagwell";

I made a modest fortune as owner of a septic tank service company called "Houston Honey Dippers," that allows time for my lay ministry and work with children, mostly young men, in need of adult guidance;

I have three cats, a scabby Sheltie, a hedgehog and an opossum, named Sonny; and,

My wife, Tammy, owns a Christian nutritional products line, called "What Would Jesus Eat?"

Here are my eight choices:

www.burntorangereport.com

www.stxc.blogspot.com

www.pinkdome.com

www.inthepinktexas.com

www.bayareahouston.blogspot.com (John)

www.offthekuff.com

www.gregsopinion.com (Greg)

www.capitolannex.com (Vince)

Please, pass it on fellas.

I Think He's Found His Nitch

Thanks to AP and Chron.com

It Ain't Bean Bag

I like Robert Puente (D-San Antonio). My memory fails to recall he wasn't working for the people of south San Antonio. Burnt Orange Report, on 6/21/07 - who refers to Robert as a "Craddick Democrat," suggests he might be in political trouble over some funny business:

"The relationship between Puente and Marc A. Rodriguez became clear when the two reportedly entered a real estate venture together in Hays County, south of Austin.

Legislation to create a special utility district to include the venture came before the House Natural Resources Committee, which Puente chairs.

The San Antonio Democrat recused himself from the vote, but the issue raised eyebrows.

Now, reports that Puente bought a house on the city's South Side a year ago and sold it to Rodriguez in October at a profit have muddied the waters even more.

As a lobbyist, Rodriguez frequently asks Puente to carry bills on behalf of his clients. In addition, Puente, a lawyer, provided legal services to Rodriguez in a family matter in 2005, receiving a fee of between $5,000 and $10,000."

This state is swimming in graft. I'm not going to lose sleep over this. He has always been there for his people, bending over backwards in the area of constiuency services. As for BOR's cheap-shot remark, just check out Robert's voting record at http://www.vote-smart.org/voting_category.php?can_id=5567.

As always the blogger elite go nuts over Chocolate Soldiers (i.e. Van De Putte, Coleman) but dump on strong, solid blue collar Dems with courage.

There is no way any challenge can touch him based on smears and wispers.

Chupacabra Report

News that gets my goat:

-Seems Harris County Commissioners have caved on their plan to increase fares on the Westpark Tollway by 150%. Steve Radack’s comment, “Let them go down Richmond,” suggests to me that maybe he’s not that into being in office anymore. He told a group of students in the Chronicle’s Journalism Workshop that the Commissioners met for a total of 19 hours and 49 minutes last year. With hours like that, he may not be qualified to address commuter issues.

-Rick Perry and the Legislature count as accomplishments their $3 billion property tax reduction, and passage of a $3 billion bond package for cancer research. Rep Scott Hochberg, (D- Houston) commented “You don’t borrow on your credit card when you’ve got the cash, unless you want to pay more later.” Remember when conservatives used to stand for fiscal responsibility instead of for doling out favors to wealthy constituents?

-I heard President Chucklehead on the radio calling for more incentives for companies to find and produce new oil supplies. Excuse me, but $70.00 a barrel should be incentive enough for somebody to run whipstock through the earth’s core and suck the oil right out from under the Saud’s sandals.

Beyond Bumper Stickers

In a New York Times editorial this week, Francis X. Clines speaks with 25 year old Rob Timmons, combat vet turned outreach director for Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America:

-More than 26,000 returning fighters are dealing with war wounds, 45,000 with post-traumatic stress disorder. The government’s backlog of benefit claims reaches to the hundreds of thousands, with the data transition from soldier to veteran status a computer disaster between the Pentagon and Veterans Administration.

Mr. Timmins tries to make the public grasp that troops are being returned to second and third combat tours with untreated mental disorders. At home, there’s homelessness on the rise for veterans who also discover that the G.I. Bill can’t cover the cost of public college. Their unemployment rate is three times the national average. The old veterans’ movie, “The Best Years of Our Lives,” is ready for a grim remake.

And day after day Mr. Timmins has to grind his teeth at how swiftly, how vapidly the occasional news of troubled veterans is bumped aside by a deluge of bulletins about Paris Hilton or some other this-just-in frippery. “It’s staggering, sickening,” he says. “There are days I scream at the television — lives are being taken, families left in heartbreak.”

As he works the home front, the Support Our Troops bumper stickers eat at Mr. Timmins. He concludes lip service is better than nothing, but fantasizes asking bumper-sticker patriots exactly how they support the troops. “I figure they’d fumble, without an answer,” he says. Then again, he hardly looks forward to the day the stickers fade entirely from sight.

Rules of the Road

The Vatican's "Ten Commandments" for drivers:

1: You shall not kill.

2: The road shall be for you a means of communion between people and not of mortal harm.

3: Courtesy, uprightness and prudence will help you deal with unforeseen events.

4: Be charitable and help your neighbor in need, especially victims of accidents.

5: Cars shall not be for you an expression of power and domination, and an occasion of sin.

6: Charitably convince the young and not-so-young not to drive when they are not in a fitting condition to do so.

7: Support the families of accident victims.

8: Bring guilty motorists and their victims together, at the appropriate time, so they can undergo the liberating experience of forgiveness.

9: On the road, protect the more-vulnerable party.

10: Feel responsible toward others.

3.5 Million More People?

Did you see the column in Sunday’s Chronicle by David Crossley of the Gulf Coast Institute? Titled “Last-century strategy won’t move Houston forward,” he cites projections that Houston’s population will grow by 3,500,000 by the year 2036, and discusses studies on how to accommodate that growth.

When I saw 3.5 million, I had to look twice and make sure I wasn’t reading it wrong. I was saddened because I had thought I’d like to live where I’m at for another 20 or 30 years. I certainly never wanted to live in Calcutta. Is that all that this place means to us? That we can’t wait to pave it over and sell it off? That seems to be the intentions of the land brokers and developers that hold our public officials in their sway.

Crossley forecasts that this growth would require 5 billion square feet of new development, and cost between 1,000 and 1,500 square miles of green space.

A study commissioned by the Greater Houston Partnership looks to attract elite “knowledge workers” to the Houston area to build economic prosperity in the region. I’ve heard that scheme before, and as much as I enjoy the company of artists and professionals, I think the Partnership is trying to see the future by looking in the mirror.

Crossley and Rice professor Stephen Klineberg instead face the demographics, and call for improving education and services to the black and Latino populations where the real growth is happening. These groups have historically been ill served by our institutions, unless you’re looking at prison construction or armed service recruitment.

Crossley then cites a Houston-Galveston Area Council survey of citizens, which lists goals of better mobility and transit, more green space, and a healthier environment. He wraps with a quote from Klineberg: “In the absence of meaningful efforts to guide growth in enlightened ways, much of this region’s remaining green space will surely disappear and the overall quality of life in the Houston area may well deteriorate in irretrievable ways. And if that happens, can anyone doubt that the prospects for sustained economic prosperity in the region as a whole will deteriorate with it?”

Founding Fathers Day

Been reading David O. Stewart’s “The Summer of 1787,” about the Constitutional Convention. When James Madison says of the Articles of Confederation that “the present system neither has nor deserves advocates,” or Alexander Hamilton calls for the convention noting “the embarrassment which characterizes the present state of affairs,” I think of the dog and pony show conjured up by our would-be leaders and opinion makers while they ignore today’s threats to our lives and liberties.

I liked Washington’s neighbor, George Mason, who like Patrick Henry, (“I smell a rat.”) never did approve of the Constitution. He called the delegates “knaves, fools, coxcombs and office seekers,” and insisted that it should be easy to amend the Constitution because “the plan to be formed will certainly be defective.”

At one point when the delegates were at each others throats, Benjamin Franklin leaked to a reporter that “So great is the unanimity we hear, that it has been proposed to call the hall in which they assemble –Unanimity Hall.” Another time things got so bad that even freethinking Franklin proposed that they begin each session with a prayer. Hamilton opposed this, warning that it might scare the public if they were to hear that the delegates were resorting to prayer, and another delegate pointed out that they had no funds to pay a preacher to lead them in prayer. So no prayer was said.

-And the shameless panderers in our state legislature have defiled the statehouse with one of those electronic signs like you see at Quick E Mart to spell out the words “In God We Trust.”

Joy

Congradulations to Mr. & Mrs. Nails upon the birth of their 7 lbs. 6 oz. baby boy, Harry.

Send him our love.

Baille!

I bet the neighbors are still discussing in hushed tones the events of last weekend in their comfortable tree-lined part of old Alamo Heights. It was over at the place where apartments are let out to gay divorcees, furry sandal-wearing goat cheese-eaters, and people with way too many cats.

It is not uncommon for strange noises, bumps and grinds, to issue from the premises at various times along with the occasional strange visitor - generally looking a little too happy, if you know what I mean - coming around. Starting Friday evening, an assortment of cars, fashionable and modest alike was lining the street, and the folks who came this beautiful early summer night, of all races and ages; genders and class, were stepping lightly up to one apartment in particular. A stunning woman in an a-line dress, well over six feet in height, greeted the guests at the door, ready with an offer for drink or a knosh, and made sure everyone was seated and relaxed. At eight o'clock sharp the door was closed; locked; and bolted.

Swingers? Followers of the occult? In this post-911 world where you are either for'em or against ‘em, any meeting of citizens outside of churches, schools, malls, or a sports arena is likely a job for Homeland Security. Why would anyone leave the comfort and safety of their homes except for Christian fellowship? One can dial up virtually any type of "entertainment" or any other worthwhile human endeavor on-line or on TV. Praise His Glory!

A further discreet investigation on the strange event, mostly by peering inconspicuously through the slats in the window blinds, revealed two beautiful women standing together in the relative expanse of an empty living room wearing street clothes, and otherwise appearing non-descript but for a startling presence imbuing radiance, confidence and wisdom - not from years but rather a telling sagacity.

They began to dance.

The performance had the early mark of a passionately rendered pas de deux with movement and pace mirrored to one another. The music was a moderately tempoed suite of syncopated minimalist industrial-styled electronic music followed by an intensely lovely work for string ensemble and piano. There was no sense that this was a strictly physical exercise; strong, but not assaultive. After a few minutes the two began to subtlety depart from one another in executing the routine without upsetting the continuity or integrity of the piece. The choriography incorporated afro-centric and latino influences that did not overpower the mostly modern dance style the performers had plainly mastered with so much presence and facility. The viewers no doubt came to admire the mechanics of the performance, as the dancers tensed their muscles, reached and grasped at their clothe or the unseen oppressors, turning around their imaginary axis -- deftly balancing sublime dignity and humanity. Their faces cast in not only pain and pleasure, but understanding, determination and strength. As the piece went on, it was evident that the two were not dancing with each other, or around each other, but through each other in an expression of pure truth in movement.

This had to be subversive in some way.

Who are these high priestesses of modern dance possessing such mad skills and creativity? They are Brit Keel (B.F.A. in Dance SMU, M.F.A. in Dance from the University of Iowa; Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance) and Deborah Andersen, (B.F.A. in Dance from the University of Iowa) who have founded the Saint Lorraine Dance Company here in San Antonio (www.saintlorraine.com)

Yes, these mavens of modern dance have successfully committed an act of guerilla performance and they are not sorry. In fact, they plan to do it again. Stay tuned.

Chupacabra Report

From wire reports:

GOP hopefuls playing it safe on evolution

WASHINGTON — The three Republican presidential candidates who indicated last month that they do not believe in evolution may have been taking a safe stance on the issue when it comes to appealing to GOP voters. A Gallup poll released Monday said that Republicans disbelieve the theory of evolution by more than 2-to-1. At the GOP's first presidential debate last month, Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo indicated they did not believe in evolution.


USDA releases data on federal subsidy dollarsNew USDA data could change laws on farm payments

By SAM HANANEL and MARY CLARE JALONICK Associated Press
>
WASHINGTON — From Texas billionaires to Washington lobbyists, it's no secret that wealthy people can get federal farm subsidies.
But now, for the first time, new Agriculture Department data makes it easier to see exactly who benefits from the nation's generous farm subsidy program.
The Environmental Working Group, a public interest group that has long pushed for more equitable distribution of farm subsidies, has compiled the data and will post it online for users beginning today.
EWG president Ken Cook said he hopes the new information will help spur reforms as Congress and the Bush administration consider what a new multibillion-dollar farm bill should look like.
The database includes about 358,000 beneficiaries who received $9.8 billion in crop subsidy benefits between 2003 and 2005.
That includes Texas oil billionaire Lee M. Bass, who qualified to receive $242,787 in subsidies from 2003-2005. Former NBA star Scottie Pippen received $78,945 over the same period in conservation subsidies for land he controls in Arkansas.
The current farm bill, which expires Sept. 30, limits farmers to $360,000 in subsidies per year, but that ceiling is filled with loopholes that allow many farms to exceed it.


Reid can't help riffs on 2 GOP candidates

WASHINGTON - Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said his staff had ordered him to steer clear of presidential politics, but he couldn't resist making a quick joke at the expense of two Republican candidates on Monday. "The one fact I've learned — I can't get out of my mind — is that Rudy Giuliani's been married more times than Mitt Romney's been hunting," Reid cracked to a receptive audience at the Center for American Progress. Giuliani, the former New York mayor, is on his third marriage. Former Massachusetts Gov. Romney admitted he'd been hunting just twice after initially claiming he'd been a hunter nearly all his life

Spend More Time With Your Family

There isn't too much to talk about lately as we enter the dog daze of summer in south Texas. All weather that would be of any interest this time of the year meanders languishly from the direction of, or storms in apocalyptically out of the gulf. All is calm down there, and off to a boring start.

Reports of a continued decline in CHIPs enrollment (see BOR) chaps me, but is no surprise.

News that an enraged woman bludgeoned her husband with the baby (see chron) certainly surprised me, but failed to make me mad.

I think we are trapped in a slow news cycle, that's all.

However, Roger Williams' resignation as Texas' Secretary of State yesterday looked like a story that had some potential interest. Different folks offered various congectures as to the reasons for his unexpected departure. One blogger suspected that perhaps Gonzo would resign, Box Turtle John would move to AG and Rog would replace him. Intriguing.

I seem to remember in '04 or so, rumors flying here and there about Rick Perry being discovered cuppled enflagrante delicto with the secretary of state. I think Mr. Williams should know that when wags like, www.drizzten.com/blargchives/000723.html refer to the story link, his face shows up. I'm just sayin'.

You know, when all that stuff went down, I learned from some of their neighbors that Mrs. Perry fled the governor's mansion to the lake house of a friend for a numer of weeks. Things were tense.

Maybe the news will get better, or at least more interesting.

Note: many thanks to Princess Sparkle Pony for the great picture above.

Meanwhile..

Yeah, those Mexicans sure got it great with proposed amnesty and all that. Cake, I tell ya!

Let's take a look in our backyard for a day and see what that's like:

Associated Press
Article Launched: 06/08/2007 04:27:52 AM MDT

HARRISBURG, Pa. - Federal prosecutors want to return to Mexico a federal inmate they say confessed to killing at least 10 women in a border city there as "offerings to Satan."

The U.S. attorney's office in Harrisburg, acting on a request from the Mexican government, asked a federal judge Wednesday to extradite Jose Francisco Granados de la Paz for trial in the June 2001 slaying of a 17-year-old girl.

De la Paz, 29, is a Mexican imprisoned in Lewisburg Federal Prison on immigration charges. Authorities say he confessed last year to the deaths, which ranged from 1993 until 2006, to Mexican investigators and officials in Texas.

All took place near Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, the extradition complaint said.

Pennsylvania authorities specifically cited the slaying of Mayra Juliana Reyes Solis. Reyes Solis had been stabbed in the heart and dumped in a canal in Ciudad Juarez.


[400 girls tortured and killed since 1993]


Juárez police on "maximum alert" after slaying
By Louie Gilot / El Paso Times
Article Launched: 06/08/2007 12:00:00 AM MDT

Juárez police were on "maximum alert" after four men, two of whom were police officers, were gunned down in less than 24 hours Wednesday and Thursday.

Police armed with AR-15 assault rifles manned vehicle checkpoints, reinforcements were called in and 40 specialized police units with six officers were dispatched to deal with any problems, police officials said.

Chihuahua state police officials said that federal involvement was necessary to keep Juárez from becoming a battleground for competing drug lords.

The recent Mafia-style hits were the latest in a wave of organized crime violence plaguing the border city and targeting police in particular.

Some officials believe the slayings could be the work of outside groups vying for control of Juárez, such as the Zetas, operating out of Nuevo Laredo.


[I often visit Dos Laredos for fun, but they're are firing anti-tank missles from shrimp cocktail stands, for chissakes!]


Police kill escaped bull on rampage
Article Launched: 06/08/2007 12:00:00 AM MDT

A bull escaped from its pen Thursday morning and led police officers on a run through the streets of Central Juárez before it was shot to death, police officials said.

The animal caused fear and chaos among drivers and pedestrians as it made its way from Camino Viejo a San José, to Paseo de los Nogales and Paseo de la Victoria streets. Two firefighters tried to lasso the animal but ended up being slightly injured in their effort, police said. Because nothing else worked, police cornered the bull and shot it twice, killing it instantly. Nobody had claimed the bull's remains as of Thursday afternoon.



BEYOND THE BORDER

Coahuila state, which borders Texas from near Laredo to Big Bend National Park, has been mostly free of the organized crime related violence like its two neighbors to the east, Nuevo León and Tamaulipas.

That might be changing.

A 22-year-old woman reportedly died from gunshot wounds today in a sports bar in Saltilo, Coahuila's capital.

According to reports, assailants unleashed a barrage of bullets at the Caliente "casino" from two vehicles and sped off. No arrests were immediately reported.

It's unclear why the Caliente bar was targeted, but it became the latest gambling business targeted in recent days in the region.

On Saturday, two casinos were robbed in Monterrey.

Following the attacks, 10 casinos in the Mexican northeast closed. The Caliente in Saltillo might have been the only one operating in Saltillo Wednesday.

On Sunday, a Caliente casino in Xalapa, Veracruz, was robbed. More than 300 shell casings were reportedly found at the scene and the attackers made off with about $80,000.



[I like to take a summer bug-out to Saltillo but everyone implores us not to go. I'm told "they hate us now," and the concensus is that its not safe anymore]


CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (AP) -- A Nueces County deputy fatally shot a man walking along the highway when the man refused to drop a machete he was carrying, authorities said.

Deputy Burl Smith fired 13 rounds Thursday when Miguel Angel Ramirez, 32, continued walking toward Smith on an inside emergency lane of Interstate 37, Sheriff Jim Kaelin said.

Ramirez, a resident of the Bastrop County town of Rosanky in Central Texas, was shot 10 times, according to a preliminary report by the Nueces County Medical Examiner's Office.

Smith was responding to reports from motorists about a man walking down the interstate when he confronted Ramirez from a distance, Kaelin said.

Kaelin said Ramirez ignored Smith's orders, prompting Smith to fire a warning shot. Ramirez kept walking toward him with the 18-inch machete in hand. Ramirez advanced 25 feet after the first shot was fired, and the encounter ended within one minute.

"He didn't stop," Kaelin said. "If the first shot doesn't stop someone from doing what they're doing, you have to fire a second and third shot."



Rosanky is down the way from Moulton. The little hamlet has a large car swap and classic meet on Saturdays. I'm sure everyone in town knows the deceased and rumors are no doubt flying.

Gonu!

There is Typhoon Gonu.

She is ripping up the oilfields in Oman (and quite a few unfortunate citizens) as we speak.

She was a Catagory 5 a day or two ago, so they are lucky its not worse.

There will undoubtedly be an impact on crude production, in the end.

For a good analysis read Mr. Mathews at www.wunderground.com

Why's My Light Bill So High?

From R G. Ratcliffe, Houston Chronicle:
AUSTIN — The lobbying that weakened and ultimately killed electric utility reform, clean-air legislation and regulation of the $45 billion buyout of TXU Corp. during the recent legislative session was a friend and family affair.
The public focus of the legislation has been on high electric rates and the multibillion-dollar buyout of TXU Corp. in Dallas. Lawmakers wanted to rein in high electric bills while the state's utilities fought anything that resembled renewed government control of a market that was deregulated in 1999.
The utility lobby groups, with 90 registered lobbyists, included a former business adviser to Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, the brother of Dewhurst's chief of staff, the son of Speaker Tom Craddick's next-door neighbor and a pair of political consultants who have helped at least a third of the Legislature win office.
And that does not mention the fact the teams also included eight former legislators, former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk, a former Texas secretary of state and former Texas Railroad Commission Chairman Barry Williamson.
The board of directors for the proposed new TXU also has influence in Austin:
•Former U.S. Secretary of Commerce Don Evans is from Midland and is a longtime Craddick friend.•Plains National Bank Chairman James Huffines was finance chairman of Gov. Rick Perry's 2006 re-election campaign.•And former Ambassador to Sweden Lyndon Olson is a prominent Waco Democrat who has helped finance a political committee run by House Democratic Caucus Chairman Jim Dunnam."Where things fell apart is where they often do: in the dark rooms and back halls of the Capitol," said Tom "Smitty" Smith of Public Citizen, one of the groups pushing for reform. "We don't know whose fingerprints are on the razor."
-Check it out citizens, chances are that your representatives are in bed with these bastards, too. Remember this every month as you write the check and maybe you’ll stop voting for these kleptocrats.

What a Putz

The nice thing about a blog is a chance to get things off your chest. There can be too much of a good thing, so I try to watch it. In fact, I reget following Charles Chaveau after his excellent post.

However, I remember throughout my lifetime Texas putting TB cases away in the Chest Hospital in San Antonio for up to six months. So, this case of the Georgia PI lawyer turned globetrotting Typhoid Mary left me wondering.

Emily Palmer, a spokesperson for the Texas Center for Infectious Diseases reminded me that now days TB patients can treat at home and enjoy ordinary lives. But when someone refuses to comply; is not capable of self-care; or, possess a clear risk of infection, the state seeks a court order for involuntary quarantine.

I think the alleged meeting between this asshole, CDC, and his asshole father, the CDC scientist for TB studies, revealls that he did everything in his power to garner some hairsplitting legal loophole that would allow for his hijinks. When it comes down to it, the strain of TB Attorney Speaker contracted should have placed him in the risk catagory that require voluntary or involuntary hospitalization.

I have nothing but contempt for such a person. The fallout of Mr. Speakers actions feeds the public perception that all lawyers are selfish liars and crooks.