Hot War On Terror Prediction

It's time for the Feds to arrest a group of goofballs on some crazy terrorist plot that could never be accomplished. Every 12 months or so, the Administration has to remind us to be scared. About one year ago, I posted this. I'm still proud of it. (But looking through the comments, I note that Wordkyle was in full swing even back then, TxSharon used to post, and I had completely forgotten about the guy that used to post under the moniker of "The Devil." He could be funny.)

Ron Needed An Engineer

Hey, I like Fox 4 News. I give them props all the time. But this was a moment of Broadcast Gold this afternoon. And I've always said that the local anchors would endear themselves to the public if they would just lighten up a bit. If Clarice had simply looked in the camera and said, "Our wheels are flying off right now", I'd never change the channel.

I drive down Boat Club Road every now and then. It's kind of fun to see the Copeland Complex and then go through that very north end of Eagle Mountain Lake that looks very much like a scene from Deliverance. But, if you would have kept on going this morning, you would have seen the fire above. More here. Not-a-good.

And WBAP said the owners were vacationing in Hawaii.

If You Hate Your Job Right Now

A faithful reader with a dark sense of humor sent along this pic with this note:

Taken 15 minutes ago at my house. My Spanish is rusty but I'm pretty sure I heard one say,"Kill me, por favor." Although I can't be sure.

More Random Thoughts Hit My Brain

- Rush Limbaugh is criticizing all the coverage of Tim Russert. He's trying to make is some "liberal media" thing but, as always, I'm only half listening. - I almost hit a deer this morning. - Between Jacksboro and Runaway Bay, it looks like someone has taken a cross laid out in rocks and created a word that the local Chambers of Commerce would not be happy with. - The Star Telegram is raising its prices, making the paper smaller, and cutting it's staff by 10%. That isn't a good sign. - Time magazine, which always shows up on Monday, has a picture of a fat kid on the cover with the title "Our Super-sized Kids." - A "live blog" of the 18 hole playoff of the U.S. Open? Why are sporting events in the middle of the weekday seem more interesting than they actually are? - Saw "The Hammer" last night on Fox 4 with Steve Doocey. Looked good. Although his rant that T.O. should be drug tested was a little ironic. - Oil hit a record $140 a barrel this morning. I paid $3.99 a gallon for the first time this weekend. - Forgot to mention about Empire of the Sun: Oddest part is a young Ben Stiller playing a bit part as a prisoner in a war camp. - "A college student who branded a former lover's body with a scalding piece of metal as payback for never calling her after they had sex was sentenced to five years in prison Friday."

Video Time Wastes

Stolen from the usual places. For the politically minded: Longest question in history of ever (and I love that reporter from CNN) For those who like carnage: Tricked up gymnastic overshoot (nice job by the 11 spotters) For the relationship folks: Evolution of wedding dance (supposed to get good at around 1:30 mark) Edit: I actually posted this before I watched it. I'd like to apologize. That was a beating.

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

- If I can find the Tru Channel, there's suppossed to be a documentary/reality show on drilling rigs in Texas called "Black Gold" starting Wednesday. Sounds pretty good.
- I normally don't sit around and watch golf, but I was standing in front of the TV on Saturday at the end of the third round of the U.S. Open. You'll have to be a golf fan, but somebody's spliced the last two holes of Tiger Woods on youtube here.
- It's not summer yet.
- I don't have sprinkler system, and I got real close to leaving a lone sprinkler on all last night. Remembered it at the last moment. I'll do that about once a year.
- Crazy wreck on 635 yesteday in Dallas that had the freeway shut down for hours. One oddity: Last night most news outlets were saying a lady got killed when she got out of her car to take a picture of the crash. This morning, I'm hearing that she got out of her car to "possibly help."
- The Tony Awards were last night. I've never cared about them.
- You've got to see the Rangers turn Shea Stadium into a Slip N Slide on Saturday.
- I rarely watched Meet The Press but I TIVO'd it this weekend to see how they handled the Tim Russert death. It opened with an empty chair behind the desk on an empty and quiet set.
- Saw something advertised on Fox nationally about "credit card addiction." Addiction? Puhleeze.
- A teenager, a shotgun, a fat man, a Hummer, and an F-Bomb. Good times.
- Do presidential and vice-presidential candidates have to be from different states? I could have sworn the answer was yes because I recall some controversy eight years ago as to whether Dick Cheney was a resident of Texas or Wyoming. But, the answer is "no".
- The Whataburger on Western Center Blvd was robbed last night.
- The Texas Bar Journal published the four winners of their amateur short story contest. (I promise myself every year I'm going to enter it.) The first one bored me to tears in that it was about a lawyer helping out a high school girl that had been denied a chance to try out for the cheerleading the squad. The second one, written by a new law clerk, was about a depressed lawyer in a bar waiting for a hooker to show up. Diversity rules. (Still haven't read the other two.)
- R. Kelly quietyly won an acquittal on child porn charges last Friday. I can't remember which awards show it was a couple of years ago, but I remember the host asking the audience to be sure that Kelly was seated far away from the Olsen twins.
- One of the WBAP traffic helicopters wouldn't start this morning. Seriously. But they did make a funny ball-bearing reference from Fletch.
- I saw my niece yesterday. When she was born, I remember an Hispanic man in the waiting room who appeared to be grieving after receiving some bad news. I've always felt guilty about not saying something to him that day.
- Finished the Pat Tillman book. I feel sorry for her (his mom, the author) because she's filled with so much hatred and bitterness.
- I'm almost through with Empire of The Sun. Good but nothing great. And I can't believe the DVD I have next to watch: Coming To America. I've never seen it.
- I'm going to attempt to watch the DVD series of the HBO show, The Wire. I've never seen an episode but everyone raves about it.
- You would think a prison break in Afghanistan were at least 400 Taliban members were freed would be pretty big news. Any of you hear about it happening last Thursday?

Slow On The Draw

My law partner, who has been active in the Boy Scouts for years, emailed me this photo on Friday, He wrote that i had been taken in Iowa during the tragedy that killed for young scouts. I thought it was amazing, believed it was true, but I was slow to post it because I figured everyone would scream "photoshopped". Then I looked at BagOfNothing's blog today and saw that the photo was actually being run by the AP.

Wow: Tim Russert Dead

Just heard Sean Hannity say "I'm hearing some awful news in the in the industry that I'm trying to confirm." Checked over on Drudge and there's a link to the New York Post that had a one sentence story about this.

Fox News

. . . catching heat for this. I would join the dog pile if I understood it.

Today . . .

. . . the Texas Supreme Court has agreed to hear the appeal of the Defendant in the wrongful death lawsuit in "TXI TRANSPORTATION COMPANY, ET AL. v. RANDY HUGHES, ET AL." That's the case out of Paradise discussed earlier here.

You can actually read some of the briefs filed in the case here.

Hey, Now - Friday Edition

"Kim Kardashian and her sister (who is older but looks younger) Kourtney pranced around in bikinis for a photoshoot by the pool at the Hotel Hermitage in Monaco."

Random Legal Stuff

In reviewing the opinions released this morning by the Fort Worth Court of Appeals, I saw one (pdf file) which involved the reversal of a DWI case. It wasn't particularly significant in that it reaffirmed the well settled proposition that a stop of a vehicle cannot be justified based solely upon an anonymous tip. Bottom line: The court held that there was not a reasonable suspicion to stop the vehicle, therefore the stop was illegal, so any evidence found as a result of the illegal stop (DWI evidence) was suppressed. But get this obscure fact that didn't play any role in the court's decision: When the officer went back and viewed his videotape after the arrest, he saw that the Defendant had failed to stop at at a stop sign. He simply hadn't notice it before he stopped the vehicle based upon the anonymous tip. If he had seen it, the stop of the vehicle would have been justified because he had observed a criminal violation. Either we've got an honest cop (since he could have simply put in his report that "I observed the defendant fail to come to a complete stop at a stop sign" and no one would have questioned him because the video would back him up) or the report had already been completed by the time he viewed the video (which, amazingly, some "big city" police departments have the officers dictate the reports over the phone immediately after an arrest.)

Heck, I Don't Know What's Real Anymore

And I have no idea if this is.

Random Friday Morning Thoughts

- Very interesting last meal of the guy the State Of Texas killed two days ago.
- I always like the Fort Worth Weekly alternative magazine but I can never remember to track it down.
- Stumbled upon David Letterman last night. Still not that funny.
- While listening to the radio last night, I heard on The Ticket that the Lakers were up by 20+ in the first quarter over the Celtics so "it looks like the series will end up tied 2-2." Uh, not so fast.
- Crazy pic from the floods in the midwest.
- Craziest dream the other night: Brad Pitt and I had to stand side by side in front of a crowd with our shirts off.
- Random South Korea baseball game pic.
- I've always been suspicious of the number of fat grams in those "guiltless" items on the menu at Chili's. But not enough to sue about it.
- Which reminds me of the "skinny enchiladas" at Don Pablo's. I could have sworn I heard the chain was going out of business, and I'm pretty sure the one in Grapevine has shut down. But I saw the one on Rufe Snow opened the other day.
- Not sure what the big controversy is about the new x-ray machine at DFW Airport that allows screeners to see, in essence, your body naked. If I went through it the only one offended would be the screener.
- How do they get the money out of that Currency Plant along 287 in North Fort Worth? Do they just load up a krillion dollars in a truck? Does it have armed escorts? Air support?
- And I took a tour of that place once and got to see the warehouse of what had to be millions of dollars of bills. Absolutely fascinating.
- Almost threw up last night watching Fox 4 story about the crane accident at the new Cowboys stadium. For some reason they interviewed a Plaintiff's lawyer who opined that the incident was probably due to "human error." (Note: Tell OSHA that the case has been solved.)
- Funny scene on Fox 4 this morning when Tim was dancing at the desk to that "Apple bottom jeans" song with Meagan (still hawt) looking at him like he was crazy.
- Baylor and SMU have agreed to a six year deal in football. They will probably all end in a scoreless tie.
- A couple days ago, Lockheed Martin test flew it's new "F-35 Lightning II". Being a fighter pilot would be cool. Being the first one to fly a newly designed plane would be stressful.
- Just realized it was Friday the 13th. Where did that superstition come from? And I don't remember anything bad every happening on the day.
- Funny sight in Fort Worth yesterday: Lady on the back of a Ninja motorcycle wearing one of those face covering cloths (like an Indian or Muslim or whatever). But get this: She was riding side saddle. Tried to get a pic but failed.

Hey, Now

"Don't let the terrorists win! You boys stop all that fighting about Obama and that place in Cuba that I can't remember and come join us on Lake Bridgeport. "

Oh, My

Assuming it's not photoshopped, and I would presume the LSU team is playing a northern team.

We Have Met The Enemy

I'll be the first one to admit that I don't understand everything that's going on, both factually and legally, in connection with the detainees and Guantanamo Bay. And I'm not exactly sure what will be the long term effect of today's Supreme Court decision which, I think, means that the detainees (who have been jailed for years without charges and without the benefit of a trial) can force the government to justify in federal court why they are being held. But I was shocked regarding the first couple of paragraphs of Justice Scalia's dissent. He sounds like Limbaugh or Hannity instead of a Supreme Court Justice:

Today, for the first time in our Nation’s history, the Court confers a constitutional right to habeas corpus on alien enemies detained abroad by our military forces in the course of an ongoing war . . . . . I shall devote most of what will be a lengthy opinion to the legal errors contained in the opinion of the Court. Contrary to my usual practice, however, I think it appropriate to begin with a description of the disastrous consequences of what the Court has done today . . . . America is at war with radical Islamists. The enemy began by killing Americans and American allies abroad: 241 at the Marine barracks in Lebanon, 19 at the Khobar Towers in Dhahran, 224 at our embassies in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi, and 17 on the USS Cole in Yemen. See National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States, The 9/11 Commission Report, pp. 60–61, 70, 190 (2004). On September 11, 2001, the enemy brought the battle to American soil, killing 2,749 at the Twin Towers in New York City, 184 at the Pentagon in Washington, D. C., and 40 in Pennsylvania. See id., at 552, n. 9. It has threatened further attacks against our homeland; one need only walk about buttressed and barricaded Washington, or board a plane anywhere in the country, to know that the threat is a serious one. Our Armed Forces are now in the field against the enemy, in Afghanistan and Iraq. Last week, 13 of our countrymen in arms were killed.

But I guess he believes that the government should not have to prove that those held in Guantanamo have anything at all to do with that list of tragedies. They look like Islamic Terrorists so let's keep them locked up without justification? Who does that sound like? Jack Nicholson from A Few Good Men?: "You [deleted] people... you have no idea how to defend a nation. All you did was weaken a country today, Kaffee. That's all you did. You put people's lives in danger. Sweet dreams, son."