Wreck

The Messenger is reporting a big wreck in front of Bono’s Chophouse and Saloon north of Decatur. That's always a bad sign, because it might mean someone pulled out of the parking lot in front of traffic on 287. Big speculation but not a bad bet.

Edit: Uh, bad bet. It's a one vehicle wreck involving a van.

Dead At 42

Had been on life support all day. Story.

Edit: Diff'rent Strokes alternative creepy beginning.

Here's The Video I Mentioned

Breaking: Five Month Old Found Dead In Rhome This Morning

May not be anything other than natural causes.

Developing . . .

Random Friday Morning Thoughts

• Fox 4 had a video of a truck crossing the median and crashing on the tollway yesterday. I'm fascinated by the car going in the opposite direction that missed death by a fraction of a second. (Still looking for video on the Internet which makes this bullet point completely useless until I find it.)
• 73 now dead in the Jamaica police-gonna-get-drug-lord fight. That's a book or movie waiting to happen.
• I used to love going to the Colonial golf tournament. Now I'm not sure I'll ever have the desire to go again.
• The remake of the Karate Kid opens today. You know, that first was sappy yet pretty darn good.
• A Mercedes, a cop shooting a gun, a passerby firing his weapon as well, an alley, the Stockyards, drugs, middle of the night? Sheesh, not a bad story.
• Violent crowd fight at baseball game. The big guy with the fro needs to learn how to block a punch.
• Wise County's Newark seems to have its wheels flying off as the city council will meet on a rare Friday night to "deliberat[e] in closed session regarding the city secretary, police chief, city police officer position and court clerk."
• Had a buddy tell me he tried to start his own Random Thoughts but gave up after five days. "I don't know how in the world you do that," he told me. It ain't easy brother.
• The creators of "Words With Friends" (which I've never played) were on The Ticket yesterday. It sounds like they are drowning in cash.
• Weird that the Messenger never gave the name of the lady hit by a car while on her bicycle in Alvord yesterday.
• The Los Angeles Times reporting yesterday that the hole in the gulf had been plugged was horrible journalism.
• Anybody else see Fox 4's Fiona Gorostiza doing a So You Think You Can Dance audition last night on the news? Mercy.

One Of My Stranger Comments

Don't Touch Me Guy vs. Touchy Guy

Here's the clip in it's full blown glory. For some reason, the new hi def videos are being cropped on Blogger (my host) which prevents you from seeing all of it. And I can't figure out how to fix it.

Scanner People: Do Your Duty

Something going on at around 5:00 pm near Bridgeport? Troopers high tailing it down the highway along with WCSO.

Report: Plugged!

Link.

And the live "spillcam" seems to back it up.

Edit: From other cameras, I'm not so sure about this report at all.

Edit #2: Coast guard now says a "headline writer" didn't understand their earlier press conference.

Oh, My

From the Messenger's Update web page.

Big Brother, Part Infinity

I would think that any anti-big government conservative would be against this.

Story.

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

• There was a racial slur painted on a road sign in Cedar Hill yesterday. Fox 4 News digitized the word out. Channel 5 did not.
• Thank goodness we don't have to hear about American Idol any more. I can't tell you how disinterested I've been in that show from the start.
• "Would of" and "would have" are easily confusing. At least to me.
• Did you see the picture of the alligator swimming around in Lake Worth? It's huge.
• There was a guilty verdict yesterday in the woman-kicks-man-in-crotch case yesterday in the Wise County Court at Law.
• Watched a Wise County DWI video the other day which was the closest thing I've seen to evidence of a possible quota system for such arrests. One cop radioed another and asked him if he "needed" another DWI case.
• One time big time hip hop artist 50 Cent slimmed down for a movie role. And by "slim down" I mean he looks like death.
• Of all the big bucks in play with the Rangers bankruptcy, there are some little people who are going to take a hit. One of the creditors, for example, listed on the court filings is a $10,000 bill for a fireworks company. And that makes you, Tom Hicks, sorry.
• Phil Steele, the smartest college football guru you've never heard of, has Oklahoma #1 in his preseason rankings and TCU #4.
• Fort Worth cops shot someone last night and it didn't make any of the early morning newscasts around here. That's weird.
• If you know someone who routinely drives by Preskitt and FM 51 at around 6:30, here's a picture of a car that was in a wreck at that location this morning. Edit: Messenger tells me it was Decatur volleyball coach Claire Rose (who is OK.)

Fox 4 Morning Gal Tricks Up Her Hair

Big thumbs up.

Teacher Scandal

Three students? And she was arrested in exclusive Westover Hills? And there's NO picture?

Story.

Edit: Commentor found one! It's Susan Sarandon!

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

• We've got a funny assault case going on in the County Court at Law. Whenever a case involves a horse, three 911 calls, a videotape, and a woman allegedly kicking a guy in the nether regions, you've got some grade A entertainment going on.
• Funny tweet I saw yesterday: "Lost was the 55th most-watched finale ever, right behind Mr. Belvedere." And it's true.
• The Super Bowl will be going to NY/NJ, but it took owners four votes to get there. (I almost lost my house on that bet.)
• If you engage in pre-martial sex, you're dating Hitler. Wait, what?
• A guy called The Fan yesterday and supported the death penalty even if it occasionally results in the innocent being executed. He called it "acceptable collateral damage." I almost drove off the road
• It's hot with no wind today. Those conditions used to be called an "Ozone Action Day" which, 15 years ago, would always cause a buddy of mine to call me and say, "Let's go skiing this afternoon!"
• I've about pulled off a Jamaica vacation in July and then yesterday 29 people were killed there when the cops tried to capture a "drug lord." Great. The War on Drugs is going to ruin my vacation.
• I probably should have made a separate post of for DISD Superintendent Gindt getting a job at Northwest ISD. You boys love talking about that stuff.
• Katrina and the Oil Disaster are completely different. The government can evacuate people. The government can't plug a well when all the great minds in the industry can't.
• Fox News edited out 12 seconds of applause while President Obama was giving the commencement address at West Point. Incredible.
• I had another encounter with the Lost Guy That Can't Speak English yesterday, and it was so bizarre that it'll get it's own post later.
• Isn't it amazing how boring the above the fold feature is? No wonder newspapers are going bust.

Another Low For Local News

I've written about Hosam Smadi quite a bit: He's a dumb kid that the FBI found in a chat room, led him along and cultivated his desire to do an act of terrorism (which he could never do on his own), provided him with a fake car bomb, and then arrested him when he tried to detonate it with a cell phone (and then the FBI then immediately and conveniently notified the media).

The news late tonight is that he will enter a guilty plea tomorrow. No surprise there -- he's in federal court.

But when the local Fox 4 News reported the guilty plea plan tonight, this is what they said in a pre-packaged videotaped report to provide some background : "Agents say he left the SUV, packed with C4 and ammonium nitrate below the 60 story Fountain Place tower. Got a safe distance away and tried to trigger it with a cell phone." There was not a WORD that there was no possible way the bomb would go off, that FBI agents were with him at the time, or that no one was in danger.

Whether it be the Bush Administration or the Obama Administration, this case is nothing more that federal grandstanding. It was like shooting fish in a barrel.

You disagree? How many White Supremacists could the FBI find right now in a chat room who would be willing to push the detonation button of a bomb that would go off on a black church on a Sunday? How many rednecks could they find that would be willing to push a similar button that would blow up a Dallas mosque? Hundreds? Thousands? Tens of thousands?

It's grandstanding. It's politics. And it's a local news outlet that doesn't understand that it facilitates the paranoia by not getting the facts straight.

Border Problem: Solved

OK, you guys admit it: Greatest. President. Ever?

These Kids Are Not One Man Wolfpacks

(Youtube video - worth it.)

I support freedom. I support weirdness. I support America. But if I was the father of one of these kids, I'd rip that Daniel Boone coonskin tail off his rump and strangle him with it.

Man, you parents have it rough these days.

(And I kinda fear for the one chick that said, "We're not a gang. Gangs are posers." My contacts within the Latin Kings tell me they are not pleased with that.)