I'm Telling You, It's Hard Out Here For A . . . . Lawyer

Illinois lawyer charged with prostitution. Acknowledges it on web site.

This world gets crazier every day.

Oh, My

Teen found dead this morning in Desoto. I checked out his Facebook page. Wow. I mean, wow.

And in case it changes or gets deleted, here's a screenshot.

The kid's dead so let's try to refrain from the racist comments that normally come pouring in. But, I'll admit, I kind of need Barbara Billingsley from Airplane to explain some of that to me.

Roe v. Wade Did Happen, Didn't It?

An email that Rep. Phil King is sending out.  Uh, doesn't Planned Parenthood provide services that have nothing to do with abortion? Aren't those services primarily for the poor?

And who is in that picture? The Mormon Tabernacle Choir?

(Legal issues here -- looks like Indiana has more Phil Kings than Texas since they did it first.)

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

• I'm not sure I've ever heard of a capital murder case ending in a "not guilty" when the alleged victim was a cop, but I'm monitoring the Charles Payne.trial going on in Dallas right now. There's something not quite right about it.  
• There is a missing 7 year old girl from Mineral Wells who might have been taken by her father. Local connection: "He was released from the Wise County jail in April, but police said he never reported to his probation officer and hasn’t paid his bondsman or attorney." I can't find out what he was charged with here, and, as an aside, I have no idea how the cops would know how the attorney didn't get paid.
• Edit: Fox 4's Lari Barager tells me that the charge was criminal trespass and the cops talked to the bondsman and attorney to try and locate the defendant.  
• The Ticket ranked big purchases that quickly turn into regret: A boat, a hot tub,and Bowflex were at the top of the list. I'm two out of three.
• NBC just agreed to pay $1.2 billion for the 2016 Olympics and $1.4 billion for the 2020 Olympics. And that's just for the right to broadcast it -- add on the cost to produce the coverage.
• Flower bed project won't die: I'm having a load of dirt delivered today. And by "load", I mean an amount calculated by Mrs. LL.  I'm very interested in what I'll see when I round the corner this evening. 
• A letter to the editor in today's Messenger has a lady complaining that no Texas law prohibits cattle from roaming free on Farm to Market roads in Wise County. I thought that was nuts, but a quick bit of research (pdf) proved her to be correct. That is,  unless the County Commissioners have called for an election ("Stock Election Law") as to whether cattle need to be fenced in. Have they ever?
• Jogging in this heat is a beating.
• Glenn Beck, who even Fox News didn't want, is starting a subscription web show with a minimum of $4.95 a month. That can't possibly work. 
• Saw a guy representing himself in the courthouse yesterday who was pleading guilty to a new offense committed while on probation. Uh, oh. He also couldn't remember the name of his probation officer after six months of reporting.
• I'm pretty sure I saw everyone in the house walk out to go swimming at 9:30 last night. 
• Can we agree on this about Sarah Palin?:  “Sarah Palin mangled Paul Revere. I don’t care if she said she didn’t – she did.” (That was said by noted author and conservative Bernie Goldberg on Bill O'Reilly.)
• There's some talk of charging the "psychic" in the mass-grave-story yesterday (below) with False Report To A Police Officer.  What are the odds that the State could prove she knew her tip was false when she made it? 
• Yes, I know about the Mavs game. 
• Family Cat decided to violently play in the water bowl at 5:00 a.m. 
• Facebook unveiled a "facial recognition" feature yesterday for the tagging of photos. I think I know what that means, but I do know it's "on" by default. I think technology is getting away from me. 

Report: Tipster Tells Police 25 to 30 Bodies In Mass Grave Near Houston

Early reports like this always cause my Skeptical Meter to go off, but you never know. 

Story. (Updated tweets from this guy.)

Edit three hours later: Well, it looks like ol' Liberally Lean smelled this one from a mile away. Before every news outlet goes crazy next time, they might want to check out that the tip came from a "self professed psychic". And did you notice that a judge issued a search warrant based upon his finding of probable cause? That's about par for what's left of the Fourth Amendment. 

One Final Rep. Weiner Reference

How About That of the Day: Gennette Cordova, the 21-year-old journalism student from Seattle who received the tweet that launched Weinergate, was apparently something of a scandal-rod during her days at Shorecrest High School — at least enough to be dubbed “Most Likely to be Involved in a Tabloid Scandal” in a 2007 issue of her school’s newspaper.


Stories.

Something Weird Is Going On

That liberal ABC News/Washington Post poll, which is never accurate when it has results favorable to President Obama, has just released a poll showing the Republicans' favorite Mormon could take the President. Have you people forgotten that Obama killed Osama????!!!!!

And in completely unrelated news, Dallas Baptist University (which started as Decatur Baptist and stayed here until 1965) will host the famously liberal University of California in a Super Regional baseball game because (1) TCU couldn't beat Dallas Baptist last weekend, (2) Baylor gives up four runs to California in the ninth inning last night to completely implode, and (3) California's stadium is under construction so they have to play at Dallas Baptist. I'm not sure the stadium was ever meant to hold a big crowd:

Edit: Something weird is going on. Despite all the news below, now there's late word they'll play it in California at Stanford's stadium. Looks like Dallas Baptist tried to get the game played at the minor league stadium in Grand Prairie but couldn't pull it off.

You Might Want To Designate The Gas Well And Disclose The Royalties

Someone propositioned me this morning. (Gambling is illegal at Bushwood, Sir.)

And are you sure he won't release it? (He means the picture of Weiner). From NBC's The Today Show this morning:

Edit on the following day: Hey, hoss.  Remind me to take you up on your bet next time. I can even prepare the Assignment of the gas well proceeds. That was certainly predictable. I just thought the nutcase would wait more than 24 hours.

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

• For Rep. Weiner to come out yesterday and fall on the sword can only mean there is about to be a ton of shocking revelations about to hit the media. (Edit: It begins.) But, you know, he's so confident that he might survive this.
• But why in the world would you go on ABC News (and soon to be everywhere) if you're the 26 year old Texas girl who was one of the objects of his attention?  Edit: Impress your friends -- her brother played 25 games with the Texas Rangers in 2008.
• I learned yesterday that the Wise County Sheriff's Office recently used cell phone records to track the location of someone suspected in a theft. It seems like that would be commonplace, but that's the first I've heard of it around here. (I bet 90% of crime does not involve a "whodunit".)
• I got home yesterday to find that it had turned into a locked down prison with three girls (one who is a week long guest) banished to their rooms because of an incident involving yelling, throwing a jump rope, slight injury, and tattling. (At least that's what I learned from the Warden.) The place was so quiet I almost wanted to encourage late afternoon bad behavior. 
• The official University of North Texas sports web site is counting down the 100 greatest moments in football history. They might have considered making the list shorter: Number 97 is a win over Decatur Baptist in 1929.
• The Random Thought girl does some part time work for The Fan radio station. 
• I'm extremely late on this one: former Tarrant County judge John Street died a couple of weeks ago. Despite the accolades, I never remember anyone having a more pro-Plaintiffs slant than him. He once stopped a compelling defense attorney's closing argument right in the middle of it and decided the jury needed a break. (He couldn't get elected after 1984.)
• And another (Austin teacher with the incident in Fort Worth.)
• And another (Georgia teacher who will certainly win the Crossed The Line award.)
• The blood cleanup in the house yesterday was prompted by a guy picking up and carting off my treadmill that had given up the ghost. He somehow cut himself and dripped blood out the house and onto the driveway. But it was a bit jarring to see my open laptop showing a "How to clean blood up from concrete" web site when I got home. 
• Yeah, the liability issue crossed my mind. 
• Folks who have traveled out to West Texas recently tell me that the drought conditions are shocking. And this drought map backs them up. 
• Today's Update says that the LBJ Grassland Fires earlier this year was caused by burning poop. Nothing is ever normal around here. 
• You guys can parse Sarah Palin's Paul Revere story all you want in order to try to make it "technically true", but you can't go back and read her answer without admitting it was like a junior high student trying to bluff her way through a history test.
• Saw the Wise County Murder For Hire lady in court yesterday. She still hasn't be able to post bond. 
• Jon Stewart remarked about how fit Rep. Weiner looked in the photo released yesterday. "I can't believe we're the same age! What kind of Congressional health plan do they have!?"

We've Got An Admission This Afternoon In Weiner-Gate

New Photo Released Today (or what I see when I look in mirror)

Link.

(And Breitbart told Sean Hannity he has an x-rated photo that the Congressman sent but that he "has no intentions of releasing it." Riiiiiiiiiiiiiight.)

"All in all it's just another [crack] in The Wall"

Gov. Perry, in his official capacity as governor, has invited other governors to a Christian religious event which is he is co-hosting and where on the event's web site he writes, "As a nation, we must come together and call upon Jesus to guide us through unprecedented struggles, and thank Him for the blessings of freedom we so richly enjoy."

Links here.

Does the action "endorse" a particular religion (which the Supreme Court condemns)? The only way to honestly answer that question is to not factor in his particular religious preference. Would you feel the same if it were a Muslim governor inviting other governors to an Islamic event in order to call upon Allah? What about Buddhist? Jewish? Jehovah's Witness?  

It's The 67th Anniversary Of D-Day

Although many of us envision what happened by thinking of the opening scenes of Saving Private Ryan, there were some photos taken during the invasion of Normandy. And although you may have heard the story of the photos of Robert Capa, it's still fascinating. From Wikipedia:

His most famous work occurred on June 6, 1944 (D-Day) when he swam ashore with the second assault wave on Omaha Beach. He was armed with two Contax II cameras mounted with 50 mm lenses and several rolls of spare film. Capa took 106 pictures in the first couple of hours of the invasion. However, a staff member at Life in London made a mistake in the darkroom; he set the dryer too high and melted the emulsion in the negatives in three complete rolls and over half of a fourth roll. Only eight frames in total were recovered. Capa never said a word to the London bureau chief about the loss of three and a half rolls of his D-Day landing film  . . . .  Life magazine printed some of the frames in its June 19, 1944 issue with captions that described the footage as "slightly out of focus", explaining that Capa's hands were shaking in the excitement of the moment (something that he denied). Capa used this phrase as the title of his autobiographical account of the war, Slightly Out of Focus.

The Great Moodini. Yep, Moodini, Proves He Needs Some Practice

News Story about the incident in Atlanta over the weekend:



Raw footage:

Mrs. LL's Tweet This Morning Makes Me Have A Couple Of Questions

I Got Nothing

Edit: Well, I got a picture of where the injury referred to in the comments happened.

The Law. The News. Tired Head.

As soon as I do a post like this, I normally have to revise it when someone points out something I missed. And since I've already screwed up "shoots and killed" and "stabbed" in today's Random Thoughts, I'm already on dangerous ground. But here goes.

The Star-Telegram ran an article about a new law which is expected to be signed by Gov. Perry that  will revamp Texas sexual registration laws. Specifically, it will exempt a teenager from registering  in consensual sex cases when the "victim" is 15 years of age or older and the defendant is within four years of age of the victim. (Bill text.) The story said, "The bill by Rep. Todd Smith, R-Euless, and Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, is designed to spare teenagers and young adults who engaged in consensual sex from being branded as sex offenders. The measure was dubbed the 'Romeo and Juliet' bill when it was introduced in the 2009 Legislature."

The first crazy thing is that the law actually amended the law which already allowed teenagers to be exempt from registration if the defendant was under 19 and the victim was at least 13. (See text again. Underlined means new text while stricken language indicates deletion.) So this amendment offers less protection, right? Am I missing something?

Now you want to really have a headache? The Romeo and Juliet law only refers to whether someone has to register if they have been convicted or placed on probation for a sexually related crime. So get this: It currently is not a crime at all if the consensual sex was between a victim of 14 years of age or older and the defendant is within three years of age of the victim. (See Penal Code 22.11(b) and 22.011(e).)  This has not changed. So the number of people who will be impacted by the new Romeo and Juliet registration law are few and far between. Think about it: You'd have to have a victim who is 15 or 16 (the law doesn't apply for someone under 15 and 17 is the age of consent in Texas), and the defendant would have to be between three and four years older than the victim. (If the defendant were within three years it wouldn't be a crime to start with).

Now look at the first paragraph of this Channel 11 story which completely confuses the difference between not being required to register and not being a crime at all:

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

• A Keller teenager allegedly shoots and kills another teenager over a bad marijuana deal on Friday. I'll bet there's more to the story than that. Edit: Everyone know my reference of "shoots and kills" is code for "stabbed".
• But don't worry: The Feds confiscated 16 tons of marijuana in three separate incidents near the border last week. Problem solved. (And to say there's a "ton of marijuana" smuggled into this country is a massive understatement, isn't it?)
• Holy cow breaking news: Five U.S. marines killed this morning in Iraq. (And that comes on the heels of 21 people dying because of bombs on Friday.)
• Had a bullet point on the new Texas "Romeo and Juliet" law but I'm going to save it for its own post. Talk about confusing. I started looking into it when I  heard the wheels off discussion about the law on WBAP this morning. (Hal Jay was throwing out opinions on teenage girls that had everyone distancing from him.)
• Yeah, I didn't miss Sarah Palin saying that Paul Revere "warned the British that they weren't going to be taking our arms."  She would come back later and say it was a "gotcha" question.
• I finally decided that it can be too hot to go to the pool.
• After years of using a weedeater without wearing protective glasses, I can't think of doing it these days without them. 
• Plopped down on Saturday to watch the DVR'd showing of the HBO documentary "Too Big To Fail" only to realize I had recorded a thirty minutes special of "The Making Of Too Big To Fail". (But it's not like they won't show it a million times in the future.)
• TCU baseball, which started the season ranked first in the nation, did not receive any Christian love this weekend getting booted in the first round after loses to Dallas Baptist and Oral Roberts.
• Think it's a bad sign that twice in the last month Mrs. LL has lost her breath after hearing something hit the floor because she thought I had collapsed?
• Stay with me here: The Baylor softball team won an extra inning game on Saturday night where the opposing pitcher threw 191 pitches. Get this: That was the second game she had pitched that day.
•  Personal note: Sad to see the passing of Decatur's Jimmy Armes.

Random Front Page Observations

I'm a big fan of newseum.com which allows you to see the front page of today's newspapers from America and around the world.  This cover was from yesterday which immediately got my attention because it dealt with the courts, the War of Drugs, and some hot girl. Turns out, she's the former court administrator (a court dedicate to drug cases) who is alleged to have stolen funds.

I love the photo. The fact that she is smiling while leaving court absolutely sells it due to the irony. It wouldn't surprise me that what actually happened was that she knew the local photographer who asked her for a picture as she was leaving but she  laughed him off. It may have been the only time she smiled all day, but the moment in time captured in a photo can tell a completely different story.

The other great thing about the photo is the completely unrelated lady who was captured and not cropped out. Some would call it distracting but to me it gives a sense of realism to the moment. It convinces you that it's a real courthouse hallway.

(Sorry to go all Joe Duty on you.)