That Headline Is Way Too Nice

Edelman is being Internet destroyed. As he should be. And if anyone has a Ph.d and a law degree and is a professor: Be afraid. Very afraid.

Incredible.

(The 33 year old Edelman was in Time magazine's cross-hairs earlier this year.)

Edit: This is confusing: Boston.com announced that it could not verify the emails had had taken the story down. But it's still up at the above link.

Judge Update

There is some crazy stuff in this article.

• The prosecutor cited the lack of evidence as the reason for the dismissal but didn't ask for the video of the field sobriety tests when it wasn't included with the report? And he just dismissed the case without checking? 
• "That's not my responsibility". Oh, my. 
• Her attorney didn't know whether or not her license was suspended after the arrest? I've had a ton of DWI clients over the years, and I can promise you I know the license status of every single one of them. He represents a Texas appellate judge in a high profile case and he doesn't? 
• Side note: They offer pre-trial diversion often for DWI? Really? I like that. 

Oh, My!

PIC - 18 wheeler fire this morning on SB I35 near Valley View north of DFW. pic.twitter.com/FDCMywGZwD
— DFW Scanner (@DFWscanner) December 10, 2014

Index - 1974

There is some great Wise County history gold in that Rook Ramsey story.

And I love that tiny notice in the bottom right hand corner.

(Not) Motorcycle Death

Hey, You Guys On The Central Michigan Team, You Going To The Bahamas For A Bowl Game?

That's a funny bit.

#YOLO

12/09/2014 03:16:20 Dana, 27 yrs old ♐ DRIVING WHILE INTOXICATED http://t.co/rWrSAYThKV pic.twitter.com/sZeFd0rTZq
— Arrests by @DentonPD (@DentonPolice) December 9, 2014

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

• I'm hearing there was a talk-of-the-town basis for the firing of an administrative staff member of the Chico ISD yesterday. 
• Big story on Fox 4 last night about a federal drug bust in connection with an "after hours" club.  I'm not real sure all of those kids deserve federal charges but what really got my attention is that it was all associated with  (1) an 18 and over club, (2) that opened at -- good grief --  3:00 a.m., (3) at what is a nude dancing establishment during other hours. 
• And a weird connection: One of the kids indicted was the boyfriend of the girl who went missing from the Legacy Shops in Plano.
• Prosecutors in the case of ex-JP accused of murdering Kaufman prosecutors made a big deal yesterday about the "arsenal" of weapons that he possessed. Does that have any impact? People in the Northeast are freaked out about guns, but I suspect some of my Wise County friends have their own "arsenal", and it doesn't bother me one iota.  (Well, maybe some of them with an arsenal bother me.)
• They also presented evidence that he had googled the names of the special prosecutors in the pending case. Uh, who wouldn't? 
• Yes, it creeps me out that the Sixteen Year Old In The House can drive but, man, does it have some advantages. 
• "Don't you fall for that pouty face!" - Mrs. LL to me often once the Kids In The House try to persuade me.
• I continue my rant about Medical Examiners. A Fort Worth cop was suspended yesterday for thirty days for a 2012 vehicle collision. According to the Star-Telegram, the ME "ruled [the other person's] death an accident caused by complications of multiple traumatic injuries." Wait a second. "Accident"?  Hey, the only thing a doctor can determine is that a body quit functioning because of a body part became injured or stopped functioning. How a vehicle collision occurs is out of his area of expertise. How does he know it was an "accident" (not a crime) or was the result of negligent or reckless conduct (which are crimes)?  (By the way, the cop, rightly or wrongly, was indicted on a manslaughter charge which means the prosecutors believe the officer engaged in reckless conduct. That's a "homicide", not an "accident", by definition.) 
• The Ticket had a discussion today about the iconic song, "Do They Know It's Christmas?" Very awkward line sung by Bono in there: "Well, tonight thank God it's them instead of you." 
• Man, I was right about all the Representatives trying to think of a zinger for a five second sound bite in yesterday's Jonathan Gruber hearing. The winner goes to the very unoriginal and embarrassing Darrell Issa of California: "Are you stupid?" 
• The Senate's report on torture should embarrass all of us. 
• Uh, oh. The Update misidentified one of the motorcycle groups involved in the Toy Run fight! It was the "Lost Riders" instead of the "Road Dogs".  If the Road Dogs show up for a confrontation in front of the Messenger like the ending scene in Wild Hogs, I'll be all over it. 

So Goofy. Such A Time Waste. At Taxpayer Expense.

A guy takes a flag from a display on a sidewalk and throws it into the street where it is destroyed. Is he guilty of theft? Probably. Is he guilty of Criminal Mischief (damaging the property of another)? Definitely. Both are simple Texas laws that are used every day.

But let's not charge him with that. No, let's have some prosecutor(s) -- who works for you -- make the idiotic decision to charge him under a silly and never used flag desecration statute which is clearly unconstitutional and then lets clog up the courts with the fight. (The statute, to be clear, would make it illegal for someone to buy a flag and then go home and cut it up. You can do that.  This issue was decided by the Supreme Court in 1989. Not to be deterred, the Texas legislature tried to "fix" the statute by simply rewriting it in the exact same way.)

I can't begin to explain the amount of needless public expense here. Cops, administrative staff for cops, prosecutors, administrative staff for prosecutors, a trial judge, a court administrator, an initial appeal in front of three judges who also have clerks and administrative staff, and then to the next level of nine judges all who have clerks and administrative staff.

Story.

The NFL: Family Entertainment

Book In Gold

12/07/2014 22:30:00 Casey, 20 yrs old ♑ Bond: $429 GARLAND PD WARRANT / SPEEDING http://t.co/rWrSAYThKV pic.twitter.com/XGMirMOVeV
— Arrests by @DentonPD (@DentonPolice) December 8, 2014

I thought about making a Freddy Fender joke but realized hardly anyone would get it (or think it was funny.)

Get Me This Dog!

Or get that man a new oven.

By the way, I've got a ton of questions.

(S Bomb Warning).

Fantastic View Of Dallas This Morning

Good morning DFW! This Dallas view shows the foggy conditions you are waking up to. Details: http://t.co/dQ2c6Nh4XK pic.twitter.com/IxujQugyFg
— KRLD (@KRLD) December 9, 2014

Edit: Wow

Then there's this shot of fog-bound Dallas taken this a.m. from just a BIT higher in the sky http://t.co/ziBeY6KqmG pic.twitter.com/e8i0LuDEIw
— Robert Wilonsky (@RobertWilonsky) December 9, 2014

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

• A Senate committee is going to release a report on torture by our military today. There are already people in the right wing media defending our tactics before we learn what was done. 
• Mark Davis made the very odd statement this morning that some of the tactics we will learn about would not be appropriate if they were done "on our own people." Think about that. Someone should not be waterboarded (or worse) simply because they had the fortuitous event of being born on American soil? Try to explain that to an alien from outer space. "Well, when his mother gave birth, she was on this particular piece of land on our globe. That's why we don't waterboard that person. Others we don't care about." 
• And then explain to the alien why it is OK for our government to execute "our own people" by lethal injection even though they were born on that same land. 
• Today the Republicans get to fight for sound bites as Jonathan Gruber is forced to appear before a House committee. That's nothing more than a media event.  Every representative has been working on just one five second zinger that will make the national news. 
• Driving in the fog: I like finding a car's tail lights in the distance which I can just follow from a safe distance.  I fear the fog pile up. 
• There's an editorial in the Star-Telegram today by a liberal calling for the abolition of the grand jury system so prosecutors will either have to either file cases in court or take responsibility and explain why they didn't. That's crazy because grand juries are supposed to protect us for nutty prosecutors. (Obscure legal note: The U.S. Constitution's right to a grand jury has never been ruled to be a requirement of a state prosecution. But Texas has a grand jury requirement in its own constitution.)
• I promise I'll do a post on how the grand jury process actually works. I've been asked about that a lot recently.
• I'm not sure I knew Bridgeport had a Taco Bell. When I was a kid, the news that McDonald's was opening in Decatur was about as big of news as there could possibly be. 
• I've been thinking it and they talked about it on the Ticket yesterday: The Elf on the Shelf causes more pressure on the parents to not forget before going to bed that the Elf is in the same place in the house that it was that morning than it is for the kids' enjoyment. 
• Someone mentioned it in the comments yesterday and it's in the Update today: There was a fight between two motorcycle clubs in last weekend's Wise County Toy Run. Good grief. If you google the two groups, the "Road Dogs" and the "Cossacks", you'll find some pretty interesting stuff to read.
• Sports: Junior Miller researched the non-conference schedules in 1974 of Baylor, aTm, TCU, and SMU. Oh, my. How insanely tough they were. (You'll have to click around a bit, but they can be found here.)
• It's now the punishment phase in the capital murder trial of the ex-JP who has been convicted of murder.  The prosecutor's are now allowed to bring up his other alleged murders. One witness yesterday said the ex-JP was an "immediate suspect" once an assistant DA was gunned down as he got out of his car.  Normally, saying someone is an "immediate suspect" is negative for the prosecution because it leads to the belief that the cops jumped to conclusions and were predisposed. But once someone has been convicted of murder and you're just presenting punishment evidence of another murder, the State can get away with that. 
• That Hulen Mall murder plot is a script for a crazed teenager movie. 

Guy Agreed To Get Eaten Alive In A Special Suit By An Anaconda

The show ran last night on the Discovery Channel. You won't believe what happened next!!! Unless you can believe that was the worst snake eating bit in the history of snake eating bits.

Hot Texas Appellate Judge's DWI Case Dismissed

So far, most of the details I have are behind a paywall protected Texas Lawyer site so I can't repeat the whole article. But it did say the case was dismissed "In the interest of justice" and the DWI said it was because the judge didn't look bad on video.   But I love this quote from the DA: "Of course nobody believes me, but that's OK. They didn't believe Christ when he was crucified," Rene Guerra said.

A portion of the video is here. (I haven't watched it yet.)

Hey, You Gun Folks

My ears perked up the other day when I heard an ad for silencers on The Ticket's online stream from this Texas store. I'm not sure I had ever seen a print ad for a silencer and certainly haven't ever heard one on the radio. I didn't even know they were legal.

"Furry Convention" Interrupted By Chlorine Gas Leak

And gives rise to a very funny photo of dejected convention goers.

Story.