Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

• The fire in south Fort Worth at the recycle plant yesterday evening was incredible yesterday. With no wind, the smoke just went straight up. It could be seen from Rhome and even further away.
• Is is just me, are there a lot of ridiculously number of jacked up trucks around these days?
• Conservative talk radio doesn't know how to handle Trump. If a host suggests he might be a little over the top and might be causing GOP damage, a ton of caller blowback will be received. And all of those callers have just one theme: "They are tired of political correctness." They also sound older and male and don't seem to care about anything else.
• Trump is supposed to be on Fox and Friends this morning after he went scorched earth on Fox News (which didn't hurt him in the polls one iota -- something I do not understand.) I haven't heard anything crazy from yet from the appearance. 
• I've ranted about the term "person of interest" because it's code for "suspect" and only used in an attempt to avoid disparaging someone in the event they are innocent. McKinney PD really ramped it up yesterday by releasing photos of 35 people as "persons of interest" in a credit card abuse case at a restaurant.
• Parasailing death at South Padre Island.
• The fact that we are catching a "break" in the heat because it will "only" be 100 today is why I hate living in Texas for this stretch. But its a small price to pay for a normally great 9 to 10 months a year.
• Columbia House has declared bankruptcy. Remember them? You could get 10 or so albums for a nickel or something like that if you promised to buy 5 or so in the next 5 years. Then every month they would send a mailer requiring you to specifically write them back declining their "album of the month". If you didn't, you would receive it, and be billed an inflated price plus shipping.
• "Frisco ISD Board approves construction for 10th high school. Memorial High to have price tag of $85.7 million."
• Arlington PD said they had asked the FBI to investigate the circumstances surrounding the police shooting of the unarmed teenager at a car dealership. The FBI says, "Naaaa, we'll pass."
• The reaction to this shooting is interesting. The kid broke into a dealership and was damaging property. He's was either a nut or high as a kite. But I don't understand how someone use those facts to justify his killing.  (The Ticket's Hardline said yesterday they "100% support the cops in this one".) If the kid charged the officer or acted like he had a weapon, fine. But what if the rookie cop just lost it and decided he was sick and tired of these types of crime and decided to blow the kid away? You wouldn't support that.  (I hope.) I'm just saying we know nothing about why the officer decided to pull the trigger four times so how can you we take a position one way or another? 
• "Former Gov. Rick Perry’s presidential campaign is no longer paying its staff because fundraising has dried up, campaign and super PAC officials and other Republicans familiar with the operation said late Monday."  I'm no Karl Rove, but I'm pretty sure that's a bad sign.

Real Michael Irvin Does Fake Michael Irvin School Closing

It's a Ticket bit but this was shown on Fox 4 and WFAA last night. (I'm looking for a longer cut because the next few seconds of the reaction may be the best part. Edit: The WFAA video is pretty good.)

Oh, a Decatur ISD flashback from earlier in the year:

Decatur ISD will be CLOSED tomorrow due to icy conditions. Stay safe & warm! pic.twitter.com/GTsX2PUBJ7

— Decatur High School (@Decatur_HS) March 5, 2015

Alphabet?

BREAKING: Google changing operating structure, it will be part of holding company Alphabet.

— The Associated Press (@AP) August 10, 2015

From Google/Alphabet:

Uh. So what's going to happen now when you did this?:

Mind. Blown. They just stole a word!!

Slip And Slide Kickball

Idiocracy?  I think not.  That is some grade A fun right there.

To all the millions of kids in my neighborhood back in the day on the mean streets of Bridgeport, how did we not think of this?

Tweeting Texas Supreme Court Justices

Hey, that's fine. I'd do the same thing -- always wanted to walk around that place. But in this day and time, I'd be scared of everything if I'm a politician. Insert future Bubba opponent: "This man visited Cadillac Ranch and had a smile on his face!"  As silly and ridiculous as that sounds, we are falling into Idiocracy as warp speed.

Then again, I might be guilty of Idiocracy myself because I might use bad comedy as a reason to vote against someone:

When you graciously offer to be @ShaniaTwain's official tour tweeter & she replies—"That don't impress me much." pic.twitter.com/D6QJJSKbdi

— Justice Don Willett (@JusticeWillett) August 10, 2015

Those Vehicles In The Middle Of Bike Races Have Always Made Me Nervous

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

• Frank Gifford died over the weekend. He was part of a great post (if I do say so myself) in March on this site entitled "The Death Of A Man This Morning Who Troubled Me Because Of A Photo". 
• I also randomly posted a picture of Kathy Lee Gifford last week. The blog curse continues. 
• Along my jogging path (which I'm walking these days due to the heat), I go across a bridge which will always have a bunch of turtles underneath it. On Sunday, at the crack of dawn, I walked across it and looked down as I always do but this time I saw two huge snakes half submerged. They appeared to be cuddling. I stopped and stared. One of them sensed me after about thirty seconds and slithered off into the creek. 
• A guy is missing after a boating accident on Eagle Mountain Lake. A game warden said the boat broke apart after hitting a wake.  That makes no sense. 
• I finally went back to movie watching because of the heat and finished Gone Girl. Verdict: I thought it was really, really good. Yeah, it can be a little campy but the concept was absolutely believable. And there were two or three lines in it that made me stop down. Huge thumbs up.
• I also watched Birdman.  I need to watch it again (and again) but right now I think it is absolutely a work of art. It may very well end up as one of my all time favorite films. 
• Want to go down a worm hole? Search Google images for "screen stills" and then insert your favorite movie. 
• The Daily Beast has begun a series of podcasts on unethical prosecutors. "Suppressing evidence, coddling informants, even outright lying are some of the instances of prosecutorial misconduct that sent away nearly half the 1,621 people convicted for crimes they didn’t commit since 1989, according to the University of Michigan Law School’s National Registry of Exonerations. These are only the cases we know about, and they are surely only a fraction of the wrongly convicted. Even so, the figure is stunning—especially when you consider that 115 of them were people condemned to die. The punishment for bad prosecutorial misconduct is virtually nil."
• Wheels off news reporting involving the Dallas Morning News: A pilot was killed yesterday after his plane crashed in California. It was supposed to carry a banner over Cowboys training camp to taunt them -- and was funded by Philadelphia fans. There was even a photo.  The plane crash was true. Everything else was not. Deadspin reviews this mess.
• Trump 2016 is still alive. 
• The Paradise High School "drive by" shooting seems to have a lot of unanswered questions. And "drive by" might be a little bit of a sensational term in this case. 
• A friend of mine told me she had heard the first part of Buzz Bissinger, the author of Friday Night Lights, on Fresh Air and thought I'd like his reflections on Odessa Permian. I found the podcast.  I don't think she got to the part where he unapologetically talks about his leather fetish and cross-dressing. That guy is intense. He doesn't suffer fools and seems to think everyone is a fool. 
• Bridgeport's Colin Jones continues to play in the NFL, and the Charlotte Observer profiled him. "A white player in the defensive backfield has become a rarity in the NFL . . . . "
• An Arlington officer who was about to end his field training shot and killed an unarmed black teenager last week. The FBI has been "asked" to help with the investigation. That's weird. Normally a police agency will call in the Texas Rangers. 

I've Thought About This All Weekend

I learned on Friday through public posts on Facebook that attorney Jim Shaw in Fort Worth is having a cancer issue. I have no idea what his situation is but his wife wrote, " We are going for a second opinion and treatment for metastasis melanoma."

As I was scanning through the posts to try an learn more, this photo came up.  I will readily and unabashedly tell you I cried. And cried again.  That photo. Oh, that photo.

Jim seems to be the opposite of me. We have the same job --  a job  which causes me incredible stress and anguish he seems to handle in stride with a smile and humor. Of course, what seems to be true isn't always true.

Jim can best be explained by the following. I watched him during jury selection in a misdemeanor marijuana case in Wise County. He pointed out that marijuana actually has a specific definition that the State must prove beyond a reasonable doubt. He pulled out a law book and read from it "Marijuana means the plant Cannabis sativa L., whether growing or not, the seeds of that plant, and every compound, manufacture, salt, derivative, mixture, or preparation of that plant or its seeds."

And then, without missing a beat, despite the fact a thought just came to him, he said, "I guess they forgot to add parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme."

The Original Office Taking You Into The Weekend

Dance floor, here I come!

Confetti is still open, right?

Trump 2016!

More that Game 7 of the last World Series

Sure. Try to embarrass him. That'll work out fine.

 Are you not entertained?!

I think I've figured it out: Who doesn't like watching a Honey Badger? 

Let's Check In On The Today Show

Ummmkay.

Story.

I guess you have to roll with the times.

And While The Republican Debate Was Going On . . .

Hillary was at a fundraiser having a selfie taken with Kim Kardashian and Kanye West.

(Sometimes this blog could just write itself.)

Random Friday Morning Thoughts

• The Republican debate was beyond entertaining. I've said it before, because of Trump, we are watching the most bizarre political drama in American history. And with Trump's constant threat to run as an Independent (and, boy, did he double down on that last night), he now single handedly controls the Republican nomination. 
• Mrs. LL turned to me during the debate and asked, "He can't possibly win, can he?" I paused. I thought. I paused. I thought. And then I said, "I no longer know."
• Is there anything more irrelevant the Fox's Frank Luntz and his "focus group"? Who are those people? I don't even think they reflect the views of Fox News viewers. (They bashed Donald Trump after the debate as if they had never seen Trump before.)
• I think Trump's poll numbers will rise but I also think the Republican base is beginning to realize there might be a problem.  And Fox News has no idea what to do now.  He's like an unplanned pregnancy caused by their past reckless rhetoric. 
• Rand Paul tried to use the Fourth Amendment to win the debate last night. Note to Paul: The hardliners can't find the Fourth Amendment. That will get you no where. (I heard Mark Davis this morning criticize Paul and actually used the phrase "Those heroes at the NSA who are keeping us safe." The NSA is the government organization reading your emails and listening to your phone calls without a warrant.)
• First item in the Update is Chaos-In-Rhome related: Two city councilmen resign as well as the City Administration. But the City Administrator is also Chief of Police and he'll keep that job. Wait. What? 
• One more debate thought: A subject that wasn't part of the debate was the economy. Oh, how far we've come. 
• Few details, but four people, including three teenagers, were killed in a wrong way driver type crash near Greenville last night. 
• Viking Adrian Peterson's two year probation for injury to a child was reduced from two years to nine months by the presiding judge. Montgomery County District Attorney Brett Ligon (a big "look at me" kind of DA) said the judge seemed "enamored with an elite athlete." Enjoy your next court appearance, buddy.  (Ligon has always been a government employee. Well, except for the time he worked as a lawyer for Houston Police Officer's Union where he was paid by union fees taken from the government checks of the officers.) 
• Had another out of town lawyer ask me at a docket yesterday, "How does all of this work?" With mixed emotions, a nicely told him how it all works.
• I keep hearing a ton of commercials for pre-paid legal defense (both civil and criminal) for CHL holders.  It seems to run about $10 a month.  I'd like to know the number of CHL holders who have been sued or criminally prosecuted in Texas for using a gun. Not a single case comes to mind. 

The Republican Debate Wrap Up

If Trump doesn't soar in the polls I'll be stunned.

This is getting really, really weird.

Williamson County Will Always Make Prosecution News

It seemed like a small issue that snowballed. A judge issued a gag order in a case (always seems silly), she then sent an email to the Austin American Statesman to respond to an allegation she with held evidence in the case (damage control might be worth violating the gag order), the judge gets mad and orders her to appear at a hearing (predictable), and then she doesn't show up (uh, oh.)

She actually got 10 days in jail but is out on bond.

The judge is retired but is presiding over the case as a "visiting judge".  He's been around a long time in the Houston area and gained some unwanted press when he presided over the "sleeping defense lawyer" case where the defendant received the death penalty.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick On Mark Davis Show: Was That True?

Yesterday he said the following about Planned Parenthood. He recalled a hearing when he was in the Texas Senate while he was trying to pass a bill requiring a person seeking the termination of a pregnancy to watch her sonogram.

He said:

I remember this testimony from a young lady back in 2009 -- and it took me six years to pass the sonogram bill but you never give up -- and I said her testimony that morning was so compelling that we are going to keep pursuing this until we have a victory. And she was a young girl who was not married and was there testifying with her boyfriend. They were going to get married. She was pregnant. She testified how she went to Planned Parenthood. And – she was a young teenager - She was even . . . Planned Parenthood sounded like a place to go talk about parenthood. She wanted to have the baby. Her and her boyfriend had decided to have the baby. And she went there and Planned Parenthood told her, according to her testimony, that there was no heartbeat and the baby was dead and they pushed a piece of paper in front of her and told her to sign it and get an abortion. She broke down in tears that day at the center. Ran out because she was in shock. And she found out from a friend that there was a crisis pregnancy center – a Christian based place – in the area and she went to them to seek, in essence,  a second opinion. They told her that the baby’s alive. There is a heartbeat. She was lied to. And she sat there that day [at the hearing] pregnant ready to have the baby and told her story. 

Here's a research project: Is that true? Her story certainly can't be confirmed and even Patrick leaves himself an out by saying "according to her testimony". But my question is: Did a teenager testify before a committee in Austin where Patrick was a member and actually say that? I have serious doubts but I could be wrong.  I don't know where to start.

(He later compared Planned Parenthood to ISIS.)

Edit: If he is correct that 2009 is the year, it would have been Senate Bill 182 that was was introduced and would have been the basis for the hearing with the teenager. So far, I found nothing to back him up but I'll continue to look.

Edit: Research update. There was a hearing on March 19, 2009 on the bill in the State Affairs Committee that Patrick took part in.  I've discovered that it was closed to the public. (WHAT??!!).  But here is a list of witnesses in favor of the bill so the search narrows:

Calix, Casey   (Self),  Cedar Park, TX
DeVillez, Lori   (Self),  Round Rock, TX
Friedewald, Vincent   M.D.  (Self),  Spicewood, TX
Gerstenschlager, MerryLynn   (Texas Eagle Forum and Self),  Weatherford, TX
Graham, Elizabeth   (Texas Right to Life),  Houston, TX
Holze, Margaret  (also providing written testimony)  (Life Advocates),  Houston, TX
Nickols, Beverly   M.D.  (Self),  New Brawnfels, TX
Nunnelly, Patrick   (Self),  Austin, TX
Roberts, Beverly  (also providing written testimony)  (Concerned Women for America, Coalition for Life)
Ross, Elizabeth   (Self),  Austin, TX
Saenz, Jonathan  (also providing written testimony)  (Free Market Foundation),  Austin, TX
Scheffler, James   (Self),  Salado, TX
Weber, Randy   (Self),  Pearland, TX
Williams, Terry   (Self),  San Marcos, TX

Edit: A VERY resourceful reader found video of what I thought was closed hearing.  It's at 3:48.  The boyfriend Casey Calix is the one who gave the story with Danielle Froehlich by his side who did not say a word.  Dan Patrick embellished it a bit, but it was essentially what he said.

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

• I really haven't paid much attention to the Planned Parenthood controversy, but I did hear Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick say that criminal charges should be brought against them.  He apparently doesn't understand the most basic criminal law premise that a person cannot be convicted based upon an out of court statement that has no corroborating evidence. 
• I like describing the current heat wave as "oppressive".  And I can't imagine the beating it is upon those who have to work outside. Let me quote Ali G: "Respect".
• I watched the first 20 minutes of Birdman and was hypnotized.  It is soooo Black Swan like.
• I have the hardest time sitting down and watching anything more than 30 minutes long. 
• I think it is weird that Waller County District Attorney Elton Mathis has created a "panel" of lawyers to review the Sandra Bland case. Hey, you were elected to do a job and make decisions. Do it.  (He is paid $125,000 by the state in addition to whatever the county decided to kick in.) 
• Upon reflection, I think I was too hard on Tarrant County DA Sharen Wilson's for the policy of having prosecutors show up by 7:45 a.m. and not leave before 5:30 p.m. Her reasoning: "Well if you're a crime victim, if you're the police, if you're a court, or if you're a witness, sometimes you need to be able to call the government and get a response [after 5:00 p.m.]" Not to mention that the first part of having a job is to be there. 
• I know I've been Mark Davis a lot lately, but I think he's lost his mind. Yesterday, he said he thought it was legal and appropriate for a city to ban the creation of a mosque if that was the will of the citizens of the city. (He's smarter than that.)  He made an exception if it could be assured that no one would ever be groomed for terrorism in that mosque. I almost hope he's doing a bit instead of actually descending into insanity. 
• There was lots of praise for George W. Bush reporting for jury duty yesterday. Uh, what do you think what the press would have been if he had ignored the summons? But he seems like the kind of guy who jumps at the chance to get out of the house and hang out with people. 
• Hot sports prediction: The Dallas Cowboys over/under for total wins this year is 9.5.  Take the under.
• 700 people have signed up for Obamacare in the Decatur zip code of 76426. (If this site is cprrect.)
• Overheard at the Wise County Courthouse yesterday from a lawyer: "If you get caught peeing on a tree two times you have to register as a sex offender for life in Texas."  I would love to have a picture of my facial expression at that moment.
• Since I had an odd Bible story post yesterday, it reminded me of another: Moses persuaded God to change his mind. 
• The first item in the Update proves that Rhome government has gone back to Full Wheels Off Status. 
• Lake Bridgeport is full and I'm already getting reports that game wardens are jacking with people. I will never understand how the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals upheld a statute allowing game wardens to stop any boat for a "safety inspection." No probable cause. No reasonable suspicion. No logic. (The case originated when a boat left Sneaky Pete's in Lewisville.)

Oh, My! Can You Imagine The Number Of Illegal Votes That Will Be Cast!!

I'll put the over/under at five.

Story.

Here's a question for you legal gurus: The opinion was by the typical three judge panel but one of the judges was a district judge who was "sitting by assignment". Why? They don't have enough?