Guy In Bike Group Attacks Car

Video.

Story.  (Out of San Francisco).

And they think they've got him:

After charging him with criminal mischief, they might want to charge him with impersonating Rollie Fingers.

Cruz Visits The Freed Kentucky Clerk

American Gothic, 2015. pic.twitter.com/3q4fxWjW1N

— dwight silverman (@dsilverman) September 9, 2015

That's pretty clever.

And it was posted by a technology writer for the Houston Chronicle

Random Wednesday Morning Posts

• I'm exhausted.
• Part of that may be because realizing a cold front was roaring through with rain in the middle of the night so I fought to stay up and listen to it.
• One of my best qualities is that I document almost everything that occurs that I think is significant.
• "Fearing retaliation after the wave of high-profile ambushes of officers across the country, the [Dallas Police Association ] president, Ron Pinkston, wrote a letter to Chief David Brown asking him to stop releasing the identities of cops involved in shootings." That's all we need: Secret police.
• I missed the death of "Shootin' Blind" author Harlan Bridwell. He was 97. Recall that a few months back I posted several of his columns written in the 1960's in Bridgeport Index and they were a fantastic snapshot of the time.  I think I said it then: He was doing his own Random Thoughts when I was in diapers.
• The killing of the dentist in an Uptown apartment complex in Dallas keeps getting more confusing after each passing day. I've learned this over the years: Nothing may be as it seems.
• I never thought I would underestimate the anger of the Texas Longhorn fans. They are not pleased.
• Bud Kennedy on Twitter reminded us that a Euless Trinity player intentionally ran over a referee in 2008. (Safety goes after him at around :20 mark.)
• A Wise County deputy  loses his job and is arrested for letting the guys on the work crew use his personal phone and giving them access to cigarettes? Yeah, it's "against the law" but we live in a day and time where everyone gets crushed for the tiniest infractions. You ever know some of the inmates on the work crew? Most are pretty good guys. I almost hope it is more than someone wanting to call his momma and wanting to have a pack of smokes.
• In case you missed the Messenger article of a "panicked mother" being arrested by a DPS trooper for "reckless driving" once she discovered her kindergarten son had been put on the wrong bus. Here ya go. And the kid had never ridden a bus before.
• You may notice my posts have been few over the last few days. I cannot tell you, for now, why that is. However, I will.
• Another bad quality of me once I go into "Intense Thinking Mode". I lose track of time. The Junior In The House's electricity project that had me working deep into the night comes to mind. (But I kept at it and I finally figured it out.)

Random Tuesday Morning Thoughts

• My heart goes out to the family of Kate Fostel who has passed away. 
• I've got this odd quality: When I get immersed in something that I think is important -- something that requires thinking -- I'll do the dumbest things because it distracts me from everything else. I first noticed it well over a decade ago when I was in the drive-thru at Whataburger in Decatur for lunch and was thinking intently about an appellate brief I had worked on all morning. I paid for my order and drove away without the food, and I didn't notice it until I got to the courthouse. 
• And that quality of Intense Thinking And Distraction caused me to have both a glorious yet ruined long weekend.  When you don't care about/didn't realize three fantasy football drafts went on, you know who are into something deep. 
• Martin Milner has died. Milner played Officer Pete Malloy in the old TV show Adam-12 which was a big player in the Green household as I was growing up. We prided ourselves on knowing the Code Numbers when they were called out. 
• I've always called the Fellowship Church in Grapevine the "Church Of Bits."  BagofNothing's post starts off today enforcing my belief. 
• Stolen thought: "5-4 majority in Obergefell [the same sex marriage case] = invalid ruling by 'five lawyers.' 5-4 majority in Hobby Lobby [can't force private businesses to provide contraception is the object for religious reasons] = unquestioned law of the land."
• One of the oddest things about Mrs. LL is that she goes crazy over a "spin move" in football. Wait until she sees this one from last night. 
• I've mentioned many times that the demise of football when we have a death on the field in the NFL or major college program. I think we had a horrible "death on the field" in a Louisiana high school game this weekend although, not that it makes any difference, almost all the reports say he was declared "dead at the hospital."
• Ted Cruz is headed to Kentucky to support jailed clerk Kim Davis.  If he wants to support her for her will to break the law for religious convictions, I guess that's OK. But if he says the jailing is unjustified under the law, you will have a brilliant constitutional lawyer lying to your face. 
• I forgot to mention that Mack Brown was pretty good doing play by play on the Baylor/SMU game. If he ever said, "What the coach is thinking right now . . . " it was normally spot on. 
• You have to love Sarah Palin:  "I think we can send a message and say: ‘You want to be in America? A, you better be here legally, or you’re out of here. B, when you’re here, let’s speak American.’ I mean, that’s just, that’s – let’s speak English."
• I couldn't find the "Attorney's Puzzled" story below online this morning. Maybe it's on the website now. (And I feel the pain of anyone associated with newspapers who is thinking, "And everyone just thinks they should get our content for free.")

Random Monday Morning Thoughts

• It's a holiday. It's Labor Day. And Random Thoughts is up to prove once again that I'm the hardest working man in show business.
• If you haven't seen the two high school football players in San Antonio targeting a referee, you need to. The first guy might have been able to argue that it was an accident (which would be a hard sell), but the second player proves it was an orchestrated attack.  Video.
• Right after I typed that above bullet point, I thought of 9/11. The first plane hit was bizarre but you wanted to believe it was an accident but when the second plane hit -- then you knew. It's interesting how the mind often works based upon what we want to believe.
• "Drugs, divorce and a demanding campaign: The undoing of Dallas County DA Susan Hawk" That Morning News article released today is really good and insightful. She has been though a quite a bit of stress and now suffers from "breaks with reality and bouts of paranoia".  My sympathy for her is building. 
• Sports: (1) Mike Leach might be in trouble at Washington State. They were a 30 point favorite over Portland State and lost last weekend. He is now 12-26 at the school. Ironically, his career is headed in the same direction as that of Craig James. (2) Texas lost 38-3 to Notre Dame.  I used to poke fun at the Evil Empire because I was jealous of the Longhorns' success. But that situation on the 40 Acres isn't funny anymore. (3) Texas can't find a quarterback, and it has been that way basically since Colt McCoy left. You know what justifiably drove every Texas fan crazy? In mop up duty against SMU, Baylor put in a true freshman who was a highly recruited quarterback. On his very first play, he threw a bomb for a 42 yard touchdown (also to a true freshman).  Here's a GIF. Sure it was SMU, but that made every Texas fan yell, "How can we not find anyone?" (4) Funny hypo on The Ticket this morning: Would the worst team in the NFL win the Super Bowl if they were allowed to have on player on the field who was invisible. The answer is "absolutely!", right? (5) BagofNothing was dead on: College football games are ridiculously long. And I remember correctly, when I looked on my DVR to try and record Baylor/SMU, ESPN had allocated three hours. The chances of a college game ending within four hours, not three, is a dicey proposition. 
• I went to downtown Fort Worth for College Game Day. I ended up walking for a short distance with a lady in a Baylor shirt - I was wearing one too - and she told me she had just been "literally attacked" by a drunk TCU kid that and that his buddies had to pull him back.  "I'm a 50 year old woman!", she said. She didn't mean "literally" and "verbally" would be the better word, but I'll give her a break because for 50 years old: Pretty, pretty hot. 
• Shout out to my neighbor who was mowing his lawn at 7:30. I was already up so I really don't care. Everyone else? They might have a problem with it.
• My weekend was spent working on a hunch. I still don't know if I'm right, but I pray that I am. 
• Fox 4 News spent about a minute this morning showing The Gal Surfing In A Dress And High Heels. Scroll down and you'll see I posted that video last week. And to think the publisher of Messenger called me an "Internet pioneer" over 15 years ago. Neither one of us knew the journey would lead to stuff like that. 
• My weird Liberally Lean power: Out of the blue, I mentioned the seldom seen or heard Charlie Sheen on Friday. The next day, the Ranger's Derek Holland throws an absolute gem and then Sheen shows up in the locker room in front of photographers. 

Friday Night Football Taking You Into The Weekend

It ended last season once a kick was blocked and a kicker almost died.

But you must always hope for better days. (Just for fun, assume this girl is named Hope. That would make me very clever if  it were true.)

 And tonight at 6:00 it starts all over again. Some things never get old.

Edit (on Saturday Morning): Did Baylor win?  Let's check out the SMU student section for the result.

"Making America [Something]"

Woo Hoo! And tickets are free!

It's gettin' turnt up!  He's not doing a bit! We aren't being conned! He doesn't have ulterior motives! No!  He'll be the equivalent of a Violent Torpedo Of Truth at the AAC!

Wait, have I seen all of this before?

I'll be dang. April. 2011. In Dallas. At the AAC.

I think Trump shortened "defeat is not an option" to "he's a loser" or "I'm winning everywhere."

Fox 4 Had A Story On A Rhome PD Facebook Post

Link.

Yeah, the "War is declared" is a little over the top, but there's nothing crazy about the post.  The only thing that got my attention was that if you cooperate you will "most likely" be asked to return to your vehicle.  We would have a great horror movie trailer if the following line read:  "But there is a chance you will not be asked to return to your vehicle. Ever."

(Special note to Fox 4: Man, that web site is a disaster. It took a while to find the story even by searching for the very distinctive name of "Rhome" -- that got me nothing. When I finally found a link, I clicked on it and got nothing but a mess (and, yes, I know to click that goofy red box.) I promise you I couldn't get to the story despite the link to the story appearing in the URL box. The only way I got to it was to paste that link into a new tab.)

That's A Cover With Some Clever Political Comedy

Random Friday Morning Thughts

• If I fire off a draft of a random thought that gets me thinking (and researching), I know what I'll end up writing something which may be for an audience of one: Me. You have been warned. 
• Sports: (1) Despite the close final score of 23-17, TCU shouldn't be worried about last night's performance, (2) TCU should be worried that QB Trevone Boykin is going to get injured if they keep letting him get exposed, (3) Or Boykin needs to learn to get down. Given the choice of two more yards and getting killed or dropping like a rag doll, I'd tell my star QB to drop like a rag doll, (4) Two Baylor players were suspended for today's game so you don't have to tell me about it, (5) Michael Irvin's math at the the Cowboy's Opening Banquet as well as "closing" the preseason last night were golden. I'll try to find links for it. 
• Someone always writes that I voted for Obama twice, favor gun control, and am pro-choice. Uh, buddy, spend the weekend trying to find where I have ever said that. Unlike saying that marijuana should be legalized (which I have), you may think I've said those things or even implied it, but I've never unequivocally stated it. 
• Legal disclaimer: There is no cash prize for someone presenting evidence in the next 30 minutes which makes me wish I never wrote the above bullet point. 
• Get ready, I'm going a little deep . . . 
• A "revenge porn law" has gone into effect in Texas. (Very Over Simplified: It makes it a crime for Person Two to post a naked picture of Person One even if Person One sent Person Two the photo so long as Person One did so "with a reasonable expectation that it would remain private"). We aren't talking about Person One being able to sue Person Two for money. We are talking about the government making it a crime with possible jail time. Think about this: A guy posting that pic is engaging in "speech". (If he writes something, it is speech. The same is true if he paints a naked picture, or took and saved a photo of someone naked. Or has a photo of someone else and sends it to someone else. All of those examples are "speech" under the constitution. If you don't understand any of this, stop reading.) So does the Revenge Porn law violate his right to Free Speech? The photo in itself is not illegal -- just like Playboy is not illegal. So can the government make it a crime because the person photographed didn't "reasonably believe" it would go public?  Should that even matter? I'm not allowed to repeat your speech just because you thought I wouldn't? What if the law read that it was a crime to describe in words what the photo looked like? Remember, words and photos are both "speech". Let's go further: What if the law read that it was a crime for Person B to reveal to a written fantasy authored by Person A that she sent to Person B when Person A had a reasonable expectation that her writings would remain private?  Man, I love this stuff. 
• Donald Trump has signed a pledge to not run as a third party candidate and support the GOP nominee regardless of who it is. At first I thought he was caving and acting like a true politician. However,South Carolina requires that type of pledge in order to get on the primary ballot. (Side note: How is that constitutional?) Even if he is doing a bit, he would want that bit to last past the South Carolina primary.
• I've received the autopsy report of Alan Alverson in the case involving the Police Dog Pepper Shooting. No news in it that hasn't already been released. But I've learned that in addition to the Messenger who has tried to obtain information from Paige Williams, Montague DA, so has Barbara Green of the Bowie News.
• Open Records abuse rant coming. I'm going in deep again  . . . 
• I wrote the other day about the  552.108(a)(2) which is the exception law enforcement uses to dodge open records requests. They use it because it has been so wildly interpreted that it is now abused. That exception allows records to NOT be released if: "it is information that deals with the detection, investigation, or prosecution of crime only in relation to an investigation that did not result in conviction or deferred adjudication."  I promise you the following is true: Right now if your local police agency decided to follow you around, photograph you, interview friends and acquaintances, gather your DNA from a restaurant glass, pretend to be someone else on the Internet which caused you to engage in email exchanges, etc. and that "investigation" created 1,000 pages of information, you could never get those records from the police under the Open Records Act because (1) the agency could simply say "we heard there might be criminal activity going on so we were trying to detect it", and (2) you were not convicted or received deferred adjudication probation. 
• There are criminal penalties for violating the Open Meetings Act, but I don't think there are any criminal penalties for violation of Texas Public Information Act. 
• Wait? Don't we have dashcam videos and 911 calls typically released to the press within days after an incident and before a case goes to the grand jury? How is that possible?: The agency voluntary releases it and doesn't try to rely on some BS exception. 
• This day's Random Thoughts are CLOSED.

Get Me This . . .

. . . hot chick who surfs with high heels while wearing a dress!  Uh, I just meant surfboard.*
_________
*Really, honey. Promise. 

Breaking News On That County Clerk

I told you was coming.

Story.

Update. Shout out to all my Wise County deputy clerk friends who have to be thankful they weren't put in that situation):

Edit: What will the deputy clerks do? We now have our answer. I just wished they had collectively issued a press release that said, "We put up with a lot of crap and don't get paid enough as it is. Civil disobedience isn't exactly on our radar right now. But, while we have the public's attention, we do have a serious problem in this country with malfunctioning copying machines. For the sake of everything holy, is there a way to keep a MF7460 from jamming before we finish our coffee? Now that we would be willing to go to jail for."

Random Thursday Morning Thoughts

• There was a gas plant fire near Chico last night which caused an evacuation of all homes within a one mile radius. Within that radius were "10 to 15" homes. That's a lot of land with very few homes. Home many homes would be in a one mile radius of Frisco, north Fort Worth, of Plano?
• One year ago I would have thought you were out of your mind if you had told me: "Next year, while Donald Trump is leading in the polls for the Republican presidential nomination, he will verbally attack Kareem Abdul-Jabbar."
• I'll put a headset on and listen to a podcast almost every evening while I walk, do lawn work, or work on my curve ball. But I have been so obsessed on a particular case lately that I'll go 15 minutes before I realize I hadn't paid attention to a single word said in the podcast.  
• How about this ad on the very conservative 660 The Answer: Medi-Share. It's "not insurance" but a program "to help Christians" by "members [sharing] each other's medical expenses". They promote that members know "their dollars will never be used for procedures that go against their conscience." Specifics? Every month, you are obligated to pay a fee but you pay that fee by paying another members medical bill that has been selected by Medi-Share to be published on the secure website. I don't know if I think that's a great idea (the financial concept actually is), or if I'm offended by Christians who only care about the health care of Christians. 
• And, continuing on, I'm wondering about the type of bills which would not be selected as eligible to be paid by others on Medi-Share. AID bills? Certainly. Abortion? No way. Maybe lung cancer bills but that's a huge stretch. So what exactly are the other type of medical bills are not Christian-like? 
• I had an old client come by yesterday who told me that a police officer told him he couldn't possess a shotgun outside of his home because of his criminal history. He received deferred adjudication for a tiny dope case over 10 years ago which, since he successfully completed it, has no impact on his right to possess firearms. (For Texas criminal law folks only: I bet we had a cop who heard dispatch say "Possession Controlled Substance. 1 and 1" and didn't know the many possible meanings of that second number.) I'm on it. 
• The Ticket's Craig Miller did his own tour of the prisons in Huntsville a couple of days ago. I've always said a great documentary would be to film a handful of inmates from the moment they are released and then follow them for the next month to see how they adjust. Some may have only been there for a few months and have family and friends to welcome them back. The opposite end would be the inmate who has been locked up for years and is released to . . . emptiness.
• Baylor has hired a Philadelphia law firm to investigate the recent "scandal". Unrelated but true story: In the 1990s I was in the Wal-Mart in Decatur wearing a suit when I was the DA. I'm standing around while another prosecutor was talking to the security manager in connection with a theft case (that's another story). Any way, an elderly lady walked up to me and, believing I must be associated with WalMart,  asked me where she could find a certain item. I told, "I'm sorry ma'am, I don't work here."  She wheeled around and yelled, "Then why are you standing around looking like a Philadelphia lawyer!?" I would pay for a photo of the expression of confusion on my face at that moment. 
• Sports: (1) TCU better be careful tonight. First game. At Minnesota. Thursday night games are weird. (2) And Baylor better be careful tomorrow. At SMU. SMU has a new coach. Who knows what to expect. And Friday games are weirder. (3) I always remember stumbling upon the end of Appalachian State at Michigan in 2007 (my luckiest Sports Channel Surfing moment ever).  After that, I believe anything is possible. (4) A buddy showed me the Hudl app the other day which is used by most high school teams to review game film. Wow. 

Oh, My!

Language warning.

(Source) - Santa Clara County officials on Tuesday released a video of a worker being blasted from a manhole by a steam explosion a year ago at the Valley Medical Center earthquake retrofit project, where the county is accusing the contractor of safety lapses and costly delays. The worker was shaken but walked away unhurt.

A Message From Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (Who Cannot Possibly Be Pandering For Votes)

Texas Lt. Gov. @DanPatrick out with list of ways to support cops such as calling them sir/ma'am, buying their lunch pic.twitter.com/du9oRY0hC3

— Aman Batheja (@amanbatheja) September 2, 2015

Also, he supports Buc-ee's and generic (and very odd) Texas t-shirts.

Cobra vs. Python: Who Ya Got?

Python in the dark trunks. Cobra in the light trunks. (Bronko Lubich will be your referee.*)

The winner at least knew to get while the gettin's good.

(The fights over about halfway through. But the Snake Removal Gang is pretty brave.)
_______
*That's a joke for two people out there. Three, tops.

Random Wednesday Morning Thoughts

• It's Salma Hayek's birthday. I may watch her appearance in From Dusk Till Dawn on an endless loop to celebrate it. 
• I'm mad at Fox 4's web site again.  How do web site designers not understand this?: Look at the Drudge Report. No layout could be more simple or boring. And it kills in page views. It's not the layout, it's the content. (And if I find any news site that auto-plays a video of an ad or a news story, I'm out. I'll come back only because of a specific necessity. Then I'm gone again.) 
• Bridgeport ISD is lowering its tax rate.
• "Beaumont solo [practitioner] John S. Morgan faces a disciplinary lawsuit after he pleaded no contest in a case that accused him of lying that people in the district attorney's office smoked pot and 'skimmed' it from drug cases." Two thoughts: (1) I would hope he does suffer consequences if he falsely accused prosecutors of a crime, but (2) Shouldn't there be consequences for anyone who makes an allegation of a crime which is not true. No one should simply get to walk away in the "interest of justice" when there is more to it than that. 
• Sports: (1) In addition to the Baylor and TCU games, I'm also very interested in Texas at Notre Dame on Saturday. On my bucket list of stadiums I've been to (I need to post an updated list), I'll go to South Bend in the next few years. (2) Will it be Baylor or TCU who wins the Big 12? Hot sports prediction: It'll be a team from Oklahoma. (3) Baylor's Antwan Goodley and TCU's David Porter were cut by the Cowboys yesterday. Both were rookies. Both are now experiencing something they've never felt before: The realization that their tremendous athletic ability is no longer valued. 
• Windows 95 was revolutionary when it was released 20 years ago.  I had no idea what all the fuss was about. I was just getting comfortable with DOS. Sheesh. So much has changed. Just think about those days and then look at your phone. (Edit: For old extreme computer geeks only: Over in a building in Bridgeport right now, there is a printout of a computer program comprised of over 1,000 lines of code that I wrote in COBOL over thirty years ago. And it worked perfectly.) 
• I updated the Montague County DA / Open Records controversy below. It will bore most of you. However, I suspect the Messenger and various local government agencies and entities will read it with interest. If not, they should. 
• My favorite characters on The Ticket: (1)  Ed Carter (2) Ribby (3) the long departed Coach Tom Foolery.
• The other day I implied I had no sympathy for those who suffer from depression unless they also suffer from some type of self-medicating addiction. That was not my intention, and I expressed my views poorly. 
• The Decatur Eagles will play in "Stuart B. Lumpkins Stadium" in Waxahachie this weekend. Very random memory: His son is a lawyer who once changed jobs which allowed me to take his place in a Fort Worth law firm many years ago. One of the first few times I saw him was from my third baseman position as he was a batter in a "Lawyer's Softball League". Of all the softball errors I made that season (and there were many), I avoided one as he hit a screaming line drive down the third base line, and I somehow instantaneously stuck out my glove and snagged it. Admittedly, it was more luck than skill. And to think I still remember that. 
• Note to Kentucky County Clerk who refuses to issue marriage licenses for same sex couples: I appreciate your commitment to your convictions (although you are a nut if you believe it is a "heaven or hell decision"), but you are going to end up in jail if you keep it up. I hope you know that and your plan is to be a martyr. But I have my doubts.

Hey, More State Officials Supporting Blue Bell: It's The Twittering Supreme Court Judge

Tweet.

I'd love this on a law school test regarding campaign ethics laws: "Assuming the facts depicted in the above tweet are true, what are the potential legal issues?"  I think I could write for a long time.

Hey, the guy is no fool.  He's doing a staged bit. And he's smart enough not to do it during work or use a government phone to do nothing more than promote himself as an elected official.