That's right, folks. Buckle up, stop texting. Sounds simple, eh? It's a safety program a local sports director started in response to a tragedy earlier this month. His name's Pete Christy, and he's a genuinely nice guy. As skipper of the team that covers more than 70 local high schools' football teams every week (that's a big deal in Texas, but even for West Texas Pete Christy and NewsChannel 11's "End Zone" goes all out to cover football), he knows the small towns hereabouts better than anybody else on Lubbock TV -- even some of the people who've lived in those towns, in years gone by.

Preferably you'll do what the high school principal suggests: buckle your seat belt and turn off your cell phone if you're driving. If you won't do it for yourself, do it in memory of Alex Brown. The truck below belonged to her.

I don't know her parents, but I grew up nine miles from her school -- we were rivals -- and eleven miles from her home, and I've driven down the road on which she died more times than I can count.

Texas Department of Public Safety troopers haven't ruled out speed or weather -- we had fog that morning -- in the crash; tonight, though, the high school mascot's mother confirmed Alex Brown, 17, was texting while driving.

Don't text and drive. Don't drive and text. The life you save

The man who claimed to be the 11 Sep 01 strike "mastermind" will go to trial in New York, according to today's NYT. Steps toward keeping the promise to close Gitmo within a year appear to be continuing, despite delays caused by the uproar over what to do with detainees.

A photograph taken by the International Committee of the Red Cross of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed this year in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The detainee's family released the photo to a Web site, www.muslm.net.

The decision marks a milestone in the administration’s efforts to close the Guantánamo prison, something that President Obama announced shortly after taking office that he would do within a year, but that has proved difficult to achieve because of uncertainty about what to do with the detainees housed there.

Mr. Obama, asked about the decision in a news conference on his weeklong trip to Asia, declined to comment directly, but said that Mr. Mohammed would face justice.

“I’m absolutely convinced that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed will be subject to the most exacting demands of justice,” Mr. Obama said. “The American people insist on it, and my administration insists on it.”

Other detainees will face military trials. This is a small step toward

There's no excusing what happened at Fort Hood. None. The United States Army has filed charges against the survivor who opened fire in the Soldier Readiness Center, killing 12 fellow soldiers and a civilian, and wounding 30 more persons.

Major Hasan, 39, an Army psychiatrist, is accused of opening fire with two handguns in a Soldier Medical Readiness Center, where troops receive medical attention before being deployed or after returning from overseas.

Of the 13 people who were killed last Thursday, 4 were officers, 8 were enlisted soldiers and one was a civilian. Major Hasan was eventually subdued by civilian police.

The 13 charges against Major Hasan are “initial charges,” said the Army spokesman, Chris Grey, “and additional charges may be preferred in the future, subject to the ongoing criminal investigation.”
“It is important to remember that the preferral of charges is the first step in the court-martial process,” Mr. Grey said, “and that a charge is merely an accusation. The accused is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.”

Col. John P. Galligan, a retired Army officer who is representing Major Hasan, has questioned whether the suspect will be able to get a fair trial at Fort Hood.

For now, Mr. Grey added, “Major Hasan is currently under pretrial restriction while receiving medical care.”

Major Hasan is reported to be in stable condition in an Army Hospital in San Antonio, where he is recovering from four gunshot wounds.

Now comes the Times with a follow-on to the initial stories suggesting that the hero civilian first credited with stopping this madman was merely another shooting victim. I don't know whether that is true or not; ballistics and evidence will tell the story. Either way, I think her partner, whose shooting was credited on the day of the incident with finally bringing down Hasan, deserves positive feedback and respect.

The State of Texas awaits the jury's decision on his sentence, but even the NYT cared enough about the outcome of the Eldorado, Texas, trial to report the verdict. The jury found him guilty in fewer than four hours.

Seen in an AP photo, below, as he was escorted away from the courthouse, Jessop could be sent to a Texas prison for up to 20 years. San Angelo Standard-Times' coverage indicates evidence confirming his paternity of a 4-year-old girl caused fireworks in the courtroom.

And if you want to know why it is my hope that Mr. Jessop meets, up close and in person, the tender mercies of the TDCJ inmates regarding child rapists, read this excerpt regarding what happened to the girl he raped.

The ranch first came to national attention a year and a half ago when the Texas authorities descended on it, seeking a girl who had complained in a telephone call to a San Angelo women’s shelter that she was being sexually abused. The girl was never found, and the Texas Rangers acknowledge that the tip was a hoax.

But in the course of executing search warrants, social workers and the Rangers uncovered evidence that at least a dozen girls had been coerced by church elders to serve as wives to older men. Seven had borne children.

The prosecutor, Assistant Attorney General Eric Nichols, put several Rangers on the stand along with a former member of the church to introduce several church documents seized from a vault on the ranch.

Since the woman said to be the victim, who is now 21, did not testify, Mr. Nichols used the documents, along with her photo album, to prove she lived with Mr. Jessop as one of his wives and was impregnated by him when she was 16.

The state’s case also rested heavily on genetic evidence that showed there was a 99.9 percent chance Mr. Jessop was the father of the child, who is now 4.

In his closing argument, Mr. Nichols attacked the theory that the teenager had consented to be Mr. Jessop’s wife. “Any act of sexual assault is a horrendous crime,” he said, “but an act of sexual assault on a child is of such an extreme nature we don’t even consider whether the victim was able, much less did, consent.”

One of the most damning pieces of evidence presented in court was a written record of Mr. Jeffs’s instructions in August 2005 not to take the girl to a hospital even though she had been struggling in labor for three days at a clinic on the ranch.

“I knew the girl, being 16 years old, if she went to the hospital, they could put Raymond Jessop in jeopardy of prosecution as the government is looking for any reason to come against us there,” Mr. Jeffs was quoted as saying.

Some of the most revealing testimony came from another witness for the prosecution, Rebecca Musser, a former member of the church who had been married to Rulon T. Jeffs, the sect’s founder and the father of Warren Jeffs. She left the church in 2002 after the elder Mr. Jeffs died.

Ms. Musser testified that Mr. Jeffs had controlled every aspect of the women’s lives, including how they dressed and what they ate. He also controlled whom they married and when.

“Age was not a factor,” she said. “It was when the prophet deemed she was worthy.”

If there's a hell, maybe God will see fit to send Warren Jeffs to burn in it forever.
He's the instigator, the 'spiritual leader', the head of this 'church' -- he's the FLDS version of Rush Limbaugh, with his portrait everywhere, including where women in childbirth must see it.

There are 11 more indictments in Schleicher County. May FSM, Ceiling Cat and all the gods protect and bless District Judge Barbara Walther, the prosecutors, the investigators, and the victims whose lives these "religious leaders" destroyed.

There's a post at Whenceforth Progress on a related matter -- the other news out of Texas yesterday that made national headlines. We know that 13 people were slain and 30 wounded when a US Army Major opened fire inside the Soldier Readiness Center at Fort Hood. What we don't know yet is why.

But if, as rumor has it, religion played a part --

Courage comes in many shapes and sizes.

Rebecca Musser, an attractive, poised blond in her early 30s who left the sect, testified Jeffs pressured her to marry again soon after the death of her spiritual husband, who was a church leader and Jeffs’ father.

“Within one month of his father’s death, he started marrying his father’s young wives,” Musser said during a hearing out of earshot of the jury.

Then in her mid-20s, she butted heads with Jeffs because she didn’t want to remarry, she testified in the trial of Raymond Merril Jessop, 38, a member of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

I am no expert on healthcare, and nor do I play one on TV. But unlike the summer's theatrical extravaganzas staged in "town hall" terms, there's good information headed to Congress, and I know good information when I see it. So does Bill Moyers.

She's written a previous book not about medicine but about money.

Paul Krugman praises Maggie Mahar's work in The New York Times:

Take a look at this photo. It's not begging for a caption. That smirk on a face non-Texans might not recognize belongs to David Medina. The one y'all might have seen before, over to the right, is Governor Rick "Goodhair" Perry. Back in 2004, when Perry refused despite receiving expert reports and evidence that Cameron Todd Willingham's conviction for arson didn't withstand a second look, never mind real legal scrutiny, Medina was General Counsel for the Governor's Office. It's entirely possible Medina and Perry sent an innocent man to death in Huntsville. A few years later Medina's house burned, and both he and his wife were indicted for arson; at trial they benefitted from the same kind of experts whose work Perry didn't consider when Willingham's life was at stake.

Great coverage of this continues at Northstar's place, at Dog Canyon, and at Burnt Orange Report.

I don't know

and Texas, which has the most uninsured residents in the country, has kids eight times more likely to go without than Massachusetts.

Those who lack health insurance now are far more likely to live in states that usually vote Republican — the states whose senators and representatives are least likely to support a law to extend coverage.

That would seem to indicate that Republican constituents are the ones who would most benefit from passage of universal health insurance coverage. But an analysis of Congressional districts within those states indicates that those without health insurance are much more likely to live in strongly Democratic Congressional districts. Many of those contain large minority populations with relatively low incomes.

In the Congressional debate now going on, Democrats have generally supported plans aimed at assuring that all Americans have some sort of insurance, while nearly all Republicans have opposed the Democratic bills, raising concerns ranging from cost to worries that providing better health coverage for those who now lack it would diminish coverage for those who have it.

The accompanying graphic divides the states into red states — states that both voted for Senator John McCain in the last presidential election and are represented by two Republican senators — and blue states, which have two Democratic senators and voted for President Obama. The purple states are the ones that split their ballots in the presidential and Senate elections.

Lest you think this is our idea, take a look at what the Texas Observer has to say about health care (and

You can see all five parts of the video at DKTV.

It's no secret I've not always agreed with Olbermann, but on this, I think he's right. Furthermore, I think he's telling the necessary, if inconvenient, truths that no one else will speak publicly.

Part one introduces the Special Comment on a personal note:

If you haven't seen it yet, go watch all five parts.
If you have,   Read more…

From the Chicago Tribune (with pictures of the chilldren who died in the fire, the house and stills from the investigation video, as well as of Willingham): As far back as 2004, Rick Perry -- who's now become the target of ABC News and maybe CNN's Anderson Cooper too -- refused to consider the possibility, despite scientific evidence, that he'd ordered an execution for an innocent man to go forward. Two days before a state panel on forensic science was to hear further information -- and start work on a report the final version of which would've come out just about in time to torpedo Goodhair's primary campaign against KBH -- the Governor replaced three members of that panel, including the chair, with political cronies. Guess what?

Cokie Roberts.

But AFAIC, she's right on this one -- or at least a hell of a lot closer to right about what you should do with a guy who drugs, rapes and sodomizes a 13-year-old kid than nearly any other Villager (or media / entertainment / political 'star') voice I've heard on this subject.

Remember, Polanski not only gave the kid liquor and Quaalude, he admitted it.

Luc Besson, director of Léon, refused to sign a Hollywood petition calling for Polanski's immediate release.

"There is one justice, and that should be the same for everyone," Besson said on French radio. "I have a daughter, 13 years old. If she was violated, nothing would be the same, even 30 years later."
Popular support in France for Polanski, who has lived in Paris as a fugitive ever since the episode, has quickly waned - if it was ever there at all. More than 70 per cent of the 30,000 participants in an online poll by Le Figaro believed that Polanski should be extradited to face justice.
Four hundred readers of the French magazine Le Point have written to condemn Polanski and the French celebrities who back him, dismissing them as the "crypto-intelligentsia of our country" who deliver "eloquent phrases that defy common sense".

Remember, Polanski not only pleaded guilty, he underwent a psych eval.
Remember, Polanski spent 42 days in a California lockup -- and 31 years running.

The Swiss say they wouldn't have let him go so long if they'd known. That's a little specious -- he owned a chalet there, and presumably had to show a passport upon visiting. But they did nail him, finally -- and publicly. If it's their idea of tit-for-tat over UBS ... I'm okay with that. Hell, I'd give 'em Phil Gramm in zip-tie handcuffs, if only I could.

Burnt Orange Report is asking the question: has Texas' governor, Rick Perry, desperate to keep his job, undertaken Nixonian tactics?

Short answer: Sure looks that way. The Cameron Todd Willingham execution in 2004 has attracted attention -- but there're more examples, and the Willingham case appears now to be the one that's picked up public notice.

_{Star-Telegram/Ron T. Ennis}

Tony Romo dodges Tyler Brayton in the second quarter as the Carolina Panthers play the Dallas Cowboys at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Tx., Monday, Sept. 28, 2009. Star-Telegram/Ron T. Ennis.

It's Tuesday, and I'm with Tony Romo. This week's better than last week.

It ended like this:

_{STAR-TELEGRAM/RODGER MALLISON}

Pursued by Panthers wide receiver, Steve Smith, Cowboys cornerback Terence Newman (23) runs an interception in for a touchdown in the second half as the Dallas Cowboys host the Carolina Panthers in Cowboys Stadium, in Arlington, Texas, on Monday September 28, 2009. (Fort Worth Star-Telegram/Rodger Mallison)

and the final score was 21-7, which ... looks better than it might've been, 'cause sacks and penalties cost the Cowboys at least one touchdown in the first half, maybe two. But then came the 2nd half -- and for a wonder, Jason Garrett

I mentioned earlier that many schools had decided not to show, live, the President's address to school children on the first day of his daughters' new school year. Now we're finding out that at least a few of those schools' claims they had no room in the curriculum or the class day for the address were (gasp) truthiness in service of obfuscation. Hat tip to the Lone Star bloggers at WhosPlayin.com who earlier broke the news that Lewisville ISD (outside Dallas) had forbidden teachers to show the speech even if parents could opt out.

Oh, and another Metroplex school that refused to show the speech bused kids to an appearance at Cowboys Stadium -- to see w, naturally. Nothing about this

Somehow or another, I've been added to the mailing list of The American Family Association. Can't seem to get off the damned thing, either. So ... I got this "invitation" today for a "webinar". It's all Free!! FREE!!! FREE!!! Supposed to be good training, too.
Here are some of the 24 workshops that you can view:

* How conservatives can win in 2010
* How to deal with vote fraud, the Census, and ACORN
* How to lobby federal legislation & policy
* How to bring youth into the conservative movement
* How to defend traditional marriage and DOMA
* How to understand Islam
* How the media can help us take back America
* How to stop feminist and gay attacks on the military
* How to counter the homosexual movement
* How to stop the entry of illegal aliens and drugs
* How to deal with global warming, cap and trade
* How to stop the killings: pro-life solutions

Y'know, somehow, I'm sure I'm not their target demographic. I don't want conservatives to win in 2010. I think they're a plague on the country.

Vote fraud? Easy fix: elect more and better Democrats. The Census I know from the inside out -- I've worked for three decennial surveys. So any lies they'd want me to swallow would be wasted on moi. ACORN? They helped some friends of mine find affordable housing in '07.

How to lobby? Grab your Congresscritter by the ear, if you can't loom over it like LBJ, and make 'em listen. How to be effective: FUND their OPPONENTS if they don't WORK FOR YOU.

How to bring youth into the conservative movement? For what? Do I want to encourage child abuse?

How to defend traditional marriage and DOMA? Make marriage applicable to loving people, period. Screw DOMA, it's bad law.

How to understand Islam? As what, a bunch of brown-skinned terrorists? No, thanks. It's as much a religion -- and therefore as legit or not -- as your "Christianity," and what I understand about both is people use them as an excuse to bully one another, start wars, steal natural resources, and otherwise misbehave.

How the media can help us take back America? Dude, seriously? With Chuck Norris telling me my US Flag shouldn't fly unless I stain it with tea? Come on, now. That's *help*? Gah.

On the other hand, the media right now lllllllluuuuuuuuuuuuuurrrrrvvves them some Bill-O, Dobson, Dobbs, Limbaugh & Company. So, you know, take them; love them; go somewhere

Be damned. Evidence that high fructose corn syrup, which was a ubiquitous part of the modern American diet starting about the time New Coke came out, has contained mercury all these years. Not the inert kind in old fillings, either. Might've figured into Colony Collapse Disorder, too. Looks like this not-natural ingredient's been more dangerous than we knew.

Dallas takes a licking and Tech takes a pounding, and I have a whole week to contemplate the folly of being a football fan. Yeesh.

Upside? Um, Michael Crabtree is less a factor in the NFL this year than T.O. So there's that, for Texas Tech. Of course, Taylor Potts is no Graham Harrell, but we sort of knew that going in. I sure hope he turns out to be better than Sonny Cumbie, but based on the performances I've seen this year ... well, we can hope. Oh, and there are many good receivers in the TTU backfield again. How about that?

Speaking of upsides, and many good receivers ... well, there's that guy in New York who had a career night last night, the Giants' Manningham.

But none of the Dallas receivers dropped as many balls as the former star of the passing game last night. As a team, sure, they all had drops -- Jason Witten spectacularly didn't just let a missed pass go by, he spiked it into a Giant's hands off his own foot. That's the sort of thing that (please FSM, Ceiling Cat and all the gods) only happens once in a lifetime.

And Tony Romo, in a pinch, can still run the ball --

but whoever decided last night that he needed to make throws on every down in the 4th quarter ...

Swine flu is still a deadly disease, although as a pandemic it's not as virulent as the avian flu. Still, people are trying to sanitize their personal universes in response ...

Hantavirus, which is harder to acquire, isn't getting easier to survive.

The virtual fence along the border isn't going away anytime soon, regardless of its inimical impact on towns, commerce, and the environment -- just like FEMA. How come the teabaggers aren't protesting this wasteful government enterprise, or the $7 billion dollar genuine fence, with its building and maintenance costs, the DHS hasn't scrapped already despite the proof that it won't work and the myriad groups protesting its construction, from California to the Gulf Coast? Oh, I forgot -- this boondoggle helps keep out brown people.... which means, of course, that it's one of those few things the government gets right, according to the Loud Obbs crowd. Unlike clean water and good schools, which like mines and well-drilling for gas and oil, all ought to be as profit-driven as healthcare. Once they hear about Bill Richardson's effort to improve economic conditions for Native American tribes, they'll be wanting the fence to enclose his state, too. Not that my neighbors to the west would be interested, but sometimes I wish I could swap governors with 'em, not to mention Senators.

Jobs are dropping like flies across the Southwest, too, not just in Texas and New Mexico. Take a hard look at what's happening in California, Nevada, and Arizona.

Coming out of the West, to save the day? Montana, New Mexico, Hawaii, Oregon, Wisconsin, Illinois, and yes, Vermont have Democratic Senators at work on this issue.

The Judicious Use of Surveillance Tools In Counterterrorism Efforts (JUSTICE) Act would reform the USA PATRIOT Act, the FISA Amendments Act and other surveillance authorities to protect Americans’ constitutional rights, while preserving the powers of our government to fight terrorism.

It's possible the Democratic majority in the Senate has decided to act on this now out of real conviction. Feingold, IIRC, has long disliked the USA PATRIOT Act and the FISA legislation; telecom immunity may be on the chopping block if this bill gets traction. Furthermore, there's support for this revision to the odious regulations rammed down our national throats by the w/dick administration in the aftermath of 11 September 2001.

One of my big gripes about the current administration has been how slowly it has moved, in my opinion, on major issues of Constitutional government :
this step by the Democratic Senators co-sponsoring this bill is proof that should a Democratic President choose to do so, foot-dragging appeasement can be cast aside. Would that the Senate would get behind shutting down the entire system of torturing POWs, either with US military personnel or with contractor/mercenary personnel in secret locations, as well as the US-military-run prison camp in Cuba, whence the detainees are not being freed despite US federal judges' orders to do so and the operations of which this administration apparently seeks to move to Bagram.

I'll rant and rave about other subjects with which I have found the new administration's actions or lack thereof disappointing in detail later. For now I'll just list some of them and ask y'all to

The Securities and Exchange Commission had accepted a Bank of America plan to pay a mere $33 million fine, but Federal Judge in the case isn't going along with the Merrill Lynch bonus hijinks any more than he will the AIG jiggery-pokery.

Giving voice to the anger and frustration of many ordinary Americans, Judge Jed S. Rakoff issued a scathing ruling on one of the watershed moments of the financial crisis: the star-crossed takeover of Merrill Lynch by the now-struggling Bank of America.

Judge Rakoff refused to approve a $33 million deal that would have settled a lawsuit filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission against the Bank of America. The lawsuit alleged that the bank failed to adequately disclose the bonuses that were paid by Merrill before the merger, which was completed in January at regulators’ behest as Merrill foundered.

He accused the S.E.C. of failing in its role as Wall Street’s top cop by going too easy on one of the biggest banks it regulates. And he accused executives of the Bank of America of failing to take responsibility for actions that blindsided its shareholders and the taxpayers who bailed out the bank at the height of the crisis.

It would appear Judge Rakoff is not alone in his disdain for the Wall Street moguls' hijinks.
I Do Like What He Said about Monster stock-option back-dater James Treacy's behavior: "disgusting."

U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff called Treacy’s conduct, which prosecutors said earned him at least $14.5 million, “appalling.”

“It is disgusting that this practice went on,” Rakoff said at a Sept. 3 hearing in Manhattan.

Judges are also demanding more accountability from regulators and are urging rule changes to punish wrongdoers.

Rakoff last month refused to sign off on Bank of America Corp.’s $33 million settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over bonus disclosures. After an initial explanation that the executives in question relied on lawyers’ advice in not disclosing bonus information, Rakoff demanded a fuller explanation of the deal by Sept. 9.

Other federal judges lately annoyed

_{Wide receiver Miles Austin, right, slips a tackle from Tampa Bay Buccaneers safety Jermaine Phillips (23) before scoring a touchdown in the second quarter. AP Photo}

It remains to be seen tomorrow night how Terrell Owens' first game as a Buffalo Bill will go, but the Dallas Cowboys' season opener decisively underlined the benefit of having him out of their locker room.

Romo completed 16 of 27 passes for a career-high 353 yards, including touchdowns of 80, 66 and 42 yards to receivers Patrick Crayton, Roy Williams and Miles Austin.

The top two folks still in that locker room are looking forward,

which is a blog I bet none of y'all have heard about yet: Rush Limbaugh can't handle the truth.

Surprise.
Surprise!
Surprise!!!
(NOT.)

This guy, remember, was wooden and offputting; he sighed too much and wore earth tones and threatened to put Social Security in a lockbox.

AlterNet points out that Al Gore was right.

But the Beltway wanted a President they could have a beer with...

Hey, that worked out so well for us all, didn't it?   Read more…

About this time of the afternoon eight years ago our Dallas office, which was then in a building near the Dallas World Trade Center, sent home all nonessential employees.

Those of us in Lubbock were left to stare in shock and dismay at the televised coverage of the events in New York City, Washington, D.C., and a field in Pennsylvania as the toll mounted and the terror spread.

The towers were down by then. The Pentagon remained aflame. The hole in the field where the last hijackers' attempt to destroy an American icon failed smoked faintly.

And by this time eight years ago I was enraged that the President had taken to the air and wasn't talking to the nation at all -- the first of many days when I had to confront the lacks the Bush administration foisted on us all.

What do you remember

HR 3200:

False: Illegal Immigrants Will Be Covered

One Republican congressman issued a press release claiming that "5,600,000 Illegal Aliens May Be Covered Under Obamacare," and we’ve been peppered with queries about similar claims. They’re not true. In fact, the House bill (the only bill to be formally introduced in its entirety) specifically says that no federal money would be spent on giving illegal immigrants health coverage:

H.R. 3200: Sec 246 — NO FEDERAL PAYMENT FOR UNDOCUMENTED ALIENS

Nothing in this subtitle shall allow Federal payments for affordability credits on behalf of individuals who are not lawfully present in the United States.