The chron reports (if you want to call it that) that the MOB is apologizing again. This time for calling an ex-coach a douche bag and intimating that Tulsa is in hell.
Boo hoo. I guess Tulsa alumni are the last little piggie.
The Best of Austin is out again, and Lee lists a few of the beer categories. It’s the analog of the Houston Press’ Best of Houston – they’re both alt/entertainment weeklies owned by the same company (see comment #1).
It quite humored me that three of the bests on the list are Houston imports: Little Woodrow’s, Gingerman and Spec’s. We’re more than happy to share the wealth, and I’ll try to avoid the discussion of the conversation I recently had with someone on relative merits of the two cities – it’s a discussion topic not a blog topic.
A few days ago I was listening to a podcast while biking through Memorial Park all the way to the West Loop and in an extended PBS interview with Mike Gravel I was struck by how much I liked him (and of course how he had no chance in hell of being taken seriously, much less elected).
So, I was not surprised when he ended up at the top of the list after a short quiz on political views. There was also a perfect stratification of Dems at the Top and Reps at the bottom, with Ron Paul being the highest (R). It would have been interesting to have some 3rd party candidates in there, but with over a year until the election they’re not stupid enough to have any candidates yet (much less 10).
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Mike Gravel Score: 49 |
Agree Iraq Immigration Taxes Stem-Cell Research Health Care Abortion Social Security Marriage Death Penalty |
Disagree Line-Item Veto Energy |
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Chris Dodd Score: 49 |
Agree Immigration Taxes Stem-Cell Research Health Care Abortion Social Security Line-Item Veto Marriage Death Penalty |
Disagree Iraq Energy |
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Dennis Kucinich Score: 49 |
Agree Iraq Taxes Stem-Cell Research Health Care Abortion Social Security Line-Item Veto Marriage Death Penalty |
Disagree Immigration Energy |
— Take the Quiz! — |
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Here’s the entire list:
Mike Gravel – 49
Chris Dodd – 49
Dennis Kucinich – 49
Barack Obama – 42
Hillary Clinton – 42
Bill Richardson – 39
John Edwards – 36
Joe Biden – 32
Ron Paul – 28
Rudy Giuliani – 20
John McCain – 11
Mitt Romney – 10
Sam Brownback – 7
Jim Gilmore – 5
On Monday the Chronicle stated in their editorial that:
Finally, former CBS News anchor Dan Rather, who got his start in Houston, wrote a sad footnote to his mostly distinguished career when he sued his old employers for $70 million. The suit alleges that CBS made Rather a scapegoat for an inaccurate story about George W. Bush’s service in the Texas Air National Guard. Whatever the network executives’ sins, they don’t deserve to be punished to that degree after paying Rather millions per year long after he had passed his prime.
Rather’s suit, while presenting a weak case against CBS, makes a wounding case against his own prowess as a broadcast journalist. Despite the fact that Rather bore the title of managing editor of CBS News, he alleges in his suit that he bore no responsibility for the content or accuracy of his broadcasts: The mighty network anchor is revealed for what he or she is, merely a familiar face reading from a teleprompter reports he or she had nothing to do with preparing.
I had to respond:
To: viewpoints@chron.com
Subject: True ColorsThe Houston Chronicle’s Editorial Board showed their ties to the corporation are stronger than those to the journalist when they decided to chastise Dan Rather (Mistakes, Sept 24).
His lawsuit is more about forcing the big boys (which includes Viacom and The Hearst Corporation) to allow journalism ferret out the truth. When you are in fear of your job, you can’t be an objective journalist!
Whether you believe in the veracity of Mr. Rather’s initial report or not (the report stand whether the pieces in question are legitimate or not – and they have not been proven false), the ability of The Press (which means the foot pounding journalist, not the Corporation) to seek the truth was damaged by his summary termination.
-Bill Shirley
Houston, Texas
I should have added “this lawsuit isn’t for himself, it’s for the Cub Reporter”.
The US Military can’t patrol their own camps, they pay others to do it.
Oh, they can patrol the camps, but they don’t have enough people to do all the jobs that need doing in Iraq, so they hire “private contractors”. Basically, mercenaries. But the State Department hires as many as 8 times more (from Blackwater – the leading “security” firm doing business in Iraq) than the Pentagon does1. And some of those guys went on a shoot-em-up spree. The military is much too familiar with this.
“The problems with the absence of oversight, management, doctrine, and even law and order when it comes to private military contractors have been known for a while.”2Â Â And our government has failed to act on any of this.
Just as their was failure to adequately plan before the 2003 invasion of Iraq, just as there has been an absence of true diplomatic efforts before and after the invasion, there has been utter lack of action on huge problems with the mercenary “civilian contractors”.
Such inaction by government is absolutely impeachment worthy. The only reason I don’t think it is treasonous is because I think they believe they have a valid intent. I believe they are merely incompetent. If it were proven true that their behavior was one for personal or corporate profit in blatant disregard of morality, decency, and law, that would be another case.
The print article in the star section is considerably longer than the online version. KLOL died a few years ago, KIOL tried to resurrect it and failed (20th of 37 stations), so now they’re going with the “fresh new thing”. I’m sure it will spike up for it’s newness, but will again grow stale and old. Instead of updating their play list with time, they’ll rebrand it again.
Jack FM to make Houston debut
By DAVID BARRON
Copyright 2007 Houston ChronicleThe eclectic, iPod shuffle-like music format known as Jack FM makes its Houston debut at 10:37 a.m. Friday at 103.7 FM.
The Cumulus Media station, now known as KIOL or Rock 103.7 FM, will be reformatted as KHJK, said Pat Fant, Cumulus’ Houston market manager.
Houston will be the seventh market in Texas and the fifth top 10 market in the country to add Jack FM, which formats about a thousand songs by 500 artists in 18 genres of music dating from the late 1960s through today.
Jack FM operates without live DJs, so Cumulus will attempt to find positions elsewhere in the company for Rock 103.7’s current on-air personalities.
others: Houstonist, McGuff
I love that the impending axe will fall in less then three hours and the website says “This Labor Day Weekend Rock 103.7 is counting down the Top 500 Rock Songs of All Time, and you get to pick the songs…”
And their Babe-of-the-Day gives you super-hyphenated information on who their target audience was. Radio station or soft-core porn portal?
And, according to the FCC, the KHJK call sign was registered ten days ago to 99.1 in Sioux Falls.
