tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-55674115129836934672024-02-07T04:25:00.820-05:00THE TRIBUNESmart, Fearless News...Patrick Alcatrazhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16203892824178949597noreply@blogger.comBlogger502125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5567411512983693467.post-39708836209842813292011-07-21T20:18:00.004-04:002011-07-21T20:22:12.769-04:00We Have Moved...<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjccq1oqEvFlkS250pG4E_AplAxSFw881Anw90kTS-jQ8-axMy-c1VjMtV0NCpf-anb8sEmVZGumv_bJ7YrJenQB_lApA86BG4QEg5eiT3FXG7b2Bll_Z_B7x4OV2Eub8FJNnYUKZXDHxBi/s1600/bird.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 259px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 194px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5631964601940682066" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjccq1oqEvFlkS250pG4E_AplAxSFw881Anw90kTS-jQ8-axMy-c1VjMtV0NCpf-anb8sEmVZGumv_bJ7YrJenQB_lApA86BG4QEg5eiT3FXG7b2Bll_Z_B7x4OV2Eub8FJNnYUKZXDHxBi/s320/bird.jpg" /></a><span style="font-family:times new roman;">In our endless quest for the best venue, we have settled on this one for the immediate future. Come check us out at:</span><br /><span style="font-family:times new roman;"></span><br /><a href="http://www.thepazfiles.blogspot.com/"><span style="font-family:times new roman;color:#ffffff;">www.ThePazFiles.blogspot.com</span></a><span style="color:#ffffff;"><br /></span><span style="font-family:times new roman;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:times new roman;"></span><br /><br /><br /><div align="center"><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><strong><span style="font-size:85%;">- 30 -<br /></span></div></strong></span>Patrick Alcatrazhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16203892824178949597noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5567411512983693467.post-85731818980478708872011-07-07T09:47:00.003-04:002011-07-09T21:59:51.598-04:00That Time Of the Year...As Summer Roars, We Take A Needed Break...See You later...<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; CLEAR: both" class="separator"><a style="MARGIN-LEFT: 1em; MARGIN-RIGHT: 1em" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglQCF1CGdIvNIHnX__qmJKNvrYqG7JtC4Oazsj3mx9_hqnuihsUmH6qtLijZd8712EEa3nxLOd__aBIiSUSuXpzR1ZC3E70QScJflokfMIMO8GprnEKW3V5aNrErlj9SDs4UfyFBJCtkvk/s1600/out.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglQCF1CGdIvNIHnX__qmJKNvrYqG7JtC4Oazsj3mx9_hqnuihsUmH6qtLijZd8712EEa3nxLOd__aBIiSUSuXpzR1ZC3E70QScJflokfMIMO8GprnEKW3V5aNrErlj9SDs4UfyFBJCtkvk/s1600/out.jpg" /></a></div><span style="font-family:times new roman;"><strong>By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ</strong><br /><em>Editor of The Tribune</em><br /><br /><strong>AUSTIN, Texas -</strong> We've been putting this off for a few weeks, but the time has come to shut <em>The Tribune</em> down for a few weeks. A break is always good for the brain and the soul.<br /><br />We shall return at a still-to-be-determined date.<br /><br />See you then...<br /><br /><br /></span><br /><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><strong><span style="font-family:times new roman;font-size:85%;">- 30 -</span></strong></div>Patrick Alcatrazhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16203892824178949597noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5567411512983693467.post-62483450899230853422011-07-06T09:27:00.006-04:002011-07-06T09:37:52.702-04:00For WhiteWings, A Long, Drawn Out Light Bill...City of Harlingen Is Patient...Season Drags On...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifsN7b4_u3KHf0mmcCZt2MAh8r31cbUvlEsujI3BN7apXEv8panZpYQFLIims4u2XHFQ7zd64XTrcmnWhPuAeuKPa2PNvgmrsowcWGR7rJZDukiMytQi36pLsMxFPENFkisKE0d6kvSfrc/s1600/wings1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" m$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifsN7b4_u3KHf0mmcCZt2MAh8r31cbUvlEsujI3BN7apXEv8panZpYQFLIims4u2XHFQ7zd64XTrcmnWhPuAeuKPa2PNvgmrsowcWGR7rJZDukiMytQi36pLsMxFPENFkisKE0d6kvSfrc/s1600/wings1.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<em>"I stand on my sincere convictions concerning the WhiteWings, while you seem to make comparisons with them and major league teams. Of course, that is not true, but they provide good entertainment and, yes, there are some very good players in the league. Why not pick on the Killer Bees hockey team for a change and give your fixation on the Wings a rest..."</em> <strong><span style="font-size: x-small;">- Harlingen Blogger Jerry Deal, a Journalist</span></strong><br />
<br />
<strong>By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ</strong><br />
<em>Editor of The Tribune</em><br />
<br />
<strong>HARLINGEN, Texas -</strong> Almost 40 games into the ongoing season, the Rio Grande Valley WhiteWings are in the thick of things on the field. As they head into tomorrow's doubleheader in Edinburg, local fans can take solace in knowing the Wings will not be playing in Harlingen, where the team continues to negotiate an estimated $40,000 debt it owes for utilities availed at the city ballfield.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhanzRZXHfLJsKmCiDHfSf9M_VOZDazIsluTTNventnKoSc8NTIsE0ao2jtvZvvwOKscqvmowPk0R7mlktbTcZi4-XPVRbQaUSGTgJICrnQRx_9-F_uFdtcKY9rNpCoIma3fgJ5Bv33QCzS/s1600/wings2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="149" m$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhanzRZXHfLJsKmCiDHfSf9M_VOZDazIsluTTNventnKoSc8NTIsE0ao2jtvZvvwOKscqvmowPk0R7mlktbTcZi4-XPVRbQaUSGTgJICrnQRx_9-F_uFdtcKY9rNpCoIma3fgJ5Bv33QCzS/s200/wings2.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>"We are still in talks, but just within the last 10 days they finally made a token payment of $4,000 towards their balance due," said a source familiar with the ongoing negotiations.<br />
<br />
The news is good for residents underwriting the venue. Harlingen provides the field, takes care of maintenance and, by contract, provides electric power for night games. It has been a very good deal for the team and its management, members of the new North American Baseball League that also outfits clubs in nearby Edinburg and McAllen. Following weekend losses, the WhiteWings record is 21-18, good for second place.<br />
<br />
Second hand everything is something many Valleyites endure. This is not professional baseball; it is very minor league baseball being played by players who couldn't - or haven't - made it up to the lowest rung of established <strong><em>A</em></strong> ball. But Harlingen, like many small towns across the country, signed-on, thinking it, too, could dream the impossible dream. It has paid the price when seeking reimbursement from the WhiteWings for that electricity provided at Harlingen Field.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhosawu3JBeccKfaDBFQhcFfhyphenhyphenNC62AY-xbvR6pxSylsIrkQ_SA9zMNIfWftJJV9wUDEmGkTaNu0rAjbMiHMsMWS6qCGoYzoH-y-1mVM-RTnwzir5WBSNDlJPzXqBTkGshOfhuec6sx1qXR/s1600/wings3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="149" m$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhosawu3JBeccKfaDBFQhcFfhyphenhyphenNC62AY-xbvR6pxSylsIrkQ_SA9zMNIfWftJJV9wUDEmGkTaNu0rAjbMiHMsMWS6qCGoYzoH-y-1mVM-RTnwzir5WBSNDlJPzXqBTkGshOfhuec6sx1qXR/s200/wings3.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>Does the city need this headache?<br />
<br />
Some realists at City Hall say, "No."<br />
<br />
Still, there it is, that siphoning cash from the strained city budget that could perhaps go to hiring one more police officer or perhaps the funding of a better program serving all residents, not just the easily-buffaloed, rabid baseball fanatic.<br />
<br />
Pride comes from success. The Wings may yet win the league championship. But what is the value of that, when the league is such an obscure league that the award is laughable? You don't have to soil major league baseball by comparing this level of ball to the Big League clubs. Only a rube would do that.<br />
<br />
In this town, it is about coming clean with the taxpayers and the fans.<br />
<br />
Yesterday, on ESPN2, the network carried a program in which it looked at the Good Old Days of baseball in New York, the crux of the show posing the question as to who was the city's best centerfielder when Mickey Mantle patrolled center for the Yankees, Willie Mays did it for the NY Giants and Duke Snider for the Brooklyn Dodgers. You'd have to know baseball to even pose the question.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5ZHM1k1iLkjEfOd1tUoS7JRnBul-0XvonW41od6tl_Oe2qiC4l3b-jHILgIMSyldHlczGVfHeo6DsA3pZndVny2drKvlLQO4XZYGlx2xdH4pWxYaEeB3cldiPXvLGKIicTvWEH2vX5imI/s1600/wings4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="112" m$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5ZHM1k1iLkjEfOd1tUoS7JRnBul-0XvonW41od6tl_Oe2qiC4l3b-jHILgIMSyldHlczGVfHeo6DsA3pZndVny2drKvlLQO4XZYGlx2xdH4pWxYaEeB3cldiPXvLGKIicTvWEH2vX5imI/s200/wings4.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>No, the Rio Grande Valley WhiteWings, bless their hearts, are nowhere near that league. Team owners and managers would quickly admit it. But that's about play on the field.<br />
<br />
The team's bills are public record, as is that contract the City of Harlingen entered into with the team. Who cares what player is running down flyballs in center at Harlingen Field? You can be sure it's a nobody, always is at this level of play. That's not even up for discussion.<br />
<br />
So, what is the current state of that contract?<br />
<br />
How much do the WhiteWings owe, and when do they plan to pay it? You would think the town's excitable bloggers would be on it like flies on <em>Guacamole</em>. But they're not...<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><strong><span style="font-size: x-small;">- 30 -</span></strong></div>Patrick Alcatrazhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16203892824178949597noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5567411512983693467.post-77764359669541328622011-07-05T14:05:00.005-04:002011-07-05T16:26:30.770-04:00Actor, Lover, Priest, Spy: Reading Back Pages...The Famous And The Near Famous...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgn4O63eJohY76qio4Qj2TfTsGBVeurLmolKotuJ2o0JamZKE47jbuk36HSUUE518ahGHFrYsDgjZGEwVwAxuDMMnd110WtnDJ2Xd6Iu0nD_tC9r4SACIeiqBTNCsaWMToKM93ryGatqJN/s1600/interesting.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" i$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgn4O63eJohY76qio4Qj2TfTsGBVeurLmolKotuJ2o0JamZKE47jbuk36HSUUE518ahGHFrYsDgjZGEwVwAxuDMMnd110WtnDJ2Xd6Iu0nD_tC9r4SACIeiqBTNCsaWMToKM93ryGatqJN/s320/interesting.jpg" width="212" /></a></div><strong>By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ</strong><br />
<em>Editor of The Tribune</em><br />
<br />
<strong>AUSTIN, Texas -</strong> There's a linchpin somewhere in all this, so bear with us as we mow the morning mental lawn at a time when perhaps we should be wondering and writing about something a bit more serious - like Libya and a woman's right to an abortion, that stuff.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh0JWnqTCxSRsvdOqDchdVTwrA25r6hwIEu0gqBx79JvnAmY4M478cXEZ7GKJ-MF_0uMvv5rzldsvE7Oc6_Y-Wf1K2IsNwhGdp9J88FV-C8BtlU9VPs-TIAPW16U9_rGjLp5Auq-c5FK4A/s1600/blog1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="112" i$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh0JWnqTCxSRsvdOqDchdVTwrA25r6hwIEu0gqBx79JvnAmY4M478cXEZ7GKJ-MF_0uMvv5rzldsvE7Oc6_Y-Wf1K2IsNwhGdp9J88FV-C8BtlU9VPs-TIAPW16U9_rGjLp5Auq-c5FK4A/s200/blog1.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>But its Tuesday, after a long, holiday weekend under a high sky in Austin and a hot sun generally everywhere south of the North Pole. We've toasted on our way into and out of local restaurants, and we've waited on rain that looked to be up there, but just beyond our lot. My daughter called to say it was 84 degrees in New York. Lucky, was all I could think to say. Still, it is the times we live in, despite what the non-Global Warming believers say. The polar cap can melt and these guys will still deny it. You can gurgle underwater, but not for long. We'll see about that.<br />
<br />
In any case, I'm reading this book titled <strong><em>Casanova: Actor, Lover, Priest, Spy</em></strong>. Yes, that Casanova, the one whose name is associated first with excitable sexual escapades. He wrote about them, as did others, so they exist in the legend of Giacomo. I'm halfway through it, so I've drawn no conclusion on whether I buy its promise of finaling revealing the many talents of this Renaissance Italian from the 17th Century. We'll see, although there have been some interesting tidbits to do with his talent as a painter and a bit actor on the French stage. I suppose his sexual prowess comes in the middle of the book.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmLZfqhz2a8ix0aXRi05Ro3aNg2CEVYXn6JSpSDPPN5wNaPoOp_V1tD3yEJFjjBES1c4xzXB6cZY5uaXdsVQ7XP_apVqIAlEZt2qpA3-C4kvX0Qo6HX4_s9ZQ7KIIs0CkbeFdv9Pe19QKK/s1600/blog2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" i$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmLZfqhz2a8ix0aXRi05Ro3aNg2CEVYXn6JSpSDPPN5wNaPoOp_V1tD3yEJFjjBES1c4xzXB6cZY5uaXdsVQ7XP_apVqIAlEZt2qpA3-C4kvX0Qo6HX4_s9ZQ7KIIs0CkbeFdv9Pe19QKK/s200/blog2.jpg" width="157" /></a></div>Casanova did as much as he could with his life in a world that yielded little opportunity of the sort one has these days. He might have been a wilder man today. Casanova, according to this book by English writer Ian Kelly, invented the lottery, a successful one at that that became the overwhelming rage of his time.<em> "I was never attractive,"</em> Casanova is said to have said about himself.<em> "I simply had an unbridled belief that I was capable of anything."</em><br />
<br />
That brings me to the new blogging effort of my ally, Jerry McHale, who has birthed his <a href="http://www.browntownnews.com/"><span style="color: white;">http://www.browntownnews.com/</span></a> as the fountain of all that semingly is good in his adopted hometown of Brownsville, Texas. First, as an early assessment of his offering, I'd say McHale wishes for another time - perhaps 1911. Like Casanova, he, however, does his life impulse with what's before him. Brownsville is not an attractive town, yet McHale wants to write about it as it was a beautiful community, full of gaiety, pomp, counts and countesses, harps and jesters, the spirit of Casanova's Venice. Brownsville is the petrie dish of trouble, most of which is bad, of darkened streets and shuttered doors. The only Brownsvillians having fun are the criminals, the corrupt politicians and the gendarmes. Perhaps that is why his previous online efort - <strong>El Rocinante</strong> - was so successful. For that effort, McHale mined the gutters and dumpsters as if addicted to the worst of news.<br />
<br />
When McHale can write this about Brownsvile, then shall he be able to make factual headway: <em>"By the Eighteenth Century, Venice had become the city of pleasure. The convents boasted their salons, where nuns in low dresses with pearls in their hair received the advances of nobles and gallant abbes. And everyone, from patricians to gondoliers, who were given free entry, was imersed in theatre."</em><br />
<br />
Brownsville knows theatre as street and alley crime. Its hardly-creative plots are printed in newspaper crime stories and obituaries. Brownsville is a beggar of art, forever dreaming and wishing and pining, but rarely getting its dessert. One more comparison, from the past:<em> "The man fit to make his fortune in Brownsville must be a chameleon...he must be insinuating, impenetrable, obliging, often base, ostensibly sincere, always pretending to know less than he does, in complete control of his countenance, and as cold as ice. If he loathes the pretence he should leave Brownsville and seek his fortune in Harlingen."</em><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoEzqK_8HO24pVJqjeLiMF0jmysXdaid0-PfgHw9lAOKlb94MBZj8-xuTymw654pA-VjYbzBaOIAHZE3ijv_oj3Jl9EpUMk7XGjjmPbLsF7_uarU_NiXcM_RwWWjr2bac7LWCcn0HjgjEh/s1600/maclovio.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" i$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoEzqK_8HO24pVJqjeLiMF0jmysXdaid0-PfgHw9lAOKlb94MBZj8-xuTymw654pA-VjYbzBaOIAHZE3ijv_oj3Jl9EpUMk7XGjjmPbLsF7_uarU_NiXcM_RwWWjr2bac7LWCcn0HjgjEh/s200/maclovio.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>Early-on in his new Journey, McHale too-easily reverts to his old style. He bashes the same people he's bashed before, the novice mayor, the lady commissioner fond of posing for photos with local men, the usuals. Between those familiar jabs, he is leaving the trusted path and writing about some interesting, yet not so-interesting local buildings, historical figures and God-damned <em>cantinas</em>. That's the Brownsville we have all come to know. No news there.<br />
<br />
It would be a better trip if McHale, in the spirit of Casanova, would not merely kill the snake by slicing off its head, but study it a bit more, ripping off its hide and reaching for and grabbing its innards, the real ones. We are sure that Brownsville counts a few thousand residents no one has ever written - or cared - about. Those are the new stories at hand for him, his new cast of characters.<br />
<br />
<em>"These are the handsomest moments in my lifestory,"</em> Casanova wrote in one of his many journals. <em>"These happy, unexpected, unforeseeable and purely fortuitous remeetings...and, hence, all the more precious."</em><br />
<br />
It's a choice, this life.<br />
<br />
And it is true that, given the task, two people would do the same job successfully in different ways. Another Blogger out to do what McHale is doing might do something else altogether different, might actually create either a spectacular novel writing trend or maybe birth and deliver a new local superstar. It's not easy, but that's the reward.<br />
<br />
Creativity also allows for taking the long way home, so...<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><strong><span style="font-size: x-small;">- 30 -</span></strong></div>Patrick Alcatrazhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16203892824178949597noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5567411512983693467.post-27141822159469475002011-07-04T07:57:00.000-04:002011-07-04T08:16:30.698-04:00Editorial: Birthday In America...A Country Turns 235...What's To Celebrate...We ask...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigBqhETTrHoMdCZOzgX9jGlZvU4-sN90CSwvnXQ40go5Indquid2QDbjITx3lIKVDL4TsLw0ZhNmESNOHqnzukJbm5i6S6zsiAa2zhrPgsUfAJXVbFtZbkOYLcbCcIC8tKVKXf-oouRuUn/s1600/uslede.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" i$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigBqhETTrHoMdCZOzgX9jGlZvU4-sN90CSwvnXQ40go5Indquid2QDbjITx3lIKVDL4TsLw0ZhNmESNOHqnzukJbm5i6S6zsiAa2zhrPgsUfAJXVbFtZbkOYLcbCcIC8tKVKXf-oouRuUn/s1600/uslede.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<strong>By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ</strong><br />
<em>Editor of The Tribune</em><br />
<br />
<strong>AUSTIN, Texas -</strong> The French reacted with clear pride: One of their own was again free. It was a stunning turn of events one does not often see, the freedom, we mean. This development that had Dominique Strauss-Kahn walking free in New York City called for outright glee in his native country, a land known for its pastries, its food, its museums, its culture, its delightful standing in the world. Strauss-Kahn had stood accused of raping a hotel maid and it was his status as a well-known Frenchman overseeing the influential International Monetary Fund that brought initial shame to his prideful nation.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOFULEG_UnWe-hqmFOxNarOE6evZ5vnhS1uKY7gvjHNr2kwJ85CDjRKWTMG9x8h_EdFwpyxapYpZjiDEa3uxa17D1WEX9A3SsvQ1sF4kAyhTXqvyHwepUqfl4JdFowJT-ErkX0JUfdYfCA/s1600/flagger.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="149" i$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOFULEG_UnWe-hqmFOxNarOE6evZ5vnhS1uKY7gvjHNr2kwJ85CDjRKWTMG9x8h_EdFwpyxapYpZjiDEa3uxa17D1WEX9A3SsvQ1sF4kAyhTXqvyHwepUqfl4JdFowJT-ErkX0JUfdYfCA/s200/flagger.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>We wondered about such pride. What is it about France that makes it so proud? It is a country whose flag has been dragged across the mud in war, and flown proudly as a place for opera, for ballroom dancing, for artists, for writers, for those things in life often openly labeled as being the best of the best. France has its blackeyes, that Nazi occupation by Germany during World War II being one. Yet, it has endured that shame and horror and lived to remain a nation often associated with civilization's brightest shine.<br />
<br />
America celebrates its declaration of independence today.<br />
<br />
It does it, again, under darkened skies, under the threat of economic collapse, under the weight of internal roilings that cannot help but eat at its very foundation. Unlike the French, we Americans rarely find that one moment when the entire lot of immigrants can say we are together, united in this effort, this goal. We do it when those occasional Sept. 11s come around, hit us upside the head and shake the racism, the class wars, the bigotry off us, as if dandruff sailing off a homeless wino's hair at check-in time at that shelter in the bad side of town. Every nation has problems these days. We are not immune to the bankrupt coughings of Greece, the newfound financial might of China, the rebellious mess of Egypt and Libya, the pyscho-juking and spewing of North Korea and Iran, the slime of Afghanistan.<br />
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Yet, it is in this world environment that the United States, a pretentious idea that at times works beautifully and at others fails miserably, continues its march toward a better world. Externally, the problems are handled from the perspective of a nation; internally it is another matter altogether. Where do we go wrong? Why do we find comfort in segmenting ourselves. We are outrageous Republicans, we are under-achieving Democrats. We are Americans. It is the giddy roller-coaster ride we have known since that glorious day in 1776.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP2AUqaZXlQ49OUwgru2uyZjhFdSwrbllGmlpqo4jxq5LuxFb7Ha8UIoSKePZWbPuVXPJKLj0jArhn-ovkZXDXE3snlJVmkJ5Eps5tLDAq26MSaeWtpOZPbMM3ufix5izKy9uyecpt877j/s1600/us2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" i$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP2AUqaZXlQ49OUwgru2uyZjhFdSwrbllGmlpqo4jxq5LuxFb7Ha8UIoSKePZWbPuVXPJKLj0jArhn-ovkZXDXE3snlJVmkJ5Eps5tLDAq26MSaeWtpOZPbMM3ufix5izKy9uyecpt877j/s200/us2.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>Freedom allows for much.<br />
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It allows us to be different, to think we're special, to think we're better, to think we're not this or that, to think everybody else is the problem, to think it's not us, it's them. Somewhere in there lived the dream. At one time, the dream seemed clear and possible. At one time, the dream seemed attainable for all. One Nation, Underway.<br />
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We like to think of ourselves as being the beacon of freedom, the place where the oppressed, the poor and the needy can find shelter from the storm. We shine the light on problems in Africa and in Russia and in the Middle East and in Central America. We note the failings of other countries and their leaders. We are experts at everything. We can spot a blooming dictator as easily as we spot a cultural trend at home. We are the world police, we are the world psychiatrist. It is up to us. No one else can do it. Let the happy French be the butterflies. Let them open the best museums, best cafes, best shops. It's okay. We have to vacation somewhere abroad.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdzAgbTCzg8sDOVkIzZ-Wi4_gSffzqFXNgKEa3a6Tlo8qzAlY-gOp2WSU_1lM6cV5GOUI0_vDit8NtDPiTs70VA2DBSDh4gw75H_KoTyLAJYlx42HyM0FA0jmjBzjOuYfPAU4CVI4x-uj7/s1600/us1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="193" i$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdzAgbTCzg8sDOVkIzZ-Wi4_gSffzqFXNgKEa3a6Tlo8qzAlY-gOp2WSU_1lM6cV5GOUI0_vDit8NtDPiTs70VA2DBSDh4gw75H_KoTyLAJYlx42HyM0FA0jmjBzjOuYfPAU4CVI4x-uj7/s200/us1.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>But as we again take time to celebrate the meaning of this great day, it's also important to note the struggles and many sacrifices of those Americans who did the work and are no longer around. What would a construction worker who helped build Hoover Dam think of the curent social disarray in this country? What would the migrant workers who pick that lettuce for your salads and our burgers and your tacos say about the converstaions at the dinner table in a so-called Red State? WWJD.<br />
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It's part of the rolling freedom symphony, that brassy national conversation that blares between love and hate. It'll be fireworks in a Texas backyard, fiery words in an Idaho living room. We are America, home of the brave and land of the free.<br />
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It's freedom of speech and we should defend it all costs.<br />
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But it does tend to throw us apart.<br />
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Do yourself a favor today: Be nice, and say a kind word about your neighbor to your right to your neighbor on the left...<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><strong><span style="font-size: x-small;">- 30 -</span></strong></div>Patrick Alcatrazhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16203892824178949597noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5567411512983693467.post-86450753316424536992011-07-02T09:44:00.000-04:002011-07-02T12:25:53.322-04:00Rolling Stones Against the World: The Autobiography Of Keith Richards...Life Itself...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN6iDlXa28hndh6mZNL5mWSiVd8vFbSuHZdE7_jUFM_JRimoSaKeSD_sGxcNdhOEg6jzK0S9sq84O2AzFRfHleNnUhjJjJZIYzZb1YrO87j1fbXVS_JIMlKG72PMj_mjrJfjQa60rW5_nF/s1600/stones5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" i$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjN6iDlXa28hndh6mZNL5mWSiVd8vFbSuHZdE7_jUFM_JRimoSaKeSD_sGxcNdhOEg6jzK0S9sq84O2AzFRfHleNnUhjJjJZIYzZb1YrO87j1fbXVS_JIMlKG72PMj_mjrJfjQa60rW5_nF/s1600/stones5.jpg" /></a></div><strong>By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ</strong><br />
<em>Editor of The Tribune</em><br />
<br />
<strong>AUSTIN, Texas -</strong> Most of the time, we don't have time for the rebels of the world. It's easy to brand them outlaws, fools, ornery or simply publicity hounds. There are many in that museum of delight and anger located somewhere in the darker alleys of your brain. Some people see the positives in Charles Manson, in Ted Bundy and in Pancho Villa. But none of them ever brought you great music.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4OAoV7nnNOAScSMMgH6gvQ1P47PejtOZE4XhXnbnNKAuYWk9JwFMMcaN3rwTt-cPkzyMoO5qGRGhanrZhNsCO26fGlzCYV0rlFmhKGcXJ-H5IyQYIdbIpWDeXCaAuzaUlj3IXonDhSFKG/s1600/stoneslede.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" i$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4OAoV7nnNOAScSMMgH6gvQ1P47PejtOZE4XhXnbnNKAuYWk9JwFMMcaN3rwTt-cPkzyMoO5qGRGhanrZhNsCO26fGlzCYV0rlFmhKGcXJ-H5IyQYIdbIpWDeXCaAuzaUlj3IXonDhSFKG/s200/stoneslede.jpg" width="195" /></a></div>Keith Richards, guitarist for The Rolling Stones, did.<br />
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If ever an autobiography had mountains of interesting tidbits and outright confirmations of a host of illegal activity and the debauchery of runaway passion, it was this guy's story. He offers it loud and proud in his book, titled simply: <strong><em>Life</em></strong>.<br />
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Richards nears his 70th year on the planet, but his reputation lives as if born yesterday. The Stones always have been tagged as being the ultimate bad boy band. Vocalist Mick Jagger, characterized in the book as a trusted and untrustworthy bandmate, isn't far behind in the ledger filled with strange and bizarre exploits that followed this British band from the moment it first left the slums of London for the adulation of America.<br />
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Written in cahoots with rock 'n' roll writer James Fox, <strong><em>Life</em></strong> is an eye-opening cataloguing of booze, drugs and women, enjoyed before, during and after concerts. It is also a looksee into the manner in which the band pushed itself onto the largest stage in the world, and how it resisted a "clean-up" ala The Beatles, instead insisting on being the outlaw band that started as young punks and lived to see old age.<br />
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Richards spares few details in the 547-page book, writing openly about an affair involving his mother that broke his heart, the father he abandoned for four decades and later brought back into his life, the many women who played varying parts in his evolving life and even glimpses into such moments when a fall led to cranial surgery friends and family said he'd never survive.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBlyYglnwpett3xw5E6b8-a3vFpKu8yTgP8OFALrrYbt3bBFElUG5XyzfuzK8O20XttOr9FgU60Qfqg_CkG-BDnXAcDw9-maO-z_CR9nzUC7XHR3Ow2fTDPgmywG1kuzBcysHakG5IhDqE/s1600/stones6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="149" i$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBlyYglnwpett3xw5E6b8-a3vFpKu8yTgP8OFALrrYbt3bBFElUG5XyzfuzK8O20XttOr9FgU60Qfqg_CkG-BDnXAcDw9-maO-z_CR9nzUC7XHR3Ow2fTDPgmywG1kuzBcysHakG5IhDqE/s200/stones6.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>But survive he did. The tale is one big glob of short pieces to do with his life as a kid and with being, in the end, an elder statesman of rock music. Richards runs through his ever-brief relationships with a number of pretty women he says never should have been handled by someone like him, the son of a dirt-poor family who turned himself over to the guitar and exploded a unique sound on the world. He writes viciously about Anita Pallenberg, the mother of his older son, Marlon, as if writing about some girl he met, bedded often and then flitted-on, away into the arms of some other high-society groupie. Indeed, he laughs off the sentence where he says Pallenberg, once a top model and actress in Europe, and also a bedmate of Mick Jagger, saw her beauty fade horribly, describing her as an old grandma in the book's back pages.<br />
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He drank and did his share of drugs. Cocaine, heroin, that stuff. He was busted in Arkansas and Canada and in his native country, but the most time he ever spent in jail was a day, thanks to the band's sharp lawyers and a few fans. Even the surgeon who performed that life-saving operation throws him his memory of the episode, openly noting his fondness of the band's music ahead of the surgery.<br />
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Where The Beatles are known as the band that started it all in that so-called British Invasion, The Stones have taken pride, writes Richards, in never selling out, never bending for convention, never going on stage with everybody wearing the same clothes. It was an all-out run at freedom, at throwing stuff in the face of what stood for civilized behavior, at what was expected by local authorities in the calmer, early 1960s. It is The Stones that arrived with something to say and said it without giving an inch. There was, according to the book, no interest in writing or singing <em>Penny Lane</em>.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk45h4VFFyg7i1RnR0eMBhyphenhyphen4wkW_wzZYin1qXiGqFQnRnOaHxnSD2BrvwrRL7E1CKQDTC72y-3o5krgcchfcskdSs5GNXd9ThnmJ0dA_pOQgNT3BnzN62QaNuFyRNUHRgXkzK7KD9yreiq/s1600/stones2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="149" i$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk45h4VFFyg7i1RnR0eMBhyphenhyphen4wkW_wzZYin1qXiGqFQnRnOaHxnSD2BrvwrRL7E1CKQDTC72y-3o5krgcchfcskdSs5GNXd9ThnmJ0dA_pOQgNT3BnzN62QaNuFyRNUHRgXkzK7KD9yreiq/s200/stones2.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>Something good comes out of being a purist. Bending to laws, rules or convention eats at the root of creativity. And in the music business, it is easy to bend. Look at The Monkees, a completely manufactured, made-for-TV band. You'd never see any of The Stones in such scenes. <em>"Here, they come, walking down the street..."</em> Maybe tearing down the street, but not walking. Musicians get a break from society, of course. Willie Nelson, admired by Richards in his book, has more publicized pot busts than any man alive, but he finds a way out of those tight squeezes. Creative license is granted so long as the artist doesn't push it, doesn't take it to the press in a fighting, bitching manner. There are several incidents related to that in this book, times when Richards got a little help from a long list of influential fans.<br />
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The book is his memory of his life. A writer working a biography on him, able to seek sources other than one brain, could write a different version of this man's life. This is a memoir, and it stands as such. There are enough details, however, to make it seem believable.<br />
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Humor moves through the pages, as well.<br />
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The reader learns that Stones bassist Bill Wyman's real name is William Perks, and that drummer Charlie Watts once got so bugged by Jagger calling him "my drummer" that he bolted for Jagger's neck and almost killed him. Brian Jones, the founder of the group and also a guitarist, is characterized as a 5-foot dictator who saved The Stones from internal anarchy by drowning during their early years. In fact, it was Jones who brought Anita Pallenberg onto the scene, loved her and then lost her to Richards and then to Jagger.<br />
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One could say with some assurance that the easy-passing of Pallenberg around was similar to the boys passing a joint around the room. In a sentence, that seems to be the assessment Richards gives of his life and times with the world's most dangerous band - one toke for me, and one for you.<br />
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It's an okay book, one I recommend for those moments when all the jabbering on TV pisses you off, or when an annoying cold knocks you into bed for a few days...<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><strong><span style="font-size: x-small;">- 30 -</span></strong></div>Patrick Alcatrazhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16203892824178949597noreply@blogger.com30tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5567411512983693467.post-25150479470953750712011-06-30T10:07:00.004-04:002011-06-30T10:30:53.761-04:00On Writing: Morning Coffee...A Bad Cold...New Ideas And The Needed Fresh Scenery...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn3PENnmCNdVWwIIcR0R7kJpBun_IWfSob5aFojzkE3bU8y07hSa1Ibjz-BTqQALSHeSBr1oWIw8MxqsP5hpnzDHysVGbk7Y-CG_Dq5DyBBOFJpuNNfh-9OKnZ9Y2VxOWutGITFsO_pux4/s1600/penlede.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" i$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn3PENnmCNdVWwIIcR0R7kJpBun_IWfSob5aFojzkE3bU8y07hSa1Ibjz-BTqQALSHeSBr1oWIw8MxqsP5hpnzDHysVGbk7Y-CG_Dq5DyBBOFJpuNNfh-9OKnZ9Y2VxOWutGITFsO_pux4/s1600/penlede.jpg" /></a></div><strong>By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ</strong><br />
<em>Editor of The Tribune</em><br />
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<strong>AUSTIN, Texas -</strong> Back when this Blog pulled out of the barn, when I was living in the Rio Grande Valley down south, I used a variety of pseudonyms in bringing readers stories from that same variety of angles, perspectives and character-within-the-character.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixJlnuJHwHY7bh-m7kmDtV4zvq2-GWo0SBH4yS60WDI12o7hxENmHbGpDiy4LPmphPSu9A5Oxpz3IgXa_pEYrBH8IixYW8j74HEgWl0T5j_cpdDuko2spVhHqhoXlNmvLLfCl4xazisWCF/s1600/pen1.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" i$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixJlnuJHwHY7bh-m7kmDtV4zvq2-GWo0SBH4yS60WDI12o7hxENmHbGpDiy4LPmphPSu9A5Oxpz3IgXa_pEYrBH8IixYW8j74HEgWl0T5j_cpdDuko2spVhHqhoXlNmvLLfCl4xazisWCF/s1600/pen1.bmp" /></a></div>I'm sure some of them are still sort of remembered: Junior Bonner, Ricardo Klement, Ron Mexico, etc., etc. Well, I also recall that while some readers liked these guys, there were others who questioned why we had created "fake" writers. In the 9-to-5 world of the working legions, the latter was to be expected. Some people know writing only as what they see in the newspaper, or what they read when the kid brings home the homework.<br />
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For me, writing this blog always has been a laboratory of sorts, a place to try things and a place for fleshing-out characters. Bonner was the stiff, high-throated, aging cowboy who loved his battered El Camino and just had to have his shirts starched just right by the dry cleaners he frequented in his hometown of Combes, Texas. Klement was the introverted descendant of a Nazi officer who'd fallen for the lovely women of the Texas-Mexico border and insisted he'd die there. Mexico was the "Keith Richards" of the staff, a man who lived life to the fullest, had to make love like a panther and was, not surprisingly, murdered in Amsterdam after being fired by <em>The Tribune</em> for drinking on the job.<br />
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These creations were not exactly pseudonyms; they were characters and nothing more. Still, they delivered the real news in their own way, each of them working-up a style by way of vocabulary and sentence structure. We came to know them in photographs that made for images fitting their writing and life styles.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVN2jPXFaiEcCdQfaXwY04pDW2Dnuk19tbLK6fiBDCTf6Wr8kdNsW3Qnweo0CKhs-x_urU4I_2-9_250VQjzsFVk1WIzFF-mmpjic2ccvRZURodCpXqIt9LMxK5_lPe4MtCr74vwpkCsHV/s1600/pen3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="173" i$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVN2jPXFaiEcCdQfaXwY04pDW2Dnuk19tbLK6fiBDCTf6Wr8kdNsW3Qnweo0CKhs-x_urU4I_2-9_250VQjzsFVk1WIzFF-mmpjic2ccvRZURodCpXqIt9LMxK5_lPe4MtCr74vwpkCsHV/s200/pen3.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>There's nothing wrong with using a pseudonym in writing. It's been part of both fiction and non-fiction since the advent of the modern printing press. Mark Twain's real name was Samuel Clemens, and there are those who say his invented happy-go-lucky Twain persona was not anything like Clemens, a not as happy man. Who knows? It just worked out nicely for Mark.<br />
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I firmly believe that using a pseudonym, as I do with my Patrick Alcatraz novels, unlocks a certain new vein of creativity. Paz-Martinez writes about the Texas-Mexican border as if he's lived that experience, which he has; Alcatraz writes about the American West as if some <em>bon vivant</em> out for nothing but sex and laughs. Are they "romance novels," as has been posed by some? Yes, and no. Romance between a guy and a gal, yes. There is quite a bit of that in my books. Someone famous once said that there is no literature without sex. Well, absolutely. Sex is a huge part of the human existence, both with a loyal mate and, often, with a disloyal one. Plus, pseudonyms, also known as pen names, often take on a life of their own. The highly-regarded Portuguese writer Fernando Pessoa had more than 70 literary identities.<br />
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The American horror writer Stephen King has written "literary fiction" under the name of Richard Bachman. Lewis Carroll was really Charles Dodgson. George Orwell was really Eric Blair. The list goes on. My point here is that writing will always define itself on its own terms. And writers will mine the hinterlands for anything that will spark creativity. Where cops have the fear of killing an innocent bystander, writers fear writer's block, that drag-me-down time when nothing spurts from the brain, when looking out the window yields nothing but the high sky.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlLF0tyKo_R5tZ5ysXkXsgo7JJeaVdkl6qTB6GmCPTcVjwde7BrKMCDTmTBihgdeXVowp7sbIFasIEOjgXQscAGxplGXgG56f0NN2qyWuOWfml8IfgT_9LaP5ozlwlMw1xX3yMvlFHgl73/s1600/pen2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="138" i$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlLF0tyKo_R5tZ5ysXkXsgo7JJeaVdkl6qTB6GmCPTcVjwde7BrKMCDTmTBihgdeXVowp7sbIFasIEOjgXQscAGxplGXgG56f0NN2qyWuOWfml8IfgT_9LaP5ozlwlMw1xX3yMvlFHgl73/s200/pen2.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>I was running all of this across my brain yesterday, the second day of a bad summer cold that has me in the coughing and watery eyes dumps. Messing with this laptop did nothing for me. The best I could do was advance my place in the book I am currently reading. In bed. Most of the day. My book, magazines, the day's newspapers. Outside, the big, bright sunball scorched the land one more time.<br />
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But I was wondering whether to offer my next book as Paz-Martinez, the guy who writes as if a wandering journalist, or Alcatraz, the bastard who sees beauty in every woman, has them and moves on down the road. It's my alter ego, of course. All of us have them, but not all of us are willing to put them on display.<br />
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In writing, they are not "fake names" as much as they are, say, that second car in the driveway...<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><strong><span style="font-size: x-small;">- 30 -</span></strong></div>Patrick Alcatrazhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16203892824178949597noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5567411512983693467.post-59263016585824035512011-06-29T11:11:00.000-04:002011-06-29T14:29:09.920-04:00The Brownsvillization of Harlingen, Texas...Along The Harsh Mexican Border...No Grace In Town...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcb90eiLlIyPNV-spp3UO_2TnOqgDcUWDY5AaGCI6xH9gFJwlRuSBiKt_VsAttd-ALMTRAYllNpae6yJimZZ0xTDBjFw1_lrx8Hji20Rl2ZunwRSt0m5YBqVifcsYclT3QScfTIOI6u8d4/s1600/lefty.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" i$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcb90eiLlIyPNV-spp3UO_2TnOqgDcUWDY5AaGCI6xH9gFJwlRuSBiKt_VsAttd-ALMTRAYllNpae6yJimZZ0xTDBjFw1_lrx8Hji20Rl2ZunwRSt0m5YBqVifcsYclT3QScfTIOI6u8d4/s1600/lefty.jpg" /></a></div><strong>By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ</strong><br />
<em>Editor of The Tribune</em><br />
<br />
<strong>HARLINGEN, Texas -</strong> That day, Robert Leftwich was perhaps being too kind, too political. The question from us had been clear: Was he endorsing the actions of a juvenile-bent blogger he'd befriended and whose support he'd garnered without even asking?<br />
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"I have repeatedly asked him to tone it down," was Leftwich's diplomatic reply .<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjjeCL3TX1EU-J3eRURgs0mriUBdP4e-yob5AFNdLPe_ZHSHFJ_7kxtKqRKAkBTE_HmuSGyLnsTny1nNhYrZFh50mRwLPRH9cruAWNQXzQ09Pf_NfKvxNG4T0r0WkExlLBUqGZZQGoT8gy/s1600/harly1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" i$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjjeCL3TX1EU-J3eRURgs0mriUBdP4e-yob5AFNdLPe_ZHSHFJ_7kxtKqRKAkBTE_HmuSGyLnsTny1nNhYrZFh50mRwLPRH9cruAWNQXzQ09Pf_NfKvxNG4T0r0WkExlLBUqGZZQGoT8gy/s1600/harly1.jpg" /></a></div>He's a city commissioner here, an elected official with ideas about how to move the struggling city forward, past the resident rancor that plays across the news media here as if some El Salvadoran incubator for rebels actually fighting in the streets. That's Mr. Leftwich and his family in the photo atop this story.<br />
<br />
We come here uninvited but interested in defining all that silly noise moving across town. To a somewhat minor extent, the local newspaper - <em>The Valley Morning Star</em> - plays into the equation, largely by way of hilariously naive letters-to-the-editor in which the writers often chose the words of damnation against this or that elected official or burning issue in town. The local blogosphere is the problem these days, however.<br />
<br />
Civility holds no ground there.<br />
<br />
And it manifests itself clearly in that while the blogs raise hell against things coming and not coming from City Hall, and against elected officials such as Mr. Leftwich, and, worse yet, against each other, little room is left for civilized discourse. You won't see any elected official making comments to these low-rent bloggers. Why should they? Why leap headfirst into the garbage heap, seems to be the unspoken answer.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjc_ngo69m02yxn05_CT07u09l9-ELf3WDqYtnLXZMewv_SSBPNSSAg_JRkT9cZmbeDNtbNC2qVenbPhk57dNWNt_vWxTmbWgk2DaG9yVFxLr3IB4E9qhg1MmnVD1choj6zlWY8KTHi4BZM/s1600/harly2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="178" i$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjc_ngo69m02yxn05_CT07u09l9-ELf3WDqYtnLXZMewv_SSBPNSSAg_JRkT9cZmbeDNtbNC2qVenbPhk57dNWNt_vWxTmbWgk2DaG9yVFxLr3IB4E9qhg1MmnVD1choj6zlWY8KTHi4BZM/s200/harly2.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>Times are tough here. Unemployment is sky-high, jobs are nowhere to be found, businesses are shutting their doors and a general malaise has now covered the community of some 70,000 resident as if a used Army blanket. It is a sad time for little Harlingen, and the blogs are not helping things.<br />
<br />
In an ideal news media setting, the Blogs would fill-in where the newspaper fails the citizenry. They would go after hard news stories exposing both good and bad. They would be seen as positive, useful venues of information. Too bad that's not what Harlingen residents get.<br />
<br />
What breaks with every new day is yet another string of accusations and posturings that go to informing Harlingen of whose blog is king of the soiled chicken coop. Lost in the primping are solutions to things that actually affect the community. It would be something if elected officials and city bureaucrats would pick up the phone and call a local blogger; that, or email a comment or reply to news that would go somewhere. That isn't - and hasn't - happened, except for a very rare occasion.<br />
<br />
No, these are days for pulling inward here.<br />
<br />
Elected officials know they hold higher ground by simply staying away, by ignoring these guys.<br />
<br />
Still, it is about evolving, and perhaps the silly noise now playing here as news blogging will move into something better one of these days. They all have nowhere to go but up.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTvdh-hp5ugpWLCeZrXu75zL1yfc3MogyDcqXH1jNJahKRU1ZVn6tKqbpAIGitOyifpfeyfOpfLJi2B_tsyRy8EyKUwpuXx7-BcSCK1O82Kp-fyL7l9lye6s36ORV5yxN26FxrGsu3rxWr/s1600/harly3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" i$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTvdh-hp5ugpWLCeZrXu75zL1yfc3MogyDcqXH1jNJahKRU1ZVn6tKqbpAIGitOyifpfeyfOpfLJi2B_tsyRy8EyKUwpuXx7-BcSCK1O82Kp-fyL7l9lye6s36ORV5yxN26FxrGsu3rxWr/s200/harly3.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>The strange part of this is that, as a Journalist, it always struck me that a good, timely, meaningful story brought way-more satisfaction to me as a reporter than those times when I only wanted to see and know that I'd beaten the competition.<br />
<br />
Journalism is not anywhere near the<em> taqueria</em> business.<br />
<br />
Yet, here, blog news comes with all the bells and whistles and alarms of a new<em> taco</em> concoction. And that's the bad side of all this. There is a difference between a professional service and that offerred by an amateur. There is.<br />
<br />
Dumping on someone just to make you believe you're the best only reinforces your own weaknesses. In the fast-paced world of news, there is no Number One; there is only the dependable, the reliable, and those that are trying their damndest to get there. And so, we understand why this city's leaders shun these bloggers. What have they got to gain by playing their selfish game?<br />
<br />
We won't say that we know Commissioner Leftwich well, but we've always found him forthcoming when we have asked him questions. His desire to speak is not the problem; he likely just knows that there is no point in talking with partisan fools. Sadly, that is a good move.<br />
<br />
We say sadly because it is the city that is paying the price that comes with not having an honest news media...<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><strong><span style="font-size: x-small;">- 30 -</span></strong></div>Patrick Alcatrazhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16203892824178949597noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5567411512983693467.post-8745323295966536132011-06-27T07:50:00.000-04:002011-06-27T07:50:29.788-04:00The Press In The Valley: Tough Economic Times Take A Heavy Toll...Newspapers Don't Always Win...Readers Do Lose...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5Cs1RzyZITehK36oOsNOn0DCN2cCVl1JMA-qIQNeCompQY5vjWSdOPgMsL_TPqpIGZDAdrzRF3Z86NivQz185DidqgQWxy95pm-OhV7zRI4ePbCBDaa-pqP_U62ck2Rzl16keNXAnOWP2/s1600/freedomlede.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" i$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5Cs1RzyZITehK36oOsNOn0DCN2cCVl1JMA-qIQNeCompQY5vjWSdOPgMsL_TPqpIGZDAdrzRF3Z86NivQz185DidqgQWxy95pm-OhV7zRI4ePbCBDaa-pqP_U62ck2Rzl16keNXAnOWP2/s200/freedomlede.bmp" width="147" /></a></div><strong>By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ</strong><br />
<em>Editor of The Tribune</em><br />
<br />
<strong>McALLEN, Texas -</strong> That newspaper you get daily in McAllen? Yes, the one that looks as busy with excitable stories and color design as a Guatemalan skirt? That one. Well, the messy look was designed by a Cuban guy out of Miami, hired by Freedom Communications, Inc. a few years ago, when the company that owns <em>The McAllen Monitor</em> was horribly mired in bankruptcy court, seeking to unload its monstrous $750 million debt. It was reduced by almost half, as things turned out.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1TtgOVRnaTYUVcGq0UasS8Dt6j4Q30-Y3UyFVIjHwdylIY1c8tjt6oyL55__-Y6kuhSySsqwhOfnJ1JOkjWg2zjyl751wxc648NqKvf_JQieu7JV5AYbVL1pJSp_HMHAy-or_qTh5Ul_P/s1600/freedom3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" i$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1TtgOVRnaTYUVcGq0UasS8Dt6j4Q30-Y3UyFVIjHwdylIY1c8tjt6oyL55__-Y6kuhSySsqwhOfnJ1JOkjWg2zjyl751wxc648NqKvf_JQieu7JV5AYbVL1pJSp_HMHAy-or_qTh5Ul_P/s1600/freedom3.jpg" /></a></div>But this is about how the company - owner of <em>The Monitor</em>, the <em>Valley Morning Star</em> in Harlingen and <em>The Brownsville Herald</em> downriver - never did get the pulse of its geography or of its readers, primarily insular Hispanics uninterested in its less-government-is-best-government Libertarian politics. It is particularly timely as the business is still bleeding professionals and editions. The consensus is that newspapers across the country lost their way, that failure to re-invest profits in their operations, their desire to cut reporting staff and later cut out entire daily issues has led to their stunning demise. Somewhere in there, the Internet surfaced as a reason to fear the future and to cede position as the Fourth Estate in American life.<br />
<br />
A few days back, it was reported that Freedom Communications, Inc. was once again interested in selling some of its newspapers. There were rumors that it would unload the struggling<em> Valley Morning Star</em> at a discount rate. If true, it wasn't the first time the Santa Ana, California-based company sought to sell its RGV properties. Way before the latest rumors surfaced, there was word that the three Valley newspapers were being shopped around, and that the company had gotten a sniff from the <strong><em>Wall Street Journal</em></strong> folks. Nothing came of it, and then the bad economy hit advertising, and then the slump came home to stay.<br />
<br />
So, what does it all mean to the Rio Grande Valley?<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0l9pDcls0lqJUUVmInKrHffYtHxmifr1w0_PDIQigeJUG7qjb191DwTb5ePW7nBMdtDPch-MIn9dMgCRmSqUObVU5ZwwWMt3ZBmbSgup0yu4D9_3h8zyHgHqngbnpGwyv_r0HZf0cHlY9/s1600/freedom2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" i$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0l9pDcls0lqJUUVmInKrHffYtHxmifr1w0_PDIQigeJUG7qjb191DwTb5ePW7nBMdtDPch-MIn9dMgCRmSqUObVU5ZwwWMt3ZBmbSgup0yu4D9_3h8zyHgHqngbnpGwyv_r0HZf0cHlY9/s1600/freedom2.jpg" /></a></div>First and foremost, it means less news coverage. The staff at <em>The McAllen Monitor</em> might be enough for that western Valley city, but staffs at the other two newspapers are bare-bone operations. No reporters equals no coverage, or less, if any. Editors have been shown the door, some transferred to RGV cities they don't exactly know or like. Paul Binz, editor of the <em>Morning Star</em> is gone, as is former <em>Monitor</em> Managing Editor Henry Miller. Marcia Caltabiano-Ponce, once a senior editor at <em>The Monitor</em>, is now editor of <em>The Brownsville Herald</em>. It wasn't that long ago that I ran into Henry Miller at a Starbucks in McAllen and he relayed info that Caltabiano-Ponce had continued to reside in McAllen even as she tried to edit the newspaper in Brownsville 60-some miles to the east. An out-of-town editor for <em>The Herald</em>? Sacrilege.<br />
<br />
It's a bear to stomach when you know that a myriad of stories do not see light in the pages of these newspapers. That drug war going on barely miles across the Rio Grande has largely been relegated to coverage via social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, <em>Monitor </em>reporters rightly granting credit to that venue as their source of info related to murders, hangings, bombings and street firefights that ought to be witnessed and written about by these reporters. Indeed, it is also said that many, many residents of the RGV get their news about the drug war from Spanish-language television stations, something that a pair of decades ago wasn't even part of the local lifestyle. Today, even the newsrooms of the Valley's TV stations count their Mexican counterparts as sources of information. Gone are the days when these same Valley reporters damned Mexican reporters as being wildly unreliable and forever open to bribery.<br />
<br />
It is, to be fair, a tough time for news media outlets from coast-to-coast.<br />
<br />
Also to be noted is the fact that Freedom Communications has no monopoly on trimming the corporate fat. Major newspapers such as the <em>Los Angeles Times</em> and the <em>Dallas Morning News</em> have seen the need to cut back. But Freedom's losing battle in the revenue fight has forced it to sell some once-lucrative properties, and then it faced the reality of losing some top executives, one of whom left the company to work for Playboy magazine.<br />
<br />
In the Valley, the company's chief of operations is M. Olaf Frandsen, publisher of the local flagship <em>McAllen Monitor</em> and the man who oversees the other two newspapers, as well. He is shown in photo atop this story. Frandsen is a genial man. A transplant who studied in Arizona and a loyal employee who's made the circuit as editor of a number of company newspapers, he is also known as a headstrong administrator. His battles with McAllen Mayor Richard Cortez are legendary, especially the one involving Cortez's decision to fend off bad coverage by funneling his city's lucrative "<strong>Legal Notice</strong>" advertising to a small weekly in neighboring Pharr. The decision spurred Frandsen into rifling a terse letter to the mayor and the city commissioners, noting that <em>The Advance</em> newspaper in Pharr was not exactly a newspaper of record, of general interest, or even one based in McAllen, the very population that needed to see those legal notices.<br />
<br />
Valley cities and towns may show the Year 2011 on their calendars, but life in any of them can also be questioned as being something of a throwback in culture and the ways of social progress. They are all still small enough to exert muscle against any outfit wishing to bring Big City ways. For residents of the Valley, Cortez going to a tiny newspaper to teach <em>The Monitor</em> a lesson is well within the creative scope of the local brain. Indeed, it likely would have gained a wildly positive vote of support, had <em>The Monitor</em> polled residents on the matter.<br />
<br />
News here isn't what reporters in the Big City would wish to cover on a day-to-day basis. There's plenty of crime, theft, asaults, rapes, child and spousal abuse and murders, for the young cub reporter, but none of the three dailies do much investigative reporting - not lately, anyway.<br />
<br />
Reporters generally are of the young variety; that is, they are journalists fresh out of college. They are not well-paid in the Valley, which means that they stay only as long as they have to, and only until they get an offer from a larger newspaper upstate. The company knows that these are jumping-point jobs for these reporters. They hire them for two-three years, lose them, and hire a new batch. Lost in all that is the value of experience and local knowledge.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS4OTiJMXVnMGWcKpCmW3SBmdBME2rIZ-Ys2WMJ2J_p1FcfVxpdZql9hNI84O-WLzCD7D377Gf1ynKw5JgfnzFzIvLGK33Ms5JbFOyubrh-qbcJq8FMl_rxjeSQVL9mY2KrKW2jc0cYDW-/s1600/freedom4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="40" i$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS4OTiJMXVnMGWcKpCmW3SBmdBME2rIZ-Ys2WMJ2J_p1FcfVxpdZql9hNI84O-WLzCD7D377Gf1ynKw5JgfnzFzIvLGK33Ms5JbFOyubrh-qbcJq8FMl_rxjeSQVL9mY2KrKW2jc0cYDW-/s200/freedom4.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>It's hard to tell what will become of Freedom in the long run. Its dependable moneymaker in the region is <em>The Monitor</em> and sources tell us it won't sell any of the three dailies on a solo basis. Apparently, you can buy all three, but not simply one. In the current market for newspapers, well, let's just say you'll find more interest in a lackluster minor league baseball team than you will in a good newspaper.<br />
<br />
But who knows?<br />
<br />
Already, in Harlingen, word in the streets is that a new print newspaper effort may soon be launched, one owned by a local citizen, perhaps a local group. <em>The Morning Star</em>, they say, is simply not doing the job and is largely giving-off the impression that it has given up the fight. In Brownsville, some 25 miles to the east, <em>The Herald</em> is hearing the same complaint. Bloggers there have begun to leap headfirst onto its stage, all of them taking the critical tack, often damning the newspaper for its failures to cover stories they feel ought to be covered, while at the same time ballyhooing their efforts as newfangled news sources.<br />
<br />
It is a hostile takeover of sorts.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRgd7aHoNJg3BT_b_-3yOHI2zixl3zNCnO7yZq5kgeJphlt55XzK5i0Ra4PmQKfzzV6JNDmhTggksCuBshVwboOUR4xvybyAhSxGo_S7i4II8emfkv4iZ1krR20sE6ubgq6wDqmjYdNRqR/s1600/freedom1.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="50" i$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRgd7aHoNJg3BT_b_-3yOHI2zixl3zNCnO7yZq5kgeJphlt55XzK5i0Ra4PmQKfzzV6JNDmhTggksCuBshVwboOUR4xvybyAhSxGo_S7i4II8emfkv4iZ1krR20sE6ubgq6wDqmjYdNRqR/s200/freedom1.bmp" width="200" /></a></div>Freedom's newspapers may be the ones in the news racks at the streetcorner and in the cafes, but they are no longer the only game in town. It's not necessarily their fault, but they are feeling the pinch from all sides.<br />
<br />
For readers, it's never an emotional issue of being loyal or provincial. Those days are gone, too.<br />
<br />
But, then, news never has known fencing or geography. And in the day of the Internet and the harried, 24-hour cable news cycle, stopping to wait on a laggard is not part of the deal. Americans have not shed many tears for dying newspapers. The Valley likely won't, either...<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><strong><span style="font-size: x-small;">- 30 -</span></strong></div>Patrick Alcatrazhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16203892824178949597noreply@blogger.com22tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5567411512983693467.post-69733382793827984252011-06-26T09:35:00.001-04:002011-06-26T09:41:53.470-04:00The Carpetbagger: Former Donna Mayor Rick Morales...Mayor Of Harlingen?...Get Real...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQL6MgZ-OPLKgCF6U8H732LFg64uLZEARdCGzIXpIUinfagCOheGPuiaRwUyrkPvnG8Qi7Num2qEv4r46vS6NFUJt3QxLfLIEme8at3Qk_c7uFiuPhe2EE-_Xf7jbkhefb_NHlzWkykdTE/s1600/bagger.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" j8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQL6MgZ-OPLKgCF6U8H732LFg64uLZEARdCGzIXpIUinfagCOheGPuiaRwUyrkPvnG8Qi7Num2qEv4r46vS6NFUJt3QxLfLIEme8at3Qk_c7uFiuPhe2EE-_Xf7jbkhefb_NHlzWkykdTE/s1600/bagger.jpg" /></a></div><strong>By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ</strong><br />
<em>Editor-In-Chief</em><br />
<br />
<strong>HARLINGEN, Texas -</strong> It isn't part of the local history or flavor of the Rio Grande Vallley, but maybe it is nothing more than a silly aberration, a quirk in local politics, the idle thinking of a former mayor looking for new ground to shovel.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZNZgnxwcJJRSwGkRtjfcsQXDo7zuxj8BqXERRZ1rNG8AkDcLeTaENJxPMSWxmS0ueFBTfWn8m_6uU6Uk2sYiWhXSo6Drkr_sn-5PtZZ4HxiGMHSWzGkVo0lQeouswsltUoTuJTyNP9vSu/s1600/morales.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="82" j8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZNZgnxwcJJRSwGkRtjfcsQXDo7zuxj8BqXERRZ1rNG8AkDcLeTaENJxPMSWxmS0ueFBTfWn8m_6uU6Uk2sYiWhXSo6Drkr_sn-5PtZZ4HxiGMHSWzGkVo0lQeouswsltUoTuJTyNP9vSu/s200/morales.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>Perhaps that's why former Donna Mayor Ricardo "Rick" Morales wants to be mayor of Harlingen. In a part of the state where even the most-stable things often tend to go sideways, it is an intriguing stab by Morales. The 41-year-old self-described commercial lender doesn't really have a record of outstanding leadership, mainly because the city he once helped governed is no great shakes.<br />
<br />
Morales hasn't come out and said he's interested in the local office, but word in the streets and blogosphere has him in robes and ambling toward the ring. Should he do it and somehow win, Morales will become the Valley's first carpetbagging public servant. The idea has a history of sorts in national politics. Robert F. Kennedy left his native Massachusetts to run for - and win - a U.S. Senate seat in New York. George W. Bush left his birthplace in Connecticut to run for - and win - the governorship of Texas.<br />
<br />
So, who knows about a <em>Morales-for-mayor-Harlingen</em> campaign?<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVfoaDBDePgNLrIKYslVnRGcwXN0aPS1TjWQ8lcLeW4WcLHL6A5i5Y9XInKgg4tpI3ZAXUSrii8VW8mF2wCnrFzRnp7CNfKpDxWBDCm9yeiaczmrUHFoMcAhSCMcZRS26CwERIcecQ-c5j/s1600/donna.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="149" j8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVfoaDBDePgNLrIKYslVnRGcwXN0aPS1TjWQ8lcLeW4WcLHL6A5i5Y9XInKgg4tpI3ZAXUSrii8VW8mF2wCnrFzRnp7CNfKpDxWBDCm9yeiaczmrUHFoMcAhSCMcZRS26CwERIcecQ-c5j/s200/donna.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>There are some bad signs, however, for those residents who would back him while seeking to overturn the so-called Old Guard dominance in city politics. The Old Guard is described as a collection of ultra-conservative old codgers interested in maintaining the status quo, defined here as being the Anglos interested in ruling over the city's Hispanic population with all the propriety of a coonhound. Many in the Old Guard membership support the harsh Republican politics of Texas Governor Rick Perry and its two Republican senators, John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchinson - none a friend of Hispanics.<br />
<br />
Oddly enough, so apparently does Morales.<br />
<br />
In May 2008, Morales said this about Republican Cornyn: <em>"The people of Donna have been extremely well served by Senator Cornyn. He shares the same values with South Texans and I am honored to endorse his re-election."</em><br />
<br />
Really? But, then, Morales also endorsed Republican Texas Gov. Perry in 2006 and 2010.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL9jUiNXHnfPwHobjp8izFuJvXXYYzCOuuSY4Ur2W7ENKs-64nyBFhmvUcBvvM3YF_LaTUJsRK35Sm_JG2KCF7VbY1XAr8_NvO4rbCKZ8hUkkNGSa9yF3NZRPVcMTvCMQ6Q0H8nUf2JHCL/s1600/map.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" j8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL9jUiNXHnfPwHobjp8izFuJvXXYYzCOuuSY4Ur2W7ENKs-64nyBFhmvUcBvvM3YF_LaTUJsRK35Sm_JG2KCF7VbY1XAr8_NvO4rbCKZ8hUkkNGSa9yF3NZRPVcMTvCMQ6Q0H8nUf2JHCL/s200/map.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>Interestingly, Cornyn that year was also endorsed by former Harlingen Mayor Connie De La Garza and current Mayor Chris Boswell. Boswell is listed as being on the side of the Old Guard here. He does not quarrel with that assignation.<br />
<br />
Morales may not exactly be the right-skin conservative sought by the extremist fringe of the Tea Party, but his endorsements do mean something. Is he the "change" politician for Harlingen? Doesn't look like it. He is more like a used tire being bolted onto a, yes, tired vehicle, but one needing perhaps "new" wheels.<br />
<br />
That same summer of 2008, when touting Donna's growth in population from a dusty 6,000 during the 1970s to the 18,000 he governed, Morales said: "We believe that Donna, in the next 10 years, will double and maybe triple in size. The future is extremely bright."<br />
<br />
So, what happened? What drove Morales out and into the mood of looking at Harlingen?<br />
<br />
In June of that same year, incumbent Morales was swamped by David Simmons,a first-time candidate for elected office who worked as tax assessor-collector for the Donna school district. Simmons grabbed 57 percent of the vote, ending Morales's six year-run as mayor and two as city commissioner.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOxyfWWU79I5j1c35nwxihD8yJ3uswv3dWWMKhbcdbmvd2fvqwBldZkvYCYrJqVjHGs1O4hTUVb5oJZxVVR0CzAMLeboa1FtjZgfeUKc4nJENgMxPUuD6phJFDiwVrsLvO5tt9v1Zi-aD1/s1600/donna2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" j8="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOxyfWWU79I5j1c35nwxihD8yJ3uswv3dWWMKhbcdbmvd2fvqwBldZkvYCYrJqVjHGs1O4hTUVb5oJZxVVR0CzAMLeboa1FtjZgfeUKc4nJENgMxPUuD6phJFDiwVrsLvO5tt9v1Zi-aD1/s200/donna2.jpg" width="149" /></a></div>What he's been doing since then is anybody's guess. Nothing written or posted about him to date indicates any sort of worthwhile endeavor or contribution, whether financial, supportive or voluntary in nature. If he now resides in Harlingen, what is he doing in town? Is he merely herding support for that eventual contest? If so, who is he meeting with, and where exacly is his expected suport coming from? Certainly, it cannot simply be the shrilly voice of an obscure blogger spurring him into thinking he is needed or can win.<br />
<br />
Harlingen is in trouble. Of that, there is no question. All economic and social indicators point to a steady decline when compared to its neighboring communities. The joke here is that San Benito, once the punching bag of Harlingen, is considering a proposal to annex Harlingen.<br />
<br />
Rick Morales invested almost a decade in public service to presumably help the residents of little Donna. Unless he explodes with some hellacious novel ideas that would quickly aid Harlingen, well, Harlingen needs to look elsewhere for its city hall leader. What's his educational background, and how does he explain his crushing defeat to a political novice?<br />
<br />
Rick Morales is not the answer, because, alas, he doesn't even know the question...<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><strong><span style="font-size: x-small;">- 30 -</span></strong></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">[<strong>EDITOR'S NOTE</strong><em>:...This article was originally published here last month. Our feelings related to this gentleman's bid for mayor of Harlingen remain as they were when we wrote this story</em>...]</div>Patrick Alcatrazhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16203892824178949597noreply@blogger.com34tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5567411512983693467.post-89371161191562738232011-06-25T08:40:00.000-04:002011-06-25T08:42:10.696-04:00A Conversation With Robert Leftwich: The Harlingen City Commissioner Opens Up...May Run For Mayor...Says Politics Can Be Brutal...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyt447Gsjl5CbRFltmrCxnNR67uzqpZ0-fXWugc0co6j6QUhJUXDM51LvXTTcZQ5CTScCaRaK5vCByq42aAryhvmMMLZEThUsWTPNX6y_ma0ytb7WvkMbmKxWBEkKPAYZt0D2cTLxE6Yc/s1600/zzzleftwich.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" q6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyt447Gsjl5CbRFltmrCxnNR67uzqpZ0-fXWugc0co6j6QUhJUXDM51LvXTTcZQ5CTScCaRaK5vCByq42aAryhvmMMLZEThUsWTPNX6y_ma0ytb7WvkMbmKxWBEkKPAYZt0D2cTLxE6Yc/s1600/zzzleftwich.jpg" /></a></div><strong>By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ</strong><br />
<em>Editor of The Tribune</em><br />
<br />
<strong>HARLINGEN, Texas -</strong> In some circles here, Robert Leftwich's work as a city commissioner is seen as enough of a public service foundation to ready a run for mayor, something Leftwich says is on his mind, although not to the point of deciding on it. Times are tough in the mid-valley community of almost 70,000, and there are those ceaseless waves of ragged rumblings within the city - noise that cannot be seen as anything other than political angst and unrest.<br />
<br />
Earlier this week, we forwarded a list of questions to the 46-year-old commissioner. Here is what he had to say in reply:<br />
<br />
<em>My position on running for Mayor is that all options are on the table at this point. But given that the mayoral race isn’t until 2013, with family and work commitments, it’s still too far out to be more than just a consideration at this point. </em><br />
<br />
<em>As far as what would make me decide more so or not about running would have to start with what the demands were of my family. The other thing that would be a major consideration to running would be who else might throw their hat in. If I didn’t feel that a qualified individual with community-first intentions was stepping up to vie for the position, then that would strengthen my consideration towards running. </em><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLpNJFSlcp0iVxco4zQfoi1iiTiPwu5BpN_udNn8-YQzhmgr72X16wdsRA-_1-PUNcLMGqzShVJ65ufOKU6p54qttPiShf2XSTEecR7dXI9maJjxmGt1zzAYbrB3VQp-3y1zwwqEgVV-o/s1600/zzzztrevi9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="168" q6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLpNJFSlcp0iVxco4zQfoi1iiTiPwu5BpN_udNn8-YQzhmgr72X16wdsRA-_1-PUNcLMGqzShVJ65ufOKU6p54qttPiShf2XSTEecR7dXI9maJjxmGt1zzAYbrB3VQp-3y1zwwqEgVV-o/s200/zzzztrevi9.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><em>I can see how some would seek the prestige of being Mayor, but I’m not really interested in that. I feel that I can pursue things more freely as a commissioner, and thus be more effective in that position by not having the distractions of the job as Mayor. </em><br />
<br />
<em>As far as the current state of political affairs in Harlingen, beginning with the transformational move in citizen representation by going to a district format, I feel that many more people who once felt disenfranchised under the citywide election process now feel that they can make a difference in city on-goings. </em><br />
<br />
<em>For many decades in Harlingen large portions of the city were fed crumbs from the table, so to speak, in terms of being provided adequate city services. Undeniably, as evidenced by the decay in too many of our neighborhoods, and the escalation of criminal activity throughout the city, the citizens have suffered needlessly from the narrow-mindedness of some in leadership positions in Harlingen. </em><br />
<br />
<em>Today, as a result of a broader demographic diversity of citizen involvement in the direction of the city, I feel that Harlingen, as a community, has shifted gears for the better as we enter into the 21st century. </em><br />
<br />
<em>The critics of change are mostly those who have enjoyed having their fingers in the coffers of City Hall in some form or fashion, selling their cause as being righteous and noble, but in reality, and as history has proven out, pursuing only self-enrichment. </em><br />
<br />
<em>As with any change in political advantage, it is those that have lost the most that become the biggest critics of those who have taken the helm. Politics can be brutal at times, actually, most always, and those willing to make the case for change can expect to receive no thanks when things turn out right, but only condemnation for any little thing that can by exploited and blown out of proportion by their critics. </em><br />
<br />
<strong><u>Personal Factoids:</u></strong><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVpgHM_LTW_bTfDOP_0bstxlwuvPxpf95kDimOpV8UE4d4YBZYYjwSZN9uxqr6T-X6r7XWz0ru03Rj55JpuOZ82clcS6qc3ZR2otauP8KSsA3qiHfZnHT5Hn1ZIfAPe6JyyClGPB6YxVk/s1600/leftwich.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="147" q6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVpgHM_LTW_bTfDOP_0bstxlwuvPxpf95kDimOpV8UE4d4YBZYYjwSZN9uxqr6T-X6r7XWz0ru03Rj55JpuOZ82clcS6qc3ZR2otauP8KSsA3qiHfZnHT5Hn1ZIfAPe6JyyClGPB6YxVk/s200/leftwich.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>Graduated in 1982 from Harlingen High. From 1983-85 attended TSTI in Waco, studying computer science. Holds an active State of Texas real estate Brokers license. <br />
<br />
Has been employed for the last 22.5 years with United Launch Alliance (ULA). ULA is a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin. The Harlingen ULA facility produces structural components for the Atlas rocket.<br />
<br />
His favorite book is a book in a book, the book of Psalm in the <strong>Bible</strong>. <br />
<br />
The Leftwich family consists of his wife, Michelle, and daughters Cassy 7, Shelby 11, Kayla, 16, plus stepdaughter Brittany, 12.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><strong><span style="font-size: x-small;">- 30 -</span></strong></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">[<strong>Editor's Note:</strong> <em>This report was published here earlier this year. Again, there are rumblings that Mr. Leftwich may seek the thankless job of mayor in Harlingen. We wish him well</em>...]<em> </em></span></div>Patrick Alcatrazhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16203892824178949597noreply@blogger.com45tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5567411512983693467.post-28440295757119371772011-06-24T07:43:00.001-04:002011-06-24T07:47:30.345-04:00For Austin's Juan Meza, It's All Good At His "Juan-In-A-Million" Taco Mecca...Austin Loves This Juan...We Did, Too...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ1NRDb0FpJe9aAsiS4QjvvNE3dPMst0V7XYPKvEpzHU51RKstOI5IqhrQfCrKbuoUEdgTu1KKnqZXh6S84hHGI8CG09eY06oPQhHCV_6UjQRX4zzgYBT-acOtZp2zE57HHJgeOpI2qCg/s1600/zzzjuanbest.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="238" s5="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ1NRDb0FpJe9aAsiS4QjvvNE3dPMst0V7XYPKvEpzHU51RKstOI5IqhrQfCrKbuoUEdgTu1KKnqZXh6S84hHGI8CG09eY06oPQhHCV_6UjQRX4zzgYBT-acOtZp2zE57HHJgeOpI2qCg/s320/zzzjuanbest.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><strong>By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ</strong><br />
<em>Editor of The Tribune</em><br />
<br />
<strong>AUSTIN, Texas -</strong> It's over on the Mexican side of town, the East Side, on Cesar Chavez Street, a drag lined with a string of Tex-Mex enterprises that range from homeless shelters, to busy auto repair shops, to a generous number of cafes, to colorful curio stores, to renovated offices of lawyers with Hispanic surnames. The place we write about here is aptly named -<strong><em> Juan In A Million</em></strong>.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsAwTTFot7gpDwP5czn4Yd428Wv9yOTBAreDCyFjryrkEvkoP9AF4EF1fvauy7XVr_sM9xUUC3CCuzxpJ-8huV51xjvs66XK-6t-pq5wZgNDWWdwgUg1jBT_eWgBa0lTpUNO9xORKGY-I/s1600/zzzzjuan2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="149" s5="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsAwTTFot7gpDwP5czn4Yd428Wv9yOTBAreDCyFjryrkEvkoP9AF4EF1fvauy7XVr_sM9xUUC3CCuzxpJ-8huV51xjvs66XK-6t-pq5wZgNDWWdwgUg1jBT_eWgBa0lTpUNO9xORKGY-I/s200/zzzzjuan2.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>It is not only the talk of the town in Austin on things related to breakfast <em>tacos</em>, but it approaches legendary status as the best place to not only eat that great, tasty<em> taco</em>, but the place to be seen eating a few.<br />
<br />
Or, as one reviewer put it: "<em>This was one of our Man vs Food stops and man o man did it live up to the hype. We get to the area where this awesome joint is located and I felt just at home. No posh hip businesses or restaurants around to make this place a pain to get to. It is a typical Mexican family joint located in residential area. I can swear this place may have just been a home and the owners decided to open up a restaurant to the people.</em><br />
<br />
<em>We ordered the breakfast tacos and these things were just like the ones my mom makes to this very day. Maybe my mom is related to the owners. Hahahaha. Anyway, their tacos there are awesome. Eggs are fluffy, bacon is crisp, the potatoes are soft and the cheese is not heavy. Perfect breakfast for the day and we were filled up all the way to dinner I kid you not after spending the rest of the day in downtown Austin and seeing the sights. Juan In A Million is the best breakfast in Austin."</em><br />
<br />
You could drive around Austin and find several hundred Tex-Mex joints and other <em>taquerias</em> and almost believe you're in East L.A. with crowds of Mexicans and Mexican-Americans who all look like the comedian Paul Rodriguez. There is even a little resemblance in Rodriguez for Juan's owner, Juan Meza - a genial host who will not only greet you at the door, but is also known to greet customers in the parking lot behind his place.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUwDdexkcFAZhn8nIceSNO-KByDZng-hEbkZAjiI7J1VkE7gA6QhPTwKqo4JN8TVjyDex3zdwZdYrdZGDI2FxDlj8znEpZTcjVksC_1JDC1PDwvrYQREH5RXHK7NAI9fkLcbwOcoc55PM/s1600/zzzjuan6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" s5="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUwDdexkcFAZhn8nIceSNO-KByDZng-hEbkZAjiI7J1VkE7gA6QhPTwKqo4JN8TVjyDex3zdwZdYrdZGDI2FxDlj8znEpZTcjVksC_1JDC1PDwvrYQREH5RXHK7NAI9fkLcbwOcoc55PM/s1600/zzzjuan6.jpg" /></a></div>The menu is not unlike one you'd see at any other Tex-Mex eatery. <em>Beef chalupas</em> were my treat on the day Margaret and I were there one day last week. She had a bowl of <em>Caldo de Rez</em>. All this out in the patio alongside the main dining area, there under the watchful eyes of flying grackles that seem to think they own the open-air section of the place.<br />
<br />
That was an okay meal. What brings all of Austin to this joint is the wildly-famous <strong><em>Don Juan Taco</em></strong>, a monster of a meal if there ever was one. The waitress will bring you one of these (at $3.99) and then come back around minutes later to ask if you need additional tortillas. Of course, you always do; the Don Juan is more a folded pillow than a traditionally-sized <em>taco</em>. Picture a T-shirt in a fold and you have the Don Tuan Taco. Eat it and be done for two days.<br />
<br />
Its hours are solely for breakfast and lunch. It closes at three in the afternoon. Mornings are for college students on a budget; lunch is for the office stiffs and construction workers. The artmosphere is chirpy, conversations stringing table to table, the rat-tat-tat of news and gossip moving across the plates, in between bites, drinks.<br />
<br />
We've dined pretty much everywhere in the Lone Star State, from the <em>Toddle Inn</em> in Brownsville, to <em>Las Cazuelas</em> in Harlingen, to <em>Don Pepe's</em> in McAllen, to <em>Mi Tierra</em> in San Antonio, to <em>La Familia</em> in Fort Worth, to<em> Cuquita's</em> in Big D. Juan-In-A-Million seems to be in another taco world, one not familiar to most Texans who are used to the same old-same old.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl1hZCp0xUAFAtLSxd-EVEzww1C_KiS5Ja3sgLc7wEtWwYmIR769PiZnh0durjb67glci2j1_xOajElAalQBEauoO9hGsG6GzYE1_kMP2Ys0pjLqix23PRuG6EWLMcBzXbdWxblOuZQXA/s1600/zzzzjuan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="131" s5="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl1hZCp0xUAFAtLSxd-EVEzww1C_KiS5Ja3sgLc7wEtWwYmIR769PiZnh0durjb67glci2j1_xOajElAalQBEauoO9hGsG6GzYE1_kMP2Ys0pjLqix23PRuG6EWLMcBzXbdWxblOuZQXA/s200/zzzzjuan.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>Perhaps it's Juan (shown in black shirt at right). The happy-go-lucky guy originally from Laredo is fronting his business like George Steinbrenner used to front the New York Yankees, always there with a ready smile and bone-rattling handshake.<br />
<br />
<em>"Te gusto, amigo?"</em> he says to me as we leave, patting me on the left shoulder as I move to the cash register. I did enjoy it. The food is tasty and the service is exceptional, but, for me, maybe the neat thing about our visit was Juan's genuine joy, one I do not believe had anything to do with the incessant ringing of the cash register.<br />
<br />
His desire to be a great host seemed too real...<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><strong><span style="font-size: x-small;">- 30 -</span></strong><br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">[<em>2300 E. Cesar Chavez Street, Austin 78702; 512-472-3872; </em><em><strong>Hours</strong>: Daily, 7am-3pm; <strong>Credit cards</strong> okay; <strong>Dress</strong>: casual, whatever; <strong>Parking</strong>: adequate; <strong>Price Range</strong>: Affordable...</em>]<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><em>- 0 -</em></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><strong><span style="font-size: x-small;">(Editor's Note: This article was originally published in January. It's Friday, so we think it fits in with the weekend mood. The review still applies.) </span></strong></div></div>Patrick Alcatrazhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16203892824178949597noreply@blogger.com34tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5567411512983693467.post-15820258486827794812011-06-23T10:23:00.007-04:002011-06-23T10:38:17.852-04:00In Brownsville, A Search For The Town's Top Gay Man...Clue: Everybody's A Suspect...<div align="left" class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrPEgCwRfZ6qOkSW3NI-LSjl4b-RQv8-SZ4GnWaHpPlzBlenMNvMlXgDokSCBP_nP4GlLDtH3hOqnNu4-YzPMzj_wnqb43YQD0YQQHEvKXTrVWUbuoR8GL-XOADMRgKAzsAK1UU2IR8dqx/s1600/gay4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" i$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrPEgCwRfZ6qOkSW3NI-LSjl4b-RQv8-SZ4GnWaHpPlzBlenMNvMlXgDokSCBP_nP4GlLDtH3hOqnNu4-YzPMzj_wnqb43YQD0YQQHEvKXTrVWUbuoR8GL-XOADMRgKAzsAK1UU2IR8dqx/s1600/gay4.jpg" /></a> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><strong>By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ</strong></div><em>Editor of The Tribune</em><br />
<br />
<strong>BROWNSVILLE, Texas -</strong> We were done talking about bad minor league baseball in the Rio Grande Valey when Jerry McHale lifted his emptied beer mug and fired the damned thing into the nearby resaca as if to show how a fastball ought to be thrown. "I hate those lousy Rio Grande Valley WhiteWings," he roared after craning his head back like a javeline thrower. "If you've seen one <em>pendejo</em> strike out around here, you've seen them all. My maid can run the bases better than those stiffs!"<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMPNnMTwUJX8ZE9TDIgcuVWeoPSdxgTsh-VeIAxuZ3uXQEGXqY6vp6xFccVfEDsA-raujZlK1XnMI_-HdJ9M9XaEbg98UkVDpfwfKlYayD3qlVL583n0cGvtwJvrW8UNZo9W_BxDJtV0NF/s1600/gay1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" i$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMPNnMTwUJX8ZE9TDIgcuVWeoPSdxgTsh-VeIAxuZ3uXQEGXqY6vp6xFccVfEDsA-raujZlK1XnMI_-HdJ9M9XaEbg98UkVDpfwfKlYayD3qlVL583n0cGvtwJvrW8UNZo9W_BxDJtV0NF/s200/gay1.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>He's not interested in discussing the low-level of play in the Valley's contributions to the North American Baseball League; McHale, once a promising third baseman in his hometown of Modesto, California, said he went to a WhiteWings game in Harlingen up the road last year and was so disgusted with the awful level of play that he went to the men's room, did his business by way of a creative squat and flushed the commode 20 times just to tax the city sewer system enough to cover the game's price of admission.<br />
<br />
McHale's out to offer a new kind of Journalism in his goofy, gossip-fueled community of some 140,000 legals and illegals who will sing a <em>corrido</em> to some brazen drug dealer for you inside a cheap <em>cantina</em> at the drop if a few <em>pesos</em> on the aging bar. He thinks the time has come to take the pulse of the town as it has never been taken before.<br />
<br />
"I'm going to work-up lists that will put our luckless denizens in some sort of fuckin' category, so that we're not all lumped as bordertown idiots unable to dream a damned thing," he said as a fattened waitress walked by and he lifted his hand to show her two fingers.<br />
<br />
"Peace to you, brother," she said, and he began screaming, "Two goddamned beers!"<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1gJPIjD4FWwz-xf01YyBaHHt3iYkXzIRAymzxBEIZuJhSbkASEjPCWLUCpa_MuF1bz5mmTbiClumQXVSDtf_6hDvpM-4Tin10Z2GBWbeAPyJ-VpbW1SZ-lwueAdlDHCTip9kFregOfFGJ/s1600/gay2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="170" i$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1gJPIjD4FWwz-xf01YyBaHHt3iYkXzIRAymzxBEIZuJhSbkASEjPCWLUCpa_MuF1bz5mmTbiClumQXVSDtf_6hDvpM-4Tin10Z2GBWbeAPyJ-VpbW1SZ-lwueAdlDHCTip9kFregOfFGJ/s200/gay2.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>The waitress loped off toward the bar, swatting at something or another on her butt as she walked. New Journalism has no time for the stupid, McHale went on, lipping a Bugler he'd rolled minutes earlier when the jukebox had exploded with a song by Jose Alfredo Jimenez and two skinny, high-throated guys had bopped-up from a nearby table to dance together as if popsicle-addicted<em> pachucos</em>.<br />
<br />
The scene was telling, because McHale, in his new & improved blog <em>BrownsvilleLiteraryReview.blogspot.com</em>, plans to draft a list of the Top Gay Men in Brownsville. He's of the opinion that such a compilation will not only allow Gays and Lesbians a new status in the Extreme-<em>Macho</em> town, but also allow non-Gays to know where things stand sexually in Brownsville. "You could say it's about damned time, but, then, how long has that sentence been in play?" he asks as a seagull swoops in a steals the last of his tasty basket snack.<br />
<br />
<em>"Mas chips!"</em> he hollers at the hefty waitress, whose name is Isidra and who earlier had said she understands Gay, but still needs her "number one Juan."<br />
<br />
So, where will he begin, we ask.<br />
<br />
"City Hall, where else?"<br />
<br />
"Peedee?"<br />
<br />
"Oh, hell yes! I know we have Gay cops. All you have to do is look at how they walk!"<br />
<br />
"Politicians?"<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJSwea_ZGTqIt6r3A4RCvrs_UXN4lJyy8vI2SBNbD37G9VAJvDy9v8QY59lhwN86RqF4WQwT40WgfC8cSfYuIkyatLnuDcgbB9yKAB8D00YI68jPfAOokPrffYXyXFDsY4DSYqrMwOgfxG/s1600/gay3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="149" i$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJSwea_ZGTqIt6r3A4RCvrs_UXN4lJyy8vI2SBNbD37G9VAJvDy9v8QY59lhwN86RqF4WQwT40WgfC8cSfYuIkyatLnuDcgbB9yKAB8D00YI68jPfAOokPrffYXyXFDsY4DSYqrMwOgfxG/s200/gay3.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>"They love each other, so there's no mystery there. Is Mayor Tony Martinez Gay? I don't know yet, but I plan to find out. Is Sheriff Omar Lucio gay? <em>Quien sabe, vato. Pero veremos, no?</em> Is new commissioner Estela Chavez-Vasquez Gay? If she is, it's a waste."<br />
<br />
He won't say anything about the local press, bloggers included, although he has in the past often criticized one blogger who is admittedly Gay. We ask: Is he on your list?<br />
<br />
"Absolutely! Him and a few others who think they're in the closet. The closet in Brownsville is a huge sonofabitch, but Gays will talk. They're as shifty and gossipy as women. My advice to non-Gays is that you never piss-off a Gay. They're vicious as all Hell. Worse than Al-Qaeda!"<br />
<br />
It's an interesting time along the lawless Texas-Mexico border. Crime is rampant. Jobs are few and unemployment is okay with the region's ever-slouching masses. Dreams travel here and, as with minor league baseball, die a warning-track death.<br />
<br />
"Is State Rep. Rene Oliveira gay?" we ask as the sun begins to set and an outbound freight train blows its goodbye horn. McHale makes a clownish face, clears his sun-baked throat and says, without laughing,"The Plump Partridge? Maybe. He has the Gay walk, that's for sure."<br />
<br />
It's a hot, humid day. We leave it at that after telling McHale we'll look for his story in the coming days. The revelations likely will not shock a town already used to being shocked. But it's a story, and stories are pretty much free around here. Comedy, on the other hand, and that is how the many <em>Machos</em> here chose to see the Gay lifestyle, comes along only every now and then...<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><strong><span style="font-size: x-small;">- 30 -</span></strong></div>Patrick Alcatrazhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16203892824178949597noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5567411512983693467.post-4414234277860623452011-06-22T11:03:00.002-04:002011-06-22T11:09:26.698-04:00For GOP, Few Words Of Wisdom...Circus Shows From Coast To Coast...Word Up!...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9o9bv_ty3Fn1Q6gAmt9SkhAKfN-G1DcRB8fyZuERSpHDTwNFLkAxCPFzMog7MoyiswYnZj9ajA9RBxIDQ37NMq3Xg3zutIvXVYRmlzyTTo3dC5nqfHC_dMpUYsF9fYU8JuYQolYDnrIJj/s1600/palinbachmann.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" i$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9o9bv_ty3Fn1Q6gAmt9SkhAKfN-G1DcRB8fyZuERSpHDTwNFLkAxCPFzMog7MoyiswYnZj9ajA9RBxIDQ37NMq3Xg3zutIvXVYRmlzyTTo3dC5nqfHC_dMpUYsF9fYU8JuYQolYDnrIJj/s1600/palinbachmann.jpg" /></a></div><strong>By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ</strong><br />
<em>Editor of The Tribune</em><br />
<br />
<strong>AUSTIN, Texas -</strong> The East Coast has been a mangrove swamp for Republican hopefuls Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann. But does it really matter? Do these two political sideshows mean anything? Do we care that Bachmann confuses sites of the Battle of Lexington and the one in Concord? She flubbed that test in New Hampshire in the days ahead of last week's Republican Party debate.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj96EGAzAVwJkmjrq07gYIdH9qiLAfzR_bQFHtSHtKPGL-_jCSF__p_9lT47nLpdaJEAZ-BYWLjQ2Xn_TEqnMXJ9TleoribnhSzuAVUxl1rWiUOWs1rpb-kk_4SPHml0dKKjOG_CowUfOK4/s1600/gop3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="137" i$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj96EGAzAVwJkmjrq07gYIdH9qiLAfzR_bQFHtSHtKPGL-_jCSF__p_9lT47nLpdaJEAZ-BYWLjQ2Xn_TEqnMXJ9TleoribnhSzuAVUxl1rWiUOWs1rpb-kk_4SPHml0dKKjOG_CowUfOK4/s200/gop3.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>And do we care when Palin, the quitting governor of Alaska, tells a reporter Paul Revere rode that fateful night to alert the British that the British were coming? Is she still relevant outside the soiled acreage owned by Far Rightwing extremists? Does the average American, not the Republican who has $1.5 million in revolving accounts with the country's top jewelry store, still care a whit about the cheap clown act that is Palin?<br />
<br />
It's a strange time in Republican Party politics. Its men are an air-conditioned collection of bad scrummers and its women are, well, singlehandedly bringing back that 1980s word - Ditz.<br />
<br />
Ms. Palin took the long way toward her education, attending five colleges before getting her degree. Ms. Bachmann trumped her with a law degree, but also attended Oral Roberts University in Oklahoma, where she did some work for a professor rather interested in the progress being made by White Supremacy groups in this country. That Bachman is a card. Her sister is a Lesbian and Bachmann insist that the lifestyle is an abomination to Humanity.<br />
<br />
We ask: Is this what's next for America?<br />
<br />
Republicans hold hard to their issues, taking unbending stands on immigration and employee unions and health care that, dang it, goes against their own interests. Bachmann will rail against federal entitlement programs, like funding Headstart, which educates and feeds kids, but accepts $250,000 in farm subsidies for her family. She and Palin are two puppies lost in the woods without the crumbs.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZHXlj52QByt2fdVo-W3qz2axefvlxkGefV-EV6PKK6bgNBuCZmY6fOqUF2firZeThrYNwcinMhYJh1JI7R_zhe6_oEZsV0DceaWH-9lndCLUvuIWJc76h2Hi1UwjX5SGgVyJZF-NDY1MK/s1600/gop2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="160" i$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZHXlj52QByt2fdVo-W3qz2axefvlxkGefV-EV6PKK6bgNBuCZmY6fOqUF2firZeThrYNwcinMhYJh1JI7R_zhe6_oEZsV0DceaWH-9lndCLUvuIWJc76h2Hi1UwjX5SGgVyJZF-NDY1MK/s200/gop2.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>Republicans harp loudly about President Barack Obama's insistence that the nation's wealthy pay a fairer share of their taxes. That's government meddling with the people, they crow.<br />
<br />
But statistics don't lie. The wealth trend has it that the richest 2 percent of Americans are getting 20 percent of the wealth. While the Middle Class citizen has struggled to maintain wages during the last 20 years, the wealthy have seen their riches increase dramatically. American productivity is said to be on the rise, yet wages flatline. The difference is glaring and alarming, yet Republicans fully believe that the nation can recover on the backs of the poor and the Middle Class. Don't tax us, say the rich. Tax the idiot, Joe Sixpack.<br />
<br />
The thing is not all Republicans are wealthy. Some fall-in with the dogma out of some sense of fear that Democrats are after an all-out socialist nation. They are ignorant about health care, or they somehow believe that it is a welfare program. The aging of the so-called Baby Boomers is also at play. Many of these Republicans, and we include the ridiculously naive Tea Party folks, need these healthcare programs. Old is not owned by the Democratric Party. Sick is sick, and the cost of avoiding sickness is steep. And just as the nation takes care of security by way of its military, it too has the reponsibility to care for its own. You don't leave your citizens behind.<br />
<br />
Problems abound for this country. And all of those problems, from the social to the economic, affect everybody. Why is healthcare socialism and farm subsides not? It's a wonderment.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0bT1cwyaWUyuiOdw0Ql-R_mQjPhDYhQ8MUItmgOH7xxeq7OD9x9-Zb2yQQHP_9oP-8ouLH1CfK1aHJjaIeLo9N75iPIG_rpnqaRwBPD3jVMa-ly4qIEPqxSavTRYEgXNTJeEDXPvDOEY8/s1600/gop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" i$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0bT1cwyaWUyuiOdw0Ql-R_mQjPhDYhQ8MUItmgOH7xxeq7OD9x9-Zb2yQQHP_9oP-8ouLH1CfK1aHJjaIeLo9N75iPIG_rpnqaRwBPD3jVMa-ly4qIEPqxSavTRYEgXNTJeEDXPvDOEY8/s200/gop.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>Democrats ought to be criticized for not doing enough, for not taking the fight to Republicans more aggressively. Republicans have voted <em>"No"</em> on every action sought by the Obama Adminstration. That's been going on for almost three years now. It'll likely go on through the remaining years the president holds that office. That is not government; that is giving up, or it is being insular and self-serving.<br />
<br />
So, we have Palin and Bachmann. Not much there. One should be running for mayor of her hometown of Wasilla, Alaska, where she Peter Principled, and the other should remember that Republican values throw her loving Lesbian stepsister under the bus. Only, that's not the GOP playbook.<br />
<br />
No, the Republicans are okay with their leaders never having served in the military or educated themselves in the best universities of the land. They will cheer for a woman who quit her elected office to rake in the cash from public appearances. And they will grant the separatist Bachmann standing she does not deserve.<br />
<br />
It is a joke, of course.<br />
<br />
But after George W. Bush, every Republican moron likely got the idea that, well, if he did it, I can do it, too. Palin hasn't announced plans to run for the presidency. Bachmann is set to do it next Monday. So far, there are six men in the same contest, with a few others considering the plunge.<br />
<br />
It's time this country had a female president. We'll say that openly.<br />
<br />
But not Palin and not Bachmann.<br />
<br />
The country does not need to lower its standard. A debate between the president and either of these two women would quickly be labeled abuse. You'd think the Republican braintrust would know it...<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><strong><span style="font-size: x-small;">- 30 -</span></strong></div>Patrick Alcatrazhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16203892824178949597noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5567411512983693467.post-1370786675743322012011-06-21T10:01:00.003-04:002011-06-21T10:08:38.215-04:00In Brownsville, A Glut Of News And No Newspaper...The Mexican Border As Motherlode Of Stories...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpuJwEj96W3D45d1hwA5Dv8w7du6CRQ7ejtSjldlKaKtGBcTPfoJif9prNj0hbdqJ9TKWyLNFB_bOvdDmh23oXD-Yh6P5t03upkZIR41biU_8HraOipxzASB_4M2fmxAQoBRO-x4KZd1Yx/s1600/mac.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" i$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpuJwEj96W3D45d1hwA5Dv8w7du6CRQ7ejtSjldlKaKtGBcTPfoJif9prNj0hbdqJ9TKWyLNFB_bOvdDmh23oXD-Yh6P5t03upkZIR41biU_8HraOipxzASB_4M2fmxAQoBRO-x4KZd1Yx/s1600/mac.jpg" /></a></div><strong>By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ</strong><br />
<em>Editor of The Tribune</em><br />
<br />
<strong>BROWNSVILLE, Texas -</strong> It's been said by out-of-town reporters many times: If ever there was a place for mind-boggling news stories, that place would be the lawless Texas-Mexico border. But, as with fairy tales that become too-familiar, the tales of woe, of corruption, of malcontents, of under-achievers, of the excitable, of the criminals have innured the population and the region's press to the point of indifference. How many times can you read that the Three Mexican Bears were busted for dealing drugs?<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMDDhc31gJNFj-0Bs2EXw6SM6MNgd8GpWz_AIl6yS3X5ujV8uFdEAm31wD3p7auAP4FQ426A61kv_fq07up9U3cjbIzWXtQ2X8ccKjCNqevDLuXJkhwUS7NmuWdo5EBnvTbJH2AnGgsGhb/s1600/freedom4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" i$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMDDhc31gJNFj-0Bs2EXw6SM6MNgd8GpWz_AIl6yS3X5ujV8uFdEAm31wD3p7auAP4FQ426A61kv_fq07up9U3cjbIzWXtQ2X8ccKjCNqevDLuXJkhwUS7NmuWdo5EBnvTbJH2AnGgsGhb/s1600/freedom4.jpg" /></a></div>Now, again, comes the renegade Blogger Jerry McHale, shown in photo above, to drag his dictionary across the harsh, dusty local geography in search of those very stories. It is the latest promise by the California transplant who's made a long-running, curbside career out of shaming this town's mediocre politicians and the local culture. McHale, a schoolteacher by day, has declared he will aim his blog - <em>BrownsvilleLiteraryReview.blogspot.com</em> - to higher ground. Gone, he promises, will be the pornography and alley lingo he has used for years. It's a wait-and-see moment for his targets and neighbors.<br />
<br />
We have long contended that the existing mainstream press in the Rio Grande Valley has never been up to the job. Freedom Newspapers, Inc., which owns the Valley's three dailies, has turned its back on stories that should have made their newspaper here the national <em>"go to"</em> daily on all things to do with the region. Is there a Pulitzer Prize in coverage of the ongoing miserable drug war across the Rio Grande? One would think so. Merely taking second-hand info from the news outlets across the river has not worked for The Brownsville Herald, The McAllen Monitor and the ever-hapless Valley Morning Star in Harlingen. What stories they'd have told had reporters for those three dailies been sicced on the drug war; that is, had they been dispatched across the river to report firsthand.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKYMGn6nOLaWbGNjUs8klAmSWT3x-vjISgOkrVY5yqCKBLQJgDb2eRYKkb15WLz4kMRie2MeYgpj8332xdV7JhIjeHfrR5QoS0H_ja-5iDzGSjixCbQGkyDvtdQoU7fjifFdhpvV3RUpTL/s1600/freedom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" i$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKYMGn6nOLaWbGNjUs8klAmSWT3x-vjISgOkrVY5yqCKBLQJgDb2eRYKkb15WLz4kMRie2MeYgpj8332xdV7JhIjeHfrR5QoS0H_ja-5iDzGSjixCbQGkyDvtdQoU7fjifFdhpvV3RUpTL/s1600/freedom.jpg" /></a></div>McHale's declaration comes with a clear angst. He has the talent to undress any politician or city bureaucrat doing wrong, a species of which there are many in town. He has the contacts, having traded in comfort easily found elsewhere for a life of cheap laughs and booze in this hardscrabble town of a quarter-million residents unable to bridge into anything that could be labeled as being nice. Stray dogs and wild, booze-fueled driving got the attention of the town's previous mayor. The current one has so far ignored animals...and humans. It's a good time for crusading, for muckraking, for exposing all that is wrong with this depressing community, one more attuned to Mexico's ways than it is to anything American. McHale has mined that environment in the past for excellent reporting, although it's been awhile.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiJ2mQAKwPJ_jylpbxHe0KsRz4T7fQ-W8KM0l8M60e5NOgX2oiUdlA4cBYbhJEFZpVg2aGFhaAL2NLTHgaMTeAzyGrfe6oua3cAhVWGbCFjIQ0XpFRpCBBuh9MFQ7WodnrgemqBfWxHTei/s1600/freedom5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" i$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiJ2mQAKwPJ_jylpbxHe0KsRz4T7fQ-W8KM0l8M60e5NOgX2oiUdlA4cBYbhJEFZpVg2aGFhaAL2NLTHgaMTeAzyGrfe6oua3cAhVWGbCFjIQ0XpFRpCBBuh9MFQ7WodnrgemqBfWxHTei/s1600/freedom5.jpg" /></a></div>He should start with a lengthy essay on the State of Brownsville, noting its deficiencies, its horribleness and its recent failings, followed by some insightful profiles of the miscreants who continue to soil his homeown, and, then, perhaps he should simply hound those he knows are not serving the community. In all this, he should forget about those locals he has protected for so long. We suspect that McHale himself is aware of the criticism he has received for bailing on people who should have been exposed. And, of course, it goes without saying that he should not trade his objectivity and credibility for free food and booze, as is the practice of the town's other bloggers.<br />
<br />
This is a great time to re-shape news in Brownsville. The local newspaper has ceded its claim to being the newspaper of record, ignoring a mountain of stories and covering others so topically as to be useless.<br />
<br />
We encourage McHale to give this one his best shot.<br />
<br />
As Elvis might say about here, it's now or never...<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><strong><span style="font-size: x-small;">- 30 -</span></strong></div>Patrick Alcatrazhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16203892824178949597noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5567411512983693467.post-41264542490732925162011-06-20T11:09:00.014-04:002011-06-20T14:20:33.706-04:00News From The Front: Of Ron Paul, RGV Politics And Awful Minor League Baseball...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWmzuXjGtZH0GrkC6T8SE1runFtWNrLJWOo6-9XL0Ja1SM80Zxe97xna67Iv-ud2KTmlXIhDU2j_1x4ZQlUN58001h5nYY8CHqOo_Vl86BgprTbfXUZYFVknbSKboiUmI88Vg7IiFV6ARo/s1600/weeklede.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" i$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWmzuXjGtZH0GrkC6T8SE1runFtWNrLJWOo6-9XL0Ja1SM80Zxe97xna67Iv-ud2KTmlXIhDU2j_1x4ZQlUN58001h5nYY8CHqOo_Vl86BgprTbfXUZYFVknbSKboiUmI88Vg7IiFV6ARo/s1600/weeklede.jpg" /></a></div><strong>By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ</strong><br />
<em>Editor of The Tribune</em><br />
<br />
<strong>AUSTIN, Texas -</strong> There are those who say history repeats itself, in politics, sports, culture and everything else Man has his hands on. That is true. You can leave the comfort of your living room couch, take in dinner and a movie and come back to find little has changed. We are on the lip of something we've had or tasted before, already fully digested. Life is daily, the sun followed by the moon.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2WiQapk8ObgirJJKPAn0p-gNrEMRKa-ZxWRBJ5bryDKFJx7-ZlAtrxcM0ZxV7ALL8Epu00X8Rqeie6hHCN5NuKZDPehCUOyZvkSoUhyphenhyphen2iCIXAMy7LtCnADj0TGbvLGJ1pnG6Ta9DSxTfj/s1600/week5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" i$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2WiQapk8ObgirJJKPAn0p-gNrEMRKa-ZxWRBJ5bryDKFJx7-ZlAtrxcM0ZxV7ALL8Epu00X8Rqeie6hHCN5NuKZDPehCUOyZvkSoUhyphenhyphen2iCIXAMy7LtCnADj0TGbvLGJ1pnG6Ta9DSxTfj/s200/week5.jpg" width="169" /></a></div><strong><span style="font-size: large;">1.)</span><em> National Politics -</em></strong> We like him cause he dissed Hollywood Republican Ronald Reagan enough to make us believe him on that front, but U.S. Rep. Ron Paul is simply not presidential material. The Texas Libertarian-Republican won the Republican Leadership Conference's straw poll over the weekend in New Orleans. It is, to be sure, only the latest poll, but the 75-year-old Paul keeps shaking the GOP's branches. We laud his presidential-aspiration efforts, which began as far back as 1988, but something about the lanky, high-throated Paul bothers us. He publishes a variety of political newsletters in which he damns much of what serves as our federal government. In one of those controversial newsletters, he wrote this: <em>"Boy, it sure burns me to have a national holiday for Martin Luther King. I voted against this outrage time and time again as a Congressman. What an infamy that Ronald Reagan approved it! We can thank him for our annual Hate Whitey Day."</em> That's bush league politics, and something we cannot overcome when thinking about his chances. Ron Paul speaks a lot of common sense. It just strikes us as being nothing more than self-serving noise. His true beliefs, whatever they are, are something to really worry about.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk6XAmgnljRGqd5A7Lt04_vfl90e9FlaR62kShyphenhyphenGkI-oRZIoO2d4asVhZEYHDKYEiVMsOM8QwwIKWHxjPk1AwxBGHbboMmDap7sTV-KY-KInge_wg3W2Q2YSTrVhxAd31bnWDOlKEa6bxR/s1600/week3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="172" i$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk6XAmgnljRGqd5A7Lt04_vfl90e9FlaR62kShyphenhyphenGkI-oRZIoO2d4asVhZEYHDKYEiVMsOM8QwwIKWHxjPk1AwxBGHbboMmDap7sTV-KY-KInge_wg3W2Q2YSTrVhxAd31bnWDOlKEa6bxR/s200/week3.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><strong><span style="font-size: large;">2.)</span></strong> <em><strong>Local Politics -</strong></em> In Brownsville, it is <em>The Day of The Woman</em>. And we don't mean in the sack, which is where they've been Queens for eons. No, this time, women now own the majority of the seats on the Brownsville City Commission following Saturday's run-off elections. Their names are not yet important; it is their deeds to come that will serve as gender grade. For too long, however, the poverty-stricken city at the end of the Rio Grande has lived a <em>Stoned Macho</em> existence, fending off an endless shower of political corruption, lack of brains and an environment that said chasing booze and broads was the order of the day at City Hall. This election's results are a major leap forward, perhaps allowing some residents to think the town has plunged into the 1980s.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLdiXk-wyHUzAAdL59IcAE4MJvu8WBwcgUgkLII5jicIOotEjzq_Xi6JbcYI4Nq3sk19x45GRJ99LtpayRvtQGEN4yHLq54K2sAhdBYSFpI56XkHO7Dp807FSG0fxnf4PuTOpVA2Yl5daO/s1600/week2.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" i$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLdiXk-wyHUzAAdL59IcAE4MJvu8WBwcgUgkLII5jicIOotEjzq_Xi6JbcYI4Nq3sk19x45GRJ99LtpayRvtQGEN4yHLq54K2sAhdBYSFpI56XkHO7Dp807FSG0fxnf4PuTOpVA2Yl5daO/s1600/week2.bmp" /></a></div><strong><span style="font-size: large;">3.)</span></strong> <strong><em>RGV Politics -</em></strong> Nothing entertains like a smalltown mayoral election. In tiny, dusty Donna along the Mexican border, it is as if a new shipment of khaki pants has hit town. Saturday's battle for the mayorship here had the incumbent, an Hispanic by the name of David Simmons, shown in photo above, treating his opponent, former Mayor Hector Casiano, as if a fly circling his beloved Guacamole. Casiano was said to be <em>"Old School"</em> in a part of the Rio Grande Valley where few go to school. He got off to a bad start, okaying a campaign poster with a misspelled word. Not that it was the reason he lost, because he lost handily. It was, says this observer, a good result if doing away with the past is a sign of progress. Too often, in the luckless Valley, residents are buffaloed by <em>"names"</em> of families who do little for the community, but act as if the Cartwrights on the Ponderosa. Casiano needed to be whipped, and, well, he was. Hopefully, it turns the page on poor Donna's <em>patron</em> past. Oddly, another former Mayor of Donna, one Rick Morales, is being ballyhooed as a potential candidate for mayor of Harlingen in that town's next election. Morales has had his shot. In western movies, he's the guy who should ride out of town at sunset, leaving the stage gracefully and not hanging on as if some punch-drunk boxer unable to reach for his laxative.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiu2nibDLRoHD8bkk8nD2Qp6yXUJD1EwuyFqi5zZky_Gf3o0eIvdMSlQYAEnsn8QMYBGnEka3aqUzmF6440FNwaa6JY1rhjVbt8toF_Y5_Sd6kKrb4c9FYyleW8BXJBL6bRXNB2Iackw4r/s1600/week4.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" i$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiu2nibDLRoHD8bkk8nD2Qp6yXUJD1EwuyFqi5zZky_Gf3o0eIvdMSlQYAEnsn8QMYBGnEka3aqUzmF6440FNwaa6JY1rhjVbt8toF_Y5_Sd6kKrb4c9FYyleW8BXJBL6bRXNB2Iackw4r/s1600/week4.bmp" /></a></div><strong><span style="font-size: large;">4.)</span></strong> <em><strong>Minor League Baseball -</strong></em> So, whatever became of the delinquent $40,000 utility bill owed to the City of Harlingen by the Rio Grande Valley WhiteWings baseball team? The new season is underway and, already, the <em>taco</em>-fat players are getting fatter with every pitch in the dirt, fans are staying away in droves and nothing out of the ordinary has exhibited itself on the ballfield. If this is baseball, well, bring on softball. Minor league baseball always has been a crapshoot. The major leagues are underway and fights for the pennant are again exciting the nation. Minor league ball is the equivalent of, say, nine guys buying a big tent and then believing they can bring a circus to town. Things have been so mediocre for the North American Baseball League fronting this charade that, in Yuma, the team celebrated Memorial Day by hosting a Lady Gaga Night. In the Valley, teams from Edinburg, McAllen and Harlingen take turns beating the brains out of each other so often that it's easy to say all of these players are simply not very good players. Scoring 12, 14, 15 runs a game tells you the pitching is not up to par. Perhaps the concessions - soda, beer, hot dogs - are better this season. Let's hope the mustard and relish are free.<br />
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Paz out...<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><strong><span style="font-size: x-small;">- 30 -</span></strong></div>Patrick Alcatrazhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16203892824178949597noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5567411512983693467.post-28045530912107218732011-06-19T08:57:00.000-04:002011-06-19T07:58:06.175-04:00On Father's Day, A Hope That The Lump In Your Throat Is About Love, Not About Regret...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGTG7xbO5KgqGbnPvLRs2E9BrJe6pXNQnULf2_a4MX9gi2nqY4TwPeABuhhU12tEJtAO51J8w-_vpP9TTf6CGAxWZeUa_c7gJhzH10Z6JXjE6jlyklI4Ej_Ew7-NBEeESJ-IkoZTViab0/s1600/zzzDADDIO.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="192" qu="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGTG7xbO5KgqGbnPvLRs2E9BrJe6pXNQnULf2_a4MX9gi2nqY4TwPeABuhhU12tEJtAO51J8w-_vpP9TTf6CGAxWZeUa_c7gJhzH10Z6JXjE6jlyklI4Ej_Ew7-NBEeESJ-IkoZTViab0/s320/zzzDADDIO.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><strong>By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ</strong><br />
<em>Editor of The Tribune</em><br />
<br />
<strong>McALLEN, Texas -</strong> Somewhere out there, in expensive and humble homes from one end of the Rio Grande Valley to the other, is a dad extending his hand to receive a card or gift from his son or daughter. Let us hope that that father has no moment flashing across his brain of a time when he abused his kids, when he failed to provide, when he disrespected their mother in their presence, when he let the family down.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtKcl-XJVepuoLhz2Xe-zY7hmeC97vQTAeGTGo6rn-5qooBosnyxIjWAn-Zsl2QKbC8_fzrQ2DpRNvQ2KaaJN38oKBFD05ABUqONIzlUsezLbZ0LG-SC9aP95c_ET5vSPfCVZjqWAeuBtx/s1600/dad3.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="139" i$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtKcl-XJVepuoLhz2Xe-zY7hmeC97vQTAeGTGo6rn-5qooBosnyxIjWAn-Zsl2QKbC8_fzrQ2DpRNvQ2KaaJN38oKBFD05ABUqONIzlUsezLbZ0LG-SC9aP95c_ET5vSPfCVZjqWAeuBtx/s200/dad3.bmp" width="200" /></a></div>It's <strong><em>Father's Day</em></strong> across the nation.<br />
<br />
This is the day to stare at the bottom of the family ledger and take a full accounting of a man's behavior toward his children. Pity the man whose actions have not been noble, whose words have hurt, whose role is a mess of infidelity, regret and personal pain. Today is the day all the chits come knocking on the soul's door for collection. This is the day a child's innocent eyes open wide to convey love. This is the day a son or daughter will offer his or her finest loving hug, his or her sugared words full of genuine pride. This is the day the wife, that sweetheart you chose to marry, takes a deep breadth and hopes that this day, this day, will bring out the best in her husband.<br />
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And that father, if he's been a father for any length of time, whether a day or decades, will inhale a world of oxygen and try his damndest to erase the little things he wishes he'd never done, the hard words he wishes he'd never aimed in the direction of his children, the failings he exhibited so openly to the woman who married him, him out of a billion men on the planet - him.<br />
<br />
I wish my two daughters could be five years old again. They are seven years apart, one is married with a family, the other one interested in shining the entire sky in the biggest city in America. Both do their Old Man proud in their respective ways, in the heart-tugging things they say, the laughter we share when remembering a trip to Disneyworld, building a snowman in the front yard, travelling as a family. You can't bring back those ages. Children grow and they go...and the weeks turn to months and then to years and the next thing you know, well, too many memories will have faded.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizDaRCfa8vA-rIZQed0XMyf67zSoSPkr7IKKwVrovUZ5Hm2HSAAOO1f13leWsRAz3WG9lp1AhmJqU44u7NPX5tidQh4KzDCbd1D3G__ppkrp4WvKxAo9mLvP_5UUYTV4Mu2Oh5Vq3MaDgs/s1600/dad4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" i$="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizDaRCfa8vA-rIZQed0XMyf67zSoSPkr7IKKwVrovUZ5Hm2HSAAOO1f13leWsRAz3WG9lp1AhmJqU44u7NPX5tidQh4KzDCbd1D3G__ppkrp4WvKxAo9mLvP_5UUYTV4Mu2Oh5Vq3MaDgs/s200/dad4.jpg" width="138" /></a></div>I agonize when I see a parent being cruel to a child, the fathers especially. I have been known to approach a kid whose Dad has said no to candy at a convenience store and offered to buy it. It's not a smart thing to do, but my feelings for kids are singular - the children must be allowed to be children. It is the best age, and I am not the first to say that.<br />
<br />
So, today, when you are honored as a father, think a bit about the family and ask yourself whether you have tried to be the best of fathers - not just today, or in the weeks leading up to Father's Day, but every day.<br />
<br />
I miss my children more than I'll admit. They know it. I say it to them every chance I get, in writing and during telephone chats, most of those too short, but they're busy. I know they love me. They say it to me. I know they think of me often. I know they would like me to be with them more. I know that their mother tells them to stay in touch with me.<br />
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I know it, yes... 'cause I never did anything bad or said anything stupid to them or to their mother when they were children. I'm kinda proud of that. <br />
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<em>Happy Father's Day...</em><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><strong><span style="font-size: x-small;">- 30 -</span></strong></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">[<strong>EDITOR'S NOTE</strong>:...This story was written and posted last Father's Day, 2010. I still feel the same way about my two daughters. I know all of you do, as well, about your own kids...]</div>Patrick Alcatrazhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16203892824178949597noreply@blogger.com27tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5567411512983693467.post-65362003994357136142011-06-16T07:30:00.003-04:002011-06-16T10:56:22.810-04:00In Ditzy Michele Bachmann, The Republican Party Has Its Latest Clown...This One Is A Nut Case...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrsb_GZppJIMsuukY5dT-1HEv36TBYD4EiF9OQdWk5MT7RTh-u8vw87uH3522yPGY2Etu0ahgLSIkU2Y8LNaT_IzhsNdvstildTDIlIYcLwByz9F1pot1S8NZUMf3I_vijMzfdE4vdmFkG/s1600/bachmann1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrsb_GZppJIMsuukY5dT-1HEv36TBYD4EiF9OQdWk5MT7RTh-u8vw87uH3522yPGY2Etu0ahgLSIkU2Y8LNaT_IzhsNdvstildTDIlIYcLwByz9F1pot1S8NZUMf3I_vijMzfdE4vdmFkG/s1600/bachmann1.jpg" t8="true" /></a></div><strong>By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ</strong><br />
<em>Editor of The Tribune</em><br />
<br />
<strong>AUSTIN, Texas -</strong> Politics allows for the best and the brightest, the stupid and the dullest. That is so once more as the country dives into its season of presidential politics. Take a seat. It's all coming to you for the next year and a half. As a citizen, you've bought the ticket, now take the ride, as someone famous once wrote about life in these United States. Even God is coming.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmnxTOBZHLGMtFx32ryNKWpPNEkemQv868uQG2aF4ZbxQNtjZqYzeddsCiYuShyrNEyQDYwkHP_kYuM8kWS9aIUJNR2gfHyKZixID5xOdyD02nXTMX5kTWFuLUEKPVPHQeg9FMV5aXvEsY/s1600/bach5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmnxTOBZHLGMtFx32ryNKWpPNEkemQv868uQG2aF4ZbxQNtjZqYzeddsCiYuShyrNEyQDYwkHP_kYuM8kWS9aIUJNR2gfHyKZixID5xOdyD02nXTMX5kTWFuLUEKPVPHQeg9FMV5aXvEsY/s200/bach5.jpg" t8="true" width="142" /></a></div>We bring you daffy Michele Bachmann in this episode of Republicans Gone Nuts.<br />
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Yeah, that's Michele in the anachronistic Annette Funicello hairdo. Some throwback. Bachman and her politics go back to the Crusades, to a time on the planet when religion was the opium of the masses, to a time when being an atheist brought quick beheading, when being Gay brought even worse.<br />
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Bachmann is one of the GOP's brighter stars as the party of racism gets ready to pick its nominee for the 2012 presidential race against President Barack Obama. Think Sarah Palin is the dumbest on the block? Well, she is dumb. But Bachmann, a congresswoman from Minnesota, is dumb and on crack, if her fiery, Jesus-Is-Everything politics are any indication of drug abuse. She started out as a young woman working on Democrat Jimmy Carter's 1976 campaign, found religion and sailed on to become what she is today - the daughter of a broken marriage who has a Lesbian stepsister, but can't stand the thought her father left her mother and later married a man who brought the Lesbian into her life.<br />
<br />
Of such life experiences are priests and white supremacists made. In fact, one of her professors at Oral Roberts University often speaks to supremacists groups. Bachmann says all she did was help him with preparation of one of his Born-Again books. Who knows, but it's ditzy.<br />
<br />
In any case, her sudden rise has come thanks to the faddish Tea Party and its incessant rants against the federal government, and namely President Obama. Bachmann chimes-in with her soundbites against everything Obama proposes. Her doings in Congress are largely non-existent, although perhaps she was swayed by Palin's rise after the quitting-Alaskan governor's failed 2008 race alongside the erstwhile GOP foil John McCain.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAjo0vikLdjDWsNZBahMkIBL-e7SAGeq0eoStYmCqFCw9HZJXLPJpjnVuVW9w1x9ou98OYjRY8-g65qBzZHlcv5VYw6oPd0BpeCLQX3MHe7bcXiSC0UzI5Ep0ivnL2tGm7L0I0BPtOhAne/s1600/bach2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAjo0vikLdjDWsNZBahMkIBL-e7SAGeq0eoStYmCqFCw9HZJXLPJpjnVuVW9w1x9ou98OYjRY8-g65qBzZHlcv5VYw6oPd0BpeCLQX3MHe7bcXiSC0UzI5Ep0ivnL2tGm7L0I0BPtOhAne/s1600/bach2.jpg" t8="true" /></a></div>Bachmann's chief anger is aimed at homosexuals.<br />
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This she said while a member of the Minnesota State Senate a few years back: <em>"Any of you who have members of your family in the lifestyle, we have a member of our family that is. This is not funny. It's a very sad life. It's part of Satan, I think, to say that this is gay."</em><br />
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Interestingly, her stepsister, Helen Lafave, was in the audience, trying, it seems, to somehow get Bachmann to see the other side of the issue, the one that allows for Americans to decide what they'll be even in the world of sexuality.<br />
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That blew a family relationship that had LaFave once playing a mentoring role for the younger sibling.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPpuCf6JarnL4S5CKJ12HHBMcuUwLgo7tWsRDGPuhyoIB4qJoclS97h492DG-ZUAe1a9MAqV18665nfwmweT2HFUmbDQngJmYtRrJE5_867dMEbpVukJ4a2IdWE7blHOxSg7xoqmaBPk66/s1600/bach4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="149" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPpuCf6JarnL4S5CKJ12HHBMcuUwLgo7tWsRDGPuhyoIB4qJoclS97h492DG-ZUAe1a9MAqV18665nfwmweT2HFUmbDQngJmYtRrJE5_867dMEbpVukJ4a2IdWE7blHOxSg7xoqmaBPk66/s200/bach4.jpg" t8="true" width="200" /></a></div>"Helen always liked Michele, always," says Linda Cielinski, one of Bachmann's other stepsisters. "They lived together as teenage girls. They were very close at that time." Bachmann's anti-gay activism, Cielinski says, "was a hit to the gut."<br />
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So far, Bachmann has played her acquired conservative role to the hilt. Indeed, she got high marks after her appearance at her party's first candidate's debate last Monday night, edging the shit-for-brains Newt Gingrich and her fellow Minnesotan, former Gov. Tim Pawlenty. But will it last? No.<br />
<br />
Former Utah Gov. Jon Hunstman is saying he will enter the race early next week. Former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani is said to be pondering a similar decision. There is the front-runner Mitt Romney, who served as governor of Massachusetts. In the men-only scrum that is nominee-selection, Bachmann will fade.<br />
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The mountain is a high mountain to climb.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjEJzkJpHM1JILzU_5Rw0P1yIcINibo4y7Eb-zCBR7iiUBANWEjU0xoN6PdTWVPmirQ7Ia6E57Al2z7hyphenhyphensTttzrj2EjK419X_MP05WyfSmHvChs1b329t-fnpou7VN3t1ym7BEdG2rIDzH/s1600/bach3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjEJzkJpHM1JILzU_5Rw0P1yIcINibo4y7Eb-zCBR7iiUBANWEjU0xoN6PdTWVPmirQ7Ia6E57Al2z7hyphenhyphensTttzrj2EjK419X_MP05WyfSmHvChs1b329t-fnpou7VN3t1ym7BEdG2rIDzH/s200/bach3.jpg" t8="true" width="200" /></a></div>But, then again, perhaps the religious zealot Bachmann is well aware of the Biblical events surrounding Mt. Ararat. Somebody famous beached his Ark there, and the question that still haunts scholars is whether it was a seminal moment in Man's ascent, or whether it was something that never happened at all.<br />
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Bachmann, it says here, will become the proverbial blip on the radar screen, forgotten in the long run, seen down the road as something that may have happened, only finding anyone who remembers may be hard. Religious fanatics have a tendency of dropping-in on Americans. More recently, televangelist Pat Robertson tried his hand at national politics and got zip. So did Mike Huckabee, the Born-Again former governor of backward Arkansas. And these heaven aficionados have their place, just not as leader of the entire damned experiment that is the U.S. of A.<br />
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The name of that Ark dude is still a name to be reckoned with, although perhaps not as much as it was, say, 50 years ago. Bachmann will come to find that many, many Americans hate having someone else shove religion down their throats. It seems to work for the God-abandoned Tea Party faithful she fronts, but the country also has a habit of pooh-poohing fairy tales, even those offerred on Sunday mornings...<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><strong><span style="font-size: x-small;">- 30 -</span></strong></div>Patrick Alcatrazhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16203892824178949597noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5567411512983693467.post-67969099210800096362011-06-15T10:01:00.003-04:002011-06-15T18:17:42.509-04:00In Today's Republican Politics, No Homage To Bush...George Not In Party's Forefront...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiUotSqqD_3w7nZKAi59TE5tGC5eQLuQd8Nxqp3_KfL-WBPkVRX3Ts87Bc3a2namCmGigPUAJAwtSrweujJehHzuYAsC9jMYHc99NAUasxo13aFXzF_xALyvF7_q-1jNKdX2lxprGXRLvb/s1600/gop3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiUotSqqD_3w7nZKAi59TE5tGC5eQLuQd8Nxqp3_KfL-WBPkVRX3Ts87Bc3a2namCmGigPUAJAwtSrweujJehHzuYAsC9jMYHc99NAUasxo13aFXzF_xALyvF7_q-1jNKdX2lxprGXRLvb/s1600/gop3.jpg" t8="true" /></a></div><em>"Nixon was a professional politician, and I despised everything he stood for - but if he were running for president this year against the evil Bush-Cheney gang, I would happily vote for him..."</em> <strong><span style="font-size: x-small;">- Hunter S. Thompson </span></strong><br />
<br />
<strong>By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ</strong><br />
<em>Editor of The Tribune</em><br />
<br />
<strong>FORT WORTH, Texas -</strong> Some national pundits writing about Monday's debate pitting Republicans interested in challenging President Barack Obama are wondering whatever became of former President George W. Bush. The War President's name did not come up during the rah-rah gathering in New Hampshire, an important primary state.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQaTwiryGSu1WPOtRe9IrTygCbJ74sqMdhLTWHrUMYkM_Wn0IEQnGUmXaCYa-AUZ7HiDMc9BbqWQZuAOutkAHaVoXLS6gMlEiWf0TqxIS-Y0YWmaYNsbSnvbvGze2pTS2552cmvERUSN1u/s1600/gop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="126" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQaTwiryGSu1WPOtRe9IrTygCbJ74sqMdhLTWHrUMYkM_Wn0IEQnGUmXaCYa-AUZ7HiDMc9BbqWQZuAOutkAHaVoXLS6gMlEiWf0TqxIS-Y0YWmaYNsbSnvbvGze2pTS2552cmvERUSN1u/s200/gop.jpg" t8="true" width="200" /></a></div>Presumed favorite Mitt Romney hopscotched himself away from anything to do with his party's recent past, focusing, as did his six other nattily-attired pretenders, on the doings of the current president. Romney and Gingrich and Paul and Santorum and Bachman and Cain and Pawlenty stood tall, as if seven high school kids posturing temselves for class president. If anything, only two of the lot has a reason for taking that stage. The others, especially the untrustworthy Newt Gingrich, should have been at home watching.<br />
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But Bush's name being ignored says much about this party.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLVUmC-2yaCIRIrYwijCSEzHgKtVi_dFkU5bc8VIBE2UuTbE0P84OV_qfWUE7-y4CP4v4AiO3huSbBj2sHwRNbGQqhCLOs2DhWyi2YTmnR_mRlmKKP1hfPcOUV-CrwD2qpJHsdYD1xcVkK/s1600/gop1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="142" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLVUmC-2yaCIRIrYwijCSEzHgKtVi_dFkU5bc8VIBE2UuTbE0P84OV_qfWUE7-y4CP4v4AiO3huSbBj2sHwRNbGQqhCLOs2DhWyi2YTmnR_mRlmKKP1hfPcOUV-CrwD2qpJHsdYD1xcVkK/s200/gop1.jpg" t8="true" width="200" /></a></div>Republicans forever wish to clean the slate of their messes. There was no mention of the cost of that Iraqi war lapped on Americans by George W. Bush, he of the questionable National Guard service. There was no mention of the huge federal treasury surplus left behind by Democrat Bill Clinton when Bush moved into the White House. There was no mention of the monster deficit Bush created. There was no mention of anything to do with the impish Bush.<br />
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It is a rare insight into the mind of the collective GOP. They are quick to blame and complain, but never to accept the same. Disgusting is too good a word to describe today's Republicans. It is a party of insular Americans out to strap on their boots and start stomping all that they dislike - from those of other religions, to those not their kind. That is the ugly side of America, a country now as divided as it was ahead of the Civil war in the 1860s. I reeled at seeing Black-American Herman Cain on that debate stage with those marshmallow Republicans. He has as much credibility with them as Billy the Kid had with his many women. They'll take him as a symbol of inclusion, but he has no shot at gaining any influential office within the party.<br />
<br />
That Cain does not recognize that makes him either an idiot or some sort of full-bore believer in the Great American assimilation fairy tale. At least Jesse Jackson was on the side that welcomed him. Cain must think that his business success as a pizza mogul will grant him some sort of standing with the GOP. It hasn't happened for any Black yet. That's clear as all Hell is to Gingrich. Yet, Cain is going on. His is an exercise in something or another to do with ego, a campaign bent on feeling good and thinking things have changed in America. At that level, little has changed. Cain must not read the newspapers. He'll fold that small tent in a few weeks. Glib Alan Keyes, a Black-American with an intelligence Cain will never match, learned that lesson in 2008.<br />
<br />
But it is Bush's lack of commercial legacy that haunts this new gang of wannabes. His currency, earned and devalued during eight horrible years endured by this country, is worthless.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWCYKIGsnUwEbR9a1cKvBvcnnkAujvodGjjantpZu-BqQqhTQ7tw5t2stm6hpNGHrDOvqk9y9R7kMuB1MNsgKLggi0Upu17QPKeevahrBdLY0BiiBoeaXbBK2CmGHfJ9Lkivj0Clsfxs4b/s1600/gop2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="183" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWCYKIGsnUwEbR9a1cKvBvcnnkAujvodGjjantpZu-BqQqhTQ7tw5t2stm6hpNGHrDOvqk9y9R7kMuB1MNsgKLggi0Upu17QPKeevahrBdLY0BiiBoeaXbBK2CmGHfJ9Lkivj0Clsfxs4b/s200/gop2.jpg" t8="true" width="200" /></a></div>No, Bush will not be at the Republican Party's nominating convention.<br />
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They'll flash his face on the Jumbotron and say a few words before moving on with the monumental task of unseating a president who has done more in two years than Bush would ever have done in 100 years. The story is there. Look it up.<br />
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It might have been a bit different had Jeb Bush decided to do the unimaginable and gone after this cycle's GOP nomination. Jeb would have thrown his brother's name out like confetti.<br />
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And that would have been good for the Democratic Party. Ah, Bush, what a card. Guy should have been Commissioner of Major League Baseball and nothing more. As for these hollow-suit Republicans, well, personnel managers will tell you that it's always a bitch hiring someone to replace a fuck-up...<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><strong><span style="font-size: x-small;">- 30 -</span></strong></div>Patrick Alcatrazhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16203892824178949597noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5567411512983693467.post-73411067940607465692011-06-14T08:53:00.002-04:002011-06-14T08:59:14.095-04:00At GOP's First Debate, It's An Evening Of Laughs And Backslappings...Used Tires As Contenders...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTOm29gMlux5eZZW1B7ci1zRNBRsDgS71K_sxBQbB0lkuR9yJ_Y_-s4QxraXhceV1rhVUn2bfVX9vjEoj80-W3HRAU0qHbQJsFaFwTB_dlTr-y4Ghh6uDyBqWV-yYt82G9MCsSVLoE88_w/s1600/debate1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="169" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTOm29gMlux5eZZW1B7ci1zRNBRsDgS71K_sxBQbB0lkuR9yJ_Y_-s4QxraXhceV1rhVUn2bfVX9vjEoj80-W3HRAU0qHbQJsFaFwTB_dlTr-y4Ghh6uDyBqWV-yYt82G9MCsSVLoE88_w/s320/debate1.jpg" t8="true" width="320" /></a></div><strong>By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ</strong><br />
<em>Editor of The Tribune</em><br />
<br />
<strong>AUSTIN, Texas -</strong> Southern Black Herman Cain said he was a "deep dish" pizza-lover kind of guy. Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty sided with Coke over Pepsi. Defeated U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania went with Jay Leno over Conan O'Brien.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg63eMcUbYHAPDAGia9Bk_V-aZ44RVEarICLM2jtIocf6KsPkBv4QfA_ypMApBUjBYvi9KaRor1rLRbPqeHkX_I1LgoXLEJsNA6ijwzIAk7nShA738Diy7izwQrIOZVdCJYlCenfRD9d_KC/s1600/debate4.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg63eMcUbYHAPDAGia9Bk_V-aZ44RVEarICLM2jtIocf6KsPkBv4QfA_ypMApBUjBYvi9KaRor1rLRbPqeHkX_I1LgoXLEJsNA6ijwzIAk7nShA738Diy7izwQrIOZVdCJYlCenfRD9d_KC/s1600/debate4.bmp" t8="true" /></a></div>That's as deep as Republican presidential wannabes got during the polirical season's first presidential candidates debate in New Hampshire. Broadcast across the nation last night by Cable News Network (CNN), it turned out to be nothing more than an evening with six guys in suits and a noisy, annoying woman arriving to declare her candidacy for the highest office in the land.<br />
<br />
This morning, pundits are saying that noisy one - Michelle Bachman, a congresswoman from Minnesota, and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney won the debate. It was not a debate by any stretch of the imagination. It was, however, the first such gathering, and all of us know the "get real" fireworks won't start until the field narrows itself down to two or three.<br />
<br />
Americans know the drill. Primaries will come after the telling Iowa caucus, and then after the primaries in New Hampshire and South Carolina. Before long, some of these posers will lose favor and drop out. Newt Gingrich, he of the many wives and $500,000 jewelry revolving account at Tiffany's, will be the first to bid adieu. He arrived at the debate last night after his campaign manager and a host of senior aides deserted him last week. Bachman is going nowhere in national office, her claim to the Tea Party banner being contested by too many others even as she covers herself with it.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhja0bEau4vORNGMAvMhSNLMfjfnQMlV5-NKjRr4EdyXWHugO_ctfQmI7CqJ069aQ9dflv7Dh7dcfY7gdjGHfjt_WuiAG02RwIT3DkR7dfLuefhKcw-zREmt0tra0uFu9Xr_4A6ijeLqMa0/s1600/debate3.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhja0bEau4vORNGMAvMhSNLMfjfnQMlV5-NKjRr4EdyXWHugO_ctfQmI7CqJ069aQ9dflv7Dh7dcfY7gdjGHfjt_WuiAG02RwIT3DkR7dfLuefhKcw-zREmt0tra0uFu9Xr_4A6ijeLqMa0/s1600/debate3.bmp" t8="true" /></a></div>Cain, founder of the Godfather's Pizza chain, is out of sorts with the Republican base. Indeed, he seemed to be the only Black-American in the hall where last night's debate was held. He reminds us of Alan Keyes, another glib Black-American who tossed grenades at his Republican opponents, but got nowhere. Cain will be gone soon, as well. Ron Paul, the Libertarian-Republican, is simply too old and ornery. He wants to do away with the Internal Revenue Service and bring back the American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan "today." Not gonna happen, Ron.<br />
<br />
Romney seems the safest of the lot, and perhaps that is why he leads in the early polls. "Any person on this stage would be a better president than President Obama," he told the crowd to no laughter. His biggest burden with the voters may be his religion. Romney is a Mormon. Santorum is unemployed after losing a re-election bid for his seat in the U.S. Senate. Why he thinks the country would elect such a recent political loser is the mystery. We suspect Santorum, an extremist of the Far Right, won't last the race.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMEVbmkek45EmKQSAsiX9T4JFnklvclb28ec8iuBfXEYw6q8xW3PDTzYF9XEGZ2l4wJtxdc3gtn8m2JHuwQhCBle5sC7BSe_vDr3J1lOd74Uw7Phr9c_lVi9oGt6Af4eXwl_I9otPH4bzp/s1600/debate2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMEVbmkek45EmKQSAsiX9T4JFnklvclb28ec8iuBfXEYw6q8xW3PDTzYF9XEGZ2l4wJtxdc3gtn8m2JHuwQhCBle5sC7BSe_vDr3J1lOd74Uw7Phr9c_lVi9oGt6Af4eXwl_I9otPH4bzp/s200/debate2.jpg" t8="true" width="145" /></a></div>It'll be interesting to follow the ascent of the GOP's favorite son, as it will be to see the fall of some of these unqualified pretenders. Part of our psyche rests in seeing these meaningless spectacles ahead of a presidential election. I found it hilarious that Paul looks like he's coming out of his economical suit every time he speaks. It, too, was funny to see Cain act as if he was being taken seriously.<br />
<br />
But more amusing yet was Bachman's giddy announcement early in the show that she was running for president. The more she spoke, the more it looked like this woman, at best, was suited for the job of aide to Hillary Clinton...<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><strong><span style="font-size: x-small;">- 30 -</span></strong> </div>Patrick Alcatrazhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16203892824178949597noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5567411512983693467.post-62229162915258721932011-06-13T09:15:00.002-04:002011-06-13T10:17:26.534-04:00Reporter's Notebook: Of Balmy National and Local Politics...Pro Basketball...Perry...And Rope...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhklKo_JqLrWeZNWKYSXhwTFyLyznCAA5KPgPDlTWXuQa0bzjg_9VCwdLH4pV6ZKp_cXPvrguadrdOte79K15dDyTt1zz49ZiW8hVmRtFpeVJr5EkHIZUOI-ULtWGZNSUzRFA-L-XNnAtJp/s1600/notebook.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhklKo_JqLrWeZNWKYSXhwTFyLyznCAA5KPgPDlTWXuQa0bzjg_9VCwdLH4pV6ZKp_cXPvrguadrdOte79K15dDyTt1zz49ZiW8hVmRtFpeVJr5EkHIZUOI-ULtWGZNSUzRFA-L-XNnAtJp/s1600/notebook.jpg" t8="true" /></a></div><strong>By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ</strong><br />
<em>Editor of The Tribune</em><br />
<br />
<strong>AUSTIN, Texas -</strong> News never sleeps. You can move out of town for a few days and return to see that little has changed. It's hotter than it was in May, but that's the summer scorch. Stuff has a way of working itself into your brain, whether you like it or not. It's part of the biological journey, taking the bad with the good, the ugly with the attractive, the horrible with the enlightening. We're in a vignette-state-of-mind this morning, so here goes something of a wrap-up.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLIXehc-M7jwsFkcYz8EZUihJWM5EPUyl71u47AI0Rx4ZCGtrgQ9C1hFSv3Mw2Ujyi7t6kZAT7ff7pWfS_afHHyfV1iyK23l0kW50Mu2gp1IVnO_e10NGwHIgy3juTI2Hmv8EKxMbDT0Bs/s1600/kitty.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="119" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLIXehc-M7jwsFkcYz8EZUihJWM5EPUyl71u47AI0Rx4ZCGtrgQ9C1hFSv3Mw2Ujyi7t6kZAT7ff7pWfS_afHHyfV1iyK23l0kW50Mu2gp1IVnO_e10NGwHIgy3juTI2Hmv8EKxMbDT0Bs/s200/kitty.jpg" t8="true" width="200" /></a></div><strong><span style="font-size: large;">1.)</span></strong> <strong><em>National Politics -</em></strong> New York Democratic Congressman Anthony Weiner is still with us, even after his flirtation with sexless sex. He's been asked to resign his seat. Weiner is holding on. That sad episode with sexting photos of himself to women not his wife will fade. That's the nature of scandal. Eventually something else surfaces and the press moves on. Next up is an expected catfight between Republicans Sarah Palin and Michele Bachman. Already, the two darlings of the Tea Party are throwing darts at each other. Both want the GOP presidential nomination that would pit them against Democratic President Barack Obama. It's a losing proposition for both Republican molls, but the bitching between them should be entertaining.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3BvtY-1vVLn_M3iPmTenJHrY-sd9o__nfrS53H6TsgLO0EdJkmUbYThTUxRdqunnenD9WsiVslYdNKdsgjY2QmsnNhFqOb7xvAoyqsFHCTDVyxZpKX3o_DtttxCj6zwyeFIcONa8608S9/s1600/dirk.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3BvtY-1vVLn_M3iPmTenJHrY-sd9o__nfrS53H6TsgLO0EdJkmUbYThTUxRdqunnenD9WsiVslYdNKdsgjY2QmsnNhFqOb7xvAoyqsFHCTDVyxZpKX3o_DtttxCj6zwyeFIcONa8608S9/s200/dirk.jpg" t8="true" width="158" /></a></div><strong><span style="font-size: large;">2.)</span></strong> <strong>Pro Basketball -</strong> Last night's stunning victory by the Dallas Mavericks in Game 6 of the National Basketball Association's championship series brought the first pro basketball title to Big D. It was a shocker for Miami Heat fans, but there it was on national TV. The hero was a scrawny guard named Jason "Jet" Terry. Left to play the mpo-up role of suporter was Mavericks whiner Dirk Nowitzki. He'd been been the problem for that team for the past decade. The Big German made "gunning" his trademark, and he selfishly shoots at every opportunity. And when he's been off, the press has fallen for his claims of a fever, a bad hand and other health problems. When they compare him to Hall-of-Famer Larry Bird, well, that's the last straw. Bird led the Celtics to three championships, was league MVP three times and won a title as a coach. Nowitzki's accomplishments pale when compared to Boston's Number 33. Hopes spring eternal in Big D, but Dirty Dirk always finds a way to disappoint. Good thing he had the Jet...<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiokNyWVXWGLuCB_1kvwe7BA8lcGZAeV4K1iFMSjh98TR34a_MCuOuUEdq9Pc9jHHO_3FBzIrZD1xChHLZMBNs23CBoyoll39T2obbAPwTwKDTaJwvUHmo-c6MG7NL6j51sBH3rXll4yvt/s1600/mellisa.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiokNyWVXWGLuCB_1kvwe7BA8lcGZAeV4K1iFMSjh98TR34a_MCuOuUEdq9Pc9jHHO_3FBzIrZD1xChHLZMBNs23CBoyoll39T2obbAPwTwKDTaJwvUHmo-c6MG7NL6j51sBH3rXll4yvt/s200/mellisa.jpg" t8="true" width="133" /></a></div><strong><span style="font-size: large;">3.)</span><em> South Texas Politics -</em></strong> Success often comes when the wagon is stopped and turned in another direction. It's a moment-in-time for residents of Cameron County down by the ungovernable Mexican border. A new congressional district has been created and already a few road-tired pols have lined up at that trough. Residents of the poor district should look to a new face for representation. Voting for the same old do-nothings will get them just that - nothing. We offer the suggestion that a worthwhile candidate would be Brownsville City Commissioner Melissa Zamora. She's young and largely untainted. Ms. Zamora would be a breath of fresh air, and it would punish the politicians seeking the office just because they can. It's time for a new political chapter for this region. Well, it's been time for a long time, actually. Electing a Lucio, an Oliveira, a Villalobos, or an Ahumada only tells the world that dumb continues to be the best adjective for a part of the state forever characterized as being backward.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7sxUaTwLKoPiExQEkvg9nLokQRioPne6rX9hO8qNM3JivlP1HHIz2xvW-hn5osZs8ZQyrzmglx78eqOusNO9_LMqkzJwp6__RMwHhyphenhyphenegV4jBZk9Efg5uQx71sR0EUXgnw3_M6dCJtQlHd/s1600/perry.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7sxUaTwLKoPiExQEkvg9nLokQRioPne6rX9hO8qNM3JivlP1HHIz2xvW-hn5osZs8ZQyrzmglx78eqOusNO9_LMqkzJwp6__RMwHhyphenhyphenegV4jBZk9Efg5uQx71sR0EUXgnw3_M6dCJtQlHd/s1600/perry.jpg" t8="true" /></a></div><strong><span style="font-size: large;">4.)</span></strong> <strong><em>The Governor Of Nothing -</em></strong> Rick Perry has a closet problem. He is the elected governor of a passel of Texas Republicans. Perry is said to be considering a run for the presidency after yelling his desire to secede from the nation. Now, he wants to pray. The son of West Texas ground is hosting a prayer summit next month in which he plans to become Joel Osteen, Jimmy Swaggert, Billy Graham and Paulino Bernal. Who'll attend is anybody's guess, although some of the usual suspects can be counted on to arrive wearing their best black garb. Look for Republican John Cornyn to show up dressed as John The Baptist. Look for crazed Republican State Rep. Leo Berman of the English-only movement to waltz in as if he thinks he's in Jerusalem. And that's Tom DeLay in the flowing white robe looking kinda spiffy as a Bible-thumping Klansman. It's all for show, a bad one at that. Perry never was as religious during his days as a Democrat. But that was sometime back, before he got the opportunist bug in his blood. As for his chances at the presidency, well, it'll be a long time before a Texan gets that job after the mess left behind by one George W. Bush. Then there's that touchy closet problem for his guy. He'll have to come clean.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR_e6_IpIr7ACRAPS-81vYEotH6BKI7eAo3po5rj9jQ0CPjmZSsWjRn9889HKn2Vqz94zhZZe0rBg9zmaq7mKP95ybvLCbwFXb8XFjH2cBBA8LdCPfJL0f1Ld2d7sXvsxh5jh_311H4J_w/s1600/dog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="101" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR_e6_IpIr7ACRAPS-81vYEotH6BKI7eAo3po5rj9jQ0CPjmZSsWjRn9889HKn2Vqz94zhZZe0rBg9zmaq7mKP95ybvLCbwFXb8XFjH2cBBA8LdCPfJL0f1Ld2d7sXvsxh5jh_311H4J_w/s200/dog.jpg" t8="true" width="200" /></a></div><strong><span style="font-size: large;">5.)</span></strong> <strong><em>Rope -</em></strong> Writing long-form fiction is my last addiction. I'm into my next novel, and, well, it keeps me in coffee and out of trouble. My blogging takes up about 20 minutes of my morning once I settle on a topic. The rest of the day, for the most part, is me in my made-up world, me messing with a plot, the plot's characters and me fighting with it all. As most who know me know, my bent is in writing contemporary westerns. Not cowboy tales, but modern fiction set out west. This one follows a bit of my earlier novel<em> Half The Town</em>, but not entirely. It concerns a rural vet treating his animals and his romantic interest as if passing fancies. Love finds its altitude, only it is his Big City dog creating the drama. They say pets will adjust to whatever setting you place them in, so long as you nurture then. Uh, no. Big City dogs hate the smalltowns. This one does. This one doesn't give a damn about the smell of bacon & eggs in the morning, or about the quiet of the rural evening, or about the girlfriend coming over and staying overnight. Big City dogs hate that. They want their space. They demand attention. They bark at ghosts, and they kick ass at every opportunity. As Chapter 5 ends, a reputation has been made. Neighborhood dogs know the score. And Evelyn, the hard-headed girlfriend in the story, has announced she damned straight is taking that waitress job at the Nuclear Club in town...<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><strong><span style="font-size: x-small;">- 30 -</span></strong></div>Patrick Alcatrazhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16203892824178949597noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5567411512983693467.post-41826953858497421992011-06-10T08:50:00.000-04:002011-06-10T08:51:02.631-04:00Trafficking In Sex: Threats, But No War Yet Against This Shame...U.S. Looks The Other Way...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhu-42kou9wWC3KrVyQbh2b8ed2tvbI0ZP0uzkUrYSMP9esN-KW0pMCyefhtvIfhYeENhodmNvOglqCGxy4RB-SYnnhn3VzJtT5fyiEa9YKEpugVqEMlHl832AjvNp26qh_ycyud9agm_s/s1600/sext.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="316" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhu-42kou9wWC3KrVyQbh2b8ed2tvbI0ZP0uzkUrYSMP9esN-KW0pMCyefhtvIfhYeENhodmNvOglqCGxy4RB-SYnnhn3VzJtT5fyiEa9YKEpugVqEMlHl832AjvNp26qh_ycyud9agm_s/s320/sext.jpg" t8="true" width="320" /></a></div><strong>By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ</strong><br />
<em>Editor of The Tribune</em><br />
<br />
<strong>AUSTIN, Texas -</strong> It is the one crime used by television to sell police shows like NYPD Blue, Law & Order and Cold Case. Glossy national magazines find the topic always yields a high readership. True Crime books invariably find one or two of these sad and sordid stories as grist for the idle mind. Cops note it as a growing problem and politicians carp endlessly about its coming to America.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLPyS5zMWRX5xD6mJKLO6h2-4lvv333bezuVX8MWYgjyRhvwAfpo5vhtVeQfZqR2JLouAPgGzWz9f0woBeJE4QgFU4YUBoDFvXxnPdpQnjnjNihzsT7jOS4eaE1O9m2I0SB1ly7aykLqh_/s1600/sext5.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLPyS5zMWRX5xD6mJKLO6h2-4lvv333bezuVX8MWYgjyRhvwAfpo5vhtVeQfZqR2JLouAPgGzWz9f0woBeJE4QgFU4YUBoDFvXxnPdpQnjnjNihzsT7jOS4eaE1O9m2I0SB1ly7aykLqh_/s200/sext5.png" t8="true" width="200" /></a></div>Sex trafficking is here, and it is taking young lives for a horrible ride.<br />
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Here's a testimonial from a young victim, a woman who came forward amid threats from her pimp: <em>"He called me a stupid bitch…a worthless piece of shit. I had to tell people I fell off stage because I had so many bruises on my ribs face and legs. I have a permanent twitch in my eye from him hitting me in my face so much. I have none of my irreplaceable things from my youth."</em><br />
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Her name was Felicia, a minor prostitute-stripper enslaved by a trafficker at a very young age.<br />
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It's a painful lifestyle usually lived by runaway girls and poor women. Their story is well-known; pimps and other abusers have used them since time immemorial. In Texas, the crime is everywhere, in Dallas and Austin and Houston and San Antonio. Lately, it has arrived in small towns along the Texas-Mexico border, where young girls are kidnapped in Mexico and delivered like sacks of drugs to bars and strip clubs in places such as Laredo, Starr County and other spots along the Rio Grande Valley.<br />
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Not much was heard about the trend during the state's recent legislative session, where budget deficits and partisan politics stole the day. No state politician made a big deal out of sex trafficking, although they know it's there.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2kieaO6IKO1cq3DVLyeq6-mE8y_75b2E3zJqHwIWuTp_MlSV8ypmU-1M5lKjM1aUUqOMticsxAequMJO3txPHXuDyrlyRhNZDu3pWBKzC-us9BF710d3qg7d5gxYq8sMgyZw3_VTfAtTT/s1600/sext3.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2kieaO6IKO1cq3DVLyeq6-mE8y_75b2E3zJqHwIWuTp_MlSV8ypmU-1M5lKjM1aUUqOMticsxAequMJO3txPHXuDyrlyRhNZDu3pWBKzC-us9BF710d3qg7d5gxYq8sMgyZw3_VTfAtTT/s200/sext3.bmp" t8="true" width="199" /></a></div>The problem remains. Prostitution lives around every darkened street corner in the urban centers. Every now and then, the rural areas are scenes of wanton sex offered in mobile homes and other out-of-the-way buildings, stories exposed in after-the-fact newspaper stories. It is a profitable trade. As one pimp put it sometime back, perhaps using language addressing the female genitalia as coldly as it can possibly be used: "Once you wash it, it's as good as new."<br />
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That sad photography atop this sory comes from a lengthy report in the current edition of <strong><em>Vanity Fair</em></strong> magazine, which offers a tapeworm of a story about sex trafficking in America. The report is at once insightful and alarming. <br />
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There are no bordellos in the U.S., other than the legalized sprinkling of whorehouses in Nevada.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHBrulwKvPxKeJ65T5iw9a3e6TFNoDKMZgVZLcvL7AaAHgHEJMQc0iCwdySFMTpO9TjbdAlD1Cp5xYw08Jd_EZMHK-EiRsDzYoNUlgh8IIZHe0Ivo5q-rpCmy_Bb9v_eq9D29y19jUOp0-/s1600/sext2.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="131" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHBrulwKvPxKeJ65T5iw9a3e6TFNoDKMZgVZLcvL7AaAHgHEJMQc0iCwdySFMTpO9TjbdAlD1Cp5xYw08Jd_EZMHK-EiRsDzYoNUlgh8IIZHe0Ivo5q-rpCmy_Bb9v_eq9D29y19jUOp0-/s200/sext2.bmp" t8="true" width="200" /></a></div>But there are those who say they absolutely can be found in the many cheap motels that dot the American landscape. According to the magazine, it's the usual threat of violence and offer of drugs that enslaves the women. That is not news; it's been the method of operation for pimps seemingly forever.<br />
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Americans like to see this as something to be found only in the outs of Bangkok or Manila or Mexico City, where young girls are traded as if baseball cards, where they are forced to serve sex-starved foreigners and where the unsympathetic governments look the other way.<br />
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All of that has landed on America's shores, in places such as Philadelphia, New York and Chicago.<br />
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Look for it and find it in Smalltown, USA.<br />
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It's there, too...<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><strong><span style="font-size: x-small;">- 30 -</span></strong></div>Patrick Alcatrazhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16203892824178949597noreply@blogger.com22tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5567411512983693467.post-19217325973964316902011-06-08T10:48:00.006-04:002011-06-08T13:25:03.915-04:00In Texas, The Big Gun State, Few Signs Of Lurid Political Sex Scandals...Well, There's One...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE_KINkjr-04He_hFMZJ7APvA4A5Jr2-JlTKKbJDiPLPAUxytjQX4CiKUjCIX-DkBMfiaO2UyFZcsTdSnXd4-X4nbn9TeQ3YODVIPnh34YlGhKaT94b5G13p-ZnVVimG7qF18XgJkMW974/s1600/rick.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE_KINkjr-04He_hFMZJ7APvA4A5Jr2-JlTKKbJDiPLPAUxytjQX4CiKUjCIX-DkBMfiaO2UyFZcsTdSnXd4-X4nbn9TeQ3YODVIPnh34YlGhKaT94b5G13p-ZnVVimG7qF18XgJkMW974/s1600/rick.jpg" t8="true" /></a></div><strong>By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ</strong><br />
<em>Editor of The Tribune</em><br />
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<strong>AUSTIN, Texas -</strong> A few years back, in a "<em>Naked City</em>" column published by the Austin Chronicle, hay was made about rumors moving across this city regarding Republican Gov. Rick Perry's sexuality, namely asking the question: Is he Gay?<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQEvLWtRF-Ev5bCAKU3dxuVSjRTMWHKxcfj1jRJl5MOaJU-IdJ9TKhcctcO9SDLb8vzDWwX3efIzwtF0jQISsksp4ut87X7v9e8c4As9r9TI0IBJ3rq2YkoADyuHrw28KZ6rSQsCljXsUK/s1600/perry2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQEvLWtRF-Ev5bCAKU3dxuVSjRTMWHKxcfj1jRJl5MOaJU-IdJ9TKhcctcO9SDLb8vzDWwX3efIzwtF0jQISsksp4ut87X7v9e8c4As9r9TI0IBJ3rq2YkoADyuHrw28KZ6rSQsCljXsUK/s200/perry2.jpg" t8="true" width="200" /></a></div>Local bloggers went wild with the story, leading Perry to seek an interview with the mainstream Austin American-Statesman in which he stayed on topic and said he was not Gay. The tales told about Perry's alleged dalliances were lurid in nature, although little came from his wife when some reported that she'd caught him with another man in a somewhat compromising position. In town, pro-Gay groups marched to the governor's mansion and held a rally, loudly informing Perry that it was okay to be Gay, urging him to come out of the closet.<br />
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That was the last Texas sex scandal. <br />
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Perry remains in office and is said to be a contender for the Republican Party's presidential nomination in the 2012 race against sitting President Barack Obama. It's too early - and he has yet to announce - to wonder about whether the Gay rumors will re-surface. They will, of course. Perry has made much of his public morality the centerpiece of his governorship, a posture that of late has included his zealous pursuit of the Sonogram Bill as a requirement for Texas women getting abortions.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWiJeYzC1l_CdzzLPpQCCrGo18W5zT7xLURB6QpOK-d2ie3hvIaj2e-UD65DCKbcuzuNHvrTPwg6HJwa_XmLbzSVHTtKYkv901MnorYWfYnt4LJ4f7Mcx-E_Ap2qsH6OmHKA52nj1ViPhg/s1600/perry4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWiJeYzC1l_CdzzLPpQCCrGo18W5zT7xLURB6QpOK-d2ie3hvIaj2e-UD65DCKbcuzuNHvrTPwg6HJwa_XmLbzSVHTtKYkv901MnorYWfYnt4LJ4f7Mcx-E_Ap2qsH6OmHKA52nj1ViPhg/s200/perry4.jpg" t8="true" width="152" /></a></div>The governor's rumors are in sharp contrast to the volcanic roiling going on within the scandal involving U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner, a Democrat from New York's 9th District whose life has been turned upside down by his admission to sexting racy photos of himself to a variety of women not his wife.<br />
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It's all part of American Society. Freedom also allows for citizens to be free to be stupid. Weiner's fate is still up in the air. He has said he won't resign and his colleagues in Congress wish he would. Life in the National Fishbowl always brings out the best in scandal and hypocrisy. Remember Wilbur Mills, Rita Jenrette, Donna Rice, John Ensign, Gary Hart, Mark Foley?<br />
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Perhaps that is why those many Texans who chase Rick Perry's private life, who want to unmask his true sexuality, are chomping at the bit, hoping he does seek the presidency and is forced to throw open his closet.<br />
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It's too juicy of a story for Texans to merely let it go...<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><strong><span style="font-size: x-small;">- 30 -</span></strong></div>Patrick Alcatrazhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16203892824178949597noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5567411512983693467.post-75981418837921321632011-06-07T09:27:00.003-04:002011-06-07T09:32:23.352-04:00National Affairs: Angst In The Nation's Capital...No Sex Equals Scandal...Scandal Lite...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhyphenhyphenU6Oyvop4SBswT_3_Vuxdl1PS5-NTWU8joY_uV2kOck3Op3OSyMEf1cE6qcMnmbZD3WVa555-JMmvduyZF1AWpXtoetn5Nzhy5sM3qFiCZbVmRMlpdCnUmfEhLgsqFUVZr2hjm6yZF3r/s1600/weiner+wife.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhyphenhyphenU6Oyvop4SBswT_3_Vuxdl1PS5-NTWU8joY_uV2kOck3Op3OSyMEf1cE6qcMnmbZD3WVa555-JMmvduyZF1AWpXtoetn5Nzhy5sM3qFiCZbVmRMlpdCnUmfEhLgsqFUVZr2hjm6yZF3r/s1600/weiner+wife.jpg" t8="true" /></a></div><strong>By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ</strong><br />
<em>Editor of The Tribune</em><br />
<br />
<strong>AUSTIN, Texas -</strong> It's been a wild and turbulent week for Democratic U.S. Congressman Anthony Weiner, what public relations handlers call his naked moment in the "Nuclear Winter." Weiner being caught in a sexting scandal is not the worst side of the mess; he's a married man with a rather exotic-looking woman most men would say was enough to go straight forever.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhY_W20Z6N6KiwQhipVfjVFRZoXlr_xB8NxPpjc-2chq_cB2mobzIByj9_wwdiw1yq8vdAUqBmOu5xS07V8XWwGRzOW6CeVVAkaXT56fcSgnY7s6jTQ2t_8nUfKWd9O7renhHgsqWM1DN0q/s1600/gal+in+tale.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhY_W20Z6N6KiwQhipVfjVFRZoXlr_xB8NxPpjc-2chq_cB2mobzIByj9_wwdiw1yq8vdAUqBmOu5xS07V8XWwGRzOW6CeVVAkaXT56fcSgnY7s6jTQ2t_8nUfKWd9O7renhHgsqWM1DN0q/s1600/gal+in+tale.jpg" t8="true" /></a></div>Huma Abedin is her name. She is the woman in the photo atop this story, standing alongside her husband in what had to be better days.<br />
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Weiner's story of absolute stupidity has played across the national geography since late last week, when news surfaced that he'd been sending lewd photographs of himself to 21-year-old Genette Nicole Cordova, a college student across the country in Seattle, via his cellular telephone. She is shown wearing a striped top in photo above.<br />
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According to Weiner and the young student, nothing actually happened between them, but that did nothing to save him from the humiliation of a press conference he held yesterday in which he admitted being part of the the playful game after denying it for days.<br />
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Weiner is not alone in any of this. America's politicians have made extra-curricular sexual flirtations and couplings a national art. Former Republican U.S. Senator John Ensign of Nevada took his obsession with a married female staffer all the way to the bedroom, even as he also employed her husband. To wriggle out of it, Ensign had his wealthy parents slip a check for $96,000 to the woman. It didn't play as he expected. Ensign resigned ahead of a Justice Department investigation and he still lives under a cloud of the coming indictment.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6pEdBJ_xhi9VxveqnFX7LHw8aFVsMS9mCA4CegOkDXaHHtYQxcHkbU2kGGyLaXn01o2X8WbpxpFM1ZiuvTOZ0vEd2g-BnyWpCN-_lyp8Tr6aPcC_XUWakI1BG0O-fynpyKoHSCEZAr-yl/s1600/weiner.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="148" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6pEdBJ_xhi9VxveqnFX7LHw8aFVsMS9mCA4CegOkDXaHHtYQxcHkbU2kGGyLaXn01o2X8WbpxpFM1ZiuvTOZ0vEd2g-BnyWpCN-_lyp8Tr6aPcC_XUWakI1BG0O-fynpyKoHSCEZAr-yl/s200/weiner.jpg" t8="true" width="200" /></a></div>Weiner wil survive if his party colleagues wish him to survive. He won't if they don't.<br />
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A respected politician from New York's 9th District, he represents a section of New York City that includes the Queens borough. In his plans, say those who know him, was a run at the New York City mayorship in 2013, when current Mayor Mike Bloomberg presumably would step down.<br />
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Who knows what will become of Anthony Weiner. Literary giant F. Scott Fitzgerald once wrote that there are no Second Acts in America, referring to the stage and to the country's distaste for re-runs. It'll be interesting to see how the next few weeks unfold for the congressman. Much will depend on other news hitting the airaves and newspapers. Democratic Congressman Gary Condit endured a few years in office following the disapearance - and murder - of his young aide, Chandra Levy. But he lost the ensuing election, after what many agreed was a positive career in Washington, D.C. Condit did acknowledge he'd had an affair with the young woman, however.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKUfyyX3MdMGr9gGN43UP5tNIyBoQ8SA6k_yER-tQ-bYuzp4tYiiZHURBrNA2kPGGFkNZ7HjYJp3EWz5NPFsg_WrivMR_g7kfE4SWTV1FEi92qx76jKc-6g_9Oke7sbY6T9YcjKazl3Nqv/s1600/weiner+young.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKUfyyX3MdMGr9gGN43UP5tNIyBoQ8SA6k_yER-tQ-bYuzp4tYiiZHURBrNA2kPGGFkNZ7HjYJp3EWz5NPFsg_WrivMR_g7kfE4SWTV1FEi92qx76jKc-6g_9Oke7sbY6T9YcjKazl3Nqv/s200/weiner+young.jpg" t8="true" width="155" /></a></div>Weiner says nothing happened in his case, although one is led to conclude that perhaps that was his mission all along, his goal, his wanton desire, which is too bad for his wife of barely one year.<br />
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The list could go on and on about these guys. Both major political parties have had their scandal stars. Both parties have for the most part found ways to ease them out of office. It'll come for Weiner, but that could be the last of his worries. His wife is a former aide of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a woman who herself went through a mess of her own with her husband, the former president, and his dalliance with a bubbly young intern, Monica Lewinsky. Clinton stayed with her man in a however-guarded manner. Perhaps she is counseling Mrs. Weiner.<br />
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The story will have its legs for the next few days, fall off the national psyche, and ultimately re-surface when either Weiner resigns or is served divorce papers.<br />
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That's the Second Act we've come to know in these matters...<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><strong><span style="font-size: x-small;">- 30 -</span></strong></div>Patrick Alcatrazhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16203892824178949597noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5567411512983693467.post-28382105070680282832011-06-06T09:25:00.006-04:002011-06-06T10:47:06.619-04:00In The Nation's Breadbasket, Cool Mornings And Hard Work...It Only Looks Quiet...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv1KkK_dCxrJSjIQer62xDXLHKiDKaJalF37pygoleBOnClWCIMR3LEUmlO-jAyvkO1zEnTzhbWlk2eok8OOMzhNwaaVbnKW0_JKDBgBw7hekHtjer_XT4qHuh_negR2RZ-3of-0oqVjpF/s1600/friend1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv1KkK_dCxrJSjIQer62xDXLHKiDKaJalF37pygoleBOnClWCIMR3LEUmlO-jAyvkO1zEnTzhbWlk2eok8OOMzhNwaaVbnKW0_JKDBgBw7hekHtjer_XT4qHuh_negR2RZ-3of-0oqVjpF/s320/friend1.jpg" t8="true" width="320" /></a></div><strong>By EDUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ</strong><br />
<em>Editor of The Tribune</em><br />
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<strong>FRIEND, Nebraska -</strong> A blue-gray morning blooms ever-so-slowly as you move west on Highway 6 past this small town of some 1,100 sleeping residents. Sunday morning is for rest, especially the early hour of 7 ayem, when all you hear is the sound of your car's rolling wheels and all you see is shuttered homes and farm equipment parked neatly alongside vehicles that speak of farming. Friend has many such neighbors. Move down Highway 81, the road south to Kansas, and you see enough portraits of the American farmer to make you believe all is well in the grain fields.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG7h8NGxAOM0KVjQTtE6NoOC1fy0o3CYRQi2z3VTeWfoSENIrq_pAk_OHtMYRE46TzlsxSvaXni1B-wUIFBifAV-gvq11R7JWcE6NuDuG2YfPuDpaX2mjQwBSWRfjYQ7L6pS5uzGv8-2O7/s1600/friend2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="170" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG7h8NGxAOM0KVjQTtE6NoOC1fy0o3CYRQi2z3VTeWfoSENIrq_pAk_OHtMYRE46TzlsxSvaXni1B-wUIFBifAV-gvq11R7JWcE6NuDuG2YfPuDpaX2mjQwBSWRfjYQ7L6pS5uzGv8-2O7/s200/friend2.jpg" t8="true" width="200" /></a></div>"One farmer feeds 128 people," reads one particularly-insightful and prideful sign.<br />
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For miles and miles, the landscape is of fields, grain being the most common. It is tall grain silos that stand as the symbol of the American midwest, the so-called breadbasket of the world. It is the tractor moving easily across large fields that bring it to life. An assortment of gear and equipment, tractors, balers, mowers, flows among them, stand at the ready. This is not a place where one sees idle men; work is a daily need and requirement. The fields will burst with bounty, but they have to be worked, and time is as demanding as the mortgage company and the banker overseeing the purchase of farm equipment.<br />
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Odd as it may sound to most, the life of a farmer is a sun-up to sundown undertaking that does not come with a quick jaunt to the corner convenience store for a Coca-Cola or a bag of chips. You may see one or two such businesses as you move down the highway, but they're always miles from the fields, in town.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsxYK5_4g_7bzAGW4zyqjNXiauCaP4uT89aPQ8l5pLe1PmYBGhN-8AQ0DslvURbp-uQwiYrfHjgnjN2qYXB9HB0ECYlSK7MBTarfMN6J3GCMDVoN2pd9ymef2qoQgqJgiyKiUb46hNpWqH/s1600/friend6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="149" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsxYK5_4g_7bzAGW4zyqjNXiauCaP4uT89aPQ8l5pLe1PmYBGhN-8AQ0DslvURbp-uQwiYrfHjgnjN2qYXB9HB0ECYlSK7MBTarfMN6J3GCMDVoN2pd9ymef2qoQgqJgiyKiUb46hNpWqH/s200/friend6.jpg" t8="true" width="200" /></a></div>It would take an outsider a good year to learn the ins and outs of farming, to understand the ways of the successful farmer and to perhaps appreciate the work someone else undertook to get that loaf of bread to the dinner table. Here, a good pair of denim overalls is as good as is a tie-and-suit in the city. Fashion is simple; the boots always weathered. You can spot a farmer in ways more than just how he speaks and walks. They can dazzle you with statistics and commentary to do with crop prices and geo-politics that brings sleep-less nights to the family. America may import 84 percent of its seafood, but it feeds the world with grain that becomes flour. That loaf of wheat bread came from here. So did the contents of that box of corn flakes.<br />
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No, the American farmer is not dead or lazy. Corporate farms may own the cattle and the pigs and the horses and the chickens, but much of the the land around here is family-owned. Down the highway to the east, a daily symphony of trucking moving into and out of the grain mills attests to the region's energetic farming lifestyle. Trains run a daily schedule, as well.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwk8uEaq_Vo5ngVa4JH2BeOBnQZpP7XFhbTV2Ql0qpVNKz307o3uA4XQO4Bfv8P6-C9jGPZBw5jkgGM4iLkBCTBG09ly1QSFz1TR8hIuXoAsbc53gbUFUowrWR5fOIdNXI_vyNwxn5zxGe/s1600/friend4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwk8uEaq_Vo5ngVa4JH2BeOBnQZpP7XFhbTV2Ql0qpVNKz307o3uA4XQO4Bfv8P6-C9jGPZBw5jkgGM4iLkBCTBG09ly1QSFz1TR8hIuXoAsbc53gbUFUowrWR5fOIdNXI_vyNwxn5zxGe/s200/friend4.jpg" t8="true" width="200" /></a></div>It would be easy, a throwaway line, to simply say that there is no problem with the American farm or farmer. That would be true and untrue. Farmers worry about the staples in their business: good seed, weather, prices at the market, government involvement in foreign trade, etc., etc.<br />
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But it also is true that what you see in this part of the nation is a certain pride in the hard work it takes to see one day lap onto another.<br />
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It is something to be admired...<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><strong><span style="font-size: x-small;">- 30 -</span></strong></div>Patrick Alcatrazhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16203892824178949597noreply@blogger.com14