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Arrested In Temple, Man Wanted On Prior Domestic Charge In Waco Temple - A man arrested in Bell County for continuous domestic
violence was wanted in McLennan on a charge of assault on a
family member, according to court records.

When police were called to a Temple residence about 7 p.m., they
were told Jason Tate was inside and believed to have a handgun.

Officers learned that a woman Tate had a previous relationship
with left the house earlier and contacted police after he
allegedly assaulted her.

After police set up a perimeter around the home and called Tate
on the telephone, he came outside and police arrested him without
incident. They found no handgun.

Tate had an outstanding warrant from McLennan County for Assault
with Bodily Injury on a Family Member.

He is now charged with Continuous Family Violence and is being
held in the Bell County Jail.
Posted by The Legendary at 5:07 PM 0 comments Ex-Police Officer Praises "Catch And Release" Program McLennan County adopts $14.5 Mil Budget, raise taxes

It didn't work out that way. The Politics of Confrontation Over Jail, Courts, Cronies When they drop the gavel this morning at the McLennan County
Commissioners' Court meeting, the war of nerves will
continue in confrontations between Tea Party watchdogs,
individual commissioners and constitutional officers.

As late as May, the 816-bed Jack Harwell Detention Center
remained empty in a bleak situtation that left taxpayers
supporting the entire debt service on the $49 million

Now that the privately operated jail is housing prisoners,
it's still nowhere near full and the dollar sink is sucking
the green down the drain.

Meanwhile, Commissioner Joe Mashek is on record accusing
County Judge Jim Lewis of ethics violations and violations
of anti-trust laws, County Sheriff Larry Lynch receives a
$12,000 per year salary "supplement" paid by the county from
funds it receives from CEC, Inc., the jail's operator, and
there is a history of jail culinary contractor Jack Madera
being indicted on 15 counts of corruption in Dallas County
for precisely the same kind of things officials have been
accused in Waco.

All that leaves Judge Jim Lewis on the hot seat. He
promised in May that the jails would be full within a few
months and the budget would be back on an even keel.

Not true. As of today, McLennan County is losing money left
and right on a jail operated by a corporation whose bottom
line is the bottom line.

That decision has already cost two Commissioners their jobs.

No doubt, the floggings will continue until morale improves.
 Narco Cops Rethink Counterinsurgency Role 

Police executives are studying hard.

Posted by The Legendary at 5:14 AM 0 comments Dodd-Frank Wall St. Reform Comes With New Rules A lesser-known wrinkle in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law is sending corporations scrambling to comply.

In the future, CEO's salaries will be public information and the ratio between compensation and bonuses paid to the top cats and all other corporate employees will be required reading in disclosure reports.

It's got the bean counters buzzing and the big wigs

Inserted into the massive, 2,000-page bill "at the last minute," this provision is "a political disclosure, as opposed to an economic disclosure," said a corporate governance professor from The University of Delaware, Charles Elson.

According to the Standard & Poor Index, the median salary of
a corporate CEO of any top 500 company is $1,025,000, or 25
times that paid to the average private sector employee at

A total pay package of $7.5 million for a chief executive is
187 times that of the average employee and 19 times
President Barack Obama's annual salary of $400,000.

It's an emotional issue, one that will have little appeal to
the average small shareholder. Already, the lawyers are
finding ways to skirt the law.

One way is to eliminate the marketing program of company
stores and use private contractors. This way, the
relatively low pay involved will not affect the bottom line
on the CEO's ratio of pay to that of the lowest paid

SEC officials are charged with drafting the regulations that
will determine the actual operation of the new law.
Business groups are clamoring for fair and consistent

It would take one full time accountant to comply with this
portion of the reform law alone, certain key honchos

Posted by The Legendary at 4:18 AM 0 comments 
BP Query Faults Company Engineers For Blowout An internal investigation blames the disastrous blowout ofthe Macondo Well on a faulty interpretation of pressure tests by BP engineers.

According to published reports, the test on April 20 showed dangerously high pressure in the well, but the engineers mistakenly made a decision to pump in seawater instead of drilling mud to contain the eruption of natural gas and
crude petroleum that followed.

Seawater is lighter than natural gas, drilling mud and

As a result, 11 men lost their lives, more than 4 million barrels of crude spewed out into the Gulf, and beaches, bays and marshes were heavily damaged from Grand Isle to Panama City, along with aquatic creatures.

The internal probe questioned why BP engineer John Guidedisregarded warnings of a potential blowout from contractor
Halliburton Co. and why managers failed to test for flaws in
the cement outside the well that was intended to keep
natural gas from forcing the blowout.

Though BP's attorneys have tried to put at least some blame
on Halliburton and Transocean, the key players on the rig
with those two concerns have steadfastly denied any
wrongdoing. They say they were complying with orders from
BP's staff.
Posted by The Legendary at 12:45 PM 0 comments Rumor: People's Bank of China Chief Has Defected Rumors attributed to a news report from the Hong Kong news
agency Ming Pao quickly circled the globe this morning that
People's Bank of China Gov. Zhou Xiaochuan has defected.

The speculation is that he is trying to avoid being punished
for a loss of some $430 billion on U.S. Treasury bonds,
according to the Austin-based private intelligence bureau

Gov. Zhou has been believed to be under house arrest for
months, according to the report, following an investigation
that led to the 2006 arrest of Wang Yi, vice governor of the
China Development Bank.

Though there has been no official confirmation of the rumor,
the fact that the People's Bank has gone to elaborate
lengths to impress the Chinese state-run media that the bank
chief is in not trouble is seen by intelligence analysts as
a strong indication there is a shakeup in the power
structure within the Chinese Communist Party.

Zhou's name has been blocked from search engines on the
Chinese internet.

He is known to have political ambitions and is a close ally
to former Chinese President Jiang Zemin. He is also a core
figure in the "Shanghai Gang" associated with President

Several news stories released today mentioned Zhiou in
connection with a visit by Japanese Financial Services
Minister Shozaburo Jimi during a high level Chinese-Japanese
economic dialogue on the relative values of the Yen and the
Posted by The Legendary at 11:58 AM 0 comments 

Veto Message to Congress
February 21st 1811

This is the Virginia Religious Freedom Act:

The Virginia Act For Establishing Religious Freedom
Thomas Jefferson, 1786

This is a portion of James Madison's Memorial and Remonstrance:

Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments

Because Religion be exempt from the authority of the Society at large, still less can it be subject to that of the Legislative Body. The latter are but the creatures and vicegerents of the former. Their jurisdiction is both derivative and limited: it is limited with regard to the co-ordinate departments, more necessarily is it limited with regard to the constituents...
Posted by The Legendary at 9:52 AM 0 comments Waste, Abandonment Earmarks Iraq Construction Jobs Billions worth of construction materials left behind in the desert

Baghdad - Of all the incomplete and unfinished projects
mentioned in the media blitz surrounding the Inspector
General's report on waste in Army construction in Iraq, the
prison in the desert at Khan Bani Saad gets the most

Stuart Bowen terms it "a bit of a monument" to the waste and seeming fraud committed by contractors and Army overseers in the "surge" program called the Iraq Relief and Reconstruction Fund.

Mr. Bowen is the Special Inspector General for Iraq.

His harsh critique of a failed program points up $4 billion
in waste, an estimate of more than 20 percent of the $21
billion spent so far of total combined contributions of the
U.S. and Iraq of $112 billion.

Designed to hold 3,600 prisoners, the buildings sit in the
sand, tumbleweeds growing in the stacks of brick and barbed
wire left behind on the unfinished compound.

There is a sister prison compound left similarly unoccupied at

Inspectors found honey-combed concrete beams unsatisfactory
to bear loads, brick walls out of plumb and incomplete
plumbing. The IG terms the effort a waste, a failure.

It's not the only one. There are stories of the pediatric
hospital with no staircase to the second floor, the Fallujah
sewage treatment plant with no pipes to connect it to the
city's system of wastewater conduit, and the $5.7 million
Baghdad Convention Center where the contract did not
stipulate that the structures had to be wired to the
electrical power. They sit useless, unlit, without air
conditioning or ventilation, unused and crumbling.

About 43 percent of all the contracts were terminated at one
time. Of 4,800 projects completed, 233 are nearing
completion and 595 have been abandoned.

The projects were originally funded to keep Sunni fighters
busy working for a paycheck and not fighting against U.S.
forces in the "surge" strategy of 2004.

Many projects were begun and left unfinished by a California
firm named Parsons Delaware, Inc., which completed only
about a third of 53 planned jobs.

It is true that the contractors attempted to work during the
height of the violence, dodging bullets and bombs as they
laid pipe and drove nails. Most projects that were abandoned
were terminated due to security concerns.

The Executive Summary of an IG report generated in 2007 is
filled with the classic gobbledegook of bureaucratic

But nothing can blunt the incisive thrust of the figures.

"Background. Public Law 109-13, 'Emergency Supplemental
Appropriations Act for Defense, the Global War on Terror,
and Tsunami Relief, 2005,' May 11, 2005, provided $5.7
billion for the Iraq Secuirty Foreces Fund, of which the
Commander, Multi-National Security Transition Command-Iraq
received $5.2 billion. The funds were to be used to provide
equipment; supplies; services; training; and facility and
infrastructure repair, renovation and construction for the
Iraq Forces.

There was one auditor detailed to the fund and 16

This compares, according to the report, with the following
commands, which operate stateside.

* U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command, 8 auditors, 64 comptrollers, $3.2 billion
* U.S. Army Forces Command, 6 auditors, 47 comptrollers, $3.0 billion
* U.S. Army Tank-Automotive and Armanments Command, 7 auditors, 45 comptrollers, $3.6 billion.

The IG report describes the way projects were abandoned in
this way.

"Actions by the Command. According to the Comander, Multi-
National Security Transition Command-Iraq, Command has
already taken steps toward implementing the recommendations
in this report. These steps include drafting a standard
operating procedure for property accountability; partnering
with the Air Force Center for Environmental Excellence to
develop a standard operating procedure to improve transfer
and acceptance of real property; reviewing and correcting DD
Forms 1354; setting up an accounting section to ensure
accurate and timely oversight of accounting processes and
documents; initiating an in-depth review of open obligations
and commitments, which has already resulted in 950 documents
being deobligated (freeing up $831 million); and working
with Defense Finance and Accounting Service personnel to
improve financial reporting, accounts payable, and cost
accounting in the combat zone. We commend Multi-National
Security Transition Command-Iraq for promptly taking these
steps to implement the recommendations."
 
U.S. Gives Up On Defending Border Along I-8 In Arizona Apparently, guarding the border along the east-west border highway, Interstate 8 from Casa Grande to San Diego, is too great a task.

The Bureau of Land Management has erected signs warning motorists the route is not recommended for travel. Travelers are warned away from the area in the strongest terms because it is an "active drug and human smuggling area."

Congressman Ted Poe of Beaumont gave a speech on the subject in the well of the House of Representatives earlier in the summer.

Posted by The Legendary at 7:41 PM 0 comments Multitude Assembles in D.C. To Restore American Honor Washington, D.C.--Conservative icon Glenn Beck and 2008 Vice
Presidential nominee Sarah Palin stood in the same spot
where Martin Luther King, Jr., gave his "I have a dream"
speech 47 years ago and called for Americans to "return to
God" in order to save America's honor.

A huge crowd approaching the permit limit of 300,000 allowed
by U.S. Park Police assembled on the National Mall, their
ranks stretching from the marble steps of the Lincoln
Memorial to the grassy knoll of the Washington Momument.

The audience, mostly white and apparently, to a huge
percentage, members of the Tea Party, listened as the two
ultr-conservative public figures praised the philosophy of
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a civil rights activist who
received the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts fighting
discrimination in housing, transportation, voting rights and

The Rev. Al Sharpton protested the selection of the very
anniversary of Dr. King's "I have a dream speech." His
followers assembled at a high school and then the Reverend
led them on a three-mile march to the Tidal Basin near the

He made fun of the white crowd at the Lincoln Memorial,
saying they were the people who once looked at civil rights
activists as troublemakers. "The folks who used to
criticize us for marching are trying to have a march of
their own."

Mr. Beck said the choice of dates for the restore honor
rally was just a matter of "providence."

Almost all his remarks were of a religious nature.

Knowledgeable observers told news analysts that they feel
the large turnout of Tea Party activists at the event shows
the new element in conservatism will be able to swing the
November elections.

Posted by The Legendary at 4:29 PM 0 comments 33 Billion Gals. of H2O For Luminant Nuke Expansion Comanche Peak requirements for cooling water would drop lake level as much as 4 ft.

Two new reactors at Luminant's Comanche Peak nuclear power
station at Glen Rose would take 33 billion gallons of water
each year to cool.

Almost all the water would evaporate, but that which is saved would be added to the Brazos River downstream, bypassing Lake Granbury.

An environmental impact statement prepared by the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission recommends approval of the new
project, as well as the assent of the U.S. Army Corps of

That would result in Lake Granbury lake levels dropping by
as much as 4 feet and an average elevation at Possum Kindom
Lake to be 1.5 feet below where they are now, according to
Save Lake Granbury.

"Last year on Lake Granbury the lake was 4 ft. lower because
of drought conditions. With the additons of Comanche Peak 3
and 4 under those same conditions, the lake would actually
be 6.5 feet lower. Some models are indicating that might
actually be closer to 8 ft."

Estimates of as much as 12.8 feet lower water levels on
Possum Kingdom Lake are indicated by computer models,
according to Save Lake Granbury.

The organization insists that this is unacceptable, that the
lake was marketed to property owners such as the Lake
Granbury Waterfront Owners Assocation as a "constant level

The developer of the lake, The Brazos River Authority,

According to the Brazos River Authority, "The lake was built
without use of tax dollars; having been financed entirely
with revenues from sales of water by the Authority. The
principal revenues used to finance the project are provided
under a contract with TXU Electric Company for purchase of
water for industrial use, including cooling water for a
natural gas-fired steam electric power plant on the lake and
the Comanche Peak nuclear power plant near Glen Rose."

Construction on the dam began in 1966 and H.B. Zachry
finished work on it in 1969.

Since then, a sprawling recreational and retirement suburb
of Ft. Worth has sprung up on the prairie around the lake.

Low water levels leave boats and docks high and dry, which
causes homeowners in a bad economy to default on mortgages
and move out. That has lowered the tax base to a point
where those owners left behind are experiencing much higher
taxes due to higher assessments on much higher appraisals.

Most property owners predict a slow and ignominous death of
a booming economy in the area.

There will be a Town Hall meeting on Sept. 21 at Glen Rose
for the public to make their views known.

According to statements made by Save Lake Granbury, water
will be in high demand over the next 50 years.

Population growth will force an increase from the current
85,138 acre/ft. per year to 107,302 ft. A computer model
shows that 25 percent of the lake's volume will decrease due
to sedimentation.

"The additional use of water needed by the Comanche Peak
Expansion from the Brazos River Basin would cause a historic
impact on Lake Granbury," a statement from the protesters
concludes. "All models indicate the lake would reach
historic lows more often and would continue with longer
periods of time...We believe there are alternatives for the
Comanche Peak Expansion Project that would exempt the use of
Lake Granbury water."

To read what the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Brazos
River Authority is ready to approve, click here:


Posted by The Legendary at 11:53 AM 0 comments Investigator of mass killings found dead in Tamaulipas Reynosa -- The Zetas drug cartel stepped up a
campaign of terror over the weekend. The President of Mexico
predicted the violence will only intensify.

Police found the body of the prosecutor investigating the
murder of 72 central American illegal immigrants at a ranch
in rural Tamaulipas beside a road with another unidentified

The prosecutor, Roberto Jaime Suarez, disappeared last
Wednesday, an apparent victim of kidnapping, according to
U.S. officials of the Department of Homeland Security who
were quoting local news media reports.

On Saturday two bombs exploded in this border city near a
morgue where the bodies of the mass murder victims are
One of the bombs was located in a car parked next to the stu-
dios of the broadcasting network Televisa. The other was lo-
cated on the street in front ofthe Transit Police headquarters.

The two bombings and the murder of the prosecutor handling
the investigation of the mass killings are believed to be
connected and made headlines worldwide, from Europe to the
Caribbean and Asia. Many news reports mentioned the
resemblance of the Zetas terror campaign to those carried
out by such organizations as Hamas and Hezbollah and Al
Qaeda in the ongoing wars of the mideast.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon vowed he will not back
down in his efforts to contain the violence of drug cartels
and the enforcement organizations they employ.

Speaking at a security conference, he said, "Violence will
persist and even intensify."

President Calderon has more than doubled the federal budget
for combating drug cartels with Mexican military troops from
about $5 million in 2009 to $10 million in 2010. He has
used funds supplied by the U.S. government.

The escalating violence has claimed the lives of more than
28,000 people during the 4-year crackdown.

The Zetas are a coalition of former Mexican Special Forces
commandos trained by the U.S. Army. They mulitplied their
earning capacity by hundreds upon hundreds of percent by
deserting the Army and joining the drug kingpins.

They have now taken up arms against illegal immigrants
transiting the northern tier of Mexican states bound for the
U.S. by extorting their money and making them work for the
drug cartels.

Their signature method of killing is to behead their victims
and leave the bodies where they will strike the maximum
terror in the people upon whom they are trying to make the
most striking impression. Their techniques are classic and
resemble most the type of insurgency which special forces
soldiers are trained to combat.

A lone survivor of the mass killing, which took place on a
ranch about 70 miles south of Reynosa, said the migrants
were intercepted on the highway by 5 car loads of armed
Zetas who kidnapped them and took them to the rural

A native of Ecuador, 18-year-old Luis Freddy Lala Pomavilla
said the killers demanded the migrants assist in carrying
out assassinations. When they refused, they herded them
into a grain barn and shot them all.

He was wounded in the neck and escaped to a road block
commanded by Mexican Marines whom he guided to the scene of
the killings.
 
Of A Mad Tea Party In The Palace Of Justice McLennan County Commissioners to consider budget of $3 for JP Precinct 6

Chapter 7-A Mad Tea Party: The Cheshire Cat appears in a tree, directing her to the March Hare's house. He disappears but his grin remains behind to float on its own in the air prompting Alice to remark that she has often seen a cat without a grin but never a grin without a cat. Alice becomes a guest at a "mad" tea party along with the "Mad Hatter," the "March Hare," and a sleeping "Dormouse " who remains asleep for most of the chapter. The other characters give Alice many riddles and stories. The Mad Hatter reveals that they have tea all day because time has punished him by eternally standing still at 6 pm (tea time). Alice becomes insulted and tired of being bombarded with riddles and she leaves claiming that it was the stupidest tea party that she had ever been to.

It's a tale of a courthouse war told so often it's worn
grooves in the soft soap stone of the charming old double-
domed Italianate-Beaux Arts building on the bluffs
overlooking the banks of the Brazos. In the latest
installment of the serial:

The McLennan County Commissioners' Court will meet at a
budget hearing and be asked to consider a budget of $1 per
month for the Justice Court Precinct No. 6, which was elim-
inated in 2006.


The purpose of this exercise?

To ensure compliance with The Texas Constitution, of course.

What else would one suspect?

Though the voters spoke at the ballot box 4 years ago in the
general election to elect a Justice of the Peace in Precinct
6, the newly elected Judge was never allowed to take the
bench because, in the interim, the Commissioners' Court
acted to eliminate the precinct.

County Judge Jim Lewis refused to issue a certificate of
election. Ergo, Randall Scott Gates was never allowed to
assume his office and do business as the Justice of the
Peace in the rural community of Moody in far southwestern
McLennan County.

Without a budget, however, the Texas Constitution is
slighted and the will of the voters frustrated, according to
Mr. Gates. He has petitioned the Court to adopt a budget of
$1 per month for the non-existent Court for the remaining
three months of his elected term of office. Commission-
ers will be asked to consider the item in the
Budget hearing to be held on Aug. 31.

Our story so far:

At some point prior to the election season, the local
Constable set up a radar speed detection surveillance
program on State Highway 317 near the Moody Elementary
School Zone.

Though constables are law enforcement officers, they by and
large confine their duties to serving process for the
Courts, standing by at evictions and public sales and the
like. You rarely find them enforcing speed laws, except in
rural Dallas County where the practice is a matter of some

Someone complained to County Road Commissioner Wendell Crunk
and he admonished the gentleman of the law to desist, a
warning that fell on deaf ears.

The shakeout, when it came, was radical, to say the least.

The Court voted to eliminate Precinct 6, but not until after
the primary election, when Randall Scott Gates had been
nominated as candidate for Justice of the Peace.

For the past four years, Mr. Gates has served as the Justice
of the Non-Existent Precinct 6 Justice Court.

Unlike the England of 1865, when the Oxford churchman
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson wrote his classic fantasy-satire
about the intrigues of Court of the day under the psuedonym
Lewis Carroll, Texans and Americans are under no constraint
to conceal in fantasy or allegory the privileged comments
they make about public officials. There is the landmark
Supreme Court case to consider, Sullivan v. New York Times,
in which the justices held that public officials are beyond
the pale when it comes to considerations of libel.

As such, they are holding themselves out as public servants
and are thus fair game for public comment, all of which is
entirely privileged unless a plaintiff can prove that there
was malicious intent on the part of the writer. To this
day, no such rules apply in England.

Some of the legal rhetoric generated by the Precinct 6
controversy assumes the tenor of Mr. Dodgson's tale of
illogic and madness exhibited by high public officials,
aided and abetted by the likes of those twin political
stalwarts, Tweedledum and Tweedledee.

Considereth: the words of Mike Dixon, Esquire, the at-
torneywho represented the Commissioners' Court in the
matter before the 10th District Court of Appeals:

"Furthermore, since no certificate of election has been
issued, it was improper for the Relator (Mr. Gates) to seek
to qualify and assume the duties of office by filing a
purported oath and bond with the County Clerk. Sect. 601.003
of the Texas Government Code...presumes that the person has
been elected in the first instance.

"The only possible motive for the filing of these purported
instruments is an attempt to convince the Court that the
office actually exists. The Relator, however, cannot, in a
defiant act akin to Napoleon Pope (?) taking the crown from
Pope Pius VII and placing it on his own head, become a self-
anointed justice of the peace merely by filing what purports
to be an oath and bond that were not approved by the County
Judge or the Commissioners' Court."

Of 1,560 votes cast, Randall Scott Gates received a slim
majority of 4 votes.

According to "Art. V §18(c) creating Post-Redistricting
Officials (which) was approved by the voters in 1983 to
overturn that aspect of Ashmore," the office of Justice of
the Peace, Precinct 6 exists to this day, according to an
analysis of the amendment to the Texas Constitution approved
by voters in 1983 and the legal situation regarding the
elimination of Precinct 6, in an opinion authored by
McLennan County District Attorney John Segrest.

"It was approved not out of fondness or fairness for the
individual in a now abolished office, but to foster the
interests of the people of the State. Thus, the public is
defended from anyone who 'from time to time, for the
convenience of the people,' redraws lines eliminating a
Justice of the Peace here and a constable there, which would
in effect disenfranchise the voters of an abolished or
redrawn precinct who did not have the opportunity to vote
for their inherited officials. 'From time to time, for the
convenience of the people,' redistricting may appear to
override the will of the voters or change the outcome of

He went on to say that voters could just as easily have re-
jected the measure and a controlling opinion in a previous
court case would have remained in force. Such is not the case,
he noted.

The 10th Court denied the petition of Mr. Gates seeking
mandamus relief that would have allowed him to take office.
The Court did not issue an opinion en banc.

In a dissenting statement, Chief Justice Tom Gray wrote that
the election by the people takes precedent over the refusal
to issue a certificate of election by the Commissioners'

The Texas Supreme Court heard the resulting appeal, but
neglected to issue an opinion, one way or the other.

Hence, the move afoot to adopt a budget of $1 per month for the
"non-existent" justice court in the precinct eliminated by
the Commissioners' Court. To fail to do so would circumvent
the will of the people who approved the Texas Constitution
and its amendments.

Posted by The Legendary at 10:22 AM 0 comments Law - Texas Government Is The Servant Of The People 

Consider the preamble of the Texas Open Records Act.

Therefore, people had no telephonic access to their public officials. 
Climate of Terror, Frustration Evident In Robinson Crime victims, police upset at release of violent offender

Robinson -- Excel Motors is not an impressive place of business. Tucked in a weedy gravel lot at the side of Robinson Road, near the intersection of Moonlight on the
edge of town, it's easy to pass it up without noticing the used car lot.

On August 2, two men arrived in a car and one of them, a black man named Steven Ray Johnson, 41, allegedly approached Mr. RayEasley, owner of the establishment and stabbed and slashed him so badly he spent the next week in the hospital - three of them in intensive care - according to an elderly lady who stands by there when he is not at his place of business.

Mr. Johnson was reportedly trying to wash Mr. Easley's blood from his hands and clothing as they escaped in the car in which they arrived with a bag containing keys to the cars on the lot, having obtained no money and no car in which to escape.

Mr. Easley's assistant said he was not there, that he was out running errands in town and that if he chose to speak with anyone from the media, he would.

She was visibly upset, angered when informed that Mr. Johnson was released from the McLennan County Jail on a personal recognizance bond after a four-day sojourn by Jail
Magistrate Raymond Britton. "We've been told not to talk with anyone about this because it's an ongoing investigation," she said, referring all inquiries to the Robinson Police Department.

"Besides, it is none of your business," she said, asking The Legendary to leave the property.

At the Robinson Police Department, records clerks were just as adamant. They said they could release no information about the attempted capital murder of Mr. Easley for which Mr. Johnson was charged.

They directed The Legendary to fill out a Public Information request "so we can check into it and see if it's anything we can release."

The lady called for the Lieutenant in charge of Criminal Investigations, a man with a shaved skull and a very reddened face, who shouted through the glass partition of the office that "The matter is part of a continuing investigation and I will not discuss it with you!"

Informed that Mr. Johnson had been released on his personal recognizance in lieu of a $100,000 lien to be levied against his property and chattels if he fails to appear in court, he became visibly upset and shouted even more loudly.

"I'm not going to argue with you!"

The thing is, no one was arguing with him. The Legendary was speaking to him as a neighbor, nothing more, or less.
The awful truth is, all the posturing and anger in the world will not buy any of The People of the State Of Texas one shred of peace and dignity, law and order, safety and security - any more than that which they may be able to provide for themselves.

It is a known fact that police agencies are under no legal obligation to protect the public. Their weapons are for their own protection, no one else's.

One may easily imagine the frustration of a professional police officer seeing two allegedly violent offenders released during the same seven-day period with no exchange of cash money to secure their return.

Jailers released Robinson karate instructor Danny Passmore last Friday. He had been held since late May on a charge of aggravated sexual assault of a child. District Attorney John Segrest declined to prosecute him in the absence of further physical evidence from the DNA analysis laboratory of the Department of Public Safety at Austin. The DA had declined to present the case to a McLennan County Grand Jury, which triggered the need to release the alleged child rapist due to a delay in prosecution of more than 90 days.

Scrutiny of jail records for Thursday, August 26, show that several others accused of serious felonies were released, either on their personal recognizance by McLennan County judges, or by a letter from the DA declining prosecution during that one 24-hour period.

Goldie Dukes, 39, was released on a personal recognizance bond by 54th District Judge Matt Johnson on charges of evading arrest and robbery after the DA refused charges of robbery, evading arrest, theft of property and interfering with an emergency call.

Corey Hutchinson, 28, was released when the DA refused the charge, after an arrest for violation of a protective order for which he had been held under $50,000 bond.

Delvin Pope was released after the DA refused the charge of failure to stop and render aid. He was arrested and held on $5,000 bond.

Felipe Alvarez, 30, was released by Judge Britton on personal recognizance following an arrest for DWI for which he had been held on $10,000 bond.
Posted by The Legendary at 5:03 PM 7 comments GOP Chief: Jim Dunnam "dishonest" about residence Munisteri Alleges Waco solon lives in adjoining district

Waco -- Eligibility to represent the people of State
Representative District 57 raised its ugly head yesterday at
a press conference.

The question, so endemic to McLennan County politics, of
where a legislative candidate actually lives and how it
affects eligibility for office is an on-again, off-again
element to a tragi-comedy of errors in the election season of 2010.

State Republican Chairman Steve Munisteri alleged at a Waco
press conference yesterday that State Representative Jim
Dunnam is not actually eligible to hold his District 57 seat
because he has lived since the redistricting of 2001 in what
was then Representative Kip Averitt's and is now
Representative Doc Anderson's 56th District, which is
entirely within the bounds of McLennan County.

"The fact is that state Rep. Jim Dunnam does not live among
the people of District 57," Mr. Munisteri said. The Waco
Democrat "chooses not to live among the very people he
purports to represent. Even worse, he is dishonest about

After the district was gerrymandered, warped, woofed,
massaged and bowdlerized into a snaky shape that rambles
across McLennan, Falls, Leon, Robertson and Madison
Counties in 2001,Mr. Dunnam built a place in Chilton,
where he takes ahomestead exemption.

He kept his place near McGregor so his kids could continue
to attend school where they started their education.

"My wife and I decided that we weren't going to uproot the
kids," Mr. Dunnam said. "They had spent their whole career
in the same (Midway) public school district. We sat down and
we said we're not going to move our kids and so we were
going to maintain something so they they could go to school
where they'd always gone to school. "There's no hiding
anything about it. Everybody's known about it for a long

When a Republican-dominated legislative committee redrew the
57th District in 2001, a panel of three federal judges
upheld the new shape of things to come. The redistricting
had been accomplished by John Cornyn, who was then Attorney
General, Land Commissioner David Dewhurst and Carole Keeton
Strayhorn, comptroller, who was then named Carole Keeton
Rylander. Mr. Dunnam was one of 27 Democratic incumbents who
got a whole new district following the census of 2000. He
has represented the 57th District since 1996.

The following year, the Republicans took over the
legislature, going from a number in the low seventies to a
majority in the high eighties.

Retired construction executive Marva Beck, who ranches near
Centerville in Leon County, is Mr. Dunnam's opposition in
the general election.

This question of eligibility has figured in another state
legislative contest. Former Senator David Sibley, who had
taken up the practice of lobbying for the state's power
companies, trial lawyers, dentists and insurance companies,
was homesteading a mansion assessed at $750,000 in Austin.
He claimed his legal residence as a property in Waco.

Then he raised legal questions about Senator Brian
Birdwell's legal residency and eligibility to run against
him in the Republican Primary because Col. Birdwell had
voted in elections in Virginia in 2005 and 2006 while
recuperating from burns he suffered in the 9/11 attack on
the Pentagon. State election code and the Texas Constitution
requires a senatorial candidate to have lived in the state
for a minimum of 5 years.

The Secretary of State ruled at the time that though he was
indeed a registerd voter in Prince William County at
Manassas, it was always Senator Birdwell's clear intention
to return to his native Texas, where he had bought property
at Granbury to build a new home.

When Senator Birdwell won the runoff contest and became the
default Senator to replace Senator Kip Averitt during his
unexpired term, the County Republican Chairmen in the 10-
county Senate District 22 nominated him to stand for the
general election in November.

Challenger John Cullar, a Waco attorney who is the former
McLennan County Democratic Chairman similarly challenged
Sen. Birdwell's eligibility, asking the 5th District Court
of Appeals at Dallas for mandamus relief to have GOP
officials remove Birdwell's name from the ballot.

The justices declined, siding with the same opinion
previously held by the Secretary of State. Mr. Cullum
withdrew his nomination last week, saying he prefers to
allow Democratic candidates to collect campaign
contributions and thereby increase their chances of election
to office.

State Democratic Party officials cried foul, saying the GOP
has "gamed the system," that the judicial decision was
unfair and they were robbed, plain and simple.

GOP officials said they plan no litigation on behalf of Ms.
Beck in this contest. They prefer to let the voters make
the decision of who is elibible to fill the slot in
Representative District 57. Mr. Dunnam is the current
House Democratic Leader.

Posted by The Legendary at 5:31 AM 0 comments 
ICE: Amnesty For 17,000 Deportees - 2,500 in Houston Non-violent or those related to legals given top priority
Department of Homeland Security and ICE officials are planning to dismiss deportation proceedings against 17,000 illegal aliens.

Cases of illegal aliens who are not violent, a threat to national security, and are related to a legal resident, receive top priority, according to a memo written by Assistant Secretary of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Joe Morton.

Victims of trafficking in humans also receive amnesty,
according to published reports. Some 2,500 cases in Houston
have been culled over the past month.

Meanwhile, Texas officials calculate that the cost of
incarcerating illegal aliens in Texas prisons and providing
indigent health care topped "at least" $250 million last

What's more, while polls show most Americans want illegal
immigration brought under control, some 218 bodies of
illegals who died in the deserts of Pima County trying to
make it to Phoenix were recovered in 2009. So far this
year, authorities have recovered the remains of 170 in the
same area.
The power of anti-illegal immigration sentiment may be
seen in Senator John McCain's resounding defeat of a Re-
publican challenger in the primary last week. He reversed
a long-standing policy of opposition to the border fence in
Arizona and espoused the state government's new get-tough
policy toward illegal immigration.
Posted by The Legendary at 7:48 PM 0 comments Flores Campaign "Very Encouraged" With Internal Polls Edwards lagging behind Flores in TV ads, which started today

Bryan -- Strolling through a machine shop, Bill Flores appeared in a 30-second television ad today saying jobs are created in the work place, not in government programs in Washington, D.C.

The campaign of Representative Chet Edwards has not started to show advertisements on television or in print media.

A voice-over announcement reminds viewers in the markets of Waco and Bryan-College Station that the Republican challenger led the 10-term Democratic veteran in a scientific poll conducted by the Washington firm of On Message, Inc., by a dozen points in May.

The announcer points out that "Edwards, who isn't releasing his own survey, remains confident he can turn the contest from a referendum on President Barack Obama and national atmospherics into a chioice between the two candidates."

Reached for comment, Bill Flores campaign manager Matt
Mackowiak said he would not discuss results of recent polls,
but added that "We're very encouraged with internal

Posted by The Legendary at 6:18 PM 0 comments 9 % Hike In Drug Costs Outstripped Inflation in 2010 
Zulu Flash - Mexican Marines Find New Mass Grave BULLETIN: A man approached a road block in Tamaulipas State
about 90 miles from the border earlier today seeking first
aid for a gun shot wound.

He told Mexican Marines manning the outpost that he had just come from a nearby ranch where gunmen from the feared Zetas enforcer wing of the drug cartels had killed a large number of people and buried them in a mass grave.

The Marines found 72 bodies - 58 men and 14 women - buried in a very large hole, according to Navy Vice Admiral Jose Luis Vergara.

The wounded man told the road block guards that the Zetas
had kidnapped him and other migrants as they made their way
to the border in the northeastern border state, took them to
the ranch in San Fernando, and killed them.

Adm. Vergara said authorities believe the migrants are from
Brazil, Ecuador, El Salvador and Honduras.

Morgue workers were fingerprinting the remains in San

This is the largest mass grave found since President Felipe
Calderon began a crack down on drug cartels four years ago.
U.S. government funds have doubled the Mexican offensive
from a $5 million budget to a $10 million, according to news
reports. More than 28,000 people have been killed in the
resulting violence as cartels vie for the right to use certain
smuggling routes.

The Zetas are former Mexican Special Forces soldiers who
have broken away from enforcement duties for the Gulf Cartel
and formed their own drug smuggling gang.
Posted by The Legendary at 3:08 PM 0 comments Palestinian-Israeli Detente: Peace Talks A-Go Go Washington, D.C. -- In a game familiar to all sides, President Barack Obama had Secretary of State Hilary Clinton invite the players for yet another round of Arab-Israeli
peace talks.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will arrive around the first of the month for one-on-one meetings with the President and aceremonial summit billed as another attempt to hammer out differences over Israeli expansion into Palestinian territory, new Israeli settlement building in the West Bank, and an end to the need for Palestinian smuggling in the Gaza

Mr. Netanyahu not only welcomed the talks, he issued a
statement remarking "the American clarification that the
talks would be without preconditions."

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told media outlets
that the guidelines laid down for the talks are "doable,"
that "It's time for decisions."

A product of a high stakes gamble by the so-called
"Quartet," a special team of negotiators from the U.S., The
European Union, Russia and the United Nations, the scenario
is nothing new to international observers, whose reactions
have been flat in spite of the media hyperbole surrounding
the announcement.

Consider the words of the Stratfor analyst, George Friedman.

"Mutual fear is the foundation of peace among enemies,"
according to the veteran intelligence expert who writes a
regular report on hot spots for the private information
service based in Austin.

Unlike the time when U.S. President Jimmy Carter brokered a
peace accord between Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin
and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, in this case there is no
real impetus for results.

Following the 1973 war, "Both Egypt and Israel were shocked
and afraid," he wrote this week. "The uncertainty of the
future sobers both sides."

In this war of words, he added, "But the United States wants
a peace process, preferably a long one designed to put off
the day when it fails."

He's not alone in his skepticism.

Critical thinkers point out that Mr. Abbas is "only in
control of one half of the Palestinian territories,
following the takeover of the Gaza Strip by the Islamist
Hamas group in 2007," said a report from "The Financial

Besides, FT's Jerusalem Correspondent Tobias Buck pointed
out, "...the chief Palestinian negotiator has already warned
that the Palestinians will pull out of the new talks if the
Israeli government announces further settlement building..."

"Without a doubt, we will hit more obstacles, said Mrs. Clinton.
"But I ask the parties to persevere...to continue
working to achieve a just and lasting peace in the region."

It's more like a just and lasting round of peace talks,
according to veteran international observers in arms
production, petroleum drilling, transportation and private
security services.

The story goes like this.

The Israeli right is pressing to resume settlement building
in Palestinian strongholds. The deadline on the moratorium
is fast approaching.

This brings the traditional balance of power into play.

It's common knowledge that pro-Western republics such as
Saudi Arabia, the Gulf Emirates, Kuwait, Jordan, Syria and
Egypt are publicly hostile to Israeli and American
sentiments while at the same time they depend for survival
against an onslaught of radical Islamic aggression from such
rogue states as Iraq and Iran on the hegemony of American
and Israeli military might and nuclear weapons capabilities.

Hence, the long, drawn-out peace talk process has its
advantages for all sides.

In a world of many flags unfurled and a constant racket of
clattering, clashing sabers, the prospects of peace talks
well underway by late September is a refreshing change to
what looks to be a long, hot detente filled with brush fire
wars and flare-ups.

Posted by The Legendary at 12:36 PM 0 comments 
Chet: "I was in the right place at the right time" Two 4-star Generals heap praise on Congressman's record

Representative Chet Edwards praised the military families of America in remarks before approximately 100 veterans today
in Clifton.

He said he is only a partner with veterans, voters and military people in making the Armed Forces good at what they do.

Two past commanding generals of Ft. Hood, Pete Taylor and Tom Schwartz, told the gathered veterans he's the best man
they know on Capitol Hill when the military needs help.

Said Gen. Schwartz. "There are a lot of us out here who would like to be a lot more like you."

He said Chet Edwards helped the Army in its struggle to keep from being cut to as little as 8 divisions from a high of 16, then 12.

When it comes to base housing, military families owe
Congressman Edwards a debt of gratitude, the General said.

"Chet Edwards is a combat Congressman. He's had to go across
the aisle to ask for things from the other side."

Here are some of his accomplishments, according to the two
veteran general officers.

He has doubled the budget for post traumatic stress disorder
treatment, saved the Waco VA Medical Center from certain
closure, added 10,000 new claims processors in the VA system
and funded 92 new Vet Centers for returning combat veterans.

Catherine Henson, a veteran of the Women's Army Corps and
former State Commander of the DAV, said "It would be an
American tragedy if he were not sent back to Congress." She
criticized Bill Flores for suggesting that wounded veterans
should be treated at the Army hospitals and non-service
connected veterans should get their care from private health

"They can't handle what they've got now," Mrs. Henson said.

With all due humility, Rep. Edwards said, "I didn't do any
of those things by myself; I'm just a partner in it."

He recalled how the John David Fry Scholarship Fund came to
be funded by Congress.

Gunnery Sergeant Fry was a bomb disposal technician in the
U.S. Marine Corps. He was just one week away from coming
home from Iraq when he volunteered to disarm three
Improvised Explosive Device bombs on a road during the
hottest period of the war.

Ater he disarmed the first two, he lost his life when he
worked on the third, which was wired to a fourth, concealed
bomb under the surface of the ground.

He recalled re-dedicating the U.S. Post Office in Gunny
Fry's home town of Lorena.

"I looked at his three kids and his widow, and I thought,
'I'd like to be able to do something more in his memory.'"

The reality today is that any son or daughter of a veteran
who lost his or her life in combat receives an all-expenses-
paid scholarship to a college or university. Period.

There were no dry eyes in the house as he told that part of
Gunny Fry's story.

When it comes to improving housing for soldiers, sailors and
Marines, he said, "I don't find many lobbyists knocking on
my door seeking funds for that purpose."

The House Subcommittee for Appropriations he chairs rides
herd on the VA and Military Construction.

"It's about respect," he said. It's about respect for the
men and women who do "America's number one job and that's
protecting us from our enemies."

He received a standing ovation from the crowd.

Posted by The Legendary at 5:31 PM 0 comments Edwards Campaign Facing Heat On Vets, Health Care Burleson -- Veteran Tea Party activist Angela Cox confronted U.S. Representative Chet Edwards here at a campaign stop emphasizing veterans issues.

Said Ms. Cox, "Get this. Chet Edwards told the people assembled, 'If we don't win this race, I want you to know, I'll be OK. I am blessed, my wife is blessed and my children are blessed...'

"I couldn't help myself with all his I's and my's, so I spoke up and said, 'Glad to know you and your family are so blessed and you're going to be OK, at tax payer expense, but why don't you do something really good for your constituents...who have no jobs, are losing their homes and lives that they've worked so hard for, most of their lives...People started laughinig and clapping. Chet just got red in the face and changed the subject.

"He took no questions, but I did manage to have a
conversation with him on veterans issues...'One thing we can
agree on is that we do need to take care of our veterans.'"

Ms. Cox said she told Mr. Edwards, "'I will consider your
request, but first, as a sign that you are genuine in your
request, I would like to know why as of today, that you have
not denounced (Department of Homeland Security Secretary)
Janet Napolitano's statement that she made that vets coming
home from Iraq and Afghanistan should be considered as
possible terroristic threats to the U.S.'

"Media was right there and their jaws dropped. They looked
at Edwards and he walked off. LOL!"

Mr. Edwards will appear at 3:30 p.m. today at White Horse
Station in Clifton.

According to automated telephone messages he sent to
constituents in the area, he will have leaders of veterans
groups with him at the appearance.

Former Bush Administration VA Secretary Andrew Principi made
an appearance with the Representative at Waco yesterday.

He played a major part in retracting Agent Orange service
connection disability benefits to Navy "blue water" veterans
of the Vietnam War who did not put their feet on "dry land"
after Congress had previously passed a law guaranteeing they
would receive the same benefits as those who served on dry

Congressman Edwards has signed on to legislation introduced
by House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Bob Filner (D-
California) that would reverse the former Secretary's
amendment of the dapartment's M-21-1 Adjudication Policy
Manual that denies such benefits to Navy veterans who served
offshore in Vietnam categorically.

The public law and Code of Federal Regulations extends the
service connection benefits to all veterans who served in
the Republic of Vietnam or its coastal waters.

Clifton resident Tim Hix died of Agent Orange-related
prostate and bone cancer two years ago. He was a Navy
veteran who served aboard the destroyer U.S.S. Dennis J.
Babcock in 1967, 1968 and 1969. Mr. Hix was billed $25,000
for an initial prostate operation because of the reversal of
policy. His combined family income was too much to receive
VA health care promised him when he was honorably discharged
as a combat veteran of the Vietnam War, according to a VA

The Babcock fired on-shore bombardment missions from within
a thousand yards of the coast of Vietnam with her 5-inch
automatic guns. Mr. Hix served as a "phone talker" in his
General Quarters combat station.

He was a friend of The Legendary, a coffee drinking buddy
who worked at Clifton's Go Industries, and he is missed
every day by his many friends.

The VA denied Mr. Hix service connection when the U.S.
Supreme Court declined to hear the case of a fellow Navy
veteran who was blinded by a diabetic condition due to
exposure to Agent Orange.
Posted by The Legendary at 7:03 AM 0 comments