June 30, 2014

Oak Lawn’s Legacy of Love Monument vandalized with spray paint

Courtesy of Brenda Marks

DALLAS -- A prominent Oak Lawn monument was vandalized and tagged “666? with red paint early Sunday.

The Legacy of Love Monument has been located at the intersection of Cedar Springs Road and Oak Lawn Avenue since 2006. It’s become a local landmark and gathering place for Dallas’ LGBT community. The 35-foot monument is maintained by the Oak Lawn Committee, a neighborhood group.

Oak Lawn Committee president Brenda Marks said she was saddened to hear from a friend that the monument was vandalized. Over the past few years, the Oak Lawn Committee has spent nearly $15,000 on repairs from car crashes. But in this case, she said it hurts more because the damage was intentional.

“This one broke my heart,” she said. “The symbol, it’s the mark of the devil on a monument that’s dedicated to those who have lost their lives to AIDS.”

More at http://crimeblog.dallasnews.com/2014/06/oak-lawns-legacy-of-love-monument-vandalized-tagged-666.html/ .

Cross-posted in the Texas Group.

June 30, 2014

Texas Tech Football Prospect Punches Female Basketball Player in Pickup Game

Nigel Bethel II, a Texas Tech football player, has been dismissed from the team due to his role in an incident at the Texas Tech Student Recreation Center on Saturday. Texas Tech Athletics said in a press release that it "has a zero tolerance policy on this type of behavior."

Lady Raider star Amber Battle is expected to have surgery after she was hit in the face by Bethel at Texas Tech’s recreation center, the Avalanche-Journal has learned.

During a basketball game, Bethel, a freshman cornerback reportedly punched Battle in the face, breaking a bone, the A-J has learned.

Blayne Beal, a Tech spokesman, confirmed there was an incident between two student athletes Saturday afternoon at the recreation center. Beal said campus officials are gathering information from both parties.

More at http://lubbockonline.com/filed-online/2014-06-28/battle-hit-face-tech-football-recruit#comment-339584 .

June 30, 2014

Repurrcussions - Another Catblog

What do you have the day after a few shooters of Catrón, Mezcat and Gato Wabo?

Yep cats, repurrcussions.

June 29, 2014

Imagine All The Confederate Garbage Committing Suicide If Hillary Wins In 2016

Mississippi dodged a bullet last Tuesday when Democrats turned out in strong enough numbers to save doddering Senator Thad Cochran from certain defeat at the hands of reactionary white supremacist Chris McDaniel. Cochran, who didn't even want to run, will probably retire after a respectable amount of time passes, allowing the state GOP Establishment to appoint a nebbish Chamber of Commerce-camp replacement. They are well aware that McDaniel's brand of Ted Cruz-style extremism isn't healthy for the party (not to mention the state or the nation). Mississippi is pretty red-- but probably not as forever in the pocket of the GOP as you think. In 2012 these dozen states gave Obama the smallest percentage of their votes. These are blood red hellholes:

• Utah- 25%
• Wyoming- 28%
• Idaho- 33%
• Oklahoma- 33%
• West Virginia- 36%
• Arkansas- 37%
• Kansas- 38%
• Nebraska- 38%
• Alabama- 38%
• Kentucky- 38%
• North Dakota- 39%
• Tennessee- 39%

Mississippi voters gave Obama a better showing-- 44%-- not just than these, but in 5 other states as well: Texas, Louisiana, South Dakota, Alaska, and Montana. When states that are headed in a purple direction are tallied up, Georgia, South Carolina, Indiana and Arizona are all on par politically with Mississippi. It won't happen in time for 2016 but if President Hillary does a great job, Mississippi could actually be looked at as a swing state in 2020!

Confederate extremists like Chris McDaniel aren't part of Mississippi's future; he' and they are part of a dark past better left for historians, sociologists and psychologists to ponder. The news from Mississippi over the weekend has been all about McDaniel and his team of neo-fascists and racists running up and down the state screeching ominously about Negroes voting in the white party primary. They just can't get their heads around the concept. He won't concede and, like we predicted on election night, he has plenty of Sturm und Drang for the media to enjoy over the next few weeks. Always the racist scumbag, McDaniel accused Cochran of luring African-American voters to the polls with "pork and food stamps."

McDaniel claims to have already found 1,000 illegal votes! His sick camp also claims the Republican establishment in Mississippi is responsible for the suicide of Mark Mayfield, the unhinged teabagger and McDaniel's operative who had been arrested for breaking into Rose Cochran's hospital room to take pictures of the deteriorating Alzheimer's patient. McDaniel's policy director, Keith Plunkett, tweeted "A good man is gone today [because] of a campaign to destroy lives. To all 'so called' Republican leaders who joined lockstep: I WILL NOT REST!" Another lunatic fringe McDaniel operative, Pat Bruce, president of the Madison County Conservative Coalition (a local Tea Party front group), insisted that Mayfield "was the finest man I know... They killed him," she said in a raised voice full of pain. "They sent a SWAT team to his office, six officers, just to arrest him."

- See more at: http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2014/06/imagine-all-confederate-garbage.html

June 29, 2014

Today is Sister to TxTowelie's birthday!

She is perturbed that her smart-@$$ younger brother revealed that she is a year older on the Internet, but was grateful that he didn't reveal her age online.

Happy birthday sister!

June 29, 2014

Looks like NJ's Imperial Thieving Fat Bastard isn't going to be toiling on a chain gang anytime soon

For now, anyway, the last word apparently goes to "Scummy Joe" Scarborough, who now seems to have officially set himself up as apologist of and coddler of right-wing Imperial Thieving Fat Bastards.

MediaMatters took the trouble to document ("STUDY: New Investigation Into Gov. Christie Adminstration Virtually Ignored By Major Networks") that essentially no TV network news attention was paid, except by MSNBC, to the New York Times's carefully researched and documented story earlier in the week ("2nd Bridge Inquiry Said to Be Linked to Christie," by Matt Flegenheimer, William K. Rashbaum, and Kate Zernike) about multiple dimensions of illegality under investigation by the Manhattan district attorney and the Securities and Exchange Commission to the way New Jersey's Imperial Thieving Fat Bastard of a governor swindled a couple of billion dollars out of his favorite patsy, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. (Okay, that's my characterization of the ITFB's alleged crimes.)

As Erik Wemple subsequently noted on his washingtonpost.com blog, "No surprises in that data set. MSNBC, after all, has provided extensive coverage of all things related to Christie and Jersey infrastructure ever since the George Washington Bridge scandal exploded in January."

However, Erik also notes:

Apparently Scummy Joe has higher standards when it comes to possible illegalities imputed to Republican thieving bastards. Stealing a couple of billion dollars? "A joke of a story to put on the front page."

- See more at http://downwithtyranny.blogspot.com/2014/06/looks-like-njs-imperial-thieving-fat.html .

June 29, 2014

Greg Abbott: Wendy Davis’ allies think Republicans are ‘gringos’ and ‘pendejos’

DALLAS – Republican gubernatorial nominee Greg Abbott‘s campaign blasted remarks made by state Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer at the Texas Democratic Convention in Dallas, calling them inappropriate and symptomatic of the party’s recklessness.

Martinez Fischer, well-known for his penchant for throwing bombs at his colleagues across the isle, has been especially on point this weekend. During his speech to the full convention Friday, Martinez Fischer said “GOP” stood for “gringos y otros pendejos.” His office has also been handing out six Lotería cards to delegates, one depicting a red-faced Abbott as “El Diablito.”

“Wendy Davis and her allies beliefs that all Anglos and Republicans are ‘gringos’ and ‘pendejos’ is both despicable and insulting to the hundreds of thousands non Anglos that support Greg Abbott, including his own multicultural family,” Abbott campaign spokesman Avdiel Huerta said of the Fort Worth state senator, who accepted the state Democratic Party’s nomination for governor Friday.

“Instead of trying to sell her out of touch ideas like ObamaCare and higher taxes, it appears Sen. Davis new strategy is one of desperation,” Huerta added. Abbott’s wife Cecelia is Mexican American.

Martinez Fischer had this to say in response: “I stand by my words.I did not know Greg Abbott was at the convention to hear me, and if I had known that I would told him directly to his face.”

More at http://blog.chron.com/texaspolitics/2014/06/greg-abbott-wendy-davis-allies-think-republicans-are-gringos-and-pendejos/ .

[font color=green]Somebody got his itty-bitty feelings hurt?[/font]

June 29, 2014

Accrediting body puts Baylor Med on probation

A national accrediting body has placed Baylor College of Medicine on probation for 14 different "areas of concern," a blow to its reputation as one of the nation's elite medical schools.

The Liaison Committee on Medical Education Friday formally notified Baylor of the downgrade, which was based on deficiencies involving administrative processes and procedures, not instruction. The Houston school joined four other North American colleges on probation with the body, which accredits 158 institutions in the U.S. and Canada.

"I am disappointed with the findings because i know the don't represent Baylor or the quality education provided by our institution," Baylor President Dr. Paul Klotman wrote the campus community Wednesday, Klotman subsequently held four town hall meetings on campus about the matter.

Klotman emphasized that Baylor is still fully accredited by the committee. He said the biggest impact is likely to be other schools telling top students not to apply to Baylor because it's on probation. He added that he's confident that Baylor's reputation is strong enough to withstand such efforts.

More at http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Accrediting-body-places-Baylor-on-probation-5585791.php . (subscription required).

[font color=green]The other schools placed on probation are Chicago Medical School at the Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science, the University of Louisville School of Medicine, San Juan Bautista School of Medicine in Puerto Rico, and the University of Saskatchewan College of Medicine in Canada.[/font]

June 29, 2014

Gay advocates rally at Democratic Convention

DALLAS — About two dozen gay pride advocates have waved flags and signs during the final day of the Texas Democratic Convention in Dallas.

Members of the Stonewall Democrats on Saturday stormed the floor during a speech by state Sen. Royce West, whose district is hosting the gathering.

Activists waved rainbow flags and homemade signs, then posed for a group picture as West called from the stage, "We're here for you."

The demonstration was focused more on state politics than gay marriage rights since, at the Texas Republican Convention two weeks ago, delegates approved a party platform sanctioning therapy to turn gay people straight.

More at http://lubbockonline.com/filed-online/2014-06-28/gay-advocates-rally-democratic-convention#.U69geLFCz2Q .

June 29, 2014

State's high court removes landowner liability in trespassing case

Those hurt, killed trespassing may have no grounds to sue, court says

The Texas Supreme Court ruled Friday that landowners may not be liable to trespassers who are injured or killed on private property, so long as the property owners do not act overly aggressive toward the intruders.

The decision came in a 7-year-old case involving three immigrants who were killed as their smuggler crossed a ranch in Brooks County to avoid a U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint near Falfurrias.

The high court affirmed a trial court ruling and threw out a wrongful death suit against Mestena Uranium LLC and its security guard, Philip Boerjan. The justices left claims against Mestena Operating LLC and Mestena Inc., and sent the matter back to state court for a possible trial.

Each pair of defendants made separate arguments seeking dismissal.

More at http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/State-s-high-court-removes-landowner-liability-in-5585631.php (subscription required).