Off all the things I never thought I would miss in San Antonio, tortillas would be very far down the list. I just assumed that Austin--only 80 miles north of San Antonio and home to its share of Mexican immigrants--would have decent tortillas. I was wrong. Fully 90% of the tortillas I have had in Austin are nasty, stale tasting and factory made. Boy, how do I ever miss homemade tortillas!

Is it too much to ask that gringos who run breakfast taco joints (and have Mexican labor in the kitchen) actually make their tortillas there, in the store, instead of outsourcing them to Mrs. Bairds' or whoever else makes the paper-like bland tasting flatbread?

Is it that hard? Too expensive? Or are Austinites just completely ignorant of the joys of fresh tortillas?

Dallas | Dec 1

AP News - Dallas County prosecutors say they will re-examine dozens of cases in which killers were sentenced to probation rather than prison time in exchange for murder pleas.

Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins, who took office in January, said his office will look for violations that provide grounds for probation revocations, which could mean prison for some who walked free.

Jeorge Zarazua | August 11

San Antonio Express - A San Antonio pastor and an employee of his Christian boot camp were arrested Friday on aggravated assault charges, accused of dragging a girl behind a van after she failed to keep up during a running exercise.

Charles Eugene Flowers and Stephanie Bassitt of San Antonio-based Love Demonstrated Ministries, a 32-day boot camp, were arrested on aggravated assault charges for the alleged June 12 incident.

Flowers and Bassitt each were being held on $100,000 bail at the Nueces County Jail in Corpus Christi.

Authorities said both Flowers and Bassitt restrained the girl June 12, tying her to the back of a van with a piece of rope before dragging her on her stomach at the Love Demonstrated Ministries' boot camp in Banquete, about 10 miles west of Corpus Christi.

Authorities interviewed on Friday could not say how far the teenager was allegedly dragged. Her mother complained to authorities after boot camp personnel took her daughter to get treated for scrapes and bruises on her stomach, legs and arms.

Get to know this name: Kenneth Foster, Jr. You are going to be hearing a lot of it the next 30 days because I have a personal stake in this matter.

You see, one night in August 1996 one of my best friends, Michael LaHood, was murdered by Mauriceo Brown. And Kenneth Foster, Jr. was driving for Mauriceo that night. I don't know what the circumstances of Kenneth's involvement were beyond the fact that he was still in the car when Mauriceo pulled the trigger that sent a bullet through my friends brain, ending his life immediately.

Was he being forced to drive? Or was he along for the ride? I don't care. Kenneth deserves and is receiving punishment for his role in the tragedy that occurred that night. But whatever punishment Kenneth does deserve for his role in my friends cruel murder, execution should not ever have been (or be) an option. He did not pull the trigger, or encourage Mr. Brown to pull it in any way, nor was he even aware that the murder was being contemplated or had been committed until after the fact. His punishment should not be execution.

But we are in Texas and in Texas barbaric laws prevail, like something out of Beowulf or the Old Testament or Reservoir Dogs--one of the very few movies I could not watch to the end for its unspeakable cruelty. Never mind that we are in the 21^st century. Never mind that we are supposed to be modern.

I miss Michael, my dear friend, whom I nicknamed 'Chainsaw.' He was a big, musclebound, softhearted jabber-mouth, always talking and always cracking jokes. Mike was full of life. And although he was a body builder I never saw him angry and I never saw him so much as hurt anyone. His joy was infectious--everyone wanted to hang out with Mike and the ladies loved him, although he didn't quite have the confidence to take advantage of it (yet). Why he chose a long-haired, poetry writing, guitar playing miscreant and reformed pot-head/high school dropout like myself I will never know. But I loved him dearly. The only time I ever cheated in college or university was for Mike. He hated poetry and asked if he could use one of my poems for his Freshman Comp? How could I say no?

I still remember eating chicken fried steak with him and D-Day--the third and most successful leg of our triumviral friendship--at Maggies at 3:00am after clubbing, back when the three of us attended the local junior college, were obsessed with the opposite sex but too stupid to realize they were just as obsessed with us as we were with them. God how I'd give anything to have him back. Thinking of him brings a tear to my eyes even now. What makes it worse is that I'd returned from living out of the country a few months before he was killed. A new career kept me busy. We kept postponing getting together. My last words to Mike--two weeks before he was murdered--were a cliché for all clichés: "we'll do it next weekend, buddy, we've got all the time in the world." I couldn't hear the clock ticking. I wish I'd listened closer.

And for that I hated Mauriceo and his gang even more, and for a long time. But the execution of a young man who didn't even kill Mike? That's not justice. It's senseless vengeance, a barbarism cloaked in the black robes of justice.

Never knowing that a friend of one of the men involved in Mike's murder might reach out to me for help I wrote this two years ago about the death penalty:

Whenever people ask me about the death penalty I always reply: when you make it to the Pearly Gates, and Saint Peter asks, "justice or mercy?" Which will you choose?

Usually they sputter or blurt something out like, "the death penalty doesn't have anything to do with that." I reply, "the death penalty has everything to do with that. You just can't see it."

Then they say, "what if it happened to someone you know." And I reply, "In 1996 one of my best friends, Michael LaHood was murdered. And I don't want his killer to die. I want his killer to repent. And then spend the rest of his life in prison helping other prisoners with less onerous sentences to see the light."

That's when they say, "you're a softy, wishy-washy feel-good, self-helping liberal wimp." By that time its too late to ask them, "what requires more courage: revenge or forgiveness?"

I prefer mercy, wimp or not.

Kenneth did not ask for my help; he's already accepted his fate. Someone he helped asked me to help him. I cannot live with myself if I don't try. Wimp or not.

He is scheduled to be executed on the 30th of August.

Ate at Thai-Lao Orchid at Broadway and Sunset this evening. The Rainbow roll is fabulous and so is the coconut curry extra spicy. Atmosphere is quiet on a Monday night but very nice. Patio looks comfortable but I wanted the AC. The bar is nice. The guy that runs it is great. The waitress is nice too. It is in the Entertainment book, that is great too. $20 (including 25 percent tip and the coupon) made for a great meal. Would go here without the book if I was prepared to drop $30 for a meal.
Also Reviewed here with address:

http://www.mysanantonio.com/entertainment/dining/stories/M

Lady Bird Johnson died today at the age of 94. I met her several times, once in Austin, San Antonio, Houston and a couple times more in Austin. She will be missed. As Perlstein notes:

I loved her. They'll tell you about the wildflowers and the crusade against unsightly billboards. They won't tell you about what a great liberal she was, what a brave warrior against racism she was - that she risked her life for these principles.

Rick and I agree about a lot of things, add one more. She was a great liberal, when being a liberal and a woman was far, far from cool. It was tough being a liberal in Texas too, then as it is now. She did it with grace, magnanimity and charm.

If Noah had to deal with 40 days and 40 nights of rain, what am I to make of our 41 days? Seriously? People, this is South Texas. It has never, in my life, rained 41 days in a row. It's simply unreal. Sure, we've had the occasional wet September or wet April, but never has the last quarter of May, all of June and the first quarter of July been wet, every day wet.

And the forecast says there is no let-up in the system that's producing this rain--we're caught between a high pressure system over the southwest and the southeast. It's unreal.

Where's my boat?

(cross-posted to The People's Republic of Seabrook)

Bexar DA calls execution justified: Report says innocence claims in Cantu case lacked credibility (see the full whitewash report here)

SAN ANTONIO — The Bexar County district attorney concluded Tuesday that convicted killer Ruben Cantu was justifiably executed in 1993 and that "no credible information has been discovered, from any source" that supports witnesses' innocence claims.... "The claims of Cantu's innocence, made more than 12 years after his execution lack any credible supporting witnesses or verifiable facts," the report asserts. Cantu was executed for the Nov. 8, 1984, robbery-murder of Pedro Gomez, a Mexican laborer who was robbed and shot to death in a house on Briggs Street in San Antonio, located across the street from where Cantu, then 17, lived with his father.

I've written at some length previously about Ruben Cantu, whose tragic case, regardless of your feelings about the death penalty, reveals everything that's wrong with the system that exists here in Texas. No, it's not frontier justice, but it's not far from the modern equivalent.

Cantu was executed in 1993 for a murder he allegedly committed in 1984. The state killed him, everyone patted themselves on the back for a job well done, and they all lived happily ever after -until Lise Olsen from the Houston Chronicle began asking questions. It turns out that the case against Ruben Cantu wasn't the slam-dunk that the Bexar County DA at the time, Sam Millsap, felt it was. Now even Millsap is apologizing for the rush to retribution and the sloppiness that led to the murder execution of Ruben Cantu.

Oops...our bad....

(Cross-posted to The People's Republic of Seabrook)

New delay requested on smog cleanup: State wants 9 more years to improve Houston-area air

Texas officially asked the federal government Friday for an extra nine years to meet health standards for ground-level ozone, saying that it would be "practicably impossible" for the eight-county Houston-Galveston region to comply with the law by 2010. The request marks the latest postponement in the decades-long saga to clean up Houston's smog and seeks more time than both the county and city wanted. If granted, the city would be the last place in the state and one of the last areas in the country to meet health guidelines for the lung-irritating pollutant. Houston's first federal deadline to meet ozone standards was in 1975. The new deadline would be June 2019.

The Spurs won this game in the first period, completely dismantling Utah.

Utah is a great team, nonetheless.

That being said, it's great to be back in the finals!

I know lots of people don't like the Spurs, mostly the advertising sort in New York and LA because it hurts their revenues when small market teams win.

But I'm happy and proud of a classy team.

So, it's now between Detroit and some other team, Cleveland, right?

Cleveland and San Antonio would really be a disappointment for the money folks.

But I think it'd be a fun series.

Go Spurs, Go!

To learn about the serious threat posed by mandatory arbitration agreements read an article I co-authored with Jordan Fogal on AlterNet:

Why an Ultra-Conservative Texas Grandmother Hates the GOP

By Cyrus Dugger and Jordan Fogal, Drum Major Institute.

What could make Jordan Fogal, a 61-year-old ultra-conservative Republican grandmother from Texas, refuse to vote for a single Republican in the last election? Two innocent sounding words: mandatory arbitration. (keep reading)

To hear more from Jordan Fogal you can listen to her talk about arbitration on her two podcasts with the Drum Major Institute.

Podcast Series: Arbitrating Away The American Dream (Vol 1)

Podcast Series: Arbitrating Away The American Dream (Vol. 2) – “The Stupid People”

Clay Robison | Austin | May 2

San Antonio Express-News - Gov. Rick Perry said Monday that Texans who are legally licensed to carry concealed handguns should be able to take the weapons anywhere, including churches, bars, courthouses and college campuses.

"I think it makes sense for Texans to be able to protect themselves from deranged individuals, whether they're in church, or whether on a college campus or wherever they are," he said. "The idea that you're going to exempt them from a particular place is nonsense to me."

. . . Waco's sewage hole will never overshadow our Riverwalk. Did you know the Riverwalk was a depression era WPA project? And that my grandfather was chief of staff to Mayor Maverick who got the money for the project and helped oversee it? (At least, that's what my momma always tells me.)

That being said, our waste water infrastructure nationally is not what it used to be. (Why is it the US doesn't get the idea that infrastructure is an investment not an expense?) Then again, Waco . . . well, I always thought Waco's historic highlight was when Dwayne pretended to be from Waco on the sit-com Valeri Bertinelli was in, you know, One Day at a Time? And no, we're not going to discuss the Branch Davidians. Or Baylor. Or that mass murderer from a couple years back who ploughed his truck into a Luby's a shot up the place. My bad, it was in Kileen.

I spent the day with Leah, my son Joshua, his wife Bonnie and their three children, working in the garden. We harvested beets, carrots, spinach, lettuce and cabbage. The first few strawberries are beginning to ripen. Our summer crops are planted and growing well—the first tiny green tomatoes have begun to appear. Potato plants are going for it, as are the onions. We also have sweet corn, peppers, beans, peas, squash, cucumbers, cantaloupes, and watermelons.

Unlike last year, this year I used machinery to plow the ground and set up rows so I can run a tiller through the middles. There’s still quite a bit of hand labor involved—the difference is that I can do in a day what took me a week with primitive methods.

I know this sounds crazy, but I really do think it’d be a good idea for people to take up the practice of growing food. Even in cities, on rooftops, in containers, or vacant lots a small garden can produce good quality food and working in one is good for the soul.

One of these days I’ll figure out how to post pictures and share them with the rest of you, good Lord willing.

. . . in my local Borders book store this evening at about 6:45pm Central Time? Trust me, I know what Karl rove sounds and looks like. He was there. Shouldn't he be in jail or something?

Speaking of Rover, Lambert has some interesting theory.

. . . the NewsHog, which happens to be based in my hometown, San Antonio. There aren't too many San Antonio bloggers as successful as the NewsHog and even fewer that write about issues such as Iran:

I know it shouldn't, but it still amazes me that the US Right are prepared to tie themselves into knots in their lust for a war with Iran that will redress the perceived mortal insult of the Iranian hostage crisis of 1979. It's like a drug addict wheedling money to buy his fix - any excuse will do. The trouble is that this fetishistic craving for revenge is what is driving not just the chattering pundits but also American foreign policy in the region. The catch phrase always was "real men go to Teheran".

He also writes on whether the British seamen were in international waters or not, here.

Be sure to give his blog a read. You'll not be disappointed.

Angela Kocherga | San Antonio | February 12

San Antonio Express-News - The new [Texas] tax on cigarettes is supposed to make $700 million for the state of Texas a year.

Smugglers along the border are stealing some of those cigarette tax dollars by offering smokers a cheaper alternative.

Sales have tripled at a cigarette store in Southern New Mexico.

Michelle M. Martinez | San Antonio | February 12

San Antonio Express-News - San Antonians are fat.

The only consolation is that we're not as fat as Las Vegas residents.

Men's Fitness magazine, in its March issue, has ranked that flashiest of U.S. cities as the fattest, too. The Alamo City is ranked No. 2 among the nation's top 25 fattest cities — the fattest we've ranked. We had done so well, whittling our way from No. 4 in 2004 to No. 12 last year.

Pamela Colloff | Austin | February

Texas Monthly - DAYBREAK WAS STILL MORE THAN AN HOUR away on the morning of September 28, 2003, when Cass County sheriff’s deputy John Elder turned down Old Dump Road. Above the tree line, the sky was moonless and dark. Cass County is pressed deep into the northeastern corner of Texas, hard against the Arkansas and Louisiana state lines, and it is crisscrossed by back roads that meander into the woods, under pine awnings and over low-water crossings and past unincorporated communities not found on maps. Elder followed the blacktop as it tacked back and forth, and after roughly a mile, he spotted a silver pickup idling at a T in the road. Two young men who had called the sheriff’s department were sitting inside. “He’s over here,” the driver called out, motioning for the deputy to follow him.

Austin

AP - Selling (out) Texas, piece by piece. dhfjr.

Rick Perry (R) proposed Tuesday that Texas sell its state lottery for at least $14 billion, with the money dedicated to an endowment for residents without health insurance and a trust fund for cancer research.

No state has sold or leased its lottery, although several are considering it. Last month, Indiana Gov. Mitchell E. Daniels Jr. (R) proposed leasing the state lottery for 30 years to pay for scholarships aimed at keeping Indiana's top college graduates in-state.

In Texas, the lottery reported more than $3.77 billion in sales in the 2006 fiscal year, the highest amount in its 14-year history. The lottery contributes $1 billion a year to public schools.

Guillermo Contreras | San Antonio | January 31

San Antonio Express-News - Front page headline of today's San Antonio Express-News print edition. dhfjr.

Federal authorities in El Paso are investigating an international smuggling operation that allegedly tried to illegally export to Iran parts used in Hawk surface-to-air missile systems, which initially were developed for the U.S. military, court documents show.
One of the members of the alleged conspiracy, Robert Caldwell of Portland, Ore., was taken into custody last week in San Antonio as he tried to buy batteries that power Hawk missile systems, according to a government court affidavit obtained Tuesday by the San Antonio Express-News.

Lynn Brezosky | McAllen | January 24

San Antonio Express-News - Gov. Rick Perry gave more details Wednesday on his $100 million plan to crack down on drug and human smuggling along the Mexican border by enlisting hundreds of armed National Guard forces and thousands more agents from other state and federal agencies.

Perry described "Operation Wrangler" as a second phase of an initiative to use state resources to fill security holes left by the federal government.

Vince Leibowitz | Austin | December 21

SA Current - As with any un-televised revolution, there are people who manage to blissfully sashay through life unaware, until a battering ram knocks down their front door and men with red scarves tied around their necks crawl in through the windows. That’s what happened to State Representative Vicki Truitt after the Republican lawmaker from Keller filed House Bill 129 on November 13, and was descended upon by Texas’s media revolutionaries, known as bloggers.

Truitt’s bill would have subjected bloggers and anyone else who writes material on the web to the same libel provisions as print and broadcast journalists. That part is no big deal: Texas courts have already held that websites — and bloggers — fall under those statutes.

It's a great article, by a great Texas blogger.

Austin, TX | Nov 29

AP - It's the thought that counts, not the size of the gift, the Texas Ethics Commission has ruled, saying public officials don't have to tell anyone how much money they get as presents from political donors.

One legislator said that violates the intent of state law and calls the commission "spineless."

Texas law requires public officials to file personal financial disclosure statements describing any gifts they get that are worth more than $250.

However, the ethics commission voted 5-3 on Monday to approve a staff advisory opinion that said describing such a gift simply as a "check" is enough.

L.A. Lorek | San Antonio | October 11

San Antonio Express-News - In a move that leaves just one hurdle remaining, the U.S. Justice Department approved AT&T Inc.'s $78.5 billion acquisition of BellSouth Corp. this morning.

San Antonio-based AT&T and BellSouth are one step closer to becoming the nation’s largest traditional telephone and wireless communications company, but the combination still must receive the approval of the Federal Communications Commission, which will meet Thursday to vote on the merger.