TexasTowelie
TexasTowelie's JournalPerry: Obama decision on Cuba not in 'our best interest'
AUSTIN – Gov. Rick Perry became the latest potential presidential candidate Thursday to raise concerns about President Obama’s decision to restore diplomatic relations with Cuba.
Perry in an interview in his Texas Capitol office prefaced his comments by saying he was glad to see that Alan Gross, an American government contract worker, was released along with the announcement after being held in Cuba for five years.
"I’m really happy Mr. Gross is going to be home celebrating Hanukkah with his family," Perry said.
"With that said, I’m really concerned about a pattern this administration has exhibited of making deals that aren’t necessarily good for America. No doubt this is good for Mr. Gross, but … negotiating with countries that have huge human rights problems is not necessarily in our best interests," Perry said.
Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/local/article/Perry-Obama-decision-on-Cuba-not-in-our-best-5965917.php
[font color=green]What was not in our best interest was having Perry as governor for 14 years.
Perry also criticized the president for the Bowe Bergdahl prisoner exchange. However, if either of these hostages were killed while in captivity we can rest assured that the GOP would also be criticizing the president for not doing anything to rescue them.[/font]
SpaceX delays space station delivery until January
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.
The space station astronauts will have to wait until next month for their Christmas delivery.
On Thursday, the SpaceX company announced it was delaying this week's planned launch of an unmanned supply capsule until January.
SpaceX spokesman John Taylor said a test firing of the rocket engines earlier this week did not go precisely as planned at the Cape Canaveral launch pad. The company wants to conduct a second test on the Falcon rocket before committing to a launch, he said.
Combined with the Christmas and New Year's holidays, as well as the sun's angles on the space station, the earliest the California-based company can launch is Jan. 6. The liftoff should have occurred Friday, already a few days late.
Read more: http://www.star-telegram.com/news/nation-world/national/article4607665.html
Former Kaufman County JP sentenced to death in revenge plot
ROCKWALL, Texas – A former justice of the peace in North Texas was sentenced to death Wednesday for killing a district attorney’s wife in what prosecutors described as a revenge plot that left three people dead.
Eric Williams was convicted Dec. 4 of capital murder in the 2013 death of Cynthia McLelland, who was slain along with her husband, Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland, in their home east of Dallas.
Williams has been charged, but not tried, in the deaths of Mike McLelland and prosecutor Mark Hasse.
The 47-year-old Williams lost his job and law license after McLelland and Hasse prosecuted him for theft and burglary. Prosecutors say that conviction pushed Williams over the edge. During his trial, they presented evidence that he paid a friend to rent a storage unit where he kept more than 30 guns, police tactical gear and a getaway car.
Read more: http://www.star-telegram.com/news/state/article4614568.html
Islands of the Oil Kings: Part 3 -- Reach for the stars
[font size=4]Toddie Lee Wynne’s Matagorda Island entered the space age with the world’s first privately funded space launch[/font]Despite a near-fatal 1943 heart attack, Dallas’ Toddie Lee Wynne would outlive all of his contemporaries and become the sole owner of the lower third of Matagorda Island. In the 1980s, he harnessed his fortune to finance the world’s first private space launch at his island compound. But the countdown for the Conestoga 1 rocket was also the final countdown for Wynne.
As the summer of 1982 unwound in South Texas, the ranch hands on Matagorda Island saw the gleaming white airliner parked on the tarmac near the sidewalk to the main house. On the tail was the familiar logo of American Liberty Oil.
The boss had arrived.
Livestock and cowboys came and left by barge.
But Dallas oilman Toddie Lee Wynne, owner of the southern third of the Matagorda, boarded his plane at Love Field and, an hour and a half later, walked into the labyrinthine one-story house.
This is the conclusion of the interactive article with photos and video. Read more at http://res.dallasnews.com/interactives/oilkings/part3/ .
Canadian Wildcats' foreign-exchange student could return to Australia with state football title
Canadian senior Lachie Beavan, center, helps hold the Australian flag following Canadian's 49-14 victory against Mart in a Class 2A Division I semifinal Friday in Wichita Falls. Beavan is a foreign-exchange student from Australia.
CANADIAN — What?
Was that really an Australian flag in the center of a Canadian Wildcat celebration for beating Mart in the Class 2A Division I state semifinals last week?
Sure was.
And it’s a story the Wildcats coaching staff and players are extremely proud to share.
“Lachie is a teammate,” said Canadian senior captain and wide receiver Braiden Galla. “He’s a brother to us. When he gets into the game, it’s an awesome thing.”
Lachie Beavan is a senior backup wide receiver for the 14-0 Wildcats, who play for the 2A D-I state championship Thursday. Beavan wears No. 82 and gets into the game only when Canadian is routing its opponent.
Read more: http://amarillo.com/sports/pigskin-review/2014-12-16/lahnert-canadian-wildcats-foreign-exchange-student-could-return
[font color=green]The team from Canadian plays the Mason Punchers in the Conference 2A Division I final at 1 p.m. today at AT&T Stadium in Arlington. All state final football games will be broadcast on Fox Sports Southwest on Thursday through Saturday.[/font]
Updated: Perry to decline renaming of Academic Building after A&M students protest
The Academic Building on the Texas A&M University campus. (The Battalion)
More than 7,000 signatures have been gathered on a petition circulated by the Texas A&M University student Senate asking the board of regents not to change the name of the historic Academic Building for Gov. Rick Perry.
In addition, the student newspaper, The Battalion, editorialized against the move, saying it would antagonize the student body.
The editorial suggests students should have had some input to the recommendation. It also agreed that Perry – the most famous Aggie “not named Johnny Manziel” – should be recognized. But with any other building.
“The absurdity of the idea goes well beyond the irony of putting Perry (and his well-documented sub-2.5 GPA) on A&M’s academic hub, which in 2014 celebrates its 100th birthday. The regents shouldn’t name the Academic Building after the governor. Not because he’s not qualified, but because no one is,” the editorial stated.
Read more: http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/2014/12/am-students-protest-renaming-of-academic-building-for-rick-perry.html/
Update: Texas A&M regents expected to cancel today's meeting, Perry to decline proposal to have Academic Building named after him, sources tell The Eagle
Texas A&M's Academic Building will keep its 100-year-old name, according to several sources who told The Eagle that the regents have canceled today's meeting in which they were set to vote on renaming it after Gov. Rick Perry.
Perry, who earlier in the week said through a spokesperson that he'd be honored to have the iconic building with his name on it, is expected to decline the proposal outlined in an agenda. The renaming was the only item on the agenda.
It's unclear if a different building will be named after the governor, who served in the Corps of Cadets and was a yell leader before graduating in 1972.
The cancellation comes two days after current and former A&M students took to social media to express widespread disappointment - and, for some, even disdain - over the suggestion that one of the most beloved buildings would be renamed after a person. Many commenters on news stories, including The Eagle's article, were upset that Perry-appointed regents were positioned to make the decision with little notice and without input from students or former students.
Read more: http://www.theeagle.com/news/a_m/texas-a-m-regents-expected-to-cancel-today-s-meeting/article_4c306ae8-86d7-11e4-9be3-67b4cbff0215.html
Related thread:
Regents to consider renaming Texas A&M's Academic Building for Gov. Rick Perry
http://www.democraticunderground.com/107822544
Texas Medicaid fraud contract unfairly awarded to 21CT, rivals say
Industry rivals of an Austin tech company, whose pending $90 million no-bid contract extension was stripped last week, say Texas health officials misled them when they competed for a Medicaid fraud contract, which they now allege was tailor-made for the winner, 21CT.
Jack Stick, the top attorney for the Health and Human Services Commission who steered millions of dollars in business to 21CT, resigned Friday amid an American-Statesman investigation, which has found that officials exaggerated the success of Medicaid data investigations and ignored early signs of Stick’s favoritism to the company.
Read more: http://www.statesman.com/news/news/state-regional-govt-politics/texas-medicaid-fraud-contract-unfairly-awarded-to-/njWHc/ (subscription required)
[font color=green]Is anyone ever surprised anymore when Republicans cheat?[/font] 
Related thread:
Top Lawyer at State Health Agency Resigns Over Contract
http://www.democraticunderground.com/107822490
Coulter: Girls Who Cry Rape Are Just ‘Trying To Get Attention’
Why there is a right-wing bias against women who have been raped and come forward defies logic. But the(n), so does much of what these people say.
“People know what a rape is, and to have girls trying to get attention from Lena Dunham to this poor psychotic at UVA, Lady Gaga claiming she was raped but she didn’t admit it to herself for five years. What major crime do people say, ‘I didn’t admit it to myself’?” she demanded.
The conservative commentator told {Lars} Larson that growing concerns about how colleges are handling sexual assault incidents are “based on nothing” when there are only a “very few percentage of actual rapists” on campuses and those “are usually Clintons or Kennedys.”
http://www.alan.com/2014/12/17/coulter-girls-who-cry-rape-are-just-trying-to-get-attention/ (Alan Colmes Liberaland)
Now You Get An ‘Official Dick Cheney Cowboy Hat’
“Engraved with Vice President Dick Cheney’s signature and specially lined with the Republican seal,” the Dick cowboy hat is labeled in a way that will let the world know that you love, appreciate, and support Dick.
…Dick’s daughter Liz Cheney said that the RNC was inspired to sell Dick hats after people told her how much they loved her dad’s hat. “It symbolizes freedom of the American West, the freedom we all hold dear,” she wrote.
http://www.alan.com/2014/12/17/now-you-get-an-official-dick-cheney-cowboy-hat/ (Alan Colmes' Liberaland)
[font color=green]Is a 10-gallon hat large enough to hold all of my barf?[/font]
Norman Bridwell, author who created Clifford the Big Red Dog, dies at 86
Source: New York Times
Norman Bridwell, the creator of Clifford the Big Red Dog, a figure who looms as large in toddler lit as the great white whale does in the American canon, died on Friday in Oak Bluffs, Mass., on Martha’s Vineyard. He was 86.
Kyle Good, a spokeswoman for Scholastic Books, which over the past half-century has published dozens of Clifford titles by Bridwell, confirmed his death without specifying a cause. Bridwell’s wife of 56 years, Norma, told The Associated Press that he had prostate cancer and that he had been in the hospital for three weeks after a fall at his Martha’s Vineyard home in Edgartown.
Bridwell was an out-of-work commercial artist living in New York City when he sold the idea for a single book about a dog big enough for his loving owner, a little girl, to ride. That had been his own fantasy as a little boy, he said.
In the actual drawing of the book, Clifford turned out close to the size of a house. He was an affectionate, slightly clumsy, eager-to-help creature who had flaws — he had a tendency to dig up flowers, among other things — and caused problems. But he was nonetheless the embodiment of kindness and amiability, a four-legged, wet-nosed, bright red lesson in learning to get along with others.
Read more: http://www.dallasnews.com/obituary-headlines/20141217-norman-bridwell-author-who-created-clifford-the-big-red-dog-dies-at-86.ece
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Gender: MaleHometown: South Texas. most of my life I lived in Austin and Dallas
Home country: United States
Current location: Bryan, Texas
Member since: Sun Aug 14, 2011, 03:57 AM
Number of posts: 112,105
