Georgetown’s answer to Joe Bfstplk is in the news again.  Literally.  The Statesman reports that attorney Chris Mealy has been arrested for Criminal Trespass.  Apparently, Mealy got a phone call last Friday telling him he was a wanted man.  Too bad it was from the Sheriff, not his estranged wife.  Mealy surrendered to the Sheriff on Tuesday.

According to Mealy, he went to a residence on behalf of a client, found the door open and nobody home.  Mealy said he stepped inside the trailer, left the legal papers he was there to deliver, then left.

Guess the lawyer forgot about the fury of a scorned woman - or maybe an unscorned woman - whatever the case may be.  Either way, Mealy wound up on the wrong side of the bars at the county crossbar hotel.  We know you really can’t believe everything you read in the paper, but at this point, this sure looks like a case that ought to be railroaded right out of the courthouse.  

We take our football seriously here in Texas.  By football, we mean the real stuff.  The face-to-face-full-contact-character-building real stuff, not that panty-wearing-oooooh-don’t-touch-me-or-I’ll-sue-you-sissy-soccer kind.

Especially UT football.  Long, long before Dallas became famous because of those scantily clad cheerleaders, the Longhorns were Texas’ team.  Well, boo hoo hoo to you Aggies. When’s the last time you brought home a national championship??? 

For mere mortals to get tickets up in the nosebleed sections, they have to pay all kinds of extra fees and donations and such.  According to the Austin American Statesman, it looks like UT has been giving football tickets away faster than they write campus parking tickets. 

To avoid those pesky fees and waiting lists, we could give a big bunch of big bucks to some politicians and get appointed to the UT Board of Regents.  Then, we’d get free tickets for LIFE!  Lucky for us, most UT Regents are getting on up there in years, so their lifetime isn’t all that long anyway.  If we’re not rich and closing in on the pearly gates, all we have to do to get the really goods seats is get elected to the lege or congress. 

Here’s what the Statesman found out about which of our officials got the most UT swag for getting elected to a part-time job.  The number one ticket taker was Seguin State Rep Edmund Kuempel with 84.  Coming in a close second is Victoria’s Rep Geanie Morrison with 77.  Third place goes to our very own Rep Mike Krusee with 70.  Krusee says going to the games provides an opportunity for communication between UT administrators & lawmakers.  Especially those pre-game receptions. 

According to Krusee, “There is a reception before the game, which I go to, and I spend much of the time talking to UT personnel.  One year it might be about the 10 percent rule (for automatic admission), another year about tuition deregulation.” 

Unlike other swag, this doesn’t have to be reported as either a gift or a contribution.  They changed the law about that back in 1992, making it both legal and unreportable.  Ain’t it great being a law maker?

Heck, the Speaker of the House was way down the list with only 33 tickets.  Rep. Dan Gattis, Jr. & Sen. Steve Ogden didn’t even make the list.  What’s up with that??!! Guess they don’t like football or maybe that swag just leaves a bad taste in their mouths.

Let’s see if the Statesman follows up with similar story on Aggie football swag.  Maybe Ogden & Gattis go to those games.  Just remember Mike Krusee when you take out that tuition loan next semester.  Thanks to his *communication efforts*, UT tuition will go up 9.6% next fall.

Like most everyone else, we are busy celebrating Memorial Day and enjoying the three-day weekend.  However, somewhere in between your shopping, snacking, cruising, boozing, and snoozing, please take a moment to remember *why* we celebrate Memorial Day.

We invite you to check out this DOD link and add the families of some of these brave men and women to your prayers this weekend. 

We are convinced.  Absolutely convinced.  There must be some sort of mind-altering drugs in the water or the air and everywhere else up in DC.  What the heck else could explain the recent goings on up there? 

First, you have the FBI searching dimocrat congressman Jefferson’s home last summer.  The feds found $90,000 in cold, hard cash.  We mean cold, hard, cash quite literally because the feds found it in his freezer.  The same money an informant gave him two days earlier - except for $10K that he must have eaten or hidden somewhere else.  We know it’s the same money because those wiley feds wrote down all the serial numbers of the C-notes they gave him.  The feds also have video and audio tapes.  Note to defense lawyers - the feds probably have photocopies of the bills, too….

Jefferson demanded the money from a business associate, purportedly to pay bribes to officials of an African nation.  If only we had known.  We get those spam emails all the time, too.  Who knew they were for real??  We guess only congressmen from Louisiana.  We bet that Huey Long is just proud that his tradition of corruption continues. 

Guess it took the feds a while to thaw out and count all that cash.  Last Saturday night, the feds searched Jefferson’s congressional office. The republicans were elated - a dimocrat was ensnared.  Jefferson is a dimocrat. A dimocrat from Louisiana.

Then, Speaker Hastert jumps in on Monday with a passionate defense for Jefferson with this statement, blathering on about the separation of powers and how concerned he is that the feds searched a congressional office.  After all, according to Hastert, the records the feds apparently seized during the search were subpoenaed and would, of course, have been carefully preserved by Jefferson & his staff. 

Say what?   If you really believe that Speaker Hastert, we have a nice oasis in the middle of the Gobi to sell you - with a famous London bridge over all the water, too.  The Speaker then allows as how he doesn’t have all the facts in the case yet - but hey - who wants to be confused with FACTS at a time like this?  

We call bullsh*t on you Speaker Hastert.  Bullsh*t.

As if that wasn’t disgusting enough, Hastert teams up with minority leader Nancy Pelosi and issues a joint statement today.  You got it.  The same crazy congresswoman who must use the same plastic surgeon as Michael Jackson and imagines herself to be the next Speaker of the House (see In Your Dreams). This statement demands the return of all seized documents to Jefferson.  Here’s what the WaPo had to print about that.  

We call bullsh*t on you Pelosi.  Bullsh*t.  In fact, we call bullsh*t on every other elected official who claims the actions of the Justice Department and the FBI were wrong - a list that includes former majority leader Tom DeLay and current majority leader John Boehner who chimed in with Hastert and Pelosi.

This doesn’t have anything to do with the separation of powers as set forth by the Constitution of these United States.  What it does have everything to do with is the absolute aura of hubris surrounding our elected officials up in DC, who believe, act, and say they are immune, exempt, and otherwise above the law. 

We call bullsh*t on all of it.

Former Texas Senator Lloyd Bentsen died this morning at his home in Houston. 

Bentsen’s representation of and love for Texas was unmatched as was his love for his country.  He served in the US Army during WWII, attaining the rank of Major and earning the Distinguished Flying Cross.  Born in the Rio Grande Valley, he served as Hildalgo County Judge before winning John Nance Garner’s former congressional seat in 1948.  He served six years in Congress and 22 years in the Senate and two years as Secretary of the Treasury during President Clinton’s first term.

You’ve more than earned your wings.  Fly with the angels now.

Didya feel that?  That little tremor?  Hold on….there it is again.  We sheepishly admit we have been watching the doomsday movie “10.5″ on TV, which is pure, unadulterated cr*p camp and gives us new respect for the acting profession. Sheesh.

The tremors you should be feeling are real, not the Hollywood kind, and are summed up in a Zogby poll released today.  One highlight for you:  only 25% feel newspaper and TV reporting of news is fair and accurate.  Well, d’uh, did you have to commission a poll to tell you that? 

Here are the results that should give you the shakes.  When asked who do you trust,  75% (3 out of 4) said they trust the government less than they did five years ago, 29% said they can trust the national court system, and only 24% believe that President Bush is trustworthy. 

Over on the bidness side, things are even worse.  A great big 7% trust corporate leaders (are you listening Wall Street?), and a whopping 5% believe corporations do right by consumers.  Last, but not least, a great big monster 3% think that, in general, Congress is trustworthy.

The tremors you should be feeling are the weakening of our core institutions.  Remember the three branches of government?  We have all three branches bowing under the weight of public mistrust.  For Congress to be considered less trustworthy than corporations by a good chunk of citizens is apalling - especially in light of Enron and recent stories of bribery, price gouging, and corporate CEO bonanzas. 

Since republicans lead all three branches, it looks to be our fault, our problem, and up to us to create a solution.  Bidness as usual is not the answer. Politics as usual is not the answer.  In six months or so, the voters will voice their trust - or distrust as the case may be.  As republicans, we just might have another answer handed to us - a dimocrat majority.  Here’s some free advice to our local and national elected representatives:  Pull your head out of the lobby feed trough, keep your hands in your own pockets, give up golf, pay for your own vacations like the rest of us, keep your zippers up, and spend taxpayer money like it was your own (because it really is).

For you stat-geeks out there: Zogby polled 8,175 adults online in April and had a margin of error of 1.1%. 

One thing is for sure, those Leanderthals really know how to toss a cliff-hanger of an election.  While the rest of us fiddlefarted through early voting and slept through voting day on May 13th, the Leanderthals churned out real nail-biter for Place 4 on their city council. 

According to the Hill Country News, when the votes were counted (well, not all of them exactly, but more on that later), Simon Garcia looked to be the winner over the dithering incumbent candidate Michell Cantwell (who had earlier dropped out of the race, but then dropped back in again).  By. One. Vote.  And here you thought your vote never made a difference….

But wait.  What about those provisional ballots?  There were two of those puppies.  One was tossed, leaving only one to count.  You guessed it, that ONE VOTE tied things up.  The city didn’t want to pay for a recount and neither did the candidates.  Soooooo there’s gonna be a runoff election. 

You Leanderthals get yet *another* chance to ignore who will represent you.  Early voting is May 31 through June 13, with the runoff on Saturday, June 17.

Well readers, here in Wilco World we are on Day 5 of our Karl Rove Imminent Indictment Watch.  Yeppers, must be some of them Neuvo York minutes or D. C. minutes or something holding things up up there on the beltway.  All this waiting started with a post last Friday on Truthout by blogger Jason Leopold (See Stay Tuned) claiming The Architect had been indicted and his arrest was gonna happen any minute.

Uh huh.  We’ll keep you posted on this as-of-yet-non-event.  We figure the dimocrats are just gonna hold their breath until they turn blue.

UPDATE   UPDATE   UPDATE:  OK.  So now we’re up to DAY 15 of the Karl Rove Imminent Indictment Watch.  Nada.  Stay tuned.

We’ve been watching this *story* develop since Friday.  The liberal bloggers and news blatherers are having a field day with the story that Karl Rove has been secretly indicted and will surrender to authorities some time this week.  Chris Matthews has repeated the story to Don Imus and others are following suit. 

We don’t know if these allegations about Rove’s indictment(s) are true or not.  Only the DOJ & maybe Rove’s lawyers know for sure and neither are talking right now.

The story was spawned in a blog posting written by Jason Leopold of Truthout.org.  Evidently, Leopold is basing his post on some interviews regarding a lengthy visit by Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald to Rove’s attorneys.  We repeat, there has been no confirmation of this *information*, just repetition.

This might be wishful thinking on the part of the dimocrats.  Or not.  This might be some whistling past the graveyard on the part of republicans.  Or not.  So, why are we telling you this?  If true, the liberal dimocrats will attempt to turn it into a tsunami of liberal and righteous indignation. 

Oh wait, we forgot they’re liberal dimocrats - so it doesn’t matter if it is true or not.   My bad.  Be prepared to be overrun with outraged and overblown rhetoric and continual slo-mo replays of his perp walk.  Several blogs have already photoshopped mug shots and a couple have them on coffee cups and t-shirts.   

UPDATE  UPDATE  UPDATE:  We’d like to remind you that W will be on TV tonight at 7PM.  The topic: immigration.  Set your TIVOs and timers now.

UPDATE   UPDATE   UPDATE:  In case you forgot to watch the presidential press conference this evening, our fellow bloggers over at Quite Right said it much better than we ever could. 

Bet you thought you could sleep in tomorrow, didn’t you?  Well, lazybones, you’ve got to get up early and go vote.  Remember?  Unless you’re living in Hutto, you pretty much have to go vote for something or somebody on Saturday (see Get It? Got It? Good. April 28).  If it makes you feel better, you can always go vote *against* somebody.

Looks like most of y’all out there in Wilco World don’t give a rat’s ass flip.  Out in Cedar Park, only 651 (3%) of eligible voters have early voted.  In Leander, it was 233 or 2%.  In Round Rock, it was 574 or a big whoppin’ 1%.  Pitiful.  Heck, that’s worse than pitiful.  It’s shameful.

Now, over in Georgetown, where they only get to vote for Place 5 on the City Council, 343 people managed to draaaaaag themselves to the polls to vote.  That’s nearly 10% (9.8% to be exact) of eligible voters.  Nanny nanny boo boo. Georgetown rocks.  Looks like they get the bragging rights over all those uppity suburbs.  

Tomorrow is your last chance to win, place, or show in the voter sweepstakes.  You know, we all win when you vote and lose when you don’t.  We’ll keep you posted on who gets to hold the braggin’ rights for the next year.

UPDATE   UPDATE   UPDATE:  Here’s a link to the unofficial Wilco election results.  Congratulations to the winners, our condolences to the runners up.