Free Republic

SOUNDING BOARD Now a fair, balanced liberal manifesto By BILL COULTER Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle "A government that is big enough to give you all you want is big enough to take it all away." — Barry Goldwater Some readers, at least two or three, have complained that the Chronicle's opinion pages do not adequately express the liberal view. They're either blind or aren't reading the paper closely enough. They overlook E.J. Dionne Jr., Paul Krugman, Helen Thomas, Marianne Means, Maureen Dowd and the other liberal commentators whose work frequently appears. Two weeks ago in this space, my friend and...

April 7, 2004, 12:08PM Soldier from Houston dies in Iraq two weeks into duty 21-year-old killed while fighting in Fallujah By LUCAS WALL Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle A 21-year-old Houston man stationed in Iraq less than two weeks died Friday during fighting with insurgents in Fallujah, his family said Saturday. U.S. Marine Pfc. Leroy Sandoval Jr. died of a gunshot wound while manning a machine gun for his unit, the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force. He's the 10th soldier from the Houston metropolitan area to die while on duty in Iraq, and the second Texan killed there in as many days....

After witnessing a weekend of self-congratulatory festivities marking the January 1st debut of Houston’s MetroRail transit system, the hometown newspaper’s editorial board could hardly contain its exuberance. “Viewed from any angle,” opined the Houston Chronicle, the kickoff celebrations were a sure “sign of good things to come.” To the board, itself a merciless campaigner for rail, the roughly 15,000 people in attendance suggested that a “large helping of crow” was in order for transit critics. Reports from Houston spread quickly causing the Arizona Republic’s editorial page to gloat “critics rail at light rail to no avail.” After all, what...

John Kerry, making campaign rounds Friday in Madison, Wis., denied having had an extramarital affair. Asked about the report by Internet Web site operator Matt Drudge, Kerry told reporters on his campaign: "I just deny it categorically. It's rumor. It's untrue. Period." After denying the report, Kerry added: "And that's the last time I intend to." Drudge, who broke the Monica Lewinsky scandal involving President Clinton, on Thursday said Kerry had had a two-year relationship, beginning in early 2001, with an unidentified young woman who had since left the country. Meanwhile, the Democratic presidential front-runner gained more ground Friday with...

Feb. 13, 2004, 11:55PM Political briefs Houston Chronicle News Services Kerry tight-lipped over running mate John Kerry dodged a question Friday about whether he would consider Democratic presidential rival Dennis Kucinich as his running mate. The inquiry came from a voter at an economic and jobs forum in Madison, Wis. Front-runner Kerry did not discuss the merits of the Ohio congressman's long-shot candidacy, saying only he should take the race "one step at a time." Kerry said his criteria for a running mate would be someone who would make a good president and someone he gets along with. McCain movement...

Plan finds favor with black, Hispanic voters While voters appeared torn over the Metro Solutions plan to increase rail and bus service -- approving the proposal by just 51 percent in the Nov. 4 election -- many on the northside of town are cheering the developments that lie ahead. "In a regional economy like ours, what benefits one area benefits all areas," said Jack Drake, president of the Greater Greenspoint Management District. "Residents of our region, all of whom really are Houstonians, will get results from this Metro plan. It is how we prepare for our future, and it is...

A Hard-on for Numbers: The Chron tries to stay, uh, abreast of circulation counts Newspapers everywhere are desperate to come up with new ways to produce high circulation figures. If the claims in a Harris County lawsuit are to be believed, the Houston Chronicle is a real leader in that effort. What was the Chron's trick? Offering readers compelling takes on hot topics? Brightening up its dreary pages with lively writing? No. Instead, the paper's reps took the independent auditors who monitor the circulation figures out to titty bars and kept them happy, liquored up and too distracted to count....

Circulation of the Nation's 20 Biggest Newspapers The Associated Press Published: Nov 3, 2003 Average weekday circulation of the nation's 20 biggest newspapers for the six months ended Sept. 30, as reported Monday by the Audit Bureau of Circulations. The percentage changes are from the comparable year-ago period. 1. USA Today, 2,246,996, up 0.7 percent 2. The Wall Street Journal, 2,091,062, up 16.1 percent (a) 3. The New York Times, 1,118,565, up 0.5 percent 4. Los Angeles Times, 955,211, down 1.1 percent (b) 5. The Washington Post, 732,872, down 1.9 percent 6. New York Daily News, 729,124, up 2.1 percent...

FROM HOUSTON CHRONICLE ARTICLE: Light rail leading in survey By John Williams Metro's transit referendum holds a solid lead heading into Tuesday's election, and Houston mayoral candidate Bill White appears likely to make a runoff with Sylvester Turner or Orlando Sanchez, according to a Houston Chronicle/KHOU-TV poll. Despite a heavy advertising campaign that has been building opposition in recent weeks, the survey shows that 44 percent of respondents in the Metro service area support rail while 30 percent oppose it. In the race to replace term-limited Mayor Lee Brown, White has 35 percent support while Sanchez has 25 percent and...

METRO-sexual:The Chronicle's 'unctuous' love affair with light railFor the past several election cycles Houstonians have been subjected to a biannual barrage of propaganda for light rail and the candidates who support it, only this time they decided to make it into a yearlong jubilee. The celebration got off to a bumpy start for the city’s venerable leading disinformation source last year when somebody accidentally posted their battle strategy on the internet. The Chron’s internal memo, which was first reported on by the Review, outlined in detail a year long plan to use their newsprint as a campaign organ for METRO’s...

Have you heard about the latest California crusade? It's called Proposition 54, and it's based on the utopian ideal that race doesn't matter. The proposition stipulates that state and local officials can't collect or use information regarding someone's race, ethnicity, color or national origin for the purpose of public education, public contracting, public employment or other government operations. The mastermind behind Prop. 54 is a mild-mannered man by the name of Ward Connerly. He also happens to be African-American. But people are warned not to use that term in his presence. As Connerly sees it, race isn't real. Well, in...

University of Houston will eliminate some restrictions on campus speech and pay $93,000 in attorneys' fees to settle an antiabortion student group's lawsuit, school officials said Wednesday. UH will amend its free speech policy by June 30 by allowing exhibits to go up in Butler Plaza, in front of the main library. That location became the center of last year's legal dispute when UH tried to ban 15-foot-tall pictures of dead fetuses. UH will also eliminate a ban on anonymous leaflets on campus and on students carrying signs or wearing sandwich boards, said Benjamin Bull, an attorney representing the Pro-Life...

Where there's smoke, there's usually politics. Downing Street cigar bar attracts an official crowdBy RACHEL GRAVES Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle Surely there are those who think meetings are best conducted in an office. Many Houston politicians prefer to do business over a single-malt scotch and an imported stogie. The place of choice? Downing Street, a River Oaks cigar bar. Walk in on any given weeknight, and a cadre of elected officials and political operatives is packed into the lavish mahogany and leather booths. "Politicians gravitate toward smoke-filled rooms," said political consultant Dave Walden, who used to be a regular. "That...

Someone who operates the Houston Chronicle website must have had a terrible day on November 20. What the Chronicle described in a notice intended to cover its tracks as an "internal document" entitled "A Houston odyssey: DeLay, Lanier and light rail" appeared briefly in the editorials section on the newspaper's website beginning late in the evening on November 20. Houston's daily newspaper quickly removed the "internal document" upon its discovery and posted a brief correction to the page, though not before the document was publicly accessible for at least several hours. According to the retraction, "An internal Houston Chronicle document...

Someone who operates the Houston Chronicle website must have had a terrible day on November 20. What the Chronicle described in a notice intended to cover its tracks as an "internal document" entitled "A Houston odyssey: DeLay, Lanier and light rail" appeared briefly in the editorials section on the newspaper's website beginning late in the evening on November 20. Houston's daily newspaper quickly removed the "internal document" upon its discovery and posted a brief correction to the page, though not before the document was publicly accessible for at least several hours. According to the retraction, "An internal Houston Chronicle document...

Internal Distress To: Jeff Cohen, CC: The entire World Wide Web BY RICHARD CONNELLY Memo to the Houston Chronicle: Internal memos are not supposed to be posted on your Web site. You'd think that'd be obvious, but in an embarrassing incident that has revived memories of the Chron's bad old days of slanted journalism, just such a memo was posted publicly for a few hours November 20. Written by an unnamed member of the paper's editorial board (reportedly David Langworthy), the memo outlines suggested plans for the Chron leading up to the proposed referendum next November on expanding the light-rail...

I didn't read the endorsement in the newspaper but I heard on the local conservative radio station here that the Dallas Morning News has endorsed John Cornyn, the republican candidate for senate, while the Houston Comical(Chronicle) endorsed Ron Kirk, the democrat candidate for senate. This should be a political mouthful considering Ron Kirk was mayor in Dallas. I guess they know better like the Arkansas Democrat did not endorse Clinton for president the first time and has endorsed Tim Hutchinson this time for senate. Interesting. Not sure if someone had posted this about Ron Kirk and John Cornyn yet; therefore,...