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Slow and dull: Panel sends Holder contempt forward

The Witches of Washington. You’d think a load of them were found on the Capitol steps. That is because a giant witch hunt is in high gear as a congressional committee voted along party lines a short while ago to order to the full House a contempt charge against the attorney general.

The whole charge, pushed by zealous Republican Rep. Daniel Issa of California, stems from a botched arms investigation known as Operation Fast and Furious. It certainly isn’t the first time the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives flubbed a probe. But this one happened on AG Eric Holder’s — read Obama’s — watch.

If the congressional panel was to actually engage in seeking something from the “Reform” portion of its name, I might be a bit more inclined to give the House inquiry a break. But it’s all about the president — always has, always been.

When the Republicans took charge of the House with the Democrats maintaining the narrowest of majorities in the Senate, the writing was on the wall. The House was going to investigate, investigate, investigate. It was destiny. Just as in law, which is from where many of the clueless — a.k.a. lawmakers — are derived, congressional types want to get a meaty cause. They then study it as if it was a being from Mars. Then they beat that cause with a stick in the general public, or in the Republican’s case, Fox News. Then, some blowhard demagogue wrests away the case as his own and becomes the crusading congressman with all the bearing of a Batman but, thankfully, without a tight-fitting body suit.

Of course, the possible contempt charge has hinged all along on the president’s use of executive privilege — a qualified privilege in which the executive branch can claim the power to resist certain subpoenas and other major pains in the ass which the legislative and judicial branches might see fit to throw the president’s way. Okay, long sentence there, sorry. But hopefully you score the quintessence.

This is Obama’s first rodeo when it comes to executive privilege but such an assertion is hardly unheard of in our history. Here’s a tote board of presidents using the big EP during the last 40 or so years:

President George W. Bush: 6

President Bill Clinton: 14

President George H.W. Bush: 1

President Ronald Reagan: 3

President Jimmy Carter: 1

President Gerald Ford: 1

President Richard Nixon: 6

President Lyndon Johnson: 0

President John F. Kennedy: 2

The full House may vote on this contempt charge next week unless a deal is struck. Then, who knows? It might go to court and remain unresolved until after the election. This political theater by Issa and his cronies could have been avoided. But why would they do that? Anything, any method, anyway to hurt the President. Does the GOP care the world around them goes to Hell? Hell No, that’s what they want. I swear the Republicans should have chose the jackass as its symbol.

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How are the terrorists going to get their 77 virgins this way?

The Central Intelligence Agency has reportedly stopped another potential al Qaeda threat in which a terrorist was to have blown up a U.S. bound airliner with a bomb in his skivvies.

Well, yeah, I get underwear and the hiding place thing but I mean, symbolically, think of the first thing to go. A real dork. I mean, beside being a potential mass murderer, but blow up his ‘nads? Jesus, Joseph and Mary, and pulled pork sandwiches! Didn’t somebody already try that and wound up growing increasingly old in a tiny jail cell?

Personally, I’m very glad someone is out there stopping these assholes who want to blow people up. I’ve had mixed feelings about some of the ways these terrorists are shot first and tried later. But those feelings on the side of the Ts were never all that strong.

Caitlin Hayden, deputy spokeswoman at the National Security Council, said the bomb never posed a risk to public safety. Uh, I kind of doubt that. Caitlin? What kind of name is that for an NSC spokeswoman? How old is she? Twelve, and captain of her middle school girl’s soccer team? Sorry, Caitlin, hope you can take a joke and I don’t have drones following me everywhere I go.

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A breaking, tragic event, leaves a touch of nostalgia

It’s hard for me to sit on the sidelines on days like today.

A courthouse shooting leaving one dead and four injured, of the kind which makes the national news happened today here in Beaumont.

Here is great breaking news report by Houston-based Michael Graczyk, the sharp Associated Press writer whose byline most people see on stories about the prison system and executions. He has attended just about every execution for AP since Texas restored the death penalty.

Unfortunately, when big stories such as these break, it is usually when people die violently from some source of the other. People still want to know the story — who it happened to and who or what caused it; what happened; when the event took place and the timeline, if pertinent; in what location or locations the event happened; and lastly, why it happened. It might take awhile to learn the latter, whether days, months or even years.

It is a rush reporting a captivating “spot” story whether one is reporting from the field or back in the office doing the rewrite. If you told me 20 years ago I would find rewriting what reporters at the scene report and then timely crafting the information into an interesting and informing story, I might have said you were smoking crack. Either reporting from the scene or back at the desk is a challenge for someone who wants to and has a burning desire to tell a story that is important to untold numbers of people who are trying to find out “what is going on?”

Reading some of the early coverage of this tragic event givse me pause as to just how good social media is for reporting or more specifically, how can it better used? Much of what I saw early on was a conglomeration of disparate parts of the story. Some information came from witnesses, some from someone who held some type of officialdom even though this person may be commenting something that is nothing more than hearsay. For instance, I read a “live” Twitter feed of the police press conference held a couple hours after the incident. It was difficult to determine just who was speaking and just what the relation was between the person speaking and the “newser.”

My “wistfulness” and my take on how journalists were tackling the story isn’t at all to make light of what happened. After all, this is my city and what happened affected my “neighbors” and their families.

If I might, one last time, take from my experience in journalism to look at what happened I would point at where this happened and the immediate event that may have triggered it.

You may think you hear a lot about courthouse shootings. I don’t know how many actually happen a year. When such an incident occurs it automatically is a larger than normal story no matter the city or town where it takes place. Courthouses — whether local, state or federal –are the almost sacred temples of our laws and the people who look to those laws for protection and for fairness. When one is on trial for their life or reputation or is seeking relief over a property or familial issue, one naturally will find high emotion. In the case of this shooting it appears the alleged shooter was on trial for the very serious charge of aggravated sexual assault.

We have armed security and metal detectors in most of our courthouses these days. The Jefferson County Courthouse, where this happened, is no exception. But even those dedicated individuals who guard our courthouses and screen those who enter cannot keep a built-in emotion at bay. So this happens. No arguments about guns because they are useless. The genie is out of the bottle when it comes to guns.

It’s a sad event. But for one who spent a great deal of his life writing about such happenings and surrounded by the drama of the moment it leaves an old newshound with just a tiny bit of nostalgia.

My sorrow for those lost or injured goes without saying.

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Arrested bank robber may have once received clemency

A suspect who was wanted in the robbery of three Southeast Texas banks was arrested today while trying to catch a cab at a Beaumont mall.

John Steven Stark, 46, was arrested outside Parkdale Mall shortly after the nearby Prosperity Bank was held up around 9:15 this morning, a Beaumont Police Department news release said. Stark, who was listed on a driver license database as having a Huntsville address, was stopped after entering the taxi at a front mall entrance. Police said Stark was arrested without incident and had a large amount of cash on him.

A tease line on the Beaumont Enterprise Web site this evening said it all: “Talk, Dark, and Handcuffed,” referring to the name given by police and media to the robber of the “Tall, Dark and Handsome Bandit.” The alleged robber was shown in surveillance photos dressed neatly and wearing sunglasses on the top of his head during robberies at the Bank of America on Calder Avenue in Beaumont on Jan. 30 and the Comercia Bank off Southwest Freeway in Houston on Feb. 2.

Beaumont police said an employee at the Prosperity Bank this morning was able to see the silver Toyota Corolla Stark was driving and gave police a license plate number. Officers found the car in the mall parking lot and set up surveillance of the car while other officers searched inside the mall.

A criminal database indicated Stark, who previously resided in Rye, Texas, in Polk County, had previous arrests for forgery and aggravated robbery. Those records showed Stark had been paroled and received and unspecified type of clemency.

Just a note, since I have written about this guy I figured that I would follow-up with his arrest. The clemency found in his criminal records is interesting since the Texas Department of Criminal Justice says:

 “The governor has the authority to grant clemency upon the written recommendation of a majority of the Board of Pardons and Paroles. Clemency includes full pardons, conditional pardons, pardons based on innocence, commutations of sentence, and emergency medical reprieves.”

It may be something innocuous but could be as well something to make one say: “Hmm.”

 

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Police seek suspect in neighborhood bank heist

First of all, I have to say that I hate to see any neighborhood business get robbed. There have been a few neighborhood robberies in the past couple of years including banks. When the bank that gets held up is where you do business, even if most of the transactions are online, it kind of touches you in a special way. I guess that is what I get from growing up in a small town.

Sure enough the Bank of America, 2625 Calder Ave., Beaumont, Texas, was robbed about 11 a.m. today. Beaumont police say the suspect came into the bank and stood at the service island as if he was pretending to look for a deposit slip. A bank worker came up to the man and asked if he needed help — something this bank does routinely — and he said, no, and handed her a note saying he was just here to rob the bank. That sounds flippant, I know, but the police are not releasing the exact wording of the note. That is approximately what police said happen except it was more matter-of-fact, Joe Friday, manner. Jess! The facts ma’am!

Wanted for allegedly robbing the Bank of America in Beaumont, Texas--Photo Beaumont Police Department

A Beaumont police news release said the suspect is a white man, 30-40 years old, about 6-feet, 190 pounds, light skin, short dark hair, with acne scars on his cheeks. And damn if I haven’t seen this guy somewhere before, seriously, he looks familiar but I can’t remember where I have seen him. If you notice the photo, he was wearing his sunglasses on his head and had on a blue pullover shirt with the number “54” on it. Something is written below the number on the front, but the police are not mentioning it. I wonder why? The jersey also has some kind of logo transposed on the number.

So what is the significance of the jersey first of all? Is it a football jersey? Pro or college? It’s probably pro. Now think about pro football stars — present and past — who wore a blue #54 jersey? Tedy Bruschi, retired New England Patriots linebacker and now ESPN analyst? Chuck Howley, Dallas Cowboys linebacker, Super Bowl V MVP and part of the SB VI championship team? Brian Urlacher, Chicago Bears linebacker, 8-time Pro Bowl? Just to mention a few.

Doing a little critical thinking here, if this guy is between 30 and 40 years old then Howley might have been retired when this man was born. Urlacher is still playing. Bruschi, probably more popular. But a northern team? Sure, why not? He might have been transplanted with his company to Houston and was/is a Pats fan. And what if he was laid off like so many others thanks to the Bush administration?

He doesn’t disguise himself. What does that mean? Does he want to get caught?  The news release doesn’t say if he had a gun. Did he have one? KFDM says he didn’t and that he left heading for 10th Street, that is the cross-street for the bank. What are these guys thinking, bank robbers? And he looks familiar. That’s not good. If you see him call the police or FBI. Tell ’em eightfeetdeep told you about it  and they’ll likely lock you up as well.

It is kind of interesting contemplating a bank-robber’s life. Most of us will never know who this guy is and his story. In some cases, it’s just as well.