Either way it goes it’s History!

Senator Barack Obama rocked Denver and the nation last night.  The most watched Democratic National Convention ever, 85 thousand in the stadium.  What a show, great choreography and a well delivered speech.   Whether he wins the White House or not, Obama made history becoming the first man of color to be nominated for President by a major political party.

That would have been the talk to this day, but then Obama faced another piece of history, Republican Presidential nominee-to-be John McCain picked Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his Vice Presidential Running mate, stealing the lime light today.  Not only was that well planned strategy by the McCain campaign, Palin makes history by becoming the first woman picked to run on a GOP Presidential ticket.  She is only the second woman ever picked to run as Veep on any major party ticket (Democrat Geraldine Ferraro in 1984 was the first).

Whether Obama ultilmately wins, becoming the first African American to be elected to the White House, or if Palin wins as the first Woman elected Vice President, history will be made in November.   This will be a campaign to watch.  Yep, game on!

Kay Bailey Hutchison Veep?

The name of Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison has surfaced on the short list of candidates for John McCain’s Vice Presidental running mate Wednesday night. There is no secret about Hutchison’s consideraton of running for Governor against fellow Republican Rick Perry next time around.

But, the stakes got raised Wednesday night when MSNBC talked bunches about Senator Hutchison on McCain’s Veep list. The buzz spread like wild fire around the Democratic Convention media village. The pick of Senator Hutchison would be kind of strange, because McCain and Hutchison are not really running buddies in Washington, in fact there are some who might say she and he don’t get along. But, all is fair in love and war, and Hutchison might appeal to women unhappy with Hilary Clinton not being picked by Obama as his running mate..

Hutchison was supposed to be at a private fund raising dinner Wednesday night for Senator Elizabeth Dole at former Texas Secretary of State Roger Williams estate near Weatherford. A friend of mine from the Reagan Administration was there last night, and says she did not show. He says her absense was conspicuous and her Veep possibilities all the buzz.

While my friend, who used to be an official in the U.S. Transportation Department, likes Senator Hutchison, he says he expects Mitt Romney to be the Veep choice for McCain. The decision could come this weekend in an attempt to steal a little thunder from the end of Obama’s convention. Stay tuned.

No Room at the Inn

2-thousand people a night.   That is how many people Sheriff Lupe Valdez tells me are in the Dallas County Jail system nightly that need mental health services.    Sheriff Valdez and I sat down to discuss jail conditions in general and how the County can make improvements to get past daunting court and state oversight.   Make no mistake, running the jail, actually 7 of them, is an unenviable job.

But even more challenging, according to Sheriff Valdez, is the daily housing of people she says should not be there.   Those people she speaks of are the 2-thousand mentally challenged individuals incarcerated for everything from spitting on the sidewalk to loitering and general petty crime.   The common thread for this pack of 2-thousand, according to the Sheriff, is mental illness.    She says the jail has become the dumping ground for those who are mentally challenged and officers have no place else to get them help.

Help is what Sheriff Valdez says she is fresh out of where mental health is concerned.   After repeated budget cuts at both the state and county level, there is just no room at the inn for the mentally challenged without means, so the jail winds up being the dumping ground.    Sheriff Valdez says the County Commissioners are looking at creating a facility for the mentally challenged who need confinement for minor violations.  That facility, she says, should be part of the new Parkland Hospital.    We will see.

The shrinking skies.

Blame it on rising fuel prices or the cut throat competition, regardless American Airlines is shrinking.  Tonight we learned 400 American Airlines employees, members of the Transport Workers Union, are opting to take early retirement and permanent leave instead of facing pink slips.   It is no secret the Fort Worth based airline is purposely getting smaller, planning to put down 103 of its gas hog airliners and elminating almost 7 thousand jobs. 

American Airlines is one of the few major airlines that have been able to avoid the bankruptcy court.    Times are still tough and will be for a while, and there is no magic to American’s ability to dodge financial ruin and manage its own destiny.   CEO Gerard Arpey and his staff have made tough and often unpopular choices, and the airline’s employees have likewise made huge sacrifices to keep the airline afloat.

But, American is still flying without the shaddow of a bankruptcy judge calling the shots.  Several inside sources I spoke with at American today say there will be more layoffs and groundings of planes to keep the airline flying.   American makes no secret of its desire to park its fleet of MD 80’s (there are about 300 of those gas hogs) and replace them with more fuel efficient models.  

Bottom line, American is going to be a smaller airline with fewer flights,  and the same is likely to be true for all the other carriers, maybe with the exception of Dallas based Southwest. 

 

 

 

She gets it!

Every once and a while our children do things that let us know “they get it.”    A couple of months ago, my 8 year old daughter Madi and I were having lunch in one of our favorite restaurants in Colleyville and another little girl caught her attention.    Madi could not stop looking at her, she had never seen a 10 year old girl with no hair. 

I told Madi not to gawk, and then suggested we should go introduce ourselves and see if she would talk to us about what happened to her hair.   The little girl and her mother were gracioius, the invited us to sit down and we listened as she told us about her chemotherapy for Lukemia.   We sat for a while and then left.    Outside the restaurant Madi got very sad and then very motivated, motivated to do something to help the little girl she just met.

Madi told me she wanted to give the girl her beautiful long brown hair.    I almost choked up with pride.   We discussed the idea with mommy, and my wife Lyn found the website for Locks of Love and the requirements for donating hair for children undergoing cancer treatment.   

The day before school started this week, Madi went to the hair stylist to do the deed.   Miss Nancy braided Madi’s long thick brown hair into a pony tail and then began cutting off 10 and a half inches of hair.    Madi’s hair was so thick Miss Nancy almost had to saw through the pony tail.

I don’t know if I have ever been more proud of my daughter.   She was motivated by a little girl she met by chance, learned about her disease and then learned how she could help, all without any proding from me or mommy.   

She gets it!  And her short hair looks cute as can be.   Way to go Madi.

You must still sign up!

I will bet there are many young people in north Texas who have no idea what the Selective Service is, or that by law all males must sign up for a possible military draft by age 18.   There is no military draft in this country any longer, but by law must still sign up as if there were, just in case.

I met with Bill Chatfield this moring.   He is director of the U.S. Selective Service and a long time friend.   Over coffee at Starbucks across from Hurst City Hall, he praised north Texas as one of the most patriotic places in the nation.   But, he also pointed out that Texas teenagers lag behind much of the rest of the nation registering with the Selective Service.       85% registration is not bad, but far from what you might expect from this part of the country.   Confused about the requirements?   Check here.

Do as I say, not as I do.

Does this strike anyone else as a contradiction?  Dallas oilman T. Boone Pickens, on a nationwide self financed campaign pushing development of renewable wind power, participated in the National Clean Energy Summit at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas yesterday.    Pickens likened our country to “a boat without oars heading toward Niagra Falls.”    Former President Bill Clinton reportely told the group we must reduce our “carbon footprint,” drive less, conserve more and do as Picken’s says.    Both Clinton and Pickens reportedly went to a party after the forum, driven to and fro in huge black government type gas hog SUV’s, both flew to and from Vegas in gas slurping private jets.    Anything wrong with this picture?  http://snurl.com/3ii4i  [www_lasvegassun_com] http://snurl.com/3ii4q  [www_lasvegasgleaner_com]

Faster than a speeding bullet!

Synthetic fuel goes Mach II?   Yes it did!    A lot of the military units at the Joint Reserve Base in Fort Worth are faced with fewer flying hours and less training because of the cost of jet fuel.   The Air Force has been tinkering with synthetic fuel blends of Jet A and natural gas (something we have a lot of around here) to increase availability and decrease the cost.  Result?   An F-15 pushed more than 14-hundred miles per hour on the synthetic mixture.  It worked in other Air Force planes as well.    I wonder if this would work in our cars, trucks and SUV’s?  Check this out:   http://snurl.com/3ihv4  [www_military_com]

Oil! Finally some momentum.

The gauntlet has been cast down. GOP nominee to be John McCain is challenging Democratic nominee to be Barack Obama to join him in calling both Republicans and Democrats back to Washington from their summer vacations to take action on drilling for oil on our own land, or at least just off our shores.

Since President Bush lifted his Presidential ban on off shore drilling, the price of oil has dropped, today it stands at a three month low. Not one more well was been started, not one more drop of oil has been rendered from our reserves below the oceans and Gulf, but the market speculators, and the world now seem convinced we Americans are going to do something about providing oil for ourselves.

Give some credit to Americans in general for reducing the amount of gasoline we use for helping lower demand and lower the price. But, many analyst say lifting of the Presidential ban on off shore drilling, the new drive to get congress to do the same and swelling public support for drilling our own oil reserves will continue to lower oil prices. Actually getting clearance to drill and putting a new off shore rig to work will, according to many analyst, send prices down even more quickly.

I just hope that in this plan we find something like a mandate, or rather a requirement, that a good portion of the Fed’s 15% take on the sale of every gallon of gasoline is earmarked for a Manhattan type project to develop alternative fuel sources. My favorite of the moment is hydrogen. But, whether it be hydrogen, nuclear, wind or solar, lets hope our friends in Congress have enough gumption to use the money we get from oil taxes to secure our energy future.

I love T. Boone Pickens and his bold push for wind power, but I think drilling for oil and increasing our own domestic supply while developing wind and other alternative energy sources is a better bet. Our economy would certainly fair better over the short haul.