Prayapolooza in Houston

[Zigzagman]

Without getting into the minute details of what Texas is doing right or wrong under Rick Perry---my personal observation is that Texas is indeed business friendly. I also think that Texas, under Perry, might be considered overall the most conservative state in the nation. The Perry political machine would easily rival the legendary Daley political machine in Chicago. Perry is a self-serving hypocrite who somehow has convinced the voters of Texas to vote against themselves with his endless rant about secession, guns, religion, abortion, and "pull yourself up by your booststraps". He loaded up the Texas Education Agency with right-wing religious nuts who sole purpose was to change school textbooks to reflect a "born-again" philosophy, he even recently got legislation passed to bring in nuclear waste from everywhere to dump here and just magically the company over the project was Perry's largest campaign contributer, I could go on and on.

Texas under Perry has a spending problem - they (the Republican super-majority) refuse to spend money on the citizens of Texas.

He even created his own private slush fund from oil and gas taxes that only he can decide how to use (Rainy Day Fund). All of this while running up a 25-28 billion dollar deficit in the state budget. Were it not for the almost immune oil and gas business the budget would be in even greater shambles. He like to talk about "small government" and then pushes for emergency legislation for nanny government issues.

All of this and yet I suspect that he could get re-elected forever if that was his desire. That is the nature of the conservative voters in Texas these days. Many will talk about what a buffoon he is and then go to the ballot box and vote a straight GOP ticket - they simply cannot stand those damn liberals.

I tried to warn people around the country as I traveled when I worked about Bush in 2000 and how dangerous he was but somehow he also got elected twice!! I'll say it again folks - Perry is even more dangerous than Bush because he is much more power hungry. There is no limit to what people like him will do for personal gain for himself and his buddies.

Texas is what it is, but not everybody in Texas is a sleezeball. It is actually quite a purple state but with the redistricting that has taken place in the last 20 years it is very difficult to get a progressive elected to any statewide office.

Peace

[loosechickens]

Alan, Catwoman, et al. The piece appeared on the religion page of the Houston Chronicle. If you look at the header on the link, it is the website of the Houston Chronicle www.chron.com and then the slash, etc., that leads you to the actual piece.

The point is that someone supposedly so familiar with the Houston Chronicle that she knows how THEY would report on an issue, surely would realize that www.chron.com IS the website of the Houston Chronicle.

When you link to an article, blog or any other content on a newspaper's website, the resulting URL when clicked on, will take you directly to the page in question. It's how the internet WORKS.

If she had any doubts, not only could she have read the whole link, she could have gone to the main website involved, www.chron.com to get to the main front page of the newspaper.

One could also go to the main website of the newspaper, and then click through to their religion section and find the piece directly that way.

Also, whether it appears on the regligion page, the front page, a blog or any other place in the newspaper, what IN it was "opinion"? What factual errors might have been in there? Was the Baptist minister quoted incorrectly? Has the Southern Poverty Law Center NOT listed the Family organization a hate group due to their spreading of misinformation, lies and bigotry against gay people?

Somehow, you seem to be insinuating again, this time that somehow, because it appeared in a piece on the religion page, as opposed to elsewhere in the newspaper, that it was simply "opinion" or "a blog", and therefore not factual. Please enlighten us as to factual errors, parts of the piece that are simply opinion or conjecture by the Houston Chronicle writer from the Austin Bureau that would be a basis for that.

The whole point is that Catwoman assumed, rather than investigated, and in a somewhat underhanded way, appeared to accuse, when it was easy enough to see that I had posted the whole piece, it WAS from the Houston Chronicle, not altered or edited in any way, and appeared in the religion section of the newspaper.

And you, also, post the logo at the top of the religion page, but don't bother to post what is directly beneath that, which is the headline, and author of the piece, a reporter for the Austin bureau of the Houston Chronicle. NOT a blog, NOT an opinion piece, but a piece of straight reporting from a Houston Chronicle reporter, on the religion page of the newspaper.


"Perry's upcoming prayer event draws sharp criticism
By PATRICIA KILDAY HART
AUSTIN BUREAU
June 8, 2011, 9:44PM"

That's all. People remember insinuations, even if they are unfounded, ill advised, and no attempt is made to see that they are accurate. So if one is going to insinuate, one should get the facts in a row before insinuating. Otherwise, it's simply an attempt to smear. JMHO

[Alan]

Alan, Catwoman, et al......

Sorry loosechickens, I simply thought that if someone familiar with the Chronicle found the tone of the article mentioned to be contrary to the newspapers editorial slant, it may be because the article didn't come from the paper proper, but rather from a blog hosted by the paper, which seems reasonable to me considering that the Chronicle logo appears nowhere on the posted link.

I have no interest in smearing you, even though at various times you've referred to me as a trouble maker, pot stirrer and rabble rouser and then just recently referred to my sincere efforts to form a more collegial relationship with you as being disrespectful of you. Based upon my being banned from the old forum within minutes of being critical of your over-reaction to another poster and then seeing what happened to the last poster to raise your ire on the new site, I think I know better than most what it means to attract undue attention.

I'm sorry if I've unintentionally contributed to your feelings of being disrespected. I can assure you that I know better than that.

[loosechickens]

Apology accepted.....although I have to say that any reasonably intelligent person (which would certainly describe both you AND Catwoman) would have had no real difficulty in ascertaining that the piece in question was not a blog, not an opinion piece, but a piece of straight news reporting, by a Houston Chronicle reporter, on the religion page of the Houston Chronicle. Unless one WANTED to insinuate that it wasn't.

And, of course, there you go, insinuating again that somehow if you "displease" me, (because along with being an ordinary member here, I'm also a moderator), terrible things might happen and you might find yourself banned again, etc., when you know full well that I have no power whatsoever to "have you banned" (nor would I want to), since moderating decisions of that sort are made collectively, by the whole moderating team, only after attempts to work with the person repeatedly about violations of guidelines, etc., and are not something that "just happens" because one's opinions cause some moderator to be annoyed with you.

But.......carry on........ Is is straight now that I posted a straight news article, by a Houston Chronicle reporter, on the religion page of the Houston Chronicle, and was making no attempt to edit, alter, mislead or try to pass off a blog or opinion piece as a straight news article?

Look, I'm a Texan. This guy, Perry is MY governor. And I certainly don't want him to think he's representing ME with this hypocrisy of a grandstanding moment designed to propel him into national politics. If I had any sense at all that his motivation was sincere, it would be one thing, but it's a shameless attempt to manipulate lots of well meaning people into backing him because he's "showing himself to be such a fine Christian". Makes me want to gag, and I like to think that even were I a devout, believing Christian, I'd feel the same way.

[Alan]

Not to split hairs, but I still believe that the article in question is an opinion piece posted on an off-shoot of the Houston Chronicle site. The reasons I believe so are:

• The site maintains a different header and logo than the Chronicle site and all of its top-level link pages.
• The Houston Belief page is only accessible from a footer link.
• The 'Home' button on the Houston Belief page takes you back to the Houston Belief logoed site rather than to the Houston Chronicle site.

At any rate, as a "reasonably intelligent person", I still have difficulty ascertaining that it is a "straight piece of news reporting" on the Houston Chronicle. Although others can certainly feel free to see it differently as the format of the entire site is a little muddled.


Backing out of the conversation now to help prevent it from getting out of hand.

[The Storyteller]

Not to split hairs,

Of course not.

but I still believe that the article in question is an opinion piece

Those usually state they are opinion somewhere in the header of the article.

posted on an off-shoot of the Houston Chronicle site.

I think they calls those "Sections" in the paper version of a newspaper.

If you scroll down to the bottom the page and click "Home", it will take you to the home page of the Houston Chronicle.

[loosechickens]

This is moving into "dead horse" territory, but........

From the Houston Chronicle website:

Patricia Kilday Hart is the new Austin-based reporter and columnist for the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News. Hart is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, covered the Legislature for the Dallas Times Herald from 1981-1988 and co-authored Ten Best, Ten Worst Legislators for Texas Monthly from 1989 through the 2009 session. She is a Houston native and now resides in Austin.

And from Texas Monthly:

"Patricia Kilday Hart has written about Texas politics for nearly 20 years. She has contributed to TEXAS MONTHLY's "Ten Best, Ten Worst Legislators" story since 1989 and worked as a reporter in the Dallas Times Herald's Texas Capitol bureau. She is a journalism graduate of the University of Texas at Austin"

Alan, was the piece I posted Patricia Kilday Hart's opinion? Did it tell you how SHE felt about this, or was it a piece of factual reporting about how Governor Perry's proposed prayer extravaganza was being criticized in both the Christian community and by others? Was it a factual account?

We can beat this to death. Perhaps you, living in Ohio, are not familiar with the Houston Chronicle, although Catwoman certainly seems to be, if she considers herself expert on whether the piece "sounds like" something from the Houston Chronicle, but I am a Texas resident, of the general Houston area, and the Houston Chronicle website is on my favorites, and a site where I go to every day, and use as one of my regular news sources.

When I read this piece, I came to it right from the main page of the Houston Chronicle, during my daily looksee of the paper. I don't know exactly why you would have had difficulty.

We're boring folks to death with this by now, I'm sure. Heck, I'm even bored myself. And I think I've set the insinuations to rest sufficiently for anyone interested to ascertain. So......I'm off to eat lunch.

[The Storyteller]

This is moving into "dead horse" territory, but........

[Catwoman]

not a dead horse, big difference between a writer for Texas Monthly Magazine and Op-Ed pieces, blogs and actual news articles. You guys all know the difference, I'm just sleuthing to see what it news and what is opinion...

[Catwoman]

It looks as if "Believe Out Loud" is the name for the religion section of the Chronicle, It may only be for the online version as the page has forums and blogs as well. I just said all this to point out that when someone posts something citing a newspaper, nowadays you can get a lot of other stuff besides hard news as I believe is the case in this instance. It doesn't matter if it lines up with my beliefs or not - if it is opinion, that's what it is.