Jaminfrog

Our friend Joe Wells, Dallas County treasurer, had a great article in the Dallas Observer about him a while back. Way to go, Joe!

Update: I got the video fixed…so in case you didn’t get to see it, take a look!

SMU may be testing out the old tenet that all publicity is good publicity, with all the coverage we’ve gotten lately about supposed faculty discontent over the prospect of landing George W. Bush’s presidential library. But this publicity was taken to a new level yesterday with our appearance on The Colbert Report, one of my personal faves. Makes me proud to be a Mustang!

Merry Christmas! We got back from our little Christmas cruise to Cozumel tonight (I’ll post pictures tomorrow!) and found out that a lot happened while we were gone — we had big news at work, as SMU has been named the more-or-less finalist for the George W. Bush presidential library and seemingly will get the library if all goes well from here.

But perhaps even bigger news I found out about comes from across the Metroplex at my alma mater TCU, where a guy I was in student government with got busted for trying to hire somebody to hack into TCU’s computers and adjust his GPA in an effort to get into grad school. Poor schmuck. Pretty funny story though — thanks to Zu for sharing.

Since Donald Rumsfeld is resigning as defense secretary today, I thought it was a good time to go back to one of the Rumsfeld Haikus that were compiled a few years back. These haikus are actual words taken from the transcripts of Defense Department briefings.

The Unknown
As we know,
There are known knowns.
There are things we know we know.
We also know
There are known unknowns.
That is to say
We know there are some things
We do not know.
But there are also unknown unknowns,
The ones we don’t know
We don’t know.

—Feb. 12, 2002, Department of Defense news briefing

Our friend Joe Wells has been elected Dallas County Treasurer. Way to go, Joe! And way to go, Dan, his chief campaign strategist!

Meanwhile, our favorite Jewish cowboy Kinky Friedman didn’t end up doing so well in the race for governor. One wonders what would have happened had Kinky and One Tough Grandma not run and the democrats had fielded a better alternative. How does that saying go? If ifs and buts were candy and nuts…

We had a debate-watching party with a few friends on Saturday to learn more about the candidates for governor. (Yeah, I know the debate actually happened on Friday, but hey, we had stuff to do, and time-shifting is possible through the magic of TiVo.)

It was interesting to see what the candidates had to say. I think we were puzzled more often than we were impressed. Carole Keeton Strayhorn’s Freudian slip that she is “above the law.” Kinky Friedman saying that the Internet is the work of the devil. Rick Perry talking teacher pay raises and property tax cuts that haven’t materialized quite as described.

I really didn’t pay attention to a word Chris Bell had to say; he sounds too much like Mr. Rogers. Compare for yourself: Chris Bell. Mr. Rogers.

And not to go on a fashion tangent here, but somebody should have warned Ms. Strayhorn that her pink blazer would wreak havoc with the color balance on voters’ tv sets.

After we finished watching the debates, we headed to the Internet (also known as the work of the devil) to find out who won. Lo and behold, almost every candidate thought they were victorious.

Chris Bell proclaimed himself the unanimous debate champ. Rick Perry said he was the hands down winner of the debate. Kinky Friedman called it a Kinky victory.

Strayhorn was the only one with a sense of modesty, saying Texans were the winners.

I think One Tough Grandma is the closest to the truth, she’s just got her facts backwards. I’m afraid Texans are the losers.

I was initially pumped about Kinky, but I’m concerned that as a professional worker on the devil’s Internets, I wouldn’t be welcome as a supporter now. Plus, some of his ideas are a little off the wall; I am all for student power and input in higher ed, but should we replace all the boards of regents with student members?

Grandma’s out because she smiled a bit too much and seemed shifty when she was questioned about ethics. I just don’t trust her for some reason. Plus that pink jacket has to go.

Bell is a big unknown to me. He appealed to Democrats to vote for him, but didn’t really ask me, a more middle-of-the-road kind of guy, for support. So I’m inclined not to give it.

That leaves Perry, who it appears will win by default with his opposition split three ways. My life the past many moons hasn’t been bad with him as governor. In fact, it’s been great — finishing college, finding good jobs, getting married, buying a house, starting school again. I don’t really give Perry any credit for that stuff though.

And on a larger scale, I get the sense that things aren’t as good as they could be in Texas. Unfortunately, I can’t quite put my finger on why, or how to make things better. And it didn’t seem as though the three politicians and Kinky could, either.

Is there a “none of the above?”

People went Kinky crazy yesterday when the gubenatorial candidate stopped by SMU for a brief stump speech. Little Mom got to give him a hug, and Chel got to pose with him and his cigar.

Click “more” to see a little cell-phone video of the beginning of his speech. It’s not much to listen to, unfortunately. (Primarily for lack of sound quality.) I didn’t get to stay for the whole thing, but I did like what he said about the definition of politics — Poli meaning “many,” and tics meaning “blood-sucking creatures.”

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Photo courtesy Hillsman Jackson/SMU

Kinky Friedman, that is. He was on campus today and Little Mom and Chel came to see him, and they got to shake his hand — er, hug him — after his speech.

Write a caption for this photo by posting a comment — the winner will receive a special prize!

From the “sometimes truth is stranger than fiction” department:

This is truth:
Voting for dollars?
North of the border one of Mexico’s U.S. neighbors is weighing a novel way to get more citizens to participate in the democratic process: Offer them a chance at winning $1 million.

This is fiction:
Scratch ‘n win ballots to debut in November
In an effort to increase voter participation while generating additional revenue, several state election boards announced plans Monday to introduce new Scratch ‘N Win ballots in November, giving citizens the chance to win the right to vote in the 2006 elections.

Which one is a better idea? I say the scratch ‘n win ballots!

At this point, count our two votes for Texas governor to Kinky Friedman.

Granted, we don’t know everything about Kinky’s policies or plans if elected, but I gotta say, we like his style. He’s the only candidate I’ve heard speak the truth: Texas politics stinks.

Back in the last gubenatorial campaign, we went to see a Rick Perry campaign rally in Fort Worth. We watched Perry read his speech from the prompter and wait for the crowd to respond to his applause lines.

Kinky has said that the other options for governor are like choosing between paper and plastic. From what I’ve seen, I have to agree. I’m leaning towards Kinky.