Will She Please Go Away?

I had to wait to write this, in fear that my uncontrollable giggling would interrupt my typing, but Carole "Five names" Keeton McClellan Rylander Strayhorn lost her most recent attempt to pad her retirement income, errrrr, stab at elective office.

Thankfully, Austin voters saw through her shtick and opted to NOT put her back into the job that she first held when Hollywood thought it would be a good idea to make a movie starring Meatloaf and Blondie. BTW, Strayhorn (billed only as Carole McClellan -- WOW! Only two names!) has a small, but pivotal, role in that movie. She played the Boise sheriff at odds with the Rock and Roll show organizers and even had a scene with "Soul Train" empresario Don Cornelius.

Anyway, although 21 percent of Austin voters cast a ballot for Foghorn, she came in third -- the same position she finished in the 2006 Gubernatorial race. Seems Mark Sanders has graduated from losing statewide all the down to losing a small muni election.

I hope Leghorn and Sanders are very happy together.

Priceline update

Ok, so I'm not 100 percent satisfied, but Priceline has sent me a refund for one night at the hotel and has promised to send $90 for the phone cards we had to purchase to fix their screw up.

It's not 1/4 of the trip expense, but it's better than nothing.

But it's not enough for me to ever use Priceline again.

Caveat Emptor.

BUYER BEWARE OF PRICELINE!!!

I recently booked a trip to Cancun using Priceline.

When my wife and I arrived at the hotel in Cancun, the hotel had no record of our reservation and said they were unable to contact Priceline on our behalf.

In order to secure a room, we were forced to give the hotel a credit card.
Since Priceline does not offer a toll-free phone number from Mexico, nor a collect call option for customers, we were forced to purchase telephone cards that would allow us to utilize the Mexican phone system and contact Priceline. These phone cards cost 900 pesos--about $90-$95 in US currency.

After several phone calls to Priceline's automated phone system and after being placed on hold for long periods, Priceline finally contacted the hotel and fixed the reservation. The issue was not corrected for more than 24 HOURS.

For one entire day of our trip, my wife and I had no idea if we would end up having to pay twice for our PREPAID Priceline trip.

We paid for a WEEK in Cancun. We did not receive a week in Cancun, as the first day of our trip was stressful and we were unable to get ANY assistance from Priceline.

So far, my attempts to resolve this issue with Priceline have been fruitless.

That Sinking Feeling...

It's no secret that most bottled water sold in the US comes from municipal water sources. The Austin American Statesman, in a recent effort to point out that buying bottled water is not eco-friendly, ran the article "BOTTLED WATER -- AT WHAT COST?"

Here's an excerpt from the article highlighting the paper's reasoning for saying bottled water is bad: "Producing plastic bottles takes energy resources, and trucking them to stores burns fuel. The empty bottles pile up in landfills — or worse, wind up as litter in creeks and green spaces.
Reusing the bottles may not be wise, either. Some experts say that as the disposable plastic water bottles age, chemical compounds such as phthalates and bisphenol-A can leach into the water, which can disrupt human hormonal systems."

The article goes on to talk about how much cities across the nation spend annually on bottled water and how many of them are significantly curtailing their bottled water purchases or banning the practice completely.

It says also that Austin spent $40k in 2007, but has now apparently seen the light.

"I think the city clearly does need to lead by example," said Mayor Will Wynn, who said he might consider a ban on most city purchases of bottled water. "In the mayor's office, you'll get served tap water out of the mayor's sink."

Wonder if he'll charge his visitors for it?

I guess Hizzonner doesn't remember the fact that the city-owned water utility made a bumbling effort to sell its water back in 2003--the "Austin's Drinking Water" project.

Pure Austin water, sold for $6 a case--a loss of $2.90 case purchased. Thankfully, the city saw the folly of the venture and scrapped the plan.

And when the City of Austin scraps something, they really scrap it.

The only mention on the city Web site I could find about "Austin's Drinking Water" was an old 2005 proclamation from when the city buried a time capsule at the dedication of the new stately pleasure dome City Hall. City Council member Raul Alvarez thought a bottle of Austin's DW was worth a bit of space.

Otherwise, it appears to have been completely scrubbed from existence.

Revisionist history, anyone?

New funnies from the Blue Island

OK...so I was late posting and technically did not get this post up Thursday, but here it is.

Where shall I begin?

Well, let's swing by the city offices, where our brand spanking new city manager has already gotten under the skin of the publisher of Texas Monthly.

According to the fine folks at the Austin American Statesman, "fireworks between new City Manager Marc Ott (right) and Mike Levy, the outspoken publisher of Texas Monthly magazine and member of the city's public safety task force, have begun."

Apparently, before Mr. Ott came on board, an assistant City Mangler made a public promise that the city would conduct a national search to replace the director of the Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services. On Tuesday, Mr. Ott appointed Ernesto Rodriguez to fill the job, apparently without the benefit of a national search, which raised the BP and temperature of the sometimes fiery Mr. Levy, who promptly launched an email tirade in Ott's direction.

Levy said Ott's action showed Austin his true character and Ott fired back that Levy was wrong to question his honor.

They've seemingly made up however, as Levy sent Ott, the Council and Travis County Commissioners an emailed apology.

At least Ott has the guts to respond. I still haven't gotten a response to my email to Wynnie the Pooh Bear Mayor where I respectfully asked him to resign following his blow up.

J J J

Speaking of mayors with a tendency to blow up...

Former Austin Mayor/Texas Railroad Commissioner/Texas Comptroller Carole Stewart Keeton McClellan Rylander Foghorn Strayhorn told the Statesman that she's been approached via email to run for the office she first won more than 30 years ago (Mr. Wynn cannot run again, thanks to term limits).

Strayhorn is a former Democrat who switched parties to run for Congress as a Republican and transformed into an independent in 2006 to challenge incumbent Republican Governor Rick Perry.

And now, Strayhorn is (according to Ross Ramsey at Texas Weekly) currently "busy raising money and support for her new Our Texas Grandchildren foundation, a non-profit geared to help foster children in the state."

I have no doubt she's earnest in her intentions to help foster children, but I am wondering whatever happened to the scholarship program the Tough Grammaw first pitched in November 2001. As you may recall, as part of her "Texas Responds: War Relief Package," Strayhorn (then Rylander) said "the Texas Tomorrow Fund, through its scholarship foundation, (would) raise contributions from individuals and corporations to provide tuition and required fees for children affected by the war effort."

Her proposal stated when "a (Texas) child loses a parent as a result of a terrorist attack or because of the military action, the foundation will award a contract to that child. If a child has a parent who receives a medical discharge from the military as a result of the war against terrorism, that child also will receive a scholarship." See http://www.window.state.tx.us/wrp/edu01.html

At the time, Strayhorn said the private sector had already contributed funds toward the effort.

I'm wondering how many scholarships have been awarded through Strayhorn's efforts and why no one has heard about any of them. One would think Strayhorn would have issued a mountain of press releases to crow about every scholarship awarded.

Surely she wasn't just playing to the cameras when she promised to give scholarships to children of Texas veterans?

I've Been Called on the Carpet

For not blogging...

I will have a new post later today.

I promise.

More Austin craziness.

Austin Strikes Again!

Nothing in this town surprises me.

Here's the latest, according to the Austin American Statesman: "According to a police report, (Austin Mayor Will) Wynn grabbed 28-year-old Luke Johnson of Virginia after the two introduced themselves. Johnson told police that he thought Wynn believed he was making fun of Wynn's name when he tried to clarify whether the mayor's name was Will or Wynn. Johnson told investigators that as he stood on a sidewalk outside the party, Wynn confronted him again and grabbed him."

Hizzonor has now pleaded, a la Spiro Agnew, Nolo Contendere to the assault charges and will likely pay a fine, attend anger management classes and perform public service (nope, his job doesn't count...he gets paid a ridiculous salary; more than any other mayor in Texas, I believe) .

I'm wondering why Wynnie the Pooh wasn't arrested two years ago? Methinks if the situation were reversed and the 28-year-old visitor had manhandled the Mayor out of a party, old Luke would have been cooling his heels in a cell pretty darn quickly.

This seems to be a pattern with Pooh Bear. Last year, a construction truck was blocking traffic on 5th street, so he took it upon himself to force the truck driver to stay put (ironically holding up traffic even longer) until police or staff could arrive and review his construction permits, commercial DL, etc.

In Texas, city official positions are non-partisan. But in Austin, there's no doubt about the Mayor's politics...especially after he endorsed Sen. Barack Obama.

Just another dem...refusing to do the right thing.