Texas Pig Bombs

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Feral Hogs: The massive property damage caused by feral hogs is a growing problem in town and in the country. Liberty County Extension Agent Cory Long said a single hog can wreck as much as an acre of land in one night. He said there are no chemicals that repel feral hogs, so the only approved methods for dealing with them are hunting and trapping. It’s against the law to release them. For more, call the ext. office at 334-3230.

Russia sends at least 12 warships to Syria

In a move considered aggressive by US and European officials, Russia has sent at least 12 warships to patrol waters near its naval base in Tartous, Syria.

The deployment appears to be a warning to Israeli and Western officials against military intervention in Syria’s bloody civil war, which has now claimed the lives of over 80,000 people.

Russia’s increased presence in the region — which began raising eyebrows in the US three months ago — represents one of its largest sustained naval deployments since the Cold War, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

“It’s a show of force. It’s muscle flexing,” a top US official told the Journal.

Russian news sources reported earlier Thursday that five warships had entered the Mediterranean Sea to bolster the country’s new regional task force. The vessels were scheduled to dock in Limassol, Cyprus.

In March, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu announced that the naval task force was needed in order to protect Russian interests in the region.

Also Thursday, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov shrugged off Israeli pleas not to sell sophisticated S-300 air defense systems to Bashar Assad’s regime, saying Moscow would fulfill its contract with Damascus. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly warned Russian President Vladimir Putin, in emergency talks on Tuesday, that the sale could push the region toward war.

Liberty County Tax Rates Remain the same for 2013

All the recent reports about a countywide tax increase need to be revised, just as the falsehood that the current officeholders have spent the majority of the fund balance needs to be corrected.

Liberty County Commissioners court contrary to previous administrations adjusted the effective rate in order to make the changes in the appraisals moot. Taxpayers should see no increases in the amount of money they pay because of local decisions by elected officials.

Also political perversions of what has eaten up the $18 million fund balance need to be corrected. The Fitzgerald regime ate up most of the fund balance. The last year Phil Fitzgerald was in office was a terrible year for taxpayers as elected officials embarrassed drunken sailors by the way they spent our money. Those who support that regime can use statistics to make the current officials look bad claiming that the current officials cutting back and leveling off the amount of money that is spent in one year that is above the amount of money that is taken in is not good enough. But according to what we have seen when they were in power, the big spenders of our recent past would never have even tried to turn this around. Again, their last year in office was their worst.

Liberty Dispatch is optimistic that IF the current decision makers will make decisions based on the principles they ran on, we will see a quicker recovery than any other approach.

Local liberal, democrat activist and political challengers have distorted the truth about Liberty County taxes as usual in a failed attempt to profit from lies.

State Rep. John Otto(R) seeks re-election bid

Texas State Representative John Otto(R) of Dayton has announced he is seeking re-election to the Texas House of Representatives. The Dayton native was first elected to the Texas House in 2004. He serves District 18, which includes all of Liberty, San Jacinto and Walker counties.

THE REAL COUNTY JUDGE

Liberty Dispatch readers have various thoughts on what they want our county judge to be doing. With the county judge election coming up in 2014 and rather than repeat one more time why we think Liberty County should re-elect Craig McNair, we thought it would be helpful to sort out just what County Judge McNair has and has not done in his two and a half years in office. One of the main reasons we feel this is necessary is that Judge McNair has spent less time campaigning and promoting and defending himself than any Liberty county judge in recent history. His insistence on focusing on action, rather than speeches and photos for the newspapers, has left his opposition an open field to interpret or even invent things in ways that might affect voters to take their side. Readers should decide whether they want four more years of the type of leadership Judge McNair has actually provided rather than what his enemies say he has done.

His enemies are saying things like this, “What we need is a county judge who can stop blowing money on his pet projects and quit giving huge raises to his relatives. Everybody is going to have to tighten their belts and quit spending like crazy.”

We ask these people to explain their accusations. "What raise did McNair give to his relatives? What 'pet projects' are they talking about?" If these folks would like to approach some sort of rational and honest campaign rumor mongering, then they need to answer these questions.

The reality of the next county judge race is that if a voter wants someone to loosen the purse strings and go back to the good ole boy ‘you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours' way of doing business then they should not vote for McNair. If they do not like that he has practically anchored himself in front of the county treasury and been the undisputed champion of holding spending down, then they should vote for someone else.

In anticipation of more disinformation about the newest building in Liberty, let’s clear up some things. First, anyone that runs against McNair should let their voters know where they stand on McNair’s decision. The federal government chose Liberty County as the best location to build a building for catastrophic emergencies.  All of the funding for the actual building of the emergency center came from the federal government. The only decision Judge McNair was told to make was does Liberty county want the building or not. The federal government would build the center in another county if Liberty County did not want a multi-million dollar headquarters during hurricanes etc. McNair said, “Yes, build it here.”

Opponents cannot legitimately argue that the expenditure was taxpayer money whether it was local, state, or federal money and therefore this is an example of a big spending “pet project’ by McNair. McNair did NOT get to decide whether the money was going to be spent or not. This was a “pet project” of the federal government and it was going to be built, period.

Opponents need to be honest and indicate what they would have done. They can point to the fact the federal government is not going to provide funding to man the building they have built and act like that is scandalous. That argument might appeal to non conservatives who prefer the federal government to direct local affairs or to someone who is only looking at the short term economics. But in the specifics of Judge McNair’s decision to allow the building to be located here was the fact that after ten years Liberty County is in total control and ownership of the building. In other words, while the building was not free with any strings, the strings will soon be cut.

Any voter who believed we needed a no nonsense leader who could navigate all of the attacks and disinformation that comes with telling other politicians “NO!” they got him when Craig McNair was sworn in two and a half years ago. Anyone that wanted a county judge that spent his time working on economic development rather than holding the hands of potential political enemies and making them feel important got him when they elected Craig McNair.

Liberty Dispatch does not fraternize or socialize with the current county judge or any potential opponent that we know of and we welcome SPECIFIC FACTUAL criticism of this and any other elected official so our readers will have the facts. If someone disagrees and is reluctant to send their objection to us and reveal who they are, they will almost surely have an open invitation from all other media. Otherwise, they are asking voters to depend on their political attacks in hopes that they will not be rebutted or they are hoping the voters want a more liberal county judge. We welcome a race that argues whether we can solve Liberty County’s problems with a more liberal approach or with someone claiming to be conservative who is unwilling to face reality.

Dear Liberty Dispatch Readers and Contributors

I have heard slick clever politicians with carefully crafted words all of my life, but the announcement that Jay Knight wants to go from Dayton city councilman to County Judge exposes him as neither slick nor clever.

Read just one quote of many from his announcement: “County employees know their jobs and what it takes to expedite their jobs in both a timely and fiduciary conscious manner. Although, everyone involved in our County government and services must become more efficient at using what we currently have to work with, I think that if these folks involved are better informed of our economic situation, and believe that they are a part of the solution to an economic problem, then they will work together and diligently for options to alleviate this problem.”

I called one of my friends that works for the county and told him that he needed to read his wannabe boss’ pandering. If we ever have a Judge Knight he thinks the employees being “better informed of our economic situation” is an important part of any solution to the county’s woes! You just can’t fix stupid. This man better get a better stump speech or someone may try!

I am told the current County Judge, Craig McNair, sat and listened while one Commissioner insisted he had to have money for uniforms for his workers because every other commissioner bought some for theirs. Really! Starting providing uniforms is that important while we need more deputies on duty.

Judge McNair continued to listen while one commissioner opined about not having enough money to fix all of the roads in his precinct. Really! He wants enough money in this years budget to fix all his roads. Roads in every county in the state are prioritized and fixed as the money and the manpower allows, but this rookie commissioner wants us to bankroll him to fix them all this year?

Some may say this County Judge is not listening, I say he is not stupid. I could never have stayed quiet while one department head said she could not afford paper for the copiers. Even though paper cost less than 3 cents a sheet, she said the county would get $1 a copy but she just can’t fit more paper in her budget. Really! It is ashamed we cannot send this employee to a junior high school economics class. Or maybe she would do better in homemaking eco where she would learn to list your priorities first when making a budget. For years county employees have been arguing they need more money by choosing something they figure everyone will want them to have and saying if their budget is not increased this can not be bought. You just can’t fix stupid. Buy the paper as a top priority and the money spent will increase the amount of money in your budget ….. duh! But some of the other things in your budget, like uniforms, you may have to wait until better times to purchase.

The County judge has listened. The County Judge has spent a good bit of time with Sheriff Rader. He has correctly tried to guide commissioners and department heads toward using their own knowledge of what they can get by without to try and hold the budget down so the Sheriff can start accumulating the assets previous administrations should have when they were frittering their budget away on things like a secret inactive special task force.

I could go on and on, but let me just say this. Jay Knight needs to lose the not very well hidden insincere compliments to employees which he obviously intends to replace raises. He needs to stop trying to make it sound like the problem is his opponent is inappropriately giving raises to a chosen few. He needs to stop acting like the McNairs being gone on weekends occasionally is the problem. The problem is Liberty County is in the same economic struggle most counties are in. He needs to be open and honest with questions like:

Which county employees would he give a raise to?

Would he have refused the federal money that built the new center in Liberty even though the only decision that was made was the location? Liberty County or elsewhere?

Would he go further than McNair has in “listening” to county employees? The facts being that McNair has had an open door policy all along plus he has had numerous workshops with opportunities for communication for all employees from department heads to the lowest paid county employee. What would he do if some employees persisted in saying nobody is listening to them simply because he did not agree to increase their budget?

Knight and Day

Yesterday Liberty Dispatch was disappointed to read Jay Knight started his bid for 2014’s county judge race by cozying up to one of the two most infamous critics of Republicans in this county. We, however, are NOT disappointed in Mr. Knight exercising his right to run again on the Republican ticket. This article seeks to determine whether Mr. Knight has no beef with the way Craig McNair is doing the job as Knight has said, or whether he is open about an entirely different agenda than the incumbent.

Rather than focus on Jay Knight choosing “a conversation” with the most liberal, anti-Republican blogger in Liberty County history to try and ascertain what his candidacy adds to the voters’ choices in the 2014 county judge race, Liberty Dispatch has chosen one paragraph from what appears to be a press release rather than a conversation in reality.

Here is the sentence/evidence we will focus on today from Knight’s press release: “This lingering revenue problem didn’t occur overnight and it’s not going away overnight. You will never hear me say that I inherited this problem. What you will hear me say is: Let’s work together to fix it.”

The first thing someone reading this sentence who is trying to decide whether they should stick with incumbent County Judge Craig McNair or not, is that Knight correctly points out that the problems with the budget were there before Judge McNair was elected. That is a nice thing to admit and should make the reader want to continue reading to see why Knight is running. But the next sentence reminds us all of what we do not like about politicians. After admitting his opponent was not responsible for the problem, Knight writes that he would “never” say he “inherited the problem”. Of course what he said he would NEVER do is exactly what he did in the sentence just before his declaration. This is not clever and we may all be country folks around here but we are far from illiterate. Knight is now on record saying the problem was there before … or that the problem was inherited.

Nevertheless, after getting past a lapse in common sense and a weak effort at political spin, we are still hunting for what a Knight candidacy offers that should make conservatives vote for someone other than the first Republican county judge in a century that they just elected.  The next sentence seems to be the key to what Knight’s press release identifies as the problem with Judge McNair and what Knight would do different. Knight is saying he will “work together” or in a different place in the press release he uses the word “teamwork”.

These are the kinds of words that polled well when President Obama ran for President. The President’s experience was “community organizing” and he indicated he was an expert in bringing people together to solve problems. He said he was a uniter not a divider. He said he would do a better job of “working together” or “teamwork”.

There are some politicians who wish they were the county judge and that Craig McNair would spend a great deal of time consulting with them and what they mean by whispering he does not work with anyone is: “I want a bigger budget and he refuses to spend more money in my department.” To these people, I would sincerely hope that though they may be Knight’s key supporters, he would deny their request if he was elected.

As for working as a team, the commissioners and the county judge have talked about everything from sharing equipment to sharing ideas. Like these commissioners and this county judge or not, they are working more like a team than any group we have seen in twenty-five tears of observing.

Note: With no money to spend and already good relations between leaders, Liberty Dispatch will continue to search Knight’s press release in search of why he is running.

NBC: Yes, employers are cutting hours to avoid ObamaCare

No surprise here for Hot Air readers, but perhaps NBC News viewers experienced some shock to hear the results of the perverse incentives of the Affordable Care Act.  Long after the trends toward part-time work developed, NBC confirms that employers are indeed looking to avoid the costly mandates of ObamaCare by transforming their staffs into part-time workers:

Employers around the country, from fast-food franchises to colleges, have told NBC News that they will be cutting workers’ hours below 30 a week because they can’t afford to offer the health insurance mandated by the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

“To tell somebody that you’ve got to decrease their hours because of a law passed in Washington is very frustrating to me,” said Loren Goodridge, who owns 21 Subway franchises, including a restaurant in Kennebunk. “I know the impact I’m having on some of my employees.”

Goodridge said he’s cutting the hours of 50 workers to no more than 29 a week so he won’t trigger the provision in the new health care law that requires employers to offer coverage to employees who work 30 hours or more per week. The provision takes effect in 16 months.

Actually, the law puts it into effect in just four-plus months.  The only reason it’s 16 months is that the Obama administration insists it can just ignore statutes, even those it pushed through Congress.  The courts may have something to say about that, but either way, businesses aren’t waiting around for the enforcement effort to start.

The White House pushed back, calling NBC’s report “anecdotal”:

The White House dismisses such examples as “anecdotal.” Jason Furman, chairman of the president’s Council of Economic Advisors, said, “We are seeing no systematic evidence that the Affordable Care Act is having an adverse impact on job growth or the number of hours employees are working. … [S]ince the ACA became law, nearly 90 percent of the gain in employment has been in full-time positions.”

Since the beginning of the year, though, that number has flipped entirely.  In the first six months of the year, 97% of net job growth has come from part-time positions, according to the former head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.  That comes from businesses reacting to the approach of the mandate, whether that’s in four months or 16.  Businesses plan for jobs and costs on a year-to-year basis, so it should be no surprise that hiring in 2010 and 2011 would have disregarded the implications of the ACA.  Starting in 2012, though, businesses had to start taking the costs associated with ObamaCare more seriously, and this reaction is the rational result of those incentives.

Speaking of incentives, guess which full-time workers don’t want ObamaCare?  The same ones whose unions pushed it in 2009 and 2010:

A new survey of 2,500 federal employees and retirees found that 92.3 percent believe federal workers should keep their current health insurance and not be forced into ObamaCare.  Only 2.9 percent say they should become part of the new health insurance exchanges.

I suspect a similar percentage of private sector employees would also like to keep their coverage, but most won’t get that option.  What I’d like to know is how many of those federal employees so eager to avoid ObamaCare themselves supported forcing everyone else in it.

There’s more.  The survey, conducted byFedSmith.com, “an information portal for sources of information impacting the federal community and those interested in the Federal Government’s activities,” found that 96.1 percent think federal retirees should be able to stay with their retirement health insurance.  Only 3.9 percent think they should get “Medicare in lieu of their current option.”

To put it simply: Federal employees and retires almost unanimously prefer to stay in their generous taxpayer-funded health insurance program, known as the Federal Employees Health Benefit Plan (FEHBP), rather than being dumped into liberalism’s two greatest monuments to government-run health insurance, ObamaCare and Medicare.

Speaks volumes, doesn’t it?

It does prompt questions about who works for whom in this republic.

Man sentenced to 30 years in prison for sex assault of child

On July 31, 2013 in the 75th Judicial District Court, a Liberty County jury returned a verdict of guilty against Jimmy Don Casey, 46, to the charge of Continuous Sexual Abuse of a Young Child. After a day of extensive jury selection, the jury heard evidence presented by the state of extensive sexual abuse that Jimmy Don Casey engaged in involving a child who lived in his home. 

This abuse lasted over a decade, and the victim testified that it had been going on as long as she could remember. Another member of the home testified that she never even had suspicions that the abuse was occurring.

Trial in the guilt-innocence phase lasted a day. After receiving instructions from the Honorable Mark Morefield, and hearing the argument of counsel for the defendant, Chip Lewis, a prominent Harris County attorney, and the argument of counsel for the state, Matthew Poston, the jury retired and deliberated over four hours before returning the verdict of guilty.

During the punishment phase of the trial, numerous friends and family of the defendant testified that he is a generous and kind person. Further evidence was presented by the state that the defendant had also committed the same unspeakable acts against another child in the home.

The state argued that Casey was a great person in public but a monster in private. Casey elected the jury to decide his punishment and the jury returned a verdict of 30 years incarceration in prison after only 30 minutes of deliberation. A defendant convicted of this crime is not eligible for parole. 

In this case, there was no physical evidence presented or available, as is common in cases of this type. Furthermore, this crime was committed outside the presence of any eyewitnesses. The verdict of the jury depended solely on the credibility of the child — now adult — victim.

“We at the district attorney’s office are thankful that the jury had the courage to believe a victim who had only her own memories of these awful events to bring to the jury. It can be said that victims of these cases are dying to tell someone but scared for anyone to know,” said DA Logan Pickett. “This victim overcame her fear and told her secret to 12 strangers sitting as a jury. This verdict is a strong message that Liberty County citizens will protect their children.” 

Courtesy Cleveland Advocate

HOBBIES OF THE TWO ANNOUNCED CANDIDATES FOR COUNTY JUDGE

Despite the fact that County Judge Craig McNair has run a tight ship and used conservative principles to successfully guide Liberty County through perilous economic times that have caused other county and city governments to go bankrupt, Liberty Dispatch expects Judge McNair to have an opponent or opponents in the 2014 election. Candidates choosing to challenge the first Republican County Judge in Liberty County in over 100 years will either have to espouse a more liberal approach to government spending or have try to sell themselves to the voters as someone who can better apply conservative management skills to the job than Judge McNair. Thus far, only two candidates have announced their intention to run for county judge in 2014.

The incumbent, Craig McNair of Dayton has said he would like to serve for four more years. A challenger and fellow Dayton resident, Jay Knight has also announced his intentions to run also. Jay Knight has not been publicly critical of Judge McNair in the last three years, and has indicated he is running because he believes can do a better job. Both men claim teamwork and conservative values are the only path Liberty County can follow and grow with in the current economic environment. Both men are excited about economic development potential and the opportunities afforded by our proximity to Harris County.

Periodically Liberty Dispatch will choose a topic of interest about the candidates for county judge and try to help voters get to know the candidates better. Today’s topic concerns the way the two candidates spend their spare time.

Just like Jay Knight’s announcement that he intends to run for office, Liberty Dispatch’s information about Jay’s favorite hobby was found headlined at the local left-wing liberal blog. According to his facebook page, Jay spends a great deal of time at places like the Elks Lodge playing country western music.

Saturday night August 17th from 9pm till 1am Jay Knight, the newly announced candidate for Liberty County Judge will be at the Liberty Elks Lodge with his band Southern Breeze. Just like so many times when Jay Knight has been at the Elks Lodge over the years, he wants those who like this kind of event to “bring your dance'n shoes $15 per couple or $10 per single and BYOB. Beer, wine coolers, set ups etc. will be sold by the lodge.”

Judge Craig McNair’s spends some of his spare time flying his airplane. A hobby he has participated in for years. A hobby that has come in handy since his daughter moved to Tennessee to work toward her music career. Instead of all of the hassle and scheduling involved in flying commercially, Craig and his wife, Lisa have hopped aboard their little plane usually two or three times a year to check in on family.

Stay tuned for information on anyone else who announces for county judge’s hobbies and other related topics.

Shauberger case still being stalled...

Edward Shauberger was indicted in June of 2009 and has not been brought to trial for allegations of Grand Perjury, Filing False Government Documents and Organized Crime.

Sources close to Liberty Dispatch state that the Liberty County DA's office is stalling that case with the hopes of using Shauberger in an attempt to exact revenge upon a co-defendant.  In that regard, Liberty Dispatch is watching to see if the corrupt official acts of persons connected to and controlled by the Liberty County District Attorney's office prevail in this case.

Since June of 2009 Houston Attorney Mike Fuerst has represented Eddie Shauberger.  As evidence of the corrupt attempt by the Liberty County DA's office to exact revenge upon Shauberger's co-defendant, Shauberger's attorney is not ever present when Shauberger has docket calls in court.  When Shauberger is called before the judge, only representatives with the Liberty County DA's office stand with Shauberger. 

Liberty Dispatch believes the only real true attorney representing Shauberger is the Liberty County DA's office.  Further evidence of Shauberger being represented by the Liberty County DA's office is that Shauberger said in a recent docket call before Judge Mark Morefield, "I haven't paid my attorney anything (sic Mike Fuerst) in two years".

Shauberger has another criminal case with even more disturbing allegations.  Shauberger has been indicted this year on two counts of child sexual assault.  According to the Liberty County Grand Jury indictments, those child sexual assaults start in the 1990's through 2000's.

Liberty Dispatch and its readers have to wonder if the Liberty County DA's office is really interested in any real justice or just continuing a historical series of politically motivated attacks?

Time will tell and the future of the Liberty County DA's office is apparently in the hands of Edward Shauberger and Logan Pickett.

DEMOCRATS IN LIBERTY COUNTY BORROWED AND SPENT TO THE MAX

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The people who are the most critical of the first term Republicans, who are working to repair years of economic mistakes, are the ones who either personally dug the fiscal hole we are in or are the ones who pushed to keep them in office. Anyone who attends the county’s budget workshop can see the depth of the whole Democrats' strike we have left for taxpayers and current officials to dig out of.

While in office, Democrats regularly entered budget talks with their hand out ready to increase spending. Because they borrowed so much money in the past, current officials will have to pay off old debts before they can issue bonds...even in the event of an emergency. On top of that, Democrats, in their past practices, have committed so much money to regular expenses that present day workshop talk of raises and improvements only comes up when accompanied by talk of a cut in personnel.  The bottom line is this...Democrats created a situation that, in tandem with the circumstances created by President Obama’s policies, could trick voters into blaming the new officeholders who are working to fix things.

A great example of the political environment has to do with the new county employees' healthcare plan. Democrats (and those who do not want voters to re-elect public officials who are repairing the county’s economy) point to the current commissioners' court and brag that when Democrats were in control of county government the employees had a “Cadillac healthcare plan”. The truth of the matter is that they kind of spending done by the Democrats in the past has created a situation whereby employees had to be laid off just to pay for a "Toyota-like healthcare plan". 

Another example of results from Democrats spending which they now want to blame on the new officials is the state of equipment they left the current county employees to work with. One area in the county has two dump trucks – one with over 1 million miles on it and one with 800,000 miles on it!  All of that spending in good times and, yet, they have left taxpayers with this type of equipment to keep up the roads now that times are tough!

Todd Fontenot, Melvin Hunt, Norman Brown, Phil Fitzgerald, Tookie Kirkham and others may really believe they had magical powers when they were in office. They may really believe they knew how to run this county better than today’s officials. They may really be able to get people to remove from office the very people who have to make tough decisions in order to keep improving the county’s situation, rather than running us into bankruptcy. But, they are wrong and if we do not vote to stay the course, Liberty County could become like Detroit or California.

Liberty County voters beware! We cannot afford to listen to these people and/or their minions,nor can we afford to simply elect Republicans blindly, either. Henry Patterson’s one term disaster as Sheriff should prove that. Current Sheriff, Bobby Rader, has a budget nightmare because of some of Patterson’s decisions. The Democrats, who found other ways to spend taxpayer’s money rather than fund the necessary equipment and manpower to protect this community, damaged Patterson and the safety of Liberty County. Again, current office holders were left with no money and plenty of needs.

Current office holders are also left knowing their biggest critics and the most and active malicious whisperers are the ones who left us broke and struggling to keep our heads above water.

If confronted by those who complain about conservative leadership, please feel free to ask the question:

“Gee, I wonder how we got into this situation?”

If exposed to media that was complicit with the tax and spending, please remember to consider the source!

Contributor, Richard Pegues