MCCARTY: GOOD NEIGHBOR, GREAT COMMISSIONER

At first those reading the local paper may have gotten a false impression if they read the headline about recently retired Liberty city councilman Mike McCarty’s neighborhood. Casual readers who just browse the headlines or the first couple of paragraphs of a story may have missed a really good example of how to try and be a good neighbor.

The story covers the public interaction that occurred between Mike McCarty and two people who live in the Forest Hill Subdivision that is adjacent to what has been pastureland since before any of us were born. Readers can surmise that the drama that takes place appears as a news story because Mike McCarty is a very determined and very popular candidate for Commissioner precinct #1 as his second bid to defeat Democrat incumbent Todd Fontenot has a very real chance of continuing to tip the balance of that court towards conservative leadership and away from the good ole boy system that has run the court for decades.

While the headline to the story appears negative, further examination gives readers a hint of the Mike McCarty most of us know. Mike is a nice guy and a problem solver, along with someone who is very community-minded. This story has some of the facts in it that reveal those aspects of his personality.

For those of you who haven’t lived here forever, the Forest Hills subdivision was built years ago and when it was built there was a pasture right next door. The pasture had cattle. Since those days that land and a new herd of cattle are owned by Mike McCarty. Over the years the cattle are often run out of the low lying areas by floods and when it is wet like that the cows congregate closer to the fences adjacent to backyards of Forest Hill homes.

So when some in the neighborhood are concerned about the flies and the smells and the dog barking from the McCarty farm, what would you say a good neighbor should do? As was implied earlier, the headline of the story in the paper may smell bad, but Mike McCarty is a good neighbor and a problem solver who cares about people. He didn’t simply say his land has been a cow pasture as far back as anyone remembers. He didn’t simply say every time the police have come to listen to complaints about dogs in Forest Hills, they have heard nothing from his canine.

No. Mike told looked the people who had concerns right in the eye and told them although he had never heard from any of them, he had recently administered all of the current products and technology to resolve the issues he had heard people were having. He put out product that would not only stop the propagation of flies, but because of his efforts there should be fewer flies. He put out a product cattlemen are using to make the odor of their pastures more pleasant. He incorporated his knowledge of how the oilfield muffles loud engine sounds and put up a long muffling fence between the dogs and the neighborhood. What a great guy! He spent thousands of dollars before anyone said a word to him.

Most of us have had neighbors that would have done nothing. Or if they had spent all of this money and then were confronted in public, they would have been uncooperative. But Mike listened to the problems and committed to adding more fence to muffle any dog sounds that neighbors were hearing (even if police were on record more than once saying there is no dog barking). And he has some other ideas of how to try and improve the community.

Notice please that Mike McCarty was proactive from the start. Then notice please, he also responded with great concern and kindness when people spoke with him in person.
In many ways, the paper’s account of this is not a news story. But if it is a news story because Mike McCarty is running for Commissioner then an analysis of all of the facts should lead readers to be more likely to vote for him after they read the entire story.

If reporting the incident in such a public way was meant to be anything negative, it backfired!

HENRY PATTERSON’S HIRING PROBLEM

There is a reason for the interview process when hiring someone. Forgiveness and allowing people to start with a clean slate has its place but it also has it limits. Because we have reported that Sheriff Patterson has a pattern of hiring troubled former Harris County, Liberty Dispatch thought it would be interesting to expose our readers to reading one of the worst results of that kind of hiring in law enforcement history. This part of history informs us about perhaps the most famous case indicating what is dangerous about helping troubled law enforcement officials wipe their slate clean and pin their badge back on and holster their gun to jump back into the profession they have already shown they have trouble doing without problems.

John Parker is the man who should have been sitting in front of the door leading to Abraham Lincoln as he watched the play at Ford’s theater on April 14, 1865. He wasn’t there. The pathway for John Wilkes Booth to murder the sixteenth President of the United States was unencumbered. Parker was drinking in the saloon next door waiting for the end of the play to escort Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln to their carriage to go back to the White House. Parker’s drinking next door and his prior behavior should have surprised no one who knew his track record.

Parker had a long record of mess ups in his years of service before the Lincoln assassinations. In fact he had a dismal record before he was put on trial for being drunk and disorderly at a house of prostitution. But just like his ability to overcome the testimony of witnesses saying the married father of three had spent five weeks living in that whorehouse, Parker was always able to use the reluctance of people to reprimand a hard working law enforcement officer over and over again to keep his record clean. He appeared before the police board again just two weeks later for sleeping on duty. And he appeared before them again just ninety days later for cursing at a private citizen – but nothing stuck.

Parker put his name in the pool to become one of the new people who looked out for President Lincoln and none of this was factored in when choosing the people who would protect a the most threatened President in American history. Even after he got the job when Parker continued to show up late for duty, the people in charge did nothing to him. He was several hours late to relieve the officer on duty before him on the day Lincoln was assassinated.

Why was he hired? Why wasn’t he fired rather than given one of the best jobs in law enforcement? I don’t know. Perhaps because John Parker was one of the first 150 policemen hired to serve in the new Washington D.C. Metropolitan Police Force, his indiscretions were overlooked one at a time and no one knew the cumulative record of his incompetence. But even after his slothfulness and lack of sense of duty was on display for all to see, even when Lincoln no longer was alive to fulfill his duty, John Parker kept his job.

Liberty Dispatch has added our concerns to similar concerns set forth by people in this community. But our concerns have not slowed down Patterson nor have they kept certain individuals from running for office or serving in our local justice system. This community has made some great progress the last two elections, but the audacity of some among us leaves voters with important work ahead.

Stay tuned as we try to give the voters the same kind of information those who hired John Parker had and ignored.

Dear Liberty Dispatch

A few weeks ago the blog that follows wreckers around and post the pictures of the latest car crash complained about Sheriff Patterson and the press releases coming out of his department. That blog seemed to indicate some of the meth bust were possibly made up. At the time I read it I thought maybe it was just more Republican hating by a blog that clearly loves liberal Democrats.

But now that we have all of these different marijuana bust where there seems to be no people arrested, I am becoming suspicious. Remember the one where seeds were found and unnamed citizens led officials to them. Or the two large fields where pot was grown and one of them never had an arrest connected with it and the other one only had someone arrested when Liberty Dispatch kept the spotlight on the sheriff’s “arresting pot plants”.

But then just as I think Sheriff Patterson and Rex Evans wouldn’t dare abuse press releases this way that man in Plum Grove went missing Thursday morning a week ago. That one incident has generated a sensational story a day with the Sheriff switching tactics with the weather and all kinds of other factors. I have never seen such a bombastic series of news releases. It looks like the Sheriff either does not have proper training of how to handle this kind of situation or, just as the blog said, he is using the media to keep his name constantly in front of voters.

Shame on Sheriff Patterson for doing this. His deputies are doing plenty of good work in the county and if he wants to release newsworthy real stuff, give them their due. We do not need him and Rex Evans trying to play Superman at election time. This missing man and every other real tragic event deserve the dignity involved in such heart wrenching conditions. They should not be used as a pawn for a sheriff’s re-election.

Ballot Positions- 2012 Liberty County Republican Primary Race

LIBERTY COUNTY RACES:

TAX ASSESSOR-COLLECTOR
1. BROWN, Richard
2. GLENN, Debra

COUNTY ATTORNEY
1. HINCH, Wesley
2. FARMER, James

DISTRICT ATTORNEY
1. McNAIR, Karen
2. PICKETT, Logan

SHERIFF
1. RADER, Bobby
2. PATTERSON, Henry
3. COX, Will

COMMISSIONER, PRECINCT 1
1. ORESCHNIGG, Hebert
2. McCARTY, Mike

COMMISSIONER, PRECINCT 3
1. LOWERY, Eddie G.
2. WHITMIRE, David S.
3. WARD, Chance

CONSTABLE, PRECINCT 1
1. ALLISON, Tim
2. BOWDOIN, A. W.

CONSTABLE, PRECINCT 2
1. ALFARRO, Juan

CONSTABLE, PRECINCT 3
1. KOEN, Tommy
2. ELLIOTT, Darrell
3. FRANKUM, Danny

CONSTABLE, PRECINCT 4
1. HANEL, Leroy
2. PAFFORD, Chad
3. THORNTON, JR., Robert “Robby” Earl

CONSTABLE, PRECINCT 5
1. DESPAIN, L. W.

CONSTABLE, PRECINCT 6
1. McQUEEN, James
2. JOSLIN, John

JUSTICE OF THE PEACE, PRECINCT 1 (UNEXPIRED TERM)
1. DIAZ, Darla
2. WILSON, John Wayne
3. SIMONSON, Libby
4. WAGNON, Lawrence Wilson
5. HEBERT, Stephen
6. HOUSE, Roy

LITTLE CORRECTS PICKETT- CHILDREN WILL BE DEFENDED

When readers first heard that eight out of the eleven small children found in the infamous house in Dayton were locked in a room with some tied to tiny beds in a ten foot by ten foot room and that has no electric lights and the window is boarded up from the inside, many may have wanted to be on the jury when justice is pursued. But then readers were shocked to read in The Chronicle that Liberty County’s youngest Assistant District Attorney, Logan Pickett “Found insufficient evidence to pursue any criminal charges”.

Whoa! Four of the eight children in that room, including a “5-year-old legally blind girl found on a filthy mattress”, were tied with some kind of restraining strap around their chests to their small beds AND PICKETT SAYS THERE IS INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE! Add to that information that one of the older children said they were kept up in the room for up to three days and one day they had no food.

What the heck is going on here. Attached to this story are news links that show this story gets worse and worse the more readers get to find out what Logan Pickett and law enforcement found in the house on Ford Avenue in Dayton Texas. Leaving readers, and probably law enforcement, baffled by Pickett saying he did not intend on pursuing this case.

But those who have followed this District Attorney’s office know that Logan Pickett has a great deal less experience than anyone else in that office and there is a good chance he just passed along the wrong message. Or because Pickett has had a front row seat to witness a troubling pattern of selective prosecution, perhaps he was mimicking what he has seen during his young and brief career. Either way, his boss came in and overruled him.

District Attorney Mike Little has now gone on record saying that his office will present their findings to a grand jury. Now we are all left hoping no one in the D.A.’s office will help present this case to the grand jury that feels there is “insufficient evidence”.

WORKING AROUND THE LAST OF THE GOOD OLE BOY SYSTEM

“I fail to comprehend why it is taking so long to review this contract”- Commissioner Todd Fontenot said as he patted himself on the back about having offered to help assist and expedite a process he is totally outside the loop on.

It seems Mr. Fontenot places a great deal more value on the speed it takes to work out a deal than the quality and the effect any deal may have for the citizens of Liberty County. Sadly, Mr. Fontenot appears to be far more frustrated about evaluating different options Liberty County has about what to do about the county jail than he has been with all of the lawsuits, escapes, and personnel problems CEC has had since he and a commissioner court made up of all Democrats voted years ago to give them over $3 million a year.

Contrary to Mr. Fontenot’s histrionics in commissioner court the last week, there has been no one particularly interested in any cost/benefit analysis concerning the huge expense taxpayers are burdened with in this area. It is election time and Mr. Fontenot has watched as one of his political buddies after another has been totally rejected by local voters and that seems to have caused an epiphany about what needs to be done. What Mr. Fontenot believes he needs to do right here at election time is to talk like a conservative.

Unfortunately for him, Mr. Fontenot’s past performance and his association and participation in the dwindling and now toothless “good ole boy system” doesn’t appear to have left him with enough credibility to be seen as anything but an enemy to the taxpayers and a pariah in a process like this one. Liberty Dispatch believes officials wanting to avoid booby traps in the information gathering stage of the process of analyzing Liberty County’s best option concerning the jails, would avoid sharing their thoughts with Mr. Fontenot – and avoid sharing with former commissioner court advocates for CEC like those so badly defeated in the last election (Lee Groce and Phil Fitzgerald) and Lloyd “Tookie” Kirkham. Their political posturing and influence peddling never has helped on this matter in the past and it is not likely to be helpful now. Their list of priorities do not always have the Liberty County taxpayers at the top of the list.

Several weeks ago Liberty Dispatch’s investigation of who has shown an interest in a sincere evaluation of what is best for the taxpayers of this county concerning the jails revealed that Mr. Fontenot has not asked for any cost benefit/analysis or feasibility study from Liberty County Auditor Harold Seay. And he has asked for no raw data to review independently. That information is readily available to him – and the general public for that matter. Instead, Mr. Fontenot has only spent time criticizing the only real conservative County Judge we have had in the history of Liberty County. He can only squeal he doesn’t like the pace at which County Judge McNair is doing what he and the Democrats should have done before we were in a budget crisis.

Mr. Fontenot, in all his vainglory, has made a point to let everyone at commissioners’ court and the media know that while his colleagues had not read the bids, he had read them the day before and he is ready to hear the result of Judge McNair’s research. But while there may be no one that questions Mr. Fontenot’s eagerness to influence this decision, the fact Mr. Fontenot has for over a decade been easily satisfied with the status quo makes him the last person that should offer public criticism. He seems to think voters will forget that he and his cronies have for years felt this issue required no further study. The timing of Judge McNair’s decisions on this matter has not cost the county a dime. In fact, the way he has handled this has caused the public to pay more attention and could have created a situation which causes Democrat officials and both companies bidding to put their best foot forward. Simply said, in only his second year as County Judge, looks like he has forced Mr. Fontenot to at a minimum talk like a businessman that is looking out for the community, instead of an expert in brinkmanship who sits back and smugly proclaims, “You boys are wasting your time thinking about changing what we have done for years.”

Politicians who rise to speak in public and pontificate and project the appearance of a great problem solver- those politicians need to be mindful that voters in these tough economic times are voting out incumbents who have allowed these types of problems to fester. Taxpayers have also grown increasingly aware that friendships and personal relationships can develop around large multimillion dollar contracts and way too often they are more beneficial for the politicians making the deal than those of us who are paying it.

Mr. Fontenot can put on his suit and tie and clear his throat to object to things like spending $2000 to hire outside counsel all he wants. Like an actor in a play he can play the role of a responsible conservative representative “of the people”, but he has a record and it contradicts even an academy award winning performance that his friends in the local media may try to help perpetuate. Reality tells us he has risen and spoken on many other issues. Those who watch politics and this commissioners’ court have seen his behavior in non-election years. And the speeches and decisions he has made over the years not only reveal his contentment with CEC and lack of interest in reviewing this issue, they also reveal that he could be the politician featured on a poster for the “tax and spend” and “borrow and spend more” mentality that has caused Liberty County’s current budget crisis.

Voters have to go no further back in their memory to check out Mr. Fontenot’s “conservatism and his responsible decision-making” than just a few months ago when in the midst of a budget shortfall, he repeatedly pushed the county to build him an unprecedented second precinct barn. He uses the same tactics when trying to have taxpayers pay for a second location and a second barn. He indignantly proclaims "It will save money"... He conveniently leaves out the warning he was given ten years ago that his re-redistricting ideas would spread his precinct out and cause the problems he now has to solve.

Mr. Fontenot’s inability to resist making decisions that have piled up the consequences of years and years of his reckless borrowing and spending would make any wise negotiator want to minimize the damage he could do. Once again, we applaud Judge McNair and his efforts to get the best deal he can get for this community. If Mr. Fontenot feels like he is out of the loop, perhaps he should prepare to feel how far out of the loop us taxpayers have felt through the years when he and his buddies were unstoppable in their good ole boy “you scratch my back and I will scratch yours” games with the county’s assets. Maybe he needs to prepare to go back to finding a non-reserved parking space at the courthouse. Maybe he needs to prepare, for the final swoosh of the broom that cleans out his kind of Gestapo politics in our courthouse.

Fontenot, you are almost a distant memory in Liberty County history, a bad memory.

Writer's Note:

Again, Liberty Dispatch contributors and Liberty Dispatch's supporters would like to thank Liberty County Judge Craig McNair for his stellar leadership and conservative platform implementation in Liberty County.

IN THE ABSENCE OF A SHERIFF

Thank God Liberty County is a rural county full of self reliant, second amendment, look-you-in-the-eye, patriots because in the absence of a leader in the sheriff’s office, landowners and next door neighbors are proving to be the best warriors against drugs Liberty County has.

A few weeks ago, a local blogger complained about the truthfulness of press releases coming out of Henry Patterson’s office. But it is time to just ignore what Sheriff Patterson’s re-election machine may or may not do with drug busts and start patrolling our communities and turning crop growers into the rest of the hard working men and women down at the Liberty County Sheriff’s Office and help stamp this cancer in our community out. Between now and Election Day it is obvious Patterson is going to try and appear to have finally hit his stride. People that don’t know what a do-nothing he has been the rest of the time he has been in office might be fooled, but hopefully his efforts to appear to be some great crime fighter while he hides behind his spokespeople will be seen for what it is- a joke.

It could have been de ja vu. Saturday around noon, the owner of a property on CR 2134 in the Romayor area of north Liberty County called law enforcement and told them it looked like they had found a marijuana growing operation in its early stages.

Liberty Dispatch had hoped the Sheriff’s campaign team wouldn’t run out from the heavily wooded area where the operation was discovered and start trying to roll up enough stories to change his image as some great warrior against drugs - although, that is exactly what they did just a few months ago when another private citizen led the LCSO to much larger fields of marijuana.

Perhaps, Patterson, his spokesman Rex Evans, and his campaign team has learned that private citizens deserve the kudos given in cases like these, not law enforcement. Last time Patterson and his re-election gurus immediately took credit for the largest drug busts in county history. Then when it was pointed out no arrests were made during their entire chest beating celebratory rhetoric, Patterson and company turned full circle and said that the Sheriff was just a small part of a larger operation that included the feds, etc. And then, as we have cataloged, Patterson turned full circle again when eventually someone was arrested and again Patterson was declared a conquering hero – nothing much was ever made of the citizen who was responsible for 99% of the case.

So here we go again. Locks on the gates leading to the property had been cut and placed in such a way as to make the gates appear secure to any passerby, but private citizens saw they were cut and decided it was suspicious enough to warrant them looking into the woods further. They found a seed-starter tray holding approximately 100 tiny budding marijuana plants. None of the plants appeared to have been planted in the ground. Scattered around the site were bags of fertilizer, rapid-grow chemicals, clothing, shoes, camping supplies and personal items.

Thus far, none of the items so far have led law enforcement to the identity of the marijuana grower. Liberty Dispatch has a pro law enforcement, conservative point of view and applauds all efforts by those who follow-up on this crime scene and try to arrest those who would sacrifice the health and well being of this nation by selling harmful drugs so they can very selfishly make a profit. But we also believe that a candidate for sheriff or anyone else, who steals “pats on the back” and public kudos from brave patriotic citizens who risk getting involved by reporting what they know, is just plain unacceptable. Not quite as bad, but still unacceptable – this sheriff needs to tell his spokespeople not to jump in front of the media and try and take credit for the follow-up work done on this case.

Here is a novel idea for Sheriff Patterson. Make sure the person who does the work gets the credit.

REST IN PEACE ANDREW

"I do what I do because the mainstream media chooses not to do it," Andrew Breitbart said. "The game of the left controlling the narrative ... is ending."

Our hats are off to Andrew this week at Liberty Dispatch as we celebrate the life of a man whose flare for battle with politicians and the media made him a warrior for truth. Andrew died Thursday. The websites he founded ran a statement Thursday morning announcing that at age 43, he died "unexpectedly from natural causes" in Los Angeles shortly after midnight.

"We have lost a husband, a father, a son, a brother, a dear friend, a patriot and a happy warrior," the statement said. "Andrew lived boldly, so that we more timid souls would dare to live freely and fully, and fight for the fragile liberty he showed us how to love."

Here is the concluding passage from Andrew’s book, Righteous Indignation and a great perspective from someone who chose to take full advantage of freedom and to speak up without counting the cost:

"I love my job. I love fighting for what I believe in. I love having fun while doing it. I love reporting stories that the Complex refuses to report. I love fighting back, I love finding allies, and -- famously -- I enjoy making enemies. Three years ago, I was mostly a behind-the-scenes guy who linked to stuff on a very popular website. I always wondered what it would be like to enter the public realm to fight for what I believe in. I've lost friends, perhaps dozens. But I've gained hundreds, thousands -- who knows? -- of allies. At the end of the day, I can look at myself in the mirror, and I sleep very well at night.”

Andrew Breitbart is gone from this earth, but no one can say he was unnoticed while he was here – no one can say he did not fight against the things he considered harmful to this great country. No one can say they did not know what he stood for. He was a modern day Samuel Adams. We salute you sir, RIP.

2012 Texas Primary Election Court Ruling

The judges in San Antonio have come down with a ruling as regards the 2012 Texas election primary time lines.

It has been made final- the Texas primary election will be held May 29th.  The last day and time for candidates to sign-up will be Friday, March 9th and 6:00pm.

PORN IN THE COUNTY JAIL

Liberty County Sheriff Henry Patterson may be under the mistaken impression that ballots will be passed out in the county jail and he can hope to get the inmate vote in the Republican primary in May.

Patterson’s struggling bid for re-election just hit another major impasse as a widely reported story about Liberty County Jail inmates viewing pornography on the county jail’s community room television for two months is informing the public of yet another of Patterson’s problems. The Community Education Center, or CEC, and a close friend of Patterson’s, runs the day to day operations of the jail and that contract with the county is currently up for reconsideration by the commissioner’s court. Some have suggested that the county reclaim control of the jail. With Sheriff Patterson already overseeing the jail, news of more problems may detour any efforts to get away from hiring outside management unless one of Patterson’s opponents is considered in the decision making formula.

Patterson has expressed no interests in expanding his control and influence so he can have better oversight. And he has not been critical of the current management. On the other hand, Bobby Rader, Patterson’s chief opponent, is the only candidate to have asked to see the figures so he could analyze the feasibility of taking the jail back under the day to day management of the sheriff.

No explanation of why inmates possibly watched two months of porn on cable courtesy of Liberty County taxpayers. One would think the inmates were being more closely monitored and that Patterson would not allow something like this to go on for so long. If nothing else, the televisions could have been unplugged until the cable company blocked the porn channel. But who knows, maybe Patterson is hoping to get the orange jumpsuit vote.