I Made Mario Solis-Marich Mad at Me!

I usually ignore this guy because I find him boring, quite frankly (his favorite saying). He tries really hard to deny that he’s a big Hillary supporter, but he frames a lot of his editorial and analysis with a clear slant towards Hillary.



There’s nothing wrong with that at all. Support who ever the hell you want. But why even try to come across as impartial? Hate to break it to you buddy, but you don’t do a very good job of it and you’re pretty transparent about who you support.

But he’s been saying some things that “quite frankly” I have a hard time keeping my mouth shut about. He’s been on this kick about making Hillary the VP. Apparently even he is finally starting to realize that Hillary isn’t going to be the nominee.

“Quite frankly” it’s hard to get through to get to his show because they screen calls. I’ve heard that he doesn’t take calls anymore from a few people like Downtown Dirty Dave and others. I haven’t been able to confirm this, but “quite frankly” it wouldn’t surprise me.

So I decided to visit his blog and post

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The Many Faces of Marisa Marquez

Marisa Marquez was interviewed by Hector Montes the other day and said something that a lot of people have missed. Including, I almost missed it myself because again, I am not from Texas and don't always recognize names from other parts of the state.



Hector does a great job of asking probing questions, and asked Marisa about her relationships with other legislators. He first asked about Representative-Elect Marquez's relationship with Representative Chavez and if she's spoken with her after the election. Marquez said that Chavez was very busy with school, etc. So it sounds like she's saying that Chavez isn't accessible to her. From what I know of Chavez, I really doubt that is the case, especially for a newly-elected state legislator. Marquez owes her seat to Chavez, so I doubt Chavez is hard to reach.

But Hector also asked about who else she's been talking with and Marquez mentioned Representative Geanie Morrison. She's the Chair of the Higher Education Committee and a right-wing Republican from

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Revisiting an old post: “Because that’s what family does” – A Family’s Struggle with Crystal Meth

I did this piece when my blog was at the other site. It's the most-viewed piece I've ever done and was asked by a regular reader if I would re-post it here. Thanks for reading...

(Note to reader: This is the most personal piece I have ever done on this blog and I debated with myself on whether or not to write it. There is some strong language in this piece so please be forewarned. My intent is not to offend anyone, but I hope the telling of this story is some how helpful to anyone else who’s experienced the ravages of drugs in their lives.)

KVIA and the CW aired a program about the dangers of using crystal meth last night. Sadly I know first hand about how crystal meth can destroy a life and cause h

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Congressman Reyes Supports Emma Acosta

During an on-air interview with Paul Strelzin on the El Paso on the Move Show, Congressman Reyes mentioned his support of Emma Acosta in her bid to be the next City Representative of El Paso District 3.



Acosta received 48.5% of the vote in a crowded field of competitors and is currently in a run-off campaign against Naomi Gonzalez.

Here is the link to the previous post I did about Naomi Gonzalez and her time on KHRO 1650am.

Early voting is from May 27th to June 3rd. Election day is Saturday, remember that, it's a SATURDAY, June 7th, 2008. Remember, if you are going to the Texas Democratic Convention, make sure that you vote early!


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Texas Democratic Party Chairman Boyd Richie Endorses Obama!

The Barack Obama Campaign received yet another key endorsement, and two more Super Delegates, today from the Texas State Democratic Party Chairman Boyd Richie and his wife DNC'er Betty Richie.

Though Obama lost the popular vote state-wide in Texas he has more state delegates and thanks to a few challenges around the state, has widened his lead among state delegates.

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Breaking News Regarding El Paso Obama Delegation Challenge!!!

Remember that you heard it here first!!!



This is breaking news and still developing, but I just found out from a source in Austin that the temporary credentials committee settled the El Paso Obama delegation challenge, also known as the Don Williams challenge.

The Obama delegation from El Paso was awarded an additional 26 delegates and 26 alternates!

In addition to Don Williams there were a couple of other attorneys that played a key role in this challenge including Mike Torres and John Paladino.

John Paladino argued the challenge in front of the committee today on behalf of the El Paso Obama delegation.



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CHANGE IN LEADERSHIP NEEDED AT LOCAL WORKFORCE AGENCY

Workforce Solutions is the local agency contracted with the Texas Workforce Commission to deliver services to the El Paso community in accordance with the Workforce Investment Act. This agency has been under the leadership of Lorenzo Reyes for the last few years, first as interim CEO and then as the permanent selection for the post, at the recommendation of Mayor John Cook.

Workforce Solutions is the latest incarnation of an agency that seems to have a huge identity crisis, changing it’s name several times over the last few years. They have been known as the Upper Rio Grande Workforce System, Upper Rio Grande @ Work, Private Industry Council, and Upper Rio Grande Workforce Development Board.

Prior to being named the CEO a couple of years ago, he was the long-time Chief Financial Officer of the organization under its various names. There is a Board that is made up of individuals from the private sector, other non-profits, government agencies, and even labor. You can find a full list of the board members here (LINK TO URG WEBSITE).

Prior to Mr. Reyes’ tenure,

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Remembering Fallen Comrades

Today is Memorial Day, the day we all remember those who died to protect our freedoms. For those of us who’ve served, today is the day to remember our fallen comrades.

No politics today, because we are all Americans. It is great that we can live in the best country in the world and can enjoy the political discourse that tears lesser countries apart. True patriots remember that we can disagree with one another politically, but we remain Americans.

I don’t write very much about my service because I find it difficult to put the experience in words. Actually, I find it difficult to deal with in general, so we won’t pick at that emotional scab today.

I value all the rights and privileges guaranteed by our Constitution and it’s important that we never forget those who’ve served to protect those freedoms. Especially those who paid the last full measure of devotion.

Since I am always at a loss for words when it comes to talking about combat and fallen soldiers, I thought I’d let other people who are far better at it than I make the point.



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Hillary Strikes Again!!!

You can’t make this stuff up. The Queen of Shrill does it again. Hillary Clinton is staying the race hoping Obama gets shot.

Okay, so that’s not exactly what she said, but she might as well have! She stuck her foot in her big mouth again! The remarks were made last week during an interview while she was answering a question about why she was still in the race. She was mentioning that her husband didn’t wrap up the nomination until he won California in mid-June and then slipped in the line about Robert Kennedy being assassinated in June.

Personally, I don’t buy this line of BS that she was giving “historical reference”. Does she think we somehow forgot? I have a hard time taking ANY kind of reference from Hillary these days. After all, she’s thinks El Paso is south Texas!


Of course, she might have forgotten that when her husband was running for president, there were still relevant races going on past April (h

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Another Blunder by City Council!!!

I give credit where credit is due. So to be fair, I should give criticism where it is due too. Steve Ortega got this one wrong, but more on him later.

This one won’t get the same amount of press coverage as the Great Storm Water debacle of 2008, but it may have more ominous ramifications.

The geniuses at City Council have decided to rescind a three-year old rule banning the use of electronic communication devices during meetings. The El Paso Times did an editorial piece on the issue on Saturday.

Allowing electronic communication during a city counsel meeting opens up a world of negative possibilities. In these times of public corruption, the people who live in El Paso are understandably, and rightfully, suspicious of government. Yet another layer of secrecy does not benefit the constituency of El Paso
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Photo Blog of Smelter Cemetery

I saw a piece in Newspaper Tree awhile back about Smelter Cemetery. I wanted to share a few images of the cemetery with everyone because it really is a great story.

I first visited the cemetery back in October and it was really hard to tell it was even a cemetery. It was over-grown with tumbleweeds and so it was very surreal scene to see the occasional cross poking through the brush.

I went back for another visit last weekend and thought I'd show you the results of a lot of hard work.

The manual labor is being done by people on probation that have a requirement from the courts to do some community service. I have a friend who's on probation for a DUI and can't drive, so he gets rides from people here and there. That's how I found out about the cemetery back in October and why I haven't been back until last weekend.

The plan was to drop him off in the morning, take care of some business on the west side, and then give him ride back to the east side when he was done. I was fascinated by the cemetery and spent most of the morning there and never did get around to doing what I needed to do on the west side. I even called up another buddy, Luis, and we pitched in a little. In my

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Just Braggin'

Great week for the LionStar family. In case your wondering, the reason I go by the LionStar is because my family crest has a lion and a star on it, among other things.

My daughter earned Commendable Performance on all three parts of the TAAKS test this week!

My primo came back from Iraq in one piece, which by itself is noteworthy. But he also earned a Bronze Star for Valor! Way to go primo!

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Breaking News About Donald Williams Challenge!!!

I have inside information that I wanted to pass on to you all about the challenge by Don Williams about the allocation of at-large delegates at the El Paso County Convention.

Don Williams was contacted today by El Paso County Democratic Chair Danny Anchondo to set up a meeting with Judge Williams regarding the challenge.

The meeting is to take place Wednesday at 6:15pm at the Democratic Party Headquarters. There was no word about what exactly was to be discussed in the meeting, but the fact that a meeting is taking place at all could be a signal that the challenge may be resolved before the convention.

Word at the state Democratic Party Headquarters is that El Paso’s challenge, led by Don Williams, is the challenge with the highest priority to be resolved. The chatter is that the Williams challenge will win. This means that 18 cur

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Naomi Gonzalez on KHRO

Interesting discussion with Naomi Gonzalez this morning on KHRO. Lisa D. had her on for the hour and I was surprised at how it played out.

I called in and asked Naomi Gonzalez a couple of questions. First I asked if she was surprised at how few votes she received in the first election and then I asked what was her strategy to connect with voters since in the runoff since the vast majority of votes cast were for candidates OTHER than her.

Gonzalez said that she thinks that Emma Acosta’s near victory is going to work in her favor and that a lot of people were scared and will go out to the polls to vote against Acosta and in favor of Gonzalez.

Naomi Gonzalez also said that despite the overwhelming majority of voters in the district voted against her, she will do the exact same thing in the first election.

Let me get this straight, it didn’t work the first time, so she’s going to stick with the same plan again hoping it will work the second time? Uhhhh, I don’t think that’s the best move.
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High Gas Prices and Alternative Fuels

Gas prices are still high and will only go higher over the summer. Twenty dollars is the new five bucks worth of gas. The move to ethanol to alleviate the problem of high fuel prices has caused a rise in the price of corn and food. But gas prices keep rising. Clearly there is a need to keep looking for other alternative fuel sources and reexamine the feasibility of ethanol.

Here’s what needs to happen. We need strong leadership like in the 1960’s when President Kennedy issued a national challenge to put a man on the moon before the end of the decade. Wee need a similar type of vision and commitment to get us through this crisis and revolutionize our fuel sources and the way we use them.

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This Week's Podcast!

Here is this week's podcast.

We cover Hillary Clinton's exit from the race and the fractured state of the local El Paso Democratic Party.

Remember, please allow a couple of minutes for the player to appear in the post.

Enjoy!

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Bush is a Bigger Idiot than I Thought!!!

Okay, there aren’t many people left in the country that think George Bush, the great “decider”, is a genius. But his recent remarks to the Israeli legislature are stupid, even for Bush. As most of you already know, George Bush decided he was going to make a remark about Obama and characterize him as a pacifier without mentioning him by name.

I think it’s a Bush league (pun intended) move to evoke the name of Hitler in Israel in an effort to disparage the Democratic Party front-runner. It is unprecedented for a President to interject in the race in this manner, especially overseas.

The irony of his statements is that he is trying to paint Obama as some sort of appeaser because Obama believes in diplomacy.

This is coming from a President that negotiated with NORTH KOREA and

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Obama & The Flag Pin

Okay, this might be the stupidest thing a Presidential candidate has ever had to defend, but it just won’t go away. The fact that Obama does, or does not, wear a flag pin has no bearing on his patriotism. Even here in El Paso, a military town, I rarely see people with an American flag pin.

Aside from that, who the hell cares? Wearing a stupid pin doesn’t make you a patriot.

I did my part for God and Country by serving in the United States Army. I love my country dearly because it is the greatest country on Earth. I am one of those guys who gets a lump in his throat when he hears Ray Charles play America the Beautiful. I ALWAYS stand for the national anthem, even at home before a big fight or a ball game, even if I am alone.

Did I mention I was born o

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Somebody Ticket This Cop!!!

Man, you can’t make this stuff up! Once again on Friday, this time at 10:45, I was traveling on Tierra Este (northbound this time) between Edgemere and Montana. Once again, a Sheriff’s Deputy came flying past me!

S/He was hauling ass! Once again, with no emergency lights or siren.

There were two young teenagers that were running northbound on Tierra Este and I noticed them first. I noticed them only because I saw movement and by the time I did notice them, I was only about twenty yards behind them. Just then, the speeding Sheriff blew by me. If I only saw them at the last minute going the speed limit, I KNOW that Sheriff didn’t see them at all.

The teenagers were in no danger of being hit, unless the Sheriff suddenly veered to the other side of the street, say to avoid hitting a stray animal that suddenly darts out.

This time I decided to follow the Sheriff to see where the fire was. The vehicle turned right onto

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Who Gives the Cops Traffic Tickets?

Law enforcement does a lot for the community and should be revered. But we’ve all seen it. The occasional cop who puts on his lights just to get through the traffic light, or speeds down the road for now particular reason.

Friday night, at about 9:06 pm, I was traveling southbound in my neighborhood, on Tierra Este. Traveling north bound were two vehicles. One was a pick-up truck and the other was an El Paso County Sheriff’s vehicle traveling at about 60 mph. It’s a dark stretch of road between Edgemere and Montana on Tierra Este with low visibility and the Sheriff’s vehicle was traveling at an unsafe speed without any police emergency lights on.

If someone was crossing the street or if a vehicle had pulled out, there would have been a tragedy, probably a bloody one. The area I am talking about is only a few hundred feet from the Sheriff’s station on Montana. If the officer was responding to a call, why didn’t they have their siren or at least their flashing lights on wh

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TheLionStarBlog.com Podcast!!!

We are excited to be the first blog in El Paso (that we know of) to release a podcast with out blog. This is the first of many, hope you enjoy. PLEASE ALLOW ABOUT 1 MINUTE FOR THE PLAYER TO APPEAR.

Note to Readers/Listeners: Due to the technical problems we were experiencing and due to time constraints, the podcast only has the Miley Cyrus topic and the others will be part of a future podcast. Enjoy and please feel free to provide feedback!

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Another Thousand Words..

Not sure if you all 'memmer a feature on the old blog site about Freeway Carpets and their bill boards but I used to post some of their bill boards on the blog.

Here is one from earlier this year. I have been holding on to it because it was a little strong, but since the Democratic primary is all but over, I figure its okay to post it now.

Keep in mind, I only took the picture and don't know the owners there.



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Burn!!!

I thought this guy was just another pan handler until I read his sign more closely. I happen to know the owner of D & D Professional Services.

I made a U-turn and gave the guy a ten.

Talk about holding someone accountable!!!!

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Out-of-Control Gas Prices!!!

Man, gas is getting out of control! I don’t know how much longer Americans can take these gas prices. I am cutting way back on a lot of stuff, but we need relief soon!

And a BS gas tax break ain’t gonna cut it people. We need a real solution…fast! I think I’ll post the prices of gas where I fill up at over the summer so that later in the summer we can go back to this posting and remember the good ole’ days of prices like this!

Follow-up to Conversation with Paul Strelzin regarding Marisa Marquez

I had a conversation with Paul Strelzin on the El Paso on the Move radio show this morning regarding my previous post about Marisa Marquez and the postings on the El Paso Times forum. Paul was critical about the fact that I didn’t verify that it was Marquez before I posted the blog piece.

In fairness to me, let me explain to you readers that there is only one way to verify someone’s identity posted on a message board. I would have to have Administrator credentials to find her IP address. Even then, that would only get me verification that it was done on a computer that she used. Doesn’t even guarantee that she personally wrote the posting.

But I did wait a few days before I wrote about it in case it wasn’t her and someone reported abuse on the message board. That did not take place, so I posted a link to it. People can make up their own minds about what’s written there.

The larger point is that public figures shouldn’t be naïve about the internet. Especially elected officials that we

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Marisa Marquez Makes Racial Comments? / Political Realignment

I supported Marissa Marquez because I wanted to see a change in District 77. But some things have happened over the last couple of days that are worrying me about her (already).

I came across this exchange involving Marisa Marquez, State Representative-Elect in District 77, on an El Paso Times forum (http://www.topix.net/forum/source/el-paso-times/T5LLCN2D3KBK77Q8S). She was discussing the state of the presidential race on the Democratic side of the ticket. I found this comment particularly interesting:

“A black man will never be president of the United States (sic) at least in our life time. He must (sic) as well concede to McCain. Give it up to four more years of Republican rule.

Marisa Marquez
State
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