Port Aransas South Jetty (Port Aransas, Tex.), Vol. 42, No. 52, Ed. 1 Thursday, December 26, 2013 Page: 3 of 28
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Co-Publishers
Mary Henkel Judson
& Murray Judson
Editor
Marv Henkel Judson_
Port Aransas South Jetty
Opinion
Member
Texas Press Association
South Texas Press Association
Texas Gulf Coast Press Association
National Newspaper Association
Thursday, December 26, 2013 3 A
EELY
Dems get first
state elected
official in decade
It’s a
Christmas gift
of sorts, but
Texas Dem-
ocrats just
gained their
first statewide
elected official in well over a decade.
However, it took Republicans to elect him
in the first place.
Court of Criminal Appeals Justice
Lawrence “Larry” Meyers has filed as a
Democrat for Place 6 on the Texas Supreme
Court, currently held by Republican Jeff
Brown.
Gov. Rick Perry appointed Brown to
the high court in September. That filled
the vacancy created when Perry appointed
longtime Associate Justice Nathan Hecht to
replace Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson, who
retired to return to private law practice.
Meyers, 66, has been a Republican judge
for almost 30 years. In fact, Meyers, of Fort
Worth, was the first Republican elected to
the criminal appeals court in modern times.
He had previously served on the states 2nd
Court of Appeals.
Meyers won the criminal appeals post
in 1992. He narrowly beat Democratic
incumbent Pete Benavides, who had been
appointed to a court vacancy by then-Gov.
Ann Richards.
(Things turned out OK for Benavides.
Then-President Bill Clinton shortly later ap-
pointed him to the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court
of Appeals.)
Meyers’ switch to the Democrats is a new
thing, against the backdrop of the last two
decades of Republican domination.
Meyers in 1992 became the first Repub-
lican elected to the criminal appeals court,
and has been steadily re-elected. He won his
fourth six-year term in 2010.
In July of 2011, with re-election to his
seat on the court not up until 2016, Meyers
announced he would run against the court>s
presiding judge Sharon Keller in the 2012
GOP primary.
It was Keller’s first election since she
was criticized in 2007 for declining to keep
the court open past 5 p.m. for a last-min-
ute death penalty appeal. The would-be
appellant, Michael Richard, was executed
later that night, for the rape and slaying of a
Houston-area nurse.
Keller was issued a reprimand by the
states Commission on Judicial Conduct, but
a court overturned that finding.
Meanwhile, Meyer ran into problems
with his financial reports that indicated he
had spent campaign funds for property tax-
es on his Austin home. That’s a no-no under
state campaign finance laws.
Meyers said he did not intentionally
violate the law with his expenditure, but
“maybe I mislabeled it.” He said he would
amend the report and re-file it.
Nonetheless, by the time the filing dead-
line passed in 2012, Meyers had decided to
abandon his challenge to Keller.
Although there have been several party
switches from Democrat to Republican over
the last three decades, Meyers is probably
the most high-profile switch from R to D
for a statewide official or legislator since
then-state Rep. Bernard Erickson of Cle-
burne did so on the last day of 1993.
Erickson’s purpose was to avoid a Re-
publican primary challenge. But after the
switch, he lost the election to Republican
Arlene Wohlgemuth of Burleson, by 56
votes. She held the seat for 10 years before
narrowly losing a 2006 effort to unseat
Democratic U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards.
Meyers said in October of 2011, while
he was running against Keller, that he was
approached by Democrats, including then-
state party chairman Boyd Richie and Aus-
tin attorney Keith Hampton, about running
against Keller as a Democrat.
Meyers said he was “flattered” by the
request, but would stay a Republican.
“They were very nice, but I was elected
as a Republican, and I’m going to stay a
Republican,” Meyers said at the time. “I
want to effect the change I’m seeking in the
judicial process through the Republican
Party.”
Looks like that has changed. Now Meyers
will try to make those changes, as a Demo-
crat on a civil rather than criminal court.
There seems to be new energy in the
Democratic Party, behind the candidacies
of Wendy Davis for governor, Leticia Van de
Putte for lieutenant governor, Sam Houston
for attorney general, and Mike Collier for
Comptroller.
Meyers’ switch may help test whether
Democrats have any traction in the less visi-
ble judicial races farther down the ballot.
Some Republicans think Meyers is setting
himself up for failure on a fool’s mission.
“He won’t win as a Democrat, and if he
tries to run for his seat, he won’t win that,
either,” former Tarrant County Republican
Party chairman Steve Hollern told the Fort
Worth Star-Telegram.
“It’s kind of puzzling,” said Hollern, who
has known Meyers for years. “He some-
times walks off the beaten path.”
*******
Background: Meyers - bachelor’s, South-
ern Methodist University; law, University of
Kansas School of Law. Fort Worth munici-
pal judge. Visiting professor at Texas Chris-
tian University. 2nd Court of Appeals.
Brown - Bachelor’s, University of Texas
at Austin; law, University of Houston.
Briefing clerk for supreme court justices
Democrat Jack Hightower, Republican
Greg Abbott. State district judge; 14th
Court of Appeals.
Contact McNeely at davemcneelyl 11@
gmail.com or (512)458-2963.
CREATORS SYNOIC/
© Z. ° °—
THAT DUCK DYNASTY
GUY HAS DRAWN THE
MEDIA'S FIRE AWAY
PHIL
ROBERTSON
_is My
sr
Swamped by junk mail
I don’t
know if I
should be
relieved or
offended to
be off “the
list.”
“The list” is of email recipients who are, on
a daily and sometimes several times daily ba-
sis, extended offers for medications that will
enlarge - or improve my experience with
- body parts I do not own. I’m sure some of
the recipients do own those body parts. I’m
just not one of them.
For some time now, instead of going to my
“in” box, the offers have been re-routed to
my “junk mail” box. That was after months
(and months and months) of marking the
offers as “junk.” Once they got that message,
the offers kept coming, but I didn’t have
them staring me in the face when I opened
my email.
I’ve gotten in the habit of checking my
junk mail box (rapidly) because occasion-
ally real mail gets shipped in that direction.
That’s why I knew I was still getting the
offers.
Recently, however, the number of offers
has dropped to about once, maybe twice, a
day.
I suppose because I’m a member of “the
media” I get more than the average number
of emails, and it eats up time I don’t have
to sort through offers to alter body parts of
which I am not in possession, promos for
columns on such relevant topics as “How
to Keep Driveways Free of Snow” or news
releases from the White House written in
Spanish.
Remember when we complained about
the “junk mail” that filled our post office
boxes? Now the post office has a big recycle
container where you can drop your junk
mail as you walk out the door.
I used to say that if I had a penny - just a
penny - for every piece of junk mail I got, I’d
be a rich woman. And I would have been.
Now I can say that about junk email and
be pretty darn wealthy.
So when clerks ask for my email when I
check out, I politely decline.
“You won’t get our coupons,” they caution
me.
That’s just fine. Those coupons aren’t
worth enough to compensate for the time
it takes to wade through emails from every
store I’ve ever shopped (or not shopped) in
for the rest of my life.
Mary Henkel Judson is editor and co-pub-
lisher of the South Jetty. Contact her at south-
jetty@centurytel.net, (361) 749-5131 orP.O.
Box 1117, Port Aransas, TX 78373.
Letters to
Love abounds
It is so heartwarming to see all those who
asked for an ornament on the City of Port
Aransas Parks and Recreation America
Honors and Remembers tree in the 2013
Enchanted Holiday Forest.
The tree helps us honor and remember
our loved ones who have served or are serv-
ing in our armed forces. We certainly would
not be able to live the life we live without the
sacrifice of so many. This is the third year the
Port Aransas Parks and Recreation Depart-
ment has put up the tree, and we continue to
add more ornaments each year.
Just as uplifting is a new tree parks and
recreation added this year ~ the Act of
Kindness tree. It was raised during the
Christmas Tree Lighting, where many took
an ornament. Each ornament had a random
act printed on it for the taker to perform. It
was replenished and erected in the Enchant-
ed Holiday Forest, where even more people
took ornaments.
Lots of love and kindness abounds in this
town and these are just a few more examples.
the Editor
Merry Christmas to all, and a happy and
healthy 2014.
Pam Greene
Parks and Recreation Department
Community program coordinator
Port Aransas
Amendement
misquoted
In re: Letter to the editor from Sheila
Schnorr, South Jetty, Dec. 19.
I was unpleasantly surprised to see a
misquote of the First Amendment to the
U. S. Constitution. Regarding religion, the
first clause of the First Amendment states,
“Congress shall make no law respecting an
establishment of religion, or prohibiting the
free exercise thereof;”. It is noteworthy that
the Founding Fathers placed this provision
at the top of the list in the Bill of Rights.
The South Jetty editor should have provid-
ed a footnote to this letter pointing out the
misquote.
Merele L. Moden
Wimberley
P&Z to move forward with
rezoning of Harbor Island
Continued from Page 1A-—-—
plant there. Current zoning restrictions don’t
prevent it.
Concerns arose after the Port of Corpus
Christi offered to sell a 254-acre piece of Har-
bor Island land to the Martin Midstream com-
pany for $34 million. A company spokesman
said the firm planned to use the site for han-
dling and transport of liquefied petroleum gas.
Neither the company nor the Port of Corpus
Christi ever publicly announced specifics of
the plans, but a Martin Midstream-produced
report that was written prior to March and
only recently surfaced shows that the firm
contemplated eventually processing Eagle
Ford condensate/light crude oil in two 50,000
BPD (barrels per day) “splitters,” producing
naphtha, jet fuel, diesel fuel and fuel oil.
The report, a copy of which has been
obtained by the South Jetty, said Martin
also wanted to install a natural gas liquids
fractionator to produce propane, butane and
natural gasoline.
Martin also was planning to run a terminal
for export of refined products from a Harbor
Island topping unit and liquefied petroleum
gas from the fractionator, the report said.
The company also proposed to move con-
densate by pipeline from Victoria to Harbor
Island, the report said.
The report included illustrations that
showed a tank farm of more than 20 tanks and
towers 40 and 80 feet high.
During the summer, the firm applied for
and obtained a Texas Commission on Environ-
mental Quality permit for a fractionator that
could process up to 7,000 barrels of petroleum
products per day. The permit allows as much
as 11.03 tons of volatile organic compounds,
up to 5.69 tons of nitrous oxides and as much
as 3.94 tons of particulate matter to be put into
the air each year.
The port in October rescinded its offer to
sell the land after The Berry Company filed a
lawsuit, alleging that the sale was conducted
improperly, under the law. The firm later
dropped the suit, but port commissioner
Charlie Zahn Jr. of Port Aransas recently said
the port has no current plans to sell the land.
A group of Port Aransans formed, con-
cerned that the port still might sell the land
to a company that would erect a plan that
would be a scenic blight, producing light, air,
water and noise pollution. They called them-
selves Friends of Port Aransas and produced
a petition that got the signatures of hundreds
of people who are against the idea of a petro-
chemical plant ever locating on Harbor Island.
About 150 people packed a Nov. 21 council
meeting to urge the council to change the zon-
ing on Harbor Island to prevent petrochemical
plants from being built there. The council
unanimously and immediately instituted a
61-day moratorium on all development on
Harbor Island and referred the possibility of
a rezoning effort to city staff and the planning
and zoning commission for a recommenda-
tion.
After hiring an environmental engineer and
an attorney who specializes in municipal land
use issues as consultants, city staff produced a
recommendation that would change allowable
uses on Harbor Island.
See ‘COMMISSION,’ Page 14A
Big Brother
circa 2013
In his
classic
novel “1984,”
George Orwell
warned about CAL ' " '
the evils of a Tum.*ei b*
totalitarian ■ HOMASll in-
state dominat- (0 2011 tribune media services, inc
ed by a single ruling party with total power
over its inhabitants. Oceania, his fictional
superstate, is under complete surveillance by
the authorities. The character known as “Big
Brother” reminds everyone he is constantly
monitoring the citizens of Oceania, mainly
by “telescreen.”
At the end of 2013, the federal govern-
ment may not yet have telescreens, which
in Orwell’s imagination had the ability to
eavesdrop on people’s conversations and
broadcast propaganda, but it does have the
nonfiction equivalent — data collection,
drones and other technological invasions of
privacy.
Our government does have the National
Security Agency.
And because we have the NSA, and
drones and all the rest, U.S. District Judge
Richard Leon recently ruled, in an ongoing
civil lawsuit, that it’s “significantly likely”
that the agency’s wholesale collection of our
phone records is unconstitutional - a clear
violation of the Fourth Amendment’s pro-
tection against unreasonable searches and
seizures. Judge Leon suspended his ruling
to allow for appeals, but his objection to this
information-vacuuming was clearly stated
in his 68-page decision: “I cannot imagine a
more indiscriminate and arbitrary invasion
than this systematic and high-tech collection
and retention of personal data on virtually
every single citizen for purposes of query-
ing and analyzing it without prior judicial
approval. Surely, such a program infringes
on that degree of privacy that the founders
enshrined in the Fourth Amendment.”
President Obama has said, “Nobody is
listening to your telephone calls.” He named
a panel to review the NS As methods and the
balance between privacy and security. The
draft report, expected to be released next
month, seems to favor privacy over secu-
rity. A recent Wall Street Journal editorial,
“Disarming Surveillance,” supports the
NSA’s actions and thinks the board Obama
appointed is making recommendations that
would make data collection impossible, and
us more vulnerable.
The New York Times sees it differently. Its
editorial Tuesday, Dec. 17, was headlined “A
Powerful Rebuke of Mass Surveillance.”
So which is it?
In Washington’s tainted political atmo-
sphere, you can be for maximum freedom
and privacy... until there is a terrorist
attack. Then, the same people who argue for
the Constitution to be taken literally when it
comes to the Fourth Amendment (and who
argue for a “living Constitution” on other
issues) would demand to know why the
government didn’t do more to protect us.
How much privacy would Americans be
willing to give up in exchange for a promise
that the bargain will lead to more security?
Our leaders regularly tell us they can’t guar-
antee we won’t be attacked again, so might
this be a Faustian deal with the government
“devil”?
NSA Director Keith Alexander claims 50
potential attacks were prevented because
of the government’s surveillance programs,
but we only have his word for it. “If you
like your privacy you can keep it” wouldn’t
sound any more credible coming from Alex-
ander than it did coming from the president
when he gave us his line about keeping our
doctors.
Freedom is a precious commodity. Like
virtue, once it is given up it is difficult, if not
impossible, to regain. A government that
regularly attempts to encroach on our right
to privacy must be restrained by the people.
Additional hearings should be held on this
critical issue and they should be nonparti-
san, as difficult as that may be heading into
another election season.
Jihadists don’t discriminate between polit-
ical parties. They have vowed to kill as many
Americans as possible. Striking the right
balance between security and freedom is
critical to both. Recent history provides nu-
merous examples of nations that have traded
freedom for security and gotten neither.
What must be avoided is the kind of
thinking Orwell warned against: “Dou-
blethink means the power of holding two
contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simulta-
neously, and accepting both of them.”
Freedom and security should not be con-
tradictory, but complimentary. In an age of
terrorism, this “devil” is really in the details.
Contact Cal Thomas at Tribune Media
Services, 2225 Kenmore Ave., Suite 114,
Buffalo, N.Y. 14207, or e-mail him at tmsedi-
tors@tribune.com.
Letters to the Editor
Deadline is Noon Monday
Unsigned Letters will not be published.
Signature, phone number, mailing address required. Limit 300
words.
Letters to the editor should:
• contain a valid signature and mailing address,
day and evening telephone numbers where the
writer may be reached • names of persons writ-
ing letters will not be withheld from publication
• unsigned letters will not be published «only
two letters per person per four week period •
letters endorsing or opposing political candidates
are political advertising ana should be taken to
the advertising department • letters endorsing or
opposing issues on ballots will not be published
in the last two editions before the election • all
letters are subject to editing • letters of complaint
about private businesses will be forwarded to the
business and will not be published • letters con-
taining libelous statements will not be published •
“thank you” letters are classified advertising
and should go to the classified ad department
Send your letters to
southjetty@centurytel.net
or P.O. Box 1117 Port Aransas, TX 78373
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Judson, Mary Henkel. Port Aransas South Jetty (Port Aransas, Tex.), Vol. 42, No. 52, Ed. 1 Thursday, December 26, 2013, newspaper, December 26, 2013; Port Aransas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth506001/m1/3/: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Ellis Memorial Library.