Port Aransas South Jetty (Port Aransas, Tex.), Vol. 43, No. 9, Ed. 1 Thursday, February 27, 2014 Page: 3 of 20
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Co-Publishers
Mary Henkel Judson
& Murray Judson
Editor
Mary Henkel Judson
Opinion
Member
Texas Press Association
South Texas Press Association
Texas Gulf Coast Press Association
National Newspaper Association
Port Aransas South Jetty
Thursday, February 27, 2014
Abbott, Nugent
are gift to Davis
1 M
a
Dave
McNeely
Greg
Abbott and
his campaign
brain trust
must have
thought being
on the cover
of Texas Monthly’s October issue in his
wheelchair, a double-barrel shotgun slung
over his shoulder, hadn’t done enough to
emphasize his pro-gun attitude.
So, on the opening day of early voting,
let’s add some sizzle to the attorney general’s
campaign for governor.
Abbott’s campaign invited shock-rocker
Ted Nugent, who makes “gun nut” sound
redundant, to join him for two campaign
stops to generate some free publicity.
Boy, did it work!
The guy on cruise control to win the
GOP nomination and general election was
on every news outlet in Texas - not about
the Second Amendment, but his choice of
campaign buddies.
Nugent, 65, isn’t called the shock-rocker
by accident. Even as he’s qualified for Medi-
care, he’s loved raising the hackles of anyone
for any gun control.
Problem is, Nugent’s presumed appeal
didn’t help Abbott with anyone who didn’t
already agree with him - and may have
raised questions in other voters’ minds
about Abbott’s judgment.
Whoever decided to bring in Nugent
either wasn’t that familiar with his inflamed
rhetoric and admissions of sex with un-
der-age girls, or didn’t think it mattered.
It quickly came out that Nugent, in a Jan.
17 interview with Guns.com, had this to say
about President Obama:
“I have obviously failed to galvanize and
prod, if not shame enough Americans to be
ever vigilant not to let a Chicago commu-
nist-raised, communist-educated, commu-
nist-nurtured subhuman mongrel like the
ACORN community organizer gangster
Barack Hussein Obama to weasel his way
into the top office of authority in the United
States of America.”
Abbott quickly was on national TV news
programs. A story and color photo of the
General, with Nugent behind him, ran in
the next day’s New York Times. And many
other newspapers.
The publicity gift of Nugent, who called
Abbott his “blood brother,” kept on giving
— not to Abbott, but to probable Democrat-
ic opponent Wendy Davis.
On Thursday, Feb. 20, Republican politi-
cians questioned by reporters criticized Nu-
gent’s description of Obama. They included
two Texas presidential candidates - Gov.
Rick Perry and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz - though
neither criticized Abbott for campaigning
with Nugent.
That brought more stories on Friday. So
Nugent semi-apologized for the “subhuman
mongrel” blast.
Nugent on Friday told conservative talk
show host Ben Ferguson, on dear-channel
Dallas-Fort Worth radio station WBAP, that
he “did cross the line.”
“I do apologize - not necessarily to the
president, but on behalf of much better
men than myself,” Nugent said, mentioning
Abbott, and Perry, at whose 2007 inaugural
ball Nugent performed in a T-shirt embla-
zoned with a Confederate flag.
“I apologize for using the street-fighter
terminology of ‘subhuman mongrel’ instead
of just using more understandable language,
such as ‘violator of his oath to the Constitu-
tion,’ ‘the liar that he is,”’ Nugent said.
When Nugent’s history blew up in
Abbott’s face Tuesday in Denton, Abbott
pleaded ignorance of Nugent’s past.
“I don’t know what he may have said
or done in his background,” Abbott told
reporters. “What I do know is Ted Nugent
stands for the Constitution.”
But the controversy continued to bubble.
After Nugent said he’d crossed a line, Abbott
released a statement.
“I believe Ted Nugent recognized his
language was wrong and he rightly apol-
ogized,” Abbott said. “This is not the kind
of language I would use or endorse in any
way.”
So, on Saturday, Feb. 22, the Abbott-Nu-
gent pal-a-thon, and Nugent’s revised
description of Obama, were national news
again - including another Times news story,
plus two critical opinion columns.
Also Saturday, to a Wendy-friendly
crowd of 200 at the Texas Democratic
Women’s Convention in Austin, Davis by-
passed the “subhuman mongrel” comment.
Instead, she slammed anti-child molester
Abbott for campaigning with a guy who
admits to having sex with underage girls.
“His values are not my values, and I
know his values aren’t yours,” Davis said.
“And, given the cozy relationship he has
with an admitted sexual predator, his values
are not Texas values.»
“We won’t let politicians hide behind the
venom and the ugly history of predatory
acts targeting underage girls by their cam-
paign surrogates.
“Let me make this very clear,” Davis con-
tinued. “This isn’t about some aging rock
star way past his prime who simply needs
to go away. This is about Greg Abbott. It’s
about his character, his judgment, his values
when he stands on a stage next to someone
like that... “
Abbott’s Friday statement had tried to
change the subject.
“It’s time to move beyond this,” Abbott
said, “and I will continue to focus on the
issues that matter to Texans.”
Good luck with that, General.
He could have said he’ll never campaign
with Nugent again. But then, he probably
didn’t need to.
Contact McNeely at davemcneelyl 11@
gmail.com or (512) 458-2963.
CREATORS SYNDICATE ;
©10 *4 (
DEBT
CEILING
RAISED
AGAIN:
$17 TRILLION
TME>SiLL?Ay
Delete. Delete. Delete.
Some of the
emails we get
around here
make me think
there are a
whole bunch
of naive and/or
Mary
Henkel
Judson
clueless people in this world.
When I get an email from a complete
stranger that starts, “Dearly Beloved,” I hit
the delete button faster than I can raise my
eyebrows.
Our classified ad department is a regu-
lar “target” for scammers. One of the most
obvious tip-offs for a scam is an email that
starts, “I will like to place an advert in your
newspaper.”
Delete.
You’ve all gotten the emails from “friends”
who are abroad and have been the victims of
theft. Woe is me: There they are in a foreign
country with no money. Right. And I’d be
the first person they’d think of to bail them
out. Not.
Delete.
I continue to get offers for enlargement of
body parts I do not own. Fortunately, they
regularly are routed to my junk mail.
Delete.
Another email promises to make my
nightly romps “more wild.” I’m all over that!
Delete.
Ah! Just got a new one.
“Can you stand as an Investor to received
(sic) Tenure Investment Proceeds?”
Mrs. Relevo N Vasquez asks me to reply to
a different email address and sends her “kind
regards.”
Junk. Delete.
What’s amazing is that we’ve gotten these
kinds of emails for years. That the senders
of these emails continue hawking the same
product/scam for that many years indicates
to me that enough people take the bait that
it’s worth sending them.
That’s sad.
It’s tempting to create a special email
account, send out a sob story that can only
be solved by depositing money in a special
bank account and see what kind of response
1 ge,t
I’m sure that’s exactly what these scam-
mers are doing.
I suppose it’s because we’re a newspaper,
but we also get emails from every special
interest group in the country. Some have
started addressing us as though we are mem-
bers and share their viewpoints. Not.
Delete.
On the upside, there is some entertain-
ment value in these emails - or there was at
first.
On the down side, the fact that these
emails continue tells me there are innocent
people out there being taken to the cleaners.
That is a situation that needs to be deleted.
Mary Henkel Judson is editor and co-
publisher of the South Jetty. Contact her at
southjetty@centurytel.net, (361) 749-5131
or P.O. Box 1117, Port Aransas, TX 78373.
Harbor Island rezoned
Continued from Page 1A
petrochemical plant from locating on Har-
bor Island after the Port Authority of Corpus
Christi made an effort last year to sell its 254
acres of Harbor Island land to the Martin
Midstream company for $34 million.
Martin Midstream planned to build a plant
that would process Eagle Ford condensate and
light crude oil in two 50,000 barrels per day
“splitters,” producing naphtha, jet fuel, diesel
fuel and fuel oil. The company also wanted to
install a natural gas liquids fractionator to pro-
duce propane, butane and natural gasoline.
The port rescinded its offer to sell the land
after The Berry Company filed a lawsuit
alleging that the sale process wasn’t fair to
other potential buyers. The port didn’t ad-
mit fault but pulled out of the sale anyway.
Port Aransans started talking about the
idea of rezoning the island because they were
worried that a petrochemical plant would
be loud and ugly, producing air, water and
light pollution. About 150 people packed a
Nov. 21 council meeting, demanding action.
The council decided to have staff and con-
sultants research the idea and produce the le-
gal language needed for such a zoning change.
The port and Martin Midstream filed
objections with the city. Port commission-
ers A1 Jones and Charlie Zahn, a longtime
Port Aransas resident, appeared before the
council, asking that the rezoning effort be
postponed so city and port officials could
hold discussions and possibly come to an
agreement on what kind of development
should take place on the island without a
rezoning. But the city didn’t slow its efforts.
Councilman John Price said he is concerned
that landowners on Harbor Island might even-
tually challenge the city in court, saying their
property rights have been unfairly curtailed
by the rezoning. But City Attorney Michael
Morris said the city is on solid legal ground.
Port commissioners voted on Jan. 23 not
to sell or lease its land on Harbor Island,
at least for now. Judy Hawley, chairman
of the commission, said commission-
ers know Port Aransans have concerns
about the land, and the port needs to
reassess the best uses for the property.
At the council meeting last week, May-
or Keith McMullin said the city should
reach out to the port and hold discussions
about how the land could be developed in
ways that would be good for Port Aransas.
Houstonians rescue cats
Continued from Page IA
Rather than drive down, Sullivan and
Smith decided to fly the 185 miles to Port
Aransas aboard Sullivan’s twin-engine
Beechcraft Baron.
“I like animals, Eve got the plane, and I’ve
got the skills, so why not?” Sullivan told a
South Jetty reporter at the airport.
They also brought along a volunteer,
Andrea Bonnette of Kingwood, to help out.
Port Aransas Animal Control Officer Jim
Williams drove the kittens to the airport in
his city truck and handed them off.
Smith said she planned to put the kittens
up for adoption on the premises of a
PetSmart in Houston. She said she expects
them to be adopted quickly, because they
are cute and tame. (Despite its name, she
said her organization doesn’t rescue feral
animals alone.)
Williams said he impounded 47 cats from
the house on Tropic Lane and euthanized 32
of them because they were in poor health. A
woman who lives at the house was written
a citation in the case, police said.
Several feral cats still are in the house,
and several more from the house remain
at the shelter, he said.
Feral Feline Retreat will be back to pick
up more kittens in about a week, but some
will remain at the Port Aransas shelter,
where locals are urged to make adoptions,
Williams said. The felines will be spayed
or neutered, and they will have their shots,
he said.
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 num-
bers where the writer may be reached • names of persons writing 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 candi-
dates are political advertising and 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 containing 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
Separation of
government
from the press
Cal
Thomas
ns
4 .’k
(c) 2011 TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.
After much
criticism from
conservative
quarters,
the Federal
Communica-
tions Com-
mission (FCC)
has decided,
at least for now, to withdraw plans for its
proposed study of how media organizations
gather and report news. The expressed goal
of the survey was to determine if the “critical
information needs” of the public are being
met. In making the announcement on Fri-
day, Feb. 21, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler
indicated the survey would be “revised”
and that the government agency had “no
intention” of regulating political speech of
journalists or other broadcasters.
You couldn’t prove that from reading the
initial study.
The obvious question is: Who gets to
define my or your “information needs”?
The answer begins with two universities
commissioned by the FCC to conduct the
study: the University of Wisconsin-Madison
Center for Communication and Democracy
and the Annenberg School for Communi-
cation and Journalism at the University of
Southern California. Both associated with a
liberal political philosophy.
The reasoning behind this proposed
newsroom intrusion is that certain catego-
ries of the public (“underserved” consumers
in multiple “media ecologies” in the bu-
reaucratese of the study) may not be getting
enough “balance” in its news diet.
FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn,
daughter of Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC),
says the FCC “must emphatically insist that
we leave no American behind when it comes
to meeting the needs of those in varied and
vibrant communities of our nation — be they
native born, immigrant, disabled, non-En-
glish speaking, low-income, or other.” But
not, apparently, political conservatives,
regular churchgoers, or patriotic Americans
who believe their beliefs are “underserved”
by most journalists. Seemingly, no one at
the FCC cares overmuch if this particular
“constituency” is underserved.
That there has been little more than a
low decibel outcry from mainstream media
about the FCC study is instructive. It is
difficult to imagine Ms. Clyburn and her
minions storming into network newsrooms,
demanding to know how many conserva-
tives are reporting the news. I once asked
Lesley Stahl of CBS News if she could name
a single conservative colleague. She could
not. Maybe those concerned with our sup-
posed news malnutrition can start at CBS.
This “study” — and possibly its revised
edition — is a form of intimidation designed
to target not the broadcast networks (which
is why they seem unconcerned), or even
mainstream newspapers. “Fox News execu-
tives feared they were the ultimate target of
this exercise, and who can blame them for
this suspicion?” writes RealClearPolitics,
com. “From the beginning of the Obama
presidency, White House communications
officials and Obama political advisers have
leveled attacks on Fox, even going so far as
to proclaim that it is not ‘a legitimate’ news
organization.” Is it so far-fetched to think
that the FCC would not try to monitor con-
servative news outlets?
There is a reason America’s Founders
selected only one profession — the press
— for special protection in the Bill of Rights.
As expressed by Thomas Jefferson in a letter
to John Jay in 1786: “Our liberty cannot be
guarded but by the freedom of the press, nor
that be limited without danger of losing it.”
Politicians throughout American history,
including Jefferson, have been targets of
press criticism, sometimes unfairly, even
inaccurately, but still the press has remained
free, or was allowed to regain its freedom
after wartime censorship.
The organization Reporters Without
Borders recently ranked the United States
46th in the world when it comes to press
freedom, just one spot ahead of Haiti. Why
the low ranking? The Atlantic.com explains,
“...the heritage of the 1776 constitution was
shaken to its foundation during George W.
Bush’s two terms as president by the way
journalists were harassed and even impris-
oned for refusing to reveal their sources or
surrender their files to federal judicial offi-
cials. There has been little improvement in
practice under Barack Obama.... No fewer
than eight individuals have been charged
under the Espionage Act since Obama be-
came president, compared with three during
Bush’s two terms.”
If the FCC moves forward with even a
revised agenda that is intrusive and uncon-
stitutional, that ranking is likely to decline
even further.
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.
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Judson, Mary Henkel. Port Aransas South Jetty (Port Aransas, Tex.), Vol. 43, No. 9, Ed. 1 Thursday, February 27, 2014, newspaper, February 27, 2014; Port Aransas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth741043/m1/3/?q=Lamar+University: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Ellis Memorial Library.