Lubbock Left

1420 AM reports tragic news today, as a Hockley County child accidentally shot his brother with his grandfather’s pistol found in his other brother’s room.

Sheriff David Kinney says no charges have been filed. It is being investigated as an accident. Here’s Kinney speaking on News Channel 11. “The weapon, we found out the 13-year-old had taken the weapon about three months ago from his grandpa’s house in Lubbock, without the grandpa’s permission or knowledge.”

Guns are designed to kill, and having one in the home in a place where a child could access it is not wise. Grandpa had every right to own a gun and keep it in his home, but this story and the many other accidental gun death stories like it are a major reason why I have made a personal decision not to allow guns — mine or anyone else’s — in my home.

My heart goes out to the family in this sorrowful time.

The right-wing mantra of “deregulate, deregulate, deregulate” is costing America one of our most important technological and cultural advantages: ubiquitous, affordable broadband internet access.

Ars Technica has an article about how we are being left behind:

Despite the repeated claims of the current administration that our “broadband policy” is working, the US actually has no broadband policy and no aggressive and inspiring goals (think “moon shot”).

Simply put: Japan, France, Sweden, Canada, and most of Asia are out-interneting us. The main reason that they have surpassed us is because their governments view fiber optics as core infrastructure issues worthy of government investment.

Meanwhile, our government is too busy selling out the public trust to the biggest corporations it can find, all in the name of “deregulation” and “smaller government.”

My view is that regulation does not stifle competition; instead, it prevents people from hurting other people. A good business can survive in nearly any regulatory climate. In general, we only hurt ourselves when we remove regulations from industry.

Furthermore, we have seen that the politicians who ran on “small government” don’t really believe in small government. What they believe in is a very large government that benefits only them and their friends, while the majority of citizens suffer from a lack of services and public resources. (Picture Hurricane Katrina alongside record profits for military contractors and oil companies and you’ve got a snapshot of the Bush legacy.)

“Small government” plus “deregulation” equals the perfect atmosphere for corruption.

Winning the fight against this type of corruption is how we will catch up with broadband access. (Support of Net Neutrality is an enormous part of this struggle, and it ranks pretty high on my list of reasons for supporting Obama.)

If we keep the internet open — both the physical medium and the data — then we can catch up and once again become the world’s internet access leader.

I’ll be on Todd Klein’s radio show on KRFE AM 580 Monday Morning from 10-11AM to discuss the election returns from Saturday and whatever else comes up.

This will be my second appearance on the show. The last time was in February, and we discussed the intersection of technology and politics.

I’m looking forward to the show, and I hope you’ll tune in!

With all the talk about the Visitor Center these days, I find myself brainstorming other ways to attract overnight visits in Lubbock.

First, how about some more brochure racks? Check out River Smith’s:

River Smith’s is right next to at least 5 hotels as well as the intersection US84 and the Marsha Sharp Freeway. It’s an excellent place to leave information about what to do in Lubbock.

So, why not put similar brochures in all the nearby businesses? There are several other restaurants, a Wal-Mart, and a strip mall nearby.

How about similar brochure racks in all the businesses that surround Texas Tech? How about in all the nicest restaurants in town?

The cost of these racks is negligible, and putting them where visitors will already be makes good sense to me.

Second, we need a world-class Lubbock tourism website, and one that is optimized for search engines and linked to from already prominent Lubbock websites. This one seems like a no-brainer to me, and is also an inexpensive and maintainable option.

The initial website design could really involve the community as well. Hold a contest for the best-designed page, with the prize being a permanent link to the winner, or have web design classes at Tech take a shot at it. Ask for content suggestions and pictures from Lubbock citizens. Let existing businesses contribute content in exchange for links.

Third, let’s take Councilman Klein’s suggestion and put kiosks in popular Lubbock destinations like The Mall. They could be interactive, and feature attraction tours by type. Like the website and brochure racks, this option is inexpensive and effective because it targets Lubbock visitors where they already are.

Fourth, the City of Lubbock should advertise in other newspapers in Texas and New Mexico. Ruidoso, NM advertises in Lubbock, and I’m sure it helps their visitor traffic. (Also, they have a spiffy, thorough website geared toward tourism — compare to Visit Lubbock’s website.) People in Dallas, Austin, Houston, and San Antonio should be marketed to by the City of Lubbock.

Fifth, how about encouraging the nearby small town traffic to Lubbock? Residents of the surrounding communities already visit Lubbock, so why not put some extra effort into advertising to them so that they visit a little bit more?

I think there are many ways to promote Lubbock, from the obvious to the very creative, and many of them make more sense than the current Visitor Center project.

Mother Jones Blog reports that a very convenient chunk of White House emails from the start of the Iraq War are missing completely:

The White House acknowledged in a court filing last night that it no longer has backup tapes of email from between March 1 and May 22, 2003, a period that includes the beginning of the Iraq war.

Meredith Fuchs from the National Security Archive comes to the logical conclusion of this dance of the missing emails:

“I honestly think they are just trying to run out the clock, and then it’s a huge mess. Maybe the court’s going to act quickly and we’ll get better preservation. That’s what we’ll hope for at this point.”

The Bush Administration legacy will be “hang on until we’re out of office and scandals can’t hurt us.”

The wunderkinds over at Brave New Films have produced a delightful animated short film about the tax loopholes used by the 21st Century robber barons out there:

Spread this video around!

warongreed.org

As of this moment, over 10,000 people have early voted in the May Elections in Lubbock County.

This morning, an online petition to reconsider the current implementation of the Visitor Center was launched. (I do not necessarily support or oppose this particular petition, nor do I have anything to do with the group that is circulating it. I am just pleased to see an online petition dealing strictly with a Lubbock issue.)

Over the weekend, Lubbock City Council Member Todd Klein released the Visitor Center research documents which he requested on Friday on his website. This is the right direction for local government to take — openness with information that is used to make decisions. In the future I hope we have this type of openness without having to ask.

I think these are milestones along the way to a more transparent city government with a more engaged citizenry.

Like it or not, the City of Lubbock has started to tear down the South Beach nightclub building, which was purchased in order to build a visitor center.

The visitor center — and more importantly the manner in which one is constructed or even conceived of — has come under intense public scrutiny recently. Also, Council members Klein and Leonard tried to revisit the current 6-10 million dollar plan with no success.

Some even consider the closing of South Beach to be a catalyst for much of Lubbock’s political activity in the past two years. It provided an excuse to circulate three petitions to attempt to recall Linda DeLeon. It got Armando Gonzales on the radio and running for the City Council. It’s drawn attention to the real consequences of downtown redevelopment. It’s called into question who stands to benefit from downtown redevelopment and whether it’s above-board.

I think that downtown redevelopment is a worthy and even necessary goal, and that it’s okay for both public and private money to be used to make it happen. But, the particular details of how it happens will have to be watched very closely indeed.

Obama’s campaign ad about the truth of gas prices is right on target:

Woops, almost forgot to post this:

Event Date: Apr 30, 2008
Event Time: 7:00 PM
Venue Name: Godeke Library
Address: 6601 Quaker
City: Lubbock
State: TX
Zip Code: 79413

We will screen the file “No End in Sight” which is about the Iraq war.
As always, refreshments are provided and a discussion will follow the film.

Hope to see you there!