Random Friday Morning Thoughts

• I don't have any trouble with George Stephanopoulos’ $75,000 donations to the Clinton Foundation just like I wouldn't care if Chris Wallace donated that amount or more to the Heritage Foundation. But I do have a problem with Stephanopoulos just last month being dismissive in an interview with Peter Schweizer (the author of a new book which is critical of the Clinton Foundation) without Stephanopoulos disclosing the donations. This might turn out to be a Brian Williams/Dan Rather type problem. 
• WBAP's Hal Jay (who yesterday said he had to Google who Harriet Tubman was and found out that "she is considered a hero . . . (pause) . . . by some") said this morning that the national media has an "agenda" while WBAP and local media do not. 
• I'm surprised that Amtrak doesn't have technology which automatically slows down a train as it goes into a maximum 50 mph turn. And have it where that technology cannot be manually overridden. There would never be a reason for a train to exceed the pre-set maximum speed for a particular turn. 
• Dallas Morning News today: "Editorial: Time to redouble crime-fighting efforts."  Isn't "redouble" an odd word? 
• DPS, who is certainly willing to call attention to your mistakes (i.e. speeding, defective license plate light, expired registration) has on more than one occasion this spring written to legislative leaders to whine about upcoming newspaper articles that they expected to be critical of the top brass of the agency and/or point out they may have outright lied to the legislature this session.  The DPS Director is Steven McCraw, and he appears to be about as good at his job as Roger Goodell is as commissioner of the NFL. You pay McCraw $183,498 a year (which, I assume, doesn't include the value of insurance, benefits, and pension that go with government jobs.)
• B.B. King died overnight. My limited musical appreciation had me thinking about his performance with U2 of "When Love Comes To Town" in the documentary Rattle and Hum.
• Remember a few days ago I mentioned the alleged Dallas "Craigslist" killer who was on trial for a second time for capital murder after the first jury could not reach a verdict. Well, yesterday a second mistrial was declared when that jury couldn't reach a verdict as well. Last sentence in the article: "The DA's office said the case is scheduled to go to trial again in September." You kidding me? Three points: (1) You guys in the DA's office have had two attempts at this and couldn't get it done. You really think your duty of "not to convict, but to see that justice is done" is being honored? (2) How on god's green earth do the prosecutors believe that guy actually committed the murder? Those facts don't support that and two juries have told you that by not being able to agree. You guys are guessing if you believe it to be true. Pick up a book on Michael Morton and actually think about your responsibilities instead of just picking up a government check as a potentially innocent man's life is destroyed along the way. (3) OK, the Supreme Court has said, amazingly, that it is not a violation of Double Jeopardy Clause to retry a man after a hung jury.  But has there  been a ruling on when there are two hung juries? 
• Junior In The House to me last night: "Have you ever heard an elephant sneeze?" I was expecting to be shown a video, but she just wanted to ask the question.