I BLOG, YOU DECIDE M.I.A.?

I surfed this morning to find Kurgan's excellent "big-picture" blog showing as removed.

Hope it's only temporary.

Full Disclosure Worth a 1,000 10 Words.

My apologies for not originally including proper linkage to the PO's blog in the right hand column. An oversight since corrected.

BATB Interview on KURV 710AM

6,943 days late and $1 short

"I could’a been a contender. I could’a been somebody, instead of a bum -- which is what I am."
- Terry Malloy, On the Waterfront

If you blinked, you would've missed it. For just a few hours today, Texas Monthly Senior Executive Editor Paul Burka blew the whole Peter Zavaletta indictment WIDE OPEN.

19 years after the fact.

He was gently prodded of his tardiness in the comments section ("What an outrage!") and has since removed the post, replaced it with a retraction and named his article source... Dannenbaum Engineering! (My current employer, if you believe the hot-air).

That Pesky Arab-Chinese Conspiracy...

It seems, after all these months and all the broken promises, the Chinese have inevitably meted out their justice against the good Captain Robert Sanchez. From today's Herald article:

A local online political forum at the center of two libel lawsuits was "destroyed" during an alleged Monday afternoon "“hacker attack,"” said Brownsville businessman Robert Sanchez...
Sanchez believes the attack came from overseas and reports seeing Arabic letters and a Chinese flag flash across the screen before it was cleaned out.

Now, as far as I'm concerned, we're all neighbors in the local blogosphere and I want to do my part in tracking down those nefarious individuals who tore down such a valuable local resource of armchair pontification and anonymous vitriol. So here's the scuttlebut I've been hearing:

A couple of youths of Asian descent have been bragging about their exploits and even posted a video mocking their unsuspecting victim of online sabotage. Word has it that it can be found here.

So GO GET 'EM, CAPTAIN!

Using the Agenda As a Video Guide

Brownsville PUB Board Meeting - May 9, 2005
Timecoded Agenda.

Timecodes have been added to the agenda for the above meeting, to easily jump from item to item. Like so:

Watch Local Government... Whenever You Want To.

...as I was saying.

After a not-so-brief hiatus, I'd like to try and re-purpose this blog to better serve our community. And I want to start off by trying to help make local government more transparent. Here's how:

By providing on-demand access to videotaped meetings of our local government boards, trustees, commissions, etc.

Most of you may already know that our public entity board meetings are broadcast locally, via on-air and/or cable. PUB, BISD, Port of Brownsville commission, and UTB-TSC board meetings are aired at various times on the BISD's channel, KBSD (cable Ch. 17). Cameron County Commissioners Court airs on KMBH (over-the-air Ch. 60/cable Ch. 10). The Brownsville City Commission meetings air on the City Access channel (cable Ch. 12).

Though not promoted near enough, the times these meetings air are, more or less, the same each week. As I understand it, the staff at KBSD is responsible for recording all of the aforementioned board meetings, except the County Commissioners Court. I assume each entity archives copies of their meetings; but all the public has so far had access to, at any one point in time, was the most recent one. So if they miss the broadcast of it, they miss it. Period. (the public library used to keep tapes of city commission meetings available for checkout, but they've since slacked off on their archiving and what they have is woefully out of date.)

Well, that doesn't have to be the case with those videos anymore. Not when Google and their video storage system can host and serve them. Free of charge. On any website (like Cafe Brownsville). So instead of waiting for them to get their collective acts together, we're going to attempt to record, digitize, and upload as many local govt. meetings as possible. We've already got a few of them from 2005 and will put some of them up to see how it goes. And you can watch them whenever you want to. Maybe even comment on them. It should be interesting.


Here's a video of the Port of Brownsville Commission meeting of June 1, 2005.

A Couple of Cosmetic Changes

I'd like to thank Mayra Cruz of The Art of Brownsville blog for her excellent photography skills in helping create the new banner for Cafe Brownsville. She has a great eye in finding images that represent Brownsville to me. I hope that, given some time, she sends more pics my way. I'd be happy to include and rotate them in the banner.

Also, readers may have noticed I recently changed the commenting system for posts. I now have the ability to prevent comment spam and general lameness from detracting from worthwhile discourse. Older comments from previous posts have not been removed, but seem to be inaccessible now that the new system is in place. I'm trying to find a way to get them back.

I Swear I Can't Make These Things Up. But They Can

"Just when I thought that I was out... they pull me back in."
-Michael Corleone, The Godfather: Part III

Update: Turns out to be a hoax. Ya got me. Ha.

Calling It Quits

That's it. I've had it.

Between all the anonymous comments and the constant friction between opposing viewpoints, I don't think I can blog Brownsville any longer.

As readers can probably tell by the change in header, I've sold all image and posting rights to a local blogging peer and don't expect I'll be picking back up a keyboard anytime soon.

Goodbye, cruel blogosphere.

April Fools.

Cafe Brownsville Demystified

Well, this blog seems to have garnered a bit of attention lately and with it came some reader questions, so I thought I'd take this opportunity to explain some of the features of it, as well as its purpose.

Last things first, the description under the blog's title says it all, "Blogging All Things Brownsville". I want to use this site to speak publicly about the people and events, both social and political, of my hometown. I was born here, I grew up here, and after college I came back here to work and raise a family. So I have a stake in the success of the people and City of Brownsville. I, and probably others, will post about issues important to us and we welcome readers' feedback. To differentiate this site from just any online newspaper or message board, many of the posts here will link to videos, documents, or online articles & sites that deal with the issue at hand. I encourage fellow commenters (is that a word?) to do the same.

If you don't care for the analysis, than at least consider this site as a place where you can find links to most of your local government entities, their principals, and their agendas. I guiltily admit that I only recently stumbled upon how much info is out there and I can't think of another place on the web (or elsewhere, for that matter) that has such a gateway to it.

As for how this blog works: It's run on Blogger software (owned by Google) and it's free. Anyone can start one of these up if they so desire. All I paid for was hosting the site at a unique web address and some file (video and photo) storage.

The most recent posts are at the top of the main page, eventually working their way down the page, and finally off the main page to the monthly archives on the lower right. The links to the right are pretty self-explanatory and may be upgraded routinely. After each post there's a link for readers to click to read and/or leave comments. Please feel free to do so, anonymously or not. Alternatively, folks are welcome to e-mail me using the top-right link under my name.

Enjoy.