TX Mortgage Refinance in Texas

There go my fellow conservatives, glumly shuffling along, depressed by the election aftermath. Not me. I'm virtually euphoric. Don't get me wrong. I'm not thrilled with America's flirtation with neosocialism. But there's a massive silver lining in the magical clouds that lofted Barack Obama to the presidency. For today, without a shred of intellectually legitimate opposition, I can loudly proclaim to America:

The Era of White Guilt is over.

This seemingly impossible event occurred because the vast majority of white Americans didn't give a fluff about skin color and enthusiastically pulled the voting lever for a black man. Not just any black man. A very liberal black man who spent his early career race-hustling banks, praying in a racist church for 20 years, and actively working with America-hating domestic terrorists. Yet white Americans made Barack Obama their leader. Therefore, as of Nov. 4, 2008, white guilt is dead.

So today, I'm feeling a little "uppity," if you will. For more than a century, the millstone of white guilt hung around our necks, retribution for slave-owning predecessors. In the 1960s, American liberals began yanking that millstone while sticking a fork in the eye of black Americans, exacerbating the racial divide to extort a socialist solution to the country's problems. But if a black man can become president, exactly what significant barrier is left? The election of Barack Obama destroys the validation of liberal white guilt. The dragon is hereby slain.

So today, I'm feeling a little "uppity," if you will. From this day forward, my tolerance level for having my skin color hustled is exactly ZERO. No more Rev. Jeremiah Wright's "God Damn America," Al Sharpton's Church of Perpetual Victimization, or Jesse Jackson's rainbow racism. Cornel West? You're a fraud. All those "black studies" programs must now teach kids to thank Whitey. And I want that on the final.

Congressional Black Caucus? Irrelevant. U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters (D., Calif.)? Shut up. ACORN? Outlawed. Black Panthers? Go home and pet your kitty. Black separatists? Find another nation that offers better dreams. To those Eurosnots who forged careers hating America? I'm still waiting for the first black French president.

No more quotas. No more handouts. No more complaining that "the man" is keeping you down. "The man" is now black.

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff fired back Friday at Gov. Rick Perry's sharp criticism of federal efforts to deport illegal immigrants booked into Texas jails.

Chertoff sent Perry a four-page letter defending what he termed as aggressive and expanded efforts by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to remove illegal immigrants, while complaining of a lack of cooperation from local law enforcement who jailed them for criminal offenses.

"ICE, however, cannot remove and deport criminal aliens in State or local jails that it does not know about,' " Chertoff wrote. "State and local officials have to be willing to share that information in a timely fashion in order for such removal to take place."

Perry blasted DHS after a three-part Houston Chronicle series published last week indicated only one of four illegal immigrants booked into the Harris County Jail were processed by ICE for removal, allowing a number of immigrants to be released who later committed serious crimes.

The governor characterized the ICE removal operation as a "de facto catch and release program," and asked that ICE provide all Texas law enforcement agencies with access to an immigration database that contains fingerprints of immigrants with criminal records.

"I am outraged to learn that thousands of criminal aliens in our Texas jails who should have been detained, removed and deported ... were instead released back onto our streets after they completed their jail sentence," Perry wrote in a Nov. 18 letter to Chertoff.

Friday's letter from Chertoff was a continuation of a clash between the two officials, and followed Perry's ire on Thursday when DHS officials confirmed Texas would get a lower level of reimbursement for debris removal than Louisiana received after Hurricane Katrina.

In his letter, Chertoff said newspaper reports "fail to state that Harris County did not share with ICE existing lists it maintains of detainees who reported they were foreign born." Chertoff said the agency only received the list from Harris County on Nov. 18, and is vetting the database to determine the immigration status of each detainee.

Those cool new Justin boots you saw at the flea market for an unbelievable price might be hot.

As in stolen.

And chances are decent that you might come across some, because 20,692 pairs of boots were stolen in two batches recently from the Justin distribution center, 3500 E. Long Ave., Lt. Paul Henderson, a police spokesman, said Friday.

The value of the two hauls is about $3 million, he said.

The first heist was during Labor Day weekend; the second was on Nov. 9, Henderson said.

In both cases, a thief cut the locked chain on the lot's gate and drove a white tractor onto the property, he said.

In the first theft, a surveillance video shows "a white single-cab tractor entering the property without a trailer and leaving with one, three different times. The tractor has no identifiable markings on it," he said.

Three containers mounted on three chassis were taken, Henderson said. They held 10,740 pairs of boots and 7,404 sets of boot uppers priced at $2,386,414.04, he said.

Two of the container-chassis sets were found empty and abandoned: one in Forest Hill at Southeast Loop 820 and Forest Hill Drive, the other in Grand Prairie at Interstate 20 and Great Southwest Parkway.

The third was still missing Friday, Henderson said.

On Nov. 9, two shipping container-chassis sets were taken from the same property.

"A witness observed a white single-cab tractor towing a Green China Shipping trailer away from the property," Henderson said. "Access to the property was gained by cutting a chain-locked gate."

The 9,952 boots in the containers were priced at $774,747, Henderson said.

Both container-chassis sets, he said, were found empty in Arlington.

Justin Brands spokeswoman Lisa Lankes said shoppers should be wary of new Justin products at any flea market because the company deals only with businesses that have "fixed brick-and-mortar locations."

Cassie Nova is resplendent in red. Her figure is flattered by an almost-there hemline. Heels, three-inch. Hair, teased. Makeup, porcelain doll smooth.

As co-host of a preliminary Miss Texas pageant held Sunday night in Dallas, Ms. Nova was all woman - except for one thing. She's a man.

Therein lies the problem. That and the pageant venue: a gay bar.

"I didn't know a drag queen was going to have that prominent of a role," said Jean Magness, executive director of the Miss Texas Organization, who watched over the Miss Oak Cliff/Miss Oak Lawn Area pageant at the Oak Lawn lounge The Rose Room. "The question was Cassie's involvement. Was it appropriate? For me and other board members present, that was a major concern."

A missing 6-year-old Texas girl was found unharmed in a drug house in Austin with her mother, police told FOX News.

Comal County police tracked down Jewel Noel Klein and her 41-year-old mother Tonya Renee Martin Friday after an Amber Alert was issued for the pair earlier in the week, according to sheriffs department spokesman Mark Reynolds.

"The child was unharmed and the mother's been arrested and taken into custody," Reynolds told FOX News.

Police believe Jewel was picked up from school on Tuesday by her mother, according to MyFOXHouston.com. Deputies were called that night to the home of the little girl's grandmother, 68-year-old Melba Balantac, to find her severely beaten.

Balantac was able to give them limited information implicating her daughter in the attack before she was taken to the hospital, MyFOXHouston.com reported. Balantac is Martin's mother and has legal conservatorship of Jewel.

Investigators spotted the car sought in the Amber Alert, followed the male driver and stopped him for questioning, Reynolds told FOX. He led police to the house where Jewel was staying with her mother, and Martin was detained without incident.

Jim Mattox, the sometimes bare-knuckled campaigner who billed himself as the people's lawyer while Texas attorney general, died Thursday in his sleep at his home in Dripping Springs, Texas.

Mr. Mattox, 65, had served as a Dallas County assistant district attorney, state legislator, three-time U.S. congressman and two-time Texas attorney general. He ended a successful string of political campaigns by losing the 1990 Democratic gubernatorial primary in a vicious race against Ann Richards.

Mr. Mattox was a tenacious advocate for the people of Texas, said Texas Democratic Chairman Boyd Richie.

"A tough public servant, Jim's life was spent working for the interests of all Texans," Mr. Richie said. "His legacy of service and dedication to our great state will endure, and he will be dearly missed."

Gov. Rick Perry said Texans mourned the loss of a genuine leader.

"His leadership, passion for and service to the state of Texas have left a lasting legacy," Mr. Perry said. The governor directed that in Mr. Mattox's memory, flags be flown at half-staff through Friday and on Tuesday, the day of his funeral.

Services will be at 10 a.m. Tuesday at First Baptist Church in downtown Austin. He will be buried in the State Cemetery.

An outside law firm has been hired to look into the Dallas school district's practice of issuing false Social Security numbers to foreign citizens hired to teach in the district.

The Dallas Independent School District announced Wednesday that it has asked former U.S. Attorney Paul Coggins of Fish & Richardson, P.C., to look at "everything" concerning the practice, including how it got started and if any federal statutes were violated.

DISD had been issuing the fake numbers - some of which had already been assigned to people elsewhere - for several years before ending the practice this summer. The false numbers were issued to get the foreign citizens - mostly teachers brought in on visas to teach bilingual classes - on the payroll quickly.

"There has been understandable concern raised by the community over the issue of using temporary numbers that looked like Social Security numbers while these individuals waited for their permanent numbers," Superintendent Michael Hinojosa said in a news release.

"Paul Coggins is a strong, independent authority on these issues. Obviously, there was a problem with the process and I want it corrected so it will never happen again."

Mr. Coggins is expected to complete his work before the end of December. The Social Security Administration also is looking into the district's practice of issuing the fake numbers.

Dr. Hinojosa has said that he wasn't aware of the practice until he received a report from DISD's investigative unit in September. The district has said that it has stopped giving out false numbers and has put in new processes to ensure it doesn't happen again. Those new processes include checking Social Security numbers of district employees against a Social Security Administration database.

The Dallas Morning News has heard from several people around the country who were concerned that DISD possibly issued their Social Security number to someone. Their Social Security numbers begin with "200" - the same prefix that DISD began its false numbers with.

A 26-year-old teacher in the Dallas school district has been arrested after a 14-year-old female student told police that they had sex in a school, authorities said.

Calvin J. Beckton, who teaches at Boude Storey Middle School, was arrested Wednesday on a charge of sexual assault after the teenager said they had sex in the school's band hall on Oct. 28, police said.

Dallas police declined to release any further details about the case.

Mr. Beckton has been placed on leave and removed from campus pending the outcome of the investigation, said Jon Dahlander, a Dallas school district spokesman.

Mr. Beckton was being held in the Dallas County jail Wednesday in lieu of a $25,000 bond.

KEMAH, Texas - Authorities in Texas say a teenage boy fatally shot his father during an argument over a fast food order, then killed himself.

Galveston County sheriff's officials say the violence occurred Sunday at the family home southeast of Houston.

Sixteen-year-old Robert Lee Mueller Jr. had returned home with the wrong food order for his father, 59-year-old Robert Lee Mueller.

Both died late Tuesday after nearly two days in a Houston hospital. The father was shot once in the head. The boy shot himself after police arrived.

SPRING BRANCH, Texas -- The Texas Department of Public Safety and Comal County Sheriff's Department has issued an Amber Alert for a 6-year-old girl missing from Spring Branch, Texas.

Jewel Noel Klein is described as a white female, 4 feet tall, weighing about 60 pounds with blond hair and blue eyes. She was last seen wearing a red plaid sundress. Police are also looking for 41-year-old Tonya Renee Martin, described as standing 5-foot-2, weighing 107 pounds with blond hair and blue eyes.

Klein was last seen with Martin in a blue 2005 Hyundai Sonata with Texas license plates reading 404-ZNM. The pair were last seen in Spring Branch, according to the alert.

Klein is Martin's daughter, according to a Comal County Sheriff's Office press release. Klein was with her grandmother, 68-year-old Melba Balantac, when Martin allegedly assaulted her mother Tuesday evening. Klein was picked up Tuesday afternoon from Rebecca Creek Elementary by an unknown person, but investigators said Klein and Martin were seen Tuesday evening in Balantac's Sonata.

Neighbor Ana Medrano said she found the injured Balantac in the road following the attack.

"I didn't know it was her because she was all bloody," Medrano said. "Her hair was all full of blood."

Medrano and other neighbors said Klein is a sweet girl who loved playing with other neighborhood children.

"She was polite," neighor Lily Torrez said. "Just a little lady. Perfect."

Spring Branch is located about 15 miles north of San Antonio.

Anybody with information about the pair's whereabouts is asked to contact the Comal County Sheriff's Office at 830-620-3400.

A 67-year-old man who was recently diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease wandered into Mexico twice before he was found about 400 miles from the Texas border on Sunday.

While state agencies are being told to rein in their spending, Texas House members have ordered at least $140,000 in renovations for their members-only lounge, including antique chandeliers, granite countertops ...

The NCAA says the men's basketball Final Four will be played at the new Dallas Cowboys stadium in Arlington in 2014.

A grand jury has indicted polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs on a second sexual assault charge in connection with a probe of his Texas compound, prosecutors said Wednesday.

Federal regulators on Monday charged Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban with insider trading for allegedly using confidential information on a stock sale to avoid more than $750,000 in losses.

Cuban disputed the Securities and Exchange Commission's allegations and said he would contest them.

In a civil lawsuit filed in federal court in Dallas, the SEC alleged that in June 2004, Cuban was invited to get in on the coming stock offering by Mamma.com Inc. after he agreed to keep the information private.

Cuban owned 6.3 percent of Mamma.com's stock at that time and was the largest known shareholder in the search engine company, according to the SEC. The agency said Cuban knew the shares would be sold below the current market price, and a few hours after receiving the information, he told his broker to sell all 600,000 shares before the public announcement of the offering.

By selling when he did, Cuban avoided losses exceeding $750,000, the SEC said in its lawsuit.

Cuban, 50 and a multibillionaire, is a tech entrepreneur who sold his Broadcast.com to Yahoo Inc. in 1999 at the height of the dot-com boom. He bought the Mavericks in 2000 and spent heavily to improve the roster.

He is the best known figure to be accused by the SEC of illegal insider trading since its case against Martha Stewart in 2002 for allegedly using advance knowledge of negative news for a company to sell her shares and avoid $45,673 in losses. The homemaking diva paid about $195,000 and agreed not to serve as the director of a public company for five years under a 2006 settlement with the SEC.

Federal immigration officials let thousands of inmates in the nation's third-most populous county walk out of jail despite the suspects admitting they were in the U.S. illegally, a newspaper investigation found.

More than 3,500 inmates told Harris County jailers they were in the country illegally over an eight-month period starting in June 2007, but records show Immigration and Customs Enforcement filed paperwork to detain only about a quarter of them.

In a story published Sunday, The Houston Chronicle found that most illegal immigrants released from jail were accused of minor crimes. But others included convicted child molesters, rapists and those ordered to be deported decades ago.

ICE officials said they are doing the best they can with their resources.

"No agency has enough law enforcement officers to do the job the way they'd like," Kenneth Landgrebe, ICE's field office director for detention and removal in Houston, told the Chronicle.

The Houston ICE office set a record by removing 8,226 illegal immigrants with criminal records from southeast Texas last year, an increase of about 7.5 percent from fiscal year 2007.

ICE officials said between 300,000 and 450,000 inmates incarcerated in the U.S. are eligible for deportation each year. The agency estimates it screens inmates in only about 10 percent of the nation's jails.

The U.S. House and Senate elect new leaders this week, including the chairmanships of committees responsible for helping Republicans get elected to Congress.

Texas House Republicans are playing up their two-seat majority for all it's worth.

Eric Dewayne Cathey acknowledges that he dealt illegal drugs. But the 37-year-old death row inmate insists he's no killer.