Flash dancing......I mentioned last week about Sugar Land police shooting a dog. Sure enough, they killed it. Not only did they kill the dog, they broke down the front door and threw in a “flash bang,” (that’s cop speak for a “noise distraction device”) in order to execute a narcotics search warrant.

The search warrant for a house in Covington Woods yielded two misdemeanor arrests for marijuana.

Since I am a new resident in Sugar Land, I am concerned about the police getting a search warrant for my house because my neighbors turn me in for suspicious activity and surveillance shows several in and out visitors (who may be playing gin or even.....drinking it) and the police breaking down my front door and killing my poodle.

When I talked to the Sugar Land police about these draconian tactics, they told me this was a joint operation of the Sugar Land police and the joint SWAT team, composed primarily of Sugar Land police and one officer each from Stafford and Missouri City, that they knew the dog was there, and they had animal control standing by around the corner. According to Capt. Gary Cox of the Sugar Land Police Department, the dog was shot because he charged the lead officer and then shot again by another officer because he wouldn’t let go of the lead officer’s leg.

I asked Capt. Cox why, if they knew an animal was present, didn’t they simply use a tranquilizer gun for the dog. He told me they didn’t have those capabilities and it was not the protocol. Their first concern, and rightly so, was the safety of their officers.

Capt. Cox said the animal was taken to a local vet but it was too late. He said the vet told them he had treated the animal before and it had to be sedated when treated.

Capt. Cox said the Sugar Land police truly regretted the situation. My concern, the safety of my poodle aside, is the forced entry into a home in a middle-class subdivision that isn’t a “crack” house with a “flash bang.” I even understand going in tough if you think a situation might develop, and according to Capt. Cox, the police banged on the door and called out for them to open up for the warrant. But, for the small of amount of drugs recovered, I am beginning to think the Sugar Land police department is as bone-headed as the Sheriff’s department.

Why, if the Sugar Land police had stopped Willie Nelson’s bus, they might have shot his harmonica player.

Other dancing.....I mentioned last week about our former U.S. Congressman Tom DeLay inserting himself into the “Dancing with the Stars” contest by asking people to vote for a particular dancer, rather than an ultra liberal TV show host. I happened to think after my story was filed that we can count on Tom DeLay to politicize everything! Even a family television show.

He brought the politics of partisan destruction to Washington, found it worked so well there that he imported it to Austin where he worked on redistricting the state mid-census and turning all Republicans against all Democrats. The state government hasn’t worked well since. Our legislature only meets every two years. They don’t have time for the partisan bickering that has since resulted.

From childhood, I’ve been told that Baptists (Mr. DeLay’s supposed religious sect) don’t believe in dancing. In fact, in my hometown in west Texas, I know of people kicked out of the Baptist Church for dancing. So what is the ultra-conservative who told many he quit his representative seat because “God told me to” doing getting involved in dancing on a national scale?

I keep having to remind my Republican friends that Tom DeLay is the reason that Republicans will most probably lose Congressional District 22. He quit. He ran. He didn’t have to. He messed up.

Those fiscally conservative Republicans.....We at Star Printing (a sister company run by Star general manager Michael Fredrickson) recently was asked to bid on printing the Republican quarterly newspaper. We submitted the lowest bid but my moles tell me that Teresa Raia got up and said that the Republicans shouldn’t do business with me because I had talked bad about Tom DeLay and been censured by the party. Oh, so those fiscally responsible Republicans don’t care what you bid; they only care about your politics. Sounds like Halliburton/Chaney to me.

Actually, I was rather glad we didn’t get the job. It meant so few dollars in our pockets and can you imagine the problems we would have to put up with since the local Republican party has degenerated into a free-for-all political cabal of personal destruction?

At the same meeting, the precinct chairs voted to make Linda Howell vice chairman of the party. Linda ran for chairman when the current Republican chairman Gary Gillen won. Previously, the chairman could choose the vice-chairman but after a Dean Hrbacek-led rule change, voted on by a majority, the vice chairmen must be a precinct chair. That very night, Linda Howell was appointed precinct chair of her precinct.

A certain group in the Republican hierarchy are trying to tear down Gary Gillen, just like they tried for years to tear down Eric Thode. They want to run the party without being elected. I think Gillen should just let them. He’s very brave and tenacious to stay in there to protect the moderate base.