"Sometimes money trumps peace," quoth President George Bush.

Amazingly, he wasn't saying this was a good thing. Don't worry, he didn't mean American business. Instead, he was answering a question from John McKinnon of The Wall Street Journal today about how U.S. chest-beating over Iran was received by America's European allies with significant financial ties to Iran. Dubya bemoaned their putting profit first. (Actually, what he said was, "Sometimes money trumps [long pause, looks up to one side], erm [another long pause], peace.")

Unsurprisingly, he may have it bass-ackwards. In his excellent recent book, Hidden Iran, senior fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations Ray Takeyh makes a strong argument that there is and always has been an economically driven pragmatism to Iranian foreign policy. Those financial links are one of the reasons it has messed with Europe less.

Takeyh also reminds readers that without Iranians helping the U.S. navigate the tricky politics of the Northern Alliance, the invasion of Afghanistan would have been much tougher. Furthermore, while Tehran wants a Shi'ite Iraq, it doesn't need continued instability in the region. In short, he argues, if the U.S. government was run less by idealogues and more by European-style pragmatists prepared to blunt Tehran's militarism with trade links, it might achieve its idealistic end goal of a stable Persian gulf.

That's the high-rise-happy word over at that local blog outta New York, Austinist, where they're already mourning the proposed 400-foot tower before City Council tomorrow as "on the chopping block." A little premature, what with the entire post dedicated to how everybody thinks it's just the greatest thing ever, except those old maids over at the Austin Woman's Club. But Austinist, like, watched its planning debate on Channel 6 or something, so, like, they totally know what they're talking about. (Oh, and "the wife of the author of this post works for the architecture firm designing this project." Wouldn't you know?) C'mon - worse-case scenario here - the most council's likely to do is allow a possible delay to construction, until the Downtown master plan is crafted. And lastly, when the shit in recent memory has council shattered such a glass phallus? But what else would you expect from the blog all-things-Austin to recently transplanted Californians?

Anywho, the post entirely ignores the concerns of these guys, but as was made clear earlier, they may be outnumbered. An 11th-hour consortium of enviro-types (Dave Anderson, Brandi Clark, Mary Ann Neely, Jon Beall, George Cofer, Ted Siff, Jeb Boyt, David Foster, Craig Smith, and Gene Lowenthal) has rallied behind the tower as a paragon of dense urban living, urging the council to approve it tomorrow. Look to RG4N as an example - when your name's Austinites for the Responsible Planning of the Original City Neighborhood, you might need something a little snappier.

North Dakota state officials yesterday continued their quest to legalize industrial hemp farming there, this time with the passage of two resolutions urging the federal government to get right on hemp.

NoDak state representatives – led by Republican Rep. Dave Monson, a veteran lawmaker and hemp supporter who is one of the first two farmers to receive a state license to cultivate the versatile crop – on Tuesday passed House Concurrent Resolution 3028, asking Congress to “recognize the multiple benefits of industrial hemp and to facilitate the growing of industrial hemp,” and HCR 3042, “urging Congress to direct the [DEA] to differentiate between industrial hemp and marijuana” – heaven knows the DEA won’t do that on its own.

Liberpublican U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Surfside, yesterday revived legislation that would reauthorize the legal cultivation of industrial hemp. Paul’s House Resolution 1009, the Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2007, seeks to amend the 1970 Controlled Substances Act in order to define hemp as a specific strain of Cannabis sativa – distinct from its illicit cousin, marijuana – and to wrest control and oversight of hemp-farming operations away from federal narcos with the Drug Enforcement Administration and grant regulatory power to the states. The CSA’s “inclusion of industrial hemp in the schedule one definition of marijuana has prohibited American farmers from growing industrial hemp despite the fact that [hemp] has such a low content of [tetrahydracannibinol, or THC, the main psychoactive ingredient in pot] that nobody can be psychologically affected by consuming hemp,” a fact that federal law “concedes” by allowing hemp importation from Canada and elsewhere for use in food products, Paul told his colleagues when introducing the bill from the House floor on Tuesday.

Who's gonna be at the Austin City Store within City Hall from 11am to 2pm? Austin's own hunktastic firefighters, signing copies of their 2007 calendar. No word if former fireman Mike Martinez takes it all off for one last hurrah.

But why stop there? I think we need more Valentine's gifts from the council. Autographed copies of Will Wynn's spread in Austin Fit Magazine would be a great start, and from there the possibilities are endless.

Full press release below the fold.

The Texas Democratic Party has filed a lawsuit alleging that the Hart InterCivic eSlate electronic-voting machines record votes improperly and seeking an injunction prohibiting the machine’s use until the flaw is fixed. If the alleged flaw can’t be fixed, the suit requests that the eSlate be prohibited from use in any further election. Hart InterCivic is an Austin-based company, and the eSlate is the standard voting machine used in Travis County and 101 other Texas counties. (Text of the suit here in a large PDF file.)

Ya know who's great? Drug companies! I mean, they wouldn't research or promote a cure for cancer if it meant they couldn't patent it, but look at all the good things they're doing. At no small expense, they've hired talk-show host Montel Williams to tell you just how great they are. Montel, the Partnership for Prescription Assistance, and their Here to Help Express are pulling into the capital Feb. 20 in a rally big-upping the benevolent drug dealers. If you're lucky, they might give you the first one free - so why should Medicare bother negotiating with them for lower prices?

I mean, when Montel was battling MS, I'm sure he didn't even need health insurance - just an astroturfed PR effort!

As a follow-up to the Northcross square-footage debate, we got these numbers straight from the man himself, Brewster McCracken, on Wal-Mart sizes in Austin (who in turn got them from the APD):

Super Wal-Mart, 1030 Norwood Park: 223,233 square feet
Super Wal-Mart, 12900 N. I-35 service road: 208,552 square feet
Super Wal-Mart, I-35 at Ben White: 206,359 square feet
Super Wal-Mart, I-35 at Southpark Meadows: 206,142 square feet
Super Wal-Mart, 13201 FM 620: 200,000 square feet
Wal-Mart, 290 at Mopac: 135,001 square feet

Proposed Northcross Super Wal-Mart: 225,085 square feet (and that's including the quasi-outdoor garden center)

Granted, this doesn't back up the claim of Northcross being biggest in the world, but it disproves KXAN's claim: "Wal-Marts at 183, at 620, ... and on Ben White" are larger than what's proposed at Anderson.

Let the pwnage commence.

Thursday, Feb. 15, 2007

Item 3: Creates Retail Retention and Enhancement Program for Congress Avenue and East Sixth Street. Where'd that last part come from? Are they gonna give Midnight Cowboy Massage some bucks to relocate?

Item 23: Adopting the Mayor's Climate Protection Plan.

Item 24: Allows UT's Clean Energy Incubator to work with Austin Energy in developing clean energy technology. Sponsor Brewster McCracken's self-satisfaction is an inexhaustible resource.

Item 26: Supporting passage of legislation directing sporting-goods sales tax to fund parks and rec programs. Finally, our jockstrap dollars can go somewhere wholesome.

Item 38: 2pm briefing on on the disturbingly titled Families With Children Report.

Item 39: The Golden Bulldozer procession - zoning - starts.

Item 43: The Town Lake Hyatt, pending a supermajority vote, receives permissive PUD zoning for a mammoth revamp of the site, including condos. City shrugs.

Items 67-68: Rezoning of Concordia campus into high-density mixed use.

Item 69: Zoning on 400-foot condo tower behind Katz's, on Seventh & Rio Grande. Development never kloses!

5:30 Proclamations: Meteorologist Troy Kimmel gets city's Certificate of Appreciation. Jim Spencer goes on weeklong bender.

6pm (more likely midnight) Public Hearings and Possible Actions:

Item 71: VMU opt-in/opt-out.

Item 72: At long last, the Big Box Ordinance. Will anyone be awake?