All,
I had much better luck lighting/using the smoker this weeking.

I used the chimney starter saturday with the newspaper drizzled with
corn oil (the can of PAM was near empty so I used in on the grates)
and it looked like a blow torch going up. Lots of black smoke from
the newpaper and corn oil, and it lit the ROC hardwood quite nicely.
I used mostly that with some of my cowboy charcoal to get rid of it.

The thermometer I placed in the dome is a farse - the water pan was
boiling before it read 200 degrees. It looks like I will be placing
one at each grill level. The fire however seemed to be snuffed when I
started getting some ash built up - so I think I need to work on the
ash drains a little more.

I drilled some holes in the sides of the ask pan and it seemed to help
some. When stirring the coal with fresh charcoal didn't work too
well, I put the blow gun of my air compressor through their and it
caused a nice whirlwind which got the coals lit.

All in all, it worked better than before. Like I said I had trouble
keeping it lit with the ash building up so I could not get the pork
butt above 165. I placed it in foil in the oven until the meat
thermometer read above 190, and the meat opened up almost pushing the
bone out. I sliced some and shredded some and ate it for dinner on
buns, with nothing but the best on the side - JD #7 Barbecue Sauce.

Thanks for all the advice - happy Qing!