The Rick Perry campaign is airing its first radio ad of the campaign - a lively takeoff on the popular game show Jeopardy with questions about runaway federal spending and the answer always the same: Kay Bailey Hutchison. It's the first real attack of the campaign, but uses humor to [...]
Toaday's Patriot-News of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania carries the editorial, "Chance for change: Life sentence removes hope for juvenile reform."
The question before the U.S. Supreme Court is: Do we believe juveniles sentenced to life in prison can reform?
Last week, the justices faced this question in a case involving two men serving [...]
So, I didn’t get around to the news about NASA finding water on the moon until after I’d published my Friday Random Ten for last week. But the great thing about Fridays is that there’s always another one coming. So here I present to you ten moon songs.
1. Bad [...]
"Why you should care about Cory Maye and Cameron Todd Willingham," is the title of Matt Zeitlin's column in North by Northwestern.
It’s hard to imagine a more depressing story than that of Cory Maye. In September, 2001, when he was just 21 years old, Maye fell asleep on the couch [...]
His has been a long and twisted tale, with a career on Texas death row. Soffar has always maintained his innocence. He was originally convicted in 1981of killing three people during a bowling alley robbery. His court appointed lawyer was the notorious Joe Cannon, known as the sleeping lawyer of [...]
Sen. John Cornyn, still a bit hoarse, is vocalizing again. The briefly speechless junior senator recalled something Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco, quipped after vocal cord surgery three years ago to address recurring problems. Doctors ordered him to remain mute during his recovery.
"He said his approval ratings shot through the" [...]
Here’s the full polling data for that KHOU/KUHF poll. Of greatest interest to me is the bit where they note that they asked people whether they’d voted in the November election; about 75% of them said Yes. Given that turnout for this election was about 20%, I find [...]
Courtesy Dana R
[...]That's the title of an AP report this morning via the Dayton Daily News. LINK
A federal appeals court is pushing a condemned killer to say why his lawsuit opposing lethal injection in Ohio shouldn't be dismissed.
The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati has given attorneys for Kenneth Biros until Friday afternoon [...]
Countdown
Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and [...]
Clearly refuting fellow columnist David Brooks’ love fest for little Timmeh Geithner, Paul Krugman says the current Treasury secretary was a clusterfuck at the NY Fed, and hasn’t looked a lot better on his current job.There is no god and I am his prophet. [...] 
The sheer volume of the nutty screaming from the Right can obscure the rank hypocrisy of the GOP’s attacks on health care reform. So let’s clear up a few things.
Health care reform is about getting our neighbors better health care, reducing unnecessary suffering and early death. “Socialism!” [...]
The name or the personality? Consider "Bart Stupak" and now "Chris Buttars". Seriously, "Chris Buttars". With a name like that, could you be anything BUT an asshole? [...] 
Emily Ramshaw at the newly-launched Texas Tribune has a series of three stories this week on the state of health care and mental health care in private immigrant detention centers in south Texas, including the GEO Group's South Texas Detention Center in Pearsall and MTC's' [...]
Democrats, and indeed all people who voted for Obama should be hanging their heads in shame. But yet, some liberal Democrats still praise Obama and look upon him as some sort of savior; when in reality he is destroying this country and everything that has made it the [...]
At first, the wife said, she couldn’t understand what her husband was saying. It sounded as if he said he had been attacked by a lawn mower.
"I thought he said lawn mower," she said. "He said, 'No, I got attacked by a llama and I’m bleeding pretty' [...]
From the Waco Trib -Understand that every Republican except Michael Burgess of Lewsville voted No. So Chet Edwards voted with the Republicans.
Dr. Thomas Valigura, a Waco anesthesiologist who is president of the McLennan County Medical Society, said he understands concerns about the national debt. But fixing physician payments is critical, [...]
The GEO Group has pulled out of a contract to operate a Beaumont jail, according to KBMT ("Downtown Beaumont Jail Shuts Doors, Temporarily," November 12)
The private company that operated a downtown Beaumont jail facility has ended it's contract with Jefferson County.
Officials say the facility has [...]
From Karen Haddon of SEED coalition
NRC Shuts Public Out on Comanche Peak and South Texas Project Compliance with Fires and Explosions Rules
The public was shut out of the bulk of two hearings last week on whether the proposed Comanche Peak and South Texas Project (STP) nuclear reactors have [...]
Following Rick Perry's rejection of clemency for Robert Thompson, recommended by the Board of Pardons and Paroles, Texas conducted its 23nd execution of 2009, last night in Huntsville. It was the 446th Texas execution since 1982. Texas has far and away the most active death chamber in America, accounting for more than 37% [...]
OMG. I wish it was OK to beat stupid people senseless... if it was, I'd LOVE to introduce that fucktard Dick Armey's face to a hardcover copy of the Community Reinvestment Act since he's decided it (and not poor decision making at the banks) was the reason the banking' [...]
I know it's Friday and I'm supposed to do another installment of my funnies, but I have a beef. It's the Friday before our thanksgiving break, but all I can think about right now are management issues in education. Since I'm sure these issues are mirrored in industry I [...]
Now we know why Obama said “don’t rush to judgment” about the Muslim terrorist, Hasan, who killed 13 and wounded 29 at Ft. Hood. This was the worst act of TERROR on U.S. soil since the attacks of 9/11. And now we know why Obama doesn’t want this [...]
On Thursday evening, the city plan commission denied a request to demolish two historic buildings on downtown's east side - the 508 Park Avenue building and an adjacent building at 1900 Young Street.
But the plan commission did not entirely slam the door on Colby Properties when [...]
A congressional hearing turned ugly Thursday, thanks in large part to Rep. Kevin Brady, R-The Woodlands, who called for the resignation of Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.
"Conservatives agree that as point person, you failed," Brady said. "Liberals are growing in that consensus as well. For the sake of our jobs, [...]
Farouk Shami announces and the race shrinks, effectively, to two. Anyone dazzled by Kinky now folds to Shami and Schieffer hasn't a chance to beat him in a money war (not to mention that Schieffer generates the same buzz and excitement as a bowl of cold vegetable soup)' [...]
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison has been booked as a guest Sunday on Meet the Press, along with two Democratic senators, Majority Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois and California Sen. Diane Feinstein, and with Connecticut independent Joe Lieberman, who chaired the first open hearing regarding the Fort Hood shootings, on Thursday.
[...]On Monday, council member Angela Hunt screened a movie for the council's Transportation Committee.
The film, Contested Streets, presents a history of New York's congested avenues where people often have to jockey with cars and buses just to get to the other side.
As the film points out, it's a history [...]
By Stephen N. Zack
With a last name like "Zack," most people don't realize that the president-elect of the American Bar Association (ABA) is Latino, Cuban-American to be exact. Mr. Zack will be the first president in the ABA's 131-year history who happens to be both Latino and' [...]
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) has issued new guidelines for pap smears, which screen for cervical cancer. Previously, they suggested beginning testing after becoming sexually active and testing annually starting in your twenties. Now, they say women in their 20s only need to be checked every [...]
1. Nicholas Kristof, on how Republican have been scare-mongering Americans into voting against their own interests for eighty years now. History has proven them wrong, every single time.
2. Perhaps you heard about the “Hand of Frog” that secured France a berth in the World Cup over poor [...]
From the Dallas Morning News - Actually this is a pretty creepy story about how one of the executive directors of CPS didn't report some abusive personal problems that involved an arrest.
"Yes we are, obviously" concerned, CPS spokesman Patrick Crimmins said Wednesday. "All employees are required to report these incidents' [...]
You got your first look at the gubernatorial air war here on TrailBlazers. We were the first yesterday afternoon to post Kay Bailey Hutchison's new ad and to report that Rick Perry was following suit with a spot of his own. Perry put his new spot on his campaign [...]
The Marvalus One has thrown out a doozie this week.   The only direction: I had a crush on. There are a lot of candidates: Tracy Spenser, Shanice, Salt & Pepa, Dawn from EnVogue. But I had to go with the following:
Vanessa Williams - Just For Tonight
Who didn’t love Vanessa Williams? [...]
The Daily Show With Jon StewartMon - Thurs 11p / 10c www.thedailyshow.comDaily Show
Alice & Ray's Place, of Arlo Guthrie's Alice's Restaurant Thanksgiving Day Glory
Next week is Thanksgiving, the day we all give thanks that we don’t have to watch what we eat. It’s acceptable, nay, expected that you [...]
Inspired by the example of Martin Luther King Jr., Christian culture warriors declare that they will stand together as one in an attempt to suppress the rights of those whose conduct they do not condone:
…45 evangelical, Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christian leaders have signed a declaration saying they will [...]
Kay Bailey Hutchison voted with her fellow Republicans yesterday against the confirmation of a federal judge that conservatives have labeled a liberal activist. But Gov. Rick Perry told me that's not good enough because she missed an earlier vote on the nomination. Clearly, Perry's going to keep up the "she's'" [...]
It should be erased with Miya Shay's post:
Just yesterday, Allen Blakemore hosted a lunch time meeting in his office between Christian Archer and Roy Morales. Archer is Locke’s campaign manager, and Morales is the Republican who finished with about 20 percent of the vote during the November election. Blakemore [...]
Mullah Mohammed Omar, the one-eyed leader of the Afghan Taliban, has fled a Pakistani city on the border with Afghanistan and found refuge from potential U.S. attacks in the teeming Pakistani port city of Karachi with the assistance of Pakistan's intelligence service, three current and [...]
And we have our first poll from a source other than one of the campaigns, but like those two before it, this one shows Annise Parker in the lead.
The poll consisted of 500 telephone interviews with registered Houston voters who consider themselves likely to vote in the [...]
The 2011 legislative session is going to be so much fun.
Sales tax revenues have taken double-digit dives for five months running; in each of those months, the state’s income from those taxes has been more than 10 percent lower than in the same month the year before. In a [...]
Maybe you are, and maybe you’re not.
Barbara Ann Radnofsky, a Houston lawyer and Democratic candidate for attorney general, says that a 22-word clause in a 2005 constitutional amendment designed to ban gay marriages erroneously endangers the legal status of all marriages in the state.
The amendment, approved by the Texas [...]
This past Wednesday was the final Kaufman County Bar meeting for 2009. What a difference a year makes. One year ago there was about a dozen lawyers at what was probably the 5th meeting of the year when Tracy Booker, myself, Keena Greling, and Lisa Gent were elected to [...]
I don’t follow high school sports at all, but this Chron story about a battle between the University Interscholastic League (UIL) and the Texas Association of Sports Officials (TASO), about who has control over the officials at high school athletic events, was fascinating to me. I don’t have any [...]
Venezuelan soldiers dynamited rope suspension bridges crossing the Tachira River near the Colombian hamlet of Ragonvalia, in [...]
One of the strongest factors promoting recovery from our 10 post-World War II recessions was an unshakable conviction that, regardless of the immediate trouble, the American economy is fundamentally strong. Based on this underlying confidence, recessions and recoveries roughly conformed to the principle [...]
Arrests of illegal immigrant workers have dropped precipitously under President Obama, according to figures released Wednesday.
Criminal arrests, administrative arrests, indictments and convictions of illegal immigrants at work sites all fell by more than 50 percent from fiscal 2008 to fiscal 2009.
The figures [...]
Rand Paul: Try, Convict and Lock Up Terrorists In Guantanamo
Obama's approvals now 49% to 46%; first time firm finds below 50%
That's how long it takes to ruin a wedding.
