PINK PIQUE
Things have been quiet -- too quiet -- after last weekend's Austin American-Statesman vs. Pink Dome flareup sparked by a blog fight between two gubernatorial campaigns.

It all started with skirmishing on Gov. Rick Perry's blog between Perry's camp and challenger Carole Keeton Strayhorn's spokesman Mark Sanders.

When Perry's folks resorted to posting Sanders' 1980s photo from his days in the Capitol press corps -- complete with of-the-era eyeglasses and big mustache -- it caught the attention of the Statesman's Jason Embry.

Embry's reference in his item to In the Pink Texas as "the only political blog in the state that's actually, you know, funny" drew the notice of Pink Dome, which lashed back Sunday at Embry's "teenage skill level" of insult.

Jason, your turn.

[Houston Chronicle]

So it's pretty much been shored up that former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage was the guy who gave Valerie Plame's name to crazy GOP geezer columnist Robert Novak. Novak confirmed the leak with Karl Rove and you know the rest of story. Boy meets girl, boy marries girl, boy criticizes false remarks by administration, administration coordinates with political operatives to commit act of treason by outting girl in retaliation for boy's remarks. Pretty standard storybook lore.

At any rate, Armitage is no longer with the Secretary of State's office. He left to reprise his role as The Thing for the major motion picture Fantastic Four.

Republican Senator Conrad Burns was speaking to a crowd at his fundraiser, warning them of the dangers of not electing Republicans this fall. Apparently America is up against a faceless enemy of terrorists who "drive taxi cabs in the daytime and kill at night." It's true, as can be seen from this undated photograph of Timothy McVeigh and Osama bin Laden. Obviously these taxi operators committed terrorist acts, and since I've got a picture of them in a cab then Senator Burns is correct. Vote Republican this fall, lest your cabbie blow you up.

- Gov. Perry loves Texas Parks, especially if he can sell the land for drilling purposes. Hoo-ee!

- One Tough Grandma is being sued by the former director of Woodside Trails Therapeutic Camp (a camp that Strayhorn closed two years prior). Austinist has a piece written by a former counselor from the camp.

- The Guvernator and California Dems came to an agreement that will force lower greenhouse gas emissions. Those cuh-razy environment-loving Californians.

- And in other news, Ann Coulter is still nuts.

But I'm reading this: Slate is publishing a chapter a day online of The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation.

"This is a democracy, still. . . sometimes just barely. And as such, all voices count. Not just his. Had he or his President proven any of their prior claims of omniscience . . . we all might be able to swallow hard and accept their omniscience as a bearable, or even useful recipe of fact plus ego."
[See the video at Crooks and Liars.]

Rumsfeld thinks critics of the Iraq war are equal to those who let Hitler get away with stuff in the '30s.

But it's in bad taste for progressives to compare Bush to Hitler (remember the MoveOn debacle?).

Ahh, hypocrisy is alive and well in America.

Head. Hurts.

Scenario: Teacher takes 5th grade class to museum. Museum has nude artwork. One parent fuh-reaks out. School board responds by freaking out.

A woman who's been a teacher for 28 years is getting grilled because she took her students to the museum where they obviously have art that depicts nudes. What was that parent thinking? Didn't they sign a permission slip for the field trip? Have they never been to a museum? Did they believe John Ashcroft would come in and hang cloths on the marble boobs and fig leaves on the granite cocks?

Fer crissakes people, it wasn't like the kid wandered into some girl-on-horse porno flick downtown, he saw a work of art. Honestly, I'd worry more about what little Jimmy is doing in the bathroom for 30 minutes with his mother's Victoria's Secret catalogue.

Education Secretary Margaret Spellings: "I talk about No Child Left Behind like Ivory soap: It's 99.9 percent pure or something...There's not much needed in the way of change."

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Iraq: "a series of catastrophes that results in victory."

Spokeswoman Kathy Walt on Perry's lapse in ethics: "Gov. Perry has the strongest ethics policy that any Texas governor has ever had.

Spokesman Robert Black on Perry's fasttracking of 17 dirty coal plants: "The governor has a strong record on the environment".

Dinosaur Congressman Ralph Hall learned about "respectacles" from a group of 6 year olds recently. The congressman visited the Primary School in Pittsburg, Texas, ostensibly because he mistook the school cafeteria for the local Luby's.

While there, he was taught about "respectacles". Apparently these "respectacles" are a kind of apparatus for the eyes, not some sort of respect demanding codpiece that one would assume. At any rate, "with intense concentration, the U.S. representative, the self-proclaimed 'oldest man in Congress,' was able to twist a few pipe cleaners into what looked like a frame for a pair of glasses."

No word yet on whether he pulled down the pants and switched any of the local children.

Have y'all heard of these guys, the Yes Men? They go around impersonating corporate and political leaders, fooling people into believing them.

Yesterday Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin spoke to the Gulf Coast Reconstruction and Hurricane Preparedness Summit. They were followed by someone who claimed to be from the Housing and Urban Development Department, representing Secretary Alphonso Jackson. He highlighted the lack of affordable housing and the inaction of his department, then announced that it would all be changed.

Turns out it was just some random dude who wanted to highlight the ineffectual leadership of the administration. Hot damn though, you gotta give the guy credit for thinking up something like that. Obviously the people who put the event on were peeved that they had been duped. They issued a statement condemning the action, part of which I found curious. From CNN:

"There are many people still in need...To perpetuate a hoax on them is cruel and disgusting."

Yesterday, we get to listen to Kyra Phillips talk shit about her sister-in-law.

Today, we get this headline:

Last night 750 people attended a farewell dinner to thank retiring Rep. Bob Hunter for his service. We here at PinkDome would also like to thank Rep. Hunter for being a classy, principled statesman who made us smile. Rep. Hunter, you'll be missed, we wish you a speedy recovery from your cancer treatment and a happy retirement.

Before the recess, Sens. Barack Obama (D-IL) and Tom Coburn (R-OK) filed a bill to create a Google-like search engine to allow commonfolk to easily search federal grants and contracts. The plan is to bring some sort of transparency to the pork barrel system. It flew out of committee, but had a secret hold stuck on it by an anonymous senator who didn't want it to pass. Of course, now it's floundering in that netherworld of shoulda/coulda/woulda, where good bills go to die.

It seems, however, that a coalition of bloggers has taken to calling up every single Senator and asking them to go on the record as not having placed the secret hold on the bill. So far they've gotten 96 responses, whittling it down to 4 likely suspects. It's also given me the opportunity to learn that there is a senator named Crapo. How funny is that? At any rate, give some senators a call, ask them if they placed the secret hold on a bill that would help clean up the government.

For more info, see here and here. List of Senator suspects is here.

*Update* Word is, dinosaur Sen. Stevens from Alaska is the culprit. He may be afraid that an online database could take up too many tubes. Either that or he's emailed his internet and it's taking a few days for the internet to get here. Frickin' geezer.

I was trying to avoid a mention of Hurricane Katrina: One Year Later because I have a terrible headache. But, that damn Anderson Cooper is on and who can resist? I can't believe it's been a year. I have a lot more questions than I ever saw any answers to on how the promises of rebuilding the gulf coast are coming true.

The Texas Association of Business released their endorsements today. Of course they chose write-in hopeful Shelley Sekula-Gibbs against Nick Lampson in CD-22. The funny part? They misspelled her name on the endorsement list. Hope nobody in CD-22 listens to Bill Hammond, or else they'll be misspelling her name when they write it in on the ballot. Here's hoping TAB can figure out the correct spelling before they send her a check. You can see the full release here (WordDoc).

Rick Perry just called a special election for Nick Lampson's CD-22, Vilma Luna's HD-33, and Carlos Uresti's SD-19 to be held on election day. The filing deadline is the day after tommorrow. Way to go Rick, too little, too late. After letting Rep. Joe Moreno's Democratic seat go unrepresented through special sessions, he called a quick replacement for what was presumed to be Todd Baxter's safe Republican seat. Then, he let SD-19 go unrepresented throughout the summer, as it was now in Rep. Uresti's Democratic hands. After colluding with Republican strategists and seeing a possibility for Republican gains in Rep. Luna's seat and CD-22, he calls a special election to try and help his Republican brethren.

Just another example of the crooked cronyism this Governor has given us over the last six years. While education, healthcare, taxes and transportation have been sliding downhill, the only thing he's managed to improve is the status of his Republican friends. With any luck we'll be able to put an end to that this November.

From the Conservative BattleLine OnLine (I have no idea why I was reading this site):

Al Gore's movie An Inconvenient Truth says human-emitted CO2 will boost the earth's temperatures enough to melt the Arctic ice cap - and suddenly raise sea levels by 20 feet.

Phooey.

Well, can't argue with that. Phooey. In case you were wondering, this is what the author looks like:

If that's not the face of thoughtful, reasoned scientific opinion I don't know what is.

While President Bush spoke today, the CNN accidentally had anchor Kyra Phillips's mic on, projecting over the Prez. It sounds like she was in the bathroom, but fortunately the mic came on after she did her business. Her sister-in-law, however, just found out that Kyra thinks she's a control freak.

A partial transcript after the jump.

[via Wonkette]

Governors Perry and Schwarzenegger are fighting over the award for ______________.

Remember Warren Jeffs? That crazy nutjob that built that polygamist compound out near San Angelo? Well they finally caught up with him in Las Vegas. What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas, except if its creepy fundamentalist child sexual abuse, then I guess you forfeit your right to Vegas anononymity. This guy is responsible for more Anderson Cooper specials than Katrina, Lebanon and Natalie Holloway combined. Glad to see we finally busted him. For some more background on the story, I point you to this story.

Remember all the hubbub about John Mark Karr? The self-confessed killer of JonBenet Ramsey? Remember how all the news channels made a big deal about stupid little meaningless nothings, like the fact that he rode in business class from Thailand to the U.S.? Remember that?

Turns out it was all for not. Yesterday, the Boulder District Attorney announced that they will not be seeking murder charges against Karr after his DNA did not match samples that were taken from the scene.

End result? Karr may get extradited to California to face unrelated child porn charges ... and his name now garners more than 11 million Google hits.

I can only hope that this latest twist makes Nancy Grace's head explode, coating her dressing room walls in a gooey mixture of ego, flared nostrils, and lies.

CNN's Headline on the eve of the one-year anniversary of Hurrican Katrina:

The Gulf Coast is still in shambles. Our government failed us in a time of need. Plain and simple. Admit it, fix it and move on. I was in New Orleans recently and you still can't see a decent sex show and it's nearly impossible to find a hooker. It's just all so sad.

Katherine Harris, is frantically trying to shore up support for her failing campaign by throwing everything against the wall to see what sticks. Her latest WTF? delivery came in an interview with the Florida Baptist. "If you are not electing Christians, tried and true, under public scrutiny and pressure, if you're not electing Christians, then in essence you are going to legislate sin," she told interviewers, citing abortion and gay marriage as two examples of that sin.

But, wait, there's even more! Separating religion and politics is "so wrong because God is the one who chooses our rulers," she said. That's right, America is just like France! There is a divine right of kings here. Did you know that?

I don't have a problem with Christian elected officials. As a Christian myself, I enjoy the familiarity of knowing that my core values are shared by my elected officials. Those core values of compassion, honesty, ethics and the pursuit of the elusive 'right thing' to do.

What I do have a problem with is exploitive and explosive political rhetoric, fear-mongering and whipping up a confused and small-minded base with fears that if you don't vote for me people will come to your house and force you into acts of sodomy and drug abuse. Wait, on second thought...

Ok, if you were to legislate sin....tell me what sin you would legislate. This should give us something super-fun to do on a Monday!

Well, at least according to Jason Embry we do. Neither one of us is funny. Jason thinks the only funny political blog in Texas is ITPT. Now, I love me some ITPT, but I especially love the teenage skill level of Jason Embry in his backhanded slam of every other political blog in the state.

One poster has taken the name "Carole Strayhorn's Goldfish," which appears to be a rip-off of "John Cornyn's Box Turtle," a regular contributor to In The Pink Texas, the only political blog in the state that's actually, you know, funny.

Jason, leave the snide comments to us...and to In The Pink Texas...it's unbecoming of a journalist of your caliber (*snicker*) to stoop to such editorial asides during a news (*snicker, again*) story.

Man, do I hate a democrat. Actually, scratch that---I hate a democrat party activist. Somehow they manage to screw every political gain by a candidate into a liability. Here's the most recent example: In Alabama a majority black democratic district elected a white lesbian to the state legislature. (There's not even a Republican candidate in this district) At the time, I heralded the primary results as a change for the good in Alabama state politics. Maybe, I thought, race relations had improved in "Bombingham" or even more hopeful, I thought, the people of Alabama saw past the lesbian and looked at qualities that make a good representative for their district.

I was half-right. (A position I'm quite used to, I assure you) A powerful party leader, who is black, disqualified the election results claiming the candidate did not follow a campaign filing report that no candidate had followed since 1988. It seems the party leader would rather have a black candidate than no candidate at all to represent that district. The ensuing intra-party fight was played out in the local media for all to see. The white lesbian is back on the ballot, but not after the entire nation gets yet another example of how the democrats are willing to shoot the entire party in the face if they don't each get their individual way.

Democrats, not one team player in the bunch. They suck.

A college student was detained yesterday at Houston's Bush Intercontinental Airport after what appears to be a half-stick of dynamite was found in his luggage. 21-year-old Howard McFarland Fish, whose name just screams terrorist, was on a Continental flight from Buenos Aires to Houston when the dynamite was found during a routine inspection.

But there's more! The head of Buenos Aires airport security told Reuters that local authorities found "a Coca-Cola bottle with mud, and inside it was a tube with ammonium nitrate, a little bit of dynamite and a detonator." Apparently Fish explained this away by saying that he had been exploring mines in Bolivia and purchased the dynamite as a souvenir.

The old exploring-mines-in-Bolivia excuse, eh. I used the same one when my parents caught me with cigarettes when I was 15.

An Ohio school board is moving away from 'abstinence-only' sex education after a recent review showed that of the 490 female students in one district high school, 65 were pregnant. In a very clear case of closing the barn door after the horse got out, the district will now provide education on what happens when a man sticks his penis into a woman's vagina.

Here at PinkDome, we're all about sex. So, we feel qualified to provide you with our very own "Drunk Guide To Sex Education." Pay close attention. See that on the right? That's called a condom. Go buy them and have them on you or near you at all times. You never know when the mood may strike, or as in the case of some of my readers, the moon aligns with venus and some person takes pity on you. Personally, PinkDome keeps condoms in every drawer in the house and in the glove compartment of the car and in my briefcase/messenger bag. It is a good rule of thumb to always have one not more than two steps away.

Condoms are an important part of sex and educating you on why is simple. Sex can have consequences. Not to scare you or nothing, because sex is totally awesome and when your eyes roll back in your head and your toes curl it's like the very first time every time. Anyway, sex...if you are a girl, you can get pregnant. Even if he doesn't stick it all the way in or 'pulls out' early. Also, if you are gay you don't have to worry so much about pregnancy, but you do need to be aware that condoms can help prevent the spread of any number of sexually transmitted diseases. You're probably going to get an STD at some time in your life, even if it's just crabs. But, you should try to prevent them.

Let that be your mantra, "No Glove, No hot sex." (Handjobs are ok, though)

Forbes' Magazine ranked Austin as the 5th drunkest city in America. It might have something to do with playing host to the #1 party school in America. Or the fact that yesterday the Statesman ran an insert on the top 50 bars in Austin (ed. note: the review's not that good; some frat boy ranked the bars based on what I can assume was his likelihood to bang an bleach-blonde, fake-baked sorostitute without spilling his Keystone Light on his pink pastel polo. No offense to the Greeks, I love pretty people, but the review kinda sucks).

Anywho, go out and celebrate being in the top 5. I'm three martinis deep right now, doing my part to put us over the top by the time next year's rankings come out.

When addressing the Border Governors Conference yesterday, Rick Perry commented on how he called Felipe Calderon the president-elect of Mexico. If you've been paying attention, Calderon won a narrow victory over Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, and there's still rabble-rousing going on down there over the true winner of the election. A reporter from Mexico asked Perry whether calling Calderon the president elect meant that he recognized Calderon as the winner. Quoth the gov:

"When we have an election in the United States and the individual who gets the most votes, we refer to them as the president elect,"

No word yet on when president elect Al Gore will receive his call from Governor Perry.

Picture taken of a protestor outside the Four Seasons yesterday, where California Gov Arnold Schwarzenegger had a fundraiser. I'm all for protecting health care and stopping political corruption, but if your plan is to draw attention to yourself then please use that spellchecker on your Microsoft Word.

Lifted from the AAS.

Watch and enjoy:

"The poll results indicate that 50% of all Christian men and 20% of all Christian women are addicted to pornography," said Clay Jones, founder and President of Second Glance Ministries. Praise Him, now pass the lube.

My favorite part of this story is the photo used. Check it out.

This ties in nicely to the story I posted earlier in the week about the weirdos trying to get the hotels to stop showing porn. I find it interesting that we have such a convenient and well-timed example of my theory that those who shout the loudest in opposition of something like porn or homosexuality are usually just trying to shout out what they don't like about themselves. (Look at me, all deep and shit)

As far as porn and Christians go, listen...I think God created the body and he obviously did it with the whole getting your rocks off thing in mind. So, if someone wants to celebrate Jesus by watching two chicks getting banged at once, I have no problem with that. Just be sure to wipe up before you go to church.

New Orleans Mayor Ray "Chocolate City" Nagin is amazingly adept at saying stupid shit. His most recent example:

You guys in New York can't get a hole in the ground fixed and it's five years later. So let's be fair.

Stay classy, New Orleans.

Two state judges ruled against issuing a permit for a new TXU coal plant near Waco. It seems, contrary to TXU's claims, they would not be able to pump clouds of smoke into the air without creating pollution. Who woulda thunk it? Score one for the treehuggers who've been fighting the Governor's coal plants.

In other green news, Land Commish Jerry Patterson announced a Texas bid for the proposed U.S. Department of Energy large-scale wind turbine research and development facility. They've gotten a nice little commission together to bring wind energy research to Texas.

This of course means nothing to me, since I'm fairly adamant about pumping a pack of Marlboro's down my throat every day. But to all you other healthy types, congrats.

As you may have read on BOR, McBlogger, or elsewhere, the GOP launched an attack on DailyKos found Markos Moulitsas. I'll join in the shared distaste of everyone else when it comes to the folks on DailyKos. They're the type of people who walk around carrying chain link fences, just so they can have some way to "crash the gates" at the drop of a pin. However, the GOP is just plain ol' dumb in this case. Move on, let's get back to the important issues facing this country: gay marriage, activist judges, illegal Mexicans, and snowflake babies.

The White House is trying to get out in front of any criticism headed it's way as the 1 year anniversary of Katrina approaches. Their tactic? Drag some two-bit hack up from Louisiana to suck the President's balls in front of reporters. Said this dude: "You know, I wish you had another four years, man...If we had this president for another four years, I think we'd be great."

Sure we would buddy. What did they have to give you to say all this? "I got a tie pin. I had, like, 30 ties I lost in Katrina, so I'll go buy some ties, and a bookmarker for my granddaughter Alex. And he gave me a lot of tokens; he gave me a lot of tokens."

Tokens, lots of tokens. Collect enough of them and redeem them for, well nothing.

According to a dubious study by Men's Health Magazine, Dallas is the 16th angriest city in the country. Although the hypothesis may be a little less than scientific, I totally believe it. Arlington ranks 35th. It has to create some real anger to be known as the halfway point between Dallas and Fort Worth. Seriously, you're between a bunch of pretentious dicks in Dallas and assholes with a chip on their shoulder in Fort Worth.

Austin ranks 81st. It's because everyone is stoned. I, personally, am trying to bump Austin up the list by doing the following things to generate additional anger:

I blame it on the heat. These days I'm blaming everything on the heat.

Short story: A federal judge was keeping thousands of X-rays under lock and key. They were to be used as part of a federal investigation into potentially fraudulent diagnoses of the lung disease silicosis. 4 armed men from the Attorney General's office, carrying a subpoena, threatened to arrest the owner of a storage complex if he wouldn't fork over the X-rays. They then walked off with the X-rays. Thing is, the Constitution bars states from intervening in a federal court's jurisdiction. Abbott could now be deposed in a federal court if it turns out he ordered the seizure of the X-rays.

Long story here.

Via BOR, Dumbass Republican candidate Van Taylor getting his ass handed to him. Remember how he couldn't spell for shit? Go give Chet Edwards some cash.

The Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court held that Ralph Nader would have to pay the legal expenses for the lawsuit that challenged the validity of his petitions.

The Commonwealth Court opinion described the Nader-Camejo petitions as "the most deceitful and fraudulent exercise ever perpetrated upon this court."

Signatures were filed for "Mickey Mouse" and "Fred Flintstone," and thousands of names were created at random, the lower court found.
[...]
"Given the magnitude of the fraud and deception implicated in (their) signature-gathering efforts, their claim that the Commonwealth Court acted in an unjust and unconstitutional fashion by assessing transcription and stenography costs does not pass the straight-face test," Justice Sandra Schultz Newman wrote for the majority.

I can't remember the last time anything in Texas passed the straight-face test. Except HJR 6, that was for straight faces only. Anywho, while they are knocking down the silly/stupid stuff in Pennsylvania, they should find some way to kick this guy's ass.

Grant Rostig was the Libertarian candidate in line to face Lloyd Doggett in the CD-25 election. After the court's redrew the district, he refiled as a Republican (here, scroll down).

Wes Benedict, executive director of the Libertarian Party of Texas, said "I don't like it when people leave the Libertarian Party and join the Republicans...I don't think Grant was a very strong candidate."

What does Wes have to say about Libertarian Bob Smither in CD-22 trying to be a Republican? I swear, Libertarians are frickin' kooky. They can't decide whether they just wanna be a little bump or part of the existing body.

Clearing out stuff from the inbox, here's some things to keep you entertained during this, the most boring month of politics:

Go get your activism on during your lunch break this Friday. Public Citizen and SEED Coalition are having a rally at the Texas Capitol, 11th and Congress, at noon to protest Governor Perry's fast-tracking of coal plants in Texas. More information and a terrible photoshop when you click permalink.

Former Lite Guv Ben Barnes will be reading from his new book and giving autographs tonight at BookPeople in Austin. Go make fun of him for bringing down Dan Rather. Or pick up a copy of his book, whatev.

Chris Bell will be on 93.7 tomorrow morning here in Austin, tune in on your way to work.

There's a Bake Sale for Body Armor up in Carrollton. Go buy a cupcake and save a Marine, Lord knows the government won't do it.

I have no Photoshop skillz . . . I just found this on Wooster Collective (it's a blog showcasing street art). From our neighbors up north (meaning Canada, not Oklahoma):

Some conservative freak is starting a campaign to ask the FBI to investigate hotel pay-per-view porn in an attempt to shut down the popular form of in-room entertainment. Hotel chains make hundreds of millions of dollars a year by offering weary business travelers the opportunity to toss one off after a long day of meetings. One spokesperson even said "This is a business matter" meaning, shut up you freak...in business we make money you're stupid threats don't bother us. So, that totally pleases me...not the same way good hotel porn pleases me, but pleases me nonetheless. Simple economics, my friends. Porn makes money...and as many spam comments as I'll get for using that dreaded spam attractor word will attest, it's big business.

Now, if you'll excuse me room service is here and I've just purchased my in-room entertainment. I'll be back in five minutes.

A little birdie told me that Ryan Phillippe is somewhere in the Capitol today filming his new movie. Per IMDB, the movie's plot outline: "Back home in Texas after fighting in Iraq, a soldier refuses to return to battle despite the government mandate requiring him to do so."

So for all y'all that just fucking loved I Know What You Did Last Summer, don't pass up your chance to meet the star.

Apparently Mexico is just gonna start teaching sex ed to students, you know, textbooks and condom bananas and whatnot. How disappointing, I was all set to move my ass south of the border for some hot teacher lovin'. Sigh.

The cliched frat boy is our President:

He loves to cuss, gets a jolly when a mountain biker wipes out trying to keep up with him, and now we're learning that the first frat boy loves flatulence jokes. A top insider let that slip when explaining why President Bush is paranoid around women, always worried about his behavior. But he's still a funny, earthy guy who, for example, can't get enough of fart jokes. He's also known to cut a few for laughs, especially when greeting new young aides, but forget about getting people to gas about that.

[image from watsoncrombie.com - I wish I could take credit for it.]

FACT:

Despite a strong economy and billions of surplus dollars, state leaders looking toward the next budget face a tight money situation driven by the need to fund the new school finance package, including a cut in property-tax rates.

LIE:

Republican leaders say the package will benefit Texas and they'll still meet state priorities, although a top senator acknowledges it will be tight.

I swear to God if the newspapers start printing heaps of bullshit news like this routinely it will be the demise of PinkDome. How in the hell can I lampoon such stupidity?