"My faith in the Constitution is whole, it is complete, it is total. I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction of the Constitution." -- Barbara Jordan

I've often written here about my admiration for strong women. I was brought up with a strong sense of right and wrong and a duty to serve one's community. That foundation is what drew me, like other members of my family, to politics.

Unfortunately, politics has very little to do with right and wrong and duty to one's community and country. For that reason, when I identify with a political leader that meets those criteria I feel validated in my own strong beliefs and hold out hope that someone will step up and I will have someone to admire and respect.

My fear is that it is a quixotic belief system and I will only have those leaders that inspired me as a child to look up to as an adult. I guess I'm saying I could really use a hero.

Governor Perry signed a bill that reduces funding to community colleges. The reduction will have a direct impact on their ability to provide benefits for full time employees. The governor has said the shortfall is due to community colleges not reporting employment correctly and the money should come from somewhere besides the state. He's been kind of asshole'ish about it, too.

Perry said, "To get money for these employees, community colleges falsified their appropriations requests." Community-college administrators responded fiercely.

And that really torqued off the community college set. "If the governor truly believes that Texas' community college[s] committed fraud against the state, then he has a duty to prosecute all 50 colleges," wrote Amarillo College President Steven Jones

Sounds like a dare to me. I bet it is some people's lifelong dream to get into a pissin' contest with the governor.

Even Sen. Judith Zaffirini, the chair of the Senate Higher Education Subcommittee and vice chair of the Senate Finance Committee jumped in.

"Having attended every budget hearing, I know that community-college officials submitted full and accurate information in their budget requests. That the governor would accuse them of falsehood is beyond comprehension. The [L]egislature in good faith chose to fully fund community college employee benefits with general revenue because we understand that community colleges are under-funded and over-burdened." (Austin Chron)

Not to be ageist or anything, but maybe it's time you retire.

It seems that everybody pretty much agrees that Attorney General Gonzales is a lying sack of shit. You're doing a heckuva job, Gonzales.

Dr. Pou was the courageous doctor that stayed in that hellhole hospital in New Orleans after Katrina and was later arrested and charged with murder in the deaths of four patients. The grand jury refused to indict her this week and I only hope that she can regain her life as it was before that awful tragedy. The Louisiana Attorney General and District Attorney ought to be ashamed of themselves.

The people that ought to be indicted are in Washington, D.C., not the ones that were in a hospital with sick and dying patients with 10 feet of water in the building and no electricity and 100 degree temperatures.

Even a dead farmer has it better than I do. (AAS)

Veterans are suing the VA for health care and disability benefits. Ouch.

So, I was just wondering...when is the revolution? I'm going to have to go shopping because I have no idea what to wear and I'm quite sure I don't have a pitchfork nor a torch. What color goes well with a torch? Wait! Are we buying uniforms! Oh My God! Can I have a really cool hat?

I watched the YouTube Debates last night. I happen to think that most of the questions were better than the ones that trained journalists have asked of the candidates. Some of these voters aren't as dumb as we'd like to think.

Here's some thoughts. That Gravel fella? He's kind of a loose cannon. He reminded me of Ross Perot's running mate..Stockdale. Chris Dodd: Eh, he didn't float my boat. Joe Biden: Did he seem a little pompous to anyone else? John Edwards: I think he was too old school politics. He was polished and stuck to his talking points and trotted out his son of a mill-worker story that just didn't work for me anymore. Bill Richardson: I thought he sounded like he knew what he was talking about, but I wasn't wowed. David Kucinich: Simply too far left for me. That boils it down to Obama and Clinton for me. I thought both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton sounded presidential and passionate. They sounded articulate and strong.

The Dallas Morning News' most popular stories for Sunday.

"The retail spots ... for every two that went vacant, one would be filled by a Spanish-speaking business, then, you ... saw what was once a really, really, really nice neighborhood start to decline," O'Hare, 37, said in an interview with The Associated Press at the ornately decorated two-story home he shares with his two dogs. (Chron)

Yeah. If it weren't for the dirty Mexicans these neighborhoods would be really nice. Can you believe this shit? The facts are that crime is down in Farmer's Branch and property values are up. But why let facts get in the way of a little politically expedient bandwagon-jumping race baiting? Calling George Wallace, your protege is on line one.

Governor Perry is awfully blase about calling a Special. His cause d'jour is divesting investments in Iran. Is this really necessary? Does the state retirement fund have significant holdings with ties to Iran? If so, that's kind of f'ed up. But, finding out how much of the funds are tied to Iran doesn't bother Perry...not when political grandstanding will do!

For a man elected with without a majority of Texans support, he's sure prancing around like he's some sort of national political player. (SAXN)

Some disgruntled Republican is warning that Bush is on his way to creating a police state in America.

"Americans think their danger is terrorists," said Roberts. "They don't understand the terrorists cannot take away habeas corpus, the Bill of Rights, the Constitution. ... The terrorists are not anything like the threat that we face to the Bill of Rights and the Constitution from our own government in the name of fighting terrorism. Americans just aren't able to perceive that."