Mitt Romney

Wait, Why in the Hell Did Facebook Donate Thousands of Dollars to Ted Cruz?

It's pretty frequent these days to experience Impotent Facebook Rage (IFR), in which the social media giant does something so profoundly irritating or angry-making that you immediately vow to get off the site altogether. And yet, you don't cancel your account cold turkey (or at least I don't), proba ... More >>

Today, Democrats Are Officially Gunning for Texas' Electoral College Votes

This is day one of the Battle of Texas, which is mostly marked by a website launch. Battleground Texas, the Democratic Party's efforts to shake the GOP hold on the state, officially starts today. The site comes with a nifty graphic showing a red Texas filling up with blue (it's pretty low right now) ... More >>

Even The Economist Thinks Texas is too Fiscally Conservative

The Economist isn't conservative in the American sense of the word, which has come to be defined as much as by views on abortion and Jesus as by a desire for limited government, but it's consistent in its support of free market capitalism relatively unfettered by government. The magazine did endors ... More >>

T. Boone Pickens Takes Sen. John McCain's Former Presidential Campaign Strategist To Court Over Loan

T. Boone Pickens -- billionaire oil man, erstwhile wind-energy apostle, multimillion-dollar donor to Karl Rove's super PAC -- wants his money back. According to a filing in Dallas County court, he claims he's getting mostly stiffed on a $125,000 loan he made to political consultant John Weaver, who ... More >>

America Really, Really Wants the Cowboys to Lose to the Redskins on Sunday

The Dallas Cowboys, despite a season defined largely by extended periods of mediocrity, improbably, inexplicably find themselves on the cusp of their first playoff berth in three years. It all comes down to Sunday. If they beat the Redskins, they're in. If they lose, they're out. One would expect t ... More >>

As the National GOP Leaps into the 20th Century, Ted Cruz and His Texas Pals Cling to the 19th

Last Thursday, New York Times conservative columnist David Brooks said Republicans, smarting from Mitt Romney's defeat, have learned their lesson and are undergoing what Brooks described as a "glasnost," a term defined by Merriam-Webster as, "a Soviet policy permitting open discussion of political a ... More >>

Here's What the Dallas Observer is Going to Do When We Win Tonight's Powerball

Quick programming note: Things are going to be light around here in the coming weeks. A bunch of us threw in on the Powerball, which is up to $550 million, and as everyone knows, the more people who get together on buying a ticket the better the odds. So I don't suspect we'll be around to do much bl ... More >>

Mark Davis Says "Today is the First Day of Talk Radio." Ain't That the Truth.

Not long after the networks started calling Ohio for Obama last night, but before Karl Rove tried to convince himself that Cleveland and Cincinnati were going to miraculously turn the state red, Mark Davis, the local conservative talk-radio host and Morning News contributor, dispatched the Tweet you ... More >>

Colorado Bound? It'll Be a Bit Before the State's New Marijuana Law Takes Effect.

Let's just cut to the chase: At least 14 months. That's how long it will be before the first retail non-medical marijuana store in Colorado, our friendly neighbor to the northwest, might open. Not that anyone is counting. Looks like the nearest big town to Texas on an interstate in Colorado is Tri ... More >>

Get Off Jefferson's Lawn: On Election Day, an Ode to the Free, Diverse, Annoying Press

Op-ed piece by Princeton professor Kevin M. Kruse in this morning's New York Times argues the real loser in this election cycle was the truth. Kruse marshals instances on both sides of the line but comes down clearly in the camp that sees Mitt Romney as the biggest fattest pants-on-fire liar ever. ... More >>

Get To Know Your 2012 DOMA Nominees: The Atomic Tanlines

Leading up to our November 10 showcase, we'll be getting you familiar with some of our Dallas Observer Music Awards nominees, either via past features we've done on them, or new ones. You can vote for your favorite acts, venues and more right here. Denton foursome the Atomic Tanlines stole the show ... More >>

The 2012 BET Hip-Hop Awards Cypher Breakdown

In the last couple of years, the BET Hip-Hop Awards have proven to be the most ironic awards show on television. There's little to no merit in an artist actually taking home an award anymore, unless you get the I Am Hip Hop lifetime achievement honor. The most important accolade an artist can really ... More >>

Pizza Hut Will Give You Free Pizza for Life If You Ask "Sausage or Pepperoni?" at the Next Presidential Debate

President Obama and Mitt Romey will square off for their second debate on October 16 at Hofstra University in New York. It's a town hall meeting format-thing, which likely means slung jackets and awkward, aimless candidate-walking. The debate is set to cover foreign policy, domestic policy and, if ... More >>

Media Bias Doesn't Matter Much if No One Is Listening Anyway

David Carr, who writes a media column for The New York Times, has a piece in today's paper about dumb it is for Republicans to claim the mainstream media are biased against Mitt Romney. He pulls a bit of a trick, seems to me, by folding claims of media bias into a separate issue -- an accusation fro ... More >>

Two Conventions: One for Old White People, One for Everyone Else

Look, I'm not even the world's biggest fan of political conventions, because they make me feel like I'm trapped in a cubicle with a car salesman. What's to believe about an event where they hire a consultant to do the balloon drop? But with these two conventions freshly behind us, I don't think it ... More >>

Let the Democrats Remember: The Wealth of the Nation Doesn't Come from Yachts

Pins and needles, waiting for the Democrats to open in Charlotte. I am so worried the Obama campaign might stumble on an editorial from The Dallas Morning News and actually read it. Well, not that worried. That would take a lot of stumbling. But what a shame if they did take the News' consistent ed ... More >>

Faculty Panel Pans Bain's Vision For UNT-Dallas

Last month UNT-Dallas made the rather unexpected announcement that founding President John Ellis Price was stepping down effective August 2013, leaving him in office long enough to launch the so-called New University Model. Details about the model were left up to Bain & Company (the consulting affil ... More >>

Barbarians in the Ivory Tower

America's for-profit colleges offer education only a con man (or a congressman) could love.

For-Profit Colleges Only a Con Man Could Love

Barbarians in the Ivory Tower

Rick Perry Less Than Excited To See Obama In Texas, Suggests He Should Apologize for AG Holder's Comments On Voter ID Law

President Barack Obama will be in Texas for approximately five minutes today, attending some fundraisers in San Antonio and Austin. An LGBT Leadership Council event in Austin costs anywhere from $250 to $7,500 to attend, while the Statesman claims another event at the Four Seasons there will cost $ ... More >>

America's Petro-Terrorists

How greedy speculators bought politicians and drove up the price of oil.

Merle Haggard Tells It Like It Is

A Guide to How Obama's New Immigration Policy Will Work, And a Word of Caution

President Barack Obama announced Friday afternoon that the Department of Homeland Security will no longer attempt to deport young undocumented immigrants brought here as children, signaling a compassionate shift in an immigration policy whose hallmark was aggressive enforcement and record-shattering ... More >>

Welcome Back, Jim Crow

New laws in dozens of states could take out Barack Obama this fall.

When Arizona's Immigration Law is Upheld, the Floodgates of Hate Will Swing Open

The U.S. Supreme Court and President Obama leave the undocumented and their allies no choice but to escalate civil disobedience.

The Gay Selma

Schools ignore gay bullying at their own peril

Liberal Leppert, Tea Party Taj Unmasked by Completely True, Fair-Minded Election Materials

The primary for the U.S. Senate, House and a slew of local races is coming up -- on Tuesday to be exact, with early voting ending today -- which is why you've been seeing a ramp-up in the ... Revelations. Seriously. These just blew my mind. For example: Did you know that Tom Leppert, the former Dal ... More >>

Politics and Pop Culture Take a Whoopin' in Shows Inspired by Green Day and Molly Ivins

Speak of the Devil: Santorum's Coming to Town as Jeffress Joins O'Reilly to Talk "Satan" Speech

​Says here Rick Santorum's coming back to town tomorrow for a fundraiser on behalf of his Red, White and Blue Fund super PAC, which declined to nail down the Dallas date; it also doesn't appear on his official campaign schedule, and his campaign folks haven't responded to our queries either. But a ... More >>

Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra's Long-Form Drone at Sons of Hermann Hall

Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra, The Angelus Sons of Hermann Hall Sunday, February 12 As snow flurries turned to rain Sunday night, Canadian five-piece Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra performed in Dallas for the first time. And they played for almost two hypnotic hours. Frontman E ... More >>

Why Does Karl Rove Hate America So Much?

Oh, boy. Another chance to say something good about Detroit. Nothing gets a bigger rise out of a certain element among you loyal Lawners than when I utter anything even faintly complimentary about my hometown. For reasons I may never fully understand, I would incite less mouth-foaming if I sang the ... More >>

"When America Is On Its Knees": Some Jeffress, Perry Video Before the Iowa Caucus Results

We're about four hours away from finding out who won those long, hard-fought caucuses in Iowa, which Rick Perry is trying like holy hell to win based on the newly minted video you'll find on the other side. It's quite the stars-and-stripes-and-church-cross spectacular -- like something Jerry Bruckhe ... More >>

Hispanics Not Thrilled With Obama, But They Still Won't Vote For Rick Perry, Study Says

These days it seems as though both political parties are doing everything they can to disenfranchise one of the fastest-growing demographics in the country: Hispanics. While the GOP ratchets up anti-immigrant rhetoric and champions Arizona-style immigration legislation, the Obama administration rac ... More >>

Sometimes 1 Percent is Enough. If, That Is, You're Willing to Stand Up.

​Hey, one last shout out here for the Occupy Dallas people who camped at City Hall. I know you took a lot of grief from people who didn't understand why you were doing what you were doing, including me a little bit at one point. I hope you took note of the president's speech yesterday in Kansa ... More >>

Why Are Harlan Crow, Charles Moncrief Bailing on Rick Perry? Well, It's The Talkin', Mostly.

​There's a piece in this morning's Wall Street Journal in which Unfair Park's cross-the-street neighbor Harlan Crow and Fort Worth oil man Charles Moncrief explain why they're throwing their money at Mitt Romney after years spent filling Rick Perry's coffers. Long story short: It's that openin'-hi ... More >>

Media Political Pundits Quit Surfing TMZ Long Enough to Sculpt Narrative, Declare Rick Perry Campaign Sunk.

Perry Sticks By His Guns on Social Security

Are you listening, old people?

Party Like It's 1979 as Robison, Pastors Help Their "Prayer Partner" Perry Run for President

The in-box is filled this morning with more news concerning Rick Perry's "day of prayer and fasting" in Houston next month -- you know, The Response. Let's begin with this: Several Friends of Unfair Park have forward a piece I first saw this morning on Startlegram great Bud Kennedy's Facebook feed: ... More >>

Holy Crap: Does Perry Have a Prayer?

Dear, God, let's hope not.

Decisions, Decisions: Shoveling Dirt on the New George W. Bush Presidential Center with a Handful of Old Friends

Photos by Stephen Masker​Of course you've heard that George W. Bush has a new book out in stores, and this morning, you couldn't help but hear he was getting started building his new library, too. Onstage under a big tent on the Southern Methodist University campus, Bush was shifting excitedly fro ... More >>

Boston Burger Has Little to Do Wth Boston and Everything to Do With Burgers: Delicious, Sloppy and On the Cheap

The Perfect Christmas Gift, Obama’s First Mistake and Looking Ahead to 2012

Look, Pastor Robert Jeffress Doesn't Like Anybody Not Like Him, M'Kay?

First Baptist's Robert Jeffress Still No Fan of the "Non-Christian"

Michelle Shocked Isn't A Lesbian, Loves God...Basically, This Is A Bible Girl Column.

The Dark Horse?

Mexican attitudes on black and white is a gray issue

Do Legal Immigrants Turn in Illegal Ones?

Making Book

Showdown at 11:10

John Fogerty

Friday, December 7, at Nokia Theatre, Grand Prairie