U.S. Politics

Gov. Rick Perry: Standing Against Gays in Boy Scouts Akin to Sam Houston's Refusal to Align with the Confederacy

The Boy Scouts of America is proposing to lift its ban on gay youths, but to leave it in place once those gay Scouts become gay adults. This compromise -- gays Scouts, no gay scoutmasters -- apparently is an assault on the very foundations of scoutdom. The Family Research Council sponsors a hyperve ... More >>

Will the Bush Library Reveal Any Secrets?

The new library could reveal gems about oil and the Iraq War

Hey, Rick Perry, Listen. Is That a Fat Lady You Hear Singing?

Is it too soon and maybe even bad luck to say this out loud? Is it even possible that Governor Oops could be over? I'm knocking on wood, tossing salt over my shoulder, making the sign of the cross with my index fingers and looking for garlic in the kitchen as I speak, I promise. But yesterday cons ... More >>

Greg Abbott Wants To Make Texas' Interim (And Still Probably Unconstitutional) Redistricting Plan Permanent

As you may recall, Texas' 2011 plan to redraw political boundaries was so brazenly partisan, so undeniably bent on reducing minority influence, and the evidence was so mountainous and convincing that a federal court didn't even bother cataloging it all in its ruling against the state. "The parties h ... More >>

As Supreme Court Debates Gay Marriage, Texas Politicians Explain How it Violates God's Law

The attention of the country, or at least that segment of it that's politically aware enough to pay attention, is focused squarely on the U.S. Supreme Court,which this week is debating a pair of potentially momentous cases. Hollingsworth v. Perry, which was argued today, could do away with Californi ... More >>

California Is Not Amused By Rick Perry's Open Invitation to "Come Check Out Texas"

On February 4 a 30-second radio ad featuring none other than Governor Rick Perry started its week-long run in six California cities. The ad features the governor's voice tempting the state's businesses to relocate to Texas: "Building a business is tough, but I hear building a business in California ... More >>

Texas Nationalist Movement Has a PAC Now, Are Pretty Sure They're Becoming a "Political Force"

It's getting towards Christmas, and as far as we're aware, Texas has yet to secede from the Union. Even Governor Rick Perry thinks it's a bad idea, and he looks like the sort of man who'd snort wasabi on a bet. But the Texas Nationalist Movement is still feeling pretty optimistic about the whole ... More >>

Five Texas Takeaways from Election Night

Now that our election night hangovers have been slept off, we can now cut through the chatter and attempt to forecast what last night's election results mean to you, Dear Reader. Dallas County is really, really blue Republicans had a strong showing in local legislative races, easily fending off cha ... More >>

GOP Accuses House Candidate Robert Miklos of Sending Prostitutes and Thieves to Knock on Doors

The Dallas County Republican Party dropped something of a bombshell Tuesday on the campaign of Robert Miklos, the Democrat challenging incumbent Ken Sheets for Texas House District 107, covering East Dallas and slivers of Mesquite and Garland. Party chairman Wade Emmert sent a phone message to voter ... More >>

Texas AG Greg Abbott Warns Hillary Clinton to Keep European Election Monitors from Messing with Texas

On Tuesday, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, in a bit of international chest-pounding, sent a strongly worded letter to the head of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe threatening criminal charges if the group carried out a hinted-at plan to show up in Texas come November 6. ... More >>

The Future of Texas' Public Schools. (Spoiler Alert: With Dan Patrick, That Future is Bleak.)

Houston Republican Dan Patrick -- a conservative radio shock jock and founder of the Tea Party Caucus in the Texas Senate -- is vowing to lead the charge in the next session of the Texas Legislature for a school voucher system that would give away tax money to private and religious schools. That's ... More >>

Rick Perry: "Aliens" Still Not Eligible for Public Benefits In Texas

It's a pretty basic equation: When the Obama administration does something, Governor Rick Perry's against it. When at all possible, his administration will refuse to implement in Texas whatever policy change the feds have made. Expanding Medicaid? He's not going to do it here, no matter how many mil ... More >>

Is There Life After Campaign Blunders Like "Legitimate Rape?" Ask Clayton Williams

It looks like the epitaph of Missouri Rep. Todd Akin's political aspirations are written in a Sunday morning interview on a Fox affiliate in St. Louis. The staunchly anti-abortion, GOP Senate candidate said women rarely get pregnant from rape, a misconception repeatedly disproved in medical research ... More >>

Ask a Mexican: Why Are Mexicans Always Changing Their Names?

Rep. Lon Burnam: Let's Tell Texas What Scientists Think About Radioactive Waste Site

In a letter Monday, state Representative Lon Burnam called upon Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott to allow him to release to the public confidential documents he says indicate Texas Commission on Environmental Quality scientists fear a West Texas radioactive waste disposal facility may contaminate ... More >>

It Appears Even Perry's People Believe His Whole Campaign Has Been An "Oops" Moment

​Schutze said it the other day: Gov. Rick Perry's probably just a few days away from crawling back to Austin with his tail tucked between Anita's legs. We'll know more tonight at 7, when the Des Moines Register releases its all-important Iowa Poll, and Happy New Year to you too. But this morning, ... More >>

Merry Effing Christmas to Rick Perry and the Tea Party -- From the Kids

​I'm having particular trouble this year with Toys for Tots. Put it on me for being a grinch. But, look. I see this big smarmy hoopla on the TV news every night with the weatherman and a bunch of shiny-eyed volunteers in North Face parkas handing out useless plastic Big Box crap for the poor ... More >>

The Upside of Rick Perry's Embarrassing Gaffes: Like, Everyone Wants Him to "Adios, Mofo"

​Star-Telegram Washington bureau reporter Maria Recio has a story today asking various Texas politicos how much Governor Rick Perry has embarrassed the Lone Star State. The answers don't vary a lot. If this were a story about fishing, some people would have their hands out about shoulder widt ... More >>

Top Chef: Texas Cost Taxpayers $200K More Than First Reported, Thanks to San Antonio

​We've been telling you since the summer about the estimated $400,000 the Texas governor's office agreed to pay the producers in exchange for them promoting the state's brand in the ongoing, Texas-centric season of Top Chef. Last we checked in, the producers, a California company called Magica ... More >>

It's Good to Be White...

...But let's not get cocky and blow it with anti-voting laws.

U.S. Supreme Court Rules Dallas County's Appeal in Fight Over Voting Machines is "Moot"

​This morning, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a very confusing ruling in the case involving Dallas County's voting machines -- a case, you'll recall, that stemmed from Linda Harper-Brown's 19-vote victory over Democrat Bob Romano in 1998. Long story short: The Texas Democratic Party (represent ... More >>

Before He Sipped the Tea, Rick Perry Had a Much Different Take on Voting

​The old Rick Perry -- back before he discovered the Tea Party -- would have swept into Dallas on a white horse shootin' his Ruger and kickin' up dust to defend the embattled Medrano family, accused of faking a family member's voter residency in a justice of the peace election. In fact, I just ... More >>

Top Chef To Cost Texas Taxpayers $400,000, Give Or Take the Bacon Budget

"Mmm. Taxpayer-funded chocolate is delicious."​For several weeks now, as Top Chef crews have bounced around the state shooting next season's Texas-centric version of the popular Bravo reality show, journalists and food bloggers have wondered: How much, if anything, did the state pay for the sh ... More >>

FAIR-y Tales

Russell Pearce and Other Illegal-Immigration Populists Rely on Misleading, Right-Wing Reports to Scapegoat Immigrants and Terrify Penny-Pinched Americans.

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 >>

Sweatin' It Out With the Justice League!

Photos by Sam MertenState Senator Royce West and county judge candidate Clay Jenkins help pump up the crowd as District Attorney Craig Watkins grabs the mic Saturday afternoon.​This, in case you have not heard, is the "Summer of Justice." Which, as far as summers-of goes, ranks somewhere in betwee ... More >>

Catching Up With Our Favorite George W. Bush Soundalike at the GOP Convention

Sam MertenWe tried to grab Senator Cornyn after this radio interview, but he scampered off to the VIP area before we could snag him.​As Representative Dan Branch told us yesterday afternoon shortly after addressing the delegation from John Carona's senate district, what a difference two years ... More >>

The GOP dredges up some local Dems awful pasts

Dallas Tea Party's Phillip Dennis Distances From Those Trying to "Co-Opt" Movement

Phillip Dennis, when he appeared on Hardball last October​Back in December, we ran a Q&A with Phillip Dennis, founder of the Dallas Tea Party and an adviser to the National Tea Party Coalition. You'll find it here. But today, Dennis gets a much bigger platform: CNN's Web site, to which he's co ... More >>

Kinky Friedman Says: There'd Be No Tea Party If Molly Ivins Were Still Around

Sam MertenFriedman campaigning at Urban Dog Coffee on Oak Lawn back in February​So insists the Texas Jewboy and former gubernatorial candidate in a piece penned for Tina Brown's Daily Beast, the headline of which is "Why Democrats Should Blame Themselves for the Tea Party." Friedman, who lost to h ... More >>

Do Primary Voting Numbers Spell a GOP Trend?

In the War of Attrition Waged by the Texas Attorney General Against Robert O'Donnell, There Were Unintended Consequences

Former Council Member Donna Blumer Defends Cathie Adams; County GOP Chair Neerman Says He's Done Criticizing Her

One month into her tenure as state Republican Party chair, Cathie Adams has caused the party's executive director to resign and took sides in yet another GOP primary race.​Despite the length of our cover story on the GOP gubernatorial primary, my discussion with former city council member Donn ... More >>

Texas GOP Shifts Even Further Right With New Chair Cathie Adams

King of Campaign

Dallas County GOP Chair Jonathan Neerman Says Selection of Cathie Adams as New State Chair "Set the Party Back Five Years"

Searching for a link between President Obama and Hitler? No worries. New state GOP chair Cathie Adams has you covered.If you didn't notice when Texas Republican Party chair Tina Benkiser stepped down last month to join Governor Rick Perry's re-election campaign as a senior adviser, you're forgiven. ... More >>

T.D. Jakes Will Speak in D.C. on Inauguration Day, As It Turns Out, Says the AP

Two days before Christmas, while addressing the controversy surrounding President-elect Barack Obama's decision to have Rick Warren deliver the inaugural invocation, John McWhorter wrote in The New Republic, "Suppose Obama had invited black megastar preacher T.D. Jakes instead." Turns out, Obama has ... More >>

Go Home, GOP|Money For Nothing|Corrections

No Surprises: Ron Kirk is Being Vetted for Obama Cabinet Position

Flickr photo: Obama__Dallas (Adam Jefferson) Ron Kirk, speaking briefly at an Obama victory party at Gilley's on Election Night On November 5, the day after his friend Barack Obama was elected president, former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk told Unfair Park he had "no expectations" concerning an appointme ... More >>

McCain Chooses Sarah Paulson For VP. No, Michael Palin. No, Wait ...

What Texas Delegation?

Popular Conservative Texas House Candidate Dunning Has Some Republicans Worried

Why is Hillary Neglecting Delegate-Rich Dallas County?

While Obama has events going on throughout the city, Clinton is nowhere to be found

Hillary Clinton's Camp Sends Garry Mauro After Barack Obama

Colin Crazy

DeYoung talks Powell in Dallas

Jerry Jones Gives John McCain Money. Not Much, But Some.

Party Poop

With Dems likes these, who needs the GOP?

Talon's Out

Battle for the barrio

Dallas Hispanic Republicans fight historic allegiances -- and a few slashed tires

Hash Over

FoodStar shamble; All bottled up