Stimulus money to be used to repair Governor's Mansion

At least it's a shovel-ready project:

While Gov. Rick Perry is criticizing Washington bailouts, state lawmakers are planning to use $11 million in federal stimulus money to help rebuild the badly burned Texas Governor's Mansion.

Approximately $10 million in state tax money will also be spent on a renovation, which is expected to cost about $20 million, officials said Thursday. A House-Senate committee agreed on the expenditures late Wednesday night.

The mansion was burned in an arson fire last summer.

Perry has railed against federal bailouts and what he called the free-spending, power-hungry ways of Washington. In January, he said Texas was endangered by Uncle Sam's "audacity."

Perry spokeswoman Allison Castle released a short, written statement late Thursday when asked about using stimulus money to renovate the mansion.

"We are continuing to work with lawmakers on the budget," she said.

Secede much?

The governor has been living in a three-story, limestone home with a heated pool, an outdoor cabana and a guest house.

The state is paying some $9,900-a-month in rent while the Governor's Mansion undergoes renovations, records show.

It's just completely within character for the irony to be lost on this guy.

Tom Tomorrow speaks for me

... as well as many of the torture apologists I seem to encounter (click for a larger image):


I'm getting pretty disgusted with the fact that I cannot seem to hear any honest political dialogue with the exception of cartoonists, comedians, a few people on MSNBC and a handful of bloggers.

The fascination with claptrap like American Idol and Dancing with the Stars serves as nothing but a collective "lalala I can't hear from you" from the hoi polloi, and it makes me sick to my stomach.

Michael Steele: Change the GOP cannot believe in

Michael Steele is presenting the Republican party's make-over in this "change is a teabag douchebag" address:



Sad and yet hilarious. Remember eight years ago when the conservatives were saying Howard Dean might say something untoward?

Michael Steele is so lame he cannot even be a decent douchebag. But because the Cheneys are taking the week off ...

Surely someone on the Right will stand up and claim this week's prize. Who's out there? Hannity? Coulter? Malkin? Don't let your side down now.

Newt? Sarah? Billo? Hello?

Your party needs you. Represent.

While we wait for a response, let's go ahead and put Harry Reid on the "Douchebag of the Week" list for agreeing with his Oklahoma Republican colleague, Jim Inhofe, that we can't close Guantanamo because that would mean we would have to put 'terrorists' in American prisons. And that is unacceptable.

Harry Reid -- like all the Republicans -- is terrified of those terrible 'terrists' in Guantanamo being held in a prison in this country. I'm not sure why; maybe because they might break out, or get out because they haven't committed any crime, or because they might convert our nice American prisoners to Islam and terrorism or maybe because we would have to finally give them those pesky "rights" like due process or free speech or something.

*slaps forehead*

Harry Reid is the weakest Senate majority leader I can ever imagine.

And the Douchie goes to ...

Liz Cheney, for her magnanimous sack of BS accusing the President of the United States of supporting the terrorists, and calling him "un-American":



Somebody take this horribly delusional person outside and shoot her for treason, or just for having a brain that has gone bad. Or something. Anything.

Honorable mention goes to our very own Governor Suckseed, for continuing to milk a dead horse (click on this one; it goes to Steven Colbert):

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If Rick Perry can find a new shtick, he's liable to earn membership in the Douchebag Hall of Fame.

The Weekly Wrangle

Here's this week's edition of the Texas Progressive Alliance's weekly blog post round-up.

At Bluedaze, TXsharon asks: What are the chances that an industry in charge of conducting its own testing to determine waste disposal methods will find toxin levels too high if that means disposal of the waste will be more costly? Read Landfarms: Spreading Toxic Drilling Waste on Farmland (with video).

BossKitty at TruthHugger sees lessons never learned ... it is NOT about religion, ya'll! How does it fit that US military crusader evangelists want to save these souls right before we blow them away. How can we justify putting Muslims on death row, by their own people, just because we convinced them to become APOSTATES?! General Order Number One, Forbid Proselytizing -- Evangelists Cannot Protect Murtads. Wars fought using 12th-century religious mentality means that civilization has taken two steps backwards!

Mean Rachel is reminded on Mother's Day of children, the lack thereof and why the pill should be available over the counter.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme wants to know how can Rick Perry brag about how well Texas is doing when over 22% of our children face hunger every day?

Gary at Easter Lemming Liberal News showed a video from the Texas Freedom Network of our own Texas Department of Miseducation in action.

WhosPlayin covered the Denton County Democrats' election of a new county chair, after previous chairman Neil Durrance resigned to run for U.S. Congress in District 26 in 2010.

The bad news is that unemployment keeps rising in Texas. The good news is that means there's more federal stimulus money available for unemployment insurance, if the Lege and Governor Perry take it. Off the Kuff has the details.

WCNews at Eye On Williamson posts on the latest stunt by our member of Congress, AusChron asks a question about Rep. John Carter -- is he a nutball?

Neil at Texas Liberal is very glad that the left won a big election victory in India: Strong Victory For Center-Left Congress Party In India --World's Two Largest Democracies Now Firmly Reject Conservatives.

Harry Balczak is a little upset. Come by McBlogger so you to can understand how much he hates the idea of Texas becoming so $%@*$%%^ puritanical.

John Coby at Bay Area Houston says it is time to sunset Bob Perry's Builder Commission.

This week Teddy at Left of College Station covers President Obama's decision to continue to use the Bush administration commissions to prosecute detainees at Guantanamo Bay. Also, Wednesday Teddy will be a co-host of Biased Transmission, a progressive talk radio show on the community radio station 89.1FM KEOS. This week Jim Olson, Texas A&M University senior lecturer and CIA-officer-in-residence, will return to the show to discuss the "enhanced interrogations" used during the Bush Administration.

Over at TexasKaos, liberaltexan takes on the Obama administration's decision to continue the military Con-Missions. He seems to believe we should, like, trust our own judicial institutions and not make up new, untested ones with no demonstration of necessity or superiority. See his diary, President Obama to Continue Con-Missions.

Xanthippas at Three Wise Men takes heed of journalist Ahmed Rashid's warnings about Pakistan, which teeters on the brink of chaos.

Good ol' boy Gene Green got real scared by some progressive activists who came to his office this past week. PDiddie recounted the poor Congressman's terror at Brains and Eggs.

And lastly but not leastly, Citizen Sarah over at Texas Vox, one of the newest members of TPA, celebrates a victory for renewable energy as the Senate passes through a non-wind renewable portfolio standard. Translation from green geek speech: Lots more solar power for Texas!

Thanks, Rockets

It was a great run. We knew that Kobe's crew was probably a little too much ...


... but you sure threw a scare into them.