Perry declines another DHS border security meeting

At first the reports read that Obama, while visitng El Paso's Fort Bliss yesterday, had turned down Perry's request to meet the president and discuss border security...

The Republican governor's spokeswoman said Perry's request for a presidential meeting to discuss border security was rebuffed. According to Perry spokeswoman Katherine Cesinger, White House aides said the president would not be available for such a meeting. 

Now the media says Perry passed on a briefing with Homeland Security, just as he did three weeks ago.

The White House says Gov. Rick Perry was offered but declined to meet with Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano and a top adviser to President Barack Obama on border issues.

[...]

White House spokeswoman Moira Mack responded Tuesday by saying the Obama administration has directed unprecedented resources to the border since March 2009. Mack also says Perry declined a meeting with Napolitano and John Brennan, the president's top homeland security aide in the White House.

Overlook the obvious here; that Rick Perry isn't actually serious about "resolving border issues" (sic). No, Perry is so stupid that he doesn't realize he's missing a tremendous opportunity. See, he wants to demagogue the meeting with Obama; but he can't see he's skipping the chance to demagogue the meeting.

Governor: take the briefing with Napolitano. Then hold a press conference immediately after, declaring that the Obama administration isn't serious about border security since they ignore your letters and blow you off for face-to-faces (something you do quite well yourself). Be sure and point out how much 'they' hate Texas, and be sure not to say you -- for moaning about secession, for spitting on stimulus money while you accept the funds to balance the state budget, and all your other bullshit antics.

That's as wide an opening as they are going to give you to score points with your freak-right base, dude. And your score isn't going to be any higher if you just continue to lob water balloons at the president over this.

Take what they give you, dumbass.

Gays can't divorce in Texas after all

A state appeals court in Dallas has rejected a lower court’s decision that two gay men who married in Massachusetts had the right to divorce in Texas.

In October 2009, state District Judge Tena Callahan ruled that the men could legally end their marriage and that the state’s prohibition against same-sex marriage violates the federal constitutional right to equal protection.

But today, the Fifth District Court of Appeals in Dallas reversed that decision and ordered Callahan to dismiss the case.

Same-sex marriages or civil unions are prohibited by a voter-approved amendment to the state Constitution and the Texas Family Code.

The appeals court said today that the trial court had wrongly ruled that those provisions violate the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.

Additionally, Justice Kerry P. Fitzgerald wrote in the decision: "We hold that Texas district courts do not have subject-matter jurisdiction to hear a same-sex divorce case." 

You may recall that Attorney General Abbott also waded into rolled into this case.

Abbott said last fall that he was appealing the ruling "to defend the traditional definition of marriage that was approved by Texas voters."...

(Attorney for the plaintiffs Peter) Schulte wrote in a court filing that the state's arguments were an attempt "to mislead the court in an effort to pursue the attorney general's own political agenda."

Back to the DM News for the OMG (my emphasis):

And in arguments before the three appellate judges, all Republicans, attorneys for the state and the conservative Plano-based Liberty Institute repeated the claim that to recognize same-sex divorce, Texas would have to recognize same-sex marriage.

Plaintiffs are deliberating whether to appeal to the (all-Republican) Texas Supreme Court. How do you think that will go if they do?

Oh, yes: The Liberty Institute. Where have we seen their name in recent developments in Houston lately?