Gubernatorial debate tonight (again, without the goober)

Three candidates for governor will take part in a live debate at 7 p.m. tonight sponsored by the Houston Chronicle, the state's other large newspapers and Austin television station KLRU.

The debate will be webcast live on chron.com, and you'll be able to discuss the debate with other voters across the state.

Democrat Bill White, Libertarian Kathie Glass and Green Party nominee Deb Shafto will participate in the debate at the TV station's studios. Republican Rick Perry has declined to take part.

Christy Hoppe of the Dallas Morning News will moderate; panelists will be Dave Montgomery of the Forth Worth Star-Telegram, Peggy Fikac of the San Antonio Express-News and Houston Chronicle; and Alberta Phillips of the Austin American-Statesman.

He's ignored every newspaper in the state. He's blown off the taxpayers by renting a $10,000-a-month mansion while our schools go without. He bemoaned Washington for bailouts at the same time he took stimulus money to patch the hole in last year's budget deficit, now estimated to be over $20 billion.

Rick Perry is as sorry as they come, but there are a lot of morons in Texas who just don't care about any of that. The only question left to answer is: can we find enough people willing to vote between now and November 2nd who do?

It's all about the hair

And today, we will see the Emerging Technology Fund announce a grant of $500 million to a company named CHI, for manufacturing solar panels to be available -- free of charge -- to every Texan who wants one.

After failing to secure the Democratic nomination for governor, hair care magnate Farouk Shami will be voting for the gubernatorial candidate with the best mane: Republican Gov. Rick Perry.

Shami lost to Bill White in the Democratic primary by a decisive 63-point margin. It appears Shami believes that he was not the only preferable alternative to White running for governor.

Lord knows everyone in Texas was paying attention to everything Shami said in the spring, so we all hang on every utterance now. Seriously, how does this help the governor? By reinforcing his "open-for-bidness" theme of adding more minimum-wage jobs to the Texas economy?

By locking down the all-important Tex-Lebanese voting bloc?

Farouk is on fire, all right, but it's his hair that's burning. Somebody please piss on him and put it out.

Update: Harold Cook harshes the snark.