Bill White

Comment of the Day: Rick Perry's Debate Guts

​We have some great commenters here on Hair Balls, and it's time we paid some damn attention to them. So we'll be highlighting a Comment of the Day each morning, from the previous day's work. Maybe two comments, even. This will all be determined by a highly rigorous scientific formula involv ... More >>

Turkey Of The Year Runner-Up: Bill White

Bill White loses another race​It's a week or so away from the 2010 Turkeys of the Year issue, where we honor what is best in Turkeydom for the past year. This will be our eighth edition of the awards, and as always competition is stiff. Building up to the grand announcement of the winners, we' ... More >>

Bill White's Election "Party" Stumbles On, Even As Networks Crown Perry

Aaron SprecherThis podium is about as empty as Bill White's watch party.​If you can get to the Americas Hilton ballroom tonight, it'd be well worth it: less than an hour after the polls have closed, the Bill White election watch is nearly deserted, which means there is no wait to get your paws all ... More >>

Bill White Quits Race Before All Votes Are Counted, Proving He's Sensible

Aaron Sprecher​Bill White just conceded the guv'ship to Rick Perry, surprising exactly no one. "We hope this campaign has been worthy, and we will never forget what you have done," the former Houston mayor told the audience, which had swelled considerably since our first post. (Although, let's fac ... More >>

Bill White Takes Big Lead Over Rick Perry (In Facebook)

Facebook: The road to Austin​Bill White may have been unable as yet to top Rick Perry in any political poll on the governor's race, but that hardly matters: White's winning the Facebook battle!!And that's very important, says the person who did a study of it."Numbers don't have an agenda or ideolo ... More >>

Rick Perry & Bill White: Midnight Is Nigh In The Great (And Silly) Deadline For Debates

Debates over debates are so fun​The finger-pointing continued Wednesday as the great gubernatorial debate over who's at fault for not having a gubernatorial debate came to Houston.Republican Governor Rick Perry has given Democrat candidate Bill White until midnight tonight to release tax returns f ... More >>

New Anti-Perry Ad: Can The Return Of The Chicken Suit Be Far Behind?

Subtle.​Back to Basics, a PAC supporting Texas gubernatorial candidate Bill White, has unleashed a new anti-Rick Perry ad. We're not sure, but we think they're questioning the current governor's manhood. Tell Rick Perry to stop cowering and face Texans like a man. White's supporters are cont ... More >>

Rick Perry: Most Inane Playing Of The Race Card, Ever

By now you've heard just how upset and offended Governor Rick Perry is by remarks Bill White made.Days have gone by, and Perry is still pissed at what he has determined to be racial remarks. We are led to believe, anyway. After all he went to the trouble of tracking down an actual black Republican t ... More >>

Six Classic Comic Covers That Could Be About Houston

The Golden Age of comics (or the Silver Age, or whatever, we're not nerds about it) had some truly entertaining covers for horror-tale collections.The folks at io9 gathered 105 of them.Who knew that some of them were about.....HOUSTON?!?!!?!?!!?​For instance, this one is obviously about BARC.And t ... More >>

Rick Perry Vs. Bill White: The Chicken Suit Has Been Unleashed

Photo by Burnt Orange ReportAn elephant, a chicken, a generator: Political Theater!​This year's gubernatorial campaign has been missing some things.Debates, for one.A guy in a chicken suit, for another.Those two things intertwined yesterday when, for some reason, Rick Perry campaign spokesman Mark ... More >>

Bill White In Drag: Desperate Times Call For Desperate Measures

We assume White has just sucked down a joint​Bill White is embracing the bald.As part of a birthday celebration (and a way to get e-mail addresses), the campaign is urging people to send White a e-card wishing many happy returns of the day.Each time you do, a hair will be added to White's picture, ... More >>

Welcome to Arizona

Judge who helped BP went on junket party on their tab.

Farouk Shami Is On Fire. His Campaign Song? Eh...

One of the benefits of writing for a music blog is you don't have to follow politics unless you just want to, or unless some politician is so desperate they think commissioning a campaign song Auto-tuned up the yin-yang and with lyrics that went out of style when disco did is going to improve their ... More >>

Five Decisions That Took Less Time Than Bill White Figuring Out If He'll Run For Governor

​Bill White brought the Texas political world to a standstill yesterday when he convened a press conference to make the momentous announcement that....he was going to take some time to think about running for Governor instead of Senator.In a little over a week, he said, he'll make up his mind.Some ... More >>

Bill White Switching To The Governor's Race, Chron Reporting

​The Houston Chronicle is reporting that Mayor Bill White is about to switch his future plans from not being elected to the U.S. Senate to not being elected Texas governor.White's move comes as Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison's laughably inept run for the governorship continues to implode. Sooner or ... More >>

Bill White, Getting Grilled On Fox 26

Fox News (the local kind), you giveth and you taketh away.First, you go live to Roy Morales HQ, giving the candidate the rare chance to appear on TV (explaining why he's failing miserably). A dedicated coterie of supporters is bunched behind him in the perfect camera angle to make it look like he ha ... More >>

The Dallas Observer Learns About Interviewing Bill White

Photo by Sam Merten​Our sister paper the Dallas Observer tagged along recently as Houston mayor Bill White visited a suburban deli and learned what it's like to deal with the generic, content-free answers the big man uses when he doesn't want to reply to what you're asking.The headline? "Will Sena ... More >>

Bad News For Bill White's Senate Run?

Photo courtesy Bill White for TexasChris Cillizza, the hyper-connected political writer at the Washington Post, has gotten his hands on a polling memo outlining the Texas Senate race.The bottom line: Not good news for Bill White.Cillizza says (scroll down for "Texas Senate Numbers") the poll was tak ... More >>

The Rebirth Of A Cemetery

Photo by Olivia Flores AlvarezOlivewood Cemetery, established just after the end of the Civil War, is home to Houston's first freemen. Among the buried are a 100-plus-year-old woman who came to America on a slave ship in the late 1770's but lived long enough to see the end of slavery, the man who s ... More >>

5th Annual Guaranty Bank Tour de Houston

Web deck: See the city from the seat of your bike

Chalk One Up For The Blogosphere: Houston's Plan To Pay Off Debts For New Homeowners Is Dead

That didn't take long.The Chronicle reported this morning that city council (i.e., Mayor Bill White) was considering a plan to pay debts to help first-time homebuyers purchase houses.You can imagine how well that went over once it hit Drudge.Any subtlety -- and there was some -- got buried under out ... More >>

What's So Bad About That Bill White-MLK-Obama Ad, Anyway?

Ever since Isiah Carey broke the story on his Insite blog, most of the other media outlets in town have followed up with items on the allegedly offensive advertisement that Mayor Bill White took out in the Houston Defender, a black paper, for Martin Luther King Day.This is, supposedly, a terrible th ... More >>

BARC Sucks

The city's animal shelter just can't get its act together

The Mayor's Race, In Chart Form

The race to replace term-limited Bill White as Mayor of Houston is starting to heat up, in terms of various candidates leaking word that they're interested. The conventional wisdom so far counts four major candidates; unless the conventional wisdom is wrong (and when has that ever occurred?), one of ... More >>

Who Would You Rather?

So the other night my dear friend Tamarie and I spent too long on the phone engaged in a game called Who Would You Rather? You know, that classic girl game of who you would rather sleep with. The problem was that Tamarie was high on prescription cough syrup, and I'd had a couple of G&Ts, so the c ... More >>

Texas Governor's Race: The Fun Is Beginning

As you've no doubt heard, Kay Bailey Hutchison yesterday took the first steps to enter what would be a highly, highly entertaining GOP primary for the governorship next year (Just think of the hair-care budgets alone between her and Rick Perry).What about the not-so-boy wonder from Houston, Mayor Bi ... More >>

The Power Of Facebook Will Make Bill White Energy Secretary

Mayor Bill White is being coy about his political future -- run for Governor? Senator? Get a job in the Obama administration? -- but others are not. Utilizing the single hippest method of communication since the princess phone, a cadre of White fans has a Facebook page calling for White to be n ... More >>

RIP, Some of Our Best Of Houston® Winners

Hardly Knew Ye

Sorry? For What?

Two Politicians, Two Responses

Positive Pub For Mayor White

It's John Royal's Anniversary, and He's Celebrating with Stadium Talk

Tax Break for the Rich II

Better Than Tarzan and Jane: The Grove Restaurant in Discovery Green

Horse Shrift

Boston Cream Bet

Boston Cream Bet

Dynamo a Go-Go

Bad Medicine for Bill White

Freedom, Now!

Get banged this Fourth

Bayou Ball

Music, dance, poetry, theater and hoops take over Sunnyside Park

Six Feet Blunder

Bring out your dead -- and wait

He Won't Back Down

The mayor was threatened -- or maybe he wasn't

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

Houston's sweet-and-sour inaugural

Food for Political Thought

White becomes Houston's big tuna -- and that's no yolk!

The Six-Year Itch

City Hall reality series: Who survives on Bill White's island?

Is This Guy Too Smart to Be Mayor?

Bill White hopes brains and big bucks will get him elected

Let's Pick On Orlando!

Early mayoral forums hint at the strategies to come

Bill's Bargain Tax Bill

The county says a candidate's home value is no White lie

The Insider