David Dewhurst

Anti-abortion group accuses Dr. Douglas Karpen of late-term abortions, authorities investigating

It seems that Philadelphia might not be the only city in the United States with its very own late-term abortion doctor. That's right folks, Houston may have its very own version of Dr. Kermit Gosnell, according to a report issued by Operation Rescue. The Kansas-based pro-life/anti-abortion/whatever ... More >>

Zack Kopplin, The 19-Year-Old Face of the Anti-Creationist Movement

Having fought his battles in Louisiana, the Rice University student is now ready for Texas and any move to put faux science in the public schools here.

How Less Accountability and a Smaller Tax Base Could Place Jesus on a Stegosaurus

After a comprehensive, scathing report detailing the implementation of Bible-as-literature courses within Texas' public school systems -- nothing like looking to Noah's sons to figure out which race you belong to! -- it's perhaps not the best time to revisit the latest steps in Texas' long slog towa ... More >>

Remember the Alamo: $1.6 Million Added to State Budget for the State Landmark

In Austin, both the House and Senate have unveiled baseline budgets for the session, with the idea that additions would be negotiated over time. Sen. Tommy Williams (R-The Woodlands), who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, told reporters the Senate's budget was as close to last session as possible ... More >>

Vouchers on the Front Burner: New Texas Senate Education Committee Chair Talks "School Choice"

New Chair Dan Patrick is making his mark on the Senate Education Committee early, putting his goals for school choice front and center on his agenda. The clamor over school choice will likely drown out many of Patrick's other goals for the session: expanding career and technology courses; dropping ... More >>

2012 Turkeys of the Year

Puffed up, plucked and ready for roasting, here's this year's best of the worst.

Rick Perry Should Pee in a Cup if the Poor Have to for Benefits, State Rep Joe Deshotel Says

Texas Senate Bill 11 aims to make drug-testing mandatory for all applicants to the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program. If applicants pee dirty, they would be ineligible to reapply for one year, unless they enroll in a treatment program. The bill would also require that parents who flunk ... More >>

OMG Helena Brown Was Right! We Are Drowning in Debt (Or Are We? Susan Combs Decides)

Quick, someone find a fiscal cliff to jump from. Susan Combs, the Texas comptroller of public accounts, released a report Wednesday saying we're all screwed. Public debt at the local level -- including community colleges, municipalities, school districts, etc. -- has more than doubled in the last d ... More >>

Rick Perry: Whatchya Gonna Do With All That $$$?

Since Gov. Rick Perry abandoned the fetid remains of his failed presidential bid last January, he has socked away $1.94 million in political contributions, bringing the total amount of ching deposited with Texans for Rick Perry, his political action committee, to $3.4 million, according to recent ca ... More >>

Grading Ted Cruz on Meet The Press: Meh

In his first national, mainstream media appearance since the Republican Senate nominee won the runoff election late last month, Ted Cruz displayed on Meet The Press yesterday what propelled him past Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst last month in the runoff: An ability to say pretty things, and make everyone ... More >>

Comment of the Day: Who is Ted Cruz, Really?

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 or afternoon from the previous day's work. Maybe two comments, even. This will all be determined by a highly rigorous scientific formula i ... More >>

Ted Cruz Is Here to Protect Texas from the UN

Texas Republican voters finally jumped to their senses Tuesday and followed the clarion call of Sarah Palin by electing Ted Cruz to the U.S. Senate over pallid insider David Dewhurst. The upset was the latest bit of rebellion from the Tea Party, adding to the footnotes that will be written in poli ... More >>

Ted Cruz: First Intellectual Tea-Partier Ever

Last night, as we watched Sarah Palin bloviate on Fox News -- yes, doubtful reader, we do under highly unusual circumstances tune in to Fox News -- we were struck by something. Ted Cruz, compared to virtually every single Tea Party member on this green earth like Palin, is really damn articulate. Li ... More >>

Damn, It's Good To Be A Harris County Commissioner

A couple of things became pretty obvious after rifling through the Harris County Commissioner campaign finance records -- one, these dudes got a lot of money, like, millions of it. And two, Commissioner Steve Radack LOVES the Denis' Seafood House. So in spirit of these revelations, here's five rea ... More >>

GOP Senate Favorite, David Dewhurst: Worst. Campaigner. Ever.

Things have not gone as planned for Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst. This was supposed to be easy. He had the experience, he had the supporters and he had the money. Lots and lots of it. Not to mention, he was running against some guy named Ted Cruz in the primaries -- who? By all accounts, Cruz doesn't eve ... More >>

GOP Senate Candidate Ted Cruz, In Fact, Rich As Sh*t

Last week, after it came out that Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst is worth an astonishing $177 million and would become the third-richest member of the U.S. Senate if elected to a body that has at least 54 millionaires, there was one word local media employed to describe his competitor Ted Cruz's fina ... More >>

Comment of the Day: An Alternative For The Dewhurst-Cruz Spanish Debate

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 or afternoon from the previous day's work. Maybe two comments, even. This will all be determined by a highly rigorous scientific formula i ... More >>

To Our Great Disappointment, Dewhurst And Cruz Won't Debate In Spanish This Friday

This Friday, Tea Party man-crush Ted Cruz, whose father emigrated from Cuba to the United States, and Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst, who speaks some mean Gringo Spanish, will not -- to our great disappointment -- speak in Spanish at their debate in Dallas. Or Spanglish. It's going to be more of ... More >>

Booing Rick Perry's Plug For Dewhurst? Other Possibilities

The crowd at the state GOP convention was listening to a very Rick Perry-like speech from Rick Perry when all of a sudden he injected that "my friend David Dewhurst" should be sent to Washington. Then, booing commenced. Or so the lamestream media would have you believe. Perry, ducking reporters af ... More >>

The Delicious Madness Of Ted Cruz's GOP Senate Campaign Ads

All of Texas is feeling the excitement of the GOP primary for the U.S. Senate. It's really all that Texans are talking about, apart from everything and anything else. Lt. Governor David Dewhurst, a bland and boring pol, is facing Ted Cruz, a Tea Partier who has been endorsed by Sarah Palin. (The Te ... More >>

GOP State Senator John Carona to Colleague Dan Patrick: I Heard You're Gay, But I Never Said It

When Republican state senators attack!!!! (Things get extremely passive-aggressive.) Texas state senators Dan Patrick, Tomball's Own, and Dallas's John Carona got in a nasty e-mail fight first discovered by the Quorum Report. QR is behind a paywall, but some subscribers have posted highlights of t ... More >>

Texas's Sonogram Law Gets New Lease on Life

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the temporary injunction on Texas's so-called sonogram law, clearing the way for abortion providers to enforce the new mandate. The law, championed by Senator Dan Patrick, requires a sonogram whenever a woman seeks an abortion. The law requires the wom ... More >>

Tommy Lee Jones For Senate: New Poll Says He Could Kick Ass

Is there a draft in here?​The movement to draft Tommy Lee Jones to run as a Democrat to replace Kay Bailey Hutchison is most likely doomed to failure, but a new poll shows Jones might be a viable candidate. Public Policy Polling released its survey today on the 2012 Senate race, and it shows ... More >>

Dan Patrick Says He's Polling Great For U.S. Senator

Dan Patrick inches closer to US Senate race​Tomball's favorite state senator, Dan Patrick (R-Tea Party), has weighed in on the polling landscape for his possible run for the United States Senate. And he likes what he sees. Patrick says the recent Texas Lyceum poll (the one that showed Presid ... More >>

Texas Monthly's Best & Worst Legislators: Mostly Houston-Free

John Whitmire named one of the best.​Texas Monthly has released its always-anticipated reckoning of the 10 Best and 10 Worst Legislators, and Houston seems largely absent from either list. The best includes Senator John Whitmire, and that's it -- although technically the easternmost portions ... More >>

Rebecca Forest: Tea Party Leader Tells Austin Rally There's Too Many Hispanics in Legislature

This weekend saw another thrilling right-wing rally in Austin, and in this one Rebecca Forest, a co-founder of an immigration group called Women on the Wall, offered a unique take on why Texas can't get hard-core legislation passed like Arizona and Alabama. If you want to know why we can't pass leg ... More >>

May Day Immigration Rally Draws Thousands (and Opponents) in Houston

Photos by Christopher Patronella, Jr.​Some three thousand people joined together in Houston on Sunday to take part in May Day rallies held all across the nation as the battle over immigration laws has taken center stage. Demonstrators blanketed the streets around Burnett Bayland Park as they flow ... More >>

Texans Support Statewide Smoking Ban, Says Group Pushing for Statewide Smoking Ban

Joe Camel is in the other 30 percent​If you want to ban smoking in all indoor work and public places in Texas, then you agree with 70 percent of residents here, according to a new poll by the Smoke-Free Texas Coalition. Such a ban is supported by 67 percent of Republicans, 69 percent of Indep ... More >>

Ron Paul for Senate: New Poll Says Texans Demand It

Ron Paul: Let the campaign begin!​As America faces the challenges of the 21st century, it is safe to say it needs as many Pauls in the Senate as possible. And we're not talking first names, either. Texas, it seems, agrees. A new poll from PPP shows Texans are demanding that Kay Bailey Hutchi ... More >>

Rick Perry: Five Campaign Posters He Should Consider

The Texas gubernatorial race plods along, both sides flinging charges of corruption, no debates, not a whole lot of doubt about the outcome.Rick Perry, it seems, will be re-elected even though no one really likes the guy.Perry needs to stir up some excitement, and you don't do that by just strolling ... More >>

The Tug of War

Rick Perry and Kay Bailey Hutchison are locked in a pitched battle over the soul of the GOP. They are also running for governor.

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 >>

Great Scott!

Online Fun

You, too, can patrol our borders

Poured Out

With archaic and self-serving laws, reforms don't come easy for the Texas booze industry

Mayoral Field of Dreams

If you pay them, they will come

Dream Team or Bad Dream?

Democrats sift pre-election portents for the answer

Rock-A-Baby Bye-Bye

A state program was supposed to give moms a safe place to drop off unwanted newborns. Then why are so many babies still ending up in the trash?

Over the Rainbow

Democrats get their ticket. But can they get the votes?

Sand in Your Craw?

Make yourself heard

This Sand is Your Sand

At the Village of Surfside, it's not just the beaches that are eroding. It's the Open Beaches Act.

Kissing Off a Kingmaker

In District 7, is the real conservative behind door No. 1 or door No. 2?

GOP Lay-Ups

Enron fuels Republican soft money machine

The Insider

The Insider