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Bronco Bama For The Win: Your Election Night 2012 Live Blog & Comment Feed

"There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth or something I guess..." -- Luke 13:28, A Copy Of The Bible I Swiped From A Hotel Room Hello and welcome to Hair Balls' election night live blog and comment, where tonight I will be chronicling the mania of the 2012 presidential ... More >>

Speak Out: How Far Is Too Far When Musicians Talk Politics?

Imagine this: You go to a concert to see one of your favorite artists. Suddenly, mid-show, they start spewing political rhetoric. You disagree with their ideas, so you and many others leave. Free speech is something we claim to value in this country, but we are biased against opposing viewpoints. R ... More >>

As Presidential Campaigns Rage And Famous Mayors Stump, Where's Annise Parker?

Last weekend, San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro was a busy guy. He was all over California, meeting with President Barack Obama, hanging with George Clooney, and getting loads of national face time. Across the country, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg poured loads of money into the U.S. Senate candi ... More >>

How Tom DeLay's Lawyer Learned To Love Mini-Satan As He Prepares For Wednesday's Hearing

Tom DeLay, the man who once easily held the title Most Hated Republican in his clawed hands, will finally have his hearing over campaign-finance money-laundering charges Wednesday before a three-judge panel in Austin. It's been a long road for the former congressman from Sugar Land -- some of the i ... More >>

Five Lessons Learned from Hurricane Isaac

The circus has finally left New Orleans as they begin their clean up after Hurricane Isaac dropped boatloads of rain on the Big Easy earlier this week. Despite some dire early warnings and a near-miss of the GOP convention in Tampa Bay, Isaac was fairly tame by hurricane standards. That didn't stop ... More >>

Progressive Forum Houston: Rachel Maddow

The 5 Most B.S. Rebuttals in Internet Arguments

Lately, my colleagues here on the Houston Press blogs have posted some kind, helpful tips on proper usage of social media to help you avoid pitfalls in a world where employers regularly look you up. That was sweet of them because I work with good people full of love and huggles (hugs snuggles) fo ... More >>

Radio Blues

Scott Braddock: Radio Reporter Fired After Abortion-Sonogram Discussion

Scott Braddock, a respected reporter who has been with the fledgling newsradio station KROI since November, has been fired. Twitter supporters and some fellow reporters have been questioning whether the ax fell because of a Braddock report on Texas' abortion-sonogram law, but he won't go that far. ... More >>

Happy Birthday Paula Deen!: Great Butter-Stained GIFs

​Paula Deen is too easy of a target for the ire of the Internet. She cooks with copious amounts of butter, and has just that right mixture of cheerfulness and Southern sass to drive people crazy. Then, this past week we found out she has been living with diabetes. Not that having diabetes i ... More >>

MTV's Early VJs: Where Are They Now?

vegastripping.comMTV's original VJ crew (l-r): J.J. Jackson, Nina Blackwood, Mark Goodman, Martha Quinn and Alan Hunter​When it comes to the attention spans of teenagers, entertainers are on borrowed time. Which might explain the turnover rate of MTV's Video Jockeys, or VJs for short. Currentl ... More >>

Pre-Bieber, Five Memorable Musician Interview Gaffes

​Remember in the days before "Bi-winning," when Twitter was all up in arms about Justin Beiber's interview with Rolling Stone? Was it really a surprise that some of the pop star's opinions, as told to the magazine last month, would be half-baked and maybe even a bit ignorant? Put aside for a ... More >>

Chris Baker Comes to KSEV: Another Attempt to Preach to Houston's Talk-Radio Choir

Chris Baker is baaaack​Chris Baker, who was Houston's Glenn Beck before Glenn Beck really took off, is coming back to the local airwaves. Yet again. Baker, a superficial blowhard who in many ways -- none of them good -- epitimozes right-wing talk radio, will have a show on State Senator Dan P ... More >>

Top 10 Worst Food Comas Ever

Jesus VDangerous: Mexican pastries.​Postprandial somnolence is the scientific term for a food coma. How do I know this? Because I looked it up on my phone on Thanksgiving Day while I was slowly getting under the covers at my parents house that afternoon, swearing to myself that I was just "res ... More >>

Now Rick Perry Wants To Invade Mexico

Pancho Villa redux: U.S. sends troops into Mexico due to border crime?​Talk about an election win going to your head: Now Rick Perry wants U.S. troops to invade Mexico. Speaking with Chuck Todd on MSNBC this morning, Perry said "He'd be open" to sending U.S. troops into Mexico to control bord ... More >>

What Is The Best TV Show Of All Time? Martin? Really?

Some rappers happen to be thoughtful, intelligent people. Every Monday (that isn't a national holiday) Rocks Off will have some of them hear discussing issues relevant to their culture. Photo illustration by John Seaborn Gray​This Week's Panel: Bun B, Fat Tony, Montana, Kyle Hubbard, Thurogoo ... More >>

Tea Party License Plates: Five Better Choices For Texans

Too wishy-washy​Earlier this week we told you how Texas' vanity license plates might soon be making a Tea Party statement, with choices like the "Don't Tread On Me" flag that has been co-opted by the `baggers.A spokeswoman for the company who offers the plates through a privatization deal insisted ... More >>

The Ultimate Houston Rap Battle Royal: Who Should You Fight?

Photo illustration by John Seaborn Gray​Of all of the Rap Round Table columns that have gone up, none generated more emails than this past Monday's "Which Rappers Would You Fight?" segment. Some people were pissed, some people were entertained, but most everyone had the same basic question: Wh ... More >>

The World's Hottest Weapon

​The world's hottest pepper is now a weapon? Yep! According to today's Houston Chronicle, the Indian military in now using what we know as the ghost pepper to make a type of tear-gas hand grenade. We've seen enough Man vs. Food episodes to know that this will be an effective weapon. Just the t ... More >>

It's (Maybe) Gonna Snow In Houston!! Be Prepared!!

​Forecasters are still telling us there's a chance that it will snow in Houston tomorrow. We'll believe it when we see it, but the theory is that sometime Friday afternoon we may get hit with anywhere from a trace to an inch of solid white precipitation.This, of course, would be an earthshaking ev ... More >>

The Curse Of Self-Loathing, Self-Loving Sportscasters

​So we're watching the ALCS last night, a couple of days after watching Sunday Night Football on NBC, and it just gets to be too much.We've had this feeling for a while, but now there's just no getting away from it.Since when has it been such a goddamn favor for announcers to deign to bring themse ... More >>

Swine Flu FAQs: The Answers You Need...And The Answers You Deserve

Unlike in 1918, when the flu really bitch-slapped humanity, leading medical experts have the ability to immediately update us with information on how to stay safe, and how to separate myth from fact. For example: By now, unless you're a vapid hotel-fortune heiress who answers the cell phone during s ... More >>

Rice Says A Person's Looks Influence Loan Decisions. Let's Assess

Who says you can't judge a book by its cover? It appears that banks and other lenders know a trustworthy face when they see one - or at least that's what a study co-authored by Rice professor of real estate finance Jefferson Duarte indicates.Using loan information and photographs from the website Pr ... More >>

Oh Lord, Chris Baker's Coming Back To Our Airwaves

Chris Baker is coming back to Houston. Ummm, rejoice?Baker, a erstwhile stand-up comic who had an often inane political talk show on Clear Channel's AM stations here, a show where he blustered and bloviated and did the typical right-wingnut radio shtick.Clear Channel AM head Michael Berry has announ ... More >>

Mortgage-Company Critic Takes Back All Those Nasty Things He Said

In 2007, the Houston Press wrote about University of Houston student Cyrus Rafizadeh's online quest to prove that a major mortgage servicing company, Orix, fraudulently foreclosed on an apartment complex owned by his mother. Rafizadeh was so sure of this that he regularly uploaded thousands of pages ... More >>

Memo to Chuck Todd: Mommy Like

What Do Shepard Smith and Soulja Boy have in common?

Wack's here to tell you: more than you might expect

Barack Obama's past

The Reporter and the Politician

Barack Obama and Me

It was the year 2000 and I was a young hungry reporter in Chicago covering a young hungry state legislator

A Day in the Life of Cable Sports Programming

Playing Pretend: Local Sports Media Figures as Political Pundits

Debate Club

KTRH's shouter has a hissy fit

Kinky's Got His Mojo Workin'

A Texas wild man enlists his Appalachian counterpart in his crusade

Oddball Purgatorio

Drums & Tuba's off-center groove isn't the only thing that's dislocated

Ground Zero

Houston's been the No. 1 city in America in the obesity crisis. But hype doesn't mean help.

Rockin' in the Free World

Soundtracks for your Election Night shindigs

Bye-Bye Bongs?

Tubing without beer bongs? Why?

One Hundred Million Reasons to Go See Great White

"Once Bitten Twice Shy" ain't one of 'em

Best Local TV News Anchor

Gina Gaston, KTRK-TV, Channel 13

Child Support

The same extreme measures that saved Sidney Miller at birth also severely disabled her 11 years ago. Texas courts are still trying to determine who should pay for it -- and could set a legal precedent in the process.

Musicians Sound Off

For Nick Cooper, music and politics are hard to separate

Out of Africa

In a small office off the Southwest Freeway, an editor carries on his crusade against public corruption and press censorship in his native Nigeria and other African countries

Bet You Can't Vote for Just One!

Why did so many Houston Hispanics punch twice for president?

Still Stumbling

Houston Chronicle faces the Hispanic community and anchor confustion

Letters

Rushmore or Less

Murray tries to rescue a comedy stalled in self-importance