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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 >>

How To Survive A Plague

David France's stirring history of ACT UP.

Kill Us Now: We Covered the Houston City Council Today

Things at a Houston City Council meeting can get pretty dull. And by dull, we mean crushingly boring. As in, it was so lifeless today that matters got desperate for several reporters listening to the council members drone on and on. And on. One TV reporter -- an exceedingly friendly fellow -- took ... More >>

Montrose, Meet Your New Congressman: Ted Poe, Homophobe

It looks like Texas just might finally have a redistricting map, after several tries. If this one goes through, Montrose will be represented by...Ted Poe. Now, it's not like the neighborhood has been represented by a GLBT-friendly rep prior to redistricting; John Culberson is a hardcore rightwinge ... More >>

The 10 Worst Movies Ronald Reagan Watched at Camp David, and the Five Hippest

During a panel discussion on C-SPAN recently, someone mentioned that the Ronald Reagan Library has a list online of every movie he and Nancy watched at Camp David or the White House. So we checked it out. They watched a lot of movies, including Reagan's old films. There are a lot of Hollywood class ... More >>

C-SPAN Geeks Unite! The Bus Is Coming to Town!

The 2011 edition is coming!!​It takes a certain kind of nerd to admit it, but we will -- C-SPAN is on our regular, limited weeknight channel-clicking rotation. First, see if there's breaking news on CNN, then see if there's even a low-rent college football game, and then on to the glories of H ... More >>

8 Memories from Congressional Page Land: Sandwiches with the Speaker, Shaking Bill Clinton's Hand and Stealing KFC Decals

Qui-Gon in your room?​Today, it was announced that the House of Representatives Page Program, a program both steeped in history and marred by scandal, is coming to an end. According to USA Today, House Speaker John Boehner and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi cited the $5 million annual expenditu ... More >>

Robert Caro: Understanding Texas and the Importance of Place to LBJ's Story

The need to understand the Hill Country as it was.​We've written before about our unabashed admiration for Robert Caro's towering and ongoing multi-volume LBJ biography. A tweet from Lisa Gray alerts us to a presentation Caro recently gave on "the power of place" when it comes to biographers ... More >>

Even Ted Poe's Grandkid Is Bored To Distraction With Him

Ted Poe loves to hear himself talk, but apparently not everyone in his immediate family has the same taste.The Awl found this piece of C-SPAN footage of Poe giving yet another of his windy "special orders" speeches to an empty House floor. The site says Poe had taken his grandson on the floor with ... More >>

Stephen Colbert Testifies In Front Of Sheila Jackson Lee And Ted Poe

Sheila Jackson Lee and Ted Poe were props today in the terrific Stephen Colbert performance at a House hearing. (How terrific was it? GOP House members and Fox News are outraged, OUTRAGED, that such a cheap stunt has sullied the honored floor of the U.S. Congressszzzzzzzz.)Houston's Sheila Jackso ... More >>

Which Classy Texas Congressman Shouted "Baby Killer" Last Night? (Updated)

Last night's historic health-care vote was an emotional event on both sides of the aisle. Only one side, however, showed the class it takes to yell "Baby Killer!!" at a colleague.And all signs point to a Texan doing the deed.Anti-abortion Democrat Bart Stupak got up to speak late in the evening, exp ... 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 >>

A Little Couple? A Little Booooorring.

​Oh my God, Miss Pop Rocks, now you're going to pick on little people? HAVE YOU NO SHAME, WOMAN?  Truth is, I don't. But hear me out. I am not picking on TLC's latest reality stars -- Houston's very own Jen Arnold and Bill Klein -- because they are small. I am picking on them because the ... More >>

Fight for Your Right

Does the U.S. belong with the Axis of Evil?

Whitney Casey, Giving It All Up For You

Whitney Casey is fast turning into the gift that keeps on giving.We got an e-mail blast from "her people" today, touting the new book by the Houston Chronicle columnist and former Great Day Houston host."Relationships expert Whitney Casey, who has dated Lance Armstrong and Rocco DiSpirito, and was m ... More >>

Last Night: Steve Earle and Allison Moorer at Cactus Music

Sicko

Michael Moore's pill goes down easy, but his diagnosis of U.S. health care still devastates

Rebel Yell

Rebel with a Cause

Dimebag lives on in these new recordings

No-Balls Buzz

Morning-radio wackiness has its limits

The Smartest Film at Sundance

Alex Gibney tells the story of Enron's rise and fall -- and you won't need an economics degree to understand it

Toll-Free Hassle

When good EZ TAGs go bad

Sweet Charity

For years Tom DeLay has used nonprofits to help himself. Now the heat is on.

The Doctor Is Insane

Are they any Howard Dean remixes on the Web? Yeeeaaarrrgggghh! And some Texans are leading the charge

Rallying Round Al

Houston pitches in to help an ailing Austinite; also: Dennis Kucinich hits the hip-hop hustings

Dem Blues

The left, turning right, was plain wrong to attack pop culture

Protesting Peace

Plus: Been There, Din That; No Smut Glut; Cursory Check

Fear Factor

But just think, no one hates TV more than Trent Lott

Pop Goes the Bastard

Unlike the UK, Houston resists the urge to commit plagiarhythm

The Kopper Caper

Enron's secret domestic-partner benefits program

Same As the Old Boss

A lack of Bush means a lack of news in Houston

What You Missed

Seek Bomb Shelter

Director Rod Lurie's nuclear debate blows up in his face

Letters

Alison Cook looks back at 1997: The Year That Bit

Po' PoMo Moliere

The Alley concocts a Blazing Shambles of its slapstick commedia dell'Tartuffe

Bring On the Dancing Girls...

In this age of the voyeur and non-contact sex, a leading Houston export may be its strip-joint fantasies

Violence, TV and Demagoguery

Congressional attempts to ax TV violence may put the First Amendment under the gun