It's an odd little spot, really, sitting between the Union Pacific Railroad tracks and Highway 90 as it runs through Alpine, Texas. Not much bigger than a convenience store parking lot, the location is flat and sometimes dusty when summer hovers relentlessly over the Davis Mountains. The great freight trains...

After George W. Bush had been pressured into running for president, his handlers realized he needed a vice president. The Bush family consortium called upon Dick Cheney to begin a search to find the most qualified person, which was more than a tad ironic since W certainly did not own...

Like almost anyone who lives in Texas, I have visited the town of West, uncountable times. Nobody drives I-35 through the middle of the state without stopping for the famous kolaches. Hardly anyone else knows much about the little community. But it is about to become an icon of our...

Anyone else would be embarrassed about the timing. But not Texas Gov. Rick Perry. Hell, he hardly turned red over his inability to remember three federal agencies. So, why should he be bothered by the awkward juxtaposition of his Texas ad campaign in Illinois launching just as a damning report...

If you are a conservative Republican and looking at the election horizon, the approaching demographic army has to appear a bit disturbing. Old white guys are disappearing into the mists of history and a young and increasingly ethnic population has begun to assert itself at the polls on Election Day....

Eric Resnick did not want to ask the question. He felt an obligation, though, because other reporters were avoiding the subject. They ought to have long ago confronted Ken Mehlman about the contradictions between his politics and his personal life. Mehlman, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, was constantly...

The timing was a thing of pure political beauty. President George W. Bush was only a few days away from speaking to the United Nations' General Assembly about Iraq's renewed efforts to acquire banned weaponry. And, in a month, the president was going to Congress to seek a resolution approving...

The Perry Principle is simple to state: If a law, policy, or idea does not in any manner provide benefit to the businesses and personal welfare of Rick Perry's political donors, it is to be avoided.

Republican Texas Governor Rick Perry does not view the working poor as his...

George P. Bush is burning with ambition, not ideas but lots of ambition. The latest Bush to sprout on the Texas political landscape is long on pedigree and short on ideology. Of course, that never stops a Bush from running for public office. They call it public service but they...

"Long hair, beard and sandals, and a funky bunch of friends, reckon we'd just nail him up if he came down again." - Kristofferson, Jesus Was a Capricorn

I love Texas. Almost as much as I hate its prevailing majority politics. This is why I choose to make fun of...

How I'd love to not think about Lance Armstrong. Again. Ever. But I live in Austin. And have lived here since Willie was singing at the Armadillo World Headquarters and George W. Bush was skipping out on National Guard service. We have a bikeway here named after Lance and he's...

"Young man, young man, your arm's are too short to box with God." -- James Weldon Johnson

We went down into the Grand Canyon when Butch got home from the war. Neither of us had thought about a destination with any detail but the canyon was dramatic enough to...

The conservatives of the Texas legislature are about to try again to fool the state's taxpayers into funding private schools with a voucher program. The Republican argument, which falls apart under scrutiny, has been that no child should be condemned to attend a failing public school. No conservative wants to...

Everything is political. Even cancer. And especially in Texas.

Six years ago, the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) was founded. Voters funded the institute with $3 billion of bonded indebtedness over 10 years. Cancer survivor, athletic endurance wonder boy, and legendary liar Lance Armstrong went before...

The idea lacks certain logic. Why would a documentary film producer give microphones to adults with disabilities and then have them chase politicians? And attempting to describe their disabilities seems the wrong way to explain what they have accomplished with their political film, How's Your News? The more sensible approach...

When Karl Rove dissembled on national TV election night, America got a rare glimpse at the psychological frailty that has long maintained the dark prince of right-wing politics. He does not spend very much time connected to reality and lives on a planet composed of beliefs and numbers he convinces...

The latest evidence on Lance Armstrong is that he is playing the poor, poor pitiful me card. Not a smart move. "I've been better," Armstrong said in Austin over the weekend. "And I've been a lot worse." Monday morning, the International Cycling Union accepted the findings of the...

Andrea: "Unhappy is the land that breeds no hero."
Galileo: "No, Andrea: Unhappy is the land that needs a hero." -Bertolt Brecht, The Life of Galileo

Poor, poor, pitiful America.

Are we so desperate for heroes that we must ignore the human frailties and deceptions of a simple athlete?...

Maybe it's time for the comedy writers in New York and Los Angeles to move to Texas. They need to be closer to their source material because Texas Governor Rick Perry is making it easy for everyone to be a comic. Of course, it might not be Perry; it could...

Here we are in 2012, an African-American president sits in the Oval Office, and we are still confronting racism. Yeah, I know, Obama's election might be why the ignorance that has been hiding a bit is suddenly more visible. Even a half-aware observer knows what the subtext is in statements...