In a press release put out today, entitled "Gov. Perry Reiterates Need to Cut Discretionary State Spending Highlights Priorities for 2009 Legislative Session", the man from the mansion told state agencies that they had too much money and had to find ways to cut back. Apparently, it's the economic down-turn: which is odd, because he spends half his time bragging that Texas is virtually recession-proof. And if things are that dire, wouldn't this be time to do something with that famous Rainy Day fund? In the presser, Perry made noise about "the need for state agencies to cut as much discretionary spending from their budgets as possible," calling this "a priority he will carry through the upcoming legislative session." This comes after he gave agencies until Oct. 27 (ie a little over a week) to start coming up with voluntary ways to slash their budgets. So time for the history lesson: If Perry didn't notice what happened last session (not surprising: bar his mandatory HPV vaccination/Merck pharmaceuticals subsidy debacles, Perry wasn't really that high-profile around the Lege), pretty much every legislator in the building was arguing for increased funding for state agencies because they had all been slashed to the bone in previous budgets. So, seriously, what spare cash?

If there’s an award for funniest local music video, good luck besting Hayes Carll’s “She Left Me for Jesus.” Directed by local animator Dano Johnson, the video features a lascivious Jesus, played by Tim Crane of T-Bird & the Breaks, palling around with the love interest of a jealous beau (local country singer Jesse Dayton). Texas music celebs Jimmy Dale Gilmore and Little Jewford also appear and I, along with several friends, get a split second of face time in the opening montage. The tune from Carll’s latest release, Trouble In Mind (Lost Highway), recently won Song of the Year at the Americana Music Awards and has been championed by Don Imus (yuck, I know) as the greatest country song ever written. Carll hopes to air the video once on CMT, resulting in a tsunami of outraged letters and the video’s banishment from the airwaves. Godspeed.

If you haven't quite made up your mind on which presidential candidate to support, UT's Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs is hosting an event this Thursday to debate the competing visions of McCain and Obama. See press release after the jump:

The last time I saw the Texicalli Grille chairs I was probably sitting in one, eating a chicken fried steak and jawing with the late Danny Roy Young. Danny wasn’t just the owner and proprietor of the restaurant, he was a side dish that came with everything. With every order, you got a friendly handshake, a heaping helping of his warm smile, good conversation, and the sense that even if everything wasn’t right in the world, it was all right in the Texicalli. Those chairs were lined up for the auction upstairs at the Austin Music Hall tribute to Danny on Sunday night, decorated with raffia bows. They reminded me of old footage I once saw of sad-eyed children in an orphanage lined up to be adopted. The chairs looked at me mournfully, as if to say “We’re a family, don’t break us up!” Okay, they didn’t look at me and I am anthropomorphizing them, but they did seem so vulnerable and out of place. Not so with the dozens of posters, photos, memorabilia, and other items in the silent auction.

Walking into Maker Faire has the potential to cause immediate sensory overload, but less like dropping acid in Vegas à la Hunter S. and more like being a kid in FAO Schwarz. Well, except that plenty of the tinkerers featured have probably dropped acid somewhere in Nevada (hint: Burning Man), but that's beside the point. The point is that this year's second annual Austin Maker Faire hosted representatives from so many "maker" subgroups that once past the initial shock of it all, your knit-happy grandmother, the Enchanted Forest crowd, crafty hipsters, and even high school robotics teams could all find something to enjoy.

The Techies: "Is anybody here to see some robot carnage?" Hell yes, and robot carnage the fair delivered. In addition to booths on robotics and the many uses of lasers, the fair featured battle bots duking it out in a bullet-proof, Plexiglas arena. I never thought I'd get so much joy from watching a 340-pound hunk of metal spiraling through the air to its defeat, but, boy howdy, does that carry its own special beauty. And the 7-year-old sitting behind me screaming, "Ziggy! You rock!" at the top of his little lungs seemed to agree.

The first day of early voting has ended, and the results are impressive here in Travis County. A total of 24,207 went to the many Early and Mobile Voting sites around the county today; combined with the 8,400 mail-in ballots received, that adds up to 32,607 votes cast already – 5.35% of Travis County's registered voters. Compare that with 2004, when it took the first two days of early voting to reach 6%. (And consider: Total registered voters that year in Travis was 553,565; now, it's up to 609,224.) That year's first day totals were 16,139 early voters and 715 mail ballots, totaling 16,854. Extend this out over the full 12 days of early voting, and the early turnout projects to be 290,484, well above the 222,085 of 2004. [EDIT: This is wrong; see below.] Of course, history shows us that turnout will not remain steady, but will actually spike sharply upward in the last few days, so we could be looking at some really fantastic numbers by the end. UPDATE: Holy crap, the lightbulb finally went off in my math-impaired brain: Registration is up only 10%, but voting (at least for the first day) is up 93%. Wow. UPDATE 2: Further proof that I'm math-impaired – I used the wrong number in my projection above and forgot to include the mail-in ballots. So actually, it projects to 391,284, well above the 60% of registered voters that the county clerk is hoping to get in early voting.

I expected dirty tricks in this election, but I'm not sure what's the point of pulling them in Texas, which is almost certain to go for McCain anyway. Please be aware that the "advice" this guy (see press release from Travis County Elections after the jump) was giving to voters – claiming that straight-party voters must also then select Obama's name again – is completely wrong and will actually "unselect" his name and cause no vote to be cast for Obama. (Actually, the press release doesn't specifically say the guy was trying to confuse Obama voters; I'm just assuming that, because the infamous e-mail referenced specifically was targeting Democrats.) Bottom line: Before pressing the "cast vote" button, review your choices on the confirmation page and make sure all your selections are accurate. If they're not, go back and fix them. Also: Intentionally giving misleading info to voters is illegal and anyone doing so should be reported to the cops.

Here's something I found on Austin.Craigslist posted in the Men Seeking Men and Women Seeking Women/Casual Encounters section of Craigslist: Slim, flimsy yet sturdy, electronic voting booth ("Angelique", No. 5 at the Fiesta Mart) is revved up for your touch and waiting to be used. Discretion is assured, although, if you want to tell the world you just did me, I'm cool with that too. In fact, you'll get a cute little sticker to prove it. You will: Come in, speak with my associate, and punch in a secret code… then let your fingers do the walking across the matte plastic eSlate™ body. I'll click if I like what you're doing. Click. Click. I love it when passages of Monique Wittig's The Lesbian Body are read aloud to me. I'm DDF, but you don't have to be to use me. But please, be safe, and use protection.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer looked at hundreds of drug cases there to determine whether white defendants are treated differently than blacks. Guess what they found: If you're white, it's all right. Indeed, the PD found that since 2000, a black person in Cleveland's Cuyahoga Co. is 12.7 times more likely than a white person to be sent to state prison on drug charges. The paper focused on drugs cases, "which not only dominate local court dockets but also are characterized far more than most violent or property crimes by judgment calls and policy decisions at virtually every level of the system." Read the Plain Dealer's story here. Kind of reminds me of a similar project we undertook in 2004, looking at the way black defendants fared in drug cases in Williamson Co. You can read that story here.