Candidates for Congressional District 21 will answer questions from a panel of news reporters (including yours truly) on Wednesday, Oct. 25, 7-8:30pm, at the LCRA Board Room in the Hancock Building, 3700 Lake Austin Blvd. Because it is a special election open to anyone, necessitated by a Supreme court decision, Dist. 21 is a crowded field of seven candidates, five of whom will be at the forum: independents Tommy Calvert, James Lyle Peterson, and Mark J. Rossano, Democrat John Courage, and Libertarian James Arthur Strom. You'll notice a very important name missing from that list: the Dist. 21 incumbent, Republican Lamar Smith.

Day one of early voting in Travis County was quite impressive. A total of 5,009 people went to the polls Monday, a very solid turnout. Combined with the 2,471 mail-in ballots received, that makes 7,480 total, or 1.37% of Travis' registered voters. Multiply that number over the 12 total days of early voting, and then use the conventional wisdom that Election Day turnout is usually about double that of early voting, and Travis could hit 50% turnout, an excellent showing for a nonpresidential election year. Of course, these first-day totals are probably inflated a bit by those mail-ins, which constituted more than a quarter of the total mail-in ballots sent out by the county. Highest turnout was at the University of Texas (in the lobby of the Undergraduate Library), with 484 voters. Lowest was at the Northeast Health Center, with 56. If you want to cast your ballot now, head to the nearest early voting location.

It’d be so easy to sit here and type angrily about what the Cowboys did wrong Monday in their 36-22 loss to the Giants, but I’ve been doing that all season.

Today, I’d like to talk about a positive aspect of being a Cowboys fan, the underappreciated asset we’ve been staring at on the sidelines all season. I’m talking of course about Bill Parcells' sweet, sweet rack.

If you need a refresher on Tuna’s massive man mammaries click here. For some reason, the Dallas Cowboys won’t let me use one of their photographs.

Since I can’t resist a pair of jiggly jugs, I’ll go easy on the Cowboys this week. There are so many things I could gripe about, but I’ll save them for another time.

In this section of our new Election Blog, we'll be watching to see whether the pundits' and pollsters' predictions of the GOP being swept from congressional power come true.

For important Texas Congressional and statehouse races outside of the Austin area, keep checking here. We'll keep an eye on everything from Tom DeLay's old Congressional District 22 to the four-way (oops, sorry, five-way) mud bath in the goobernatorial race.

Keep hitting your "refresh" button between now and on through November 7. We'll be updating frequently with our latest dispatches from the campaign trail. On Election Night we'll be posting live coverage with the latest returns. Rather than bouncing all over the Net looking for various race results, just stay here and let us do the surfing for you. We'll be your one-stop shop for races that affect Austinites. The blog will be divided into three sections; in this area we'll keep tabs on the city of Austin bonds, county races, and local statehouse and congressional seats.

Pig Skinny knows Pig Skinny hates the Texas Longhorns, but sometimes Pig Skinny forgets for about a half a second, and is reminded of just how much. One such a moo-ment occurred on Saturday afternoon at around 2, when the Nebraska Cornhuskers took a 20-19 lead on a halfback pass and Piggy’s wiggly corkscrew tail went to wagging. Longhorns lose in Lincoln, maybe another in Lubbock, and hopes were rising that the good guys could get back into the race for the Big 12 South. Lo and behold – you know the rest – the Corn blew it, sending my aforementioned corkscrew tail in search of a bottle to open.

I knew Texas would beat Nebraska the moment I saw a Cornhuskers fan in the stands do the "Horns down" sign for the television camera. Oh how the mighty have fallen. There was a day not too long ago when Big Red looked down on Burnt Orange in a nice, condescending, Midwestern kind of way. I remember when my father sold his company to a Nebraska-based firm in the Eighties. The boss of the new conglomerate came with us to a Longhorn game and acted a lot like he was at an Abilene Christian T-ball contest, oh so quaint it was. Now I imagine many Cornies are chocking up the Horns' latest win to dumb luck. But we know the truth: Aaron Ross created another fumble and the Huskers no longer believe.

Halfway through the first day of Toros open tryouts last weekend, I had a long conversation with a man named David Thompson. A retired electrician originally from Jamaica, Thompson had made the long trip down from his home in the Bronx with his son Devin, a lanky forward who was on the floor killing himself running drills while his father and I chatted amiably on the sidelines. When we met, Thompson was holding his son’s “Iceman” George Gervin jacket, proof that there’s still love for the old school among today’s young players.

Despite being a black Jamaican from the Bronx, David Thompson couldn’t have reminded me more of my father if he had studied him for an acting class. Almost as soon as we shook hands, he was telling me about the itinerary of his trip from New York to Texas, talking about the best and most efficient driving routes from Austin to Houston (even going so far as to trace an impromptu map on the gym door), asking about my work habits and plans, and quizzing me – to no avail – about local topography and industry.