City Council is currently receiving a hearing on chronic homelessness in the Austin area, the chronically homeless being those with debilitating illnesses or conditions that have been on the streets for an entire year, or have had four episodes of homelessness in the past three years. Let's revisit some of the statistics on Austin's homeless population:

Over a 12 month period, there were over 6,200 homeless people in the Austin area. Between September 12, 2005 and September 12, 2006, 6,242 unique individuals received services from Austin area homeless service providers. (Homeless Management Information System - HMIS)

On any given day, there are approximately 4,000 homeless individuals of which 1,900 are downtown. (Homeless Count 2004)

Over 1,500 children are affected by homelessness in the Austin Independent School District. In the 2005-2006 school year, AISD Project Help served 1,556 homeless students. (AISD Project Help)

There's many proposals, but they're currently discussing use of "travel trailers," wherein a trailer is donated as housing, but residents keep up with the lot fees. A unique and seemingly smart idea, but only one of several if the city's to meet its goal of ending chronic homelessness in the next decade.

So tonight our president is poised to announce his plans after painful weeks of "decider" mode: deploying 21,500 extra troops to Iraq, mostly into the cauldron of Baghdad. I suppose tonight he'll lay out some ostensible reason or goal for putting that many more Americans in the middle of an Iraqi civil war, but I hold little hope we'll get much beyond the same shopworn bullshit about standing up and sitting down.

Of course, it's thought one reason for the escalation is to dismantle the Mahdi Army, lead by Muqtada al-Sadr. You know, the same guy Saddam Hussein's executioners were cheering at the hanging supposedly administered by Iraq government. The strongman undoubtedly helps the meager Shiite government there hang on to power. That's gotta put president Nouri al-Maliki in an odd spot – not to mention the troops sent over there. So are they risking their lives to take out one of the president of Iraq's supporters? What exactly are we supposed to accomplish over there?

It's not surprising that Bush, who claims to administer war plans based solely on Army needs and demands (but promptly canned his top general after he said escalation was a bad idea), has basically been reduced to bribing them into going along with his face-saving plans to escalate, dump the whole mess in his predecessors' lap, and claim that he didn't lose Iraq. It's obvious what Bush is trying to do, but I repeat: what the hell else are we doing in Iraq?

UPDATE: So this is how billion dollar, life and death decisions are made: the "surge" was trumpeted by Bush in part to spite the Baker/Hamilton Iraq Study Group. For shame.

Of course, there was more going down yesterday than Jim Pitt's speaker hopes; a stone's throw away from the Lege at the County Court, Travis County commissioners revisited their most contentious issue in recent memory: Water Treatment Plant 4.

Commissioners last dealt with WTP4 back in October, when they rebuffed the city's plans to build the plant at the so-called Cortaña site; the city requires county approval to do so as the agencies co-manage the nature habitat Cortaña lies in, the Balcones Canyonlands Preserve. In making their denial, commissioners sited the fact that Cortaña lies in the BCP, and is home to the endangered black capped vireo bird; additionally, some felt the city hadn't exhausted its search for other sites, an allegation underscored by a report from the city auditor stating an additional site did fit city criteria, but wasn't properly vetted. Still, the city says they'd prefer to build the treatment plant at Cortaña over the tract they've currently sited, nearby at the headwaters of Bull Creek. Critics allege that the city's decision to stake out the even more ecologically-delicate Bull Creek site has been a gambit to force the county's hand on approving Cortaña, but if it was, it hasn't met with success.

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Lotsa chatter out there following yesterday's re-election of Tom Craddick as House speaker.

The Texas blogosphere is filled with righteous anger and indignation against the so-called "Craddick Ds" (which include Dawnna Dukes and Patrick Rose in their ranks) who supported him in his bid.

In a press release, the Texas Freedom Network says "this unprecedented challenge to Speaker Craddick sends a clear message. House members are tired of seeing the legislative process manipulated to benefit special interests at the expense of public schools and other things important to Texas families."

Also, Paul Burka does his thing, recounting yesterday in a larger historical framework.

UPDATE: I'd be remiss not to point out the miniature Burka rebellion in the comments on the last link. There's some controversy as to whether Burka's calling the race for Craddick influenced the actual election – after all, as he notes, Burka's supposed wisdom was referenced on the floor during the debate. After all, he is no mere Texas blogger hiding behind a pseudonym.

Well, looks like Craddick gets to keep the gavel. Jim Pitts, the only contender for the speaker's chair, looked behind him, saw that his supporters would only support him if they didn't have to do it publicly, and now he's standing aside.

Point of order, people!

Oh great, now it's going to be 15 minutes until they resolve the amendment. Get familiar with the previous entries below, if you will. Thanks to Richard for blogging in my absence.

So for those of you just tuning in, here's what you've missed: jack-fucking-shit. We've spent almost four hours now delicately tinkering with the machinery of the speaker election, and getting copies xeroxed, along with any manner of assorted ephemera and goings on. It's next to impossible not to suspect that this has been a ploy for some last-minute lobbying. I don't know why we held out hope anything would be different, though. Call us romantic.

Is it just us, or has the gavel gotten bigger this session? The clerk is reading the opinion on King's objection to the secret ballot. You can't tell me they didn't think of this until now. It's a constitutional crisis!

Oh, for fuck's sake, secret ballots have been used 50 times before, we learn. King needs to loose his Craddick-inspired boner for "transparency."

The legal prattle goes on. My toss-off joke about Florida is looking more apt.

"The members must make these decisions themselves." Point of order overruled. Thank fucking God. Roger Williams looks like he's in waaaaay over his head. Still, the Craddick-heads can't let it go. Unbelievably, there's another pause to consider whether their hope that three requests for a record vote can overturn the secret ballot. Didn't we just learn no? Follow us below the fold.

And the fun begins … well, not really. Just finished reading a resolution kicking House floor onlookers outta chambers. We waited so long for this?

The ceaseless pauses give credence to speculation that Craddick's using the time to squeeze every pair he can get his hands on. Hmmm, that's a pretty nasty image.

Secretary of State Whitey Williams says a document delineating what both parties agree to in the election is coming to members' desks. Seriously, let's get some amateur videographers on those House staffers and throw that shit up on YouTube, à la the Craddick D's – maybe it'll speed things up a bit.

Still nothing. What BS. If Craddick isn't using this time to bust out the vise grip, I'll be the next speaker. Ten bucks he poured a Diet Coke in the Xerox machine.

HR 35, the voting procedure bill, is finally laid out and ready to take amendments.

Voting procedures: Paper ballots. Counted on House floor. Gotta have name and signature though. Still, I don't put a Florida-style fiasco outta reach here.

"A group of House has-beens" from the Senate invade the House to pal around. Buffet's on in 20 minutes, says Jim Keffer. You know Elliott Naishtat's ears perked up at that one.

So save some pretty egregious amendment, the ballots are secret. Doesn't bode well for Craddick, no? Eiland says one amendment would make votes public today, whereas one from Geren would make it confidential until after committee assignments. Still, a third would shred 'em once they're tabbed, secret forever! Good gawd.

Continued below the fold.

Here in the Chronicle news-heap, Channel 6 is blaring, it's five minutes to game time, and we're giddy with anticipation to see what the speaker race will bring. Will it be a nail-biter, or, as Lee Nichols compared it to the bowl game last night, a bona fide ass-whupping? We'll update here live as it happens.

Bells are ringing! And there's that creepy biker dude with the face tats who's on Public Access all the time in the gallery.

The House will convene shortly, says the screen. The house looks like a phalanx of worker ants circling around.

"Welcome to the 80th session of the Texas House of Representatives!" Lovely 1980s-era Betamax graphics of the dome.

Looks like Craddick's making it to the podium. Very surreal with no ambient or background noise; they only turn the mics on when someone's at one.

Gaveled to order. Who is this at the podium? Secretary of State Roger Williams. Invocation time. "Let's pray for some of that Roger Williams money." Is he the used car salesman?

"The Star Spangled Banner." Pax Texana. Dude belted that out. Pledges to the flags. When does Caligula's horse get sworn in?

The rest continued below the fold.