In Austin, sometimes it's déjà vu all over again...

Take our wild and wooly Wal-Mart quiz!!! Roll-back your thinking caps and fill in the blanks in this statement from the mayor! For extra points, name when it was made!

"I am not opposed to Wal-Mart doing business in Austin. Under the right circumstances, they are a welcome addition to our local economy. But with regard to Wal-Mart’s proposed store development at choose from (a,b,c,d) inside, my message to Wal-Mart is clear and simple: “The proposed Wal-Mart Supercenter development ... is in the wrong place, and now it is entirely up to Wal-Mart to make the right choice and locate the project elsewhere.”

"I want to emphasize that although the City of Austin has no legal recourse to prevent the proposed development of a Wal-Mart Supercenter at ???, I, as Mayor, will continue to vigorously represent to the corporate leadership of Wal-Mart the opinion that I share with many in Austin: ??? is not ... suited for large-scale retail."

SurveyUSA has numbers up in the Bonilla/Rodriguez brawl in congressional district 23. Title says it all: "Republican Bonilla Hangs On in TX 23rd, But Hispanic Vote May Decide Outcome."

Bonilla (R) 53
Rodriguez (D) 46

Margin of Sampling Error: ± 4.6%

Judging by the comments and chatter generated by the previous post about Toby Futrell's admitted conflict of interest re: Wal-Mart, I think it's important to come out and state a few things: The post was not intended, as one e-mailer put it, to be any sort of “gotcha” moment tying Futrell to the development. If anything, it was meant as a humorous, you've-got-to-be-kidding-me instance representative of the city's (by now trademarked) ham-handed manner in handling Northcross. Futrell's COI wasn't exactly a secret – the documents are available on the city's Web site here – but its timing – immediately submitted before the Northcross site plan – does raise interesting questions. As neighbors seek to rein in the expansion, we'll see more questions of council and staff, especially of the “what did you know, and when did you know it” variety. And if in fact Futrell's husband does HVAC work for Wal-Mart, and because of this she has an admitted conflict of interest, then we've done our job.

Hey all, Democracy for Texas (a spinoff from the 2004 Dean for Texas campaign) will be partying with Butch Hancock tonight and fundraising. Details here.

Continuing "All Wal-Mart, All the Time" week here at Chronic, we bring you another breathless exclusive. Always!

In progressive quarters, much has been made of the serendipitous delay of the big-box ordinance for months on end, a delay which allowed the Wal-Mart site plan at Northcross to proceed unabated. Timelines are floating around the city, showing how inaction at critical junctions made Wal-Mart miss the boat. Coincidences all, we're assured.

That said, it further boggles the mind that only three days before the Northcross site plan was filed with the city, Toby Futrell filed a conflict of interest disclosure statement with the city... naming Wal-Mart.

We couldn't make this up if we tried.

Lost amidst the deluge of Wal-Mart runoff last week was a letter to City Council from several of Austin's environmental leaders, urging them to change course on building Water Treatment Plant 4 at its proposed, environmentally sensitive location. "We ask that you remove yourself from the box the Utility has unnecessarily put the City in of building in either the sensitive Bull Creek watershed or in the Balcones Canyonlands Preserve," the letter reads, urging the city to "initiate a new, more reasonable site selection process."

Free-market booster Michael Quinn Sullivan, the voice behind the voice of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, is leaving his VP post to lead a new organization with a similar low-to-no taxes mindset. The startup, Texans for Fiscal Responsibility, seeks to divert the state's $15 billion surplus into the hands of taxpayers, and has created a website and blog (www.empowertexans.com) to further its mission. If you're hankering for more details about the new group, then get thee to the reception TPPF is hosting for Sullivan. The festivities are set for 5pm Friday at the Foundation's headquarters, 900 Congress Ave. A former newspaper reporter, Sullivan jumped from the liberal media into the free-market fire in the mid-Nineties to serve as an aide to U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, the anti-tax Republican from Surfside, before moving to the nonprofit, non-partisan (wink, wink) sector. Apparently, it will take three people to fill Sullivan's shoes: staffers Bill Peacock, Mary Katherine Stout, and Shari Hanrahan, all got promotions out of the deal.

John Bolton announces he will step down as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations once his interim-appointment expires in less than a month.

He plans to spend the time with his family, chasing them down hotel hallways.

Having rode late into Ciro Rodriguez's cash-strapped battle against incumbent Henry Bonilla in Congressional District 23, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has, according to Paul Burka, ponied up $154,000 in ad-buys for Rodriguez.

Peep the ad below: