In case you missed 'em...

RV 'village' stands out in tony Austin: This 'offbeat news' dispatch from the AP details the Airstream Shangri-La that is Pecan Grove RV park. (For those keeping track, Shady Grove's slated for condo development, not Pecan Grove.) Title is a great measure of how much we've changed: 'tony' Austin?

No food, no toilets, no gate for travelers: Over the weekend, some American Airlines passengers were kept on the tarmac for over eight hours. Too bad they couldn't deplane and check out Bergstrom's Austin Chronicle store. Yeah!

Counterpoint to 'Red-Light' Traffic Cameras: Naked Intersections: An interesting, big picture look at traffic and road design from local blog Political Suicide.

Univ. Texas Rethinks Confederate Statues: UT convening panel to decide the statues' fate.

Austin Skyline in Lego: Local tech consortium creates Lego kit of the city. Real or plastic blocks, I don't know which one's changing quicker.

The more they keep changing.

Pity the poor TV reporter who has to "go live" from some dark, cold corner of the county to report on something fascinating that happened there 12 hours earlier. Fox-7 news reporter Crystal Cotti was on such an assignment late Monday night (late because the Boise State v. Oklahoma game ran into serious OT) when she lost her footing in the darkness and suffered a fractured ankle. The slip-n-fall caused a fright all around because Cotti is eight months pregnant. But all is well. A trip to the emergency room Tuesday – where Cotti and husband, Austin Rep. Mark Strama, bided their time watching Oprah in the waiting room – put the couple's fears to rest once they heard the reassuring beat of their baby's heart. Due date is Feb. 4. Cotti hopes to have kicked her ankle cast well into the end zone by then.

You need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows in the quirky race for House speaker, which goes to an official vote (or two) next Tuesday, the opening day of the Legislature. Winds out of the north have Plano Rep. Brian McCall sweeping incumbent Speaker Tom Craddick under the rug, thanks to a last-minute assist from Waxahachie Rep. Jim Pitts, who also happens to be running for speaker. Still another scenario has the utterly rational, even-tempered Jim Keffer (think Gerald Ford) of Eastland becoming the "accidental speaker" to help heal a divided House. But wait! Craddick's spokeswoman, Alexis DeLee, tells us her boss has 83 "solid" aye votes – more than enough to win re-election – plus "some" additional, unnamed members who have very recently committed their support. Seven-day outlook: Watch for sudden wind shifts, extreme hot and cold temperatures, severe freeze warnings; busted kneecaps and other storm damage likely.

You would've thought they'd save it for Super Bowl halftime, with Jessica Simpson dressed as Martha Washington giving him a final lapdance before they throw the switch. Or you'd think the administration would kick off the State of the Union with it, Bush addressing the nation whilst standing on his smoldering, electrocuted corpse. But no, it looks like Saddam Hussein is scheduled to die tonight. Before FOX could get the pay-per-view rights, no less. Well, like Rumsfeld said, democracies are free to make those sort of mistakes.

Where's Bush? I'll be flabbergasted if he's not in Iraq. This is his white whale, the man that tried to Kill his Daddy, his ultimate limp-dick Oedipal boogeyman and reason our military is stretched to its breaking point halfway around the world.

Bizarre, to say the very least. Uh, Happy New Year?

UPDATE: And he's dead.

UPDATE 2: "This thing is a sham, of a piece with the whole corrupt, disastrous sham that the war and occupation have been... This whole endeavor, from the very start, has been about taking tawdry, cheap acts and dressing them up in a papier-mache grandeur -- phony victory celebrations, ersatz democratization, reconstruction headed up by toadies, con artists and grifters. And this is no different. Hanging Saddam is easy. It's a job, for once, that these folks can actually see through to completion. So this execution, ironically and pathetically, becomes a stand-in for the failures, incompetence and general betrayal of country on every other front that President Bush has brought us."

As North Dakota moves ever closer to licensing its first farmers to begin cultivating industrial hemp, Agriculture Commissioner Roger Johnson on Dec. 27 said he has asked the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to waive individual federal registration requirements for duly licensed NoDak hemp farmers. “This would simplify the process for growers, while enhancing DEA’s ability to monitor and regulate industrial hemp production in North Dakota,” Johnson said in a press release.

Burnt Orange Report is in a contemplative mood, looking back at the major events of the year. Their biggest scoop was posting years-old clips of Kinky Friedman's comedy routine, wherein the entertainer lets loose with the dreaded N-word in the course of his routine. BOR magnate Phillip Martin says "I'm not sorry for posting the audio clips, or for our coverage on Friedman, but I am sorry that I didn't cover it better. I should have waited for all the show to be uploaded before putting up the clip (something we eventually did), even though I feel the full show is more damning. Still, it would have been more fair."

Granted, with his history and profile, Friedman was operating a different type of campaign, one which ultimately was horribly unsuccessful. Still, I'm not sure how much BOR's disclosures actually hurt him. On Election Night, it was only Kinky's hardcore Kool-Aid swillers, and looking back, I think it's likely that's how it was all along.

The blogosphere is abuzz with news about the Speaker race in the Texas House. The latest:

• Robert Talton is the first Republican chair (Urban Affairs Committee) to publicly pledge support for incumbent Tom Craddick's opponent Brian McCall.

• Craddick is hemorrhaging pledges.

• Jim Pitts (R-Waxahachie) says he'll also throw his hat in the ring.

• Also, Quorum Report has a decent rundown of the arcane structural maneuverings required for the actual vote.

So weird. With all this talk of pledges, nominations and seconds, it's like marauding hordes of Patricians and Plebeians invading the Sadie Hawkins Dance.

Only the Statesman editorial board could fuck up something as simple as a tribute to president Gerald Ford. On Ford's defining moment, his quick turn-around in pardoning Nixon, they say "as the nation got to know this modest man better, most accepted that Ford really did act in what he believed was the best interest of the country." "Most" is further defined as Kay Bailey Hutchison, and a quote from Ted Kennedy calling it "an extraordinary act of courage." (So is storming hell with a glass of ice water – that doesn't make it a good idea, though.)

Aside from setting a questionable precedent, one which lead to Clinton's long vilified Marc Rich pardon, there's a greater danger in Ford's actions, one we're reaping the wretched spoils of today. In sweeping Nixon's crimes under the rug for the sake of "the country" ("the landed Beltway gentry" is more like it), Ford began the pushback against the transparency Watergate promised, entrenching what we know today as the theory of the "unitary executive" allowing Bush's ambitions to roam unchecked. It's no accident that Donald Rumsfeld and the architect of the Imperial Presidency, Dick Cheney, served under Ford, the latter's views no doubt forged in reactionary response to hardened congressional oversight.

Granted, it's poor etiquette to speak ill of the dead. But with Bush committing crimes that would make Tricky Dick blush, there's a more appropriate cliché: those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.