What is it with Texans and Rudy Giuliani?

First comptroller Susan Combs became his state campaign chair: now Texas Railroad Commission Chairman Michael Williams joins as vice-chair. But the big announcement came yesterday, when Gov. Rick Perry decided that “pro-choice East Coast politico” isn’t a term of abuse and formally endorsed the former mayor of New York in his run for president. Explained Perry, "I’m looking for a proven leader, who has been successful in disrupting, dismantling criminal enterprise, individuals that threaten our families and our way of life."

Backing Rudy for the issues that might get out the Texas party faithful (low taxes, small government, border security), Perry steered clear of matters that may induce ire (abortion). Of course, there’s a theory that Giuliani has always had an eye on Texas support and Texas cash. Back in 2005, Giuliani joined Houston-based law firm Bracewell & Patterson LLP, which suddenly transformed into Bracewell & Giuliani LLP. His Texas connections have provided him with $4.7 million in campaign donations so far this year, almost double his nearest in-state rival John Edwards on $2.4 million.

But it seems that Perry may not have been following the talking points. "Our nation’s leader must be able to stare down the criminal element,” he said in his endorsement speech, “whether they’re trafficking in drugs or whether they’re planting roadside bombs." Now, correct Chronic if he is wrong, but isn’t one of the key points of the war on terror that terrorists (traditionally classified as criminals and dealt with through the criminal justice system) are not criminals, but the nebulous and still ill-defined 'enemy combatants'?

While other animal shelters in the area run for cover in thunderstorms of controversy, the nonprofit Humane Society of Williamson County in Leander is celebrating sunny days, poetically speaking. The society recently won a top prize in the second annual Community TechKnowledge annual 5-7-5 Haiku competition with the apt and rapturous entry, “raining cats and dogs/ our umbrella breaks their fall/ shelter from the storm.” The puppy poetry purse was pretty precious – $2,000, which will help fund the HSWC adoption program.

The umbrella metaphor has another layer of meaning, for the HSWC recently formed a countywide shelter coalition: “We are trying to bring public and private shelters in Williamson County under a more formalized umbrella organization,” says board member Julia Whitley. The new coalition, Pet Alliance of Central Texas, will hold a pet expo and adoption event Saturday, Oct. 20, 10am-2pm at San Gabriel Park in Georgetown, which, among other things, will include a “Blessing of the Pets” and demonstrations by bird dogs, agility dogs, and fly-ball dogs. For more info, check out their website at www.hswc.net or download the flier here.

There was probably a collective gulp in the State Department this morning after the Turkish parliament gave its government permission to launch military operations against Kurdish rebels in Iraq.

The Turkish logic is that this is not an invasion: they're going after Partiya Karkerên Kurdistan (PKK, roughly translated as Kurdistan Workers Party) terrorist camps in Northern Iraq. But the idea of Turkey throwing troops into Iraq, especially the one region that has been perceived as showing even passing stability, is a disaster that could destabilize the whole region, and have serious consequences for Europe.

After last week's ugly and lengthy show-down over the relocation of the Town Lake Animal Shelter, it seems the council isn't up for another nasty fight over an unpopular issue. The roadside panhandling ordinance has been pulled from this morning's agenda and rescheduled for Nov. 29. According to the council staff, council member Jennifer Kim withdrew it for further consultation.

Agenda highlights for the Thursday, October 18 council meeting:

Items 9 and 19: Finally getting $2,655,000 to the Library Department Capital Budget for the Twin Oaks Branch Library Replacement project and $3,416,972 for the construction contract with Williams and Thomas L.P.

Items 13-14: More federal funds and overtime payments for the Austin/Travis County Human Trafficking Task Force.

Item 22: Start the negotiations with Jackson and Ryan Architects of Houston for the re-located Town Lake Animal Center. Watch for angry placard-waving.

Item 30: New 36-month contract for Austin Midnight Basketball worth $216,600, with three 12-month extension options in an estimated amount of $72,200 per extension.

Items 50 and 83: Public hearing and private legal consultation over future water supplies from the Lower Colorado River Authority, delayed from last week.

Items 51-52: Private consultations with the city attorney about the search for a new city manager.

Items 61-63: Adopting the North Burnet/Gateway 2035 Master Plan by adding it to the Austin Tomorrow Comprehensive Plan, begin re-zoning for the proposed "Downtown North"and introduce the required use and site development regulations.

Items 85-89: Construction time again. Public hearings on adopting the 2006 Uniform Solar Energy Code, the International Energy Conservation Code and the 2006 International Residential Codes, plus amendments to the city electrical and plumbing codes.

Item 90: The now-infamous roadside panhandling amendment.

But the real fun could come with the citizens communications, including "Austin City Limits & the Criminal Activity Associated with it" (yeah, $2 for a small bottle of water and The Killers sucking was pretty criminal) and "Communist Government Spying on U.T. Campus."

As of midnight last night, KOKE 1600 AM – the Air America affiliate for Austin – was sold by Border Media Partners to Encino Broadcasting, thus ending the tenuous tenure of progressive talk radio in Texas' most liberal city. Jose J. Garcia, the managing partner (and the previous owner of KOKE before BMP purchased it) said the new format will be Mexican Norteño music.

BMP Austin market vice president Jerry Del Core said his company sold KOKE and some of its other Austin properties because they were lower-powered FM signals, and wanted to focus on its stations with stronger signals. He said BMP has no further plans to carry Air America in Austin.

Dallas County has been a battleground in the last two statewide elections, with Democrats viewing it as a key target district for 2008. Now allegations of libel and deliberate voter suppression in the 2006 elections by two ranking Republicans have hit the legal system.

According to a complaint filed on Monday in Dallas County District Court, Rep. Tony Goolsby, R-Dallas, Dallas County Republican Party Chair Kenn George, the Dallas County Republican Party and Goolsby's PR firm, Allyn & Co., are being sued for libeling Goolsby's 2006 Democrat opponent Harriet Miller by falsely accusing her of voter fraud, then turning that allegation into election fliers.

Goolsby narrowly fought off Miller in 2004. At some point after that, he seemingly became convinced that Miller had ballot-stuffed, but waited until Oct. 23, 2006 to file the complaint - two weeks before Goolsby was set to face Miller for the seat again. The basis for the complaint? Miller had received lots of African-American votes in a primarily African-American precinct.

Vacationing out on the Left Coast, your humble scribe was going through mild wonk-withdrawl. Municipal government television to the answer! As you can tell from the picture, here in San Diego, the standards for city service are a little lesser.

A few random thoughts: San Diego city government has widely been renowned as wildly corrupt; from what I can gather, perhaps the biggest fracas now involves the SD city attorney, Mike Aguirre, who swept in on an anti-corruption platform. The rub against him is that he's elevated his office above the day-to-day legal headaches the city faces, and into a bully-pulpit for himself. It's a little odd; I'd shit a brick if David Smith had a webpage like this. (Oh, and there's also the little thing about accepting campaign contributions from his employees.) As city attorney is an elected position out here, it's an effective illustration of what happens when an administrative office is overly politicized. Not that we know anything about that.

Also, they have a strong mayor form of government out here. The mayor doesn't even deign to attend council meetings; rather, he sends his delegates to give input, while council elects a president from amongst themselves.

I swear, it's totally retarded.

After the botched attempted sale of the Christmas Mountains ranch in far West Texas by the Texas General Land Office, preservation groups hoped to find a public owner. Now the National Park Service has asked Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson to delay the sale, and he seems to be doing the policy equivalent of muttering about cold, dead hands.

Initially, Patterson represented the issue as being that the NPS had declined the land, whereas the reality is that the cash-strapped agency didn’t have the money (same reason the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department didn’t add it to the adjoining Big Bend State Park) or the legislative approval (due to the size of the site) to take it. Now the NPS has contacted Patterson again, asking him to delay the sale so that they can find a way to take the land off his hands. But he won’t.

One of Patterson’s main arguments against keeping the Christmas Mountains in state hands is that it’s basically unreachable and therefore not publicly accessible. But apparently turning it over to private hands will make it more open to the public. The gun-wielding public, that is.

Patterson said he is not dogmatically opposed to NPS owning the mountains. Which is true, except that he is, because (bar a few exceptional tracts of land) they don’t allow public hunting in their parks. Patterson likes guns and likes hunting, so much so that, back in 1995 when he was still a state senator, he sponsored the concealed firearms law. Now the second-amendment fan is refusing to allow the sale to the NPS, because they wouldn’t allow hunting on there, and so will press on with the sale to private bidders, several of whom are suggesting they would allow some form of hunting, if only for population control.