For something that's engendered such a level of commotion and controversy, it's possible that precious few have actually read the Big Box ordinance. Find it and more back up information here.

Not that anyone ever accused the Houston suburbs of being an oasis of understanding, but for fuck's sake, c'mon:

"KATY, Texas - A plan to build a mosque in this Houston suburb has triggered a neighborhood dispute, with community members warning the place will become a terrorist hotbed and one man threatening to hold pig races on Fridays just to offend the Muslims."

Yup, because there's no target more high value than Katy, Texas.

And you thought arresting pot smokers – or, closer to home, using confidential informants of questionable credibility as the sole evidence to convict dozens of people for minor crack possession (as in Tulia or in Edna, Texas) – in the name of the (never-ending) War on Drugs was bad? Well, you ain’t seen nothing yet: According to a report in London’s Guardian, fed-paid narco informant Guillermo Ramirez – a.k.a. Lalo – was given more than $220,000 by agents from Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (among other agencies) to infiltrate a Mexican drug cartel in Juarez. Worse, they actually listened in while CI Lalo participated in numerous cartel-ordered murders.

To top it all off, when details of the scandal finally made it up to Washington, D.C. – through Western District of Texas U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton, and on to then Attorney General John Ashcroft, and DEA head Karen Tandy – the official reaction was merely a threat to fire a colleague, El Paso DEA Special Agent-in-Charge Sandy Gonzalez, if he refused to quit talking about the details of the feds’ deadly relationship with Lalo. Read and be disgusted.

After weeks on end of paint-drying bureaucratic tedium and yawn-inducing dispatches from The Zoning Zone so boring Jeff Jack himself wouldn't touch them if they involved a drive-thru porn and liquor emporium opening in the base of a 600-foot point tower on West Lynn Street, could next week's City Council meeting – the last of the year – finally provide any modicum of intrigue or excitement? Looks that way.

Thank God (or Wal-Mart) – it's the Christmas Miracle!

Two-thirds of Texans oppose the construction of new proposed coal-fired power plants, with 47% strongly opposing, while an overwhelming 81% reject Governor Perry’s executive order to fast-track the plants’ permits, according to a survey of 600 randomly selected Texas residents released Dec. 6 by the Environmental Integrity Project. The survey, conducted by Opinion Research Corporation, a global polling organization, even addressed factors such as political party affiliation – finding that only 22% of Republicans favored Perry’s fast-tracking tactics. While 82% of respondents voiced concern about the increased health risks associated with the plants, 47% said they are “not aware at all” of Governor Perry’s fast-track orders. Additionally, 74% of Texans would prefer to see major conservation efforts undertaken to offset a significant portion of the electricity that’s required from the new coal plants, according to the study. “Texans do not want to see the state shortchange the deliberate review that should take place to determine what would be very serious environmental and health downsides of these needlessly dirty power sources,” said EIP Counsel Ilan Levin. Former EPA Regulatory Enforcement Director Eric Schaeffer founded the EIP in 2002 after he resigned in protest of Bush Administration efforts to weaken the Clean Air Act and other environmental laws. “To say that Governor Perry has no mandate from the public for his plan to rubber stamp these dirty power plants may be the understatement of the year,” Levin said.

In her nearly forgotten capacity as state comptroller, Carole Keeton Strayhorn just released "Undocumented Immigrants in Texas: A Financial Analysis of the Impact to the State Budget and Economy." Strayhorn says it's the "first time any state has done a comprehensive financial analysis of the impact of undocumented immigrants on a state's budget and economy, looking at gross state product, revenues generated, taxes paid and the cost of state services."

Cutting to the juicy stuff, her statement continues: "The absence of the estimated 1.4 million undocumented immigrants in Texas in fiscal 2005 would have been a loss to our gross state product of $17.7 billion. Undocumented immigrants produced $1.58 billion in state revenues, which exceeded the $1.16 billion in state services they received. However, local governments bore the burden of $1.44 billion in uncompensated health care costs and local law enforcement costs not paid for by the state."

The report is available at the comptroller's Web site here.

What? Another Inauguration?
Rick got elected,
Now he wants to have a ball.
Aw, do we have to?

Reality Bites
Unfortunately,
The date is already set.
There's no turning back.

Don't Forget Ice
This is all for Rick.
We mustn't disappoint him.
Pretend to have fun.

Xanax at Work
Who is Rick, anyway?
Just some guy in jeans and chaps.
He has pretty hair.

Our Future Governor?
Pretty much like Dewhurst.
Except Dewhurst is nicer.
And has more money.

Save the Date
Oh, about that ball.
It's January 16.
Why do I feel blue?

The Texas Country Reporter has been at it for a while; I remember seeing his down-home dispatches covering the state ever since I was a child. Well the show isn't resting on its laurels; they've got a pretty sizable YouTube presence, which is where we found this alternately alluring and terrifying video: a restaurant in Snook, Texas which serves chicken-fried bacon.

We repeat: Chicken. Fried. Bacon.

Citizen's communications today brought a bit of disheartening news: it sounded like perennial local candidate and homeless advocate Jennifer Gale announced she was moving to Dallas to run for mayor. With the Dem wave washing over Big D, hopefully her political fortunes will rise faster there. Probably not, but you never know. Hopefully she'll keep us apprised on her campaign Web site.

Here's another interesting bit of Galeanalia, from the world's most accurate encyclopedia (so take it with a grain of salt): In 2004, Leslie Cochran challenged Gale "to a debate at the University of Texas student union on the topic of who should best represent the homeless. Gale declined to participate unless given $50 of food from the Wendy's restaurant inside the union. The event organizers declined."

UPDATE: A reliable source emails that Gale moved here from the Big D, and has made her mayoral intentions known there before. It still doesn't make it any easier...