Free Republic

The Texas Senate's Most-Feared Mouth is on the air from Austin. From a nearly empty basement cubicle in a Congress Avenue high-rise, "The Dan Patrick Show" debuted Wednesday afternoon from Austin. Patrick, a newly sworn-in senator from Houston, said he thinks he is the only legislator in the country with his own talk show. "This is the Voice of Texas," Patrick intoned in his radio voice, as he opened Patrick's first show from the capital city began just a few hours after he introduced an abortion bill. His bill would make performing most abortions illegal in Texas, if Roe v....

Drew Brees wants no part of his mother's political aspirations. The NFL quarterback and Westlake High School graduate has told Mina Brees, an Austin attorney, to stop using his picture in TV commercials as she runs for a spot on Texas' 3rd Court of Appeals, saying their relationship is now "nonexistent" after souring six years ago. "I think the major point here is that my mother is using me in a campaign, and I've made it known many times I don't want to be involved," he said Monday. The New Orleans Saints player said he is speaking out now because...

Kinky says he won't step down. Democratic gubernatorial candidate Chris Bell called on independent Kinky Friedman to drop his 20-month-old bid for governor Tuesday night. Friedman didn't directly answer his opponent but said in a telephone interview: "Hell, no. Why would I do that? "I don't want to step down for anybody when I think America is going to have a big turnout" on Election Day, Friedman said from a hotel in McAllen. "I'm not looking for a way out. We don't negotiate with terrorists." Republican Gov. Rick Perry "better watch this, because we're going to beat him," Friedman said....

-Burnt Orange Report provides recording of 1980 show in Houston- Former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura helped Kinky Friedman rally college students for his independent gubernatorial bid Monday as more recordings surfaced that capture Friedman lofting a range of racially tinged comments. The comments came in an 84-minute audio recording of an April 1980 Houston performance made available to reporters by a pro-Democratic blog, the Burnt Orange Report. The recording features Friedman making nine comments touching on racial topics interspersed with 14 songs. The blog posted an excerpt last week. Friedman said then that he didn't remember the comments specifically but...

AUSTIN — Days after being criticized for derogatory comments about Hurricane Katrina evacuees, independent gubernatorial hopeful Kinky Friedman struck back at candidates who pander to minorities. "I don't eat tamales in the barrio, I don't eat fried chicken in the ghetto, I don't eat bagels with the Jews for breakfast," said Friedman, who is Jewish. "That to me is true racism." The comment last week was intended to reflect that he's not afraid of risking a little unpopularity for the sake of being honest, campaign spokeswoman Laura Stromberg said Monday. "He's not going to become the politician that people in...

A three-judge federal panel today released a new congressional map for the November elections that gives U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, more of Travis County and Central Texas. Under the plan, Doggett would keep southeast Travis County, add the southwestern portion of the county as well as southern Bastrop County and all of Hays, Caldwell, Gonzales, Lavaca, Colorado and Fayette counties. Doggett loses the portion of his current district in the Rio Grande Valley. The judges also reunited Webb County into one congressional district, solidifying Hispanic voting strength in South Texas. The U.S. Supreme Court ordered a new map to...

GEORGETOWN, Texas — Stung by criticism from Republicans that they are "cut and run" candidates on the war in Iraq, a group of Texas Democrats running for Congress who are also military veterans pushed back Thursday. The "Texas Fighting Dems" staged a small rally at the Sun City retirement community to support fellow Democrat Mary Beth Harrell, the wife of an Army veteran and mother of a soldier in Iraq. She is running against incumbent Republican John Carter of Round Rock in the 31st Congressional District. With a color guard, American flags and red-white-and-blue bunting on the podium in front...

Governor Rick Perry signed the eminent domain bill into law in Waco, saying the legislation will "close a door the Supreme Court jarred open." Perry had officially signed the law September first, but had to postpone the ceremonial signing in Waco because of hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Texas was one of at least 31 states to review eminent domain laws following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that backed governments' power to take private land for economic development as a way to increase tax revenue. At the Waco Association of Realtors office yesterday, Perry said that government should not encroach upon...