I honestly fell in love with Bill Clinton first when I was in junior high. I was just then getting into party politics, returning to the reality that the effective administration of the very same special education programs I needed ultimately depended upon who was in office.

The governor and his staff are sleeping in the college classroom back row. They slashed $154 million in requested funds for the state’s community colleges.

Had the president paid attention in basic civics and history classes, he would understand how democracies are formed. Democracy must internally come from the ground up. Another country cannot bring it, irrespective of their motives or intentions.

Trying to be Texas’s reincarnated Abbie Hoffman during the packed 2006 gubernatorial race, Kinky instead came off looking like a hastily-concocted Alfred E. Neuman wannabe. They shared roughly the same amount of political savvy, too.

I frequently have to explain Texas’ lovable little idiosyncrasies to my friends who do not live in the Lone Star State. The reciting of our separate state pledge in addition to the Pledge of Allegiance leaves everyone scratching their heads in bewilderment.

Like so many of my Texas public school classmates, I mumbled my way through those words. I was eager just to get that event over with and go on with my day. Even accounting for the ten-year gap, I’m sure that many of today’s student reactions aren’t much different.

Forget the approaching multi-million dollar film starring Tom Cruise and Meryl Streep. The real life, modern-day version of government shenanigans continues to provide summer entertainment that is, if not appreciated, at least much more riveting. At least admission is free!

Among Senator Robert Kennedy's social justice causes were the rights of people with disabilities — initially emanating from his experiences with his own sister Rosemary. It also extended to the then-radical concept that people with disabilities needed deinstitutionalization, that those who could would come out of mammoth state institutions and live among the general population to the greatest extent possible. The standards and practices of state mental health facilities were long in need of a major overhaul.

Quick — somebody get out the political life boats! The Bush administration’s poll numbers continue to sink. Numbers have now gotten so low that pundits are publicly comfortable making open comparisons between Bush and Richard M. Nixon.

Last Wednesday’s 5-4 decision in Parents Involved v. Seattle School District and Meredith v. Jefferson County Board of Education provided a powerful backdrop for Tavis Smiley’s All-American Presidential Forum at Howard University.

Austinites came together at a fundraiser held to defray David Rivas Morales’s funeral expenses. Morales was beaten to death in an East Austin neighborhood holding a Juneteenth celebration while checking on Michael Hosea Jr. after he was hit by the car Morales was riding in.