Cornyn got a chance to get his immigrant hating on Wednesday night, when he made national news with his attempt to kill the Senate immigration bill by way of amendment.

Boy, there's one nice thing about the White House quickly shoving through legislation to hold people in Guantanamo without the right to habeas corpus: haste makes waste.

Well, it's that time again. Tonight is the night of the second debate for the Democratic candidate field. Surreal, isn't it? For those of you who don't recall, the first debate of the 2004 primary season was in September of '03. Here we are, in June, getting ready for the second debate of this season.

The 2009 speaker's race is getting more interesting by the day. The newest legislator to declare that he will run against Craddick for the speaker's seat is none other than his Speaker pro tempore, Sylvester Turner.

The 80th session of the Texas Legislature is over. As usual, it was too short for much substantive change to come forth for the state, and too long for those covering it (and probably those attending) to make it through without pulling their hair out.

Ooh, that was pretty.

Representative Jim Dunnam may have just killed SB 482 for the last time — no, really, the last time, we mean it.

If you missed the action in the Texas House this weekend, you may want to catch some of the archived video of what happened. In short, legislators tried to move to remove Craddick from the speaker's chair, and Craddick answered with a ruling that he did not actually have to recognize any such motion — or, indeed, any motion at all.

Apparently, Wired News thinks that the ban on online gambling has its days numbered. And they're probably right. The reason it's likely to fold, however, illustrates a growing Republican rift that is already seen often in Texas, and is accelerating across the nation.

Our fellow Democrats get feisty in this edition of the Texas Blue Mailbag.

No matter how much one tries to build an institution impervious to morality, expressly for political benefit, it seems like there's no way to stop someone from having a conscience somewhere in there.