The Senate will have their long-awaited vote of no confidence in Attorney General Alberto Gonzales today, and it is likely to end up just as you expect.

If you have the itch to mount a run for Congress, please stop everything you are doing and read this article. If you don't feel like weeping, and avoided saying "But it will be different for me!" at any point during your reading, you may have the right stuff — proceed to your next class, "Campaigns and Elections 1020: You need money to run for Congress," M W F 6:30 - 9:30.

Dennis Quaid and Rick Perry were hanging out together yesterday as Perry signed legislation enticing the film industry to shoot in Texas. From an overhead standpoint, it is obviously cheaper to shoot here than in New York or Los Angeles, but whether we'll be able to compete with Canada, the current reigning favo(u)rite place to go shoot, remains to be seen. Their incentive package involves a scheme where one of our dollars is worth more than one of theirs.

Mikal Watts got things off to a rousing start by matching Cornyn's first quarter money totals dollar for dollar, to the tune of $3.8 million. The Chron has it that Watts wants to start off with a level playing field, which he and Cornyn now have.

If you had told me yesterday that you could count on the CNN Republican debate to provide jokes this morning, I would have believed you. I didn't count on the jokes stemming from this case of what will no doubt be seen as cosmic hilarity (irony, instant messaging, what have you): as Rudy Giuliani began to answer a question about his pro-choice beliefs, lightning shorted out the sound system in the building. We can't make this stuff up, folks.

This week's edition of the mailbag is heavy on questions and comments about Mikal Watts.

I love mysteries, so when I got an email titled "Who is this mystery person?" from Patrick McLeod last week, I was intrigued. It pointed me to this post by Kos in which he says he's trying to recruit someone to run against Cornyn for Senate in 2008. He says he is very excited about this potential candidate, so I'm curious: who do you think Kos is talking about?

We have a lot of exciting items for you this week: Chris Bell has an essay on the TAKS test and its efficacy, staff writer Josh Davis holds forth on the debate over Texas casinos, and later today Karl Lynch will begin a five-part Bill Tracker series on election laws.

State Senator Jeff Wentworth (Luddite - San Antonio) would like me to stop rocking my cell phone while I'm driving. So long as this doesn't effect my high-speed text messaging, I will fully endorse it.