The appointments system in Texas has turned into one big joke. It isn’t a funny joke because our state government depends in large part on the appointment process, and when the governor thumbs his nose at it, quality suffers.

We've talked quite often about how the Republican position on immigration will hurt them among Hispanic voters, a demographic that is unquestionably ascendant in both state and national politics. That conversation continues to build.

I'm a big fan of Jon Stewart and The Daily Show. I am also a big fan of Stephen Colbert, but I sometimes think his show is just too ridiculous to keep going. I am always wrong. He continues to prove that you can use humor and satire to do some good in the world in addition to making people laugh. And he's not going anywhere any time soon.

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.

Intelligence gathering and sharing are proven means for effectively combating criminal activity. Texas presently gathers and shares intelligence among various law enforcement agencies utilizing a database called the Texas Data Exchange, or TDEx. One might reasonably assume the state’s top law enforcement agency is responsible for managing such a database. This is not the case. Instead, a Perry political appointee manages TDEx causing widespread concern over potential civil liberty abuses.

The term shonda is a highly evocative one in Yiddish. Basically, it means that something is a shame, but it confers a lot more than that. It means that someone's actions disgrace not only himself but his family and all those that associate with him.

I hope everyone took the day off yesterday – you deserve it. Especially when you consider the latest report from the International Labor Organization that finds the United States workforce was the most productive in the world in 2006.

The Republican scrapes his "W" sticker off the car and laments the crooks from his party that were running the House of Representatives. The Democrat complains that his party's leaders are out of touch and don't seem to understand why they were successful in the last election. No one seems terribly happy, and one has to wonder what it all means for the future.

Stop me if you've heard this one before: An intensely disliked political consultant and a disgraced Attorney General head to Texas...

Now we all know the most recent rumors of Fidel Castro's passing can be nothing more than a vast right-wing conspiracy to discredit what they knew would be the long-time Cuban dictator's prediction for the 2008 presidential election. Because if we can trust any source to present an accurate, fair, and balanced assessment of the political happenings in the United States, it is Captain Communist Longbeard himself.