“I done drew the line. Just like the Alamo. You’re either on one side of the
line or the other. I don’t want to ever leave Texas again.”  Bum Phillips

No more road trips to Cleveland for the late great coach.

A manhunt is on after a lone gunman attacked TV Weatherman Patrick Crawford outside a Waco TV station on Wednesday.  I realize these guys are wrong at least 30% of the time but someone needs to get a grip.  ABC News reports:

“Police continued their search for a suspect in the shooting of a Texas meteorologist outside a TV station in Waco, Texas. The suspect fled after allegedly shooting Patrick Crawford, NBC affiliate KCEN’s morning meteorologist, multiple times in the studio’s parking lot Wednesday, Department of Public Safety Trooper D.L. Wilson told ABC News. Crawford underwent surgery, he added. Crawford’s wife, Heather Brinkmann, also a meteorologist at the station, was with him at the hospital, KCEN’s news director Jim Hice told ABC News.”

http://abcnews.go.com/US/meteorologist-shot-texas-tv-station/story?id=27669111

“If you’ve ever driven across Texas, you know how different one area of the
state can be from another. Take El Paso. It looks as much like Dallas as I look
like Jack Nicklaus.”  Lee Trevino

CBS News and other sources report that Texas Sen. Ted Cruz latest parliamentary maneuver has backfired yet again.  The Senate’s leaders Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell had reached an agreement to let the clock run over the weekend without the Senate being in session and vote Monday on the appropriations bill to keep the government functioning.  Cruz had another idea and objected to the spending bill which required the Senate to hold a Sunday session.  Cruz’s maneuver was clearly intended to play to his base by highlighting his claim of illegal action by Pres. Obama on immigration.  Such tactics will obviously play well in the Republican primaries but his colleagues in Washington on both sides of the aisle were unimpressed. They were understandably upset with losing a weekend at this time of the year, but the bigger problem for Cruz was the unintended consequences of his action.  The extra days of session allowed the Democrats to move forward with 24 of Pres. Obama’s nominees for judicial and administrative posts before the Republicans take control of the Senate in January.  These included at least four controversial nominees who will now likely be confirmed thanks to Cruz’s ploy.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/three-obama-nominees-who-may-now-be-confirmed-thanks-to-ted-cruz/

Photo from http://www.politico.com

“They say that Virginia is the mother of Texas. We never knew who the father was, but we kinda suspected Tennessee.” – Tex Ritter

The Dallas Morning News Reports that the rifle used by UT Tower sniper Charles Whitman to kill 16 people and wound 32 more in August of 1966 is now on display at the Crime Museum in Washington, D.C.

“The Remington Model 700 rifle that Whitman used in the attack is on display at the Crime Museum in Washington D.C. Museum officials tout the acquisition as a valuable and educational addition to their collection. But victims of the attack like Claire Wilson James don’t understand displaying a macabre reminder of a horrific event.

“What kind of person wants to go and look at it?”, she said. “Why does somebody want to go look at something that did so much evil?”  Wilson James grew up in Dallas and is now a retired schoolteacher in Texarkana. She was 18 years old and eight months pregnant at the time of the attack. Whitman shot her in the stomach, killing her unborn child.

Janine Vaccarello, the museum’s chief operating officer, said that displaying the rifle furthers the museum’s mission of educating people about the history of crime and law enforcement.”

Red lived in Austin back then and his father left a travel agency on the Drag only a few minutes before Whitman began his heinous slaughter of innocents.  Red repeats, “Really?”

Image from and full story at  http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/2014/12/dc-museum-displays-ut-tower-shooters-rifle.html/

Texas Monthly has awarded Sen. Wendy Davis its annual Bum Steer of the Year award. In making the award, the magazine wrote “But nothing, and we mean nothing, could match the train wreck that was Wendy Davis, Battleground Texas, and the Democrats.”

Texas Tribune reporter Colin McDonald and photographer Erich Schlegel have been on a more than 150 day expedition to follow the Rio Grande from its source in Colorado to the Gulf of Mexico at Boca Chica.  You can follow the expedition at http://riogrande.texastribune.org/2014/06/19/why-follow-rio-grande/ 

Photo from http://www.bigbendchat.com

Texas GOP Vote reports that U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) issued the following statement after Democrats on the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence released their report on enhanced interrogation techniques employed by the nation’s intelligence community.  Red has translated it for you.

“This report is troubling (politically devastating for the Republican Party) for a variety of reasons (mostly its truthfulness), most of which are not found in its pages (but which are probably contained in the full unreleased report). Enhanced interrogation techniques (torture) employed by members of our intelligence community (American torturers) saved (that’s my position and I’m sticking with it despite the evidence) American lives (maybe just maybe someday I can tell you how), and Senate Democrats (communists and/or terrorist sympathizers) should thank these brave (it takes a lot of nerve to water board a completely defenseless man)  men and women (torturers) who worked to protect us (torture a bunch of folks) – not vilify them (tell the truth about their actions).  I cannot think (you could have stopped there Sen. Cornyn) of a greater disservice to our men and women serving in the military (or to the Republican Party) and in our intelligence field (some of whom are torturers) than to hand terror groups like ISIL (or the Democrats) another recruiting tool and excuse (based on verifiable facts) to target them (by telling the truth about how the Bush Presidency violated every principal upon which our nation is founded). Due to the political calculations of some (those terrorist sympathizing Democrats again), the American people (and especially the Republican Party) and our allies across the globe (who have condemned us) are less safe today than they were before (mostly because everyone now can feel free to follow our example and torture people when they feel like it) .”