State of Texas: Oct. 2, 2013

Photos of the Day

Oh, October! That time of year when the temperature begins to drop, leaves begin to fall, and Texas teens continue one of the state’s better traditions. Forget the haters who call it “weird.” Mums the word.

Today in History

The first military engagement of the Texas Revolution, the Battle of Gonzeles, was fought on this day in 1835. Not ringing a bell? It was during this fight that Texans displayed our now-famous flag phrase, borrowed from Spartan King Leonidas I and later co-opted by gun-lovers: Come and Take It.

Daily Roundup

Wrong Word, Wrong Time — In a reply that’s as surprising as the content of Wendy Davis’ forthcoming announcement, Governor Rick Perry said his wife misspoke when she called abortion a woman’s right. During a Texas Tribune panel this past weekend, Anita Perry had said that, “Yeah, that could be a women’s right. Just like it’s a man’s right if he wants to have some kind of procedure.” Perry finally responded to the statements yesterday, saying “From time to time we’ll stick the wrong word in the wrong place, and you pounce upon it.” Unfortunately, Anita has never said anything about having dyslexia, and it’s not quite clear where Perry would prefer to stick it. Even if you play sentence scrabble, there ain’t a lot of alternatives: “a right woman”? Let’s hope it wasn’t supposed to be “it’s a man’s procedure if he wants to have some kind of right.”

Greg Abbott, Aerobatic Stunt Man — Gov.* Abbott pulled a spectacular mid-air maneuver yesterday when he reversed course completely and came out in support of a merger between American Airlines and US Airways. The Department of Justice, along with a number of other states had filed a lawsuit against the connecting flight, essentially calling the deal a monopoly. Abbott, too, had been a part of the Angry Flyers Club. But that was before he had to share any overhead space with Wendy Davis, who’s been actively campaigning the government to ground the lawsuit, in the name of Texas jobs. In a wonderfully cynical move that displayed the general’s skill at dogfighting, Abbott held a press conference inside the DFW airport, announcing an agreement that “secures common-sense concessions that are in the best interests” of Texas. The ploy clipped the wings of a Davis’ talking point not related to abortion. Even the liberal group Battleground Texas could only return fire with a press release congratulating Abbott for following “in the footsteps of strong elected leaders like Wendy Davis,” while, contradictory, the Lone Star Project said “his flip-flop displays weakness.” Should Dems wish to hone their in-flight messaging, they should considering hiring the crew that produced Senator John Cornyn’s recent “Keep Texas Red” film. The first part is a fake news reel about what happens to Texas when it becomes a Democratic dystopia. It plays like a C-trailer for a B-movie and gets one point across—stop Battleground Texas before we all live in a post-apocalyptic world. Not First Class material, sure, but sure beats the coach-flying Dems.

Fort Worth Somethin’ — There’s a boom happening in Texas, and it has little to do with oil. The emerging story seems to be that if you need a job, head to Fort Worth. If three’s a trend, the third gold nugget proving this point comes from the Dallas Morning News, which reported that “Amazon.com and Walmart.com have just invested a couple of hundred million dollars to open about 3 million square feet of distribution space between the two of them.” Combined, the two centers will employ about 1,200 people. This comes on the heels of the recent announcement that Lockheed Martin was awarded a $3.4 billion contract to build military planes, of which “More than half the work on the contracts will be done in west Fort Worth, where Lockheed Martin has thousands of workers dedicated to the F-35.” Then, of course, there’s commercial flying, with American Airlines promising to train 1,500 new pilots, and AG Abbott’s long-fought crusade (kidding!) to keep 25,000 jobs by supporting the planned airline monopoly, er, merger. So if you like customer service, building war machines, or working on a tarmac—or calf fries—then come on down to Fort Worth!

Backfire — Speaking of trends, there appears to be another, more disturbing one happening of late. It was recently reported that a thief tried to rob a “reclusive” homeowner in Dallas, only to run up against the loaded burglar alarm. Police arrived to find the homeowner standing over the dying robber. Rather than quit while he was ahead, the homeowner “moved toward the officers with his gun raised,” and got himself in the same spot as the would-be criminal. And today, a Corpus Christi store owner will make his initial court appearance after allegedly shooting and killing a man last week for trying to steal a twelve-pack. It’d be easier to stand one’s ground on such a topic if the respective circumstances offered clear and present outcomes.