Sep 30
Ahhhh, another beautiful Saturday morning. I’ve got my coffee, my NY Times (being the liberal elitist that I am), my pumpkin muffin, and my trusty bottle of Hateorade so I can spew anonymous vitriol all over someone else’s blog. It’s good to be alive!
If you read ITPT yesterday, you might have noticed a few lively comments on the Kinky post. And by ‘lively,’ I mean ‘medication- induced.’ I was called a lonely, miserable, wretched, unfunny, unkempt, unemployed housewife with a worse hairstyle than Martha Stewart. An embarrassment to Texas (and I thought it had reached its quota). A Chris Bell flunky paid off by his campaign. A Rick Perry flunky paid off by the Texas Enterprise Fund.
Even worse, I was slammed as one of Carole Keeton Friedman Braveheart Strayhorn’s granddaughters. I was an ugly child, a terrible ex-cheerleader (that one hurt - have you even seen my split jump?), a shameless promoter of political correctness, and someone who wouldn’t know irony if it slapped them around the schoolyard.
As a wise woman once said, hit me with your best shot. I heard worse things in grade school. (I was lonely and miserable, even then.)
I made a promise to myself to pack up In the Pink as soon as it stopped being fun. For a quarter of a second, I thought, am I having fun yet? And you know what? I am. After a few hours (OK, five. OK, six.) of drinking chilled Prosecco yesterday (because of my liberal elitism), I decided that people can say what they want — about me, my Palmetto jeans, my freakishly small knees, my political views, the McLean Highlanders, my preference for formula over breast milk, and Mark Warner. OK, except Mark Warner. I will cut you.
I put myself out here. And, as a Good Shepherd, I will tend to my flock and keep the comments bleating, as always. No username, email address, codes or filtering. Because this is your blog-given right. Also, if I spent my time tracking URLs to find out who you really are (which I could), I’d probably discover that I know you and you know me and the next happy hour would be… awkward. I mean, moreso than they already are.
So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the blogosphere.
The trackback URL is here.
If you don’t stand on freakishly small knees you’ll fall for anything
I admire your dedication to the free exchange of ideas and your courage to provide a forum for that exchange even though it makes you a target for criticism.
/and even though you are sometimes wrong.
//feel free to disagree, but you’d be wrong.
This is one of the sharpest, wittiest, & downright informative political blogs I have had the pleasure of reading. It is honest, insightful, bitchy, and self-deprecating. Who could ask for anything more?
Pink Lady’s moral outlook, courage, and independence should be an inspiration to all. It is sad that some get so wrapped up in the game of politics that they forget that real people have to live with the resulting government.
Three cheers for Pink Lady!
There had better be NO ONE going after the McLean Highlanders. I will hunt you down.
http://www.mcblogger.com
I’m going to commit suicide by Pink Lady…
Why the long face, Mark Warner?
/wwwwiiiilllllllbbbbuuuuurrrr!
Besides being witty, insightful, frighteningly intelligent, and small-kneed, PL is HOT!
http://tacojournalism.blogspot.com/
Long time reader, first time poster. Keep fighting the good fight and don’t let these haters get you down. I don’t know what I’d do without your blog and the knowledge that there are at least SOME decent people over there at my fair capitol.
Check out this devestating article on Perry lying about the tax cut.
Sept. 30, 2006, 1:18AM
GOVERNOR’S RACE
Perry accused of giving false hope for major tax cut
Strayhorn ad says savings far below $2,000, while two officials warn bills may actually grow
By PEGGY FIKAC and GARY SCHARRER
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau
AUSTIN — Remember the television ad by Gov. Rick Perry promising an average $2,000 property tax cut for homeowners? As tax notices start arriving in the mail next week, challenger Carole Keeton Strayhorn hopes so.
ADVERTISEMENT
Strayhorn, state comptroller and independent candidate for governor, launched a statewide television ad Friday that leads off with Perry touting the $2,000 cut, then switches to her mocking the assertion.
“Have you gotten your $2,000 property tax cut yet?” she asks, then warns, “Don’t go running to your mailbox.”
She says most people will get “just about $52″ and most senior citizens, whose taxes already are frozen at lower levels, “get nothing.”
Perry spokesman Robert Black said, “We stand by the numbers.”
Paying $140 more
The GOP incumbent touted the cut in an ad in May, after lawmakers approved a school finance package lowering local school property tax rates.
Perry’s savings estimate didn’t take into account school districts’ ability to raise local tax rates.
It was calculated over three years based on home sales price, rather than the property value figures used in actual tax levies.
Strayhorn’s one-year, $52 estimate assumes higher tax rates and property value appraisals.
Bexar and Harris County tax officials said there won’t be a big property tax cut.
In fact, many homeowners could find higher taxes on the way.
The average homeowner living in the Houston Independent School District with a house assessed at $160,000 will pay $140 more, or a 4.2 percent increase over last year, Harris County Tax Collector-Assessor Paul Bettencourt said.
“Anyone who is running on a big tax cut is making a mistake because the numbers don’t support it. Call it what it is, it’s property tax relief. It’s not a tax cut,” Bettencourt said.
Bexar County Tax Assessor-Collector Sylvia Romo expects her office to come under siege from angry taxpayers when the first batch of about 600,000 tax notices get mailed next week.
Romo said Perry’s promise of a $2,000 tax cut for the average homeowner inflated hopes.
“They’re going to say, ‘Hey, they promised me I’m going to get a tax cut. Why am I paying more?’ ”
Romo is preparing a script to help employees deal with irate callers.
“It’s my office that has to educate taxpayers and calm down the taxpayers,” she said.
Romo said she figured Perry’s TV and radio spots would cause trouble because she knew that average San Antonio homeowners wouldn’t see the promised savings.
Most Texans will get their tax notices just days or weeks before the Nov. 7 election.
“These people are going to vote emotionally,” she said. “They are going to say, ‘You lied to us.’ That’s the bottom line.”
Defending Perry
Black said Perry — who faces Strayhorn, Democrat Chris Bell, independent Kinky Friedman and Libertarian James Werner on Nov. 7 — deserves credit for tackling education and taxes and for now focusing on rising appraisals that eat into tax savings.
“Carole Strayhorn is the first comptroller in modern history to refuse to offer her own plan to reform school finance, and now she is throwing rocks to cover up her own failure,” Black said.
But Strayhorn spokesman Mark Sanders said, “Carole has outlined a comprehensive education reform package, and it doesn’t include a fake $2,000 tax cut. I can understand why the Perry people are so vitriolic on this issue. They know it’s going to hurt them badly.”
While Strayhorn is touting Perry’s ad, Perry’s campaign Web site isn’t.
Black said the Perry camp redesigned its site and didn’t re-post the May ad because “we didn’t consider that a campaign ad,” though it was financed with campaign funds.
Personally, I don’t mind the swirly blowjobs
http://eightfeetdeep.blogspot.com
One of the things I don’t miss about working as a reporter is all the knee-jerk reactions you get when someone sees something in print they don’t like.
While the Internet offers an exchange of ideas, it has also produced a more immediate, a sometimes more cruel and at times, a spectacularly misinformed (or uninformed) jerk o’ the knees. (Something that is not recommended for freakishly small knees).
In the Pink Texas is, if not my favorite blog, up there in my list of favorites. I appreciate the opinions and wit of Eileen and the cast of characters who read and comment most days. Reading ITPT gives me a chance to laugh in the afternoon as well as to think about issues of the day which may be weighty or just absurd.
Those who have willingly or perhaps unwittingly put themselves out there for what is a global audience through blogs all have different reasons why they do it.
I write a blog to keep exercising the “writing muscle.” (That sounds almost pornographic. Sorry, it’s the vodka tonics talking). My favorite motivating speech to myself is: “Keep on writing, no matter how stupid.” And quite often, what I write is stupid. But If my friends or whomever stop by read it and perhaps have a laugh or a thought, so be it. I mainly do the blog for me.
So, being the self-centered SOB that I am, I say: Thanks to ITPT and all those deranged people who comment for broadening discourse and for providing (mostly) an intelligent chuckle or two. And cheers to Eileen for making it happen. (Also, sorry for this being so long, but I’m really bored).
Dick Smith
a.k.a. A Fine Whine
Long live ITPT!
Paul Burka is sooooo jealous of PL & IPTP - and deservedly so! Evan Smith should be so lucky as to have the PL in his stable.
Friday, September 29, 2006
In the Kink Texas
If you haven’t seen Eileen’s posting of a Kinky Friedman column, stop reading my blog (but just for a minute) and check out In the Pink Texas blog. This posting has 113 comments. I bet I haven’t had 113 comments total in the almost three months I have been doing this job. Laura Stromberg of the Friedman campaign is among the commenters. Amazing stuff. Crazy stuff. Hope it’s not a hoax. Or maybe I should hope that it is.
his blog is so boring and wrong that it reminds everyone how lame his monthly colums are. he still thinks its the 1980’s.
http://boboland-cronicas.us
was never a dog that praised its fleas. fleas never go to heaven.
you can’t do a blog without having a thick skin and that’s why i admire you, just for being the goddess nike and doing it.
but i am kinda bummed to learn you aren’t just a frustrated housewife. what’s wrong with that????
http://www.jimmycity.blogspot.com
I love this blog. The “blogosphere” would be sorely lacking without it.
http://www.blackchoppercaucus.com
Without this site I wouldn’t ever have discovered the noun “shroatling” or known that some of my friends feel bad that I’m not married. Among rather a lot of other things.
Keep it up. If you shut the site down I’ll slash your tires, unless someone else does before me.
Don’t quit. Believe in the green light, the orgastic future, for tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms further…And one fine morning….
PL died for our sins.
Re: 17. BlackChopper
I tried using shroatling while playing scrabble online (which is at least as geeky as drinking wine and doing crossword puzzles), but strangely the computer rejected it since it was not an acceptable word. Crappy computer scrabble dictionary.
http://www.blackchoppercaucus.com
Re: 20. Pink_Taco_Connoisseur
Clearly you need to simply update your operating system. Microsoft and Apple both have released a patch to cure “the shroatling issue,” and naturally Linux had the problem licked in an open-source instant.
/still no “fix my skinny knees” patch, though.
C’mon Eileen… sho roo da ree ra ya.
/what the hell do they say it that song anyway?
//if you play the song really slow, I swear they’re singing “We ADORE you and couldn’t live without your blog.”
http://www.inthepinktexas.com
Sigh… I can now blog happy.
You’re just getting warmed up. Social media is all the rage. There’s a conference in Boston this month to set out guidelines.
I’d say right after Warner is elected and you are thanked by the President-elect for all your good work in the blogosphere, then you can sell out for the big bucks. If you don’t, Laura Stromberg will.
Re: 24. The Other Guy
Let them eat snark. PL and gang are greatness. If I can’t laugh then I don’t want to be part of the “Social media.”
/Guidelines?? [insert appropriate Treasure of the Sierra Madre/Blazing Saddles or Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid quote here]
We take all the blame.
http://www.inthepinktexas.com
Re: 26. Burnt Orange Report
I’m just like you. But with make-up.
When are you going to ask for credentials?
I heart PL and LOL at ITPT.
*With* ITPT?
Re: 23. Pink Lady
Priase Jeebus! No one would read In The Fled Texas. In part because it would lack “straight-ahead political reportage flavored with Vanity Fair-style bitchiness” and in part because it would only be updated every 6 weeks or so.
Re: 25. treehugger
You watch…in several years, this will have made Pink Lady some money, and I’m all for it.
rah rah ree, kick em in the (small) knees
rah rha ras, kick em in the (undisclosed size) ass.
/me first
//out of love
love unfulfilled.
/ I’m all blogged up
// pepto bismol is pink
Thank you PL for the grins, giggles and groans (esp. over the punny titles).
http://www.xpatriatedtexan.com
Chin up, when the morons attack, you’re doing something right.
XT
http://www.commonsensetx.com/2006/10/03/gettin-the-kinks-out/
[…] In a way, this is the Kinky campaign in microcosm. Everything he’s said and done in this campaign so far has been to offend our political sensibilities and to try and be humorous. But he has failed. He’s merely offended most of us and he’s not really funny. We can see that in the way he, and his supporters, have lashed out at those who have brought up these quotes and asked questions. When it got beyond the punchline into reality, he’s all hat and no balls. […]