Texas Trivia (December 16, 2011)

Posted by Martha

Image designed by Mona Breed Johnson

Quote of the Day (August 23, 2011)

Palin In The Heart Of Texas
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Palin Promotions:

“Deep in the heart of Texas you will find Governor Sarah Palin; nothing could indicate this more than the two trips to the Restoring America event in the newly relocated location of Indianola, Iowa...”

- JP

'The Undefeated' will be screened in Tyler

August 28, 29 and 30
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According to the newsletter of the Texas chapter of Organize 4 Palin, Stephen Bannon's Palin documentary will be shown in Tyler at the end of the month. There will be three screenings, one each on Sunday, Aug 28 (at 4:30 pm), Monday, Aug 29 (at 7:00 pm) and Tuesday, Aug 30 (at 2:30 pm), all at Tyler's Times Square Cinema.

The newsletter has full details on the two Texas road trips, one from Dallas and the other from Houston, to see Gov. Palin in Waukee, Iowa. There are also links to join O4P, to donate to the organization, and to navigate to the group's social media websites.

- JP

A Second Road Trip from Texas to Iowa

Leaving Houston at 6PM September 1
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It seems there will not be just one, but two groups of Texans going to Iowa to see Gov. Palin keynote the Restoring America TEA Party event September 3. We reported on the Dallas bus last month. There will also be a group of Texans headed to Waukee, IA from the Houston area.

In a road trip organized by the Southeast & Gulf Coast TexasO4Palin chapter, a large passenger van will depart the Bayou City at 6PM September 1, returning on Sunday the 4th.

More information here.

- JP

Rick Perry is no Sarah Palin

The last person we need in the White House is another good ol' boy
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Gov. Rick Perry appears poised to announce next week that he's going to make a run for the White House. Aaron Blake and Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post report that the Texas governor's supporters are already soliciting donations for the coming Perry campaign:

Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) is expected to announce his presidential plans shortly after the Ames Straw Poll this coming weekend, and his supporters are already soliciting contributions for the campaign, according to an e-mail from a Perry supporter.

The e-mail from Gene Powell, a real-estate executive who Perry appointed to the University of Texas board of regents, states, “We expect that announcement in a week to ten days” and tells people to start writing checks today.

It is further evidence that Perry is truly ramping up for a 2012 presidential campaign, even though a top Perry adviser says the e-mail’s timeframe isn’t hard and fast.

Perry adviser David Carney told The Fix that the no one should read too much into the e-mail, which he says contains some factual inaccuracies.

“While we are encouraged by this enthusiasm, we have not made the final decision, as even this email indicates,” Carney wrote in an e-mail, “and there are some other items in that email that are incorrect, but it just goes to demonstrate how excited some of our folks are.”

Carney said the timeframe for the possible campaign continues to be “this summer with Labor Day as the outlier.”

If he announces as expected, we may give up on trying to read the tea leaves. Back on May 19, we didn't believe Perry was seriously considering a run for president because:

If Perry does allow himself to be persuaded to chase the bandwagons to the White House along with the other big dogs, it would be the biggest flip-flop since John Kerry voted for the $87 billion before he voted against it. After all, Perry stated in November of last year:

"I've made my decision. If I really believe in the 10th amendment, then being a governor of a state is where the action is."

Asked during a GOP gubernatorial debate on Jan. 29 whether he would serve his full four-year term if re-elected, Perry answered that he would "absolutely" as long as the Lord lets him live that long:

"If your intent here is to question where I would want to go any better than being the governor of the state of Texas, that place hasn't been made yet," Perry said.

Perry told the Daily Beast's Andrew Romano just nine months ago that he was "Not going to run for president." Silly us. At the time, we believed Perry to be cut from the same cloth as Sarah Palin, someone who means what they say. But intensive research over the months has informed us that any resemblance between Perry and Palin is purely superficial.

Unlike the 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee, what Perry says can't be taken to the bank, and there are other significant differences. She's a political reformer; he goes with the flow. She's a small-government Reagan conservative; he's much closer to the GOP establishment than his feud with the Republican Party's Bush wing would lead you to believe. She left Alaska with a $12 billion surplus; he's saddled Texas with twice the debt and doubled state spending on his watch. Rick Perry is a good ol' boy, but the last person we need in the White House is another good ol' boy. Unfortunately, Rick Perry is no Sarah Palin.

Cross-posted from Brazos Valley Pundit

- JP

Texans traveling to Iowa for 'Restoring America' TEA Party Rally

Road Trip!
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The Texas chapter of Organize4Palin has chartered a bus to travel to Waukee Iowa for the September 3 “Restoring America” rally being organized by Tea Party of America. Sarah Palin has agreed to deliver the keynote address at the event, one which many of the governor's supporters hope will be the venue at which she will announce that she will be a candidate for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination.

The charter is scheduled to depart Dallas Thursday night, September 1st, and to return Sunday night, September 4th. The O4P Texans are having the bus wrapped in “Texas is Palin Country” livery.

Seats are still available at $175 per round trip ticket, which includes transfers to and from the event site. Lodging is not included but O4P has arranged for special able group rate.

If you would like to make the trip and live in or can get to the Dallas - Fort Worth area to catch the bus, September 1st, click here to contact the Texas O4P coordinator for DFW.

h/t: Jelayne Sessler

- JP

Star-Telegram: Palin fans turn out in Grapevine for 'The Undefeated'

"One fan brought a wagon adorned with the sign 'Texas is Palin Country' on it"
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The premiere of Stephen Bannon's Sarah Palin documentary drew excited conservatives from all over northeast Texas to the AMC Grapevine Mills 30 Theater Friday evening, according to Fort Worth Star-Telegram reporter Aman Batheja.

"The Undefeated," a favorable documentary on Sarah Palin began playing at 10 theaters around the country Friday. The Grapevine theater is the only one showing the film in North Texas. At least one of the scheduled viewings Friday night sold out.

A small group of supporters braved the early evening heat to gather outside the ticket line to show support for the film. One fan brought a wagon adorned with the sign "Texas is Palin Country" on it and filled with postcards touting the former vice-presidential candidate's views and accomplishments.

Natalie Nichols of Texarkana, a member of Team Sarah, saw the film at a sneak preview last week but was excited to see it again on its opening night. Like several others there, she said she was hopeful the documentary would help spread the word about "all that Palin accomplished" while governor that the mainstream media ignored in 2008.

[More]

That were not "fans," journalist-type person. Those be Palin supporters.

- JP

Inspired by Sarah Palin, County Clerk in Texas 'Fights Like a Girl'

“She and I share the same values. I didn’t know women like that existed."
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To say that Bowie County in northeast Texas is a Democratic Party bastion would be a gross understatement. The 923 square-mile jurisdiction, which has a population of almost 90,000, had never in its history elected a Republican to county office before 2010, when a determined 34-year old conservative defeated her Democrat opponent for the County Clerk's job. Now, six months after taking office, she finds herself engaged in cultural combat with those liberals who are still clinging to power on the Texas side of the border with Arkansas.

Pamela Geller has a chronicle of Natalie Nichols and her struggle with the entrenched Bowie County "progressives":

Natalie Nichols, a newly elected county clerk in Texas, is fighting back against a rogue court that actually voted to remove the Pledge of Allegiance and an opening prayer from the court's official records. She refuses to do it, has made it her official stance and is now actually being threatened with legal action by a representative of the district attorney's office. But Nichols is standing firm: She has stated that she would rather be removed from office than acquiesce to this.

Of course, the district attorney is a Democrat. Nichols, who was inspired to go into politics by watching Sarah Palin in 2008, was the first-ever Republican woman elected to a county-wide office in the history of Bowie County, Texas. "Since our county's been in existence," she told me, "it was just understood that if you wanted to run for office, you ran as a Democrat or you had no chance." Nichols, however, was not interested in doing that: "I wasn't about to compromise my values to get into office, and I will not compromise them now that I am in office. I ran as a Christian conservative and I am a Christian conservative."

As county clerk, Nichols keeps the minutes of the proceedings of the Commissioners Court, which are held before an audience and begin with a prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance. While Nichols was away attending a county clerk training conference on June 13, the Commissioners Court voted to remove the invocation from the minutes of a previous meeting. Why? Nichols said that County Judge Sterling Lacy told her that he "didn't want some group like the ACLU to come in and sue."

They removed the Pledge from the minutes also. Nichols commented: "Are we now afraid to be patriotic in America? Well, I am not. I will not sit down while people drag our country into a direction that makes me not even recognize it anymore." Nichols is fighting this decision, against heavy odds. Judge Lacy remarked ominously: "What she hasn't thought through are the unintended consequences" of her stand.

Nichols responded: "Contrary to what Judge Lacy seems to understand, I have thought through the unintended consequences of being a party to removing an official record of saying the prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance. I have thought through the impact it will have on my grandchildren to read the history of our county and errantly think that our customs were such that we didn't proudly proclaim a love of God and Country."

[More]

Examiner Devonia Smith, on how Natalie Nichols found inspiration in 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin to "fight like a girl" for the principles she believes in:

A hint about why Nichols didn't hesitate to challenge the court can be found in Nichol's personal choice of heroines. A twelfth generation American, Nichols shares that, although she never voted before the last presidential election, she was "inspired by Sarah Palin and realized there were conservative, strong women out there, like myself, and that we actually could make a difference."

She went on to explain why she admired Palin, "mainly because she is a mother and doesn't apologize for that. She's holding strong in her convictions and she doesn't hide her Christianity, which is very important to me."

Smith has more on Natalie Nichols, including the transcript of her "scathing address to the Texas Bowie Commissioner Court" here.

Nichols is a district coordinator for Smart Girl Politics and is active in the Texarkana TEA Patriots and the faith-basedd Bowie County Patriots. She's the founder of Texans 4 Sarah, a Sarah Palin support group. A detailed profile of Natalie Nichols is here (PDF).

Cross-posted from Brazos Valley Pundit

- JP

Rewind: Sarah Palin in Tyler, Texas - June 26, 2010

"We have a scarcity of common sense in Washington, DC."
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Gov. Palin was on a roll when she addressed energy matters a little over a year ago at the Oil Palace in Tyler:


No, she didn't need a TelePrompTer.

h/t: Mike | Cross-posted from Brazos Valley Pundit

- JP

Brazos Valley Pundit is up and running

Our new blog
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Gov. Palin has been keeping a low profile for the past several weeks, with only the occasional appearance on Fox News, Facebook op-ed and tweet to satisfy the hunger for news about the 2008 vice presidential candidate and potential 2012 presidential contender. The conservative establishment media -- i.e., news and opinion magazines such as Human Events, The American Spectator and National Review -- have been correspondingly lacking in Palin content. Even conservative bloggers outside of the Palin web community aren't writing much about Sarahcuda these days. We can only hope this means that she and her inner circle are busy getting all the ducks in a row in preparation for the GOP presidential sweepstakes.

Meanwhile, we have taken advantage of the lull to bring to fruition one of those projects which has long been simmering on the back burners, because we know that once Sarah Palin makes an announcement, things will get busy around here in a New York Houston minute. We have created a new blog focused on Texas news and politics. Brazos Valley Pundit launched April 4 and is covering the Lone Star State, a land which is never short on interesting happenings and political intrigue. We have posts up on the developing race for Kay Bailey Hutchison's soon to be vacated U.S. Senate seat, Ron Paul's expected run for president, spending cuts and shifting budgetary priorities in the Texas House, changes to the powerful state Railroad Commission, Texas' economic and population growth at the expense of higher-tax states and even a proposed bump in the speed limit on the long and unwinding highways of the Lone Star State.

Also, we are building a list of resource links in the sidebar which we hope will be useful to conservative Texans. Please give BVP a read here and let us know what you think.

- JP

Avalanche-Journal: Palin Gets Warm NW Texas Reception (Updated)

Crowd of 1400 turns out for fundraiser
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Although security was tight for her speech and a reception, Governor Palin was warmly received by a crowd of 1400 at the Lubbock Memorial Civic Center Monday night, the Avalanche Journal reports:

Palin said Texas and Alaska are alike because they are “good beacons of freedom” and share similar values and work ethic, said Kristen Vander-Plas, president of the Lubbock Christian University College Republicans.

[...]

Many in the audience were LCS alumni, Vander-Plas said, and the audience as a whole was receptive to Palin’s message as was evident in their frequent applause and cheers.

Some, like Bob Wood, were drawn to the event through sheer curiosity.

He said he came to hear Palin although he does not always agree with what she says.

Others were avid Palin fans wanting to see the woman who made a huge splash in American politics in 2008.

“I believe in Sarah Palin and what she represents for America,” said Linda Hunt of San Angelo, who won free tickets for the event. “Her enthusiasm, her love for America, her honesty and her core values of representing the people and not just special interests.”

[More]

Tickets for the Lubbock Christian School fundraiser were sold out just 38 hours after the event was announced in September.

Updates:

The AP basically just rewrote the Avalanche-Journal story and whined that "Members of the media were not invited." Translation: AP was too arrogant, too cheap and too leftist to buy a ticket like those rubes who actually attended the event.

Post-event comments from an attendee in the comments at Standing 4 Sarah.

- JP

Avalanche-Journal: Gov. Palin will speak in Lubbock this evening

Tickets were sold out 38 hours after the event was announced
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Lubbock's Avalanche-Journal reports that an audience of about 1,400 people is expected at the Memorial Civic Center tonight in the Northwest Texas city as Sarah Palin will speak at an 8PM fundraiser for Lubbock Christian School. Her address will follow a reception at 7PM, according to event producer Andy Hartman:

Tickets to see Palin are sold out — they have been since 38 hours after the event was announced in September, said Stephen Warren, development director for Lubbock Christian School.

Tickets were sold in groups of 10 on several levels, ranging from $2,000 for 10 tickets on the lowest level to $25,000 for 10 tickets at the highest level. Higher-level ticket holders will sit closer to the stage for Palin’s speech and can pose for a picture with Palin at the reception before the speech.

Hartman said Lubbock Christian School officials chose Palin for the event because of her name recognition and Christian values.

“Just having a national, prominent speaker come here — to hear what they have to say about the climate of America,” he said.

Hartman said Palin has not announced the topic of her speech, and Lubbock Christian School officials did not have speech requests for the former governor.

[More]

Hartman advises that security will be tight at the event, and he reminds those planning to attend to make sure they have their photo IDs with them and arrive at least 15 minutes early.

- JP

The Eagle: Bristol Palin talks abstinence at Brazos fundraiser

Mayor Bienski: Bristol's accomplished more in 20 years than most people in a lifetime
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From deep in the heart of Texas, via Bryan-College Station's The Eagle:

Sarah Palin's daughter Bristol, who became a single mother at 18, came to the Brazos Valley on Saturday with a message for other young girls: Abstinence is the only sure-fire way to avoid pregnancy.

"I just want girls to know abstinence is a reasonable alternative and that all life has value," Bristol Palin said toward the end of her 10-minute speech at a charity fundraiser benefiting the nonprofit Central Texas Orphan Mission Alliance, which takes an anti-abortion stance.

"Abstinence," Palin added, "is not about morality, it's about reality, because it's the only thing that works every time."

[...]

The difficulties of being an unwed teen mother, she said, were compounded by the media's depiction of her family as one from "outer space."

Karen Hall, president of CTOMA, said she and the board decided last May to book Palin for the fundraising event that Hall described as the largest yet for the organization.

Beyond helping orphaned and neglected children in third-world countries, CTOMA on a local level will soon operate a free health-screening clinic out of its new headquarters on 29th Street in Bryan. The organization also will provide ultrasounds and health education information free of charge when construction and renovations on the new building are complete.

CTOMA also operates a program to get food to needy elderly in Bryan-College Station.

[More]

The Eagle's report notes that the crowd responded to Bristol's speech with a round of "loud" applause.

- JP

Bristol Palin coming to the Brazos Valley January 22

CTOMA booked her appearance in May
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According to news/talk AM station WTAW and a local charity, Bristol Palin is coming to the Brazos River Valley:

A Bryan non-profit agency, the Central Texas Orphan Mission Alliance (CTOMA), booked Palin as the guest of their first-ever charity event on January 22nd.

Event coordinator Teresa Medearis says it was great timing to schedule Palin before it was announced she was selected for the TV show “Dancing With The Stars”.

[...]

Tickets for the January 22nd dinner and speech from Bristol Palin are available on the CTOMA website.

A limited number of tickets will also be available for a meet and greet. Call 979-218-1498 for more information.

WTAW’s Bill Oliver talked to CTOMA representatives about the organization, its activities and bringing Bristol to the Bryan/College Station area for the fundraiser. Audio of that interview is here.

- JP

Second book tour brings Sarah Palin back to Texas

Die-hard fans in Houston lined up for today's 11AM signing as early as 5PM Sunday
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Gov. Palin's America By Heart book tour brought her back to Texas Sunday and Monday. KTRK-TV aired this package on the Houston event this morning:


Fox 4 Dallas-Fort Worth reported on the book signing in Big D Sunday:


More on the Houston book signing from KHOU-TV and KPRC-TV.

- JP

PPP: Gov. Palin leads in Texas, Wisconsin, West Virginia and Maine (Updated)

And a close second in Florida and Minnesota
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The latest batch of GOP presidential primary polls conducted just prior to the midterm elections by Democrat research firm Public Policy Polling finds Mitt Romney ahead in Florida, Tim Pawlenty "surprisingly weak in his home state" of Minnesota, and Sarah Palin leading in Texas, Wisconsin, West Virginia, and... Maine? Yes, Maine! More from PPP's Tom Jensen:

The most important state to the nomination process on this list is Florida and there Romney's ahead with 28% to 22% for Palin and 15% for Newt Gingrich and Mike Huckabee. It should be noted that although Romney does have the lead, it's a much less lofty one than what he posted in a March PPP poll of the state when he had 44%. The only other candidates included in that poll were Palin and Huckabee and we're finding more and more as we do these polls that when new folks are added into the mix it tends to hurt Romney more than anyone else. His support is less solid than Palin's and Huckabee's so even though he looks like a very nominal front runner at this point, he's also the candidate most likely to see his support collapse as things heat up.

Tim Pawlenty leads the field in his home state of Minnesota but his performance is surprisingly weak. He gets 19% with Palin right on his heels at 18%, Huckabee at 14%, and Gingrich and Romney each getting 11%. These numbers are reflective of the overall trouble we found for Pawlenty at home in our final preelection poll of the state- his approval rating was under water and voters overwhelmingly said they didn't think he should run for President. Partially because of Pawlenty's declining popularity Democrats seem to have picked up the Governor's office there in an otherwise awful year for the party. Palin actually leads Pawlenty 20-18 with conservatives but the Governor leads overall thanks to a 27-10 advantage with moderates. It is no coincidence that Romney is in the basement in this state- we've found several places now that where Pawlenty is unusually strong the victim seems to be Romney because of a greater split in the vote among GOP centrists.

Palin holds small leads in the remaining states. Most noteworthy is her strength in Texas and West Virginia, which suggests a bid from her could really hurt Mike Huckabee in the South. In Texas she gets 22% to 20% for Huckabee and 15% for both Gingrich and Romney. In West Virginia she's at 25% to 22% for Huckabee and again 15% for both Gingrich and Romney. These margins are obviously very close but they nevertheless pose trouble for Huckabee and perhaps even more so Gingrich if she ends up making a bad because strength in the South would be vital to either of their prospects.

Romney may not have a complete strangle hold on New England- Palin gets 23% in Maine to 18% for Romney, 16% for Huckabee, and 14% for Gingrich. Those numbers should give folks who think there's no chance Maine Republicans would nominate someone far right against Olympia Snowe in 2012 second thoughts. And finally Palin gets 18% in Wisconsin to 15% for Huckabee, 14% for Gingrich, and 12% for Romney. Pawlenty has his best non-Minnesota performance so far at 8%, not surprising given that it's right next door. And Pawlenty's unusually strong Wisconsin number helps to explain Romney's unusually weak Wisconsin number.

[More]

We find it significant that in many of the states where others are leading, Gov. Palin is running a strong second, for example in Minnesota (where Pawlenty's lead over her is within the margin of error) and Florida (where the Romney lead is right at the MOE). In Rep. Michelle Bachmann and Senator-elect Marco Rubio, she has powerful conservative friends in both states.

PPP is serious about polling the primaries. They have released polls in 12 states, with Romney leading in 5 (California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, New Hampshire), Gov. Palin in 4 (Maine, Texas, West Virginia, Wisconsin), Huckabee in 2 (Illinois, Pennsylvania), and Pawlenty in 1 (Minnesota.) Jensen promises that his company will have results from a final batch of six polls -- including Alaska, Kentucky, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio and Washington -- out early next week.

Full results are available here as a PDF document.

h/t: Hot Air

Update: Susequent PPP polling (PDF) shows Gov. Palin also leading in Ohio and Washington State. She second to Huckabee in Kentucky and tied for second behind Gingrich in North Carolina.

- JP

Gov. Palin slams ObamaCare, praises Perry at Dallas event

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Wednesday night at Dallas’ Majestic Theatre, Sarah Palin called on the newly elected Congress to work to repeal ObamaCare, referring to it as the "mother of all unfunded mandates":

Preaching a message of life, Palin -- the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee and a leader in the Tea Party movement -- told a crowd of about 800 people gathered at the Majestic Theatre that last week's midterm elections were a mandate on Congress to repeal a healthcare bill that she believes includes federal funding for some abortions.

"The ramifications of this bill [are] horrendous," she said during a program called "An Evening of Hope" put on by Heroic Media, a Texas-based conservative nonprofit group that promotes alternatives to abortion. "We have to fight back against this federal takeover."

Palin called Barack Obama "the most pro-abortion president to occupy the White House."

Palin praised Republican Gov. Rick Perry, who spoke briefly at the event, for fighting against federal control and for standing up as an anti-abortion governor.

"The governor is talking good stuff about this Lone Star State," she said, adding that she loves the title of Perry's book, Fed Up! Our Fight to Save America From Washington.

"Your governor has been a leader in trying to protect you ... from what is coming out of Washington, D.C.," Palin said.

[More]

After her speech, Gov. Palin joined a panel discussion that included Texas Gov. Rick Perry , Attorney General Greg Abbott, Dallas lawyer Kelly Shackelford and Dallas minister Stephen Broden. The program was moderated by WBAP-AM (820) radio personality Mark Davis. Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert introduced Sarah Palin and welcomed her to the city.

- JP

The Morning News: Sarah Palin brings political star power to Dallas

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Gov. Palin is in Big D to "Celebrate an evening of hope" tonight:

Sarah Palin, perhaps the hottest commodity in the Republican Party, returns to Dallas today as a potential political kingmaker and a strong contender for the GOP nomination for president.

Local politicians recognize her value. In town for an event sponsored by Heroic Media, a conservative group that helps women with unexpected pregnancies, the former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee will share the stage with two Texas politicians eyeing a bigger stage.

Gov. Rick Perry , fresh from his thumping of former Houston Mayor Bill White for an unprecedented third full term as governor, will join Palin at the Majestic Theatre in the middle of his tour promoting his new book, Fed Up! Our Fight to Save America from Washington.

Also appearing with the 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate will be Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert, a potential candidate for the U.S. Senate in 2012, and Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, who handily won reelection Nov. 2. WBAP radio talk show host Mark Davis, who often fills in for Rush Limbaugh, will be the master of ceremonies.

- JP

TLC will screen "Sarah Palin's Alaska" in Houston next week

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As part of its promotional campaign for "Sarah Palin's Alaska," TLC will be screening the first episode of the 9-part series in select theaters next week ahead of the cablecast premiere of the program on Nov. 14.

Houston is the only location in Texas and one of only eight cities across the country where viewers will be able to see the sneak preview screening. It'll be on Thursday, November 11. Click here to get tickets to the Houston screening. For a list of the other seven cities where it will be shown, go here. There's a nice photo gallery of stills from the series here.

- JP

Indy ad for Rick Perry: 'Texas Voter'

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Here's an independently-produced (in Houston) ad for Rick Perry, who was endorsed early by Sarah Palin in the race for governor of Texas:


- JP