Tourists waiting for the Bats on the Congress Ave Bridge. A bit early yet.

BP owns the oil, and I guess any images of said oil?

Last week, a CBS TV crew was threatened with arrest when attempting to film an oil-covered beach. On Monday, Mother Jones published this firsthand account of one reporter’s repeated attempts to gain access to clean-up operations on oil-soaked beaches, and the telling response of local law enforcement. The latest instance of denied press access comes from Belle Chasse, La.-based Southern Seaplane Inc., which was scheduled to take a New Orleans Times-Picayune photographer for a flyover on Tuesday afternoon, and says it was denied permission once BP officials learned that a member of the press would be on board.

It reassures my faith in humanity that at the outdoor screening of Back to the Future in our neighborhood there was not one but two Deloreans in the parking lot. Awesome.

KUT Saves the Cactus Cafe. Shocker: Various groups still in inexplicably pissed after they got what they wanted just not exactly how they wanted it. At A&M this would never happen as we universally support no fine arts what so ever. Problem solved.

Kevin Costner has a way to clean 210,000 gallons of oil-tainted sea-water a day. No, really.

Gov. Good Hair is asking agencies for a 5% cut out of his ostensibly  ‘balanced budget.’ I wonder if he could reimburse us for the rent on his Westlake mansion as a good start.

In total, Perry’s initial request for proposal produced plans for reductions $1.7 billion in approved spending from all state agencies over the current biennium. Today’s announcement via the Legislative Budget Board cuts that to $1.25 billion, which is still no small chunk of change. Such cuts probably hurt basic service provision in Texas more than they would in many other states because (as is so well and widely reported) such services have been cut to the bone as is.

House Legislative Caucus Leader Jim Dunnam, D-Waco, was quick to point out that if the state had taken steps to receive up to $700 million in Race to the Top dollars and $500 million in unemployment insurance cash, then things might not be so bleak. The caveat that he doesn’t mention is that these would be dedicated dollars for specific projects, but, still, $1.2 billion is nothing to sneeze at, even in the best of times. Dunnam said, “Accepting the Federal unemployment insurance and education dollars would only have affected Perry’s false image as a Washington outsider (never mind the $16 billion in Federal Stimulus funds Perry and the Republican legislature used to balance the current state budget).”

I really don’t understand how he’s still ahead in the polls.

KB, if they get the internets in heaven (who knows with the privacy policies these days), wanted to let you know that all these years later, my Bose Wave Radio still kicks ass, annoys the neighbors and is by far my favorite piece of gadgetry ever. Many thanks, miss you lots.

You know at least when we tired our damnedest to destroy the world economy, it was just a couple of jackass banks (and of course, the federal government which turned a blind-eye to said banks, but that’s neither here nor there). In the EU, entire member states are working hard to send us into another tailspin.

In an extraordinary session that lasted into the early morning hours, finance ministers from the European Union agreed on a deal that would provide $560 billion in new loans and $76 billion under an existing lending program. Elena Salgado, the Spanish finance minister, who announced the deal, also said the International Monetary Fund was prepared to give up to $321 billion separately.

…for a grand Total of $957 bn. Not exactly chump change and as The Times notes, bigger than our $700bn bailout.