From Daring Fireball….

But it’s not like there isn’t a damn good source that suggests Apple’s plans for K-12 textbooks are anything short of ambitious and transforming. I’m guessing Apple’s pitch to the textbook companies is something like this: “Digital transformation of your industry is inevitable. Here’s our plan; we’d like you to come along for the ride. But if you choose not to, we won’t hesitate to leave you behind.”

One potential byproduct of an Apple foray into textbooks? The much needed diminishment of Texas’ influence in the content of curricula across the country.

Additionally, i imagine as we roll out ciruccula for say, a teen dating violence program nationwide, we’d neeed to be on the cutting edge of these tools to remain relevant, especially if we have any hope of engaging a youth audience.

It’s not often you get to see a person implode live on national television – but wow. Really, I’d like to thank the GOP, Fox News and the Tea Party – your insistence that Rick Perry is a viable candidate – I guess be because he illegally shoots wild life while jogging -  may have just taken our eternal governor, he-who’s-hair-must-be-coifed, and shown him the slightly chared exit to the governor’s mansion.

But the Texas Job Miracle, the education reform, the balanced budget, that stand-up to Washington attitude? Here, Republican friends, who i respect and admire for your misguided fiscal conservitude, your ironic efforts to shrink government while piling money on the single largest consumer of tax dollars (defense) and your repeated beseeching of the country folk (who in all honesty are probably more liberal than you think) – here I give you…information.

• The Jobs Miracle - Yes we have more job, but the good ones are based around a spike energy prices, with the most common occupation sectors in Texas were office and administrative service, sales, and food service.
• Education – $2 Billion (with a B) cut from education while $6.5billion sat in a rainy day fund.
• Higher Education Reform - When your alma mater, whose board you’ve stacked with you’re hunting buddies, shows your consultants the door, somethign is amiss.
• A Balanced Budgets and Getting DC out of our State’s Business - Also known as covering tax shortfalls using stimulus dollars.

The worst part of the probably-kaput-campaign: Not just the inevitable number of Aggie jokes that will come out of this, but once again Texas is represented by jingoistic, reactionary politician that represent a very small percentage to the Texans I know.

So, the Aggies are headed east.

Some observers believe Friday’s launch of the Longhorn Network cable TV channel, a collaboration between UT and ESPN, played a major role in A&M’s decision to jump ship.

“We can’t argue with the fact that the reason they are picking up their toys and leaving is the creation of the Longhorn Network, which, on paper, they believe gives Texas a competitive advantage,” said Mike Cramer, executive director of the UT’s Texas Program in Sports and Media.

So Texas creates their own network, but still expects everyone to want to hangout. This is like the time I cooked dinner at my house for my neighbors, but everybody was required to bring their own silverware, plates, plan the menu and pay for the food. Oh wait, I never did that, as I’m not a horses ass.

At what juncture is this just going to be OU and Texas playing one game a year? Or is it already and whats the point?

Even Perry’s old Boy Scout Troop Leader, the one who awarded him his Eagle Scout badge, said he likely won’t be voting for him.

Wallar Overton, 72, took over from his father as Perry’s scout master just before the governor earned his Eagle Scout badge. When asked whether he’d support his former scout, Overton replied: “I don’t know how to say this, just leave me blank on that.”

Ouch.

It is my sincere hope that this weekend will represent Peak Stupid. To borrow from Hunter S. Thompson, I hope that five years from now we’ll be able to stand on a tall hill in Maryland and look down into Washington DC and see the highwater mark where the Stupid crested before it began to recede. We need this national nightmare to stop. A federal balanced budget amendment is the stupidest, most irresponsible idea to be introduced by the leadership of a party in the history of the country. And, yet, John Boehner is forced to pretend he thinks it’s a good idea. Putting our AAA credit rating at risk is the dumbest, most reckless behavior we’ve seen since South Carolina seceded from the Union. Today, I see Jon Huntsman, a Republican candidate for the presidency, pleading with Republicans to stop pretending that climate change isn’t occurring. It was nearly 130 degrees in Iowa last week and we’re still having a debate on this?

Regardless of you opinion of the current crisis – whether its a sign of the end times, or just a potential minor hiccup in the markets, I think we can agree with these sentiments.

From the Lord Vader School of Business Administration.

It’s pretty clear at this point the Emperor can do pretty much whatever he wants. He could have installed puppets in the Senate. He could have continued to dominate it and made an ongoing token effort to deal with their bullshit (which is really what government is all about and why conquering the world isn’t as fun or sexy as it sounds). He could have installed some sort of other system or infrastructure to support, you know, a galactic empire. One person, even with Dark Side force powers, can’t rule too many people at once. He can maybe manage a team of 20-100 people, and that’s assuming he has some small degree of magical mind control at his disposal….

So, the Emperor and Tarkin focus on making one really huge, high-impact investment: The Death Star. They throw in Alderaan as part of that investment. This doomsday weapon will supposedly free up their resources to spend less on administration, personnel and infrastructure, and continue to function without a Senate. It seems like a big investment until you realize how much they save by not actually having a functioning government.

This sounds vaguely Republican to me.

Regardless of your view on Roe v Wade, this is asinine considering the budget insanity that awaits us.

Gov. Rick Perry announced Saturday the addition of another issue to his list of “emergency items”: legislation requiring women to receive ultrasounds before having an abortion. The Legislature can take up the items immediately instead of waiting until after the first 60 days of the session.

If you’re so concerned with the kids, maybe don’t gut education and CPS. This man and his party will leave this state in ruin. Assuming he ever leaves.

More…

We knew it was going to be rough, but wow.

The health and human services portion of the proposal would cut Medicaid provider rates — what doctors and hospitals and others are paid — by 10 percent. And it doesn’t include funding for population growth or for increased costs or utilization rates. There’s also a $4.3 billion cut included to account for the federal stimulus money used in the current budget that’s not available for the next budget. The proposal would cut a total of $16.1 billion in health and human services spending. That’s a 24.6 percent cut.