Weren't we treated to the Bubba treatise yesterday or the day before? I live near Ft. Bragg. Sure they got it in the neck but vote for one them thar commie liberal faggot terrorist lovers? No way, meng.

As a Texas resident since 1985, I have seen the high of Republican dominance in this state. I am also starting to see it ebb. I live in Dallas, and I see that support slip. Mostly, it is in the muted tones in which people refer to "President Bush" (not as many are saying "W"). It used to be that any speech or activity was constantly commented on with positive comments spilling out of everyone even remotely conservative.

I work for a company that was found by members of the Religious Right. (I knew when I started to work there that was the corporate culture.) But, as I just said, it has become muted support at best. I have even heard some the "die-hard" Christian conservatives question Bush, mostly from the right (he has won no friends among them due to immigration reform and the botched Harriet Myers nomination).

The "don't tread on me" libertarian Republicans are getting fed up, too. There is a sizable contingent of these folks in Texas (especially in the Dallas & Austin high tech/telecom industries), and I hear of their disgust with overreaching government -- up to a point. Most Texans still give Bush a wide berth when it comes to the "war on terror" and really don't question those policies too much. But all-in-all, it IS wearing thin.

>For a lot of people around here, Bush is like the president of Texas, and supporting the soldiers means supporting Bush."<

And that's the kind of mindless groupthink that got "you all" (and the rest of the world) in this disaster in the first place. And it's the kind of mindless groupthink that keeps folks like you for falling for these "guys we wanna have a beer with" every single time. I'm sorry for the soldiers, but I'm not sorry for anyone deluded enough to put Bush into office and is suffering the fallout--fallout that everyone with sense knew was coming. Bush voters had plenty of warning and the evidence was there he was a lousy leader. They didn't _want_ to see the truth; they wanted "Big Daddy." Now they are reaping what they sowed--and the rest of us get to suffer along with them. And you can bet (as the first thread poster noted) they'd sooner hack off their arms than not vote for a GOP-ite who is going to continue the same mess.

>More Texans than people from any other state have served in those wars.<

An irony easily foreseen.

>"I was very enthusiastic for Bush when he first ran, embarrassingly so looking back now," says Paul Burka, executive editor of Texas Monthly magazine. A political independent who has covered Texas politics for 30 years, Burka twice voted for Bush for president.<

Er...shouldn't the Texas press have known from the start Bush was an empty hat? Molly Ivins surely couldn't have been the only one to see that this guy was a loser...?

I wonder which Texas boy born in 1946 is the one who took Bush's place in Vietnam?

And I wonder if he came home . . .

Texas is a foreign country. Texans, in my life, mostly have been twits. Here's an example: In training for a new job for a Texas-headquartered company, the Texan trainer tried to get us Michigan trainees to pronounce the word, "eyes," as "AHS," the way Texans say it. (Up north here we say, "AIZ," as any real American should!)

Any Michigander customer who ever heard, "AHS," for "eyes" would run like Hell! (Which would be the hicky, "HAY-yull," in Texas-talk.)

I am an old guy, so I have some experience. Everbody I ever have met from Oklahoma (very near Texas), every single Oklahoman, has been an hilarious champion! And I do not care about their accent, nor they about mine. But there is something about that Texas border. Many Jerks Below!

The only okay Americans I ever have met in Texas have been Americans who were from another part of the USA. I have read great stuff by native Texans, e.g. Molly Ivins, and I have heard wonderful music by Texans, but I never have met a live non-Hispanic Texan who had any sense or any talent whatsoever. That includes thay-yut evil twee-yut a-settin in the Oval Office raht now, cowpoke!

>>Now there's widespread disappointment he hasn't led the country in the same way he led Texas.

Jesus F*'n Christ! Do the people of Texas not realize their state is rated one of the worst in just about every category: pollution, education, violent crime, teen pregnancy, uninsured, you name it. The only state that consistently comes in under Texas is Mississippi. The new Texas motto should be, "At least we're not as bad as Mississippi."

I think it's quite clear that Mr. Bush has led the country just like he led Texas - right into the crapper. And now these poor little ultra-right wing fucktards that voted for this schmuck and thought he was God's chosen are all upset that their guy screwed the pooch in Biblical proportions. Well, I'm so f'in sorry you're feeling a bit uncomfortable right now while the Middle East goes up in flames, innocent people are tortured, habeus corpus is suspended and children die from lack of healthcare. Why don't you just turn up the AC in you SUV to counteract the global warming you've helped to create and I'm sure you'll feel a whole better.

I think the thing that really really chaps my hide and gets my blood to boiling is that these same god damned idiots will STILL not vote for a Democrat in 08. You deserve your shit hole of a state. I just wish we had never let you and the rest of your Southern ilk back into the Union.

Texans are losing their sons and daughters in Iraq?

Big deal!

For years they and other red states have supported Bush and his war on who knows what. Finally they start to reluctantly come around to the fact that their children are dying to support a few large contractors and some backwater desert country that doesn't want them anyways.

Maybe they would like to apologize to people that spoke out against the war from the beginning. But first they would have to apologize to all the countries that were demonized for not backing the war. Anyone remember how many people bought into the idea that if you didn't support the war you were supporting terrorism?

But Texans and other red states don't apologize for their mistakes do they? They’re too proud for that.