News Ticker: June 19

Dan Patrick gets snippy, Ted Cruz guards the border, and David Dewhurst drops a truth bomb. Candidness is on the News Ticker.

• Since Texas' GOP Senators are hell bent on turning back the abortion rights clock, they should have to suffer a few anachronisms themselves. Maybe they can watch Limbaugh on their Palm Pilots?

• While many Texas right-wingers are busy claiming the new abortion regulations are needed to protect women, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst is dabbling with honesty.

• Austin announced its first forum on LGBT housing discrimination on the same day as the introduction of a HUD study dealing with the same issue. It now seems obvious that the city employs spies. We wondered why city officials were installing all those HALO cameras in Washington.

• Sen. Ted Cruz has added yet more amendments to the Senate immigration bill. Although he is enjoying coloring with his new 120-count box, the Senator could really do without all the brown crayons.

• The final six members of the Citizens Redistricting Commission have finally been named. The full 14-member commission will now be prepped with media-savvy makeovers and weaponry training before battling to the death in an improbably large arena.

• Although he's been watching cheerleading movies for weeks, toothy Sen. Dan Patrick hasn't quite mastered the art of the insult.

• Roll Call's list of ways the U.S. Supreme Court could weigh in on the Voting Rights Act is probably accurate, but we don't think they considered all the possibilities. True SCOTUS watchers believe Justice Antonin Scalia will soon reveal his true demon form, causing Americans to forget about the matter entirely.

• In a refreshing change of pace, the Austin Police Department were not involved in a recent dog shooting.

• In the final confirmation that Franklin Barbecue has indeed arrived on the national stage, the char-crack peddler now has its own Downfall Hitler meme video.