Let Me Sum Up

Chuck Hagel eats sniveling politicos like Ted Cruz for breakfast. Plus: SeanLowe rules!

With new Kroger at Cityplace and the upcoming Whole Foods on McKinney Avenue,I'm going to be in grocery bliss very soon.

Photo by Robert Bostick
Chuck Hagel is not qualified to be Secretary of Defense just because he's a warvet. He's qualified because he's challenged war-loving desk jockeys even in hisown party.
Ted Cruz says he can't see a scenario in which he would approve the nominationof Chuck Hagel as Secretary of Defense.
I may be more in love with Bachelor Sean Lowe than any of his female suitors.

Photo courtesy of ABC

The new junior senator from Texas, Ted Cruz, has an op-ed in USA Today that shows what a sniveling little toad he’s going to be at Capitol Hill. In the piece, he lays out why he’s likely to vote “no” in the nomination of Chuck Hagel for Secretary of Defense.

If you’re saying “who?” then read this or this. Yeah, that’s who. A two-time Purple Heart winner, Republican, served Reagan, would be the first enlisted man in that position. Someone whose unflinching support for war in Iraq finally gave way to the reality that young men were sent to die to support a paranoid foreign policy and the lies that supported it. Someone who served two terms as a Republican Nebraska senator but whose outspokenness and honesty has left him a man with no party.

In other words, a man who is more man than someone like Ted Cruz could ever hope to be.

But because Ted Cruz and our other Texas troglodyte, John Cornyn, are the worst sort of political cowards, they’ve already come out and said they won’t support Hagel’s nomination. The phrase used by Cornyn and other far-right nutjob is that Hagel is “out of the national security mainstream,” especially in his approach to Iran.

That approach? That identifying someone as an “axis of evil” is cartoonish, part of the Rambo-like worldview that George W. Bush and Dick Cheney subscribed to when they ran the country. That we should explore all options when dealing with foreign countries, no matter the brown-ness of their skin. In other words, very much in the national security mainstream but outside the bounds of the far-right nutjobs.

As USA Today puts it in an editorial that runs alongside Cruz’s piece:

On Iran, the rap against Hagel is built on his insistence that a military strike should be taken off the table (which he has recently modified to take Obama’s approach of seeing it as a last-resort option). His prior position was misguided, in our view, but the president, not the Defense secretary, sets foreign policy, and Obama has vowed to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.

(Also, you’ll see criticism of Hagel because he doesn’t genuflect before Israel, which also makes him smart and principled but a terror supporter in the eyes of people like Cruz and Cornyn.)

Watching Cruz roll into town and immediately take on a passionate, committed, smart, reflective American like Chuck Hagel has been awesome and sad for me to watch. Awesome because I love seeing how the recent election taught the FRNs nothing, how they have such a tin ear to the more moderate, enlightened, fact-gathering America forming around them. Sad because Texas is still behind in its development toward this, and we’re still sending these political dinosaurs to Washington to help us govern.

Is Chuck Hagel perfect? Of course not. For me, his past statements on gays and climate change were extremely worrisome. But if you read about him with an open mind, you see he seems to be the best sort of public servant, one whose opinions are not set in stone, who can change his opinion when the facts overwhelm him, who can admit when he was wrong.

As someone who works for Hagel has noted: “Ironically, his biggest assets for the job — his penchant for putting his country above his party and his willingness to tell hard truths regardless of the political fallout — are precisely why he has a hard fight ahead of him.”

And why his nomination matters, not just to the country but to Texans, as we get an early indication of the small-minded men we’ve elected to sit in judgment of people like Chuck Hagel.

Elsewhere

I hope everyone saw Dallas’ favorite son Alex Jones bring the full-on crazy to Piers Morgan last night. Do you know how bananas you have to be to make Piers Morgan look sympathetic?

Really good column by William McKenzie on what Mike Miles is doing behind the scenes to promote quality teaching at DISD. Which is good to help counteract the bad press Miles gets because of, oh, seemingly strong-arming his auditor into watering down this report.

Between the new Kroger on Haskell across from CityPlace and this proposed Whole Foods coming to McKinney Avenue, I’m gonna be in grocery store bliss very soon.

Thought I had the flu yesterday (thus no LMSU). Turns out it was probably just a bad cold. Thank goodness, because you don’t want the flu right now. And because Tamiflu may not be all it’s cracked up to be.

Retweets

I may be more in love with “the bachelor” than any of his female suitors.

The smell of spray tan was strong that evening. #TheBachelor

— Sean Lowe (@SeanLowe09) January 8, 2013

Try not to click. Go ahead.

UT women’s track coach resigns over lesbian affair with student-athlete goo.gl/z21NX

— Dallas Voice (@DallasVoice) January 8, 2013

unspecified

A+ for Plano

Surprising Dallas suburb makes new list of best college towns in U.S.

Southern Methodist University students at a football game

Southern Methodist University/Facebook

Dallas knows how to show out.

Dallas' spirited neighbor Plano has entered the spotlight as the No. 16 best midsize college town in the U.S., while Dallas ranks among the best largest college towns, a new study by WalletHub has proclaimed.

While Plano might not be thought of as a "college town," it is home to primary campuses of Collin College (Spring Creek Campus and the Courtyard Center); Collin College has an annual enrollment of over 60,000 students. To qualify for the study, a city must have a university or college population of at least 7,500 students.

To determine the best college towns, WalletHub analyzed 415 cities based on their "wallet-friendliness," social environment, and academic and economic opportunities for college graduates. Cities are ranked overall and are sorted into one of three population categories: large, midsize, and small cities.

Several North Texas cities were represented across the three rankings by population, but none ranked higher than Plano. This Dallas suburb ranked as the 54th best college town in the nation overall, and ranks as the third-best college town in Texas.

Out of the three key dimensions, Plano ranked highest for its academic and economic opportunities – landing 25th nationally. This category analyzed Plano's quality of higher education, the earning potential for college graduates, unemployment rates, job growth rates, the share of part-time jobs and median income of part-time workers, and more.

In the remaining two categories for its "social environment" and "wallet friendliness," Plano respectively ranked 223rd and 271st nationwide. The social environment ranking compared the number of students per capita, the share of single people, crime rates, and the number of cafés, breweries, festivals, and shopping centers per capita, among others; the wallet-friendliness category examined local housing costs, student loan debt per person, the adjusted cost of living for young people, and other financial factors.

"As student living expenses can reach over $39,000 per year, it’s important to find the most bang for your buck," the report's author wrote. "Therefore, it’s best to live in a city with a reasonable cost of living, along with good academic and work opportunities. The ideal city should also provide a fun social environment to help students deal with the stress of college."

Dallas ranked as the 35th best large college town in the U.S., and it ranked 108th overall regardless of city size.

This is how the rest of North Texas fared in the report:

Denton – No. 77 overall, No. 23 among midsize cities
Fort Worth – No. 100 overall, No. 31 among large cities
McKinney – No. 110 overall, No. 31 among midsize cities
Richardson – No. 139 overall, No. 57 among small cities
Irving – No. 141 overall, No. 39 among midsize cities
Carrollton – No. 150 overall, No. 42 among midsize cities
Arlington – No. 189 overall, No. 53 among large cities
Grand Prairie – No. 230 overall, No. 71 among midsize cities
Garland – No. 265 overall, No. 83 among midsize cities
Mesquite – No. 317 overall, No. 111 among midsize cities

Other top college towns in Texas
Austin once again topped the list as the No. 1 best college town in America, boosted by the city's wealth of local colleges and universities and the local economy. The Capital City has outshone obvious contenders like Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Ann Arbor, Michigan, for five years in a row, and it also tops the large cities list.

According to the report's findings, Austin has the 15th best academic and economic opportunities for college students and graduates, and the 16th best social environment. WalletHub commends Austin for having one of the lowest unemployment rates in the nation and the "34th-best annual job growth rate," while also offering students ample ways to "de-stress after class."

"On top of that, Austin ranks 22nd in the nation for the quality of higher education among more than 400 cities in our study," the report said. "It also has the 112th-cheapest in-state tuition (including room and board), at $34,651 per year."

Four other cities in the Lone Star State appeared on the overall list of America's best college towns: College Station (No. 37), San Antonio (No. 72), Houston (No. 73), and Lubbock (No. 83).

In the rankings by city size, San Antonio ranked as the No. 2 best large college town in Texas and 23rd in the U.S., with Houston right behind as the third-best statewide and 24th nationwide.

San Marcos, a college town between Austin and San Antonio, ranked as the No. 2 best small college town in Texas, and 54th best among the small colleges nationally. In the overall list regardless of city size, San Marcos ranked 132nd nationally.

The top 10 best college towns in America for 2027 are:

No. 1 – Austin
No. 2 – Ann Arbor, Michigan
No. 3 – Charlottesville, Virginia
No. 4 – Raleigh, North Carolina
No. 5 – Atlanta
No. 6 – Tampa, Florida
No. 7 – San Diego
No. 8 – Scottsdale, Arizona
No. 9 – Orlando
No. 10 – Charleston, South Carolina

college towns reports wallethub dallas plano

Let Me Sum Up

Chuck Hagel eats sniveling politicos like Ted Cruz for breakfast. Plus: SeanLowe rules!

A+ for Plano

Surprising Dallas suburb makes new list of best college towns in U.S.

Family-owned whiskey distillery opening in the Texas Hill Country

Dessert and wine pair up at new Bordeaux & Creme lounge coming to Plano

Remembering the 'Godfather of Dallas Tex-Mex' and more top stories