Several things arrived by e-mail worth mentioning:

* RICK PERRY’S TEXANISM: Get your Gene Lyons early here, courtesy of Salon, a good explanation of Cowboy Rick Perry.

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* LITTLE ROCK SCHOOL NEWS: Here’s the appellate brief by Chris Heller and Clay Fendley for the Little Rock School District in which they eat the lunch of the attorney general’s office in reply to its motion to end state school desegregation funding without a hearing, without evidence, without arguments and without an answer to the city’s contention that the state hasn’t lived up to its end of the consent decree in attempting to stop segregation.

* LITTLE ROCK SALES TAX: On the jump is the full statement from Arkansas Community Organizations, which — on a shoestring budget with grassroots energy — mobilized strong opposition Tuesday to the Little Rock sales tax increase, a secretive, real estate-industry funded campaign that spent probably 25 times as much, but still lost in most of the city, save a criitical vote in what Orval Faubus once called the limousine liberal wards. Key quotes:

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Those who will bear the greatest burden of this regressive tax for the most part voted against it. Those who are wealthier voted in large numbers for it. City Hall will soon collect $1 million in new revenue every week for the next ten years. …

“More money to do the “same old, same old” on a bigger scale is not progress. The issues of fair representation in city government, sustainable growth, development that creates living wage jobs for Little Rock residents and many others will still need to be addressed. Addressing these issues will mean real progress.

“Finally, we call on our elected City Board of Directors and the Central Arkansas Technology Park Authority to make a commitment in writing that the Technology Park will not be built in any Little Rock residential area. Don’t tax us only to put us out of our homes.”

You can be sure the people who financed the tax increase do not want democratic representation, but a continuation of the blend of at-large city director seats that give the moneyed interests a hammerlock on city government.