An interesting factoid...

...that I was quite honestly surprised to see reported in an MSM outlet as opposed to a blog:

The letters, e-mails and a tally of phone calls were released by the Governor’s Office in response to a public information request. Perry’s decision (to reject $555 million in stimulus money o the condition that he change state unemployment laws -- ed.) was favored 2-to-1 by those who weighed in.
“We will not be bound by the suffocating government regulations which will alter our way of life and attempt to destroy our spirit!” said a Magnolia woman in an impassioned e-mail.
...
“I applaud your courage, sir, in your stance on the economic ‘spendulus,’ reads the elegant handwriting of a Llano woman who had watched Perry on a news program.
Reflecting the rise of social media, several used Twitter, a social networking Web site, to send pithy reactions, including “huzzah!” and “BOO!”

I must say that's quite encouraging. To read the reactions of the mainstream media (or the Houston Chronicle columnists, anyway) you'd think people were going hungry and being kicked out of their houses due to Perry's rejection of this money. And reading that headline, no doubt many would think most of the correspondence directed Perry's way regarding that decision was opposed to it. I am glad to see at least some in this state still have the intestinal fortitude not to increase their dependence on the federal government, even though it leaves the possibility for more hardship on their part. Good on them.