The Dallas Morning News says
When Mr. Perry learned the fire was arson, he said, his emotions "went from heartache to pretty damn mad." This was his family's home, he said, and a place where children have "slid down banisters and chased pets in the yard" for more than a century.
Mr. Perry didn't say whether he was disappointed with the Department of Public Safety, whose troopers are responsible for safeguarding the mansion.
The mansion wasn't just home to Perry, or W before him.
It's hosted families and politics in Texas for a very long time, and was in and of itself a historical landmark.
Not usually a sentimentalist am I, but in this case -- if they catch the S of a B who did this, life without parole will be far too easy on the perpetrator.
The knee-jerk reflex is, was somebody trying to get back at Perry for something? After all, the Governor's been on the side of the Boy Scouts (even though some of their stances are seriously out of touch with reality these days) and stood up for CPS vs. the FLDS recently.
But I wonder if there was something fishy with the 'renovations' results vs. the renovations' budget, myself.
I'll try and keep y'all posted. Whether you care or not, really; the Governor's Mansion, like the State Capitol and the King Ranch and Palo Duro Canyon, is one of those quintessential things that makes Texas our Texas.
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I like our Governor, and his mansion, and if CO participates in the joint FLDS task force, we might have to hunker down as we did during the militia days....
Hadn't heard about the security tape Sarah
I had wondered from the start of this case what made them so quick to call it an arson. Historical preservation/renovation is a tricky thing--you're often dealing with materials that are deteriorated, dried out, delicate. Very easy for fire to break out from accidental causes--maybe stupid, like leaving a tool plugged in overnight which overheats, or mixing chemicals improperly, or sneaking off for a cig break in a bad place-- but still unintentional. And this building dates from before the Civil War dammit. It's where Sam Houston would have been living when he spoke so vigorously against secession that they threw him out.
And even if somebody did sneak onto the porch and leave a gas bomb at 1:30 in the morning...why? This is an unlikely target for teenage-style, I-dare-ya-to-do-it attacks; and political action would have been followed by a statement or Airing of Grievances or something or else it would be pointless.
At any rate i hope along with you that they catch the bastard promptly. If it's a crazy he needs treatment pronto before he burns a house with somebody asleep inside. Otherwise...well let's just say my prefered punishment for arsonists would no doubt be ruled "cruel and unusual" by any civilized judiciary. I'll settle for locked up for a long stretch and forced to read "Preservation News" on a daily basis.