Are red states all leeches?

Alternet's story to that end doesn't link to the NYT original, nor to TPM's take on it, but let's deconstruct it.

First, Alternet does acknowledge that red-state Texas is a mild anti-leach, but claims that's all due to resources. Well, if true, that would also apply to hard-rock mining in a number of Western states and the oil + gas + coal of Wyoming. Texas is rather a state with several big cities from red Houston to reddish Fort Worth to neutral Dallas (blue in the central core) to blue Austin.

And, on the flip side, California, the largest blue state, is a leech.

Second, the biggest red-state leech, Mississippi, is arguably so in part because of blue-type black voters, or black non-voters. That's the same reason blue-state New Mexico is a huge leech, too.

So, please, the story is more nuanced than Alternet plays it out to be.