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Posts Tagged ‘three wise men’

The Texas Progressive Alliance would like to thank everyone for reading all of the weekly blog roundups this year. This is the last roundup of 2009, and we are all looking forward to 2010.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme wants everyone to be afraid of drug cartels buying our politicians. We’ve all seen what money and power did to health care reform. Imagine all that drug money buying power here. It’s time to legalize drugs and take away the profit.

You can’t make this stuff up at Bay Area Houston. GOP “Bubba” white supremacist wanted for murder.

Barnett Shale Communities can breathe easier after a VICTORY last week when TCEQ issued a new emission policy following the release of Texas OGAP’s Study: Shale Gas Threatens Human Health. Read the study and view documents TCEQ will use to record odor complaints and take necessary enforcement action.

WhosPlayin picked up on the TCEQ policy change, and also weighed in on strange comments by a Flower Mound Councilman explaining his vote not to impose an oil and gas moratorium. Speaking of councilmen, Lewisville has a teabagger councilman who wants to turn down a $913,000 stimulus grant from the federal government.

The Texas Cloverleaf looks at the potential for a contested party chair race in Dallas County. And, it is among the Democrats.

Xanthippas at Three Wise Men, on Robert George, the conservative Christian “big thinker” who dresses up old prejudices in new rationales.

Justin at Asian American Action Fund Blog is terribly excited that Gordon Quan is running for Harris County Judge.

Off the Kuff writes about Harris County Board of Ed Trustee Michael Wolfe, the silliest officeholder in Harris County.

Escalation in Afghanistan, a health care reform bill lacking a public option, and another climate change bust in Copenhagen has left a lot of Obama believers stranded at the intersection of Hope and Change. PDiddie has stepped off the bus; read why at Brains and Eggs.

WCNews at Eye On Williamson posts on the GOP property tax swap has fixed nothing, as most people knew back when it passed, The Texas GOP and the Texas budget.

Neil at Texas Liberal said that all of us in life seek the 60 votes of hope and kindness to defeat the filibusters of despair and anger. The Senate of life is always session so that we can rustle up the needed votes.

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By promoting cleaner energy, cleaner government, cleaner cars, and cleaner air for all Texans, we hope to provide for a healthy place to live and prosper. We are Public Citizen Texas.

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The Texas Progressive Alliance brings you the highlights from the blogs.

As the deadline to file for a place on the 2010 March primary ballot drew near, there was lots of activity on the Democratic side: Kinky Friedman followed Hank Gilbert over to the race for agriculture commissioner, Linda Chavez-Thompson was rumored to be running for lt. governor, and, late on Friday, Ronnie Earle dropped his name in the hat for that same post. There’s more on all this news from PDiddie at Brains and Eggs.

BARNETT SHALE GAS THREATENS HUMAN HEALTH !!! TXsharon posted the Final Results of the DISH TX health survey at Bluedaze.

WhosPlayin broke the story about a former Republican County Commissioner who got arrested this week for shoplifting a vacuum cleaner.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme wonders why some men in power (here, here, here, here and here) think that abusing women and children is their right? Why does Senator Cornyn choose to enable rapists?

Over at Bay Area Houston, John Coby is bored and thinks Kay Bailey Hutchison’s commercial sounds like a Whataburger commercial.

Neil at Texas Liberal wrote about the fifth anniversary of the terrible Indian Ocean tunami. Five Years Since Terrible Indian Ocean Tsunami—People Are Recovering While many are still suffering from the impact of this killer wave, there are also many who are recovering and getting back their lives.

The folks over at McBlogger are desperate for your help! Find out how you can do them a solid when you help get a planet named for the blog!

Xanthippas at Three Wise Men covers the utter failure of tort “reform” in Texas (with a h/t to John Coby.)

The Texas Cloverleaf highlights the charge against the Denton County District Attorney’s office of racial discrimination and harassment in the workplace

WCNews at Eye On Williamson posts on the fact that elected Texas Republicans still have no sensible ideas about how to pay for roads, Dewhurst and transportation funding.

Off the Kuff took a look at precinct data in the Houston Mayor’s runoff.

lightseeker has a question for you over at TexasKaos, Is Arnold’s California a foretaste of our nations’ future? Check out his analysis in Deadlock, facts ,Partisans -Is California a Fore taste of Our Collective Future?.

XicanoPwr reports that anti-immigration grinches are wanting to replace dreams of success with a lumps of coal by filing a lawsuit challenging Texas’ DREAM Act, the statute that allows undocumented students to pay in-state rates, provided, they meet certain criteria. Their grinch-like behavior would rather punish these extremely vulnerable students for the sins of their undocumented parents, instead of rewarding them for wanting to contribute to our society by making college tuition a bit more affordable, since they already are ineligible for financial aid.

Justin at Asian American Action Fund Blog is excited that Houston has one of the first hospital Asian care units in the nation

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By promoting cleaner energy, cleaner government, cleaner cars, and cleaner air for all Texans, we hope to provide for a healthy place to live and prosper. We are Public Citizen Texas.

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Once again it’s time for the Texas Progressive Alliance to bring you the highlights from the blogs.

Xanthippas at Three Wise Men airs out some thoughts on the escalation of the war in Afghanistan, and some painful lessons learned blogging about the war in Iraq.

Bay Area Houston claims The Race for Houston Mayor is Now About Race.

Texas is the first state to conduct testing of citizens to determine if their health symptoms are caused from exposure to drilling toxins. But TXsharon is not sure this is such a great idea. Find out why on Bluedaze: DRILLING REFORM FOR TEXAS.

BossKitty at TruthHugger sees a political disconnect between incarceration and rehabilitation within America’s “big business prison system”. Follow through and accountability are casualties of creative budgeting in the criminal justice system with furlough programs, commutations and pardons BACKLASH. Maurice Clemmons was but a single example of a mentally unstable felon. Where was his follow up? Where was his parole officer? Where was the mental health infrastructure that could have defused this violent explosion?

Neil at Texas Liberal asked who are the Democrats running for Houston municipal offices in the runoff election, and who among the Democrats is someone a liberal can support. The post also features pictures and paintings of scenes of gambling as any election is little more than a spin of the wheel.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme sees tea parties and general batsh*t craziness in Nueces County with Club for Growth guy leading the Republican Party.

Teddy at Left of College Station covers the political maneuvering in local Republican primaries, and writes about Obama’s War: Choosing Escalation and Occupation. Left of College Station also covers the week in headlines.

nytexan at Bluebloggin clearly states “I’m Sick of War.” As I listen to Obama’s speech to increase troops in Afghanistan, all I can think of is, the US has been in some kind of war my entire life. Just so you know, I was born between the Korean War and the Vietnam War. We are a war nation. No way to get around it.

WCNews at Eye On Williamson posts about a conversation over Thanksgiving weekend with two Houston Republicans, or Why Bill White can win.

This was Dickens on the Strand weekend in Galveston and PDiddie at Brains and Eggs took a break from politics and spent the weekend on the island. Here are a few photos from the festival.

Charles of Off the Kuff spent much of the week engaged in an email debate on the Texas Tribune with conservative blogger David Benzion over the merits of Bill White as Mayor of Houston and potentially Governor of Texas.

liberaltexan reports on Political Maneuvering Begins in Republican Primaries. It seems that the race for Texas State Senate District Five is gettting compicated. Check it out at TexasKaos.

The Texas Cloverleaf offered it’s prediction on whether Bill White would run for Governor. 1-0! Yes!

WhosPlayin thinks the Texas Railroad Commission is on a ‘power trip’, intervening in the placement of power lines bringing renewable energy to Texas population centers – ostensibly because the lines might cross over abandoned oil and gas wells, or land that might be used for oil and gas wells in the future. *** Citizen Sarah says, an excellent read!!

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The Texas Progressive Alliance welcomes everyone back from the Thanksgiving Holiday with these highlights from the blogs.

TXsharon has arranged by area 60 TCEQ fugitive emission videos obtained via the Texas Public Information Act. The videos were taken throughout the Barnett Shale area using a GasFindIR (Infrared) camera. Find the videos for your area at Bluedaze: DRILLING REFORM FOR TEXAS to see what you’re breathing.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme wonders why some destroyed Galveston beach houses were paid out at prices nearly double their county appraised value.

BossKitty at TruthHugger is fed up with Road Rage and wants it taken a more seriously by the authorities. Road Rage is indeed vehicular terrorism! Vehicular terrorism is dismissed by the court system as misdemeanors with token consequences … unless of course someone gets killed. Even then is not identified for what it really is. Vehicular Terrorism! Is Road Rage is a way of life for Texans?.

WCNews at Eye On Williamson posts on Gov. Perry’s “jet-set” ways? A Watchdog group wants to know about Gov. Perry’s travel expenses.

Bay Area Houston lists who the local bloggers are endorsing in the Houston Mayor’s race. (It is one sided)

Off the Kuff rounds up reactions to Bill White’s announcement that he is considering a jump into the Governor’s race.

Libby Shaw Texas Republican Lawmakers Lose Huge Federal Contract examines the why’s and who’s of the huge government contract Perry and the Boyz just lost and what it means for Texas. Check it out at TexasKaos.

Neil at Texas Liberal ran a post about Moby Dick. We Are All Shipmates—Moby Dick. This post offers up a picture of the excellent ship pulpit featured in the book and movie adaptations of the book. Neil reminds you that we are all shipmates.

WhosPlayin is still watching Lewisville ISD and wishing they would just answer a simple question.

Maybe the BAE Systems plant in Sealy, which lost its $2.6 billion Pentagon contract due to the economic incompetence of Rick Perry and other Republican elected officials, can now manufacture “Republic of Texas” trucks, according to PDiddie at Brains and Eggs.

Xanthippas at Three Wise Men takes a look at the results of a study that demonstrate how conservative anti-tax rhetoric has resulted in a substantial shift of the nation’s burden from the wealthy to the lower and middle-class, and wonders what that means in an age when irresponsible investors crash the economy, are bailed out by the federal government and reward themselves with billions of dollars in bonuses.

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By promoting cleaner energy, cleaner government, cleaner cars, and cleaner air for all Texans, we hope to provide for a healthy place to live and prosper. We are Public Citizen Texas.

Read Full Post »

round upSchool is starting, and the Texas Progressive Alliance is prepared as always to ace the test. Here is this week’s roundup of blog highlights.

From TXsharon: Woo Hoo! EPA testing has now confirmed wells are contaminated “with various substances connected with gas drilling”–proof that hydraulic fracturing contaminates our drinking water. Even Motley Fool supports the FRAC Act and says industry is “crying wolf.”

Should Texans care about NJ? The Texas Cloverleaf examines why the GOP thinks we should.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme says a ‘Wise Latina‘ kicks Republican butt once again.

For a long time it has been universally agreed upon that people should engage in end-of-life planning, at least until right-wing pundits made end-of-life planning an easy but incidental target of their battle against health care reform. Xanthippas at Three Wise Men takes aim at these critics, and the very real harm they do to people with their dishonest and partisan attacks.

WCNews at Eye On Williamson shows why everyone must call their Representatives and Senators because It’s time to end America’s health care emergency.

Off the Kuff spent the week following the Sharon Keller trial. He wasn’t impressed by her defense.

Over at TexasKaos, jaxpagan gets us the scoop on Ted Poe’s Town Hall meeting in a funeral parlor. Snark , with a wicked point!

At McBlogger, Harry Balczak takes a few moments to tell us what he thinks about Whole Foods and it’s ‘health care for all’ hating CEO.

Neil at Texas Liberal is back from a two-week vacation that took him to Chicago, Kenosha, Wisconsin, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Dayton, Ohio and Northern Kentucky. This itinerary is consistent with a post Neil made earlier this summer encouraging folks to visit the industrial midwest. With vacation over, it’s time now to think of school and swine flu. It sure would help if more working people had paid sick days to help manage getting sick themselves and having kids sick at home.

John Coby at Bay Area Houston has some questions to ask Congressman Pete Olson at his town hall mtg on Aug 29.

Some of the very worst of Texas was on full display last week, and PDiddie at Brains and Eggs documented the atrocities.

BossKitty at TruthHugger is still appalled at the chaos and conflict demonstrated by a Bi-Polar America trying to decide Who is Worthy of a Healthy Life and Who is Not.

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round upIt’s Monday and it’s time for another Texas Progressive Alliance blog roundup.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme is sick of cronies running our cities our state and our country!

WCNews at Eye On Williamson on more GOP shenanigans – Republicans, hypocrisy, the stimulus, and more Carter “nuttiness”.

Off the Kuff notes that as Texas’ unemployment rate continues to rise, we are now in the position of having to borrow hundreds of millions of dollars from the federal government to fulfill our unemployment insurance obligations. Heckuva job, Governor Perry!

John Coby at Bay Area Houston has posted a A How to Guide for Illegal Immigrants to Vote in Texas Elections.

Xanthippas takes on more disability-as-diversity nonsense. Also, on a side note, our blog Three Wise Men‘s 5th anniversary is this coming Tuesday. We’ll be putting up a special post in commemoration.

The Texas Cloverleaf looks at how the NTTA will be raising rates because volume is down. So much for supply and demand theory.

This week, an old author returns to McBlogger with a true story about dogs. Completely unrelated to politics and nothing but funny.

Neil at Texas Liberal posted a video of him reciting the words the 1848 Shaker hymn Simple Gifts as a ship passes behind him on Galveston Island. Coming up this week at Texas Liberal will be a video shot at the San Jacinto battlefield.

Upon the arrival of Fashion Week in Austin, Mean Rachel wants to know “Does this city make my butt look hot?”

Teddy at the fourth estate, will be able to survive the economic recession and into the new digital age. Left of College Station also reviews the week in headlines.

The Texas Tribune, a new media project headed up by soon-to-be-former Texas Monthly editor Evan Smith, is an idea that shows lots of promise. PDiddie at Brains and Eggs has more details about it.

Just as during the campaign, malicious emails are being sent, especially to the elderly. One paticularly nasty one is entitled: SENIOR DEATH WARRANTS. Over at TexasKaos, lightseeker takes on piece of electronic hit mail and offers some ideas on fighting back in his diary, Healthcare Scare Mail and what You Can Do To Help.

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round upIt’s Monday and it’s time for another version of the Texas Progressive Alliance weekly highlight reel.

Off the Kuff suggests that a pro-science PAC could do a lot of good, nationally and in Texas.

WCNews at Eye On Williamson reminds us that despite the brouhaha over transportation during the recently passed legislative session TxDOT is still broken.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme is outraged at the way Texas Republican crony capitalism whips patients in hospitals and psychiatric facilities.

Nat-Wu at Three Wise Men takes a look at the nation’s unemployment picture, and finds it’s even worse than the numbers make it appear.

Over at Texas Kaos, Lightseeker shares an email indicating Big Insurance doesn’t just want to maximize the profits in makes from its members, it wants them to help protect them from competition. No, REALLY. Big Insurance Wants YOUR Help to Block Competetive Reforms.

Barfly at McBlogger takes a look at an exciting new movie coming out soon that’s sure to draw in every douchebag you know.

With the news that the CIA concealed a clandestine counter-terrorism program from Congress on direct orders from Dick Cheney, the recently loquacious former veep has once again clammed up and disappeared. PDiddie at Brains and Eggs notes the turnabout.

Teddy at Left of College Station asks whether or not soon to be former Governor Sarah Palin is going with the flow, swimming upstream, or flopping on the shore? Teddy also answers the question of whether or not Congressman Murphy can push through legislation that would be the beginning of the end of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”. Also, Left of College Station covers the week in headlines.

Neil at Texas Liberal watched a 35 year old rerun of All In The Family. In the episode Neil watched, George Jefferson called Archie a honky.

WhosPlayin posted video of an inappropriate campaign solicitation at Congressman Michael Burgess’ recent Town Hall meeting.

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round upIt’s Monday, the day after the first day of summer, and it’s time for another Texas Progressive Alliance blog roundup.

President Obama, Bill White, and John Sharp are all in the same sinking DOMA boat. The Texas Cloverleaf comes off of hiatus to tell you why.

CouldBeTrue from South Texas Chisme cheers the impeachment of Judge Kent. 4 articles passed without a single nay. Lets hope the Senate is through with him by August.

BossKitty at TruthHugger finally signed up for Twitter to get updates on the Iran protests. What a day of drama and emotion it brought, Icons and Martyrs – All Day On Twitter Watching Iran. I was really meaning to highlight the regressive influences causing upheaval in personal lives, especially in Texas. Immigration Policies and Gay Rights – Contradictions

Unlike Nevada Republican Senator John Ensign, Neil at Texas Liberal makes a promise he’ll keep – He’ll never cheat on his wife! Also, Neil sings the Damned’s Wait For The Blackout at the Houston Ship Channel.

Off the Kuff takes a look, then a second look, at the bills Governor Perry vetoed.

WCNews at Eye On Williamson knows in order to solve big problems it takes leadership, Who is willing to lead, who has enough LBJ in them?.

Castle Hills Democrats heard candidates Tom Schieffer, John Sharp, Bill White, and Neil Durrance speak at the Dual County Fish Fry in north Texas. The blogger reviews their messages–and reports on feedback from the Dems in the audience. (more…)

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round upIt’s Tuesday, and that means it’s time once again to present the best of the Texas Progressive Alliance blog posts for the week.

TXsharon can’t choose one post this week! It’s a toss up between the aerial video view of Barnett Shale Industrial Wasteland Texas or the Barnett Shale drilling induced earthquakes or Erin Brockovich does Midland or the governmental warnings about defective pipeline materials on Bluedaze: DRILLING REFORM FOR TEXAS.

Xanthippas at Three Wise Men blogs about how utterly ridiculous it is for us to pay a tiny South Pacific nation to take Guantanamo Bay detainees because we are a nation of bed-wetting, pearl-clutching morons.

WCNews at Eye On Williamson analyzes what might possibly happen in the upcoming special session, Perry calls a special – what gets done is up to him.

Off the Kuff looks at a Lone Star Project report on State Rep. Dwayne Bohac and his questionable relationship with an employee of the Harris County Tax Assessor’s office.

BossKitty at TruthHugger sees a growing pandemic of hate that erupts in violence. See the diagnosis: Scapegoat Lessons: Holocaust Museum ‘Act Of Cowardice’

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme is glad that Judge Kent is going to jail. Too bad his sentence wasn’t longer. CBT can hardly wait to see his impeachment hearing in the senate.

This week, McBlogger finds out that the 290E tollway will be built using stimulus dollars. Which means Austinites will pay three different taxes to support this road.

John at Bay Area Houston> wonders about the lack of diversity at the Nancy Pelosi event in Houston.

George at The Texas Blue thinks that forced arbitration with credit card and cell phone companies is fundamentally unjust, but forced arbitration in a rape case is just disgusting.

Teddy at Left of College Station, reports on whether or not America is actually becoming more “pro-life” and looks deeper into the polls to find that opinions on reproductive rights are much more complicated, and Left of College Station also covers this week in the headlines.

Neil at Texas Liberal writes about Juneteenth. Juneteeth is June 19th and it has a Galveston origin.

Midland’s chromium 6 contamination got more linkage from PDiddie at Brains and Eggs.

Over at TexasKaos, liberaltexan asks, what exactly does the latest abortion survey mean? He answers not much new, since it does a poor job of asking the question and sorting out the nuances of public opinion. See the rest here: Are More Americans Pro-Life?

Justin at AAA-Fund Blog took some time to remember Tim Russert.

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round upIt’s Monday, and that means it is time for another edition of the Texas Progressive Alliance’s weekly round-up.

At Bluedaze, TXsharon asks: What are the chances that an industry in charge of conducting its own testing to determine waste disposal methods will find toxin levels too high if that means disposal of the waste will be more costly? Landfarms: Spreading Toxic Drilling Waste on Farmland. With VIDEO.

BossKitty at TruthHugger sees lessons never learned … it is NOT about religion, ya’ll! How does it fit that US Military crusader evangelists want to save these souls right before we blow them away. How can we justify putting Mulims on death row, by their own people, just because we convinced them to become APOSTATES?! General Order Number One, Forbid Proselytizing – Evangelists Cannot Protect Murtads Wars fought using 12th century religious mentality means that civilization has made two steps backwards!

Mean Rachel is reminded on Mother’s Day of children, the lack thereof and why The Pill should be available over the counter.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme wants to know how can Rick Perry brag about how well Texas is doing when over 22% of our children face hunger every day?

Gary at Easter Lemming Liberal News showed a video from the Texas Freedom Network of our own Texas Department of Miseducation in action.

WhosPlayin covered the Denton County Democrats’ election of a new County Chair, after previous chairman Neil Durrance resigned to run for U.S. Congress in District 26 in 2010. (more…)

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