Texas Progressive Alliance Round Up - August 11, 2008

It's Monday, and that means it's time for another edition of the Texas Progressive Alliance's Weekly Round-Up. The weekly round-up is complied from submissions made by TPA member blogs. This week's round-up is compiled by Vince from Capitol Annex.

The Truth About Texas Republicans, a new blogger-powered website designed to expose the real truth about GOP Texas legislators looks at the stuff State Reps. Dwayne Bohac, Betty Brown, John Davis, Bill Zedler and State Sen. Mike Jackson don't want you to see.

refinish69 was happy to introduce a real progressive Democrat to the readers of Doing My Part For The Left a few weeks ago but has to wonder how to describe Mike Skelly: Democrat or Republican Lite?

Vince at Capitol Annex takes a look at the Texas State Teacher's Association lawsuit against the Texas Education Agency for giving public funds to private institutions.

Irony Alert: Mary McDaniels, Manager - Pipeline Safety, Texas Railroad Commission, who lied on camera about the Atmos Energy gas pipeline couplings, spoke in Ft Worth about pipeline safety, inspections and regulations, for Chesapeake Energy's Barnett Shale pipeline.TXsharon at Bluedaze.

Julie Pippert at MOMocrats asked, "Offshore drilling---whose issue is it anyway? The people's? Or the politician's?"

Women who enter the military know they may encounter danger along the way, just as their male counterparts do. Diarist Liberal Texas at Texas Kaos highlights an additional danger they face in Assault on Women in the Military, and calls on all of us to ensure that our fighting women are protected from sexual assault from the companions they should be able to trust.

WhosPlayin used to think John McCain was worthy of respect, even if wrong on issues. But mocking conservation and lying about Obama raising taxes show who John McCain really is.

jobsanger thinks Democrats should let Clinton's backers have their vote at the convention, and believes Barack Obama has a chance to win Texas this November.

Neil at Texas Liberal talks about AIDS and African Americans.

Due to purchase of McBlogger by a rival blogging firm, the regular writers are on strike. This week, we'd like to introduce you to a new McBlogger, Rose
Petal.

North Texas Liberal remarks on John McCain's anti-Obama ad comparing the Democratic nominee to Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, and also includes Hilton's response ad. Still waiting on Britney's energy policy...

Off the Kuff takes a look at The Queue behind KBH for her maybe-to-be-abandoned Senate seat.

YaGottaLoveIt of South Texas Chisme urges Barack Obama to have a fundraiser for money that stays in Texas while urging Hillary Clinton to campaign for Rick Noriega in South Texas.

WCNews at Eye On Williamson posts on the Williamson County DA's unwillingness to test DNA evidence in a almost 30 year old unsolved murder, Lawsuit Filed Against County For New DNA, Fingerprint Tests.

Tropical Storm Edouard was more like a decent rainstorm, but that didn't stop the media -- old as well as new, including madcap reporter/Congressman John Culberson -- from building it up to a height it could no more sustain than its winds. PDiddie at has the roundup of the hyperventilating in Houston.

BossKitty at TruthHugger is concerned about the economy "Purses Tighten, Small Business Suffers, Families Budget"

nytexan at BlueBloggin points out, as the Gerogia Russia war continues and Bush plays with U.S. athletes at the Olympics, Could The U.S. Get Pulled Into Georgia�s War?

XicanoPwr discusses the immigration survey that was sent presidential candidates Obama and McCain put together by The Sanctuary, a web base grassroots community of pro-migrant, human rights, and civil-rights bloggers.

And here is the rest of it.

Musical Interlude: Old School Friday - Rock Songs

Happy Old School Friday! We've been out of the mix for a minute now and missed a couple of great themes. But hey, we're back now and ready to rock. And that's a good thing because today's theme is Rock Songs.

Alright, I know what you're thinking; "What can you possibly know about rock music?" Well first of all, rock is simply an evolution of the blues, and a lot rock and roll hits have been remakes of old blues tunes (think Hound Dog). Second, I did spend most of my formulative years in Denver. You pretty much had to gain an appreciation for rock out there, and I'm glad I did. Otherwise I might have missed out on some really great music due to a closed mind.

The only problem I had is limiting my choices to only two songs. So since y'all already know from earlier Old School Friday's and Musical Interludes how much I like Black rockers like Fishbone and Living Colour, I decided to branch out a little bit to some of my other favorites today.

First up is one of the best bands in the world over the past 25 years, U2 with Beautiful Day.



Next is one of the groups I listened to a lot back in the day, mainly because of their amzaing drummer Neil Peart. Here's Rush (and friends) playing Closer to the Heart. Watch him wear those drums out.



Well, that was fun, but unfortunately, that's it for this week. Don't forget to check out the rest of the Old School Friday crew.


Electronic Village - Chatting Over Cocktails - Ms Grapevine - Quick - Marcus LANGFORD - Cassandra - Danielle-Lisa C -Chocl8t - DP - Kreative Talk -MarvalusOne - Regina - LaShonda -AJ - Sharon - Invisible Woman - Believer 1964 -Dee - SJP - sHaE-sHaE - Songs In the Key of Life - Shawn - Hagar’s Daughter - freshandfab - Creole Pimp - Wonderland or Not

Thanks...

I'm back. Well, sorta. I'm here physically but my mind is not quite all the way back. Not yet anyway and I'm not sure it ever will be based on past experience. Death is never an easy thing to deal with, but life must (and inevitably) does go on.

In that respect, I'm slowly but surely getting back into the swing of things and hopefully will be back on a regular posting schedule soon. In the meantime, I want to say thanks to everyone for your support over the last couple of weeks. It really has meant a lot and I very much appreciate all of you.

There's no way I can possibly catch up on all of the items of interest that have taken place lately, and I'm not even going to try. And after this experience, I've discovered there are other things that I'm interested in too. Like finding a cure for cancer, legacy planning, and the importance of family.

In a strange way, my mother achieved in death what she was working so hard on in life; namely bringing the scattered members of our family together in the same place at the same time so that we could rediscover how much we love and need each other.

That is a priceless gift.

So I'm closing the door on grief and focusing on all of the great years we had together, while looking forward to the future. It's a process, but with friends like y'all, I know I'll get there.

Thanks again.