First Wrangle of the New Decade

(...If you happen to be a zero-based indexing sort of person -- thanks to Charles K for the mathematics terminology.) The Texas Progressive Alliance is still somewhat amazed to be living in the year we make contact, and we hope we're all still going strong when Odyssey Three rolls around.

Texas has most drilling and the worst regulation. And the state made national news this week in the ProPublica investigative report and they used pictures provided by TXsharon at Bluedaze: DRILLING REFORM FOR TEXAS.

WhosPlayin reports that the Lewisville city council is once again considering the question of whether to participate in 287(g) and force its vendors to use E-Verify to check for work eligibility.

BossKitty at TruthHugger found a poignant editorial on al-Jazeera: Weary Soldiers At Risk, They Know This. Why do foreign correspondents have more in-depth observations than America's own corporate media which follows the money and toes the line for sponsors' political perks that promise "scoops"?

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme thinks all kids should be given free, nutritious school meals. Just do it.

WCNews at Eye On Williamson discusses another worthless GOP plan for transportation in Texas: Kay's transportation plan is a clunker.

The Texas Cloverleaf questions whether or not a Houston city councilman-elect knows the difference between a campaign website and city resources.

Off the Kuff called out some political gamesmanship over the murder rate in Harris County.

Last week Teddy reviewed the best of the Left of College Station, and looks at the year ahead at Left of College Station. This week LoCS will begin coverage of the 2010 campaign season in the Brazos Valley, and report on human trafficking in Houston.

Candidate filings, including Gordon Quan for Harris County Judge and a list of the statewides, appears in PDiddie's post at Brains and Eggs.

Bay Area Houston hopes the next decade will be better than the last.

Justin at Asian American Action Fund Blog covered Gordon Quan's campaign kickoff, including the full video of Quan's speech.

LibbyShaw puts together the latest throw downs exposing GOP hypocrisy and lies. Check it out at Texas Kaos: Rachel Maddow Busts Republicans for Cowardice, Hypocrisy and Lies.

At McBlogger, Mayor McSleaze noted with some interest that Marc Katz filed for Lt. Governor. Some, but not much. More important to him was a really nasty prairie dog attack.

Neil at Texas Liberal selected his wife as person of the decade and named his blog as blog of the decade.

Sunday Funnies

Blaming Obama for eight years of Bush

When G.W.Bush  took office, we had a balanced budget.  When he left -- we didn’t.
When G.W.Bush took office the unemployment rate was 5%.  When he left -- it was 8.7%
The government bailout of Wall Street that has given us trillions of dollars in debt was supported and signed into law by President G.W. Bush.

With a current approval rating of 51%, more Americans support Obama than did President Bush. Yet there is not the same sense of offense for Bush that there seems to be for Obama.

Bush was initially elected under a cloud of controversy without winning the popular vote. He left office with an approval rating of just 22% - among the lowest in history. His citizenship was never questioned. He was not called a socialist, and no member of congress shouted at him during a Joint Session Address -- calling him a liar ...

The Radical Right has become the Raucous, Ranting Right. Their foaming, deranged grumblings continue to take center stage on the Sunday morning Talking Heads. From Dick Cheney and Glenn Beck all the way to Joe Lieberman (who a week ago seemed to suggest that the United States invade or bomb Yemen), conservatives fan the flames of every single fear they can find: from terrorism to racism to socialism to hoarding gold.

They are emboldened by the ever-louder screams of of the TeaBagging fringe even further to their right; wailing about "taking their country back" translates into carrying loaded guns to town hall meetings, which manifests itself in Congressmen making no secret of stalling or stopping legislation in order to take down the president.

I have my own disagreements with the president's policies, but putting Republicans back in charge of anything would be the worst possible outcome -- for the county, for the state, for the country.

2009's Final Funnies

Year-end compilation

I was going to do a post that included all the icons we lost during the past year, with other items I saved to include like the best smartphones available in the US and the ten best tech toys of 2009 and the best of the Astros' decade and the top five online stories of the year, but this is really the most valuable information everyone needs going forward: The Ten Words You Need to Stop Misspelling.

Thank God that decade is over.  Happy 2010.

More airport follies

Annise Parker is TPA's "Texan of the Year"

With the election of Annise Parker as mayor of Houston, the fourth largest city in the United States signaled that they pay more attention to qualifications than to sexual orientation.  This news reverberated around the globe and brought positive attention to the city of Houston and the state of Texas. National Democratic groups took note of a more progressive Houston than they assumed, and the talk and speculation turned to the possibilities of Texas turning blue sooner rather than later.

The Parker win was no accident. She put together a talented campaign team that ran on the strength of the grassroots rather than City Hall insiders. Key Houston-area progressive bloggers aligned themselves with Parker and were embraced by the campaign. Blogs became an effective messaging strategy, emphasizing Parker’s qualifications and her opponent’s weaknesses.

In the runoff, several third parties -- including one longtime right-wing operative who endorsed Parker's opponent -- launched a series of homophobic attacks against her, but they failed to do her any serious damage because voters recognized her distinguished service as a member of Council and City Controller and valued her experience and financial acumen.

Voters knew who she was and what she was about because she had always been open and honest about it, and that was more important than anything some agitator could say.

For her historic victory, for making the rest of the world re-evaluate its opinion of Texas, and for running a truly modern grassroots campaign, the Texas Progressive Alliance is proud to name Houston's Mayor-Elect Annise Parker its Texan of the Year for 2009.

“Gold Star Texans” for 2009

Ramey Ko: Ko is an attorney and activist in Austin. He should be best known for his work in Asian Americans for Obama, but Republican stupidity assured us he will be best known as "the guy who held his cool while on the receiving end of a massive dose of both ignorance and racism from Betty Brown." With extreme professionalism, he tried to help Brown understand why it would behoove her that voting rights for Asian Texans (and all Texans) not fall prey to bureaucratic errors creating name mismatches. Brown's ignorance/racism and Ko's cool reasonableness drew worldwide media attention. Watch the video of their exchange: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9hdVUzMeDw

Calvin Tillman: Tillman is mayor of a tiny town at the epicenter of the Barnett Shale. Several industry giants seized DISH land and installed a several huge compressor stations and processing plants right next to neighborhoods. They built a crisscross of pipelines all through the town and on private property. He has taken a hard line with industry, crafting a strategy to get the most bang for his press releases.

Tillman and the DISH City Council spent 10% of their yearly budget for a private ambient air study. This is the first such study where the results were made public so that all citizens in the Barnett Shale area might benefit. The levels of toxins were amazingly high, and many DISH residents are seriously ill, but they are poor and do not have health insurance. Tillman worked with TDSHS and finally got them to agree to test DISH residents. This is the first time a state agency has tested residents for drilling toxins. Tillman travels to other areas and speaks about these issues. He has offered to speak and assist others and refuses any compensation for travel or time.

Tillman is largely responsible for TCEQ's revised policy in response to Barnett Shale air emissions. He is also a blogger.

State Rep. Elliott Naishtat and his Capitol staff: While he may not be a native Texan, the work that Naishtat has done for the state of Texas earns him a spot on the Texans of the Year List for 2009. Even with voter ID legislation putting a choke-hold on progress, Naishtat and his Capitol staff worked diligently to pass more legislation than any other member of the House during the 81st session.  The Representative from Queens, who just completed his 10th session, has consistently proven himself to be an advocate for the sick and elderly, passing legislation that will create the Legislative Committee on Aging and ensuring Texas receives $15.2 million in Violence Against Women Act grants.  We would be remiss in acknowledging Elliott Naishtat -- as he is always quick to remind people -- without also recognizing his longtime staffers (Dorothy Browne, Nancy Walker and Judy Dale) who work tirelessly behind the scenes to help make Texas a better, safer place to live.

Texas Watchdog: Texas Watchdog (http://www.texaswatchdog.org/) had a role in breaking stories in the just-completed Houston city elections. Though their work can at times be controversial, we welcome another online news organization to the Texas media landscape with our nomination of the group.

Hank Gilbert: For his continuing work to defeat infrastructure privatization schemes and working with Democrats and more than a few Republicans, Gilbert helped put a stop to CDA's this past session and handed Governor Perry and Commissioner Todd Staples a rare defeat.