Noriega, Ratcliffe, blogs and politics

Geez I hate having to skip a good blogswarm.

RG Ratcliffe wrote this, and several of my blog brethren responded to it (some of us pretty irritated, some of us less so). A couple on our side even shot their pots at us (but one of them apologized for reacting in haste).

Then Rick Noriega got on the phone with us -- not me, again -- and also got online over here and explained the context of the remarks. And apologized for making them.

Oh, and RG responded to our response. All the while -- over the past 36 hours or so -- I was busy with business and preparing for our fall vacation. So all I managed to do was dash off a note to the Noriega campaign Sunday afternoon, to which I received an almost immediate and satisfactory response. So I missed the whole thing, dammit.

But I do have time for a condensed version of the brouhaha, so here's the abridged Ratcliffe:

I allowed my good name and respected reputation to be used like a dishrag by an operative of the Mikal Watts campaign, but if I were to admit that, then I would lose the remaining shredded tatters of my credibility .... therefore, I'll laugh the whole thing off by accusing bloggers of being thin-skinned while reframing my article as a service to the readers of the the Chronic and the Express-Snooze, which are legion compared to those DFHs who blog in their underwear.

Oh yes, and also in dedicated service to the unwashed masses who haven't yet grasped the intricacies of the "Internets" and how it is used for political organizing.

Don't be prickly about the criticism, RG. It's just part of the game.

The Weekly Wrangle

Time for another edition of the Texas Progressive Alliance's Blog Round Up, brought to us once again by Vince from Capitol Annex.

Do You Ever Feel Like Cassandra? Gary Denton at Easter Lemming Liberal News is beginning to feel like Cassandra again over Iran: condemned to know the future but unable to convince others to prevent it.

Port Arthur gets shipped several hundred thousand gallons of a waste byproduct of the chemical nerve agent VX for incineration, and PDiddie at Brains and Eggs reveals that neither a federal judge nor the TCEQ nor Rick Perry did anything to stop it.

Over at Three Wise Men, Nat-Wu notes that whether or homosexuality is a choice or not, everyone deserves the same rights.

Blogging at the University of North Texas Democrats' site, Adam Silva of Three Wise Men notes that pundits are over-analyzing polls in the 2008 presidential race.

Hal at Half Empty blogs about some hot water Mikal Watts got into over a letter he wrote to another attorney talking about contributions to judges.

Stace Medellin at Dos Centavos reports on a recent Democratic event held in Kingwood. Along with several candidates running in the 2007 Houston city council election, the event attracted several judicial office-seekers running in 2008, including Texas Supreme Court Place 8 candidate Judge Susan Criss.

In one of his information-packed open threads on Texas Kaos, lightseeker notes that T Boone Pickens is stacking the deck in Roberts County to suck up water rights.

McBlogger has an update on the toll roads in the Austin area and urges those on CAMPO to think about what they are doing carefully, advising them to not burden taxpayers with the most expensive method of financing road construction.

WCNews at Eye on Williamson wonders if the "conservative" WCGOP and Craddick are going soft. Will they let Rep. Mike Krusee go without a primary challenge from the right, in Will Craddick Let Krusee Go Unpunished?

At Bluedaze, TXsharon tell us about yet Another Republican Sexual Pervert.

Off the Kuff takes a look at the upcoming battle for Harris County DA between incumbent Chuck Rosenthal and former HPD Chief C.O. Bradford.

Bradley Bowen of North Texas Liberal tells us about the excitement at a Hillary Clinton event in DC -- the crowd was moved and motivated.

Could Be True at South Texas Chisme notes that a polluting refiner gets only a teeny, teeny, tiny slap on wrist. Oh, why did they even bother. Just taking the time of a minimum wage clerk to file the darn thing would cost more than the fine does.

Vince at Capitol Annex discusses the race of a "Craddick D" down in HD-40 (Aaron Pena) and offers his opinions on the blogging legislator's chances in a contested primary.