The Weekly Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance bloggers dug themselves out of the snow, went to the polls and voted (in Houston, anyway), and then crawled back in bed. But not before rounding up the best of last week's postings.

TXsharon @ Bluedaze: DRILLING REFORM FOR TEXAS helps you follow the money to see why Governor Perry and others want Texans to keep breathing toxic air.

BossKitty at TruthHugger is proud to give a hat tip to Houston – Annise Parker inherits a City of Progress.

The Stonewall Democrats of Denton County denounce Rep. Michael Burgess for his recent actions against openly gay Safe Schools Czar Kevin Jennnings, at the Texas Cloverleaf.

This week on Left of College Station Teddy covers the dispute in Waco between the McLennan County Republican Party and the Hispanic Republican Club of McLennan County over whether or not the Republicans needs to reach out to minority voters. Also, the tradition of homophobia continues at Texas A&M and the Coalition for Life invites anti-choice and anti-woman Jeb Bush to speak at their annual fundraiser. Left of College Station also covers the week in headlines.

While Houstonians took great pride in the election of Annise Parker as mayor, it was discouraging to see -- despite his company's multi-million dollar contracts with the city and his apparent misunderstanding of their value -- that Stephen Costello was elected to city council over a good Democrat, Karen Derr.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme hopes Silvestre Reyes gets primaried for his vote against a women's right to choose. Beto O'Rourke may be just the one to do it.

Off the Kuff gave a rundown of the Houston runoffs.

Over at BlueBloggin, guest writer Len Hart of the The Existentialist Cowboy has been connecting some dots with the CIA efforts to control world distribution of ‘illicit’ drugs. If the US/CIA hoped to control this lucrative trade, the Taliban had to go. I wonder how many CIA ‘black ops’ have been financed ‘off the books’ (as was Iran/Contra) with the proceeds of its various drugs.

At the very moment that leaders from around the world are meeting to come to an international agreement to save the world from catastrophic global warming, Texas gives the green light to build another mercury-spewing, asthma-inducing, planet choking coal plant. Read more at Texas Vox.

Neil at Texas Liberal does not understand why the Burger King on Houston's Harrisburg Blvd. needs to be open on Christmas Day. Neil is certain that the staff at Burger King wants to be off on Christmas and that a Xmas Whopper is a depressing thought. The picture in the post features a rare snowfall in Houston.

WhosPlayin finds that once again the Lewisville ISD is trying to shut out citizen involvement. This time, they're trying to supersede state law and charge more for public information requests.

WCNews at Eye On Williamson posts on a discussion about where the Democrats in Texas stand heading into 2010: Pragamatic party building.

Justin at Asian American Action Fund Blog has a guide to the historic Houston runoffs.

More Funnies - Climate Deniers edition

TeaBaggers are to "moderate" Republicans as the scorpion is to the frog

You know the story, right? Here's this week's round-up of backbiting schadenfreude.

-- South Carolina Teabaggin' Sen. Jim DeMint has endorsed Michael Williams for Texas' vacancy (?) in the US Senate. Wait, it gets weirder: DeMint is lining up his own 2012 White House bid. Does he really think he can out-crazy Sarah Palin? Why yes. Yes he does ...

DeMint, who is positioning himself for a presidential run, has a PAC, the Senate Conservatives Fund, which will give Williams the maximum $10,000 and bundle more money for his race. "Michael Williams is the Democrat Party's worst nightmare," said DeMint.

Note: I'll stop calling these lunatics TeaBaggers when they stop saying "Democrat Party".

-- Comptroller Susan Combs was accused last month of giving state grant money to "radical left-leaning groups" by 'conservative crusader' Peter Morrison, and the cudgel has been picked up by Tom Pauken, current chair of the Texas Workforce Commission and former Texas Republican Party chair. This donnybrook works in the code words "community organizers", ACORN, and Saul Alinsky in a creative-yet-typical swirl of a smear. More from the Lone Star (Right Wing) Report.

-- Can't leave out the latest Kay v. Rick dustup, this one involving a video of his goon blocking a KBH videocam operator as the governor was entering a fundraiser hosted by Jose Cuevas, the Perry-appointed head of the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, and attended by Texas bar owners and restauranteurs (the people whose businesses Cuevas oversees in his post). More from the anonymous Republican consultant blogger:

This is a good example of how sometimes in campaigns you can try to fix a bad situation, and instead end up making it worse. Rick – for obvious reasons – didn’t want the Hutchison campaign to get video of him walking into a controversial fundraiser. But by blocking the Kay videographer’s camera, the Perry campaign provided Hutchison’s people with an even more interesting video of Rick entering the event. That, in turn, led to posts about the fundraiser in the Austin American-Statesman, The Dallas Morning News and The Texas Tribune, who probably wouldn’t have picked up the story otherwise.

Sunday *heavy sigh* Funnies