Seventeen

The Celtics make Boston Titletown for the seventeenth time in basketball, routing Kobe Bryant and the Lakers in the sixth game of the NBA Finals.

Download Day for Firefox 3 (and some catching up)

I got mine. I'm not real happy about my bookmarks being incorporated with my Delicious tags, but I'll get used to it, I suppose.

Let's play some catch-up with the recent news:

-- RIP Stan Winston and Tony Schwartz. A lot of things would not look the same without their contributions to pop culture, politics, movies, and a lot more.

-- Yesterday was the anniversary of the first Democratic convention in Texas:

On June 16, 1855 the newly formed Democratic Party of Texas held its first convention in Austin.

Before 1848, Texas elections were conducted without political parties. Contests between factions became formalized with the birth of political parties. In 1848, the Democratic party was born in Texas. Competition for the Democrats came first from the Whig Party, then the Know-Nothing Party.

Wow, some things never ever change, do they?

-- I really like this response:

A defiant Barack Obama said Tuesday he would take no lectures from Republicans on which candidate would keep the U.S. safer, a sharp rebuke to John McCain's aides who said the Democrat had a naive, Sept. 10 mind-set toward terrorism.

"These are the same guys who helped to engineer the distraction of the war in Iraq at a time when we could have pinned down the people who actually committed 9/11," the presumed nominee told reporters aboard his campaign plane. "This is the same kind of fear-mongering that got us into Iraq ... and it's exactly that failed foreign policy I want to reverse."

This ain't 2004, Pukes.

-- Respect Are Country. Speak English. I've previously posted examples of 4th-grade education-challenged conservatives demonstrating their ignorance, but you'd really think someone on the Right who knows better wouldn't let them outside with their hand-lettered stupidity, don't you?

-- In environmental news, the oil companies have been given special dispensation to harm the recently-classified-as-endangered polar bears in their search for oil. And also as previously reported here, another health hazard, this time PCBs, are being incinerated in Port Arthur. PCBs release dioxins into the air and are proven to cause cancer and brain damage.

-- Harris County Republicans can't escape their Rap Sheet any longer.

Back to regular posting eventually.

The Weekly Wrangle

Time for another edition of the Texas Progressive Alliance's weekly blog round-up, compiled based on submissions made by member blogs, by Vince from Capitol Annex.

CoulldBeTrue hears Rick Perry's rally call against Mexican drug cartels hooking up with local gangs and fears coded words meaning 'Lets profile Latinos' yee haw.

Off the Kuff spent his time in Austin interviewing candidates for office. The first group of interviewees published are State Rep. Dan Barrett, HD97; Wendy Davis, SD10; Robert Miklos, HD101; and Chris Turner, HD96.

refinish69 of Doing My Part For The Left gives a review of his experience herding cats at the Texas Democratic Convemtion and a podcast version as well.

The Texas Cloverleaf wonders why we are getting yet another TX Secretary of State, as Phil Wilson is resigning after only one year on the job.

PDiddie had some scenes from the Texas GOP convention posted at Brains and Eggs.

With four electric companies folding up shop over the last several weeks, it is going to be a difficult summer for Texas consumers. The failures underscore just how screwed up the retail utility business is in Texas. One commentator has called it a game of Russian roulette, and so it is....

In a much-anticipated mega-post on transportation issues, McBlogger tells us that lawmakers are "doing it wrong" when it comes to transportation funding.

Vince at Capitol Annex tears apart the Republican argument for getting rid of property taxes and replacing them with a sales tax for funding public schools, which this week was promoted by Texans for Fiscal Responsibility.

LSU alumni crawfish boil in Beaumont

The two years we have attended -- my mother is the alum; she got her master's there in 1949 -- the football team has captured the national championship, so we did our part yesterday and attended the annual affair at the beautiful ranch of Phil and Carla Meaux, on the north side of town.

LSU defensive coordinator Bradley Dale Peveto -- his dad was a football coach at my high school when I was growing up -- spoke to the assembled hundred or so about the Bengal Tigers' 2008 prospects, but I can't tell you a word that he said. I'm sworn to secrecy. Really. It's like one those insider information things that Coach Fran got fired over, except I only paid twenty bucks for my crawfish and I don't wanna get Coach Peveto in trouble. In any way.

In attendance were a handful of my Lamar professors (though retired nearly twenty years Mom still has a few friends among active faculty), Pat Harrigan and Cindy Barnes. And also SH-19 Democratic challenger Larry Hunter, who has a fundraiser in Houston next week.

A good time had by all (and a good team to be fielded by the Tigers of Red Stick this fall. Trust me).

Sunday Funnies

Astros v. Yankees

I had tickets to tomorrow's contest -- Moose v. Wandito -- but sold them to my friend Neil, because my mother wants to attend the annual LSU alumni crawfish boil in Beaumont (and every year we have attended they've won the national championship, so...)

The fellow on the right, Richard Stonely, was interviewed on the telecast of this evening's game. He grew up in New York as a Yankee fan, and when the Astros and Mets entered the National League in 1962 he also was became a 'Stros fan because he couldn't root for the Mets. And he named a couple of early Colt .45ers like Bobby Shantz and John Bateman, and when he moved to Houston in 1976 became an even bigger fan.

Asked he was feeling conflicted tonight by reporter Bart Enis, Stonely replied without missing a beat: "I'm conflicted every night."

The score is tied 1-1 in the top of the 7th.

Tim Russert

passes suddenly this afternoon, while preparing his Sunday telecast:

"He worked to the point of exhaustion so many weeks," Brokaw said, adding: "This news division will not be the same without his strong, clear voice."

Brokaw said Russert had just returned from a family trip to Italy with his wife, writer Maureen Orth. They were celebrating the graduation of their son, Luke, from Boston College this spring, Brokaw said.

I wasn't much of a fan of Russert's any more. Though he began his political career as an aide to Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, he long ago became a conservative in the interests of "objectivity", and the praise for his interviewing skills has been similarly lost on me. I often saw a mollycoddler for the Bush administration's flacks and lickspittles, after the years of watching him focus on Bill Clinton's private parts.

The accolades roll in today but I see the all-channel tributes as something over the top for a TV reporter.

Condolences to his family (and I hope they give the Press the Meat gig to David Gregory ONLY so that Rachel Maddow gets the 5 p.m. slot on MSNBC).

Scenes from the Texas GOP convention

Outside the education subcommittee hearing room (h/t Bud Kennedy):



Some of the guest speakers, backstage:



If you want the real scoop (heavy on the slavering), then tune in Rhymes With Hate. He's working hard to outdo Josh from Yon Texas Blue from last week. But the PoliTexans are serving it straight up.

If you need to attend a political convention in Houston this week you have much better options.

FightTheSmears.com

That Swift Boat Bullshit is not going down this time around:

Democratic White House hopeful Barack Obama launched a new website Thursday devoted to dousing "smears" against the first African-American with a serious shot at the presidency.

The site at www.fightthesmears.com debunks false rumors doing the rounds of the Internet and right-wing media outlets -- including one recent assertion that Obama's wife Michelle has been caught on tape slurring white people.

Obama's main campaign website already had a fact-check section to refute rumors such as the Christian candidate is a secret Muslim. But aides said the new site went further in inviting supporters to spread the word.

"We created an interactive tool to allow our supporters to fight back against these smears in the same way that they received them -- on the Internet," campaign spokesman Tommy Vietor said.

Naturally the unemployed conservatives who spend their time advancing slime of this type at FreeRepublic.com and extending all the way to the poor Houston Chronic are hard at work.

Just ain't gonna work out like it did four years ago.

The new initiative was launched after reports, by conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh among others, that a videotape existed showing Michelle Obama using the derogatory term "whitey" in the couple's former church.

No such tape has surfaced despite frenzied speculation by right-wing pundits and blogs, and Obama last week decried the mainstream media's attention to "dirt and lies."

Political candidates have traditionally refused to acknowledge slanderous rumors for fear of giving them respectability. But given the slew of emailed attacks being spread against Obama, his campaign said it had no choice but to respond in kind.

"Whenever challenged with these lies, we will aggressively push back with the truth and help our supporters debunk the false rumors floating around the Internet," Vietor said.

Left with a candidate whom the world has passed by -- one they themselves have tarred "liberal" -- the reactionary Right responds with the only tool left in their box: lies intended to provoke fear.

Between this news and a Supreme Court that has -- for the third time -- smacked down an administration bent on denying due process for six years now to Guantanemo detainee, today is once again a bad day to be a Republican.

Texas GOP in Houston this week

Lock up the children (the women are probably safe):

The Texas Republican Convention gets under way in earnest today in downtown Houston with an appeals court still considering a lawsuit aimed at changing the gathering's procedures.

Gov. Rick Perry, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and state House Speaker Tom Craddick are today's scheduled featured speakers for the gathering of about 10,000 delegates and activists at the George R. Brown Convention Center.

Speakers set for Friday and Saturday include Sens. John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison and national GOP figures Ron Paul, Newt Gingrich, Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney.

Say one thing for the GOoPers, they can still draw the worst and darkest to speak to them. But here's the fun part ...

A group of Republicans including supporters of Paul's presidential campaign and others sued the party last week on grounds that it fails to follow state law that requires procedures to make the convention's actions official. The group essentially alleges that party leaders ignore the rules to retain power and limit dissent — a charge the party denies.

After County Court-at-Law Judge Roberta Lloyd said Monday she had no jurisdiction to try the lawsuit, the group appealed to the all-Republican, Houston-based First Court of Appeals, which refused Wednesday to intervene on an emergency basis. That means the convention will kick off at 1 p.m. free of any court orders.

But the court — justices Tim Taft, Sam Nuchia and Jane Bland — asked lawyers in the case to send written arguments on the case by 5 p.m. today, leaving the possibility of further court action.

The Paulies will likely disrupt this convention in some benign fashion. I'm just sorry I don't have the stomach to be around so many Republicans long enough to cover their convention, because it would probably be a laugh a minute.

Update: Harold Cook welcomes the delegates.

"I'm Voting Republican"

A post-convention Wrangle

CouldBeTrue at South Texas Chisme wants to know what the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality is hiding when it permitted Asarco to restart polluting El Paso. Crony is as crony does.

BossKitty at BlueBloggin tells us about the Government Accountability Office's (GOA) revealing report to Congress on how tax preparers work in cooperation with banks to advance refunds which can greatly reduce your tax refund check, in Refund Anticipation Loans, Rapid Refunds, Sleazy Tax Preparers.

The live-blog of the contest for the state chair of the Texas Democratic Party was done by PDiddie at Brains and Eggs.

Off the Kuff conducted an interview with the communications director of the American Wind Energy Association on the state of wind energy in Texas and America today.

Kit of WhosPlayin thinks much of mainstream media coverage of late - especially with regard to the Democratic nomination is meant to distract us from the more important issues like Iraq, health care costs, and the mortgage market meltdown.

Texas Kaos has extensive liveblogging and video from the Texas State Democratic Convention this past weekend. Highlights include Chelsea Clinton's Two Messages for Texas Democrats, Sam Houston Makes The Case for Caring About the Judicial Races, and Senator Mario Gallegos Addressing the State Convention a year after he and the Texas Senate Democratic Caucus held off David Dewhurst's grab for your voting rights.