Bloggers are sending salutations and sayonaras this week to new entities and old friends. They also broke a story on alleged mercenaries in Galveston, kept up with the U.S. Senate race in Texas and posted about everyone's favorite man from Midland, House Speaker Tom Craddick. Last, a lengthy litany of lists...
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Craddick: A Salute to a Speaker
Chronic, the Austin Chronicle's blog, wonders why Reps. Jim Dunnam, D-Waco, and Sylvester Turner, D-Houston, haven't submitted briefs to Attorney General Greg Abbott?
Chronic also sums up responses by Team Craddick to challenges of the Speaker's authority, while State Rep. Mark Strama, D-Austin, hijacks Texas Blue to post an opinion piece he delivered on the House floor during session.
Rick Perry vs. The World says Abbott has ground to weigh in on the Speaker's powers, because Craddick has "asserted a constitutional defense" — but that he wouldn't be surprised if Abbott passes on the whole mess.
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A looming Criss-is
Annex is on the spot with a scoop, claiming that demonstrators at a Galveston fund-raiser for State District Judge Susan Criss, who is running for Texas Supreme Court, said they were hired by a temp agency. But in the Galveston County Daily News, this group said no, they weren't hired at all. Annex stands by its story, while Kuff finds it amusing, and that any publicity for Criss is good publicity.
Meanwhile, Texas-Democrats reports that Criss will make an appearance in Irving on Tuesday, Aug. 21, in case anyone needs to earn some extra milk money for school.
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O-blog-atory Senate updates
Greg's Opinion is that bloggers' fervent support for Democratic state Rep. Rick Noriega, D-Houston, is only good for hits on Noriega's Web site, and that ain't even worth a buck-oh-five. Undeterred, McBlogger reposts a "tremendous" interview Noriega did for firedoglake.com.
Kuff writes that Noriega is now part of Blue America 08 PAC, while Texas Observer Blog reports, "some guy on the internet totally pwned(*) Mikal Watts because his campaign video = suxorz."
Right of Texas says, without naming names, that "a former Chief of Staff to Sen. John Cornyn is exploring a run in the GOP primary against Shelley Sekula Gibbs for Congress" (the seat currently held by U.S. Rep. Nick Lampson, D-Stafford).
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Aloha Means Goodbye... and Hello
Phillip Martin of Burnt Orange Report fame is leaving his position as Chief of Staff for Rep. Garnet Coleman, D-Houston, for Boston, specifically the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. Like most college students, Martin claims he'll write often. He also says he will contribute to the newly-formed TexBlog PAC, which Burnt Orange introduces here.
Who are these people? Charles Kuffner of Off the Kuff, Matt Glazer of Burnt Orange, Vince Leibowitz of Capitol Annex and Stace Medellin of Half-Empty. Kuff says the traditional PAC will focus on trying to win House seats for Democrats, getting more Democrats on the Legislative Budget Boardj (it's three of ten overall, and one of five on the House side of that committee). Oh yeah, and ousting Craddick.
Meanwhile, Leibowitz and Medellin have joined Texas Kaos.
Annex says goodbye to Karl Rove as chief advisor to Pres. George W. Bush, and wonders whether Rove will work for Gov. Rick Perry or U.S. Sen. John Cornyn.
Say howdy to Professors R-Squared, self-purportedly the blog of "Houston's Only Openly Republican Political Science Professors," who debut in Out There by introducing Big Red Tent, the GOP's answer to ActBlue. They're there "to encourage Republican netroots fundraising and activism."
Robert Haney, chief clerk of the Texas House of Representatives, gets profiled in Capitol Crowd.
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Bulletin Board
Chronic posts the Top 18 gangs in Austin, but In the Pink Texas reveals who the true public enemy number one is.
Mike Falick's Blog puts up an inventory of Google search commands and one on teenage drug lingo. Texas Blue has Annie's List, and gives a take on a report card by The Heritage Alliance. The Observer's is here.
Kaos blogs on South Texas congressional seats up for grabs, and also links to a corruption scorecard. Grits for Breakfast catalogs why the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals needs new members. Walker's Report has a schedule of events in Bexar County through October.
Houston's Clear Thinkers picks up Headline of the Week with a post about University of Texas football players getting picked up by police: "Book'em Horns."
This edition of Out There was compiled and written by Patrick Brendel, who is momentarily situated in sunny Kermit, Texas. We cherry-pick the state's political blogs each week, looking for news, info, gossip, and new jokes. The opinions here belong (mostly) to the bloggers, and we're including their links so you can hunt them down if you wish. Our blogroll the list of Texas blogs we watch is on our links page, and if you know of a Texas political blog that ought to be on it, just shoot us a note. Please send comments, suggestions, gripes or retorts to Texas Weekly editor Ross Ramsey.