B and B

Texas Progressive Alliance weekly blog roundup

The Texas Progressive Alliance puts together a roundup of members' highlighted posts on a weekly basis.  I've been remiss in not posting these more often.  This week's roundup was compiled by Vince at Capitol Annex.  You may notice a post by your truly buried in there somewhere.

TXsharon says, "YOU SUCK AT&T" and she can only say that because she doesn't use AT&T. Over at Bluedaze she tells why, if you use AT&T for your Internets, you can't say they suck.

Stace at Dos Centavos reports on racism and bigotry committed by a corporation and a UT fraternity.

What's really going on in Irving? Xanthippas at Three Wise Men notes there's more going on in the immigration crackdown than possible profiling and arrests.

CouldBeTrue at South Texas Chisme notes that NOW wants to know why U.S. District Judge Judge Samuel Kent was 'punished' with a 4 month vacation after the investigation into sexual harassment charges concluded.

Criticism of Hillary Clinton's laugh is no laughing matter, so says PDiddie at Brains and Eggs in HRC:LOL.

Might be time for a bit of horsetrading on the floor of the Senate, and one of Texas Kaos' regular diarists, Fake Consultant, has a bit of advice on the subject for Majority Leader Harry Reid in On Larry Craig, And Filibusters or Wanna Make a Trade?

Truth, it has been said, is the first casualty of war. The Republican-Media coalition must have declared war on Social Security, and Blue 19th exposes their lies.

Human rights advocates cheered the Williamson County Commission's vote to sever ties with the operator of the T. Don Hutto holding facility for undocumented immigrants, but Eye On Williamson's wcnews wonders if a battle within the Republican party over the county's share of the profits may have driven their decision.

McBlogger at McBlogger speculates as to the reasons Sharon Keller (Chief Justice of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals) needed to get out of work at 5 on Sept. 25th.

Vince at Capitol Annex tells us about the Texas Conservative Coalition's new Election Integrity Task Force, its new Chairwoman and its likely recommendations.

Peter at B and B writes about the quixotic attempts by a group of environmentally-conscious Republicans to get their chosen political party to care about conservation and stewardship: Republicans for Environmental Protection, all 70 of them, meet in San Antonio.

Off the Kuff looks at the ongoing dispute between the Harris County Appraisal District and the State Comptroller over how commercial properties are taxed.

In Texas Kaos diary, Dallas and Denton drinking water at risk by TxDOT's route selection choice for FM299, Faith Chatham's shares a letter from Highland Village Parents Group activist/homeowner Susie Venable to Mayor Tom Leppert of Dallas regarding the City Water Department's failure to monitor possible MTBE contamination issues. Despite cries of running out of money, TxDOT selected the only route (of 8) which would double project costs by requiring bridges to be built across three tributaries to Lake Lewisville (drinking water source for Denton and Dallas Counties) in the area of the lake already contaminated by MTBE.

Gary at Easter Lemming updates the Pasadena Mayor Manlove resignation and his running for Lampson's seat. There are a lot of happy faces at city hall. Easter Lemming broke the story back on the 22nd.

Trinity Trickey strikes again at The Texas Cloverleaf. This time pro toll road literature features the war on trees and the fight against Angela Hunt by the powers that be. Only in Dallas.

This week's installment of GLBTube at the Houston GLBT Political Caucus Blog is a double feature: first, a sampling of clips related to ENDA; then gay republicans are running ads in order to sabotage hypocritical presidential candidates!

WhosPlayin hammers away on GOP Congressman Michael Burgess for dissing Muslims and being one of 30 boneheads to vote for giving mercenary firms like Blackwater a license to kill.

The Texas Blue looks at how the evangelical social movement isn't playing nice-nice with the Republican Party any longer, and why that is good for America.

Earl Ofari Hutchinson, author, syndicated columnist, political analyst and commentator, who is on a virtual book tour will stop by Para Justicia y Libertad on Oct 11 to discuss his new book The Latino Challenge to Black America: Towards a Conversation Between African-Americans and Hispanics.

Hal at Half Empty counted a Lucky Seven congressional candidates that want to run against Nick Lampson in Texas CD 22. He ROFLs and LMAOs.

Tangled Bank 49

The 49th Tangled Bank is at Living the Scientific Life. With pictures!

I and the Bird plus Tangled Bank

I've been remiss in not pointing to this week's editions of I and the Bird and Tangled Bank.

I and the Bird is hosted this time by Amy Hooper, editor of Wild Bird magazine, at Wild Bird on the Fly.  Amongst many other alluring posts, Wise Crow reports about his concerns about the potential effects of a proposed off-shore farm of wind turbines near Galveston on the huge flocks of migratory birds crossing the Gulf of Mexico every spring. Also, Ocellated gives a brief primer on the practice of bird banding.

Tangled Bank, the science carnival, is hosted this time at Kete Were. Particularly noteworthy is a post at the blog Galactic Interactions from Vanderbilt physics professor Rob Knop on the mystery of the physical parameters of the Universe as we understand it and how the promoters of Intelligent Design take advantage of that mystery. It is noteworthy because it is a well-written post on a compelling topic, but also because Knop was a colleague of mine from graduate school way back when. How about that!

I and the Bird #16

For the sixteenth edition of I and the Bird, head over to the Dharma Bums, located up in the great Pacific Northwest which we have so recently visited.

There, amidst many other interesting essays and poems and photographs, Charlie will tell you "15 things I don't like to hear when I'm birding," and the author of Home Bird Notes relates an experience trying to learn and identify all sorts of ducks and geese, an experience that I can definitely relate to.

Tangled Bank at Science Blogs

Tangled Bank has arrived at the blog Adventures in Ethics and Science, hosted by philosopher Janet Stemwedel. In case you weren't aware, her blog is one of the fifteen science blogs recently assimilated by Seed magazine's science blog borg named, fittingly, Science Blogs.

At this week's edition of Tangled Bank, you can read even more (aside from my own post) about the non-Earth-like planet recently discovered via gravitational lensing. The additional material comes from a very thorough fellow named Anthony Kendall.

Also, learn about the "Top 10 Science Discoveries ... Ever!" from David Wheat of the blog Science in Action. A compelling headline for a very interesting article.

Celebrate the launch to Pluto with blog carnivals

To celebrate this afternoon's successful launch of NASA's New Horizons mission to Pluto, you get a double helping of blog carnivals today.

For the main course, the latest version of the science carnival Tangled Bank was published yesterday at GreyThumb. There you may find a link to my post on NASA's Pluto mission, which rocketed into the Florida sky this afternoon and is now on the way to the outer regions of our Solar System. If you read this after 10:00 PM CST, the probe will already be further away from Earth than our Moon. It'll pick up a boost at Jupiter next year on its way to zipping past Pluto in the summer of 2015.

Also at this week's Tangled Bank, you can find a review, courtesy Orac of Respectful Insolence, of the difference between the bedrock, textbook science that is the foundation of our technological culture, and the cutting-edge, frontier science that dominates the headlines—and that is occasionally completely wrong. In addition, look for detailed information on the gradual shifting of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's official "Plant Hardiness Zones" in recent years from Chris Clarke at Creek Running North.

For dessert, the fifteenth edition of I and the Bird is now available at Snail's Tales.

Highlights include an amusing tale of a mysterious man named Sartre and his binocular wisdom from Rob Fergus of Birdchaser, and an invitation to participate in this spring's Great Texas Birding Classic from a Houston blogger at Crows Really Are Wise.

Photo (c) Orlando Sentinel 2006