Lyn Wall's blog

What a day!!! If the rest of the week is anything like today, we're in for a wild ride. Today started like any other. We checked into our rooms here at the Red Lion Hotel. Pretty nice spot so far, but I'll keep you posted. After getting settled in, we caught the light rail to dowtown  Denver. Houston  please take note, you could learn  a thing or two from this rail system. It runs all around the city. We went to a Green Piece Festival. There were all kinds of energy saving gizmos and gadgets. Clothes made of 100% Hemp, waterless toilets, waterless water, etc. It was pretty lame until I got to the organic vodka tent. This peaked my interest and thought it would peak yours as well. Because I wanted to be able to report to you with as much accuracy as possible, I felt I had to take one for the team, so I had a glass with a cranberry mixer. I wasn't quite sure with only one drink, so I decided to take another one for the team. Needless to say, the festival wasn't that lame anymore.

After leaving the festival, and taking in more scenery of downtown Denver, we started back towards the train terminal. As we approached the terminal, there were huge masses of people, and behind them stood platoons of heavily armed and geared up riot police. They had helmets, vest, cuffs, tasers, glocs, billy clubs, bobby clubs, harry clubs, brass knuckles etc. They looked like an army of ROBOCOPS. It turns out that there were some protesters blocking the light rail tracks. With such a show of force, the protesters were quickly disposed of.....I mean dispersed rather quickly.

 We walked a few more blocks and ran into another group of protesters. It was two Hillary protesters. Yes, two. Only two. With all the hype given to this story by the media. You would swear there were armys of them. I'm not saying they're not here, I just don't see them.I decided to engage them in conversation and they weren't able to give me one single reason why they were not voting for Barack. After 2 minutes, I knew I wouldn't get any where with them, so we moved on towards the train. My day gets much more exciting, but its exactly 03:50 in the morning, and I have to be at my delegation meeting at 0700.  I have to sign off now, but stay tuned for the rest of my story. You don't want to miss it.

Note: Terrel Shepherd is an Obama Deleage from Texas Senate District 7.

It's Monday, and that means it is time for yet another edition of the Texas Progressive Alliance's weekly blog round-up. Posts included in the round up are submitted each week by Alliance member blogs. This week's round-up is compiled by Vince from Capitol Annex.

It's Monday, and that means it is time for another edition of the Texas Progressive Alliance's Weekly blog round-up. The round-up is compiled from posts submitted by member blogs.

WCNews at Eye On Williamson takes apart the new GOP Business tax in Tearing At The Margins Tax.

This was originally posted in 2006 but has gotten a lot attention on other blogs lately, so in case you missed it then, enjoy. And even if you've read it before, hopefully it will put a smile on your face again.

Dear Mr. Bush

America Went Shopping

While our Constitution Slowly Burned…

 by Amy Branham

What will be said about Americans in the future when history looks back at our time?  What will I tell my grandchildren and my great grandchildren when they ask what happened to America?  It is not just this President and his administration that will be judged by them and by time.  It will also be the American people.

Thanks to Muse for penning this awesome fundraising letter. I couldn't say it better. Except to add that if you want to see a progressive candidate run against Cornyn, one who doesn't use code words about the GLBT community or think that women should be forced to bear children. Donate now. As much as you can. Do it today!

800 donors in 4 weeks. 200 donors a week. 29 a day.

Awesome news! We have a grassroots candidate for Senate!

I just watched Countdown and what is usually my favorite segment - "Worst Person" - outraged me in a way only a resident of Texas, specifically SD7 can truly appreciate. He made Fred Thompson worst person in the world for complaining about Harry Reid and lumping him with the fringe elements of the left wing blogosphere who believe that  9/11 was an inside job. Keith asked why a defacto presidential candidate had any business broadcasting on the radio. This from the man who partners with my State Senator on the radio - Dan Patrick.

Lots of names have been thrown around to run against Cornyn in 2008. All of them have either fallen to the wayside except for Mikal Watts , who is openly pro-forced pregnancy:

I personally have the view: I hold the pro-life position with three exceptions: one for rape, one for incest, one for the life of the mother.

There are plenty of other reasons to be wary of Watts, but this one trumps all for me. We need a senator who will protect women's reproductive rights. Plain and simple.

We have a potential candidate right here in Houston who is more than just acceptable, he's a great progressive with a proven record. That would be Rick Noriega. He spent a year in Afghanistan, has been deployed to the border and did an outstanding job managing the relief efforts in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina.

I had the opportunity to speak with him at his wife Melissa's victory party Saturday night. I'm confident that with enough grassroots support, and funding, he will answer the call to run for senate. He will run a great campaign, beat Mikal Watts, despite his money and easily replace Box Turtle Cornyn in 2008.

Please join me in supporting the Draft Rick Noriega effort. Sign up, participate and be ready contribute!

Today's Chronicle features an outstanding Op-Ed by Stan Merriman. Through the 2008 election cycle, I will be concentrating my efforts on working with the task force he mentions to protect our vote and our right to vote. We  need volunteers to help with all aspects of this effort from ensuring voter registrations are are handled properly in the Tax Assessor's office right through to making sure eligible voters are not turned away on election day.