Burnt Orange Report has published a list of the 234 native Texans who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Please take time today to reflect on the sacrifices they’ve made for us, and pray for comfort for their families and friends.

Everyone welcome Wyld Card, our first true guest blogger.  Wyld Card is a progressive political blogger that not only maintains his own blog (Sharpening our Wits on the Grindstone of Life), but also guest blogs for other members of the TPA (Peoples’ Republic of Seabrook), as well.

I honestly don’t know that much about Wyld Card, aside from reading his blog, but I am familiar with his work, and am certain he’ll be a welcome addition around here.  I’ll let him do his own bio post, if he wishes.  Ya’ll welcome Wyld Card to the mix.

(As usual, we are still accepting guest bloggers, for more information, contact.)

This year promises some exciting political coverage, and it’s becoming apparent to the mainstream media that they won’t be the only ones providing it. The Houston Chronicle published an article today about how bloggers are shaping the face of politics these days.

“In the presidential primary, it’s all going to be on the blogs, that’s where it’s happening and that is where the early narratives on the election are all going to be laid out,” said Mathew Gross, a political consultant who was Dean’s director of Internet communications. “It’s a small pool of people, but they are very active.”

The bloggers’ audience is large and growing along with the Internet. A February Gallup poll found that 40 million Americans read weblogs frequently or occasionally. About 147 million Americans are Internet users, up from 133 million in January 2005, according to a recent survey by the Pew Internet and American Life Project.

“The reach of top blogs rival the reach of regional papers,” Gross said. “If we are to believe what the Boston Globe has to say about a presidential race, it follows that clearly some of these blogs with a reach equal to the Boston Globe online will influence elections.”

So the days of Walter Cronkite giving everyone their opinions are gone, and are being replace with voices like the Bloggers Caucus at this years Texas Democratic Convention, Texas Kos, the heavy hitters in the Texas Progressive Alliance, and Mindspeak’s host, Eric. And the political power wielded by these voices is becoming considerable. In a recent Washington Post article, Markos Moulitsas of the Daily Kos blasted Hillary Clinton for losing touch with her peeps:

“No longer would D.C. insiders impose their candidates on us without our input; those of us in the netroots could demand a say in our political fortunes,” Moulitsas said. “Today, however, Hillary Clinton seems unable to recognize this new reality. She seems ill-equipped to tap into the Net-energized wing of her party. … She may be the establishment’s choice, but real power in the party has shifted.”

And it appears that those on the left are wielding the power with more vigor that the right-wingers, possibly because those on the right are so busy defending their party’s mistakes and ethical lapses. Or maybe just because they’re afraid of all things new.

Keir Murray, a Houston political strategist who worked on retired Gen. Wesley Clark’s 2004 presidential campaign, said he views the Web as the emerging center of political activity.

“You see more and more campaigns using the widely read blogs to disseminate information, either about their opponent or their issues, and that’s critical,” he said. “There is also a tremendous amount of fundraising that goes on online.”

But, Murray said, while cyberspace is novel, there is still virtue in the old ways.

“Yard signs are still a powerful and effective political statement,” he said.

So plant your yard signs, you hangers-on to the past ways. Progressives are plowing through cyberspace at the speed of electrons, and getting information to the masses. The days of the dinosaur are numbered.

Posted by Wyld Card

Guest writer, Dr. Walter Brasch joins us today with a column about Bush, Foreign Energy, American workers, Outsourcing, Illegal immigration, low wages, and more…  As always, the guests views do not necessarily represent the views of MindSpeak, or its primary author.  If you would like to be a guest writer for MindSpeak, please contact.

The Not-so-Secret Foreign Energy Source

by Walter Brasch

President Bush, several years after most Americans, has decided the nation can’t be dependent upon foreign energy sources.

For much of his life, when he wasn’t stoned or wasted, and especially when he was running what came to be a series of failed corporations, Bush worshipped the power of oil, while denouncing global warming as junk science. But now, as an enlightened president who is prevented by his own incompetence and inability to deal with the insurgency and unable to drill for oil in Iraq, Bush has decided that alternative energy is necessary. He has a plan—ethanol. It’s cheap, he says. It’s available from American corn crops, he claims. It’s primarily provided by Archer Daniels Midland, which has consistently been a large donor to political campaigns, primarily Republican. But, just in case ethanol isn’t as reliable as Bush believes it could be, there’s still the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). Our oil-slicked President believes killing animals and disrupting the ecological balance in the ANWR to drill for oil beneath the frozen tundra is also part of the solution to the oil crisis. By 2025, according to government projections, and assuming a ten year development during which no oil is pumped, oil produced in ANWR will represent only about 1 to 2 percent of the Americans’ daily needs; if all the oil in ANWR were successfully mined, it would represent less than a one year supply.

But, while Bush says we shouldn’t depend upon foreign energy, he really means we should depend upon foreign energy, not in the form of natural resources but in a human form.

Read the entire entry …