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The Texas Blue
Advancing Progressive Ideas

The Texas Blue: Articles

The Decline of the Religious Right

We have talked quite often (and with no small amount of thinly-veiled glee) about the many problems the Republican Party has had over the last few years, and the even bigger problems in the road for them in 2008. With the rise of Giuliani and the failures of so many NeoCon leaders within the GOP ranks, many have foreseen a coming fracture between Christian conservatives and the GOP. Now those religious conservatives are seriously discussing a third-party candidate and, by extension, a permanent break from the GOP.

Port Arthur: Future Home of the America's Largest Oil Refinery

This is great news for the Texas oil industry and anyone who has stock in Motiva Enterprises: Royal Dutch Shell, in collaboration with Saudi Arabia through Motiva Enterprises, is about to begin making the largest oil refinery expansion in over thirty years.

Environment Texas

We all want clean air, clean water and open spaces. But it takes independent research and tough-minded advocacy to win concrete results for our environment, especially when powerful interests stand in the way of environmental progress. That's the idea behind Environment Texas.

Local Motion

When I was born in Denton in August 1973, the city of Denton was a small university town that was beginning to grow as a bedroom community for commuters working in Dallas and Fort Worth. A number of small communities, predominantly farming or ranching in nature, were scattered across the remainder of mostly rural Collin County and slightly less rural Denton County: Corinth, Flower Mound, Allen and Frisco.

Senate Water Bill

First, I want to thank The Texas Blue for making this letter public, since the Dallas Morning News chose not to.

Six Years On

A poll was out on Monday from Zogby that showed a majority of Americans polled — 87% of them, to be exact — see 9/11 as the "most significant historical event of their lives." At first I was inclined to think the poll was skewed, or that it wasn't true, but then I remembered a conversation I had with my brother recently, in which I said the same thing: that no single event in my life, outside of the close personal personals like getting married, has been more formative than 9/11.

Lone Star Project: Fighting Back with Facts

The Lone Star Project was launched in early 2005 before the back drop of a harsh political reality. Texas, without question, was under one-party Republican control.

There's Holes In the Wall

Living in El Paso, one can say that there has always been an invisible wall that separates both us and our sister city Juarez, and yet we have always been able to work around this separation.

Unions Turning a Corner As Election Year Looms

President, Texas AFL-CIO

You can usually tell how the labor movement is doing by examining the top agenda items for working people in Congress.

The Grassroots Resurrection of Denton County

Denton County has been a Republican stronghold for many years, but the Denton County Democratic Party has made strides toward reclaiming support among the citizens of North Texas communities. A building grassroots presence among Democrats has been slowly growing over the last few years and is about to be unleashed in the 2008 election cycle.