With Representative Diane Delisi's (R-Belton) decision to retire from the Texas State House on July 31, Speaker of the House Tom Craddick (R-Midland) has appointed Representative Jodie Laubenberg (R-Rockwall) to chair the House Committee on Public Health.

MSNBC is reporting that the Obama press team is scheduled to land in Indiana on Tuesday and not leave for almost 24 hours.

Eugene Robinson at WaPo discusses how quickly St. McCain has gone to mudslinging to try and get an edge on Obama.

A new Rasmussen poll shows McCain leading Obama by only 8 here in Texas, 52-44.

I don't know if the attempt at a citizens' arrest fazed former presidential adviser Karl Rove any yesterday, but if I were him, I'd be more concerned about this morning's vote by the House Judiciary Committee in favor of holding him in contempt.

There have been many methods for protesting Karl Rove and general NeoCon tactics over the years, but one I hadn't seen before was the good ol' citizens arrest. Four people tried to perform a citizen's arrest on Rove for war crimes in Des Moines, Iowa, as he appeared at a country club fundraiser, and all four (a Methodist minister among them) were arrested.

So what do you do as a presidential contender if your opponent is capturing the media cycle with overseas trips and you don't actually have anything substantive to compete with for the press' attention? Well, if you're John McCain, you leak that you might be choosing a running mate really, really soon now.

The House Armed Services personnel subcommittee, in its hearings yesterday on the "don't ask, don't tell" policy, found itself in an unexpected moment of bipartisan unity in support of gay servicemen and women as an ardent critic of gays in the military (and women as well, for that matter) showed her true colors, spouting often illogical, sometimes downright incorrect accusations that seemed to unify committee congressmen against her ravings.

Republican State Senator Kim Brimer has tried to find some way to prevent Wendy Davis from running against him time and time again this cycle — understandably so, I suppose, considering the string of ethics complaints against Brimer that have made him a particularly weak incumbent. He went to bat again recently with his lawsuit to take Davis off the ballot, and today he struck out once again.

The buck got passed on constitutional separation of church and state once again as the State Board of Education approved general guidelines for an elective Bible course in Texas schools.