Texas House: Power to the...
Texas House Speaker Tom Craddick has brought in good lawyers to fight a formal attorney general's opinion on the scope of his legislative power. Like any good lawyers, Craddick's team knows how to obscure the issue.

State Prosecutor Joins Call for DeLay Indictment
In an unusual move, the state prosecuting attorney has joined Travis County prosecutors in asking the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to reverse itself and reinstate an indictment against former U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land.

Bouncy Williams Seeks Re-Election with Eye on Higher Office
He's a bald, bouncy speaker, wears colorful bow ties and black boots, and last lost an election more than 20 years ago with young George W. Bush as his campaign manager.

Amendment Lineup Set for November Ballot
Texas voters will decide whether to approve as much as $3 billion in bonds for cancer research when they go to the polls in November to have their say on 16 proposed state constitutional amendments.

Craddick: Restore College Funds
Republican House Speaker Tom Craddick joined the head of the House Democrats on Thursday in calling for restoring community college funding that was stripped out of the budget by Gov. Rick Perry's line- item veto in June. But Craddick stopped short of embracing the Democrats' strategy for putting the money in the schools' hands.

Giuliani and Romney Rake in the River Oaks Cash
In Houston's prosperous River Oaks, campaign donations have been flowing to the presidential contenders, particularly Republicans Rudolph Giuliani and Mitt Romney.

Energized Paul Speaks in S.A.
Texas Rep. Ron Paul, his long-shot campaign for the GOP presidential nomination recently juiced by the Internet and comedy talk shows, stepped out of a gold minivan and into a throng of supporters near the Alamo late Saturday afternoon.

Hillary Outflanks Obama
For Hillary Clinton, the presidency is not in the bag. Even winning the Democratic presidential nomination is considerably less than a sure thing. But of the 18 Democratic and Republican presidential candidates, Clinton is the most likely to be the next president. And she did nothing last night in the bizarre presidential debate in Charleston, South Carolina, to alter that.

Thompson Raises $3.4 M, Report Says
Fred Thompson leaned heavily on his home state of Tennessee in rounding up seed money to launch an all but certain campaign for the Republican presidential nomination.

Obama Warns Pakistan on Terrorism
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Wednesday that he would send troops into Pakistan to hunt down terrorists even without local permission if warranted -- an attempt to show strength when his chief rival has described his foreign policy skills as naive.

Ron Paul's Contrarian Views Draw Fans to Presidential Bid
Ron Paul may be the political butterfly of the 2008 presidential campaign.

Three Top Democrats Share Lead in Iowa Poll
Less than six months before Iowa voters open the 2008 presidential nomination battles, the Democratic contest in the Hawkeye State is a deadlock, with Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards in a virtual tie for first place, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Straw Poll Gets Renamed as Townhall.com Signs On
The first Texas Republican Straw Poll to be held in Fort Worth has a new name.

Rove's Diagnosis
Karl Rove, President Bush's political lieutenant, told a closed-door meeting of 2008 Republican House candidates and their aides Tuesday that it was less the war in Iraq than corruption in Congress that caused their party's defeat in the 2006 elections.

Candidate for Senate Campaigns in El Paso
Mikal Watts, seeking the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate, left, chatted with Joe Lopez, right, and Pete Reade about veterans issues Saturday. Watts, who hopes to run against Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, visited VFW Post 812 to talk about issues relevant to veterans. In the second photo, Watts spoke with Victoria Richardson, who expressed her desire for a license plate honoring Gold Star widows.

Mark Sanford vs. the Good Old Boy Party
Governor Mark Sanford is standing in front of Brown's Bait and Tackle. It's located on the outskirts of Greenville beside a small lake. The shop's owner wears a T-shirt identifying him as "Man's Bass Friend." A sign warns "after hours" customers: "Paid Fishermen Only. No Fines, Loafing, Drinking. Fishing Fee $2.00. Ramp Fee $3.00. Honor Box at Front Door." Sanford is surrounded by about 20 small business owners who sell hunting and fishing equipment.

SCHIP off the Old Block
In their ongoing quest to force a government- mandated, taxpayer-funded universal healthcare system on the American people, the Democratic leadership in Congress has introduced legislation meant to update the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP).

More Iraq Progress Wanted
Democrats, including the party's conservative "Blue Dogs," say it will take "monumental" improvement in Iraq - not the current blips of success - to sway them from pushing for a U.S. troop withdrawal after a September progress report.

Bush Sees Taxes in Congress' Spending Plans
President Bush yesterday said the Democrat- controlled Congress wants "to raise your taxes," and he ridiculed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's calling of the $22 billion that Democrats want to add to the president's spending proposal a "very small difference."

Preserving Health Care for Low-Income Children
Nearly ten years ago, Congress created a program to help ensure that no child in need is prevented from receiving health insurance. Known as the State Children's Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP for short, this program is designed to cover those children whose families earn a little too much to qualify them for Medicaid, yet not enough to cover the cost of insurance on their own.

Grassroots Pushes Right
The gathering took place the evening before the Senate's cloture vote on the immigration vote. The Bush administration, its allies in the Senate and the political establishment they represent believed they were perhaps only two or three votes short of the 60 needed to roll their conservative opponents and pass a "reform" package over the objections of a vast majority of the American people.

Spending Tax Dollars
by Michael Quinn Sullivan
Is it impolite to ask that our tax dollars be spent more wisely? Whether we consider the growing weight of taxes at the local, state and federal level, or the endless stream of new regulations, it is harder and harder to find any results worthy of cost of government we now bear. Well, any positive results.

The FISA Fight
by Jed Babbin
If Usama bin Laden has a sense of humor - or maybe if his #2 guy, Ayman al-Zawahiri does -- the two must be laughing as hard as you or I do when we see a rerun of "Blazing Saddles." The spectacle of the US Congress refusing to deal with the crisis in intelligence gathering necessitating amendment of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act must tickle their funny bones like their favorite hostage-beheading video.

Signs of Attack Increase
by Gary Bauer
Counterterrorism expert Juval Aviv believes that an Al Qaeda attack on several American cities is likely within the next ninety days. Aviv states, "I predict, based primarily on information that is floating in Europe and the Middle East, that an event is imminent and around the corner here in the United States. It could happen as soon as tomorrow, or it could happen in the next few months. Ninety days at the most."

Good For America; Bad For The Left
by Gary Bauer
If you're a tourist in Washington today and happen to notice that Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are looking a little worried, it's no mystery why. Good news is coming out of Iraq in an avalanche, and those who have staked their futures on America's failure are getting nervous.

The Martyrs No One Cares About
The blood of innocent Christian missionaries spills on Afghan sands. The world watches and yawns. The United Nations offers nothing more than a formal expression of "concern." Where is the global uproar over the human rights abuses unfolding before our eyes?

High-Scoring Enlisted Given Top Tier
Historically, the experience of home-school graduates with the military has been one of recurring difficulty. This is largely due to the military being unwilling to see home-schoolers as individuals, preferring instead to use traditional high school diplomas from public or private schools as the only acceptable standard for enlistment.

Students Must Remember 'God' in Texas Pledge
Texas students will have four more words to remember when they head back to class this month and begin reciting the state's pledge of allegiance.

TEA Grants Schools a Grace Period on Ratings
Texas school districts can count their blessings today when the state announces the annual campus performance ratings.

CPS Removing Fewer Children from Homes
The number of abused and neglected children removed from their homes is down almost 50 percent in Dallas County from the first half of last year as Child Protective Services places more children with relatives and steers their parents to counseling.

The Baghdad Diarist
Left-leaning The New Republic (TNR) gained new notoriety in recent weeks by publishing of a trio of columns by the "Baghdad Diarist," an American soldier who was serving in Baghdad and who wrote under the admitted pseudonym "Scott Thomas." The stories written by Thomas were shocking and distasteful, telling of actions by soldiers in his unit, such as the exhumation of children's skeletons (and the wearing of one of their skulls "like a crown"), the purposeful running over of dogs with armored vehicles, and the ridiculing of a female contractor for her disfigured appearance, which was purportedly caused by an IED blast. Shock Troops,' and Fabrications

Attacking the Messenger: Left Unhinged by Fox News
"If Home Depot is serious about protecting the environment, they must stop advertising on Fox -- a network that consistently spreads misinformation about and denies the existence of global warming," says a petition on www.foxattacks.com.