Texas Progressive Alliance Round-Up With Facts About Texas President Mirabeau Lamar

Below is the weekly Texas Progressive Alliance round-up. The Texas Progressive Alliance is a confederation of the best political bloggers in Texas.

Above is a picture of Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar.  Mirabeau was the second President of the Republic of Texas. He served in this capacity from 1838 until 1841. Mr. Lamar lived from 1798 until 1859.  

The excellent Handbook of Texas Online has a very good profile of Mr. Lamar.

From this profile—

“Born near Louisville, Georgia, on August 16, 1798. He grew up at Fairfield, his father’s plantation near Milledgeville…. As a boy he became an expert horseman and an accomplished fencer, began writing verse, and painted in oils….In 1828 he moved his wife and daughter, Rebecca Ann, to the new town of Columbus, Georgia, and established the Columbus Enquirer…Lamar was elected state senator in 1829 and was a candidate for reelection when his wife died on August 20, 1830. He withdrew from the race…. and in 1835 followed James W. Fannin, Jr.,^qvto Texas.. By the time he reached Texas, Lamar’s health and spirits began to mend and he decided to settle in the Mexican province. Characteristically, he immediately declared for Texas independence, helped build a fort at Velasco, contributed three poems to the Brazoria Texas Republican,^qv and hurried back to Georgia to settle his affairs….”

There is a lot more in the Handbook.

Here is a profile of Mr. Lamar from the Texas State Library & Archives Commission. At the archives, you can see original documents and letters as they were handwritten by Mr. Lamar.

The round-up– 

Off the Kuff suggests that a pro-science PAC could do a lot of good, nationally and in Texas.

WCNews at Eye On Williamson reminds us that despite the brouhaha over transportation during the recently passed legislative session, TxDOT is still broken.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme is outraged at the way Texas Republican crony capitalism whips patients in hospitals and psychiatric facilities.

Nat-Wu at Three Wise Men takes a look at the nation’s unemployment picture, and finds it’s even worse than the numbers make it appear.