New year, same old weekly roundup goodness. Click on for the first set of highlights from 2008.

TXsharon burned despair's chair. See Bluedaze for an inspirational New Year's message of hope.

Off the Kuff asked a variety of interesting people to write a post for him called Looking Forward to 2008. Topics ranged from music and television to local, state, and national politics. The entire series, which wrapped up last week, can be found here.

Barfly at McBlogger says thank you to our neighbor to the north for giving us some of our most cherished celebrities. Like Celine Dion.

John Coby at Bay Area Houston lists who is running for office and who is not in Clear Lake.

Gary at Easter Lemming Liberal News saw the Iowa results as a Progressive sweep and picked out the winners and losers.

In all the undignified events surrounding the Harris County District Attorney's office, the announcements on
KHOU-TV and KPRC-TV regarding assistant district attorney Kelly Seigler's run for her boss' job has taken the proverbial cake. Jaye at Winding Road in Urban Area notes that it is just charming that Ms. Seigler said on camera, that aspects of being district attorney "sucks." Nothing says "get to know me" the first time a voter may see a candidate like saying the job I want, "sucks!"

nytexan at BlueBloggin points out the newest GOP stunt to block the Senate and screw up another presidential election. With the primary season underway for the most important presidential race the Federal Election Commission has shut its doors.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme notes James 'Rick' Perry ignored ceremony for fallen Texas military hero. That's how Republicans support and honor our troops!

It was a bad start to 2008 (if you happened to be a Republican), no matter if your name was Vicki Truitt, or Chuck Rosenthal, or Jared Woodfill, or Mitt Romney. PDiddie at Brains and Eggs has more on the conservative misery.

WCNews at Eye on Williamson opines about the death of Ric Williamson and who will be The Next Leader Of TxDOT.

To start 2008 off for Texas Kaos, Lightseeker takes a look at some of The Big Texas Issues we'll be talking about in the coming year.

Muse is only now able to get her bulls---t detector to quiet down after Harris County DA, Chuck "Romancethal" Rosenthal, told the Houston Chronicle that he was only sending romantic emails to his secretary because she had personal problems. Right (wink, wink, former FBI agent wife). What else happened? Pity sex?

Phillip at Burnt Orange Report takes a preliminary look at some numbers on filings for the Texas House, including the large number of Republicans that are facing both a primary and general election opponent.

Texas Toad at North Texas Liberal introduces the new slate of Denton County Democratic candidates, as revealed at a press conference promoting the strength of the local party with high hopes for 2008.

Capitol Annex (complete with a new look following a weekend redesign) tells us that a federal court has upheld Texas' moment of silence law passed for school children in 2003 and notes that another major lawsuit related to the new pledge to the state flag still looms.

The TexasCloverleaf cautions some to smoke 'em if they got 'em, but they still might go to jail. DFW area law enforcement is ignoring the new option to give citations to pot smokers.

On The Texas Blue this week, contributor David Gurney explains that he doesn't really buy this business of a "war on Christmas."