Local Blogging Notes

First, we welcome Ryan Gravatt (aka Gravatt) to the Travis Monitor blogging crew. Welcome aboard!

James Crabtree informs us he has signed up to post at RealPolitix.com, a site that already includes Tom Serres of Piryx and sometime Travis Monitor poster.

PUMAs are alive in Austin. Via the NObama folks, I found out that Tracy Karol, an Independent and an Hispanic activist in Austin, blogs both at TalkStraight.org and at Indepedents4McCain on blogspot. They say "Tracy was a Hillary delegate at the county level" and now is a "Country before Party" McCain supporter.

"Patriotism is deeper than its symbolic expressions, than sentiments about place and kinship that move us to hold our hands over our hearts during the national anthem. It is putting the country first, before party or personal ambition, before anything. It is the willing acceptance of Americans, both those whose roots here extend back over generations and those who arrived only yesterday, to try to make a nation in which all people share in the promise and responsibilities of freedom." - John McCain