This week bloggers are offering up two kinds of posts — post that are about the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., and posts that aren't. Plus, there's some stuff on U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Surfside, that didn't seem to fit in anywhere at all.

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Memory of Elephants

Actor Jon Voight was spotted entering the GOP convention by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram's PoliTex. His car was nowhere to be seen. Karl Rove told Roger Williams to get a haircut. John McCain's mother's mother was born in Cleburne, Texas. U.S. Rep. Kay Granger, former mayor of Fort Worth, took umbrage at "dismissive" attitudes toward Sarah Palin's tenure as mayor of Wasilla, Alaska. Tom Delay used the terms "stupidest" and "arrogant" to describe Obama's VP choice Joe Biden. Dick Armey, another former U.S. House Majority Leader, said Texans don't often polish their boots. According to Kay Bailey Hutchison, George W. Bush said he's being Reaganesque by steering clear of the convention. Did the Texas delegation resemble the Kilgore Rangerettes? U.S. Rep. Michael Burgess is McCain's senior health care policy advisor. Flag sticks were a no-no at the convention. Former Texas House candidate Craig Goldman is all smiles about his allegiance to McCain now. And here's a postage-stamp-sized photo of the PoliTex bloggers leaving the RNC.

Tex Parte Blog’s guest blogger David Schenk , an alternate delegate, listened to Dick Armey contrast the role of government as perceived in the U.S. and Europe. Another guest blogger, Harris County GOP chair Jared Woodfill, compares Palin to Teddy Roosevelt.

At least one Democrat, Edinburg Rep. Aaron Peña, is taking Palin seriously. "As a Texan, a place that is loaded with cultural conservative voters, including the Democratic stronghold of South Texas, I do think that she is a compelling figure and will reinvigorate the McCain campaign."

In case you hadn’t seen it yet, McBlogger has the clip of GOP folks saying not-so-good things about Palin when they thought the microphones were off. And Burnt Orange Report says young Republican delegates were few and far between.

"Sarah Palin is amazing," says TexasSparkle, who started a website featuring user-submitted words of encouragement for the GOP VP pick.

Over breakfast with Texas delegates, one speaker "excoriates" the media for repeating vicious accusations (first made by the McCain campaign) of Palin’s 17-year-old daughter being pregnant, reports Postcards from the Lege, the Austin American-Statesman’s blog. Other posts: Margaret Spellings says she probably won’t run for governor in 2010. Rove uses the word "mojo" outside the context of Odessa Permian football. Former Texas GOP bigwig David Barton quotes Bible passages to bolster his belief that women don’t have to take their hats off during prayers and pledges of allegiance. Austin delegates like them some Palin — So does Republican pollster Frank Luntz . (And then there’s a post on the Missile Dick Chicks, upon which we’ll let Postcards elaborate.)

BurkaBlog was there for Days One, Two, Three and Four of the convention. Some observations: Perry’s campaign logo adorns the shirts worn by the entire Texas delegation (except for Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst). Rep. Leo Berman, R-Tyler, lets the cat out of the bag and outright calls Hutchison "pro-choice." The reaction to McCain’s pick of Palin splits along partisan lines. Berman and Jodie Laubenberg, R-Rockwall, won a rasslin’ match with a peace activist.

Texas political consultant Jason Stanford says he's offended by McCain's selection of Palin, not because he's a Democrat, but "because I'm an opposition researcher," in a post to Campaigns & Elections.

Urban Grounds bets a lefty $1,000 that Palin will not recuse herself from the November presidential ballot.And Travis Monitor says Railroad Commissioner Michael Williams should run for U.S. Senate , while Texas Rainmaker has gotten into the bumper sticker bidness.

Texas Observer Blog has a photo of the Texas delegation’s attire and a picture of jack-booted thugs (er, riot police). They talk to a bevy of Texans supporting Palin, say that the Alaska guv isn’t a "light-weight," and find a libertarian-leaning Republican who likes Ron Paul more than McCain.

Houston Chronicle's Texas on the Potomac thrusts intern Kyle Archer into the heat of a street battle (kinda). Archer gets a crash course on First Amendment law when he gets caught up on the wrong side of a police line and winds up being zip-tied by the cops. He writes: It was "a situation that seemed to have little or no organization and no opportunity for innocent people to remove themselves." (Veteran Dallas Morning News reporter Karen Brooks was there too, but managed to avoid detention.)

Potomac also has the Top 10 best RNC speeches; a photo essay or two or three; and, guest reports from Katy delegate Michael A. Franks here, here, and here (We concur: Bill O'Reilly IS really BIG.)

Meanwhile, the Morning News's Trail Blazers busts Michael Williams — a University of Southern California grad — flashing the sign of the devil, or the University of Texas Longhorns, depending on your perspective. Trail Blazers relays a talk by legendary Washington Redskins coach Joe Gibbs and spots prominent Texans, including media guy Mark McKinnon, who officially quit the McCain campaign because he likes Obama so much.

And Potomac wins Headline of the Week award for a post about a jaunt to a john: "No trip to the Minneapolis airport is complete without a visit to the Larry Craig memorial men's room." (With pictures!)

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Unconventional Computing

Half Empty has video of Melissa Noriega (wife of U.S. Senate candidate Rick Noriega) on the importance of voting a straight (Democratic) party ticket in November. And here's a two-parter from Chris Bell, via Half Empty, on why he's running for state Senate, one and two.

Off the Kuff interviews Houston congressional candidate Michael Skelly, a Democrat who's been raising a lot of money and talking a lot about energy. Here's a TV spot by U.S. Rep. Ciro Rodriguez, D-San Antonio, via Rhetoric & Rhythm. And Election Law Blog has an updated database of election law teachers.

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Misfits

It's a bird, it's a plane — yes it was a plane pulling a "Ron Paul Revolution" banner across the skies of St. Paul, says PoliTex. Meanwhile, PatriotWriter posts the "Cliff's Notes" summary of the r3VOLution as presented by former U.S. Rep. Barry Goldwater III.

Potomac dropped by Paul's alternate convention in Minneapolis long enough to see Goldwater III, former Fabulous Thunderbird Jimmie Vaughan and talking head Tucker Carlson, and also to hear Paul speak. Trail Blazers talks to Tucker, too, and relays what Paul had to say.

"Asked if his effort might hurt Republican John McCain, [Paul] said "I don't worry a lot about that,"" according to PoliTex.

This edition of Out There was compiled and written by Patrick Brendel, who hails from Victoria but is semi-settled in Austin. We cherry-pick the state's political blogs each week, looking for news, info, gossip, and new jokes. The opinions here belong (mostly) to the bloggers, and we're including their links so you can hunt them down if you wish. Our blogroll — the list of Texas blogs we watch — is on our links page, and if you know of a Texas political blog that ought to be on it, just shoot us a note. Please send comments, suggestions, gripes or retorts to Texas Weekly editor Ross Ramsey.