Bigotry and the Texas Speaker’s Race II

Has the religious right’s effort to topple Texas House Speaker Joe Straus become an anti-Semitic smear campaign? Quorum Report (subscription required) has now posted various e-mails from groups and individuals opposed to Straus, who is Jewish. Excerpts: “Straus is going down in Jesus name.” “[W]e finally found a Christian conservative who decided not to be […]

Read More…

Religious Bigotry and the Texas Speaker’s Race

Harvey Kronberg of the Austin-based political news website Quorum Report says religious-right pressure groups are running a deceitful campaign in the contest among Republicans for Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives. Many religious-righters claim Speaker Joe Straus, a San Antonio Republican, hasn’t been conservative enough for them (a bogus charge, other Republicans say). And […]

Read More…

How Easily They Forget

Some Texas State Board of Education members aren’t content with just rewriting American history. Apparently, they would also like to write other board members out of the board’s history itself. Consider this passage in the latest edition of the Cargill Connection, an e-mail newsletter from board member Barbara Cargill, R-The Woodlands: “The November meeting will […]

Read More…

Not Encouraging

We were worried that Carlos “Charlie” Garza, who defeated Democratic incumbent Rene Nuñez, would align with the Texas State Board of Education‘s far-right faction. A newspaper interview with the El Paso Republican isn’t encouraging. According to the El Paso Times interview, which was published November 7, Garza thinks public schools should teach “multiple views” about […]

Read More…

Science Under Siege — Louisiana Edition

The religious right’s war to undermine teaching about evolutionary science has spilled over the state line from Texas into Louisiana. Today a Louisiana panel is considering proposed biology textbooks that religious-right groups criticize as pro-evolution. Barbara Forrest, a professor at Southeastern Louisiana University and a co-founder of the Louisiana Coalition for Science, is very concerned: […]

Read More…