More examples of Texas' worst on display

-- Houston Astros owner Drayton McLane, speaking at a "rally" of energy industry employees bussed to the event on company time, attacked climate change legislation pending in Congress, saying "We need to preserve this way of life," apparently referring not to his status as a billionaire but to low-cost fuel.

Among some of the actual activists denied entry were the conservatives associated with Dick Armey's FreedomWorks, who were turned away for carrying American flags.

Watch the video, courtesy TexasVox:



The American Petroleum Institute is "organizing" these Astroturf events across the country.

Update: More must see-video in these two posts from TexasVox.

-- The State Board of Education embarrasses us all once again.

Texas high school students would learn about such significant individuals and milestones of conservative politics as Newt Gingrich and the rise of the Moral Majority — but nothing about liberals — under the first draft of new standards for public school history textbooks. ...

The standards, which the board will decide next spring, will influence new history, civics and geography textbooks.

The first draft for proposed standards in United States History Studies Since Reconstruction says students should be expected “to identify significant conservative advocacy organizations and individuals, such as Newt Gingrich, Phyllis Schlafly and the Moral Majority.”

Remarkably, among those feeling shamed number some Republican members of the SBOE (beware the irony at the end of the excerpt):

“It is hard to believe that a majority of the writing team would approve of such wording,” said Terri Leo, R-Spring. “It's not even a representative selection of the conservative movement, and it is inappropriate.”

Another board conservative, Ken Mercer, R-San Antonio, thinks students should study both sides to “see what the differences are and be able to define those differences.”

He would add James Dobson's Focus on the Family, conservative talk show host Sean Hannity and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee to the list of conservatives. Others have proposed adding talk show host Rush Limbaugh and the National Rifle Association.

Earlier this year, as ThinkProgress noted, a panel of right-wing “experts” produced a report urging the committee to remove biographies of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Stephen F. Austin, and César Chávez and replace them with the “motivational role the Bible and the Christian faith played in the settling of the original colonies.”

Earlier this week, Keith Olbermann noted that Christianity is now required curricula in Texas public schools, courtesy the Texas legislature and attorney general Greg Abbott.

And the cries for Texas secession grow louder -- from the rest of the United States.