recommendations in a lengthy, heated debate. Some highlights of what the Republican-leaning board ended up deciding, and the debates that

went on:

— On a 7-6 vote, the board decided to add “causes and key organizations and individuals of the conservative

resurgence of the 1980s and 1990s, including Phyllis Schafly, the Contract with America, the Heritage Foundation, the Moral Majority, and

the National Rifle Association” to the curriculum.

– The Republican majority voted against requiring Texas textbooks and

teachers to cover the Democratic late senator Edward Kennedy, the first Hispanic Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, and leading

Hispanic civil rights groups such as LULAC and MALDEF. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Thurgood Marshall, the country’s first

African-American Supreme Court justice, will be taught.

– Republican Don McLeroy lost a battle to “remove hip-hop and insert

country music in its place from a proposed set of examples of cultural movements.” Republican Patricia Hardy said that while she

disliked hip hop music, pretending it wasn’t around was “crazy.” “These people are multimillionaires, and believe me, there are

not enough black people to buy that,” she said. “There are white people buying this. It has had a profound effect.” Country music was

added as a separate measure.

– “McLeroy was successful with another of his noteworthy amendments: to include documents that

supported Cold War-era Sen. Joseph McCarthy and his contention that the U.S. government was infiltrated with Communists in the 1950s.”

– “Republican board member Cynthia Dunbar unsuccessfully tried to strike the names of Scopes monkey trial attorney Clarence

Darrow and Pan-Africanist Marcus Garvey from the standards. Asked by another member about her opposition to Garvey, Dunbar explained,

according to the Texas Tribune: “My concern is that he was born in Jamaica and was deported.”

– The board “included a

requirement for students in U.S. history classes to differentiate between legal and illegal immigration.”

This is a

post by contributing writer, Stephen Jones, who is a progressive political activist and a resident of Las Cruces, New Mexico.

On

Tuesday, retired Air Force Captain Bill Owens became the first Democrat to represent the northern tier district of New York State,

presently numbered 23, since the Civil War era. One hundred and fifty eight years to be exact. The remote district borders the St.

Lawrence River and the Canadian border and includes the Adirondack Mountains. The highest percentage any Democratic candidate has

received prior to last night’s victory in that district is 36.2% in 2006. The special election was scheduled to fill a vacancy caused

when Republican Congressman John McHugh resigned to fill an appointment by President Obama to the position of U.S. Secretary of the Army.

…

http://www.democracyfornewmexico.com/democracy_for_new_mexico/2009/11/stephen-jones-the-foxes-fail-in-new-york-democratslite-

falter-in-virginia.html

washingtonpost.com

The night’s biggest loser was the national conservative political machine — the wealthy tax-cutters at the

Club for Growth and the Palin-Limbaugh-Beck complex. The Beltway Right shoved aside local Republicans in an Upstate New York

congressional race, imposed their own candidate who didn’t even live in the district, and went down in a heap. …

Indeed, the

stronger the right’s role in shaping the Republican message, the harder it will be for middle-of-the-road voters to use the Republicans

to express their discontent. …

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/04/AR2009110402868.html?

nav=rss_opinion/columns