Down With Whitey

The redneck peckerwoods that rule our state are now taking up House Bill 459, by cracka-ass-cracka Rep. Sid Miller (Ag and Livestock chairman – need we say any more?). According to the bill analysis,

"Currently, monuments or memorials located on state property may be removed, relocated or altered only by the legislature, Texas Historical Commission, or State military or war-related service. House Bill 459 would expand current statute to protect a monument or memorial on state property that honors a citizen or former citizen of the United States, or a person from a state, territory, or nation that is now part of the U.S."

The analysis goes on to say, "This ensures that monuments of people such as, Martin Luther King, Cesar Chavez, or Stephen F. Austin are protected." But the intent is to keep colleges and courts from removing Confederate statues.

Funny how Republicans are all for local control when it's convenient.

UPDATE: "It's amazing to me how … we're taking up hours of time on something like this, when we could be dealing with something important to our constituency. … Quite frankly, I'm insulted by your bill as a member of this body," says Rep. Senfronia Thompson. Amen!

MORE UPDATE: After hours of heated and wrenching discussion, Miller does the right thing and pulls the bill for now.

YET MORE UPDATE (from Associate News Editor Lee Nichols): There were some doozy amendments thrown at this bill, presumably to be poison pills. The first, offered by Thompson, said that the statues would receive protection unless the honored person "engaged in an armed insurrection against the United States" – which is not how crackers like to think of their revered Confederate heroes, but that is in fact what they did. Fort Worth Democrat Marc Veasey offered one that said the protection could not apply to statues honoring slave owners or those with KKK affiliations (without doing any research, I'll guess off the top of my head that this would apply to at least one of the UT South Mall statues). Thompson then offered another that would prevent the bill from protecting monuments to "a person who does not believe in 'One Nation Under God'" (whatever that means – this one got adopted, natch).