Author Archives: Jose

Dan Patrick Pretty Much Says if Kim Davis Can’t Do Her Job She Can Quit

| October 19, 2015





Well this is a bit of a surprise. Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, speaking to Texas Tribune editor Evan Smith on Friday, pretty much said that if Kim Davis or someone like her doesn’t want to do her job, she can quit. In yet another surprise, Patrick added that, though he disagrees with it, the […]

Internet gems

Houston TV Station Cuts Through the anti-HERO Spin

| October 2, 2015





The organized opposition to the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance has spent months spreading fear and misinformation. In fact, the Houston Chronicle editorial board, in endorsing a “Yes” vote on the ordinance, recently referred to the group as “mendacious, deceitful and irresponsible in the extreme.” Yikes. Last night, it was Houston TV station KTRK’s turn to […]

Bill Nye: Can We Stop Telling Women What to Do With Their Bodies?

| September 28, 2015





As soon as this week, the U.S. Supreme Court could decide whether it will hear a challenge to Texas’ restrictive anti-abortion law. Also this week, far-right politicians will continue to push the notion that Planned Parenthood should be defunded even if it means shutting down the federal government, a move that retiring Speaker John Boehner […]

‘Was the Civil War About Slavery?’

| August 11, 2015





Ever since the tragedy in South Carolina on June 17, when a 21-year-old suspect motivated by white supremacist beliefs shot and killed nine African-American worshippers at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in downtown Charleston, there has been a renewed attention on Confederate history and what caused the Civil War. We here at TFN have even […]

You Should Read This Because It’s About Beyoncé

| August 7, 2015





Actually, this post has more to do with the great work TFN’s student activists are doing as part of the Texas Rising program, but Beyoncé is a big part of this. She can be an even bigger part of this, a giant part, if she wants to. Beyoncé, if you happen to read this, be […]

The Logic of the Wall Street Journal, if You Can Call It That

| July 24, 2015





The Wall Street Journal put up an editorial this week praising Gov. Greg Abbott for his appointment of Donna Bahorich to chair the Texas State Board of Education. TFN was just one voicing concern over Bahorich’s appointment, in part because she “rejected public education for her own family” and home-schooled her children. And here’s some […]

Don’s Rewriting History … Again

| July 10, 2015





Former Texas State Board of Education chair Don McLeroy isn’t done distorting history. While McLeroy was on the board in 2010, he and his colleagues gave Texas schools new social studies curriculum standards that downplay the primary role slavery played in the Civil War. Now, as a former SBOE member, he’s rewriting the role he and other […]