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Bill Moyers' tribute to Justice William Wayne Justice:

BILL MOYERS: As I was preparing for my conversation with Judge Goldstone, word came of the death of another resolute champion of the law who left his imprint on the lives of untold numbers of Americans. His very name made his life's work almost inevitable, a matter of destiny.

William Wayne Justice was Federal Judge for the Eastern District of Texas. That's right, he was "Justice Justice", and he spent a distinguished legal career making doubly sure that everyone, no matter their color or income or class, got a fair shake. As one Texas politician put it last week, "Judge Justice dragged Texas into the 20th century, God bless him."

Dragged it kicking and screaming, I'd say, for it was Justice Justice who ordered Texas to integrate its schools, in 1971, 17 years after the Supreme Court's Brown v Board of Education decision made separate schools for blacks and whites unconstitutional.

Texas resisted doing the right thing as long as it could. Many of its segregated schools for African-American children were so poor they still had outhouses instead of indoor plumbing.

This small town lawyer appointed to the federal bench by President Lyndon Johnson ordered Texas to open its public housing to anyone, regardless of the color of their skin. He looked at the state's "truly shocking conditions," his description, in its juvenile detention system, and said, ‘Repair it.' He struck down state law that permitted public schools to charge as much as a thousand dollars tuition for the children of illegal immigrants. And he demanded a top-to-bottom overhaul of Texas prisons, some of the most brutal and corrupt in the nation. He even held the state in contempt of court when he thought it was dragging its feet cleaning up a system where thousands of inmates slept on the dirty floors of their cellblocks, and often went without medical care. The late Molly Ivins said of William Wayne Justice, "He brought the United States Constitution to Texas."

"Justice stings" I once read. Well, this one certainly did. And his detractors stung back. With death threats and hate mail. Carpenters refused to repair his house, beauty parlors denied service to his wife. There were calls for his impeachment. After he desegregated the schools he was offered armed guards for protection. He turned them down and instead took lessons in self-defense.

You need to understand that many Texans believe in the law only when it sides with them. And they long for the good ol' days of Judge Roy Bean, the saloonkeeper whose barroom court was known in frontier days as, "The Law West of the Pecos." Bean's instructions were simple: "Hang 'em first, try 'em later."

The present Governor of Texas sometimes seems to be channeling Roy Bean. During his nine-years in office, Rick Perry has presided over more than 200 executions, dwarfing the previous record of 152 set by his predecessor in the governor's mansion, George W. Bush.

Lethal injection is practically a religious ritual in Texas. In fact, before their sentencing verdict that will send a fellow to die in just a couple of weeks jurors in Nacogdoches County, Texas, consulted the Bible and found what they were looking for in the Book of Numbers, where it reads: "The murderer shall surely be put to death," and this one: "The revenger of blood himself shall slay the murderer."

Now Governor Perry will do almost anything to please the vengeful crowd in the coliseum with their thumbs turned down. And did I mention that next year he's up for re-election? When it turned out recently that five-years ago the state may have wrongfully executed a man for a crime he didn't commit, the Governor made some shady moves. He removed the chairman and three members of the state's forensic science commission just as they were about to hear further scientific evidence that might prove the man's innocence.

They can be short on mercy in Texas, all the more reason to mourn the loss of justice, William Wayne Justice. Rest in peace, Your Honor.

That's it for the Journal, log onto our website at pbs.org and click on "Bill Moyers Journal." You can read the entire UN report on Gaza, and listen to some thoughts on the nature of evil in the world from journalist Mark Danner. That's all at pbs.org.

I'm Bill Moyers. See you next time.

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All this talk about socialized healthcare! Michael Steele says it's socialism, although he admits he doesn't know a thing about the actual policy.

And as Rachel Maddow points out, have you ever noticed that the more beautiful a politican's hair, the more likely he is to be completely full of crap? Case in point: Texas Gov. Rick Perry.

Maddow really lets him have it because Perry is talking about "seceding" from any national healthcare plan, reminding him (and us) that he's been governor for nine years. As she points out, one in four Texans lack health insurance, giving Texas the title for highest number of uninsured citizens in the entire country.

As Washington Spectator editor and political author Lou Dubose pointed out to Maddow, the Texas governorship is "a ribbon-cutting position." Good thing, because he's not too bright, is he?

Hoo wee. Via Fred Clark, this story about Texas Gov. Rick Perry considering the appointment of a right-wing extremist Christian to head the state's Board of education.

Oh, and she just happens to despise public education, thinks it's unconstitutional and thinks public schools should be abolished. (She also thinks Barack Obama is getting ready to impose martial law.) Yep, she sounds perfect for the job - at least, in Wacky Wingnut World.

Fred sums it up nicely:

...Just like the fire departments, school boards seem to attract a significant unhinged minority of firebugs -- people who just want to destroy public education and laugh while it burns.

Dunbar is a member of what one blogger called "the Texas Taliban," a coalition of state school board fundamentalists. Since this is the year the board purchases new textbooks, their goal is to make sure the textbooks selected are as wingnutty and deliciously wacky as their own personal beliefs.

By the way, she's a graduate of Regent University School of Law, founded by that noted legal scholar, Pat Robertson. Another notable grad? Monica Goodling.

AUSTIN — Critics who engineered the recent ouster of State Board of Education Chairman Don McLeroy, in part because of his strong religious beliefs, could end up with someone even more outspoken in her faith.

Cynthia Dunbar, R-Richmond, who advocated more Christianity in the public square last year with the publication of her book, One Nation Under God, is among those that Gov. Rick Perry is considering to lead the State Board of Education, some of her colleagues say.

Critics are gasping and allies are cheering over speculation that Dunbar, a lawyer, could win a promotion to the leadership spot.

“It would certainly cause angst among the same members of the pagan left that rejected Don McLeroy because he was a man of faith,” said David Bradley, R-Beaumont, one of the seven socially conservative members on the 15-person board.

Nicely done, Dave. So any mainstream Christians who dare to disagree with you are secret pagan sympathizers!

Perry’s office declined to comment until “a final decision is made.”

[...] In a book published last year, Dunbar argued the country’s founding fathers created “an emphatically Christian government” and that government should be guided by a “biblical litmus test.” She endorses a belief system that requires “any person desiring to govern have a sincere knowledge and appreciation for the Word of God in order to rightly govern.”

Also in the book, she calls public education a “subtly deceptive tool of perversion.”

The establishment of public schools is unconstitutional and even “tyrannical,” she wrote, because it threatens the authority of families, granted by God through Scripture, to direct the instruction of their children.

Perry’s appointment of Dunbar would send a statement “that
the governor shares her shocking hostility toward public education,” said Kathy Miller, president of the Texas Freedom Network, an organization that monitors the State Board of Education.

“Just as bad, he would be siding with a faction of self-righteous politicians on the board who have made it crystal clear that they believe the only real Christians are the ones who agree with them,” Miller said. “If the governor really decides that selling out our kids like this is a good re-election strategy, then this state has an even bigger problem than we thought.”

From the Houston Chronicle's Lisa Falkenberg (hmm. Isn't that a Communist-sounding name?):

If the chatter from some board members proves correct, and Gov. Rick Perry is indeed considering appointing member Cynthia Dunbar as the board’s new leader, we may find ourselves reminiscing fondly about the good ol’ days when Chairman McLeroy simply disregarded experts, sidelined teachers and insisted on inserting his religious beliefs into public policy-making.

Dunbar’s shortcomings go far beyond ideology and poor leadership skills to beliefs promoting paranoia and bigotry.

This is the same Richmond Republican who penned an online essay shortly before the presidential election warning Barack Obama was plotting with terrorists to attack the country. She refused to retract her claim, even under pressure from Republicans.

Gov. Perry will do just about anything to woo the far right fundamentalists, won't he?