Just Couldn’t Bring Themselves to Do It?

UPDATE: Austin American-Statesman reporter Jason Embry finds that 10 House Republicans voted against the resolution.

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Why did three Republicans in the Texas House of Representatives on Monday refuse to support a resolution congratulating President Obama, intelligence personnel and members of our armed forces for the successful operation against Osama bin Laden in Pakistan?

The overwhelmingly Republican Texas House of Representatives passed HR 1694 on Monday. But right-wingers  Will Hartnett, R-Dallas, Dan Huberty, R-Houston, Randy Weber, R-Pearland, asked that their votes be recorded as “no.” (See page 2574 of the House Journal.)

The resolution reads in part:

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The Man Behind the Sharia Hysteria

So who is really behind House Bill 911, the proposed Texas legislation that supporters say will stop the mythical threat of Sharia law from being imposed on Texas? As we’ve said before, scratch the surface of the anti-Muslim hate and hysteria promoted by far-right pressure groups in this country and you’ll sniff the familiar stench of bigotry.

The House Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence Committee unanimously passed HB 911 last week. At the committee’s April 4 public hearing on that bill, an attorney told lawmakers that he had helped develop the model policy on which those Texas bills were based. And with whom did he work on the so-called “American Laws for American Courts” model? David Yerushalmi — an Arizona attorney and white supremacist who traffics in anti-Muslim and anti-black bigotry and is one of the biggest promoters of Sharia hysteria in America.