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Texas State Sen. Wendy Davis (D) of Fort Worth, waits for a ruling on a rules violation during her filibusters of an abortion bill, Tuesday, June 25, in Austin, Texas. Senator Davis was given a second warning for breaking filibuster rules by receiving help with a back brace from Sen. Rodney Ellis (D) of Houston.
Eric Gay/AP
Well… Hells Bells Girl!
Yes, Wendy.
You did it!
You got the nation’s world’s attention last night, and yeah I am sending a love song out to you darling… baby you are born to run…and by that I mean “run” as in something more than a State Senator.
I can’t help it, I have a huge crush on Texas state Sen. Wendy Davis, who stood up (both politically and literally over 11+ hours) for the women of her state last night, and really if you think about it…by extension…Wendy stood up for the women of the other 49 states as well.
(It looks like I am not the only one who is thrilled with Wendy, Mona has a Facebook page set up to show support, check it out.)
Sisterhood of the Pink Sneaks: in support of Wendy Davis
https://www.facebook.com/PinkSneaks
Ms. Davis filibustered a PLUB War on Women Anti-Choice bill in the Texas Senate, whose post midnight passage is now being questioned…was it legal or not?
****It was not!!!!! See update below.*****
As midnight approached, the session dissolved in chaos. Republicans say they passed the measure, but Democrats say the vote took place after midnight, making it invalid.
The House passed the bill on Monday morning. Two of its main clauses would ban abortions after 20 weeks and mandate that they be done at a surgery clinic.
First a little background on Wendy Davis…
Portrait of a filibusterer: Who is Wendy Davis? – CSMonitor.com
Once dismissed by Gov. Rick Perry as a “show horse,” Sen. Wendy Davis has earned a reputation for being willing to spar with the state dominant political party and its leaders.
“She’s a total fighter,” said Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Action Fund and daughter of the late former Texas governor Ann Richards. “And the thing about Senator Davis, she says he’s going to do something, she gets it done.”
Davis was raised by a single mother, in fact she was a young single mother herself...
She’s no stranger to being a single mother and poverty. Davis took care of her younger three siblings when she was only 14 to help her mother out, and then she had her own child at 19.
Davis is a Harvard Law School graduate and the first person in her family to get a college degree. Before starting her own practice she clerked, litigated and dabbled in the title insurance business for a few years.
Before she was elected in the state Senate in 2008, which made her the 12th Democrat in the upper chamber, she served on the Fort Worth City Council for nine years, where she focused on neighborhood economic development.
Abortion rights isn’t the only issue Davis is passionate about. She also has interests in cancer prevention, payday lending, protecting victims of sexual assault and government transparency.
Davis is no stranger to the filibuster and has successfully used it in 2011 to stop a state budget that underfunded schools by nearly $5 billion. Most of the money was replaced a couple of years later.
I guess Davis is not the pantsuit kind of news making gal…because as the last sentence of this article states:
She’s apparently a “fashion icon” in the state Capitol, according to the New York Times, and even wore pink sneakers for Tuesday’s filibuster.
Guess the New York Times has to fucking put that “fashion icon” jab in don’t they? Oh well, I guess it doesn’t really matter, I loved her shoes whether they were pink or purple or rainbow colored. The point was they were comfortable! They had to be…
Image may be NSFW.
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Wendy Davis is someone to keep an eye on, and like Ralph said early yesterday morning…when she first started the filibuster, it would be wonderful to see her run as Texas Governor or go for a US Congressional seat. The one thing that is certain, she is freaking awesome, and I hope her work yesterday was the spark that was needed to get the pro-choice/women’s rights groups worked up and organized…someone needed to light a fire under their ass, I think Wendy Davis did just that.
I have some links here that give some updates to the controversy surrounding the vote.
***At 4:11am EST as I was shutting my laptop down I saw this in the comments:
cygnus
June 26, 2013 at 1:58 am
Wendy texted that the bill is dead!!cygnus
June 26, 2013 at 2:00 amlegislature changed timetstamps on their website! aresholes!
cygnus
June 26, 2013 at 2:17 am
the lt governor has agreed that sb5 is dead!!!!! w00t!!!
Reply
Not sure what is going on, Jezebel says it is dead: Texas Abortion Bill Is Dead. This Calls for a Celebratory Gif Party.
And this: Texas abortion bill falls after challenge – KMPH FOX 26 | Central San Joaquin Valley News Source
So…looking good??????????????? Yes???? I think so!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Roofingbird made this comment:
roofingbird
June 26, 2013 at 3:14 am)
2:02 Session just ended with the acknowledgment that the bill was unsigned at 12 and therefore failed. The Chair noted “It’s been fun and we’ll see you soon”.June 26, 2013 at 3:17 am
Sorry, approximately 3:02 Texas time.
Damn, don’t we have awesome readers who keep us up to date and damn well informed!
What the hell would we do with out you all!
Thank you Ralph, New Deal Dem, Cygnus and Roofingbird…BB, Janicen, Boogieman, Mr. Mike…hope I didn’t miss anyone else…. for the live blogging the drama in Texas last night/this morning. Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Okay, back the the post…..
Texas Lawmaker’s 11-Hour Filibuster Ended On A Technicality | WYPR
By midnight Texas time, it was all over but the parliamentary inquiries. After a nearly 11-hour filibuster attempt by state Sen. Wendy Davis to block sweeping restrictions on abortion, the Republican-dominated Texas Senate successfully shut down the filibuster on points of order.
“This is probably the worst night that I’ve experienced since I’ve been in the Senate, maybe since I’ve been in public life,” said state Sen. Kirk Watson, a Democrat from Austin.
Davis stood and spoke continuously for nearly 11 hours in an attempt to block passage of SB 5, a bill that would ban all abortions after 20 weeks and could effectively close all but five abortion clinics in the state. Supporters, in a largely pro-life state of 26 million, say the new, stringent standards raise the level of care for Texas women. (As of this writing, it’s unclear whether the Senate successfully passed the controversial abortion legislation, as the vote happened after midnight, when the special legislative session was required to end.)
The dramatic restrictions in the bill had already drawn national attention for their reach. But her riveting, one-woman attempt to stop it put Wendy Davis’ name on the national map. A single mother at 19 who raised her children while putting herself through Harvard Law School, Davis has represented a Fort Worth swing district in the Texas Senate since 2008. To catch a glimpse of her, the line outside the Texas Senate gallery wound down three floors of the Texas Capitol for hours. President Barack Obama tweeted a link to the livestream, saying, “Something special is happening in Austin tonight.” Fueled by a popular Twitter hashtag, #standwithwendy, more than 100,000 people were still watching a parliamentary debate over Roberts Rules of Order on the livestream at midnight.
Davis’ chair was removed before she began speaking at 11:18 a.m. CT Tuesday. Donning pink tennis shoes, she started by saying, “I’m rising on the floor today to humbly give voice to thousands of Texans who have been ignored. These voices have been silenced by a governor who made blind partisanship and personal political ambition the official business of our great state.”
But here is where the problem is:
The quirky filibuster rules in Texas made Davis’ attempt both fascinating and perilous. In Texas, lawmakers aren’t allowed to lean on a desk or chair during a filibuster and everything discussed while speaking continuously must be germane — you can’t talk about topics unrelated to the bill. Anything deemed not germane is subject to a point of order, and Davis went up against a three-strikes-you’re-out-rule on those points. In the seventh hour of her filibuster, Davis donned a back brace, but state Sen. Tommy Williams, a Republican, called a point of order on it. She had to lose the brace and take a strike. And the third strike was for speaking about a sonogram bill, which sounds related but the chair sustained the point of order on germaneness, and it ended her filibuster attempt.
So…..Did Texas abortion bill pass? Confusion marks end of session – CNN.com
The Texas legislature’s special session ended in chaos and confusion early Wednesday, with uncertainty lingering over whether lawmakers had voted on a bill that would have greatly restricted abortions in the state.
Well after a midnight deadline, it wasn’t clear if the legislation had been voted on and whether it had passed. Senators could be seen talking on the Senate floor.
Updated:
Texas senators are trying to get to the bottom of whether Republicans successfully pushed through a vote on Senate Bill 5, the omnibus abortion restriction bill, ahead of their midnight deadline.
Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, says the bill passed at 12:02 a.m.; if that’s true, the vote may not withstand legal scrutiny.
“It’s pretty conclusive that it didn’t pass,” said Whitmire.
But the Senate still has not officially adjourned sine die. When Senators resume floor proceedings, Whitmire said Democrats will call a point of order on the motion to vote on a bill after the midnight deadline.
Wendy Davis: The State Senator Who Almost Killed the Texas Abortion Bill – The Daily Beast
Texas senator filibusters against abortion bill – Politics – The Boston Globe
Okay, the rest of today’s links will be in link dump format (Hey, it is 3:50am and I am beat. Well now it is 5 am and even more done out.):
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.People in the Middle Ages did keep pets – dogs, cats, birds, monkeys and many other kinds of animals. Although they often had particular duties – i.e. hunting or catching rats – there are many accounts that showed affection and love between these pets and their owners.
Scattered in various texts and remains from the Middle Ages, one can find that people gave names to their pets.
Y’all should love that…my favorite has to be the Renaissance philosopher’s dog sired by Megastomo “big mouth.”
Here is a scary story for you: Caught on tape: Antiabortion center resorts to scary, dangerous lies – Salon.com
If you missed Fredster’s post yesterday: REMEMBERING A NEW ORLEANS TRAGEDY | The Widdershins
And Texas isn’t the only state fucking with women’s rights: Women Lose in New York State – NYTimes.com
For those with Migraines: Getting to grips with migraine: Researchers identify some of the biological roots of migraine from large-scale genome study
This next link is good to see: Shakesville: Angelina Jolie at the UN with a Giant Teaspoon
Super-guppy is the name: Stalking the world’s biggest planes – CNN.com
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.NASA’s Super Guppy hauls giant cargo ranging from smaller airplanes to components destined for the International Space Station. Click through the gallery for more images of big planes.
And finally: Supermoon 2013 PHOTOS: Pictures Of Year’s Biggest Full Moon From Skywatchers All Over (SLIDESHOW)
It’s a slideshow, so go check out those pictures!
Hey, I am too tired, so if there are spelling errors or grammar issues fuck it…its 5 am. See ya later, much later… and please leave a comment or two or three.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
