Abortion restrictions bill on ramming speed

The usual middle-of-the-night, cut-off-public-testimony, party-line-vote kind of thing.

On Monday, Rep. Byron Cook (R-Corsicana) warned that he would end testimony on House Bill 2, the sweeping anti-abortion bill, at midnight (Tuesday) no matter how many people wanted to testify. He said the House Committee on State Affairs might vote on the bill. And that’s exactly what happened.

Shortly after midnight, Cook put the bill to a vote and it passed on a 8-3 vote. More than 1,000 people who had signed up to speak were cut off. Rep. Sylvester Turner (D-Houston) was left sputtering that he had amendments he wanted to propose to the committee. “You know you’re wrong,” he said to Cook. But the Republican plan for this second special has been obvious: Use their large majorities in the House and the Senate to muscle the bill through and avoid another star-making moment like the Wendy Davis filibuster.

Tonight’s hearing was theater. The author of HB 2, Republican Rep. Jodie Laubenberg, studiously stuck to her script, reading from prepared remarks or responding to questions from Democrats on the committee with terse responses focused on “the health and safety of the woman.” There wasn’t going to be any “rape kits” goof tonight.

The number of Texans who appeared to give public testimony varied greatly. By one early account it was 1100, another 1900. Cook's rules, however, meant that a total of just 140 would actually have time to do so. It turned out to be less than a hundred who got to speak.

Testimony on the bill ranged from the heart-breakingly personal to the completely bizarre. (One man said he knew of a woman’s get-rich-quick scheme whereby she would encourage high school girls to get pregnant and then provide them with abortions. Her goal was to make $1 million at a rate of $25 profit per abortion. Another man, in favor of HB 2, established his bona fides by telling the committee that he was a “professional juggler” and “sidewalk angel.” Yet another man complained that his sister getting an abortion deprived him of the chance to be an uncle.)

Meanwhile, anti-abortion activists and some Republican lawmakers worried that Satan had gotten personally involved in the debate.

One report, back channel but first hand, indicated that the throttling efforts began early: the HB2 hearing was held in a room smaller than the Extension Auditorium, or even the normal committee room that State Affairs typically uses (in the Reagan building). GOP leadership also denied access to the Legislative Conference Center, the room that pro-choice activists used to organize last week. Texpate has another account from last night.

With 3,543 people signed up to testify, after getting started a little behind schedule (what a surprise), the Committee barely made it through 100 people before Cook took the unilateral, though not unexpected, step of cutting off public comment. Shortly after Midnight, without much warning, Cook abruptly ended the debate and took a vote. 8-3, along party lines in favor. However, the vote was taken so quickly that two Democrats could not return to the desk. Accordingly, the real vote should have been 8-5.

Shortly thereafter, the Capitol got cleared and locked down. The result, in the above photograph, was roughly 1000-1700 angry protesters banging on the doors to their place of government while 7 White Men and 1 White Woman, in the dead of night, passed punitively burdensome restrictions on the right to abortion.

The bill will move on to the full House next Tuesday when the body is scheduled to reconvene. The Senate committee will take similar action in short order. The bills will get a brief airing in the full chambers, pass according to party affiliation -- with a few notable exceptions, primarily fervent Catholic Democratic men joining the Republicans -- and move swiftly to the governor for signature, perhaps as quickly as a week from now.

The Republicans can do whatever they feel like doing in Texas, just because they can, and they aren't going to let anybody or anything -- certainly not a trifling thing like democracy or the voice of the people -- stop them.

With fresh polling indicating that the Democrats are just as far away from taking back the governor's mansion as they ever have been over the past twelve years; with the same poll suggesting that Rick Perry has strengthened his hand among GOP primary voters -- the only people who count for anything in this state -- there is absolutely nothing that the Republicans in the Legislature feel except some minor annoyance over the whole affair. Kuffner has more insight into the polling.

There's going to be one opportunity to send a message that sounds any different to them. And that will come in November of 2014. Between now and then, the people who oppose this authoritarian display, not to mention this legislation, have their work cut precisely out for them.

Update: Salon's Joan Walsh points out that progressive women in red states will be a key constituency in hastening the change. Because it ain't just Texas where this shit is going down.

GOP's erosion strategy against Obamacare

It's a multi-pronged offensive.

Nearly half the nation's states are opting not to expand Medicaid to all of their low-income residents, leaving billions of federal dollars on the table and millions of poor Americans uninsured.

At least 21 states are opting out of Medicaid expansion for next year. In another six states, legislators are still weighing their options, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, which is tracking the states' plans.

[...]

What happens to impoverished citizens in states that don't expand? The most likely answer is that they'll slip through the cracks and remain without health insurance.

Some of these folks will be eligible for subsidies to buy individual health insurance on state-based exchanges. But those with income below the poverty line cannot receive subsidies, because the Affordable Care Act intended for them to be covered through Medicaid. If their state opts out, they're stranded. (They also will not be subject to financial penalties for not having insurance. Those penalties begin at $95 per adult in 2014 and increase in later years.)

As it stands now, an estimated 11.5 million uninsured, non-elderly, poor adults live in states that have opted out, according to Kaiser.

More on this development here. But it's not just the poor who are getting threatened.

(Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen) Sebelius told reporters early last week that the National Football League was “enthusiastically engaged” in talks about a partnership to encourage people to enroll on the new health insurance exchanges, which will provide coverage to about 7 million Americans by the end of March 2014. However, by the week’s end, the NFL had contradicted her statement, saying that the league “currently [has] no plans to engage in this area.” This assertion came after the NFL received a public warning from Republican Senate leaders, who also sent letters to five other professional sports leagues suggesting they not promote Obamacare. The letters were cosigned by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Texas Senator John Cornyn.

“Given the divisiveness and persistent unpopularity of this bill, it is difficult to understand why an organization like yours would risk damaging its inclusive and apolitical brand by lending its name to its promotion,” wrote McConnell Cornyn to commissioner Roger Goodell in a letter published by TPM on Friday.

When even the Billionaire Boys Club is getting a shakedown from the Irish Mafia, you know something has really soured. Whatsamattah John, your season tickets have an obstructed view?

This is, obviously, somewhat more effective than simply introducing legislation in the House to overturn Obamacare 37 times in the past 5 years. It's just another one of those 'elections have consequences' things we're all still paying for from 2010.

Hate to sound like a broken record, but this sort of governance (sic) from Republicans is just going to keep getting worse until we all do something about it at the ballot box. I don't expect any party conversions among the NFL owners, so it's up to the rest of us to fix it.

Update: Administration punts on key ACA provision. And Socratic Gadfly has a withering opinion of that.

High Noon

The appearance by the former Dixie Chick is greatly anticipated. You know, I barely cared much for any country music (except for outlaws like Cash and Coe) before the Chicks burst on the scene in the late '90's. This is still one of my favorites; I hope those on the South Steps today get to hear it.

The Weekly Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance stands with Wendy as it brings you this week's roundup.

Off the Kuff points to two recent polls about abortion to note that the people really aren't asking for more restrictions on reproductive choice.

Horwitz of Texpatriate asks the question on everyone's minds: will the Senate Democrats stay or go in the second special session?

Rick Perry thought he learned more from the life of Wendy Davis than she did, so he mansplained it to an anti-choice organization last week. And even Joe Straus was appalled. PDiddie at Brains and Eggs observed that this mansplaining business is a much more common form of testosterone poisoning than anyone previously knew.

WCNews at Eye on Williamson says it was a bad week for voting rights, in A sad day in the United States.

At TexasKaos, Libby Shaw tells about The Night Texas Turned Blue. Wendy Davis made us all proud.

This week at McBlogger, Cap'n Kroc has a message of welcome for the people newly energized by the Filicluster.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme hails the Supreme Court ruling on DOMA, but check out what it really means in a state like Texas.

The Ghost of Sam Houston makes an appearance at Darth Politico to talk Wendy Davis, Democracy, the rule of law, and the importance of civil disobedience.

=======================

And here are some posts of interest from other Texas blogs.

Jim Rigby pens an open letter to the women of Texas.

Iain Simpson contemplates the connection between whistleblowing and civil disobedience.

BOR explains what the SCOTUS decision on UT's admissions policy means.

State representative Mark Strama announced his plans for the future.

Nonsequiteuse places the blame for Tuesday's debacle in the Senate where it belongs, and reminds us that the fight is far from over.

Lone Star Ma also stands with Wendy.

Mark Bennett gives the ten commandments of courtroom humor.

Andrea Grimes explains to people outside Texas why they should never write us off.

Texagain and Rachel Farris document their experiences in the Senate chamber during the Davis filibuster.

Concerned Citizens thinks Sen. Davis should run for lt. governor, not governor.

Harold Cook updates us on the latest Republican minority outreach program.

Sunday Funnies

Mansplaining

"The fact is, who are we to say that children born into the worst of circumstances can't grow to live successful lives?" Rick Perry asked Thursday in a speech before the 43rd annual National Right to Life Convention in Dallas. "In fact, even the woman who filibustered the Senate the other day was born into difficult circumstances."

"She was the daughter of a single woman. She was a teenage mother herself. She managed to eventually graduate from Harvard Law School and serve in the Texas senate," Perry continued. "It's just unfortunate that she hasn't learned from her own example that every life must be given a chance to realize its full potential and that every life matters." 

There's no better summary of the Texas Taliban's War on Women than this, from the head mullah himself. Except for this one.

It was classic mansplaining -- as Elyse Fradkin pithily summarized it on Twitter, "when a man explains to a woman how she should view the meaning of her own life experience."

The term derives from Rebecca Solnit's article, "Men Explain Things to Me," which opens with a wealthy older man hosting an event in Aspen at which he lectures her on "a very important Muybridge book that came out this year" after she brings up the photographer in casual conversation. He goes on and on at great length until she finally realizes he is playing the expert and seeking to educate her about the book she herself wrote.

The idea of mansplaining has grown to be applied to any situation in which men believe they are the experts and drone on and on about something on which the women being lectured are the actual experts. It also refers to the social syndrome in which women cast themselves as listeners who doubt their own expertise in the face of such masculine certainty.

Update: Or, as Jamison Foser Tweeted it...

Rick Perry thinks Rick Perry learned more from Wendy Davis being a single mother than Wendy Davis did. Seems unlikely.
— Jamison Foser (@jamisonfoser) June 27, 2013

That last sentence in the prior excerpt  helps us better understand this.

Those are the Republican women of the Texas House of Representatives standing behind Jodie "Cleaned Out" Laubenberg, from the debate this past week regarding the passage of the abortion restrictions legislation. (That's her in the middle at the mic, in the pink jacket. Try not to stare at the toad in the black dress and Cinderella slippers; the one with her toes at 9 o'clock and 3 o'clock. Try also not to notice that some of these professional women don't wear nylons to work -- and not just because they are wearing pants, leggings, or sandals borrowed from their teen-age daughters.)

Repeated for emphasis: "women who cast themselves as listeners, doubting their own expertise in the face of such masculine certainty". Then there are the women who truly don't have any expertise, like the ones in the photo.

Because so many Republican men think that all women are like Republican women, it does not occur to them that there can be women like Wendy Davis. Or Leticia Van de Putte, whose question set off the roaring in the Texas Senate gallery that ultimately killed the bill.

We all know (that would be Republicans and Democrats, as well as Greens and Libertarians and independents) that Republican women and men like those mentioned previously are actually the minority of Texans. Our problems in Texas, however, stem from the fact that they are the majority of those who vote. That's why people like Rick Perry and Greg Abbott and Sen. Bob Deuell -- and Ted Cruz and Steve Stockman and Louie Gohmert -- and women like those pictured above are our elected officials.

We also know that these same people are desperate to keep it that way. The Supreme Court cases, the gerrymandered districts, the voter ID legislation now back on ramming speed... all of it is designed to keep people like this right where they are. In charge.

And there's only one thing that will change it: the people who haven't been voting are going to have to start. And those of us who are interested in not having representation like this are going to have to help the non-voters get registered, get their IDs, and get to the polls during early voting periods and on election day. And, of course, help inform them and keep them up to date on things, including the issues.

Texas has nearly the very lowest percentage of its citizens participating in the electoral process in the entire nation. It may be that Texans are represented by morons because so many of them are in fact morons themselves, but at least for another couple of cycles I'm going to hope that this reality can be changed with more engagement with them by the thinking class.

If you can imagine, as agents of change in state government, the swearing-in of Governor Greg Abbott and Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick in January of 2015, hopefully that is motivation enough to get to work now to make sure that scenario doesn't come to pass. Here's this weekend's opportunity in the Houston area. There are many more across the state, and there will be many more opportunities in the future, but the time to take action is now.

Women and the men who respect them can't wait any longer, but that's also true of poor people and people of color. It's gone on for too long like this as it is.

We need to change it, and this is how that will happen.

Taiwanese animate Texas filibuster

Starring Wendy Davis as Supergirl, of course.



Featuring an appearance by the Ghost of Ann Richards. And a pretty good likeness of Donna "Get them OUT! I want them out of here!" Campbell (although her ass is about twice that big in real life).

A good week to be gay

What kind of week are YOU having?

Now, if you're a woman concerned about her reproductive freedom, this week has had its ups and downs, but on the whole? Meh, not so much. A person of color concerned about your right to vote? Pretty lousy. God forbid you're poor, because it's bad, been bad for awhile, and probably getting worse.

If you're an undocumented person, there's at least a little glimmer of optimism.

But if you're LGBTQ, it's safe to say you're having a good week. Hell, your civil rights are having a pretty good year. Maybe the best year ever, in fact.

Nobody's rights have moved in the right direction farther and faster than gay rights, in particular the right to get married to the person you love. In fact, let's just stop calling it gay marriage.

You should never forget -- and I'm certain you won't --  that you'll always have people like this to contend with. The best part about sharing a society with people filled with so much hatred is that they can coin a phrase like "sodomy-based marriage" and still make it sound like fun (while at the same time being completely oblivious to themselves).

Oh yeah, I almost forgot: if you're a white conservative bigot, things are bad for you and getting worse every time you open your mouth. But then again, nobody has earned a little payback any more than you.

The mills of the gods seemed to speed up a bit this week.

Watched it all, still couldn't believe it

A banana republic, run by the apes in the GOP.

Capping a chaotic end of the special legislative session, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst said early Wednesday that proposed abortion restrictions didn’t pass after all.

The abortion requirements were in Senate Bill 5, which was called up for a vote that couldn’t be heard over shouting and screaming from opponents in the gallery. Sen. Dan Patrick, a Houston Republican pushing the legislation, had said the bill passed.

But Democrats disputed that, saying the action was taken after the required midnight end of the special session. Patrick had said the vote was started before midnight.

The vote was taken after a filibuster to try to kill it by Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth, was abruptly ended when Dewhurst upheld objections that she hadn’t strictly abided by filibuster rules, a disputed assessment.

Dewhurst’s announcement that the bill failed came after 3 a.m., following a Senate caucus meeting.

“Regrettably, the constitutional time for the first called session of the 83rd Legislature has expired. Senate Bill 5 cannot be signed in the presence of the Senate at this time. Therefore, it cannot be enrolled,” Dewhurst said.

He added, “It’s been fun, but see ya soon.”

I suppose if I had been in a couple of places in Florida, or DC, in December of 2000 I could say that I have seen worse displays of American democracy epically failing, but I wasn't. So I can't.

What I watched last night was, by every single account, a bad joke that just kept on going even after the deadline. If you want some sense of what it was like, here's 30 seconds of video that encapsulates the time from about 11:45 pm -- when a third and final point of order was sustained against Wendy the Filibusterer -- until about 12:15 am, when the DPS dragged the last of the gallery members out.

Scroll through the pictures at the top link as well. At 12:35 am I threw in the towel; nothing had yet been resolved. Look at my Twitter feed there to the right or the hashtag #SB5 to get a taste of the chaos.

It's a small and short-lived victory for the Dems, as the matter will likely produce another special session call today from Rick Perry to finish the business. It's not a Pyrrhic victory, though; a new army has been galvanized for the battle to take place this November.

With every Alamo, there is also a San Jacinto. Back to the future.

Off the Kuff and BOR have more and more links.

Update: I also like this little bit of exasperation from Dewhurst, who has -- among all of the award-winning demonstrations of asininity by the GOP -- singularly and repetitively disgraced himself throughout the special session...

But at 3 a.m., Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, the presiding officer of the Senate and a Republican supporter of the bill, told lawmakers and reporters that although the bill passed on a 19 to 10 vote, the bill could not be signed in the presence of the Senate and was therefore dead, blaming “an unruly mob using Occupy Wall Street tactics” as the primary cause. 

Texas Observer's liveblog also has the timestamp photographic evidence as shown by Sen. Chuy Hinojosa. That's when the Republicans were forced to concede.

You simply cannot elect people who run on a platform of "government doesn't work" and not expect that they will demonstrate it. Even if a person reading this was pro-life and did not object to such onerous restrictions on a constitutional right (imagine that if instead of ladyparts, the bill was about guns), they would be forced to admit that their elected officials are complete morons when it comes to doing their one job.

The Republicans in the Lege got bamboozled again on parliamentary procedure. For the millionth time.

Update: The best blow-by-blow comes from Christy Hoppe of the Dallas News, whose Tweets last night were also invaluable in describing the proceedings.

John Roberts: "Our country has changed"

There are plenty of interpretations still getting written and posted and published, but this is the most succinct one so far...

By a 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court on Tuesday invalidated a formula established by Congress to determine which states and localities, mostly in the South, must "pre-clear" changes in their election procedures with the Jstice Department or a federal court in the District of Columbia.

Writing for the court, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. essentially told Congress: “We warned you.” Roberts noted that in a 2009 opinion signed by eight justices the court said: “Things have changed in the South. Voter turnout and registration rates now approach parity. Blatantly discriminatory evasions of federal decrees are rare. And minority candidates hold office at unprecedented levels.”

But Congress didn’t take the hint and revise the coverage formula, which is rooted in voting practices dating back to the 1960s and ‘70s. The court’s conservatives made good on the implied threat from 2009 and struck down the coverage formula, meaning that the Justice Department may no longer enforce it.

Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act is the formula referenced.

The court did not strike down the advance approval requirement of the law that has been used, mainly in the South, to open up polling places to minority voters in the nearly half century since it was first enacted in 1965. But the justices did say lawmakers must update the formula for determining which parts of the country must seek Washington’s approval, in advance, for election changes.

Here's the chart Roberts provided in his majority opinion that supports his premise (that the formula in Sec. 4 is essentially archaic). It's compelling ... at least from a "liars can figure" standpoint.

Roberts uses these numbers to reach a conclusion in a similar way that Paula Deen justifies her use of the N-word. The world has changed, Roberts says, whereas Deen says the same thing ... and then demonstrates that it actually hasn't; it's just gotten a little more subtle.

But that isn't even the biggest problem with this ruling: Congress is entirely incapable of coming up with legislation that can fix the formula outlined in the now-deceased Sec. 4. Three sources for that: Chuck Todd (and a few others interviewed by MSNBC), and then Egberto Willies, and lastly, Socratic Gadfly.

Todd said on MSNBC that Congress is not “mature enough” to reach a speedy political solution.

“This is not a welcome decision, by any means,” a senior White House official said in reaction to the decision. “But there is a theoretical path for Congress to update the statute in ways that would make it constitutional.”

“As a practical matter, that may be difficult to do given political dynamics,” the official told NBC News.

Removing the map determining which jurisdictions need pre-clearance of new voting laws rendered the Voting Rights Act effectively toothless, law professor Kenji Yoshino said on MSNBC. While lawmakers could draw up a new map, “it’s not clear that this Congress is going to have the will to do that,” he said.

 ==========

What the majority does not understand is that the success of the formula is what makes that increased voter participation possible. Removal of the formula even if temporary will have disastrous effects in presenting representation that does not reflect the desires of the population.

Texas is a great example that illustrates why these laws are needed. Texas finds the most ingenious ways to get around the law to suppress its voters. A state that is majority minority that votes exclusively for Republicans in statewide races is probative. Texas makes it difficult for voter registrars to get qualified, it adjust voting hours based on empirical demographic considerations that affect minorities, and draws districts based on turnout models to get around many laws. Nullification of Section 4 simply adds another tool to that toolbox. The Texas scenario is likely be replicated throughout many states.

While the Supreme Court has pretty much left the ball in the hands of Congress, it is unlikely that Congress will act for two specific reasons. Firstly, a Republican House that is in existence not by popular vote but by gerrymandering (Democrats got over one million more votes than Republicans in Congress even as they have a large majority), is in no hurry to stop the status quo. Secondly, the current Republican Party is unable to win the presidency without voter suppression. Republicans likely see this ruling as a gift.

==========

While the Court did not specify how this would affect cases such as Texas' redistricting, I would think the takeaway is redistrict away until Congress follows SCOTUS' suggestion and does a better update than the latest renewal of the act in 2006, in line with more current demographics.

Likelihood of the current House doing this? Zero. 

So, do preclearance cases sit in limbo? Use older, pre-2006 guidelines for now, or what?

This is typical of the Roberts Court on cases like this, just like the ID provisions case in Arizona decided earlier this month. Once again, it's telling Congressinoal conservatives, "Write a bill like this!"

Likelihood of the House doing that, and gutting the VRA in the guise of updating it? High. 

The real solution, as I've blogged before, is to nationalize Section 5. That's what should have been done from the start, but northern "machine" Democrats of big cities, and northern suburban moderate Republicans alike didn't want to address racial issues in voting in their backyard at the time. Technically, SCOTUS struck down Section 4, as the New York Times story on the ruling notes, but, properly nationalizing Section 5 would include Section 4. That, in turn, gets at how this is, in essence, a legal memo from Roberts saying "Do this!"

One last bit of analysis from BBC Washington correspondent Jonny Dymond.

But the effect is pretty much the same because Congress now needs to find another way to choose states that require oversight -- and Congress is very unlikely to agree on any such thing. The court has, intentionally or not, torn the key enforcement mechanism out of the act.

So the practical effect of the Court's decision today is to kill the VRA's pre-clearance provision, and thus the entire VRA itself. And without it, state legislatures will, as SC notes above, do whatever they feel like doing with respect to redistricting, whenever they feel like doing it.

I STILL don't think that buys the GOP any more time on their highway to oblivion, mostly because I have more faith in the common man than they do. I think that people can perceive the Republican party's injustices much better than Republicans think. And the only real question that remains is whether enough of the good people take the action necessary to end those injustices.

Then again, maybe I'm just naive about that. Time, and subsequent elections, will certainly tell. 

Update: More from a couple of lawyers, Michael Li and Rachel Maddow.

Texas’ voter ID law now can be legally implemented.

To be sure, the Department of Public Safety and election officials will have to take steps to be implement the law, but it is very possible those steps can be completed in time for the law to be in place for municipal and constitutional amendment elections in November 2013. If not, the law will almost certainly be fully operative by the 2014 Texas primary in March.

Don’t count on the litigation to be over, however. It is possible that groups opposing the law could bring a suit to enjoin enforcement of the law on section 2 or constitutional grounds. To get an injunction, though, they would have to meet the high standard for injunctive relief (irreparable harm, substantial likelihood of success on the merits, etc.)

==========

Keep in mind, when the Senate last took up the VRA, it passed unanimously in 2006. As Ed Kilgore noted, "We're about to find out how much GOP has changed" since then.

Wendy's Last Stand

The leadership may not want to listen to TX women, but they will have to listen to me. I intend to filibuster this bill. #SB5 #txlege
— Wendy Davis (@WendyDavisTexas) June 25, 2013

Actually it's her most recent stand (you should recall that she did this at the close of the last biennial, that time regarding the budget cuts). So the senator from south Tarrant County will represent once again at the end.

Two years after drawing national attention with a filibuster, state Sen. Wendy Davis is poised for an encore today as she plans to lead another talk-a-thon that could bring down a contentious abortion regulation bill as the special legislative session grinds to a close.

The Fort Worth Democrat signaled her intentions after the package of abortion restrictions cleared a final House vote and headed toward the Senate. Republican leaders are scrambling to pass Senate Bill 5 before Tuesday's midnight adjournment but acknowledge that a Democratic filibuster could kill the bill.

Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, the Senate’s Democratic leader, said Davis, a mother of two and an outspoken advocate on women’s issues, will be the lead participant because of the bill’s importance to women.

“There’s an assault on women in this state and this legislation is a prime example of that,” said Watson. “It’s important that a woman who’s the mother of two daughters will be the one standing. We will all be there providing assistance and help.”

Davis is the last best hope once more for foiling Republican plans to damage the lives of Texans. That would be natural born Texans, of course.

If you are poor, of color, or female in this state -- God forbid you are all three -- the advice from some quarters is to get out while you're still alive.

Once again women are placed in a lower priority than a biological organism, and every other member of her family.  The pecking order in Texas is Father, unformed fetus, children who have been born, and finally the mother.

No man should make a decision regarding abortion.  They have no knowledge and no relationship to the issue.  Too many backward thinking men assume that abortion is an easy choice for a woman.  Quite to the contrary, and that is why abortion clinics are necessary.  Unlike a regular hospital, they offer psychological counseling before the procedure is performed.  In the State’s scenario, women will receive a lesser quality of health care.

If I was a woman, I’d be leaving Texas, and live somewhere where everyone was treated equally under the law.

Some of us would naturally prefer to stay and fight to the finish. Thank goodness for Wendy -- and everyone who was at the Capitol for most of Sunday afternoon, all of the night, and into Monday morning in support of what now becomes one woman's job.

No better woman for it, IMHO.

BOR has the action items for those who can be in Austin this morning. Twitter has the hashtags #txlege and #SB5 for you to follow the action (I recommend "people you follow" and not "all", as there are a few venomous Xtians and anti-choice spammers full of vitriol cluttering up the "all" feed). Hashtags can also be used to collect conversations on Facebook now. Or you can just watch the live video from the Senate floor at the TexTrib.

I understand that Davis will be reading some of the personal accounts Texas women have sent her regarding the difficult choices they have made in their lives. I hope she reads a few pages from The Handmaid's Tale. You know, for historical context.

The Weekly Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance is once again ready to wish the Legislature a happy summer as far away from Austin as possible as it brings you this week's roundup.

Off the Kuff says to look at Farmers Branch for an example of how to turn out the kind of low-propensity voters that Democratic candidates need to win races.

Ted Cruz outed himself as a sociopath on immigration reform, and PDiddie at Brains and Eggs documented his atrocities.

WCNews at Eye on Williamson had this to say about Rick Perry and the GOP playing politics with the Public Integrity Unit: It's not shocking or unfair, it's what they do.

At TexasKaos, Libby Shaw explains the governor's approach to healthcare in Rick Perry's Texas: No Obamacare, no Perrycare. Give it a read.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme wants you to know Republicans prefer business profits to safe food. I wonder where they eat.

=========================

And here are some posts of interest from other Texas blogs.

Open The Taps thanks everyone for getting the craft beer bills passed while promising to be back for more in 2015.

Keep Houston Houston doesn't think closing streets at railroad crossings is a good idea.

The Lunch Tray pleads for common sense in labeling GMO foods.

Concerned Citizens has some advice for San Antonio's new city council members.

Juanita Jean cannot believe she has to talk about fetal masturbation.

Texas Leftist reminds us why we celebrate Juneteenth.

Texas Watch celebrates their victories from the 83rd Lege.

Texpatriate goes George Carlin on the anti-woman caucus in the Legislature.

Flavia Isabel asks a favor of Amazon.

And finally, former Texan Elise Hu puts her time in Austin to a strangely appropriate use.