The Texas state Senate passed House Bill 2 late Friday night, ensuring the closure of most of the state’s reproductive health clinics for women, as opponents vowed to capitalize on weeks of momentum generated by demonstrations against the measure.
“The fight for the future of Texas is just beginning,” said Sen. Wendy Davis (D), who became a focal point of opposition to the bill following her 13-hour filibuster on June 25, which delayed the bill’s passage and touched off a series of demonstrations both at the state Capitol and on social media.
“There are people in charge here who want this bill to move very quickly so they won’t be delayed in their climb up the political ladder,” Davis said, a veiled reference to Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst (R), who previously referred to demonstrators as an “unruly mob.”
The bill, preceded by an additional prayer mandated by Dewhurst, passed by a partisan margin of 19 to 11 and followed one last day of demonstrations, which Republican lawmakers attempted to counter by banning female hygiene products from the building.
So in a nutshell the Texas Senate said yes to more prayer and control of women's reproduction and no to feminine hygiene products.
You know as far as metaphors go it really does not get much better than that.
So I think that this should inspire Texas Democrats and Texas women to wrest the control of their state from the misogynists currently running the joint and put it into the hands of those who actually care about it's actual people, and not just its POTENTIAL people.
It is time to turn Texas blue.
I think it is not only possible, I think it is probable.
I think our friend Tina Dupuy sums it up quite nicely.
Texas just moved The Handmaid's Tale to the non-fiction section.Update: Oh and by the way that whole thing about protestors sneaking in urine and paint? Yeah that might be total bullshit.
— Tina Dupuy (@TinaDupuy) July 13, 2013
I just read The Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood this year and never thought we would get so close to the story line in my lifetime, much less within a year. If all women and supportive men do NOT band together and fight back against the fundamentalist religious right, we will be living in a world like Pakistan and Afghanistan. It is time to take back our country and be free again. If Malala can fight back under much more difficult circumstances than we currently face, we can definitely do so ourselves.
ReplyDeleteThe GOP's goal in taking away rights from women is as follows. First, abortion. Then, tampons and Maxi-Pads. After that, all contraceptives. And Ultimately, the right of women to vote. Throughout it all, the deprivation of healthcare benefits, removal of the minimum wage, and watering down of rape and sexual abuse laws nationwide. Barefoot and pregnant is a euphemism for what they're after: barefoot, beaten, and pregnant is more accurate. Don't say you weren't warned.
ReplyDelete"DPS officers outside the Senate gallery and at each entrance to the Capitol told The Texas Tribune they had not seen or found jars containing feces or urine, and multiple officers throughout the Capitol said they had not heard of any jars being found until a reporter mentioned it. Several officers also said they had not heard anything on the DPS radio system about jars of any excrement."
ReplyDeleteWell, who are they going to believe? A reporter or their own lying eyes? FWIW, people seem to use the term "reporter" fairly loosely in some circles.
Erick Erickson Tweets Link To Coat Hanger Store In Wake Of Texas Abortion Bill
ReplyDeletehttp://www.mediaite.com/online/erick-erickson-tweets-link-to-coat-hanger-store-in-wake-of-texas-abortion-bill/
Texas: a state I will never visit.
ReplyDeleteThe Texas State Capitol building has a fast lane for concealed gun license holders. Concealed guns are welcome in the visitor's gallery. Tampons, not so much.
ReplyDeleteI listened to some of the senators speaking in support of the bill. Loathsome. There were several mentions of mothers that made the choice not to abort. And that choice was offered as the rationale that other mothers should get no choice. They are shameless in their brazen lack of logic.
Not ONE senator would admit that they are unconcerned with wealthy women's right to abort. They are perfectly happy knowing wealthy women have access to safe, affordable, private abortions in Canada, Sweden, etc.
The Texas Legislature wants to force poor and financially strapped women to have babies. And, sickeningly, they gleefully impose their religion on other people.
With this law, Texas will get exactly the same number of abortions. Fewer of them will be safe, more will be "back-alley horrors".
ReplyDeleteMore women will DIE.
I was listening to Mark Thompson on Make It Plain on Sirius Left 127 last night. He was with a group of MANY of his friend and they were gathered on the grounds of the North Carolina capital. They have been gathering for the past 20 days to let the NC legislature know that they will not be silenced with all of the new voting rights rules being changed due to the Supreme Court ruling last month. If the women in this country don't do something similar we will lose all of our rights that were gained in the last century. I just don't understand those women in Texas siding with those know-nothing men. They are sadly mistaken if they are protecting women and their healthcare.
ReplyDeleteHere's another load of horse manure coming out of Tennessee. What a load of bullshit this guy is. truly WTF happened to personal responsibility? And a typing error? Sure. Even though the site requires you to 'join'? Nothing random about this, just a sue happy lawyer trying to skate on his bad choices.
ReplyDelete-----
A lawyer in Nashville, Tennessee filed a lawsuit against Apple, Inc. that blames the company for the dissolution of his marriage and the collapse of his mental health. According to CNet.com, Chris Sevier filed suit in Federal District Court earlier this summer because Apple devices do not have a filter that keeps them from playing pornography. The devices purportedly failed to protect Sevier from his porn addiction, so the attorney is suing the company in an effort to have all of its devices equipped with a filter that blocks sexually-themed content.
Sevier, who the blog Above the Law reported was arrested in June for allegedly stalking country star John Rich, wrote in his complaint that he is deeply fond of Apple products.
“The plaintiff loves Apple,” he said, and went on to state that he believes Apple, Inc. is devoted to “the welfare of our Nation’s children, while furthering pro-American values.”
Because the company wants to contribute to the well-being of the nation, he said, it should sell all of its products “in ‘safe mode,’ with software preset to filter out pornographic content.”
Sevier said that when a typing error led him to “Fuckbook.com” rather than Facebook, he was overtaken with the eroticism of the images and films he found there and that he became addicted to Internet pornography, causing difficulty in his marriage.
The images of naked young women on the web amounted to “unfair competition” for Sevier’s wife, he said in the complaint, writing, “The Plaintiff began desiring younger more beautiful girls featured in porn videos than his wife, who was no longer 21.”
Moreover, “(h)is failed marriage caused the Plaintiff to experience emotional distress to the point of hospitalization. The Plaintiff could no longer tell the difference between Internet pornography and tangible intercourse due to the content he accessed through the Apple products, which failed to provide him with warnings of the dangers of online pornography whatsoever.”
Sevier compared pornography to handguns and cigarettes, products that are subject to regulation. He posited that Apple has an obligation to protect its users, and at a minimum to give them written warnings about Internet porn.
The lawyer also warned that Internet pornography is dangerous to the society economically in that “brick and mortar ‘mom and pop’ porn shops” are being run out of business.
In 2011, researchers featured in a BBC documentary claimed that Apple users bond with the brand in an unusual way. According to brain imaging, they said, Apple devices trigger activity in the areas of the brain normally associated with religious devotion.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/07/13/tennessee-lawyer-sues-apple-because-internet-porn-destroyed-his-marriage/
Texas will be the new home of the "toilet baby" and the "dumpster baby". Just because you force a woman to gestate until delivery doesn't mean that woman isn't going to just toss that baby in the trash once she is forced to have it. So sad.
ReplyDeleteGryphen, you wanna know what really grinds my gears? It's libruls like you and your little buddies on this defunct blog (the defunct blog with over 19 million hits) who are SO sure they know what women want!
ReplyDeleteI got some bad news for you, buddy boy! Women LIKE restrictive laws limiting their reproductive health choices! They LIKE all the unnecessary requirements - such as the transvaginal ultrasound, the waiting periods, wearing the safety orange 'I'm a fornicator' t-shirt in public, and having to write 20 page apologies to their fetuses - that the god-fearin', bible-thumpin', penis-waggin', gun-totin' Tealiban GOP legislators are requiring pregnant women to undergo before receiving certain types of reproductive health care.
So, next time you better do a little research before you pretend you know what women want because you are almost certainly WRONG!
Here's a good place to start: www.youtube.com/watch?v=erEq2HtrM84
It's a rallying cry that's encouraging millions of women to finally embrace the idea that pasty faced old white men truly know what's best for them!
And GROW UP, also too!!!