Don’t worry, I’m sure the Republicans will find a way to prevent filibustering (not an angry mob - filibustering by a single senator) once their effort to falsify the timestamp fails. Er, assuming it fails, that is.
Why did the bill have to pass before midnight?
Because the unborn fetus would turn back into a pumpkin OR it’s the end of the special legislative session.
The Texas Legislature was in a special session that only lasted for 30 days. If the Governor wants to, he can call as many more as he wants, so this is probably a temporary reprieve. The bill would have banned all abortions after 20 weeks and also imposed a variety of restrictions that would have forced all but 5 abortion clinics in the state to close (some of the restrictions required physicians to dispense any abortion drugs in person at an ambulatory surgical center, for instance.)
I hope Sen. Davis is sleeping in very late this morning, she deserves it.
I find the Republican tactics in this case far more troubling than the presence of an “angry mob”. The Republicans were acting way out of line, and the people called them on their bullshit.
The angry mob stepped in when the Republicans tried to stop the filibuster on trumped-up technicalities.
Had to share this image: http://instagram.com/p/bBWsRbi9kz/#
Did anyone else find it ironic that after the third violation Senator Duncan was so confused by how the Senate works he needed a woman whispering in his ear to figure out what was supposed to be going on? [On a side note, who was that person, the Clerk? Secretary? Anyone know? Seriously, my wife was yelling at the live feed, “No! Someone call an inquiry! Watson has the floor you idiot!” She basically made all of Ellis’s argument before he did. Maybe my wife should go into politics if she gets bored of teaching Kindergarten; she understood what was going on better than Duncan did though.
It’s too bad that Democracy is so new to the state of Texas that there are no rules for how these things work. Imagine bringing up Rowe v Wade in a discussion on abortion!
How come I never heard about this stuff until this morning but everyone else on the SDMB and my Facebook did?
They couldn’t vote on the bill because of a filibuster, not because of an angry mob.
I agree, thank you.
Isn’t the whole thing kind of irrelevant? Eventually, either in another special session or in the regular session, somebody will pass out from dehydration, or accidentally lean on a desk, or violate some other silly rule and the bill will pass. It’s not like anybody’s going to change their vote. At most, the bill has been delayed by a few months. Bizarre debating stunts are no substitute for voting legislators out of a job.
Another word of thanks for your involvement. In order for Republicans to flourish, all that is required is for good people to do nothing.
Hopefully, they can delay them long enough for the people in Texas to vote them out.
ETA:
Or for them to be called back to their home planet(s)
You guys have this discussion nailed down pretty well, so I’m just going to pop in real quick to add: fuck those stupid fucks!
With DOMA deemed unconstitutional conservatives had to limit someones rights, it just didn’t feel the same.
Good luck with that.
The Republicans have gerrymandered the state and pulled it over its head.
Look at fucking Austin. It’s divided into 4 districts, one of which goes all the friggin’ way down to Mexico and another that extends all the way to Houston.
Give it 10 or 15 years and maybe. In the meantime, we’re trying to fight the good fight down here to make it happen.
Do we dare to dream the sands are shifting in Texas?
They seem to have accepted defeat somewhat graciously, y’know, for Texas Republicans. Makes me think that maybe they can smell change in the air, and are content to go down in flames, so long as it appears like they fought the good fight.
Dare to dream!
Reddit, tumblr and twitter.
Major props to Davis and a big ole wtf to changing time stamps. Don’t fuck around with data like that; it sets a bad precedent. God.
Why would your wife want to associate with people who are less mature than her current clientele (not to mention less interested in learning anything)?
It brought attention to the issue. The majority of Texans opposed the bill. There are a lot of Texans who think that there are enough abortion restrictions and want their representatives to spend their time on other issues. With all the attention on the bill and the opposition to it, there might be a few in the legislature who would think twice about voting for it again.
Also, this probably waked up some more progressive voters in Texas. There have been efforts to turn Texas to the Democratic party. Obviously it’s not going to be an easy or quick effort, but things like this could slowly show Texans how absurd the Republican party has been acting and how the Democratic party might representative of them.